Chiang Mai

Friday afternoon we flew to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. Don's friend Paul Rushton from Vancouver has been living here since last August, and knows his way around the city well. So it's like having our own personal tour guide to take us to the best eateries in town:




Paul is teaching at a school for Burmese refugees:



Most of his students are in their 20's and though they didn't look like what I had expected refugees from a camp near the Burmese border to look like, they have certainly been dealt a pretty lousy hand.

On Saturday, we went with Paul and his students to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a temple a few kilometers outside of Chiang Mai. It is in a very scenic location, perched on a mountainside, and we walked up a long set of stairs to reach it:




The stairs were flanked by dragon statues:




Note the detail in the workmanship:




At the top there is a beautiful temple with a spectacular view of Chiang Mai.




There was a monk leading a service, some kind of blessing that involved splashing water over the faithful.




When we came back down, there was a man with his elephant across the road from the stairs. We bought some vegetables and fed them to the hungry cow. Here is a video on google video. We would have used youtube, but the Royal Thai Police has blocked it, because of obscenity and other risks to national security.

We drive back to town in a songthaew, a popular means of transport that literally translates as "two benches" and is a pickup truck with two benches in the back.




They are invariably diesel powered, so you have your choice of sitting inside and breathing fumes, or hanging out the back and getting some fresh air.