The Monk Who Saved Our Lives

Coming home for the day we needed to cross a very large road---three lanes going to the right, three beyond it going left, during rush hour, all flowing with tightly packed traffic. We walked for a mile finding no stop lights or cross walks.Then, we noticed a monk facing the traffic about to step in. We looked at each other, ran over to him, and when he stepped in, we followed right on his shoulder. Lets face it, no one is going to run over a monk! Cars, trucks, and motorbikes paused or flowed around us. He(we) walked slowly and steadily to the other side. Unscathed. On the far sidewalk we said to him, "thank you!" Joy asked him how he had the courage to walk into the busy traffic and he asked her "do you practice meditation? If you meditate, then you can cross". Turns out he is from Viet Nam and came to Thailand to be a monk for one year, which is a very common practice.
Yesterday we took a ride to a temple called Doi Suthep on a small mountain just outside of town. Packed with Thai and foreign visitors, it was really beautiful. We then continued another few miles to visit the royal residence for the king of Thailand. The king is truly revered in this country so the massive and beautifully landscaped grounds are open to the public with nary an armed guard in site. The tranquil wooded Photos are of the palace grounds. We walked around for about 1 1/2 hours. In quiet restfulness. Bonnye, we found your poinsettias growing on the trees at the palace.
The song hay(pickup truck with seats in the cargo bed) driver on the return trip pulled a bit of a fast one on us and dropped us off at the city zoo about 2 miles from the hotel, so we decided to walk which is how we happened to end up on the wrong side of that highway at rush hour and after that lost again on the streets of the city.
In our wanderings we came across a temple outside of the main gate which is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai. Built in 1447, they are currently restoring parts of it. The old looking buildings are it.
We stumbled across the very restaurant we were looking for and a couple of beers and a delicious dinner recovered the day.
Cooking class next.