Perhaps they were asking you to chant. I don't know actually unless I know the particular situation. Sometimes when the Thais try to translate the concepts of Buddhism into English they will often use the terms that Westerners are used to. So what they call chanting is often what they think of Christians doing praying, but it's actually not really the same. With chanting they actually reflect on the qualities of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, and they actually recite the words of the Buddha, they're not actually praying to an external object. Often they do not understand what "praying" means in English. So I would probably say that they were asking you to either meditate, depending on your situation, or pay respect to the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha.