The Flower Girl

by Lilburne, Guy

  I just couldn’t settle in England. I was drawn to Buddhism and I was drawn to Thailand. I went to speak to some monks in the Buddhist temple in Kings Bromley in Staffordshire and I started studying. I knew in my heart that I could make a difference. I ended up staying in the temple and one of the older monks knew about the temple in Kanchanaburi, because he had stayed there for a few years when he was a young monk. He thought it might be perfect for me, when I was ready. He said that it needed a special person, because there were many poor people here, some Thai and some Burmese. He told me that the place was a little run down and neglected, because it was sort of out on a limb in the middle of nowhere on the border with Burma and had no funding from anyone. The community around the area was the poorest of the poor. I liked the sound of the place as soon as I heard his stories about it and funding wasn’t going to be a problem. I was getting royalty payments from the sale of the Flower Girl books every four months and I certainly didn’t want or need the money. It seemed like a natural step to use it for the temple and the people of Kanchanaburi. It seemed to me that there had been a big problem with funding previously and none of the monks really wanted to be there; so few stayed and none stayed for very long. I knew that I would love the place before I even arrived and I was as excited to go to Kanchanaburi as the monks were to see me leave.

  I know what I have just written, but they were happy for me to go. They thought it was important for me to work and study in Thailand and work amongst people who really needed me. The people in the rather posh area of Kings Bromley didn’t need anything. Well, maybe another accountant or another new car. I had never actually been anywhere in public in my saffron coloured robes and only the people who visited the temple in Staffordshire had seen me in them. I have to admit I was excited about being seen in public in my new robes, although I didn’t have to get excited. Everyone in Manchester airport just ignored me or looked at me as if I was crackers. I flew from Manchester to Bangkok and then made a special trip to the old temple on Karon Hill in Phuket. I replaced Pin’s plastic urn with a silver one. I stayed for two days in the temple before I travelled overland by train to Kanchanaburi. I was treated with a lot of respect and kindness by all the Thai people.

  It took me a lot longer than I thought it would take to get to Kanchanaburi and then it was a long trek through the hills and over lakes to the very edge of the jungle. And guess what! There was nothing there. The old monk in Staffordshire told me that there was a temple and a school and that the place was a bit neglected and run down. What was actually there was a clearing at the edge of a lake with a wooden built temple that was nothing more than a small barn on stilts and the school was a blackboard with a small bamboo and banana leaf cover over it. From the overgrown weeds in front of the board it didn’t look like any kids had been sitting there to learn anything for a long time. By this time my Thai was quite good, but I couldn’t speak any Burmese. There were a few dirt tracks leading to the temple and I had passed many homes scattered amongst the hills as I walked to the temple. Some of the homes were quite big builds and belonged to wealthier Thai people from Bangkok, but were only used for a few weekends each year. There were also some holiday bungalows, which were rented out sometimes to farangs but, again, mostly to Thai’s. There were some make shift shops to cater for all the people who visited the hills and lakes. There were also a lot of tiny shacks around the lakes and these belonged to poor Burmese people, who were living illegally in Thailand and made their living by fishing the lakes and living off the land. The farming was on a very small scale. It was also illegal to cut down the teak trees in Thailand, but this also seemed to be happening a lot and was a source of their income. A lot of the local people were very interested in the arrival of the new farang monk and, by the time I walked into the temple on that first day, I had a small crowd of children and old people, who had followed me the last mile or so to the temple. I guessed that the men must have been out fishing the lakes or maybe cutting down trees. I wandered around the temple grounds with my new inquisitive friends, who were all more interested in me than the old temple. I found some old dusty Buddha statues and a cupboard containing all the paraphernalia that I would need for services. I found a hut, which really was just a hut, and had nothing in it. I realised this was my sleeping quarters. I found an old, over grown garden, a small pond, a huge bell and a gong that was lying in the overgrowth. I found some old books, some old pots and pans, some old Buddhist scriptures, but there were no old monks. There were no young ones either for that matter. There was just me, alone. Well, except for all the expectant faces on skinny brown bodies that were following me around. My heart was sinking until I looked into their eyes. I wondered how many other monks had come and looked around and then left again. I wondered when was the last time that they had had a monk here, before the strange farang monk who stood before them now. It was as if they were waiting to see what I was going to do next. I didn’t really know, but I knew that I was going to be staying for a while. Even just by being there I felt that I had given them some kind of hope and, certainly, there was some kind of expectation.

