TUESDAY 10 June 2008
An early morning. An early breakfast. The sun was shining and it it was a lovely morning to be walking around. Without much direction we hit the road and looked for a place to eat. On a street corner on one of the main roads this guy comes up to us and just starts speaking with us and gives us directions on where we should shop, what we should avoid, what to expect from the night markets etc etc. Mr Panic Hoox is eyeballing this chap after reading warnings in the Lonely Planet about guys talking to you to rip you off. Everything he said and every movement he made, there I was analyzing his intentions. Poor chap just turned out to be in town looking for silk for his wife’s wedding dress. Good guy gave us his blessings and sent us on our way with all our money and wallets intact.
Breakfast became a small brunch in a little place near our hotel where we met an Aussie and an Englishman that gave us great ideas on places to stay in Bangkok later. They also recommended a good massage place around the corner only 5 minutes walk away. It was a great chat but it was also time to be off. We had previously booked into an overnight meditation retreat with monks out in the countryside. The meeting time was 2pm at Wat Suan Dok – “Monk Chat” so we had to get going.
When we arrived at Monk Chat we signed in and quickly got acquainted with other travelers from all walks of life that had shown up for the same retreat. The schedule included a 2 hour chat about Buddhism and meditation and soon after that we were loaded into a truck and taxis and taken to the retreat a long 15km away. We were given a little while to settle in and shower and change into our white meditation clothes that they supplied us and then taken for dinner. We were taught the chant giving thanks for the food and “observing the meal” explaining why food is consumed before eating. Lots of trying to repeat sentences in Thai. On the completion of diner that was it, no more talking until we were told otherwise the following day. This is going to be interesting. Hoox quiet? Hmmmm.
After dinner was our first introduction to meditation, the reasoning behind it, and a few different techniques. It was all very interesting and pretty frustrating not being able to concentrate properly but that is normal and that is the reason for meditation, to calm ones mind and be able to focus on a single thing for more than 3 seconds without your “monkey mind” jumping around from thought to thought. Train that monkey. No don’t slap it (that’s a different monkey), just train it! The rest of the evening was spent trying some of the different styles of meditation: sitting and listening, walking, lying down trying not to sleep, sitting and making hand movements to 14 counts (thats tough!) and some others.
I have no idea what time it was when we finally hit the sack. We had all been separated into shared rooms of 2 per room and not mixed male/female. I stayed with a Brit guy named Phil and Deeds managed to get her own luxury apartment. Some girls get all the luck. Anyway, it was too late to be bothered with roomies etc and after a quick shower I was in bed and falling asleep. This lying down meditation thing works.
OOOooooommmmmmmmZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz
