Temples, Street Food, Foot Massage

Decided that I must see the Forest Temple. It's located a few kilometers outside of Chiang Mai. I hailed a tuk tuk (after turning down all the aggressive ones, settled on one who seemed less pushy) and we roared through Chiang Mai. Once close to the temple, the chattering of the cicadas was deafening. I don't know how you can live with the background noise. I did record this sound, with a prayer session in the background. The temple itself was not particularly interesting - the ones in Chiang Mai are very beautiful. But they have meditation caves. Included is a pic of the caves with a dog sleeping next to a statue of the Buddha.

We moved onto the Chiang Mai cultural museum. It was kind of interesting and the descriptions explained why I have no problem with directions in the city -- it is laid out on the cardinal points. So, even though the streets meander crazily, I usually have a sense of where I am in spite of its flatness. I did wonder though, about the Khmers. Since the Khmers ruled much of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam until 1200, I wonder why no mention. The Lanna kingdom didn't really get off the ground until 1400. Is that why?

I also realized today that nearly every cat I've seen is tiny, pretty, and has half a tail. Sometime the half is in a little corkscrew or worse. Since the cats are neglected (compared to the pedigreed dogs), I assume their tails were not cosmetically whacked. I had wondered if they were all lost in fights. But no, too many half-tailed cats. I promise I will look this up and share photos.

After the touring, I decided on a holy foot massage. I went to the Temple where they use massage as a fundraiser. $4.00 for a one-hour massage and it was quite lovely.

After this, I wandered around the old city for a few hours waiting for the Saturday silver market to begin at 4. This market was wonderful. I visited many silver shops and picked out many bracelets I wanted, but had no money to pay for them. I must return. The most wonderful part of the market was the street food. Four stars and I was sorry I didn't have the appetite to try everything.

They had Maeng Kam (bits of onion, lime, peanuts, etc. rolled up in a leaf), Takoyaki (see photo), beautiful Kaoi Soy pots (I will take photos at tomorrow's night market), and another dish I tried, but did not catch the name of. And there was more. Most of the markets seemed to be local. There were tourists, but mostly locals. I felt like I had been somewhere, but of course bought nothing except for food.

Returning back to my beautiful hotel, I took a long swim. Really nice pool, must take pics.