Blogs from Chaiya, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

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 (after the Q & A) 21.30 LIGHTS OUT We ask you to follow the DAILY SCHEDULE completely. All scheduled activities (except Yoga / Exercise are compul sory, i.e. you must attend them. Please be sure to look at the sched ule ... read more

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 road, which meant it was nice and quiet down there too. Luckily enough it was still too early to be getting hot, or it would have been quite a hike with the back pack. I've ... read more

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 right through them thinking that we could walk to central Ao Nang and find a place there. Wrong. So after a 15 minutes walk we decided to get a tuktuk. Ao Nang is really just ... read more

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 in our room by some sort of beetle/cockroach thing - and then to find out there was no bathroom… just a lovely little hole you had to somehow stand over inside of a shaking moving ... read more

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 watched the countryside pass me as i couldn't sleep and my back was sore. I guess that's what 10 days of sitting on a cushion does to you. I had a chuckle to myself when ... read more