Day 2
We woke up at 530am and washed up. Proceed to check out but the lady in charge is still sleeping! hehe.. no one is around and the gates are locked. I knocked and shouted at the front door of the office until the lady appeared and unlock the gates for us. We took off on the motorcycle.
The sky was still dark and its freezing cold! The sun was actually dawning and it gives an eerie overlook on the landscape. Wife and baby is still sleeping but woke up when they hear our bike approaching. Xinhui seems to enjoy the cold weather very much.
We dressed up nicer and walked to the temple. There were many children and there were playing at the front of the temple. I took a few photos while wife talked to her friends. Convoys of truck, bikes and tractors approach the temple at various timings. Often with loud gongs and cymbals (like our yew keng). Its the first day of the 7 day praying session and these people come from different villages around KengTung. They brought along blankets and food to set up their resting place in the temple. We are lucky as the temple is just next door. So we could just walk back to sleep. We spend most of the time looking around and greeting people. Wife is showing off our cute Xinhui to all her friends and distant relatives. There were many makeshift stalls infront of thr temple selling food and toys. We ate our breakfast (eggs and some fried kuay teow) there before heading home to rest a bit.
In the afternoon, the temperature is much more manageable at 28 degrees. Wife and baby headed back to bath while I join the procession to the river. Not much to see actually. Took some pictures and headed back to rest and have lunch. Bloody hell, Nom Jing Bah Tu again. Sianz.
At night, the family were making Kao Put (rice and wheat hammered into a paste). Its an interesting process. Glutinous rice is steamed and put into a pound er, some black colour wheat like seeds are then thrown in and they start to bash the thingie up into a paste. Salt is added to add flavour but the seeds are the one that gives its distinctive taste and smell. (Very fragrant)
We took the finish product and cut then into small thin slices (like pancakes). Then before they eat it, they grilled it on charcoal. Makes it very crispy and taste fantastically good. Especially the salty ones. At night, we went to the temple and sat in front of our makeshift straw tent (which is for the monk to sleep). Grill Kow Put and drink hot tea. Quite enjoyable in the cold weather.
Day 3
Today its a big day as wife will pray today. So we took the offerings and went to the temple and they have these makeshift baskets that you put the offerings in them. Basically most of the offerings are candies and money (small changes). After that, we approached the abbot (i think lah) and donated some money. Then comes the procession. The monks will gather and the devotees will form a line, waiting for the monks to pass by to put money into their bowls. Quite a funny scene actually as people gathered and aggressively tried to reach the monk's bowl before they come in front of them. Just like our aunties here in Singapore, Kia Su..
Lunch time, we ate some food prepared by the temple. Taste really good and got meat leh!! Haha. I thought vegetarian for all but it seems only the monks need to be vegetarian.
In the early evening, we took her stepfather bike to his farm to have dinner. Her stepfather and mum went ahead earlier on bicycles to feed their pigs. They killed a chicken(they caught it by stunning it with a catapult!) and cooked soup with it. Wife and I went down to the market to change more money and on the way, grab some Coke and tidbits. They actually have home made potato chips!! Selling them in small little plastic bags. Cost is 50 Kyats (1.4baht) freaking cheap. We munched on the while we wait for the food to be ready. The chicken was delicious. At night, we went to the temple again and chatted a bit before heading back home to sleep.
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