Day 5, Sept 17, 2018, Monday
The plan for the day was to have breakfast, do our last minute packing, check out, store luggage at the hotel, say our prayers at the Hedaytul Islam Mosque, take a taxi to the Old City to walk around, come back to the hotel to pick our luggage and go to the railway station to catch our train back to Bangkok. A simple and straight forward plan that eventually colored with realities.
At around 0800 we were already at Sophia Restaurant for our breakfast and from the conversation we had the day before I knew that my wife, Mohd Noh and families would be buying a bit of dried foodstuff to take home. This was the reason for the last-minute packing in the initial plan. We ordered our addictions and slowly started to have our last breakfast in Chiang Mai. The ladies cannot wait until the food being served to start buying and started to do an information research with the lady owner and piled things up to take home. Both the bankers continued to concentrate on our gastronomic pleasure. To be honest I was enjoying the shopping bit as well. The dried foodstuffs really were useful to take home.
Once we finished with our breakfast and food shopping we walked back towards the direction of our hotel. Instead of going up to our room I just made a quick drop of the foodstuff that we bought and we walked along the Changklan Road both to kill sometimes as well as looking for a last-minute bargain to shop. Although it was already passed 0900 most of the shops were still shut for business. This was understandable as they mostly stayed open until late at night. Among those already opened was a luggage shop that we stopped at. Apparently, Mohd Noh’s luggage needed expansion. While walking before we saw a man pushing his empty kiosk. That was not interesting but what really caught our attention was how he pushed his dinner table size kiosk complete with a roof around. He was manoeuvring his kiosk using a car steering wheel obviously with the front two tires fitted to it. We had fun looking at him and really admired his or their creativity.
Just before 1100 we walked back to our room to finalised our packing and check out. We did not ask for a late check out as the mosque was just nearby for us to pray. In fact, it was a good opportunity for us to really explore the mosque and the community around it. At noon we checkout and lepak at the lobby waiting for zohor before we walked to the mosque. Since zohor was at around 1230 we did not have to wait long at the lobby. We met a few locals at the mosque and struck a good conversation.
Hedaytul Islam (Ban Ho) Mosque is one of the seven Chinese mosques in Chiang Mai and it is the biggest. It was built by a group of Chin Ho or Hu Chinese that migrated from Yunnan in the nineteenth century. As we found out when we visited the old wooden mosques the day before the present mosque was built later across the old mosque.
Due to the time of the prayers and since most of the Muslims in Chiang Mai were still at work the congregation prayer was done at around 1330. Because we would not want to be late we said our prayers first. After we said our prayers we stayed back a bit, for me to take a few more shots inside of the mosque. We were introduced to the Imam who was sitting at a corner reading the Quran. He was of Chinese ethnicity as most of the Muslim in Chiang Mai.
Chinese Muslims in the north of Thailand mostly are from Yunan, China of Hui ethnic. They are known as Chin Haw or Chin Ho to the Thai community. They were believed to be traders and caravaners that crossed to Thailand. Currently, there are approximately 250 households (1,500 people) Yunanise Muslim within the districts of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son, with some in Lampang.
In Chiang Mai apart from the Muslim community at Chang Klan Road, where we were, there are other Muslim communities and the most thriving is at the Wat Gate area where Attaqwa mosque is located. This mosque serves as the epicentre of the Muslim Sanpakoi community there. The other Muslim communities in Chiang Mai are at Chang Puak and Ban Haw that make up about 40,000 Muslim and 17 mosques in total.
We exited Hedaytul Islam (Ban Ho) Mosque at around 1250 and stopped at the halal stalls outside the mosque. Although we were not that hungry we just bought some food to try. We ate while walking and took the truck taxi to the Old City. Our objective was to walk around a bit and visit the many museums there. It was really a hot day.
The truck taxi driver dropped us in front of the three kings monument and we first set our bearing as to where we were heading. The museum was just around the corner. We saw the building and it was just about finding the entrance. We circumvent the building and after a few minutes, we found the entrance. There was almost nobody at the museum and we began to wonder. We tried to get in until we saw somebody walking along and to our dismay, he told us the museum was closed. It was Monday and all the museums were closed on Monday. Suddenly we were tired and a bit frustrated. After a while of wondering what to do we decided to make the best it and backtracked towards the three kings monument.
