Kyaung Kha Khat Wain monastery made me a bit uncomfortable to visit. The place was hot and full of sleeping dogs who had come out of the hot sun to sleep on the cool pathways under the shelter. The place was empty and then all of a sudden it was filled with the pilgrims and the monks. Something about seeing the monks line up for the tourists as they documented the scene was a bit like entertainment and the monks seemed a bit uncomfortable.

I would really have loved to have found out more about the workings of the school but the scene was really chaotic with the huge line of monks and all the people scrambling to both give their offerings and make their pictures. We just gave money. Hope that helps.

The monastery is home to over 1000 monks. For sure it is hard to feed that many people in any given situation but considering the fact that the monks survive on donated food the situation is not easy. So people come from all over the world to help feed the monks. The large group assembled there the day we were there were from Singapore. I am not bitching. I mean – Thank goodness – and it is natural to want to document as that is what I was doing too… Perhaps I made people uncomfortable by photographing and not handing out food at the same time!

People are so generous – they bring food items to distribute at the morning meal and then they go into see the monks seated in a very large room to enjoy their rice – saving the foodstuffs that are more unique for a private time. Then it seems everyone (including us) goes to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Some plates were prepared and displayed and looked really good. I had to photograph the food in the restaurant as it was such a contrast to the simple food the monks had just enjoyed. We ordered something more simple but the prawns do look mighty good.