An experience I wanted to have was missing from my stay here. With a little change of color, I got something else instead.

The White Temple

This is Asia, baby!

So, even leaving Pai showed the confusion that often appears here in the world of peace. It’s good to stand around a bus with nine completely different tourists, and none of us are sure that we are standing next to the right bus. You have to ask three times where the bus is going.

Several buses left in front of the travel agency / motorbike rental shop after nine o’clock. It doesn’t matter which one you put your butt on. Because they send you from one to the next, as if they don’t know which driver is going where either.

The point is that we left, and since the question of where we were going was asked many times, no one was worried.

One of my friends called me around 1 am. We talked for four hours. I woke up at 7 am, so even I easily calculated that I had slept for about two hours. I made up for the rest on the bus. I only woke up at the bus stops.

We were jolted for almost four hours. I’m starting to get the feeling that the cars here have some kind of speed limiter built into them and they simply can’t go fast.

I woke up in Chiang Rai at the bus terminal.

This is bad!

Because I bought a ticket that included a half-hour stop at the White Temple, located 10 km from the city, to see the building. The ticket that included a stop there was 200 BHT more expensive than the one that didn’t.

Everyone quickly left the bus. I was about to ask the driver how this “we didn’t stop” mistake happened. To which he tells me – he’s such a smart guy – that the White Temple is very beautiful, I shouldn’t miss it!

I tell him: dude! That’s exactly what I was going to ask, why didn’t we stop there. I had such a ticket.

I immediately felt compelled to pull over with the minibus. It said something like it would pull over and come back. I had a feeling that it would be pointless to wait, so I got off too.

The next day I wrote to the travel agency (Fuck! I have no luck with these travel agencies lately) to express my disappointment. They thanked me very much for my tip, which they will use to improve their service, and apologized for the communication misunderstanding.

I replied that there was no communication misunderstanding at all. I clearly asked when buying the ticket if we would stop at the church. They scammed me. The story is that simple.

For the above reasons, I am not showing any pictures of the White Church.

It would have taken me half to three quarters of a day to visit it, and I had a lot to do now.

The Blue Temple

There was a Blue Temple in the city – within a healthy walking distance. I played with the idea that I was color blind, and then the color didn’t matter at all.

So I went to the Blue Temple.

It was a great experience. I had never been in blue before, and I can say: it would have been a shame to miss it either.

Strangely enough, there was also a small market and restaurants within the temple grounds, so I started my Sunday here with a good breakfast.

This is not the first temple in Northern Thailand whose interior walls are decorated with beautiful paintings depicting scenes from the life of Buddha. Outside, extremely beautiful blue statues guard the peace of the temple, so this trip also became an art exhibition.

Entering the temple, the young guy who was the hall attendant was very happy with my respectful greeting. He was grateful and even remembered me when I left. I spent twenty minutes in the room because I was meditating inside.

The city

I lived 1 km from the city center, so I walked a lot on the busy streets. Due to its size, I got to know the center on the first walk.

There is a part of the city where there are street vendors in the evenings. You can buy everything. I was interested in the food.

I also found two huge market cities. With lots of small streets in one covered place. Here you could buy everything twice. If I wanted to put on a uniform while looking at a new phone, everything would have gone smoothly here.

There were very good restaurants on every street. I tried several, you can easily live well for 60 BHT. In these small restaurants, I always got a small bowl of soup with the main course I ordered. On one occasion, a bunch of spring onions resting on a bed of ice.

I ate very well in this small city.

I also found a good pub, so one evening I had a whiskey coke and a beer.

On my second evening, I was at the huge clock tower in the center that I had visited earlier – located in the middle of the roundabout – when the music started playing. At eight o’clock in the evening, the music played for 10 minutes. Many of us sat there and enjoyed the minutes. The music was so wonderful. I regretted that Shazam didn’t even know what kind of Thai music made the moments magical for me.

It was a fairy tale scene, how the color-changing light effects of the clock enchanted me among the sounds of the music. It turned out afterwards that an old Thai classical song was playing to accompany the light show of the tower.

Plus – now hold on! – I read afterwards that it was made by the same designer who made the White Temple. So fate gave me a little bit of the temple now. At least, I can believe that.

In addition to the good meals, I will definitely be taking this musical clock tower with me from this city.

The post 236. | Chiang Rai first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

Sometimes life does.

Now it looks like Laos is next.

In two days I’ll be walking across the Mekong.

Visa extension in Thailand

My Thai visa expired last Wednesday. To avoid trouble and overstaying, I went to the Immigration Office the previous Monday, because it can only be extended in person. Viva online 2026!

They quickly told me that since I had already had an extension within six months, they could only extend my stay in Thailand by 7 days, not 30 as I thought.

The last official day I could stay in this country was 03.12. The lady asked me if I wanted this extension at all, because even though it was a shorter period, it still cost 1,900 BHT (20,000 HUF, 58 USD).

I wondered for a moment whether this made sense. Then I decided to apply for this extension.

If I hadn’t done that, I would have had 2 days to arrange my visa for the next country, my travel there, and my accommodation. I’m sure I could do it if I had to, but I didn’t really want to take on this challenge right now.

I had finally decided the week before that, despite not knowing much about the country, I was going to continue on to Laos.

So I bought a bus ticket for Saturday to a town called Chiang Rai, with the intention of leaving Thailand on Sunday.

Visa to Laos

On Friday I sat down in front of the plane to get myself a Lao e-visa. The German owner of my accommodation in Pai said that it would be easier if I didn’t apply for an electronic visa, but rather did it at the border when I got there.

Honestly, I wanted to avoid that.

On Friday, I learned two things about the online solution.

