Early on the morning of Nov 27th 10,000 monks, and many more people, gathered to make merit for the health of the king on Nimmanhemin road here in Chiang Mai. This is the second year for this event and it was quite a scene! There were a lot of signs all over town advertising the gathering, and we wondered if this was an answer to some recent big Christian prayer events, promoted mainly by a Korean church group.
The signs said it would start at 6:07am so we arrived around 5:45am expecting to see a line of 10,000 monks and people lined up to "give alms". In Thailand it is a tradition to give food to monks who walk early each morning through the streets throughout the country. It is considered good Karma to provide food to monks. They collect food in their alms bowls and have breakfast and lunch from the food collected. They don't eat after the noon meal for the rest of the day. In this case some of the food was for the monks, and the rest was collected to send to the south where there are terrible floods. Much of the food was not fresh for that reason. We had intended to just watch as we did not bring food, but once we were there it was apparent that there was lots of food to buy and offer so we decided to sit down and wait for the procession. After sitting on the concrete street for 3 hours the 10,000 monks did show, and it was quite a spectacle as there were 8 lines of monks stretching the length of Nimmanhemin as well as 4 lines of people offering food, of which we were part. Not sure what the 6:07am time referred to since we had to listen to innumerable speeches and prayers and watch soldiers spread plastic bags to collect the huge amount of food. Eventually the food was offered to the monks and we all went home. At least they were armed with rolls of plastic bags and what a great use for a soldier! (Obama are you listening?) It was probably 60 degrees and you will see people look like they are dressed for a NH winter but that is how cold it feels to them.
Here are some photos: Click at the bottom of the slide with your mouse to speed up the slides.
The video that follows shows the monks procession. Watch all the different styles of robes, alms bowls and monks and people!
Here is a blog of another "gentleman" in Chiang Mai that had some good pictures too.
http://krabbyken.blogspot.com/2009/11/monks-are-coming-10000-but-whos.html
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Around Chiang Mai Nov 2009 and trip to Elephant Roundup
This is a major "catch up" post. So much is going on that we are too tired to write and arrange pictures and videos when we get back home!
About a week ago we drove from Chiang Mai to Surin. We took 4 days to drive from Chiang Mai in the northwest to Surin in the northeast (about 600 miles ) and drove back in one long day of 12+ hrs! The first slide in the photos below shows our route. The roads are quite good - not like US interstate highways but at the beginning they are 4 lanes and good surfaces. However, when you get into the mountains it gets slower and the roads have quite tight curves to navigate and are much steeper than the roads in the US. We decided to take several days to get to Surin so as to stop and do sight-seeing along the way and to be able to do fun things like stopping to buy a kite or to take pictures along the way.
Our first stop was Phrae which is an old town but is now quite developed and not particularly interesting except for 2 temples, Wat Luang in town and Wat Pratat Chohae about a mile out of town. I am always amazed by the beauty of the temples, in contrast to the modern concrete shop houses and buildings. From there we went to Phitsanulok for the night and visited a favorite restaurant - the Flying Vegetable Restaurant. See the videos to see the action....... We visited some "touristic" villages that were too touristy for our tastes. The pottery in the second village was supposed to be very interesting but ......
One of the most interesting places we visited was the mountain hold out, Phu Hin Rong Kla, of the Thai Communist Party. The Communist Party was not defeated until the early 1980's so while we lived here it was quite scary at times, not for our own personal safety but that the communists might succeed at some point because the government was not taking care of the poor people in the countryside. The mountain is quite steep and the museum at the top describes the many times the Thai army tried and failed to take over the area. The drive up and down the mountain was very steep with lots and lots of sharp hair pin turns and some amazing views.
Our last night before arriving in Surin we stayed in a nice guesthouse in a small town called Nang Rong so that we could visit two Khmer ruins dating back to the 10th - 13th C. Phanom Rung, our first stop, is situated on a small extinct volcano and faces east towards the original Angkor capital. It took the Thais 17 years to restore the site and there are some nice examples of that period, but Angkor Wat is much more impressive. From there we went down to the valley and visited Muang Dum which means "low city". It was the evening and the surrounding garden and pools made for some beautiful scenes. Both of the temple complexes were constructed for the worship of Shiva and Vishnu and what remains of the iconography depict them from various stories. At that time the Khmer Empire stretched east into what is now part of Thailand.
Here are some pictures from the trip. Some videos which do better at capturing the elephants will be later in the blog. To make the slides go faster place the mouse over the show and click the arrow.
And now we present the "Flying Vegetable Restaurant"
Here are the pictures from a weaving village near Surin and lots of elephants! We arrived in Surin on Friday morning and had tickets for events on Friday night and Sunday morning. We checked into our hotel and went out to visit some nearby villages. To make the slides go faster place the mouse over the show and click the arrow.
