It is hard to miss temples in Thailand, and perhaps even harder to miss Buddha images, statues, iconography, paintings etc. It is a Buddhist country, after all, and even though some farang like to point out inconsistencies in word and deed (absurd, if you think about it), religious practice informs most days in ways that the outsider might miss.

I have Ann to thank for immersing me more deeply in some of the daily rituals, such as giving food to monks in the morning, making sacred offerings at temples and shrines, visiting different and sometimes obscure parts of temples and so forth. As a foreigner alone in Thailand, I would not have participated for fear of making an error, but when your wife is Thai....

One morning we drove into town (in Petchabun) to buy the daily papers. We pulled over at the newsagent and before I could grab the Bangkok Post from the stand, Ann had me on my knees with a floral offering in hand for a passing monk. The pavement had been set up with rugs for the occasion. It's one of those times you are momentarily thrown by a sudden diversion from routine, though I am guessing Ann had planned it out and just not told me. It pays to be a mind reader, though I am not one.