Heaven?

I'm really loving Chiang Mai so far. I'm staying at the VS Guesthouse which is right on a main street and in the thick of things. From this location, it's super easy to find bikes for rent, used books, cheap internet access, thai massage, and tons of places to eat and drink - including fresh coffee, actually in abundance in Chiang Mai. Besides that, my room is cheap and has a fan, tv, and HOT water (it's been a few stays since I could say that!). I think I might be in heaven. :-)

Today Zach and I had breakfast and then I found an ATM while he got a shave. We rented a motorbike and headed off to Wat Phra Singh to start our wat tour of the city. Wats are always pretty impressive, especially the more famous or well known ones - the reason they are famous or well known is usually because they have an interesting Buddha image or images. I particularly liked Wat Chiang Man. It's the oldest temple in the city and was built at the time of the founding of the city in 1296. This wat had huge murals wrapping around the inside of the temple that told the story of the life of Buddha. I wouldn't have known this, but Zach actually knows quite a bit about Buddhism, so he walked me around and described the story that each mural was telling. He also showed me the process of merit making - candles and incense are burned and flowers are laid on the altar as you meditate on good deeds, thoughts, and actions for this life and the next life. So it was an educational day for me, but I also got to see lots of cool things, too.

All the walking was making us hot and sweaty and we were both in the mood for massages, so we went back to the guesthouse to shower and freshen up. This massage was even cheaper than the one I had in Bangkok, only about $4.50/hour. Guess what I'll be doing, oh, I don't know, two or three dozen more times before I leave Chiang Mai, lol? Massages were followed by some great, cheap food and some internet time. Tonight we'll go to the Saturday Walking Street, a kind of evening market, on the motorbike.

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I'll be slowly getting caught up on picture uploading over the next day or so. Please bear with me; I know I just wrote a whole post about how much I love Chiang Mai and there's no pictures to go along with it, but there should be soon enough.