Gaining Merit

Startled by my alarm, I rolled over to turn it off. "Why am I up at 5:15AM?", was my thought. Oh yeah....monks. I went downstairs and met Brooke outside. We drove up the canal road in search for the "sea of orange." We have been told every morning the monks come down and gather up their rationings of food for the day. Thais gain merit by buying food and then giving it to the monks. A person will kneel down in front of the monks placing the food inside the monk's bowl. Then the person will remain kneeling or bowing in a "wai" (palms together, held up to the face, with one's head bowed) position while a monk starts to lead a chant. In finishing, the other monks will join in on the chant and walk away. I persume they are blessing the person...I have yet to find out what the chants says. It was interesting and plan on going back another morning for some more pictures. (my battery died two shots into it).

Grand Palace

Grand Palace

Bangkok: The Grand Palace

The start off of our spring break....we went down to Bangkok and spent the night at Hotel Asia and then the next day went to tour the Grand Palace. Now in order to get in, girls had to wear pants or skirts, knees must not be seen, nor the shoulders. Flip flops were not allowed. If one does not have the right attire they had rental clothes at the gate so that you could still tour the palace. It was very interesting....It must have been 100 degrees out...it was so stinkin' hot! But it was fun to walk around and see the sights...

Back in February

Songkran 2

Songkran

New Years

Today was New Years in Thailand. Otherwise known as Songkran! How does one celebrate, you ask? Well....

Thais celebrate by having a city wide waterfight. Oh yes, you will get wet, there is no way out of it unless you skip town or lock yourself in all week. Thais believe that it is a cleansing festival and also that it will bring rains for the falling year. It is also a time where children will ask their parents for forgiveness for anything they have done throughout the year and in return the parents bless them.

Chiang Mai has a moat in the heart of the city. Inside the moat is what used to contain the whole city of Chiang Mai. Well, on New Years this is where you want to be for all the action. People pile into the back of trucks which have barrels of water in them and alot of times a HUGE block of ice in the water. People then procede to drive around the moat all day getting people wet...anyone, motorbikers, walkers, kids, old people, other people in trucks....really if you are there you will get soaked. They, Thais, especially like to target the "farangs" (aka foreingers). Not only are there people in the back of trucks but people stake out all around the moat using "moat water" (mind you it's pretty gross). Traffic moves very slowly and so when one does pull up to a truck loaded with people and ice water you really do wish you were somewhere else! Five minutes can become very painfully chilly. (Of course, there are those that get plastered drunk while out in the water fight. We didn't partake in this part of it and this is why we went earlier in the day versus later.)

Spring Break

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For Spring Break a group of us went down to Phuket for 4 days. Four precious days of relaxation, sunshine, sleeping in.....ah who could ask for more? And what did I manage to do....yem that is right, I got burnt; far worse then I have ever gotten before. Not only did my skin turn red and tender....I was one of those idiots who kept her sunglasses on too long. I had a stark white strip across my face. The pain from this sunburn is so hard to describe with words....walking hurt, sitting hurt, lauging sometimes hurt, it was rough. I couldn't even stand up straight....walking unched over became second nature. Beside getting burnt, we still had alot of fun. We went island hopping on the Pii Pii Islands our last day there, it was amazing! Wow...some of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen. Snorkling was pretty exciting..at first I was alittle nervous for I have a fear of sharks...but it ended up being pretty cool. All in all in was a good four days. Lesson learned though...I am wearing sunscreen next time!!

Hope you enjoy the video and laughing at me....