28 July 2008 5.20pm
Yesterday I went to visit Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. It is a big temple at the very top of a hill, just outside Chiang Mai. It is in the Doi Suthep National Park. According to legend, holy relics discovered during the reign of King Kuena (1355 -1385) were placed on the back of a white elephant. This elephant was set free to wander and to bring the relics to the correct place. The elephant carried them to Wat Phrathat and promptly dropped dead from fatigue. The relics are still there to this day housed in the chedi . This chedi is regarded as one of the holiest in Thailand.
I took a sawngthaew (red van) from the moat up to the temple. The driver agreed to bring me there and wait until I was ready for him to bring me back down. The road is very steep and winding, at times the sawngthaew seemed to struggle. I sat in the back of the van willing the driver to change to a lower gear. When we eventually got there I was met with hordes of hawkers, people selling pictures, trinkets, hill tribe art; all the usual paraphernalia. Undaunted, I looked up the 306 steps before me. At the top of these steps was the entrance to the temple. There was some form of elevator over to the right that I could use but I chose to offer it up for my sins and walk. The ticket office at the top stated that entrance to the temple would cost Thai’s nothing and foreigners 30 baht. After getting my breath back I paid the 30 baht and entered the monastery.
The first thing I wanted to do was get some perspective, I wanted to see how high I was. There was a great view of the city of Chiang Mai below. The cool breeze was also very welcome, I might add. Below me forests stretched out for about ten miles and then the city. To the right I could see Chiang Mai Airport. It is a very small airport. At that time I could see there was only one airplane in the whole airport and as I looked it sped down the runway and took off into the dark clouds that were accumulating and threatening another tropical deluge. Turning my attention to my immediate surroundings I saw Thai women in traditional dress performing some sort of traditional dance with accompanying music being played by a band of girls on weird looking instruments. Lots of tourists stood around watching this and clapped when the dance was finished. The ladies bowed gracefully and then gracefully pointed at the donations bowl. Moving around the cloisters I beheld souvenir stalls, a coffee shop, a place to sit and watch Thai boxing on a large TV and dotted about the place the ubiquitous donation boxes. Not the Buddhist vibe I was hoping for really.
In the centre of all this madness was the chedi. Removing my footwear I climbed the few steps up to where the relics of Buddha are housed. Devout Thais walked around the chedi in a clockwise direction holding flowers and burning incense sticks. At times they would stop and kneel before statues of Buddha and intone prayers. One room to the side caught my attention and I went to have a look. Inside sat a monk, he was a young man and he invited me in to sit before the shrine. He sat to the side weaving string. I sat there for a while saying nothing. He continued to sit there weaving string and saying nothing. After a while we said nothing together. A couple poked their heads in the door and the monk invited them in too. Soon, another couple came in. The monk asked all of us to sit on the floor in front of him so that he may bless us. With our heads bowed in reverence the monk held a bunch of twigs over us and started to chant. He then dipped the twigs in a bowl of water and proceeded to drown us in much the same way a priest flings holy water at you in a church. I got a full facial, as it were, I think we all did. I didn’t know whether to laugh or get annoyed as it was unexpected and there was quite a lot of water flying about. I chose to stay quiet and look solemn. The monk then proceeded to tie a piece of string around our wrists. When he was tying the string around my wrist he asked me where I was from. I told him and he said that I would be lucky. He then pointed towards a donation box. I gave 20 baht for the impromptu shower. Afterwards I sat back in my original place before the shrine and took a photo of him. It should be posted here on the blog, apologies if it doesn’t look great but the light was sort of weird in the room.
After wandering around some more I decided I had seen enough and my shirt had pretty much dried out now. I descended the steps and my taxi driver called out to me and ran to his red truck. Back in Chiang Mai I treated myself to a juicy steak in Sizzlers.
I know that one or two of you are wondering if I actually hang around temples all the time or now that at I am alone and anonymous in this country am I making the most of the Thai nightlife and hospitality. The truth is I have frequented bars and been accosted by the most beautiful creatures on earth but I find it incredibly disconcerting. At least when Aaron was here we could look out for each other to a certain extent. Last night I went into a bar and as I walked from the door to the bar three girls followed me and stood around me as I ordered a drink. I sat on the stool and politely ignored them. The bar girl produced my drink, asked me my name, told me her name and shook my hand. She asked me where I was from. When I said Ireland she smiled and said, ‘I from Island too’. I smiled back and then my conversation dried up. It is just so weird for me, I feel that the whole setup is very false, which it is, I don’t feel threatened, because it isn’t threatening, but the whole thing is just so shallow. To have a smoke one needs to step outside. I took my bottle of Singha with me to a free table outside. Just as I sat down three girls appeared and sat down around the table with me. To be honest it was pissing me off a bit. I continued to politely watch the TV and ignore them. One by one they slowly moved away from the table. After a few minutes another three gorgeous creatures sat down at the table with me. This time they had drinks with them. One of them raised her glass to me and we toasted each other. Then the conversation dried up again. I have an incredible talent for not speaking. The girls talked quietly to each other as I stared at the TV. Periodically men walked by the bar and the girls would get animated and greet the passers-by. Ceasing my chance I got up while they were distracted and walked back to the bar to get another beer. The girl at the bar shouted across to another girl to get ‘Corin’ another beer. Half way through my third beer another Thai girl sat beside me. Her name was Joy and we talked for a while about nothing really. How long had I been in Thailand, how long was I staying, the usual. We talked about the Thai visa for some reason and she suggested that if I wanted to stay in Thailand that I should get married to a Thai women. I left the bar pretty soon after that. I know some of my friends reading this are thinking I’m crazy, a crazy fool who is turning down what is being offered to me on a plate. It just doesn’t seem to sit easy with me, this whole sex trade thing. These beautiful women are not talking to me because they would like to get to know me; they are working and would like to get to know my wallet.
