Tourist Buy the Ticket

A trip up the mountain to Doi Suthep Temple is part civic duty, part religious experience, part county fair and totally a once in a lifetime experience for an Ohio boy like me.

The mountain should be written "mountain" because you are really going up a very big hill...this is not the Himalayas by any stretch, but neither is it Hocking Hills. Somewhere in between.

To get there one has to take the official red pickup trucks converted to 10 passenger vans. The traffic safety board would not be impressed but they look like Sherman tanks compared with tuk-tuks which don't even attempt the climb.

Anyway, catch a red truck at the city gate. The driver wants 500 baht per load for the trip up. 10 people...50 baht a piece. But you wait for the total of 10...if it is an hour....you wait. We had 7 and we waited about 20 minutes. Josh jumped out, offered to make up the difference. All the other passengers gladly chipped in an extra 20 baht and the driver had his fare and we had lift off.

Through the city streets. Past the University district. Up the mountain. Up and up. Hairpin curve after hairpin curve. It was rather like the Monte Carlo Rally...red trucks, motor scooters, every conceivable type of truck loaded with countless people. I've seen movies of refugees fleeing the invading army of the enemy...in this case, every person in town was heading to the Doi Suthep. Unless you were delivering a child at that moment or were six feet under....you headed up the mountain.

Once you got there, there was every possible sales pitch and tourist item to separate you and your money. The sales pitches were mild compared to what I experienced in India but you wanted trinkets, food, sacred items for the temple, cloth, more food, small engine parts and weed wackers...this was the place. You arrive. Pay the cab driver and marvel at the sea of humanity which has come from seemingly the surrounding seven nations bordering the country.

First off you have to walk the 300 steps to the temple itself. We foreigners were strictly told to "buy a ticket." I did. No one ever took it and they may have to rethink this notion of trusting people to buy a ticket and then not having anyone to collect the ticket. No ticket...no entrance. Not a concept they have yet to embrace.

Once near the temple and wat and other side temples, one can sit along the sides and observe the faithful and the curious. I went into the temple and frankly it was like sale day at Wal-Mart. People chanting, walking in a prayer circle, snapping photos, buying amulets. I loved it. I then went back outside the main temple and sat and watched the parade of people, let my altitude light headedness subside, listened to the temple bells which we could ring. Found a coffee bar and had an ice coffee and contemplated the meaning of life at one of Thailand's most famous temples.

Like so much of what we do in life; the journey is the goal. Today the journey up the mountain, with others in a red bus, meeting with countless others on the mountain top and sharing the experience which was part sacred and part secular...was a good thing to do. I'd put it right up there with visiting the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower. I'm glad I came.

Back down the mountain. And even though there were about 690 red pickup cabs outside the gate, the driver who took us up the mountain, amazingly found us and was ready to take us down. We hopped in. We thought for a second, realizing he was waiting for 7 more, which could take hours seeing as how the competition for riders was red hot. We hopped out and said, "we'll pay 500 if we go now." "We'll go NOW!" he exclaimed. At such a moment, capitalism beats socialism hands down.

We headed down the mountain and did what anyone else would do who had been on such a pilgrimage of faith: found a Mexican Restaurant in the middle of Chiang Mai, Thailand which was playing Frank Sinatra CD's and ate burritos. We all have our religious experiences in this life and Sinatra after Doi Suthep makes for two in one day. The gods were smiling down on us.

Peace,
Bob