Thailand: Week 3
Time has been flying, as time does when one is on holiday, and my 3 weeks in Thailand are already up. Yesterday it was Sunday and I was spending my last few hours in Bangkok strolling through a street market in 90-degree heat and observing a Shutdown Bangkok rally. Now it's Monday morning, I'm at the Sydney airport, and in an hour I'll board the plane to Auckland to start my next adventure in New Zealand. I'm ready, I think, yet I already miss Thailand and her low cost of living, her excellent beaches, and her abundance of cheap food that is both diverse and delicious. (I have a few packets of sticky rice in my backpack still!) Needless to say, I'll be back to SE Asia, I do believe.
The last week in Thailand kicked off with me wrapping up my motorbike trip through the north of the country. I started off in Chiang Mai, headed to Pai and Mae Hong Son, and came back the same way over the course of several days.
Pai Canyon offered some fun casual hiking and a beautiful view of the sunset.
I was not alone. Pai Canyon is only 10km outside of Pai and lots of tourists had come to watch the sunset.
The next day, I set off for Mae Hong Son, but made a detour when I saw the sign for Lod Cave. I'd read about the cave in a guidebook and thought I'd go see what the fuss was about. I took the road, which seemed more like a long driveway, which led past a school and subsequently through a neighborhood. "This can't be right," I thought to myself. But it was - after 20 minutes of driving I soon saw the little food stalls that indicated I was near the entrance to a tourist attraction. I parked the bike and made for the entrance, and soon a guide with a gas lamp was leading me and an Israeli man on a tour of the cave. We walked to the entrance together and boarded a bamboo raft, and drifted into the cave along with the current. Below us were tons of carp doing the same thing- I could have reached out and touched them as they floated silently below us.
We docked and started exploring the 3 caves, with the guide pointing out different shapes and formations. Here was one from the first cave that looked like a waterfall:
The 2nd cave was very high up, involving our climbing many rickety stairs. There were no guardrails in places there should have been, and no warning signs, and I thought to myself, as I have many times in Thailand, how what I was observing would never be able to exist in the States.
For the third cave, we got back on the raft and sailed to the opening on the other side. And then I heard high-pitched squeaking from thousands of tiny mouths, high above us in the cave. Bats! Oh no, I was going to get bitten by a bat and die of rabies. So... did I?
Nope! Didn't even see any of the bats. No rabies, just a lot of guano in the 3rd cave. Shi-ka-ka!
After the cave, I grabbed some food from the vendors outside the park, said goodbye to my Israeli companion and his wife (who had sat out the cave visit), and set off into the hills again, riding as the sun sank lower into the sky.
Just breathtaking, the views over the hills. These hills are where Thailand's hill tribes live, tribes like the Long-Necked Karen, whose female members wear brass rings around their necks to increase the illusion of an elongated neck. These hill tribes don't have any alliance to Thailand, per se, and many of them have refugee status. I didn't visit the villages mainly because I'm uncomfortable with that type of tourism - basically gaping at and photographing people like they're monkeys in a zoo. I did see some other tribe folk (Lahu, I think?) selling grilled plantains and root veggies on the side of the road, so I stopped and bought some of those.
As I was taking my sweet time, stopping at roadside stands and vantage points whenever I felt like it, the sun got lower and lower in the sky, and at some point it occurred to me that the sun would soon be setting, and I was still 45km outside of Mae Hong Son. That distance could easily take me another hour to drive with all the curves and hills, and that was time I didn't have. The choice was either to gun it or find a place to stay the night (towns were few and far between on this highway).
I picked up the pace but realized that driving in the dark would be massively preferable to crashing my motorbike. Just then, I came around a curve and found a sign welcoming me to the Tam Wua Forest Monastery.
I instantly recognized the name; several people had recommended this place for those interested in learning meditation. I was definitely interested in that, but not as interested as I was in finding a place to stay the night. Without further ado, I turned down the drive.
And I didn't leave again for two days.
