What's a wat? - It's a temple

I have spent some time in the town of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. It's a town that draws many tourists and for good reason; this is the most spiritual part of Thailand I have yet seen. There are wats (Buddhist temples) everywhere. No, seriously! There is almost one on every block of all different kinds. There are tall ones, short ones, new ones, old ones,... Red ones, gold ones, hot ones, cold ones. Thank you Dr Seuss!

But it really is the case in this town. Walking for two minutes in any direction will lead you to a wat. Some of them dating back to the thirteenth century. I've only put a few pictures up here but I have dozens and after the first few wats I just stopped taking pictures. That was just within the confines of the old city. The old city is a square area of Chiang Mai that lies behind walls and inside a moat. Apparently in the thirteenth century they were being sieged by less friendly visitors than the backpacker. Beyond the city there are ruins of wats all over the place. It gets to the point where you just get all watted out.

There are also a lot of monks, which makes sense or else all those wats would be pretty lonely places. I had the good fortune of meeting a young monk named John. His name wasn't really John, it was something in Thai that sounded remotely like John so he simplified it for me. We chatted for a few hours one evening about all sort of things, but mostly American pop music. He invited me back the next morning to show me the inside of the wat. I went back and got the tour then he taught be some thai for a while and we talked about the noble truths of Buddhism. But inevitably the talk turned back to American pop music and he had me listen to a few songs that he was having difficultly understanding the lyrics to. It was an enjoyable way to spend a morning.

There is a lot to do in Chiang Mai. It is a very popular place for doing jungle treks, learning about Buddhism and learning to cook Thai food. I have been eating a lot of Thai food so i figured I should learn how to cook some of it. It was a fun day. We started at the market where we learned what vegetables looked like. Then it was on to the cooking school. We learned to cook a whole bunch of things pad thai, red curry, stir fried chickens with cashew nuts, spring rolls and sticky rice with mango for dessert mmmm. I have never eaten so much food before four in the afternoon, well at least not food that I've made.