Morning Jok and Releasing Turtles in Kanchanaburi
It was a quiet and slow alms-giving procession, but I didn't want to miss a single moment. I tried my best to capture it on camera, standing on my tiptoes to see what people were doing, which completely drained my energy. This was probably the first time I was the one crying out that I was hungry before my friends did. The procession left that strong of an impact on me. (I feel a bit bad judging the biggest event in this area just by how hungry it made me.)
I'm not sure if they planned to come here from the start, but as soon as I said I was hungry, we walked right in. Even though it's a large restaurant that can seat over 50 people, it was almost completely full. It's so popular that we would have had to wait if we had arrived even a little later. The only thing was, I had no idea what they sold.
After chatting away in Thai (they don't even ask me anymore), my friends told me they had ordered for me. We didn't have to wait long before the food came right out. I looked to see what it was, and it was porridge.
I think this was the best meal I had in Thailand. For the first time, I scraped the bottom of my bowl. Sure, there was some strong-smelling ginger in it, but I absolutely loved this unique brunch where you even dip bread into the bowl. The exact name of this dish is Jok (โจ๊ก). I looked it up and found that the consistency of the porridge and the toppings vary from shop to shop, but the place we went to suited my taste perfectly. It's such a common breakfast food that there's even a saying, "Morning Jok." A Thai-style brunch, perhaps?
The location is on the right side of the street just after you cross the Mon Bridge. Just look for that green sign.
I thought we were heading back to our accommodation after looking around, but suddenly they bought goldfish and soft-shelled turtles. I thought to myself, "Surely they aren't buying these to keep as pets," and was so curious about why they were getting them. My friends tried to explain it to me, but maybe it involved a difficult concept because they struggled to get the point across and eventually just told me to follow them. If you don't know, you just have to follow... It's not like I have any say here.
I spaced out and just went where they told me to go, and we ended up at the water's edge. Ah! We're releasing them!! Yeah, that is a bit of a hard concept to explain. No wonder they kept repeating "good karma."
To practice the Buddhist belief that saving a life builds up your good karma, they buy turtles and fish to release into the water. They bought two for me to release as well, but I almost ended up releasing myself into the water along with them. I need to lose some weight before doing this again—I couldn't keep my balance.
Even though I came to Thailand right in time for Songkran (the Thai New Year water festival), I didn't get to join any water fights. Still, I think it's a good thing I came during Songkran. If the water fights on Khaosan Road are a fun way to relieve stress, coming to the Mon Bridge allowed me to endlessly feel the sacred side of Thailand. I think I'll be cherishing the memories of this half-day at this exotic bridge for a long time.