After three days of travel, cooking class, tigers and elephants, it was so nice to have a day and a half without any major activities so we could catch our breath and explore the area.
Sunday morning, January 25, 2026, a bunch of us hopped in a couple of vehicles that are called "Songthaews" (Sohng-Taow), meaning "two rows", because there are two benches in them. They are pretty much like a covered pick-up truck.
Tyler rode between the two trucks on his scooter.
The church was located in the heart of Chiang Mai's "Old City".
It was kind of cool to see the name of the church in Thai.
The congregation was about half English-speakers, so one of the elders stood up by the pulpit and translated whatever people said (in either direction). He was incredible.
He also translated for the Relief Society lesson. After church, we had fun meeting the missionaries and members.
Most of us walked over to a nearby Buddhist temple called Wat Phra Singh Waramahavihan. It was built in about 1345.
Sharon got some good pictures of the cool emerald Buddhas in there, along with some realistic-looking statues of monks.
Sharon gave the gong a go.
I came with a later group, and we entered the front temple.
There was a big buddha inside with smaller ones in front of it.
This little video captures it in a fun way.
After that, 14 of us tried to cram into one songthaew. The owner wasn't completely sure about it, but let us do it.
Devaughn, Landon and Darren hung out the back.
It was fun to drive along at the same speed as people with no glass between us and just smile at the people as we went along. These little passengers were adorable.
Valerie took a turn hanging out the back at one point.
That afternoon, Landon got to try out sweeping like the locals do.
Robert donned his elephant shirt as he and Dayna hung out by the pool.
Several of us decided to go on a hike. We took a taxi, which picked up a couple of other gals, who rode with us for part of the way.
It was fun to see this monk on the back of a scooter.
Devaughn and Kim found a hike called the "Monk's Trail" (aka "Wat Pha Lad Nature Trail").
It was a nice day, and pleasant along the shady trail. Linette & I joined Devaughn & Kim for the hike, along with Becky & Paul, Sharon & Roger and Darren & Valerie.
This twisty branch was cool.
And these vines looked like a jungle gym.
This vine looked for all the world like a trap!
There were tunnels of tree limbs over the trail at some points.
A little creek ran along the trail.
Finally, we got to the lower temple of the hike, which is called "Wat Pha Lat".
Our taxi (songthaew) driver had told us that the hike to the lower temple was fine, but that hiking to the upper temple was very difficult ("Lower temple, good. Upper temple, bad." For hiking, at least.)
One of the first things we saw at the complex was this cool-looking building. It looked like something out of Indiana Jones.
There was a reflection pond from which you could see the city of Chiang Mai down below.
There were several stairways with curvy railings.
This little temple had nice woodwork inside.
Linette got a picture of this fancy lady.
These structures are often associated with burials.
We headed up the trail a little further to check out some of the little waterfalls.
A few of us had to head back down the trail at that point to get to a traditional dance performance that night. Along the way, we came across this natural swing.
After we got back to the hotel, Roger walked down to the tailor shop and found that his custom-made suit was ready. It looked so sharp.
(The tailor's name was James. Tyler quipped, "This is James the tailor, not James Taylor.")
Meanwhile, Devaughn & Kim and Paul & Becky continued on a long hike up to the upper temple.
They eventually reached these steps, which were formidable on their own. (Apparently you can take a taxi to near the bottom of the steps to avoid climbing up the mountain, but it sounds like everybody still has to hike the steps).
At the top, they were rewarded with views of the amazing Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple complex. This is the most important temple in Chiang Mai.
According to Wikipedia, "Wat Pha Lat was established in 1355 under the reign of King Kue Na of Lanna (1355-1385) to honor a sacred white elephant. The elephant is said to have stopped to rest at the temple's future location before continuing up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, where it eventually died. In response, the king had temples built at both sites, with Wat Pha Lat becoming a hidden retreat and rest stop for monks."
There were cool lanterns at night when the sun went down.
When I went through the slides of Thailand taken by my grandfather, Malcolm H. Merrill, I thought the traditional dances looked kind of exotic, with their curved fingers. Here is a picture my grandfather took in Bangkok in 1963.
So I asked Darren about it, and he found a dance performance we could attend. Linette and I went with Sharon & Roger and Darren & Valerie to a "Khantoke" Dinner and traditional dance performance at the Old Chiang Mai Cultural Center.
A "Khantoke" dinner is a traditional northern Thai (Lanna) dining experience. "Khan" means "bowl", and "Toke" refers to the low, circular pedestal tray that serves as the table. In our case, the food came out on a multi-layered platform, which seemed so fancy! We also had some great coconut soup and other dishes, and it was all very tasty.
