When Dogs Attack!

Watching the sunset go down through the hills and riding the bike, I was perfectly content like a little ten year old. I had some delicious curry dishes and had a delicious smoothie.  I had met a street vendor from Bangladesh and we were chatting about India as he was flipping roti and topping it with butter and sugar.  I was a bit distracted by him flipping those things because I wanted one ha! 
 

Heading back I have weird directions since I am headed to a house with no address! I have directions to make a left at the university, a right at the billboard with a King and Queen, and then left, left, right up the hill.  I was kind of in a hurry because it was 6:30 and I was suppose to meet my host at home to back to the Loi Kratong festival.  Up I went past the King and Queen, then left, then left, and then into a dead end in a backyard.


  In a quick second as I pull my bike in the dog runs up, barking loudly, and takes a bite out of my ankle! I peddle out of there quickly and head down to the 711. Looking at the bite marks, it looks like a couple mosquito bites-nothing major.  But for Priscilla, a dog biting me is germs and possible rabies.  My host comes down and drives me back up to the house.  The turn was left and right! I was joking that left, left, left dog-dog-dog.  The broken English and small words are quite humorous I must say, but the dog bite-not so funny.

Priscilla talks one on one with a Monk

Stopping off at many temples, I decided to save the best for last the Wok Sondok temple in Old City was mentioned to me to go see.  One of those beautiful moments from my higher power comes through.  I am walking through the temple taking pictures and I see an outlet nearby.  I stop to plug in my camera charger and it is not working.  As I leave the temple, a nice, kind Monk approaches me and says, “Do you need to charge your camera? You can plug it in my room.”

At first, I am confused as I would think women would not be allowed inside a monks room.  In general women are not suppose to touch monk’s and if something is to be given it is placed on a surface or passed through another person. 

So, he invites me into sit down and I sit and observe what is in his room: a T.V, a bed, a bookshelf, a map of the world, and some miscellaneous souvenirs.  He sits down and pours me a glass of water (placing it on the table) and asks me the standard getting to know you questions.  I tell him I would like to study Buddhism more and inform him of some of my reading material.  I ask him if it would be okay to ask him about being a Monk because I want to learn.  He kindly agrees to answer my questions.

Basically, I learned that being a monk is something you independently choose in your teenage years.  After 20, you begin to study and go to school to reach the stage of …… A monk can go on the streets and to the stores, but he is not allowed to attend festivals.  He has two meals a day of breakfast and lunch and does not eat after 3pm.  He can watch some tv related to news, but not too much. 

What was interesting was when I asked him (quite clearly and slowly) about his thoughts processes/behavior.  For instance, what does he do with a thought about a behavior he is not allowed to engage in? How does he control his impulses and what does he do in the moment? It was a bit hard to communicate it through English, but basically said overtime you do not have those thoughts and you pray.  The prayer was a good thing for me to hear.  I also discussed the environment and people impacting behavior.  He said he only spends times with monks.  I joked that, “So you don’t hang out with people who have dinner? He laughed and was entertained with my light humor.  I kept it appropriate of course-he is a monk.  We also talked about meditation and how I am feeling during the meditation, mindfulness, and being aware.  He seemed impressed when I told him about my meditating sessions and told me to keep on doing it. 

When I left the other monks were looking at me.  Oh Priscilla off hanging out in a monks bedroom what those monks were left thinking? Who knows? But the way they were looking at me it seemed like they may have had some impure “thoughts.” It is hard to believe that a monk does not even have thoughts about any impulsive behavior ever? Right?

Do you think you could live like a monk?

Karaoke in the Woods of a Small Village

Riding my bike I decided to go wonder off into the woods to check out some birds and followed the path up the hill into some more huts and villages with locals.  A man was painting the side of the building in Thai scripture.  A group of women were sitting in the grass drinking a bunch of red bull? And while I was hopping around on an old wooden bridge, I was listening to an adorable voice singing karaoke.  I went down the hill and found a 20 something year old Thai boy singing karaoke in front of the office.   I approached him and he got so excited and said, “You sing, you sing.”  So I did sing with him.  I started humming random sounds and words along with his singing.  The people in the office were entertained and so were the women drinking red bull.  I heart him! Here is a pic and eventually will post video when I figure out how to post without it taking an hour to upload.

Temples in my Cute Village and Self Reflection

Friday November 11, 2011

Went off to explore my cute village area I was staying in, which included many temples and farms.  I met Besit and Nop at a temple and they offered me some lunch.  When Thai people offer you food or any culture offers you food, you are suppose to just smile and eat it.  It had some sort of meat in it and I really did not want to eat it. Thai food is amaaazing, but I still care for animals and want to stick close to vegetarian/chicken/seafood with the exception of this bomb crispy pork I ate a couple times-wow. 

