Monks and Ghost

Monks and Ghost

Noel Laflin

7-10-19

Our tour guide, Kim, is a Korean national who taught himself Mandarin at an early age. Thus, he leads Taiwanese tours here; he has been doing so for eight years now.

He’s very funny. He told us about the time that one group of tourists went out drinking the first night and he had a call from the police to come collect them all after a barroom brawl at four in the morning. They all threatened to sue one another but instead became fast friends by the end of the trip.

Another tour group was composed of gangsters, who swore around the clock. Kim was doing likewise by the end of that trip too. The gangsters all liked Kim so much that they have returned over the years.

But the best story involved an entire busload of monks. One night two monks woke him up complaining about the ghost in their room. As Kim spoke Korean, and they did not, the monks felt that the ghost would listen to him if he asked it to leave.

Kim just switched rooms with them instead.

I love stories in any language, especially if I have David and his sister provide the translation.