went back to pai again with some friends, fun times!

a bunch of shots of the road to/from and surrounding mountains:

it’s still suuuuuper dry here, and the mountains are still on fire! i saw this same sight last time i came to pai, which means they’ve been on fire for a couple of weeks now. crazy!

we stayed at a friend’s super cute house a couple of minutes from downtown pai:

the friends i came with are in a jazz band called “alukomarai“, which is kind of a play on words – in thai, “alaiomaruk” (i think) means “i don’t know”. here’s them playing at this really awesome place called edible jazz:

edible jazz is a really cool little bar/cafe/venue situated on temple grounds. they serve excellent vegetarian food, i highly recommend checking it out! plus, you can rent some really cute bungalows that surround it. the view from edible jazz looking out from the inside during the daytime (you can see one of the bungalows on the right and part of the temple in the background):

we also went to this really great hot spring that wasn’t really well known, probably on account of being at the end of this long rough and winding road. here’s my friend navigating down a particularly steep and dusty section (you can get an idea about how incredibly dry it is here right now from how brown the foreground is, verses the green of the background where there’s a mountain stream):

here’s (another really shaky) video of some of the road to the hot spring:

the hot spring itself:

the water was amazingly clear, and the hot spring bed was made up of all these tiny smooth pebbles so even after swimming around it didn’t stir up any sediment. so nice!

taylor swimming in a river:

a spirit house surrounded by wheat grass at a cafe in pai (unfortunately i can’t remember the name of the cafe – the food there is delicious! lots of teas and fresh foods):

view from a temple on one of the mountains looking down onto the city:

a police officer playing guitar on the street:

the moon rise over pai:

sunset on the way back to chiang mai:

Filed under: buddhas, music, pai, places to eat, places to stay, spirit houses, temples, thailand, weather by Administrator
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there’s a temple that’s really close to where we live, and i can’t for the life of me figure out what it’s called. it’s got a lot of elephant decorations, so i’ve just been calling it an elephant temple.

one of the entrances:

the prayer hall (i think):

elephant statue:

the old temple (i think)… notice the small single gold buddha chillin’ in the ruins:

the viharn (maybe?):

here’s a monk talking to a lady and a little girl who was playing some sort of dulcimer-looking instrument:

Filed under: buddhas, chiang mai, temples, thailand by Administrator
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so this weekend is the thai lantern festival (it doesn’t really have a set date, it’s just held on/around the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional thai lunar calender). it’s really awesome! these past few days people have been setting off fireworks everywhere, and lighting the big lanterns and floating them into the sky all over the city. it’s really cool to look outside and see all these lanterns floating around in the sky above chiang mai! like hundreds of drifting stars. the city’s also been heavily decorated in colorful paper lanterns, and there’s tons of bands and traditional thai dance demonstrations everywhere. all the temples are decked out with lanterns, parasols, and banners, and have cool stuff like mazes you can walk through.

a band on a street:

the entrance to some temple (i don’t know which one, there’s so many!):

at this temple, you pay 10 baht for a small bouquet with incense and candles that you leave as an offering to one of the many statues scattered throughout the maze:

video snippet of the maze (unfortunately the memory card filled up before we could film more):

this temple has been under construction since we’ve been here, it’s been really cool walking by and seeing the progress they’re making on it. the buddhas haven’t been moved, and there’s usually people praying and making offerings even when the workers are building it. it’s all decked out for the lantern festival, here’s the outside:

here’s the inside, where the buddhas are:

here’s one of the lanterns (the inside rotates with the wind):

some lantern clips thrown together:

i’ve got some more photos and videos, i’ll post ‘em later.

Filed under: buddhas, chiang mai, festival, temples, thailand by Administrator
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yesterday we rode the scooter up the mountain doi suthep to wat phrathat doi suthep. the wat is just under 10 miles (15km) from chiang mai. it is said to have been built in 1383, and the first road to it was built in 1935.

you have to climb 309 steps to reach the pagoda and temple grounds:

the railing is these fantastically tiled dragons:

the pagoda (you can see some mountains through the pagoda but you can’t see them in this picture because of the light difference):

you have to take off your shoes and be appropriately dressed (long sleeves, no short shorts, etc) to enter. everything’s all gold and red:

there’s a ton of buddha statues everywhere:

there’s also bells all along the edges of the roofs:

and lots of pedestals and things:

outside of the temple, on the temple grounds, there are lots of other buildings. i think this is the temple museum (we got there later in the day and it was closed):

the front part of the temple grounds, to the right after you enter through the pagoda:

around the back of the temple is a really awesome patio-type area with a balcony that looks out over chiang mai city:

there’s bells of all shapes and sizes everywhere:

walking back down the (what feels like) million-steps staircase:

the dragon heads spitting out small dragon heads at the bottom of the stairs:

a quick little video from one of the interior corners of the temple:

Filed under: buddhas, chiang mai, temples, thailand, wat doi suthep by Administrator
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this is a buddhist temple in chiang mai. it was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1545. it’s freakin’ HUGE! the temple shares it’s grounds with a couple of other temples: wat ho tham and wat sukmin. the city pillar was moved to the temple grounds around 1800 by king chao kawila. the king also planted a dipterocarp tree there to help the pillar protect the city.

when you first walk through the gates, there’s a huge, ornate viharn (a place that houses the principle buddha) right in front. here’s the dragon decorations that are on either side of the steps that lead into the viharn:

we walked around the side. there’s a lady walking towards the camera, you can use her as a point of reference to see how huge just the viharn is! you can also easily see wat chedi luang in the background:

another picture of the side of the viharn and a back view (there’s me sitting on the stairs!):

here’s a detail shot of the gold work on the roof of the viharn:

chedi luang itself, with some monks walking by for a size reference:

buddha statue in chedi luang:

dragons guarding the chedi luang stairs:

here’s the huge dipterocarp tree (you can see shaun walking across the bottom of the picture):

here’s some dragons at the entrance to a small temple or shrine on the chedi luang temple grounds:

shaun walking around a game table on the temple grounds:

the brick under the game table had lots of writing on it, i’m not sure what it’s for or what it means:

here’s the different buddhas that were in this one covered area (i like the reclining one the best). they were gigantic:

Filed under: buddhas, chiang mai, temples, thailand, wat chedi luang by Administrator
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