Adventure on the mountain top!

Yesterday, as will not surprise many of you, I climbed a mountain. Or rather, I walked up a mountain.
At the top of one of the mountains bordering the city there is a temple called Doi Su Thep. All day, you can see it's golden roofs gleaming in the sunshine. Almost since the day I got here, I've been trying to get someone to go with me, but alas, none would agree. So, after grabbing some supplies and my MP3 player, I headed up the long road. Because the road is made for cars, it is obviously not too steep, meaning it winds back and forth along the mountain and one adjoining mountain too. So to go up about and in about 1-2 km takes an 11 km hike.
Every fall, the freshman at Chiang Mai university hike up, and it take about 3 hours. I got up in 2 hours and 13 minutes. :)
It was quite a lot of fun. Motorists going by would usually look at me like I was crazy, but many others would honk and yell encouragements.
I finally got to the top and looked around for a while. You'll never guess who I found there! There is a jade factory showroom as well as a clifface where you can look out over the city. Then as I was walking past the songtau (public trans. red trucks) stand, one of the drivers recognized me. So we started talking, and he gave me a discount price for the way down. 20 Baht, which is half what even the local Thais pay to go down. Then, some students recognized me. They were a group of University students who were some of the people who had yelled encouragements as they passed. And they wanted to interview me. So, out came three videocameras, and they asked me all sorts of questions, until my songtau was leaving and I had to go.
And that's not all. Inside the songtau were 4 nurses and a sales man on holiday from Bangkok. After we talked for a little while, they asked if I wanted to visit the zoo with them. (It's right at the bottom of the path up the mountain). So I went with them, and the paid my admission too! It was loads of fun. And good excercise.
Today, I went to a wonderful church called Chiang Mai Christian Fellowship. I've been to a couple of churches since I came, and none of them seemed to "fit". But this one was great. Not only did they have coffee upon arrival, and the first people I met were Canadians, but also there was great worship, a good sermon, and the church hires a songtau to drive people who don't have cars. It's an awesome place. I recommend it if you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai.

Some prayer requests:
This Tuesday is Valentine's day, and for my second class, I'm going to have Opal come in and speak in Thai about the greatest love story, that of Jesus and his life, death and resurrection. So please pray for that.
Also, please pray for the continuing transition of leadership, as Opal takes over and Tim and Claire wrap up their work.