What Chiang Mai taught us

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Hello, Louise here, Amy's entrusted me to write one of my overly long entries on the past week, during which we've been culturaling ourselves up all nice.
On Thursday we set off on a trek with our hostel, Eagle House. They're supposed to be the bees knees where eco tourism is concerned, and they offer a non-tourist trek into the jungle/countryside (not exactly sure what the definition of jungle is, but it was hot a leafy), which was sort of pricey but we thought it'd be worth it, as we'd wanted to stay away from the orangized tours thing as much as was possible. We set off in a group of ten including us, and what a mish mash we were. There was a prevelance of British people though, which was the first time that had happened in a while. There was a social worker from Holland, a rail recruitment consultant from Kent, an HIV/AIDS charity worker/pharmacist from N. Ireland, a German medical student, and then your standard travelling loafers. Maybe we'll tell you about them all when we get back, because some of them really were marvellous people. We were lucky to get such a good group. The first day was a lot of driving, we went to a bat/Buddhist meditation cave, went on an elephant ride, and then hiked to the hill tribe village where we were staying for the night. Our group leader was Doh, a lovely Burmese tribe man who has been in the industry 12 years and was obviously relishing the thought of retirement. We couldn't have asked for a better guide, though, as he clearly knew and loved the area and the tribespeople, and was a fantastic cook.
The first night we stayed with the Karen people in a small village half-way up a hill. Our bed was a large hut made of bamboo, with a raised bamboo floor to sleep on. We made camp and chatted to the tribe people, who were all very hospitable and seemed to enjoy us being there. We sang some songs, forgot most of them, drank some beer and talked well into the full moon night. If that sounds poetic, well, it was.
It was certainly lovlier than the six hours of walking we had to do the next day, some of which was pretty hard going. The scenery, when we got to look up from our feet, was fantastic. Unfortunately that day I was suffering from some food poisoning (again), so once we got to a village, I got given some guava leaves which the tribespeople take when they get sick. It seemed to do the trick and I now highly recommend them, despite them tasting of bitter talcum powder. That night we slept in much the same sort of hut, but not in a village. This time we were camped next to the river, on which the next day we went bamboo rafting. It's dry season at the moment, and so the rafting wasn't as fast as it could have been, but it was certainly perilous. After an hour, bloodied feet and all, we abandoned the raft to some locals to use as a roof for their school, and walked a bit to the car. We got driven to a massive waterfall which we looked at (decided it was too cold to swim, even though Doh was imploring us to) and set off home thoroughly knackered.
We didn't want to sever the cord just yet though, and met up with our trekking group in the evening for a well earned drink. However, the next day there was an election in Thailand (about the 10th in a year or something silly) and apparently it's a rule that on the night before an election it is forbidden for anywhere to sell or serve alcohol. In practice, however, it's not quite as horrifying as all that, especially with thristy farang about with pockets full of cash. We managed to get some beer and rum from a 7-11 in a Tescos bag (if anyone was going to go down for it, let it be Tesco) and drank to Thailand's democracy.
We then had two free days until our next activity, the 3 day Buddhist Meditation course. I went to the zoo, but Amy didn't because she couldn't be bothered (and she hates animals). Apparently Chiang Mai zoo is the best in Asia, in lots of respects. It's certainly huge, and is situated at the bottom of a mountain. The star attractions are the two pandas which are on loan from China to Chiang Mai zoo for 10 years, as of 2003. I got some video footage of them, which was good enough for Amy.
On Tuesday we arrived at Wat Suan Dok by tuk tuk and filtered into the Monk Chat room for our introduction to Buddhism. There were a lot of people there (I never actually counted though) from all walks of life. This one was particulalry popular because the 3 days course is only run on the last week of every month - we just got it by luck. After the talk we were transported to the purpose built Intertnational Meditation Centre, in god knows where. It's a new, landscaped complex with double rooms (all en-suite with hot showers, oh the luxury!), a meditation practice hall, dining room, gardens and courtyard. It was all a bit weird at first because we were instructed to take a shower, change into the white shirt and trousers we had been given, and take off our shoes. It's a strange sight to see lots of Westerners, bare foot, all in white, in complete silence, walking very very slowly. But we got into the swing of things pretty easily, and after a while even the silence rule wasn't too difficult (pretty much silent all the time, except during discussions about Buddhism and chanting).
Before every meal we had to wait for everyone to sit with their food, before a monk led us in Chanting for Contemplating on Food. This is so we ate 'mindfully', not for fun, but with a purpose to relieve the suffering of hunger. Its sort of like saying Grace, but it wasn't just about being thankful for the food, but also for understanding where it came from, what it's for, why we eat etc. etc.. There were four monks and one professor who guided us in our meditation, and instructed us in sitting meditation, walking meditation and lying down meditation (aka sleeping). We focused on concentration meditation as opposed to Insight meditation, to make us calm, relaxed and single minded. They showed us lots of different techniques so hopefully we would find one that worked for us. I guess you can judge for yourselves when we come back whether we're more calm, relaxed individuals or not, but it definitely got easier with practice (especially after practicing for nearly ten hours on the second day). In the mornings we also did some basic yoga.
We've just come back from the course and I think its safe to say, we both really enjoyed it. Apparently we're not supposed to talk much about our experiences unless questioned (that makes it sound a lot like a cult, but it's just the non aggressive Buddhist way!), so question us all you like. It's certainly put us in a nice frame of mind to leave Thailand and head for Laos, which we do tomorrow. We take a bus to the Chiang Khong border then a slow boat down to Luang Prabang, and should arrive there on Monday. That's why I'm squeezing in this blog entry, as we've not much idea as to what to expect internet-wise in Laos. We've heard it's beautiful, quiter, smaller than Thailand, and has the best beer in the Far East, perhaps even the world... we'll be able to tell you soon. Chiang Mai really is a wonderful place with a great atmosphere. It's a good place to learn something new or just to forget old things, and has a better climate than Bangkok. It gets a big thumbs up from both of us.
I'll sign this off with a virtual wai and a bow to the triple gem; we've been sending our positive energy and loving kindness towards all those at home the past couple of days, we hope you got it.
Lots of love xxx

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