02
Silent retreat
10 days
Chiang Mai is known as a tourist destination for plenty of reasons. We go there for a ten-day silent retreat. A little scared, but mostly very enthusiastic, we register the day before the start at Wat Ram Poeng. We both immediately feel that we made the right choice.
For 10 days we live by the following schedule: get up at 4:00 in the morning, go chanting at 4:30, meditate until breakfast, have breakfast at 6:00 AM, attend a lecture of one of the monks, meditate some more until lunchtime, have lunch at 10:30, meditate until check up with monk, meditate for the rest of the day. NO SPEAKING, NO WRITING, NO DISTRACTIONS.
We both strictly follow the rules for 10 days, but it is not always easy. Especially when the neighboring restaurant bakes pizzas every night around 18:00. So we think it is only appropriate to celebrate our “release” with pizza afterwards. After the farewell ceremony we cannot stop talking to the other people in our group. It feels like we already know each other even though we haven't said a word.