NORTHERN THAILAND: March/April 2005
Thailand - what a country! Friendly people, beautiful countryside, great food (spicy!), stable economy. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend some time in a Buddhist monastery? Well stay tuned...
We flew into Chiang Mai which is in northern Thailand and stayed at a guest house on the Ping river. EXploring the city, we visited temples, wandered through the toursit filled Night Bazaar, ate in restaurants, got our first foot massage - all at such reasonable prices that it was hard to imagine. Can you believe $10US for room, $2US for a meal, $2.50 for a half hour foot massage! Seems as if everyone there owns a motorbike - the country only allows motorbikes under 125CC so everyone drives one - from grandmas to teenagers. We saw many bikes with 3 people and even one with the whole family - mom, dad and 2 kids. Then we saw the best - one driver with 2 dogs balanced on the back of the bike!
Afer a couple of days we took a bus up to a small town named "Thaton" to visit Wat Thaton where we would stay for a week. (A 'Wat' is a Buddist monastary - there are thousands in Thailand) The 4 hour bus ride up was quite an experience - this was a non-aircon bus so windows provided some air and the driver drove the entire time with the front and back doors of the bus open. People would wave down the bus, the driver would barely pause long enough for them to enter the rear door and we'd be off again. There was a steward aboard who would take money and give tickets. The 4 hours passed quite quickly with watching the countryside and the people entering and leaving the bus. I was surprised to see that there were small towns pretty much all along the bus route except for the mountain passes.
We arrived at Thaton - a small town on the northern border of Thailand (Myanmar - previously Burma) on the other side. The Wat consists of many buildings scattered along a 1.5 mile road up and up a big hill. This facility serves many functions as it has facilities to accommodate many people in its various lodges and cottages, as well as novice training for young boys, scripture study for monks, a school, and a meditation area. Buddha was ever present in many sizes from small statues to HUGE hilltop sculptures. Each one of their buildings looks out over the hill and down on the village below where a river winds through rice fields - peaceful and beautiful There was not the beautiful blue sky that they have sometimes, as this is the time of year when there is a lot of burning of the fields and the sky had a lot of smoke in the air.
There were 3 other westerners there - a man from Holland, a man from the UK, and a young girl from Holland on a back-packing adventure through Southeast Asia. A couple of the monks and the main teacher there speak some English. Interesting to note is that a 'monk' is not necessarily a lifetime commintment. Many young 'novice' monks just try out being a monk, many older persons, both male and female, become monks for short or long time periods, and then 'disrobe' and reenter society in an honorable fashion. Sometimes a person will become a monk for 30 days or so after some crisis of personal loss of family, etc.
After arrival we were shown one of the basic meditation techniques and then shown to our cottages. The week was one of upmost simplicity - the cottages (Billy in #26, Ann in #30 - no staying together here) consisted of a porch, bathroom with cold water spigot and bucket, western sytle toilet but just water for flushing, and then one room with a pad, pillow and blankets for sleeping. The bell rings at 3:30 am and the monks chant at about 4:00 and then meditate for about an hour and a half. They then walk into the village for the 'Alms' rounds - the villagers supply the monks with food which they collect in their bowls. Technically the monks are not supposed to eat anything which is not directly given to them, however in practice they supplement the donations from the village. Breakfast is the main meal at 8:00 and the food is fabulous - one of the monks used to own a restaurant in Korea and he is a wonderful cook. There is always rice and then a selection of about half a dozen Thai/Korean dishes and fruit - all fresh and healthy. The monks are not allowed to eat after noon so they snack on breakfast leftovers during the morning. We westerners were supplied with a lunch at 12:00 but not dinner. We were welcome to eat snacks anywhere, anytime or go into town for dinner if we desired.
This particular monastery believes in meditation techniques called "dynamic" or "insight" meditation - not the common sitting still, eyes closed meditation - but a walking meditation with a certain pattern and then sitting, standing meditation again with a certain pattern and eyes open. The idea is to still the mind, plant yourself firmly in the "here and now", and watch the mind. It's challenging! The days blend together with meditating, visiting with the monks, visiting with the other westerners, walking, reading and finally you don't know or care what day it is or what time it is. This center is very unstructured - you participate when you want, do what you want for your personal journey. It was a remarkable experience. Here is the website for the Wat: http://www.wat-thaton.org/
One morning we walked up the hill and over to one of the Hilltribe villages. There are many of the small villages scattered through Thailand - they are small agricultural villages which operate the way they have for centuries. They are different ethnic minorities and are technically not part of Thailand so not privy to government assistance or education although this is changing now. The homes are constructed from bamboo with thatched roofs and the main crops are corn, rice and opium. The Thai government is conducting a "crop replacement" project where they encourage the villagers to replace the opium crop with another cash crop - they are apparently having good success and now much of the opium comes from the surrounding countries of Laos and Burma. The villagers that we saw had a mandarin orange orchard and we didn't see any opium, although it may have been further up in the hills.
