<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -->

5 June

We slept late, waking up after 10h00, we finished up and relaxed the morning, reading before heading off for lunch at the vegetarian restaurant where we ate with Jane and Nid. We ordered the same delicious kao soi . The day wasn't one of the best with regards to the weather, it would sporadically start raining then stop and start again. After lunch we headed to Jane, where we practiced the sitting massage positions, more lazy than anything else. We chatted quite a bit with Anne, who was very excited to go to the monk chat in the evening. I wasn't to eager to go, but in the end both of us decided to tag along just to see how it was.

The walk to the monastery was one hell of a walk, almost through all of Chiang Mai. It was surprising to see how many medical university buildings there were, for every field of medicine. The monastery consisted of a large temple which we passed, before coming to the hall where we were directed to two monks, clad in orange robes, both form Cambodia.

The one could speak some understandable English, but the other just looked at us and listened unable to communicate. Most of the questions were centered around what he did as a child, where he grew up, why he became a monk, what he studied in Thailand and so on. To my relief, seeing as I wasn't interested to get into a discussion as to "Why Buddhism". The communication barrier was however significant and many of the more difficult issues were misinterpreted. Anne still had some questions to ask, having struggled through the death of a relative and went to ask a more senior monk, while we waited outside. Once it became evident that she intended to stay longer we greeted and slowly walked back, buying Somtam and Litchis along the way.

Anne soon caught up with us and a new discussion emerged, centered around East and West Germany. She had been raised in Eastern Germany and was able to offer much insight. Though I had a good background of the history under Russian rule, she was able to give much insight through her and her parents personal experiences.

Back home we unwound for the evening heading for the balcony where we enjoyed the Somtam and Litchis while reading, before heading to bed.