Day 8: Chiang Mai

On our first morning in Chiang Mai, we first thought about what exactly we want to do. To not miss anything important, we decided to first visit the 'landmark' of Chiang Mai, the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple, high up above the city. So, let's go, walk through the city center and take a shared taxi on the other side. As we walked through the city, we passed countless small and large temples. After passing the 5th temple, we also decided to take a closer look at one. A calm atmosphere greeted us in the beautifully landscaped temple garden. As we sat there enjoying the peace and shade, a monk approached us and asked if we could help him with his English homework. So, we did it and gave English tutoring for 30 minutes to a Vietnamese monk in Thailand.

Afterwards, we reached the meeting point for the shared taxis. There was no one there, but the driver confidently told us that if he has 10 people, he will drive to the temple. After almost 40 minutes of waiting, there were still only two of us! So, we couldn't go to the temple like this. Quickly, we went back to the hostel and asked our lovely hostel mom for an alternative. Less than 30 minutes later, we were sitting in an organized tourist group going to two temples, including our Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple, which we wanted to visit all day.

Due to the late hour, there were no more tourists and we were able to visit the temple very well. In the meantime, we bombarded our tour guide with lots of questions about Buddha and co.