This morning we allowed ourselves to sleep long. Even though it would have been wise to start exploring Chiang Mai early in the morning to prevent the heat, sleep seemed like a better option.
But when we finally got ourselves going, we took the sightseeing seriously. Chiang May has over 300 temples. We saw probably about 10 of them. They are all remarkable for the architecture and carvings, amount of Buddha statues, etc. Of course, after you’ve seen 10, they all start to look alike. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera to the hotel, so we cannot post a sample here. The temple that was somewhat of an exception was Wat Chedi Luang, where you have the opportunity to chat with a monk and we took it. The monk was 22 years old and had been a monk for 4 years. We spoke about Buddhism and about his life as a monk (and a bit about football too, he happens to be a fan of Messi and Tevez…). It was interesting, although the English was a bit of a barrier sometimes and that prevented any really deep conversation.
The weather is quite hot here – this is sets limits to how much we can walk around. So we were quite exhausted already by 5. We booked a tour to nearby attractions then for tomorrow and had ourselves pampered with some Thai massage.
We ended the day with a truly nice dinner in restaurant at poolside, decorated with candles and reflection of moon and star, enjoying good Northern Thai food and listening to mild live music. That was really special.
We call it a day early today, as we have to get up early tomorrow to good to tour of all kind of interesting attractions.
Blue eyes wide open... 