clouds again
love the weather here so far
WHENBESSATTACKSblog
gettin’ some h2o before heading home
shaun discovered a short cut to a 7-11 near our apartment:
i predict rain showers
some weather rolling east over the mountain towards us
wat phrathat doi suthep
yesterday we rode the scooter up the mountain doi suthep to wat phrathat doi suthep. the wat is just under 10 miles (15km) from chiang mai. it is said to have been built in 1383, and the first road to it was built in 1935.
you have to climb 309 steps to reach the pagoda and temple grounds:
the railing is these fantastically tiled dragons:
the pagoda (you can see some mountains through the pagoda but you can’t see them in this picture because of the light difference):
you have to take off your shoes and be appropriately dressed (long sleeves, no short shorts, etc) to enter. everything’s all gold and red:
there’s a ton of buddha statues everywhere:
there’s also bells all along the edges of the roofs:
and lots of pedestals and things:
outside of the temple, on the temple grounds, there are lots of other buildings. i think this is the temple museum (we got there later in the day and it was closed):
the front part of the temple grounds, to the right after you enter through the pagoda:
around the back of the temple is a really awesome patio-type area with a balcony that looks out over chiang mai city:
there’s bells of all shapes and sizes everywhere:
walking back down the (what feels like) million-steps staircase:
the dragon heads spitting out small dragon heads at the bottom of the stairs:
a quick little video from one of the interior corners of the temple:
scooter
we got a scooter! $80USD/mo, or $6USD/day. i tried driving it around a little in this empty ally near our apartment but i’m not very good with it. it’s i’m fine with shifting, it’s just weird using my hand to speed up and slow down. shaun’s a lot better at it, so he’s the driver! driving around the city isn’t hard, there’s usually a lot of traffic so people can’t go fast.
sunset streaks
another photo composite of the view from our balcony, of the sun setting over doi suthep
elephants
ran into a “little” elephant on the way out to some bars the other night:
you pay 20 baht for some sugar cane to feed the elephant. pretty cool!
we were on our way to this bar cluster that’s close by where we live. it’s full of mostly reggae bars, but there’s some other options to. one of the bars is called zoe in yellow and there’s usually a dj who plays electronica of various kinds:
there’s this other place called cafe del sol that has live cover music by this one guy almost every night. he’s really good! there’s another place called heaven beach that has a live band i think every night as well. they do covers of mostly 90s alternative music. they’re really good too, and the crowd really gets into it:
and here’s shaun with a big chang beer (it’s cheap and not too bad):
tuk tuk
just a little snippet
cat fang diamond
i’ve been catching this soap opera/sitcom/teen drama on channel 7 and i’ve finally figured out what it’s called. the thai name is น้องเหมียวเขี้ยวเพชร, which i think loosely translates to “cat fang diamond”. i can’t understand what anybody’s saying, but i can kind of follow along with what’s happening. it centers around this high school (i think) girl who keeps getting kidnapped/almost kidnapped by some thai thugs who wear all black and like to shoot people. a lot of it seems to be filmed in a mall. this leading lady is pretty good with kung fu and isn’t afraid to kick some ass if she has to. there’s a boy too who might be into her, or into this other girl, i can’t really tell. he’s pretty useless in a fight. there’s an underlying message promoting buddhism… in one episode, the main boy gave the main girl a buddhist talisman and when she got shot later on it saved her life. then she went to a temple and talked to a monk about something or another. i think not really knowing what’s going on makes it more interesting.
