yesterday as we sat down to monk chat with a wonderful 24 year old monk named tony, he asked us, would you like to be on chiang mai radio for our conversation? well why not? so we walked into a little room with a microphone and three seats and introduced ourselves and asked him questions about buddhism, meditation, his practices, the daily life of a monk....we talked of the eightfold path, suffering, the end of suffering, and did a little introduction to meditation, all on the radio!
at the monk chat, out of all of thailand, was a girl who we went to the caves with near soppong last week! and also abram arrived, our pai friend from portland/hawaii/california, and we walked around with him for the rest of the night, eating black rice and panang curry at little tibet restaurant. he went out and got a big fat durian that cost 520 baht, a deal....wow, has anyone ever tried a durian? there is nothing like it. it is an enormous spiky green fruit composed of different pods that you cut into to reveal the most odorous, intense, custard-like, flavorful, intoxicating, creamy fruit i've ever tasted. i guess it's an aphrodesiac. we sat in wonder at the thing, it was so strange but delicious too. abram said that two tigers are known to fight to death over a fallen durian in the jungle. the woman at the restaurant kept walking by our table after abram had walked to the market and back, raising her eyebrows, touching it, smelling it, saying she could be right back with a knife to cut it open and a sneaky smile on her face....
today was a trip....a 10 hour journey to myanmar/burma and back in a little minivan with 8 others. what a difference you can feel going over a border, a river, a line on a map. little kids with their arms together in prayer following us around with a little grunting noise that i think meant please, anything, any little baht for them please please please. women with babies in their arms walking right beside me, 'hello hello hello...please'... men trying to sell carson a carton of cigarettes for five minutes even though he repeatedly said he did not smoke. it just felt different. they can't leave their country, as i understand. all of us just going in and out so quick, to get our little stamps on our passports so we can stay in thailand longer, being in the country for all of 10 minutes to walk around and look at everything for sale and to be asked for money, what do you say to a three year old following you for 100 meters with his hands moving back in forth in prayer?
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