Luck at Wat Chedi Chai Mongkon

I left Khao Wong when the roosters started crowing and a red-orange sliver of the sun had just risen over the mountains in the distance. A small lake reflected the cool morning’s stillness and as I sped off down the empty road, the breeze actually made me feel a little chilly.

The countryside was still waking up. Stray dogs were still sleeping in the middle of the street, some only casually raising their head to watch me speed by before falling back asleep. Farther down outside the Wats old ladies kneeled on the side of the road with baskets of sticky rice waiting to give monks daily alms. The monks, barefoot in bright orange robes, patiently walked out of the Wats onto the road to collect their only meal of the day.

Arriving at home I had time for a shower then walked outside to see Mon and Min dressed politely—long pants and ‘nice’ shirts—ready to go to the Wat. I could tell it was a special occasion; they had the family’s digital camera out. It was obvious the kids didn’t use it often; they were taking pictures of everything. As we waited for Pee Maew’s sister-in-law, Pee Dop, to pick us up the kids took turns taking pictures. Min snapped shots of tall white mushrooms springing up in the front lawn and Mon took pictures of red ants eating a praying mantis just before Min kicked it, scattering the ants and causing the mantis to fall apart.

Pee Dop arrived with breakfast, Nori Seaweed Lays Potato Chips, and we headed out on our adventure. The smell was enough to stunt my appetite for any food at all. I politely refused some breakfast, explaining that falang don’t eat potato chips for breakfast. As the sun continued to rise into the morning sky, we drove east towards Laos in route to Wat Chedi Chai Mongkon.

Halfway there a snake slithered across the road in front of us, nearly becoming road kill. It set off a commotion in the car—what I first thought to be fear, but was actually excitement because, they explained, seeing a snake on the road is good luck.


I hadn’t realized there was A/C on in the car until we arrived and I stepped outside then immediately started to sweat. A large dirt parking was surrounded by tourist traps: stores loaded with useless crap and cheap toys irresistible to kids. In the parking lot nearly a dozen people had set up small tables selling film, each one by stacking the small film boxes up into a pyramid. Small carts sold som tam, sticky rice, cokes, and hot coffee. Pee Meaw bought us each a coke, poured into a plastic bag with ice, that we cared by its handles and drank with a straw. As we walked onto the Wat’s grounds we walked past some old men selling traditional, hand crafted Thai instruments.

Gold six-headed snakes called Nagas protected the main entrance of Wat Chedi Chai Mongkon from evil spirits. The Wat had many other classic pieces of Thai Wats—statues of monks, elaborate gardens, gold chedis—but this Wat was very different than any other I’d ever seen. Usually the Wat is different than a church in that it isn’t single, large building of worship, but many buildings on the land, each with its own specific purpose. Here, however, although there were smaller chedis around the main building, it had a huge main structure with six different floors. Even the most famous Wat in Thailand, Wat Phra Keaw in Bangkok, only has rooms to enter and never a staircase heading up to a second floor. Here, there were enormous chambers with high ceilings, elaborate paintings and detailed moldings gilded in gold.

The center of the first four floors each had huge Buddha’s surrounded by large bouquets of lotuses, large orange candles, and elephants with ivory tusks. At the base of each of these alters were fine rugs, upon which we knelt, wai-ed the Buddha and bowed three times.

The higher we climbed in the temple the more spectacular the view over-looking Isaan was but, especially at this arid time of year, the view over the harvested rice fields is little to behold in comparison to the Wat. Still, the height was great enough that Pee Meaw started to get freaked out and she refused to go anywhere near the edge saying that even looking out made her feel as if she were falling.

The steep stairway up to the final floor was indoors but it still gave Pee the heebie-jeebies. Just sitting at the base of the spiral staircase she looked worried about how tall it was. At first she said there was no way she could make it up there, but with a little convincing from the kids, she agreed to brave the hike. It was the first time she had confronted her fear of heights, but this time was worth it; at the top was a shrine encasing a bone sliver of Buddha.

I thought the walk down would be the hard part and going up would be no problem but as the stairs went higher they also became smaller and wound more tightly. I have a modest fear of heights and I was a little uneasy about walking up. Pee Meaw was freaking out. Watching her made me worry because I thought she could faint at any minute. She had a death grip on the railing and was visibly breathing heavy; her eyes were flooded with worry.

Pee crawled up the final steps and when she reached the top, she scrambled across the floor away from the stairs to a place she thought to be safe. The room was painted serenely, fluffy clouds on a powder blue sky, again border by gold trim. The shrine of the Buddha’s bone was elaborate but it was impossible to actually see the bone. We assumed it was there, perhaps felt its presence, prayed to it, then Pee Meaw began her long walk down stairs. Again, I was worried for her, but scooting the whole way down on her butt, Pee Meaw made it down without a problem and felt proud she had overcome her fear.

On the way out we stopped on the fourth floor to ring the bell. A large brass bell, we each struck in an odd number of times for good luck. On the ground we stopped at a fountain and attempted to throw coins in the fish statues’ mouths, again, for good luck. I was wondering how much this good luck was really worth and just then Min, after failing to throw the coin in the fish mouth, stepped in a huge wad of gum. Perhaps there was something to the good luck.