Day 11 - A Great Day in Chiang Mai

Today I woke up and left the resort with 4 other friends at 6 a.m. to go up the mountain to the Wat Doi Suthep (Wat = Buddhist Temple of Doi Suthep = the mountain range) and watch the sunrise over the mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. From the base of Doi Suthep there are 302 steps up to the temple that is famous for the bells that hang all around and make many sounds depending on the wind movement. This temple overlooks the entire town of Chiang Mai and at night I can see it lite up on the mountain.

We left the temple and made our way further up the mountain into the Doi Suthep National Park and started our approximately 4 mile hike down the mountain. The path (or what path there was) followed nine levels of a waterfall down the mountain, so we would hike, then swim, then play in the waterfalls, and hike some more until we made it down to the lowest level of the waterfall about noon. We were so glad we left that early in the morning, because it was cooler out and we only ran into three people the entire morning!!

After our hike we decided to go to the zoo which is at the base of the mountain. None of us were that overly excited about going to the zoo, but we found that the Chiang Mai zoo was different than most American zoos. First of all the did not have to create the surroundings of the zoo like the trees, the flowers, and the plants, they actually built the zoo into the vegetation of the mountain. Second, they allow you to get right up to most of the animals and feed them or go into exhibits and just have the animals out in the open (this was like birds and smaller creatures), so we ended up having a great time at the zoo.

Next, we went to Wat U Mong (the Temple of the U Mong), which is actually located on the road right past our resort. It was a temple built in the 1200's that means the forest, because they have preserved a lot of the trees, plants, and pond around the premise. This temple was very large compared to most (it was kind of like a small college campus)becuase it had numerous buildings connected by walking paths unlike most others in Chiang Mai that only have one or two buildings. The Buddha's at this temple are found in underground caves. We also went to a lecture put on by one of the monks every Sunday where he talked about the religion and the temple.

We were all pretty tired by the end of today, but we are only in Chiang Mai another 2 weeks so we are trying to do everything we can!

***Check out more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jglesne/WatPhrathatDoiSuthepTheZooAndWatUMong?authkey=2_aQ8JV5e4I#