January 13, 2014 Monday

I am feeling fine – the drama of Friday is in the past. But I am still a little tired, and my back is not back to normal, so I am not going to return to yoga just yet.

Wat Jet Lin

On the way to Wild Rose Yoga, I always pass by Wat Jet Lin, sometimes spelled Wat Chedlin. This temple is also known as Wat Nong Chalin, but the sign at the front announces in Thai ( I do not know what the Thai says) and in English “Wat Jet Lin.” This is a smaller 16th century temple, and in the back, there is a fairly large pond with rather interesting plants and fairly large turtles basking in the sun. The turtles are large, their shells are just under  half a meter (about 18 inches) long.

At the wat entrance are these large, low-pitched bells. The larger one on the left is almost 2 meters in diameter (6 foot 6 inches). you strike them lightly with the soft mallet provided, and they have a really great sound.

The white wall behind the bells is the side of the main viharn at Wat Jet Lin, not one of the fancier viharn to be seen at the various temples.

At the back of the viharn is the chedi. This one is in the Mondo style which means there is a niche in each side in which a Buddha image is placed (I did not get a good photo of the Buddha image). Many of the chedi are in this style, like the very large chedi at Wat Chedi Luang and at Wat Lok Molee. Some rather important chedi are not in this style, including the chedi at Wat Suan Dok and at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.

Hot Stone Oil Massage

After walking around a bit, catching up with some work items, and resting, I had my second two-hour hot stone oil massage with Jang out at Loi Kroh Massage on Soi 3 off Loi Kroh road. I scheduled this last week after the first, and before the drama of Friday unfolded. How perfect! I took a leisurely walk out to Loi Kroh, and after I told Jang of the drama over the weekend, we agreed that the massage would erase the drama and she suggested it would also push away and left-over bad spirits. It was as wonderful and soothing as the first, maybe even better. I walked home from Loi Kroh Massage on air, and I will sleep well tonight.

U. N. Irish Pub

After the recent digestive drama, I was not quite ready to jump into eating Thai food quite yet. A popular non-Thai restaurant in the area is the U. N. Irish Pub. This was started in 1992 as the Crusty Loaf Bakery by Rosemary O’Connell of County Monaghan and her Thai husband. Later it evolved into a restaurant, and was called The Irish Pub. Eventually Rosemary returned to Ireland so her children could have an Irish education. There have been many partners over the years, from Germany, England, and Australia, none since Rosemary have been Irish, so the United Nations was added to the name, and The United Nations Irish Pub it still is, or U.N. Irish Pub for short. Part restaurant, part bar, and part sports bar, it is a casual, friendly place. I enjoyed talking with a couple other guests, as well as the manager. And is was Monday night, and they were playing a repeat of Sunday’s U.S. NFL games.

It is still a bakery, and everything baked is made in the bakery, including all of the bread, buns, and the homemade pies (chicken-leak-mushroom, steak-onion, spinach-mushroom, guinness-beef, etc.) and an array of desserts.

I opted for a cheeseburger (not very original…but I’m not always original). It came with french fries and a few onion rings. I seldom eat onion rings, and these were excellent, as were the fries. The cheeseburger was good, but nothing like the cheeseburger I had at The Dukes. I also had bottled soda water – you can just make out the two elephants on the bottle. Chang (pronounced almost like chong) is the word for elephant, and the name of a very large beer company here. Chang also makes bottled water and bottled sparkling or soda water, bottled in glass.

I also had fresh banana cream pie, and that was v-e-r-y good. I’m sorry I did not get a picture…it just disappeared too quickly.

Next, back to the Silver Temple