One is that with this type of visa you can enter the country in about seven places, of which 3 are airports (I’m not flying now), one is a railway border crossing (I haven’t seen a train or even tracks in the last few months), and about two are normal border crossings. One of these is the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge IV.

After a little searching, I was able to find out where it was, after all, this is where I will be crossing the Mekong River.

I think the reason for this is that only at these border crossings are the Lao authorities prepared to check the e-visa. The rest will be paper. Viva online 2026!

The other thing is that it takes 3 working days to process the visa, so on the 6th I could only choose to leave the country on the 11th.

Chiang Rai – Chiang Khong – Houayxay

So I won’t be staying in Chiang Rai until Sunday, but until Wednesday.

By then I’ll be looking for a bus that will take me to a city called Chiang Khong, about 100 km away, which is still in Thailand. From there I’ll walk across the Mekong to the city of Houayxay.

I booked a hotel there this morning until Sunday.

The rest of my trip in this country will take place this week.

Laosz

I know almost nothing about this country. I think this will make the trip more exciting.

Laos is a socialist republic, so I will meet a living socialist country again.

Their currency (KIP) is so bad that according to preliminary information I will have to use Thai baht or US dollars for payments.

I wonder what the quality of the internet will be like. It is a bottleneck, so I also have to be prepared to leave this country as suddenly as I came.

I will write about my experiences there, I am sure of that.

But for now, this is all:

The post 235. | Laos first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

Summary

I loved spending the whole day observing my surroundings with effortless attention. It felt like my boat was swimming with the fish.

In the first week after my return to the real world (I didn’t call it that, but I like it), I had two relaxed days.

The kind that I like the most.

When I wake up and think, “Well, I’m going to work now,” but then the question comes up: “Brother, aren’t you coming with us?”

The answer to that question on both days was to go, rent a motorbike, and then go.

I got to beautiful places this way.

Lod Cave

This is a huge cave of stalactites, a 2-hour motorbike ride from Pai.

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

The tour started with the usual announcement that when we picked up the motorbike, we were told that there was not much petrol in the vehicles. Four of us set off on the journey, and this problem affected two of our motorbikes. I – trusting that the boys knew what they were doing – did not insist on refueling in the city, they said we would refuel on the way.

This casual statement ended up being a whole day-long game of searching for petrol. Of course, there were not many petrol stations on the mountain we were going through. Specifically, none.

Our first experience was the result of this search. In one of the small villages (which were not many on the road either) we found an automatic well. It looks as if it was left here from the time of Henry Ford. I had only seen such wells in American movies, in scenes set at abandoned gas stations in the desert.

But modern technology was there. While the gasoline flowed out, it played a Chinese toy melody. It was surreal to listen to the melody of a baby toy while refueling. I tried to imagine a six-month-old baby refueling and enjoying the melodies.

The machine didn’t accept any paper money, so we filled up with whatever change we had. It wasn’t nearly enough, so we continued our journey for gasoline. I had a bit of a Mad Max feeling.

Anyway, we reached the mountain, where you could buy gasoline along with sausages and beers. We each bought a bottle of vodka. I love this country!

We rested at the top of the mountain before descending to the other side. It was really nice to be part of a convoy of four on the road. Even though it wound up and down like the mountain had drunk the vodka from the bottle to make room for the gasoline.

The cave

Here you didn’t have to buy an entrance ticket, but hire a guide. A guide can lead a maximum of 3 people through the cave, so we split into two groups. That’s how we set out to explore the cave.

It was huge, inside and out.

Unfortunately, the photos inside didn’t turn out well, but I almost knew that in advance. So I can only describe what I saw.

The entrance opened from the fort, and right at the beginning we were greeted by fish in the water flowing under the road. Huge fish, in huge schools. Goldfish, black carp, catfish. This place would be a paradise for my fishing friends if fishing was possible.

Our guide lit the way with a special gas lamp. It wasn’t enough to light it – he pumped it, worked hard with it until the little stocking turned into a blinding white glow. I’ve never seen such light before. As I later found out (AI) it was a pumpable gasoline / petroleum pressure lamp (Coleman type).

The dimensions of the cave – as you can guess from the previous mention – impressed me. There was a 21-meter-high stalactite column in it. I say quietly that this is the height of a 6-7-story house. The figures appeared before me in incredible shapes, our guide also told many of the fantasy names: elephant, elephant ear, turtle, Buddha…

We went up and down inside the cave on excellently built wooden stairs. We saw a lot of bats sleeping in clusters on the walls. Sometimes we could even hear the noise as they talked. There was a place where everything was covered in guano, a protective railing had to be built towards the stair railing so that the stuff wouldn’t cover it. And of course there was a place where the smells of a well-populated poultry yard, or the old, stale, bird droppings smell of old church towers were strongly present.

Part of our cave tour was also that an approx. They took us there and back on a bamboo boat on an 800-meter stretch of river. This was the greatest experience for me. In the completely dark cave, the only light was the Coleman lamp and my flashlight. The boat swam with the fish. There were so many of them, and I almost felt like we were swimming with them. Since the bamboo boat was a structure made by fitting thick bamboo trunks together, we sat on it. So we sat about 10 centimeters above the water surface.

We saw wooden coffins from the time of prehistoric people, because the cave was also used as a burial place in the past. And there was a 2-3000-year-old wall painting in the cave.

We spent a lot of time in the cave, we had no other plans for this day.

We headed home. By dark, we were back on top of the mountain. With little gas, in pouring rain, in shorts and T-shirts. It was noticeably colder at the top of the mountain than at the bottom, even when we came. On the way home, the difference was even more stark. So, after the pouring rain turned into a torrential downpour, we were all cold as dogs.

