Our guesthouse is adorbs, with lush plants and a kitten. We got our room a couple minutes after arriving, dumped our bags, and headed to a Trip Advisor-recommended restaurant.
We wandered up and down the side street where the map said it was located, but no dice. So, we found some local joint where we definitely got some of the most interesting Thai food this trip - we ordered it, so it was kind of on purpose. The guava juice wasn't my style, neither was the shrimp and macaroni scramble that Alisa ordered. My triple mushroom stirfry was basically mushrooms and spicy. So not our best meal.
You know what makes every meal better? Banana shake.
With our sustinance, it was time to get out the short list of wats (temples).
First, Wat Phra Singh. Home to the "Lion Buddha", it was the closest. We didn't quite dress for the temples (my skirt and Alisa's shorts were above the knee), so we borrowed some sarongs and peeked inside. Monks were sitting along the walls, and a popular offering were these paper banners with the signs of the Zodiac to hang on lines between the pillars.
In each of the three buildings we went into, I kept expecting to see a Buddha with a mane, or surrounded by lions, or something iconic. There were some Buddhas, sure, but which was the Lion Buddha? We read the guidebook closely and picked the one that was in the building matching the description, but it was pretty anti-climatic.
With one slightly disappointing wat behind us, we moved on to Wat Pantao (or Phan Tao). There wasn't a helpful information desk where we could borrow sarongs, so we headed up the steps...
"Ladies." And a tsk-ing English man scolded us into submission.
I was hot. I was frustrated. We walked all the way to the wat and, I didn't mean any disrespect, I felt covered and we just got finger-wagged by a tourist!
I sat down in the shade to cool off as we thought of our next move. Alisa paged through the guidebook as I pondered and came up with a solution - she'd take my sleeved shirt and use her scarf as a sarong, then we'd trade so we could each go inside and look and not disturb the man who'd appointed himself garb-keeper.
The interlocking teak hall was a different style, and Alisa and I put some baht in the box for our day of week of birth, so all in all, a fine wat. While I was waiting for Alisa (and vice versa), we got to witness the man hissing at several other tourists trying to enter the building.
Well, his female companion emerged with disrespectful clothing on herself, and then proceeded to point the bottom of her feet at Buddha in the next wat. Hypocrite.
The next wat was Wat Chedi Luang. The grounds of this complex was by far my favorite. The wíhâan was similar to others, with the long room with Buddhas at the end, but the chedi (a spired, separate building) was overgrown and thus ancient and rich looking. Parts of it had been restored, such as the guarding nagas (snakes), but overall, it was still a structure that harkened back the 700 years of its existence.
With that, our tourist duties were complete, and it was time to wander. And wander we did. A wat with a paper-lantern-covered walkway struck Alisa, and we found a brown lake full of giant, slimy, eel-like catfish. So of course we bought the fish food, fed them, and saw just how disgusting they were when they were in a feeding frenzy. I was skeeved out; Alisa is now going to get me a portrait of the gross catfish for Christmas.
With our tour of the wats complete, it was a wandering journey back to the guest house. I overshot it in one direction (which did get me a new pair of sandals and us some apples for breakfast) then we were blockaged by the gangs and gaggles of school children and their parents trying to pick them up.
After some relaxing in the A/C of our room, we took a tuktuk (best way to travel - wind in your hair and the fumes in your nose) to the Anusan Night Market.
There was a row of eateries, so we picked one at random and had some of our favorite Thai food to date. Just simple, slightly spicy noodles and greens.
Alisa was open to watching the Chiang Mai Caberet - lip synching and dancing performed by "ladyboys". They range from men in drag to transgendered individuals that are transitioning (or maybe have transitioned?) who are working it on stage to Rihanna, Abba, and Mariah Carey.
Just don't ask me where I put the tip to take this picture:
The market, besides being the location of the show, also had stalls and stalls of handicrafts (as well as some cheap, mass produced products as well). The haggling can be exhausting, as is the ever-eager attention, but the tuktuk back was certainly heavier.
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