Karma:

(noun) the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation.


So we apparently did something good at some point in our lives since our karma seems to be pretty great. Or perhaps it is just how wonderful the people that we encounter are in gaining good karma for themselves. In any case, our second big hitch hiking success since getting back to Thailand came right after Koh Chang when we met Pata. She knew the obscure forest monastery we were trying to head to and took us out of her way to get there, only to find that it didn’t so much exist in the way we thought it did for us to go and stay for meditation. Ooops! (and thank goodness she picked us up or we would have been trying to find it for hours and hours it was in such an obscure place with only Thai alphabet signs!) But when one door closes, another opens and at her suggestion we went and stayed at a wat near to her house where she has a rubber farm. The monks at the wat where we did stay were so warm and welcoming, I think we were the first foreigners that had ever been there. The Wat itself was still under construction and we slept on the marble floor with a thin reed mat for “cushioning,” got up at 4am with the monks for meditation, took our meals with them and enjoyed the tranquility and novelty of it all (as did they as one monk took pictures of us while we were meditating one morning- interrupts the tranquility when you see a bright flash through your closed eyes!).

After a few nights with the monks we moved next door to Pata’s who turns out used to have her own Thai restaurant in Canada where she lived for 20 years and she taught us to cook! Cultural exchange, cooking lessons and great conversation, doesn’t get much better than our time with Pata and her wonderful hospitality. She certainly has some very good karma coming her way.