We all wrapped up what we could find in our backpacks. So I made the trip home wrapped in my bath towel.

By the time we got back to Pai, the rain had stopped, the air had warmed up, and we stood in the shower, freezing to death, to regain our normal body temperature.

The day had two sayings before we were done with it. First, “onward to the next gas station,” and then the battle cry of “We did it!”

We showed life that we loved it by partying until dawn.

Mor Paeng Waterfall

Two days later we got back on the motorbike. We went to a waterfall.

It rains regularly here now, so we didn’t have the problem of having to look at dry waterfalls.

This place was very interesting because the huge, gently curved rocks worn by the water formed natural slides.

I spent my time reading and sliding a bit while exploring the area.

The water was very cold, so the book I was reading was a more pleasant experience for me.

Ban Pambok Bamboo Bridge

The next stop was a place called a bamboo bridge.

But it’s not really a bridge. You have to imagine a rice field, which by its nature is often covered by water. Such bamboo roads were originally built above the ground for transportation between the temple and the villages. They crisscross the ground. Then suddenly a beautiful tourist attraction is born from this.

So I saw beautiful lavender gardens, as if I were in Hungary. All kinds of selfie points, especially hearts that you could stand under. Several restaurants and cafes were also installed next to the roads, in case someone gets thirsty or hungry twice during the few hundred meters of walk.

There was the opportunity to try archery (I tried this, I haven’t done it in many months), target shooting with airsoft rifles.

And of course, to admire the beautiful landscape.

Actually, this is how we spent most of our time.

Walhalla

I never thought I would make it to Walhalla that day. My life on Earth is so good!

Before the next stop, we saw a hippie ranch.

It was a fabulous place. Everything was made by the work of its owner, from the furniture and accommodations to the billiard table.

We were here for a good fifteen minutes, drinking a refreshment and chatting a bit with the free spirits who were there.

Next to the entrance was a picture of an angry dog ​​with the inscription “don’t touch me!”. I saw the dog before the picture, so I almost got richer by being bitten by a dog.

This is not what I imagined Walhalla to be like – for example, there was no god there – but it was a good place. I planned to go back there again, but then everything turned out differently.

The beautiful memory remains.

Tha Pai Hot Spring

Our last stop (before the obligatory evening party) was a bathing place around a hot spring.

The resting place in the middle of the forest is more popular with the locals, but we weren’t the only tourists.

The water in the first tiny (natural) pool seemed to be enough. It didn’t seem like a good idea to bathe in it, it was fenced off. The water was eighty degrees. There were a few other cute little places like that. The locals also use the springs to boil eggs. The only request was that we not boil the eggs in plastic.

For example, when I read “don’t boil eggs” I thought it was a cheeky warning not to go into the water – especially for men. Then it turned out I was wrong…

A bed was created in the natural flow direction of the river/stream, with walls placed in stages, creating a series of pools with constantly flowing water.

The top pool was 38 degrees, the bottom 30. I was two degrees sad that there wasn’t a pool on a lower level, but 30 degrees was still pleasant.

It was nice to spend the time we had before we had to go home, sitting in the water.

It was a very beautiful day, full of experiences.

With a lot of motorcycling, which I love. In good company, which I also love. With lots of beautiful pictures, a dog bite that I escaped, and the egg cooking that I missed.

I really loved the fact that I could observe everything around me with effortless attention all day long. Sitting on the scooter, perfect moments happened one after another.

All I had to say to myself was that it was so friendly, the way the warm air caresses my arms, the sun burns my skin, the wind caresses my face and I feel the power of the engine under my ass.

This is a perfect moment.

This is a perfect moment.

This is a perfect moment…

The post 232. | Two adventurous days around Pai first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

So I started with eating. I arrived around 3:30 PM, and in preparation for the trip, I didn’t eat anything that day. This was just a precaution, so that if my stomach upset got the better of me, I wouldn’t shock the other passengers. Considering how many of us were in the car, everyone was better off me with an empty stomach that day.

My first meal in Pai was an excellent massaman curry. In vain, it’s my favorite. As this city will be, I felt it almost the moment I got off the bus.

After the restaurant, I immediately went to a hairdresser. I really needed this.

I started exploring the city on Pai’s walking street.

It’s a strange walking street. In addition to people, there are motorbikes, cars, and buses walking along it. I suspect it’s just called walking.

Darling Wiew Point Resort

This accommodation was recommended by two people at the church, so I didn’t look for anything else, I booked accommodation here for a few days.

Darling is 600 meters from the beginning of the pedestrian street, you have to go up a hill to reach it. It’s a fairy-tale wooden building on top of the hill. The host is German, a nice guy, I felt this from the first moment. We quickly took care of the paperwork, talked for a bit, then he showed me the floor where my room is.

The first thing I saw was the wonderful terrace. You can see the whole town from there. Regarding its size: There are tables with lots of chairs and benches. It has 8 double beds, and there are about 8-10 beds built into the railings next to the railings. Of course, each one has a mattress and pillow, if you want to relax, there’s plenty of space to lie down. So I didn’t even sleep in my room, but on this terrace.

The whole building is old. It’s not rustic, it’s old. It definitely wasn’t here originally. This house was dismantled somewhere and put back together here. Everything is made of wood. There are lots of teak wood columns everywhere, we walk on floorboards bought from a ship. It’s spliced ​​and folded in many places.

It has a real camping feel.

There are shared toilets and bathrooms on each floor. There are a lot of old household items piled up in the yard. There’s a billiard table, a pool (I think the water in this was brought from the South Pole), a small stage with sound equipment, a fire pit. It’s such a little fairy tale world.

