Hello dear readers!
Today I’ll write about our last day in Chiang Mai, when we visited the Wat Phra Singh temple, in the Old City. It’s near a noisy, busy road but the walled old part of the town has some beautiful little streets where you felt like in a rural village. It has been my favourite temple among the ones that I’ve seen in Thailand, because I just loved the atmosphere. It’s the kind of places you read about in novels and, even if there was a high school nearby and a busy road, too, it was still really quiet. I loved seeing the monks with their beautiful orange, traditional ropes walking among the gardens, studying, reading and praying in the temples. There were also some tables where you could speak with monks and ask them questions about life. I hope to give you a sense of that through the photos, even if I know it’s difficult.
You could buy incense and candles with a small offer.
After our visit to the temple we went for a lovely traditional Thai massage at Lila Thai Ex-Inmate Employment Center, they have got 8 (!!!) centres in Chiang Mai and we hadn’t even planned to have a massage but we left the temple and found it in front of us.
I had read about these ex-inmate run spas in the Lonely Planet. I believe this must be a good activity for women who’ve been in prison, as it gives them the opportunity to slowly start a new life and to have their own salaries. But what do I know about this, it must be such a difficult situation! The idea of opening the salons was of the former director of Chiang Mai Women’s Prison. Choosing which massage to do has been difficult because one was better than the other! I would have done all of the beauty treatments, as well.
After our massage we were very hungry. It was also so hot… We walked to a nice guesthouse with a restaurant (and a pool) where we had been for lunch on our first day, called Good morning Chiang Mai. As we appreciated the food, we went back!
After lunch we went back to the hotel to relax and rest a little bit, and to enjoy the pool. I was reading a very nice book. On our last night in Chiang Mai we had a lovely dinner in town, in a restaurant called Dash! (it was full and we had to wait 15 minutes). We had spring rolls and two Mai Tais. Our first, original Mai Tais. To be honest, as the prices from Grab taxis (it’s like Uber, we discovered this app in Bali) were so cheap, we weren’t even walking from the hotel into town anymore! It was so handy. I know, we are lazy people, but we were walking miles during the day.
Ok dear readers, I’m done with my storytelling about Chiang Mai. Next time we’ll fly to Cambodia, bear with me!
Camy x
Camy in Wonderworld 