in search of enlightenment
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008this morning as i was getting ready for the day, the peace and quiet of the little road i’m staying in was shattered by the loud banging of drums and “lion dance” music which seemed to be right outside my door! i wasn’t able to get changed in time to see the actual lion dance, but this served as a reminder that today is chinese new year! all the markets have colorful red decorations and little treats, and i keep hearing lion dances going on around town but always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – i still haven’t even caught one! maybe tonight… =)
after the lion dance music in the morning i decided to call up good old eddie from chiang mai to pick me up so that i could visit the bo sa umbrella village a few kilometers outside of town. he came to get me and told me stories along the way – he’s leaving for chiang rai on friday to take his family to watch his son’s muay tai match! the umbrella village was ok – sort of touristy, but i did enjoy walking around and watching the craftspeople at work. i hung out watching this smiley old man for a bit – he was putting all of the umbrella’s spines into place and securing them with string, then later a woman would apply the mulberry (sa) paper, and others would paint intricate designs on them.