We were in Chiang Mai at the beginning of the Songkran festival. Songkran is Thai New Year and this year the festival ran from April 12 to 15. Songkran day was April 13 and had we known about Songkran when we booked our trip we would have scheduled it differently and not made New Year's day a travel day.
The place to be during Songkran is Chiang Mai. As we learned more about what happens we would have enjoyed staying another day. April is the hottest month in Chiang Mai (temperature was 40+C with no humidity) and so part of the fun that takes place with Songkran is that people throw water at each other and the afternoon/early evening turns into one big water fight. It's a big deal there and you can see super soaker water guns like you've never seen being sold everywhere. People also drive around the city with large buckets of water in their pick ups and throw water at unsuspecting pedestrians (happened a couple times). It's all in good fun and you dry off eventually in the sun. Word of caution- don't wear light colors. The general water fight started on the 12th. That evening the street beside our hotel turned into a market. There was even a stage that was built up for entertainment and then taken down during the day and then built again the next evening. It was really neat participating in the events.
We stayed at the Parasol Inn, a small hotel centrally situated in the city centre. It was a great place to stay, the staff were all so friendly. There's were two Wats beside our hotel. Wat Chedi Luang is pictured above (it was founded in 1401). The other was Wat Pan Tao and it appeared to be undergoing restoration or a renovation. We could see this one from our bathroom windows. I read that Chiang Mai has over 300 Buddhist temples. I can attest that we saw a lot of Wats so I don't doubt that number.
We spent an afternoon just walking around the city centre to get a taste of what Chiang Mai is like. It was a very hot afternoon so we were thankful the water throwing had begun. There is a cultural centre where we spent some time learning more about the city. Before our walking tour though we took advantage of one of the many massage places and paid 300 Baht each for a 1.5 hour foot, back, shoulder, neck and head massage. It felt really good especially since the day before we were taking care of our elephants. The city centre is very quaint with lots of old buildings. The centre has a good vibe to it and we felt very safe wherever we went.
We toured through Wat Phra Sing just to see what a Wat is. The grounds for this one are quite large and there are multiple buildings that have various functions. The temple building was quite spectacular and there were many people coming in to give their offerings to the Buddha for Songkran. We did not linger long so to be respectful of the people and the monks. One thing that I enjoyed seeing on the grounds were numerous signs that had very insightful and philosophical sayings on them.
Right next to our hotel was a juice bar called Juice Box and it's here that I fell in love with mango juice. Mango juice here, I've discovered, is made from freshly squeezed mangos...it's like drinking a mango. It's absolutely to die for....mango juice or mango shake, either works and it's all I've been drinking. The food has been extremely good regardless of which restaurant we've gone to and the meals are very affordable. We are not going hungry here.
Next up we are heading to Koh Samui for some beach time.
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