You know these small and fluffly white dogs that look like a tiny cloud and seem as if they have the biggest smile on their faces? I saw one today. On a scooter. He wasn‘t held or anything. (He also wasn’t driving). He was just standing on the seat behind the driving granny. I wasn‘t quick enough to take a picture, but that‘s an image that‘s engraved in my head.
Today I went to multiple temples.
- Wat Umong (a temple with tunnels!)
- Wat Phra Singh (just beautiful. so much gold and red and other intense colors. also like 10 famous monks as wax figures in meditating poses in one of the temples)
- Wat Chedi Luang (one of the oldest and v important ones, it got partly destroyed at some point, so it‘s more a ruin, but very impressive)
- Doi Suthep Temple (temple is full of flowers. it’s on top of a hill and like a million stairs. view over Chiang Mai at sunset was very beautiful)
What else was special today
- incredible street food papaya salat
- amazing specialty coffee (hot drip & coffee beans from the area)
- night market with food snacks (grilled mushrooms on a stick convinced me a lot)
- night market with second-hand or self-made/-adjusted clothes (I couldn’t say no to a very fun oversize shirt with fish on it)
- thai massage 💆♀️
Fun fact
At a lot of temples there are dragon/snake kind of creatures, usually on the sides of stairs leading to the entry of a temple. And I noticed, that it‘s not just one dragon on each side, no it‘s two: but one eating the other kind of? Or you could say one is coming out of the mouth of the other dragon. Turns out these dragons are called nāga. They protect the temple. But more importantly: „The image of a nāga emerging from the mouth of another can symbolize the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth. It represents the eternal cycle of existence and the interconnectedness of all living beings.“