Upon arrival, I noticed the lush greenness of the place, the calm that permeated everything, and the residents. Or students, or Buddhist disciples, or whatever you want to call them. They were all dressed in white, wandering around the grounds, peaceful and aimless, some of them with red blankets wrapped around them as the day's heat began to dissipate. They were all quiet and contemplative, floating around like ghosts, until I would ask one of them where I was supposed to register. Then they would kind of start and look confused, as if I had shook them out of their reverie, and answer in non-native English that they didn't really know. Seemed weird to me, because they must have arrived somehow at some point just like I was attempting to do now, but I thanked them and kept trying.
On my third try, I finally got someone who pointed me to the kitchen, where a Thai man was sitting. He nodded and took me to the monk room, where 3 monks were chilling and talking to each other. They asked me a few questions but mainly ignored me as they all chatted in Thai and laughed together. I sat on the floor and felt extremely out of place. I might have left except that I felt it would be extremely disrespectful. Also, I really had nowhere else to go.
After what seemed like forever, the head monk came out. The kitchen guy gave him the respectful sawadee greeting and indicated I should do the same, which I did. The head monk smiled and welcomed me. I realized later that the head monk must approve all visitors, and that this was my official approval.
After approval, I was issued my very own kuti (hut) with a sleeping mat and blankets, and given a uniform that was supposed to be white like the others but was in fact light blue. Perhaps blue pants got in with the whites wash? Reminded me of scrubs. I was to wear this outfit for the duration of my stay at the monastery.
I felt like a patient in a mental ward. But after two days of meditation, chanting, and practicing mindfulness, I didn't want to leave! And I didn't have to, if I didn't want to. Anyone who is approved to stay can stay as long as they want. Although I didn't do a lot of talking, I did chat with a Russian woman who was there with her boyfriend. They were 2 weeks in on a month-long stay. Unlike me, they'd planned their visit!
I decided to stay a full day, even though I could have left the next morning if I had wanted. After all, I was interested in meditation, and where better to learn it than in a forest monastery run by Thai monks?? And I wanted to see if I could get through a whole day.
Every day at Tam Wua starts at 5am with solo meditation in your hut, with tea and coffee at 6:30. (This of course meant that I slept until 6:15 and then jumped quickly into my scrubs in time for coffee.) At 7, the monks come out to receive the rice offering. All the students line up side by side in a kneeling position and scoop rice from their bowl into the monks' receiving vessels as they walk down the line. Then the students can have breakfast using the bowls they just emptied for the monks. Breakfast is usually rice with some sort of stewed vegetables. All food at the monastery is vegetarian.
Then there are two identical mediation sessions, with lunch in the middle of them. Each session starts with walking meditation, where the students follow the monks slowly around the grounds for 40 minutes in a line, women following the men. This was the one where I felt most like a mental patient, as I watched the long line of silent white-clad students plod slowly in front of me. Then sitting meditation is practiced for 40 minutes, with everyone sitting in rows with their legs crossed, right foot over the left thigh, and hands in laps, with the right hand over the left. Men sit in rows closest to the monks, and women in the rows behind. (I messed that up on my first time and sat with the men, which was agitating for a few individuals!) Sitting meditation is followed by a round of lying down meditation, with your feet pointed away from the monks and the Buddha statue, as the feet are the lowest part of the body and should never be pointed at anyone and especially not at Buddha. I do not know how long the lying down meditation lasted, as I invariably fell asleep during it, and always had really crazy dreams.
Students and monks are not allowed to eat after noon, so lunch was always at 11am and no food was eaten again until the next day's breakfast. There are other rules for those studying meditation, like not sleeping on an elevated sleeping place (i.e. we all slept on mats on the floor) and abstaining from drugs, alcohol, sexual activity, and hurting living creatures. Everyone was to follow these rules during their stay at the monastery.
