Why Teach English in Thailand?

Here’s a great post about the added benefits of teaching English in a foreign country.

8 Hidden Benefits of Teaching English Abroad >

Thailand FAQ

I’ve been meaning to do a Thailand FAQ for a long time. There are many questions visitors and expats alike have about Thailand and most visitors I’m sure end up using a TH FAQ before coming to LOS. I wanted to make one that’s useful and that combines not only my knowledge but other resources as well.

Thailand FAQ is a pool of information from a number of sites - and I’ll be adding to it over today and tomorrow as well. There are many subjects that deserve a whole FAQ for themselves. The Full Moon Party was one of them.

If you have written a FAQ about some part of Thailand - the culture, attractions, anything really - shoot me a link and let me see if it will fit with this Thailand FAQ collection.

Buddhism Section Updated on ThaiPulse

I spent a couple hours today transferring over some of the Buddhist temple and meditation retreat information from the old TP site to the new one (www.ThaiPulse.com). There are many photos - probably 50 or more of Wat Suan Mokkh, Wat Pah Nanachat, Wat Tum Sua, Wat Tum Sang Phet and then if you really want to knock your self out you can see either the photo section of the old ThaiPulse site or see some of my photos up at Flickr.

My Thailand Photos at Flickr.

I think I have 600 photos of Thailand there at the present and in the process of uploading another 7,000 approximately. No I’m not uploading all my junk shots - these are my better than average shots.  The first photos you’ll see there are my beer bottle temple photos of a cool Buddhist temple in Sisaket’s countryside.

Here’s a better link that goes straight to my Thai photo sets so you can choose for yourself what you want to look at: Thailand photo sets

Gifts from Thailand: Thai Buddhist and Buddha Amulets

Often times visitors to Thailand return to their home country and realize that they didn’t buy any gifts for some loved ones because they were having too much fun here in Thailand. Happens a lot.

Here is a Thai Buddhist amulet site that is genuine and can help you out by sending your chosen amulets to any country in the world (I think) for just $9 per amulet.

There are currently 17 different Thai amulets available, about 10 with gold cases and the others made of brass, bronze, and copper.

There are good luck amulets - all are blessed by Ajarn Jumnien and guaranteed authentic.

Jae (Jay) Chinese Vegetarian Festival in Thailand

It’s that time of year when the Jae parades scare the hell out of the tourists.

I covered the Chinese Jae Vegetarian festival last year (I re-posted that on this new blog yesterday) and wrote my impressions of it. I added some photos and videos which you can find below - but this year I’ll abstain as many expat bloggers cover it already - and cover it well!

Already I saw that Jamie in Phuket had a great post about it for 2008’s festival activities - so I’ll refer you there:

Jamie Monk Phuket Blog covering Jae Festival >

Phuket is where the festival started apparently. He talks about it a little bit, but then links to the main site for information about the Chinese Vegetarian Festival here >

Here are some tame photos of the Jae participants in the festival from last year.

Here are my crazy photos from the Chinese Jae Vegetarian Festival in Krabi for 2007.

Here are 18 videos from Chinese Jae Vegetarian Festival in Krabi, 2007.

12 guys cutting tongues and dancing	Bloody group, guy with sword piercing cheek
Guys dancing while firecrackers go off around them	All sorts of Jae parade walkers
Guy with serpent carving through cheek and others cutting themselves	Kids walk near bloody men
Very crazy group cutting themselves, children just 3 meters behind
Monkey man 1	Monkey man 2
Man licking blade	Hard sword licker
Kids and women walk in Jae parade	Guys possessed
Guys screaming, women following	Bloodiest guy
Guys and girl with pierced cheek	Bicycle frame piercing

I saw a UFO in Thailand Last Night…

UFO s and Aliens in Thailand?

Last night I went to the beach for sunset and took some photos of the islands and the sky as it turned orange and then pink. The moon was almost full and there was a lot of light left in the sky though where I was it was almost dark, the mountains blocking the sun.

Everyone that was on the beach started walking toward the parking lot and I noticed a bright light above me to the left. Hmm. Strange. It was white light - not yellow or orange. It didn’t seem to be focused at all as the intensity of the light never changed. It wasn’t clearly defined either. I’m guessing it was a circle - as the intensity around the object seemed to be the same too. It just looked like a floating white circle.

The light was bright. I’d guess 30 times more bright than the brightest star. It was brighter than the moon, though the diameter of the object was, at its closest point about 1/5th the size of the almost full moon at 6:30pm.

The light was moving. My first thought was - plane. A plane has white lights. There was no noise and the light never changed in intensity so I ruled out plane. Likewise, helicopter - which would have been heard, and which doesn’t have a light hanging off the bottom (usually) with intensity that doesn’t change. Though - I guess if it were high enough - like 5km high or something like that - and the props were impossible to hear - it could have been one. I’ve never seen a helicopter with a light hanging off the bottom. If it were a spotlight - as in a search and rescue helicopter I think I would have seen the beam focused downward of such a bright spotlight. There was no beam. The air was humid and thick - I think a beam would have been apparent. I’m sure it would have.

