Hello! Hook line and sinker is an American idiom meaning that person has been totally taken in and I my heart and mind has been so won by Thailand! I never believed that there could be a place that felt more “home” than beautiful Northren California. Oy, Was I in for a surprise!
I had been a practicing Zen Buddhist for a couple of years and Thailand slowly percolated as a good place to visit for a couple of reasons. I had been having an inter net correspondence for a few months with a woman there and it had a rich Buddhist tradition. I would have a chance to have a local contact there and I could experience a place that was based on a Buddhist culture as opposed to a Christen one. The funny thing is that I had an interview with the Abbot of the Zen center before I left and he looked at me and stated that this trip would change my life!
Well that trip was last year and this year I went back again in January for 5 weeks. The Zen master was right my life has changed! My love for Thailand is not so much fueled by my trips there as it is by the fact that as a result of my first trip I discover a Thai Wat right here in my home town and, through that, a Thai and Lao community which seamless adopted me right in. When I brought my daughter to the Wat it did not take long for her to absorbed right in and now I’m on the hook to take her to Thailand next time I go.
So this is my starter blog. I’m working on one about my last trip and hope to get it posted soon. These two pictures are from two different trips to Thailand. The one at the top is from Ayuthaya and is at the Pagoda for Queen Suryothai. This was exciting to find because my daughter and I had watched the movie about her life before my first trip. The second picture is from Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Chang Mai, praying for the tsunami victims.
3 responses to “Hook, line and sinker”