Of course beautiful women wanting to have sex with me is not my only problem when going for a drink. One night Aaron and I stopped at an open air bar that advertised three Chang beers for 100 baht. That’s three strong beers for two euro. Great deal but we ended giving away another 100 baht or so to kids selling flowers, men with limbs missing would stand in front of us with a begging bowl, the lady boys that put on a show would come around collecting donations afterwards. I have seen that poor elephant I saw before being lead around the bars on numerous occasions. One person who sticks in my mind though is a deaf girl that walks around trying to sell trinkets. The first time I met her she was selling Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck keyrings. She carries a placard stating she is deaf and would I like to buy something please. I guess she is around 13 or 14 years of age and it just feels so wrong to have her walking the streets selling crap in order to make a living. The second time I met her was about a week later at another bar. This time she was selling some glow in the dark neon tube yokes you wear around your wrist. Using the little bit of sign language I have I was delighted to find that she understood me. Her name is Waew. That’s all I know. I didn’t ask her age or anything like that because I don’t want to come across as some sort of perv.
To sum up I have mixed feelings about Chiang Mai. The people are truly beautiful, not just physically, they have a grace about them, and they are genuinely friendly with very warm smiles. They are well mannered and polite. On the other hand a lot of them are quite poor and are reduced to begging on the streets or selling themselves to sweating, smelly, corpulent farang.
My visa runs out in just over three weeks time so maybe I should start thinking about getting out of Chiang Mai. I could go to the beaches I suppose or see the craziness that is Bangkok. Watch this space.
I took a sawngthaew (red van) from the moat up to the temple. The driver agreed to bring me there and wait until I was ready for him to bring me back down. The road is very steep and winding, at times the sawngthaew seemed to struggle. I sat in the back of the van willing the driver to change to a lower gear. When we eventually got there I was met with hordes of hawkers, people selling pictures, trinkets, hill tribe art; all the usual paraphernalia. Undaunted, I looked up the 306 steps before me. At the top of these steps was the entrance to the temple. There was some form of elevator over to the right that I could use but I chose to offer it up for my sins and walk. The ticket office at the top stated that entrance to the temple would cost Thai’s nothing and foreigners 30 baht. After getting my breath back I paid the 30 baht and entered the monastery.
The first thing I wanted to do was get some perspective, I wanted to see how high I was. There was a great view of the city of Chiang Mai below. The cool breeze was also very welcome, I might add. Below me forests stretched out for about ten miles and then the city. To the right I could see Chiang Mai Airport. It is a very small airport. At that time I could see there was only one airplane in the whole airport and as I looked it sped down the runway and took off into the dark clouds that were accumulating and threatening another tropical deluge. Turning my attention to my immediate surroundings I saw Thai women in traditional dress performing some sort of traditional dance with accompanying music being played by a band of girls on weird looking instruments. Lots of tourists stood around watching this and clapped when the dance was finished. The ladies bowed gracefully and then gracefully pointed at the donations bowl. Moving around the cloisters I beheld souvenir stalls, a coffee shop, a place to sit and watch Thai boxing on a large TV and dotted about the place the ubiquitous donation boxes. Not the Buddhist vibe I was hoping for really.
