It's funny all the different ways to travel. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rhythm of moving constantly, always on the go--long train rides and plane rides...which honestly can be exhausting. Our pace in Chiang Mai is much different than that. We have been staying put for the last five days, cuddled into our guesthouse with a little altar set up with our special things on it, a string of christmas lights with colorful fabric balls that turn the lights from white to all sorts of soft shades of purple, orange and pinks. we have a little balcony where the smells of the kitchen below frequently waft up to our room and remind us that we're hungry, even though we might not be. That's because we eat a lot in Thailand. We joked today how we are turning into hobbits of sorts enjoying breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, afternoon shake, and dinner with a mango sticky rice to follow. Well, perhaps we don't eat THAT much, but we wish that we could from how enjoyable it is to eat here. Today was a prime example of that. Waking up a little later than normal (10ish) we wandered up to a friends place, took a songthaw (*a truck taxi with benches in the back and a canopy over that for 6 people) to a brunch spot and had a leisurely 3 hour experience there with new friends. we wandered towards a temple that was recommended we check out with dogs laying in the grass, extremely old temples with stone elephant carvings around it that has a hair of the Buddha within! by this time we were getting hungry again and so we head over to the blue diamond where we sit down and enjoy some delicious khaosoi and a green curry fried rice! yum. another friend joins, then two more friends show up and 2 hours later we leave that restaurant. So the story goes on, but the point is clear. Some days are all about moving and traveling, and others are about relaxing and enjoying the company of new friends and food. Our niche here has really brought us to a place similar of what it's like to be at home with friends... except that hardly any of us work here, so we have lots of time to do things! Other things we are up to include a great anusara yoga class (of which i am recovering from today), lots of long walks around town, drinking the best mojitos in town, scouting out local markets, spa day, guys night and ladies night, starting our indian visa, and trying to make some decisions on when we're going to leave!
We are especially enjoying taking advantage of days like this because our conversation has been including India more and more these days. I have dreamt about it and we are gathering information of places that we must go. One possible plan involves us leaving Thailand in as little as a week. We are enjoying ourselves a lot, and have found a great community of people here that we really enjoy, and with all that said are getting excited and anxious about our first trip to the sub-continent of India. There is so much to see and do and experience that we feel two months will probably give us enough time to barely scratch the surface. Then again, when people ask us how long we will be in Chiang Mai we tell them anywhere from a day to two weeks. Everything is a little up in the air, as it usually is with us--which is how we typically like to travel :)
One final note of a neat experience that i had the other day....... we were visiting a temple on our way back to our guesthouse. and with a stunning twenty five foot high Buddha, I knelt to pay my respects. I started speaking words in my head acknowledging and appreciating the experience like i felt i should do, and then stopped. I just suddenly felt like instead of filling my head with words for the Buddha, i should instead stop and listen. what filled the space was not any words, but instead the sound of my own breath. I remembered in that moment the experience of being fully present, and that the present is all we really have. my breath brought me back to the truth of what i needed to receive from Buddha. (thanks Buddha!) I stood up and walked out of the temple without turning around again.
We hope everyone is doing amazing at home. Please feel free to email us if you'd like, you can reach us at carsonandmelissa(at)gmail.com , or our respective emails. Much love to everyone, Carson (and Melissa)
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