Doi Suthep

I forgot to post a small little trek i did to Doi Suthep - a mountainous climb to a nearby temple (which you can see from my front yard!) :) i'm not into temples at all - they are kinda creepy to me and obviously idols to the Thai Buddhist population...but it is a site to see - the gold, the offerings, the stairs! :( and of course, i picked a day to go when there was a DOWNPOUR! my friends and i took a saungtow (pick up truck with benches and a roof) up the trecherous route. it was pretty funny seeing all the red mud and rain gushing from the hills past us as we crashed through it to get to the top!



it was funny though - the saungtow guy gave us umbrellas and waited for us crazy farang to do our little trek and come back down. the thighs burned a bit from the steep climb, and we were greeted with a sign "foreigners this way" pointing us to the booth to pay to get into the temple (Thai's go for Free!) *this is common - foreigners having to pay for stuff like this and Thai's don't - if we did that in America...you can imagine what would happen!!!




anyways, it was a cloudy day - couldn't really see the scenery - which would have been pretty from the top.

lots of tourists - lots of Thai's giving flower offerings and paying for candles and name plates to be adored throughout the temple - as 'good luck' etc etc. it was sad for me to see them worship something that is so temporary satisfying, expensive, and time consuming....