January 28, 2014 Tuesday

Early my last morning, before breakfast, I took a last walk around the neighborhood, to a few of my close-by, favorite locations. After breakfast, it will be final packing, and hoping everything will fit.

First stop, Wat Chedi Luang. Notice on the sign it is spelled as one word. In the Thai language, there are no spaces in a sentence, so their natural tendency is to merge words together. Sometimes I have seen the name of the city spelled on a highway sign Chiang Mai as I would expect, then a short distance later, on another sign spelled Chiangmai, as it is on the sign to the left.

This is a secondary viharn at Wat Chedi Luang behind (to the west of) the large chedi, which is behind or to the west of the main, large viharn.

And here is a view of that large chedi. The name Wat Chedi Luang is translated: Wat is temple or temple grounds, Chedi is a pagoda, and Luang basically means REALLY BIG, so while Wat Chedi Luang is the name of one of the most important temples in northern Thailand, it translates to the temple with the REALLY big pagoda. And the chedi (pagoda) is REALLY big. It was the largest structure in Lanna (northern Thailand) for a few hundred years.

I walked down the street (my frequent route to Wild Rose Yoga) to Wat Jed Lin. In the entrance are these beautiful gongs. They have great low dignified tones. When I’m walking by, I stop in and use the soft hammer there to ring them. If a monk is nearby, they give me a smile.

Here I am ringing the largest gong for the last time. It is a great sound.

Back behind the secondary viharn (worship or prayer hall), Wat Jed Lin has their own little coffee shop/stand. A nicely done sign advertising Coffee Reborn, Arabica 100% – it almost looks a little too slick for a temple.

I walked down to the Monument to the Three Kings. The construction on the square in front of the monument continues. My guess is that it will be completed in a couple of months. They are probably hoping to get it finished before the hottest part of the year in April and May,and before the daily rain starts in June.

I just love the attitude of the Three Kings in this sculpture; they look proud and confident. These are the three kings who founded and laid out Chiang Mai in the late 1100s. King Mengrai in the center, King Ngam Muang of Phayao on the left, and King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai on the right.

After walking around, I returned to 3-Sis for breakfast, then checked e-mail and packed. Everything fit. I got a shower and checked out by 11:45.

My friend Aaron, an American writer/editor who has lived in Chiang Mai for the past 8 or more years met me for lunch. We walked down to the Monument to the Three Kings and down the street to the Khao Soi restaurant frequented by Thai people, with almost no tourists. We opted for less spicy chicken with rice today. Fine with me – eating heavily spicy food like Khao Soi before starting a long journey home is probably not the best idea.

After lunch, I said good bye to Aaron, and headed over to the Loi Kroh area and to Loi Kroh Massage for my final hot stone oil massage with Jang. It was as good as I have come to expect. Jang does a really nice job with those hot stones and her hands. She is very intuitive, and figures out where you need some extra work. After a few hot stone oil massages with Jang, my muscles are in decent shape. There is no question that the hot stone oil massages helped my back more than anything else.

I walked back to 3-Sis, easily in time to meet Linda at Tamarind Village for my last dinner in Chiang Mai. We made the short walk down Rachadamnoen Road Soi 5 to our favorite Italian restaurant, Boutique della Pasta.

We both love the bruscetta so much, we each had an order to ourselves. Mmmmmm! The tomatoes are fresh, ripe, and tasty, with just the right amount of garlic and just a little basil, and with just the right amount of a really nice-tasting olive oil. This is about the best bruscetta I have ever had, and every time at Boutique della Pasta, the bruscetta is the same and seemingly better then the previous time.

I had the tagliatelle carbonerra. An excellent dish with a little proscuitto. I have not had a dish at Boutique della Pasta I did not like, and all of the pasta is freshly made, so the decision was a mild challenge, but there was no wrong choice.

After dinner, we returned to Tamarind Village for a little desert. I had their Mango Sticky Rice with homemade coconut ice cream. A great way to end the evening, and a great way to end my winter in Chiang Mai.

Next: the journey home.