Wat Bang Phra

      It just goes to show that the expectations we have are usually far from the way things turn out, that’s what happened at Wat Bang Phra. We planned to go early in the morning to this temple and be first in line for a tattoo from a monk and be gone within a few hours. Total time spent? Around seventeen hours! After we arrived we were told that tattoos wouldn’t begin until 2pm, as we were too far from Bangkok we decided just to stick around and go for a walk. Awhile later at the temple, a monk invited us into his home and gave us with multitudes of fruit and other little snacks and kept telling us to eat (one of the few English words he spoke). So we did! And all fell into a nice sleep afterwards. 

                Finally 2 o'clock rolls around and we remove our shoes and climb the steps to the outside of the temple building where the tattoos are to take place. The first handful of people (who arrived after us) went before us by the monks wishes, they got oil instead of ink tattoos and we had to hold their skin tight as the long two pronged needle went up and down slowly and precisely in the monks fingers. Finally they leave and it’s after 4pm but it’s now my turn!

Before it began, we decided on the sak yant for me, I got the eight directional tattoo that is a compass and provides protection in all directions I may travel in my life. It took over an hour and it was painful but very easily bearable and even felt good on some bits. When he finished, he began the blessing. After a minute or two, I became overwhelmed with an immense feeling of peace and I felt a strong energy and immediately began balling my eyes out. It was incredible.

                After mine was finished, our monk friend took a break for nearly an hour while we just waited around. I taught a little yoga practice with the girls in the meantime.

 Anna and Gemma got small ones next and by then it was dark so he wanted to move inside, which prompted another hour long break in which we sat around bored and wanting to leave! Eventually he did Jess’s tattoo and finished with Hunter’s. By then it was after midnight and we thought he would never let us leave! But one of the boys who works there gave us a ride back into Bangkok. We laid out in the bed of his pickup truck and stared at the stars to avoid the wind. It was a glorious ride! On the walk back to the hotel we picked up some pad thai and reached our hotel just before 2am! Such a long and interesting day it was.

For more info on the temple, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Bang_Phra 

finished!