{"id":11018,"date":"2017-08-13T16:07:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-13T08:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/?p=11018"},"modified":"2017-08-13T16:12:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-13T08:12:36","slug":"the-seven-fountains-chiang-mai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/the-seven-fountains-chiang-mai\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seven Fountains (Chiang Mai)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chiang Mai is certainly beautiful in its own ways. There are quite a number of places of interest in and around town and some of them \u2013 such as the elephant sanctuaries that I had to avoid going to because the idea of keeping elephants in the captivity was quite against my principles and belief. But out of all the places that I went to while I was in Chiang May, there was one place that I particularly liked.<\/p>\n

I actually did not know about this place and it was not even in my itinerary until I posted my first picture in Chiang Mai on facebook and somebody suggested that I go to a place called The Seven Fountains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Seven Fountains turns out to be a retreat centre for Catholics, which makes this place quite unique since Thais are almost 95% Buddhist. Upon googling it up, I found out that it is quite near to the city centre, only a few hundred yards away from the main entrance to Chiang Mai University.<\/p>\n

So I went there on the motorbike that I rented. The gate was open but what I first saw was a sign that says entry is not allowed without permission. Unfortunately nobody was at the guardhouse so there was nobody that I could seek permission from. But then it was a retreat centre and there was a church and several chapels in there so my idea of a place like The Seven Mountains is that it should be always be welcoming.<\/p>\n

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I was actually trying to catch up with the weekday mass at 6 pm so I asked a young guy who had just come in and the only person that I saw around. After a little bit of struggle with the language barrier, he pointed to a double storey building in the far back to where I hastily walked over.<\/p>\n

I did manage to find a chapel in the building where I assumed the mass had already started for quite a while but the attendees could not be more than 5 people. It was totally different from what I had imagined. Barging in when the mass had already started suddenly didn\u2019t ring well in my head so I decided to skip it. Instead, I took a walk around the compound which was more like a garden. A beautiful garden actually.<\/p>\n

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I felt immediately relaxed the moment I stepped onto the compound of The Seven Mountains. It was very silent that all I could hear was the sound of leaves flipping against the evening winds. Of course, being a retreat centre where a lot of religious activities take place, there was no doubt that there was something so spiritual about the whole place.<\/p>\n

I came upon a pair of rabbits who appeared unperturbed by my presence. They got me with their cuteness (my goodness, the eyes!) at very first sight. It wasn\u2019t long before they ran towards a peacock which didn\u2019t seem to like their presence around her and began to spread its feathers.<\/p>\n

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Central to the whole compound is a church with one of the most beautiful front fa\u00e7ades that I\u2019ve ever seen on a church. The wood carvings are just incredibly beautiful. There is also a beautiful fountain with water cascading down from a big jar at the front yard.<\/p>\n

Just at the back the church is my favorite feature of the whole compound. A walkway is flanked by beautiful rows of bamboo on both sides. At both ends of the walkway is a wooden gate with the word \u2018peace\u2019 emblazoned on the top. It reminds me of the famous bamboo forest in Japan.<\/p>\n

The whole area is quite large with lush greenery dominating the landscape. Scattered here and there are beautiful wooden huts that are kept at a distance from each other, perfect for meditating activities or something.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps the most iconic landmark of the whole compound is the maze garden. I walked right into the maze and later found myself in the middle of it where a large piece of rock with peculiar shape had been erected.<\/p>\n

Placed on top of it is a colorful oval stone for whatever significance that it bears. My attention was particularly caught by a long stone that was placed on the side which \u2013 if you don\u2019t look closely \u2013 looks like it is hanging in the air or something. I really wish there was somebody that I could ask of what significance the whole thing carries.<\/p>\n

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So I must be there long enough because people were beginning to come out of the chapels. I was sitting at one of the benches when a man on a bicycle came up to me and spoke to me in Thai. Unfortunately, I could not understand a word he was saying until he took out a bundle of keys from his pocket and showed it to me.<\/p>\n

Then I realized that he was talking about the permission which I failed to get before entering the premise. I tried to reason out to him that he was not at the guard house when I entered but he did not seem to get a shit of thing that I was trying to say either.<\/p>\n

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But then I was about to leave anyway but somehow I really wanted to question why is the need to seek permission to enter a place of worship that is dedicated to Christianity (unless I was there to cause trouble). Jesus that I know has always been welcoming. Heh.<\/p>\n

But then, I am glad that I did go there. It really was a beautiful place to be \u2013 the air of spirituality, the calming atmosphere, the soothing ambiance \u2013 exactly the things that I really look for in a place of worship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chiang Mai is certainly beautiful in its own ways. There are quite a number of places of interest in and around town and some of them \u2013 such as the elephant sanctuaries that I had to avoid going to because the idea of keeping elephants in the captivity was quite against my principles and belief. But out of all the places that I went to while I was in Chiang May, there was one place that I particularly liked. I…<\/p>\n

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