Khun Phantipa, a diplomat’s wife now residing in Laos, visited Chiang Mai recently to embrace the short-lived winter in Thailand. She came back with some breathtaking shots of Chokecherry, which is supposedly blossoming up north, and shared them to us. Our congratulations Khun Phantipa, who will receive a special prize from our sponsor for this issue.
Traveling around Thailand is as amazing as visiting foreign countries and I can vouch for that. We have amazing scenery and abundant nature to visit and explore, and Chiang Mai is one of them. This year’s cold weather came and went by like the wind, and therefore, the flowers that were expected to blossom on Doi Suthep were not as fully grown as they were in the previous years. But I came to see them nevertheless.
My other priority was to visit as many temples as possible within this three-day trip. We visited and paid respects to some of the most important and oldest temples in Chiang Mai.
The Lanna (Northern) architecture is simply breathtaking. Kept intact for hundreds of years they held onto the essence of the culture, faith, and values of the local people; and the hold was so deep that you can almost feel them in the air. The serenity gave me the chills.
My kids, sister-in-law, and I visited temples such as Wat Phra Singh (built since 1935), Wat Lok Moli (built in the 1500s), Wat Ban Den (built in 1894) and Wat Pan Tao (built in 1400s), all located closely in the inner Chiang Mai, except for Wat Ban Den, which stands farther from the city center. The temple images speak for each, perhaps sometimes even louder than we can ever describe, and the amazing work and details on each staircase, door, and floor are quintessentially Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is definitely a magical city.
Aside from the temples, we stumbled into amazing cafes such as the Fern Forest Café near Wat Phra Singh and ANN Coffee on our way to Doi Suthep, where the owner kindly recommended a chic restaurant for lunch, at Proud Phu Fah.
There were more that I could share, but let me just conclude by saying that the trip can be perfectly described as an amazing “Eat, Pray, Love” experience.
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