Sunrise, Sunset and Everything in Between.

We left the hotel at 6:00 am to ride up the mountain (the local road bike route) to 3500 ft.  

The novices (young monks under 20) were there collecting food in their alms bowls.  We had collected a few things at the market yesterday to take to them.  Jenn found seaweed peanuts, while Jeff found a chocolate brownie. We added these treats to a traditional meal donation.  After our gift, we kneeled, hands in prayer to our forehead and were blessed.  The blessing concludes by wishing us long life, beautiful skin, good health, happiness, and strength.

Serenity.

At many of the temples there is an area like this.  A Buddha statue dedicated to each day of the week, superstitiously associated with the day of the week you were born.  Sunday begins on the far left, Wednesday has two (morning & night) and an extra statue for those not knowing their day of birth.

Shaking a decorated container full of 28 sticks, we coax out our fortune. The first stick to fall out onto the floor is your fortune.  Jeff got 27 (his birthday) and received a very good fortune.

Eerily Jenn got 11, her birthday as well.  Odds of that happening 1.27%. Jenns was a good fortune too. Wow.

Next beautiful temple please.

Entirely adorned in silver.  The closeup pictures are amazing.  We're still not sure how you make them 3D, that would be a cool process to learn. 

The rats.

For our dragon.

For our tiger.

Craftsmanship is unbelievable.

The peacock is prominent in the northern burmese style temples, not sure why.

I'm sure glad Jenn got her PHD so we could do this.  

Ganesh represents knowledge.

Meditation break in the scorching sun.

We had three hours until our next organized event.  A 3D interactive art museum sounded fun.

We have so many photos, but these were our favorites.

She's sitting on real floor alright.

Help!!!

We could have spent all day.  This was one adventure that would be even better with lots of people.  

She dressed the part.

Looking for the next adventure?

Our evening cooking class began at the market to learn about the local Thai ingredients.  We learned a lot.

Lets do this.

Tom yum soup and a Chang beer.

Pad Thai.

Chicken Cashew & Panang Curry.  We had mango with sticky rice too, but gobbled it up before the photo.  We each cooked our own food.  It was great, bravo to the chefs.

The cooking school and organic farm was out in the country aways.  Lovely grounds to view.

Our last sunset in Thailand.  The next one will be from an airport.  😢