At last a story with many happy endings. Happy for a Brit, Happy for a temple, happy for the community and unexpectedly happy for me your humble news reader.
Before Christmas 77 year old Brit Mr. Terry Smith had got down on his knees and started the mammoth job of painting the perimeter walls of Wat Suttawat at the end of Soi Nernplubwan in Nongprue District East Pattaya.
Terry who had converted to his Thai wife's religion of Buddhism had noticed the walls were well due to a coat or two of paint and with the Abbot's permission a bucket of white paint a brush in hand and his wife cheering him on he got down to work.
A video of him hard at his charitable work went viral on the Interweb with foreign and Thai posters on Facebook praising his efforts. There were a few naysayers on the forums and chat rooms who did the Bah humbug impressions and warned that he could well end up in jail for working without a work permit.
This of course was never going to happen - instead over Christmas and New Year hundreds of locals , army officers the old and the not so old worked tirelessly with 20,000 Baht of buckets of donated paint to finish the job that Mr. Terry had started. Making merit and celebrating His majesty King Bhumiphol's extended reign as the King of Thailand was their declared aims
And an additional and unexpected happy ending. I live near Wat Sutthawat Temple and took a motorcycle taxi from Big C Extra Central Pattaya a few days ago. I was rummaging in my pocket for the 150 Baht fare when the motorcycle taxi driver waied me and said you are a good guy paint temple no charge and rode off. Now that was a very nice gesture but a little disconcerting as I am a long way off the 77 years young Mr. Terry.
