Crickets, Monks, and a Lap Full of Noodles

Today was quality. The scavenger hunt today was incredibly wonderful. Ah, and just to let you know, Barb and Amy are also able to post to this blog now, and will likely start doing so very soon, possibly today. This will be helpful in many ways, as it allows you all to hear different takes on what is going on here, and also as it will allow you to hear about what is happening with each of our three teams when we are split up next week. I hope you enjoy this change. Anyhow, as I was saying, today was quality. We met this morning at 9:00 and split into 4 teams. Team 1 was composed of Brad, Joel, and Barb. Team 2 was Shawn, Andrew, and Amy. Team 3 was Thomas, Melissa, Ekk, and myself. And Team 4 was Zac, Matt, and Laurie. We all had very varied experiences, so I will try and highlight ours and as much of the others as I can remember. Oh, and for those of you that have been keeping up with the comments, Zac was the one that fell in the waterfall the other day. He soaked himself from the mid-abdomen down. He evidently was astonished that I forgot to mention that in my first blog. So there it is. (Goodness my mind is running around tonight) Back to today. Our teams set out in different directions to go to the same places, but in different orders, so as not to be all together or right on each other's tails. My team set out walking down to Canal Road, right by our guest house. Immediately upon arriving there Thomas saw fit to load up the bottom of his shoe with a treat that a dog had left just for him. We all enjoyed the pleasant aroma for most of the rest of the day, or at least until lunch, but I'll get to that later. We did manage to catch a Songtaw (and I'm becoming more and more certain that that is a very incorrect spelling). Oh wait, Ekk is here and says it is "Songtaew." So, as always, Thomas and I rode on the back of the Songtaew, which Ekk later informed us was not something that Thai people hardly ever do, unless the Songtaew is very, very full. He also mentioned that not a lot of foreigners do it either...but that's okay. (Not alot of foreigners wear elephant pants around either, but that isn't stopping any of us) We went first to Wat ("Buddhist Temple") Chedi (large spire shaped brick structure next to all of the wats, said to contain some piece of Buddha) Luang ("large"). While there we saw a very tall tree that is believed to house some important spirits and to provide protection to the people. The people often will give food offerings, tie ribbons around the tree, or just but lit candles at the base of the tree...in order to bring themselves under the protection of these quite fictitious spirits. It is one of many sad examples of people giving honor and respect and service to things that are 100% fake and of no lasting value. We also noted that Wat Chedi Luang is the largest wat in all of Chiang Mai, and maybe of all of Thailand. While there we saw many large statues of Buddha. Before leaving we talked with a monk to learn about some of the history of this temple. It was very interesting to talk with the monk, and also convenient that he spoke English very well. It was also the first time that I actually experienced the requirement that monks do not touch women. I experienced this as we were leaving the monk and he shook hands with Ekk, Thomas, and I, but merely bowed to Melissa. From there we walked to the 3 Kings Monument a short ways away. It was an interesting place, especially for a history lover. For behind the monument was the cultural center, or museum, of Chiang Mai. We went in there, and learned a bit about the history of this city. We likely could have been in there for hours if we had the time or wanted to. However, we only took about 1 hour and then headed to lunch. This is where we...or at least I stopped noticing the smell of Thomas' shoe so much. Ekk took us to a ramen noodle type restaurant where we got to pick our own kind of noodle, and were served said noodle with some type of vegetables, soup, morning glory, tofu, and some various kinds of pork and fish balls. It was okay, not my favorite, but more than edible. As I had finished and was relaxing at the table waiting for the others, I brought my arms down from my head, quite swiftly. After a short bit of clanging and heads jerking around, I had the bowl back up off the floor and was dabbing madly at myself and the table with napkins. It was to no avail, I was soaked to the bone from my belly-button to my knees with soup smelling of fish. My first frustration was this was that it looked like I had just wet myself...badly. My second and longer lasting frustration was that from then until right before dinner (when I finally got to grab a fresh shower and change into my elephant pants), I smelled fish everytime I was sitting down. Not pleasant at all. However, it didn't stop our adventures. We even got some iced coffees before leaving the restaurant. We grabbed another Songtaew and headed to Wat PraSing. This was a very large temple complex with a monk school and a large garden area with many tall, shady trees and sidewalks. It was a very, very peaceful place that I much enjoyed. We talked with another monk here who knew less English, but told us more about the school and his own experience as a monk than had the monk at Wat Chedi Luang. He told us that he became a monk because that is his culture, and that his family wanted him too. Doesn't seem like much of a reason to choose a religion to me, but he certainly seemed at peace, although that sadly won't last. From Wat PraSing we went to the Chiang Mai Gate, where we