John with the Monks
Day 3: Travel to Chiang Mai.
After a morning spent figuring out how exactly we’re going to get to Hanoi, we headed to Chiang Mai.
We arrived at the Imperial hotel and realized that we should have been staying at the Sheraton. The Imperial is about $12 per night cheaper, but it was not that great and the people didn’t really seem to either know anything about Chiang Mai or want to help. We didn’t have too much to think about it though, because we had to quickly head over to the Monk Chat. That’s right, a monk chat. For free, a temple where Monks are studying (I don’t know if its quite a monestary) offers westerners the opportunity to come in a chat. It supposedly gives the Monks an opportunity to practice their English and the Westerners an opportunity to chat with monks. It sounds cool on paper. Well, in practice…it was interesting, but the conversation was a struggle. The first Monk that we spoke with was not very knowledgeable about Buddhism, didn’t speak English very well and really wasn’t that interesting to speak with. He invited his friend over later in the conversation and he spoke a bit better English and was also able to explain a bit more about Buddhism. There were a couple things we learned:
Essentially, these guys can’t marry or get jobs unless they leave the country to get educated, study to become a monk or go into the military
The two that we spoke to, although very into the Buddhist faith, basically said that it was a free way to an education. That they couldn’t afford any education in their home country (Cambodia) and that studying to become a monk was free…which leads to the third.
The first four years is essentially a liberal arts/theology degree. There is some focus on Buddhism, but the bulk of their studies are in math, science, history, philosophy, and other world religions.
In this initial phase, they have 10 “precepts” they have to follow, I think these are them:
No Killing (they emphasized this a lot!)
No stealing from people you don’t know
No misusing sex
No lying (they also made a big deal out of this one)
No singing (there wasn’t really a good reason for this)
No stealing from someone you know; but I think you they meant that they can’t take anything unless it is given to them.
No make up
They talked about meditation and what not, but you have to understand it was a very difficult conversation since they didn’t speak English well (that is the purpose of this; to practice their English). So, its possible that some of this was a language barrier. Overall, it was neat, but not a highlight.
We had dinner at restaurant recommended by both Lonely planet and the rough guide for very authentic Northern Thai food. We were disappointed. It was mostly dead, and the people there were westerners. And, the food was not really that great. After the dinner, we headed to Chiang Mai’s well known night bizarre. At first we thought it was just a bunch of crappy stands selling cheap clothes and souvenirs. It turned out that inside the main building, there were some nice, higher quality items to be purchased. We walked around a bit, but got tired (I think from the malaria pills, that we took at dinner).
After a morning spent figuring out how exactly we’re going to get to Hanoi, we headed to Chiang Mai.
We arrived at the Imperial hotel and realized that we should have been staying at the Sheraton. The Imperial is about $12 per night cheaper, but it was not that great and the people didn’t really seem to either know anything about Chiang Mai or want to help. We didn’t have too much to think about it though, because we had to quickly head over to the Monk Chat. That’s right, a monk chat. For free, a temple where Monks are studying (I don’t know if its quite a monestary) offers westerners the opportunity to come in a chat. It supposedly gives the Monks an opportunity to practice their English and the Westerners an opportunity to chat with monks. It sounds cool on paper. Well, in practice…it was interesting, but the conversation was a struggle. The first Monk that we spoke with was not very knowledgeable about Buddhism, didn’t speak English very well and really wasn’t that interesting to speak with. He invited his friend over later in the conversation and he spoke a bit better English and was also able to explain a bit more about Buddhism. There were a couple things we learned:
Essentially, these guys can’t marry or get jobs unless they leave the country to get educated, study to become a monk or go into the military
The two that we spoke to, although very into the Buddhist faith, basically said that it was a free way to an education. That they couldn’t afford any education in their home country (Cambodia) and that studying to become a monk was free…which leads to the third.
The first four years is essentially a liberal arts/theology degree. There is some focus on Buddhism, but the bulk of their studies are in math, science, history, philosophy, and other world religions.
In this initial phase, they have 10 “precepts” they have to follow, I think these are them:
No Killing (they emphasized this a lot!)
No stealing from people you don’t know
No misusing sex
No lying (they also made a big deal out of this one)
No singing (there wasn’t really a good reason for this)
No stealing from someone you know; but I think you they meant that they can’t take anything unless it is given to them.
No make up
They talked about meditation and what not, but you have to understand it was a very difficult conversation since they didn’t speak English well (that is the purpose of this; to practice their English). So, its possible that some of this was a language barrier. Overall, it was neat, but not a highlight.
We had dinner at restaurant recommended by both Lonely planet and the rough guide for very authentic Northern Thai food. We were disappointed. It was mostly dead, and the people there were westerners. And, the food was not really that great. After the dinner, we headed to Chiang Mai’s well known night bizarre. At first we thought it was just a bunch of crappy stands selling cheap clothes and souvenirs. It turned out that inside the main building, there were some nice, higher quality items to be purchased. We walked around a bit, but got tired (I think from the malaria pills, that we took at dinner).
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