Temples Galore – Say Wat?!

I don’t think that I have ever traveled with David to a place where he didn’t end up needing to go to a clinic,  pharmacy or need some type of medical attention. In the end, suffice to say that we’ve utilized the health care professionals along the Delaware shore, in Nicaragua and the west coast of Mexico. 

Now in Thailand, once again, we needed to seek out the advice and antibiotics of a medical professional when David awoke still suffering from an ailment he had unknowingly decided to bring to South East Asia all the way from California. 

Once armed with battery of antibiotics and over the counter medicines to treat the symptoms of his current situation, David was ready to be bedazzled by the plethora of temples that Chang Mai has to offer. 

We set off from our guest house on the border of Chinatown and wandered down the street for not more than five minutes before we came across our first temple, Wat Nongkham. 

We would soon realize that the temples or Wats, as they are called in Thai, are set up in similar fashion with a central buddha and open place to pray, surrounded by gorgeous gardens. The main temple has a golden steeple and intricate designs on the doors and sides. 

Our second temple, Wat Phan Tao was made of wood, and there we met a local Muy Thai fighter who initiated his conversation with us first by asking the ubiquitous where are you from, followed by a cheeky humor of asking David if he liked traveling with his daughter. Between every quip, he hit David on the shoulder or stomach with increasing force and I could see that we needed to get out of the temple quickly before David put his Muy Thai skills to the test. Between that and his insistence on taking us to a handicraft market, that he was not looking for money from us and his elaborate story about his Australian wife and subsequent picture of them from the 1970s gave us the clue that is was our turn to take our leave. So with a quick “Kob Khun Ka,” we were back into the old city streets and on our way to the next temple. 

Our third temple, Wat Chedi Luang, was by far the most impressive with multiple places to pray and buddhas on various sides of the temple walls. 

We sat on one side for a while watching three monks at the top of the temple’s edge, hundreds of feet above us, tying twine to the top of the fence enclosing the Buddha and then tossing it down to a waiting monk below who then went about his job of weaving it through the railings below. 

On one side of the temple, rows of white chairs were set for what we assumed would be a wedding later that day or weekend. 

At that point, we had been watted out for a few minutes and took refuge in a little café on the side of the road where David ate the only food he was told by the pharmacist to risk, Boiled Rice Soup. 

She assured us, that not only would every place in town make it for us without a problem, but that he could eat up to ten bowls without issue! David looked at me and said, “Do I look like I would eat ten bowls a day?” We laughed  - no response was needed.  I ordered a Northern specialty “Koa soy,” and we ate our soup in the quiet afternoon, random Christmas songs interspersed with local Thai music playing in the background. 

The wait staff also took a break shortly after we arrived to eat their soupy looking lunch all together, and I couldn’t help but feeling that if our work practices included a daily communal lunch that we might be a lot better prepared for our afternoon’s work. 

(Which apparently involved more temples, a cool park and taming some wild animals!)