The Terrific3 travel blog

We arose at 4am today to do the special sunrise tour of Doi Suthep, THE most famous landmark temple in Chiang mai, the golden temple which sits atop a mountaintop 1600 meters above sea level, and which is supposed to house the ashes of the Buddha within.

The goal was to see the monks do their morning chanting and see a lovely sunrise view over chiang mai. However it was pouring rain, so the latter was not possible.

The place was so beautiful, great attention to every carved detail, and soooo peaceful. You could just sense all the centuries of calm and meditation that vibrated the energy of the temple.

Our guide Tom was also a former monk, from age 9-35(!!). We used the company Thailand Untouched again. We really like the tour company as it is a small family run business with 6 former monks, and they really cater the itinerary to your family needs. Tom’s mom was a Laotian refugee and grew up very poor, which is what led him to become a monk, to get an education and bring blessings upon his family. I asked him what led him to leave monk life, and he said, “ good question. Beautiful woman, like you.” He didn’t elaborate, I didn’t push, but there’s obviously more to the story. During our temple tour, we ran into an Indian woman who recognized him from a tour he did 5 years ago with her, and she told him she had been trying to find him and praying she would run into him today. So obviously he is well loved and memorable.

The next temple we went to was Wat Pha Lat, a forest temple just down the hill, also super gorgeous, and there we met with a monk and did a meditation.

While meditating with the monk, as my eyes were closed, I suddenly felt this heavy weight in my lap, and the beautiful temple cat was climbing into my lap. It was an incredible moment.

We meditated, then offered the monk some food and he tied some blessing bracelets around our wrists.

Our last temple visit of the day was Wat Jed Yot. A temple almost 700 years old, and lots of snake imagery.

And guess what? We were back home by 830am! That’s a productive morning for you!

I ran some sprints and did a strength workout and the kids played beach ball soccer and koosh and are now in the pool. We are doing massages after lunch and laying low the rest of the day.