More Chiang Mai Adventures

Well yesterday we took a break from the motorbike and did a fair amount of walking around the city to see some of the bigger temples.  There are a lot of people bustling around the city, and even in the temples, getting ready for the Thai new year.  The young monks seem to be put to work decorating the temples for the festivities.  I took a trip in the evening to the Saturday walking street, which they close off to cars for vendors to sell various things (Dan didn't think he could handle the madness).  It was quite pleasant, much less touristy than the night market.  We did however end up at the night market for dinner, which was great because they have free cultural shows and last night it was Thai dancing so I found that very interesting to watch.

This morning I got up at 5:30 (that right!) because I wanted to see if I could witness the monks receiving alms.  I wasn't really sure where to go, but I did a bit of searching around of the internet and some random person posted that they found a good spot was right around the corner from where we are staying!  So while it was still dark I headed out to see if I would be lucky.  The streets were very quiet by Asia standards but I was surprised at how many people were up and about at that hour, setting up their little stands, rice cookers steaming away.  I found a bunch of people with tables set up right on the road with lots of individual bags of food that looked like offerings so I went across the street and sat on a bench and sure enough, not five minutes later, the first monk appeared.  He was indeed walking barefoot, and was summoned by a woman at the table who gave him some food, then knelt so he could sing a blessing.  It was really quite amazing to witness, especially in the middle of a busy street with tuk-tuks and motorcycles whizzing by, periodically drowning out the monk's voice.  It's seemed so beautiful to me that this still goes on despite the hustle and bustle of every day life.  A tuk-tuk driver even pulled over beside a monk walking at one point because he had an offering for him, the monk blessed him, then the driver was on his way.  So after by exciting morning, I went back to bed for 2 hours :>)

The next part of our day was a little less exciting ... we decided to rent a motorbike again to see this temple called Doi Suthep up in the mountains.  It all started out well, with us stopping off at the long distance bus station to book our tickets to Chiang Rai for tomorrow, but then when we got back to the bike, Dan couldn't find the key!  So we had to call the rental shop (who's number thankfully I had), and they said to just come back and get a spare (which thankfully they had), so Dan hopped on a Sangtaw and I waited by the bike....then when he got back we realized we had locked the back wheel with the chain as we were instructed to do (maybe being overly worried), and we did not have a spare key to that.  So off Dan went again to try and find a saw to cut the lock (on a Sunday), which, thankfully he did and we were on our way.  Major fiasco.  But we got to the temple, and it was lovely, and very peaceful and cool now that it was evening!  We have to find a new lock to replace the one we sawed apart, and are hoping we won't be charged too much for the lost key!  But for now...we are off to enjoy the festivities here (including bustling markets and live shows in the square) and to get some cheap Pad-Thai.  We are certainly hoping our "excitement" for the day is over!  Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan