A Temple In The Mountains

We went to Wat Pha Sorn Kaew which is a temple in the mountains a couple hours outside of Phitsanulok. I fell in love immediately.  It is so gorgeous and peaceful. There are places set up all over the place around the grounds for people to sit and mediate. Inside it is completely covered floor to wall to ceiling in shards of colorful tile and glass.

Most people there were surprised to see us because they probably don't see many tourists. Not only do we live in a not heavily tourist traveled city, but the temple is out of the way. The only way we knew about it is because our amazing coordinators took us there. There were lots of monks there walking around saying prayers with people following them. One monk saw us and kinda hung back waiting and as soon as we started talking to him he was all over that. I was really surprised how easy it is to talk to a monk. I guess I had this image in my head that you shouldn't even make eye contact with them, but they really want to talk and practice their English. This guy we found out has been a monk for about 6 or 7 years, from the time he was 23. After asking who we were and why we were there in broken English, he tried teaching us about mediation. It went something like, "Close your eyes for one minute. Think about sun and moon and happiness. Travel around Thailand and be happy."