I wanted to tell you about Visakha Puja, the celebration of Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death, and how I got to be at the very site of the most holiest of wats on the most holy Buddhist holiday, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of devout Buddhists, trekking up the mountain to Doi Suthep in the middle of the night.
I wanted to tell you about the absolutely insane situations we found ourselves in.. drenched from the storm, caught in traffic with everyone else in Chiang Mai coming to this grand celebration, feeling like sardines trapped in the crowd and on the last stretch of stairs, running through the jungle, losing grip and slipping downward, Eden's insulin pump failing, getting on a rot dang (truck) with 27 other people on the back, sides, and roof... the list goes on.
But there are no words to describe this event and atmosphere.
Another girl in my group, Eden, joined our facilitator, her husband, and I on this trek. I decided last minute to go (when would I ever get the chance to participate in something like this again?), so I hurried into the city to meet up with them, just in time for a storm with rain drops as big and quick as I'd ever seen to drench me in a matter of seconds. A kind man on a motorcycle saw this wet farang on the side of the road and took me to a covered area to wait for a rot dang (public transportation trucks) to pick me up. The Thai school girls in the truck were fascinated by me (what a sight I'm sure) and all laughed especially hard when I said 'mai pen rai!' (no worries) at the current situation, where I had to sit wet crouching on the floor.
Fast forward a couple hours. I've met up with Eden, Brynna, and Alex and we begin following the masses up the hill. The entire hike up was a blast, with street vendors everywhere selling delicious food and snacks on the way, and swapping stories with each other while relishing the fact that we are not in Provo.. I am always pinching myself (figuratively) realizing that this is my current reality. New adventures and memories being made daily... in Thailand, no less. I am so grateful.
Continuing with our arrival at Wat Phra Doi Suthep. The masses had spread out decently on the hike up, but became ever so condensed when we arrived at the bottom of the 300 step stair case leading to the wat. We shuffled our way through the crowds, somehow remaining together, and once we realized that the stair case would easily take an hour to just get through, we noticed some kids taking a much more appealing route. The stairs are adorned with giant Naga's, or dragons, as railings, but some people discovered going up on the opposite sides of the railing was much quicker. We followed suit on a small cement path with mud and trees to our side.. the hill gradually became much steeper, so much so that at some points I needed to crawl on hands and feet, and other people were losing grip and slipping.. thank goodness there were no big falls, yet. Domino effect, anyone?
So with continued laughter and amusement keeping me going, we reached the top. We browsed around the beautiful wat for some time, watching as devout Buddhist's gave offerings, prayers, and flowers to Buddha. The scent of incense filled our lungs, as the full moon lit the sky, giving a beautiful backdrop to this incredible pure gold wat.
Remember those ruthless stairs? What comes up must come down. Nerves were greatly suppressed with the excitement of adrenaline wondering how we are going to get down.. it has only gotten more crowded. As we were coming down the steep slope, holding onto the Naga stair case for dear life, recovering after a few slips, again we were safely down.
God exists. There were rows and rows of massage therapists offering cheap foot massages.. one of the best decisions we could have made. After that break, it was at least 230 am and we headed down a ways to catch a rot dang down the mountain... with every other living human in Chiang Mai. Literally when groups of trucks would show up, it's do or die. Run and try to beat everyone else to pile on 20 or so at a time. Survival of the fittest. I happened to be holding on to the very back corner of the outside of the rot dang for a good 30 minutes hoping I don't lose grip. We passed one too many ambulances racing up and back down the mountain, as we were dangerously lead to safety...
Somewhere on our trek to find a ride down, Eden's diabetic insulin pump failed. Bad news. Trying new batteries didn't solve the problem. Luckily we were on our way home and she could hang tight til then. As of the next morning though it started working, again, God exists. Around 6am we went to sleep, I slept over at Eden's host family's house, AC and all (heaven) and got a good 6 hours of sleep before heading back to my house and took a good, cold shower. I'm happily awaiting bed time, though, and excited for a good, full nights sleep.
There are countless amazing experiences I am having over here, and I do my best to write them down and take pictures, but I knew I had to document this one incredible, insane trip in some more detail. I hope I never lose sight of how great it is to feel so alive, experiencing such a different yet beautiful culture, and letting it all go.
More information on Wat Phra Doi Suthep
No comments:
Post a Comment