10 day SILENT retreat and Berma crossing


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Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Ranong
August 25th 2008
Published: August 25th 2008
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What you hear when in silence
Crickets in the early morning, birds in the morning and afternoon, toads and geekos in the evening
People brushing teeth, washing clothes, showering, sweeping, scrubbing and opening and closing doors

What you see
100 people moving in many directions very slowly. No talking and very little eye contact although that increased each day. There are many things getting done without words but with cooperation, attention and loving kindness. We are all giving each other space and it looks and feels very peaceful. I found that I was able to walk as slowly as the person in front of me or even slower and with attention.

Schedule
4:00 Wake Up Rise & Shine
4:30 Reading
4:45 Sitting Meditation
5:15 Yoga
7:00 Dhamma Talk / Sitting Meditation
8:00 Breakfast and Chores
10:00 Dhamma Talk
11:00 Walking or Sitting Meditation
11:45 Sitting Meditation
12:30 Lunch
2:30 Meditation Instruction and Sitting Meditation
3:30 Walking or Sitting Meditation
4:15 Sitting Meditation
5:00 Chanting & Loving Kindness meditation
6:00 Tea and Hot Springs
7:30 Dhamma Talk or Sitting Meditation
8:00 Group Walking Meditation
8:30 Sitting Meditation
9:00 Good Night
9:30 Lights Out


Accommodations
Room, concrete bed, grass mat, blanket and Buddha pillow (wooden), I brought a foam pad

Meals
1 bowl, vegetarian, spicy thai food, fruit, tea, and hot chocolate soy milk


Upon leaving and being able to talk for the first time in 10 days I found out that Mom would have left on day 3 had I wanted to and that she actually stayed because she thought I was enjoying myself. I stayed for her, she seemed so relaxed and in meditation I thought she was really getting deeper and deeper. Interesting what happens when you don’t communicate. I believe that it worked out exactly as it was supposed to and I am very very happy that we stayed for the entire 10 days. On day 7 I had a lot of clarity and amazing dreams which was a huge release of things that I had been holding onto subconsciously. I also got an email from a gal that left early and she said that mom was her inspiration.




BURMA BORDER RUN
June 11th

We headed out from the retreat on foot to the bus stop to Ranong. The information from the retreat was 4 years old, but it was the only information we had since we had not been speaking for the past 10 days. While we waited a woman came up and asked where we were headed. She explained that we were on the wrong side of the road, so we crossed the road and waited for the silver/yellow bus. It was now 7:35 and it appeared that we had missed the 7:30 bus, we had been told that the busses came every 30 minutes, but no 8:00 bus came, around 8:30 we boarded the bus and were told that we would need to transfer. After quite a while of trying to communicate both with and without the talking dictionary a young man assured us that he would get us on the right bus when we transferred. Not so much by saying that, but my gestures of assurance. Our experience has been that the smaller the town is the fewer people who speak any English and we needed to get to the boarder today. At 10:00 we got off the bus and the young man told us to wait for the 11:00 bus, we said ok and went off in search of food. We passed him twice and both times he looked at his watch and said we should go to the bus stop and wait. We ended up back at 7-11 for iced coffee, yogurt and rolls. We sat down across the street from the bus stop to eat and wait. A bus arrived that appeared to be coming from Ranong, but Mom wanted to go ask just to make sure. She was not 10 feet from me when 2 men sitting across the street hollered “No, No, No…” and waiving her off and to sit back down. Then one of them road his motorcycle over to the front of the bus, waited until the bus left and then went back across the street. I think he would have blocked us getting on if we had tried. Seems the young man had asked them to make sure we got on the right bus, just like he said he would. After about 15 more minutes another bus came, this time headed in the other direction and the men motioned that this was the correct bus. .

Before arriving in Ranong Mom called a tour company to see if there were any trips after 2:00 and was told no. We were running later than we had planned. The only times we were pressed for time were during border crossings and you want to wait until the last day to use all 30 days, otherwise you have to do this again sooner. She did get a recommendation for a hotel, which we went to and were very pleased. We checked in and went to find a songthaew for a ride to the Immigration Office. The gal was standing with us toward the front of the hotel and helping us get on the right songthaew and possibly help with a covered boat since it had been raining consistently. I noticed two men sitting across the street who were watching us, they came over and stood way to close to me for comfort and began talking with her. One of the men made a phone call and indicated that there would be a covered boat and driver when we arrived. She flagged a songthaew down and told us to get in and said something to the driver. It was raining but not very hard. The driver turned right and it was about 1:30, mom looked out trying to figure out where we were since she had been here for a few days at another time. After we made the 3rd or 4th turn or U-turn she gave up and we just sat back and went for the ride. Finally he stopped and pointed across the street to immigration. We crossed the street, across a bridge made of two pieces of plywood and crossed a parking lot to the office where we found a man who pointed to a sign indicating that the office had been moved to the pier. Interesting that the songthaew driver did not know this. He said that he could give us a ride on his motorcycle and get us on a boat. It was now pouring, but we had no other options and were running out of time so we hopped on. By the time we arrived we were both laughing and soaking wet and very happy that we did not have our packs. As we were walking toward the pier he pointed to something and said what I thought was coffee, mom thought he said copy and either way I just kept walking and saying no, we just want to get on a boat. We got in line for departures, filled out the paperwork and mom asked a few people about the price for the boat which varied. We found out that the last covered boat had already left, so again we were running out of options. A young man said he could take us for 200 baht each, we asked about cover and he said he had umbrellas. We looked at each other and agreed that we were just ready to go since the weather was not getting any better and I don’t think either of us thought we could get any wetter. We were wrong.

Crossing to Berma in a constant rain holding onto our umbrella’s mine folded backwards and was getting quite mangled. After two stops at immigration offices the helper in our boat explained that we did need copies of our passports and that he would run and do this then we arrived. I had a copy, so off he went with moms, came back in a few minutes and we paid $5 each for a 21-day visa. 21 minutes would have been enough. We walked outside and were immediately surrounded by four young men in there 20’s who started asking if we wanted alcohol or cigarettes or anything else. Our boat helper had agreed to help me find a few T-shirts that said Burma. I explained that I did not need any additional help shopping, but they insisted on following us in and out of alleys making me uncomfortable. I had my umbrella poised to pound them if they did anything. Mom and our helper were walking ahead and I was doing my best to keep up without tripping over these guys. I was able to get a few shirts, but not really what I wanted, now all I wanted was to get back on the boat and out of here. Heading back to our boat the four men started asking for money for helping us, they wanted $.75, I would have gladly given them $5 to leave me alone. I have them a couple of dollars and we were on our way. Seems this is how they make a living off the foreigners. One young man said his family had died in the cyclone but the story changed when he told mom, who knows. I am sure glad Mom knew better than to have us stay here for a night. The hour long trip back in our long-tail boat was harrowing and a little strenuous as we both did our best to keep our balance while holding onto our umbrellas, and not letting the wind catch it and completely break it. We were absolutely saturated and there were tense moments but we laughed a lot. What else could we do? Our helped asked for a tip and I gladly gave him another 200 baht. Later reflection found that I was thinking about my camera if we went overboard and mom was wondering about going overboard as well, I assured her that I would have saved her, to which she replied, “I would have fought you”. I explained that I would have had to knock her out, and we laughed again, just happy it was over and we were back in Thailand.



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