Meditation

Tomorrow I will go to a meditation center for a week of silence. The place is called Wat Phra Doi Suthep and it offers different courses. The longest one is 21 days and there are lots of guidelines to follow; no reading, no writing, no listening to music, no e-email and no telephone. You are not even allowed to speak. It goes without saying that I will be away in another world and I will not be able to comunicate with you during my stay. I will keep you up-dated once I am back. Have a nice week. Peter

Chiang Mai

Sawadee to everybody from Chiang Mai! The train ride was a good experience. It took me through the mountains of the northern part of Thailand and there was only on track through the whole area. So there is no options for trains crossing only at the stations of some smaller towns or villages. To Thai, Chiang Mai is a national treasure - a cultures symbol of nationhood. For visitors, it is a cool place to kick back and soak up some of the Thai-ness that may have been missed on the beaches of the south coast. The climate is much more comfortable than in Bangkok, at least less steamy and sweaty. The sky here is very overcast and hazy due to some big fires which happen during dry season. In addition to that lots of farmers burn their rice fields after harvesting the rice. So I cannot say that I am blessed with lots of fresh air at the moment. So Chiang Mai with a population of 1,6 Mio (Bangkok 6,0 Mio) is a great playground for classes in Thai language, cooking, meditations and massage. There is also lots to see and visit. It has more than 300 temples - almost as many as Bangkok. It is also one of the most popular places in Thailand to arrange a trek. Most treks include visits to minority villages, some jungle action, plus the option for rafting or elephant rides. My activity so far was Thai cooking. Today I completed my second of three days. So for me it got started! Each day so far included the cooking of 5 different dishes, we had to eat of course. It goes without saying that the self cooked dishes always tastes the best!! It is not very difficult, it just takes some major or minor information to succeed with it. I could always participate in small groups of 5 or 6 people, so it makes it much easier for everybody. Boom, our teacher took us to the local fruit and vegetable market in the morning to buy the ingredients. This helped me a lot to understand the different spices, herbs and vegetable that belong the its same family, for example there is 4 different kinds, basil 3, eggplant 4 etc and each one is used for its own dish. Just to show you some of our results, here some pics. Bon appetit!!

Phitsanulok

Many travellers prefer to use vibrant Phitsanulok as a base for visiting the ancient city of Sukhothai as it has more charm and better grazing options. It is a market crossroads for the country's vegetable industry and get the pick of the harvest. So you get lots of different options. You can buy fresh fruits and vegetable at small stands or at big boots in the big market hall. Everybody wants to make the business. People here hardly speak English. This is where multilingual people come to an end. In order to get what you want, you need to gesture with hands. Movable food stands are very common and food is freshly prepared. Phat thai noodles for 20B / CHF 0.60 and the dishes are excellent. So no need to go to expensive restaurants. Bon appetit!

Sukhothai

Sukhothai means Rising Happiness. This ancient city was the capital before it went over to Ayuthaya. Therefore the hystorical part is even older and also very impressive even though I prefered Ayuthaya. The two picures on top left and middle one gives you shows you Wat Mahathat which is the biggest sight. See the the pic on right top side, this is Wat Si Chum and it is a giant buddha, just compare the size with the people standing in front of it. Left bottom is the hand of the same. As the whole historical part is quite small sightseeing can be easily done by bike. Rental for 20B / CHF 0.60!!