Chiang Mai - W(h)at a town

Around 6 am the sun is already up in the sky and so I was up early as well. Since my travel mates Johannes and Valerie booked some organized trip for today, I was on my own to visit all the wats in town. One could really say wat a town. Chiang Mai is a wat town. Finally of use was then the long dress I really made a bargain on at H&M.

In my guide it was recommended to visit the meditation lessons and monk talks which are offered for free at some wats. So I had the lady from the hostel desk call the wat, but no one answered (I guess all in meditation already) and of course there was no such thing as a webpage with information ... So that was my first destination this morning - Wat Srisuphan. It´s located outside the southern walls of the city. To get there I had to pass through several streets with one jewelry next to another... even longer it took me to get to the monks... This being my fist wat I have to say - good choice. It was beautiful, yet not overloaded with gold, rich with plants and very relaxing and comfortable. After strolling through the premises for a while (unfortunately being a woman I was not allowed to enter every building) I entered the main building, where there was finally a real monk *happy*.
Being a woman I also was not supposed to touch or to go up and talk to the monk. However I needed to talk to someone to accomplish my mission and find out about the meditation. But it did not take too long and the monk, his name is Thu, came up to talk to me. He was originally from the South of Vietnam but has lived in this monastery for quite some years now. For him (as for the others I suppose) it was a great chance ... He told me, he only had an uncle left, who send him here to do something good with his life. Lucky me also learned that the meditation classes as well as the monk talk would be the same evening. Great.

For now I was on the streets again, visiting the main Wats and a few more that came along the way... Altogether it must have been around 10 I saw that day... The one I liked best was Wat Pan Tao - it was almost completely made of teak wood, the garden was filled with small dark yellow flags, red bells and a fountain. It was all so calm and had it´s very own type of attractiveness - without tons of gold.

At some point I just could not bear it anymore. I could not walk any further. Luckily I passed an old wat which offered food massages with essential oils. While from the outside it did not look like some professional modern massage salon (mattresses on the floor, simple roof, no walls, ... it did help! Afterwards I was able to walk again without any pain!! Amazing. Simply amazing.

In the meantime I got a bit hungry and went to a nice cafe, ordered Phad-Thai and enjoyed an iced coffee. Once again I was really happy and satisfied. Soon a guy sat on the table next to me. He told me, he got to Chiang Mai while travelling through Thailand - like so many other backpackers - just that had been about 4 weeks ago. Now he is learning Thai from the lady who also runs this cafe and after a short trip to Laos with his sister, he will return to Chiang Mai and start working here in a call-center. He already organized himself an apartment...  Wow. I can so feel with him... And I cannot think of a reason why I couldn´t do the same... besides maybe, that I am not so sure whether a call-center job would make me happy... But just the fact, that it seems quite easy to move here, get a job, an apartment, and just set up a life in paradise. Thailand seems just like the perfect place to go... the people are always friendly and helpful, the food is just yummy, there are constant high temperatures... But enough of the daydreaming... I still had to find a trekking guide book or a map. I was looking for one all day, but neither the tourist office nor any other shop did have appropriate things available. I was told, everyone just books a guided tour... That is not what I had in mind though. I did not want to be shown set-up villages with set-up locals... and pay for this reality show. And as I turned to leave the cafe, I finally saw a tiny little bookstore. Like a real bookstore. I had not seen one all day. And when I asked the guy for a trekking guide he smiled and showed me a small book, regretting that this might be the only thing he could offer me, but not sure whether it really is what I was looking for... Well, it definitely was. A small booklet, describing 20 day tracks around Chiang Mai, including difficulty levels, etc. It was perfectly fine and would be of great use the next day. Some advice was irritating though: One should watch out for snakes (ok), leeches (ok) and elephants (ELEPHANTS??).

Around 6 pm Valerie joined me and we went to the monk talk and meditation class at Wat Srisuphan. We learned how to meditate while standing, sitting, laying and walking - although I have to admit, while laying one could easily go to sleep. It was actually pretty hard to just concentrate on one thing - the breathing. Thoughts just kept travelling somewhere else... but it definitely helps to calm down. During the monk chat we also learned that most of the monks here were from the south of Vietnam. Valerie and I were the only people participating in this activity - which is a shame, since the monks are so friendly and seemingly happy to get to now other people and to explain there way of life and their values.

Then we met everyone again at Johns Place. It occurred to me how easy it seems, to feel familiar in a place, how people one just met the other day make you feel like long-known friends. It was a fun evening. Johannes and Valerie said, that they were unfortunately not able to do their tour today, because of a not-so-ok stomach  - although they are always taking those pills after each meal.