Wednesday came again, so it was time for the second attempt at a joint day out with Ally. Determined not to mess it up this time, I selected the meeting point, (Coffee and Dairy Lovers Cafe, on the Canal Road, just before the Night Safari intersection.), and time, 11am.
Up at 7am, I made sure the shopping list got done as soon as the waiter arrived, so that I could get the market run done early. Having sorted the cafe shopping by 10am, I then had to go and rent a motorcy for the day. My JRD Chopper is in the workshop at the moment waiting for repairs to the exhaust.
So I popped round to my friends at Jaguar Bikes, Ratchavithi Soi 1, and acquired a Honda Wave, 125cc for 150 baht for the day. Jaguar have served me well during my 3 years in Thailand. The owner is very friendly and has a great sense of humour and good command of English language. Most important, I trust his bikes!
Incredibly I got everything done in time to leave here at 10.30 and found Ally waiting for me at the alloted meeting point;with her very impressive, and very noisy ride, a Yamaha DragStar.
She definately won the ‘Cool Award’ for this trip:)
After a very nice Fresh Ice Coffee, (just 40 baht, which surprised me considering the quite upmarket feel of this lovely cafe), we headed off on our mission to find you more and more places to visit while you are here. Read on, you will not be disappointed.
Got an interest in changing landscapes? Try this for starters.
Ally leading the way, we turned right towards the Royal Flora and Night Safari, bearing left at the Royal Flora roundabout and off down the back road that follows roughly the same direction as the Canal Road.
Along this road I noticed a Agro-Tourism Bee Keeping visitors attraction which I will try and visit in the coming weeks.
But the reason Ally had taken me this way was to see the long row of Quarry’s where, over recent years, whole ‘mountains have been excavated for aggregate for the local building industry. These Quarry’s, some clearly extremely deep, are now filled with water and landscaping work is now on progress at a few of them, with the likely impression of future resorts appearing in this beautiful valley area.
The great thing about this area is that there is so much of interest to many different tastes.
Are you an ornithologist? Take a ride into this valley and you will see a wide variety of very interesting bird life; Drongo’s, Bulbul’s and this Asian Fairy Bluebird were amongst the ones we spotted today.
The quarries done, we wended our way through the village roads , finding our way back to the Canal road, stopping at a quaint little Temple, Wat Nam Phrae, on our way. there will be a much fuller report on this Temple appearing in the Temple list soon.
Following the Canal Road to its very end we U turned and took the first left which follows the Mae Khan valley and passes through Ob Khan National Park, to the Forest Temple that Ally had waxed lyrical about previously and eventually joins the main road 1013 at Mae Wang.
More birds, more beauty, there seems no end to the sublime nature of Thailand. Whilst stopping to watch a couple of Drongos, we spotted the group of four standing Buddhas that marked the location of the Forest Temple we were heading for, off in the distance.
About half way along the route we stopped briefly at yet another gem of a Temple, Wat Hoi Thong. This small beauty is perched on a hill with some lovely views of the forested hills around it.
(See the Temple listings in the near future for more photos and description.)
Time was moving on and so did we, taking a relaxed ride onwards through some lovely little villages, past a pretty flower nusery, onion fields, rice fields, wooded roads, just my sort of day out.
Not just our chosen destination, but glimpses into so many aspects of real rural life here.
Here you see country life going on as it has done for many decades, with old ladies carrying foodstuff or other wares in large baskets on wooden yolks over their shoulders;
The modern age creeps in, with motorcy’s being used in similar fashion.
We finally reached Wat Doi Sapphanyu, our destination, at around 1pm.
The Temple grounds are extensive and in the process of much development at this time.
As you approach you travel along the outer wall that is made up of huge concrete ‘wheels’.
In the Temple grounds, a beautifully peaceful mountain forest area, a recently built, second Temple is near completion.
Take a stroll over to the right of the compound to what appears to be a large dining, or possibly teaching area, and you will find one of those stunning views that Thailand has in abundance.
Then brace yourself for the delights of the main Temple. Here I found some of the finest examples of Temple art that I have seen to date.