  An old lady, who was nearly bent over double and had a weathered skin from a lifetime of hard work in the baking sun, shuttled forward. She put her arthritic twisted hands together in a wai. When she spoke I could see that she only had one tooth. She looked about 150 years old, but I guessed that she could have been anything between 50 and 80.

  “If you stay I will help you clean the place up” she said, with desperation in her voice.

  I replied to everyone in the crowd, which now numbered about 30 people.

  “I am your new monk. I have travelled over 6,000 miles to be here and I intend to stay. I intend to build a school and teach your children. I intend to rebuild this temple and make it a temple to be proud of. A temple for people to come and pray and learn and find peace and happiness. A place to eat, a place to celebrate. This will be a place of safety and a place for blessings and festivals. This will be a place for hope and for a future. I will need help to do all these things and for anyone who wants to help me to work to build this temple I will be able to pay only 50 baht (£1) a day and it will be a lot of hard work. I will start to make this place a temple that we can use starting tomorrow. Anyone who can offer skills and is prepared to work hard with me is welcome to come. Please spread this message. Maybe, together, we can make a difference.”

  I gave the people a blessing and they drifted away. I needed a miracle, but I think that they needed a miracle too.

  I spent the rest of the day just looking around at my future and thinking about how I could re-build the lost temple. I settled down in the bamboo hut as it got dark. It wasn’t long before I heard footsteps outside.

  “Hello.” I said feeling slightly spooked. The footsteps stopped and I could almost hear the intruder listening to me listening to him. Then the steps started again and were coming towards the hut. I held my breath as I waited for the visitor to come into my hut.

  Then a head peered around the door. It wasn’t human. It looked like a crocodile without the teeth and the biggest lizard I have ever seen then padded into my hut. Well, maybe it was his hut before it was mine. We just looked at each other. My new friend was at least 6ft long. If I wasn’t so scared I would have walked past him and out of the door, but he looked big enough to eat me so I stayed still and we just looked at each other. After a long, long ten minutes my friend decided to leave and he turned around and walked out and back towards the jungle. My visitor was a lizard called the Water Monitor, which is in the same family as the Komodo Dragon and can grow well over 3 metres. Previously, I had only ever seen the tiny Gecko lizards, only a few inches long and welcomed in homes due to their liking for mosquitos and other flying pests.

  Within Thailand the Monitor Lizard is one of the most hated species of lizard. Generally known as Dooa Nguen Dooa Thong or Dooa Hia (a rather strong obscenity in Thai), it is considered unluc
ky to have one found close to or inside your house. They are, however, extremely beautiful and very large in size. They have long necks, powerful tails and claws, well developed limbs and can reach sizes of almost 3 metres and weigh up to 50 kgs. Subspecies can be either terrestrial, arboreal or semi aquatic - due to their ability to swim extremely well. Eating anything from small reptiles and mammals, fish, birds, carrion and even fruits, they have adapted extremely well to a life with increased pressure from humans. Any canoe trip down one of Thailand’s rivers will reveal Monitor Lizards either basking on the banks or high up in the trees. Over the months and years I was to see a lot of the nature of Thailand.

