Interesting day today.
We woke up before 6am to visit monks coming down from one of the local temples. Every morning the walk down from the mountain temple to collect merit from people on the streets. Basically, people here give them food and drinks and the monks wills say a chant in return. People do this because is promotes good karma, and will keep the spirits happy. They are paying merit to the monks with food, so their bad deeds will be forgiven.
It was crazy to see monks, many of which were young boys, walking barefoot down the street while cars and motorcycles sped by. It was like an ancient culture juxtaposed with modern day living. People would pull off the road, get food out of their car, and wait for a group of monks. When they came by, they would take off their shoes, give them food, and bow as the monks chanted over them. Some did this more than one times, and would offer numerous portions of food to different monks walking the street.
I have pictures from the rest of the day, but I really just wanted to highlight the monks and the idea of merit today. The pictures do not explain it near enough. It was one of the most interesting (and sad experiences). These people do this every day; they drive close to a temple to find monks, give them food (merit), and then receive chants/ prayers offered for them. I will describe more of the details later when I am less sleepy; I will just let the pics speak for themselves now.
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