After a week at the Wat we took a 3 hour river trip in a "long tailed boat" down the river to Chiang Rei. This was a great trip - the boats are about 20 feet long, with a pivotal engine guided by a long rod and an outboard drive shaft - they need to have about a zero draft to navigate parts of the river - the driver really needs to know the river to navigate around the trees and rocks. The 12 passengers sit on the floor of the boat alternating facing the sides. One small rapid area on the river brought a wave over the side and soaked everyone side of the boat - Billy included. We met a couple from Holland who were biking on a tandem bike through Thailand - what fun!
We arrived in Chiang Rei with Win and Wan - 2 sons of a couple at the monastery and went to the home of a friend of one of the monks - this friend is a Tai Ji instructor. Over the next 2 days we explore Chiang Rei - walk downtown, enjoy the boys, get some personal Tai Ji instruction, eat with the family, play with the kids in the family (teach them how to play Nim!) and enjoy being outside. It's interesting how much of middle class Asia is still so much more simple than the west. This family had a 2 bath, 3 bedroom condo - but furnished very simply, small tv and stereo but the most interesting thing was that the kitchen has no built in anything - no sink, no counters, no cabinets, no stove - everything is brought in free standing and the dishes are done outside on the back patio. In the main room there is no table - just tatami mats on the floor which serve as the play/eating area. We had a delicious dinner where a crock pot of broth was brought in, plugged in and placed in the middle of the mat, then fresh vegetables, meat and fish and brought in on separate plates - they are added to the pot right there and cooked - then served with noodles - yum!
Our bus ride back to Chiang Mai was a totally different experience from our previous bus ride. There were 3 classes of busses from Chiang Rei to Chiang Mei - the local, slow, non-air bus, the somewhat faster aircon bus, and the nonstop aircon bus. We took this last bus and it was the most luxurious bus I've ever been on - reclining cushy seats, snacks served, quiet, video if desired - if only airplane flights were like this - oh, I guess that's called first class isn't it?
Anyway, back to Chiang Mai and to the same guest house as we started at. Our last day we take a tour of the handicraft industries in the area and see 1. jewelry making with gems and gold - exquisite hand workmanship, 2. silk making - a working demonstration of how it was done in the past, 3. carpet making - really interesting to hear about the transfer of the industry from Kashmir to Thailand because of the political climates and see a carpet in the making - silk threads with hundred of thousands of knots in each carpet to make those incredible patterns - and hows a 250 - 800 year guarantee??, 4. lacquer making - again watching the process of starting with wood, covering with lacquer and then painting, 5. umbrella making - every step of these paper umbrellas done by hand. This is where we bought the wall fan on the cover page. Great tour and we assisted the local economy a bit along the way. Then back to Hong Kong.
We flew into Chiang Mai which is in northern Thailand and stayed at a guest house on the Ping river. EXploring the city, we visited temples, wandered through the toursit filled Night Bazaar, ate in restaurants, got our first foot massage - all at such reasonable prices that it was hard to imagine. Can you believe $10US for room, $2US for a meal, $2.50 for a half hour foot massage! Seems as if everyone there owns a motorbike - the country only allows motorbikes under 125CC so everyone drives one - from grandmas to teenagers. We saw many bikes with 3 people and even one with the whole family - mom, dad and 2 kids. Then we saw the best - one driver with 2 dogs balanced on the back of the bike!
Afer a couple of days we took a bus up to a small town named "Thaton" to visit Wat Thaton where we would stay for a week. (A 'Wat' is a Buddist monastary - there are thousands in Thailand) The 4 hour bus ride up was quite an experience - this was a non-aircon bus so windows provided some air and the driver drove the entire time with the front and back doors of the bus open. People would wave down the bus, the driver would barely pause long enough for them to enter the rear door and we'd be off again. There was a steward aboard who would take money and give tickets. The 4 hours passed quite quickly with watching the countryside and the people entering and leaving the bus. I was surprised to see that there were small towns pretty much all along the bus route except for the mountain passes.
We arrived at Thaton - a small town on the northern border of Thailand (Myanmar - previously Burma) on the other side. The Wat consists of many buildings scattered along a 1.5 mile road up and up a big hill. This facility serves many functions as it has facilities to accommodate many people in its various lodges and cottages, as well as novice training for young boys, scripture study for monks, a school, and a meditation area. Buddha was ever present in many sizes from small statues to HUGE hilltop sculptures. Each one of their buildings looks out over the hill and down on the village below where a river winds through rice fields - peaceful and beautiful There was not the beautiful blue sky that they have sometimes, as this is the time of year when there is a lot of burning of the fields and the sky had a lot of smoke in the air.
There were 3 other westerners there - a man from Holland, a man from the UK, and a young girl from Holland on a back-packing adventure through Southeast Asia. A couple of the monks and the main teacher there speak some English. Interesting to note is that a 'monk' is not necessarily a lifetime commintment. Many young 'novice' monks just try out being a monk, many older persons, both male and female, become monks for short or long time periods, and then 'disrobe' and reenter society in an honorable fashion. Sometimes a person will become a monk for 30 days or so after some crisis of personal loss of family, etc.
