I wrote at the time how I was vaguely disappointed in Bangkok. I had read so much about the "exotic" and "mysterious" city that I must have expected something out of a science fiction movie. Instead it was Starbucks and Burger King and 7-11 on literally every street corner. It looked like just any other big city. With an unusually large number of transvestites...
I've been in Southeast Asia long enough now that it seems normal to me. I first arrived in Bangkok in November 2008 (!) and for a while I was in full tourist mode. I was skimming over the surface of the culture, moving quickly and visiting the tourist attractions. After all this time I still feel like a tourist, but the strangeness of the culture doesn't smack me in the face on a daily basis the way it once did.
The cultural influences here so alien that it's difficult for westerners to assimilate into, embrace or even understand the culture. Your mind unconsciously looks for common points of reference, but there are often are none. The predominant cultural influence here is Buddhism, a system of thought which is very nearly opposite to everything those of us of European descent are taught. Things are just different here.
Something I hear tourists mention, and I've even seen in guidebooks, is the sight of monks begging. This bugs me. I have only the most cursory knowledge of Buddhism so I freely admit that what I'm about to write is inaccurate or just plain wrong, but I do know that monks do not beg. (If you encounter a begging monk he's probably an impostor scamming tourists.) It's the best example I can think of to illustrate how viewing even the simplest act through a cultural prism can distort its meaning.
Every morning Buddhist monks leave their temple and make their rounds of the neighborhood. They go to each house and storefront. They don't need to speak. Everyone knows why they are there. They will stand there for a few moments and wait for someone to bring them money or food. Offerings are repaid with a short blessing. If no one makes an offering, they move on to the next door.
They don't do this for themselves. They do this for you.
Most westerners are vaguely familiar with the idea of karma. Buddhists believe that we after we die we are reincarnated. Our incarnation in the next life will be determined by how well we live this one. What the monks are doing is allowing you to "acquire merit", to improve your karma so that in the next life you won't be reborn as a cockroach. They are not asking for anything. They are giving you the opportunity to make an offering. The distinction is at once tiny and enormous.
I witnessed a funny little scene while I was having breakfast at a beach restaurant in Sihanoukville. There was a large family eating at the next restaurant. A monk was making the rounds when a woman gave her little son some money to give to the monk.
(Sorry for the poor quality of the pic but I had to take it quickly with my phone.)
The little boy started to walk back his mother. She and the other ladies at the table yelled and waved their hands for him to go back for his blessing. The little boy knelt in front of the monk and put his hands together in the nearly universal gesture of praying, here called som pia. The table was blocking my view so I couldn't get a pic. Trust me, it was very cute.
The monk began reciting his prayer, which was apparently a bit too long for the boy. Before the monk could finish he hopped up and walked back to his family as they yelled and waved again in an attempt to get him to go back for the remainder of the blessing. But he was done.
The monk just smiled and moved on.
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