July 8th, 2012
Sunday July 8th
Up and out the door by 9am!! What?!!? Can it be done? ; )
Of course it can….
After a great nights sleep….we book another night and have our breakfast and then we are ready for Riam at 9am sharp! We climb into her new van (so much more spacious than her car from car from last year).
The plan is to head out to her garden, her house and then 3 Wats (temples).
We have been to her garden before…but it is always a pleasure and so peaceful! She has longnan trees, bananas, papayas, mangos….yum!!
They also raise chickens for the “chicken fights”. So we met some of the chickens…
Doesn’t Troy look pleased??
Then we went over to Riam’s house where she Iives with her I laws and her children. It is where her husband grew up…it was an awesome experience! We met her family….only her daughter speaks a small bit of English (from school), but she was too shy to speak English to us…I understand… : )
We have some water and fruit and listened to her daughter play a Thai instrument…took some pictures…Troy showed them some pictures from last year on his iPad…the kids knew all about that…not sure how….maybe friends or school? Or TV?
Then we went to Wat pa lad. It was so peaceful! It is a meditation site…so must remain quiet…beautiful waterfall and lush forest area…
We also went to Wat Umong…there was a celebration going on for new monks…so it was packed with families coming to support their sons/brothers etc who are going to be monks for anywhere from 3 days to 3 months to a lifetime (for some). It is an important pasty of Thai culture for all young men to at least once become a monk. It brings good blessings and fortune to the whole family for them to do this….sometimes they go as teens, or they wait until they are 18 or 21.
I don’t have any pictures of the ceremony itself…Troy does…so maybe he will put on his blog…
Then lastly we went to Wat doi kham. One more gorgeous place! Amazing view of Chiang Mai from up in the mountains…lots of lucky rabbits too ; )))
At the temples, there are often these inspirational signs…designed I suppose to incite reflection…which for me they do….
So that was a big day!! But I have reserved some energy for the Sunday market….which you may remember last Sunday I barely could stay awake to walk through a bit and drag myself back to hotel…
So yes…hit the market…it was trying to rain on us…but managed to hold off for the most part…the market was packed but was a very good time…I did find some treasures….so that is all good…found my favourite corn (they roast corn and then cut it off the cob and put in a cup with generous a,out of butter and salt) it is exceptionally yummy….I don’t think Troy gets my fascination with it…or the waffles…(which I also had at the market)….but that is what makes us all so unique ; )))))
