Culture Club

As we were gradually heading north and had been in Chaing Mai a couple of days we thought we had better see some culture and tradition. On the outskirts of the city we visited a mountain top temple called Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Around 700 hundred years old and an important pilgrimage temple it has 306 steps leading to the top and apparently on a day with clear skies the views are amazing. Unfortunatley when we visited Chaing Mai the whole city was covered in smog and smoke from the fires in the forests so we couldn't see owt!! The temple was impressive though and we spent some time looking around and being blessed by a monk.



That evening we went to a traditional Khantoke Dinner Show. The Khantoke Dinner Shows are normally used for special occasions like weddings, births etc and it is a very social and informal way to have dinner. We were seated on the floor and our drinks were brought out to us before a low table with five different dishes was served along with a basket of sticky rice. The dishes were Burmese pork curry, fried chicken, fried cabbage, pork tomato-chili paste, pork rind (like pork scratchings) and fried banana. Basically you use your fingers to break off bits of sticky rice and dip them into the different sources.







All the food was really nice and I could have eaten all night as they kept bringing out more food if we finished a bowl. About halfway throught the dinner the dancing starts and is a mixture of traditional Thai and Burmese dancing and hilltribe dances.







Each was very different and some were mixed with martial arts, some guy was dancing and spinning all over the place with 12 massive knives in his mouth!!




The night was really interesting but finished relativley early so we went to the riverside area for a few drinks, the bar we chose was rammed with a few live bands playing so we sat outside and started introducing the group to some drinking games. Mai didn't grasp one bit of it and it meant we (mainly George) had to drink quite quickly.

The next morning we had to make our way to Tha Ton, a small area about 2 hours from Chaing Mai. We arrived at the riverside lodges early afternoon and after lunch set off to see some of the local temples scattered around the hillside.


First up was the Glass Padoga, a new building right on top of the mountain, which was really impressive. Inside were hundreds of Buddha images from around the world and a slope all around the inside that led to the top which was heaven.



In this area was a large glass showpice protected by dragons (not real ones) and had some ashes of the Lord Buddha inside, a piece of his chest and a finger. A very peaceful and serine place.

We worked our way back down the mountain stopping at a few of the statues and temples on the way, all different shapes and sizes before heading out for our evening meal.





We got back to the bar at the lodges and there had been some sort of conference during the day, something to do with Thai farming but not sure exactly. We had seen them when we arrived and they were already drinking and by this point they were all pretty hammered and singing karaoke in the bar very loudly!! A little later it looked as though most of the females had gone to bed and the person who had the laptop started showing a slide show of half naked Thai women!!! Quite amusing but it soon finished and one of the guys came and sat with us, a really nice Thai man from Chaing Rai who we chatted to for a while before having a relativley early night as we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.