Exploring outskirts of Chang Mai
Doi Suthep
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| Golden Pagoda that encase the relic |
One of the most famous and important temple in Thailand. Well visited and up in the mountains. Contains a relic that's encased in gold by 2 Thai kings and used to house the Emerald Buddha.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Suthep
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| Ticket for Doi Suthep |
There's 2 Naga snakes that is at the bottom of the hill, before the >300 steps to get to the temple. According to the guide, it connects the earth to heaven and they asked to be part of the temple when the Naga snake disguised themself to be monks. So the monks asked them to reveal their true self as they are not supposed to lie in Buddhism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga
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| Naga snake at the bottom of the hill |
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| Climbing up the 300 + steps to the top of the mountain |
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| Emergency aid for those that didn't make it =) |
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| Our reward for climbing up the stiars |
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| Replica of the Emerald Buddha that's now in Bangkok |
We should be able to see Chiang Mai city from the mountain but it was too smoggy and foggy that day.
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| View point of us since we can't see Chiang Mai =) |
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| Beautiful platform carving that depicts the circle of life (Heaven, survival, village life) |
Bhubing Palace
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| One of the building in the compound |
This is a palace for the royal family during winter vacation in Chiang Mai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhubing_Palace
While it's nothing grand, it's fun to explore around and get away from the crowd and stroll around the garden.
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| Reservoir in the palace |
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| Totem pole carving |
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| Giant Burmese Bamboo |
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| Flowers in the garden |
Another thing that we discovered in Chiang Mai is great local coffee! According to the guide Muoi, they are encouraging more sustainable agriculture like coffee, wine grapes etc.
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| Map in Mr Coffee Bean showing the coffee areas in Chiang Mai |
We spend the rest of our day exploring different coffee shops in the old City tasting local roasted coffee and learning about how they are doing it.
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| Mr Coffee Bean shop, where we got some fresh roasted coffee beans as well |
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| Great coffee in 3 places, Graph, Bhubing coffee and Burtka |
On top of that, we had half a day on the last day where we spent some time exploring the city and found a great bakery place
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| Great Bakery in Chiang Mai (Had a good pork pot pie) |
As this is our last night, we had 2 places that we wanted to try and too little time =) So we decide to have a snack at 5pm (Suki) and then a formal French dinner after a massage. The Suki is a hotpot but done snack style in Thailand. You pick the meat and if you want it stir fry or with soup. Served with dipping sauce. It's very tasty for $4 for both our bowls. We also found a good french restaurant La Forchette and had a nice meal for a very good price. Duck breast and pork chop entree
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| La Forchette French Dinner |
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| Suki dinner at the night market where Muoi told us this stall is great for Suki |
And it's the first time that i mention this, but I love massages =) this is my 5th massage in one week hahahaha.. Found a very nice place for my massage on the last night @ Let's Relax. I had a herbal ball Thai massage for 2 hours at $40. Comes with a mango sticky rice snack at the end of the massage with some hot tea. Yum..
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| Massage at Let's Relax |
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