And the view from the terrace is beautiful. At night, the lights remind me of my winter hikes, with the beautiful city lights seen from above. The sunrise is beautiful from the terrace. Behind the city, in the distance, there’s a mountain range, often surrounded by clouds.

So all I can think about is that this place is a slice of paradise.

The guys

I met two friends on the terrace. We ended up spending a whole week together. We talked a lot, we had two adventure days together that week, we partyed together.

We are all solo travelers. Our journey brought us together here, and we have said countless times that we are all grateful for that.

And for some reason, the mutual respect and interest that could be the basis for a long friendship immediately appeared between us. We came from different places, with different backgrounds, but here we became brothers in a very short time.

I have felt for a long time that we are all brothers on this Earth. This is not always an easy thought. Here, on this terrace, it was simple.

I will write about our shared experiences in one of the next posts.

I have been in Pai for a week. One of them just left, the other is leaving this afternoon. But today my friend I met at the temple is arriving here. Not to mention that I already know a lot of people in the city, so if I go down, I’m sure I’ll run into someone I know.

Pai is not a city of silence and solitude. At least not for me.

Another interesting roommate

Even paradise has a shadow.

I’ve been living here for almost a week, when I noticed something strange yesterday when I entered my room.

Before I tell you who it was, I definitely want to clarify something. This place called Darling is a very cute place. It’s old, that’s all. It’s made of wood, so there are a lot of things that might bother someone.

For example, I can see down to the ground floor through the gaps in the floor. With the door closed, you can see into my room through a gap. The mosquito net is broken here and there, so I get a few bites from the insects feasting at night. And of course, I have a gecko.

Well, yesterday when I came into my room, I saw a shadow slip behind my bed. It was black, but for some reason I thought it was the gecko running away. Back to the ceiling, where it often chirps at me.

Then I noticed that one of my apples, which I keep on the second bed that functions as a closet, had been nibbled on by someone. It was true that there were teeth marks on it, and it was also surprising that I didn’t think the gecko would eat apples, but I left it at that. After all, I had four other apples, so I hope it lives well too.

When I went to take a bath in the afternoon, I couldn’t find my soap. It’s a small round bar the size of half a palm. I used it in Bali, I brought it from there.

It was strange that it wasn’t there. I looked everywhere, suspicious of the gecko, but it simply disappeared. The thought kept haunting me that if the gecko ate apples, maybe it didn’t even bother to take a shower. So I rummaged through my things until I found the soap.

It was under my backpack and someone was very elegantly nibbling on it. It was then that the picture came together that the culprit might have been the rat I saw sneaking out of the shower one day. Maybe it took my soap to clean itself and then ate some of it.

I did an experiment that evening. Before I left, I put the remaining four apples on my own bed so that I could see what the situation was when I got home. And so it was. The animal gnawed on another apple. So I threw them all out so that my room wouldn’t be tempting for it.

This doesn’t bother me that much. On the one hand, because I know that it’s not good to live with a rat, considering the many infectious things it carries. For example, mine goes to the shower like that.

On the other hand, I’m somehow sure that I’ll have to face even tougher things on the road ahead of me. My job now is to not keep any food here. The rat is a smart animal, I don’t think it will come back if it realizes that there is no reason.

Asia is different from Europe.

But – maybe I wrote it then – I saw rats in Paris, Marseilles, Milan and almost every big city. Here, living in the natural environment, it is not surprising that we meet differently.

I wrote in a previous post that “it is not for everyone.”

I still experience that this house, this city, this country and this continent are for me.

Release

This place taught me right from the first day, and I still owe you a description of it, as I had several promises in the previous ones.

In the “10 days barefoot 11: the last hours” post, I wrote about the necklace I got at Wat Pa Tam Wua temple.

The owner of Darling is the Thai wife of the German man, her name is Darling.

We also talked to her after my arrival. She introduced herself to us, expressed her joy that we were staying with them. We introduced ourselves, told each other where we were from.

So I told her about how I had been to a temple two days ago. From this, a conversation based on mutual interest developed. She even invited me to the temple she goes to.

As we talked, I suddenly knew what the fate of the necklace would be. I gave it to her right away, and she happily put it around her neck. I told him that as soon as I got it, I immediately thought of its new owner, never suspecting that I would find it so soon.

There is no lesson in this for me, I already know how to voluntarily give up things.

But what about the things that I do not voluntarily give up?

In 2024, my daughters and I were in London. I bought the metal bottle at the Natural History Museum that I have been using as a water bottle ever since. There was water in it then, and there has been since. And it was the one I kept in Bali when I gave away the second one I brought.

It only got a little worn out in two years. Someone asked me what it was in church, because it was so unique.

What made it unique to me was that during daily use (I used it to drink at work every day) it often reminded me of the wonderful experiences we had together in London.

While we were talking, Darling tidied up the tables a little. He picked up the trash there, beer caps, whatever.

Two hours later I realized that I had seen the questioning gesture with which he took the cap of my bottle – which did not look at all like a beer cap – and put it in his pocket with the other trash.

My first thought was to find Darling, then the trash can and dig the cap out of it.

But the thought immediately occurred to me that this bottle had been with me for so long. If it has to be let go, then it has to be let go. The bottle is still there today, but when I leave, it will also end up in the trash.

No one can throw away the experience I have with my daughters, so I accepted the new teaching with a grateful heart: I can let go of something even if it is not my own will.

The post 230. | Pai first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

I headed to Mae Hongson, the city from where I arrived here, I wrote about it in the post “10 Days Barefoot 1: On the Way to the Forest Temple”.

For sailors only!

