Lessons from Bangkok's Khao San Road

Daily Whaley, June 2008 (pleasehappy.com)

Monks in Thailand aren’t in it for life, like the ones in Vietnam. Men are usually required to try out the lifestyle for at least three months, if not a full year. Some try it out only for an event, like a funeral.

I’ve seen “monks” smoking, watching boxing matches, texting their friends. Today, I saw one at a coffee shop on a laptop and cell phone simultaneously. I think he was also drinking coffee, which he bought. I walked into a temple once to sit and saw two young monks watching Thai boxing on TV.

These were not common activities in Vietnam, where the monks don’t have individual things. They own nothing and have no money. Needless to say, I have been a bit shocked at the electronics, the consumption and just the differences in general.

An ongoing debate in Thailand: Lots of men experiencing a small taste of monastic life, but with a more cavalier approach to the practice or better for there to be fewer monks who are completely devout?

Women say former monks make better husbands.

Either way, it’s a great practice for me in non-attachment. Thich Nhat Hanh recommends that we don’t get attached to any belief or way of life, including Buddhism and his teachings. This is a good reminder for me to be open to anything, including monks with stuff and huge golden statues of Buddha, a man who left a life of gold to be with the people of the world.

I clearly have a lot to learn.


Pancake Man, Daily Whaley, Pancake Sidekick in Bangkok, Thailand 2008

The one on my right makes pancakes -- thin crepes filled with banana, chocolate, and coconut if you know to ask for it -- for drunk Westerners. The other one just hangs out and keeps the pancake man company.

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They set up shop in front of the bank on Rambuttri Road, which is just down the block from Bangkok’s famous Khoa San Road, Westerner's paradise, the backpacking district where you can get teeshirts, Pad Thai, or a ticket to a "ping pong" show any time of day or night. The pancake man doesn’t eat his own pancakes. He says it’s not real food. In fact, he's disgusted by his own scrumptious buttery creations.

This photo was taken about 2:00 a.m. after I saw a drag show. Two dummies were fighting in the street when a group of orange-shirted Dutch football fans stumbled by toward an orange Taxi to take a photo. The pancake men pulled me into their "shop" (two stools and a cart) and we ended up hanging out for about an hour. It's just another night in Bangkok.

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School is school; even monks seem bored in class.

He’s a first year student, however, in an English class of 43 monks at the Buddhist University in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. His teacher, the Swedish-American Hanna Klausner, is brilliantly patient. She has each monk ask her a question in English at the beginning of class. They like asking about sports, food, and her childhood.