We’ve actually ended up doing quite a bit on our first outing yesterday and after a restful night in our hotel just out of the walls, and a well-deserved lie-in, we set off again with a shorter programme: just one temple today, and sorting out the all-important parcel.
That last bit ends up easier than we thought: the postman speaks good English and gets us a box that exactly fits our belongings. We’re sending home our shopping from the markets, and a quite a few redundant bits: Ollie is shedding his jumper and long trousers (he runs warm) and I’m purging some duplicates in my wardrobe (although in part to accommodate some of the new purchases). It’s not cheap and puzzlingly, the air mail is expected to take almost a month, but that’s five kilos off our backs and a fun package to open when we get back - if it gets there!
Our temple for the day is Wat Sri Suphan: located in an area just south of the city walls known for its jewellers and silversmiths, the main building is made entirely of the precious metal, something quite unique amongst all the others we’ve seen so far. Outside of the initial “wow” factor as the afternoon sun glints of every carving and right into our eyes, the detailing is what makes this special, as always. The sides, back, roof and every surface of the hall are covered in intricate scenes, some including minute flying pennants actually hanging off the building and dangling in the breeze! I get a good look of the exterior as I’m not allowed inside on account of me being a filthy woman liable to bleed from my womb at any time. This is another new custom as we go North (it popped up yesterday at some of the other sites already) - and not a welcome one. Before starting the trip, and knowing very little details about it, I imagined Buddhism as a benevolent, tolerant religion - but it seems it has the same misogynistic blinkers as the main others. Not having to live with it, it’s ok for today though - we’ve found so far that the interiors of the temples are generally less impressive than the outside of the buildings.
For the evening, we head away from the city and towards the Ping river which runs just east of it. There’s a selection of night markets in this area to check out, which is a shame as we’ve just sent our parcel - Ollie has to restrain me from buying any further souvenirs before we gain the five kilos right back. More useful to us, there’s also the open air Ploen Ruedee food market, set around a pretty square with trees full of fairy lights. We’re there quite early and there’s plenty of tables free, and a stage where it looks like a band is setting up, so we settle down and go in turn to grab some grub. There’s a wide selection of stalls, in general not particularly local but we’ve been running on Thai food for a while and a change is welcome. I strike gold by trying out the sweet garlic chicken wings - an absolute delicacy that I even get to eat without making a mess since here you get a plastic glove with your portion: no sticky fingers at the end! Ollie is a bit less lucky with a very chewy beef skewer.
Food aside, the atmosphere is lovely. The band has started up, and contrary to a lot of the live performances we’ve (over)heard so far, they’re really good! They’re doing covers of all the 80s classics and giving off an incredible energy - the lead singer keeps popping into the crowd to encourage people to sing along or dance with her, all the while really nailing the music. We end up staying until they wrap up while Ollie gets a monster of a french toast for dessert: literally half a loaf of bread covered in milk and sugar. Even he can’t finish it! We were planning to go all the way to the river banks after dinner but that’s a good ending for tonight and we’re getting up early tomorrow, so after congratulating the singers, we head back to our hotel to tuck in.
Yes, I remember being appalled by the anti-feminist approach in Buddhist temples, in 2012 in Bali. Another illusion bust...