Quest to See the World

oh no, i don’t even know where to start. it’s so difficult when i get so far behind, and i don’t even have my notes with me. i guess i’ll start with the palm reading since you all are son interested. here goes….

So Dale’s dad met us at the bus station and drove us to many temples around town and showed me the correct form for praying in the temples, i hadn’t realized that there was a specific form, but there is and i was doing it incorrectly the first few times i tried. oh, yeah, we also went to his school and talked to 3 classes of students who were all very giddy and excited to have farangs (westerners) in their school. All of the girls are required to have the same haircuts…bobs. The class clowns made themselves known right away. After the visit and tour of the town we had dinner at a place in the country. We went back to our hotel and rested, i guess, i don’t quite remember because it seems like ages ago. the next day was exciting… Tawi (Dale’s dad) picked us up after breakfast at 8:30 and took us to another temple. across the street from that one was a big hill with steps going all the way up, i’d say that there had to be at least 407 steps to the top and there was another temple up there. i had seen a postcard of the steps with monks walking down and therefore was interested in this particular spot. after we went into the first temple (still at the bottom of the hill) we were headed back into the car so that we could drive to the top of the hill rather than walk, and that’s when i noticed a woman there sitting in a shady area on one of the those grass mats, you know, kind of like the ones you can buy for the beach at home that fold up, but much larger. She was an older woman with rotten teeth and a very big smile. i asked tawi if he would mind interpreting for me and he didn’t mind at all.

ok, so i sat down and she took both of my hands in hers and looked at my palms very closely and intensely. she began by

talking about a mole that i have “under my underwear” and i was like, “ah, no, i don’t have a mole under my underwear” and she looked at me with a confused look and said something else and motioned to the chest/abdominal area and then lifted her shirt to reveal part of her breast and pointed to a red mole that she has, and i was like, “oooohhh, yeah, i do have a mole”, but originally i was thinking of the underwear i use on the lower half of my body. i DO have a mole that rubs on my bra line that she definitely hadn’t seen before i sat down and i was really freaked out!!! she said that i need to have it removed because i’m not good and after i have it removed i will be better. it’s strange because i’ve thought about having it removed before because i worry about cancer if i get burnt around there. she then told me that after i have it removed i must play the lottery, but that i need to have a child sell me the ticket. see, here in thailand, young people and old people work and sell stuff, including lottery tickets. Tawi told me to go to a family owned business in the states that sells lottery tickets, but to go in the afternoon, like when the kids would be there after school and ask the person working to allow the kid to sell me the ticket. i think i’m going to have to hunt down a thai business in boston so that they’ll understand why i want the kid to sell me the ticket. She also said that i don’t donate enough and that i must donate money to a temple or a person begging on the street. i don’t totally agree with that though because i sell my photos from central america to save money for a community development project there…   she also said that i shouldn’t travel far from home within the next month and i was like, “ummm, i’m pretty much as far from home as i can get at this point…” so tawi told her that and she said that what i need to do then is to prepare (cook) two chickens, a piece of pork and some special dessert they call an elephant ear and put it at the Y in the road where the road splits, this will help me to be safe in the next month while traveling. i was quite concerned about how i would be able to do this considering that i couldn’t really prepare these items anytime soon. Tawi interpreted my concern to her and she said that i could give her the money for the goods and she could prepare it and place it at the Y in the road for me, and that it would still count, as long as someone takes care of it. I wrote my name and date of birth (not my social security # though) on a piece of paper and tawi translated it for me. he also gave her his card (he’s a teacher) and she said that she would call him when she has completed the task (i haven’t heard anything yet and it’s been over a week). i asked how much it would cost for the goods and she said around 200B (about $6 US) so i gave it to her because i wasn’t going to take any chances after she knew about my mole!!! the palm reading was $2 on top of the $6, still super cheap. so at the end she asked if i had any questions and i asked if i would ever have any children and she said “no”…that i have “womb problems”. i was distraught by this and asked if i could adopt and she said yes, but only a BOY!!!  i don’t want a boy, i want a girl!!! and…she said that i have to adopt a child of the same race…what?!?! ….she totally ruined my year!!! not only can i never give birth to a child, but now i have to adopt a white boy!!! no way!!! what am i going to do?!  after a few back and forths she said that a girl would be okay, but i’m not sure why she changed her mind.

she also said that i must get this one little statue of a chinese princess that is special in buddism, place it at the head of my bed, clean it everyday, and pray to it each day, oh, and i must buy one at a temple. I immediately asked Tawi where i could get one and he said that probably in the next town we were headed to, Chiang Mai. Ok, so we left, with me feeling down in the dumps about my future, but maybe i’ll hit the lottery for $20 million, and headed to the top of the hill to the temple. there was a guy up there selling the things that buddists wear on a chain around their necks to protect them ( i can’t remember what they’re called) and we found one that is used to protect someone when traveling, so i bought it to help keep me safe until she prepares and places the chicken, pork and dessert where necessary. we went into the temple and that’s where Tawi showed me how to pray like a buddist. off track a little… i think buddism is the reason thailand is relatively safer than a lot of other places. anyway, inside of the temple i found my chinese princess, so i think i’m set now, as long as she prepares that food for me, otherwise i may have to take matters into my own hands. so we checked out that temple and before leaving we walked over to another small temple on the other side of the parking lot. there was a guy hanging around there and he was explaining some things to us and then, as we were about to leave he told stacy that she was “hard headed, stubborn” and something else too that i don’t remember. he said that she would have a miscarriage before having a boy. oh yeah, he said that she’s generous. nice, she’s the generous one and i’m the stingy one. they he turned to me and said that i would have 2 to 4 children and i was like, “ah, Tawi, what about what the lady said?” so he told the guy what the other lady had said and the guy said that i have a bad womb, but i would take some medication for it to fix it. ok, great…i like what he said more, i think i’ll go with his prediction instead, but i’m still now forgetting about the chicken and stuff because i have to get back on a plane and i also want to win the lottery

so i’ve added some pics, but unfortunately only the ones from the first 2 days of the trip because of another slow connection (& i’m in bangkok right now!!!), but at least i kept my promise. my hair has been wild here because of the humidity, lack of gel, and a new cut right before i left, but oh well. i will do my best to write another blog entry and upload more photos tomorrow before i head out of bangkok at 7:30 pm. i’m headed to surat thani to the south on a train which is an 11 hour trip, but i was only able to get a seat and no sleeper, bummer. from there i’ll catch a bus to khao lak, a lazy beach town where the tsunami hit where i can rent a cute little bungalow, a scooter, and check out some monkeys in the nearby national park. after that i plan on going to khao sok national park for more monkey spotting and finally to an island off the other coast, but i don’t have the name of it with me, but there are monkeys there too and i can do the intro scuba class. hopefully i’ll have time for everything. i may have to fly back up to bangkok so i don’t waste any daylight time on a train or another day in bangkok. tomorrow i’m going to the infamous bangkok weekend market that has 8,000 stalls!!!

until next time…

Tags: Asia Trip-Summer 2008, palm reading, thailand, uthai thani

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Asia Trip-Summer 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.