Being a local on Sunday

Sunday we got up super late and the first thing we ate was lunch outside the hospital by Kim's apartment.  We met up with Annika and Milky to go to a temple on the outskirts of Bangkok. Temple was fun but much more involved than I expected - there were more rituals and just things to do involving incense and the like than there were at the buddhist temple we stayed at in Korea. And... I just looked up buddhism in the dictionary and now realize that Koreans generally practice Mahayana Buddhism where as Thais generally practice Theravada Buddhism (the more conservative tradition).

We prayed over an oil can that was then blessed by the monks and then poured into a thing to keep a constant burning flame going.  We each took 21 incense sticks and prayed (or made wishes or just hoped, I'm not sure) at seven different buddha statues, leaving three incense sticks at each buddha.  There was a fortune telling ... game where you shake a can of sticks until one of the sticks falls out, then look up the number on the stick on a billboard full of predictions.  All of this is is outside in the heat and humidity with no shoes, but at least covered by a roof.

Inside a nearby temple

Milky then graciously brought us back to her house (which doubles as a family restaurant) and gave us all kinds of fruit (Jackfruit, mangos and starfruit).  The jackfruit is that giant green fruit in the corner of this picture.  It isn't really comparable to any fruit in the US.

The inside of a Jackfruit

After fruit we went to dinner which was literally around the corner from Milky's house. We sat down at a table and were given a large ceramic pot full of coals. On top of the coals was a metal plate to grill food and surrounding it was a trough of boiling water to boil food.  A buffet of uncooked meats was set up to choose from.  Many types of pork, one type of chicken, several shellfish and shrimp options, a couple of fish/fish balls/fish dumplings.  It was an experience to say the least.  Coconut ice cream for dessert!

Once back at Kim's house we wound down the night with several episodes of Modern Family.  It was really relaxing to do something normal like watch tv.