Wat Suen Mokkh

When I left my hotel, I walked to the bus station a few blocks away. Lonely Planet's info on Surat Thani is really sketchy. They refer to 'the bus station' without specifying which one. As with their other maps, most streets are not labelled. This isn't normally a problem, since you can just count blocks between the labelled streets. However, they indicate streets where there are none, which throws off the counting method.

Anyway, so I walked to the bus station. I wanted to go to Wat Suen Mokkh, an usual forest monestary. Everyone told me there was no direct route. I tried at both bus stations, and eventually settled for going, by Sawngthaew, to the town of Chaiya first. The motorcycle taxi guys are actually pretty helpful, dispensing accurate info and not being pushy when I say I won't ride a motorcycle with a 15kg pack on my back. So, apparently 10:45 is when all sawngthaew drivers break for a 45 minute lunch. So it was 11:30 before we got going. It took a long time to get to Chaiya. Partly because it was far, and partly because we stopped to wait for more passengers near the edge of Surat Thani.

Once in Chaiya, I made the mistake of asking a orange sawngthaew for a ride to sawngthaew for a ride to Wat Suen Mokkh. He told me that I could only get there by motorcycle. I found a blue sawngthaew a few blocks away, which made the trip. Was this just an issue of miscommunication - or is there some color rivalry between sawngthaews? The Wat was just a short ride away.

The signs posted by the entrance explained the abbots anti-capitalist views. They also indicated that visitors should go to the information desk for everything. Regretably, although the person writing this apparently thought very highly of the info desk - this enthusiasm was not shared by the cartographer who did not feel inclined to include it on any of the maps of the wat. So I wandered around until I found an unstaffed desk. I wanted to take off my pack so I could wander the grounds. I waited around for a moment to see if anyone returned to the desk. A farang who was staying at the wat came to the desk to drop off his bedding that he'd borrowed. He walked up to the desk and started talking. Apparently there was a monk behind the desk, sitting so low that I could not see him. Anyway, even though this dude had kept his stuff behind the desk, the monk told me I had to leave my pack outside. Whatever. I dropped it off and started wandering.

The Wat had these stone tablets everywhere that had intricate carvings on them. They looked very indian in style, but since I don't know what I'm talking about, take that with a grain of salt. I found a gallery which had a huge mural, which looked very egyptian, of a large seated figure handing out large eyes to waiting headless recipients. They took the eyes and placed them on their shoulders. All around the outside of the gallery were more of the carved tablets, set into the walls. When I walked inside, I was very impressed. Every inch of the space was covered in artwork. The ceilings, the pillars, the bottom of the staircase. It was Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian in style. The Buddah depictions were not just the typical Thai style ones. There were images of Jesus and the Dalai Lama and the Thai king.

After this I headed for an area called the Sculture Workshop. I wanted to find out more about the stone tablets. When I got there I met a very nice monk. He told me about the tablets, which I guess are from India and are one of three sets, although I didn't quite understand what happened to the other sets. I think one is in India and the other was given to some royalty, either in India or Thailand. But that may be the set that ultimately ended up at this wat. So the monk talked to me about the teachings are the wat. He explained the symbolism in the carvings. The symbol of the Bodhi tree is common, as is one representing Buddah's first sermon, which is just a mandala thing which I never would have guessed, and a third one representing Buddah's death. He took me back to the gallery and explained some of the pictures to me. He invited me to stay overnight. This was all good, but he mentioned that monks eat only one meal per day, and foreign visitors are only given breakfast and lunch. Nice, but I hadn't eatten anything yet today, and I didn't want to want to fast all day.

I went and got my pack and headed back to the road to catch a ride. While I was waiting, the same monk came out and asked why I'd chosen to leave. I told him, and he took me somewhere down the road to get some veg food. I went back to Wat and moved my stuff into the dorm. The library was already closed for the night, so I just read one of my books. I talked to one of the other foreigners who was visiting. This dude was busting out with some crazy yoga. Anyway, we went for tea, which turned out to be delicious chai.

Unintentionally this turned out to be my cheapest day in Thailand, I spent around $2, of which a third went to the large sprite I bought in the morning.