Silly Farang!

I like to visit Thailand, been there seven times. I went to Pattaya Beach about an hour and a half bus ride from Bangkok. I went by myself but I was rearly alone. My friend took me a few miles up the hill to the Buddha Temple. An amazing place, one Buddha statue about fifty feet tall and maybe six or so out buildings with small images to pray before and make your wish. As you enter these buildings you have to remove your shoes,very important. I did so and recieved some incents and flowers and three or four small swatches of gold flake about a square inch each adhered to seperate squares of wax paper.Well after lighting candles and incents while kneeling in front of a six-foot statue covered in small gold flake it was easy to see what my next task was in this centuries-old ritual . We got up, stood in line of maybe seven people or so appling the gold leaf to the Buddha one by one. My turn, "I never did this before" I wispered to my friend."No problem, it easy" She said. Well I go to stick the first piece on the Buddha arm and the damn gold slips away from the wax paper, out of my hand and falls toward the ground just like a dried leaf on a windless day floating side to side. Time stood still. A quick glance at my friends face summed up the moment.Terror! That gold must not touch the godforesaken filthy floor or some ancient monster will eat us all alive or some shit like that.Her mouth dropped and her eyes screemed of shame! I stayed cool. I followed the gold leaf side to side with both my hands cupped under it and cought it in the nick of time....toche`. I shot her a look of bold American confidence. She gave a smile of total embarressment. "Silly Farang". Two words I will hear alot on this vacation.