[A STEP BACK IN TIME.]- MOMS CONTRIBUTION TO THE BLOG

This post is a bit overdue but better late than never right? A few days ago we were in a town called Phrae (I keep saying it like "pray" but I am told that's not the correct pronunciation). While we were on our way to Phrae we stopped in a town called Sukhothai to explore ancient ruins. These ruins were from the 13th century. We got to see pictures of what they looked like before and you could barely recognize the place.

Behind me there are 3 pillars. One pillar is for  Brahma and I can't remember the names of who the other two pillars belong to. The largest one in the middle is for Brahma because the Hindu's believe that he created the entire world. These temples had a very strong Hindu influence.

We rented bikes and rode around the beautiful grounds of the ruins. It was a great way to get some exercise (which I have been seriously lacking on) and see all of the ancient temples.

Continuing our journey to Phrae we stopped at a bamboo workshop on the side of the road. These men were cutting the bamboo into tiny pieces to make things like chop sticks and tooth picks. The man underneath this photo was cutting the whole pieces of bamboo into smaller pieces, then they had people cutting them even smaller, all the way down to chop stick size.

Finished product! These men make about $28 a day to work from 8AM to 5PM. This is considered to be a good paying job in Thailand and even more specifically the village that these men live in.

Then we stopped really quick at this hugee reclining Buddha. Many scholars believe that the reclining Buddha sculptures depict that the Buddha is dying and simultaneously reaching Nirvana. There are a few other stories that people believe may also be correct about why the Buddha is lying down. I thought I'd recline too :) haha.

Last stop for the day was a woman's home business in the town of Phrae. This woman makes Indigo which is very popular in the Northern part of the country. She showed us the steps she goes through to turn simple white cloth into beautiful indigo purses, shirts, rugs, scarves, and much more. First you take the white cloth and stamp it with wax in a specific pattern.

After the wax has time to dry you dip it in the homemade indigo. It has been about a week so I don't exactly remember the process but I do remember that she starts with the Indigo root. She takes the root and soaks it in a special kind of water and it bleeds out the blue color. It was a very long and drawn out process that I am struggling badly to remember but it was very interesting to listen to the effort that goes into making the dye.

The Thai's work so hard and do not expect anything to come from it. They work hard because that is all they have ever known. The woman is showing us how they dye the fabrics. She is also wearing a piece that she made. It was all soo beautiful! My mom got a scarf and a few makeup bags and I got a little makeup bag too! Emily Clarke I got you a gift here :) Anyways sorry this post is so short and not very detailed I need to start keeping up so I remember everything!