The Last Wat in Town: Wat Phra Singh

The last wat left in town was very close to my hotel

I got back in town in the early afternoon, which gave me to engage in some tourism-ing.

I had one last wat to visit within the old historic core of the city of Chiang Mai: Wat Phra Singh.  I knew it was a short walk from my hotel, but I didn't know how short it was until I google-mapped it.

The back entrance was only like 10 meters from my hotel.  So in through the back door I went.

Past the guard cat.

And this is the back side of the temple grounds.

Gold dome with elephants. Always a welcome feature in any wat anywhere.

Let's go in for a look-see:

There will be bigger chapels to come.

This has got to be the oldest building on the grounds of Wat Phra Singh.

I am saying this only because it looks like it must be.  And "oldest" usually means: can't go inside anymore.

Bells and gold spires:

Just the gold spires:

Embossed elephants.

In Chiang Mai -- and I am guessing this is true of all of Thailand -- a temple without elephants is like a Catholic Church without a Virgin Mary. Yes, it's technically possible.  There's no religious requirement to do so.  But why would such a thing exist?

The temple buildings are getting bigger as we move closer to the front.

This is not a real monk sitting in front of the emerald buddha:

Nor is this:

These are plastic or wax replicas of monks.  I am guessing monks who once were in residence here.

They are very life-like, which can be a bit disconcerting.

If you prefer an emerald buddha alone, I give you this:

And a more traditional buddha:

This is the main temple shrine within the temple complex.

You can tell it's the main one because, not only is it the biggest, it's got the most shoes outside.  Everyone -- even tourists of different faiths -- must remove his or her shoes before going into the temple building.  I should've worn my loafers on temple-touring days.

Inside.

You know the monk in this photo is for real and not a replica.

How?  He's using his cellphone.  I presume for prayer recitation.  Can't be any other reason.  Unless someone called to talk about an extended warranty.

The sun is really hot given that it is late afternoon.  Smart that the monk -- even if gold statuary form -- is shaded by a canopy.

And we've arrived at the front entrance:

Only a few side buildings left to check out.

Do you prefer your buddha portrait photography from the right?

Or from the left?

Regardless, that about exhausts all that Wat Phra Singh has to offer photographically.

Time to head to exits.  And after a brief respite, it will be time for supper.  What am I in the mood for?

I got it!  Thai food.  The Lookbua was rated very highly in the google reviews, so if it's good enough for the vast bulk of google reviewers, who am I to argue?

The crowd was all-tourist, but all-tourist from all sorts of corners of the globe.  All sorts of corners of the Eurasian landmass to be precise.  I didn't hear any American accents among the crowds, although I did hear European languages and Brit accents.

But the ethnographic make-up of the patrons is not important.  The food is.  How was the food?

I started with the salmon spring rolls and a large Singha (Thai) beer, which was larger than I anticipated it would be.  Good thing I was thirsty.  Which I mean in the literal sense.  Not a euphemism for "I want to drink lots of alcohol and get blotto-drunk."

For my main course, first Thai food dinner in Thailand, so I went with the pad thai.

And the verdict?  I know my palate could never take full-bore Thai spiciness, so I am OK with the restaurant dialing the heat down for my white-boy palate, but they dialed it down way too far.  They dialed it down to a level of spicy I would call:  Upper Midwest.  Good quality ingredients, yes.  Flavor?  No.  Given a choice between this blanded-down pad thai and the spicy baby octopus dish I had in Korea, which was so spicy-hot I had to have a rice chaser in between every bite, even my aging palate would pick what was behind Door #2.