Chiang Mai, Part IV

Sunday morning I decided to sleep in after a night out in Chiang Mai. I took advantage of being a tourist town by eating a western breakfast consisting of nut pancakes, fruit, and actual coffee. After my brunch, I grabbed a tuk tuk and headed off to the Three Kings Monument. Next, I visited a wat, although I'm not quite sure what it's name is because I have seen too many wats!

Then I stumbled into Wat Chedi Luang; which I thought was one of the most interesting wats I have visited. This wat was built in 1441 and is now in ruins due to an earthquake in the 16th century.

My tuk tuk driver brought me to Wat Jet Yot next. I liked this wat a lot too. It is quite old, built in the 15th century, and has many shady trees.

My last stop of the day was Wat Suan Dok. This wat had many small, white-washed chedis behind the wat. I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed all of the wats I visited on Sunday because I thought I was all "wat'ed out," but the wats in Chiang Mai were actually quite unique.

At the end of the day, I headed back to Phitsanulok on the bus. On the ride home, the man sitting next to me talked to me for at least an hour...all in Thai. To say the least, I didn't have much to say back to him.

Chiang Mai, Part III

Saturday Ba-Ouwan, P-Kik, and P-Yoo all headed back to Phitsanulok, while I remained in Chiang Mai. I decided to spend part of the afternoon at the Night Safari. The Night Safari is similar to a zoo, but a little nicer. It is located on the grounds of Doi Suthep National Park. I enjoyed a beautiful walk around Swan Lake observing the many animals.

Next, my tuk tuk driver took me to Wat U Mong. This wat is very old and located in the forest. I really liked this wat because it is totally different from every other wat I have seen in Thailand (and that's a lot of wats folks). I also liked this wat because it was sort of creepy; located in the woods with moss growing over everything. At this wat I met Mary. She from France and is travelling all around S.E. Asia by herself!

While in the wat, Mary and I saw a sign pointing towards a zoo located in the wat. Mary told me that her friend had mentioned that there was a zoo in Wat U Mong, but it wasn't advertised to tourists. I confirmed this, as there was no mention of a zoo in my Lonely Planet. After wandering around the woods and not finding a zoo or any animals, we came across some deer. The deer were quite close to us with no fence or anything. I figured this was ok, being from Wisconsin I am used to seeing deer up close. We followed the professional looking signs written in English to the nature trail. Just around the corner we ran into some bull-like animals; again, no barrier between us and the vicious animals. We stopped to talk to some French boys who had also found the zoo. A few minutes later, one of the animals started walking towards us, and we started to walk away...then is started walking faster towards us and we started walking faster away. Before I knew it was last in line running away from this horned animal. It was a terrible experience. But we survived with no scratches. I know that this animal is probably vegetarian, but I read "The Hatchet." I remember how the boy in that story was beat up by a moose, who is also vegetarian. Anyway, I would not recommend that anyone follow the signs towards the "zoo" at Wat U Mong.

"The animal" :

Later that evening, Mary and I met for the Saturday night walking bazaar (which is not as good as the regular night bazaar). Then we thought we'd meet Mary's friend from Colorado, who was playing at "Guitar Man" Pub. But of course, not one tuk tuk driver had ever heard of this pub. Finally, we found a tuk tuk driver who knew what we were talking about, or so we thought. This tuk tuk driver took us on the craziest ride! He quickly took us to every bar in Chiang Mai with a man playing guitar, while his Thai music was blasting through his homemade speaker system. Amazingly we survived (again) and eventually he found the right bar!

Chiang Mai, Part II

Friday morning Ba-Ouwan, P-Kik, P-Yoo, and I rented a car to explore the greater Chiang Mai area for the day. Our first stop was Maetamann Elephant Camp! We signed up for an elephant ride, an ox-cart ride, and a bamboo raft ride. This was every-one's first time on an elephant! I would definitely recommend everyone visiting Chiang Mai to visit one of the elephant camps. It was so much fun. Sadly though, we learned that our bamboo raft driver was only paid 80 Baht per day ($2.40) and that he must work everyday. If he misses one day of work, then he is fined 20 Baht ($0.60).

After elephant camp, we stopped by an orchid and butterfly farm:

Next we drove to the top of the mountain in Chiang Mai to see Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. We climbed a cool 306 steps to get there!For dinner we ate Korean food, which is not as delicious as Thai food. After dinner, we were back at the night bazaar. After more shopping, we visited the "Good View" restaurant for a few drinks.

