A Big Day For Buddha

In my wife’s parlance, today is a big day for Buddha. Even after ten years of living together, we have not found a better way of saying it, although that is probably my fault.

The phrase ‘a big day for Buddha’ says it all anyway. In fact, it is the end
of Buddhist Lent, which means that monks no longer have to sleep in the Wats (Temples) where they actually live. During Lent, they can leave their home Wat, but have to be home by midnight. Whereas now, they can go further afield and sleep in the nearest Wat.

It is a big day and called ‘Wan Ok Pansa’ in Thai. It is a national bank holiday.

Thailand is more religious, formally religious than where I come from in South Wales, but most people are torn between believing what they have been taught all their lives and dumping it as rubbish.

More or less the same as in Europe.

My belief is so close to theirs, and has been since I was in infant school.

Yes, I can remember talking about such things back then, fifty-odd years ago.

We are planning going on holiday, which usually means going to Pattaya. It is like people having a preference for the seaside, which Pattaya is on. It depends on our daughter, the girl on the cover of the Behind The Smile series, because it is her birthday on December 22nd, so it depends where she wants to spend it.

My guess is Pattaya.

It’s like Coney Island, Brighton, Porthcawl or Barry.

Unfortunately, the friends of my wife like to be reverse snobs and my wife goes with them. That means that people who do not have to drink the cheapest alcohol they can get. No, that is not true.

The cheapest is Thai potcheen at £1 per 500 ml; lao kao costs twice as much, but everyone knows that it kills people as well.

My wife takes that gamble every day, even though she can afford to pay for decent Thai whiskey, called deng (red).
It is like watching a suicide in slow motion.

And her excuse?

‘I don’t want to seem superior to my friends’.

You just can’t beat that  sort of loyalty to friends, can you?

But it could cost her her life and me my best friend if I don’t get her out of here.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: A Big Day For Buddha