Wat Tam Wua

Trip Start Mar 14, 2007

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Thailand Forest in Northern Hills, Thailand
Tuesday, July 3, 2007

After a brief journey on the local bus to Mae Hong Son, I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere again with a Canadian girl I had met in Pai. We both thought we'd check out this Buddhist meditation thing first hand. We walked 1 kilometer uphill to Wat Tam Wua, a forest monastery. We found the abbot and he showed us to our rooms.

The place: anyone can show up and stay for as long as they want for free - the place runs on donations and government funding I would imagine (the abbot is a pretty important person in Thailand from what I understand). You're supposed to wear as much white as possible and keep talking to a minimum. Women should stay away from men to prevent distraction, and there are only two meals of rice porridge a day. But, the most important detail of them all, the place is beautiful. Amazingly beautiful. And peaceful. It was my heaven on Earth

01) The Lane to Wat Tam Wua

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There was animal and plant life everywhere and a large catfish pond with a fountain. The lawns are well groomed. You don't even notice your hunger really. If you do get hungry, you can always just pick a mango or something right off the tree and have a delicious snack. It's set in a valley with some creeks running through it. You go to bed at 8 and wake around 5 then practice meditating all day. They have caves nearby you can go meditate in. The one had a bat flying around inside and another had a bunch of monkies living outside in the trees.

On the third day, the abbot (the only English speaking monk) was leaving for Bangkok, so everybody was leaving. I got a ride back to Pai with James, a guy I met at the monastery.

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