Naiyang Temple Hospitality and Our Private Island

The old saying goes: "Behind every 7-Eleven, you will find the temple of your dreams."

OK, not really, but last Sunday, Amanda and I decided to rent a scooter and explore the Naiyang Beach area a little more. It cost about $7 for a whole day (split between two people), so we braved the insane Thai roads and headed a few minutes away to the nearest temple, which does happen to be right behind the local 7-Eleven.

The temple property is perfectly manicured and most buildings are ordained in gold paint, with many shrines and statues.

The first building we managed to walk into hosted a group of praying monks and devotees. I couldn't remember the etiquette behind taking photos of monks, so I took a shot pretty far away. They started chanting and we believe they were blessing their food for lunch.

After their blessing was complete, they walked out of the room to go eat. A monk came by and gave me this pomegranate. Hopefully eating it helped purify my soul. ;)

We were surprised when a group of locals sitting on the floor insisted that we come over and share a meal with them. I have no idea what we ate, but most of it was spectacular and made at home by the woman in the right of the photograph below.

These coconut gelatin..balls... changed my life.

They warned me that one of the dishes with spicy, and those that know me know I have a very low spice tolerance. I decided to brave it and promptly felt my face catch on fire. I knew it would be rude to not finish my plate, so I sweat through the rest of it.

Even with a serious language barrier, there was something intimate about eating a meal with new people and not much has to be said. I am not sure if it is normal custom or an obligation to invite us, but it was a unique experience. Unfortunately they definitely understand the word "shit," as I accidentally exclaimed that when I dropped some food on the ground.

Shit. Need to work on my temple manners a little bit.

Many people dump pets at Buddhist temples as they see it as a safe haven where animals will be fed. This is true to an extent, until the population becomes unmanageable by the monks. I don't think this is the case in Naiyang, but animal welfare organizations frequently have to step in at temples in larger cities.

Lunch wrapped up and we thanked the group for their kindness (khob kun kah!) and wandered the rest of the grounds.

Something very strange happened at a few locations, including the one in the next photo. When I got too close, my camera could only capture blurry photos. Amanda's wouldn't even take photos. I can't find anything on the internet about intentional interference at temples, so I'm not sure what happened.

I had to walk back about 10 feet to zoom in and capture this picture

With our bellies and spirits full, we drove (scootered? LOL) to an end of Naiyang Beach that we hadn't explored yet, to try to walk to a small island that is visible from the restaurant we dined at many nights.

Construction on these condos was abandoned for an unknown reason in 1990. They are now home to thousands of snakes.

The tide was fairly low so we were able to wade out and be the solo inhabitants of the island.

Wading

Hermit!

It was fantastic to finally explore the spot I'd stared at for weeks. We left just in time as the tide was coming in... if we'd left any later, we would have had to either wait it out or swim to shore.

Beach dog

-Erin