The Gautama Eats Pad Thai
Wats, waterfalls, and elephant showers
After four seconds, I opened my left nostril to breathe out, and my eyes to take in the view. I sat atop the Doi Suthep mountain, watching the clouded sunrise over Chiang Mai. Behind me, my namesake remained still, but had the slightest of smiles.
My parents named me Siddharth after Siddhartha Gautama, the Hindu prince who became known as the Buddha, the enlightened one. To their disappointment, I always lacked patience or any other enlightened virtues, but the name imprinted in me some desire for spiritual engagement and understanding. No place have I felt this stronger than in Thailand.
After our friends’ trip concluded in Malaysia (read more on that journey here), I departed to Thailand with a heavy mind, thinking through a series of decisions about my career and life. In my first time ever solo exploring, I decided to start with Chiang Mai in north Thailand. Known for its countless Wats and hiking trails, it sounded exactly like my kind of therapy.
On my first day in Chiang Mai, I went on a guided trip to the Doi (mountain) Inthanon National Park, complete with visits to Wats, waterfalls, and the highest point in Thailand. The views were stunning, but I felt myself not fully processing them. I would passively take a picture, look around for a few seconds, and move on. I was so focused on decisions that my mind was disconnected from what my body was experiencing. To properly enjoy Chiang Mai, I knew I needed to recenter.
The next day, I woke up at 6 am and rented a taxi to Doi Suthep, the highest mountain near Chiang Mai. At the mountain’s peak was the International Buddhist Center, a haven for meditative training. I came with hopes of finding calm and focus, but the entry guard turned me away (apparently, Wednesdays are their day off). Dejected but determined, I asked around for places to meditate and was told of a hidden temple on the mountain you could only reach via the forest. Naturally, I went looking.
After an hour of hiking, I reached the doors of Wat Pha Lat. The mosquito bites stinging me became trivial when I walked into this pristine monastery. With ornate Buddha sculptures and temples on both sides of a river, it was a gate of spirituality built into nature. At the edge of the monastery, I found shade next to a small Buddha statue. I started by journaling my thoughts, but feeling the same stresses, I tried instead to just focus on my breath.
An hour in, I was only starting to build focus when I was distracted by cheers. I turned around and walked towards what looked like a birthday party, with a young monk surrounded by children and their parents. This instead was the conclusion of a monk’s induction ceremony, where a new monk throws candy and coins in the air for kids to collect as good luck. I didn’t mind picking up a few myself.
At this and other Wats, I talked to monks about their lives, and how they worked towards the level of focus and calm that I strived for. I spoke to Mop, a monk eight years in training, at length. He ate two meals a day, at 7 and 11 am, and spent the afternoon meditating and reading scripture. I was surprised to learn that even for him, finding focus is still a work in progress. More importantly, as he said, your mind needs a break to be sharp.
As the evening came about, I felt a sense of calm. To celebrate, I head to the part of Chiang Mai I was most excited for: the Bua Tong sticky waterfalls. A unique mineral deposit in the rocks allows people to stick to them and climb up the running waterfall. Safe to say, I fully lived out my Spider-Man dreams (more on this later). On the two-hour ride back to the city, with some Bollywood road trip songs as the soundtrack, I fully enjoyed the views of Chiang Mai.
I spent my last day in Chiang Mai hanging with elephants. We fed them bananas (through their trunks, and if you were bold, directly into their mouths), and then jumped into a lake to wash them, though they washed us right back.
After a 48-hour trip to India to surprise my family (my grandma’s reaction when I walked in made it immediately worth it), I continued my Thailand journey in Bangkok, where I was joined by my roommate Alex.
Bangkok was a different type of fun, and a chance to engage in ancient and modern Thai culture. We took a Thai cooking class (where I perfected my Pad Thai technique), explored the night markets (where I bought a few too many elephant pants), and went to a Muay Thai fight. We rounded out our Bangkok stay with a day trip to Ayutthaya, the former capital of the Thai kingdom. Despite weeds growing and exposed bricks, the Wats still evoked wonder about what the city was once like.
On a rooftop, we said goodbye to sprawling Bangkok and beautiful Thailand. Alex continued his journeys, and for once, I head home...
….but not before squeezing in a visit to Tokyo during a 9-hour layover!
Lovely piece!