Hua Yai Temple fund raising

Yet another Temple thread that probably nobody will read apart from a few bots, but believe me this one is good :) Ok at the moment I can't remember the name of the Temple but will edit that in later, it is in Hua Yai on the way to Phoniex Golf Course.

This was week the Wat done a fund raising week to raise some dosh to build more of the Temple, so it's a bit like a carnival type thing but Thailand style, but we shall go into more depths of the games in another post, first up lets talk about the dosh, it was absolutely everywhere, they are bringing in like half a million baht perday, there were soldiers every where to help with the parking and I assume to protect the dosh, today was the last day and it was packed out and bloody noisey, everywhere they had announcers on mikes connected to amps and speakers trying to entice the punters out of their money, one of them reckoned for 100baht you would get good luck with your small wife, I bet the husbands were a bit careful of that one and were a bit sneaky in their way of donating, another for 100baht would give you a Buddha thing that would protect you from bullets and knives, probably need that one if your wife caught you going to the small wife one, I got to admit I gave my girlfriend 500baht to give to the small wife Buddha guy, luckily she realised I was joking and didn't waste my money on that.

A picture of the score board.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...yai_temple.JPG

Now this is money that is stapled together to form a sort of curtain.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...air_thai_1.JPG

Bloody loads of money and this is just only one of the attractions to spend money on here.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...air_thai_2.JPG

The Temple is called, Wat Santi Tharawas.

Anyway lets go back to the beginning and what the hell your supposed to do, the first bit is easy, well relatively so, you have to find a parking space and the soldiers will try to point you in the direction where they believe there maybe some where to park, I was lucky and there was a parking space for me, shame about the guys behind me that he also pointed in that direction, still they are Thais so they are used to that sort of thing, don't suppose they are willing to use their walkie talkies just incase Singapore is listening in so they left them at the barracks.

So first things first you got to buy some lotuses (I think thats what they were, but thinking about it they are some other plant that is used for this sort of stuff) not to worry anyway, you got to buy some plants, a thingy to stick your money in, a pencil, a bit of paper to put your name on, and a needle and some thread, now comes the fun bit, you have to put the thread threw the eye of the needle, and yes you have to do this yourself as I found out when my girlfriend told me after I had told her there aint noway I could do that, I mean the needle was tiny, anyway I got lucky and done it first time, got to admit I didn't think I could do it, some farang on another table was sat there for about 15 minutes trying and I don't think he managed it so he is probably going to Hell, a Thai guy across from me gave up after 20 minutes and complained about being reincarnated as a dog in his next life as he couldn't do it, another Thai guy wearing coke bottom glasses, well I just couldn't bare to watch him and his dissappointment, the poor guy will be lucky if he comes back as a lamb in Kiwi Land.

The paper you just stick your name on and your parents names on, I think you have to give the pencils back, got to admit I can't remember what happened to the pencil.

Anyway proof I done it :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ayai_wat_1.JPG

So next we are up at the praying area, get yourself 3 joss sticks and a candle, light erm up and stick erm in with the others, for all you old timers this aint the time to light up a joint, wai 3 times and then your off if your back aint given out.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ayai_wat_4.JPG

So now you are left with this and a load of packets of gold leaf, the gold leaf I will go into later, so now you got to goto the money tree, yes Thailand has money trees.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ayai_wat_2.JPG

Above are the money branches now you have to add them to the money tree.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ayai_wat_3.JPG

The Thais love fortune telling, and this was the place for fortune telling, you got 2 choices in the way you get your number, you can shake the container till a a bit of bamboo falls out, yep it has to be only one piece, these have numbers on them so you can then collect your piece of paper that tells your fortune, trouble is there is a knack to this, after picking up numerous bits of bamboo each time and finally getting it right I got a real shitty short term fortune telling and nobody would swap with me :(

The other way is using the machine to give you the number, maybe I should have tried this.

A picture of the stall set up.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_2.JPG

The bamboo sticks shakers.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_3.JPG

The modern version of the number generator.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_4.JPG

Find your number and collect your fortune, I think this was 20baht a go this attraction.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...thailand_1.JPG

This first one wasn't much fun, you donated 100baht and someone got a Monks robe.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...onations_1.JPG

This one was 20baht per go and you got to wrap some cloth round, erm, the thingy thing that you wrap cloth round to make merit.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...onations_2.JPG

I have to admit I am not sure what this one entails, but putting money into a Thai coffin I decided against.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...onations_3.JPG

One of the first games we came across is the old "Buy a roof tile game", yep you get the lucky chance to buy a roof tile for them for a measly 20baht, I think they are getting ripped off though, anyway you get to chalk your name on the roof tile and then make a wish, I reckon the kids love it :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...les_wats_1.JPG

Another fun game is the land one, you get the piece of paper and pay 1baht per rai of land you wished for, what the fok am I gonna do with 50 rai of land?

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...les_wats_2.JPG

Ok I did fok this one up a bit, so you got a load of pieces of folded up paper with tiny little bits of gold leaf in, now I am sure the amount of pieces you get are significant and come to some lucky Thai numeral, but hell it was windy and the pieces of gold leaf are tiny.

