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	---> MORE Destinations: _________________________________ New Perspective of Chiang Rai at Latitude 19 VISITING A BORDER TOWN: Mae Sot – then and now The Poy Sang Long Festival in Mae Hong Son The Samoeng Strawberry Festival Far Out and Cool in Fang District PICTURE PERFECT Mon Jaem Chiang Mai Reflections and a Night Safari Adventure Wat Palad: The Temple below the Temple The Bua Tong Waterfall Park The Cave and Hot Springs of the Mae On Area A DAY TRIP TO DOI INTHANON Two wheels good four wheels…er… The Sino-Thai Dragon Temple of Wat Tha Ton Doi Inthanon - Thailand’s Highest Mountain Kad Mua - an all-you-need market Chiang Dao High! Chiang Mai’s Red Cross and Winter Fair Loy Krathong at Tak A RETREAT TO... Kwan Yin Bodhisattva Hall Living with nature: Galyani Vadhana District Treasures of Myanmar A Journey to Shangri-La Pha Wing Choo – A Lover's Cliff Wiangtakan – The Past Remains Rural Life and Natural Mystery in Chaiprakarn Taking Aim at Chiang Mai's Shooting Gallery Chiang Mai - Maerim - Samoeng Route Hot Springs (and eggs) Ratchaphruek Festival 2009 The 5th Lanna - Japan Festival 2009 Make a Day of it at the New Look Night Safari Mae Sa Snake Farm Marine Lives in a Mountainous Zoo X-Centre Mae Hong Son, Pang Oong and much more along the way... Mae Kampong Village Tiger Kingdom Pai: The Hub of Joy Flower Festival Annual Bo Sang Umbrella Festival at Bo Sang Village Wiang Kum Kam: The Underground Ancient City Loy Kratong: The Town's Joyful Festival Monkey Centre Maerim, Chiang Mai Baankwai Thai Maerim Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden THE ROYAL PALACE ON DOI SUTHEP The Night Safari Ban Saonak Chae Son National Park Lamphun's Wat Chamathevi Doi Tao Lake Mae Sai Bai the Beautiful Wieng Kum Kam Mae Klang Luang Village Doi Pui - Hmong Tribal Village Nan Province Wat Suan Dok Chiang Saen: a city in myth and reality One Night in Chiang Rai and a day across the border A trip full of tour guides Two Days and a Night in the Country The Sumptuous Angkhang Gourmet Tour AWAY FROM IT ALL IN NEARBY MAE WANG Children's Day at the Westernmost Point of Thailand To Lamphun Along the Road of Histories ESCAPING TO PAI A WINTER TRIP ON THE PING RIVER To the Back of Beyond, right on your doorstep Visiting the Shrine of the Elephant-Headed God Visiting Samui Back to Nature at Opkhan National Park Lost in the Chiang Mai Zoo Three Days through the Northern Countryside DOING A NINE-TEMPLE KARMA TRIP - Right Here in Chiang Mai An Early Summer Trip to the Thi Lo Su Falls Nan: Forest, Temples and the Salt of the Earth TREKKING AND TUCKING IN: Wawee Coffee Plantation Mai Long Yee - Lovely Whatever Else You Call It Magnificent Creatures at Wat Changkham Off to See Some Mural Paintings in Lampang The Salawin and the People of Tha Tafang A Hike in the Forest A Journey back in time A Long Night of Luxury in the Chiang Dao Valley Ice-cold in Omkoy A Quick Visit to a Karen Wedding Strawberry Fields Forever A quick ride to Jaesorn National Park A Journey to Wawee A Birding Trip for Newbies Nam Bor Phi Cave A Breath of Sea Air Shopping With a Difference: Kad Luang Airport ELEPHANTS AND ORCHIDS AND THE SNACKS IN BETWEEN Monsoon Miscellany MAE RIM LAGOON AN IMPRESSIVE TRIP - to the Sukantara Resort Visiting Luang Prabang, the Pearl on the Mekong River Phrae: refreshing trip, auspicious visits Up on the Mountain (again) at Khun Wang UP THE MOUNTAIN TO THUNG LUANG SINGAPORE - City of Parks A Short Sight-Seeing Trip to the Monkey Centre GIVE PAI A TRY! You won’t regret it A BUSY DAY’S VISIT TO SANKAMPAENG A Rainy Day Outing to Phrao Monsoon Miscellany TRIPPING AND TASTING ALONG THE HANDICRAFT HIGHWAYS

A Journey back in time

We've all heard of time-travel, right? How you pop into the mad scientist's machine, punch the right buttons and - zoom! There you are, back at some crucial historical point - perhaps with Arnie Schwarzenegger, in one or other of his manifestations. Adventures follow...

