Today we went on a touristy day with Tony, our tour guide. We left early in the morning, and started off the day at a meditation center. We pull up to the curb, and step out into this wonderland just outside of Bangkok. The meditation center is also a nunnery. No monks, only nuns. They're so cute with their shaved heads and white robes. Also, they are much nicer than the monk at the meditation center we went to before. Their garden is walled in, but you can hear the sounds of traffic and construction amid the sounds of fountains and birds. There was no large Buddha statue. Instead, a pagoda with a relic inside was in the center of the room, with circles of flowers surrounding it. Much less imposing when we're all in a circle, instead of facing the monk at the head of the room with a huge Buddha behind him. We did a quick prayer, then went outside for 10 minutes of meditation before the nun arrived. The nunnery was founded in 1988, and provides parenting classes to pregnant women and families (including single-parent families), in addition to the meditation retreats it offers. I wish we had done our meditation retreat there. Ah well. The nun we spoke to mostly translated Thai through Tony and her novice, but she could speak English a little, and was fluent in Hmong. She actually was Hmong, and was glad to talk to our Hmong-American students on the trip. We then took a tour of the center grounds. It is so peaceful and open, yet removed from the busy city. There were ponds and statues and winding forest paths, and new construction of a waterfall into the irrigation ditch, so it would be more part of nature.
After, she gave us books and sent us on our way to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the old capital of Thailand until the early 1700s, when Burma invaded for the second time and destroyed most of the city. The ruins of the royal wats are still there, and that's what we went to see. The temple grounds are so extensive, and we could wander for an hour and not see the same place twice. The pagodas are mostly opened because they would place a persons valuables in them with their ashes when they died, so grave robbers have opened them and taken the gold, etc. Also, all of the Buddha statues (hundreds of them), are missing their heads. All of the gold has been removed, and the heads cut off to sell. Bad karma for the cutter, but lots of money, too. There is an iconic image of the head of a Buddha that has been absorbed by the roots of the bodhi tree, and the body disappeared. It was pretty cool to see. Almost as if the holy tree were retaining at least one head for the temple, when the rest were cut off and sold on the black market.
We then went to the Summer Palace, near Ayutthaya. This is where the royal family goes for the summer (thanks, Captian Obvious), and was the royal palace of the old Thai kingdom. There are many ponds there, and it's near a river, so it's easy to see why they go there in the summer. Natural air conditioning! Anyway, we took farang pictures with bushes shaped like animals, and walked around the grounds. We noticed a large reptile on the edge of a pond. Is that a baby crocodile? Then it turned to look at us. A komodo dragon! Cool! We then saw another and another, all in or around the ponds. We ran into Tony, who told us they had moved in and no one removed them. They used to be bad luck to see, but it changed when they were found on the palace grounds to mean fortune and wealth. I guess a cultural construct is easier to change than it would be to remove a dozen komodo dragons. He also told us they were wild and dangerous and we should keep our distance if we saw more. We then turned around the building we were near only to see three of our classmates about two feet from one of the dragons. One was trying to pet it. It was tasting the air. “Anna! Get back!” They didn't hear us. Finally, Katrina yells “Anna! Those are wild and dangerous!” They scurried back to the path quickly. You should youtube videos of komodo dragons hunting. Scary stuff!
Anyway, when we got back to the hotel, I noticed the tailor shop in the lobby was having their grand opening party. So, I go in and enter my name in the drawing for a free suit. I also tell everyone else in my class about it. Guess who won the free custom-made suit? I did! Guess the komodo dragon paid off, after all. I can pick it up tomorrow night! I also bought another one, because it's 4000baht, so $135 or so for a custom-made business suit. I was going to get one made anyway! One is black, and the other is grey pinstripe. It'll look great!
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