Fun Fact Friday #3

Well instead of fun fact Friday, this is more of a Random Thoughts Friday. I thought I would just include some photos of random things that I've seen in my daily life here that haven't been posted on the blog yet.

This is a photo of one of the monk's notebooks. His name is Chaiporn, as you can see written across the top. I was very intrigued to see his doodles. While the monks are able to do things like watch TV and use the internet, I hadn't really considered if any of them were artists (or doodlers more specifically) so I really enjoyed his cartoon faces.

A pretty sign at one of the temples (I have no idea what this says).

Dhammananda Bhikkhuni and her translator at one of her lectures last week

It has only rained here a handful of times, but when it rains it pours. We were caught at this restaurant during a quick shower that only lasted about ten minutes. The rain shower passed quickly and really cooled off the hot day.

Thai hair salon.

Here is the bicycle that I'm renting from the university for the semester. For about $5 I am able to rent the bike for 4 months. It has a basket in front and a bell. I have been having a blast riding around campus. Sometimes my bike likes to pretend it's a motorbike and parks between them to fit in.

Chaos in Laos

Before you start worrying, there was no "chaos" in Laos, I just thought it was a catchy title so sorry if anyone got nervous for a second. Anyways, I have safely returned from a long weekend trip to Vang Vieng, Laos. Friday evening eight American girls and myself took a 8 o'clock bus to Udon Thani, a small city near the border of Laos where we arrived around 7:30am Saturday morning and paid for our Laos visas. We then took a tuk tuk (see picture below) to the border and from the border took a bus to our final destination of Vang Vieng. We arrived there around dinnertime Saturday and checked into our hostel, Pan's Place, before heading out to grab some dinner.

Sunday morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hostel before heading out for a day of activities. We had booked a full day of outings with a tour company for only $13 each the night before. We got picked up around 9am and were driven outside of the small city about a half an hour before reaching a small cave on land that we explored before heading to a long cave in the water where we sat in tubes and pulled ourselves through the cave by a rope. It was pretty dark in the cave but the headlamps we were given allowed us to see the beautiful insides of the cave. Our Lao guide was whistling and singing in some parts of the cave, and the acoustics of the cave sounded beautiful as we floated along.

After we exited the cave we had a delicious barbecue lunch of shish kabobs and baguettes. Baguettes are pretty popular in Laos, I probably had one served with each meal. Vang Vieng is very touristy so the restaurants definitely cater to a foreign audience. After lunch we took a short walk to the Nam Song River where we kayaked 10k in sit-on-top kayaks. These aren't my favorite type of kayaks, but it was nice to float down the river and splash each other. Along the river we passed kids with masks on that we fishing using homemade spears.

Later that night after a long day in the sun we enjoyed a big dinner at a restaurant in the city. There are around ten restaurants that play the TV show Friends continuously on big screens. We ended up staying there for a few hours enjoying a familiar TV show and eating a lot of cheap and tasty food.

Monday morning we woke early and rode out to the Blue Lagoon, a popular swimming spot that has gorgeous aqua waters filled with tiny fish and great rope swings and trees to jump out of. There was also a humongous cave called the Tham Phu Kham Cave which the pictures don't give any justice for the size of the inside of the cave. We spent most of the day swimming and enjoying the area before heading back into town. We left Tuesday morning and spent a full 22 hours traveling back to Chiang Mai. Although there was a lot of travel time involved, it was definitely worth it for a great weekend in a beautiful spot with lots of activities to do.

riding in a tuk tuk

crowded bus 

standing room only

view from our hostel, Pan's Place

breakfast at the hostel

Vang Vieng's beautiful backdrop

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

this cave is a lot bigger than it looks, try to find the two people standing in the photo

hanging out with cows

Nam Song River

tree jumping 

Fun Fact Friday #2

Happy Friday everyone! The weeks have been flying by here and I can't believe it's already the weekend and that I'm heading off to country #3 of my time here so far. This weekend we will be heading to Laos, where we will be spending the long weekend in Van Vieng. There we will be doing some tubing and kayaking on the Nam Song River as well as some rock climbing in another area. The reason for the long 4 day weekend is the Makha Bucha Buddhist Holiday that will take place on Monday. During this holiday, Thai Buddhists will visit temples to gain merit and pay their respects to the Buddha. The name "mahka" means third lunar month in Thai, and "bucha" means to honor.

This week I had the amazing opportunity to see Dhammananda Bhikkhuni speak in a three-day lecture series that was held at Payap University. She is the first Thai woman to be ordained as a monk and runs a the only temple in Thailand that has fully ordained nuns. It was incredible to sit in front of such a respected woman in the Buddhist world and hear her speak about the practices of Buddhism. She spoke briefly about women's role in Buddhism, but unfortunately I am missing the final lecture of the series that focuses on women in Buddhism since I am leaving for Laos tonight. Nevertheless, it was incredible to hear her speak and I also ran into our Buddhist monk friend named Lat and he was so excited to see us. We spoke for a while and told him that we would tell him all about our trip to his native country of Laos once we return on Tuesday.

