hi everyone, last time i left you we were in bangkok. sorry it has been a while since i last wrote but we have been having a good time and internet access is very limited and when you can track a computer down they are really s l o w.
After bangkok we headed north to chiang mai which we found to be a very funky city, lots of cool little restaurants and cafes. we arrived on a sunday and there was an awesome market going on, people had brought a bunch of stuff they wanted to sell, little nick nacks and handicrafts and that sort of thing and laid them out on a blanket by the side of the road. there were lots of students selling artworks they had made and other students busking in thai. there was a really nice vibe about the place. as we were walking along the road checking out all that was happeneing we saw a small wat to the side of the road and wondered in. inside there was a sign that said "monk chat". we went into the wat and found 3 or 4 monks deep in discussion with some travellers. the monk chat program was set up to allow foreigners to met up with some monks and have a chat about anything they wanted. it's great for us, we get to talk with some very interesting people and the monks also get to improve their english. shei and i spoke with an amazing monk for around an hour. he was a super nice guy, 23 years old, had been a monk for 10 years. when he was 13 he decided to become a monk and left his home 700km away to travel up to chiang mai and become a novice. it was a wonderful experience, our new monk friend told us about his life , his beliefs , his hopes for the future and asked us about our lives. he was a really smiley, kind, articulate young guy, someone you would want to hang out with anyone - he just happened to also be a monk. we talked to him about some diverse topics e.g. tibet,the taliban/afganistan etc. we both enjoyed our chat immensely. we were pretty keen to get to laos so we kept going north after a couple of pleasant days in chiang mai. up at the border town of chiang kong we stayed in a great guesthouse right on the mekong river. it was also a fun place especially as we could see laos across the river.
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