Chicken Soup for the Sole?

This past weekend I went to a meditation retreat at a monastery in Kanchanaburi with three other teachers from Patarayan (the school where I teach). On the way there, we stopped at a restaurant and at chicken feet soup... I tried it and liked the flavor, but I don't think I'll eat it again... a bit too bony and, well, it was chicken feet! When we arrived at the temple compound in the misty mountains, it was after 10pm, but the night was still young. We stayed up until after 3am listening to anecdotes from monks, meditating, chanting, and chatting around the vat of coffee.

In the morning, we woke up at 6:30am and ate. Dozens of booths were set up in a buffet-like row with dozens of delicious dishes like kao lam (sticky rice and honey in bamboo), fried rice/noodles, tasty teas, rice pudding, ice cream, meat on a stick, fish balls/pork balls soup, pastries, and so much more. Needless to say, I feel fatter than ever! :) At 11am the monks lined up with silver bowls to receive food offerings from the community.

On the way home on Saturday afternoon, we stopped in Ratchaburi at the bridge over the River Kwai. I was walking around on the bridge enjoying the views when a train started coming down the tracks! The bridge was such a tourist attraction; I figured that the tracks were no longer in use. Thankfully, the bridge had several platforms for trapped tourists (like myself) to scurry to the side and avoid being hit by an oncoming train. For dinner we had lots of food (again) including frog- the whole thing, just fried or baked or something with its warty, froggy skin bubbling up on the plate. I tried some of the back, eating around what looked like the spine and being reminded of dissecting frogs in high school biology.