OK, so it’s one thing to be excited to be back in Chiang Mai. I am, as any sane person would be (sorry Melody). I have settled into my place at Baan Thai, sent away for my visa to Laos, etc. But here is the exciting thing – actually let me start from the beginning.
Some of you may remember that I had mentioned the “rot daeng” this summer when I was here in Chiang Mai. Rot daeng are the little red trucks converted into passenger vehicles in which you kind of wave the driver down, agree to go where you want to go, and hop in the back. Because Chiang Mai stupidly got rid of any bus transportation system they used to have years ago, rot daeng are about the only way to get around town if you don’t have a vehicle of your own. OK, so I knew I needed to get a Lao visa today if I was going to get one – a 30 day visa that is, because anyone can get a 15 day visa when they cross the border, but I don’t want to limit myself on my initial Lao research journey. This meant I needed to get to the tourist area so that I could send my passport off through some random tourist place. Yes, I could have taken my passport to the Lao embassy when I was in Bangkok. That is true, but I really was quite lethargic in Bangkok, so it didn’t happen like that. Anyway, to continue with the story, I wasn’t sure where to tell the rot daeng I wanted to go, since I was just going to wander around the touristy area. But what is the heart of the tourist area? Of course, the Tapae Gate! So I flagged down a couple of different rot daeng, asking for a ride to Tapae, but no one wanted to go there. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the driver doesn’t have to pick you up if he/she has any possible reason for not doing it, like you are white, or going somewhere that he/she doesn’t want to go.) I decided to keep walking, knowing that although no Thai would walk the distance I was walking, it really isn’t all that far from Ban Thai to the old city. And, when I finally crossed into the old city, I decided to take a very small soi (lane) thinking I would probably end up at Wat Chiang Man, one of my favorite temples. I didn’t. In fact, the soi I walked down was a soi I had ridden my motorcycle down when I was here this summer; it dead ends into another temple. When I ended up at that temple (wat), I can’t even begin to describe it. OK, let me just say banners everywhere. I have included a picture. I was impressed, excite, overstimulated, what have you. And to think, I wouldn’t have ended up at this wat at all if I had taken one of those lousy rot daeng. I don’t know much, but I do know if this many banners are hanging up at a temple (outside of the buildings) then a festival either already happened, is happening, or is about to happen. I have read about it, but have never really been in Thailand at the right time for any temple festivals. Well after taking many, many photographs (butt really, probably not enough) I went to the main entrance of the temple, and lo-and-behold… the temple festival is this weekend – the 5th and 6th. Oh yeah, I will be there.
So basically, do I believe in fate? That’s kind of a silly and irrelevant question. But what I do know is that I got some good exercise today, and if I had taken a rot daeng as I had planned, I wouldn’t have found that temple. And finding that temple got my entire next 6 months off to the best start ever.