I have started now to become adjusted to the madness of the city, and once one does acclimatise to the chaos, one finds that there is a lot of little things to see. The people here and the way they live their life are very interesting. Everywhere you go you see shrivelled up old Thai men and women, skin like leather, who have clearly spent their life walking this city. They sit everywhere and anywhere, but never doing anything, just sitting watching the world go by. Sometimes they have little symbols of their Buddha who they do good deeds during the day for. I encountered one of these good deeds today which solidified for me the Thai's as being good natured people.
Myself and a fellow TEFLer James (whose blog you can find here; http://amobleyinasia.wordpress.com/) were taking a stroll through the city and we came across a vast green area with temples surrounding it. We were taking pictures and discussing whether to visit one of these temples when a Thai woman approached us. She was telling us not to walk on the green area as it is marshy and dangerous. This moved on to her giving us advice about where to go to see the best of Thai culture, and she gave us directions to a river where a boat will bring us to see all the temples for a lot cheaper than us just walking into them. She was so nice, and gave a good 10 minutes of her time to us, making sure we knew the reasonable price of the tuk tuk to the river so they don't overcharge us, and drawing out directions and the name in Thai and English for us to give to the driver. This woman did not need to do this, nor did she need to struggle to tell us in English, not draw things for us. She did this because this is what they believe; that good deeds are important for both those who do the deed, and those who receive the deed.
A fellow TEFLer told me later that she attended a Buddhist birthday party yesterday. This party is not like Irish parties, where copious amounts of drink are consumed and the semi-sober party members are entertained at the expense of the one who couldnt hold the last vodka. No. This party involved meditations to Buddha, and then a gesture which I think is nicer than any material present. The attendees at the party all line up and touch the birthday boy/girl. By doing this, they mean to pass any good kharma they have earned from their good deeds lately into the birthday boy/girl. They literally intend to give them goodness for their birthday. In a country where money is scarce for most, good deeds are important to the Thai people, and to give them to another person is, in my opinion, perfect.
Til tomorrow,
Sawatdeekha.
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