Greetings and welcome to Thailand! After having my visa rejected over a typo about six months ago, I finally got everything straightened out and NOW, I can enjoy another Holy Crap Adventure in this beautiful part of the world. Thankfully, my journey here went super smooth. But I also arrived super late, so I just stumbled into my hotel and crashed for the night. After a good night’s sleep I’m ready to start exploring my first stop, Chiang Mai, in the northern Thai highlands. This was a very busy first week, so this first post is gonna be a long one!

Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 by the Lanna King Mangrai to be the capital. Today, it’s the largest city in Northern Thailand and its crammed with ancient Buddhist temples. The oldest temple in town just happened to be a few steps away from my hotel, Wat Chiang Man, also established in 1296 by King Mangrai.

Like I said, there are so many temples in this city it’s overwhelming! I won’t bore you with all of them, but here are a couple of highlights. The Burmese style Chedi at Wat Mahawan is just one example of the many different influences that have affected the architecture in the area over the centuries.

Wat Chedi Luang, built in 1441, is believed to have been the tallest structure in ancient Chiang Mai. The top was destroyed either in a 17th century earthquake, or by canon fire in the 18th century war with the Burmese, but no one knows for sure. When it was restored, they left the top unfinished because they couldn’t come to a consensus on what it originally looked like. If only we could go back in time and take a look.

Also at Wat Chedi Luang is the Chiang Mai City Pillar Shrine. In Thailand, city pillars made of wood were often constructed before the city itself. This is where Chiang Mai’s city pillar is enshrined.

Today, the most important temple in Chiang Mai is Wat Phra Singh, seen below. It was originally built in 1345. The roundabout is a later addition. Ha!

The reason for Wat Phra Singh’s importance is because it’s where the famous ‘Lion Buddha’ statue is enshrined. This Buddha allegedly came from Sri Lanka in 1367, although there’s some mystery surrounding it since it doesn’t look at all like a Sri Lankan style Buddha and because there are two other identical versions elsewhere in Thailand, but whatever. Behold, one of the most venerated Buddha statues in northern Thailand.

The Chedi behind the main temple was also built in 1345. It’s pretty shiny though, I suspect it’s been restored since then. Check out that golden hefalump!

Chiang Mai’s old city is an almost perfect square surrounded by a moat and a lot of the original city walls and gates are still standing. The city has grown well beyond these original walls, but its pretty fun to walk around the still intact moat and check out the history. The Phae Gate on the eastern side is the most intact.

The four corners of the original city are also remarkably intact. Below are pics of the northeastern and southwestern corners, but I of course visited all four.

Walking around the city I also frequently stumbled upon random Buddhist ruins. Remnants of the past are pretty much everywhere you turn.

On a side note, the food here has been even better than I was expecting. I ate nothing but Pad Thai and Chai tea twice a day for about the first five days. And I never ate at the same restaurant twice. Yummm! Anyway, below is the Three Kings Monument to the founding fathers of Chiang Mai. I already mentioned the Lanna King Mangrai who founded the city. The other two are the rulers of the neighboring kingdoms of Sukhothai and Phayao. Their collaboration and friendship helped make Thailand what it is today.

The south side of Chiang Mai has historically been known for its abundance of silversmiths. Not surprisingly, the neighborhoods main temple is… a silver temple.

The silver temple is just opulent and unbelievably detailed! There are panels depicting Buddhist lore, as well as panels for the seven wonders of the world and many different capital cities from around the world. They really let their artistic talents soar with this one. It’s a lot to take in.

The inside is overwhelming too. It’s absolutely beautiful! It’s hard to believe this was all done by hand.

The floor was maybe the most curious part though. There were designs involving the twelve western astrology signs and a plethora of hefalumps and spaceships with aliens for some reason. Days later, I’m still scratching my head.

I got a break from my Pad Thai habit at Chiang Mai’s night market. They block off most of the major streets in the old city for what is mostly a crafts market, but there was also a LOT of food vendors. I opted for some grilled meats followed by some Japanese dumplings, washed down with a pineapple smoothie, and a Japanese chocolate filled pancake for dessert. I’ve never been so full by spending so little money!

Next, I rented a motorbike to venture a bit further out. Zipping around on a motorbike is after all, the best thing about visiting southeast Asia. So fun! Just a short distance south of Chiang Mai, I started by visiting Wiang Kum Kam, a sort of outdoor museum. Ironically, my visit began with a stop at the small indoor museum. Below is one of the earliest examples of the written Thai script.

Wing Kum Kam was originally and briefly the Lanna capital before Chiang Mai in the 13th century. It was quickly relegated to being a trading outpost, though, because the area was too prone to flooding. Now it’s a collection of ancient temples scattered all over this sleepy village.

The showpiece is Wat Chedi Liam. It was originally built to resemble the Mahabodhi temple in India. It’s been heavily restored and a big modern temple has been built around it, but it’s really impressive.

My personal favorite at Wiang Kum Kam were the four hefalumps at this small temple below. All of these temples were found buried under water and sediment and eventually excavated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was super fun cruising around to all these ruins and having them all to myself.

The two closest mountains to Chiang Mai are considered sacred and each has its own temple at the top. The best part of the temple at Doi Kham, however, was the view of Chiang Mai.

The next day, I ventured up the other, and higher, Doi Suthep. First, though, I hiked the Monk’s trail further down the mountain to Wat Pha Lat. In 1355, the kings white elephant stopped here for a rest on the way to the top, where he died. Sad! So the king built this temple in his honor.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is the big temple at the top of the tallest mountain surrounding Chiang Mai, originally built in 1383. Rain hasn’t been too much of a problem here for me… until today. I got pretty wet at Wat Pha Lat, then dried off some on the motorbike, then got absolutely drenched riding up to the top of Doi Suthep. It was pouring!

