At the Buddhist Center
This morning when they came outside our room banging the gong at 5am it was pretty painful to be fair but all in the name of meditation right?
We started the day with an hour and a half of sitting and walking meditation followed by the giving of alms which takes place in the early morning outside of all the temples in Thailand and in most other Buddhist countries. It’s where the local people come to give food or other items to the monks as an act of respect towards them and towards Buddha.
The monks are not able to cook their own food so this is why it’s given to them and then they split the quantity and eat half for breakfast and half for lunch and eat nothing after midday (I don’t think that would work too well for me!). We were then blessed by the monks before going off to enjoy our breakfast; I’ll never get my head around the rice, soupy, vegetable meal that is common here for breakfast.
After breakfast we had another period of meditation before our discussion time which was very interesting. We were split into two groups with a monk taking each group and it was a time that we were able to ask him absolutely anything. One of the girls even asked if they wore underwear under their robes!
It was a really interesting two hours that gave us all a real insight into their beliefs and their way of life.
Birthday Buddhas
Once we had got over the experience of actually talking again we embarked on some more mediation practice, this time it was for a continuous half hour, I thought that would be challenging but once the time was up it seemed like half the time, just more painful being in the same position, but that’s all part of it apparently!
After lunch it was time to have a bit more of a wander around the centre and get some nice shots before heading back to town.
Amanda is traveling with her cousin for a month and after wandering back into the city centre we arranged to meet up that evening for dinner and a couple of drinks.
We found a really nice little restaurant where I had a delicious green curry, it’s got to be my favourite Thai meals. As we were leaving the restaurant a European couple stopped us and asked us what we thought of the meal, we all said it was very nice and very tasty and they asked if it was a good price, we said yes pretty good and I then said the green curry was 80. The girl said 80 euro??!!! I know its not nice but we just couldn’t stop laughing as her other half cringed. 80 bht is £1.60 and that’s for the curry and the rice, no extra price for steamed rice in Thailand. I know it’s right at the start of the trip but that’s got to be the funniest in a long time, they had so just got off the plane! ;-)
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