Good Luck & Protection

For Good luck and Protection….is the standard answer for “what is this used for? “ or “what does this mean?”

Yesterday morning we got out of bed at 7:00 AM to witness 10,000 Monks receiving offerings. The posters in the city announcing this massive event indicated the magnitude we were to witness.

When one offers food, money, incense and flowers to Monks: it is referred to as “merit-making” . This is not a charitable activity but  the effort is accumulated in your file in the sky and will help one return a tad better then a dog when this life is complete.

The Chedi Hotel encouraged all guests to participate in this event. And was ready with freshly prepared food from the culinary team along with crisp apples, lotus flowers, 20 baht bills and temple incense.

With cameras in hand Amy and I head to the street. As luck would have it, my camera battery failed to charge and Amy’s camera was behaving lazy too….not to worry , you didn’t miss too much. 5 Monks showed up…where oh where were the other 9,995?

 I am back to using 4 leaf clovers and life insurance for luck and protection.

On our way to having our, laundry done we found the “Just Khoa Soy, (the art of the noodle) …as the name indicates: they serve just noodles….but the most delicious noodles in the world or at least in Chiang Mai or at least on the street we stay on.

The menu and presentation is quite clever. One chooses the protein: chicken or beef, the shape of the noodle: round or flat, the spiciness of the soup and with or without coconut milk…served on a wooden board representing an artists paint pallet (thus the art part) with condiments  of pickled cabbage, shallots, chili, vinegar, fish sauce, and bananas. All used to adjust the broth to your taste buds…We may have to stop again when we pick the laundry up today.  Check out Amy looking thrilled to be eating noodles!

 A  small trash can size plastic bag full of clothes cost us 110 B: wash, fold and iron, equating to just under $3.50 Gotta love Thailand. Noodles and laundry cost about the same. Life continues to be good: beer is only 60 baht! And banana rotis every night.....