I went for another little afternoon stroll today on the streets of a lil' ol' city within Chiang Mi called, well, The Old City. It's my last day here. I wanted to stay one more night so I can eat some bugs. You heard me. This is the town to satisfy that fried insect craving you've been having. I'll talk about it in my next post, unless I die from eating a bug.
For now, I'll show you something magical.
So, I'm walking along, sweating, even my teeth were perspiring, and I see a monk on a bench in a park, and there's a bunch of pigeons landing right on top of him. They're standing on his arm. So's I says to myself, "Self, is this like a super zen shaolin monk with the power to command birds? I must investigate. It's destiny that brought me here! I must have him teach me his ways. I must study with him intensely, for however long it takes, but I hope it doesn't take longer than fifteen minutes because it's lunchtime and I'm hungry and on my way for something to eat , and I must take photos of this magic monk to post on the internet! Destiny! In the Old City!" So I got closer...
I had to show the money shot first to make it the cover photo in order to draw you into my tale of magical mystery. Here's' a shot before I got close. He may have been hovering, maybe, not sure, can't rule it out...
I crept closer, ever so carefully, stealth like, iPad in front of my face, finger on the lens in one of the shots...
I sat behind him and studied his command of the wild birds of prey. After a moment, like a naive apprentice, I extended my arms and opened my palms, waiting for the birds to fall under my spell. Soon I would have them doing my bidding and my laundry...
Nothing happened, they were ignoring me. It's then that I noticed his secret. He had bird seed in his hand. Ahh, yes. I once was blind but now I see. I've solved your zen riddle Magic Monk; true magic lies in the details. Yes! Yes It's so obvious! I'm so smart! Thank you for emparting your wisdom without saying a word Magic Monk! And I didn't even have to sit still very long.
Magic details of bird seed or not, he had them eating out of the palm of his hand. I hadn't seen pigeons in a park do this. Was it his calm, monk-like demeanor? (well monk demeanor, not "monk-like," cuz he's literally a monk) I thought I'd never know for sure.
Having been given my gift of wisdom from a monk in a park in Thailand, I gave up on decoding his ways and walked along. That's when my Sherlock Holmes-like powers of deduction activated.
There was a dude selling birdseed for 20 Baht a bag.
You can't see it in this shot, but there's like three tourist couples with bags of bird seed taking pictures of pigeons eating from their hand. Not all of them were having success, but most were. The monk was just on his lunch break feeding pigeons in that park where they come up and take seed from your hand. And this dumb-ass tourist thought the monk was all learned in zen and other cool stuff (Okay, I've exaggerated my naivety just a bit, but it makes for a better story.)
The birds did it for almost everyone who tried and had any kind of patience...
Travelman's Travel tip No. 78: Monks are not magic. Especially young ones at the park on their lunch break.
Don't judge me. You weren't there, and I gained valuable wisdom from a monk. So there!
Here's a pretty picture of the nearby fountains...
As always, thank you for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed the show. The inflight entertainment was provided by Travelman Studios. And thank you for flying with Travelman Airlines, where we always take you to the greatest heights.
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Can you not, HAHAHA!!
THE More food you have, the more pigeons you can attract because food is life.