Before leaving, I started talking to a guy from Angelo. From him I learned that the term Chicano, which is also used here and there in Hungarian slang, means Mexican-American people.

We had a really good conversation with this Chicano and an older German man for half an hour on the flatbed of the pickup truck we were traveling in. The conversation was good until my stomach realized that I was sitting in the back of a car, turned 90 degrees from the direction of travel. This ice, with a double whiskey, made my stomach horribly upset. The winding and rising and falling road didn’t help either.

So I spent the last 40 minutes on the road trying to breathe deeply and concentrate on not throwing up my last two vegetarian meals from the temple.

So, the only thing I really noticed from the trip was that Mae Hongson is terribly far from the temple.

Interestingly, when I first arrived in the city, I had the idea of ​​kissing the ground. It was the same now.

I always knew I would be a bad sailor. It turns out I am a land rat.

I went into the store near the bus terminal to calm my stomach with a soda.

I think the store was having a buttered popcorn festival. My already restless stomach turned two when I entered the store and smelled the melted butter.

Well, everything was better in the church! LOL.

On the way to my accommodation

I spent half an hour sitting on the steps next to the shop, trying to figure out how to get to my little room.

When everything was ready, I looked at how to get to my little room. The Google Maps link in the Airbnb app showed the location nicely.

Of course, the address couldn’t be entered into the Grab app again, because when I typed it in, it gave me 10 options in Thai, without translation, to choose from.

There was no other choice, I had to look for a tuk-tuk taxi again.

Three taxi drivers looked at my phone, their phone, the Airbnb pictures, my phone, the pictures, their phones for 15 minutes. After a quarter of an hour of consultation, the decision was made as to where the hell they should take me and we set off.

After a few minutes, I recognized the tuk-tuk: I also went to the temple with it. My trip around the temple became a beautiful frame structure.

We soon left the not-so-big city behind us and arrived in a rural area. I wasn’t worried even when we left it and were quite close to the shores of the operent sea.

Then my romantic journey came to a turning point: we had to turn off the main road onto something that could only be called a dirt road with great kindness. I could see from the taxi driver that he didn’t really want to turn there.

According to Google Maps, we were 900 meters from the accommodation, which is less than the distance of the morning walking meditation at the church, so I let the good man go. According to my Garmin, I had walked 1,300 km in the past 365 days, so these 900 meters didn’t scare me.

As I stepped onto the road, I was even more scared by the two dogs who immediately attacked me. I thought that these animals had a fetish for “no stepping on the grass” and would attack immediately as a unit that could be deployed.

They must have been annoyed by my yelling at them for some reason, so they finally left me alone. I was able to continue my journey to the cabbage field 20 meters away. The cabbages were beautiful, but I couldn’t see the rest of the way.

On the other hand, a Thai man and a woman did. Although I had the feeling that they didn’t understand a word of English, I imagined myself as the youngest prince again and – my life, my death – I gave it a try. They didn’t speak English.

I showed them in writing what was wrong with me. I felt that reading was also a problem for them. In the end, they sent me back where I came from, but unfortunately I already knew that it wasn’t the right direction.

Although he struggled to get over it, I didn’t give in to despair. 900 meters. I’ll find it. I noticed another exit 50 meters from the previous one. This is it!

Turning off the main road onto this small road, a motorcyclist came towards me. I took that as a good sign. There must be something coming from there.

The first thing I found after walking twenty meters was very fine dust up to my ankles on the road. Not sand. Not dirt. It was like flour. I gave up on the idea of ​​clean shoes after one step.

But the road always knows what I need, so 50 meters later I was standing on the bank of a small river. The map clearly showed that I didn’t have to think. I just had to cross the water. I thought for a few moments about which solution to choose. Should I take off my shoes and walk barefoot through the ankle-deep water, stumbling over the stones, or wash the dirt off my shoes.

Another dog helped me decide the question, who appeared on the other side, barking patiently but terribly. He had the sense not to cross the river, but to wait for me to cross. I figured that if I had to fight a life-or-death battle with him, my chances would be better in the water, so I headed for the river.

Fortunately, with the power of my voice, I managed to convince this dog that it would be better if he got out of my way and didn’t follow me.

So I finally started my little walk in the jungle without any disturbance. It filled me with hope that there were only 800 meters left. What was especially good was how many adventures happened to me in those 100 meters.

700 meters. 400 meters. 100 meters.

At that moment, I was standing at the bottom of a large hill on the forest path. Google casually told me to turn right and I was there. But there was no sign of a path on the hill. I began to think that this map detail was referring to some long-forgotten 18th-century road.

There was no way I was going to climb this hill. With my backpack on my back, my laptop bag on my chest, and everything else.

So I continued on my way along the forest path. My hiking instincts told me that the path leading up would be on the other side of the hill. It was slowly becoming my default state to sweat like a horse. It was about 40 degrees and the ventilation system under the two backpacks was not working. I began to fantasize about the shower that I would soon be able to enjoy.

I never reached the other side of the hill. Even after a kilometer, the map didn’t encourage me anymore. That’s when I saw the small road into the real jungle. It was pure romance, the way the lianas turned the road into a small tunnel. I set off. I entered the real jungle.

But my happiness was not cloudless. In the ankle-high undergrowth, I was prepared with every step to see how happily a snake I accidentally stepped on would bite my short-trousered leg with a smile. I also wondered between steps whether a scorpion could jump to reach my ankle.

I love forests. But I didn’t take this to heart so much now. When I could only step over a fallen tree trunk by leaning on it with half my body, – I don’t know why – I remembered those palm-sized spiders that I saw and photographed in the temple area. One of the guys said that their kind was not venomous.

