Wats, River & Museum

Thursday 31st May 2007 Wats, River & Museum

Today was our first full day in the Northern City of Museum and we spent the day going around many of the sites orientating ourselves so that we could start to find ideas for our projects that we will be doing. The day started at 9:30AM (they gave us a bit of a lie in because we were all so tired from the train).

First of all we made our way to Wiang Kumhn Complex. This is an ancient site that is spread over quite a wide area. We looked at many different wats (temples are called wats), some of which date back to the thirteenth century and considered some of the geographical issues that applied at the places, e.g. Who owns the land and what effect does the constant stream of visitors have on the locals. The origins of the modern city of Chiang Mai are found in this area and they are still uncovering new sites to this day.

After lunch we made our way to a site along the Ping River. The Ping River is a tributary of the Chao Phraya River which runs through Bangkok and talked about some Physical Geography issues including the effects of the almost annual flooding on the area. After this we went to one more Wat – Wat Ku Padem, which has famous sites including a wax monk (see below). After this we spent a couple of hours in the interesting Chiang Mai Museum, where we learned more about the history of Chiang Mai.

By this time it was after 4PM and we headed back to the hostel. It was also rainy, so some of us decided to patronise the Guesthouse's Kitchen instead of venturing out to get food. I had a delicious Pad Thai for only 25baht (about 40pence), yum yum. After Dinner we then ventured out to Central Shopping Mall where we went shopping for a bit and then got Swensen's Ice Cream.

Links

First Photos from Chiang Mai on Facebook: http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129415&l=4da80&id=61201497
Chiang Mai Museum Website: www.chiangmaicitymuseum.org