Going
here for the next few days. First trip all by myself!
And it was so great! I have a lot to write... Maybe I can figure out how to get the pictures from my phone on here too...
The trip there was kind of hilarious. The place on this website where they say to catch the "bus" to Pang Term Village is not marked on my map, so I thought it was somewhere else. I spent like an hour walking around in the wrong area looking for a ride there, and no one knew what Pang Term Village was. Then with like 6 minutes to spare I walked/ran to the area circled on the website in the middle of a bulk market, turned a corner and there were a bunch of yellow Songthaews that were destined for Samoeng, the town close to Pang Term. As soon as I talked to some people the said "Mindful Farm?"
I was a few minutes "late," but we ended up sitting in the station for another 45 min or so for whatever reason. There were 4 other Japanese men on the songthaew with me and we laughed a lot even though we could barely speak to each other. We laughed at how often we stopped on the route. It is supposed to take about 2 hours, but it took us 4 not counting the hour that we waited to leave. The driver would stop at random shops, by 300 eggs or so, maybe some sugar/beer/... whatever, drop some things off at other place, or maybe just stop and chat for a while with people. No one was complaining because we are in Thailand and this is Thailand. We also laughed when my sunglasses fell off the back of the songthaew and got ran over, haha. It's okay I bought a new pair at the next place we stopped for 59 baht. ($2)
Finally when I got to the village the driver stopped at a temple that came out of nowhere on the winding road in the mountains. He said "mindful farm." Didn't look like a farm to me.. looked like a temple. Then we got out and walked behind the temple, into the woods and he pointed to some huts on the other side of the hill. I thanked him, paid him 100 baht ($3.33) and headed down a hill, across the sketchiest bamboo bridge I've seen so far, back up the hill to the farm.
Then I saw a bunch of white people so I knew I was in the right place!
...
So the owner of the farm, Chinnaworn, or Pi Nan, was a monk in this village, Pang Term for 20 years. He grew up here, all his family lives around here. I think he is Lisu, but really Karen because he grew up with Karen people (your parents don't have to be Karen for you to be). Only a few years ago he stopped being a monk and started this organic farm. One of his guests a few years ago was a Japanese woman Noriko. They fell in love and have a 15 month old baby girl Nobara. There were a lot of volunteers and no huts left so they let me stay in their house for 3 nights. I think Pi Nan is the cutest man I've ever met. He is 47 but he says he feels like he is 24. This was apparent when we came back to Chiang Mai and we were hanging out in a field and he was hopping around like a frog, jumping around like a ninja, failing at cartwheels, and hanging from a tree. He also led us in meditation every night and mindful eating at breakfast and lunch where he spit some wisdom for us. I was only there for 3 nights, but I felt like I got to know everyone there pretty well.
I was the only American and sometimes they made fun of me for it.
Basically we would wake up at 6:30 in this beautiful foggy valley, do yoga/mediate/help cook breakfast /take an outdoor shower. Then we would eat breakfast which usually consisted of a lot of fresh fruit from the farm, freshly baked bread, a bunch of leaves, maybe some beans and rice with coconut milk etc etc. The first day Pi Nan made me do a reading from one of his books before we ate. We practiced mindful eating (silently.) It's really nice. Then after breakfast everyone works on projects around the farm. Oh yeah it's a lot like Ionia <3 They even had TOKYO CROSS TURNIPS! :)
I worked in the garden a bit and also helped dig up some earth to make the floor in the kitchen better. Pi Nan showed us a bunch of plants in the garden too. Everything that I thought were weeds had a purpose. I want to know all of this.
Then we mindfully eat lunch. After lunch at the hottest part of the day everyone has free time to do whatever they want. Maybe a nap or a walk to the village (which consists of like 3 little shops spread apart from each other and a bunch of garlic drying huts - smells so good!) I did all of these thing + yoga with a few other volunteers.
Then dinner, but during dinner you socialize... then some more work in the garden before meditation at night, followed by early bed time.
Basically it was wonderful. Everyone there was great and so different. There were people from Italy, Belguim, France, Thailand, Poland, random French Island near Madagascar, and Canada!
The 2nd day Pi Nan took me and a few others to another farm that they just started 2 months ago a few kilometres away. It's run by him and his friend Mr. Sao, another really funny Karen guy.
here is their website - they have
pictures!
We helped plant a lot of things in the garden this day, and then after lunch hiked futher down into the woods to a waterfall. There were some more Karen guys making a bamboo house. I made a bamboo cup for my Mom. :) I also practiced my Thai and the 1 word I know in Karen with people.
We stayed for dinner and got back way later than expected to Mindful Farm. Before meditation Pi Nan told us that his cousin's wife was in the hospital in Chiang Mai and needed people to donate blood. A few others and I volunteered to ride to Chiang Mai today and donate blood for her. Ten of us rode in the back of a truck for 2 hours (we played contact) and admired the mountainous countryside.
Unfortunately my blood pressure was too low (?) so I couldn't donate, but a few others did. We hung out in Chiang Mai a little bit with the whole group. This is when we were running around in a field by the University. I will find pictures of Pi Nan acting like a child - so cute. Also I helped some people order lunch at a vegetarian place. Yay!
Successful trip. When I said goodbye to Pi Nan we hugged and and he smiled and said "heart to heart". I think he's the happiest little man in the world.
I'll work on adding some of my own pictures- or you can look at Instagram because I went crazy on it after not using it for 2 months.
