Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Saturday 03Nov2006
We did actually get up and do things on this day. Actually all of the people that stayed out late partying were up before Shawn and I!! Shawn was feeling the effects of the night before-he kept saying 'Now I know what they mean by a Chang hangover-- it is not like any other hangover EVER!!'
He did so well at recovering, we decided to see the most beautiful wat in Chiang Mai- Wat Phra That Doi Suthep- actually is it outside of Chiang Mai--up this crazy winding road up the mountain--and it has a magnificent overlook to the city!! Since it is a holiday weekend (Loy Kratong) it was packed!!!

We made merit by getting a Lotus flower, incense, and a candle, and walking around the beautiful gold Chedi three times and praying! After that we put te incense in these huge holders and the candles on this huge candleobra thingy and the lotus flower on the alms bowl. As we did that I stepped on an incense stick---ouch!! It was okay though- good thing I had good reflexes.

Then we went into this other building that had Buddhas and this time to make merit they have these cups that are filled with sticks that are like chop sticks. You hold the cup in between your hands and shake them- the idea is to get only one stick out of the cup! When you do, you look at the number on the stick and find that number fortune. Shawn and I both had 17 as our number. They actually had the fortunes also written in English, which is nice, so here is our fortune: ( I don't have it with me at the moment but I will give a brief synopsis of it as I remember it)
You are liked by everyone. You are friends with everyone. You will have a baby boy. You will win the lawsuit.

Yes, I think that sums it up...I of course was happy and not about the fortune. It kinda freaked me out a bit.

Next we went to another building that the monks were in and were blessed by the monk with water. Shawn was able to get his sai sin from the monk but Jen and I had to get ours in a different line from another individual who was not a monk- because monks are not able to touch a woman at all.

We also walked around a bit and saw the view of the city. Apparently Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand which really suprised us because it is soo quaint compared to Bangkok.

When we got back into chiang Mai we got ready and ate dinner at the RiverView Restaurant- which was higher -end but on the river where many of the festivities were happening. It was wonderful!! After dinner we went to the river overpass and saw all of the lanterns floating in the sky- it is crazy sea of lanterns floating everywhere!! They also light fireworks which is really freaky because they do it amongst the crowds of people! Jen and I were quite freaked out and scared! We walked around the festivities and then looked around the night markets for a bit and calle dit a night. Yes, we did not feel like drinking at all...Pam was quite upset.