So, here's the deal, I lasted 4 days. Not the first one to leave by any means, but still very shy of the 10 days. They were 17 hour work days which is a little insane and slightly cultish. The rules and regulations: No music No books No phones No talking--ever No passing notes No writing material Smile and make eye contact if you want but also never smile and never make eye contact if you desire. There are no showers or private bathing areas. You bathe with everyone else, in sarongs, never naked, in communal 'mandis' which are big concrete [View Full Entry]

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I begin the silent meditation retreat. Let's see if I make it. Schedules REGISTRATION DAY (The last day of the previous month, e.g. 31st of March for the April retreat, 30th of June for the July retreat) 07.00 - 16.00 Registration 08.00 *** Breakfast at Dining Hall *** = Monastery bell 12.30 *** Lunch 15.50 *** 16.00 Welcome to Suan Mokkh International Dhamma Hermitage (talk by the abbot) 17.00 Boundary tour 18.00 Tea, video about Ajahn Buddhadasa (Founder of Wat Suan Mokkh) 19.00 *** 19.15 Orientation talk and Question and Answers BEGINNING OF THE SILENCE [View Full Entry]

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Well i decided after to listen to many stories and with some encouragement to go and experience a 10 day meditation retreat. Not knowing much about meditation i thought it would be interesting to learn and a great experience, however, i was slightly nervous about the silent part and the 'no eating after midday' rule!! (Yes I know you are now all thinking there is no way lauren could be silent for ten days, let alone stop eating!) The retreat was at Suan Mokkh which is just outside Chaiya half way down thailand. We took the night bus from bangkok and [View Full Entry]

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I was suprised and really pleased to find another person sat in the bus shelter on the other side of the highway. It was another participant for the retreat. Before long, a few more coaches pulled up on the other side of the highway and more people sauntered across the road to join us outside the monastary gates. There were about 100 people on the retreat all in all as it turned out. When it got to about 5.30 we were told we should head down to the retreat centre which was a few kilometres away from the monastary.......and the main [View Full Entry]

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Hello , sawadhi cap and How's it gawn ? Your intrepid International Socialiser is in Chaiya ..again but this time forcefully !!! it's chucking it down !! .. I came here again with Soda as she had't seen it before ; Don't remember if i told you before, it's one of my favourite places in Thailand , i don't really know why ,it's small and unexciting but i like it , met Jet my friend and stayed the night had a laugh with him .. He's got a great American accent but with the usual Thai 'slant , he learned most [View Full Entry]

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After Lanta we headed towards Krabi. The plan was to go there to do some cool sea-kayaking that I once saw in a travelling-show on tv. Since this mainly was organised from Ao Nang, a popular beach northwest of Krabi, that's where we headed. I was still feeling quite bad after Lanta and the travelling wasn't a pleasure. Then of course the boat did not take us to Ao Nang but to a place north of it. I wasn't too keen on all the hustlers that always greet you when you get off any form of transport so we just walked [View Full Entry]

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Just left Bangkok a few days ago, doing some diving in Kho Tao at the minute, not sure what to make of Bangkok, bit weird, everyone and i mean absolutley everyone wants your money which is fucking annoying which is probaby why its best i only stayed for two days before i threw one of three foot two bastards out of a window. Been in the old tuk tuk which i really dont see why everyone makes such a fuss out of them, think i pissed the driver off as we kept him for 7 hours and paid him 60p oops! [View Full Entry]

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So we decided to take the overnight train from Bangkok to Koh Samui… I think I’ll opt for flying next time! Just kidding, it really wasn’t that bad, but it definitely took some adjustment in my mind when we first got on there (as apparently are a lot of things during this trip! All the more fun though as I look back on everything and adjust to the Thailand ways…). I had never been on an overnight train before, so I guess I was kind of expecting the look and feel of Caltrain with some beds…haha - no. We were greeted [View Full Entry]

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I don't know where to start. I have just finished the most difficult ten days of my entire life. When I came out of the monastery after the meditation retreat, I had no idea what to expect. I am still not sure really what effect this experience will have on how I view life and the world around me because I am still sort of dazed (and have just woken up from only three hours of sleep because I can't sleep on these soft mattresses). Even if my outlook on life isn't radically altered and I don't become a very very [View Full Entry]

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11th April. Rai and i walked back to the main road and caught a swangi into town. I felt naked in shorts and a shirt after covering up for the past 10 days. Rai was heading to the beach for the day and we decided to meet up the following morning for breakfast in Bangkok so he heads off on a bike and i quickly do some emails, weigh myself (lost 2 kilos in 10days!!!) and grab a whole heap of junk food for the train ride. I get to the platform and there are some other meditators there too. I [View Full Entry]

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