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When I think of Northern Thailand, I think of a place that’s all peace and quiet. I know, they say Asia is overcrowded and it’s impossible to escape the crowds, but northern Thailand is different. Chiang Mai may be growing by leaps and bounds, but that’s only one city. Think of the hundreds of towns and villages, including the remote hill tribes. But still let’s not rule out Chiang Mai. It’s a great city; a Bangkok of twenty years ago.
Of course, it wasn’t always that way. Northern Thailand has some turbulent history. For two centuries the Burmese had attempted to take it over, and a couple of times they succeeded.
King Mengrai the Great first built Chiang Mai and fortified the town with a massive wall and wide moat. Both the wall and the moat are still there* and from them Chiang Mai gets its mood. To find that mood, set out early in the morning when the streets are still and cool. Start in the middle of town and walk westward. Through the morning mist the silhouette of a wall will appear, and then a gate, Than Phae Gate. There’s a small cafe there, take a seat, order a Thai coffee and I guarantee that you sooner or later will see elephants and their mahouts come thought the gate. You could swear you were back in time a hundred years or more. The elephants, however, are not painted war elephants. These are elephants marching into town to officer rides for tourists.
I like to sit there in the cafe over a cup of strong Thai coffee and let my mind run. I can see these victorious soldiers returning, in their red sashes and their bright headbands, swinging jeweled swords that flash in the sun, marching through the same Than Phae Gate while people, waving and shouting, line the wayside, cheering them on. Children run alongside them; dogs bark at the melee. That’s the way it goes.
Every morning the elephants come single file through the gate, passing in line. They enter the old walled town the same as they did in days past. There are perhaps a dozen elephants, their Karen mahouts sitting astride their wide generous backs, urging the great beasts forward. As huge as elephants are, they seem to walk on cushioned feet, stirring up dust as they wobble along. Walking alongside them are their Karen keepers, dressed in blue, reaching up now and then as though to assure the elephants that all is safe and well. This is what is so exciting about Chiang Mai. The past is the present.
When you finish your coffee, walk through the Than Phae Gate, and you are certain to wonder if what you had seen only a short while before had been real or that too only imagined. Gone are the elephants and the keepers and the cheering crowd. The sun by now will up, harsh and glaring, and traffic will have begun; there are now sounds of tutus and ten-wheeled lorries and motorcycles, all trying to out-noise one another. Look at the gate where the elephants had passed and now in their place will be a line of moving vehicular traffic, and watch that Thai girl with her hair blowing in the breeze sitting sideways on a motorcycle, holding lightly around the waist of a long-haired youth who is driving. A lorry passes with a group of soldiers in the back, but no one waves.
It’s amazing that some people will go to Chiang Mai and never even know there is a wall that surrounds the town.
Chiang Mai today is a city of art and culture. Since the 13th century it has remained the principal religious center in northern Thailand and focal point for the construction of temples and monasteries. As a result, there are 36 temples within the ancient city walls, 80 officially registered religious sites in the metropolitan area, and over 1,000 temples scattered throughout northern Thailand.
Temples in Chiang Mai range stylistically from early Mon and Sukothais prototypes to Ayutthaya and Burmese-style monuments. Since early times architects in the north characteristically favoured large multi-layered roofs which swoop down lower than those of Bangkok temples and with less flamboyant colours than you see in the south. No brazen reds, yellows, and blues. Instead, northern architecture favours decoration and woodcarving such as filigree umbrellas and long-necked lions which reflect its Lanna and Burmese influence.
Many temples stand in original condition, while others have been heavily restored in unrepresentative styles. Older temples have largely disappeared except for their crumbling stupas (or in Thai, “chedis”). Temples inside the old city walls can be reached on foot, by rented bicycle or chartered tutus.
Chiang Mai is Thailand’s center of traditional arts and crafts, a veritable bazaar of silverwork, ceramics, antiques, and hill tribe handicrafts. The city has several areas known for their unique shopping venues. The central city offers the night markets, hill tribe handicraft shops along Tapae Road, large shopping complexes for utilitarian goods and a handful of specialized boutiques.
Chiang Mai’s Night Market, located on Changklan Road in the heart of the city, is one of the best of any city in Thailand, not only for its shopping but nightlife and food as well. The Night Market is a must for any visit to Chiang Mai. The food market that operates nightly on Ansuran Road between Changklan and Charoen Prathet Roads is just around the corner from the night bazaar. Dozens of stalls prepare a wide range of inexpensive dishes. At the sidewalk stalls try mussel omelettes, steamed crabs, and grilled fish served with a choice of sauces. Other possibilities include honey chicken roasted over an open fire, fried noodles with shrimp and bean sprouts, and the spectacle of "flying morning glory." English?language menus are often available, though the pointing method is much more fun and efficient.
Less familiar to most visitors is the Chiang Mai-Hang Dong Road, or Highway 108 heads south from the Airport Plaza past dozens of shops and factories specializing in antiques, ceramics, and woodcarvings. The woodcarving village of Ban Tawai and the ceramics village of Muan Kung are located just off the main highway. Hang Dong is the rattan and wicker ware capital of northern Thailand. A unique emporium is Mrs. Banyen’s Place near the airport.
Chiang Mai is also the gateway to the hill tribe villages. Now there is all the peace and quiet you could ever want, but we’ll save that for another time.
Next week we will take a look at the great hotels of Asia. Why are they so popular? I hope to answer that questions for readers.
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Painting of old wall in Chiang Mai
The wall of Chiang Mai today
The wall under repair
Mural artists add finishing touches
Chiang Mai, a town of small musical groups
In northern Thailand elephants still work teal logs
Elephants for tourists too
Or one can buy a toy elephant
Chiang Mai, city of arts and crafts
No job too large, even casting
Village festivals, fun for all
Join in the fun, a village procession
A street artist in Chiang Mai
The traditional Thai house in Chiang Mai of the late Swiss artist, Theo Meier
A hill tribe girl of the north
A monk at neighboring Wat Chiang Thong
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