wandered around the market and bought some different kinds of treats, which we ate later at the coffee shop that concluded our hunt. From Chiang Mai Gate we moved to the Warorot Market, via Tuk-Tuk (tewk-tewk), a three wheeled little vehicle with a small canopy thing over it. Strange contraption indeed. We didn't spend very much time at the Warorot Maket, but we did notice that they were selling an amazing variety of things there, from all sorts of fruits and vegetables, to cooking utensils, cleaning supplies, and shoes. We bought some fruit, ate some Rice Sausages (which looked and smelled like regular sausages, but were full of rice, pork, and noodles, and had a very mush texture), and headed off. We stopped by Tha Phae ("raft landing) Gate, where we met Shawn, Amy, and Andrew and climbed up on the old city wall. We then scurried quickly over to the Wawee Coffee shop just down the road. It was just like a coffee shop in America, except that my large Mochacino tasted more like really strong coffee with whipped cream on top. However, the sweets that we picked up from the market, made the experience a bit better. We had crispy rice balls that tasted a lot like the Quaker Rice Cakes in the States. We also had some cake with red beans in it that tasted alot like sweet cornbread. After we had rested there for a while, we headed back to the guest house. By the time that we arrived there, it was probably about 3:45. By shortly after 4:00 all of the teams had arrived back at the house and we had a formal time of sharing from our differing experiences of the day. One highlight of the other teams would include Team 2's (Zac, Matt, and Laurie) experience with a cab driver that offered to drive them around for a few hours for 50 baht a piece (exchange rate of 33 baht= $1). They accepted and soon realized that they had probably been scammed into a fishy deal. The cabbie didn't take them to very many of the places on our list, but instead took them to "factories," which were actually just big shops where they made things, and asked them to stay at each one for a minimum of 5 minutes, because that was enough for him to get gas coupons for having brought them there. (I know, doesn't really click well with me either) They did have a good day, but just didn't get to all of the same places that we did. Another highlight, or sadpoint, or both, would be the experience of seeing all of the people worshipping so many things so hopelessly. I would say more, but Amy was one that seemed most impacted by this today, and she is blogging as I type this, just two computers to my left. She also got to feed pigeons from her hand, quite a wonderful experience I'm sure. (Although Melissa didn't seem to think so...something about birds....) After we had completed our sharing time, I grabbed a quick shower and then we headed off to dinner at one of the most interesting and fantastic places I have ever been to. It was a big open-air warehouse of a restaurant, with many long tables everywhere. Up at one end was a stage with a live band, and a variety of different singers from time to time. On one side was an incredibly long buffet-type area of many types of vegetables, noodles, and raw meats. Once we picked our table, we all went over to the food and grabbed far too many plates of far too much food. We returned it to our tables where they had an almost indescribable contraption. There was large bowl at every 4-person section, filled with hot coals, a strange dome shaped metal piece with slits to let hot air through and a moat around the rim was placed over the entire bowl. We then threw some pieces of fat on the middle of the dome, to drip it down and grease the rest of it. Then we tossed on our raw meat and filled the moat with hot water. We then put our noodles, vegetables, and some of the other meats in the soon-to-be-boiling water/fat mixture. That is the experience, but the variety of the food was what made it so vastly intriguing. We had things ranging from very normal steak/beef pieces all the way to boiling our own live shrimp. We also had some boiled squid, octopus arms, and egg-rolls full of bugs. Oh! Speaking of bugs, one of our assignments from the scavenger hunt was to buy a bag of fried bugs and eat some. Most of us couldn't find any today, but one team did. I can just tell you that the grubs look too gooey to even try, the cockroaches are big and equally scary, and the crickets taste quite a bit better than the mealworms (no powdery, flaky after-effects). Anyway, dinner was a grand experience and afterwards we piled back in the trucks and headed back home. We were only there for a short time before most of us headed back out, either here to the internet cafe, or to the Night Bazaar again. Most of us went to the Night Bazaar last night, and it is quite a busy and large shopping area, full of farangs (fuh-rongs), or white people. That would be where Shawn, Brad, Zac, and I got our elephant pants yesterday. So, that was our day. I think I will head back to the guest house shortly, maybe read a little, and then head to bed. Tomorrow is to be mostly a day of rest, as our only planned activities are: going to Doi Suthep (a wat way up on top of Suthep mountain) for prayer and lunch, planning for our worship service on Sunday and our sports camp for the following weekend, and playing ultimate frisbee with Ekk and his friends in the afternoon. I am appreciating all of your comments and look forward to seeing them continue and increase. I hope you all are managing to stay warm and are having quite a wonderful beginning to a new year. I'm sure you already know we are. ;)