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Previous: December
On January 1st I moved to the Khumsiphaya Grand Hotel near the old city's Chang Puak Gate across the northern moat.
I stayed all of January in this remarkable residence where I had this large comfortable room with all the amenities, air con, ceiling fan, hot water shower, TV, fridge, Internet connection and balcony for only 215 $/month, a best buy if I ever saw one.
Here is the lobby of the KS. Spacious and well appointed like all of its 60 rooms. I don't hesitate to recommend this place if you don't mind walking.
There was only one good restaurant nearby so I bought a second hand micro wave oven to heat up take away meals from the market.
I stayed there only one month because my pre-second-world-war legs (1933), complained about the 20 minute walk to Moon Muang Rd where the restaurants, bars and Sompet market are.
I love markets, they are places where a complete stranger can get a glimpse
of how people live at home by observing how they haggle, what they buy and how
much of it at a time.
Most people on this planet buy their meat from open food stalls like this one. The meat is not refrigerated but it is generally freshly killed.
For most westerners who do not eat rice often, rice is rice is rice not not so for the Thai who distinguish several varieties priced from 11 to 20 bahts per kilo.
The flavour of naturally ripened fruit like these has nothing in common with
that of the warehouse ripened bananas and papayas we import in our cold countries.
Many if not most of these vegetables are not sold in our supermarkets.
The Phuak market across the northern moat from the Khumsiphaya Hotel was closer than the Sompet market but it was active only at night and had no fruit and vegetables.
Small open air food stalls like this one are found all over the city, an indication that many Thai prefer eating out or buying takeaway meals to cooking at home.
Take away meals are a good option considering the variety of good food sold at very reasonable prices,
The preparation of most Thai meals require small quantities of many different vegetables, herbs and other ingredients that need to be fresh so cooking at home for only one or two persons is not very efficient.
This lot of roast pork will be chopped up in small pieces and sold in takeaway
plastic bags or added to a variety of vegetables to be eaten here with rice.
One day, my friend Sand picked me up at the Khumsiphaya hotel and drove me around the campus of the Chiang Mai University where she heads the Department of International Research and Cooperation.
Then, as the afternoon light grew warmer we visited Wat Phrathat on the Doi Suthep peak a dozen km west of town. The devout earn merit by climbing the 300 step staircase that starts here.
Thankfully there was a cable car which we took to get here (no merit is gained by riding the cable car).
Sand and I on Doi Suthep.
Thai people are very pious and generous towards the upkeep of their innumerable temples.
Wat Phrathat's golden Chedi glittering in the warm late afternoon sunlight is indeed an impressive sight.
No, this is not the famous "Emerald Buddha". The real one is in Bangkok's Wat Phra Kaew.
The devout that did not climb the stairs can also earn some merit by ringing these bells.
On good days, Doi Suthep's lookout is said to provide a great view of the wide Chiang Mai plain but this was not a good day as a thick haze covering the city made it impossible to distinguish much, let alone to take a picture.
The problem with my legs was not getting better so I finally dropped in the Chiang Mai Ram hospital (just outside the western moat), to see what they could do about it.
I must say that I was impressed by this modern private hospital. There was no waiting. I arrived at 10 and was immediately seen by a generalist who ordered blood and urine analyses, an electro cardiogram and chest X-rays that were carried out one after the other without waiting. Then I had lunch in the hospital canteen and saw the generalist again who sent me to see a cardiologist who was also available to see me at once. He decided to do an echo cardiogram, not the next day or the next week but at once! That took about half an hour and confirmed his diagnosis that the swelling and pain in my legs were due to a cardiac insufficiency. He prescribed medicine and I was out of there with it before five PM! WOW!
The place was run like clockwork with most specialty diagnostic services distributed around this large reception hall that looked more like a hotel lobby than an hospital. The service was prompt, courteous and friendly with cute young attendants to guide patients from one station to the next. And all this for only 274 $ including the medicine! WOW, it was like science fiction!
After a week, the swelling was gone and my legs felt fine!
A bunch of young monks trying to cross busy Mani Noppharat Rd. where traffic runs clockwise just outside the northern moat. Traffic runs counter clockwise on Sriphum Rd. just inside the moat. Getting in or out of the old city is quite a challenge for the traffic on these roads is fierce and there are few traffic lights.
Below, two more temples on Sriphum Rd. There's always a temple just around the corner in Chiang Mai.
Wat Monthian
on the left
Wat Kuan Ka Ma
on the right
There are also Hindu temples and mosques. This mosque and madrassa serve a small community of a few thousand Muslims whose ancestors were traders from China that settled in this area centuries ago.
Chinese Muslims are called Hui in China. Here they are called the Ho people. When I asked this gentleman about the mosque, he invited me to his nearby shop where we had an interesting conversation about monotheist Islam and atheist Therevada Buddhism.
Wat Saen Fang on the corner of Tha Phae Rd and Kamphaeng Rd. is a large complex of which only a small part is seen here.
Not far, across the street is Wat Bupparam founded in 1497 by king Muang Kaew. The small elevated Lanna style viharn is more than three centuries old but much of it has been restored. The larger viharn on the right is only 200 years old. Candid statues of all kinds of animals adorn the surrounding gardens.
On the first of February, I moved to the MD House on Ratwithee Rd. near Moon Muang Rd. in a lively area full of restaurants bars and shops.
The room half the size of the one I had at the Khumsiphaya and the price was double but it had all the same amenities, it was near everything and it had a pool.
Here is a morning view of Wat Dok Euang, just across Ratwithee Rd. from the MD House.
And a late afternoon shot of the same temple.
This smaller ubosot structure is reserved for the exclusive use of Buddhist monks.
