Temlpe failure and more Chiang Mai

Owner of the guesthouse takes me to Wat Rampung. I walk into the foreign meditation office and tell them about my wish to do the retreat. It's full... and the retreat doesn't start until the 6th, but then I would finish on the 16th which would interfere with my plans with Hanna. I genuinely don't know what to do.

They tell me to walk around the monastry to see if I recognize things as a lot has changed. I indeeed only recognize one builing. After I'm done I talk to a friendly intern there. He sees that I'm worried and asks me if I remembeb the techniques, to which I respond that I have been practicing them for the last 10 years. After some thinking he says I can come back tomorrow and I can start the practice on my own, without the training that is on the 6th. I'm obviously super happy, as I was getting worried I wouldn't be able to do the retreat at all. 

Take taxi back to the same place I was staynig. The cleany lady laughs at the situation and then talks to me for about 15 miinutes about random things. 

Have lunch in the mosst amazing terracota jungle retaurant (see pictures). Get a Thai massage, which is painful but good. Then visit two templess. One has a big big pond filled with catfish and turtles. The other is huge and has the biggest frickin tree you'll ever see; like I genunely didn't know these things existed (besides secoya's). Like it's so big, it has the same feel as a small mountain! Mom: do you know what kind of tree this is?

Overall, I have to admit then whe I first got off the plane I had to think twice aboout why I liked this place so much. But now I'm definitely starting to be drawwnn in again by the temple atmosphere, the genuineness of things, the friendliness of the people and the lack of bureaucracy. I was also expecting animal cruelty, but my memories must've been about other parts of Asia, as I've only seen people be very nice to their pets. I even saw a person walking their cat on a leash. 

PS:  I was reading a translated thai book here, which says indulging in sense pleasures only leads to desiring more pleasure and it took people from western countries as the proof of that; they have everyting they need, yet they always want more / are never happy.