I’ve Been to the Mountain Top

It’s just turning to evening here in Chiang Mai and I’ve completed my tour of Doi Suthep — it was a good and bad day.

Originally, I had planned to hike up Doi Suthep, just as my classmates and I had done in 1983, it’s the traditional initiation rite to Chiang Mai University and it seemed like a pretty good ritual to re-enact.  Plus, I might get some exercise.  However, at dinner last night, my friend Ked suggested that if I walked up the mountain by myself I would be a pretty good target for being mugged. Yikes!

So today I went down to the Sampluek Market near Chiang Mai’s moat, and caught a sii-law (pickup truck taxi) to the top of Doi Suthep. Amazingly the market was nearly empty.  The reason was that most of the people who work in the market are Chinese and were taking a few days off for Chinese New Year.  I never realized there were so many Chinese in Chiang Mai.

After grabbing a plate of phat si-ew while the driver waited to fill his truck, we headed up the mountain for the temple.  A full load of farangs with Lonely Planet Guides and water bottles in hand.

While I was happy to re-visit Doi Suthep, and it is still a beautiful place (despite a big to construction), the crowds at the temple and the pollution that I could see from its mountaintop vantage point were a little disappointing. Most of the visitors at the temple were local people coming to make merit (could this have been related to the Chinese New Year holiday)?  or just looking for a place to take their kids.  But the entrance to the temple, and every available space along the way were filled with hawkers selling trinkets, lottery tickets, and chunks of sugar cane.  Not the secluded spot that we found 25 years ago.

But the growing popularity of the temple is not so much of a worry as the pollution that you can see when you get there.  In 1983, Doi Suthep offered a sweeping vista of Chiang Mai city and the surrounding area. Today, the city is obscured by a pallor of grey cloud, mostly the result of car exhaust.  There are even fewer people taking the bus today than there were in 1983, and the city is paying the price for its failure to develop a mass transit network.  It’s not quite as gray as the skies over my home in Shanghai, but the city of Shanghai is building 6 new subway lines (to go with the existing 7) so at least they are doing something about it.

Tonight, I am off to the night bazaar, and will take a walk down along the river. I promise more pictures and a more encouraging story.