In the centre of all this madness was the chedi. Removing my footwear I climbed the few steps up to where the relics of Buddha are housed. Devout Thais walked around the chedi in a clockwise direction holding flowers and burning incense sticks. At times they would stop and kneel before statues of Buddha and intone prayers. One room to the side caught my attention and I went to have a look. Inside sat a monk, he was a young man and he invited me in to sit before the shrine. He sat to the side weaving string. I sat there for a while saying nothing. He continued to sit there weaving string and saying nothing. After a while we said nothing together. A couple poked their heads in the door and the monk invited them in too. Soon, another couple came in. The monk asked all of us to sit on the floor in front of him so that he may bless us. With our heads bowed in reverence the monk held a bunch of twigs over us and started to chant. He then dipped the twigs in a bowl of water and proceeded to drown us in much the same way a priest flings holy water at you in a church. I got a full facial, as it were, I think we all did. I didn’t know whether to laugh or get annoyed as it was unexpected and there was quite a lot of water flying about. I chose to stay quiet and look solemn. The monk then proceeded to tie a piece of string around our wrists. When he was tying the string around my wrist he asked me where I was from. I told him and he said that I would be lucky. He then pointed towards a donation box. I gave 20 baht for the impromptu shower. Afterwards I sat back in my original place before the shrine and took a photo of him. It should be posted here on the blog, apologies if it doesn’t look great but the light was sort of weird in the room.
After wandering around some more I decided I had seen enough and my shirt had pretty much dried out now. I descended the steps and my taxi driver called out to me and ran to his red truck. Back in Chiang Mai I treated myself to a juicy steak in Sizzlers.
I know that one or two of you are wondering if I actually hang around temples all the time or now that at I am alone and anonymous in this country am I making the most of the Thai nightlife and hospitality. The truth is I have frequented bars and been accosted by the most beautiful creatures on earth but I find it incredibly disconcerting. At least when Aaron was here we could look out for each other to a certain extent. Last night I went into a bar and as I walked from the door to the bar three girls followed me and stood around me as I ordered a drink. I sat on the stool and politely ignored them. The bar girl produced my drink, asked me my name, told me her name and shook my hand. She asked me where I was from. When I said Ireland she smiled and said, ‘I from Island too’. I smiled back and then my conversation dried up. It is just so weird for me, I feel that the whole setup is very false, which it is, I don’t feel threatened, because it isn’t threatening, but the whole thing is just so shallow. To have a smoke one needs to step outside. I took my bottle of Singha with me to a free table outside. Just as I sat down three girls appeared and sat down around the table with me. To be honest it was pissing me off a bit. I continued to politely watch the TV and ignore them. One by one they slowly moved away from the table. After a few minutes another three gorgeous creatures sat down at the table with me. This time they had drinks with them. One of them raised her glass to me and we toasted each other. Then the conversation dried up again. I have an incredible talent for not speaking. The girls talked quietly to each other as I stared at the TV. Periodically men walked by the bar and the girls would get animated and greet the passers-by. Ceasing my chance I got up while they were distracted and walked back to the bar to get another beer. The girl at the bar shouted across to another girl to get ‘Corin’ another beer. Half way through my third beer another Thai girl sat beside me. Her name was Joy and we talked for a while about nothing really. How long had I been in Thailand, how long was I staying, the usual. We talked about the Thai visa for some reason and she suggested that if I wanted to stay in Thailand that I should get married to a Thai women. I left the bar pretty soon after that. I know some of my friends reading this are thinking I’m crazy, a crazy fool who is turning down what is being offered to me on a plate. It just doesn’t seem to sit easy with me, this whole sex trade thing. These beautiful women are not talking to me because they would like to get to know me; they are working and would like to get to know my wallet.
Of course beautiful women wanting to have sex with me is not my only problem when going for a drink. One night Aaron and I stopped at an open air bar that advertised three Chang beers for 100 baht. That’s three strong beers for two euro. Great deal but we ended giving away another 100 baht or so to kids selling flowers, men with limbs missing would stand in front of us with a begging bowl, the lady boys that put on a show would come around collecting donations afterwards. I have seen that poor elephant I saw before being lead around the bars on numerous occasions. One person who sticks in my mind though is a deaf girl that walks around trying to sell trinkets. The first time I met her she was selling Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck keyrings. She carries a placard stating she is deaf and would I like to buy something please. I guess she is around 13 or 14 years of age and it just feels so wrong to have her walking the streets selling crap in order to make a living. The second time I met her was about a week later at another bar. This time she was selling some glow in the dark neon tube yokes you wear around your wrist. Using the little bit of sign language I have I was delighted to find that she understood me. Her name is Waew. That’s all I know. I didn’t ask her age or anything like that because I don’t want to come across as some sort of perv.
To sum up I have mixed feelings about Chiang Mai. The people are truly beautiful, not just physically, they have a grace about them, and they are genuinely friendly with very warm smiles. They are well mannered and polite. On the other hand a lot of them are quite poor and are reduced to begging on the streets or selling themselves to sweating, smelly, corpulent farang.
My visa runs out in just over three weeks time so maybe I should start thinking about getting out of Chiang Mai. I could go to the beaches I suppose or see the craziness that is Bangkok. Watch this space.
2 comments:
Well I never!! Surrounded by beautiful women and cheap beer and you get a 'full facial' from a monk! Am I in the right Blog here? This is the PG version, yeh??
Congrats on passing your course. Best of luck with the next stage of your journey.
It might be the bottom of wine I've drunk by now but that monk looked pretty hot!!
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