Visiting Doi Suthep Wat Phra That and Woo Café

Today, Inn cleans the house and looks after the dogs. Heike takes us to Chiang Mai again. First, we visit the Doi Suthep Wat Phra That.

A Wat is a Thai monastery, including at least one tempel on it’s grounds. And they are everywhere. Even the smallest village has its own Wat. Depending on the wealth of the surrounding people, the Wat may be splendid or on the brink of collapse, or anything in between.

Doi Suthep, at 15 km of Chiang Mai, is without a doubt one of the most splendid Wats in Thailand. It has an average of 120.000 visitors per month, many of them Buddhist pilgrims.

Visiting Doi Suthep Wat Phra That

We enter the Wat by a rather steep staircase. First, there’s the tourist area with shops and (of course) food. Heike buys us a fresh, young coconut. The vendor opens it with a big, sharp knife and puts a straw in it. We drink the refreshing coconut water. It’s delicious in this heat!

The second staircase takes us to another level with more shops and food. Finally, there’s a much narrower, beautifully ornamented staircare that leads into the Wat proper. And little Thai girls are there wearing one of the traditional costumes…

Visitors have to pay 30 bhat to enter. Heike shows her Thai identity card, and gets in for free. We slowly tour the grounds and enjoy the view. The Wat is constructed on a mountain and offers a wonderful view over Chiang Mai and surroundings.

I borrow a wrap for 20 bhat to cover my shoulders, and we go in to the tempel ground. As we are standing at the entrance of one of the tempels, a young Thai man gestures us in, and to sit down with his wife at the feet of a monk. Curious, we do as he asks.

The monk starts chanting and spraying the young man and us with drops of water. After a few minutes, he binds a bit of white yarn around the man’s wrist and hands him 3 more bits of yarn.

He gives us two of them and binds the third one around his wife’s wrist. We adorn ourselves with the bracelets, respectfully greet the monk and thank the man, and leave the tempel, bemused and delighted.

Woo Café & Art Gallery

After this extraordinary experience, we go to Chiang Mai. We park the car at the Wat Ket Karam temple which is very beautiful, and Christophe makes a donation.

And then we walk to Woo Café to eat. The place is packet and a waiter tells us we’ll have to wait 15 minutes before he can seat us.

15 minutes is doable and we wander into the place to have a look around. It’s actually a combination of a restaurant, an art gallery and a home deco shop. There are vases with fresh flowers everywhere, and the total effect is amazing. After only a couple of minutes have passed, the waiter finds us and brings us to our table.

The food is delicious, though very hot (even if the waiter doesn’t think so). At first, it’s almost too hot to eat, but our taste buds adjust, and after a while, it’s okay. And finally, the cakes are many and taste very well too 😉