Flagged down by a monk

[Tom]

As part of my current travels I was going from Tak to Kanchanaburi the other day. On the way I passed a temple, in front of which stood a monk with a bag, looking like he was going somewhere. I was humming along at around 100 km/h on my AT when I noticed him putting out his hand, palm down, trying to flag me down like a taxi. First I thought he must be signalling someone behind me, but the only thing there was a big truck full of sand which I had just passed. He kept looking at me, and as soon as I had passed he put his hand down again, so it was definitely me he was signalling.
I had never actually seen this before - and I have been here a long time - and I asked the missus about whether this was common practice. She said yes, monks do catch rides this way, but it is not 'compulsory' to stop for them. As she put it; "If you have good heart you stop, if you no have time or not so good heart you don't". Guess that means I'm chai dam... :!: Now I probably have some Buddhist curse on me and will develop an itch in the middle of my back where I can't reach it and/or start growing hair in unusual places!
So, anybody else here ever got hit up for a ride?

 

[Ally]

Interesting discussion point here.

A few months ago I drove to Chiang Rai on my own and in the middle of the mountains I saw several monks walking on the side of the road in the opposite direction waiving water bottles at passing motorists.

Being the good hearted person I am, I went past, found a safe spot to u turn & stopped behind them.

I had 2 unopened bottles of water in the car and I set them on the road in front of me, y'd them respectfully without shoes too and was about to turn & go when the elder looking monk insisted on leading a chanting prayer.

After the obvious questions of folks meeting (where you from, where you go, what you do etc) one of the younger monks pulled his robe toward me and showed me a tear in the fabric and directly asked for money.

Wow!

I had the week before this spent a week in a meditation retreat with a farang monk leading the event. One of his explanations of monking principles stood out in my mind. Monks do not ask for money. Mind you, I didn't need his words in my mind to tell me this was odd. My intuition immediately told me this was a con attempt.

As you can imagine I quickly drove away & felt abused & disillusioned !

My Thai partner was really angry with me for even considering stopping in the first place. She said I should never trust anyone whilst on the road. Next day there was a front page story on most news papers & Tv news coverage about a kind Thai guy who stopped to help a broken down motorist. The guy who flagged him down stole his car, run over him & left him dead.

Ally

 

[LivinLOS]

Sorry to be negative.. But when I lived above Patong, I was in one of the mondo villas on the top of the hill.. all million buck and up type homes (I rented obviously !!).. and one of the big negatives was (presume fake) monks would come by once every couple of weeks, usually with some kind of book, photos of something being built, or claimed collections for soldiers or kids.. If in a good mood I would hand them a hundred to get them out, but I remember one time pulling out a hundred and the monk going "oh no no.. And pointing at his pretend list of donations all being 5000 1000 etc" I just said oh ok never mind and put it away.. That soured him.

Problem was my missus being Thai never could say no or make them leave.. They would literally walk in the property boundary, up the stairs to the pool level and sometimes even right into the house without knocking.. Not cool !! Also if you were the type to make assumptions, they seemed to have an abundance of tatts and dirty robes.

While I doubt the ones you mean were 'fake' monks I am sure the majority of these ones were just scammers who hit up the big farang homes looking for some easy cash.

 

[LivinLOS]

Kinda off topic.. But you never see a thai hitch hiking do you ?? Would have thought poor country it would be far more common.

I am guessing its because thais tend to dislike accruing boon khun (debt of gratitude) I am told thats why gifts given are often put aside unwrapped until the giver has left and opened privately. So hence by asking for a lift they are putting themselves in the lower social position and accruing boon khun ??

 

[Tom]

Well, I guess asking for a lift, if that's all it is, is no different from collecting alms. The guy I saw looked like the real deal and he was standing in front of a temple in the middle of absolutely nowhere. If he was a con-man, I think he would have chosen a more target-rich environment. What I found odd was that he would try to get a lift from a foreigner, on a big bike with metal luggage and all. Anyway, my missus did mention the same thing (which I had heard before) about fake monks. She has no weak spot when it comes to people asking for freebies, so she told me never to pick anyone up (which I wasn't intending to do anyway).
I have actually been asked for lifts twice before, by non-monks, both in the the past year or so. One was the village idiot from Kathu, Phuket - I kindly turned him down, and he proceeded to secure a lift from a local on a small bike - and the other was a strung-out, smelly ya-ba addict, complete with rotting teeth, asking everyone waiting at a traffic light for a lift. Everyone, including yours truly, quite firmly turned him down.

 

[LivinLOS]

"One was the village idiot from Kathu, Phuket" You mean the largish 'challenged' fella..

All fun and games but he gets a kick out of scaring chasing young teeny school girls..

 

[Tom]

Mostly he just stands in the middle of the road in Kathu, not far from the golf course, and directs traffic. Got hit by a car once doing it, but he hasn't learned yet. And if he's not directing traffic, he sits outside 7-11 and asks you for money...

 

[LivinLOS]

Thats the one.. I did actually give him a lift once he was out by the lights heading to macro frantically waving at cars and seemed a bit distressed. I dont usually mind helping or connecting with those a bit special, maybe its kindred spirits etc.

But he is a concern with females.. Seen him chase school girls around and them running and screaming, and going into 7-11 he half jumped out in front of my missus with a boo type game to freak her. I was 2 steps behind and went Oi !! And he leapt out of his skin and was all head bowed posture after but my wife wouldnt stop at that 7 if he was outside. Hes a biggish lump and thats a game that shouldnt expand.

 

[Grathiam]

I had a similar and funny situation a few years ago, in Cambodia. A monk was standing on a desolate section of the road. He waved, I stopped. He pointed in the direction I was going and I motioned for him to hop on the back of my dirt dike. Me speaking only minimal Khmer, he gave hand signals where to turn and we finally arrived at a temple. A number of monks came out of the temple and were surprised to see their fellow monk being transported by a farang [barang]. The monk dismounted and with a serious face I held out my hand (palm up) and said in Khmer "2000-Riel". The monks looked perplexed, but laughed when they realized I was joking and we all waved goodbye.

 

[2wheels]

I often see 'travelling Monks' walking the roads between Chiang Mai and Phayao and every time I have slowed with the intention of offering them a 'lift' my Thai passengers instruct me not to stop because 'some of them are not real Monks and are very bad.'

That's good enough advice for me!

 

[KTMphil]

We've had them come by the restaurant with a tin asking for money, always thought they were fake

 

[2wheels]

OK Phil, I confess!

 

[BWG950S]

I always laugh when the wifey tells me when they are having a party for the local "bad boy" that is getting his head shaved and going to do his time in the local Monk Hood. What a joke.

Have a monk that lives alone up in the mountain behind the village. Was up there walking around one day with a friend of mine and the monk, showed us all around the place even where some kind of bear climbed down a tree next to the vertical cliff.

After our tour was completed we said our good byes and my friend offered up some money to the old monk. He thanked him repeatedly but the monk would never touch the money. The money had to be placed on a rock near by.