We had drinks served in a coconut.
A little band provided traditional music. In the center is a two-stringed instrument called a Salor, which is played with a bow like a violin.
As we were finishing dinner, some ladies walked slowly through the crowd and up onto the stage.
They made slow, graceful movements as the music played.
They had a few variations, including a dance with peacock feathers, fans and candles.
This lady danced with a dragon.
The dragon walked around the audience begging for money. It liked Darren because he fed it some cash.
Here is a candle dance.
One guy danced with a bunch of knives, and another guy waved some torches around.
Towards the end, they invited any audience members who wanted to participate to come up on stage to learn a dance. Here is Linette participating in bare feet.
They gave a little bow at the end.
Sharon joined in on another dance.
And Valerie hopped up there as well.
The dancing was all pretty slow paced, but it was graceful and beautiful, and the dinner was amazing, so I'm glad we went.
Here is an 8 minute video with highlights from the performance. It starts with a view of our fancy dinner, then has clips of various dances, which all seemed to be performed gracefully but in slow motion. As I mentioned, the music can sound random if you're not used to it, but I enjoyed the newness of it. It ends with Linette, Sharon and Valerie taking turns on stage.
Darren spoke Thai to the driver to arrange for a ride home to our hotel in yet another songthaew ("Two-bench").
The pool looked pretty cool at night.
One incident I failed to mention earlier happened a couple nights before, when we were on our way back from getting massages and pedicures. As we turned the corner towards our hotel, we saw an elderly lady running to make the light at the crosswalk, and she tripped and fell on her face with a smacking sound. We ran over there to check on her, and she was bleeding a bit, so I ran to a nearby massage parlor and pantomimed the need for some tissues. The lady there gave me some, and someone also procured an ice pack.
One fortunate thing for the lady was that Lance and Landon were both doctors. (Darren is, too, but wasn't with us. And, technically, I am, too, but a PhD in Computer Science means I'm only helpful in algorithmic emergencies). Lance in particular is an ear, nose and throat doctor, so he took charge, checked the lady for signs of a concussion, and eventually checked her cheek bones and found that she did indeed have a fracture that would require a bit of cosmetic surgery.
We walked with the lady (originally from Singapore) and her husband (from the U.S.) and sister the several blocks back to their hotel. I tried to stay pretty close to the lady in case she stumbled again from shock or something, since she didn't seem entirely stable. We eventually got the group to their nice hotel, where the concierge helped to arrange for her to visit the hospital. It was nice to be able to help them out, and I was glad we had real doctors with us.
In this picture, Lance is talking with two gals from the U.K. who were nurses and came to see if they could help. When they found out that Lance was a doctor, they were all like, "Oh, brilliant," and knew she was in good hands.
Night Market
Kelly and Greg went down to the famous Chiang Mai "Night Market".
Sharon and Roger went there, too. But after they left the dance performance, they first walked down to see the Silver Temple (Wat Sri Suphan).
They also visited the Wat Phan Tao temple complex, which looked pretty cool at night.
These lanterns looked pretty zowie.
At the market, they saw some cool artwork.
The next morning, Linette had fun with the robe and umbrella that were in our room.
Once we were all packed up, we had some time to spare, so a few of us played a game of "Ripple" with Skip-bo cards.
For those who have played Ripple with us, you will recognize that Kim's hand is incredible!
While we waited for our plane that afternoon, several of us joined Tyler at one of his favorite restaurants in Chiang Mai.
It is "The House", and it has a "Bib Gourmand" Michelin rating, meaning it has high quality food at a moderate price.
The food was great, and the smoothies were incredible.
It was Tyler's birthday, so the staff brought him a dessert with a candle and we all sang to him.
Those who didn't join us at the restaurant could always walk a block down the street to the 7-Eleven and get a "toasty", which is a refrigerated sandwich that is cooked in an electric grill. They are actually surprisingly good, and cost like a dollar. I had one on a couple of occasions.
Finally, we were all checked out of the hotel and waiting for the vans to take us to the airport.
We loved our stay at this beautiful hotel with its amazing tree.
The staff was very kind, and we just really enjoyed Chiang Mai in general. The pace there was a little slower than in Bangkok; the traffic not so crazy; and the weather not so warm. We were there long enough that we got pretty familiar with the local market area and knew our way around. It was a wonderful place.
We flew from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand down to Krabi (krah-BEE) way down south.
Valerie had by far the most epic carry-on bag. I'm pretty sure you could fit an elephant in it.
Our flight was just two hours, and we were excited to begin the next phase of our adventure, though I have to say that Chiang Mai would be hard to top.
In the next episode, things get a bit fishy as we head to Hong Island near Krabi.