Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Legend has it that a king put a relic on a white elephant and prayed for a sacred place. The elephant climbed Doi Suthep mountain, trumpeted three times, turned around three times, knelt down, and died. Then, the king built a new temple to house the relic on this spot chosen by the elephant.



To get to the temple, we took one of these red-taxis from the town area. It costed us 50 Thai Baht per person per direction. The journey took about 40 minutes and the hot weather made it quite suffocating while riding in the vehicle. There are two rows of benches on the back of the truck and the passengers sit on them facing each other.



After walking up a long slope, which has stalls selling local food and souvenirs on both sides, we had to conquer this really long flight of stairs to see the temple! When I reach the top, I was out of breath... I really should exercise more.



Shoes are not allowed in the temple and visitors should be respectful by wearing long pants or skirts.

The white elephant statue

These large bells are rung by believers to bring good luck.


Cute monk figures around the temple.


Young girls dancing at the temple.


Left: Mom?
Right: Charms for visitors to pen their wishes.

As we're walking back down the slope to the taxi pickup area, we paused at some stalls to do the tourist things.