On Monday afternoon some friends called to ask me to go to the pagoda with them. I asked them where it was, and they said it was close to Pasit Mountain. First, I told them I didn’t want to go. But I didn’t want to be stressed and lonely in Phnom Penh so I went with them.

There were three girls and five boys in total, including me. We arrived there at about three o’clock, but we didn’t go into the temple yet, we just had a rest outside and bought some incense and some candles to give to the monks. We shared the money to pay for the monks and total was about 20,000 riel, which is about five dollars.

Then we went to see the monk and he prayed. My friend Riya gave the money and the incense and the candles, and the monk gave us back the money because he said he would not take money from students. But we said to the monk; please keep it, because it’s our heart that wants to give it to you. But that monk still would not take the money. He told us to take this money back before he gave it to someone else. So we took it and laughed, and I said; “That is a very good monk!” And he looked at me and he smiled. Then the monk prayed for us, and while he’s praying Riya asked him; “Please give me a lot of girls!” And my friends and people around us all laughed.

After praying the monk told us to change our clothes to get ready for him to give us the blessing to take away bad luck by water. This is the reason we go there. We had old clothes with us, the girls had some clothes they can wear and the boys had some shorts. The boys got ready first and we kneeled and prayed in front of the monk and the monk took water from a big jar and poured water over us like a shower. That’s to wash away bad luck. Then it was the girls turn but they were shy and they don’t want to do it. They asked us to do it again together with them. But we didn’t want to do it two times, so the girls they just hang out there till other people come and they do the blessing with the other people.

On the way back home we tried to find some beef barbeque and rest there until five o’clock and then we drove back home. It was a very nice day; not stressed and not lonely.