{"id":3978,"date":"2023-01-24T10:10:31","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T15:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/?p=3978"},"modified":"2023-01-24T10:12:19","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T15:12:19","slug":"a-mall-a-buddhist-temple-and-fried-pork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/2023\/01\/24\/a-mall-a-buddhist-temple-and-fried-pork\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mall, A Buddhist Temple, and A Funky Eatery!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a day of contrasts! This morning we made a 35 minute trek along a busy street to check out Chiang Mai Central Festival Mall, which opened in 2013. \u00a0It\u2019s huge and very upscale with five levels of restaurants and shops. \u00a0On the lower level there is a very modern grocery store (called TOPS) next to stalls selling Thai Street Food.<\/p>\n

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Central Mall Chiang Mai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While at the Mall, we bought some small household items and had a lunch of Ramen Noodles and a Bento Box with Grilled Chicken at a Japanese Restaurant.<\/p>\n

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Later in the day, we visited Wat Ket. \u00a0According to temple information, construction on the temple began in 1428 and the chedi or pagoda contains a relic of the Buddha.<\/p>\n

The last couple of days we\u2019ve watched workers build an elaborate scaffolding structure made of bamboo poles. \u00a0It\u2019s fascinating to see them work as they use short strands of rope to tie\u00a0<\/span>together poles; constructing the \u201crungs\u201d as they go. \u00a0The workers are shoeless, clinging to the hot concrete structure with their bare feet. \u00a0We can\u2019t decide if they are prepping for a repair or for cleaning but we are anxious to watch the progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Work in Progress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We went inside one of the temples in the complex; \u00a0a wonderfully peaceful space. \u00a0It\u2019s not visible in the photo below, but the red halo behind the head of the Buddha is actually a series of multicolored, neon, glittering lights!<\/p>\n

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Wat Ket Temple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exploring the temple complex is like a treasure hunt\u2026there is something interesting to wonder about around every corner. \u00a0On previous visits, the lotus flowers were always beautiful but this time, they\u2019ve been replaced with pink plastic flowers (though I see in this photo that one real lotus flower is peeking through – hooray!!) \u00a0The lovely yellow blossoms are real and add a nice contrast to the lotuses (real and unreal.)<\/p>\n

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Find the Real Lotus Flower!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This pile of stone conceals some nearly hidden treasures!<\/p>\n

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Topped With Golden Leaves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By contrast, not far from the Wat is a restaurant called \u201cFried Pork\u201d- as one can imagine, it\u2019s not gourmet but the Bossa Nova music is good and the small plates of rice, pork, vegetables and egg omelets make for a pleasant light meal.<\/p>\n

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Dinner at Fried Pork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After dinner walked back to the apartment through Wat Ket and now, the scaffolding looks like it\u2019s nearly complete – an amazing feat of ingenuity! \u00a0We are very anxious to see what happens next! \u00a0Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

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Scaffolding in Place!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a day of contrasts! This morning we made a 35 minute trek along a busy street to check out Chiang Mai Central Festival Mall, which opened in 2013. \u00a0It\u2019s huge and very upscale with five levels of restaurants and shops. \u00a0On the lower level there is a very modern grocery store (called TOPS) … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Mall, A Buddhist Temple, and A Funky Eatery!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chiang-mai-thailand-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3992,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/3992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}