april16th
about 11km outside of chiang mai there is a very famous watt on top of a mountain, called watt doi suthep. last time that i was here in chiang mai, i rode up to the top of this mountain on a rented scooter, against the wishes of the local scooter rental place. zipping back down the mountain, swerving around vehicles, and braking hard when there was no way to swerve, i ended up wearing down the brakes so much that the scooter rental place forced me to buy them a new scooter wheel. this time, we wisely opted to take a taxi up. i dunno why, but it’s pretty trippy for me to go to places now that i went to before on my last trip. somehow my last thailand trip seems to have happened centuries ago in some past life… instead of only 2.5 years ago. maybe it’s because i have such a different mindset now than i did back then? do i just see everything differently nowadays?
anyways, watt doi suthep was realy cool to check out. last time that i was here, i remember finding this small room where a monk would bless people and tie little braceletts around one of their arms. i remember being really excited a bout this little ceremony. at that time, i knew nothng about buddhism, nothing about monks, but somehow, sitting on the ground and being blessed had still made a profound impact on me. this time, on the way up to the att, i wondered if there would be a monk in that little room. i was hoping that 2.5 years later, i could once again get a little bracelett. wandering around inside the watt, i found the room, and yup, there was a monk in there. once again, i got a bracelett, which i’m still wearing right now. caryn, and ryan got braceletts as well, and it was cool to have someone else share in the ceremony w/ me.
ill
apparently, somewhere along the way we must have eaten something not so good. ryan spent some time in the morning throwing up, but then felt much better for the rest of the day. caryn unfortunately wasn’t so lucky. by evening she was feeling crappy, and then later that night she became incredibly ill. she looked worse and worse as the night progressed. the following day, we went to the hospital again (man, we’ve spent so much time in pharmacies and hospitals on this trip!). the doctor gave her more antibiotics and later in the day she started feeling better. poor caryn… what a shiesty two weeks she’s had!
*v
