monk and scorpion boat

Our day began today with a truck-truck ride (ask me later) to a scorpion boat on the Ping River. The guy who owns the company took us down the river and gave us a short history lesson on the river. We then went up the river to his fruit/flower farm. There he grows many different kinds of fruits, trees, flowers, etc as well as running a small restaurant and a few huts for people to stay in. The man had a good sense of humor and was very informative about local customs, why things are the way they are, and the history of the place. He showed us some Chinese finger cuff-looking bamboo things. Rather than being a novelty item, they were, in fact, snake and eel traps. All in all, we paid a few extra dollars for the trip, but I think it was worth it. (the picture is not of the one we were on, but a similar one)

After that, we walked through town to get a few odds and ends for the apartment. We've been dying to have some speakers for our music, so we found some of those today ($3.50). After that, we went in search of a large ruin in the center of town we had seen from a few locations, but had yet to locate in real life. After a bit of searching, we stumbled upon the right "wat" (temple) where it was. We walked around this huge ruin of the temple as well as the new temples surrounding it. In our map, we had read that at some of the temples offer "monk chat". This is a service the monks provide, where anyone can come and chat with monks about anything. Often times this revolves around questions of Buddhism and other like questions, but nothing is off limits. The monks get to practice their English as well as spread their knowledge, and us foreigners get to learn about Buddhism from the source. We decided this was a good time to sit down and chat, which turned out to be a really good idea. We came into the conversation in a philosophy discussion. Because monks are the most respected members of society, we were sure to be very careful and respectful in entering into the conversation. We soon became more comfortable and began asking questions and being more involved in the discussion.

As I learn more about Buddhist ideas and teachings, I will probably expand more, but suffice to say right now, that they have a very understanding, inclusive philosophy.

It was really nice to be able to sit and chat with someone who, until now, had been a distant orange-clad man, who seemed unapproachable. It made him/them much more real and tangible to the outsiders: us.

(once again, this image is not ours, but quite similar to what we did.)