I suppose that now is as good a time as any to begin uploading photos and sharing them with you. Unfortunately, I don't have my camera cord (of course I would have left it in the suitcase that I checked!), so I can't upload any photos from the bike ride yesterday. But you can have some fews of my first two days in Chiang Mai, and I will upload more from the hotel tonight.
On my first day of walking around and adventuring through the city, I felt compelled to stop at at least ONE temple for some "sight-seeing." While I generally don't like the idea of "looking at stuff" while I am traveling and would much prefer to interact with people, animals, nature, or a city in a more hands-on fashion (in order to avoid feeling like a complete ignorant tourist with a camera strung around my neck), I know that you can't go to Chiang Mai without the obligatory temple tour. So I stopped at Wat Phra Singh, the most famous temple in Chiang Mai, and I left it at that.
I'm glad I went, because the atmosphere inside the temple grounds was so peaceful. There were Buddhist mantras written on signs that were hanging from trees and buildings all over the grounds, and there were monks going about their daily business, and people coming to pray and burn incense. The temple is indeed stunningly beautiful, and I really did feel calmer just by meditating on the various mantras. There is certainly something to be said about positive energy and how it shapes an environment, because the energy inside the temple grounds was charged with peacefulness and happiness. A very lovely feeling, I will say.
I ended my brief temple tour with a plate of som tum, or green papaya salad with peanuts and fried pork rind. It was sour, sweet, salty, and spicy- a perfect combination of Thai flavors while still remaining light and refreshing!
My Internet seems to be slowing down and losing connectivity, so I will end this post here and update later with more backlogged photos and memories from the past few days!
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