Last night was spent in fear and I achieved little sleep if any. First of all it was freezing. I couldn’t really work out why because it’s not as cold as Chiang Mai. I realised then that the floor boards had really big gaps and it didn’t help that I had most of the windows open. I thought that being Thailand without an air conditioning unit, windows were my last resort. I was so wrong, and tonight the windows will be closed.

There was also the noise, and it was coming from everywhere. The piercing chirps and squeaks of insects and the animals shuffling in the undergrowth and on trees nearby. I was constantly alert. And then there was the really hard floor, which is going to take some getting used to. The straw mat provided minimal cushioning and insulation. The pillow was more of a hard cushion and far from comfortable.

Morning chanting was terribly painful as it’s the day after Wan Phra and so it was the slow Pali-Thai chanting once again. Half way through I had to switch positions because my toes couldn’t take it any more and went into papiap. Unlike the relative luxuries in Chiang Mai there was no light morning snack. Here there was only one meal at around 8:30am.

I met another monk called Tan T. and I must have made a bad first impression since I asked if he was Malaysian but he turned out to be Singaporean. He showed me the morning routine of selecting your seat and rinsing your bowl before the alms round. Unlike in Bangkok, the forest monks here detach the bowl stand from the bowl just before the alms round. Ajahn R. saw that my attempt at wearing the robes double layered was failing miserably towards the end of the alms round. He was kind enough to tell me that I should just wear a single layer tomorrow.

On the alms round I learnt that the forest monks shift their bowls so the strap goes over the right shoulder under the robe at the start of the walk. I panicked as I had never done this before but was very thankful when a novice monk helped me out. Any risk of potentially making the lid fall off struck deeply. There were lots of people to offer food and check points every few minutes for us to empty our bowls so we could receive more food. Walking barefoot on the road was more or less fine until the car park at the very end which had lots of sharp stones designed to physically torment you. All the other monks seemed to have no problems at all.

All the food that was received was taken to the kitchen and then prepared by the kitchen staff. The monks then take turns in order of seniority to pick out their food. All the food that you will eat went into your own bowl. The abbot urged the monks to slow down and contemplate the food as they ate but everyone finished really quickly anyway. Luckily boarding school trained me to eat fast.

At the meal, each monk would not only have their bowl to eat from, but also a bowl stand to rest the bowl on (it has a curved bottom), a water kettle, a spittoon for putting rubbish in and other accessories like a cup and sitting cloth. I was glad that Tan M. taught me about how to carry all the stuff in one go (which every monk did) as the eating area was a little walk from the cleaning area. There’s much practice to be had, especially with the robe slowly undoing itself as you walk. After the meal I did some laundry and swept the leaves around the kuti. I’m definitely not used to having this much flora and fauna next to me.

In the afternoon we had quick chores (30 minutes instead of 1 and a half hours) and I’ve been assigned to clean up a storage building and a toilet block. The storage building looked troublesome as it involved mopping inside and outside and potentially releasing a tonne of ants. Afterwards at around 5pm we had tea with all the monks in a separate building instead of the bowl drying shed where Nam Pana was normally held.

The abbot read some passages from a book Noble Warrior and Tan C. and I introduced ourselves as new visiting monks. We sat in order of seniority around the perimeter of the room and I spent most of my time talking to Tan C. After tea I went straight back to try to sleep. There was a sauna session but I didn’t feel comfortable walking in the dark in a strange place with only a flash light to go by. Sauna in a forest monastery did sound somewhat enticing and I’ll give it a go at least once while it’s still bloody freezing in the evening.