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Published: January 9th 2018
January 7th:
Sawadeekah,
This morning I woke up with the sun at 7 am and got ready for breakfast. While at home, I usually prepare a cup of coffee, pour my milk, and eat my cereal. Today, I got up and had fried chicken for breakfast. And let me tell you, this was the best fried chicken I have ever had. A friend on the trip who knows a person from Thailand told me that fried chicken and KFC are a big thing in Thailand, so while this was unusual to me, it is very common to have something like this for any meal of the day. The fried chicken was paired with sticky rice and dumplings with with either pork or custard. I tried the dumpling with custard and it tasted like soft bread with vanilla creme in the middle.
Around 8:30 am our buddies met us outside of the school and we piled into three vans. Today, we were going to explore Doi Sutep which is a temple on top of the mountain that surrounds Chiang Mai. My buddy told me that you shouldn’t visit Chiang Mai unless you visit Doi Sutep. Every person took Dramamine as we were told that the road to the top of the mountain is extremely windy and this information was accurate. Every five seconds or so, the car would make a sharp turn and this continued for around 15 minutes when we decided to take a break at the rest stop. The rest stop had several vendors selling food (we were told not to eat) as well as little trinkets. There was an area that overlooked all of Chiang Mai but unfortunately at this time of day, the clouds were thick so we could not see much. This did not stop our Thai buddies from taking an abundance of pictures (Mean especially likes to document everything). Thankfully no one got car sick up to this point of the journey so after we finished taking pictures we climbed back into the vans.
The final destination at the top of the mountain was surrounded by more shops and food vendors and when looking to the right you could see large crowds of people heading up to an even higher location. We followed the crowd and needed to walk up 800 steps to reach Doi Sutep. We took a few breaks as our legs were tingling after step 200 and we took a few pictures of our view looking down. In Thailand, many practice Buddhism and so these temples are very sacred places.
This specific temple is called Wat (temple) Phra Thai Doi Sutep. It is a very popular tourist spot and visited often by many Thais. It is said that the King travelled to the top of the mountain on a white elephant (sacred animal in Thailand) and once at the top, the elephant walked in a circled three times and then fell over dead. So, in remembrance of this moment, they built a temple. To go inside you first must take your shoes off and women need to cover their legs and their shoulders. This is to show respect but also to show modesty in front of the many monks who call Doi Sutep their home.
Once inside the temple, which was huge and had several rooms to explore, Libby’s Thai buddy asked if we wanted to walk around. We started walking around an inner part of the temple where many different buddha statues were placed. She told us that for a good future and to show respect it is important to walk around this area three times (like the elephant).
Professor Loop told us earlier in the weekend that in Thailand, your birth day is very important. Each day of the week has a specific buddha and means something different. I was born on a Friday so my buddy pointed out which buddha was mine. We then walked into a small room where a monk was on a stage and was flinging water on people. When you are in the presence of a monk you must be lower than him. So when we entered the room we got on our knees and bowed our heads to make sure we were lower. We watched as people bowed and prayed were able to take pictures to document this moment.
I couldn’t help but notice a sound that reminded me of someone shaking maracas very loudly. I asked where this was coming from and Mean took me to another small area where people were going in order to read their horoscope. Again, you kneel when entering and are given a large can filled with 50 small wooden sticks. You are to shake this can until one stick falls out. Libby tried first and naturally spilled almost all 50 sticks onto the ground (our Thai buddies laughed). I took my time and got one to come out. Then you go over and find the particular paper that matches the stick. I got number 27 which read: The 27th number tells you that you’ll have success in your life, because of your patience. Give respect to your parents, elder, teachers and the noble people you will be happy. I found this to be pretty cool as someone who enjoyed reading their horoscope as a teen. There wasn’t much left to do in the temple at this point so we left. We found and put our shoes back on and then continued to walk around the shops. Here I bought a few more gifts and even had my first experience with bartering. Although I did not say much, I think it was my straight face and indecisiveness that made the shop owner cut the price in half 😊 To end our time at Doi Sutep, I treated Mean to fresh waffles with chocolate, and she returned the favor by having me try Thai tea as well as fried bananas. Thai tea reminded me of cold Green Tea but with a milk base. Everything was very delicious and I soon realized maintaining my weight on this trip was going to be impossible.
