The Hills are Alive-part 2

Another delight up in those hills is the Kings/Queens Palace and gardens,

You can't get into the palace, but the gardens are stunning! There are roses galore, and the smell is divine! The best place is the giant glass house full of orchids that are either extinct of becoming so. Next best is the fern garden.

I'll let the visuals do the talking:

The Hills are Alive

Being in Chiang Mai Old City is always a treat, and there is lots to do and see- with the occasional rest over a cuppa, and when you can get out of the city and into the hills, there are delights awaiting. Needless to say, everyone else is scurrying out to see those delights too, so the 3 places I visited were also full of tourists.

Any of the Red Cars- which are modified utes really, with benches under cover in the back, make them little buses, advertise that they will take you to the main tourist attractions....I went to 3 of them in one day, but in a taxi.

The first place is Doi Suthep, which is an ancient temple atop of the hill that overlooks the whole of Chiang Mai, The day I went was beautiful and warm, but the view of the city was clogged with smoke or smog and my camera wouldn't have picked out the view at all. To get there, you wind up the mountain through jungles/rain forest which is extremely pleasant. Many people were walking or cycling up the hill-which I found admirable. Not sure how long the walk would be, but I am sure that up and back would be a day's worth. 

To get to the temple, one has to navigate through a Hillside Thai shopping mall, consisting of stalls selling- well, basically-crap. Once you get passed that, there are 300 steps to the temple to navigate, guarded by two extremely long tailed dragons on either side of the steps. 

Once at the top there are several small temples and one big one. Inside the main temple are Buddhas from all different ages, stories of the life of Buddha around some of the walls, and several stations where people light candles, or add flowers, or dip oil into cups with a flame kept alive by adding oil.

I always find it inspiring to see Buddhists in the process of devotion, and several were circum-navigating around a cheddi, so I joined them. [This is what I saw Buddhists do in Bodgea when I was in India]. I think one is meant to go around 7 times in one direction, and 7 in another, though here everyone seemed to go in the same direction.

Some of the Buddhas were obvioulsy hundreds of years old, with gold flakes pealing off of them and fluttering in the breeze.

There are many more of these, but for some reason right now I am not able to access the Camera card on this computer......

to be continued

Big Night Out

WARNING: Spoiler Alert! Dental Details to follow

I had the most amazing experience at the Dentists here....don't worry my squeamish friends, despite the above warning, gory details will not be provided. 

Last Tuesday night, I went in to have 1-2 teeth extracted (depending on what was happening and how I was going) and a post implanted into my gums - to eventually take a tooth on top. Needless to say, I was very nervous and a little more than apprehensive about how it was going to eventuate. 

After a five minute babble from me full of questions and nervous chatter, I laid back in the purple dentist chair and was given an injection first off. Now injections here are different than at my dentist's in Katoomba. First of all, they warm the fluid and the needle, so you barely feel it go in. Secondly this dentist is very gentle and massages the gums as he goes along. (Throughout any treatment, he keeps asking if you are ok and does it hurt). Then I got handed a painkiller, and anti inflammatory and an anti-biotic.

To cut to the chase, the whole procedure was basically pain free....and included two teeth extractions and a post implant. I was expecting to wake up the next morning and be in pain, but it didn't and hasn't happened...and this is Friday. Still no pain.

Two days later, I was back and he put my real new teeth onto my old teeth- which now look like like a feral animals fangs! So if you think the plastic teeth looked good...have a load of these ones!

The Real Deal teeth

What Wat is that? [Part 2]

As I said in my earlier post...this Wat is by my old digs- where I liked the neighbourhood, but not the room or the bathroom [if you could call it that]-but I digress.

When the Sunday markets are on, this Wat is a hive of activity, and you can barely tell that it is a Wat/Temple. But the gardens at the back are delightful, and ever so peaceful to sit in of an afternoon. One day I was walking into the garden area, and a man came toward me and said Hello...I said, "Oh, am I allowed to walk in here?" 

To which he replied: "Of course you are, you are a tourist, you can walk where ever you want" Now doesn't THAT say something!!

Inside the temple

Buddhists ring the bells, but of course tourists can too!

Buddhas in the garden

I love this sign....what a kind thing to do for us tourists

This is a warning that there are people who might try and rip you off, but the way it is phrased is priceless.

It's very interactive at this Wat

What Wat is that? [Part 1]

There are so many Wat's around Chiang Mai that it would take days to see them all. Though most of them have been around a while, some are still having construction or repairs going on. Here are two of my favourites. [Though I've seen lots of others especially during the many walks where I am hopelessly lost- thinking I am headed in the right direction only to find that I've been going in the opposite one.] I am dubious about finding these Wats again, but you never know.

Here are two faves of mine. One is close by my new digs, and the second one- which has a very groovey garden with tables and chairs to chill out in- and though it is on the corner of a major intersection, it is really really peaceful in there.

WAT 1: Wat Phakhao-down the block from my digs

What I love about this place is the Buddha who is bathed in translucent light which  changes colour every 20 seconds...very trippy. Oh yeah and the kitzch little statues around the place- like this one at the entrance.

Translucent Buddha- will be purple soon. I love the lush carpets that lead up to the altar...and you can't see them, but on the right hand side leading up to the Buddha are 4 cement monks in prayer and chant position...










Thais love their gold Buddhas and this one [below] looks really old.

Sunday Markets in Chiang Mai

Not available at Kmart or Target...though less expensive

My fave bit was when they played the Thai National Anthem- around 6 pm- over the loud speaker and everyone in the street stood still until it finished.....

These are actually childrens shoes-they looked so cute!!

My very laid back, cool dinner music-whilst slurping Tom Yum Goon 

These lanterns are everywhere and so gorgeous when lit up!

Plastic Ono Teeth

Woke up about 4AM wondering about teeth and all...how will they do this? what will happen with that? When I heard the roosters crow out my window-yes in the middle of a city- and hadn't had one of those dreams about missing flights or stolen bags I knew I'd been awake for a couple of hours at least. [By the way, stealing does not seem to be prevalent in ChiangMai, unless I am just lucky]

So after a breakfast at my favourite brekkie spot: The Peppermint Coffee House-[which is now a 10 minute walk from my new digs] and where the owner told me about some NGO projects going on around the Thai/Myanmar border and how they needed teachers-I hot footed it back to my hotel and armoured myself for the Dentist. Even though people have told me the Dentists here are gentle and it is an overall good experience, I was obviously anxious.

The Dentist was lovely- a very soft spoken guy- a graduate of UCLA Dental School, and very smart about what to do with the deteriorating teeth in my head. What he worked out is going to be less expensive than what I figured out. So we started right away. 

An hour and a bit was spent drilling my front teeth into little pointy teeth- because they are getting capped. Then he made up a plastic "plate" to fit on top of my real teeth-the now pointy ones, while someone is making the actual caps that will stay on forever. You will note in the snap below, that the plastic teeth are considerably whiter than my own! I have never before had such big white teeth, nor will I again. 

I thought a lot about asking him to leave them pointy, so I could flash them at people and scare the crap out of them and then have a right proper belly laugh about it, but the moment passed and besides he spent about 20 minutes or so getting them just right! 

Get a load of these choppers:

My Plastic Ono Teeth- eat your heart out Yoko