We attempted waking up at 5 am to catch the sunrise at Doi Suthep today.
As you can tell, i say ‘attempted’ with past tense because we failed.
:p

We did go there at 9 am instead.
Doi Suthep was built in the 13th Century and it isn’t IceCalvin’s first visit there.
We’ve been visiting lots of temples in Thailand and I’ve (personally) been having that you’ve-seen-one-you’ve-seen-them-all attitude towards them.
Usually i sit outside and read under a tree while he prays.

But Doi Suthep was different.
It was super crowded with tourists and locals and i didn’t bother taking my book out to read, people watching was so fun!

We had a choice to either take the cable car, or walk up stairs to the temple.
As we trudged rather unhealthily up the flights of stairs, i saw a giant stand-alone doorway in the distance and voiced out, “Hey, this is not so bad! It’s not even like Batu Caves. You made it sound like we had a long way to go!”
“We do… this is just the first part. The stairs go on over the hills…”
“… HOW many parts are there?!”
“Eighteen.”
“Whattttt!!!”
“Yeah…”
“Sob!”
“C’mon! We can do it!”

Look. I can climb freaking steps if i want to, but seeing that we were going to some designer cafes after that, we wore extra nice (read: not exactly trekking gear) and i wasn’t in the mood to climb stairs. If i want to exercise, i go climb mountains okay. I came to Thailand to shop and relax!

So i sighed. And accused Calvin of conning my ass to climb the damn stairs.
Cos just last week, he bluffed that there was only one way to walk to the hot springs and we trekked 700m into the forest when in actuality, there was another walkway just 150m.
-_-

When we reached the top of the first flight of stairs, i saw the temple in front of me.
… -_-
“You bluffed me is it. -_-“
“Hee hee hee!”

IceCalvin went to walk around the relic three times or something, to change his fate to a better one.
I pottered about, taking pictures of people and sitting on the cold marble floor.

When he was done, i followed him to do that thing – where you think and pray for answers of something you want to ask about life, shake the canister of sticks with numbers till one falls out, then refer to the board of prophecies for particular number.

It was my first time doing it. And… i don’t really have anything in particular i wanted to ask the Gods. So i thought about something, closed my eyes and shook shook shook the canister till a stick popped out.

No. 19.

I read the prophecy for No. 19.

It started off with, “Your life is full of prosperity.” Then bla bla bla, had no relevance to my question.

“Mine’s so accurate! It answered what i asked,” proclaimed IceCalvin, who asked about career.
“Mine… doesn’t make sense -_-”

I let him read my prophecy.

“Maybe you didn’t concentrate hard enough.”
“What are you talking about! I was concentrating okay.”
“Hmm. What did you ask about?”
“Er… I asked about love.”
“Of all the things in life, you ask about love?!”
“What’s wrong with that! I don’t need to know about the other stuff!”
“If i’m not wrong… you can’t ask about love or money.”
“Oh sheesh, you didn’t tell me that!”

So much for prophecy sticks my first time round.

We ventured outside the temple, where i went hunting for a parasol for YC (yeah i bought you happy coloured one dah) and i watched these cute bunch of kids dressed up in traditional garb.

I snapped a picture of them and three of them shouted at me in perfect unison,

“TAKE PICTURE PAY MONEY!”

0_o

“Damn clever right!” laughed IceCalvin.
“Walau. So young can shout for money already.”

The children weren’t bratty in any way, and they laughed and played among themselves.
So i couldn’t help paying money to take a picture with them.

Yeah, i’m a sucker.

In the evening, we went to the Sunday market in central Chiang Mai.
I didn’t mean to buy anything but i ended up with the most ridiculous things i didn’t need:
– a painting by a schoolboy
– five tiny psychedelic rabbits
– two necklaces

The painting and the necklaces were because i felt sorry for the boy and woman selling them.
I don’t know. Their faces just seemed different from the other vendors there.
The more i had to stand around the woman (cos Calvin was talking to an artist next to her), the more i kept on thinking, “Okay. I already showed interest in the necklaces. But now i don’t really want them. But her face is damn 7 kesian… What is 8 ringgit to me compared to her?”

So i bought two -_-

As for the rabbits, they’re super cute and trippy with multicoloured bodies and ears!
“Oh, you’re a cutie!” I snatched one up, “Oh, you’re pretty cute too!” i picked up another one.
I ended up with a few on my palm, cooing at them, “Wanna come back to Malaysia with me?”
Calvin overheard and laughed.

And that’s how i ended up with five tiny unnaturally-coloured soft toy rabbits -_-

I think if there’s a market with only pitiful-looking vendors and cutesy animal thingamajigs, i’m a goner for sure.

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