Earling Morning Offering- Chiang Mai

There are few things I would wake up before five in the morning to see. The early morning offering to the monks is one of them. The night before, a few of us travelers accompanied the owner of the guesthouse we were staying in to a huge shopping complex reminiscent of those in the States which felt exactly like a WalMart, sans the ubiquitous yellow smiley faces. Since it is customary in these offerings to provide the monks with dry foods, as they are light and easy to carry, I bought an enormous box of Ramen Noodles (their Thai equivalent actually) in the hope that dropping these packets of salty, shrimp flavored goodness would give me a small boost in the ol' karma department. This particular offering was special as it landed on the morning after the full moon, however it is common to see monks being given food by devout Buddhists as they largely subsist on the charity of the people.

I was glad to have taken part in the ceremony and this particular morning was, in fact, the highlight of my time in Chiang Mai. By choice, I really didn't do much else there. I could have gone trekking or riding on the elephants but I wasn't interested as I've done those things (save for riding the elephants as I'm saving that for India) in Vietnam and Laos. However I am sure, as they say in Thailand, that it's "same, same but different" there. After a month of travel including four countries, five flights, numerous trains and countless white-knuckle tuk-tuk and motorbike rides, I was ready to chill out and process all that I had seen and done. I was talking with some other travelers and we all agreed that, if a person doesn't have some downtime,all of the rich and varied experiences of travel will become but a blur. That, of course, is also true of life in general. I don't forget for one moment how fortunate I am to have this opportunity to escape from the ordinary, everyday (albeit generally happy) life I live, experience different cultures, open my mind up, shift some paradigms around and afford myself a little bit of head space in the hope that, like the lotus flower, I will emerge from this experience different from before.