10 day silent retreat

Since we're in the land of Buddhism and meditation, we decided to break our journey with a 10-day silent retreat. Silent actually means "S-I-L-E-N-T": we spoke no word during our 10 day stay which is a pretty unique experience, specially when your are surrounded by another 100 people from all over the world...

50€ all inclusive for a 10 day retreat means everything is really basic, like our room consisting of a 4m² concrete room with a concrete bed, and 1 light bulb....


... and also one wooden pillow...

Ok, it looks more like a prison cell, but that's the idea, to get away from all the things you dont really need...

You could think you would go crazy by not talking all day, since you're stuck with only one person: yourself and your thoughts wandering about. But the schedule was so strict, there was not too much time to "think": get up at 4am and full program until 9pm... and meditation is about that: becoming aware of your thoughts and not "clinging" to them. Believe me it sounds easier at it is...
And as for the menu: rice soup every morning and thai food at lunch, and oh yeah, no dinner, just a cup of tea.

Here is the "shower"! which pretty much consists of a pond and some bowls to pour water over you.


Here's the meditation hall, where we sat about 6 hours per day.



Being "dropped" in the cold real world after that can be even a harder experience! But your mind should be Zen...


So for a smoother return in society we treated ourselves on the Island of Phuket, which is pretty the Côte d'Azur of Thailand (and it actually looks similar)... and enjoyed the best Pizza east of Italy!


David