It's the alley on the right, not "further right" o(n_n)o It's the lawn outside this hotel. These two have such chubby faces o(n_n)o They are the second sign of Ningman Road. As long as you see them, Ningman Road is just around the corner! (The big banyan tree is at the end of Ningman Road, it's the first sign) The sign girl of an ice cream shop, isn't she cute?
Yunluo wanted to buy one when he saw it! The website is so cool! But this area should be more beautiful during the day, because these low houses are covered with vines and flowers... a very cute low earth wall, I don’t know if the owner did it on purpose or it was originally here and it was made up because it was ugly!
The red love window, these hearts, red lips and small bonsai are super cute! I wonder how the juice tastes o(n_n)o The food on Chinatown on New Year's Eve, these stir-fries are so diverse, almost all the stir-fried noodles that Yunluo and An Chuyu met in Asia, all of them are there.
It looks so delicious, and I want to have some every time. However, I didn’t dare to do it for four days because I was afraid of not being able to finish it and wasting it... I don’t know what this green thing is, it looks a bit like the茭白 leaves of Yunluo and An Chuyu, and it has been roasted on charcoal fire... Five-color mango sticky rice!
Have you ever thought that Chiang Mai also has five-color rice? Tempting white-cut chicken. Thai people don't seem to eat large livestock such as pork, beef and mutton, but there are many stalls selling chicken in the market! Various fried rice. Yunluo has always wondered why there are so many seafood in their various rice dishes. There are also a lot of squid and fresh shrimp in the pineapple rice.
Everything was very fresh. There were so many seafoods mixed in everywhere, like dried shrimps and seaweed, but Chiang Mai is a mountainous area without a sea. Maybe transportation is really convenient nowadays... To be honest, even at the barbecue stalls at the beach, Yunluo didn't see so many varieties of grilled squids. It was really varied...
I don't know what this thing is, it seems to be very troublesome to make it. It's also troublesome to eat! Yunluo and An Chuyu have never seen many foods in Chinatown, but it has all the ones they have seen... all kinds of sushi, a lot of varieties, it looks no worse than Japanese sushi. My little brother has already started o(n_n)o.
This pancake is very delicious, crispy and sweet, and looks very similar to the pancakes in my hometown. But it is topped with cocoa and condensed milk. The roasted pigeon is tempting in color and aroma. People in Chiang Mai are very particular about the art of display when doing business. As long as the conditions are right, the products will be displayed in a pleasing way!
It was the strawberry season, and the cups of peeled strawberries looked delicious. However, Yunluo and An Chuyu had strawberry smoothies, which were quite sweet and refreshing. The very fashionable aunt attracted Yunluo's attention because of her outfit, so Yunluo didn't pay attention to the things they were buying and selling...
It seems to be some lettuce salad bar, all these bottles and jars are condiments. See? Their food will be put in transparent plastic bags for you, even the hot soup, unless you ask for a foam bowl... In fact, in addition to Chinatown, there are many places in the old city that have such large open-air food gatherings.
But they are in some spacious squares, and there will be some night markets and performances with colorful lights next to the food court. There is a street dance performance in this place, and people are drinking beer and eating while interacting enthusiastically with the dancers on the stage o(n_n)o Yunluo took a photo of the singer from the Dada car, with a simple stage.
Several young singers who seemed to be entertaining themselves... Chiang Mai's night tempted us to go out every night. When we set out, I brought a set of swimsuits for each person, but in the end, we didn't even visit the swimming pool of this hotel once. What a waste of energy! Hey, in fact, the night view of this hotel lobby is also very good o(n_n)o.
What do you think? These are the night views of Chiang Mai in winter! (All taken with my phone. I really don’t want to carry a camera when I go out for a stroll like this…)
Those temples Chiang Mai would be a waste if it didn't have these temples everywhere. Yunluo personally thinks Chiang Mai is quite similar to Dali, where Yunluo and An first met. Both have warm winters like spring, many lively festivals with strong ethnic characteristics, and a complete ancient city is treasured in the city.
People in the ancient city also like to plant many beautiful flowers in the streets and courtyards. Because of the climate, Chiang Mai may have more and brighter flowers, but Dali has Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, and the beautiful Shangguan flowers and Xiaguan wind... If Chiang Mai did not have so many brilliant and beautiful temples with golden light.
The Dali that Yunluo and An first encountered was more distinctive and more flavorful than this one! But Chiang Mai has these temples. They stand in the streets and alleys inside and outside the ancient city, sometimes crowded together, and sometimes sparsely distributed in various streets and directions of the city. Every street and every corner of the ancient city will have temples of different sizes, old and new.
Their walls and tiles are all gilded, shining brightly, and their density is comparable to the church every ten steps in Istanbul, Turkey. Sometimes there are two temples on the left and right sides of a street, making it difficult to tell whether they are one or unrelated. However, each temple has one or two representative buildings with its own unique style.
So there is no need to worry about confusing them. Yunluo was really happy that on the morning of the second day of the Chinese New Year, he finally had the courage to go down alone to visit them in the clear sunrise. How beautiful! These Thai temples were shining with golden light under the bright red sun!
