Don’t Stop Me Now

I’m having such a good time, I’m having a ball. We are ten wonderful days into Chiang Mai and really have been enjoying ourselves (insert condescending Willy Wonka meme here). In addition to the food and lovely apartment, we’ve been finding the pace of life here to be refreshingly relaxed and our bodies have been quite appreciative of the large amounts of sleep we are getting. This is almost around the time that, on any other ‘normal’ vacation, we’d be gearing up to head home. A mad rush of fun-filled activities in a new, faraway land and then boom! You’re back at home to your regular grind.

But, I’m not convinced that my body is convinced that we won’t be coming home anytime soon.  This is different. And perhaps it’s because I’ve just never done this before that I can’t grasp the full meaning of an extended vacation. By this time, truth be told, I’m usually craving some sort of familiarity, be it language, process, or taste. Like, I’d usually be craving some orange chicken from Panda Express right about now. But I’m not craving that right now – in fact, I want more Thai food! More rice & spice!  And maybe that’s because the food (and fruit) here is my all time favorite? I don’t know the exact reason and I suppose it doesn’t really matter – the bottom line is that this is pretty cool.

But not weather-wise, mind you. It’s hot and humid here! I’m constantly lotioning and oiling and lotioning my delicate, underside-of-a-fish-colored skin with sunscreen all day. It makes me quite envious of Shiv’s ability to not burn (he claims he knows what a sunburn feels like, but I don’t buy it!) As it happens, skin tone is a bit of a thing over here. There are advertisements everywhere for this product called Snail White which, among other benefits, whitens your skin using snail mucus. Questionable and grody ingredients aside, I have found it amusing that my level of paleness is so prized over here, especially as I’ve had to live out my life apologizing to people for my stark skin tone (now cue the Irish girl sunbathing meme – though not Irish, that’s me). I should note, too, that my unyielding SPF routine is purely medical based (no thanks, skin cancer, not today!) and not to maintain any sort of Snow White status. I guess it always does go back to that saying the grass is always greener.

Which oddly enough, was a saying we found posted at Wat Umong. In researching, I wasn’t able to find evidence that the saying was attributed to Buddha, but I’m sure there was something in the spirit, rather than the letter. In any case, of the several temples (wats) we visited, this one is my favorite so far. It is tucked away where the jungle meets the mountains, outside of the city center. Built in 1297, it has a more austere feel to it than the other, highly ornate wats. There are no gilded gates or mirrored tiles, rather solemn cave tunnels that lead to various Buddha statues. The smell of nag champa fills the air within as you move right or left, up or down stairs in the cave to discover all the secret crevices. A fun exploration!

At the top is the wat’s chedi, or stupa, where the relic is housed. This magnificent stupa area is surrounded by green grass with clucking chickens and roosters. Over the side, you can see a quaint lake as well as lush, green foliage, and butterflies, so many butterflies! At our particular visit at the stupa, Shiv and I were the only ones here. While Shiv took some great photos, I had a chance to experience some light meditation, courtesy of the monks. From the corner of the stupa area, I could only hear, not see, someone playing the flute (presumably a monk). It was a melody that I was definitely familiar with, but annoyingly still can’t place my finger on it (Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf maybe?) Not long after the flute started, the monks also started their chanting and it made for some peaceful moments in this private, little corner of the temple. Hearing the monks chanting made me want to listen to the Beastie Boys’ album, the In Sound from Way Out, an all instrumental album which features buddhist chants on 1 or 2 of the tracks. Wouldn’t you know it, I’m listening to it now as I write this post!

Finally, we’ve been trying to get ourselves some personal transportation. Yot left us his moped to use while he was away. Unfortunately, we’ve had some engine trouble and had to take it into the shop to get fixed. Watching Shiv trying to communicate with the mechanic who only knows Thai was worth the hour wait on the side of the road. One other thing I learned is you shouldn’t drive on the moped with your hair down if you are prone to snarls like myself. While scootering around with the crew (Shiv on Yot’s scooter and me on Jordan’s), I got a rat’s nest of a knot that I finally had to resort to razoring out of my head. Ugh.

Today Shiv and I did a cooking class, stay tuned for that post soon!