anyone know where I can buy an invisibility pill???

Yesterday I decided to rent a bicycle ($1 for the day!) to ride out to a couple of Wats that I wanted to visit – Wat Suan Dok and Wat Umong.  I was mostly interested in Wat Umong which is in a forest setting and has some trails you can wander.  Wat Suan Dok was on the way and has a vegetarian restaurant on site that I’ve heard good things about.  My plan was to go to Wat Umong first, walk around for a bit and then go to Wat Suan Dok for a late lunch.

Now, I’ve mentioned before that Chaing Mai isn’t a pedestrian friendly town.  Well, it’s not a bicycle friendly place either.  I almost gave up soon after leaving when I was faced with needing to cross four lanes of traffic on my bike.  Fortunately, I circled around, approached the intersection from a different direction, and found a way to go that only involved crossing two lanes of traffic.

Anyway, I ride for a while but can’t find Wat Umong anywhere.  I ask a few different people and from what I’m told it’s very close by.   But I still can’t find it.  So I decide to go to Wat Suan Dok first.  I walk around for a bit and am getting close to leaving when one of the monks approaches me, wanting to chat.  He’s looking to practice his English.  He’s actually from Cambodia and is attending a university that’s affiliated with the Wat.  And his English is actually quite good particularly given that he only started learning four years ago and is mostly self taught.

I mention to the monk my difficulty in finding Wat Umong.  Fortunately some Australians overhear me and are able to give me directions.  So I ride out there and park my bike.  A few minutes after I get there, I hear music and see a procession.  I head over there with my camera and start to take photos.  Now….there are about five people, including myself, taking pictures.  Out of the five of us, guess which one finds himself pulled into the procession???  Yeah. I probably didn’t even need to mention that.  Given my history, I figure there was about a 100% chance of me being picked.

After a while, I sneak out of the procession, wander the ground of the Wat for a while and then bike back to Wat Suan Dok.  Head to the veggie restaurant.  Oh my.  Not only is it vegetarian, it’s also organic, incredibly cheap and the menu is huge.  I feel sad that I can only order one thing.  After eating, I run into the Cambodian monk again and we chat some more.  I then bike back to the city, drop off my bike, rest up in my room for a bit and then decide to head to the Sunday walking street (more on that in my next post).  As I’m walking there…guess what happens???  I once again get asked by some school kids to participate in an interview!!!  This one, like the one back in Oaxaca, was recorded on a cell phone.  At least this time, I knew not to smile at it stupidly, expecting my photo to be taken.

my fame catches up with me

Way back when I was in Guanajuato, Mexico, Hazel and I were walking down the street when a group of kids approached us and asked us if they could interview us for a school project.  We obliged and I think they took our photo as well.  Fast forward to Oaxaca Mexico.  A group of high school kids asked to interview me for a class project.  Once again I agreed.   This was a long interview which they videotaped with their cell phone.  (at first though, I thought they were using the cell phone to take my picture so I stood there for the longest time with this stupid grin on my face thinking “take the stupid picture already!”).  At various times, I was asked to fill out three different surveys related to transportation and tourism in Oaxaca.  And who can forget the attractive young woman who pulled me out of the audience to dance with her at the dance festival???  Not me.  I was definitely popular in Mexico.

Until today I wasn’t sure if my popularity would spread to Thailand.  Finally though (finally!) a group of school kids approached me and wanted to interview me.  It really wasn’t much of an interview.  They had me fill out a basic information form (name, DOB, etc) and then asked to have their photo taken with me.  A few minutes later some more kids wanted their picture taken with me.  And then some more.  By the end, my photo was taken 4-5 times!!!

Now, if only I could be half as popular in my own country….

movies

I went to my first movie in Thailand yesterday.  So I thought I’d continue my bizarre Mexico-Thailand comparison.  First Mexico:

• Movie theatres tended to have about 10-12 screens with about half being Hollywood films, with rest being independent US films and Mexican films.  The Mexican films never had English subtitles so unless you knew Spanish, there was no point in watching them.  The Hollywood films generally reached Mexico several weeks (sometimes months) after they were released in the US.  Independent films were somewhat random.  For example, one film I saw in Mexico was the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, which was originally released in the US in 2005!  (BTW, with the exception of a couple who came in right before the movie started, I was the only person in the theatre for Mad Hot Ballroom).

