21.11. Of temples and a festival opening of lights

Chiang Mai is known for its many different temples in its surroundings. For this reason, today we simply extended our scooter from yesterday and drove to two temples that were located a little further away. The first one, Wat Suan Dok, was located next to a beautiful golden pagoda, which in turn was surrounded by many white tombstone monuments. They were so white and the sun was shining so brightly that it was not possible to walk over this place with open eyes and a raised head, otherwise it would have been too dazzling. For this reason, we kept our eyes half closed or looked at the ground, only lifting our gaze a few times for the impressive backdrop. The interior of the temple was very free and open, making it appear very large and bright, and this place could be filled with large Buddha statues.

Afterwards we went to Wat Phra That Doi Kham temple, which is located on a mountain and overlooks the city a bit, so it could already be spotted from a distance. Once there, you could admire magnificent statues of animals and Buddhas as well as a small temple and the great view of Chiang Mai. As you may have already noticed, we have visited a lot of temples on this trip and sometimes it may be a bit monotonous to read about them, but they are always so different and always offer the time and space to marvel and feel a little connection to this foreign culture, which is why we never tire of visiting more. At this temple, you could try to make large gongs ring by "stroking" them, but it often felt a bit strange, especially if you couldn't produce any sound at first...

After visiting this second temple, we went to a destination that is usually associated with another country: the Grand Canyon. With a little goodwill and imagination, you may be able to see the parallels to its big brother in the United States in the occasional red peaks that protrude from a kind of quarry. But there you could swim very well and cool off from the 30 degrees that prevailed. You could also rent large inner tubes there to float on the water or take surfboards to explore the lake standing up and armed with a paddle. There was also the possibility to jump into the cool water from a secured platform on the edge of the canyon at a height of 7 meters, and the one second of flying freely was an incredible feeling.

On the way back, we finally stopped at a small tunnel system, in which several small prayer niches and even smaller Buddhas were embedded in the walls, creating a very atmospheric effect in the midst of the gloomy tunnels. On top of the tunnel system was another old pagoda, which, due to its age and its moss, venerably guarded the tunnels.

Back in the city, we then attended an opening event of the festival of lights. This consisted of many traditional dances accompanied by traditional music, with the dancers often carrying candles or hands full of flowers and still managing to contort themselves and move in time to the music. Anyone who has ever felt freshly melted wax knows how hot it can be...

Traditional dances combined with modern technology

Then came the rather unexpected main part of the program: a beauty contest to crown Miss and Mister Yeepeng (that's the name of the festival of lights). Honestly, we found it funny to see how the individual participants presented themselves, made mistakes in their positioning and walking, or simply had pants that looked like full diapers... 

During today's first round (semi-finals and finals will follow tomorrow and will be followed by such big fans like us), we also quickly moved to another hostel, which is a bit more expensive but very nice and we didn't want to stay there the entire time for cost reasons. Tomorrow, there will be more festival of lights activities to visit during the day, and we also want to see a little more of the city, as we have mainly been exploring the surroundings in the past few days.