Monks and Graduates

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Today was my marathon day in Chiang Mai! My only "free" day here and I had quite a bit on my list..

I started off walking all the way to Wat Suan Dok, another big temple on the west side of town. A moat separates the Old Town from the rest of the city. The Wat was a lovely place, very lively as a big community of monks and novices live here. The temple offers a fun service called "Monk Chat" where one can go into a special room and talk to the monks about their life in the Wat, Buddhism or just about the weather or so it says in the leaflet :-) Sadly it is only 3 times a week from 5-7 pm so I couldn't participate.

The temple is opposite the Chiang Mai University which was also very lively and today was graduation day for a large number of students, interestingly enough almost all girls.

I then had a delicious lunch in a vegetarian restaurant called Khun Churn in the university area off Nimmanhaemin, a delicious buffet for 65 Bhat (1,20 Euros). Ah, what a pity I can't take all these lovely vegetables back home, wierd mushrooms, great greens, different tpes of okras..

I then took a shared cab (that was really easy, you just flag the red cabs down, ask them where they're going and if it's the same direction, he'll take you. Cost me 20 Bhat to cross the whole town, which was a good 1/2 hr drive!) to the two very Thai markets Warorot and Lam Yai. Millions of goods, food and non-food, where I bought some green tea and tried all sorts of fun dried snacks and fruits. Lam Yai is known for it's flower markets, very colourful.

Got back in time for a 'drop-in" yoga class at 5 and made my way to the little web shop round the corner where a new computer understood my camera again and I could download all the new pics. Check out yesterday's entry for the new photos too.

I signed up for the Cooking Course tomorrow and am really looking forward to that, my Munich friends, I will try all the dishes out when I get back, promised! Bye for now!

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Photos

Modern Monk
Thai monks have also switched to the 21st century

Chiang Mai Moat
This is the moat that separates the Old City from the rest of Chiang Mai. A total traffic chaos!

Monk Chat
The signs in English help find the room..

Donations on Your Birthday
In Thailand alot of things are based on your birth day as in day of the week. Horoscopes, donation boxes, lottery tickets.. Not sure what the Wednesday evening is supposed to mean though.

Graduation Day
Big family day for the freshly graduated students.

Warorot Market
Dried fruits, teas, all sorts of snacks and fun finds here..

Lam Yai Flower Market
As the name says..

Comments

[adam]

Hey there :)
Hello from France! Your pictures make it look like it's so colourful down there, and looks like the weather's great too. Thanks for these beautiful photographs, am now a regular visitor of 'temple_tina' web page ;) Take care, Adam