  The next morning people started arriving at 6am with food and water and together we set about rebuilding our temple. I could probably write another book about the ups and downs, heart break and triumphs that we went through together rebuilding the place, but I’ll keep it short and just mention some of the highlights. Once we started working on the temple a lot of money was contributed by the wealthier people from Bangkok, who visited the area as a bit of a get-away from the big city. They also contributed building materials and one man, who had a building company, even sent some of his professional builder to help us. The temple was rebuilt and we built a small school building. When the bell was reset on a new-built brick stand we held a blessing and now it is a wonderful sound when it rings out across the hills and lakes. The garden was reclaimed and we became self-sufficient with fruit and vegetables. The temple became a happy place, a bright place and a very busy place. I taught the kids English and Maths and local volunteers taught other subjects. I couldn’t stop the poverty and hardships that these people faced on a daily basis, but together we had built something a bit special. Something that made their lives just a little bit easier. There was a great sense of community and the temple had become the heart of it. These people had become my friends and my family and every day was and is a joy for me. There is always something funny and always something happy. Sometimes, of course, we are touched by sadness, but we face everything together as the family that we have become. My dad died during my first year in Kanchanaburi. I didn’t go back for the funeral. I was too busy here and my dad wouldn’t have wanted me to, anyway.

  A day of great joy for me was when a mini bus turned up and it was Aa and Bee and a bus load of ladyboys. Aa told me that they had raised some money for the temple and that she and her friends were going to stay for a week. She expected that we would have a dormitory in which they could stay but, of course, we did not. They ended up staying across the lake from the temple in one of the big log cabins. The first night I could hear then from across the lake as they partied the night away. The laughter and music floated across the water and made me smile the whole night, as it kept me awake. The next day they decided that they were going home. I guess that it was just a bit too quiet for them in this part of Kanchanaburi. Another visitor who I was delighted to see was my old friend Sawat Deewat. He came twice for some spiritual enlightenment, but the first time he spent the whole twenty-four hours of his visit in the log cabin across the lake with a nice young lady from Bangkok. The second time he came he spent the entire twenty-four hours in the same log cabin with two nice young ladies from Bangkok. Maybe he just isn’t ready to change his ways just yet!

  Anyway, that is my update and my big finish to my story. It still might not be the big dramatic finish that the book deserved and it was never the ending I had imagined. Now when I think back about my Thailand experience and ask myself would I have changed anything, I can say with absolute honesty, No, I wouldn’t change a thing. I am no longer a lost soul and my heart has finally found what it was looking for. Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoyed my journey too. Maybe, just maybe, you also discovered something about yourself too! Choc Dee Khrap.

  THE END.

  About the author

  Guy Lilburne has been a Policeman for 30 years and a Detective for the last 27 years. He has worked in CID, Murder Squads, Drugs Squad, Vice Squad, Special Enquiries, and various Crime Squads. He has also worked in a specialist Covert Unit and more recently in a Cold Case Review Squad. He has been writing for over twenty years. Author of the best-selling books ‘My Thai Story’ (2010) and the Detective novels ‘The Thai Dragon’ (2010) ‘The Kiss of the Dragon’(July 2011)

  Guy Lilburne spends his time between Thailand and the UK, where he is still a serving police Detective until 2012. His last blockbuster novel was ‘Cocktails & Dreams’(Oct 2011) another Murder/Detective story set in Thailand. It’s another outing for Ex D/Sgt Danny O’Brien. Guy Lilburne really captures a taste of Thailand and whisks you along at a breath taking pace in the ‘Land of Smiles’.

  The author’s latest offering is another Crime thriller with a twist. ‘The Flower Girl’ is a story, a murder story, but it is also a story about love and hope and finding what it is that makes us happy.

  Guy is currently working on three future books;

  WLTM (Would Love To Meet). One man’s trials and tribulations in his attempt to find Miss Right.

  My Thai story II, is the true story about the author’s journey to find a new life in Thailand.

  A Whispered Promise is the incredible and tragic story of a love triangle set in south east Asia.

  Also by the author.

  The Thai Dragon.

  My Thai Story.

  The Kiss of the Dragon.

  Cocktails & Dreams.

  Coming soon.

  WLTM (Would Love To Meet)

  The hilarious story of one man’s search to find his perfect love.