Monday, May 30, 2011

Welcome to the Jungle!

Today was our first official day of class! We started off the morning learning how to count and I'm pretty sure I'm not pronouncing a single one of the numbers correctly. Good thing most people here do know English numbers! I will give you an example of a number.... say 6,432... that would be "Ho-paan-see-roy-saam-sip-song. Now, that may look like a mouth full but Thai people can spit that out in a millisecond with beautiful tones that rise and fall.  Our language teacher is so very patient :)
After meeting all of our Thai student colleagues we had our Agriculture class followed by a campus tour and a lunch prepared for us by the AG school. Yum! I really wish I would have had my camera with me because they served us this dessert that was pink made with coconut milk. It had a wide variety of goodies floating in it from jelly balls and fruit to kidney beans and corn.... it was interesting but not half bad! Sometimes you just have to tell that part of your brain that wants everything to be the same to shut up and try something new!
Next on the agenda was a hike through the jungle! I was pretty excited until I realized that the jungle we would be hiking in was part of that huge mountain that towers over Chiang Mai and has a Buddhist Temple at the top. I thought: You've got to be kidding right? I mean... it's over 90degrees and about 1000% humidity! But hike we did! We started here:
And off we went...
As you can see, this is some dense and wonderfully lush jungle!

But there were some clearings :)
Before long we came across some robed trees! Dr. Lee is telling us about how the monks have lived in this jungle for many many years and they often hold entire ceremonies (the same ceremony they have when someone becomes a monk) for trees that they like and want to protect. Once this is completed, the tree is considered as holy as the monk and therefore can not be hurt.

This tree seems to be having a wardrobe malfunction....
And, though I was told by Dr. Sakda that there isn't any symbolic reason for these rocks to be stacked like this, I think someone must have had a purpose when stacking them in such a fashion....
As I hiked a little higher and then turned around I had a... moment. (I'm sorry I can't think of the right descriptive word here...) Here I was in an actual wild Jungle staring at the concrete jungle which I am usually a part of....
You know, no matter how many pictures I try to take to show you exactly how steep this trail is I just can't seem to put it into perspective..... oh wait! Yes I can:
See those buildings way off in the distance in the last 2 pictures?? Yeah, we were somewhere around there about 1.6 miles ago!  This picture was taken from what feels like the top of the world! Alas, our destination!
A Buddhist Temple!
I found a wishing well! Also, many alters

I found a monk splashing around with a dog in the river...
and someone practicing their best lotus position...
There were very old temples...


And a brand new one! (still being built)
There were Buddhas everywhere! There were happy Buddhas...

His and Her Buddhas...

And other figures...
I met the gate keepers:
and a cute puppy who showed us his favorite chew toy!

Continued....

3 comments:

  1. I loved this entry. It would be such a soul journey for me to be in that space! Yay Bethany! Your struggles are admired and appreciated (and inspiring) by me! As always, thanks for sharing.

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  2. Wow, this is amazing! You are such a good writer I feel like i"m there myself! Thanks Bethany

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  3. I really like the way you set this up as a journey. Surely, it's no coincidence that the journey takes you higher and higher (literally and metaphorically).

    RB

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