Feeling like an Alien

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Wow, talk about off the beaten path.  After a not-so-quick visa run to the Malaysian Border I decided to head East in an effort to avoid some rain.  For whatever reason I picked Nakhon Si Thammarat, home to one of the largest and oldest temples in Thailand.  Also it has bragging rights to the birthplace of the recent "Jatukarm" phenomenon that has been sweeping across the country.  A Jatukarm is a medallion that is pressed out of clay and painted or gilded then blessed by a Buddhist monk at the temple in town.  Supposedly the medallions can bring good luck, or offer protection from spirits, harm, etc.  Due the growing popularity the prices have jumped in the last year and more people seem to be buying them more as an investment than as a religious article.  There is also a growing dissent among the faithful that the medallions are distracting the people from the true teachings of Buddha.  Either way, in the birthplace of the craze, I couldn't move three feet without being bombarded by posters, street vendors,billboards, and roving trucks with loudspeakers(!) hawking some form of the medallions.  Also there is virtually no way to tell if the charm has ACTUALLY been blessed by the monk or not and counterfeit medallions are hard to spot.  The prices can be anywhere from 300bt. to 10000bt. with the odd exceptions popping up here and there that exceed even those numbers.

Buddha's footprint.
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The town itself isn't as modern as one would think, given the size of the population.  I was staying in the downtown core, where the markets and food vendors set up shop and as a consequence I was the only white person within a good 5km.  Add to that there were several girls schools nearby and you can imagine that even walking down the street became an adventure.  Virtually nobody that I met spoke a word of english and the only way I was able to get food was buying fruit at the market by pointing and smiling and using the minuscule amount of Thai I remembered, and going to a vendor on the street and saying "phad thai?"  Quite the experience.

nobody that I met spoke a word of english

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Before leaving the town (and my crummy hotel room) I had the opportunity to visit the temple and see the 1000 year old stupa (big pointy thing with gold on top) that allegedly has a piece of Buddha's bones buried inside it.  There was also one of the finer examples of Buddha's footprint in a shrine on the compound.  The bottom of the stupa was surrounded by a multitude of golden buddhas, each one slightly different than the next.  Inside the temple was beautiful with lots of gold and incredible detail on all the ornaments.  Back into town and it was finally time to take my 13 hour night train back north to Bangkok.  Which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (thankyou ipod! thankyou books!)