Kornography

Today I realized that I had been living in Chaing Mai for three weeks and consequently recognized two important facts that I can no longer ignore: 1.) I had yet to visit Wat Doi Suthep, a must-see on even a two-day trip to Chaing Mai; and 2.) I had been living in a city surrounded by mountains for this long and still hadn’t climbed any of them–what were my South African brus and boetes to think?(See pic of Devil’s Peak over Cape Town). Lucky for me, Wat Doi Suthep is on Doi Suthep, the largest mountain overlooking Chiang Mai; I was presented with only one real option.

Everyone to whom I explained my plan expressed both approval that I was finally going to see Wat Doi Suthep, and complete bewilderment at my desire to walk there. Lucky for me, there was one exception, and my friend Kae said that she wanted to come. Apparently there is a tradition at Chaing Mai University that all first years have to climb Doi Suthep and upon making an offering to the statue of the famous hermit at the top, receive his blessing to proceed to graduation. Kae however, though she is in her last year at CMU has never made the ascent.

So on Friday afternoon we embarked on the approximately 14km walk that would end at the temple about 1050 vertical meters above—its no Devil’s Peak, but it gives Table Mountain a run for its money. The hike was great leading around waterfalls and through jungle, but we eventually lost the trail—I later learned that you must hire a professional guide in order to hike there, as it is easy to get lost—and ended up having to walk up the road the remainder of the way. While it was somewhat disconcerting to watch the never-ending parade of sawng taews and air-conditioned tour buses whizzing past us, we persevered and walked all of the way up.

The over-the-topped-ness of the village of hawkers, sellers and mongers (man I love that word) set up in the expansive parking lot seemed even more foreign after our hike. Standing there, catching my breath before tackling the final 200 steps that led to the entrance to the wat, I couldn’t help but marvel at the tour buses passed off the endless stream of the fanny-packed and the neck-straped to the cable car that would take them the remainder of the way. How different must this place have been before the road was constructed: a wat three-quarters of the way up a mountain surrounded by jungle.

The wat itself was standard fare, beautiful, but by no means markedly better than many of the other ones that I had visited. The view however, is stunning, as Chiang Mai sprawls out below you. I could even see good old Pong Pin –a commanding presence from Above, due to its proximity to the moonscape.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 4:10 am and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.