Wat a day!

November 21, 2007. Chiang Mai, Thailand

(notes from my journal)

We woke up to a lot of rain. It was pouring as if it was going out of style!

We had to change our plans of going to Doi Suthep since the rains created and overcast in the sky. One of the attractions of Doi Suthep is that you get panoramic views of the city. Instead, we decided to visit other Wats around the city and just have fun.

We started off with Wat U-Mong. This is a Wat situated just outside of Chiang Mai in the forest. Its in a very beautiful setting and the Wat is different in the sense that it’s inside a cave. The stupa of the wat is above the ground, so when you look at the Wat from above, it seems that there is only a stupa and no shrine. The Wat also has a statue of the Buddha in an emanciated state where he must have meditated for a long period since you can see his veins and bones.

Behind the main Wat, there is a forest conservation area and we stumbled upon it. In the forest is the hut of a monk who has been living there for 23 years. We spent some time chatting with him about his life in the jungle and he also gave us some of his writings and drawings. We also saw some of his drawings that he had hung up on the wall and they were really lovely.

We then proceeded to visit the main Wat. There was a little kid over there who, made himself our guide and was showing us around. He was really sweet and gave us quite a bit of information about the place (although, I haven’t verified the accuracy of the information, I’m just going to trust him).

We headed back to the city and went to Wat Prasing. It’s beautiful and we saw some locals doing a ceremony with a monk. You bow to the monk and he sprinkled water on you and recited some prayer and finally tied a white thread around your wrist. He tied it around my wrist but for Heena, asked me to do it, since Buddhist monks are not allowed to touch women.

We spent some time sitting in the Wat and it was past 1 pm. Across the street was a Thai place and we just walked in and ordered some Khao Soi and Fried rice. Khao Soi is a Chiang Mai specialty: coconut curry with noodles. The food took almost 45 minutes to come. I was really tired for some reason and took a good 20 minute nap while we waited for the food; which was really a good idea since after that I was quite refreshed. The wait for the food was well worth it since it was delicious and not at all oily. After lunch, we had some really good coffee across the street.

We then walked across the main street of the city and saw a saloon and I decided to get a haircut (actually, Heena decided I should decided to get a haircut – you know what I mean…). Its one of the best I’ve have in years. No kidding. Heena thinks it was Thai style and now I look Thai – even better, I’m blending in!

After the haircut, we went to Wat Chedi Luang. The main building is closed since it was damaged in an earthquake and is unsafe for people to go inside. However, there was a place where people can talk to monks and we talked to a monk for a while about his life and why he wants to be a monk and so on. It turns out he was from Luang Prabang (our next destination) and eventually want to go to India to get a masters in Buddhism. It was really nice to talk to him and learn about what hardships monks face and their outlook to life. It is something I will not forget for a long time to come.

It started to rain and so we took shelter at a café. When the rain subsided it was getting dark but we really wanted to finish seeing the last Wat on our list: Wat Chiang Man. By the time we got there, it was dark and so we could not take any photos. We still walked around the place and it was really quiet and hence very peaceful. We loved it.

Afterwards, we decided to go to a LP-recommended Indian Vegetarian place. At this point, I have to say, LP has been disappointing when it comes to restaurant recommendations. We could not find it and instead ended up at some other place that advertised Indian food, cooked not-Indian style. It was alright. Nothing like real Indian food though. After this, no more listening to Lonely Planet suggestions again. These people don’t understand food.

After dinner, we took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel where we ate a fresh Papaya. Fruits here are so good, that you can actually taste the flavor and not the pesticide. Heena went to sleep, while I updated my journal and watched some Hindi songs on TV.