On our ride up the mountain we noticed a sign for Wat Palad and remembered seeing a blog on this "Hidden Jungle Temple" and if you know Shayne, he cannot resist an off road adventure so on our ride back down the mountain, after visiting Wat Doi Suthep, we turned off the main road and put a little gravel in our travel (yup that's what Shayne calls it...).
After turning off the main road there were a couple Y's and with some guessing along with the capability of the scooter we made our way down the seldom travelled trail. At times it felt like we were trespassing, which is a familiar feeling when Shayne takes back roads as sometimes they are actually driveways to the Klampits hidden cabin. Fortunately we came across a local lady and she pointed us to continue down the trail with sign language, so glad we saw her. The trail opened up a bit and we passed a small village with 5 or 6 houses on stilts and some activity with people working their gardens. Then we showed up at the temple with immediate awe. We knew right away this was going to be a cool place.
We ended up spending a couple hours here as there were no tourists and the environment was tranquil and beautiful. The grounds were filled with 650 year old ancient artifacts, moss covered landscaping, waterfalls, butterlies, monks performing their daily chores, sweet incense burning, ancient religious buildings, spires and statues. We knew we had found a truly spiritual and inspiring place.
After leaving a very busy tourist trap with hundreds of gold painted Buddhas, immaculate temples and thousands of tourists waiting in line, sweating with crying children and heavy camera straps choking them and cutting the blood supply off to their brains (Yes, you guessed it, this blurb was brought to you by my dearest Shayne). This was a most peaceful and by far our favorite location in Thailand to date.
Here are a few pics of our time spent here and there are more if you click the flickr link at the top of this web page.
After leaving a very busy tourist trap with hundreds of gold painted Buddhas, immaculate temples and thousands of tourists waiting in line, sweating with crying children and heavy camera straps choking them and cutting the blood supply off to their brains (Yes, you guessed it, this blurb was brought to you by my dearest Shayne). This was a most peaceful and by far our favorite location in Thailand to date.
Here are a few pics of our time spent here and there are more if you click the flickr link at the top of this web page.
If you ever visit Northern Thailand, this is one place you should make time to see.