Pretty well fed monk! I think I saw a Snicker bar wrapper in his alms basket.

It's Thursday morning here now. We have almost been in Southeast Asia for a
full 7 days now. Hard to imagine it hasn't been longer than that.
Yesterday woke up at 4A to the sounds of bells and drums. Around 6A the alms
procession started with the monks making their rounds through town to
receive their gifts of alms from the lay people. Our room has a balcony
right on the street so we could just sit out and drink our coffee and tea
and watch them pass by the wat right across the road. There's any
interesting anthropological dilemma there in that tourists buy rice and rent
mats from street vendors to distribute alms to the monks in an imitation of
what is really a deeply religious event/interaction between Buddhist lay
people and the monks. We even read one treatise on the wall at one of the
wats respectfully requesting that tourist not engage in the ceremony unless
they can do so in a truly meaningful way. So we are abiding by the tenet
that you should observe but not influence and are not joining in.
The rest of the day yesterday was spent roaming around town and taking a tuk
tuk ride one hour up river to the Pacau caves where pilgrims have left
hundreds of Buddha statues tucked into the recesses in the caves. More steps
for Michael. (Will post some Buddha statue photos.)
Then went to the night market and ate a sandwich from a street vendor for
dinner. Considering the all you can put on a plate street buffet for
10,000kip ($1.25) for tonight's dinner (if we don't get sick today :-))