In 1296 it stood as the capital of the country of Lanna. Chiang Mai, meaning "New City", lasted until the Burmese captured it in 1558. Two hundred years later the Thais pushed the Burmese out. It is located 435 miles north of  Bangkok. It sits among the highest mountains in the country and the Ping River runs through it. The old city remains. It's once strong defensive walls are now in ruins. A new Chiang Mai has developed around the old city. This is the city, old and new, I am enroute to see.

All the signs are in Thai . I need to find out where I need to be to catch my bus to Chiang Mai. I ask at the ticket window, showing my pre-bought ticket. The lady points to a lane. That is where my bus should pick me up. My ticket says "Gold" and it should leave at 7:55 p.m.

I see "Economy" busses come and go and "Silver" busses come and go. Every once in a while I see a "Gold" bus, but none in my lane.

About 8:05 a "Gold" bus arrives in my lane, and yes, it is going to Chiang Mai. This is the "first class" bus. I check my ticket to be sure. I have never gone first class before. Is this a new me in a new country?

The seats are a little wider and there is more leg room, which I don't need. Besides the driver, there is a woman dressed in a smart uniform that rides in the passenger seat beside the driver. The driver and attendant (or whatever she is called) are separated from the passengers by a glass partition and door . 

Soon after we leave the station, the attendant walks the isles passing out pillows and blankets. I heard they give out blankets because the air conditioning can get cold on the overnight busses. The blankets are wrapped and sealed in plastic. Fresh from the laundry, I guess.

Next, she walks the isle and passes out bottles of water. A few minutes later she is passing out snacks. It's a package of french fry looking chips that taste like fish. Also there is a large bar of chocolate candy.

About an hour later, dinner is served. It is a rice curry meal with beef. All the while there is a movie playing overhead. The movie is in Thai. No subtitles. It is about some dogs getting into and out of trouble. It is not animated, just some dogs having an adventure. I watch and, although I cannot understand what is said, I can follow the plot somewhat.

The lights are soon out and around 6 the next morning they are turned back on . We are served a breakfast of scrambled eggs and vegetables with soy milk and toast.

It was a 12 hour overnight ride from Pattaya to Chiang Mai via the Gold Bus. A great deal for $23.

I bargained with a taxi for a ride to the Spicythai Hostel for 150 baht. I had asked the hostel owners in advance what I should pay.

Spicythai Hostel is very well run and very popular with the backpackers. The owners and staff are some of the best to talk to and get information from. I will be in a dorm room in this hostel. There is a common area room with T.V. and a table for eating or sitting around chatting. The hostel is just a short walk outside the old city walls.

The old city of Chiang Mai is a square surrounded by a moat. Inside the moat are the remnants of a once great wall of defense. The medieval style wall was built 700 years ago and completely walled the city in . Today there are only remnants of the wall left standing, though. It was built to defend against Burmese invaders. Several of the original gates have been restored and are good reference points, particularly "The Pai Gate" to the east. There are four gates, one in the middle of each side of the city wall. The main gate is on the eastern side and faces the Ping River. It has been rebuilt, complete with a stretch of wall, to give people an idea of what the walls were once like.

My hostel is close to the North Gate, I think, but outside the old city.

Around the old city, and outside the moat and wall ruins, is the busy traffic of Chiang Mai. Inside the walls is a quiet world of family run guesthouses, restaurants, Wats and tropical gardens. People walk, bicycle and meander along, enjoying the sites. The streets are all narrow, built for horse or ox drawn carts I guess. Today, motorbikes and autos vie for the  little street space available .

The old city, contained within the new city of Chiang Mai, limits its' buildings to four stories high. It's traditional wooden houses and amazing temples give the old city it's character and charm.

 Of course, there are the ubiquitous food carts that I have seen everywhere I have visited in Thailand, so far. What would Thailand be without them?

I want to explore the old city today. I walk up the street from the hostel and see the moat and some of the ruins of the wall of the old city. I cross the busy Chiang Mai street and cross over the moat. I walk inside the walls.

Inside the city I see trees with ribbons tied around them and incense sticks below. People have placed these here for good luck. The old city is busy with activity and is very much alive. There are bicycle rental shops and kayaking tour offers and so many other fun activities to capture your imagination .

There are bicycle taxis here. They are bicycles pulling carts to transport you around. The songthaews (baht busses) here are red instead of blue like in the other cities I have been to.

I pass some Wats and stop in the first one. I have seen a lot already, but they are all different and so beautiful.

The 2nd Wat I visit is Wat Phrasingha. It was established in 1888 by a king (the 5th one). It has the temple plus a garden and lots of other buildings. There is a large school here also.

