After that we took a sung tao to the entrance of the zoo to start our hike. Man oh man, it was only around 9 am in the morning and it was already scorching hot. We started our hike on an actual trail, but then the rest of the hike was on the actual road. I have never been so hot and wet (sweaty) in my life. Thank you to NICK :] for buying me that blue sweatband/headband thing, it saved my life and blocked my forehead from the sun :] Anyway, there was about 11 of us hiking up together. I seriously felt like SUCH an American idiot....all these sung taos and cars were passing us full of Asian tourists. These Asians were all cool, NOT sweaty, and waving and laughing at us because they think we Americans are CRAZY for hiking up 3 hours to a wat when we can simply take a car up. Whatever, it was true Haha but at least I lost some weight from sweating so much! It wasn't till after we got to the wat that we found out there was an actual trail up to the wat...meaning, we didn't have to walk on the main road and look like American fools...Haha oh well.
The wat was beautiful. Very toursity, but still pretty. There were a lot of little Thai children dancing outside of the wat; the little girls were all decked out in make-up, and it made me wonder if the wat hired them, they danced to make their own money, or to make it for their family. I asked one if I could take a picture and she told me "7 baht!" HMPH. I am not paying 7 baht to a take a photo of a little girl (I took one any way when she wasn't watching haha).
You ALWAYS take your shoes before entering a wat. Inside was beautiful, no words can describe it, so I'll post some pictures below :] I got blessed twice by different monks! Monks aren't allowed to touch women, so when they gave me a bracelet a helper put it on instead. You are to never have your feet towards the Buddha, so you sit with your feet under your tush. Your head is always supposed to be below the monks too. My friend Annie, Dana, & I had some trouble getting out of the temple. We weren't sure if we could turn around and stand up because 1) our heads would be higher than the monks & 2) our feet would be facing Buddha. I was laughing pretty hard because I was trying to scoot out, crouched down bumping into all these Asian tourists trying to get in haha.
We took a sung tao down the mountain, and in the car, it took 20 minutes to get to the bottom. DANG. I couldn't believe I hiked that far up.
Though the sweat, heat, and exhuastion sucked, hiking 3 hours to Wat Doi Suthep was totally worth it. Of course, I treated myself to a 180 Baht Thai Massage for one hour (equivalent to around 5 dollars). Amazing.
Later that night we went to Sunday Night Market. If you've ever been to the International Marketplace in Hawaii, imagine that, but Thai-like things and 100x times bigger. I probably only walked 1/4 of it, and it was a long walk. There are so many different vendors yet they all have similar things (repetitive!) so it kinda gets old.
I'm becoming a pro at bargaining by the way. It's so funny a phrase I always hear is: "My friend! Special price for you, only for today..." I called one lady out once because when I said "Mai" (No) she moved on to my friend and said the exact same thing. I was like, "HEY! You said I was your friend!" and she goes, "I speak no English!" and I was like, "YOU ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH RIGHT NOW!!" I made that sound stupid, but it was pretty funny. Guess you had to be there :]
Overall, it was a good day before the first day of school :]
Pictures!
Ewwie bugs!
On the hike
Stairs up to the Waht....306 of them.
Pretty!
Sunday Night Market!I would add more photos, but it just takes way too long...check out my facebook for more :] I'll write more later. Time for bed, I gotta get up early for ziplining in the jungle tomorrow!
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