Lamphun & Chiang Mai

Thursday morning I left my apartment at 6am with Ba-Ouwan, P-Kik, and P-Yoo. We drove about four hours to the small town of Lamphun for a ceremony held at the eight hundred year old Wat Phra That Hariphunchai to retire a handful of pharmacists. Unfortunately, we were 45 minutes late for the ceremony and missed the whole thing! However, we did show up in time to receive a free umbrella and snacks. After exploring the wat, we hopped back in the car and headed off to Chiang Mai.

For our first night in Chiang Mai, we stayed at the beautiful, tourist filled Empress Hotel. After checking in, we visited Wat Phra Singh. This wat is home to the "lion Buddha" image. At this wat, we used this contraption to pour some water on the Chedi behind the main temple. P-Kik explained to me to make a wish and if I was able to get the water to the top and successfully poured on the Chedi, that my wish would come true. I succeeded of course!

After visiting the wat, I got to take a nap back at the hotel, while everyone else attended a meeting (all in Thai of course!)

I was glad to have napped, so that I could shop at full strength at Chiang Mai's famous night bazaar.

A Weekend In Phitsanulok, Part II

On Sunday May, Jeng, Hong, M, and I headed down to the River, Mae Nam Nan, to watch the last day of boat racing in Phitsanulok. As we were looking for a place to sit, we saw my landlord who was sitting in the VIP booth. She ushered us up and we got to watch the boat races in style! We were sitting under a tent, with a fan, and just a few seats away from the president and vice president of Phitsanulok. We were even on TV!

After the boat races we stopped by a couple of wats:

Everyone prayed while I photographed the rainbow:

We ended the weekend with shopping at Topland Plaza and dinner at Blue White:

A Weekend In Phitsanulok

On Saturday Song, May, and I visited the Sergeant Major Folk Museum. We learned about the history of Thai living, farming, cooking, and crafts. Next up we visited the Thai Bird Garden, where we got to see the birds of Thailand, including some endangered species. At the garden, we learned that there are 9,672 types of birds in the world and 946 kinds of birds in Thailand.

Next up we visited Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat, the home of Chinnarat Buddha. This Buddha is the most beautiful in all of Thailand. At the temple we also used a traditional fortune teller where you shake a cone full of wooden sticks (see photo of Song below) and number on the first stick that falls out matches with your fortune. I got fortune number seven, which was written in Thai of course; I'll keep the translation a secret!

Outside the wat I tried a delicious drink made from sugarcane, which I drank out of a plastic bag with ice:

A Night Out

Friday night the other PharmD students and I decided to check out one of the pubs on the university campus. We had a great time. One difference between the Thai bar and bars in the US, is that in Thailand you mix your own drinks. You can order either a bottle of whisky, vodka, beer, or coke. Then they bring you glasses, ice and let you do the mixing. In Thailand, you drink beer in a glass with ice…which means that I had to drink my beer really fast before the ice melted! I think my favorite part of the evening was when a Lady-Boy got up on the stage to lip sync “I will survive” with a bendy-straw in her ear acting as a microphone!

Bangkok Part II

Monday morning P-Kik met me in Bangkok. We started our day off with a visit to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. Wat Phra Kaew is home of the famous Emerald Buddha (which is actually made of jade!). The Emerald Buddha has a different royal robe for each season (hot, cool, & rainy), which the King himself changes. The Grand Palace is a former royal residence. Today the Grand Palace is only used for certain ceremonies.

Palace guard that eats humans:

Next up, we walked over to Wat Pho. This wat has the largest reclining Buddha image in the world (46m long & 15m high). In the temple you walk a circle around the big Buddha. When we first entered the temple, I asked P-Kik what all the jingling noise was because the place was nearly empty. On the way out of the temple there are eighty metal bowls where you can donate 0.25 Baht into each bowl, filling the wat with this wonderful sound.

After the rain died down, we left Wat Pho and hopped on the river bus to Wat Arun. Wat Arun is named after the Indian god of dawn (Aruna). We didn't get to stay for too long due to the all the rain, but it was great to see one of Bangkok's landmarks.

Monday night I was lucky enough to see the award winning Traditional Thai Puppet Show with traditional Thai singing and a traditional Thai orchestra(http://www.thaipuppet.com/core/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/lang,en/). This is the only place in Thailand to see this dying art. The Traditional Thai Puppet Theater Company is also the official authoritative guardian of Thai puppetry. The show we saw depicted the story of Ganesha's birth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha). I loved it! I recommend to everyone visiting Bangkok to see a puppet show.

After the puppet show, I had to book it to make the 10pm overnight train back to Phitsanulok. I had rented a bed on the train in one of the non-air conditioned cars (it wasn't very hot that day). I was expecting the sleeper train to be similar to what Kelly and I travelled in Egypt with private rooms...However, it was no where near as nice! I slept ok despite the fact that they never turned off the lights in the train...