I agree. I remember once in 1970, me and a friend drove into Los Angeles to go to a Doors concert. We were smoking that good stuff and I promise, we had no clue where we were or what we were doing. It was all a blur. It was amazing we didn't get into a big wreck. We never made it to the concert. We managed to pull over and park on some side street and set there for about 3 hours.
I stayed for a month at one of their satellite temples in the South of Thailand for 30 days once. They had a American monk running their meditation program then, can't remember his name or the name of the temple. But it was good and not as bad as you would expect. Yes their self/not self program was a little strange. I'll do some digging and find out more for you.
3500 baht, approx. $100 bucks USD, can you even imagine what that would cost in the US? Of course it's really cheaply made, but if it's just going in the oven, who cares?
Unless you speak really good Thai and read it, Wat Suan Mohk is not the place to go. Wat Pah Nanachat is a great place but really, really difficult to get in, and they won't ordain you until you've spent at least a year as a white clothed novice.
Not a chance in hell.. I taught English for awhile at 3 different schools in Lopburi Province. The food I saw being prepared for the kids was donated by the local farmers and no-one, no-one was checking to see if it was fresh or ok for the children.
He's not the only so called "Holy Man" in Thailand. I knew of several when I lived there back in the early 2000's. All of whom were a little on the edgy side.