Monday 15 January 2018
Walking to the Flower Market and Wat Kate Karam

My typical routine each morning is to go to Wat Chedi Luang for my morning meditation, have breakfast, then go to yoga at Wild Rose Yoga. After yoga today, I decided to make the walk to Wat Kate Karam over the new walking bridge from the flower market. Most of the walk is outside the old city, or as locals would say, “outside the moat.” I have made this walk many times, but not yet this year.

The flower market is right by Warorot Market, Kad Luang in Thai…”Kad” means market or shopping center, and “Luang” means really big, and Warorot Market is really big, and really confusing. I seldom spend any time at Warorot because there is not much English spoken there as it is a local market, and it is very, very confusing. If you know how to ask in Thai, I suspect you can find almost anything at Warorot Market. On the way down the road to Warorot, I pass this basket shop I have seen many times.

There are many, many types of baskets here and many things made of wicker or basket material. The photo shows only a small part of the shop.

Then, just a little further is this store where they sell sewing machines, including new foot-powered Singer sewing machines. I’m told that the foot-powered machined give more control and thus are liked by people doing certain types of sewing.

The actual machines look more sophisticated. The very simple machines are also on display here. When I first saw these, I thought they must be old stock, but it is obvious now that these are new stock and are being sold.

The Flower Market

Finally I arrive at the flower market area, just past Warorot Market. This is not as large as the flower market in Bangkok, and not inside, but is along a main road and cars or vans are constantly stopping and getting flowers. Here is a sample of some of the flowers.

I did not get a photo of any of the roses, not sure why, but there are many of almost every flower you can think of here.

I crossed the street, and saw the new walking bridge. This was opened almost two years ago after the older bridge had been damaged in a flood in 2005. The government took down the damaged bridge because it was unstable and unsafe, and promised to build a replacement. Unfortunately, that replacement took almost 10 years before it was completed. It is much, much stronger than the previous bridge.

Wat Kate Karam

Wat Kate Karam is one of my favorite temples. When the bridge was gone, it was more difficult to get to, having to walk across the highway bridge and then down a busy street with inconsistent sidewalks. Walking across the new walking bridge, I can see the chedi from Wat Kate Karam directly in front of me.

And very quickly, just over the bridge, I am at Wat Kate Karam.

Wat Kate Karam is a challenge for the translators. On the temple grounds, there are a few signs with the temple name in Thai and English. One (above) has Wat Ket Karam, another has Wat Kate Karam, and another Wat Gate. The reason for the difference in the English spelling is that the sound in Thai does not translate to English well. In the Thai alphabet (Thai has an alphabet, they are not pictograms like Japanese and Chinese), there are 44 consonants, 12 vowels, and 8 diacritical marks that can change the vowels (like the mark at the top of the first letter in the picture above). The sound is not exactly the “kuh” in Kate or the “guh” in Gate, it is a sound that is in between those two sounds, and is problematic to translate accurately.

[There are many examples of this challenge, for example, the word for the number 8 is often written in English as “bhet” or “phet”, but it is not really “buh” or “puh”, it is in between, and I do not know how to make that sound properly.]

Here are two views of the main viharn (worship hall) at Wat Kate:

Back of main viharn at Wat Kate

Front of main viharn at Wat Kate

There is also a museum on the temple grounds. It was closed today, and from what I saw, it appears that it may not have been open recently – it almost looks as if it might be closed for remodeling.

Here are two other secondary viharn at Wat Kate. The first one might be a library of some kind. I say this because of the style of the animals flanking the red doors. They are called a “mom” (pronounced “moam”), and I believe I read that they guard the entrance to a library.

The second appears to be a small ubosot, or ordination hall. Perhaps not, though, as ubosots are seldom open, and this structure has open sides.

Wat Kate Karam remains a favorite of mine, although I have more than a few favorite temples. Wat Kate is showing its age, and is in need of some cleanup and/or renovation.

I took a different, longer route back to See You Soon, walking along the river and over the Iron Bridge. It was hot and humid, and starting to get dark, ending another good day in Chiang Mai.

Next: Hiking up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep