A Monk and His Dogs

While on Kho Samui, I noticed that the dogs there seemed to be better looking than most of my Thai dog encounters. When we walked along the street, we were amazed at how friendly these dogs were and how they approached you with tails wagging and nudging your hand for a pet. We also noted no obvious signs of skin rashes or ticks and it was also evident that they were not lacking in adequate feeding, some of them being outright fat.

One evening I had seen the dogs at low tide walking along the beach and they all seemed to be frolicking and running about. I then noticed that they were accompanied by a monk in his saffron robes, picking up litter along the beach. Our friend Adam commented that there was a solitary monk who lived not far from our hotel along the beach and he had a collection of dogs and there was some sort of cemetery there. At one point, not being much of a beach person to be able to just go and lay still for a few hours, i wandered the beach and found the said monk, living a solitary existence in a single room hut, and an assortment of dogs, all of who came to greet me. Behind his hut was a small cemetery with a mausoleum type structure as well as full-on cemetery plots. The area was meticulously maintained, including the sweeping of the sand walkways and no garbage or tree debris to be seem. He spoke no English, but was happy to see me and took me to view the headstones.

On race day, as I looked to the beachfront, a rainbow appeared and there was the monk with his dogs out doing beach clean-up.