Adventures in deep diving

Since I last checked I have had two big adventures. One into the mind; the other into the depths of the Andaman Sea. I'm not sure which was more fruitful, but you can probably guess which was more fun.

On Jan 30th, I traveled to Wat Suan Mohk in Chaiya, Thailand and began a 10-day silent meditation retreat focusing on vipassana meditation. Like any intensive medtiation retreat it had its ups and downs, but was ultimately very rewarding.  I continue to discover new things about myself and my mind each time.  Some days it easy to focus and clear the mind; others it is almost impssible. On the last retreat I did back in December, I was able to get into much deeper meditative states because the cetner was a bit stricter about the technique they taught. This center, the most famous in all of Thailand for teaching farang (foreigners) about Buddhism and meditation, was very ecumenical in its teachings and laidback in its approach to insight meditation. Rather than deep meditation, my most profound experiences for the whole retreat involved meditating on the Buddhist principles of metta (loving-kindness) and karuna (compassion).  I mostly focused on myself, my family, and my friends, but Buddhists believe that meditating with these intentions can really improve the world simply by holding them in your heart and mind.  Good stuff, no?  Oh yeah, did I mention that you slept on a concrete bed with a thin bamboo mat and a wooden pillow (seriously) which is meant to help your discipline and give you a taste of how monks and nuns live.

Aside from the saving the world, I had pretty varied and full days at the beautiful, forested retreat center. Here is the rough schedule:
4am wake-up bell
 4:30 sitting mediation,
 5:30 yoga
 7 - dharma talk (dharma is the buddhist law of nature, also means "truth" and "teachings") by the abbot of the monastery
 8am - breakfast which consisted of weak tea and rice porridge (think Charles Dickens-esque gruel)
 9am -chores than time for a dip in the naturally-occuring hot springs on the grounds of the center
 10:30  -walking and sitting meditation
 12:30 - lunch - delicious thai food ranging from pumpkin curry to mushroom soup or veggie fritters or spciy green papaya salad, all vegetarian. usually with dessert of fruit but sometimes bananas fritters in coconut milk.
1:30 - laundry (DIY by hand) and nap time
2:30 - dharma talk by an old English monk, who was exceedingly sarcastic and funny, but very unmonklike
3:30 - walking and sitting meditation
6 pm - tea time, no dinner to help you meditate better (you actually don't really miss it after the first day or so).  Also time for another hot spring soak, but the mosquitos usually ruined things.
7:30 - sitting mediation, group walking mediation around the lotus ponds as the moon came up, sitting meditation
9:30 lights out

So, all in all, very full but peaceful days. I only really wanted to run away on day 6!  If anyone has any more questions for me about the acutal meditation techniques or Buddhism, please ask. I don't won't go into too much detail here in case people aren't interested.

Then, after all that peaceful contemplation, I had to a do a quick and dirty, hectic, expensive run to the border with Burma in order to renew my Visa.  Upon entering the little fishing village of Khoung, the Burmese immediately tried to sell me whiskey, viagra, marijuana, and opium. I declined and returned to Thailand via longtail boat and motorcycle taxi (picture me on the back of a moped with my huge packpack still on my back hanging on for dear life but loving it all.)

Visa-run behind, another 2 weeks in Thailand stamped into my passport, I headed back to the Andaman Sea and the little scuba-crazy town of Khao Lak. Here I boarded the MV (marine vessel) Koon for a 3 day, 3 night scuba voyage to the Similan Islands.  It was a really nice big boat with a shared, aircon room with a huge window onto the sea (my roommate and sometime diving buddy was a sweet lady from Yugoslavia named Dushka. Her boyfriend, who refused to share a room with her, claimed to be a dentist but was to all appearances a gangster (seriously) with a neck tattoo and much jewelry and talked about his associates (other dentists?) who bought ipods wholesale in the US to sell for greatly inflated prices in Yugolslavia. The rest of the divers were a diverse mix of Americans, Norwegians, a hyperactive Philippino, Germans, Singaporians, and rich Thai people from Bangkok who spent more time drinking Johnny Walker and watching Jackass in the plush, aircon lounge with a massive flatscreen TV than diving.  The food was excellent and prepared by a sweet old Thai mama and the front of the boat was festooned with garlands and food offerings for Buddha and good spirits to give us a safe journey.  The boat also had a outdoor dining and common area with a smaller TV where we watched episodes of the BBC "Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" series ast night and had our meals and dive briefings. There was an upper deck that served for sunbathing, diving into the turquoise waters when anchored between dives, and was also where I slept 2 out of 3 nights in order to stargaze and catch the sunrise (gorgeous of course). 

The  dives were uniformly excellent and a learning experience for me each time. We had a couple of dives with really strong current because of the new moon tidal phases that required some semi-scary open-water ascents and descents. We went to the worldfamous Similan Islands, a series of granite islands with massive granite boulders scattered across the sea floor surrounded by amazing coral reefs. A one spot I free-dove with my divemaster to see a mermaid statue placed on the sea floor to commemorate the 2005 tsunami  Then on to the Island of Koh Bon where I saw a manta ray!  Although a small one (about 6 feet across) it was still a great sighting as the peaceful giant flew past in slow motion before fading into the murky blue.  At Tachai Island I did a sunset dive where upon coming to the surface the riotuous sunset was relected on the surface of the water form below. But by far, the highlight was the two dives we did on Richelieu Rock, considered one of the top ten dive sites in the world. All I can say is that it was full on "Finding Nemo" with the healthiest and most diverse corals, sponges and anemones I have seen in Thailand thus far.  The coolest species encountered were: many rare shrimp, including tiny cleaner shrimp cleaning the teeth of a peacock grouper from the inside (what trust!), harlequin shrimp, dancing shrimp and mantis shrimp. Spiny lobsters, clownfish, basslets, emperor fish, triggerfish, blue-spotted stingrays, green turtles, moray eels,  gardem eels, flounder, ornate ghost pipefish, tiny yellow seahorse, lionfish, scorpionfish. I could go on, but I should probably stop now. 

Anyhow,  it was like total sensory overload (in a good way) coming right on the heels of the meditation retreat, and really enhanced the experience for me. If anyone is interested, an Ameican guy named Kevin Smith from the US took excellent video of all our dives and will be posting it to youtube in the next few days. You can find it with his username: KS89991  One of these days I will get some pictures loaded up to facebook or picasa. I have tried several times for hours only to have multiple failures becasue of crappy internet connections. So hang tight, they'll get up eventually.

Anyhow, I am next headed up to the northern city of Chiang Mai to meet up with my old friend Cato that I worked with in Hawaii in 2005. We will then travel on to the highlands of northern Laos to do big jungle trek.  So check back here in a couple weeks, same Bat time, same Bat channel!