Old City Temples On Foot
The square kilometre inside the moat holds more than thirty temples, and the four below are the ones that reward slow looking. This day works best as a bike-and-walk hybrid: ride between the clusters, then leave the bike and go on foot, because the old city's lanes are where it is at its best.
An in-city day, written to be done on two wheels. Inside the moat a small scooter is faster, cheaper and far easier to park than a car, and several of these lanes are closed to cars anyway. There are no distances here on purpose: you park once and walk.
The day
- 1
Wat Chiang Man
The oldest temple in Chiang Mai, founded when the city itself was, in the late thirteenth century. The chedi stands on the backs of stone elephants. Quiet almost always, because most visitors go elsewhere first.
45 min · donationTourism Directory →Ministry of Tourism & Sports · Ministry of Tourism & Sports, Thailand 🚲 5 min - 2
Wat Chedi Luang
The ruined royal chedi, once the tallest structure in the kingdom until an earthquake took the top of it in the sixteenth century. What remains is enormous and unrestored, and better for it. The monk chat tables in the grounds are a genuine offer — the monks want the English practice and will answer almost anything.
1 hr · small fee
Tourism Directory →Ministry of Tourism & Sports · Ministry of Tourism & Sports, Thailand 🚶 2 min - 3
Wat Phan Tao
Next door, and easily missed. A viharn built entirely of teak panels salvaged from a royal residence, dark and low inside with a single gilded Buddha. The best room in the old city.
30 min · donation
Wikipedia →Stefan Fussan · CC BY-SA 3.0 🚲 5 min - 4
Wat Phra Singh
The grandest of the four, with a small side chapel — the Lai Kham viharn — holding murals of daily Lanna life from two centuries ago. Look at the walls, not just the Buddha.
1 hr · small fee
Tourism Directory →Ministry of Tourism & Sports · Ministry of Tourism & Sports, Thailand 🚲 5 min - 5
Tha Phae Gate
The eastern gate and the city's front room: pigeons, skateboarders, people meeting, festivals staged against the brick. Not a monument so much as a place things happen.
45 min · free
Wikipedia →Chainwit · CC BY 4.0
Also on this day
🕐 Sunday Walking Street runs from Tha Phae Gate west along Ratchadamnoen every Sunday evening, straight past three of these temples, whose grounds fill with food stalls. If your Chiang Mai days include a Sunday, this is what to do with the evening. 🕐 Kasian Market, a rotating market where every seller is over sixty, is worth checking dates for.
Getting around
Old city lanes are narrow, many are one-way, and car parking is genuinely difficult. A bike solves the whole problem. Dress for temples — shoulders and knees covered — and remove shoes before entering any viharn. Never sit with the soles of your feet pointing at a Buddha image.
