Leoi - Monk Chat.

Trip Start Oct 10, 2005
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Trip End Ongoing


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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Leoi - The trip from the West side of Thailand to the East was pretty uneventful, lots of working towns but not that much to see from a tourists perspective apart from a number of national parks in the area. I did manage to do a few hikes up and down mountains and I did see some amazing sites (waterfalls mostly), there are some pictures attached.

I was told by a park ranger that on one particular hike there were spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, he said it was about a 2 hour hike. So there is me thinking it will be good to go up and have a look and I will probably be the only idiot to climb up a mountain in 30c heat in the middle of the day so I will get the view to myself. I parked the bike in a completely empty car park and started the hike, it was incredibly steep and the humidity in the air was making me sweat like nothing else. So after 2 hours of walking I climbed up the final incline to see a seating/viewing area with three monks chilling out having a cup of tea. As soon as I arrived two of the monks went to do some meditation at the temple that was also on the mountain top (God (Budda) knows how they got it there) and the third one starts chatting to me in perfect English, at this time I was still trying to catch my breath and did not notice that he was a foreign monk. He went on to tell me that he is from Switzerland and is the owner of a large Swiss company and came to Thailand 4 months ago to become a Monk, when he arrived in Thailand they took all the belongings he had on him and gave him a orange robe, he had also just completed his 3 month hibernation for the wet season (all monks stay in the temple during the wet season) and for that time did not speak, just practiced meditation and did whatever monk's do. I ended up chatting to this bloke for about 2 hours, I guess if I had not spoken for three months I would be up for a chat as well. Anyway, it was a pretty weird experience and due to all the talking he did, by the time I was ready to take some photos to show up all the clouds had rolled in and I didn't get any decent shots.

Travelling pretty quickly at the moment as I want to get to the Mekong river as soon as possible then travel along it as far as I can.
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Comments

pambee
pambee on Nov 18, 2005 at 12:08AM

Hi Alan
Just checking up on where you are now.Thinking of you, Love Mum xo.Take Care.

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