The Land of Learning
Trip Start
Jan 26, 2005
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41
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Trip End
Jul 29, 2005
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Chaing Mai, Thailand
Sunday, July 10, 2005
As far as things to do, Chiang Mai is a fantastic place to visit if you want to learn. Here one can take courses in cooking, language, massage, meditation and more and you can always visit one or more of the over 300 temples and chat with the monks. I of course, had to fit in as much of these activities as possible. I did visit a few of the temples and chatted with four different monks, who ranged in age from 23 to about 40. Given that Buddhism is such an integral part of Thai culture, this was a wonderful opportunity. It was amazing the number of topics that we were able to cover and how varied each of their individual perspectives were, despite the very strict rules that they all had to follow. By this point, I was also desperate to cook again (five months without a kitchen is a long time!) so I signed up for a one day cooking class. It was lots of fun and the food was yummy (if I do say so myself). The trick now will be seeing if I can actually recreate that killer Pad Thai at home. Last but not least, I took a four day Thai massage class. It was a lot of fun but much harder than one would expect. Quite a workout, giving someone a massage for an hour and a half! And a message to all future "victims" - I promise not to injure you when I practise!
I would be remise not to mention the absolutely fantastic Sunday night market in the old city. Cheap prices, lots of locals, fantastic food and an absolute buzz of electricity permeated the streets. I loved it!
Next, back to Bangkok!