They are undoubtedly the soul of Chiang Mai and the most attractive part of Chiang Mai! With them, even if Dali has a vast and blue side facing the sea, it can only be ranked behind Yunluo's Chiang Mai... On this day, Yunluo went out to greet the rising sun, hailed a taxi and rushed to the largest Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai - Wat Phra Singh in the cool morning light.
It stayed there quietly and majestically, welcoming Yunluo with a pair of majestic white lions under the azure blue sky. The sun had just risen and it was still early. There were few people in the temple, but Yunluo jumped off the rickshaw and became excited. Because at that time, Wat Phra Singh presented Yunluo with a magical scene.
The entire front of the hall was decorated with gilded reliefs, and the early morning sun shone with small golden suns. They were like shining golden dragon beads, making the hall's curtains and its pure red roof inlaid with many wide golden corners shine into a dazzling and magnificent scene, reflecting the clear blue sky behind it.
Yun Luo's heart was filled with endless surprise! How could there be such a magnificent temple like the heaven? Yun Luo looked at it stupidly, and turned around the huge temple from east to west and north to south. The morning sun was rapidly changing its light position, and the orange roofs and golden walls illuminated by it also changed their brilliance with the moment.
Yunluo's eyes and hands began to dance non-stop. After coming to Chiang Mai for so many days, this was the day Yunluo could finally enjoy taking photos! It was so great to be able to take beautiful photos in the early morning. Yunluo felt that his heart was blooming with joy. He said foolishly, "This time, I finally made up for the hard work of carrying a heavy camera to Chiang Mai!"
Haha, in the following time, Yunluo measured every corner of the ancient city with his footsteps, and every temple he encountered was condensed into beautiful scenes by Yunluo's camera. Yunluo walked non-stop for more than seven hours and just connected them into a circle, starting from Wat Phra Singh at 7 o'clock and ending with a grand parade at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
I was attracted back to Wat Phra Singh. I had walked so many temples without realizing it. It was a great experience to visit all the temples in Chiang Mai. I admired all the famous temples, and I also visited many temples hidden in the alleys, except for the last few temples where the light was too strong near noon and was not ideal.
Yunluo was filled with joy at the pictures he had captured. The rich and luxurious beauty of Chiang Mai temples is undoubtedly the king of Buddhist temples. The diversity of their architecture made Yunluo feel deeply moved... Take the pagodas for example, many temples have their own characteristics. The square pagoda of Wat Chedi Luang is tall and majestic.
The majestic yellow-brown body is both simple and majestic. Although its towering top has collapsed and the gray-black elephant sculptures in the middle are incomplete, the four pairs of stone statues resembling "five-headed dragons" at the base of the pagoda are of peculiar shape, exquisite craftsmanship, and domineering power that are amazing. This large pagoda is a real large pagoda.
Walking around it is like walking around a building. The pagoda in Wat Chiang Man, which is carried by 15 baby elephants, is small and exquisite. It has a beautiful golden top and 15 black and broken elephant sculptures right below it. Each of them has a different expression and is very lifelike, yet extremely cute.
Quietly hidden behind the majestic golden-red Great Buddha Hall, accompanied by a delicate and beautiful golden-red Small Buddha Hall, the meditation pagoda of Wumeng Temple is very unique in that it uses small orange-yellow bricks. Its slightly damaged, simple and unique appearance can indeed remind people of the meditation of a great monk.
The Doi Suthep Pagoda, known as the fairyland of Suthep Mountain, is a 20-meter-high golden pagoda. Its body is completely covered with a gold-plated copper plate. When the sun shines on it, it is truly a golden light that is too dazzling to look directly at. There is also a pure gold pagoda in an unknown temple in a small alley near Wat Phra Singh.
It stands tall in the backyard of the main hall. It is surrounded by a circle of small golden pagodas. Some pagodas are traditional and simple lime white, while others are inlaid with bright yellow, red, blue and green gemstones. Some are crystal white, while others are so white, gray and black that you can't tell which one is their true color.
The Pagoda Forest at Wat Song Dok, praised by photographers as a beautiful sunset scene, is a white mausoleum headed by a large bell-shaped pagoda in pure gold. The gradually setting red light of the setting sun flashes on them in pieces and pieces. These snow-white pagodas of various shapes and sizes seem to have the mysterious beating of ethereal souls.
The pink is so bright that it makes the snow-white tower bodies look like a dream, and finally the magnificent black silhouette makes the fantasy beautiful to the extreme... Although the largest Wat Phra Singh has no pagodas with strange shapes as its symbol, its halls with flying eaves, pointed top floors and stacked mists are extremely gorgeous.
There is a pair of majestic white lions with their heads raised high at the gate, a fan-holding monk standing under a golden canopy at the main entrance, a small, exquisite, symmetrical and delicate pointed-roof Buddhist temple, and gold wall decorations with pure gold reliefs on the entire wall. And there is a building on the right hand side that is as magnificent as our Forbidden City.