I wasn’t either, even when I reached the end of this small tunnel after 100 meters. On the way back, I thought about my incomplete knowledge of reptiles and arthropods, and finally happily stepped back onto the forest path.

During my hikes, I had many experiences where I thought, “Let’s go back, maybe the path is there,” when we knew it wasn’t there, or “Let’s look at the left turn,” that would be good, but we knew it wouldn’t be good.

So I went back to the 18th-century imagined path, maybe there was a tiny path leading up, but of course there was nothing.

So 100 meters from the goal, my further jungle hike became pointless. I started back, with the feeling that turned into a thought that I had no idea what was going to happen next.

I wrote to my host. “Hi! I’m here in the jungle. According to the map, I’m 100 meters away from you, but I only see trees.”

That’s when I saw a road to the left. I thought, I’ve never been on this road before, I’ll try to go around the hill from the other side. Hope dies last.

That’s how I got to the edge of a corn plantation. I was walking peacefully past the corn stalks that were taller than me, when I heard barking again, and very close at hand. This time it was exciting and special because I couldn’t see the source of the sound. It seemed like a depressing idea that a dog would suddenly pounce on me from among the corn and bite me.

I broke a stick for myself to prepare for some kind of communication balance.

Fortunately, I quickly left the corn field and continued my journey past a tomato plantation. Luckily, because the dog couldn’t hide in this anymore. Unless he was a retreating commando and was crawling on his stomach…

A glimmer of hope appeared on the next cabbage patch. No, I didn’t see the house. But four women who had just finished hoeing and were heading off… Well, somewhere. I quickly charged at them, hoping that they wouldn’t take the appearance of the two white men with backpacks and sticks as an attack and wouldn’t attack me with their hoes.

Of course, they didn’t speak English, not at all, so after asking a few questions I realized that I could have asked about the corn stalks with the same force.

Since they didn’t help, I didn’t bother communicating any further. For some reason, I told them in Hungarian that I was going with you and followed them. My appearance cheered them up, because they laughed a lot. For some reason, I felt like I was on to something.

Then my host’s answer arrived, asking where I was. I have to write down what I thought when I read this question. “Well, where in the hell am I, here I am in a cabbage patch in the middle of the jungle and unfortunately there is no street name written.”

Of course, that’s not what I sent him. I remembered to send him a few photos so he could see where I was.

In the first photo I sent, I showed him the river I had already crossed once. The water was already knee-deep here. I crossed and followed the women with the hoe. There were already houses here. And the corner where we turned back in the taxi before he got off.

There was a nice water tower here, there was a big sign, so I sent the pictures of these to my host. I may or may not be a travel blogger. I thought I would show him the area.

I arrived in a small village. I followed the women with two backpacks, a stick, and in muddy shoes. They told everyone 100 meters ahead of me that a crazy white man was coming from the jungle, so I marched along the only street in the village, accompanied by many smiling faces.

Then my host asked me if I knew where the LPG was? I tried to confidently hide my ignorance, but I had to be honest with him, so I wrote that I didn’t know anything here.

Soon I reached a main road. In both directions there were names of towns I had never heard of before. At this point I was already thinking about somehow getting back to the city and renting a hotel room.

Then I saw a small bench 20 meters from a food court. I thought I would rest there. And decide what the hell I was going to do next.

Three cute Thai guys passed me and laughed at me, but they also said hello. I enjoyed my sudden popularity and said hello to them with a laugh. I thought I would ask if the position of village idiot was available, because my antonym had made everyone so happy that I was sure I would have a successful career in this role in this small village behind God’s back.

I love Asia. Everyone is so helpful. Seriously, I love it. The three little guys turned back on their bikes and one of them asked the award-winning question: where are you going?

I told him I was sure I couldn’t tell you, but I’ll show you the pictures of the rooms in the house. Maybe you’ve been there and recognized it. LOL. Of course they didn’t know, but they pointed to the cooking lady so that he would know.

He damn well didn’t know. The next day it turned out that it was my host’s girlfriend, but he didn’t recognize her friend on Airbnb by either the house number or her name.

I started thinking about eating at his place when Deus ex Machina appeared in the form of a biker.

My host recognized one of the photos and came to pick me up.

He immediately hugged me and we could both see that we were relieved that I was there.

I jumped on his back and took him to his house, which was 4(!) kilometers away.

During the trip, I told him that I had ended up in the jungle by following the map on Airbnb.

He said, “Well, yes! Maybe the map should be corrected.”

I agreed. Maybe it should be.

And so I arrived in my little room.

Finally home

After the adventurous arrival, all that awaited me was the kindness of Asian life. Enough of the fun and laughter.

My host immediately asked me if I was hungry after arriving, because he would make me something. It must have been the result of all the adventures, but I wasn’t hungry.

My room was impeccable. A large bed, and a bathroom. There were two interesting things. The mattress on the bed – this is not the first time I’ve seen this – had not been removed from the foil, so the bed creaked a little when I lay down on it. The other was the bathroom. There was no hand-washing tap here. There was a toilet, a shower head and a mirror. And, the indispensable accessory of bathrooms, the small barrel of water. With this, you can wash your hands and flush the toilet.

On my first day, I immediately went to the nearby 7-11 to buy my food for the next few days. The nearest shop was 2.5 km away, so I could see the village a bit, but there wasn’t really much to see, so I could enjoy nature more.

I talked to my parents for a long time in front of the shop, and then I finally had dinner there, sitting on a small bench in front of the building.

So I had time on the way home to look at the beauties of starry Asia.

I spent the next day reading letters and doing my homework. Well, I read and meditated.

