Thailand - Chiang Mai

Well I was going to try and tell you about Chiang Mai and Bangkok in this blog, but it has become apparent that there is just too much to tell. So I'll start off in Chiang Mai. 

I arrived in Thailand ready for a new adventure and to spend time with Jenna, one of my dearest friends who I had lived with back in London. A bonus was that Jenna's parents had said that they would put me up in Bangkok and that Gill, Jenna's mum was going to Chiang Mai too.

It was so nice to see Jenna's dad Shaun. And Gill. They are such great people and so welcoming. Plus they have a lovely home in Bangkok. 

After a day's rest, Gill and I made our way to Chiang Mai. It was a quick trip, but I had already gotten a glimpse of how religion affects this country. Buddhism is everywhere. As with Sri Lanka, there are a lot of temples and Buddha statues, but in Thailand I noticed a lot more monks. I was surprised to find out that they were also given priority boarding and seating in the airport.

Having landed, it was apparent why Chiang Mai is a must see if you're in Thailand. The beautiful misty mountains are visible from most parts of the city and give it a scenic beauty. However sadly I didn't get to really witness this due to the rains... But we'll come to that later.

As with any Buddhist city, you have to see the temples and after checking into the YMCA, I joined Gill at her hotel to take a tour of some of the city's main religious attractions. We were joined by a really cool American couple called Chris and Martin who were great company and had the most amazing camera (I was a little jealous). 

This tour however is where I started to lose my positive impression of Buddhism a bit. When offering food at one Buddhist temple we were told that men could hand the offering to the monks directly, whereas women had to place it on a cloth before the monk could take it. Now I'll admit that I have little knowledge on religion, it's not something that I've had any interest in, but I had always thought Buddhism seemed to be about acceptance and this stood against that belief in my eyes. This was further compounded when Gill and Chris were not allowed to enter one of the temples because and I quote, they were "dirty women". This comment referred to the fact that Buddhists believe that the period blood is impure and makes women dirty. What that means for young girls and transgender women I don't know. This did not stand well with me at all and I almost didn't go in out of principle. To be honest I kind of wish I hadn't, but in the moment I shuffled in and took some photos. 

The interior was very impressive decked out in gold and painted with various scenes. There were also many offerings of flowers, which had been placed with no real care. This made it look like someone had been composting in the temple. I'm sure if women had been allowed in they would have arranged the flowers a lot better, but apparently they are dirty so the flowers ended up in rotting heaps...

The other big adventure on my trip was to walk to the mountain temple with Jenna. The weather started out dry, if not very sunny and we made our way by local bus to the base of the mountain/hill... I'm going to go with mountain for dramatic affect. 

The walk up was easy enough, it was all tarmaced, so not the prettiest, but still I had good company and all was going well. That was until the rain. To say we got soaked is a MASSIVE understatement. We got drenched, I was wet in my bones and my internal organs, as you can see from the pictures. My clothes also stuck to me, only to come loose and then, with a cold creeping feeling, get stuck to me again. I had wanted to see the temple at the top, but by the time we got to the foot of the steps, which had now become a waterfall, I was done. I'd seen a lot of temples by this point and it was too miserable and potentially unsafe to go on. Admitting defeat we took the local bus home with some very entertaining Chinese ladies. 

I'll also fondly remember the Jazz Co-op, which Jenna and I stubbed upon on our way home from Gill's hotel one night. We were planning to go home but as we walked down the street this fantastic, energetic music came wafting toward us and we had to investigate.y first thought was that this couldn't be love music, it was just too polished and it sounded like there was no way so many artists could fit into the rather small bar we were walking up to. I'm glad to say I was wrong. Jen and I stayed for one drink as we were shattered, but vowed to come back, which we did, along with Gill and Susie, an English teacher who had stopped us for directions a few days prior. The band on that night was brilliant and it wasn't long until Jenna and I were dancing along to a very jazzy cover of come as you are by Nirvana. EPIC!

There was also a band at the hotel Gill was staying at who were very talented, playing a large number of instruments between two of them. Their cover of Christina Perri's A Thousand Years was particularly good and had me listening to the original for the rest of the trip. 

And that, as they say, is that. It was a great trip and I loved spending time with Jenna and Gill, which I did more of in Bangkok. Now that is a crazy city, I can see why they set the Hamgover 2 there. There's lots to tell, including ping pong shows, gogo dancers, eating scorpions and getting punched in the face.