Rented a taxi through our hotel to bring us to various places around Chiangmai. Our first stop saw us heading up the mountain to visit the famous Sutherp temple. We stopped midway to take a picture of the city (picture below) and saw many women dressed in tribal clothes selling food and souvenirs.
There were little girls dressed in tribal clothes loitering around the base of the temple steps. Our taxi driver warned us not to take the steps and to take the lift instead. We stubbornly did not listen to him and ended up with extremely sore legs for the next few days. Well at least we had a good exercise!
The entire temple compound consisted of a few buildings and there were tons of tourists and worshippers there.
One could get their fortune read, a blessing from a monk or simply pray to the many golden statues.
Littered around were also a handful of shops selling buddhist ornaments.
Once you make a purchase, the monks will bless your ornaments on the spot.
All the walking makes one really thirsty and there were lots of stalls selling fruit juices, such as the one below.
And yes, the fruits are freshly squeezed on the spot.
Saw this interesting stall selling fried insects. Was rather grossed out and as I walked past the stall, I saw this tourist who spat out his grasshopper immediately after his first bite. He certainly deterred me from even attempting to buy one.
After lunch, we headed to the tribal village to see the long neck tribes.
This was what I have been waiting for the entire day.
And so I was so extremely sad when I saw this. I thought I was cheated off my money as we had to pay an entrance fee which cost about SGD $20.
And after trekking deeper in, we finally got to see the lovely women of the long neck tribe. They do not understand English and hence it was difficult communicating with them. I wanted to ask them how they felt with the metal chains on their neck. One of them kindly lent me a tourist version to wear. Oh boy! It was extremely heavy. I had to take it off the moment I took a picture with it. Only the woman wear these metal chains around their necks.
The boys and men do not.
Next up, we headed to the monkey school to see a monkey show. Basically at this monkey school, the monkeys here have been trained to do tricks in-front of the audience. I saw the monkey riding on a bicycle, playing basketball and climbing up a coconut tree to get a coconut down. After which, we were given some time to feed the monkeys. I must admit it was fun feeding the monkeys because they actually eat the food we serve. I still remember at the Animal Resort in Sengkang, the animals hardly ate the food I gave them and it was so boring to play with a lifeless creature.
Our last exploration for the day was at the Tiger Kingdom. We came up close and took pictures with these big but rather tame creatures. Half the time I was pretty scared that they would go crazy and eat me up cause such things do happen. We even had to sign an indemnity form saying that we will take sole responsibility should anything happen. Thank goodness these big creatures were really nice to me!
Dinner was at The Saloon. We feasted on beef steaks and slurped on our margaritas.
It was Christmas Day the next morning but the city was rather quiet as we found out that it was a normal working day in Thailand. Our Christmas lunch was at Samsen Villa, a lovely place by the river. The restaurant serves a mix of international and Thai food. One can choose to seat outdoors or indoors. We sat by the river and enjoyed our meal, as we savoured the last few hours of our time here in Chiangmai ... ...
So long Chiangmai, it was nice learning about your historically rich culture and tasting your delicious northern Thai cuisine. Your weather was a bonus too. Till we meet again.