Day 3

Day 3

Fay, Fuyang Shen

 

Today’s highlight is definitely the visit to Doi Suthep Mountain and the temple Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep located right on top of a hill forming Doi Suthep. The temple has existed since 13th century and is definitely one of the most important temples for Thai people. An interesting trivia from Fye: Even in school songs, Doi Suthep is mentioned as a form of respect. We climbed some 300 steps up before we reached the temple, where we noted that nuns there could only wear white but not the orange robes. Fye told us it was a form of discrimination against women in religion. This reminded me of the previous day, when I saw a religious building with a sign “Females not allowed”. Seems like women are not as equal as men in religion. I decided to raise this question to the Women’s Studies professors on Thursday during the interview.

At the temple, I wrote down names of my families and friends on a yellow cloth. Fye said it was for good luck. Then I made a small donation and received some holy water and a “Good Luck” bracelet. We prayed to the Buddha and drew lots for predictions. I had a good one. I am not a religious person per se, but I am not against it. I am willing to learn about the practices in different religions and try out some activities by myself. I then followed Fye’s instructions and walked along a “Golden Tower” for three rounds chanting over a one-page Buddhist scripture. I did not understand a single word, but somehow I felt peaceful at heart.

We then went to an open terrace where we relished views of Chiang Mai city and its surroundings from the top of this mountain. Unsurprisingly, I took a lot of photos, again. We took the cable car back to the meeting point instead of climbing down, which I regretted a lot. The cable car was stuffy and smelly, totally smashing my expectations for a cool cable car ride.

Afternoon was OTOT.

We first went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. I liked the crispy fish a lot. Natalia ate the fish fins and according to her, the fins taste like fish crackers. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Maya Mall, where we played arcade. I obviously sucked at it, but my friends were very tolerant and encouraged me to try again. I also saw a lot of Thai youths there and frivolously reached the conclusion that youths, regardless of backgrounds and nationalities, enjoy arcade games. After a series of ice-hockey, basketball and shooting games, we went for Thai massage before dinner. I had a full body massage. It was not as hard as I had expected. My masseuse stuffed her hand phone in her bra, and I was like, huh?! I wish I did not see it.

Our dinner was a Thai Barbeque buffet. I fell sick and did not have the appetite to eat much, but had a lot of fun rubbing the piece of pork fat against the Barbeque plate. At night, we went to the city centre, where we dithered about whether or not to go to a bar. It was quite strange to see that the city centre was rather “dead”, as it was quite dark at night and there were very few people on the street. Suddenly I thought of Bugis in Singapore and formed a concept by myself: The level of economic development is directly proportional to the liveliness of the city.

We went to Maya Mall again. There, Jin Hu and I took quite a few shots of Thai young women’s dressing and hairstyles (an explicit way to “measure” the level of empowerment Thai young women enjoy. I noticed that some Thai girls dress very fashionably. Inside Watsons store, I observed that many young women were at the cosmetics section, trying out different beauty products. I recalled that the monk we interviewed told us that Thai women put on makeup to make themselves look good and feel confident. Somehow I felt delighted at heart.

 

Afterwards, we went to a bar. I saw a ladyboy there. He (She) put on heavy make-up and dressed very ostentatiously. The way he (She) walked was very deliberate. But to be honest, he (she) really looked good. I was very sleepy at that time so I just dozed off after a while. I regretted not talking to the ladyboy. After all, how often do I get to see one?