Pulling into the Marriott, we are greeted by literally a
dozen people who were all genuinely concerned for our wellbeing. Our room is ready even though it’s only 11:30am. We go up, and the staff has decorated the
room for a birthday celebration because Mandy mentioned somewhere that this is
the inaugural trip on our 60th birthday celebration. The trunk-locked pair of towel elephants show
quite the dedication to the staff’s mission.
Hosed down, we head out.
Tired be damned. We got a city to
see and Mandy has a plan. We’re walking
towards the Old City with stops along the way.
The makeup of the shops on the average block is 6 bars (mostly open air
with various themes), 6 massage places, and a custom tailor or 2. As we get closer to Old City, the temples
start dominating the architecture, from small one room structures to big
campuses, from ornate to crazily ornate, from ancient to merely very old. The first one we pass is a simple structure adorned
with very detailed dragon headed, serpent shaped railings called Naga
(pronounced naak) and are symbols of wisdom and protection. Next to the small building is a 10 meter temple
that enshrines a Buddha figure. The two
buildings are situated on about half a city block and create a quiet park for
rest and reflection.
The next temple we pass is larger, with a gold leaf chofah
(pointy part at the top). This temple holds a different version of Buddha and
we realize that there are many different representations of Gautama Buddha,
varying in historical styles throughout history. There’s a second building and a few surprisingly
young monks we suspect are studying or serving there.
We turn right onto the much wider and busier Phra Pokklao
Road and things get way more serious temple-wise. We arrive at Wat Chedi Luang, a complex
the size of a small college campus. Inside
the gate, there are various shrines and places to make offerings. We walk into an impressive Viharn (assembly
hall) with a red interior flanked by 2 rows of gold columns and featuring massive
Buddha image flanked by dozens of other statues. We think this is the main event here until we
walk around the building and see the actual Wat Chedi Luang, the Temple of the
Great Chupa. One of Chiang Mai’s most
important temples features a massive Chedi (pagoda) on the top and was built
from 1391 to 1475. Some hundred years
later it was mostly destroyed by an earthquake, and in the 1990s was partially restored
to what we see today. The massive Nagas on
each side provide leading lines to each of the four Buddhas. Once ringed with 32 massive elephant figures,
those figures are near extinction with a mere five members left on a single
side.
Another smaller assembly hall on the site is actively
undergoing renovations and fully encased in chaotic bamboo scaffolding with the
acrobatic workers scrambling from perch
to perch while working on the roof. The contractor
in me gets the biggest kick out of the project sineage. OSHA would have a field day here.
Next stop is the Three Kings Monument, the actual starting
point of Mandy’s list It’s a royal
monument dedicated to Kings Mangrai, Ramkhamhaeng, and Ngam Mueang, considered
the founding fathers of Lanna Kingdom and the city we find ourselves in
today.
Just around the corner we stumble over our sightseeing
highlight of the day, Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang. This compact temple is enthralling outside
and beautifully preserved. Inside there
are five Buddha images arranged on three tiers, the biggest of which nearly
scraping the high peaked ceiling with his head.
It’s breathtaking, and for the first time today we sit quietly and
reflect. The peace here is tangible.
Working on very little sleep, we change gears and do that
most Thai of activities, his and hers mani-pedis. We pick Yaya Nail & Spa from one of the myriad available
spots and are taken straight away. The
woman gives us prices then she and her coworker get down to business. About halfway through, I think to ask her
name and she replies “Banana”. This got
the conversation rolling, and that conversation continued on when a woman from
Wales takes my chair while Mandy is finishing up and drying. Conversation wanders from ice cream to
weather to travel Wrexham football before we finally part ways. Total bill for both of us was about $24USD
each. We’re back to the hotel by 5.
While travel for us is certainly about meeting new people,
tonight we’re meeting an old friend. I
met Joe DeQ, my freshman year in college.
It is no exaggeration to say he profoundly changed the course of my life
with one kind gesture on a Saturday night in October 1984. Me and a bunch of my Drexel freshman dorm
floor friends were at a ∑AM party and get to hanging out with Joe. He’s kind,
happy, buzzy and huggy. At one point, he
askes us if we’re pledging the house, something we had never thought to
do. Apparently there’s a weeks long process
where the brothers discuss each candidate and decide who should get a bid
(invitation to pledge), a process my friends and I were absolutely not a part
of. When we tell Joe that we don’t think
so, he says “come with me, I have the book in my room!” with the wide smile,
squinty eyed expression known to accompany a night involving great quantities
of cheep college beer. In his room, he
finds the pledge book and has us write our names and dorm rooms in it. We don’t actually think anything of it until
the next afternoon when bid envelopes are slid under our doors.
Becoming a Sammy was a seminal moment in my life. It allowed me to shed the awkward insecurities of growing up a misfit in my little
hometown. It gave me a chance to define
the man I wanted to be. It provided us
with group to call our own. It taught us
the incalculable value of unity. It
taught us how to not be amateurs. It taught
us how to take the serious things seriously and the bullshit things
bullshittiously. It taught us trust and
responsibility and service. It was also
THE animal house on campus. There is a
very straight line from that night with Joe to the person I am today.
I think I have seen Joe once in person since he graduated in
1996. We’re social media friends, so
when I see he’s and his wife T have landed in Thailand, I DM him. To our collective surprise, we’re getting
into Chiang Mai on the exact same day.
We meet in the lobby at 5:30 and have regressed to our 19-year-old
selves by 5:35. Decades later, same
infectious smile and easygoing way about him.
Introductions with Mandy and T and we head out into the night market to
check out the street food scene.
The market is everything we hoped for. Block after block of vendor booths and food stalls. Turns out we’re all seafood fans, so first we
order some massive shrimp and a big piece of octopus which the purveyor puts
over a narrow grill. While that cooks,
we wander around and score some veggie dumplings, flash fried to order. At one point we’re discussing exotic local
delicies and Joe asks me if I ever ate scorpion. I tell him that I had the opportunity once
but didn’t, and I regret it because it would have made a better story if I
did. We find a table near a makeshift
stage and the conversation among the four of us flows as easily as the Singha
beer while we’re serenated with covers of Barry Manilow and Eric Clapton
tunes.
When searching for our next round of food, we spot the kabob
lady’s display of Scorpion-On-A-Stick and decide that we are where we are
supposed to be at this moment. We grab a
pair of the little critters along with some shrimp skewers. A few spots down we order seafood fried rice
in a pineapple and, while it’s being prepared, a big British guy sees our
crustations and decides that he needs to join us, which he does. So here’s some footage of me, a long lost
brother, and some huge random dude from London eating fried arachnids. This is why we travel.
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