Above, view of the Ping River. We arrived in Chiang Mai on Monday afternoon, checked into our hotel and took a walk to through the neighborhood.

We are staying in a small and special place here, 137 Pillars House. The original building on the site was built 125 years ago and was the Northern headquarters of the Borneo Trading Company. The whole place feels like something out of another time. Here’s a web photo of the teak paneled bar.

At the entrance, a memorial for the King, whose funeral is this week.

On Tuesday we visited the main temple outside the city, one of Northern Thailand’s most sacred sites. Wat Phra Doi Suthep was established in 1383 to enshrine a piece of bone said to be from the shoulder of the historical Buddha.

The walls of the temple depict the story of how the relic arrived in Chiang Mai and how the temple came to be built. When the monks and the King could not agree on a site for the temple, the task was assigned to an elephant, who walked for some time before he found a suitable spot and set the relic down.

Afterwards we visited a site where members of half a dozen different hill tribes have settled and produce regional crafts. Like a number of similar setups in northern Thailand, this one is  somewhere in between an authentic village and a tourist attraction.

(I did not want to take pictures of the people).

We had lunch along the way at an orchid farm.

There were also some beautiful butterflies.

On Wednesday Jay and I hopped in a “tuk tuk” and went to visit the Old (walled) city of Chiang Mai.

We visited several notable temples. As was the case in Bangkok, we again found that dress codes were less strictly enforced than in  Bhutan, and that there were more worshippers than monks in attendance. Everywhere, there are memorials for the King.

Above,  Wat Phan Tao, the city’s largest Wat.

Old teak temple

Below, Wat Pra Sing

I don’t want to give the impression that the old city is just temples. There are a lot of them, and some that are very old. But there are also restaurants, shops, and all the usual elements of an urban landscape.

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