Wat's the difference?

Well, I am now feeling a bit better, having been trapped in my room for 2 days sweating, shivering, and ejecting fluids....

The lovely ladies in the hotel have looked after me this morning... I got live yoghurt on my fruit this morning, as it would be good for me after being ill, and free water yesterday when they saw the state of me.

So..... my temple tour. After such an auspicious start to the day with my lovely happy dream what better than a nice walk around the temples of Chiang Mai.

First stop, Chiang Man, the oldest temple in town. It had a delightfully wonky altar (whichI was unable to photograph due to the lack of light) and some peaceful dusty gold buddhas, (though the entrance was adorned with huge picture of the Queen of Thailand as it's her birthday on the 12th, which rather spoilt it's olde worlde charm).

Next on to another temple in which are housed a couple of famous Buddhas, the Marble Buddha, Phra Sila, which is about 2500 years old, and the Crystal Buddha, Phra Senagamen, which is about 1800 years old.

Lovely building, built in 1300 BC or thereabouts... couldn't find the aforementioned Buddhas, perhaps they weren't very big, however this didn't matter.

Inside the building was even more beautiful - fabulous bright and detailed murals, and giant gold leafed pillars and alter.

Then you turn a corner and are confronted with the rather amazing sacred "Elephant encircled stupa" which is built on the site of the former royal residences here... then the king built this huge stupa (or "cheda") which is said to enshrine a sacred (non-specific) hair relic of the Buddha.

My route then took me past the Anusawan Sam Kasat, bronze statues of three Lanna Kings.

I am

probably being a little disrespectful when I say that their poses are ever so slightly camp....I can just imagine the one on the right saying "well sweedie, the outfit's ok, but the colour clash is smply dreadful darling..... I just don't know how we're supposed to work under these conditions".

Often locals leave offerings for them, as you can see. The building behind is the Chiang Mai city Museum and the Arts & Cultural centre.

This is King Mangrai's shrine - he was the King who founded Chiang Mai, who was killed by lightening around 1311 right in the middle of the city. This shrine is actually the new one; the old one apparently wasn't suitably located for the public to pay homage to so a new one was built.

Next was a real treat, the Wat Phan

Tao.

So far, you've probably looked at all the many temples I've exhaustively photographed and, whilst stifling many a yawn, thought "Wat's the difference? ".... I myself have been thinking the same thing but this one really was.

This is a rather more plain temple, old and built of Teak approached through a lovely square terracotta archway and there was a lot of monk action going on inside, judging by the sea of orange swathed bodies, so it was really nice to find a proper 'working' temple.

On closer inspection, this was clearly "Monk School", as the temple was filled with lots of monk boys, (all aged about 12 or so) being talked at monotonously through a microphone by an old monk at the front.

There was also a lot of whispering and messing about and not paying attention as you can see... which was quite funny - just like normal school-boys. I don't know why I had expected different behaviour just because they were school boy monks!

Then on to Wat Chedi Luang.

WOW! This place had just been dazzlingy restored; just the entrance was pretty amazing, with it's big gold dragons, and bright white and gold paint, but inside was just amazing.

Not only was there not a speck of dust anywhere so everything shone and gleamed, and every tiny bit of paintwork was perfect, it was also just, to me, proportionately perfect.

Seated at the alter were, among the many Buddhas were also statues of from what I can glean from asking around (but I may be wrong as most monks aren't that chatty), deeply venerated old monks from many years ago.

Once I'd managed to tear myself away from this spectacular building I realised that it was simply at the foremost building of a square of stunning architecture which surrounded another huge stupa, this one made of brick rather than stone. This would be the chedi mentioned in the name of the temple then! Duh.

Though it has been partially destroyed by I am not sure what, but it almost looked like it had been bombed, and much of it's original splendour was gone, along with most of it's surrounding elephants, it was still a building you could stare at for ages. It was a shame one couldn't get inside to explore as it looked so fascinating, however probably horribly dangerous too.

So I sat in the tranquility of the square for a while, looking at the beauty of the buildings and listening to the birds and the temple bells tinkling, and the obligatory hammer tapping from some kind of building work going on somewhere.

Realised I was dizzy just sitting down, and stopped for lunch (they offered a drinks menu which included "Dire Coke"

Then to the last temple on the list via this little one (Wat Cha Phra Kiat) which,if you look closely has lovely murals of ladies floating in clouds either side of the door, but you couldn't go in.

The last temple on the list is Ta Phra Singh. I had a great sit down chat with a friendly monk.

He'd been a monk for 18 years, obviously loved his job, and was happy to sit with me and discuss meditation, as much as the language barrier would allow.

Now, don't get me wrong, as previously mentioned I am not very good at meditation, however this doesn't mean I don't want to be. In fact I do think it would be extremely beneficial to be able to clear the mess from my mind and have clarity of thought.

He suggested visiting a temple outside the old city where they have regular "monk chat" so you can talk about all aspects of Buddhism with them, and even more interestingly they also do meditation retreats.

You have to turn up at the temple, wearing all white clothes and are taken by bus from the temple and spend 2 or 3 days getting up at 4am, spending it in silence when not chanting, and you meditate in set sessions all day. Sounds quite difficult, but I bet you'd be on your way to learning how to do it by then. Am wondering whether to throw myself in at the deep end and just do it. I'd need to buy myself some white trousers though. Perhaps I will also wait until I am completely healthy too.

Now, if you look closely at this pic of the inside of this temple with the big gold Buddha in the middle, you will see, to the right of him, on the other side of the pillar, an old monk sitting cross legged on a pedestal. I spent ages staring at him as he sat there, in deep meditation, unblinking. I felt it would be rude to take a photo of him in case it disturbed him.

Asked the chatty monk how long the old guy generally sits there for.....he said forever! It was a wax work! but the most real one i had ever seen! (much more real than Ho Chi Minh!!) Apparently he was a chief monk from centuries ago and most people think he is real, what with the saggy arm skin and blemishes. I think it's rather charming that all his bodily imperfections were also so lovingly recreated.

Wandered down to the night market later for dinner, met a nice chap called Billy and had a couple of beers with him and his friends he'd just met whilst trekking in the mountains around here, before I started to feel a bit ill and headed off back to my hotel.