Most of the mahouts and elephants come from villages around Surin and Buriram. Some villages in the area specialize in the raising of elephants. They get paid about $ 100 to participate in the event, and then they make money selling food for us to feed the elephants and giving rides. Many of the mahouts I talked to had walked up to 4 days to get to Surin. The elephant round up was fun and well-organized, and if you like elephants where else in the world can you see more than 200 gathered at one time? The show was good, but it was even more fun to see the elephants in the streets amongst the tuk-tuks/motor-cycles/rick-shaws etc. threading their way looking totally unconcerned, and so were the other drivers looking as if this was a usual event. We sat eating dinner while feeding the elephants sugar-cane and offering their mahouts something to drink. We had lunch at a restaurant whose owner liked elephants as well, so every elephant that passed by, stopped, was given sugar-cane to eat, and water to drink, and in some cases was hosed down. The Thais love elephants as well and go for rides as much as the farangs (foreigners). One thing the city has to do every day and night is clean up the HUGE amount of shit on the streets. The output is prodigious!
Here is the videos of the "show"
About a week ago we drove from Chiang Mai to Surin. We took 4 days to drive from Chiang Mai in the northwest to Surin in the northeast (about 600 miles ) and drove back in one long day of 12+ hrs! The first slide in the photos below shows our route. The roads are quite good - not like US interstate highways but at the beginning they are 4 lanes and good surfaces. However, when you get into the mountains it gets slower and the roads have quite tight curves to navigate and are much steeper than the roads in the US. We decided to take several days to get to Surin so as to stop and do sight-seeing along the way and to be able to do fun things like stopping to buy a kite or to take pictures along the way.
Our first stop was Phrae which is an old town but is now quite developed and not particularly interesting except for 2 temples, Wat Luang in town and Wat Pratat Chohae about a mile out of town. I am always amazed by the beauty of the temples, in contrast to the modern concrete shop houses and buildings. From there we went to Phitsanulok for the night and visited a favorite restaurant - the Flying Vegetable Restaurant. See the videos to see the action....... We visited some "touristic" villages that were too touristy for our tastes. The pottery in the second village was supposed to be very interesting but ......
One of the most interesting places we visited was the mountain hold out, Phu Hin Rong Kla, of the Thai Communist Party. The Communist Party was not defeated until the early 1980's so while we lived here it was quite scary at times, not for our own personal safety but that the communists might succeed at some point because the government was not taking care of the poor people in the countryside. The mountain is quite steep and the museum at the top describes the many times the Thai army tried and failed to take over the area. The drive up and down the mountain was very steep with lots and lots of sharp hair pin turns and some amazing views.
Our last night before arriving in Surin we stayed in a nice guesthouse in a small town called Nang Rong so that we could visit two Khmer ruins dating back to the 10th - 13th C. Phanom Rung, our first stop, is situated on a small extinct volcano and faces east towards the original Angkor capital. It took the Thais 17 years to restore the site and there are some nice examples of that period, but Angkor Wat is much more impressive. From there we went down to the valley and visited Muang Dum which means "low city". It was the evening and the surrounding garden and pools made for some beautiful scenes. Both of the temple complexes were constructed for the worship of Shiva and Vishnu and what remains of the iconography depict them from various stories. At that time the Khmer Empire stretched east into what is now part of Thailand.
Here are some pictures from the trip. Some videos which do better at capturing the elephants will be later in the blog. To make the slides go faster place the mouse over the show and click the arrow.
And now we present the "Flying Vegetable Restaurant"
Here are the pictures from a weaving village near Surin and lots of elephants! We arrived in Surin on Friday morning and had tickets for events on Friday night and Sunday morning. We checked into our hotel and went out to visit some nearby villages. To make the slides go faster place the mouse over the show and click the arrow.
Most of the mahouts and elephants come from villages around Surin and Buriram. Some villages in the area specialize in the raising of elephants. They get paid about $ 100 to participate in the event, and then they make money selling food for us to feed the elephants and giving rides. Many of the mahouts I talked to had walked up to 4 days to get to Surin. The elephant round up was fun and well-organized, and if you like elephants where else in the world can you see more than 200 gathered at one time? The show was good, but it was even more fun to see the elephants in the streets amongst the tuk-tuks/motor-cycles/rick-shaws etc. threading their way looking totally unconcerned, and so were the other drivers looking as if this was a usual event. We sat eating dinner while feeding the elephants sugar-cane and offering their mahouts something to drink. We had lunch at a restaurant whose owner liked elephants as well, so every elephant that passed by, stopped, was given sugar-cane to eat, and water to drink, and in some cases was hosed down. The Thais love elephants as well and go for rides as much as the farangs (foreigners). One thing the city has to do every day and night is clean up the HUGE amount of shit on the streets. The output is prodigious!
Here is the videos of the "show"
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
30th wedding anniversary surprise
Nov 7th was our 30th wedding anniversary and we have never made a big deal about anniversaries and have even forgotten them a few times with no negative consequences.