Now Thailand:

• Movie theaters, at least in Chiang Mai, tend to be smaller…about 5-7 screens.  Most of the films are from Hollywood, with a few Thai films.  I’m pretty sure the Thai films have English subtitles which is nice.  The Hollywood films actually come out the same day they do in the US.  So far, it doesn’t look like they play independent US films here.

Two other oddities about my movie experience.  This first one may be unique to the theatre I was at.  When I bought my ticket, I was shown a electronic screen with the available seats for the movie and picked out my seat.  I’m not sure what the point was given that there was hardly anyone in the theatre.

The other oddity I had read about, but forgot about it until it happened.  Before movies in Thailand, everyone stands and pays homage to the King.  They project pictures of the King onto the screen and play some music and everyone stands up.  And no, I’m not making that up.

biking and rafting

I’ve been trying to treat myself to at least one fun activity a week.  So yesterday, I went on a mountain biking and white-water rafting trip.  Actually, I primarily wanted to do the rafting but it wasn’t that much more to add the biking so I figured why not.  There were five of us in the van – two girls from France, a woman from Switzerland and a guy from Germany – but we were all doing slightly different things.  Turns out that I was the only one doing the biking and the rafting!  (a few other people were doing a shorter rafting trip).

It took about an hour and a half drive to get to the start of the trip…we started with the mountain biking.  Just me and a guide.  And we started with a really long uphill in hot, hot, hot weather.  I didn’t make it.  I had to walk my bike most of the way up.  I’m sure it was the heat….nothing to do with being horribly out of shape.  Once we got to the downhill and flat parts of the trip, that was fine.  Anyway, the biking was okay, nothing special.  I was expecting that we’d be off-road on trails, but most of the biking was on paved roads.

We finished the biking and stopped for lunch.  And then it was time for the rafting.  Having never been white-water rafting before, I really didn’t know what to expect.  So I was a bit surprised that we left all my stuff behind, including my bag that had my suntan lotion, mosquito spray, change of clothes…and oh yeah…my wallet!!!  That made me nervous needless to say.  We didn’t just leave my bag sitting there, we gave it to someone to look after but I was still nervous.  But the next thing I knew, I was in a truck being driven to the rafting site.

There were only three of us in the boat…myself, the guide from my mountain biking and the captain of the boat.  My task was to basically listen to the captian and follow his instructions….row forward, row backward…stop…and get down (a very important instruction!).  Not sure what else to say…the rafting was lots and lots and lots of fun. The river we were on has some decent rapids and I got totally soaked (which is why we left all my stuff behind).  We also got out of the boat a few times and just floated down the river in our life jackets.  And the scenery…wow…some of the most stunningly beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen.  Worth every dollar I paid!!!

Near the end of the trip, there was a guy along the bank of the river taking photos with a polaroid.  He took two pictures, one of which turned out really nice.  The cost was only $3 and that included a really cool frame.  And in case you’re wondering….my wallet and all its contents were still in my bag.  And here’s the thing….when we got back to the lunch site, there were some other people who had just finished rafting with a different tour company.  Turns out one of them had a fanny pack with them on the boat…the boat overturned, fanny pack came off and was lost in the river.  Not only did this person have money in the fanny pack….they also had their passport!!!  Ouch!!!  Although I was nervous about leaving my wallet behind, having it end up in the river would have been much worse.

photo time

Finally getting around to posting some photos:

• A few photos from Bangkok:

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg31/emh1969/Bangkok/

• Photos from Doi Suhttp where I did my meditation training.  There are lots of pictures.  I was a bit bored:

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg31/emh1969/Doi%20Suthep/

• Photos of spirit houses.  Despite being 95% Buddhist, Thailand retains some of their traditional beliefs.  Spirit houses are one of them.  You can read about spirit houses here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_house     My photos are here:

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg31/emh1969/spirit%20houses/

• Photos of the Wats/Temples I visited in Chiang Mai.  Plus a few photos from the Three Kings Monument.  BTW, Buddhism is a fairly sexist religion and seems to not get much criticism for it.  Note the photo that says “No Lady Entry”:

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg31/emh1969/Wats/

• Photos from my tour of Doi Inthanon

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg31/emh1969/Doi%20Inthanon/