As they watched me start to eat it, I smiled big as I realized it was a mushroom-not meat! Some thai vegetables can be deceiving and look like meat. They went back to work and I did some brief meditating inside the temple. 

Near the temples were a few monks and their dogs.  The dogs were barking and got very close to me.  I asked if they bite and they smiled and said “Yes.” I smiled, jumped on my bike, and got out of there. Ha!

Continuing on my temple journey, I could not figure out where I was located from my host’s house, which means I lost direction to where I was going.  I ask people where the main road is and they just smile as many do not speak English. Thai people selling kebabs, fresh fruit, and Thai specialties while kids play on the streets and yard are filled with roosters, cow, and horses. 

No fear when God is by your side. I started riding and looked up to see “Wat Ram Poeng Insight Mediation Center.” While I lack a sense of direction, I end up truly exploring cultures and cities.  Is my sense of direction connected to intuition with my higher power? I say “Yes.”  He leads me to places for reasons whether of enlightment, learning, adventure, or humor.

I enter into a beautiful  trees, paths, streams, temples, and monks at work or praying.  The monk in the information center gives me an info. Booklet on insight meditation and it is a 25 day package at the monastery-just like something I want to do, but I would rather wait to do it in my home turf-India.  The information monk tells me I can go meditate under the big tree or try out a session in the center. 

I decide to go into the meditation center and do some of my own meditation for about a half an hour.  I am wearing khaki pants and a white top covering half my arms and my chest-exactly what the students where except they have a scarf covering them a bit more. 

During meditation, I feel at peace, calm, and relaxed.  Sometimes it is difficult because my thoughts are distracting, but my distraction level was low this session.  My feelings of anxiety, worry, anger, or disappointment are floating up in the air above my head (just like the lanterns last night in the sky).  I was able to stay mindful of my breath and do some chanting in my head. 

When the class started , a beautiful, peaceful monk came to the front and rang the bell.  His presence was so pure that it made me feel so at peace.  The meditation continued with chants and prayers in Thai.  I listened to the words and repeated them, eventually picking up parts and phrases.  I was doing figure eights inside my head to keep myself centered and engaged.  The whole session was 3 hours, but I decided to leave after 1 as I was my thoughts were writing without my note pad and I needed to write. 

As a student at the meditation center, one has guidelines to follow and these guidelines remind me of my own quest to self improvement.  No physical contact, no electronics, no alcohol, and self disciplined behavior.  By no means am I living like a monk, but I am trying to be a better person for my higher power and focus on simple things that matter rather than materialism.  It is a nice shift I must say.  When you have insight into your behaviors, you have the power to change/improve them.  As human beings, we are constantly learning about ourselves if we are admitting to our human flaws.  We are all imperfect and had impulsions, addictions, challenges, and may engage in maladaptive behavior whether something big or small. 

How can you improve your being?

Chiang Mai

Such a beautiful start to Chiang Mai-Northern Thailand literally-opened up my eyes off the bus to see a dark blue midnight sky and a huge moon and stars staring at me.  For moments, I was still asleep, but I kept looking up into the darkness and smiling.  When I awoke again, it was to the sunrise and little villages, farms, and street vendors smiling.  What is amazing about Thai people is that they will shine their smile through a window, an alley way, a slight crack in a door-where there is a way-there comes a smile. 

Out of the big city and into nature and countryside-perfect! I met a couple from San Francisco(clueless number 1 and number 2), but they were nice just typical tourists.  That was the extent to my American tourist interaction especially when he ran off the bus.  I asked, “What happened?”  She said, “He has to call his mom-she does not like us traveling to foreign countries.” Ha! The moral to this for Priscilla is that not everyone is as independent and resourceful as me and some people do grow up with a real, close knit family.  We all grow up differently and that is okay=)

7am and walked around the bus station a bit before being approached by a red truck also known as a taxi.  It was suppose to be cheaper, but not to my village/mountain destination, but no complaints at all as I am very happy staying outside of tourist central.  After he was being so helpful and sweet, I hopped in and we started our drive to my host’s house.  Two strangers just sitting and smiling at one another taking funny pictures of each other as we traveled into the hills and villages past Chiang Mai. 

What is funny is that my host does not even have an address.  Can you believe it? No street name and no address=no mail! I have been requesting to not get mail for years now, but it difficult to do in the US.    The cab driver is having difficulty finding the place and finally we arrive to the cutest little home ever.

My host is Tink, a chemistry teacher at the nearby university.  I meet Roberto from Chile and we sit drink coffee and eat homemade cherry cheesecake-for breakfast.  Anyone who serves Priscilla dessert in the morning gets a thumbs up in my book! 

