After our visit to the jungle temple of Wat Pha Lat, it was time to go to the top of Doi Suthep and visit its main attraction: Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. We shared a rot daang with a friendly, young couple from Mexico City who were also on honeymoon, and compared notes about our trips and recommendations.
Our driver dropped us off at the bottom of a very long stairway, which I can’t say I was excited to see. After hiking the Monk’s Trail all morning, my quads were killing me. But Wat Phra That was at the top, and taking these stairs was the only way to get there, so I put on my big girl pants and sucked it up– for 309 steps.
At the top, we placed our shoes with the dozens of others and entered the temple. In Wat Phra That, all that glitters actually is gold. A giant gold chedi, as always, but also gold facades, gold roofs, gold umbrellas, and an abundance of gold Buddhas. We circled the chedi, then went off to admire all the Buddha statues. Aaron and I agreed that we were now, after so many gold Buddhas at every temple we’ve been to, over gold Buddhas. Fortunately, there were also a handful of emerald Buddhas to marvel at.
We were inadvertently blessed by a monk when we wandered into one of the structures (note to self: start learning the names of all the different sites in temples so I can stop calling them all “structures”). A crowd had gathered around the monk and he began a chant in Thai. We were in back, checking out the centerpiece of the– erm– structure (which was, of course, three gold Buddhas) when the monk dipped his bouquet of tightly-bound reeds into a bowl of holy water and began shaking it over the crowd, sprinkling them with the water. He then deliberately aimed towards Aaron and I. This anecdote may not sound like much, but it meant the world to me. Although I consider myself a sort of western Buddhist, I often feel very much like an interloper in these temples. I wonder if I am intruding, both physically and culturally, especially when I am participating in whatever small ways I do (circling the chedi, meditating, wai-ing to the Buddha). The fact that this monk intentionally included us in the ceremony, even though we had not yet given the offering usually expected for a blessing (we did after, of course) and even though we were not a part of the crowd waiting to be blessed, meant that, for this one monk at least, we were welcome here.
Before we left, we walked along the walls surrounding the temple complex to study it’s intricate murals. Each panel depicted an important moment in the Guatama Buddha’s life. Aaron and I had fun trying to match the panels with our knowledge of the story. Here was his birth, here his marriage, here is where he left his palace and witnessed the four universal sufferings (birth, illness, aging, death), and here is where he flew a pony? That one we didn’t know. But it was good entertainment uncovering the gaps in our knowledge.
For an overdue lunch, we hired a car to take us to Huaen Jai Yong, a traditional Northern Thai restaurant on the outskirts of the city. The clientele was almost entirely Thai, which is always a good sign. My soup, tom som pla, was both incredibly delicious and a bit tough on my western sensibilities. It included giant chunks of ginger, lemongrass, galangal, mushroom, garlic, chilies, and an amazing freshwater fish that was sweet and perfectly cooked. But the fish was served head and all, and each bite had several tiny bones. I’m trying to be an adventurous eater. It’s paying big dividends, but I’m still a bit squeamish about bones and sinew, much less big ol’ fish eyes staring up at me from their severed heads. Nevertheless, I slurped up all the broth and picked at most of the other ingredients. A side of jackfruit laap and sticky rice completed the meal.
Aaron commented on how spicy the food was and I half-nodded and “mm”-ed back. It didn’t really seem that spicy to me, especially after the last few days. Noticing I was humoring him a bit, he decided to build his spice tolerance by biting off half a dried Thai chili. He then spent the next 15 minutes switching between stealing my ice and gulping down water. “Is this forever? Will my mouth ever not be on fire again?” he asked me, red-faced and eyes watering.
Back at the Awana House, we took a deserved rest. January 5th is the anniversary of the day we first met, so we decided to celebrate at a restaurant called Airniversary that we had seen on our walk home from the market the night before. The ambience was romantic and chic. We were led to a rooftop and seated in comfortable rattan lounge-chairs that would not have been out of place poolside at a nice resort. The scene was lit by hundreds of string lights, lanterns, and candles. It was a great spot for a date-night, made even more wonderful by the fact that our drinks and food were excellent. A bowl of veggie massaman curry, side of fried papaya salad, and an extremely fresh mojito (or two) later, we were satisfied and a bit tipsy.
This morning, we ordered a car and driver to take us to Pai, a mountain village to the northwest of Chiang Mai. Poom, our navigator, and Moi, our driver, picked us up from Awana House. Moi, we later found out, was the owner of our beloved guesthouse. Both Poom and Moi spoke impeccable English and were endlessly patient with our questions about restaurants, sights, language, and culture. Once we were outside the city limits, they stopped at a roadside stand, telling us they needed snacks. After a brief Thai exchange with the vendor, we were handed two sticks of bamboo. Poom showed us how to peel back the outer hull to get to the coconut-milk-infused sticky rice treat in its center, speckled with bits of taro. The mountain pass we drove on was so winding and steep that I got a bit carsick, but the vistas were breath-taking. Majestic mountains donned mantles of mist as far out at the eye could see. Bamboo bungalows dotted the landscape, and silver streams crossed it. All was palms and rice paddies, garlic and orange farms, golden lotus and roadside fruit stands.
The lunch place we had in mind was just outside Pai, at a place called Larp Khom Huay Poo. Larp or laap (or larb or lahb or laab; there are no standardized rules for anglicizing Thai, so almost everything has multiple spellings) is a Northern Thai specialty consisting of minced meat (or sometimes vegetables or fruit) fried with Lanna spices. It is sapid and delectable, but not for the faint of tongue. When I told Poom where we wanted to lunch, she turned around in the passenger seat to face us. “This is very spicy food. Lanna spices. Northern Thai food. Are you sure you want this?” Moi was smiling into the rearview mirror. “She likes spicy food,” Moi said. I knew what they were getting at. Most Western tourists think Thai food is spring rolls and pad thai, but authentic Thai food is a horse of a different, red-hot, color. I also knew how to put their fears to rest. “Yesterday, we had lunch at Huean Jai Yong. We loved it!” I informed them. They laughed and seemed relieved. “Ok,” Poom said. “If you like Huean Jai Yong, you will be ok.” But now they were excitedly speaking in Thai. They seemed happy to share this traditional food with us. “Will you try raw laap?” Poom asked us. “It’s very good,” she continued. “I like pork, and Moi likes buffalo.” Uh-oh, I had gotten us in over our heads.
A half-hour later, our teak picnic table at Larp Khom Huay Poo was laden with adventurous Northern Thai specialties: the afore-mentioned raw laaps for our guides, fried pork laap for me and fried beef laap for Aaron, as well as fried silk and bamboo worms, a Northern Thai sausage, and sticky rice. Aaron and I both tried a little bit of everything, much to the amusement of our Thai companions. To my surprise, the bamboo worms were actually extremely edible. I don’t know that I’d seek them out, but they tasted like potato chips with a little more flavor. The raw laaps were also tasty, though I tried only one bite of each, because I wasn’t about to play Russian roulette with my digestive tract. Mostly, I stuck to my fried pork laap, but the experience was worthwhile, if only for the story.
Next on the agenda was a trip to Tham Lot, the largest cave in Thailand, but that’s it for day 4, which I am sub-titling Aaron and Anna’s Appetitive Asian Adventures. Thanks for reading!
Hanoimoon 
Silkworms? You guys are much braver than I!
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