Once back in the vans, we headed to Central Plaza for lunch. It was a large food court that was extremely overwhelming because I had no idea what anything was. Mean helped me find Pad Thai which was good but not as good as our home-made Pad Thai at BCNC. Mean and Libby’s buddy treated us to a Thai dessert. To describe it, it was a bowl of warm coconut milk and had colorful jellies in it. Very different from our normal US desserts but good to say the least. Now that I could not fit any more food into my stomach, we headed back to the vans and made our way to our next destination: Ratchapreuk— Royal Garden.
The Royal Garden was very large so we took a tram that stopped at several locations and allowed you to walk around each area for about 15 minutes. The first area we stopped at was the butterfly garden where you could see various butterflies up close. This room led into the bug room which was everything I expected it to be: gross. It was filled with large beatles, bees, worms, and at the very end: tarantulas. Mean couldn’t even bring herself to go see the spiders so we spent maybe around 2 minutes total here.
The sun was out now and it was hot. Luckily riding the tram brought some air flow. Our next stop was at a huge temple-looking building that we were told is where many movies are made. Again, after walking up more stairs we reached the top, took our shoes off and walked inside. It was a large open room with beautifully gold-accented floors, ceilings, and pillars. This was the perfect place for model shots with our buddies. Yes I needed to put aside my hatred for getting my picture taken…Jess would be proud.
The tram continued to take us around the garden but it was evident that everyone, including our Thai buddies were tired and hot. We decided that we had seen enough of the garden and headed back to our vans.
We arrived back to BCNC with 30 minutes to spare for a quick nap. Dinner that night consisted of chicken stir fry and more pork shoulder soup. As exhausted as we were from walking in the heat all day, we knew the day’s final destination would be fun. The past two nights on our way back to BCNC we kept passing a carnival looking place with lots of neon lights decorating the area. It looked beautiful and were told that it was The Winter Festival where all proceeds benefit the Red Cross. The last night for the festival was tonight so our buddies were going to show us what all the hype was about.
The Winter Festival reminded me of Hershey Park mixed with the festivals we had in elementary/middle school. When walking in there is a large pool of water with little red pieces of plastic floating around. Mean bought me a ticket to play this game and the object of it is to fish for one piece of red plastic and whatever number is on it equates to a certain prize. Mean got so excited for me to do it and with how lucky I am I won………….a soy milk. She attempted a smile when she handed it to me but we both laughed. My buddy and Libby's buddy are best friends and Libby’s buddy helps to translate for Mean, so we all decided to stick together at the festival. We played many games including numerous attempts at popping balloons with darts and failing, as well as throwing a large ball to knock down three buckets (which is much harder than it looks). We all lost but it was more about failing together and making memories 😊 There were lots of rides, shops, and even a concert going on but of course what really drew us in was the haunted house. As we walked by I made the mistake of sounding interested in doing it when in actuality I was joking. Mean hates scary things so she instantly said no. Libby was down for anything and her buddy was clearly not interested by lied anyway (our buddies like doing whatever we want to do). We debated the haunted house for over 10 minutes and just about when I was going to say I no longer wanted to do it, our Thai buddies turned to us and said, “if you are okay doing it, we are okay doing it”. Mean was going to face her fears for me (secretly I think she enjoyed the fact that someone was making her do it), do I have the best Thai buddy or what? We bought tickets and walked in. It was pitch black as we all stumbled our way through. Khim (Libby’s buddy) was first, then Mean, Libby, with me holding up the rear. According to Libby, Mean gripped her arm and possibly cut off her circulation as well as dragged her through the room. What should have taken us 2 minutes to walk through, took us about 20 seconds. A fake head was hanging from and something else came swinging down. The best part was at the end when two masked figures chased after us (it was awesome being in the back). WE MADE IT! To commemorate our accomplishment we took a picture in front of the haunted house. The night was quickly coming to an end as we discovered our Thai buddies had homework to do yet and had to be up at 6:30 am just like us. Around 9:00 pm we jumped back on the bus and arrived at BCNC shortly after. We thanked our Thai buddies for a fun night and wished them sweet dreams. After today I knew I was quickly becoming attached to our new Thai friends and was even more excited to continue exploring the beautiful city of Chiang Mai.
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Mom
non-member comment
This trip sounds so awesome
Hi Em! It sure sounds like you are making the most of this trip! Your days are full and nights are exciting. I’m so proud that you are trying all of the different foods! They sound so good! Keep exploring and make many memories! Love you!