"Hey, holy man, good beard! You need amulet. Good fortune," A small cross-eyed Thai in a Slipknot t-shirt advises me. Wow, that's better than the Turkish tout saying to me, "hey, my BEST friend. You need carpet, sale price!" I tell him, "No, I'm good." Second only in popularity with large golden buddhas and stupas and spirit houses and 7-11's are the small golden, bronze, bone, wooden, or silver buddhas to ward off evil, bring good fortune, good merit, good food, good sex, or simply help you cross the street without breaking a leg. I was doing fairly good in those areas, so I passed on his offer. I had reached my quota of amulets for today. I am at the end of my short week in Thailand and I suppose I packed in as much
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