New Years Day

Sunday, Feb 14th. Today I got up at 8:00am, really early! I went to 2 temples with the guesthouse owner and Nai, another employee of the guesthouse. Nai drove us in her pickup truck. First stop, Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. Sweet, I was going to go there anyway on my own. As expected, the place was huge with many tourists.



We took the cable car up, otherwise we would need to climb 1000 steps. Foreigners need to pay to get in while the locals can get in free. Racists! Well, I'm getting use to paying more as a foreigner.

Then we drove to Lamphun, a small town just 26km south of chiang mai. There were hardly any tourists in his town. We ate at a little shop and there were no English menu. Lucky for me, I went with the locals. I had beef noodle soup and it tastes great.

Went to Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, a major place of worship. There were no entrance fee for foreigners in this place. One of the temples has a small metal statue of an elephant with a little ring on it's back. After praying, if you can lift the elephant (females use their middle finger and males use their pinky) then your prayers will come true. So I gave it a go, and the result... will tell you later.



This is the entrance to Wat Phra That Hariphunchai.

We returned to Chiang Mai at around 15:00. I was beat, so I went for an afternoon nap. Later in the evening, I went to the Sunday market and bought a painting.