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Temple Run
We wanted to learn more about Buddhism so we went to a temple. The temple we went to was called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. This is what we saw. First, we had to go up a mountain. Then, when we got to the temple there was a market with Buddha souvenirs.
We had to walk up lots and lots of stairs and we saw butterflies and stuff. Also there where dragons made of tile.
Inside the temple, there were lots of statues, spirit houses, and things made of gold.
People were bowing down and burning incense. There were monks who were bald and wore orange robes. We have seen monks quite a lot at markets or walking on the side of the road. The monks at the temple seemed older than the ones that we have seen before and their robes seemed to be more of a bright orange color.
The Bible tells us we should not worship idols. I have never seen anyone worship an idol before, but now I have. I am glad I do not worship Buddha or a Buddha statue, partly because I would not like to go up those stairs every time, but mostly because God made Buddha. Buddha is a mere man who died.
My favorite color is green, so I thought the buddha statue made out of jade was pretty cool.
I remember hearing the church bells ring at my home in America. They did not have church bells, but they did have a really big gong at the temple.
There was a platform that gave a really good view of Chiang Mai and we saw a rainbow because it was raining. We liked to watch airplanes fly by since we could see the airport.
When we were done, we went back down all the stairs and drove on to our next adventure.
I might not agree with all the things that the monks at the temple believed in, but I still really liked to see it. I think you should know about it, too, because then you can get some idea of what Thai culture is.
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100 Flavors
A little while back we went on a little family trip to Doi Suthep, the biggest mountain in Chiang Mai, right after church. We drove up the windy roads all the way to the temple on top, making a few stops at the markets and towns along the way. The temple was huge. After climbing a ton of stairs, we were high enough to watch planes land and take off from the airport below us. There were souvenir shops and coffee shops and restaurants and great view points all the way up and down the mountain. We ate dinner at Beast Burger, which has the best burgers we have had since we moved. But my favorite part of the trip by far was 100 Flavors.
Our Thai Teacher recommended this little place and it sounded fun. We had it for dessert after our burgers. We found it in a back alley road in a crowded area of town. It wasn’t very big but it was nice and clean. As soon as we walked in we saw four freezers with dozens of flavors. A man was standing right by this big sliding door with the pictures and names of several different flavors that this place has made.
The man told us there were around ninety flavors available and told us a little about the flavors. There are three different categories of flavors: sweet and creamy, sorbet, and savory. The sweet and creamy is what you think of when you hear ice cream. That is where you get your basic vanilla and chocolate (though they didn’t have anything so plain as vanilla or chocolate). The sorbet is the sour fruit flavors like raspberry, lemon, and blackberry (though they didn’t have anything so plain as raspberry, lemon, or blackberry either). And the savory is where you get your savory and spicy like Khao Soi (spicy noodle soup), or Pad Gra Pow (spicy ground pork and basil), or ramen (they did have these flavors). He also told us that this place has created well over 1,000 flavors of frozen cream.
We got a family pack of 15 different flavors but they gave us two free flavors as well, so we tried 17 different flavors. We all had our favorites and we could agree for the most part what flavors were worth coming again and what were “steer clear.” There were too many flavors to recall but my favorites were Charcoal Mint Chocolate Chip, Seven Flowers Sorbet, Cappuccino, Mocha, and a couple more on the tip of my tongue. This was my second time having charcoal ice cream and I love it every time. It barely affects the taste, but the color is really cool and it actually has health benefits. And I just love Mint Chocolate Chip. The Seven Flowers Sorbet tasted exactly like sour Berry Bing Su (shaved frozen milk and berry sauce, although there are several different things like chocolate you can use). And the Cappuccino ice cream tasted like Cappuccino ice cream. And the Mocha was almost the same thing but with chocolate. Even though some of the flavors didn’t seem original, they had so many fun flavors like Avatar Way of Water, which was maple syrup and chocolate chip dyed bright blue, and Spider-man, which was Thai buttercream (would not recommend), and so much more. They were almost all delicious.
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Our Malaysia Trip
We went to Malaysia last month because of our visas. If you don’t know what a visa is, I will try to explain it. We are American citizens so we have to get permission from the Thai government so we can live here. When we first came, we had permission to live here for a little while, but then it expired. We needed a new one. The first time we renewed our visa we went to Burma. The second time we went to Burma, too. The third time, we went to Malaysia to get a whole new kind of visa so we could stay longer this time. When we went to Burma we just walked across the border, but when we went to Malaysia we drove to the airport and went on an airplane to Penang, Malaysia. Well, two airplanes to be exact.
To get our visas we had to go really early in the morning and wait in line. I don’t even know what we were waiting for, but it wasn’t very fun. But I am glad we got it all done quickly: just two days.
After we got our visas, we got to play in the ocean.
We stayed in a hotel room really far up and we could look far out at the ocean. We were on the 24th floor of our hotel, but they called it 23A because they think the number 24 is unlucky.
It was really fun and I am glad we got our visas so we can stay in Thailand longer. See you later!
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Road Trip Chips
Try saying that 5 times fast.
If you walk into any 7Eleven in Thailand there will probably be a whole row of potato chips. And there will probably be at least 25 different flavors that you would never find in America. But not all of them taste like Thai food. We found these two flavors at an 7Eleven on our trip to Myanmar (or how the Thai say it, PaMaa, or, พม่า,) and we had to try them. First we tried the double cheeseburger. No one in my family liked them. They tasted like over-peppered American cheese with a tiny bit of a pickle taste.
The Carbonara Parmesan weren’t bad but we don’t need to get them again. They taste like Carbonara (creamy spaghetti) with a ton of salt, a little lemon, and much more parmesan than I like.
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Sticky Falls
Yesterday, we discovered one of my favorite places in the whole entire world! We went to Sticky Falls, which is a place where you can climb up waterfalls. But think of it more like hiking. It wasn’t like you would normally picture a waterfall, it was more like a mountain of rocks with water flowing down them.
It also was not slippery like you would think that it would be, for the most part at least. It wasn’t hard to climb because it really was sticky. But not gooey sticky or gluey sticky, it was grippy sticky. Your foot wouldn’t slide, it would sort of grab on. Maybe imagine being a gecko climbing up a wall: the wall isn’t sticky and the gecko isn’t sticky, but it still sticks like a suction cup.
Sticky Falls was sooooo beautiful, and unlike anything I have ever seen or experienced before.
STICKY FALLS IS AWESOME!! If you ever come to visit me in Thailand, this is a place I will definitely want to take you to! I would go back there any day.
