warning: this blog post contain some elements of supersticious believes. read at your own risk

Went to my kampung's cemetary on Sunday to clean up the place for Thai version of Cheng Beng - which would be next Sunday. Normally in my kampung, Thai Cheng Beng is some sort of big occasion, whereby on that day, the whole kampung would throng the cemetary to do prayers and offerings. But then, why the need to go clean up the place earlier? Because Thai cemetaries are normally located inside some sort of jungles which can turned up to be quite a creepy place to be alone (unlike Chinese or Christian cemetaries which are a lot neater). Were there with my mom and wife, together with my younger brother to clean up our ancestors grave - pluck the grass, clear the lalang, scrub the tombstone, stuffs like that. Good way to exercise.

Normally, we would also clean up our close relatives' tombstones as well, especially those nearby our ancestors', as the relatives would do the same if they are around. So my mom went ahead to a very old & respected monk's grave to clean up the place. Now, if you are also supersticious, you would probably knew by now that old and respected monks make respected “spirits” when they passed away. My kampung people believed that this monk is very powerful, and protective to all the Thai people in my kampung.

My mom was sweeping the monk's tomb when she called out to us to go see something unusual - a big, bright-orangy-colored centipede with sort of dark-colored head (the normal centipede that we usually see is dark red). Me, being some kind of hobbyist photographer (chewah!), normally had my A80 in my car, especially if I were to go back my parent's place, rush to site armed with the camera. I tried taking pictures of the centipede, but the centipede was literally running around, sort like not allowing me to take its pictures.

I casually knelt down in front of the monk's tomb, clasp my hands together in praying position, and was just saying out loud - “Phor Than (the affectionate nickname that we call the monk), please allow your child (yours truly) to take a picture of this centipede as it's not usual”. As soon as I finished saying that, the centipede ran to the front of the monk's tombstone, and literally posing for me to take picture! I set
the camera to Macro mode, and got as close as 5cm away from the centipede, focused the camera for a whole 15 secs or so, snapped with flash off - twice.

As soon as I have stood up, I knelt again in front of the monk's tombstone and said, “Thank you Phor Than for allowing your child to take the picture. Thank you”, and the centipede sped off as soon as I finished thanking!

There's another picture taken when we were about to leave the cemetary - my mom found this vegetation just 10 metres from our car. Seriously, it's something I've never seen before. Please let me know if you knew the name of this plant.

Feeling supersticious already?

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