Thailand-Day 3-Khon Kaen

John had the day off from work, so we wandered around town in the morning, checking out some markets, the city shrine and then grabbing another delicious, incredibly flavorful meal at a local cafe. Khon Kaen had a very nice, relaxed pace about it. Everyone gets around town on sorng thaos, which are pick-up truck taxis. I actually liked how they combine the convenience of getting on/alighting exactly where you want with the pricing of a bus system. The city isn't a big tourist draw, but rather serves as the transportation, product distribution, manufacturing, and education center for fairly undeveloped, rural northeastern Thailand (called Isan). There was a hold-up on John's visa/resident permit, so I would hang out for a few days while he got that sorted out, then we would do some traveling.

After lunch, we headed to Wat Nong Wang, which is Khon Kaen's claim to fame. It is a gorgeous nine-story, red and gold temple-piercing the clear blue sky this day. The inside of the wat (temple) was gorgeously decorated with very poignant murals in an almost realist style. They were parables all taking place among the ancestral tribes of the region (from what I could tell). The rest of the wat was filled with people making various forms of merit, or shaking sticks to get their fortune. The shaking of the sticks in jars was at first upsetting to the fairly peaceful wat, but soon blended in as part of the wat's atmosphere. One thing that I asked John about was that some young monks going through the wat were taking pictures with digital cameras (just like me). The bright, flowing orange robes make monks easy to

spot in Thailand. He explained this odd occurrence in that most families in Thailand (almost all are Buddhist) expect their sons to be ordained. Because there is such a high demand for becoming ordained, and many of them do not want to become monks by trade (if you can call it that) they go through courses of maybe a week, two weeks, or a month staying at a wat, working and learning from the permanent monks, and thus become ordained. He said they were probably some kids being ordained in a program at a temple nearby in the countryside, and come in for a visit to the big wat. It was then easier, just by age, to tell the 'real' monks from the 'temp' monks as I like to call them.

We spent the night walking around the lake, getting dinner at a nice lakeside restaurant, along with grabbing some snacks at the many night market ven

dors. My favorite were these half-dollar sized coconut mini-pancakes. We topped the evening off, having a great chat at the teahouse next to John's apartment (it's connected to the contemplative education group) with an elementary science teacher named Pi Ped. He was really cheery, did his best to talk to me in English, and was able to answer some of my questions about Buddhism. I have read this and that about it, but he explained more of his personal beliefs about Buddhism, which was helpful-because as he explained it (as do the textbooks) Buddhism is much less of an organized, prescriptive religion than the three major Western religions. As Pi Ped informed me, for Thai Buddhists (Theravada), their personal interpretation about the application of the precepts to their lives. I was actually really glad to spend an evening drinking tea and chatting with John and Pi Ped as a kind of alternative to what one normally does as a tourist.