June 23 - We go to make merit in Phayao

So we have our final morning at the beautiful PhuChaisai Resort and hit the road to the temple in Phayao. On our way we'll make a tourist stop or two.

First, we stop by a town whose name I can't remember and do a little shopping. Cars and motorbikes drive up and down the narrow roads lined with shopping stalls. We try to keep an extra close eye on kids.

Second, we make a quick stop at the Golden Triangle to get our obligatory photos of our family in Thailand with Laos and Bhurma in the background. There's a school field trip of squeeky, teenage girls who are determined to take photos of the kids... the boys are less than cooperative. Again, we were a tourist attraction at the tourist attraction. Before we get back in the van... some important business. It's 3 THB to go to the bathroom. What a deal! It was the cleanest pay toilet I've seen! And I've paid more for more foul toilets... They were squat toilets. I'd learned from previous squat toilet experiences with Felicia that it's just easier to have her take OFF her bottoms and underpants.

Third, we stop by a very striking wat whose name I don't remember. While we're there we get the call from Geoff's friend Nui that we need to head straight for the wat for the ceremony. We won't have time to get cleaned up. We hit the food stalls and buy Pringles and sodas for everyone... our lunch on the road. Nui calls again, they're going to delay the ceremony an hour to accommodate our late arrival.

We arrive at the Gateway Hotel in Phayao and are frantically trying to get cleaned up for the ceremony and town festival at the wat. At the hotel, I'm so tickled to see we have a bug-free room with super strength air conditioning. It's a BIG room with a huge window that overlooks the town. We'd also learned that this room was also once occupied by former PM Thaksin... it's the only hotel in town.

So we arrive at the wat. We'd been coaching the kids in the van: We'll take off our shoes, Sit on your feet and don't point them at people, Girls don't touch the Thai monks, When we're at the wat do we yell, jump, push or spin? etc, etc... I'd decided to wear my dressy heels for this occasion... I only wore them for the 5 foot walk from the van to the wat. (I should've left them in Maryland.) So, it turns out that by being an hour late we were still one of the first ones there... the ceremony didn't start for at least another 1.5 hours. In that time we'd decided it was better that I sit in the van with the kids while they watched a Garfield VCD. Geoff would represent the family. He was blessed with lots of water by the monks. He was given "bracelets" for the family, a poster of a famous monk and a bottle of wild bee honey that the monks collected from the forest.


After the ceremony in the wat everyone goes outside to eat and watch traditional Thai dances. Nui tells us that the kids and folks in the town have been preparing for over a month. The dinner was a northern style kantoke meal. Very delicious! And the dances where very entertaining. Especially one that involved "fire breathing". We had to leave before they released the balloons but we all had a FABULOUS time.




Once we get back to the hotel we get the kids laid out on the blankets and pillow on the floor.

Geoff and I contemplate the next day. We're suppose to be ready to head out at 7am. I'm going to need more caffeine.