The Long and Winding Road

Sunday, June 29th 2014
Today was one of the longest, sweatiest, and most rewarding days I have had. We started off our day with an early breakfast and then began our long trek up the mountain to the Doi Suthep Temple. The first half took about an hour, hour and a half or so and we thought that part was hard! The second half took about two hours and was crazy steep! There were points where we were more climbing than hiking and essentially going straight up, but we did it! It was so rewarding and I couldn't have done it without my girls (and of course the music we played over portable speakers helped!). We were all so encouraging of each other and I honestly don't think any of us could have done it without each other, much like many parts of our trip. Even though, or maybe because, I was drenched in sweat by the time we got to the top lunch was delicious. But we weren't quite done yet, we still had 300 steps up to the temple, that we had to climb in temple wear (shoulders and knees covered). The temple was so beautiful and we got blessed by the monks. I also learned what my Buddha was (it depends on what day of the week you were born) and learned about the temple from Dan. The view of the city was amazing and it was almost unbelievable that we had hiked that high up, but it made the day even more special. After the temple we went to the waterfall for a well deserved and very refreshing swim before heading back to shower before dinner. We went to a Thai BBQ for dinner where you got food and cooked it yourself at your table on these coal grill things, it was really cool and HUGE. It was a little overwhelming but defintely a memorable experience. After that we went to the Cabaret and the market. The Cabaret was sooo much fun and me and 3 other girls stayed for the whole thing and only shopped for maybe half an hour but it was worth it! Then to finish our night we released paper lanterns. It was really beautiful and, for me, symbolized my time in Thailand, all the amazing memories and friends made, and the piece of me I will leave behind here when I go. It was such a long day but it was all worth it. 

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 1, 2014 at 6:30 PM

    Congratulations on the climb! Can't wait to see pictures!

    ReplyDelete

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