Open Writing

Maria Volant visits a Buddhist temple on a mountain top, then goes shopping in Chian Mai's night bazaar.

6 Time for Thailand

Songathewing up the Hill

Hello.

On Saturday morning we stumbled blearily out of bed after strange Top of the Pops type dreams and ordered breakfast from the enormous menu. This place was a bit like an overgrown youth hostel. Everything we spent, e.g drinks and toast from the self service area, food they cooked for us and clothes from the laundry service, was entered by us in our own little book which had our room number on it. We were responsible for keeping it up to date - very trusting of them.

It was very idyllic there,and I dozed under the trees as Yves and Eva explored.

We were going to Doi Suthep, the village and temple on the mountain and had read up about it. 'Let's go,' say Y and E, 'come on, come on!'

I was half asleep, but a cup of tea and a quick slick of my Lovely Lady lipstick and I was ready for anything. We songathewed 16km up the mountain to Doi Suthep. It was very busy there. The temple grounds are magnificent and the views amazing. In the cloisters there are dozens of large Buddha images,and we were amused to note that, while they are very respectful everywhere of Buddha, the souvenir counter is pushed right up by the images and murals. The salesgirls had to squeeze past priceless Buddhas and murals to serve us. It all seemed very incongruous.

On the way down the mountain we stopped off, as we wanted to visit a waterfall. We were lucky because a passing Thai pick-up truck offered us a lift there - just as well; we didn't realise it was a two km walk. We basked by the waterfall and then started walking down the hill. Two Thai women gave us a lift and firmly insisted on taking us all the way back to our guest house. Hooray. They worked for the Global Fund, a local Harm Reduction charity combating diseases such as TB.

After a rest we looked for the food area at the Night Bazaar, where there is Thai dancing, but found ourselves in a building site. Back and forth we went. carefully dodging wires and wheelbarrows. Surely we were in the wrong place?

It was 8 pm, but the labourers, male and female, were hard at work (and were giving us curious looks). We had noticed this also in Bangkok; guess it makes sense to work late into the night when it's a tiny bit cooler. We eventually emerged and as we left I spotted the huge 'Keep out - No entry' sign behind us. Whoops. Trust them to put a sign like that on only one entrance.

So we ate at the White Lotus restaurant and met a British pilot there, who was being entertained by the Lotus's lady owner and the waitresses. He loves Chiang Mai,and he's just bought an enormous four-bedroomed house nearby for £60,000. He used to live near Haywards Heath. The owner of the Lotus says that the food area we were looking for was being renovated; that's why it was a building site. Boo.

We then visited the night bazaar, a heaving mass of activity, and bought a few things before going home; no point really in getting in too early unless we wanted to join in with the rock 'n' roll crowd.