Back in Thailand!

After our unexpected but inevitable departure from Laos, we landed in northeastern Thailand in a city called Ubon Rachatahani. Despite having been to Thailand several times before, we had never heard of this city. As we were assured in Laos, there were several hospitals with Western standards and English-speaking staff here in this unknown city, so Nina and Thomas could finally receive proper medical care. Fortunately, neither of them had anything too serious, but they still needed a course of antibiotics.
In the tropics, there are some diseases that you really don't want to have. For example, schistosomiasis, a small parasite. For those interested, there is an interesting Wikipedia entry about it. Since there wasn't much else to do in Ubon besides receiving medical care, we decided to fly to Bangkok on the same day. Thanks to the renowned Thai airline Nok Air, it was even possible for two travelers from Swabia, as the flight cost about 25 European currency units per person. Since we are not necessarily city lovers, we also decided not to stay in Bangkok for too long and to go to Koh Phangan, where we would potentially have access to Western medical care again and our two patients could recover in peace. For the trip to Koh Phangan, we separated for the first and only time on our trip, as Dennis traveled by night bus, which was not yet possible for Nina and Thomas, and the two of them flew with the good Nok Air the next day.

Koh Phangan: white deserted beaches, palm-fringed sandy shores, parties, reggae bars, hammocks, cheap huts right on the beach, a backpacker's paradise... Yes, that was once this island. Unfortunately, not much of it remains. It is really astonishing what can happen in 10 years, and by now, the traces of mass tourism simply cannot be hidden anymore.
Fortunately, we still found a little oasis in the small village of Srithanu, but even here, the lonely beach has now been overwhelmed by hotel complexes, and the wooden huts with hammocks have to give way to air-conditioned stone houses more and more...
Back to life. Koh Phangan is also known for its lively techno parties, and since Thomas was feeling somewhat better, he and Dennis went to the Halfmoon Festival on the first evening. The party was good and the two of them celebrated until the morning, but it should be mentioned that the Halfmoon Festival no longer has much to do with its original idea. It is now just an overpriced tourist entertainment. The entrance fee is 35 euros, and a small beer costs over three euros. Taxi drivers demand exorbitant and seemingly arbitrary prices... So much for dancing with peace and love...
The following days were spent living the typical island life, lazing around, riding scooters, swimming, having a fish BBQ in the evenings, and then having a beer in a nice bar. This gave Nina and Thomas the opportunity to recover. After a week, it was sadly time for Thomas to say goodbye. For our companion of the last six weeks, it was time to go back home. At this point, thank you Porni Thommy, it was an honor for us to turn our team of two into a team of three!
Despite the changes in Thailand, we decided to stay on this beautiful island for a while longer. During our travels, we realized how exhausting it is to constantly be on the move, to be in a new environment every other day or every third day, and to never really arrive anywhere. So, quite quickly, a while turned into six weeks. Despite not doing much, this time was eventful for us, and we learned a lot personally. We stayed for the six weeks in the same hut, which became our home. In the neighboring huts, holidaymakers came and went. We remember, for example, two older nice ladies from Vienna. They were also known as smoking grandmas among the experts, as they were exemplary chain smokers. Even the accompanying cough, which appeared with every puff, did not stop the grandmas from having a smoking marathon. Respect, the grandmas had a true fighter's heart. Then there was the nice but somewhat eerie young man who visited another nice young man late at night to have a lot of fun for a short time. On particularly sporty evenings, he even had two visits... We also got to know more and more people personally, as Srithanu is home to many long-term vacationers and dropouts, such as the cuddle therapist Rosi from Berlin, who lived two huts away from us for 5 months, her tantra-teaching friend Rita, who was there for three weeks, Petra from Tübingen, who was also on Koh Phangan for six weeks, and the Swedish couple Josefine and Kami with their enchanting daughter Amelie, who want to stay here for a year. With these acquaintances, we enjoyed life, went on excursions, and celebrated parties...
After a while, we realized that living in paradise can become boring in the long run, so we decided to work on the side. Yes, to work. In our resort, there was a beautiful empty beach bar, and we asked if we could run it for a few weeks. After a long back and forth with Coconut Mama, the boss lady, a lot of optimism, and the typical difficulties in understanding each other due to different mentalities, we were unfortunately denied the dream of running a bar on a tropical sandy beach. What a pity! As a result, we decided to give up our travel break and go to Koh Samui instead to take a different break. Here, we signed up for a meditation retreat. This means going to a kind of Buddhist monastery. Here, one is granted insight into the Buddhist faith and attempts are made to teach meditation. The whole thing went like this. There was a complete ban on speaking, except for the teaching monks. We slept on a rice mat with wooden pillows in a dormitory with about 30 other people. We were woken up at 4:30 a.m. At five o'clock, we had to sit in a cross-legged position in the meditation hall, and the daily schedule looked like this:
05:00 Morning reading
05:15 Sitting meditation
05:45 Yoga / exercise
07:00 Sitting meditation
07:30 Breakfast (rice soup) & chores
09:30 Dhamma talk
10:30 Walking or standing meditation
11:00 Sitting meditation
11:30 Lunch (rice and vegetables) & housework
14:00 Meditation instruction & sitting meditation
15:00 Walking or standing meditation
15:30 Sitting meditation
16:00 Walking or standing meditation
16:30 Chanting & Loving Kindness meditation
17:30 Tea
19:30 Sitting meditation
20:00 Group walking meditation
20:30 Sitting meditation
21:00 Bedtime
21:30 LIGHTS OUT
Vipassana meditation consists of exclusively focusing on the inhalation and exhalation. Neither of us had meditated before, so we started from scratch. We never managed to get all thoughts out of our heads, but in those few moments, an indescribable bliss spread, and we got a glimpse of the pure happiness that resides within each of us.
The days were incredibly long, and it required immense discipline and self-control to remain calm and focused on what we were doing. For example, when walking from the dormitory to the meditation hall, we only thought about placing one foot in front of the other...and nothing else! We were always in the present moment, neither in the future nor in the past. It was quite difficult but helpful because when we managed to be in the moment, we could endure the day.
Feelings such as contentment, impatience, anger because we couldn't get into meditation, sadness, and restlessness determined our day.
This was accompanied by back pain because we sat on the floor almost all day long...Contrary to expectations, we slept very well on the wooden board with the rice mat, and despite having only two sparse meals a day, with the last one being before noon, we were never hungry. The more we entered the state of tranquility, the clearer we could see. It was as if suddenly we were wearing glasses. The outlines became clearer, and small things could completely fascinate us, such as a leaf slowly falling from a tree. The gentle breeze rustling through the trees...
After three days, Dennis could no longer bear his restlessness, he became sad and could no longer find peace, so he decided to leave the monastery. Nina handled everything a little easier, but when Dennis left the monastery, she also became restless because she didn't know how he was doing. After six months of traveling together and relying on each other, this was not a good state to be in! So, Nina followed the next day in the evening, three days before the course would have ended.
And there we were, in the party crowd of Koh Samui. Everything was loud, bustling, endless traffic, sex tourists...In short, too much after that tranquility, so we decided to escape to the jungle and leave this crazy island.
After a rather uneventful half-day journey, we arrived at Kao Sok National Park and were warmly welcomed by Tawee (our host) and his wonderful family. In the small family-run Greenmountainview, Mama cooks for the guests in her own kitchen, and in the evenings, guests and locals sit together on the terrace. After the hustle and bustle of Koh Samui, we enjoyed the idyllic atmosphere of the green rainforest and the special experience of living very close to a Thai family. We enjoyed the tranquility, the sounds of nature, and the simple, unhurried life in the Thai jungle. We spent the days very relaxed, with a bike tour, a hike through the national park, and a few small walks. After three days, our journey continued to Kao Lak, where neither of us had been before. Kao Lak is the region in Thailand that was hit hardest by the terrible tsunami in 2004. As a result, everything is relatively new and designed exclusively for package tourism, which is not necessarily our favorite travel destination. Unfortunately, the weather was also not on our side, and we had long, heavy thunderstorms every day. Our accommodation was run by a very friendly Hungarian couple, and we also got to know the super nice German teacher couple Anna and Simon, with whom we spent a great evening despite the terrible thunderstorm. After three days, it was time to say goodbye again. Farewell to the sea and southern Thailand, where we had spent the last two months. A 15-hour bus ride finally took us to Bangkok. Here, we had two more days to look forward to Australia and to buy some things like warm clothes. Warm clothes?! For Bangkok itself, there is not much to say except OH NO, WARM CLOTHES....