So what you got to do is stick gold leaf on all the balls round the Temple, believe it or not these are kept underground and are only brought up on merit making occasions, anyway you are only allowed to stick one on each ball, so I started out getting the gold leaf on my finger tip and whopping it onto the balls, damn I was doing good and would have been sorted out in 5 minutes, then I noticed everyone else wasn't touching the gold leaf and were using the piece of paper to push it against the ball, not sure if I really foked up badly there or not, so I tried there way, hmmm, the wind was too strong and it just blew away, luckily nobody noticed, then the next 2 times the wind blew away my tiny little piece of gold leaf, now I was pretty foked off so I went back to sticking the stuff on with me finger, jees I needed to get this over and done with, I had already lost a load of them :(

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...s_thailand.JPG

The next game was the bang the drum game, at 20baht per go it weren't very busy.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temple_wat.JPG

When it comes down to it, you've got nothing more than a daffy carnival or amusement park; except that it's cheap entertainment people feel good about because the money is going, they figure, to the right place.

The connection to Buddhism escapes me. But, I haven't been here long enough to be judgmental, have I?

No idea AC, hell let them believe in whatever they want as long as it keeps them happy.

Lets move swiftly onto the food, now by this time I was hungry, but not hungry enough to eat insects, I have to admit I was suprised by this food stall, I mean we are 20 kilometers away from Pattaya and several hundred from Issan, so I was quite shocked to find an insect eating stall, the one in Pattaya charges 100baht if you want to take a picture of their disgusting offerings, this one hadn't learnt that trick yet :)

Maggots anybody?

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...les_wats_1.JPG

Locusts are supposed to taste like peanuts.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...les_wats_3.JPG

Big beasty bugs that you wouldn't want to find in your bathroom but some sexy lady you have kissed before probably eats these.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...les_wats_4.JPG

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Locusts are supposed to taste like peanuts.

---

I had a nibble on one and thought it tasted like a twiglet.

^^ Why were you eating the fishing bait?

Locusts are lovely but I can't eat any of the others

So you want an omellette or a pancake or fried egg? then this is the place to go, the pans are like 1 meter diameter so they can fit yours on there, the first one is set up on a 45 gallon drum.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u..._temples_5.JPG

try tossing this fried egg.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u..._temples_1.JPG

Of course it did have drinks vendors, 5baht for a paper cup of pepsi from this guy, trouble is the cup is filled with crushed ice so there is only a mouthfull of pepsi.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u..._temples_4.JPG

Piles and piles of fried noodles, I have to admit it took me a while to realise what they were, just never seen such big piles of fried noodles done in one go, still my girlfriend enjoyed them.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u..._temples_3.JPG

Thai sweets in lurid colors.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u..._temples_2.JPG

Next to the insect stall was the boiled pig vendor, so it was boiled pig for me, unfortuneately the woman wouldn't listen to me and gave me loads of fat with the meat so I left half of my bland boring meal :(

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...oiled_pork.JPG

This next attraction is free and you get to pray at this one, on the way out there sits an old Monk, so you kneel before him and he blesses you and chucks a load of water over you, now I have to admit I had forgotten that part and still had my digital camera in my hand, yes those weren't holy thoughts I was having at that time.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...temple_wat.JPG

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Next to the insect stall was the boiled pig vendor, so it was boiled pig for me, unfortuneately the woman wouldn't listen to me and gave me loads of fat with the meat so I left half of my bland boring meal :(

---

The fat is a prized and preferred part of the pig. She probably thought she was bestowing you with the choice bits!

I'm not crazy about it unless it's crispy.

The times I've served those lightly sauteed cubes of pork fat left me a little queazy.

Wonderful post, most enlightening, and masterfully articulated, but not as inviting as the young, naked, "ying's" playing pool...!!!!!

Notice I even capitalize loads of my words now and don't swear so much :) anyway when you coming down to Jomtien?

Now looking at the start date of this thread I can surmise 2 things, it's an annual event during the Chinese New Year, and the money doesn't seem to be being spent on this Temple, yes I went there today, and boy, they are raking in the money, the takings I imagine would put some of the biggest Pattaya gogo bars to shame, baht was being handed hand over fist all over the place, never seen so many Thais in such a spending frenzy.

So first off you need your blessing kit, 60baht per person, ie 3 incense, a candle, some old tutty flower thing, paper and a needle and cotton :( poxy thing.

The Temple and some money being hung out to air.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...mple_Money.jpg

A monk doing a blessing with water, not sure how much that costs but everything here started from 20baht a go.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...k_Blessing.jpg

Inside the Temple, they had dug out the balls again, seems the gold leaf must fall off them otherwise after all these years they would be completely covered.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...hai_Temple.jpg

For the hungry there was plenty of food, basically every sort of Thai food you could think of, so I only took a couple of pictures of the insects selection, and a fine selection of delectable bugs they had, look at these lovlies :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...s_for_sale.jpg

Of course if maggots with legs aren't for you they have some lovely cockroach type things.

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ai_insects.jpg

Great pix,I've had the pleasure to cajoled to similar evens wierd mix of fun fair and prayer.I'd always wondered what worms were like and after a few beers a "pal" placed a bowl before me one night,they did indeed taste amazingly earthy like the driest of dried mushroom,not strong but uniquely unpleasant fortunately he served sufficient grog to wash away the flavour.but I can remeber the texture 9 year on.