When we planned our trip to SE Asia, we had not anticipated making a stop in Thailand. Then, David and Yao, our friends from Cuenca, moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to become expats last year during Covid lockdown. Because of Covid, Thailand was not open to fully vaccinated international visitors without restrictions until July 1, 2022. When the country opened, we jumped on the opportunity to visit our friends and find out what it’s like to live there. It turns out that there are more than 30,000 English-speaking expats in Chiang Mai. This was our third trip to Chiang Mai, and our favorite trip seeing it from the point of view of a local and keen photographer.
As an example, we were shown Wat Jed Yod, built in 1497, a large active temple where monks live and study, and is seldom visited by foreigners (above images). It is one of the ancient temples and translates to “seven peaks temple.” It’s unusual that its architecture is copied from a temple in India. Some parts of the figurines have been disfigured (lower-left and lower-right), yet you can still see the finely detailed figures. The complex feels very intimate and special.
David and Yao also introduced us to see the iconic Wat Phra Singh, a 14th century Buddhist temple located in the Old City Center. It is considered Thailand’s most revered temple and is home to an important Buddha, the Phra Buddha Sihing statue. Pilgrims regularly come to pray and hold special ceremonies, including weddings. The complex has multiple buildings on site, and several house reclining Buddhas of different sizes (lower-center). As you wander the monastery grounds, note the golden elephants (lower-left), bas relief angels and gilded serpents.
We also enjoyed seeing the likeness of ancient monks as wax figurines. In Sri Lanka, Evelyn spent more than an hour surreptitiously and with much guilt photographing the monks so as not to disturb them, only to find out they were made from wax. Yes, the monks were unusually still while meditating.
On our last visit to Chiang Mai in 2019, we saw the night bazaar, which is open every night and filled with delicious street food. This time, we were introduced to the Sunday Tha Phae Walking Street Night Market, the biggest retail street market in town, filled with quality arts, crafts, souvenirs, street artists and performers, plus a food court. As you walk the street, there are lit ancient temples on both sides of the streets, so the ambience is extraordinary. And, it was so enormous that it seemed like we walked on forever. But, we were told that prior to the Covid lockdown, it was more than double this size. We ate chicken skewers (bottom-left), dim sum, omelettes (bottom-center) at a mini food court, only to find there was another gigantic food court toward the end the street with a much larger array of mouth-watering bites.
There were many talented artists selling paintings at the night market. Here are just a few that we liked.
The quality of the crafts was quite high, but we were limited by suitcase space. There were a couple of glass blowers (upper-right) actively making various glass figurines, a display of colorful umbrellas (upper-left), humorous sculptures (upper-center), mounted bugs(lower-left), holiday ornaments (lower-right), carved soap, plus the usual tourist t-shirts.
This short 60 second video gives life to parts of the market we enjoyed.