Thailand Summary:
Nature:
Thailand's nature is still beautiful, but unfortunately, the traces of mass tourism, or rather what people are doing to our planet, are impossible to ignore. Of course, the beaches are still white. Unfortunately, they are no longer lonely. Wherever we went, the beaches were plastered with holiday resorts to the last corner. The water is of course still blue, but we don't want to know what's swimming in it. On Koh Phangan, we found that on some days, the seabed was covered with an unidentifiable thick layer of mud. The colorful corals in the reefs consisted mostly of dead rock. The colorful fish were missing. The garbage in the roadside ditch is also everywhere...

People
The Land of Smiles. That's how Thailand is advertised. During our first visits to Thailand, that was definitely true. This time, we rarely saw a smile. We have the feeling that the country has been spoiled by tourism. In the shops, you rarely receive a friendly 'saweddee krab' (hello). People are always on their phones, and 'kobkun krab' (thank you) is no longer given because it seems to disturb their phone activities. Moreover, it seems that only money counts, almost everywhere. Of course, it's not like that everywhere, but we had the impression that Thai hospitality is only to be found in isolated cases.

Food
The food is still delicious. But we have to admit that after a few weeks, we occasionally treated ourselves to a visit to an Italian or other Western restaurant, and in the end, we were really looking forward to cooking our own food again in Australia.

Despite the circumstances of the changes in Thailand, we had two wonderful months. We learned a lot. Among other things, we learned that living on a South Sea island, which is the dream of many, is not that easy. It was interesting to see how our bodies coped with three months of tropical climate. We thought we would eventually get used to the humidity and heat, but it was exactly the opposite. On some days, we longed for a wet and cold winter day in Germany. Really crazy.
The same goes for the food. With each day, the cravings for lentils with spätzle (mainly for Dennis...) increased. Now we know that, at least at the moment, we are not cut out for emigrating to the tropics.

The experience in the monastery was incredible and opened our eyes to many things! Many thanks for this wonderful time to the Diphabhavan Center on Koh Samui!