Chiang Rai & Golden Triangle

Many travellers advised me not to travel to Chiang Rai for too long as there would not be much to visit. So I decided to book for a day trip today. In fact Chiang Rai is more liveable than visitable, lacking any major tourist attractions except being a gateway to the Golden Triangle and an alternative spot for arranging hill-tribe treks. We actually drove directly to the Golden Triangle and made a short trip by speed boat around the three-country border between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos with brief stops. The tour took us as well by car all along the land border and finally leaded us to a hill-tribe village. I was completely fascinated how they live and the way they are dressed. Each hill tribe has its own language, customs, mode of dress and spiritual beliefs. Most are of semi-nomadic origin, having migrated to Thailand from Tibet, Myanmar, China and Laos during the past 200 years. According to research, there are 10 different hill tribes but there may be even more. The population is estimated to be around 550'000. As you can see on the images, their colorful dresses are very different to one another. The most popular tribe is the one of the Karen, the so called long neck. The women wear heavy metal rings around their neck. They normally start to put it on at the children age of 4 to 5 years and will continue to make it higher once they get older. It is very remarkable how they can live with such kind of jewellery. I think also the other pictures speak for themselves. The two photos at the bottom were taken at the market near the border, the little girl carrying her younger brother. It was a very impressive day.

Wat Doi Suthep

I have just come back to Chiang Mai after my meditation course. It was a very intensive and spiritual week in the temple of Doi Suthep and an incredible experience, I will never forget. The life up there is really back to basics. When I checked into my room, I found an empy one, no bed, no chair, no nothing!! I just got two very thing mats and three blankets. So I had to arrange myself to feel a bit comfortable which was quite a bit of a target. Apart from that, the there was only cold water. I guess it is not everybody's cup of tea to take a cold shower at 4:00 but I could also manage that one. The program for the week was as follows: 4:00 wake-up time / 4:30 group meditation practice / 6:30 breakfast time / 8:00 dhamma talk, monch speaks about buddhism / 11:00 lunch time, after noon NO more solid food until breakfast next morning!! / 15:00 report with monch / 18:00 chanting at the main temple / 22:00 bedtime. One was not allowed to sleep more than 6 hours. I could follow all the guidelines except the talking. Well, there were meditators that did not speak at all. This was quite weird as you did not even know their names and where they came from. To be honest, one week was also enough for the first time. I practiced about 5 hours of meditation every day. We were able to do our meditations all around and in the temple. As the place is also open to the public during the day, there were also lots of tourists during daytime. The best meditations I could experience were always the ones at night in the temple. I can only recommand this kind of course to everybody. I learned that advanced meditators practice up to 12 hours a day!! There was a man who stayed in a covered place in the forest with no running water and no electricity. So he was really abandoned from the everybody. I guess, I could not go that far. As you can see on the pics, dresscode was white. I went to the local market and bought some white baggy pants. Lots of men become monchs at a very early age. Sometimes parents sent their sons to a temple when they cannot decide themselves yet. It is an honor for the parents when their son become a monch. Furthermore their education and study is guaranteed. Most of the boys become monchs for a short period like three months. They have to shave their heads and eyebrows. As you can see on the pic, they are still childish but during the ceremonies they keep very quiet and kneel very bravely on the floor like the grown up ones. All temples are meant to be very rich with wooden carvings and lots of gold. Sunset of course was always a highlight up in these hills.