Text: Prime Sarmiento

Photos: Prime Sarmiento/Avie OIarte

 No one visits Chiang Mai without getting even a glimpse of its many Buddhist temples. Temples and monks in orange robes (oh and also elephants) – these are the images that most travelers will always remember about this northern Thailand city.

 I didn't visit Chiang Mai to go on a spiritual journey. Far from it. I was just spending a long weekend with a friend and was trying to recover from a 13 hour bus ride from Bangkok (not to mention the awful noodles that I had to eat in one of those dreadful pit stops). 

 But like most travelers, I can't help but go inside one of its many temples. Never mind that I have since abandoned my Buddhist pursuit to delve further in Goddess Spirituality. I can't resist the pull of any of Chiang Mai's temples.

 And besides, I have never forgotten the teachings of Buddhism – I still consider Sogyal Rinpoche's Tibetan Book of Living and Dying as one of the major books that inspired my own spiritual path.

So I meditated. And prayed. I think I chanted and invoked the Goddess. So this may not be a Buddhist practice. But this is a Buddhist temple.

But then Chiang Mai is not about Buddhism. And the temples are not about Buddhism. The structures are not really about spirituality. 

And this post is not really about travel.