New Years in Chiang Mai

HAPPY NEW YEAR...A few hours drive south from Chiang Rai and I was again in one of my favorite Thailand cities, Chiang Mai, the perfect place to celebrate the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. Marcia, a friend from Wisconsin was in Lao and decided to join me. We went to the Night Safari where we saw white tigers and a fabulous water show.

                    

 The next day we spent hours at the Thai Royal Flower Show, with so much to see it was overwhelming, and pictures hardly do it justice.

At the floral exhibit I bought a beautiful parchment paper hand painted parasol with a Dragon as 2012 is the Chinese year of the Dragon, and also my birth sign. New Years Eve we found the famous Night Market where streets are blocked off and vendors sell their unique handicrafts. My prize this time was a small hand-hewn wooden mortar and pestle to crush garlic and chilies for Thai cuisine. After a yummy Pad-Thai dinner we entered into the Chiang Mai tradition of sending gas lighted lanterns into the sky and watched fireworks at midnight. 

 On New Years Day Carrie met us and we all took a Thai Batik painting class. Learning to draw lines with hot wax proved a bit challenging, however after lunch the second one seemed a bit easier. Adding color to my Goddess was the fun part. After class with two completed batiks each, we journeyed to the Sunday Walking Street Market to look, eat and shop!

                   What else would three blonds in Thailand do???

Chiang Rai White Temple

Leaving India on a late night flight gave me an added bonus of seeing the sunrise over the Bangkok airstrip as I landed and took off again for Northern Thailand. Checking off another thing I have wanted to do, took me to Chiang Rai to see its top tourist attraction, Wat Rong Khun.

Traveling along the peaceful mountain road we stopped to enjoy the “highest hot-spring” in Thailand, then do a bit of silver shopping, and see an incredible unfinished resort styled after Cambodian Temples.
 

 

Arriving at Wat Rong Khun, after a delicious lunch beside the river, left me awe struck just to stand and behold its sheer magnificence glistening brilliant white against the cobalt sky. Chalermchai Kositpipat is the world renowned Thai artist who has spent his own money to build the exquisite and spectacular white temple. 

He designed and built the Wat to make merits and present contemporary Buddhist art with a unique style all his own. Chalermchai has used the white color of the ornate architecture to represent the Buddha’s purity, the glittering mirrors to symbolize the Buddha’s dharma that teaches man to observe his own mind and reflect loving kindness toward humankind.

 After twelve years the complex is still not finished as the artist continues to add to it and paint interior murals. There is even a “golden toilet” building. .

Chalermchai has said, “Money and possessions are insignificant. They are not mine but only make-beliefs. Merits belong to me; there fore, money is of no value to me. Money is valuable only as a way to make merit for further journey of the soul.”

 

 To visit Wat Rong Khun is free and has already been experienced by over five million people. Chalermchai Kositpipat believes work will continue on after his life and someday the “white temple” will become a national art treasure. I think it already is!

INDIA at Christmas

Thankfully I received my passport at the airport with my visa to enter India just a few hours before meeting my Thai Yoga teacher for our scheduled flight. Leaving Thailand from the Bangkok airport on Christmas Eve seemed strange as the normal hustle and bustle of Christmas was somehow lacking… no travelers with big bags of Christmas gifts, but many passengers going to India had BIG flat-screen TV’s that they were checking onto the flight to Kolkata (Calcutta). After a short two hours in the air I was in India for my first time.

A blue Christmas tree welcomed us at the hotel but the rest was not so good as the room was exceptionally tiny and the bathroom very dirty with no hot water, so on Christmas morning we transferred to another, more expensive ($200.00 US) but clean hotel.

So much for India being inexpensive.

There are clearly two classes… poor and rich! Even a contrast in lobby Christmas trees. However I was surprised to see Christmas everywhere. Loud hawking vendors were selling red Santa hats in the middle of the streets and frantic people were buying and wearing them. 
Huge lighted displays of holiday symbols; Christmas trees, Santa, snowmen, carolers, candles and over the top decorations with multitudes of lights covered block after block. The honking horns, screaming cabbies, overcrowded streets and deafening traffic noise felt like New York City on steroids.
 

 Doing the tourist thing, we visited the Indian Museum, an old-fashioned museum with many thousand year old Hindi sculptures and an incredible overview of India’s history. We paid a small fee to enter and another fee if you wanted to take photos. I enjoyed seeing the local people in their brilliantly colored Indian saris almost as much as the varied exhibits.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the Marble Palace. Built in 1834 by Raja Rajendra Mullick, over 126 different kinds of Italian marble in the palace created an extravagant backdrop to a most extensive and eclectic collection of art. As a compulsive and avid collector of objects d’art from all over the world his trust stipulates that it will be a FREE museum for visitors to enjoy the palatial 19^th century mansion. The palace houses an exquisite art gallery and museum with statues, paintings, bronzes, clocks, and unusual artifacts. Magnificent floor to ceiling Belgian mirrors with carved gilded frames reflected enormous cut crystal chandeliers in the dining hall. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos as descendents still live in part of the palace. So the Raja clearly enjoyed his collecting mania, spending millions, yet it continues to bring delight to others. Most impressive to me was that his trust still feeds over 600 poor people on the front lawn daily.  What a legacy!

Another kind of legacy is that of Mother Theresa who tended to the sick and poor in the streets of Calcutta. I was surprised when our driver stopped and said, "you need to go see the Mother House." Walking down a tiny dirty alley we had no idea what to expect, except our driver had been right about the Marble Palace, so we followed his advice. After a short distance a tiny old gray cement building appeared and it turned out to be the home and final resting place of Mother Theresa. Her tomb is in one room and another room chronicles her amazing life dedicated to helping others. Upstairs was her simple camp cot, well worn sandals and enamel dinner bowl, a moving reflection of her life. No wonder it is ranked #1 attraction in Kolkata.

They call this Temple the mini Taj Mahal

Sending Love, Peace, and Blessings from India