Fun Fact #2:

In Theravada Buddhism, the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism that is mainly practiced in Thailand, monks are required to shave their heads as well as any facial hair, including their eyebrows. However, the fun fact I learned this week is that monks shave their heads on the day of the full moon each month. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the current phase of the moon by observing the length of Buddhist monk's hair. The next full moon occurs on Monday, February 25, so when I see Lat again after my trip, he will be newly shaved and the moon will begin its waning phase.

Prince's Birthday

This weekend we went back to Prince's cabin about an hour's drive outside of Chiang Mai to celebrate his 22nd birthday. Seven of us crammed into the back of a songthaew for the curvy drive there. Upon arrival we were met by Prince's very generous parents: an adorable Thai mother, his American ex-schoolteacher stepfather, and their British friend David. Prince's Thai friends from Payap drove separately and arrived shortly after us just in time for a barbecue dinner. We enjoyed some American hors d'oeuvres of Pringles and Ritz crackers with hummus, pepperoni and cheddar cheese. I never thought I'd say this but I probably miss cheese the most out of all the food back home. I've probably had cheese less than five times in the two months that I've been abroad. After dinner we sat around the fire telling stories and laughing over 'smores. I spent the night in my hammock and woke up early to the  lovely sounds of birds chirping.

Saturday morning a group effort was made to cook a large breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, the works. Prince's dad picked us up and we loaded into the bed of his truck to drive to the strawberry festival in Samoeng, which hosts the largest strawberry festival in Thailand. It was nice that the attendees were mainly Thai and we enjoyed our day in the hot sun eating street food and checking out hundreds of vendors selling different goods and showing off their best berries. After the festival we loaded back into the truck and went to a nearby farm to pick our own strawberries. I tried my best to get the strawberries from the plant into my basket but often they were intercepted by my mouth. Despite that, we left with plenty of strawberries that were enjoyed for the rest of the weekend. Our next stop was a manmade reservoir where we were able to swim in the refreshing water. Times like these really make me miss the crystal clear waters of Lake George.

We returned to the cabin and sang Happy Birthday to Prince and enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake. Then we got our donation prepared of several hundred bhat and a large cooler that were to be given to the village temple. The village was celebrating a temple festival today so we brought the donation and presented it to a Buddhist monk at the temple. We ate a free dinner there before joining the festivities. In a nearby field there was a large stage set up with a band and many different carnival games. We played a few games before getting up on the raised dance floor and making new friends while dancing the night away. We all had a blast dancing with all sorts of people to Thai music. We spent another night laughing around the campfire and packed up to head back to Payap Sunday morning. We stopped for a quick swim at the waterfall we had visited before.

Prince with his mother Kade and stepfather Jack

edible decorations

vendors at the strawberry festival

Andrew with a Thai television host

Jack picking strawberries

Kade 

not quite ready for consumption

glamping (glamour camping) campsite

the Birthday boy and me

Natalie, Emily, Jack, Andrew, Prince, Sophie, Tammy and me

at the reservoir

an interesting use of a crock pot

a frequent method of Thai transportation

our donation to the temple

Andrew speaking with a monk

inside the temple

Another Day with a Monk

On Thursday of this week we had another field trip with my Southeast Asian History class. First we visited the Wat Jedyod Royal Temple. This was a beautiful temple and my favorite part was the large bodi tree that had its limbs supported by gold and white poles. These poles are replaced every year, and represent how everything is dependent on each other, and also how one thing, the tree in this case, is supported by many different aspects. You were able to write on the poles, so I wrote the names of some family members and loved ones. 

After the temple we visited the Chiang Mai National Museum, where we learned more about the history of Thailand and how Chiang Mai was founded. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take photos inside the museum. 

After the museum, Tammy, Emily and I went to Wat Suan Dok, where we met up with Lat, the Buddhist monk from Laos that we had spoken with before. We spoke with him for about an hour, continuing to exchange information about our lives and our interests. He told us that he will be graduating from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (try and say that 3 times fast...once is hard enough) next month. MCU for short, is one of two public Buddhist universities in Thailand that offers classes in English and Buddhist studies for monks. Lat is studying English and will be de-robing after graduation. He says that he will spend a week in Chiang Mai before returning to Lao where he wants to become a tour guide. We told him that we would hang out with him after graduation, and maybe bring him to the jazz club or go bowling. He is very friendly and his happiness radiates off of him. 

hey mom-check out all these cairns

some funny English words being taught to the monks

our new friend, Lat