I Opened My Mouth and Kissed a Snake Once

Some things are just hard to believe. People who know Summer and I, however, might just think the above caption is true. Sit down a minute, and let me tell you about the adventures of a Christian on a Buddhist holiday. Our adventures start yesterday and really have nothing to do with the fact that we are Christian and we were celebrating a Buddhist holiday. Maybe celebrating isn't the most accurate word, but really, all I'm doing is beating around the bush. Here's the story.

Yesterday, we didn't have school (yet another reason why teaching in Thailand is awesome) because of the afforementioned (I have no idea if I spelled that right) Buddhist holiday wherein Buddha gave his first sermon to a miraculous appearance of 200 monks or something like that. So, Summer and I decided to have an adventure. We, of course, slept in a little, and Summer made pancakes (and yet another reason why Summer is my favorite) for breakfast. Delicious! Since Thursday is market day in Mae Malai (read MEM-uh-LAI), we stopped by there first to see what we could see. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but Summer bought a shirt and a freshly made coconut pancake. We also bought a pomelo and a kilo of oranges. We love our oranges here! They are awesome, and so cheap. They are very similar to Satsumas that we have in the states, but cheaper. We can pay as low as 10 Baht ($.33) for a kilo of them, and the most we'll pay is 20 Baht.

We took off from there shortly after and went north just past Mae Taeng. It was only about 10 kilometers or so until we got to what I am told is the largest wat in Thailand. It is so beautiful! There's a whole complex of temples and shrines and large "steeply" things. It was very peaceful. We explored around there quite a bit, looking at a very large Buddha, sitting in a temple made almost entirely of Teak wood, wanting to hit the very large drum that is used to signal meals and worship and things for the monks, posing as a meditating monk (for a picture-- not for tourists), trying to speak to some of the workers there, wanting to shoot down a very large bees' nest, and playing with lions and tigers and giraffes and even a rhinocerous. There was a little park area with plaster animals that we took pictures with-- it was fun. It was all very beautiful and relaxing. The crazy thing is that they are still building things at this complex. It is already so beautiful and big, and they are probably only half finished with building. I can't wait to see it in its entirety.

After the wat, we wanted ice cream, so we went down the road about 100 meters to a little cafe. It was wonderful! I got this sundae with three scoops of ice cream, and we just sat at our table, loving life. It was so refreshing. The story doesn't end there, though. We took off and headed back to Mae Taeng where we proceeded to stop at the monkey show... Woohoo! It was great! We know a girl that works there, and so she hooked us up. We paid our initial entrance fee to see the monkeys, but then we didn't have to pay for anything else after that.

They have a bunch of cute monkeys in cages, and they gave us a basket of fruits and vegetables that we could feed them. The monkeys just reached their little paws out of the cages and we got to hand them the food to eat. It was awesome! There was one little baby monkey that was 5 months old. Cutest thing ever! Some of them were very hyper, and we were told to be careful about our watches and rings because the monkeys would steal them if they got the chance. So we fed them for a while, then went around to the performance area where we saw a show. The monkeys picked coconuts, grabbed number blocks as instructed, rode a tricycle, jumped rope, and even worked out, doing pushups, sittups, and barbell presses. It was great. After that, we looked around the gift shop, took a short tour of the gardens, saw some other animals they have, and ended up at the snake show. This was crazy! I have to admit, my heart was thumping as I watched. The handlers played with cobras, pythons, and other snakes that are fast and can jump. One of the jumping snakes even jumped out of the area and onto Summer's lap, freaking her out. It was hilarious! It didn't take long for her to realize it was just a rope. But we saw the handlers get struck at, catch the snakes with their bare hands (one of them even caught a snake with his teeth), kiss a cobra, milk the cobra, swing the snakes right over the heads of the audience, and just all around agitate the snakes to where I thought they'd be bitten for sure. It was a great show!

After all this we headed back home and ate some fantastic Phad Thai and Kow Phat at the restaurant across the highway from the school. All in all it was a great day! More adventures and pictures of yesterday's adventures to come. Love!

~M

P.S. I forgot to mention that both Summer and I held and kissed the Python. We have pictures to prove it. :-)