Chaing Mai is just about perfect weather right now. Warm to hot days and cool evenings. There is a lot of traffic here right now because there are many Thais here from Bangkok to escape the flooding and many of them must be fairly well off because there are a lot of big suv's and large vehicles. Yesterday while walking the inner city we stepped out of the noise and bustle into the serene and quiet courtyard of a temple. I took the picture of the head of the Buddha in the dappled shade of this lovely retreat.
This morning we arranged a 6 am pickup by a sahm-lor or, in English, peddicab. It was just before dawn and we were off to see the sunrise on the beautiful gilding of the temples and to see the alms parade of monks giving blessings. There were all sizes and shapes of monks including one in a wheelchair and many novice child monks. What a beautiful sight. In one temple courtyard we heard the thwak thwak of young monks sweeping in the dawn to prepare for a new day as the temple gleamed in the half light. We ended the tour in full light at a morning market where locals shop for the day and people buy food for the monks. We decided that we should take more advantage of the early mornings because that's when you see more of the local culture and daily life of Thai people.
I'm still not too great at having this blog appear as I would like and it takes getting used to uploading the pictures in the order I want because they have to be quite organized on the computer and I don't want to spend too much time sorting. On that note I hope you all enjoy it despite this blip!
Oh yeah, have you noticed Philip has a nearly shaved head and no mustache? We visited a barber yesterday and he had the full treatment. We were skyping a friend today and she asked if he was having an identity crisis. He replied that he is now! ! !