"The mindful caveman experience"
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Mark
31 December 2012 | Thailand, Chiang Mai
We drive off from Chiang mai to Pong Term, after a complex search for "the yellow bus".
There is only one going there, once a day.
As all the buses here are red, it should be easy to find.
It's not.
When we arrive at the market the red buses turn yellow. there is hundreds of them. by the way, "bus" means an taxi, with a big open trunk with room for 6 people. we often shove 10 or 12 people in, because hey; there's a roof and you can always hang from it, right?!
After some vicious asking around we finally arrive at the bus. the road soon turns from tourist-shop infested, to shooting-galleries and strawberry farms, to only trees and mountains.
after 4 hours of driving through amazing scenery, an adventurous walk on cut-out stairs and wobbly bamboo bridges we arrive at the Mindful Farm.
We soon fit in, and I feel like I'm on the beach. The book, that is. (recommended)
It's some sort of sub-community with rules of their own, and tasks for everyone.
Pi-Nan as Sal, overseeing all, guiding. Leading. Choosing his words carefully.
Never speaking more than he has to.
The daily rythm starts at 6.30. It is COLD, as the clouds basically fall down in the mountain valley at night.
the morning mist is so thick you can barely see your own hands.
shoes are wet. and we had some serious problems getting adjusted to sleeping on what is basically wood, with 2 blankets on it.
No insulation or door.
We start off with some yoga before we make food. Everything is done step by step: gather wood, make fire, boil water, pluck hibiscus flower/lemongrass put hibiscus flowers in there.
-Bake rice
-take vegetables from the garden.
- cut, clean, make salad
so on.
As soon as everyone sits, we will eat. In silence.
Food meditation.
Since the purpose of eating, we learn, is eating.
when you are done, you wait for the rest, meditating.
Afterwards. We work. Some on gardening, some on building. It's actually pretty hard work: We are making an altar in the meditation chamber. So we need rocks from the river. hundreds. Then, a lot of shoveling, smashing rocks, building, planting and farming.
An hour before lunch everyone is on food.
Food means organic, fruit, vegetable and eggs. No meat, ever. (No BACON??)
When the lunch, with the same "rules", is finished, we rest. 2 hours to do whatever you want. As long as smoking, drinking or entertainment is not involved.
After the break, I'm on wood. Thinking it would be less hot, and more easy. It was half true. I was in the shades, but cutting massive, hard wood with a slightly blunt machete was challenging.
Blisters appeared on my fingers soon as I was done.
My respect for everyone who works with his hands like this grew instantly.
At night, after dinner, we do meditation. Some lessons in Buddhism, and then 30 minutes of sitting/walking meditation, or both. At first, my knees, ankles and upper back hurt too much to focus. " is my posture that bad??" Fortunately, it got better and better along the days.
After meditation, which would be around 20.00, the day was over. basically, that meant that everyone just went to sleep.
That was our daily rhythm for a week. The only exception was Christmas.
Luba and Marco went into town for some "Christmas" shopping; nuts, honey and cacao.
Together with the fresh coffee we'll have an amazing dinner tomorrow!
The coffee was quite a challenge though: we had to go to another farm to get beans from the garden (and take 7 bags of 20kg pig shit back to our farm..) then dry them. take the shells of, dry them again, roast them, grind them the next day et voila! one cup of delicious, home made coffee. from start to finish.
Everyone put in their best effort for the Christmas meal. I baked some banana, peanut (freshly picked/roasted) en honey cookies, Eric made delicious apple crumble and Rob produced some amazing egg nogg, which Justin saved at the last moment.
trying to control your heat on a campfire is not so easy!
We ate all of it near the campfire. Unforgettable.
Second Christmas day we finished the Buddha terrace. I can't believe it happened so quickly, as there was nothing there when we came.
It was an amazing experience and I feel like we spent more then a month on that farm. In a good way. I feel extremely fit in body and spirit. We learned a lot and think we accomplished just as much. I can highly recommend this to anyone who wants to de-westernise for a bit and feel reborn.
There is only one going there, once a day.
As all the buses here are red, it should be easy to find.
It's not.