It was still pouring rain when I got to the temple, but oh well, here we go. Unfortunately, the rain meant that the supposedly spectacular views were gone today, but I have to admit, the temple is pretty atmospheric in the mist.

As you can imagine, it was also a wet ride down the mountain, but really fun! It wasn’t raining at the bottom, so by the time I got back to the hotel I was almost dry. Time for some more Pad Thai.

The next morning was my early morning day trip to Changchill Elephant Sanctuary. They picked me up at the hotel at 730 and off we went up into the hills about an hour away. Because of the rain up here, the final stretch down to the headquarters was a bit too slippery for the van, so we walked carefully down the hill until we saw the sanctuary nestled amongst some beautiful rice paddies and the river. Awesome!

There must be a thousand or more elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, but this is one of the very few in the country rated as ethical by the World Wildlife Fund, which is odd and a bit sad. Anyway, that’s the reason I picked this one to visit

They only have four elephants here, all females. That’s all the government will allow on sixteen acres of land apparently. We started by hiking around the hills looking for the four beauties in the wild, and we found them!

After hiking around the wet hills, it was back to HQ where we enjoyed a delicious vegetarian lunch. After eating, we chopped up a mountain of bamboo shoots with machetes (or the Thai equivalent) and loaded them into some metal feeders. This is their daily treat. You could tell they look forward to this part of the day because all four hefalumps were running really fast to those feeders.

We watched the hefalumps gorge on bamboo and then watched them play for a bit before they headed back into the forest. This wasn’t the first experience I’ve had hiking with elephants, but it never gets old. What a great day!

This next animal close encounter, I was very conflicted about. I hopped on the motorbike and rode a short distance north of Chiang Mai to Tiger Kingdom. On the one hand, is it ethical to hand raise tigers and keep them in a place like this? No, not really. On the other hand, they’re critically endangered and with severe loss of habitat, what else can be done at this point? In the end, tigers have been my favorite animal since I was a little boy and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’m weak!

That’s right, I got to pet and interact with actual fahqing tigers! Wow! There are several different packages to choose from. I chose the big/medium/smallest package. First up was the “big” tiger seen above. Every time she moved or shifted I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. Haha!

I did some research and there is speculation that the tigers are drugged. This has been debunked several times over though. Plus, the handlers frequently got them riled up with giant cat toys and its pretty obvious, these felines were most definitely NOT drugged! The handlers told me it’s because they are hand raised and very well fed, and they only use the most cooperative tigers for this part. They also have all their claws and teeth as they were sure to show me. I spent the most time with the “mediums” seen above and below. But these “medium” sized tigers were huge!

This tiger seen above looks pretty ferocious, but she was just yawning. Unexpectedly, a few minutes later, one of the “medium” tigers came over to me and asked for a belly rub. I’m still conflicted about the whole thing, but what an incredible experience!

I left the “mediums” and was escorted to the “smallest” tigers. There were three siblings, only four months old. These guys were super active and didn’t stay still for very long. They were running around and pouncing on each other the whole time.

After my encounters, I was free to walk the grounds and look at tigers all I wanted. I started with the newborns in the nursery.

This place has a total of forty tigers! Bengals, Siberians, White, and Golden Tabbys. They even have a lion, but I’m not sure where he was. I didn’t see him. This is an experience I will definitely never forget!

After the high of the hefalumps and the even bigger high of the kitty cats, it was time to visit a couple more historic temples on the outskirts of town. These last two temples were ironically the best ones I visited. First up, the 15th century Wat Jed Yot. It’s best known for its temple with the seven chedis on top. The Lanna King Tilokkarat’s ashes are enshrined inside.

There are also three other chedis around as well. Exploring the site feels like walking around a remote jungle ruin, even though it’s in the middle of Northern Thailands biggest city.

A few miles away is Wat Umong Suan Phutthatham. It was built in 1380. The chedi was constructed on top of a giant brick platform with a series of tunnels inside.

Inside the tunnels are several revered Buddha statues, but I was too distracted by the bats.

We’re almost done. On my last day in Chiang Mai I rented a car, which I’ll have for about the next two weeks, and drove about fifty miles away to Doi Inthanon National Park. Doi Inthanon is Thailands highest peak. This is probably the easiest “highest peak” I’ve ever been to though because the only way to get there is to drive. There are a couple of short and sweet nature trails at the top to enjoy though.

I drove straight to the top of Doi Inthanon and then took my time on the way down to enjoy some viewpoints and waterfalls. The viewpoints weren’t that great due to lots of clouds and a couple of the waterfalls weren’t really that impressive. But, the other two waterfalls were really spectacular! Soriphum Waterfall was just a short little hike from the road and I was the only one there.

Wachirathan Waterfall was definitely the most popular one. There was a big parking lot, souvenir stands, tour busses, you get the idea. It’s not hard to see why, though, because the waterfall is awesome! Being here for the last month or so of the rainy season means that all of the waterfalls are cranked up to full gusher.

While gazing at the falls and getting soaked by the spray a double rainbow appeared and I was able to get a great panorama of the whole place. Just beautiful! Time to drive back and get some more Thai food.

Whew! We made it! That wraps up my time in Chiang Mai. I really hit the ground running on this Thailand adventure. I’m already tired! The next couple of stops should have a little slower pace. I’m also having to alter my itinerary considerably thanks to Typhoon Yagi, but we’ll get into that mess in the next post. Stay tuned…