James the Intrepid Pilgrim

January 13, 2016 Wat Srisupan After mid-morning yoga at Wild Rose this morning, Tom (my friend from Australia whom I met at Wild Rose) and I decided to walk down to Wat Srisuphan, known as the Silver Temple.Tom had not been there, but is staying very close by. I did not have my camera, but have many pictures from past visits to Wat Srisuphan. Wat Srisuphan is a temple directly south of the old city, […]

January 11, 2016 Hiking up to Wat Palad After the almost daily 10 AM yoga class at Wild Rose Yoga, my new friend Tom from Australia and I were planning to walk through the forest/jungle to Wat Palad. This is a temple to which few tourists go, although daily hundreds of tourists go by the entrance on the main road as their cars, trucks, or busses climb up the mountain to Wat Phra That Doi […]

January 9, 2016 A Walk to the Wat Palad Trailhead I have slipped into a pattern of sorts. Every other day, I make a long walk, around the wall, out to Wat Suan Dok, over to Wat Kate Karam, etc. And basically every day I am doing yoga with a variety of teachers at Wild Rose Yoga. All have something to offer, and they are all interesting in their approach. And in the afternoon, I […]

January 7, 2016 Wat Kate Karam Just a little further down the road (sometimes a busy road without sidewalks) is Wat Kate, or more correctly, Wat Kate Karam. On the sign it is spelled Wat Ket, and sometimes spelled Wat Gate. This is a difficult translation; the correct sound is in between the “guh” of a “g” and the “kuh” or a “k”. I’m not sure how to make that sound, and the translators struggle, […]

January 7, 2016 Wat Kate Karam I made a long walk on Thursday (17.000 steps according to my FitBit). And it was a good day. My first idea was to walk south the Chiang Mai Gate and then all the way around the wall / moat again. Wat Fon Soi Wat Fon Soi is a minor temple I pass when going to Chiang Mai Gate (south from 3-Sis). In the past year, much remodeling has […]

January 5, 2016 Walking to Wat Suan Dok Today I am going to increase the walk a bit. One circuit of the wall / moat is about 6 km or 4 miles, as the wall is close to square and about 1.5 km on each side. Today I went south to Chiang Mai gate, then counter-clockwise around Katam Corner, north past Tha Phae Gate, around Si Phum Corner at the northeast, across the northern wall […]

January 3, 2016 Walking around the Wall Again I am slipping into a pattern, not so bad. I do a morning meditation at the foot of the chedi across the street at Wat Chedi Luang, then have breakfast, check online to see that things are all right with the systems I manage, either go to a morning yoga class or walk around, and then go to an evening yoga class if I did not in […]

January 2, 2016 Early Morning at Wat Chedi Luang My pattern in past visits is to go to Way Chedi Luang in the early morning for a morning meditation in the shadow of the large chedi (pagoda). The mornings are cool, and because traffic and tourists are not yet in full force, it seems very peaceful. Being early (about 6:30 AM), the doors of the new pedestrian entrance are closed, and I enter through the […]

January 1, 2016 First Walk Around the Wall Here is is, a new year! Happy New Year, 2016! For the first day back in Chiang Mai, I am going to walk the entire circumference of the wall, about 6 km (4 miles). Chiang Mai has a long history. The word “Chiang” is seen in the names of several cities in northern Thailand. In the modern language, “Chiang” essentially means “city” much like in the U.S. […]

December 31, 2015 Arrival Back in Chiang Mai After breakfast and packing, I took the BTS skytrain from the Chit Lom stop outside the hotel to the Paya Thai stop (for a whopping 25 THB, or 75 cents), then after a short wait, took the Airport Rail Link from Paya Thai to Suvarnabhumi Airport (aka BKK) for 45 THB ($1.40), about 40 km or 25 miles. In less than an hour after walking out of […]