In the garden there were boards with words of wisdom written on them, tacked to trees. I thought of how you could use some of this wisdom, so, I took many pictures for you.

The school teaches the monks about Buddhism. There is also a junior high and high school. This school teaches regular subjects, but is also for kids that might want to be monks someday .

I had read where the school kids would try to get you to stop and talk to them in English. One thing about being from a Super Power country like America is that the rest of the world wants to speak your language. People from around the world I have met on this journey almost without exception speak some English. They speak it with their native accents, which makes it difficult to understand sometimes, but it is English nevertheless. I cannot speak any of their languages. People in the U.S. sometimes speak some spanish but not much else it seems. Most of us speak only English.

The school kids want to practice their English skills with you if you speak english. One such boy, about 14 probably, was sweeping the grounds. He said hello and I responded. We talked for a while. He wanted to know where I was from. He only knew about the capitol, Washington, D.C., though, so I never made him understand. 

I tried to find out what grade of school he was in but he couldn't understand what I was asking . I would guess about 9th grade or so. He said they have 3 years of High School and 8 years of elementary school. We had some trouble with the concepts and terms of things I was trying to ask him, but he spoke english very well. Some answers I never did get because he just didn't understand what I was asking about. The words he understood, just not the subject. He never stopped sweeping the leaves, using the bamboo broom, the whole time we talked. We ended our conversation after about 20 minutes and he was so polite and humble, as I have found most Thais to be. The young here seem to have respect for adults and honor the older people, so unlike the youth of America.

At one place, while walking through the grounds of the Wat, there was a crank wheel with a tube attached. People were putting water in the tube and cranking it to the top of the Wat where it would spill out. I think it had something to do with having good luck maybe.
 
When I finished my time at the Wat, I walked through the north end of the city . I came to the moat on the other side of the city from where I started. I had walked from one side of the city to the other, but not the length. It was only one street I walked from side to side. So much of the city I still have not been in. It feels surreal to walk through these towns that were hundreds of years old, with so much history, before the U.S. was even in existence.

What an exotic place this city must have been centuries ago. I try to visualize what it must have looked like from 1296 to the mid 1500's, when the Burmese captured it.

Before daylight the merchants from far away could be seen bringing their goods to market here. Soldiers manned the guard houses atop the massive wall, keeping an eye out day and night for any invaders trying to cross the moat. Other soldiers in uniform roamed the streets along with the local residents. I see elephants walking the streets, along side their masters, carrying heavy loads on their backs . Or, maybe riding atop the elephant in a grand seat, with an umbrella for shade, was someone very wealthy or important. It was a thriving center for Buddhism. I can imagine the orange-clad Monks filling the streets. You could hear the voices of the merchants and the laughter of the children playing. There were no autos or other motorized vehicles to drown out the sounds of life, or pollute the air. The inhabitants went about the daily chores they did by hand or with simple tools. Most of the activity occurred from dawn to dusk, with the residents sleeping soundly through the night, protected by the great walls and moat.

My idea of what the city was like all those years ago might not be even close to reality. But, as hard as it is for me to visualize this city in those day, it would have been impossible for the residents of that day to visualize their city today. The massive walls of security are now only remnants of what they were. Gas powered vehicles fill the streets with noise and pollution, drowning out the sounds of children laughing and people living .

I am not a tourist. I have not come for a week or two with preconcieved ideas of the places I visit. I don't care about others opinions of the places or things I see. I am a traveler, taking as much time as I need in places to really get the feel for them. Often, I will go places the vacationing tourist would not be interested in or have the time to see.

 There is a quote I want to throw out to you:
"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he came to see." G.K. Chestertan

I turned to the right and wandered down along the moat and looked at the ruins of the walls. This is the last street before getting to the wall and leaving the old city. On the other side of the moat from where I am walking is the busy traffic of the New Chiang Mai city.

All of a sudden there was a lovely park, so I walked in. I found out it is was The Buak Hart Park . It is located in the southwest corner of the old city and is the only park inside the city walls. It had a nice meandering pond thoughout with little bridges built across for walking. A paved path ran around the perimeter for joggers. It was marked off in 50 meter increments so the joggers could keep track of their progress.

There were bamboo mats for rent all around the park. Many people are using them to relax as they lay on the grass and nap, and some are having a picnic. Soccer games by the locals are usually played here in the evenings, I found out.

I spend quiet a bit of time here. It is so relaxing and such a change from the busy life going on all around the old city.

There is much to see in Chiang Mai for me. Both in the old city and the new city. It should be a great time here in northern Thailand.