Temples and Terrors

Although my time in Ubon was short, it was extremely memorable. In a fashion typical of Filipino hospitality, Popsie (and the other visitors in his house) always left some breakfast for me in the mornings. I invariably crawled out of bed a bit later than everyone else as I didn't have a job to go to, and had the privilege of relying on Filipino dishes awaiting me on the kitchen table. It was always delicious and I never headed out for the day with an empty stomach.

This was a mistake at least once. In a fashion typical of Thai hospitality, Daw was determined to take care of me while I was in Thailand. Daw, her husband, Bow (my ex-student), Ball, their cousin and I drove out into the country so she could show me the parts of Thai life that are most precious to her.

First she took me to her parents' house in a tiny village. I was expected to eat a large breakfast with them - and I tried really, really hard. But after eating so much delicious Filipino food an hour and a half prior, I reached my limit before my hosts were satisfied, so I had to put up with the usual questions of, "You don't like it?". Contributing to my crowded stomach was the fact that we had stopped off at a cafe on the way and bought huge, sweet drinks.

I did, however, get to eat little frogs.

Even the kids, Bow and Ball, didn't want to eat them

Before we left, Daw's mother wanted to give me a present of traditional Thai silk cloth. She usually sells them in her shop, and although it took her half a day to weave it, I got this one as a gift.

Our next stop was their local temple. Daw is very religious and regularly helps out at a couple of temples, sometimes even donating time, effort and money into their restoration. We prayed/payed our respects in the traditional Buddhist manner; I was a bit rusty so Daw had to explain most of it to me: lighting the candle and incense, standing them in the sand trays on the altar, bowing to the floor three times, and doing the wai (palms together) between each one.

Another temple nearby, Wat Puunokdten, sits upon a hill in the middle of the country. Apart from a couple of people, we were the only visitors. I certainly felt like I was experiencing something very, very few foreigners have before me.

Bow was scared of finding snakes

Following our peaceful stops at the temples, we found a stark contrast in the monkey park. There were a couple of hundred monkeys sprawled out on the road as we arrived, since the park is not enclosed. But, after a lot of honking, we managed to clear a path to the entrance. Like a tidal wave, the monkeys surged after us. We'd brought four big bags of food - long beans and cucumbers - and as soon as we tossed out the first bean, the hairy terrors let loose with piercing squawks that filled the forest. It was rather nerve-wracking...

The greedily little terrors fought and clawed each other to get to the food. I spent a fair portion of time wondering if this was even a good idea. What if they monkeys began working together and swarmed the ute? There'd be nothing we could do to stop them. Fortunately, there was no chance of that; clearly, it was every monkey for himself/herself.

As usual, Bow was being extremely cute and trying to speak English to the monkeys
The longer we were there, the more comfortable I became around the squealing thieves - and the more comfortable they became with us, which made taking photos easier.