Last night we arrived at Oh's Uncle's house around 10:30pm or so and then chatted when we got there and so I wasn't in bed until around 11:30-11:45pm. We slept on a mat on the wood floor underneath mosquito nets. Sleeping there was no problem but I wasn't used to the night sounds there and the Word Cup final was on at 1am and some of us wanted to get up to watch. Someone woke me when the game started and I watched a little bit through my mosquito net but I was so tired that I couldn't stay awake to follow the match. I watched the highlights of the match this morning, I wish I could have stayed awake for it. It's probably good that I got all the sleep I could, though and didn't watch the match, because we were up at 5am to start making food for the monks. I helped with the making of the Tom Yum and cutting and washing veggies. I didn't really help with anything major but I was glad to help a little.
After we finished preparing food Oh and I went outside to bathe. Bathing is a different but very cool experience (I thought). You change into a sarong that is really just a large tube of cloth (instead of just a sheet) and wrap it tightly around yourself and tuck it in, then you go to the water basin and scoop out water and pour it on yourself, soap up, and rinse yourself off using the same water scooping method. It's a little difficult to splash water up underneath your sarong to wash your nether regions but it's not really that hard to figure out. After you're bathed you pull a dry sarong on over the wet one, let the wet one drop and tighten the dry one around to to go back into the house to change. It was really easy and I actually really like bathing outside. Both men and women bathe this way, men just have shorter sarongs since they're only covering half their body and can walk around bare chested. I think I could spend more time living in the Thai countryside. I love Thai traditional houses and I'm not even all that bad at the squat toilets, at least they don't stress me out.
After we were all washed up we drove down the the temple where Oh's brother is a monk. The place was very crowded with people and we all sat on the ground with the food in front of us waiting for the monks to arrive. When the monks walked in they sat on a raised seating area on one side of the temple and the ceremony began. The eldest monk started to chant and gradually all of the monks joined in. There were 28 monks present. When the chanting ended the families of the new monks give them food they made and the new monks give some of that food to the older monks. The monks don't personally get up to give the food to the older monks there are little boys who volunteer at the temple and they go around with trays and each of the younger monks puts something from their food on to the tray that will be given to the head monk. Once the food from the younger monks was passed on to the head monk everyone who had brought food for the monks brought their food up. We had a huge platter of food for Oh's brother and one for the head monk. You can't pass directly to the monks when you give them food, you kneel on the ground and they put a cloth out and you put the food on the cloth and then they take it off the cloth. Also when one person from your group is giving food you're supposed to touch them so that it is like all of you are performing the act. Oh's family asked me what religion I was and if it was ok for me to take part. I told them that I believe in Buddha and that I had a lot of respect for him and his teachings and I took part in everything. After the monks were done eating everyone reclaimed their cookware and the monks prayed again and then blessed the people in attendance and then each of us got a wish.
That was the end of the ceremony and we returned to Oh's Uncle's house to eat. I ate a bunch of spicy food and some pieces of duck and pork and I think maybe chicken with rice. It was all really tasty.
When we were done eating we went back to the temple to visit the pagoda that contained the Buddha statue to light incense, put down flowers and pray. I was probably the only foreigner for miles since this isn't a tourist destination and so every where I went I could hear farang (pronounced fah-laeng). When we went to the pagoda about ten kids surrounded me chattering and saying something about the farang. It doesn't bother me to be called farang, I know I'm white and especially in the country I'm a bit of a novelty. Oh's grandparent's ashes are at this temple so we dropped off flowers at their ashes as well.
We had more things for Oh's brother and so we went to wait outside of his room for him and when he came back from prayers he had a visit with his family and received our gifts. Oh's brother has only been a monk for a week and will only be a monk for three months, he seems to be doing well and already had a bunch of stories about life as a monk.
When the visit with Oh's brother was over we drove back to Bangkok and took a nice big nap. I was supposed to go to another Filipino party tonight but I was exhausted and it was pouring and so I didn't go, next time I will though since they are a good time.
Today's picture is from the King's exhibition for his sixtieth anniversary on the throne. I wanted to take some when I was at Oh's Uncle's but there was so much to do and I wanted to be part of things instead of just an observer so I didn't get any pictures. Anyway, back to this picture. This was a crazy waterfall that was designed to let water fall in a way that it created shapes as it fell. I know that this picture may look like it's a laser projecting the picture onto the water but it isn't it's just falling that way. It was insane. The pictures were really complex too it said "Long Live the King" in Thai and then English and had all these other neat shapes. I made another picture of the waterfall public if anyone is interested in seeing more.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home