The reliefs of Bodhisattvas on the apricot-yellow base are arranged one after another beside the red doors. The combination of the red walls and the brown-gray roofs on the upper floors makes this temple, enveloped in the red light of the morning sun, as bright and moving as a queen in a phoenix crown and a red robe! And there is also the beautiful back garden surrounding the pagoda.
If you look at the front and back yards separately, the back yard of Wat Phra Singh is just like a royal cemetery. There are not only bronze statues of princes, but also pavilions and towers in the deep courtyards, quiet lawns, and long green paths in the woods. Occasionally, one or two monks in orange robes leisurely pass by here, which makes you feel the depth of time...
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
Wat Pan Tao is a temple whose entire hall is built entirely of wood. Its simple and nostalgic color is set off by a row of densely fluttering yellow flags. It is the only temple in Chiang Mai that is not associated with the adjectives of brilliance and splendor. However, its eye-catching highlights are no less than those of several other famous temples.
There is no need to say much about the majestic palace built entirely of teak. Although its color is a uniform and simple chestnut brown, the gabled roofs that soar high into the deep blue sky are arranged in layers in an orderly manner. The peacock above the main entrance, which is decorated with colorful gems, is so exquisite and gorgeous that it is beyond words.
There is also a porch in front of them, which is close to the street and made of the most beautiful and warm vermilion stone. The pointed shape is like a burning torch, and each part is carved with intricate and exquisite patterns that make people want to look at it for a long time and not want to leave. Of course, the most dazzling thing is the red monk's house behind them and the colorful flowers flowing in front of it like a river of flowers.
A small flower garden on the ground... The large and small halls of Wat Chiang Man, the temple where the city was built, are of two completely different styles. The large Buddha hall at the main entrance has traditional formal colors and an appearance of the queen in a gorgeous dress, but the small Buddha hall on its right hand side has pink walls and pink tiles with a soft and charming tone that presents a bright spring scene.
Their courtyards are small, exquisite, peaceful and tranquil, with tall coconut trees and fiery red flame trees as eye-catching backdrops, and all kinds of blooming flowers clustered around them. There are green lawns, scattered frangipani flowers, and cooing pigeons walking gracefully on the side. There are long chairs placed everywhere under the shade, making it a very suitable temple for elegant meditation.
No wonder the king who built the temple said he wanted to live here when he got old... The various halls of Wat Chedi Luang are a mix of styles: the main gate is a white, towering gate with fairies and five-headed dragons, inlaid with many red, blue, green gems and exquisite gold floral decorations. The largest hall in the temple has the most traditional triangular red roof.
The walls are decorated with gold and curtains. However, the buildings surrounding it and the majestic pagoda are in black and white European style. The solemnity of black and white is vividly integrated with the gorgeous triangular spires. The pretty Thai eaves and the dazzling white pointed porch stand side by side. The three-story sloping roof of the big yellow building is majestically next to the exquisite small black temple.
Ling Yunluo couldn't tell whether he was facing a small church or a Thai temple... Some temples had pink, red and green eaves and tiles on the main hall, while some halls had black, white and gold walls. They were different in color and shape, and the roofs were sometimes herringbone and sometimes layered.
In addition to the large structure, the mythical beasts in front of each temple are also different. Some of them are ancient and clumsy stone lions and leopards. Some are gorgeous and strange long dragons with dragon heads spewing dragon heads, and some are various incarnations of dragon brothers... Really. The distance between temples is sometimes indistinguishable.
The eyes can distinguish them clearly by the difference in their architectural styles! In fact, it is really impossible to describe the differences in the characteristics of these temples. Many people are not very interested in temples because in our country, apart from Tibetan temples, which are also very distinctive, Buddhist buildings in other regions are mostly similar.
There are many differences between the Bodhisattvas in the temples, but the pavilions and towers in the temples rarely have very distinct differences. But these in Thailand are not like this. Rather than saying they are temples, they are more like a kind of architectural creativity. These temples in Thailand are all built by ordinary people on their own initiative, and their scale is not very large.
Many small temples in the streets and alleys have only a few monks. There are only one or two or three temples standing, and many of them are almost mixed with the surrounding residential houses. But no matter how small, how dense, or how crowded they are, they all have their own distinctive characteristics. For example, the big temple in the alley near Wat Phra Singh.
A row of colorful and beautiful small Buddhas squat on its outer wall. Opposite them, two small temples are symmetrical in red and green. The outer walls inlaid with colorful glass and colored stones are luxurious and eye-catching. In the distance, the Buddha shrine that blends into the fields is particularly tall and almost like a high observation tower...
I feel that the architecture of these Thai temples is very similar to the garden design of the ancient courtyard that Yunluo and An Chuyu met. Each one is as diverse as possible! After five or six hours of non-stop travel and seeing many temples, Yunluo did not become aesthetically fatigued because of fatigue. This is of course due to the great contribution of Chiang Mai's flowers and plants.
But the flowers and plants that can make people forget their fatigue during the Qingming Festival are mostly found in major temples, and are part of the temples. Therefore, Yunluo's enjoyable photo-taking and sightseeing on this day were really due to these temples. These temples in Chiang Mai are Yunluo's biggest gain on this trip! (To be continued...)