We visited a number of temples (Wats) in Chiang Mai. You can’t go more than a block without running into a temple, a tourist, or street vendor with amazingly good food. (Ace accidentally wound up at Wat Phra Singh one night after telling her Tuk-Tuk (taxi) to take her to the Thai Boxing Stadium). We also spent one whole day walking in the city (another 20,000+ steps day, yeah!) to see 3 other Wat’s. Here’s a quick list (mostly so I remember them later)
- Wat Chiang Man (the original and oldest temple in this region that was built by the city’s founder around 1296 that holds 2 famous Buddha’s
- Wat Pan Tao & Wat Chedi Luang (on the same property) known for an Emerald Buddha in 1475 but now has a replica since 1995. Ace and I were both blown away by the meditating Monk sitting in a glass box when you first enter. She wanted to take a picture but I was convinced that it would be somehow disrespectful and disturb the monk. Turns out it was a wax replica of a person (it looked so real!) and after several Chinese tourists posed with it, we did too. We also did a monk chat here.
- Wat Srisupan (a short walk outside the Southern Chiang Mai Gate) - known as the silver temple, where we attended another Monk Chat and spent some time in meditation with a small group.
The day before yesterday (Monday for us) we went to Wat of all Wats - Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara (well known as the Sacred Mountain Temple). There were no monk chats here just mass numbers of tourists on the hunt for the amazing but smog filled views of Chiang Mai. After riding in the back of a red truck/taxi, we hiked up 309 stairs (lined by 2 dragons) to get to the wat. After a few rounds of walking meditation around the golden stupa pagoda (79 feet high and 39 feet across the base), we admired the beautiful murals depicting the life of the Buddha. We observed others praying and chanting but didn’t see any comfortable place to sit and meditate so decided to meditate above the temple at a campground inside the National Park.
After the temple visit and meditation, we went hiking in Doi Suthep National Park, the best part of the Sacred Mountain! After several false starts we finally found our way to the path that leads to the Sai Yoi Waterfall (another 20,000 fitbit steps down, down, down a very overgrown and neglected path). We shared the path with 2 stray dogs at first but were the only one’s on it for most of the trail. The path was daunting with several fallen trees, short detours where the path had just fallen away, and a little anxiety provoking for me. “Is this really the right path?” I kept asking myself and Ace. There were few markers on the path and even those looked dilapidated.
My mind continued, “What if the path falls away?" Or “What if there’s something we can’t pass?" or “What if the trail ends at a cliff edge and we have to go all the way back up the way we came and miss our ride back to Chiang Mai?” What if, what if, what if??? At each barrier, Ace and I would have a conference on whether to keep going or not and she would say each time, “I think we can keep going but we have to both be on board with it”. And so after 2 hours of downward hiking, and several conferences, we made it to the sacred mountain's first waterfall (see pictures).
Knowing the answer to the question is sometimes not as important as asking the question in a new way. When I change the question from “Is this the right path for me?” to “Are we both on board and in this together?” it changes the way I see the path and how I feel about it. Such is life, yeah? When I take it one step at a time, the path that seems impossible becomes possible. If I pause and check in, I can get past the worries that bounce around in my head, and I find that “everything is okay, right here, right now”.
We eventually decided together to turn around. And on the up, up upwards path back I enjoyed just being in all the green, seeing a jungle different from the ones I’m used to hiking in. We made our way back and yeah, we lost our ride back, but found another one that we shared with 9 other people making the trip more interesting and quite a bit cheaper.
Onwards
