To the people of Thailand, Lampang is known as the most romantic city in the country because of its tradition of horse carriages. Even today, you can find horse carriage taxis that will take you on a tour through the entire town's important attractions. Lampang gets the romantic visual image from how it's been portrayed in Thai films and Thai soap operas on national television. There are popular campsites, mountain resorts & home rentals throughout the province where young couples can snuggle the day away in Thailand's cooler months.
Everywhere you look in Lampang, everyone is romantically smiling at you and offering the sincerest northern Thai hospitality. Everybody seems to be super cool, relaxed and the locals drive below the speed limit. If any car is seen driving over the speed limit, they'll say "They must be from Bangkok or Chiang Mai." The complete opposite of any and every major city in the world like London, Paris, or New York where a minute is a lifetime. In Lampang, a lifetime is a minute.
This beautiful province of over 755,000 people has skills of kindness and a love for teak wood homes built in the original Lanna style. The town is full of old wealth from northern Thailand's logging boom over 100 years ago but the modern day economy is propelled by superb ceramicware and the love for art. There's a joke in the local communities about the amount of love the town has for art. They joke about how all of Lampang province has only 2 driver's education instructors and over 200 art teachers. Even the elephants at The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) draw paintings available for purchase. How's that for a town with a massive love for art.
Visiting my friend Pai Jai
Years back I worked on a travel show pilot and met my great elephant friend Pai Jai on set at The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) of Lampang. During the shooting, I found out that we're both 'year of the horse' and I was older than him by only 3 months. We shared a meal of bananas & sugar canes together and since then, I always visit him everytime I'm in Lampang. The only exception is when he and all the male elephants have to be isolated during musth.
When we got to The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC), it didn't take us long to find Pai Jai. We greeted his mahout and mounted Pai Jai for our ride around the trails. One cool fact about elephants is they are aware they are elephants and are very aware of who's mean to them and/or who loves them. "Only a fool would think otherwise" (translated) is what all the mahouts say about a human's awareness to this.
Knowing that Pai Jai's aware of his surroundings, I love speaking to him like he's one of the boys. I tell him stories on our trek and at certain points in some of the stories, he turns and makes eye contact with me. You know when an elephant is making eye contact with you because of the way they have to turn their heads. Pai Jai also has the most perfect tusks for his bred of elephants. When he makes eye contact with me, I get to see the stretch of his marvelous tusks while seated on his back. Something I've learned to appreciate over the years of visiting him. I gave my elephant friend a huge bear hug before heading to see the center's elephant art presentation.
The elephant shows at The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) are about the abilities of the different breeds of elephants. This center was founded by the Royal Patronage and is Thailand's only government-owned elephant camp. The greatest attraction for me is seeing the elephants paint pictures of flowers, people, and even other elephants. Though they may be painting the same picture over and over again, they choose when to paint what picture. Even more so, some elephants will color in their paintings. We took another elephant painting home and said goodbye to the friends we've made there over the years.
We deeply enjoyed our trip to the elephant center and decided to rest the rest of the evening to gather excitement for the day to follow.
The Great Temple in the Sky
"Look up in the sky. It's a bird, no... its a plane..." No, it's just me hiking straight up a mountainous cliff path towards the top of Wat Chalermprakiat. Before the hike though, we arrived at the ground level of the temple filled with eateries, coffee shops, and 4 x 4 pickup truck drivers.
We decided to grab some quick coffee "pick me up" shots of expresso, visit the main hall's statue of Buddha and take photos of the four large statues of Buddha in the back of the main hall.
The main hall of Wat Chalermprakiat always amazes me because of the interior design as well as the architectural designs of the temple.
We took our time admiring the view from the balcony with the 4 statues of Buddha before heading down the small hill back to the 4 x 4 truck drivers.
The drivers drove us up the dangerous roads, 3/4 of the way up the mountain to the ranger checkpoint station. At some point up the mountainous road, both sides of it dropped out from under us revealing cliffs on both sides where only one truck can pass either way. At this point of the journey, our lives was in the hands of our wonderful driver. We reached the ranger station where there's a shop to stock up on water before taking the last 1000 meter hike straight up the mountainside. One kilometer is never hard when you're moving horizontally but it changes in dynamics when it's a vertical challenge.
We asked the consecrated statues at the ranger station for empowerment before trekking to the base of the stairs used to climb the steep mountainous terrain. When we arrived at the bottom step, there was a monk putting cement blocks in a large threaded bag and a signed that said, "Please help carry what you can, the temple has no elevators or cranes to the top of the mountain." Meaning please help carry as many bricks up so they can further build the temple part that's at the top of the mountain. I sized up the 5'6 ft monk and his threaded bag up so I figured I could carry 3 cement blocks without tiring. I was carrying everyone else's bags too (no excuses).
I was about to pass out when we reached the top carrying those 3 blocks. I realized I need to get back into fighting shape when I saw the same 5'6 ft monk empty his bag of 10 cement blocks out. Those bad boys must weigh at least 2.5 kg. each, so he was carrying 25kg to my 7.5 kg. That monk taught me the greatest lesson in humility all by just doing a great deed for Wat Chalermprakiat. 10 blocks!
We took a much-needed rest and was so grateful for the water we stocked up on. After regaining our breaths, I explored the beautiful pagodas and some amazing sleeping quarters.
The abbot's sleeping quarters is built on a cliff with half the building hanging off the cliff. I decided to climb the bell tower which takes you to the highest point of Wat Chalermprakiat.
When I made it, I stood there taking deep breaths and realized I had made it to the 'temple in the sky' everyone has been dreaming about.
The Last Lesson
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the temple's main sala (patio) admiring the view of Chae Hom district, and the statues of Buddha housed there.
The main sala has the best view of the unreachable pagodas that are awesome for photos at dawn. We took plenty of priceless photos ourselves, of an amazing mountain and started our trek back down the path. On our way down the path I finally got to enjoy the gorgeous forest landscape because on the way up, I was focused on not tiring out with my 3 cement blocks.
As we were close to the bottom, we saw the same monk carry another 10 cement blocks up. Another 10 cement blocks! As I passed him, I vowed to do more pushups and come back to help carry up 2 loads of cement blocks like he was doing. He has the load of the bag directly behind his neck so his whole back is supporting it with both hands. As I finished the statement he turned around holding the bag with one hand. The monk smiled & winked simultaneously and put up 3 fingers with his free hand to signify his 3rd trip up. That was his 3rd trip up the mountain with 10 cement blocks! What?! That's super monk and I definitely gotta do more than pushups.
Authored & Photographed by: @stewsak
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