On Sunday, we decided to rent a scooter, as we wanted to drive into the hills about 30 min to see a famous temple. Drew is very comfortable driving, as he played with dirt bikes etc. a lot as a kid. I, on the other hand, was white knuckling it on the back seat, sounding more and more like my mother, frantically yelling for Drew to slow down..."Gary!!! Gaaaryyyyy!!!" (my father's name is Gary, can you imagine the frantic tone?" Anyways, I eventually became comfortable on the scooter, starting leaning the right way on curves, stopped choking Drew, and even drove it a bit myself later.
The temple we drove to is a major tourist attraction, so there were lots of stalls outside selling all sorts of things. Hotdog wrapped in a waffle anyone? It took all of Drew's willpower to resist that one, but since it's not really a local food, we could justify skipping it.
We had to walk up about 300 stairs to reach the temple, but after living in Hong Kong for over a year, stairs are nothing. These were even super tiny stairs, so we barely got out of breath. The funny thing was they had placed these young girls dressed up in some tradition garb every 50 steps on the way up. Not sure what their purpose was other than to make me feel bad for them.
The temple itself is really beautiful, entirely covered in gold leaf. It was literally dazzling. This place, again, had a no short shorts policy, so I thought I would be clever and bring along a pair of Drew's shorts to wear over my own. Ha! I win. But I looked pretty silly. Is it sad that Drew and I have the same sized hips? 0.o
Lots of Buddhas in different poses. Lots of candles, lots of incense.
This particular alter was cool because all of the walls were covered in beautiful murals. The altar was also adorned with elephant tusks, which I will explain in a second.
Outside of the altars was a few Buddhas with oil lamps in front. We watched for a bit, and it seemed like only women were participating in pouring additional oil into the lamps to make them burn a bit brighter. I sort of assumed it was to pray for fertility/children/womanly things, so I decided to pray myself. I was spiritually praying to God for these things, but someone brought up the point that I was still performing an action that implies praying to Buddha. Not that Buddha is really a god, but you get the point of the question. Was my action sacrilegist as a Catholic, or were my intentions enough to make it a prayerful, mindful act? In the end, I'm spiritually ok saying a prayer or two to Buddha, as Buddhism has a lot of aspects I really like, such as selflessness and mindfulness. But, it's an interesting question to ask.
One couple praying decided to bring their pup into the temple. Granted the pup was gentle and not going anywhere outside of that bag, but it was still a funny sight to see.
The story behind this particular temple is that a monk had a sacred relic he wanted to build a temple for. He placed the relic on the back of a white sacred elephant, let the elephant walk wherever he pleased, and when he stopped at the top of the mountain and circled three times, the monk knew to build the temple to house the relic at that very spot. Hence the elephant tusks on the altar.
After the temple, we went to the summer palace. I was expecting a palace to walk around; unfortunately, the house was being renovated, but I really don't think it would have been much to look at anyways. But, the grounds surrounding the palace were full of beautiful gardens, particularly roses, so we had a nice time strolling around. This place was even more particular about the dress code. No shorts allowed at all, hence why Drew is wearing the funny pajama pants. So, imagine this. I am wearing a tank top and my jean shorts. I pull out a t-shirt and Drew's longer shorts to cheat the system, but now even that is not enough. So, I have to wear a skirt over everything else. I was essentially the Michelin man waddling around with all my layers on, but at least the roses didn't feel indecent.
Is my hunny buff or what!?! Look at those arms! Yowza!
After the temples and roses, we drove to this lake just outside of town. It has all of these huts set up around the side of the lake, and you can rent one for the afternoon. There is a restaurant attached to each group of about 30 huts, so they will bring you lunch etc. Nice way to spend a few hours out of the sun reading and eating! We were happy because this felt like a more local way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Lunch consisted of a fish cooked in a sour/tangy broth, grilled chicken, and papaya salad.
We saw a Cloey dog near the restaurant. I thought it was hilarious that they were feeding the dog mainly rice with little bits of meat. What dog likes to eat rice? But then I realized the majority of the kibble that I feed Trig everyday is probably rice or something even less nutritional, like corn husks, so I probably shouldn't be judging.
That evening we went to the famous Sunday Night Market. It was right by our hotel, which made it really easy to get to and fun to walk around. Not only were they selling all sorts of arts and crafts, much better stuff that the cheapo Chinese stuff we are used to at markets, but they were giving foot massages on the sidewalks in plastic chairs! Ha! Doesn't look that comfortable, but it would be a nice break from all the walking.
We probably had about 10 fruit smoothies that night. Delicious! Mango and passionfruit seem to be our go-to.
This was hysterical and adorable. This little dog was perched on the motorized mini-scooter, and he would drive right up to you, expecting a tip, then turn the scooter around and drive away to someone else. So content, like he was born to do it. Drew had the only blonde moment of his life and thought the dog was actually driving the scooter himself, but that would have been REALLY impressive. I looked around and found a lady with a remote control directing his movements, but I almost wish I hadn't found her. It was much cuter thinking the little dog could do it all. Still adorable.
We go to markets not to shop but to eat! This is an ant egg Chiang Mai style omelet, meaning it is cooked in a banana leaf. The ant eggs were really ant larva, but the look was much worse than the taste. A bit sour maybe? This was one of those close your eyes and just down it experiences.
This is the traditional Chiang Mai dish called Khao Soi. Made of yellow noodles in a yellow curry with crisps and pickled onions on top. Fantastic! And only 2 dollars?
They must have a habit of pickling things, because we also tried pickled fruit, including pickled mango. Not as good as it sounds.
Giant grilled squids anyone? We didn't try these; I took the picture mostly to make Kane jealous :)
These are flowers carved from soap! One of the prettiest crafts we saw that night. The colors, the colors!!
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