Chiang Mai is a regional capital. It is a commercial centre - a real place - plenty of tourists yes but not dominated by them by any means. It feels an authentic - busy but not crazy busy. Thailand is not third world - far from it. Roads are good and traffic reasonably ordered. I used several Tuk Tuks today and you don't feel like you are taking your life in your hand as for instance in India where you often do.
I have only been in Thailand for 5 minutes of course but l am very impressed by the Thai people. They are nice people - their humour is not hidden it is evident and they are helpful. One taxi driver asked me "how long your holiday" - I said 3 weeks. He said some young English people say 3 months and started laughing. He said me I never have a holiday - work every day - I buy my taxi. It was a big modern vehicle. I asked him about sport in Thailand. He said the biggest ( I am now doubting that) is Sepak Takraw. I said I have never heard of it. He proceeded to load up a you tube vid of it while driving along. It is volleyball with three either side where the ball made from bamboo is kicked. Lots of bicycle kicks!
They are easy going here. One that made me smile - you can go into any store - a supermarket and buy a bottle of beer and they will open it for you at the till and you can drink it walking out. But so far I have seen no drunkenness or bad behaviour - no Western music - thank goodness no Cold Play that you seem to hear everywhere in the world! There are also few police on the streets. It is well ordered here. They are getting a lot right.
Yesterday I did the tourist trail under my own steam. I am staying right on the edge of the Old City and planned to walk in and see some of the land marks - mainly Buddhist temples-referred to as Wat. I visited the magnificent golden Wat Phra Sing, the huge Wat Chadi Luang and the unique and wonderful silver temple called Wat Sri Suphan.
At What Chadi Luang they offer an opportunity to chat to a Buddhist monk - shaven head - in orange robes. There are a lot of monks in Chiang Mai. It might be a life style choice for some and even a dubious one but in the great majority I think they are sincere and rather wonderful.
In the relatively short conversation I had and and putting both hands high in the air to admit if I was religious I would be a Buddhist - I took a lot from our short conversation in broken English. The first is he told me it was easy to be Buddhist - just basic requirements - pretty much the same in any religion. I could be a Buddhist tomorrow - except a basic tenent is no alcohol. In itself maybe giving up beer would be possible but the social pressure to have a beer is impossible to resist. Wetherspoons on a Friday drinking lemonade or Glasto on orange juice!
I asked him about his life. He said every morning very early the monks walk from their monastery to collect food for the day as gifts from the local people. He stated what I knew that the ultimate objective in Buddhism is to rid yourself of worldly wants - wordly desires. So he made a point of saying ALL food is the same to him - no preferences.
He then went on to explain the gist of which I think I got. It was on the lines of there are levels to achieve in Buddhism depending on how hard you work at achieving them. He said if you fall below a certain level you are no longer human but become animal. This thought has stuck with me in a positive and quite dramatic way today. I am a very optimistic person by nature but I am despairing of the human race. There are highlights but fundamentally I think human actions on this planet rank little more than rats in a sewer. Life too often seems not much more than a selfish battle - yes as Darwin - survival of the fittest. You need no better example than how the recent US presidential election was conducted -shameful.
When I reflected on what the monk had told me I had this negative thought - a question on how moral is it actually - to live off food gifted (begged) off your neighbours. I googled it. Buddha had already dealt with the question in his teachings :
DOES A BHIKKHU BEG?
The Buddha made it clear that bhikkhus should avoid begging if possible. (In times of great need a bhikkhu is allowed to ask for his basic requisites, for example, if his robes are stolen he may ask any lay person for one replacement robe.) He gave this story about 'begging':
A bhikkhu came to the Lord Buddha and complained about a great flock of noisy birds that came to roost at night in the forest surrounding his abode. The Buddha suggested that if he wanted them to go away he should go, many times throughout the night, and beg a feather from each bird. The birds, thinking, 'that monk wants a feather, and another, and another...,' left the forest and never returned. The Buddha then explained that begging and hinting were unpleasant even to common animals, how much more so to human beings.
A bhikkhu who is constantly begging for things displays his greedy state of mind. No one likes to see this, and lay supporters may start by criticizing him and then turn to blaming his Community or even the Buddha's Teaching. The Buddha, therefore, set down many rules to guide the bhikkhus about what is proper conduct.
Here are some pictures from my mob.
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