Well, this is what this reporter found himself engaged in one day last June. Office dispatches said he should transport himself to an event some 60 kms south of present day Chiang Mai point, and a couple of generations back in time, to a ceremony that was to be enacted. And his time machine was nothing more nor less than his battered old Honda motorbike. That was what was to take him back to the past, and - if things worked out - bring him back again to present-day Chiang Mai. The event itself was the renovation and opening to the public of an old house, a very old house of a previous Chiang Mai prince, named khoom chao nawarat.

Well, mine not to reason why...

I had to point myself in the direction of Sanpatong and the vicinity of Thailand's loftiest mountain, Doi Inthanon. But though I had apprehensions of difficulty - how would my bike get up the slopes that stretched ahead of us? - the fact is everything went fine. Not much climbing to be done at all. Straightforward driving - but mind my bike, you other road-users!

Once I arrived in the Sanpatong district, I stopped at a small grocery to cool me and the bike down, and also to ask for directions. But the khoom chao nawarat (The Palace of Prince Nawarat) proved easy to find because it's so famous. No sooner are the words out of your mouth than just about anyone can point you in the right direction. Besides, there are signs everywhere, including some referring to its alternative designation - wat sri nawarat - so just as long as you can speak and read Thai, you're in clover.

There I was then, six or seven kilometers on, at the place itself, a venerable pile with ceremonial tung (flags) hung here and there in the grounds around it, as well as surrounded by other time-travellers dressed appropriately and ready for an inaugural procession.

Well, I parked, started taking photos (vide - aren't they terrific?) and addressed myself to one of the notables of the ceremony, one Ajarn Rungrote, a famous artist who discovered this historic building in its small Tai Kheun community and tried restoring it, from a deserted and decaying hulk into a community treasure, open to the public. From Aj. Rungrote himself I learned that one hundred and twenty years ago, this 'big house' was a residence of Chao Kaew Nawarat, the ninth and last dynastic prince of the Lanna Kingdom. This was one of his many houses in Chiang Mai. (Others include what are today the US Consulate, the Vista Hotel, and more.)

Deserted some time in the last century, I learned from the villagers that in their eyes the house had long ago succumbed to the invasion of various ghosts and spirits, and that no-one had dared to come near it for a very long time.

But then this painter well-known in Chiang Mai and further afield, Rungrote Paimyotsak, discovering the building, had tried to get concerned people to understand its value. As a result, Khoom Chao Nawarat is now open for public viewing and will certainly contribute to luring more tourists to the small district of Sanpatong. Moreover, management of the one-time palace is in the hands of the local people, and I was told that while turning it into a self-financing museum is being considered, at the moment those going along to see it are charged no entry fee.

I was there though for the opening ceremony, and before it began I took a look at the building, and sounded out what kind of vibes it still emanated. I have to tell you for a palace, it looked on its solid piles to be far from imposing. There again though, compare it with the other buildings around and put it back in its period, and it does have a presence: a luxurious palace made of mai daeng or red wood, a Henrik Ibsen Hall of the Mountain King.

All right, you can tune out at this part - the speeches from the podium, how the speaker was pleased to help conserve this true Lanna building, blah, blah, blah. Then a gong was hit to mark the coming back to life of this 120-year-old building. And that was it. We could go inside.

As I told you, this was like a journey back in time. Every step up the stairs caused shrieking noises guaranteed to send a chill down your spine - petrifying if you'd been there alone at night. But even in the daylight, you couldn't help feeling the presence of the past. The procession of the local people playing traditional music, young dancers and old people wearing traditional costume, all made me think that the past had suddenly come alive and the prince himself might have been up in the house, watching silently as the crowd marched around and then merrily into the house. Take away the cars and the loud speakers and I myself would have believed that I'd suddenly woken up in a lost world, time-traveled back to nineteenth century Chiang Mai.

This then is the house that the last Prince of Chiang Mai used to stay in when travelling south to visit the people of this region. It was not hard to imagine how he lived because everything - wardrobe, bed, wicker chairs and so on - was maintained as it had been in his day. The electric lights, I guess, are the only modern component of the house, and these were turned on to illumine the mansion, as by this time the wing of the night was spreading across the western skies.

Over a hundred years ago, to travel sixty kilometers you needed to prepare your horses, your carriage, your entourage. One hour in your carriage couldn't take you far into the wilderness of Chiang Mai a hundred years back. Being there as I was with night coming on, it made me realise how the past has been spirited away from us, but how there are still ways to get ourselves back into something like the way it used to be.

"It wouldn't have been a leisure trip at all like mine," I told myself as I kick-started my motorbike and hit the road again at over 60 kilometers per hour, back to Chiang Mai, back into the future.

Text: Terryl & Tachyon
Images: Tachyon