Kurt Cobain in Thailand

Here is a story from my old blog to celebrate Songkran

In November 2003. Pre-Tsunami. Near Krabi, in the south of Thailand, there is a temple called “Wat Klong Tom”. This temple also houses a museum full of artifacts found in the area from the 7th century. At the time my wife had a tour business so she sent me to check it out as a potential interesting place to take tourists who are having a good Thailand Holiday.

On my arrival, in peak tourist season I might add, the place seemed like a ghost town, not a soul in sight.

As I parked my car I saw just one monk sitting outside the museum entrance smoking a Klong Thip (Thai cigarette). He seemed about twenty years old, or twenty five, it’s hard to tell with Thai people, especially if they shave off all body hair and wear an orange robe. We exchanged smiles as I walked around the grounds of the temple camera in hand.

After saying a brief hello with the “Mah Wat” (temple dogs), this bunch were not too mangy, I walked towards the museum. The dogs obviously thought it more fun to chase the one and only temple cat up the sacred tree, something they probably do everyday before the midday sun.

The sacred tree, by the way, is the tree that is covered in multi colored silks. This is nothing to do with football, although that would not surprise me, football, especially English football, is more popular in Thailand than back home in the UK.

This tree symbolises the original tree under which The Buddha found enlightenment, it is also sometimes where they bury the remains of the person who donated the land for the temple.

As I entered the museum I was expecting to hear a little distant chanting perhaps, the shuffling of monks feet going about their monkish duties or even a couple of cleaners gossiping in a dark corner.

No, none of that to be heard here. “Come…as you are….as you were…” huh? If I am not mistaken I can hear Nirvana music groaning its way out of a little ‘Ghetto blaster’ to my right. The young monk I met outside now sitting nearby in a wooden chair, gently tapping his sandal.

I caught sight of the cassette box on the display cabinet full of bones and things. Sure enough it was Nirvana. This is where my ability to see the funny side of things, or even the irony, starts to kick in. You see, Thai Buddhists, in fact Thai people have their own Thai words for everything including Buddhism. Most Thai’s (who don’t speak English) don’t know that Nirvana is a word directly linked to The Buddha. Nirvana is the state of being free from both suffering and the cycle of rebirth , what every Buddhist is striving to achieve.

Was this little monk in the middle of nowhere aware of this? Could it be that he thought he had found Nirvana for sale in a record shop? Saving him years of hardship and going without? Or maybe it was just curiosity, and the name really did attract him. Or was it just a simple fact that before he donned the robes and shaved off his body hair, he had a full mane of rocker hair and played guitar in a local pub?

I didn’t ask him as we sat outside smoking together, I didn’t want to remind him of what he had left behind, and my Thai was nowhere comprehensive enough to explain it all. As I left him, I explained that I wanted to put the pictures I had taken on the Internet to encourage more visit ors and he smiled and told me how much he loved the Internet.

Technology has come a long way, even in that short time from then till now, he would probably be in some chat room these days or blogging like me.

I wonder what he’s doing now! Maybe he has done his bit and is back out gigging in some pub somewhere!

“Keep rocking my friend…keep rocking”

If you want to book a Thai holiday click the link and come and see Thailand for yourself! To see the Temple in this blog or Wat Tham Sua (Tiger Temple) visit Holidays Krabi

(Dedicated to Kurt Cobain February 20 1967 – April 5 1994)