I have been studying Thai charictures and from what I can deduce the sign actually says:Super amazing fantastic Vegetarian society of Chiang Mai!!.!!-!!.!!pm.
(No joke-Jack)
Or at least it should cause it is a damn fine establishment.............................
Fresh squeezed fruits and flower drinks and chloriphil drinks (all w/add your own sugar (or not)), Brown rice(!), steamed spring rolls (the only rolls for spring in my oppinion), deserts, curries and soups and dishes with greens and reds and yellows and mushrooms and mellons and macaroni!(?) Damn good food and next to nothin$ Actually it is nothin if you get a plate of brown rice and only one side!!! (heh, fat chance, even in the name of cash). The mound-o-food to your left was about a dollar, heh, yea, a dollar!But it doesnt end with the food...............................................................................................................
They have a store attached with meat substitutes like TVP (for those not "in the know" that stands for textured vegetable protein or as i like to call it: totaltubuloso vegi pellets), and these amazing mushrooms that would totally fool the mass majority in a blindless taste test for shredded pork. They also had fresh veggies and fruits and cereals and soy milks and granola and all kinds of groovy stuff. They also had 2nd hand clothing sitting out that i assumed was donated. So I took this perfect opportunity to thin down my wardrobe/backpack.
Whenever I was there about lunch time they would sound a bell at noon. Everybody would stop what they where doing and, from what i could see through my mound of food, they would stop what they where doing to be mindful. It was so damn cool to have a public reminder to come back from getting caught up in thought and steps and ideas and conversations and rules and remebering and labeling and figuring and etc etc etc... To remind you to give yourself a break from all that conceptual stuff, to remind you to relax and enjoy whats there.Manditory tangent:
Ask yourself what you think suffering is.......................
Ill wait................................................................
Found a great idea in a book Ive been reading, a charicter is asked the same and his answer is...
"Suffering is a hunger" (how appropriate)
A hunger for something, or a hunger to be rid of something. As soon as you tell yourself that this moment is not perfect, suffering arises. Thats not so say nothing should ever be changed and we should always submit to circumstances. Resisting reality is futile, accept what IS, and THEN take steps for change or not. Having a direction doesnt require a hunger/a push from pain. "Good" things can only exist with the relative "bad", its all labeled with concepts but if one focuses on a larger picture they will see that without poo you cant have poinsettias, its all part of a system that is inherently perfect.
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And you even get to do your own dishes!!!
Even an eco minded pigon eating out of the food waste bowl!!
Even the toilets are eco-minded (thats some kind of deo fungi for the eco funk)
