It’s dark outside as our 5.45am alarm goes off. Breakfast boxes duly collected from reception we meet Bam, who will be our guide over the next few days. She’s funny, irreverent and a great person to show us around some of the forthcoming sights. We start by driving to the foothills of Doi Suthep, the nearby mountain, which has an important monastery near its summit. 

As we climb up the road, we pass barefoot monks carrying alms bowls making their daily dawn pilgrimage up to the temple, and as the sun rises we pull over next to a rather gaudy Buddhist shrine that looks more like an amusement arcade. There we, along with locals and a few other tourists, purchase pre-prepared food baskets and as some young monks walk past us we hand the food over, in respectful silence, and they issue us a (rather perfunctory) blessing of thanks. It’s become quite an industry. 

We continue our drive further on up the mountain, following (vaguely) the route that in the late 1300s King Kue Nha took as he climbed the mountain on an elephant searching for the ideal spot to build a pagoda to house a relic of the Buddha which he had brought from Sukothai. Wherever the elephant stopped for a break, he decreed a temple should be built. And when the elephant was almost at the summit, the exhausted creature lay down and died and so that is where the king decreed the pagoda and a huge monastery should be built, named Wat Phra That. 

Fortunately we don’t have to climb the last steep incline which finished off the poor elephant as there is now a funicular in place which we take up to the monastery. There are various temples in the monastery, all with representations of Buddha, and of course Ganesha in honour of the elephant who climbed the mountain, and there is also a little cave where a hermit lived to venerate the relic. Bam tells us that Doi Suthep actually means the Mountain of Suthep, as that was the name of the hermit who lived at the top of the mountain.

In the centre of Wat Phra That is a magnificent gold pagoda inside which is the collarbone of the Buddha and next to it there is a large golden cloth on a big roller upon which devotees are able to inscribe an entreaty or prayer which will later be wrapped around the pagoda. We write a little message and then Bam leads us to another temple where we have an audience with a monk, laying an offering before him and being blessed with a prayer, a bracelet and a liberal dousing of holy water. Bam has written our names in Thai for him, and also the fact we have come from London and after he finishes his incantation he looks at us, winks and in a pseudo-Cockney accent says “‘oly wa’ter!”

We eat our pre-packed breakfast on a viewing terrace in the temple grounds, which usually affords stunning views of Chiang Mai and the vast valley region far below, but today is covered in a haze of mist and pollution. The scenery at our next stop is beautiful however, descending down the mountain to Wat Pha Lat, the Waterfall Temple, which was built in 1383 on the site of the penultimate stop for the elephant. 

We walk around it, taking in its peaceful air and rural setting, before Coman returns to the waiting people carrier having hurt his leg a few days earlier in Erawan National Park. Meanwhile I join Bam in walking the rocky Monk’s Trail down the mountain to the outskirts of Chiang Mai, following the ancient pilgrimage route before the construction of the road. 

Coman is waiting for us at the bottom and we head to Supattra coffee shop for some delicious local Thai coffee grown in the region around Chiang Rai that we will visit in a few days’ time. Bam and our driver then drop us back to the hotel before noon and we have the rest of the day to ourselves, but rather than sit around the pool we have a huge amount of old Chiang Mai still to explore. 

We start at the Three Kings Monument. King Mon Rai, who founded the Lanna Kingdom back in 1262, was a school friend of King Rhamkhamhaeng of Sukothai, and they both ruled in similar, compassionate fashion. Like his royal contemporary he also created an alphabet, this time for his people to learn to write Lanna. 

Not too far away is Wat Phan Tao, a large wooden temple and gold pagoda, with fluttering yellow flags, trees in blossom and a walkway of prayer bells to ring. And next door to it is the jaw dropping Wat Chedi Luang, which the King was visiting yesterday, and is still decorated with royal purple and yellow ribbons. 

Its most important monument is Sao Inthakhin, the City Pillar, which is considered so holy that women are not allowed into the ornately decorated shrine due to the belief that menstruation will “humiliate its sanctity”. It’s no surprise that there’s a number of very disgruntled women waiting for their partners outside it!

However the most impressive sights are open to all and are genuinely awe-inspiring. The huge main temple is an incredible space with a gigantic Buddha dominating the far wall. We pay 100 baht and choose a purple pendant for our joint Chinese horoscope sign (the dog) and hang it in the temple with a prayer for the world to have peace for the new year. It will be a literal miracle if that happens, but well worth the £2.50 we’ve spent. 

Behind the spectacular temple is a vast prang, which rises above everything like a huge pyramid with an ornamental staircase guarded by huge Nagas and stone Buddhas surrounding it. We walk around the perimeter, taking in further temples, including one housing a large reclining Buddha as we go, and as we leave the site Coman turns to me with a look of wonder and simply says, “My mind is blown”. It’s something we start to say a lot over the next few days while we’re in northern Thailand.. especially when we get to Chiang Rai, where the temples take on a whole new dimension. 

However, we still have a lot of Chiang Mai to see before then and next up is the 700 year old Wat Singh Phra, which is equally jaw-dropping, featuring a vast seated golden Buddha with a blue and gold halo in its main hall. Other temples within the complex - which also received a royal visit yesterday - include one containing emerald Buddhas and further incredibly lifelike wax representations of deceased master monks. There is also a dazzling gold stupa with smaller ones surrounding it. 

By now we’re starving and knackered so head up the road to Good Souls, a fantastic vegetarian restaurant Bam recommended and have an excellent meal and delicious fresh juices. We need them to keep us going on to our next stop, Wat Lok Moli, one of the very oldest city temples from the late 1300s, and built in a noticeably different style of ornamental bricks. 

Opposite it is Wat Rajamontean featuring a large Buddha dressed as a king, but by now we’re completely temple-d out, so after a brief pit stop back at our hotel to get changed (and have a cocktail) we head out for dinner. It’s another brilliant plant-based restaurant called Downtown Garden, where once again we are served very high quality food. 

Chiang Mai is certainly living up to its reputation as the foodie capital of Thailand. It’s also known as the adventure capital of the country and tomorrow we have to be up early once more for some quite thrilling experiences in the mountains outside the city.