Sky Walking

 We walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7

The Skywalk

It was one of the more harrowing parts of our visit up north to the Chiang Rai area.  A close second, for me, to the monkeys at the Buddhist shrine, but more on that another time.

I'm taking about the Skywalk in the Mae Sai District.  It's full name, if you want to look it up online is Sky Walk Wat Phra That Doi Wao.  Interesting aside:  That last word is Thai for scorpion, pronounced 'wow!', which is kind of what I say any time I see one.  But except for the giant purple ones on top of the tour buses, we didn't see any this day.

As the name suggests, there is an actual Buddhist Wat there, and faithful Buddhist will pay their respects.  But the main attraction, as everyone knows, is the glass walk way that reaches out beyond the side of the mountain.

Soft covers or booties are required so as not to scratch or smudge the glass.  And the glass is all there is to step on.  I was immediately reminded of the glass section of the floor at the CN Tower, but at least there you have the option of standing on it or not.  Here it's quite the view all the way down.

One of us, who shall remain nameless (but whose picture I have permission to include) had more difficulty with this than the rest. (Later I would be the wimp with the monkeys, so it's all relative.)  This was totally understandable.  It was a tad unnerving, I'll admit.

It seemed best to just keep looking up and forward with slow and steady steps.

A helpful distraction for this was the fact that you could quite easily look over and see Myanmar.  Yes, we were that close to the border.  Mae Sai is a crossover point, with some challenges, as was apparent by the relative ease with which it appeared anyone could just simply wade over into Thailand without so much as getting their pants wet if they hiked them up a bit.

I was reassured that there are plenty of discouragements in place for this sort of behaviour, however, most of which seem to work most of the time.  

We didn't stay that long, out of respect for those who found it more of something to conquer than enjoy.  It was sweet, I must say, to see a father very lovingly, without any chastisement or invalidation whatsoever, come alongside so they could walk the scary way together.

Only four days left here.

I'm picking up the news while here, all about the trade wars and the crazy way the world is working - or not - right now.  Things have picked up considerably in just three weeks I've been gone.

And.  We are working on our 2025 Budget for NFF while we're here (April to March fiscal year), and to be honest, there are some scary things about walking that through right now too.  All related to global economics.  Don't for a minute think that the ripple effect isn't felt here, all the way on the other side of the planet.  

So I'll keep the image of a Good Father and a trembling daughter walking side by side in my heart, and let it sit there for a bit.   We're all sky walking right now, it seems.  

And faith walking.  

Call it what you like.  

And in a totally unrelated note.  This place had the fanciest bathrooms I have ever been in!  At least the Ladies' Room was.

The three of us were all kind of wishing Suradet could join us and we'd just hang out there for a while.

Never mind.  Tomorrow there would be monkeys.