When we arrive at the market the red buses turn yellow. there is hundreds of them. by the way, "bus" means an taxi, with a big open trunk with room for 6 people. we often shove 10 or 12 people in, because hey; there's a roof and you can always hang from it, right?!
After some vicious asking around we finally arrive at the bus. the road soon turns from tourist-shop infested, to shooting-galleries and strawberry farms, to only trees and mountains.
after 4 hours of driving through amazing scenery, an adventurous walk on cut-out stairs and wobbly bamboo bridges we arrive at the Mindful Farm.
We soon fit in, and I feel like I'm on the beach. The book, that is. (recommended)
It's some sort of sub-community with rules of their own, and tasks for everyone.
Pi-Nan as Sal, overseeing all, guiding. Leading. Choosing his words carefully.
Never speaking more than he has to.
The daily rythm starts at 6.30. It is COLD, as the clouds basically fall down in the mountain valley at night.
the morning mist is so thick you can barely see your own hands.
shoes are wet. and we had some serious problems getting adjusted to sleeping on what is basically wood, with 2 blankets on it.
No insulation or door.
We start off with some yoga before we make food. Everything is done step by step: gather wood, make fire, boil water, pluck hibiscus flower/lemongrass put hibiscus flowers in there.
-Bake rice
-take vegetables from the garden.
- cut, clean, make salad
so on.
As soon as everyone sits, we will eat. In silence.
Food meditation.
Since the purpose of eating, we learn, is eating.
when you are done, you wait for the rest, meditating.
Afterwards. We work. Some on gardening, some on building. It's actually pretty hard work: We are making an altar in the meditation chamber. So we need rocks from the river. hundreds. Then, a lot of shoveling, smashing rocks, building, planting and farming.
An hour before lunch everyone is on food.
Food means organic, fruit, vegetable and eggs. No meat, ever. (No BACON??)
When the lunch, with the same "rules", is finished, we rest. 2 hours to do whatever you want. As long as smoking, drinking or entertainment is not involved.
After the break, I'm on wood. Thinking it would be less hot, and more easy. It was half true. I was in the shades, but cutting massive, hard wood with a slightly blunt machete was challenging.
Blisters appeared on my fingers soon as I was done.
My respect for everyone who works with his hands like this grew instantly.
At night, after dinner, we do meditation. Some lessons in Buddhism, and then 30 minutes of sitting/walking meditation, or both. At first, my knees, ankles and upper back hurt too much to focus. " is my posture that bad??" Fortunately, it got better and better along the days.
After meditation, which would be around 20.00, the day was over. basically, that meant that everyone just went to sleep.
That was our daily rhythm for a week. The only exception was Christmas.
Luba and Marco went into town for some "Christmas" shopping; nuts, honey and cacao.
Together with the fresh coffee we'll have an amazing dinner tomorrow!
The coffee was quite a challenge though: we had to go to another farm to get beans from the garden (and take 7 bags of 20kg pig shit back to our farm..) then dry them. take the shells of, dry them again, roast them, grind them the next day et voila! one cup of delicious, home made coffee. from start to finish.
Everyone put in their best effort for the Christmas meal. I baked some banana, peanut (freshly picked/roasted) en honey cookies, Eric made delicious apple crumble and Rob produced some amazing egg nogg, which Justin saved at the last moment.
trying to control your heat on a campfire is not so easy!
We ate all of it near the campfire. Unforgettable.
Second Christmas day we finished the Buddha terrace. I can't believe it happened so quickly, as there was nothing there when we came.
It was an amazing experience and I feel like we spent more then a month on that farm. In a good way. I feel extremely fit in body and spirit. We learned a lot and think we accomplished just as much. I can highly recommend this to anyone who wants to de-westernise for a bit and feel reborn.
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02 Januari 2013 - 14:33
Marie-josé:
hoi mark,
allereerst de beste wensen voor 2013.
de feestdagen heb je wel heel basic doorgebracht zo te zien, wat zal je tzt bij terugkomst heel anders tegen alle luxe aankijken hier in NL.
geniet van al hetgeen je nog gaat meemaken, maar pas wel op
vele groeten,
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