The inner walls are completely covered with various scenes from Siddartha, even the pillars are similarly decorated.
Behind the several large Buddhas to the rear is a stunning wall of stained glass ‘stars’.
As well as the Siddartha scenes , there is an incredible portrait of an elder Monk and also a wonderful painting of His majesty, The King.
Look back out of the doors of this Temple and witness the perfect symmetry of the Chedi with the new Temple behind.
Strolling around the grounds you find many other interesting statues, including the famous Buddha, hair cutting scene, with ‘demon’ seemingly reaching out of the ground in front of the Buddha, similar in design to the hands at The White Temple in Chiang Rai.
We also had the delight of witnessing a huge bee colony at work at the top of a huge alcove, in between the new Temple and the Chedi, that houses another giant standing Buddha.
Around 500 yards from the inner temple compound, still within the outer walls, you will find the 4 standing Buddhas. The way through the trees is clearly marked. As you take this route you will see some lovely concrete and plaster plaques, with yet more Siddartha scenes. These are also part of the ongoing development and still a work in progress.
At the site of the 4 standing Buddhas; facing North, West, South, and East; there is yet more , very extensive construction under way of , as yet indeterminable nature.
Nice one Ally…big thanks for discovering this one!!
By this time we were getting a little hungry and thirsty and took our leave of this wonderful site after around an hour, and headed off to Mae Wang. This is achieved by turning right at the bottom of the Temple entrance road.
Mae Wang is a small Market town, which you can reach in a more direct manner by traveling out of Chiang Mai on the main 108 road through Hang Dong and San Pa Tong and then taking the right turning on the 1013.
After a delicious lunch, from a small stall near the market and a coffee at a Thai cafe nearby, we headed down the 1013 to join the 108 south of San Pa Tong.
The tour was not over, as we first headed south away from San Pa Tong.
After a short distance on the left there are unmissable giant Elephants , that are actually small air conditioned houses!
We reached Ban Mae Khan, where the 108 crosses the river and took a U turn after crossing the river, and then taking the left hand turn, sign posted for the Ganesh museum.
This quirky place is about 5.5 kms down this road. If you decide to go, bear this in mind and watch your meter, as there are no determinable signs declaring the museums presence when you actually reach it.
Entrance is free, and the compact site contains some very well kept gardens and several small buildings, including to elongated ‘museum’ buildings, housing an extensive collection of Ganesh statues, wood carvings and various other images. The building on the right does have some information plaques in both Thai and English language. No photos are allowed inside the museum buildings.
There is also a gift shop with a huge range of Ganesh related items for sale. I came away with some very nice quality incense and a small silver pendant for Somboon.
It was sometime after 4pm when we left here and headed back towards San Pa Tong and Chiang Mai on the main 108.
On the way home I was happy to repay Ally slightly for her giving me such a great route, by showing her Wat Pa Delurn Tam, the Wat I discovered last week.
So there you have it, archaeologists, ornithologists, Temple enthusiasts, followers of Ganesh, nature lover, or anyone just looking for a cost effective day out……its all there; Enjoy:)
For more photos from Wat Doi Sapphanyu visit our photobucket album here.
For more photos from the Ganesh Museum go here.
This Temple turned out to be just 5 minutes or so ride down the road and a wonderful place to visit.
Indeed it seems to have been developed into a ‘teaching’ Temple.
Other notable features are the gigantic Golden reclining Buddha; a group of quaint concrete Animal statues, including dinosaurs, and a curious dome shape Vihara.
It became quite impossible to take photographs of the concrete animals without several children rushing into the shot and posing. Many of them seemed keen to practice their English and there was a prolonged period of answering the same questions, ‘what is your name?’, ‘where do you come from?’. The lovely part of that was the genuine looks of delight when they got an answer, seemingly surprised that I’d actually understood them.
One confident young lad, Boom, became my guide for a short time, keen to point all the many different things worth photographing.
It was he who took me around to the dome shape Vihara, quite different in design to anything I’ve seen at Thai Temples before, it had more of a Dutch feel about it to me.
