wat's up
ok. bad joke, but i couldn't resist! chang mai is home to at least 300 buddhist temples or wats. yesterday, i attempted to see a few of the more famous ones. after procuring a hat for the rest of the journey, i contined on looking for one of the more famous temples in chang mai - wat phra sihg. along the way, a friendly german fellow enganged me in conversation and he wound up tagging along the rest of the day. we made it to the wat (and turns out it was quite easy to find and i had been in the vicinty earlier in the day -but the heat must have fried my brain cuz earlier i felt completely lost!).
anyhoo, the wat, like most of the others i've seen in thailand was a gilded gem. there was a charming little garden area with stone tables and chairs, trees carefully planted in neat rows. each tree had a green sign hanging on it with words of wisdom in both thai and english. a young monk asked us if we had time to talk. he had English homework to do! his assignment was to interview foreigners. Well, of course i had time to talk with the monk and help with his English homework! we had a lovely chat about our expectations of thailand, our thoughts on thailand, buddhism, religion, war, vegetarianism. how perfect as the sun sets over chang mai to be in this garden area with words of wisdom all about to be talking with this young english student. ok. buddhist student but he is also studying english!
afterward the german guy and i had a drink and a bite to eat. i asked him if all europeans hated americans. he said that yes, more and more, young people are thinking that there must be something wrong with a society that can have george bush as president. depressing, eh? but he said something quite intersting, that germans, older germans in particular, are quite fond of americans and are thankful for what america has done for germany. interesting to me because i have met a few people here from all over the place, and the nicest europeans that i have met have been german. the conversation took a dive south once the topic of isreal and palestine rolled around. at the start, i said, we probably shouldn't even touch this subject, but, alas, conversations often just move on thier own.
today, i decided to try to get to a temple a bit outside of town. i thought that i could simply walk to the bus stop where a mini bus (technically a swangteoung) would take me to doi suthup. ha! a tuk tuk driver tried to tell me that the bus station was far away but city slicker that i am thought he was trying to hustle me. no. it was far. really far. i almost gave up. finally i took a red swangteong (a taxi bus type thing - picture an old fashioned paddy wagon without a backdoor) to where i could catch another swangteoung up the mountain to the temple.
however, this too was not as easy as i thought it would be! the cheap swangtoungs won't go up the mountain with just one passenger. we have to wait until there are more passengers. they kept saying - leave now? 300 baht. the trip should be 40 baht! the taxi drivers were a lively bunch and who knows what was so funny. maybe the pale girl in her wide silly hat. they had just finished lunch, pa pa ya (i think thats what he said - papaya salad, i am assuming) i said the only thai word i know - aroi (delicious). one of them, started chanting a pro-thaksan (the prime minister) chant. finally (after about 45 minutes of me thinking that i should try to just get back - but i would still have the same problem). a lovely thai family showed up. two grandparents, and thier grandchildren. the grandfather was in the thai navy, spoke english, was friendly, gracious, kind. he paid for my trip up the mountain as well as my return trip. i tried to protest! but too late. i thanked them ALOT. as i walked up the 300 steps to the temple, i thanked buddha, god, myself, the world, for all the luck i have received in my life.
alas, as luck would have it. the driver who was to take me back down the mountain had disappeared and i had to pay to get back down. i didn't mind so much, just felt bad for the family who paid for me.
then i went and paid to get completely pummeled in a thai massage.
anyhoo, the wat, like most of the others i've seen in thailand was a gilded gem. there was a charming little garden area with stone tables and chairs, trees carefully planted in neat rows. each tree had a green sign hanging on it with words of wisdom in both thai and english. a young monk asked us if we had time to talk. he had English homework to do! his assignment was to interview foreigners. Well, of course i had time to talk with the monk and help with his English homework! we had a lovely chat about our expectations of thailand, our thoughts on thailand, buddhism, religion, war, vegetarianism. how perfect as the sun sets over chang mai to be in this garden area with words of wisdom all about to be talking with this young english student. ok. buddhist student but he is also studying english!
afterward the german guy and i had a drink and a bite to eat. i asked him if all europeans hated americans. he said that yes, more and more, young people are thinking that there must be something wrong with a society that can have george bush as president. depressing, eh? but he said something quite intersting, that germans, older germans in particular, are quite fond of americans and are thankful for what america has done for germany. interesting to me because i have met a few people here from all over the place, and the nicest europeans that i have met have been german. the conversation took a dive south once the topic of isreal and palestine rolled around. at the start, i said, we probably shouldn't even touch this subject, but, alas, conversations often just move on thier own.
today, i decided to try to get to a temple a bit outside of town. i thought that i could simply walk to the bus stop where a mini bus (technically a swangteoung) would take me to doi suthup. ha! a tuk tuk driver tried to tell me that the bus station was far away but city slicker that i am thought he was trying to hustle me. no. it was far. really far. i almost gave up. finally i took a red swangteong (a taxi bus type thing - picture an old fashioned paddy wagon without a backdoor) to where i could catch another swangteoung up the mountain to the temple.
however, this too was not as easy as i thought it would be! the cheap swangtoungs won't go up the mountain with just one passenger. we have to wait until there are more passengers. they kept saying - leave now? 300 baht. the trip should be 40 baht! the taxi drivers were a lively bunch and who knows what was so funny. maybe the pale girl in her wide silly hat. they had just finished lunch, pa pa ya (i think thats what he said - papaya salad, i am assuming) i said the only thai word i know - aroi (delicious). one of them, started chanting a pro-thaksan (the prime minister) chant. finally (after about 45 minutes of me thinking that i should try to just get back - but i would still have the same problem). a lovely thai family showed up. two grandparents, and thier grandchildren. the grandfather was in the thai navy, spoke english, was friendly, gracious, kind. he paid for my trip up the mountain as well as my return trip. i tried to protest! but too late. i thanked them ALOT. as i walked up the 300 steps to the temple, i thanked buddha, god, myself, the world, for all the luck i have received in my life.
alas, as luck would have it. the driver who was to take me back down the mountain had disappeared and i had to pay to get back down. i didn't mind so much, just felt bad for the family who paid for me.
then i went and paid to get completely pummeled in a thai massage.
posted by Roxie | 9:16 PM
1 Comments:
no, the thais make or buy a curry paste. in class we learned how to make the paste -- garlic, galangal, onion, hot peppers - and maybe some more things and then you smash it up in a mortal and pestle.
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