At 4pm everyone is to clean the common areas for an hour. Then at 6pm, everyone gathers in the Dhamma hall for evening chanting in Thai, English, and a 3rd language that I didn't recognize. Chanting lasts about an hour, followed by one more round of sitting meditation, this time in the dark. At 8pm, the lights come on and the head monk wishes us a good night. Everyone is sent to their kuti to meditate on their own, and to fall asleep (lights out at 10pm).
I found it all quite peaceful and strange and really cool that something like that can exist for foreigners hoping to learn about Thai Buddhism and meditation. The monks themselves seemed pretty chill, and the head monk was downright hilarious when he greeted us in the morning and at evening chants. I really found it hard to leave after two days!
The grounds of the monastery are beautiful:
I could have stayed another week, easily, in such a blissful, peaceful setting. But Mae Hong Son was calling, and the motorbike had to be returned in a few days. So I took off after morning meditation and said goodbye to the monks.
In Mae Hong Son, I came across a local market where people where selling all sorts of crazy things. Here are some dyed chicks and baby ducks for sale:
Notice the monk? He wants dyed chicks too.
There are lots of temples to see in Mae Hong Son.
It was also mid-day and really hot, so what did I decide to do? That's right, climb to the top of a hill to see yet another temple.
I nearly got heat stroke, but the view of the city from the top was worth it. And there were chickens running around the temple grounds!
Other visitors were there, even though I'd seen none on the steps on the way up. Then I realized there was a road up to this temple, which I could have motorbiked up instead parking the bike at the base of the hill and walking up. Oops.
Since I'd lost an unplanned 2 days at the monastery, I didn't have time to stay overnight in Mae Hong Son, or even to complete the loop I'd planned through Mae Sariang, since that would require biking twice the distance of what I'd already done. So I decided to head back to Pai, where I could dine on street food again, specifically on more sticky rice.
Seriously, this stuff is so addictive and is widely available. How rice can be so delicious, I do not know. But it is, and at 5-10 baht per bag, it is dangerously affordable.
The next day, I drove back to Chiang Mai, checked into a hostel, booked a train for the next day and planned to spend the evening jetting around the city on the motorbike, just to enjoy it for a little while longer before having to return it the next morning. Of course I ended up chatting to people at the hostel, one thing led to another, and before I knew it I was back at the same club where I'd lost the key to the motorbike a week prior.
This time, I had a much better go of it: I danced with a lovely group of Thai girls and their gay québécois pack leader, didn't waste any money on beer, and didn't lose any keys. Yay!
When I got back to Bangkok the next day, I had a choice to make. Spend 3.5 days in the hot bustling city, or go to another island and chill out for the remainder of my trip?
Yeah, I went to the island. Specifically, Koh Samed, which is about 3.5 hours away from Bangkok by bus. While the vibe there isn't as nice as Lonely Beach on Koh Chang, and the overall cost of living is double of that in the Chiang Mai area, it's still an island in the Gulf of Thailand, and I was on it for 3 nights. And for that, I am grateful. (Even though I managed to lose the key to my bungalow and had to pay to have it replaced. Not on a roll with keys at the moment!)
I left Koh Samed on Saturday even though my flight was on Sunday, just to make sure. I could have stayed another night and gone straight to the airport from the island on Sunday, but the bus to Koh Samed was delayed due to problems with the A/C and I didn't want to risk something like that happening again on the way back. So after breakfast and a final swim, I left the island and headed back to Bangkok.
That's the last thing you see leaving the Na Dan pier. Scary!
My last night in Bangkok was spent at a house party. One of my work colleagues from Berlin was in town and her mates were throwing a Game of Thrones theme party. Though I knew nothing about the show, I went to the party just to meet some folks and find out a little bit about local expat life. And to see my work colleague halfway across the world, of course!
Thanks for following my Thailand adventures! There's still so much to do there - I didn't hang out with elephants or tigers, or get a traditional Thai tattoo, or get my PADI certification - so I guess I'll have to go back! Who's on board for next time?
posted by Kyla @ 10:33
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