A Passport is a Girl's Best Friend

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, often refered to as Doi Suthep, is about 9 miles from Chiang Mai and is a sacred site to many Thai people.  According to legend, a monk named Sumanathera had a dream that told him to go to Pang Cha and look for a relic. Sumanathera ventured to Pang Cha where he found a bone, which was said to be Buddha's shoulder bone. The bone displayed magical powers (e.g., glowing, able to vanish, move and replicate itself). In 1368 Sumanathera took the relic to what is now northern Thailand. The bone was placed on the back of a white elephant by the King and released it into the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, trumpeted three times before dying at the site. It was interpreted as a sign and King Nu Naone ordered the construction of a temple at the site. We took a tuk truck (a red covered pick up that acts as a cab in the north) to the base of the temple. Then climbed 300 steep steps to the top where the temple is located. Saf...

We got into Chiang Mai yesterday afternoon and boy was it a welcomed change. Nestled into the foothills of northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is much more laid-back, cooler, less humid (words can not describe how happy I am about this) and quieter than its southern counterpart. There are (legit) massage parlors, clothing, restaurants and smoothies everywhere you turn, with a Wat in between (there are more Wats in this small town that anything else. It's crazy.) To gain our bearings, we walked around the city to see where it would take us. Surprise, surprise, we found lots of Wats. The following is only a very teeny tiny sample of what we saw... some sections I couldn't go in because I'm a a woman.... I bet you can imagine my thoughts about that. One Wat had a beautiful walking garden filled with signs that had Buddhist sayings. We then set out to the Tha Phae Gate that is the main entrance to the walls that surround the city and onto the...

The last two days have been extremely full with adventure, eating and exploring. Yesterday we (and what seemed like half of China) started off the very warm day at the Grand Palace. The palace was the official residence of the Kings of Thailand and is made up of numerous buildings, halls, pavilions set around open lawns and gardens. the most holy Emerald (made of jade) Buddha Next, we headed off to Wat Pho, which was just down the road (after grabbing a much needed fresh fruit juice, the stuff is everywhere and is amazing). This temple is famous for the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Within each temple there are different shrines to Buddha for different things, business, love, mother nature, success, health, ect. For the Chinese New Year, high level monks were giving blessings to people, so to take advantage of the rare opportunity, Duane and I stood in line to receive a blessing which was pretty cool. the famous Reclining Buddha In t...