A lazy Saturday Stroll in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai, Day 67

This morning we do a little research about where we fancy going today and we decide to do a bit of a loop north and across the river - really just to see what else is near by. We already know that there are a few Night markets close to us and we plan on visiting these soon but we are keen to see the nearby area in the daytime also.

Wat Si Don Chai

I know all we pretty much covered yesterday was temples, so we had planned on not visiting any temples today, but before we knew it, we were passing the gates of Wat Si Don Chai, and we just had to go in.

Wat Si Don Chai was built about 130 years ago and like almost every temple we come across, it has beauty and charm in abundance.

The temple is opposite the Pantip Plaza in the night bazaar area of Changklan Road - so very easy to find.

The two-story Viharn is spectacular, with plenty of glittering mosaic and scenes of the Buddhist hell carved on the window shutters. Inside, there are the usual murals of the Vessantara jataka lining the walls.

The ubosot is modern with cute little sema boundary stones. The ho trai is new and in the Lanna style with the teak upper floor. There are also some nice old wooden kuti monks' quarters. The small chedi is in the Burmese style.

We walk past the market areas, and we'll cover these when we eventually visit the area properly, but during the day, there is not much to see here other than some of the little shops that are located around here.

Wat Upakhut

As we turned the corner to head towards the bridge over the River Ping, we hit Wat Upakhut. This temple is situated on Tha Phae Road close to Nawarat Bridge.

Here is where the well-known tradition of midnight food offerings is held. The event occurs every Wednesday's full moon night, so-called Peng Phut, rooted in the local belief about Phra Uppakhut disguising himself as a novice coming out to collect alms and offerings from people on such days.

According to the legend, a poor couple was earning a living by farming in the suburb of Chiang Mai. From time to time they came downtown to sell their produce. On one early winter morning, the spouses commuted to the city with belongings and products as usual, bemoaning about their hard-working unfortunate tough lives compared to other families and cheering each other at the same time.

As they crossed Ping River to Tha Phae Road on the west side, the full moon shone bright, washing away their weariness, leading their sights to meet a neatly dressed novice coming out for alms. With the young monk's respectable manner, the two decided to share some of their goods with him. Although the husband was surprised by how early the alms collection of this novice was, his walking pace was just enough to see the novice disappear behind a banyan tree, which made the couple even more curious.

After that charitable deed, the couple's living gradually got better. They were told later by one senior monk that their prosperity was due to their offering to that novice, who was in fact Uppakhut Maha Thera the great monk who had been practicing Nirodha (cessation of feelings and perceptions) under the whirlpool amid the great sea.

At every full moon observance day, the great monk would come in the form of a novice asking for alms as a mercy practice for all creatures. Giving alms to him was considered a highly praised merit and brought fortune to whoever committed the act. Listening to the telling, the husband and wife grew stronger in faith and decided to contribute to the construction of a temple where the incident took place, giving the name Wat Phra Uppakhut, later shortened as Wat Upphakhut.

The temple area was quite small but busy when we arrived, so we didn't want to get in the way of those there to prey and worship, so we just had a very quick look around before we left again.

We then headed over to the river and helped a little old lady with a very heavy cart of fresh produce get over a bit of a bump in the road. It's certainly been an eye-opener for us in Southeast Asia to see many old ladies (and old men) working so hard in their later years. I know that some may still enjoy these activities, and if that is the case, then great, but I cannot help but think many are doing it because of necessit,y and that is quite hard and sad. Although none of us could speak a word of the same language, the toothless smile and gratitude on this little old lady's face will stay with me. The Thai people are so gentle and beautiful.

Once we have crossed the river, we are on our loop back and of course, we're starting to get a bit hungry at this point, so we spot a nice-looking restaurant for our late lunch/early dinner.

We spot a place called VT Namnueng, which appears to be a Vietnamese restaurant. It's pretty busy, very clean, and has air conditioning, so in we go.

Based on the prices, we assumed that the dishes were quite small and that you just ordered a number of them to share, so we did that. There was a large menu with both English and Thai descriptions, so at least we knew what we were ordering. That said, the sheet that you ordered from was all in Thai, so we had fun trying to complete that and then waiting to see if we had picked the correct items or not!

Oh my goodness - the portions were much bigger than we had anticipated! The food itself was delicious, and of course, because we don't like waste, we did our very best, which meant we were completely stuffed! The total meal with a watermelon smoothie for me and a Coke for R was less than £10! We didn't need to eat anything else for the rest of the day either....

After this massive lunch, we walked on for a bit more until we reached the Khua Lek (iron bridge) to cross back over to the other side again. The bridge is quite cool looking and sort of reminded us of the Bridge over the River Kwai in the Kanchanaburi area of Thailand.

There are a couple of very nice-looking cafes and restaurants on the riverside around here, so we might try some of these out at some point during our stay here also.

By the time we got back to the apartment, it was time for a shower and an afternoon nap!

We had some work to do in the evening, so this worked out well as we didn't need to venture out for dinner but it threw our Sunday plans out a little as we couldn't face another big dine-out after this.

Today's rough walking route plan:

Chiang Mai, Thailand

25 January 2025