02.02 Day 18 Chiang Mai
Day 18 - Fri 2nd Feb - Chiang Mai
Whilst the others are sleeping I take advantage of the cool to walk back to a different market than last night, it’s busyness indicated by the number of scooters lined up outside. At 7:30 am it’s in full swing and if you want a hot meal or fruit and veg or pork crackling or baked goods or raw meat, it’s all there. I take one of my usual gambles on 3 types of unknown bread loaf things and excitingly a multi-coloured mango sticky rice for 40 baht.
Back on the veranda at Hostel One Art and Gallery - who’s name I still don’t quite understand - the breads are considered a success primarily because they have no fillings. The kids then dive back into school work, Seb initially on a maths field trip in charge of the money to get me a coffee from the Kind Lady Cafe, who upon seeing us guessed at two mango smoothies again.
Late morning we had decided that taking the kids to a temple on the top of a hill would be more appealing, or less unappealing if their friends were there too so we met Danny, Kim, Emmett and Hazel at the base of the hill, a 20 minute Grab taxi ride north west from where a gaggle of songthaews - the open sided and and open back red taxi synonymous with Chiang Mai loiter to take people on round trips to Doi Suthep and the temple atop.
However, letting kids mill about at a location that is also the entrance to Chiang Mai Zoo was only going to end one way. When a zoo is offering golf buggies to rent and also a tram/train on tires you can already sense it’s going to be hilly and spread out. But we decided to test our luck and explore on foot this slightly dated zoo albeit with larger enclosures for most animals that I’ve seen in other zoos. It is also quieter, people wise, than any zoo I have been to, with just a few other tourists occasionally zipping past us on the shuttle bus or in golf carts.
As with other aspects of Thailand there is a degree of casualness, though taken in a positive light, it’s trusting people to behave responsibly. Like on the roads there is little respect to a traffic light but there is a degree of respect for others that means crashes aren’t occurring on every corner (a little bit of occasional self-preservation helps). The three elephants can be fed by us for 20 baht ($1) which buys 5 pieces of fruit which you skewer with a long stick to lean over the fence towards the extending trunk that sucks the banana off and swings it back into their mouth. There is a man purportedly in charge, but once the 20 baht is in the tin he’s back on his phone not watching us.
Up and up we walk past giant tortoises, monkeys and storks. Two workers climb into the high sided crocodile enclosure to swiftly sweep the leaves armed only with a brush and wearing flip flops not known for their rapid movement.
The food options consist of pot noodles and, that’s it, so 8 pot noodles are snacked on next to the red panda. Even though the four kids are feeding off each other for all the energy for up slopes and down slopes, the requests for ice cream are getting more persistent and so after three regal lionesses, a skulking black panther and three heffalump hippos the kids get their wish, by the hippos who appear and disappear under the murky water, their nostrils opening and closing like valves as they breath the water.
At the zoo entrance, and a mere five hours after we originally intended, we arrange a lift to the top of Doi Suthep in the aforementioned songthaew, 100 baht ($5) per adult return and the driver waits an hour for us at the top. The road to the top is extremely windy leaving Kate and Seb to turn and face through the hole for a window to reduce travel sickness. There are a few hardy cyclists making their way up too, very slowly, crazy as impressive in 32 degrees heat.
This isn’t a secret hideaway, as evidenced by the rows of stalls lining the pavement when we do reach the top. Though it isn’t quite the top. Everyone else gets into a funicular while Danny and I walk the 330 stairs, short and steep.
At the actual top is another gold adorned temple, originally first built in 1347. Like the other temples, there are as many people who have come to pray and pay respects as there are gawking tourists. Not sure what the collective noun for Buddhas is - Beauty of Buddhas, a Calmness of Buddhas, but there's a lot of them. So too carvings of mystical creatures regularly including snakes, serpents and winged beasts.
On the south eastern side there are views back towards the city which show what a sprawling, mostly low-storeyed, concrete jungle it's become spreading its tentacles away from the Old Town over the centuries. As time elapses we pick out our songthaew from the many also waiting and zip back down much faster than on the way up. For 20 baht more per adult we’re dropped near our hostel and get dinner at a vegetarian restaurant almost next door. Like the last few meals we pull out a pair of dice whilst we wait for the food to arrive and play little games involving some maths for Seb - it is a school day after all.
