While in Chiang Mai recently, we stayed in a 3-star hotel called Raming Lodge, which is about 5 -10 minutes’ walk from the night bazaar, depending on how quickly you walk, hahhaha. In other words, the hotel is located right smack in the middle on Chiang Mai, and we had no problems looking for food or internet cafes or whatever..

There were 8 of us, and we had earlier booked 3 rooms via AsiaRooms.com because my friends said that online booking is usually cheaper than booking directly with the hotel. It didn’t make sense to me (it still doesn’t) but since it was cheaper, I was OK with it :) I mean, we weren’t going to be staying in our hotel rooms most of the time, so it really didn’t matter to me, as long as the hotel was comfortable and clean (read: NO cockroaches or whatever). As it turned out, Raming Lodge was indeed “cozy” and well, I’d definitely recommend it to anybody who’s going to Chiang Mai :)

Traveling around Chiang Mai town would be either by the songtaews, which are actually red and yellow buses converted from pick-ups…

… Or by the tuk-tuks, the 3-wheeler, 3-passenger motorbike look-a-like. Actually a tuk-tuk can seat more than 3 passengers as I’ve seen an entire family of 5 or 6 on it. Poor tuk-tuk..

On the day we arrived, we booked ourselves a half-day tour to visit the Bhuping Palace and the famous Wat Doi Suthep. My best friend, who has been traveling extensively, suggested that we visit the temple because “it’s worth it.” Well, my friends did some homework, and yeah, Wat Doi Suthep was shortlisted :)

Bhuping Palace is the King’s official residence, and apparently, the garden in the palace is only open for visitors whenever the royal family is out of town, usually on weekends. We were indeed very lucky that the royal family was away when we were there, so all of us busybodies had a “peek” into what a Thai palace looks like, hahhaha.. The garden in the palace was planted with lots and lots of flowers, which according to the tour guide, are the Queen’s favourites :)

After visiting the palace, we proceeded to the famous Wat Doi Suthep. Even the tour guide said that a trip to Chiang Mai isn’t complete until one visits Wat Doi Suthep :)

You can’t read it, but the blue sign says:

King Kuena of Chiang Mai selected a white elephant to carry the relic of the Lord Buddha to a proper place. The relic was placed on the back of the elephant. The elephant headed up Sutep Mountain and stopped at this place, where a pagoda was built to house the relic of the Lord Buddha. The white elephant then died after fulfilling its duty. The pagoda and the holy relic remain to this day.

The 20-meter high (did I hear correctly?) pagoda was built entirely in real gold!!