December 21, 2022 Wednesday
Strength Training with PT Ning at O2 Gym

As I had described two posts ago, I started adding weight strength training to my fitness regimen that primarily been walking, cycling, and yoga. Adding strength training has balanced my overall fitness, and I wanted to continue this while in Chiang Mai. I met with PT Ning (Personal Trainer) on Monday, and today was the first workout.

Here is the O2 Gym sign, on Kamphaengdin Road (where I have explored looking for remains of the second, earthen and clay wall), about a 20-25 minute walk for me from The 3-Sis.

Good workout session. The 25-minute walk was a good warmup, then pushups on the bench, then on with the routine Ning had put together based on what my trainer at home had sent me. Ning worked me – pushed me, but was very attentive to my form in every exercise, and was aware of my limits. Ning has been a personal trainer for ten years, and really knows the muscles and how best to exercise specific muscles or muscle groups. And there were many of the same reminders I hear at home: shoulders down, relax this muscle or that part of the body, etc. After just the one session today, I can tell this is good for me, and it is a good augmentation to what I have been doing at home. The session was fun, espeially working around my limited Thai and her pretty good English with some limitations.

Ning’s English was especially challenged when trying to describe her long-time American boyfriend’s job and what he does – something about shipping or at being at sea. [I met Patrick a few days later – he is the captain of a ship that does undersea explorations for the U.S. Navy. And from his not giving much detail, I suspect much of what they do is classified.]

Here is Ning and me near the end of the workout. I did not take general, overview pictures of the gym becasue of the good number of people there.

Not sure I look particularly fit in the photo, but I do feel good – it was a good session, both physically and mentally.

December 22, 2022 Thursday
Yoga, Coffee, First of Two Temples

After an early (8 AM) yoga session with Gernot, I cleaned up and headed down to JAI Cafe recommended by John (husband of Rose, owner of Wild Rose Yoga) for coffee and to hang out while working for a couple of hours. John said he sometimes spends almost all day at JAI, so he knows it is all right to spend some time there. Walked down Chang Moi Road, the very same road that leads to Warorot Market and the Flower Market which I posted about very recently. JAI is a good place to get some work done while enjoying very good coffee. After being At JAI for close to two hours, I headed out to explore a bit.

I was interested in seeing temples on the east side of the old city that would have been outside the city walls, but inside the Kamphaengdin earth/clay second wall. Quite close to where JAI is on Chang Moi Road and definitely inside the Kamphaengdin, is what I learned while researching, a very special Burmese temple, Wat Nong Kham which serves the Pa-O community in Chiang Mai. The Pa-O people are the seventh largest ethnic group in Burma, and live mostly in the Shan State bordering Thailand. Being very different from the other Thai Buddhist temples Wat Nonh Kham is of great interest to the temple aficionado.

Here is the entrance to Wat Nonh Kham:

The temple buildings are constructed according to their own local traditions and bear their own distinctive artistic style. They have some similarities with the Burmese-Shan temples in Chiang Mai including Wat Pa Pao and Wat Sai Moon Myanmar which I will explore before I leave Chiang Mai. Near the entrance is a plaque the describes a bit of the history of Wat Nong Kham. It says title deed is dated 1584 but that the main buildings date from 1837 when the temple was established. The founders of the temple were the both the Lanna and the Pa-O people, and contruction was funded by selling seven elephants.

Here is the historic and more formal entrance, now gated. One must walk into the temple grounds to the left.

Since I had not researched the temple before visiting, I was not clear about what I was seeing. I was viewing what I saw through the lense of a typical Lanna style Buddhist temple. There some differences, I would learn. One major example is this building, which appears to be an office building or school. It turns out that this is the viharn (worship or assembly hall) in this type of temple. Had I known this, I would have gone inside it were open.

Another confusing aspect of this viharn is that the doors or front of the building are facing south. In almost all Buddhist temples, the viharn doors open to the east to greet the rising sun. To the left of where I stood to take the picture of the viharn is the chedi. In a typical temple, this would be on the west end, or back of the viharn, with the doors of the viharn opening to the east.

As I said, I did not really know what I was viewing at this temple. I looked for a familiar viharn, and found none. There was one building for which Icould not locate a means to get to the side where I thought the entrance would be. I did see this pavilion in the courtyard area in front of what I now know is the viharn.

I made my way from Chang Moi Road to Thaphae Road to check out the temple right about where the gate in the Kamphaengdin earthen & clay wall would have been.

Next: Temples on return from JAI Cafe 2: Wat Buppharam