After a customary photo session at the monument, we just walked the street hoping to see interesting things. The Old City is dominated by Wats at every corner we turned we seemed to find one. It is not strange as the Old City was a fortress surrounded by a protective moat. After a while walking we were in front of the grandest Wat Chedi Luang. W did not enter just took a few photos from the road. In front of the Wat were several restaurants and bistro. I saw a restaurant that had an image of an enticing juice. Since it was hot and we needed a break we walked in to lepak for a while. It was No. 6 Restaurant. We ordered exotic sounded juices, halal snacks and continued to chat of old times and getting to know more of each other family. At this restaurant was when I found about the Elephant Sanctuary within the Old City. It was really marked as a sanctuary and confidently I announced that I wanted to walk there. To me, it was believable that there was a sanctuary in the old city because of the fact that it was an old fort as with a lot of Wats. A huge connection to history and the culture of the Kings of Chiang Mai. With that resolve after our happy lepaking guided by Google Map we turned left on Phra Pok Klao 8 Alley looking for the sanctuary. Along the way, we passed through beautiful old buildings or new refurbished or redesigned old buildings. Most of them either became high-end boutique hotels or restaurants. The two critical successful business ventures in cities like Chiang Mai. One of such places was Viang Luang Resort.
We continued our walk and enjoying the surrounding. Capturing the moments and anything that we fancied along the way. We just wished that it was a cooler temperate and our walk would have been perfect. As we were nearing the end of the street I was getting excited because the ‘Sanctuary’ was supposed to just around the corner. I was ahead of everyone else and the first to see the big signage on the building that was beautifully done. Immediately I laughed aloud, of course at myself foolishly believing that there would be actually an elephant sanctuary there. Mohd Noh who was behind me laughed with me and he said something along the line ‘I was really sceptical when you mentioned about the sanctuary but I just followed as who knows?’ Ha ha ha ha we laughed and laughed. Of course, we took a picture of the Elephant Sanctuary Tourist Office.
After a good laugh, we explored the rest of the street until the end. At the corner, my wife stumbled upon a ‘jajan' shop and she went in to check on the variety and price. While we were there I conferred with Mohd Noh and decided from there for us to start to flag a taxi to go back to our hotel.
At 1605 we managed to get on and on our way back to our hotel. When we reached our hotel we collected our luggage and took the taxi outside the hotel. At around 1630 we were already at the station which was a good 2 hours. When we reached the station my wife asked whether there was halal outlet there. Together with my intention to explore the station, I went around to look for food for my dear wife.
Chiang Mai Railway Station (SRT Code: CGM) was opened for service on Jan 1, 1922, where the first service was Lampang - Chiang Mai. The Bangkok to Chiang Mai service was introduced much later on April 11, 1933. The station is the main railway station in the Province. Currently, there are 12 daily trains servicing this station as shared below.
- Special Express 7/8 Bangkok–Chiang Mai–Bangkok
- Special Express 9/10 (this is the newer set that we took) Bangkok–Chiang Mai–Bangkok
- Special Express 13/14 Bangkok–Chiang Mai–Bangkok
- Express 51/52 Bangkok–Chiang Mai–Bangkok
- Rapid 109 Bangkok–Chiang Mai
- Rapid 102 Chiang Mai–Bangkok
- Local 407/408 Nakhon Sawan–Chiang Mai–Nakhon Sawan
Apart from these, there are up-to six special trains for New Year, Songkran and other special festivals. Our train Special Express 10 was the last one to depart Chiang Mai station for Bangkok daily.
Special Express 10, Chiang Mai (1800) - Bangkok (0735), 2nd Class Sleeper, Car 5, Seats 14-16
I went around the station taking photos at will from outside of the building to the six tracks inside. I checked the cafe inside the station and there were no halal outlets and the same with the two restaurants outside on the left of the station. While there I scrutinised the menu and saw the fruit plate and basket items. I ordered those for my wife. So a lesson learnt for everyone to pack some food for dinner on the train before you go to the train station. I was back at the place where the rest were waiting at 1647 and our train was already on the platform. I walked up along the train to find out whether we can board already and wait inside an air-conditioned coach. I found an attendant ahead and was told we could do so and I walked back to the rest to inform them and we boarded our train.
Again we were in the same carriage for the journey down to Bangkok - Car 5, 2nd class sleeper
We rested in the train while waiting for the train to depart. However, me being me I jumped out to capture a few more shots of the Express 14 beside us that would be departing at 1700. In fact, I watched the train departed the station.
Our train departed at 1800 sharp and all of us just sat at our seats looking outside quietly. Not sure what were the others were thinking but I was looking forward to another journey as well as wondering when would be the next time to take the train again to Chiang Mai. Slowly it got darker outside that helped to create a solemn mood for all of us. We were seated on the left side of the train and we watched the sunset through our window as the train moved into the night.
We reached Lamphung at around 1920 and prepared for us to say our prayers and call it the night. Everyone seemed to want to retire early and we did.
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