In the morning, I asked my landlord to take me back to the place where I had picked up yesterday, because I was hoping that I might find my lost earphones there. Of course, they weren’t there, but it turned out that the woman at the bar was his girlfriend. I was surprised that the barkeeper couldn’t help me. Maybe my English wasn’t good enough for Thai ears?

I really wanted to go back to the forest to hike a bit, but I still couldn’t convince myself that I wasn’t afraid of snakes.

In the evening, the host came to me and asked if I was hungry. I wasn’t, but he asked me to come down to him when I finished the conversation I was having.

So we ended up having dinner together. He quickly made me a Khao Phat Kai (Thai fried rice with chicken) and I had a glass of beer with them. With them, because the lady’s girlfriend was there too.

I’m moving on!

I only wanted to spend two nights in this place. So I set off on Saturday. I wanted to walk to the bus terminal, but since Ana had offered to take me to the bus many times, I was forced to skip this 8 km walk. She said 10 minutes by motorbike. It turned out to be 20, but do you count?

It was good that she was there with me at the station, because of course, by the time I understood what I wanted at the ticket office again, it soon turned out that there were no tickets left today. Again. I can’t believe it. Luckily, they were able to tell the lady that the private minibuses were leaving, so I immediately got a seat in the back of a minibus that was leaving in 10 minutes.

I was shivering from the journey!

The bus left with two monks and me on it, so I was able to sit in the very back of the car facing forward. I also regained hope that this would be an easy trip, since the three of us could fit in just fine.

I couldn’t be happy for long. By the time we left the city, eight of us were already crammed into the back between the many bags and the large box placed on the floor of the car. Then they put one of the elderly ladies in the front, so there was still room in the back for, say, a cat.

On the way back, we arrived at the Wat Pa Tam Wua temple. But I’d been here a long time ago. We waved to some familiar faces on the way in. Inside, it was so nice to see how happy the two receptionists were to see us again. They were so sweet, they said goodbye with a “God be with you again!” when we left.

The black soup came here, of course, because three more people got on here. This seemed impossible, but in the end it was possible to arrange for nine of us to sit in the eight-person section.

We stopped at many places to drop off and pick up smaller bags. Everything is in one place with these kinds of cars. Shortly after the temple we stopped on the side of the road, where a greengrocer wanted to load a cubic meter of all kinds of vegetables onto the car. There were bags everywhere, but they finally accommodated our request. It’s incredible that these cars can hold twice as many people and things as I could imagine.

The trip itself was good, because after the temple we started talking to the guys. The trip was 100 km and took three hours.

But finally I arrived in the town of Pai.

Alive.

Google Maps survived.

So did the jungle.

So did the dogs.

And I was a little less confident that I always knew which way to go.

The post 229. | Mae Hongson first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

If someone only reads this one post, they should have a handle on what happened to me there.

On the one hand:

I meditated for about 30 hours.

I sliced ​​up about 400 kg of vegetables.

I ate vegetarian food.

I got up early, went to bed early.

I didn’t use the internet.

I didn’t wear shoes.

I was cold a lot.

My body suffered.

On the other hand:

Jenő Rejtő came to mind. With his book “I’m Going to Paris, Because I Haven’t Died There Yet”.

So nothing special happened here.

The post 227. | So, what happened here? Summary II. first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

OK! I failed. I didn’t concentrate enough. These things happen…

So I’ll tell you what I didn’t have for 10 days.

• I didn’t have internet.
• But I had 100% attention.

• I had no connection to the outside world.
• But I had an unprecedented connection with myself.

• For 5 days, not many words left my mouth.
• On the other hand, in the previous 46 years, there were a lot. I still have a lot to sacrifice on the altar of silence. No kidding! It felt really good to be speechless for whole days.

• I didn’t use my laptop for 9 days.
• So I had the opportunity to write by hand like I used to. I wrote the entire Wat Pa Tam Wua diary by hand on my paper tablet. Moreover, after a few days, I returned to my childhood habit of WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPITAL LETTERS. It was a magical experience to come back here!

• I didn’t have dinner.
• But there was proof that eating twice a day is enough. (I’ve known this for sure since Koh Samui.)

• I didn’t eat meat for 10 days.
• But I can say that I lived on vegetarian food for 10 days without interruption.

• I didn’t have a soft bed.
• But I had the opportunity to remind myself every time I woke up and turned over that I was harder than the bed.

• I didn’t have shoes on for 10 days.
• All I can add to that is that it was freedom level 2.

• For 10 days, I didn’t do my little important things after 10 pm.
• But I got back an exercise that I had lost for 36-37 years. It was a gift.

• I lived in a closed area for 10 days.
• In return, I got so much visual experience that 10 hours wouldn’t be enough to show you everything.

• I drank very little coffee for 10 days.
• I had the opportunity to taste even more tea.

• I lived in a very monotonous squirrel wheel for 10 days.
• I got enough experiences, memories and experiences for years in exchange for the time spent with routine.

I have already decided whether the “wasn’t” or the “was” side is the “real” one.

The post 226. | It wasn’t there for 10 days and yet it was there. Summary I. first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

Let me add another post, because the last few hours were nice too.

The day started as usual. Kitchen, breakfast offering, breakfast, then the 3 types of meditation exercises.

Then I packed my things. It took me 3 minutes to do this. LOL.

I also participated in the lunch offering, as I also ate my last lunch.

I said goodbye to my new friends. I will see Vlad soon. Also Natasha, with whom we hugged each other despite the ban. There was a 67-year-old Californian man in our room, who said goodbye to me by saying that he would miss my smile. These were moments that warmed my heart.

Then I started to open up to the world.

I turned on the internet. 455 emails, 56 Facebook and 56 WhatsApp messages awaited me.

