I spent my first full day in Chiang Mai, Thailand, wandering aimlessly around town on foot, popping into random wats.
Like this.
- Big, old wat.
And this.
- Wooden wat.
And this.
- Gilded wat.
Along the way, I saw a few things I’ve never seen inside temples before. For instance, the tree trunks were covered with nuggets of bumper sticker wisdom.
- My ugly mug agrees with this.
A TV crew filming in the temple. What made it surreal is that the crew sent the actual praying people out of the temple and brought in some fake ones.
- Cut! That prostration needs work.
Bottled temple water.
- Like Evian, but with enlightenment.
A magical coin-operated blessing machine.
- My wish was to be big.
Another one, but sadder.
- This one gave me a blessing. I think. It was in Thai, so who knows?
And finally, monk keychains.
You can’t see the cardboard on top of the packaging in this photo, but they all say “Fashion” — because monks are known for their fashion sense.
- Collect them all!