Wat? Another temple?
July 19, 2018
Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep
On our second day here, we decide to visit all the temples. Really it was like four out of the probably thousands in the city, but it certainly felt like a lot. We started with Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a temple in the mountains. First, we had to grab a ride up the mountain in our first songthaew, or red truck. It was quite an experience, with steep, winding roads and the scent of diesel in the air.
Our ride in the songthaew down the mountain.
Once we arrived, we climbed up a staircase of over 300 steps that was lined with a dragon made of tile and mosaic glass. The temple was first developed in the early 1300’s and added on to over time. It was a beautiful, gold center temple, surrounded by many Buddha’s. There is also a white elephant statue and a legend of how a white elephant led to the creation of the temple. Click here for the story.
We had lunch in the old city area and had the best Tom Yum soup and some other delicious Thai food.
We then visited the following temples:
-Wat Phra Singh Woramahawihan: Built in the 14th century, this one was covered in a lot of gold and full of a lot of Buddha statues. It was very ornate and had several small temples to visit.
Wat Phra Singh Woramahawihan
-Wat Phan Tao: A more simple temple made of wood. Here we were also able to ask someone about why there are so many temples in such a small area. We were told that every temple has the main Buddha, but it is surrounded by different smaller ones that people come to for different things.
-Wat Chedi Luang. This one had two main temples. One was newer and very large. There were also tungs or scrolls of fabric that you could buy for various wishes and then hang along the walkways. Behind this temple were the ruins of a previous temple that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1545.
Previously destroyed temple and the rain is on its way!
From this last temple, we could see a sudden storm moving toward us quickly and decided it was time to leave and get massages. Unfortunately, the rain caught up with us before we made it there and it was a downpour. We got soaked, but lucky for us we got to spend the next 90 minutes inside getting massages. We had heard about Perceptions and decided to check it out. It is a salon where people who are blind or visually impaired are trained in massage therapy to provide them work. We decided to go with the aromatherapy massage as a traditional Thai massage does not sound relaxing. However, even this relaxing massage ended with “exercise” and they stretched out our backs and pulled our arms in unnatural positions. Chuck was tad sore the next day.
