"You'd never see that in Europe!" He yelled.
"or in America" I added.
Tony, my Austrailian friend, had been a teacher at a catholic Brisbane high school where they taught religion classes-- and all religions were considered, except Buddhism which "isn't a religion because it doesn't have a 'god'".
In Thailand that's just not true. Buddha iconography is everywhere. Elaborate, golden, radiant temples are on every corner. Every store front has a miniature alter on stilts with burning incense, plates of food, fruit and opened fantas with straws on them. Religion has a huge place in daily life here-- but I wouldn't call it Buddhism. The flower garlands and offerings reminds me more of hinduism and Siddhartha/ Buddha Gautuma is just another god figure sitting next to Ganesh. Every day these people wake up and try to appease the Buddha, but frankly, I think they buddha would be pissed if he saw this!
The reason I appreciate Buddhism is because it really isn't supposed to be a religion at all. Buddha is a role model, not a god. He is not to be worshiped. He didn't even want to be followed. The path he took was unique to him and he wanted others to find their own by turning inward, via meditation.
That's why I'm not interested in visiting the places where the buddha went.
That is why I would never call myself a buddhist. After all "Buddhist" is a title. One of the goal of Buddhism is to dissolve the ego and sense of self. Wouldn't the phrase "I am a Buddhist" undermine that ENTIRELY?!
So, while all this reverence is very beautiful and it's amazing to see novice monks crossing the street (a tip: the best way to cross the street during busy traffic? Follow the kid in orange, no one would hit him!) alot of what I see seems to miss the mark -- by a lot.
The Buddha would not be pleased.
In other news my sweet friend Than (sounds like Dan, but it's a girl) is helping me try to change my airline ticket. Another piece of advice, if you're coming to asia DO NOT pick one of the chinese airlines. I was hesitant to pick China Airlines because of how I feel about China right now, but they had a very good price. I called them yesterday, with Than's help, to try and change my departure date. Seems easy enough, right? Pay the rerouting fee and pay the difference in flight costs. Right? Wrong. They said to call back tomorrow (which is today) at 10 to see how much it will cost. So we did. And after Than talked to them for quite a while in thai, thank goodness for her!, they told us to call back again tomorrow at noon. I'm headed off to Pai but she got screwed over once by this airline when she went to China so she's happy to help me and she will call them tomorrow anyhow and email me the result (hopefully).
It's really quite the headache.
I saw the second real monsoon storm last night. And, of course it struck right when I was getting hungry for dinner, so I ventured out. I went back to a place I had liked the night before, but tried the noodles in gravy, supposedly a specialty, that tasted like soggy salt. So I paid my hard-earned dollar for it anyhow and left. Most places close at about 4 to give the street vendors a chance but they were mostly shut down too because of the flooding in the streets. So I walked down to a fruit market and bought pinapple, rose apples and dragonfruit. Rose apples are really nice crisp things. The Pinapple is amazing here. Dragonfruit? For all it's exotic appearance, is actually quite bland. Once you peal back the magenta and neon green scales it looks like a giant albino(!) kiwi on the inside, with very little flavor. Not bad, but not terribly memorable.
I made friends with a family that owns a little boba stand because I was the first farang they'd seen point to one of the unmarked jars of powder, not knowing what flavor it was, and order it. From them I learned the word "alloi" which I think means to love. The woman said "thai alloi alloi! big alloi!" and pointed to the delicious drink-- I still dont' know what flavor it was. Then her husband pointed at me "you alloi?" and pointed at the drink.
Yes, I alloi. I alloi boba. I alloi Thailand.
Now, to catch a bus to Pai---->
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