While I was reading these, already in civilian clothes, a woman working at the reception asked me to show one of the newly arrived young girls around and show her the temple. This was a very natural and honorable request.

As a farewell, I was given a necklace as a souvenir of my visit to the temple. I accepted it with a grateful heart and wore it for 2 days. Despite my joy, I was already thinking about what its fate would be, because I certainly would not keep it. Three days later I found its new owner, but I will write about this again in due time.

At 1:30 PM, the vehicle that took me from the temple, back to Mae Hong Son, left.

I left the temple, but it did not leave me.

The post 225. | 10 days barefoot 11: the last hours first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

It happened that one of my roommates, Vlad (yes, he also mentioned Count Dracula), spoke to me. As he later said, he sensed something interesting in me even in the silence.

So we talked a little then. Then a few times during the day. And in the days and nights that have passed since then, we have had a few philosophical conversations. Philosophical in the full sense of the word. We may even have a trip together.

Then it will be figured away.

Just in case, I took off the “SILENT” badge the next day.

Actually, I kept this badge as an option. If such deep (high) thoughts come to me that need silence, then I use this option. If there are no such thoughts, then there is no need for it.

The time came when I said: the silence is over.

Of course, this had its results.

New relationships were formed immediately.

I met several great people in two days. Tuesday was quiet, though.

Of course, a few of the conversations ended with us being talked about, and rightly so.

It was worth it. On Wednesday, after lunch, we had a great time with a small group of people at one of the outdoor benches. There was a lot of laughter, stories, and good humor around the otherwise quiet table.

We covered the “Silent table” sign with a scarf. I think that was the secret.

A Russian girl invited me to do afternoon volunteer work together. She came up with the idea of ​​sweeping leaves from the meditation path in the forest on the mountain. While we were doing this and talking a lot, I found myself saying that this is the perfect Zen job.

If I look at it from the perspective of how rational it is to sweep leaves from the path in an autumn forest full of falling leaves, the answer is clear.

But if I ask the question how sublime it was to create a change that was visible for a short time – I can say, for the moment – in the ever-changing forest, my answer will be different. And my feeling will be different too.

The next day, the same girl and I repaired the old, torn chanting books.

On Tuesday afternoon, I took a long walk and took a lot of pictures. Vlad is a photo artist, he told me a lot of stories, so on this lonely walk I experimented with quite a few new things.

Starting the day in the kitchen

Maybe on the morning of the 3rd day I went to the kitchen for the first time. Since then I start every day there, and for a few days I am usually the first or second to get there.

I have chopped all kinds of vegetables. In industrial quantities.

With blunt knives. So since the day before yesterday I have two wounds on one of my fingers. The knife broke it.

Yesterday in the forest, as a result of a careless step, a stone cut the skin on my left sole.

This at least created a symmetry between the two sides, and every step hurts. That is not a problem now. Another pain really fit loosely in the package.

With this morning work in the kitchen, the entire framework of my days was formed. It was very good to live like this.

Nothing new, just the framework

This is how my days at the temple were put together. I trust that I managed to show the time spent here the way I saw it.

I am glad you were here with me in my imagination.

I wish you to have this or similar experiences in your life.

I was not looking for anything in this church. Yet I feel like I have found exactly what was meant for me.

The post 224. | 10 days barefoot 10: the last two full days first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

Summary

This article is full of sentences that suggest uncertainty in its wording. But I have no uncertainty at all, I really felt what was happening today!

Of course, there was no breakthrough, because I had neither been to war nor faced any physical obstacles. Although, the latter may be an option after all…

But I didn’t break through anything either, because wherever I get to, it’s just a momentary state, not a merit acquired forever.

In any case, that’s the title of this post, because I couldn’t find a better expression right now.

Yesterday, in connection with my meditation experiences, I wrote about the physical torments that have surrounded my days these days.

So – here’s what happened!

First of all, yesterday at 9:30 PM I was already in my bed, in a sleeping position. It’s true that I couldn’t fall asleep for two hours (I wasn’t tired), but I didn’t give up.

That’s not what’s interesting. It’s more that until I fell asleep, I had time to wonder how I could barely find an uncomfortable position. The bed was comfortable!

This is a milestone, an achievement, but I could even call it a breakthrough.

5:00 in the morning found me in the kitchen, from there I just went in to offer breakfast. From there comes breakfast, and soon the walking meditation.

Which was a particularly great experience today. If there was a concept of a successful meditation, this would have been something like that. But since there is no good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, I will put it differently.

It filled me with a very good feeling that I managed to maintain a very conscious concentration for almost the entire hour. Time does not play a role. Nor does the degree of concentration. I was rather just happy that I fell out of concentration a few times.

The sitting meditation after this gave me another outstanding experience. On the one hand, it was very easy physically. I sat for 40 minutes without any problems with my legs crossed and my back straight.

Today I experienced a level of presence that I have never experienced before, and that I will definitely write about later.

All I can say is that today I discovered a tool of awareness that makes it very easy for me to concentrate on the present.

The lying meditation after that was a “reward game”. The time almost flew by, the presence was so easy.

All in all – by the time we finished it was only 10 o’clock – I already had my dose of happiness for today.

And today – I don’t know and I don’t care why – I felt very proud of myself.

It’s good to write! Because now, with these lines, I am working at my limits.

My last sentence has simply been born.

It seems that today is the day when I allow myself to be proud of myself. With all my heart!

Postscript:

I can’t stop myself from writing:

There were fireworks today!

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, so we listened to the explosions and crackles of fireworks during our evening meditation.

I Wish You a Happy New Year!

The post 223. | 10 days barefoot 9: breakthrough first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.