Saturday, February 28, 2009

Thailand: Wat Chedi Luang (My favorite temple)

I just took a picture of the street just to show people what it looked like here. This is around the area where I stopped at the internet cafe to call my parents and wish them Merry Christmas. Below is a random cat shrine that we ran into that looked cool.

Okay here is Wat Chedi Luang. This place was built in 1391, but most of it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1545. I used to be 282 feet tall and house the Emerald Buddha. Below you can see what's left and it's still really impressive. I can only imagine what it looked like before the quake. It's about the tallest structure in the old part of Chiang Mai city. I think it's very beautiful. The fact that it's in ruins in some ways makes it more so. You can see kinda how big it is, by seeing me standing in front of it.

There is a large staircase that of course you can't walk up now. It's in ruins and it all blocked off. The base of the staircase is flanked by a pair of naga, or water serphants. They look pretty fieresome.

"Roar! I will eat you!" bellows the Naga.
There were a bunch of small statues covered in gold leaf sitting out on a table. I don't know why. Seemed random.
We posed with the Naga.



You can see the Buddha above in the little niche. I loved this place. You can tell by how many photos I took.
The building above is much, much newer, but I love the tiles and the blue tones.
Look at the elephants! Apparently they used to go all the way around the sides. They are part of the structural support. I bet it was really impressive to see them all before the quake.
I loved the elephants, especially after my wonderful experience at the elephant camp. They are such magnificent creatures.


This guy is peddling a bike with a shop built into it. How awesome it that? Fresh fruit that's mobile!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Thailand: Wat Phrah Singh on Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve we left the elephant camp and came back into the city of Chiang Mai and stayed at a really nice hotel. The room was huge and had a bathtub, a shower, and a huge pool outside. We were so tired though. I took a bath and then we just enjoying some television and walked across the street for some fantastic green curry that cost me about 60 cents. It had real fresh green peppery things, which turned out to be the black pepper pods that just were fresh! Crazy, peppery goodness! Before dinner, while we were looking for a place to eat, we also saw the largest rat on the street I've ever seen! It ran out in front of us and then somehow crawled into a sewer grate. I thought it was a cat at first it was so big! Gross...but not surprising. It managed not to ruin my dinner, since it wasn't sited at dinner.

Christmas morning we enjoyed our free breakfast at the hotel and then went on a day long temple site-seeing tour.

We took a Tuk-tuk, these loud motorcycle taxis with a small thing attached to the back where a couple people can sit. They are loud and incredibly dangerous looking. The driver will also try to rip you off. You have to negotiate a price beforehand. We had instances where the driver and I agreed on a price and then changed it when we got to our destination!!! It was quite annoying.
This is a really famous Wat in Chiang Mai, Wat Phrah Singh. I was just trying to hit the best of the city since we only had one day. We had to catch a night train back to Bangkok that evening.
I really like this view. There are so many parts of the complex that can be seen at once. Too bad all those other people are in the shot.



This building was beautifully decorated inside. The paintings inside were so old, but some of the design could still be seen. Above is one of the golden shutters on the windows.

My favorite part of this temple was this statue. It just seemed to have so much personality, and stood out from everything else around. I love it's eyes and it's broken tongue. Markian made friends with it as you can see above.

The statue above is quite creepy and looks a bit evil with those round, bulging eyes. It was my second favorite.
So shiny and decorative and busy. I love it!

These are from the inside of another building. I don't know what that silver tree shaped item represents, but asthetically I like it. Mostly, because it's shiny.




There was a much smaller reclining budda inside the building above. It wasn't that amusing after seeing the giant and richer one in Bangkok.

You could pay money to wheel something up to the top of that chedi. I don't know what or why. People were hawking stuff everywhere and I was just trying to stay away. Some woman tried to sell us a bird in a cage. I think you buy it and then free it. It bothered me.
Above: Young monks at the temple complex.
Below: Another awesome statue, but not quite as awesome as the old simple one. Why mess with success?

Above: The hall inside the newest building. There were some people praying, but many Thai people were taking pictures, so I figured it was okay.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Thailand: Chiang Mai Night Safari

Okay, my pictures from here aren't so great. It was nice after all. Our hotel that night (the awesome cave one in the previous post) had a free shuttle to the night safari. This place is really new, and is mean to draw in more tourists to Chiang Mai because it's a city without a big nightlife scene. We decided to go and I enjoyed it, though it sucked in comparison with our stay at the elephant camp the next day. There are two trams you can ride on that drive you around dangerous animals that are separated from you by big trenches. It's pretty cool because you can get closer than you ever could in a zoo and there is no cage. But it was dark and we were moving, so that's why my pictures suck. I've included this blurry picture of a tiger just to show you how close we got.
There is a light show which I found kinda lame. We had time to kill before our ride came back to pick us up, so we watched it anyway.


There also is an area you can walk around in at night and see animals. There were capybara, which are one of my favorite animals. I've never seen them that active before. It was because I'd never seen them at night until then. Below is an anteater, which I'd never seen that close. They look really freaky! They are bigger than I thought as well.
There were Christmas decorations, which was a little strange. I mean we have them in Japan too, but they make no sense. Like hearts and ships and castles and stuff. These were actually correct. And they were playing Christmas music!


The best part was a cheesy tourist thing where you could pay about $5 to hold a baby tiger or jaguar. It was over in about 15 seconds. It growled really scarily until they gave it the bottle. That's why I look scared. I didn't trust it! When they took it away it also made scary nosies. It was really heavy as well!