Monks and Culture and Stuff

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We've seen a lot of this. Monks and culture and stuff I mean. Bangkok is home to some of the most beautiful temples I've ever seen. Having never been inside a temple before, the closest being Blackwood Methodist church, I was completely awe struck by the beauty staked in the Buddhist religion in Thailand and it's adjoining Asian territories. I've also never admitted that I'm deeper than a puddle, but in all seriousness the temples and culture and stuff are part of the things I love the most about Asia.

I wish I bought a book on Buddhism before I came as it is in my opinion the most amazing religion I've ever learned about. I had ample opportunity to borrow one (or at least steal it) from somebody that I used to know, whom I'm sure never actually read the book and only used it when they couldn't find their Armarni loafer or their Radley man-bag to squash any spiders that entered their apartment. "Quick daddy, squash it with my Buddhism book. Now, throw it out using my baker boy hat!" The irony would be lost on them I'm sure. Anyway, I digress...

One particular culturally significant experience was our first trip whilst in Bangkok. If you wade through the underbelly of Bangkok, and by underbelly I mean the thousands of stalls selling fake Ray's, D&G watches, cheap pad thai, ping pong shows etc (actually, all the stuff I kinda like!) you will find the REALLY good stuff.

Our tour guide (who our other tour guide explained "liked men not women" as if we were going to jump on him at any given opportunity - thanks for the heads up love) was brilliant and treated us and Edmunds and I were treated to a beautiful tour of the city on our first day. This lead us to seeing the worlds second largest gold Buddha and an array of other beautiful temples. A monk was meditating, there was the smell of incense and Edmunds and I could feel ourselves become more and more thoughtful and inquisitive by the second. Typically though, Edmunds managed to ruin the ambience and get told off pointing her feet towards the buddha. We are definitely Westerner's.

I won't launch i was into a description about Buddhism cause that would be bloody boring and if you're interested in it, you got Wikipedia. But the culture interested me somewhat and I've decided to delve into learning about it when I get home. Not practicing, I still hate ants and vegetarians still annoy me, but definitely will read up on it.

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