Day 23: Walking Around Town

As my time in Chiang Mai winds down and I got my first free day after school, I decided to walk around and observe the town.

Chiang Mai itself consists of an old city, roughly square, contained by a moat and some ruined walls. Two one-way ring roads, one inside the walls and one outside, encircle the city. I have vague memories of a problem in computer science related to getting from one place to another in Chiang Mai because of these one-ways. When you’re on a scooter, you often find yourself down these long, looping U turns using these roads. It’s not that bad: the place is small. Set into the walls are a series of gates, at least one per compass direction.

The whole city takes about 30 to 40 minutes to walk end-to-end, so it’s easily possible to cover it in a day by foot.

As mentioned previously, Chiang Mai is home to a great many beautiful temples. It’s still a bit startling. You’ll be walking down a normal street, nothing special. 7-11s and street vendors and ATMs. You glance over to one side and you see yet another beautiful gilded temple you’ve never seen before peeking out from an alley.

The two largest temples are Wat Phra Sing and Wat Chedi Luang

Wat Phra Singh Woramahaviharn

This Wat — the sign informs you that it’s a royal wat — is known for having a Buddha statue of particular importance. This statue attracts a lot of alms, which in turn are used to make the temple and its grounds very beautiful. It’s the perfect size for a walking tour, nice to see. Not overwhelming.

Wat Chedi Luang

The central Chedi of Wat Chedi Luang (photo at the top of the page) is an imposing structure. It’s tall and there’s a lot of space around the building so the effect is remarkable: it seems out of proportion to the surrounding city. After walking around the narrow leafy streets the contrast with the open and massive building is striking. Perhaps it’s that those same leafy streets hide the Chedi from view most of the time that gives you the surprise. Regardless, it’s a beautiful ruin whose restoration has come with controversy for being out-of-style with its history. The details like the massive stone elephant sculptures, the dragon sculptures on the railings are particularly impressive.

Monkchat The monk chat is something I’d heard about and sort of vaguely planned to attend. You meet with a monk and they practice English on you and you learn about their culture and religion. One was in progress as I ambled around the Wat, so I figured it was an omen to just stop and chat a while.

The first free monk was a school-aged kid, I was struck by just how much his story reminded me not of the religious renunciate, spending their time focused on their austere faith, but of a private boys’ boarding school. They take all the normal courses in school. They get interrupted by cellphone calls and have to fish their devices out of their robes to answer. They study Buddhism, of course, but it’s just one of many subjects.

Next I chatted with an older monk and an English Buddhist. This discussion was more focused on the religion and was fascinating. The monk’s main point, however, was simple: just meditate. That’s all. It’s wonderful to have such clarity from someone who spends his life in a given field. We do so love to overcomplicate things.

So just meditate.