From the moment our car pulled up to the front gates of Dhara Dhevi in Chiang Mai , all it took was one look up the long, stone driveway through the tall, wooden gates for my mouth to drop in awe. I kept asking Jay to pinch me to see if what was in front of us was actually real. Before Thailand was the country that we know it to be today, it used to be quite different in terms of culture and size. Two main cultures—the Siamese and the Lanna—dominated the region for centuries. The Lanna had hold in the northern region, and the Siamese had hold in the southern.
The two kingdoms eventually unified after the kingdom of Lanna was faced with repeated invasions and wars and was forced to turn to the kingdom of Siam for aide. They merged together to form what we now know as Thailand! Bravo to you for finishing that mini history lesson of the day on Thailand!
As you enter the hotel, you cross over a noisy, rickety bridge that makes a sound as if your car might break the wood beams that are holding the bridge together. We learned that this was actually customary in palaces and kingdoms of the time period because the noisy sound of the bridge would essentially work as an alarm system for the guards who were standing watch to let them know that someone was arriving. They even have an actual watchtower near the entrance that is a replica of what would have been used!
See what I mean? You have everything from grand marble entrances to intricately decorated doorways and multi-tiered rooftops. The only thing that we were able to effectively express after our mouths had been wide open for about 15 minutes was just how incredible every tiny attention to detail was. From the gilded dragons to the carved sculptures, from the exotic horticulture to the traditional rice paddies; every single nook and cranny of this resort seemed to have a purpose and meaning behind it.
No detail was left unnoticed. The staff graciously gave us some information about what we can expect to see, eat, and do throughout our stay, and sent us with our butler to our suite via golf cart BTW I just love when hotels do this! Needless to say, we were ready to start exploring the property! The designers and engineers of Dhara Dhevi have essentially created a miniature version of a traditional Lanna-style village among the 60 acres of lush, tropical land.
