Lucky boy turned 10 years old and gets to celebrate in Thailand!
Spud & NixiRay had a challenge going on for the last few days to see who could find enough coins to get to 1 Baht first (yes, they have smaller coins than that!) Loser had to do a polar plunge. Last night Spud found a 1 Baht coin and won the challenge! So this morning, even though we told the kids they could sleep in, they were up early to jump in the frigid pool.
Daddy took Spud to the nearby convenience store while the girls were getting ready and let him pick out a treat. He chose some gummy hamburgers but Daddy convinced him that wasn’t enough, so they picked out a bunch of things to try. He came back saying that it was the BEST PRESENT EVER!!
We drove to the Monk’s Trail and started the hike to Wat Pha Lat and Doi Suthep. Can I just say that google was wrong? It said the hike was moderate with a few steeper inclines. The whole thing was a steep incline with some places being an uphill crawl. Definitely would list this hike as difficult (and if it was wet it would be impossible). Glad it was a cool morning and mostly shaded. It took us 2 hours to hike from the trailhead to the village at Doi Suthep (approximately 4 miles). We stopped for another half hour at Wat Pha Lat and enjoyed the waterfall and views (and another giant spider).
We were hiking just behind two women on the second leg when we started the uphill scramble. They decided to turn back. Later we saw them at Doi Suthep and they were so glad they went back down and got a taxi up instead. But, we made it!
We were rewarded for our difficult hike by 308 stairs up to Doi Suthep Temple. Legs are burning and knees are sore!
The temple at the top of the mountain is the pride of Chiang Mai. It requires $30 Baht tickets to enter. There are vendors & photographers offering to take pictures in front of the golden Chedi. Overall it actually looks pretty rundown… The view makes up for that though– a gorgeous aerial view of Chiang Mai. There are also massive bougenvilla trees in full bloom, orchids, and cannonball trees which are fun to see.
This Temple is the most active/working temple we’ve seen so far. There are always a few people kneeling, praying, or leaving offerings, but at this temple there was a monk giving blessings and saying prayers. He dipped a bamboo brush in water and flicked it on the people kneeling in front of him as he spoke a blessing. Then he handed out string bracelets for people to tie on their wrists.
We have learned some of the basic beliefs of Buddhism from our world history classes and watching videos, but they only talk about the origins of Buddha and the core beliefs. We have no idea how the church is organized and each temple seems to have a different way to pray or a different type of offering to give. It’s interesting… But we’re grateful that we have what we have instead.
We did a little shopping at the vendor stalls when we got down the 308 stairs. Superman found a gong so now we get to figure out how to get that in the luggage. Haha. When he was paying for it, Spud asked the lady how much for a little golden dragon statue. The lady said “I give you as a present.” We told her it was his birthday and she wished him a happy new year and birthday. He was grinning ear to ear!
(Yes, those are piles of bugs. Yes, those are free range chickens behind/in between market stalls.)
The plan had been to hike back down the Monk’s trail to the car, but now that we knew how steep it was we changed plans and had Superman catch a ride down while we waited/shopped at the top. It took him about 45 minutes to find a Bolt that would take him to the trailhead (FYI – this is a very popular tourist destination and red trucks, taxis, etc were readily available to go down, they just didn’t want to go to the trailhead) and he ended up splitting the ride with a couple from Finland. They had quite the adventure because the driver was so impatient– she hit a scooter, exchanged insurance information, and then a block later nearly hit the same scooter again! She also complained about going to the trailhead claiming that the road was bad. Superman said “no, it’s not. My car is there, I drove up there this morning.” She just wanted more money.
Then we encountered another problem…. There was a big graduation ceremony going on at the university at the bottom of the canyon and they closed all the roads. Superman called me and said “so… I can’t get up the canyon to pick you all up…” We ended up getting in a red truck– they put the 3 “babies” as they call them in the front seat with the driver, and then NixiRay and I were squeezed into the back with no back door. Not my favorite arrangment, but the only way to get down the mountain. At least this driver was pretty smooth… We shared the ride with people from France, Spain, Ireland, Canada & China. Quite the accents!
Finally we were reunited with Superman and went to the Winter Festival that the Finnish couple had recommended to him. Think summertime country fair but times 10 and all asian. Foods were nearly unrecognizable – lots of octupus & bugs & frogs. We weren’t brave enough to try those. We never heard a word of English and only saw 2 other non-asians. Definitely a true cultural experience.
Despite all of that, it was a super fun fair!! Spud got to do a shooting challenge and hit down 13 ducks with 15 shots and won a prize. He was so excited! All that nerf gun target practice paid off!
The kids got to bottle feed piglets, and pet bunnies, hedgehogs, & hamsters. There were also the cutest tiny turtles! Oh man, we would have been in trouble if it was legal and possible to get some of those animals home.
There was also some fun shopping – NixiRay found her dream shoes – Nike Pandas – and they were only about $15 US. Of course they are a knockoff, but they look identical and she said, beaming, “this makes me the happiest ever!!” Miss A got some Adidas too. We also got PJ’s for the little kids which made Littlest super excited. We may have to buy another suitcase!
We ended the night with donuts to celebrate Spud’s birthday (really yummy powdered filled donuts for $10 baht each). We hope he had a fun Thai birthday even though we didn’t find him pizza.