Roberto and I plan to meet in front of the municipal building for the big balloon festival.   My host gives me a ride down to central city.  In his car, he has Britney Spears-Hit me baby one more time playing on video-double thumbs up-such a Thai thing! We talk about going to do karaoke together-think that is a must!

I head off to rent a mountain bike and have no luck.  Many do not speak English so we just exchange smiles and I go on my way.  Temples, guest houses, markets, and restaurants surrounded by beautiful, green hills.  I decided it reminds me a bit of Monte verde in Costa Rica-one of my favorite cities.  The air is nowhere near as clean as Monte verde, but still cute and charming.  The fresh fruit is amazing-love the dragon fruit, passion fruit, strawberries, and oranges straight off the tree.

As I continue to walk to the river, I see balloons going into the air and hear fireworks.  The hot air balloon part of the festival.

This is part of the Loi Krathong Festival

What is it?

It takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12^th month in the Thai lunar calendar.  Loi means “to float” while krathong refers to lotus shapes receptacle that can float on water.  The festival takes place over 3 days Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  The day I went was Thursday and Friday with a parade, singers/dancers, amazing food, markets, performers, fireworks, and the magic of the sky lanterns.  The lanna sky lanterns (khom loi) are all launched in the air at the same time lighting up the sky and the city.  It is quite magical. 

During my time with the balloons, I met a lovely teacher whose students were creating the flower displays for the parade.  She was so lovely as she was asking how to say specific words in English.  After our chat, I was talking with a monk and continued to smile and engage with little kids. 

A couple hours later I found Roberto and met his friend, Barbara, who was also from Chile.  We are enjoying the festival and along comes this little boy from earlier.  It turns out he follows me around the festival-it was quite adorable. 

The thai community are all together at this event: families, teachers, religious leaders, and spokes persons covering the event.  The “unity” is present here as well as people are joined together creating the displays on street corners, decorating temples/homes/gardens, and such love and passion toward their cultural event.   Here are some pictures of the unity:

After the event ends, we find a bike for me to rent and I am as content as ever riding around town on a beautiful day.  Roberto and Barbara go to eat lunch and I am so happy on my bike-I just want to ride around and explore.  I end up eating at a little, family owned Thai spot to have some Ko-Soy, which is an Northern Thailand specialty-delicious! Sunsets are one of my favorite things so I receive some advice to go to Natharu bridge to watch the sunset.  With my sense of direction, I decide to go off and follow the sun.  I stop and ask a local about where to find the bridge.  We pull out the map and he says, “We here, you here-very far, very, very far.” While he pats me on the back he says, “Maybe no sun for you today.” Oh one of the many interactions that just makes me smile and be okay with my poor sense of direction.

If you don’t get lost, there is a chance you will never be found- Unknown Author

I biked off into the streets  smiling and waiving smiling and waiving.  I met up with my new friends, Roberto, Barbara, and Javier(aka Diego Rivera) ha! Music, dancing, locals taking pictures of me during the parade, ice cream in bread sandwiches, shrimp dumplings, mocha, and fresh sushi.  The best part was riding through cars and bikes of traffic over the bridge.  I was dodging the cars, riding on the opposite side of the road waiving and smiling.  The locals were laughing at me and it was quite a fast and the furious experience.   I was also singing “Firework” by Katy Perry.  This is definitely a moment I wish I could have recorded, but it was better for me to be focused on the road. I think most people who know me would agree! Ha!

We were lighting off many of the sky lanterns and watching them drift off into the sky. We decided to write on them. I wrote Go Brazil 2014 and I love Thailand.  Roberto wrote some Chilean saying and I love Pad Thai ha!

 

Guest house night cap with Roberto, Barbara, and two French girls drinking Pisco sours (mainly just a whole lot of fresh squeezed limes!) talking about India, France, Morocco, and Thailand culture.  They were all speaking Spanish while I was listening and speaking bits here and there. I always feel self conscious about my Spanish, but necesito mas practicar! Roberto and I road home listening to the fireworks and seeing the people still partying on the streets.

When Thailand Smiles

      When Thailand Smiles the whole world smiles with them

         Enjoy these beautiful smiles with All Photography by PRIS 

 

Cooking and Painting with My Bangkok Host

Thai cooking has always been a bit intimidating for me. Well, cooking in general has been intimidating, but I have learned to love cooking.  My host cooks a lot of different stuff and is also learning Thai style cooking so we decided to cook our own Pad Thai-very successful and simple!  Some of my favorite moments were cooking Thai food in the kitchen=)

After my day of inspiration, I decided to do some painting of my own. Here is my happy Thailand creation. 

Molly did a portrait of me and here is the finishing product- amazing right?

Listening to classical music and painting is one of my favorite things to do-something that I do not do enough. But had a lovely time with Molly painting, listening to classical music, eating Apricot cheese and pear and ginger tea on my last night in Bangkok.