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Friday, December 22, 2023

Temple tunnels, and met some other Canadian senior nomads

We had originally planned to go on a hike, but ended up going to a temple instead. Personally, I'm already "templed out". They begin to all look the same after a while, so unless there is something special, I've lost interest. However this one had some interesting tunnels built into the complex, so we made the 5.5 km trek through the city to get there.

So I suppose we did do a hike... but it certainly wasn't in nature!

We passed by one of the old city gates constructed back in the 13th century when Chiang Mai was a walled city.

Thapae Gate.

While we were taking photos, a group of schoolgirls approached us, with worksheets in hand. They were practicing English, and had a list of questions they were asking from the worksheet. We've had this experience before in Mexico City as well as more recently in Uzbekistan. Always fun to play along and help them out.

Ruth with the Thai schoolgirls.

We carried on, but Ruth got sidetracked by another temple...

Not sure what was going on with the wires strung across.

With the ever present donation box!

A late 1800's Thai house.

Hmm. Nice suit...lol!

Another temple along the way. This complex had some interesting things!



I like these dragon/serpent statues.

This temple library was originally built in 1497, and last restored in 1926.

Very cool!

In another temple, there were five wax monk figures on each side of the central Buddha.

So realistic!



Another part of the complex.


Carrying on through the side streets of the old central area, you come across some odd things...

Very strange.

Around 1:00pm, we stopped for lunch at a typical Thai lunch spot. 

I had a pork and rice dish.

Ruth had some kind of noodle soup.

50 baht ($1.45 USD, $1.90 CAD) each for lunch.

We carried on to the Wat Umong Suan Phutthatham temple complex. The base of the temple has some tunnels built into it. Cost was 20 baht each for admission, so not very much! But, there really wasn't very much to see either. The tunnels themselves were a bit underwhelming, but the site and location were pretty enough. Not many western tourists about, which was a bit surprising. All Asian tourists or locals.



Another old dragon/serpent thing.

The main stupa.

There is a small pond where people feed the pigeons and fish.
Notice the swarm of fish on the right of the bridge!

It's a pretty site though.

Lots of greenery. 

A handsome fellow!

Then we did the 5.5 km (3.3 mile) walk back to the central area where we went to the BeerTime bar to meet up with another full time traveling couple.

Susan and Blair are originally from Calgary, but have been full time travelers for about six years now. They have an interesting history in that they lived in Cayman Islands for 16 years. 

They keep a blog at https://blairandsusan.ca/

So we sat and had a couple of drinks and chatted about a lot of different things. We might see them again before we leave.

We'll have to because we forgot to get a photo of us all together!

Walking back to the guesthouse, there was an area that was nicely lit up.



A little hole in the wall place where we had dinner.

Walked about 13 kms (8 miles) yesterday. Step counter on the phone showed 19,785 steps!

Watched the season 45 finale of Survivor! What a great season it was. Looking forward to season 46 starting in February.

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2 comments:

  1. I thoroughly enjoyed this season of Survivor! Such a positive and uplifting group of people, and I couldn't be more delighted with Dee winning. She and Austin are adorable, together or separately. Loved them both, along with many others on the cast. Best season ever, maybe!

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    Replies
    1. We totally enjoyed this season as well and I think it is because it was such a social game this time, they all ended up having a close relationship together and they really didn't want to vote each other out but had to, plus there were a couple of really good blindsides as well. We agree with you, it was probably one of the best seasons of Survivor. We think that Dee and Austin make a great couple, I hope that it ends up going somewhere when they get back home.

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