Temples and Tigers

One thing that deeply influences Thai culture is Buddhism. This 'way of life' is deeply rooted in the country, and one of it's visible incarnations are the temples, or 'Wats', that are everywhere. I got a chance to visit a couple over the past few days. The first one I visited was in the old part of the city - the area surrounded by a square moat. Wat Phra Singh houses the most important Buddha image in Chiang Mai, a statue that was brought from Sri Lanka in the 1300s. Apparently the image was being carried around until it 'chose' its final location - Chiang Mai was 'chosen' because this is where the wagon broke down.

Two days ago I went and saw Wat Doi Sutep, which is located up on the mountain. It was a lot larger, and really cool. The entrance is marked by a long staircase with two long dragons running alongside. Inside was beautifully decorated, and this was obviously a temple of great importance. But most stunning of all was the view from atop the mountain that overlooks Chiang Mai. The location of the Wat holds meaning for more than just the view though. In Thai society, hierarchy is often represented by elevation (ie. Head is most sacred part of the body, feet the most offensive, monks sit on platforms above commoners, the heads of commoners are supposed to be held below the feet of the king - in fact one of the Thai ceremonial titles for the monarchy states just that). Thus, by building the temple so high up, it's importance is represented.

Yesterday I hired a tuktuk driver to take me just outside the city. For those who don't know, a tuktuk is a 3-wheeled vehicle with a bench in the back for passengers, and it is driven just like a motorcycle with handlebars and hand throttle / break. It's perfect for inhaling all the fumes of everyone around you. As I was sitting in this tuktuk, half pulled out into oncoming traffic, I realized that these vehicles are probably just as safe as motorcycles, an ominous thought when traffic is bearing down on you ready to t-bone. But despite my eccentric driver who talked to himself and had to stop and ask for directions a few times, we made it to our destination. Before I move on though, more about this driver. He apparently decided to pimp out his tuktuk, converting the backrest area of the passenger area into a soundsystem. So picture this tuktuk sitting at an intersection blasting europop techno into my back, with me, a farang (foreigner) sitting there bobbing along wearing my bandana like bandit to protect myself from all the fumes around me.


So back to the real story. We drove out to the Tiger Kingdom, a total tourist trap, but cool nonetheless. It gives people a chance to play with Tigers and have their pictures taken with them. Si I spent some time with some 7 month old tigers, and some fully grown ones. To be honest, it wasn't so much as playing with the larger ones as it was petting them while they were asleep. I know tigers are nocturnal, but I have a feeling that they wouldn't normally be this docile if they kept getting woken up during the day though. Either way, it was really cool. Unfortunately there was a mixup with the picture CDs, so I only have pictures of me with the 7 month old ones right now, but hopefully I can get my hands on the other ones soon.



(Yes, please use the log and not me)

(She could devour my face whole!)

After the Tiger Kingdom, my driver decided to take me on a bit of a runaround, and instead of going back to town, we ended up at a snake farm. They had a whole bunch of cool snakes and birds, and also had some totally crazy snake trainers doing tricks with some of these snakes. One guy even managed to catch a snake with his mouth!!!