The light moved from about an 11:00 position the entire way across the horizon in about 90 seconds.

It didn’t seem to be moving fast when it was directly overhead, but faster than a jet would at 30,000 feet. Much faster than that. It wasn’t moving nearly as fast as a shooting star, just very slowly and on the same line. It didn’t change line. I held my hand on my head and lined up a finger on it to see how it moved in relation to my hand. It moved in a straight line. Though, just looking at it without this aid - I thought it was zigging around a little bit. Perhaps an illusion.

I watched as it went from 11oclock position to 1 oclock position. There were some low level clouds and I tried to guess how high it was. I could still see the white light clearly through these low level clouds. I’m guessing the object was anywhere from 2km to 20km vertically though it’s a weak guess. There just was no real way to get a handle on the height.

I looked around to see if anyone else was staring - but people were so far from me - about 60 meters and it was so dark by the time I looked down out ofthe sky that I could just make out the outlines of bodies - not see what they were looking at.

Soon the light passed under the moon and behind some clouds that were very far off in the western sky. It went behind those clouds too, but disappeared when it did so.

I’ve pretty much ruled out airplane, helicopter, hot air balloon, weather balloon, those lanterns Thais make out of plastic or paper bags that gave me a scare one time as I saw about 25 of them in the 11pm night sky by my mansion. I wouldn’t say “missile” because the light was so pure white. Would a missile have a yellowish flame? I’ve seen the afterburners on F-4 phantoms and F-15 fighters while in the Air Force - the light was nothing like that - with a trail pointing away from where it was moving forward.

Slow moving shooting star? Is there such a thing?

Ball lightening? I’ve heard that it moves erratically - this was smooth and bright and silent.

Any ideas?

Oh - the photo has NOTHING to do with the UFO sighting except that I saw these on the way home and had to have a photo.

Alien seen in small village >

Photo of the group that saw the floating alien - and the debunking of it (scroll down on this linked page) >

March 22, 2006 Patong Beach, Thailand UFO Report >

Cha Am, April 2004 Sighting UFOs in Sky >

Oct 22, 2004 - Patong Beach Lights in Sky >

Thailand Photo of UFO >

Oct, 2001 - Chiang Mai UFOs >

I can’t load either of these videos on my slow connection, but maybe you can?

Video of a Thailand UFO

9 Mar 2007, UFO in Krabi Skies >

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What is the P-O-I-N-T of Life?

I have another blog that some of you are aware of… I tend to write more general philosophy based articles there… My outlook on life, esoteric, ambiguous and uplifting type stuff.

Here is my latest post there - I re-read it and think it says a lot about me, and I wanted to point you to that blog if you haven’t seen it yet…

Meditation Overnighter, without the Overnight

Arrived at the Krabi wat about 7:30am and took some time to see the caves again and walk the forest on a “break the spider’s webs with your face because you’re the first dummy to walk around today” routine. I used to do the same dumb thing riding the mountain bike in Florida and Hawaii through the woods… I’d have spider webs all over my face and spiders down my back, in my hair. Krabi is such a beautiful place that the spiders are almost negligible.

Spiders in Thailand are nothing to mess with though. Here’s one I saw 2 days ago at a small cave…

There’s maybe 200 steps to see the caves, 100 up, over the hill, and 100 down into the valley to see the caves, back up 100 and down 100 to sea-level. I then go load up at the convenience mart on food. They have little that I like so I get some of those raisin breads in plastic and 3 of the white bread with green pudding stuff on the top. I bought 2 small bags of peanuts on the walk to the wat for 5b each. I found bananas at a roadside stand and bought 6 small “apple-bananas” as we call them in Hawaii, for 10 baht. Expensive, oh well.

I start up the 1,237 steps that lead to the top of the mountain here in Krabi, and the Chedi and Buddhas. I hear tourists yelling above me and I’m only 80 steps into the climb. Rocks start flying over the hill and more tourists screaming. A brick hits a few yards in front of me and I recognize that it’s not quite time to go up the mountain, the MONKEYS ARE RESTLESS!

Just as I realize it’s the nutty monkeys, two of the bastards come around a rock and grab the 2 liter water bottle from my hand and rip it open with their teeth - all within striking distance. I don’t strike, I’m a meditator today, today I just watch and laugh… thinking about the bamboo stick I’m going to find to whack these twisted thieving human rejects with. I hear a girl still screaming and look up once more to see her wearing a monkey attached to her chest and trying to get into the purse and bag she’s holding above her head.

I think for a couple seconds about giving them back 80 steps of the hill. I decide on a retreat. We all do. Rocks are still flying over the hill. The monkeys grabbed everything the first group ahead of me brought. All the fruit, offerings to Buddha, water bottles and almost a purse. I go buy some more water. 3 small bottles. “30 baht”, she says. WHAT? 10 baht for a small water? She confirms. I shake my head thinking - they’re robbing me at the temple.

I relax a bit, watch a girl with her mom that dragged her to the temple to talk to the monk - probably she was a bad girl, she’s embarrassed and her mom is a bit angry. The monk is very friendly.

