An Evening Out with Lat

Last weekend we had the pleasure of accompanying our Buddhist monk friend, Lat, on his first night after leaving the monastic life. Lat had been a monk for about 10 years, and had decided to disrobe after graduating from the Buddhist University in Chiang Mai. We met him in the Old City of Chiang Mai, where he pulled up on a motorbike that he had rented for the weekend. He wore a grey oxford and tight blue jeans. He was very stylish for someone who had worn robes for the past decade. Tammy, Emily, Jack and I joined him for his first dinner in quite some time. Monks eat two meals a day, both before noon, and aren't allowed to eat for the rest of the day. We went to restaurant that served all types of food, including Mexican, Italian, American, and Thai. Lat seemed to have difficulty choosing and finally settled on ordering nachos. We had a great time chatting with him over dinner about how it felt to be leaving monkhood. He sounded excited, yet a little scared. He plans to return to his home country of Laos where he hopes to work as a tour guide and to continue using his English. After dinner we went to the North Gate Jazz Co-Op, one of my favorite spots in Chiang Mai. Lat and I rode on his motorbike and we had a great time buzzing around the city trying to find the place. We met up with the rest of the group about 30 minutes late and enjoyed the rest of the night listening to good music. It has been so great to build a relationship with a monk and it was also a really unique experience to be able to spend time with him after he disrobed. I never thought I'd say that I'm close friends with a monk!