However, having a woman put up with me for over 30 years seemed worthy of celebrating her courage and patience! So before we left the US I decided to book a room at the Four Seasons Resort just north or Chiang Mai. It is supposed to be the BEST accommodations and restaurants and after staying there it sure is. Keeping a secret from Beverly is VERY hard and so covering my tracks became an obsession. Once I reserved the room I realized she would see a charge on the credit card so I called Thailand and ask our friend Siriporn to confirm I reserved a room for her as they wouldn't accept her credit card. Then told Bev of the situation and she responded "that is really weird". So I had to elaborate on how the resort refused to take a Thai credit card etc. One bullet ducked....
The next challenge was to convince her were were going away for the weekend to celebrate and the destination was to be Chieng Rai which is about 3 hrs north. Since we could not check in until noon and the resort was really only 12 miles north of Chiang Mai I had to come up with lots of delaying tactics. The night before she had insisted we go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary so when I asked her to bring nice clothes to go out again the next night I got a fair amount of push back about eating our too much etc but I persisted and she packed some "nice" clothes.
So, Saturday morning came and I needed to kill time until noon. The resort was willing to allow an early check-in of noon instead of 3 PM. I kept finding things to do and prepare in order to kill time and she kept asking why I was dragging my feet and not leaving much earlier than we would normally depart. Of course I explained that we had no need to hurry and no appointments etc...... There were some funny moments when she noticed we were actually on the wrong road to Chieng Rai and I made up a lame excuse that I wanted to go by the villages we support even though it was out of the way. Also she was reading a brochure for resorts in Chieng Rai and spotted one that looked very nice but made the comment that we should not stay there as it was too expensive. (I'm sure it would have been less than the Four Seasons but I agreed with her sentiments)
The resort was incredible they heard it was our 30th anniversary they gave us an upgraded room Upper Terrace Pavilion and a complementary bottle of wine. The staff was very well trained and just very nice and easy. It was luxurious but very tasteful and comfortable!
Here are some pictures of the room and surroundings..
Just fore the fun if it I took a time lapse video of the sun rising over the rice paddies and a walk through the room:
All in all a very successful surprise event!
However, having a woman put up with me for over 30 years seemed worthy of celebrating her courage and patience! So before we left the US I decided to book a room at the Four Seasons Resort just north or Chiang Mai. It is supposed to be the BEST accommodations and restaurants and after staying there it sure is. Keeping a secret from Beverly is VERY hard and so covering my tracks became an obsession. Once I reserved the room I realized she would see a charge on the credit card so I called Thailand and ask our friend Siriporn to confirm I reserved a room for her as they wouldn't accept her credit card. Then told Bev of the situation and she responded "that is really weird". So I had to elaborate on how the resort refused to take a Thai credit card etc. One bullet ducked....
The next challenge was to convince her were were going away for the weekend to celebrate and the destination was to be Chieng Rai which is about 3 hrs north. Since we could not check in until noon and the resort was really only 12 miles north of Chiang Mai I had to come up with lots of delaying tactics. The night before she had insisted we go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary so when I asked her to bring nice clothes to go out again the next night I got a fair amount of push back about eating our too much etc but I persisted and she packed some "nice" clothes.
So, Saturday morning came and I needed to kill time until noon. The resort was willing to allow an early check-in of noon instead of 3 PM. I kept finding things to do and prepare in order to kill time and she kept asking why I was dragging my feet and not leaving much earlier than we would normally depart. Of course I explained that we had no need to hurry and no appointments etc...... There were some funny moments when she noticed we were actually on the wrong road to Chieng Rai and I made up a lame excuse that I wanted to go by the villages we support even though it was out of the way. Also she was reading a brochure for resorts in Chieng Rai and spotted one that looked very nice but made the comment that we should not stay there as it was too expensive. (I'm sure it would have been less than the Four Seasons but I agreed with her sentiments)
The resort was incredible they heard it was our 30th anniversary they gave us an upgraded room Upper Terrace Pavilion and a complementary bottle of wine. The staff was very well trained and just very nice and easy. It was luxurious but very tasteful and comfortable!
Here are some pictures of the room and surroundings..
Just fore the fun if it I took a time lapse video of the sun rising over the rice paddies and a walk through the room:
All in all a very successful surprise event!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Sunday morning walk
We have been back in Chiang Mai, Thailand for almost a week and are almost adjusted to the time difference. Some days it seemed we were OK and then the next morning we were up at 3 am! Today we went for a morning walk, a tradition we have in the US, and want to do more often here. It was 2.75 miles and we stopped for some breakfast - Thai curry :-) and then went into a temple called Wat Suan Dok where we heard some chanting. Here is the route we took.
Here are some pictures that we took along the way. Some are fun language malfunctions or what I call Thaiglish..
Click here to see some more pictures (not mine) and info about Wat Suan Dok
Our evening started with a massage and then a walk through the Sunday night market and then the celebrations at Tapae gate.
Here are some pictures that we took along the way. Some are fun language malfunctions or what I call Thaiglish..
Click here to see some more pictures (not mine) and info about Wat Suan Dok
Our evening started with a massage and then a walk through the Sunday night market and then the celebrations at Tapae gate.
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