So he told Sammy this and Sammy told him to get some food in the village (since monks in Siam do not eat a crumb after lunch.) The boy went away to the village to eat noodles and gather his pack of belongings. The boy did return a few hours later with the courage of a lion in him and his belly full.

           With help from the monks, the boy set up a bed of cushions on the far end of the temple near the great Buddha. Then he covered his bed with a big white net to keep out those pesky mosquitoes.

Where you see the shiny reflection on the floor is precisely where the snakes sleep.

          Then he met the other monk in orange robes who had muscled arms and big hands. This second monk didn't speak a word of English but the boy felt he could trust him, like he would his grandfather.
The grandfatherly monk took the boy on a long tour far into the dark and wet cave. Led only by candlelight they saw bats hanging upside down from the round roof of the cathedral-like cave. One flew down toward them and the bat had wings the size of a computer screen! To their right and their left grew great pillars of stone, like icy snow cones, except upside down. But these “stalagmites” rose from the muddy cave floor to the ceiling like ghosts, eerie and silently waiting. The boy was so excited he slipped twice. He was so scared he gulped his breath and swallowed it — three times.

          As it was getting late the old monk in orange robes wearing only sandals and a bare head led him back again to the entrance to the cave where they would stay for the long, cool night. Once there, they sat before the big statue of the Buddha in silence until dark came, and it was time for both of them to go to bed.

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