Wat Phra That Suthon Mongkhon Khiri and Doi Suthep

It's difficult to picture Thailand without seeing images of the the wats that seemingly cover the country; the gold spires and rich jewel tones seem almost synonymous with Thailand at times. And deep down, I knew these were sacred religious sites for many, but it never truly struck me like it did when I was standing within my first one.

Wat Phra That Suthon Mongkhon Khiri appears to be the wat with the longest name ever, apparently to match the ginormous reclining buddha out front.

That's a big buddha--89 meters to be exact. Being a Yank, I find that trying to visualize distance in meters is not as easy as yards or more specificially, football fields. Sadly, I actually do think of smaller distances in terms of football fields. Eighty-nine meters happens to be 97.3 yards...that's almost an entire football field. Like I said, that's a big buddha. Vance Johnson could have run from one end of the statue to the other in like 10 seconds. On his best day and if he never got tired I'm thinking.

That being said, we did head to another wat later in the week--Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. This buddhist temple sits a little way outside Chiang Mai, high up on Doi Suthep (the mountain). While I stayed outside the inner temple as my family went inside, it was still worth the 304 stair climb to the top. There are fabulous views of the city from this site high above the city(somewhat obscured by smog), historical info as well as that stunning wat architecture and detail.