Spiritual Touch

Started the morning with TESOL training and picked up a lot of new tricks that I can use in the classroom when teaching English. After that, I had an interview with my agent (Angel Ha-BFITS) and it went really well. She confirmed I would be teaching intensive English to 7^thand 8^thgraders in Pathum Thani at Suankularb Rangsit. I am going to be making 35,000 Baht a month and according to the agent living close to the school.

During lunch, I learned to cook green papaya spicy salad and Pad Thai noodles. The food was absolutely amazing and it was the first time I overate while being here.

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We then took the bus to Wat Khao Tao (temple) and met with the Rescue Paws director who gave us a tour of the temple grounds. I’ll be honest, my interest level was low due to the fact the focus was on rescuing animals in Hua Hin. Not that I don’t care for the plight of animals but the temple grounds were calling me to explore them.

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I was supposed to join the group for beginner’s meditation but while walking to the location, I heard a monk chanting so I diverted course and sat with the monk. He eventually talked with me for a short amount of time and gave me a pamphlet that explained in English what he had been saying. Eventually, I found the group inside of another building talking to another monk.

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We took pictures with the monk and headed to Wat Kum Tao which is a temple cave along the shoreline.

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By the way, we also went to the beach and the water is like the temperature of warm bath water.

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Once at the temple cave, we hiked up 213 stairs to the top of the hill and I saw a large golden buddha on top of the mountain. It was perfectly positioned overlooking the ocean and we spent a considerable amount of time taking in the scenery.

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Back at the hotel, I jumped off the bus and walked to Wat Khao Ittisukkhato which was approximately 1.5 miles away in the hills of Hua Hin. I stopped at the Dinosaur market for food and finally arrived at the temple. I was allowed to walk around wherever I wanted and on my way out; I was stopped by a man who I later learned was named “Soi” (I think?). He motioned for me to follow him and proceeded to guide me throughout the temple grounds showing me how to bow to each Buddha statue.

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On our way out, he flagged down a person who spoke English and she stated Soi wanted me to stay for meditation and prayer. I emphatically answered, “Yes” and they led me to another temple that was filled with hundreds of buddhas. I was provided with a yellow spongy pad and shown that I needed to kneel. There were approximately 100 other persons in the temple wearing all white linen clothing and there were approximately 15 monks leading the session. While kneeling, Soi left me alone and another English-speaking Thai gentleman sat next to me and said he would help me understand what was happening. We prayed for 35 minutes and then meditated for 30 minutes. Kneeling was really hard and I finally had to sit for the last part of the prayer session. I really tried to make it through but the combination of sweat and pain finally took me down.

The man helping me (who I found out was named “Number One”) said I did really well and he was “very happy” that I came to his temple to share in his religion. I felt extremely refreshed after meditating and had a great walk back to my hotel.