After arrival we were shown one of the basic meditation techniques and then shown to our cottages. The week was one of upmost simplicity - the cottages (Billy in #26, Ann in #30 - no staying together here) consisted of a porch, bathroom with cold water spigot and bucket, western sytle toilet but just water for flushing, and then one room with a pad, pillow and blankets for sleeping. The bell rings at 3:30 am and the monks chant at about 4:00 and then meditate for about an hour and a half. They then walk into the village for the 'Alms' rounds - the villagers supply the monks with food which they collect in their bowls. Technically the monks are not supposed to eat anything which is not directly given to them, however in practice they supplement the donations from the village. Breakfast is the main meal at 8:00 and the food is fabulous - one of the monks used to own a restaurant in Korea and he is a wonderful cook. There is always rice and then a selection of about half a dozen Thai/Korean dishes and fruit - all fresh and healthy. The monks are not allowed to eat after noon so they snack on breakfast leftovers during the morning. We westerners were supplied with a lunch at 12:00 but not dinner. We were welcome to eat snacks anywhere, anytime or go into town for dinner if we desired.
This particular monastery believes in meditation techniques called "dynamic" or "insight" meditation - not the common sitting still, eyes closed meditation - but a walking meditation with a certain pattern and then sitting, standing meditation again with a certain pattern and eyes open. The idea is to still the mind, plant yourself firmly in the "here and now", and watch the mind. It's challenging! The days blend together with meditating, visiting with the monks, visiting with the other westerners, walking, reading and finally you don't know or care what day it is or what time it is. This center is very unstructured - you participate when you want, do what you want for your personal journey. It was a remarkable experience. Here is the website for the Wat: http://www.wat-thaton.org/
One morning we walked up the hill and over to one of the Hilltribe villages. There are many of the small villages scattered through Thailand - they are small agricultural villages which operate the way they have for centuries. They are different ethnic minorities and are technically not part of Thailand so not privy to government assistance or education although this is changing now. The homes are constructed from bamboo with thatched roofs and the main crops are corn, rice and opium. The Thai government is conducting a "crop replacement" project where they encourage the villagers to replace the opium crop with another cash crop - they are apparently having good success and now much of the opium comes from the surrounding countries of Laos and Burma. The villagers that we saw had a mandarin orange orchard and we didn't see any opium, although it may have been further up in the hills.
After a week at the Wat we took a 3 hour river trip in a "long tailed boat" down the river to Chiang Rei. This was a great trip - the boats are about 20 feet long, with a pivotal engine guided by a long rod and an outboard drive shaft - they need to have about a zero draft to navigate parts of the river - the driver really needs to know the river to navigate around the trees and rocks. The 12 passengers sit on the floor of the boat alternating facing the sides. One small rapid area on the river brought a wave over the side and soaked everyone side of the boat - Billy included. We met a couple from Holland who were biking on a tandem bike through Thailand - what fun!
We arrived in Chiang Rei with Win and Wan - 2 sons of a couple at the monastery and went to the home of a friend of one of the monks - this friend is a Tai Ji instructor. Over the next 2 days we explore Chiang Rei - walk downtown, enjoy the boys, get some personal Tai Ji instruction, eat with the family, play with the kids in the family (teach them how to play Nim!) and enjoy being outside. It's interesting how much of middle class Asia is still so much more simple than the west. This family had a 2 bath, 3 bedroom condo - but furnished very simply, small tv and stereo but the most interesting thing was that the kitchen has no built in anything - no sink, no counters, no cabinets, no stove - everything is brought in free standing and the dishes are done outside on the back patio. In the main room there is no table - just tatami mats on the floor which serve as the play/eating area. We had a delicious dinner where a crock pot of broth was brought in, plugged in and placed in the middle of the mat, then fresh vegetables, meat and fish and brought in on separate plates - they are added to the pot right there and cooked - then served with noodles - yum!
Our bus ride back to Chiang Mai was a totally different experience from our previous bus ride. There were 3 classes of busses from Chiang Rei to Chiang Mei - the local, slow, non-air bus, the somewhat faster aircon bus, and the nonstop aircon bus. We took this last bus and it was the most luxurious bus I've ever been on - reclining cushy seats, snacks served, quiet, video if desired - if only airplane flights were like this - oh, I guess that's called first class isn't it?
Anyway, back to Chiang Mai and to the same guest house as we started at. Our last day we take a tour of the handicraft industries in the area and see 1. jewelry making with gems and gold - exquisite hand workmanship, 2. silk making - a working demonstration of how it was done in the past, 3. carpet making - really interesting to hear about the transfer of the industry from Kashmir to Thailand because of the political climates and see a carpet in the making - silk threads with hundred of thousands of knots in each carpet to make those incredible patterns - and hows a 250 - 800 year guarantee??, 4. lacquer making - again watching the process of starting with wood, covering with lacquer and then painting, 5. umbrella making - every step of these paper umbrellas done by hand. This is where we bought the wall fan on the cover page. Great tour and we assisted the local economy a bit along the way. Then back to Hong Kong.
Photo Gallery: click to see larger image.
