We spent last night in Bangkok and hopped on a bus again this morning. In order to avoid another long night on a cramped bus, we have broken up the trip a little. We're not sure if this technique was a good one... we're in a small town that feels very small and for the first time in Thailand, I think we're the only foreigners around.
We asked at the guesthouse where we could "kin jay" or "eat vegetarian". The woman pointed us in the direction of a place that closed at 6 so we had ten minutes to run over there. We arrived and confirmed we were at the right place. A kindly older gentleman served us, and from what we could see the place was owned by him and his wife and their young son. With his broken English and our mangled Thai (there was no menu), we all managed to get a fried rice and tofu dish. It was decent... but already we are missing the multitude of veggie restaurants in Bangkok and the north. Who knows what the rest of the south will be like.
Tomorrow we're doing the one thing there is to do in this town- visit the wat. There are hundreds of stairs to climb before reaching the temple since it is perched high on a hill. Since we are (still) so close to the Myanmar border (only 12 kms away now), we can see the Myanmar mountains when we reach the temple. The best part is- we read that the temple is infested with monkeys. We saw it on the way into town and monkeys are even surrounding the base of the hill. We love monkey temples! Those characters are so much fun to watch. At the so-called monkey temple in Kathmandu we saw one walk up to an unsuspecting woman and steal her bag of popcorn right out of her hands! Everyone, including the victim, got a great giggle out of that. We hope to see similar antics tomorrow.
We're on our way to the beaches... and more specifically, Phuket. They have a vegetarian festival every year so naturally, we have to be there! This year it's being held from October 5th-15th and when I looked it up just now I also found this list of rules that are to be observed during the festival. They are:
10 RULES FOR THE VEGETARIAN FESTIVAL
1. Cleanliness of bodies during the festival
2. Clean kitchen utensils and use them separately from others who do not join the festival
3. Wear white during the festival
4. Behave physically and mentally
5. No meat eating
6. No sex
7. No alcoholic drinks
8. People at mourning period should not attend the festival
9. Pregnant ladies should not watch any ritual
10. Ladies with period should not attend the ritual
Interesting!?
tothesea,
k&m