05 Dec 2016 14 Comments
Amazing, Wondrous, Unexpected Vietnam
It is April 2016. I leave the overwhelming heat of Cambodia by cruising down the Mekong River on a comfortable yet noisy speedboat for three hours and head into the just-as-overwhelming heat of Vietnam. At least it is cooler on the river. The boat pulls to the shore in the middle of nowhere. We step off the boat and trek a few dozen yards to a little ramshackle building tucked into the jungle where a tiny Cambodian man in a tiny hut stamps our exit visas. We walk another few dozen yards up the bank of the river and get our Vietnam visas checked and stamped by a tiny Vietnamese man in a tiny hut, who spends his entire day checking and stamping visas in the middle of the jungle.

Boating from Cambodia to Vietnam
We all pile back onto the boat, and a couple of hours later I check into the Floating Hotel in Chau Doc, Vietnam. Right away I meet Steven, the owner of the hotel. Steven is Vietnamese and lived in California for many years before returning to Vietnam in 2003. He has become a successful business owner, having opened the Floating Hotel, two restaurants, and a large tour company, among other ventures.

The Floating Hotel, Chau Doc, Vietnam
As we chat, one topic of conversation leads to another, and I end up agreeing to Continue reading
14 Mar 2018 11 Comments
Meditation Adventure in Myanmar
I jolt awake at 4:00 am. Consciousness dawns through the darkness of my sleeping mind. The brash clanging of a gong outside my tiny room’s tiny window has woken me. It is time to rise for the first day of a ten-day silent meditation retreat in the countryside on the outskirts of Mandalay, Myanmar.
I ease my stiff body up from the wooden pallet bed, push aside the mosquito netting, and splash myself to some semblance of awareness in the bucket shower.
I dress, brush my teeth, and run my fingers through my hair. Like a grey somnambulist, I lumber in the darkness, barely upright, to the Dharma Hall for the first two-hour meditation.
I can’t string three words together at this time of morning—which is fine, because this is a silent retreat—let alone focus and concentrate and meditate with an alert mind. But I can sit on pillows without swaying too much and allow my mind to drift back to semi-consciousness. I will come to call the first morning meditation “upright sleeping time.” Two hours goes by amazingly fast like this.
Throughout the retreat we will practice Buddhism’s five moral precepts and refrain from (1) harming living things, (2) taking what is not given (stealing), (3) sexual misconduct, (4) lying and gossip, and (5) taking intoxicating substances. Seems easy enough. Continue reading
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by Vagabond Queen in buddhist, buddhist temple, Burma, digital nomad, Long-term travel, meditation, meditation retreat, Myanmar, Solo female travel, Travel blog, vagabond, Wanderlust, World travel