August 18, 2015 - Conversing with Novice Monks - Lom Sak, Petchabun, Thailand.
Monks of course, observe most things quietly, but young novices may have donned their orange robes as recently as the day before, so one can never know what will happen with anyone but the elderly monks... :) To be totally honest, any monk in Thailand may do the most unexpected things, but Ill just stick to this story. One of them looked to be about 16, the other maybe 13. The younger one is smiling, and looking at me quite a bit, so I smile back. I am still not quite sure if it's polite (as a Thai) to initiate conversation with a monk/novice monk, but I, a non-Thai, have spoken with plenty of monks before... I leave it with just a smile for now, strap my bike to the seat in front of me, and sit in the corner.
The right back corner seat (if you're facing forward) has been broken in every bus I have ever been on, and I would guess that I have this seat on about half of every trip I have ever taken in Thailand. It has turned from a complete bane of a good trip into something quite humorous. People are similar most wherever you go, as is life, but wow if things like this in Thailand aren't the EXACT SAME wherever you go. Thai culture loves conformity, and aside from humor, they love when things stick to expectation... but man sometimes it's too much, just hilarious the certain regularities that come out -
Which brings me to the cute part of this story. Language-wise, a huge "problem," admitted by Thais about Thais, is that they are very meek. Too afraid to make a mistake, they would rather remain silent than speak out and have someone either correct them, or laugh. A huge part of language learning obviously needs trial and error, and so the Thais will always be slower to learn such things... But anyways, there are many nice things, and cute stories, that come from this shyness as well.
About 1 hour into the ride, so far, so good (so bumpy), because I had my headphones on, I was able to witness much more than I would have had they suspected I could hear them. The younger of the two was holding his phone to his ear, not the receiver for phone calls but the speaker end at the bottom, and he was obviously straining to hear - and of course I was immediately curious as to what he was listening to. I always think it funny to see monks with cell phones anyways, let alone smart phones, and from this point one can only guess the kinds of apps a monk would find useful... Keep that thought for later though, because I just happened to catch a glimpse of the screen as he played this short clip over and over; the words written were, "see you again."
It would have been cute to wait for him to say it to me, keep doing my own thing for the remaining 2 hours, but I had to break the ice. I didn't want "see you again" to be the only words exchanged, obviously he didn't speak English very well, and it wouldn't even be a true statement with which he would leave me! (I don't think I will join his forest monastery any time soon :) aside from this, I guess I could happen to share a bus with these two again someday?)
So, I just started right into it in Thai, "hi, where you goin?, where's your home, why are you in a bus?...".
Of course they were startled, but they both definitely wanted to talk. They were actually full of questions, and awesomely they were not the usual 3 questions that form the intro (or entirety) of 98% of every bus conversation I have had in the past 5 years.**
I do not know all the rules that monks live by, but I guess that not speaking loudly is among them (I think there are 227? Novice monks only have to abide by the main 8 (and c, but they should of course be learning the other 219 soon enough...). Though we were somewhat alone in the back of the bus, the older novice, sitting on the far side of the younger from me, would ask the younger monk to pass on all of his questions to me. I would get to hear were question twice, obviously I'm only 18 inches away, but this just made the situation even better. I didn't say anything.
It's always polite, in every country but even more so in Thailand, to let older people speak and act first, but when the older novice finished his questions about life in the USA, the younger novice went to town. I guess he spends his time reading, or at least intensely daydreaming, about doomsday events, he was not going to miss his chance to get the opinion of a foreigner while he had the chance. Out of the 50 or so questions he must have rattled off, I'll try to remember some variety...
They ranged from a simple, "why does the weather change over a year?," to other things he should have learned in school like, "is the Earth in a galaxy?", and finally to the more sensational, "is it true that a comet is coming soon to end our world? When the sun explodes, what will humans do? Do you believe that the whole earth will be destroyed in a massive chain reaction of global earthquakes?"
I did my best to answer. I hope he saw this :)
After such discussions, the destination came much more quickly. Oh, by the way, to add more to the scene, as we were talking the bus was climbing into the Nam Nao district of Petchabun. Beautiful views of green, thickly forested hills going by. Some very steep hills, and so as we were sitting at the back of the bus, we were bumping shoulders and swaying around the entire time we were talking. I even had to stop talking a few times to not get too dizzy... The younger novice was intent though, and totally cool, talking just as fast, yet thoughtfully, as he could, not upset by the bus' movements at all :)
 |
| Out the window, this is an example of a scene on the way from Nam Nao to Lom Sak. Petchabun is beautiful. |
I did the best I could to explain quickly about college and pro sports, because the younger novice obviously had more questions waiting. Nearing the end though, the older boy did give me a final gem with..."Teacher Joel may I have your Facebook please?" Yes, it has officially invaded every level of every society. Monks and Facebook. Did Zuckerberg imagine that when he created his first site? And yes I did add him as a friend, I am curious to see if they can, like most of my students here, type in English far, far better than they can speak.
So.
Finally the time came, I got down at Lom Sak bus station, and Nong Ton (the younger monk) asked, "Teacher Joel, will we ever see each other again?"
For many reasons, I didn't know what to say. I just smiled, bowed, and made my way down to check on my bike. I really enjoyed the conversation, while funny at times, they really made me practice using some vocab that I rarely get to try out :) also, their being monks, or studying to be anyways, they had a much longer attention span than most young people I know. Young people anywhere! Let alone Thailand... So I quite enjoyed this bus ride.
-----
And now, 3 weeks later, the larger part of my bike trip done, 1,400km I think so far this trip?, well, I will soon be back to my computer to upload this post.
Here I am writing this, on my iPhone, on a bus, again from Kon Kaen but heading South this time to Korat.
I'm alone this time, and the back seat I have been given is, once again, broken and sliding around. At least I wasn't surprised! Here's a picture to prove it.
 |
| Back Seat of any 2nd Class bus in Thailand. Removable, in one sense, Entertaining in another, Worrisome too, but always there. The broken back bench seats... |
Have a great day! Leave me some comments below!
**the 3 questions being, "Where you come from?," "What's your name?," and, depending on if it's a man or woman, "Do you have a girlfriend?" (Woman asking), or "Do you like Thailand?" (Man asking)...
At any rate, no matter how intrusive or irritating these may seem at first, thats just how adjusting to a new culture goes. Also, someone practicing Thai will have these 3 or 4 questions/answers solidly in their vocab whether they like it or not!
