Thailand – Suan Mokkh, Kanchanaburi, Chaing Mai, Chaing Rai
Well when we last heard from our hero, he was headed for a ten day meditation retreat at Suan Mokkh monastery near Chaiya. The retreat ended up being a great overall experience, although it was a little tough both mentally and physically. Conditions mirror that of the monks. You can’t speak – you can’t eat after lunch and before dawn – most of the time you are sitting around meditating – which can get very boring, causing your mind to wander and making meditation very difficult. Accommodations are sparse – a little 8×8 cell, a concrete bed, with a thin palm leaf mat to lay on, a wool blanket and a wooden pillow. The sleeping conditions certainly made getting up at 4AM every day a little easier. Meals where entirely vegetarian – with rice porage every morning some lettuce to chew on and tea. Lunch was about the same, but they would add some fruit and an extra vegetarian dish. After lunch no food – only tea for dinner. The first two days were the hardest – all I could think about was – how am I going to stay here for ten days. On the third day – I changed my thinking and asked myself if I needed to leave right this second, the answer was always no, so only by keeping my mind 100% in the present, did I make it through the whole ten days.
The retreat featured a lot of training on how to meditate and the basics philosophy of Buddhism – which is all about how to live life with more mindfulness – removing the unsatisfactory conditions that exist in our lives by reducing/eliminating ignorance, craving and clinging. Daily meditation practice that results in a calm mind is central to Buddhist way of life. A great opportunity to learn about other cultures and religions – definitely recommend this type of retreat to anyone who is interested and can take the time… Personally, I really enjoyed the deep look inside myself, and the retreat helped solidify a desire for me to simplify my life and to attempt to leave behind the frightening world of consumerism that I have been rolling around in for the past few years.
From the retreat, I headed back to Bangkok in the train with friends I made at the end of the retreat. After applying for visas to Laos and Vietnam, I went west to Kanchanaburi – a famous WW2 historic town where 16,000 allied POWs and 100,000 Asian laborers died building the Thai-Burmese railway during the war. Kanchanaburi was made famous by the 1957 movie – Bridge on the River Kwai – the bridge, now repaired still stands today. I met a fun gal from France on the train and we hung around together for a few days. Spent a day touring around town, seeing all the museums, POW cemeteries and walked the Bridge over the River Kwai. On the following day, we went up into the mountains to see some of the passes that were cut through the hills with picks and shovels and visited a couple of great local waterfalls. So strange to be reminded of the terrible loss of life and the brutal treatment of Allied POWs during WWII while we hung on the brink of war with Iraq – it just made our current situation feel all wrong in so many different ways. Now that we have fallen over the brink and are bombarded with daily news of senseless fighting and Americans being captured – I can only hope for a swift end to the war. I still believe there was a better way…
After Kanchanaburi, I headed back to Bangkok again to pick up visas and my friend Lorraine from SF who met up with me for a two week trip. We spent a few days in Bangkok doing temple runs and a few days on the island of Ko Samet working on the tan, then headed to Chaing Mai by overnight train. Chaing Mai located in the north, is the second largest city in Thailand, but much smaller then Bangkok which is forty times it’s size. It really has a nice laid back small town feel – definitly a nice place to relax for a couple of days – there are lots of great shops, street stalls, and markets displaying lots of local crafts – some really nice quality stuff. We did some shopping and checked out the local museums and temples. Visited the night market and sampled lots of different types of Thai food – still have not worked up the nerve to eat the grubs, beetles, or crickets yet, but maybe I will before I come home…
Today we headed north toward Chaing Rai, took a long tail boat up the river (saw a wild elephant grazing along the river!) – and did some trekking to local hill tribes in the area. There are five different tribes in northern Thailand and most have migrated to Thailand over the last 100 years from Burma, China, and Laos – they live very simply in bamboo huts, practice slash and burn farming, and sell handmade crafts for extra money. Great experience to get out of the city and into the hills and see their way of life. Enjoyed the hike, talking with our guide, and of course swimming at the ubiquitous end of hike waterfall. A very cool experience.
I am putting the finishing touches on this email in Chaing Rai and planning to leave Thailand behind tomorrow and head into Laos for a river journey down the Mekhong – stay tuned…
Love from the road,
Matt