We went to a celebration at a nearby Wat today. The novice monks ( 12-18 years old) had projects that they had completed on display and we were to talk with them about their projects to improve their English.

We all piled into the back of a pick-up truck that belongs to someone at the TEFL school and had a pleasant ride back off the main roads to the temple .

I finally remembered to take some pictures - I particularly enjoy the one of the long lines of novice monks waiting for something important - oh, wait, they're in line for ice cream! Well, remember, they are only boys at heart.

They had a computer lab, a huge library with the most beautiful peace garden attached, a huge dormitory - four floors, 60 some rooms, 4 boys to a room.

Many of these boys are orphans, but ironically, they are getting a better education than in the government schools.

I talked to many of them although their English was not that good and it was difficult. We had homemade ice cream, and then went to the Monkey Temple.

The Monkey Temple is on top of a small hill, and over-populated with- you guessed it- monkeys. The locals along the road all sell small bananas in bunches which the TEFL trainees bought but I didn't . I still remember my Principal's son being attacked by the monkeys in Ban Saen because he was holding food. He had to get rabies shots.

They say that there is one aggressive monkey in particular named 'Mafia' who stops at nothing to get bananas off the people or the other monkeys.

I didn't get any rabies shots in the US because 1) they are so expensive and not covered by insurance, and 2) I have read that getting them pre or post bite is equally effective, so why not get them here for 1/20th of the cost?

Unfortunately, there was a dedication ceremony at the Monkey Temple so the locals said that they use fake guns to scare the monkeys back into the forest. Of course, they neglected to tell us this until after the kids bought the bananas.

I hope my photos upload, I haven't taken many yet.