A Week and a Half Meditating in a Thai Forest
Information for Potential Meditators...or Just the Curious

The journey north of my home of three months was long and hilly and there were times when I thought the pickup truck would not make it. Just as the mobile phone conversation between me and my mom broke up as I passed between mountains, there came a screeching and a thump. We halted and I looked behind the truck to find a motorbike overturned by the guardrail. The driver had flown over the side but his bike hadn't. He'd been driving on the wrong side of the road.

We all piled out of the truck. The front bumper was dented in and covered with a strange mucus. We flagged down a truck passing in the opposite direction people lifted the unconscious driver into the back. No way to call an ambulance from where we were.

Another time the truck was so crowded that the engine ground so hard it started to smell like short circuiting electronics. Half of the people in the truck jumped out and the truck crawled up the hill. There had been 30 people--literally 30!--in a single small cab pickup.

I wasn't planning to make such a long trip to meditate, but a bit of serendipity brought it about. I called my teacher one night and found him at a new monastery inaccessible by any modern electronic communications device. He as just in town for a few hours. He gave me scant directions and I set out head shaven and walking on 3 hours of sleep two weeks ago.

The monastery was absolutely stunning. If anyone is passing through Northern Thailand, they need to check this out, even if they're not into vipassina meditation. The temple-- Wat Tam Wau -- was founded five years ago by Phra Ajahn Luang Ta, a monk famous for his twenty years of wandering and cave dwelling in southeast Asia. He was a master of meditation and made sure that one got nothing but a pure stream of that instruction while there at Wat Tam Wua.

If anyone is passing through, here are directions: Wat Tam Wau is on the only road between Mae Hong Son and Pai. The address is:
Wat Tam Wua Forest Monastery
Ban Maesuya, Amphur Muang
Mae Hong Son, 5800
Thailand.
It's about an hour from Mae Hong Song and maybe two from Pai, give or take.

If you're an English speaker, you best contact Udi, my teacher. His English is not great, but he's so much better than going to once of the urban meditation centers where the treatment is not so personal. Udi can be reached via email at: udilyon@yahoo.com and his mobile number is 06-2060638.

I won't say anything about my meditation experiences, just that the setting was amazing. The monastery was settled between two mountains down a little stream-lined path about a kilometer from the small road between Pae and Mae Hong Son. The mediation huts, grounds, salas, all other aspects of the operations were well-maintained by Ajahn Luang Ta and the families who lived on the property. These people gardened and cooked two wonderful vegan meals a day. Some days I felt downright spoiled! All one needs to bring are two changes of white clothes and a flashlight for going into the meditation caves. Even if one isn't there to meditate, it could be a great place to write or just unwind. And it all works on donations, so anyone is welcome.

Now I'm back in the big city, on from here on out to ever bigger cities. I make short glances at the little fork in the road that I just passed and I'll update the blog about my decision-making process in the near future.