And I hate tourists, yuk!

Yah, I have decided that I hate tourists with a passion... So yah, I got roped into giving alms and all, but it could have been a lot worse.... So the morning after my little scam, I went up the street wanting to get a picture or two of the monks as they came out of the monastery, when I was hit with a big wall of tourists, lining the street... I mean really like 200 people up at 6am to take pictures of the event... Well, I thought to myself, they are no different than me right? For the most part they were ok, until the procession of monks came, which turned even the nicest little old granny into a bloodthirsty photographers... I mean it was terrible, people got within inches, literally inches, of the monks snapping cameras off in their faces, at times even
Blocking their way.... It was pretty gross, and I felt bad to part of a tourist industry which allows for this type of destruction of culture to occur...  Then I got a nice little case of food poisoning, I guess my bragging about being immune to such things caught up with me, so yah, I got a bit of a fever and laid in bed until I felt better around 3, when I was brought out of my stopper by the sound of thunder, or what I thought was thunder... I went outside and realized that it was actually drums... I followed the sounds until I arrived a one of the monasteries in the city, where I sat listening to the drums for about half an hour. When it was over, I stayed sitting down just kinda drinking it all in, when a monk came up to me and asked me where I was from... I ended up talking to him for like 2 hours at which point he invited me to come and listen to him and the other monks chant and meditate with them, so I went and listened to them chant for an hour (absolutely amazing by the way) and them meditated with them for another hour... After that I hung out with some of the monks friends in the monistary and another guy who had just left... We talked well I to the night until I finally said good night in search of 7up and OJ... Needless to say it was one of the highlights of my trip thus far... And the picture we took of us all sitting on the steps of the Temple is far better than any shot I could have gotten if I had participated in the mass hysteria which had taken place earlier in the morning.