I head back up the mountain.

The monkeys are sitting like ducks - yet I don’t strike. They are picking each other clean of mites, ticks, fleas, whatever they have - and eating them. Guess they had enough of the tourists’ food for a while.

I walk by, almost stepping over them. They virtually ignore me. I walk up and up and up. I stop a couple times when I see a long section lit up by the sunshine. The sun is wicked hot in the am. It’s now about 8:30am.

I make it to the top and I’m sweating hard. I’m the first one up for the day and I drink some of the cold water from the cooler. Then I take some of the warm / un-cooled water and douse my shirt with it - ringing it out. I put it on and cool enough. I walk around, scout for meditation spots and shoot some video. Sorry, video upload will need to wait until I’m at a broadband shop, as it’s around 40 megs and I don’t want to shrink it and lose quality.

I choose a spot facing the Southwest mountains and sit down for a few hours. Meditation has changed for me since I stopped 10 years ago. It seems that whenever I meditate now there is not really a need to focus on the breath. No need to totally relax… it just comes. It’s there almost instantly. I experience a “no-thought” state just about as soon as I sit. I found that I can do it anytime I choose for as long as I choose. It’s strange.

When I started to meditate - by focusing on the breath with eyes closed and sitting cross-legged usually, I would start by focusing on the breath. Eventually the mind calmed and I’d lose feeling in extremities and then whole-body and then I’d progress through jhana when the state of no-thought occured.

Now- it’s always no thought if I choose. Strange. I am usually not in many levels of jhana anymore, unless I choose to start focusing on the breath.

Today I did a little focus on the breath, but the pain in my back was overpowering. I have not meditated in any serious way for about 10 years. My back just wasn’t ready to sit in that position for the few hours that I did.

I stopped meditating about 3:30 pm and called it a day. As I was eating down n the 3rd level a guy walked by with some toilet paper. I told him, they locked the door to the toilet. No toilet. He started to walk back, I encouraged him to give it a try on the walkway down below - but to be careful as he’d be visible from 2nd and 1st level to unsuspecting tourists. He gave it his best shot apparently because when he came back up he was rubbing his belly and saying, “oh, ohhhhhhh” joking around. HAHHA. They DO have a sense of humor in Russia too I suppose.

I walked around and took some photos and thought maybe I’d return tomorrow if I took some paracetemol or some other pain-killer that didn’t make me tired, wired, dizzy, or weird.

I walked down and literally stepped OVER the monkey tales that lined the steps from about steps 100 to 30.

A good day, I spent much of the time in the “PRESENT” which is where I hoped to be today.

Now, posting what might be my last blog here for a bit as I’ve sold this computer and the phone I use as a modem to connect online.

The rest of my posts will be from the internet cafe before I leave Thailand - and will probably be lacking photos and videos since I can’t edit them with the software I prefer…

Ok, that’s it… !

Meditation Calling… Is Vern home?

Over the past few days it’s been in my mind. Part of the reason I came to Thailand was to talk to some senior English speaking monks at Wat Pah Nanachat and Suan Mokkh about the process of “jhana” and losing the ego and other things that appeared to have been going on while I meditated so long ago.

I also came to see if Thailand’s culture - which accepted Buddhist meditation as normal, unlike the USA, would facilitate the process if I chose to go forward with it again. I’ve been here for a while now and just not felt the urge to go back and start the process again. Until recently.

Over the last days and even some weeks there have been times when I’ve felt like meditating again. I’d pretty much stopped cold 10 years ago because the process, once it kicks in is so overwhelming, and the changes it makes so profound… So hard to explain anything about it.

I’ve written a little bit about it on my other blog (www.aimforawesome.com) and thought I’d keep the topic going here as well.

I’m planning on going to a mountain-top temple in a day or so and meditate for a day, 2 days, 3 days. I don’t know how much I’ll post to the blogs, depends on the phone service up there and if I’m able to upload the photos to the blog or not. I’ll need to do a test to see if posting works since I’m FTP’ing my blog to my own hosting plan at Godaddy and the usual functions of Google’s “Blogger” may not be functional.

If anyone is interested in meditation - a simple meditation without following Buddhism or any other religon or “ism” I created a free e-book on my www.aimforawesome.com site that is in the “Pages” link in the upper right hand side of that site. It’s a PDF file and it covers about 22 days of meditation. The meditation is very easy, and it’s basically all I did. I took it from a few sources… SN Goenka’s Book on Vipassana Meditation primarily.

Ok, I’ll be testing the upload photos functionality to see if it’s working and then maybe one more post before I go to my meditative retreat on the mountain.

Songkran Water Festival Photos from Thailand

Here are some photos from Songkran Water Festival, I risked my camera but most everyone was nice and didn't splash me. Some still did, and, well, that's Thailand. I have a lot of these photos, I'll upload them in groups of 4 I think. I'm not sure that Blogger will let me put them all up. Reminds me, I must check what the limit is on server space allowed by Blogger as I must be reaching the maximum.

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