Doi Suthep and Chiang Mai Day Two

For our second day in Chiang Mai we decided to start 16 km outside of the city to visit Doi Suthep first and follow  with the rest of the Wats I wanted to visit.  We started out figuring out how to get to Doi Suthep without getting robbed by taking a taxi.  So, I was checking out the map of the city and happened to notice the public transportation that goes up the mountain to there.  We hopped on a tuk-tuk and got to the van stop.  Luckily I found this because we saved ourselves over 1000 Baht.  I survived the windy mountain road and was rewarded with the amazing Doi Suthep plus a pair of beautiful jade earrings from the jade factory.

Doi Suthep is a beautiful Wat that happens to be surrounded by tourist trap markets.  So, beware if you go and save you money for the Friday and/or Saturday street walking markets in Chiang Mai.  While visiting the Wat we were both blessed by a monk with holy water.  It was an enlightening experience and felt very spiritual.  I was a bit overwhelmed with emotion during the blessing and for several minutes afterwards.  I would definitely recommend this experience.

After Doi Suthep, we rode back down the mountain (it was a bit worse going down and I needed a Sprite), found some lunch and saw the rest of the Wats on my list.  Here are a few random Wats as well as one of Chiang Mai's town gates and the Three Kinds Monument.

Wat Chedi Luang (my most favorite Wat), we were blessed with the monks doing their afternoon chant.  It was truly an amazing experience.

That night we went to the Saturday night walking street market to meet up with some of Brian's friends from West Point.  No pictures but we had a great time catching up.  Stay tuned for elephants!!