Today my old, slightly ugly, orange wrist band broke. This might appear rather insignificant to you but there´s quite a funny story connected to this particular wrist band.
I got it the 7th of February 2010 while visiting Phetchabun, my childhood friend Pornthip´s, home region in Thailand and it has in fact been blessed by a monk.
The story goes: one relaxing, super hot (like many of the days in Phetchabun turned out to be) day in Thailand, Pornthip´s aunt asked if we wanted to visit a local monk. I of course joined with excitement not knowing that I was on my way to see a monk that would read my future in a bucket of water and soak me in that water afterwards.
I got it the 7th of February 2010 while visiting Phetchabun, my childhood friend Pornthip´s, home region in Thailand and it has in fact been blessed by a monk.
The story goes: one relaxing, super hot (like many of the days in Phetchabun turned out to be) day in Thailand, Pornthip´s aunt asked if we wanted to visit a local monk. I of course joined with excitement not knowing that I was on my way to see a monk that would read my future in a bucket of water and soak me in that water afterwards.
Upon arrival, we all gathered in a small building where the monk was seated on the floor in front of his "shrine" that consisted of a mixture of the perhaps weirdest but most fascinating things I have even seen:
There were also 4 or 5 orange buckets filled with water on the floor. The monk welcomed us in Thai and after a while lit 3 small candles. He then held them over the buckets to let the wax drip onto the water. The wax formed strange formations and it was from these very formations he would read out future.
This was of course all performed in Thai so I didn´t understand anything that was told. Pornthip translated, but looking back on it, the only thing I now remember was him saying that I had been very worried about my job and that I no longer needed to because it would all be ok. (This was true because at the time I had lost my job at MS Finnmarken since the ship was being sent to Australia) The other interesting thing he told me was that within the next year, I would meet the man I one day would marry.
At the time I was in a relationship and I found that bit of information rather puzzling.
After the reading, we all went outside where we sat down on the ground waiting for the monk. Our buckets were there too. The monk then proceeded, having a sip of the water from the bucket, then he spitted it over our heads before ending the session with pouring the rest of the water and wax over our heads. It was meant to be cleansing.
The wrist bands we received were made of a mixture of cotton and something synthetic so we lit the ends on fire and glued them together around our wrists and that is where mine has stayed until today. I have liked it very much and it never occurred to me that I should remove it, even though it has gotten uglier and uglier over the years.
Now it is gone and I wonder if I´m no longer blessed. I must admit that I also wonder who that someone is that I was supposed to meet, because the job part of the fortune telling did work out (I got a job when I returned to Norway and I´m in fact still working for the same company) but now more than 3 years later, I still find myself looking for "Mr Right."
I also wonder if a Thai year might be much longer than a Norwegian year and I of course wonder if it all was bullshit.
Never the less, visiting this monk is one of the most special moments in my life and it makes me realize that I only got to experience it because I know someone from the culture or country I was visiting. It is stored up there in my big hard drive under the category "weird but totally awesome"
