Happy Children’s Day

We did this about 10 different times on the tour – had it not been a ‘walking tour’ I might have let them wear flip-flops!

Today, we hired a guide to take us around old town Chiang Mai, show us some of the temples and local culture, and learn more about the area’s history.  Our cheerful guide, Goal, met us at the hotel and we immediately hopped into a songthaew (song-thow) to take us to the first stop on our tour, the Wat Phra Singh, the temple of the lions.  This is a small complex in the middle of old town, but the buildings and grounds are really beautiful and there is a school for monks on site.  The young, yellow sashed novice monks were all filing into the main temple for chanting which would be followed by lunch.  As I looked around at the tables set on the floor, it appeared that lunch was rice and hard boiled eggs.

Goal shared with us that he was a monk for 13 years, beginning from the age of 14 or so.  About 40% of young men in Thailand enter the monastery to become monks for some time, and most will choose the acceptable practice of ‘disrobing’ later in order to become married and a member of the ‘outside world’.  It was so fascinating to hear about the humble and self-sacrificing life of being a monk.  They awake at 4 am every day, and chant for one hour followed by another hour of meditation. At 6 am, they walk to the local market with their alms bowls and collect food from people, which will be the food that they eat that day.  They eat only breakfast and lunch, and after 12:00 they can only have water, tea or coca-cola for the rest of the day.  Young monks, or ‘novices’ follow 10 rules, similar to the 10 commandments Goal told us, but monks must follow 270 rules.  He said this is incredibly difficult, since it includes things like not being allowed to step on an ant or take a leaf from a living tree.  He said that one of the rules, not being allowed to touch women, was the hardest as he was not allowed to hug his own mother for 13 years.  Did I already mention that Goal is the nicest Thai man you could expect to meet?  He eventually left the monastery, and told us that it was a very painful and stressful time for him, trying to adjust to the harsh realities and sometimes simple practicalities of life.  He had to learn about money, holding a job, renting a place to live, and dealing with people that aren’t trustworthy, to name only a few things.

One of the wax likenesses of a deceased forest monk

Some of the novice monks preparing for lunch at the Wat Phra Singh

We toured a few more temples, including the one he studied at, the Wat Chedi Luang.  Here he talked to us about meditation.  One of the analogies he drew for us was that when you meditate, it is like you have set down the boulder that you are carrying around with you all day.  He explained that it allows you to see yourself more clearly, and how you exist in the world, and that the pain and suffering people feel is often a result of how they are choosing to view their circumstances.  It was not a leap for us to understand this – we had seen firsthand how the children in the slums that we visited had no worldly possessions, and sometimes appalling stories of life at home, and yet, they were so filled with joy and love, so happy to be at school, in that moment, among people that cared for them.  He also showed us some of the urns containing ashes of enlightened monks, and how over time, their ashes form crystals, rather than just degrading like most human remains.  At some point, I want to investigate this from a more scientific perspective, but today, I just took it at face value.

The Wat Chedi Luang, on the temple complex where Goal studied

Goal’s amulet. I wanted to show a photo of this because I had mentioned the Amulet market in a previous post but didn’t have a photo. His Amulet depict a giant.

With much for our minds to chew upon, we still could not ignore the complaints from our hungry bellies.  The sticky rice with mango we had consumed earlier just wasn’t holding us.  Goal took us to this awesome street, where we perused all the Thai sweet dishes from the street vendors before ducking into the coolest Thai restaurant I have been to.  Our large group of 7 was taken upstairs where were were seated with a view of the happy chaos below us.  The large, tired Thai woman who showed us to our seat suddenly turned and bellowed – I mean she was really loud – to the cooks in the far front corner of the restaurant.  People down below hollered back.  Every few words, she would pause and converse with Goal, then turn and yell again.  It was great.  Soon, like magic, the table started to fill up with boiled chicken slices, barbecue chicken skewers with peanut sauce, hot ginger sauce, cucumber salad, and sticky rice.  A big pitcher of tea was set on the table for us to wash it all down with.  The seven of us ate for $15.  Then we headed outside for some coconut ice cream, and sticky rice combined with either corn or sweet potatoes wrapped in banana leaves.

Fish eye view of our lunch restaurant.

Jon ordering some fried bananas to round out his lunch

Finally, we learned from Goal that today is Thailand’s annual Children’s Day.  I don’t know that this means anything different than any other day for our children, but in Thailand, today is the day that children are reminded that they are the future of the country. They get free entrance to certain sites, and sometimes are given gifts by their parents.  On our walk back to our hotel, we got a little token of celebration in honor of Children’s day when a tiny little Thai girl just lit up as she saw us coming.  She bee-lined (which is funny, considering she was wearing a black and yellow striped bee dress) right to Vivian and we shook hands with her for a few minutes before parting ways.

Our little bumblebee friend

The Roaming Jones clan with our guide, Goal