MangoVine
Adventures in East Asia

Entries in Thailand

 12 December, 2009
Saturday Wat Phra Singh Buddhist Temple, Chiangmai’s Most Impressive
Wat Phra Singh is an impressive Buddhist temple within Chiangmai's old city centre walls and located at the far western end of Ratchadamnoen Road.

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It contains one of Thailand's three important Phra Singh Buddha images, with the other two at Wat Phra Mahathat in the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat and in the Bangkok National Museum.

Read more... 12 December, 2009
Saturday The All Wooden Wat Pan Tao Sermon Hall
The Wat Pan Tao is an all-teak sermon hall, constructed of unpolished panels and held up with enormous pillars. We stumbled across it when walking up Ratchadamnoen Road through the centre of the old city.

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The sermon hall, or the viharn caught our eye with its striking, layered, triple roof design together with all the orange flags right next to it. Teams of young monks in their trademark orange cloths were also cleaning the grounds.

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Saturday Chiangmai Hill Tribes Shop
One of the tourist attractions of Chiangmai is to visit a hill tribe outside of the town, either on a day tour or a home stay. There, you can apparently see the long-necked women, the ones who have metal rings around their necks. We didn't go, but we did come across this shop on (I think) Tha Phae Road.

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I didn't know what it was called, thanks to all the greenery outside, but we did know that it was a shop selling handicrafts by people from hill tribe villages. From what we understand, these handicrafts are sold in places throughout Chiangmai anyway, but with its rabbit warren-like layout and walls and ceilings stuffed with thousands of items, I found this place intriguing.

Read more... 12 December, 2009
Saturday Thaphae Muay Thai Stadium by Day
The Thaphae Muay Thai Stadium, so called because it was right next to the Thaphae Gate, was also practically across the road from our hotel (Portico 21) in Chiangmai. It was where we eventually went to watch some Muay Thai, having failed to do so in Bangkok two weeks previously.

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We dropped by during the day and whilst a few guys there at the entrance tried to get us to buy advance tickets, they did let us wander around inside and take photos.

Read more... 12 December, 2009
Saturday Flight of the Gibbon Waterfall Trek
The second part of the Flight of the Gibbon experience was the opportunity to climb up to a waterfall. In comparison to zooming through the forest air by zipline, its pretty tame, but the effort required at least built our appetites up for the forthcoming lunch.

Gibbon-Waterfall

We were transported the short distance to the bottom of the waterfall and then were given some initial directions by some waiting staff. Our group was pretty much left to our own devices, although the route was straightforward.

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