Monday, July 17

 

Light rain. We met Beer again at Wat Pon Chai. We walked through the sweltering heat of the main hall of the temple to a nearby cafe. We sat on the balcony and listened to our teenage stories. Ryu recounted his two-and-a-half-hour commute each way to school for photography. Beer talked about how he enjoyed nightly parties with his college friends (and, of course, about his studies). I told him how I got to know Thailand and how much I enjoyed working in agriculture more than IT which I majored in. We suddenly became quiet. We were so into our conversation that I did not know why the other two were frozen. Then Ryu said, “Oh, look at that," and I tried to find "that”. Then I found a person wearing a Phitakorn mask standing across the river. They were stunned by the strange visitor with the frightening mask. After a while Beer waved and called him. (“What is your name?”) “I don’t know” (“Where are you from?”) “From the temple’s festival” He answered in a gentle voice. We enjoyed our dialogue and said goodbye. He quietly left.

Then we headed to Gaensongkhon waterfall as Beer said “I have seen butterflies”. It turned out to be true. We found butterflies with yellow, white, and brown color. But they immediately flew away. I tried to follow them with my eyes because I somehow felt that the masked guy might appear again where the butterflies go. But he did not show up. Lastly, Ryu took a Polaroid photo of us. While I was watching the photo being developed in the car, I remembered that Ryu and Beer had drawn the same fortune slips at Wat Pon Chai. It looks like a positive and negative film. Two photographers drawn the same fortune. After we came back from the waterfall, the sky was already clear.