Finnegan

Hi!

1. I think, you should just rent a room for a night. Volunteers don't live at Dipabhavan all the time, so there possibly will be no people to pick you up.

2. No, last day means you wake up, sit one more meditation session and then leave retreat.

I also highly recommend to choose 7-day retreat for the first time if it's possible for you. Your mind needs some time to tune into retreat and 3 days are not enough, in my opinion.

Does somebody have a record of Yellow(?) Bittern's "WOOP WOOP WOOP"? I can't find any on the Internet.

I'm living on Samui, but hope Isan have them too.

Dipabhavan is an amazing place.

I really loved all the volunteers who run retreats there. And the abbot is a very, very wise man.

Also liked wildlife of jungles around, overall atmosphere of the center, its schedule and themes discussed at Dhamma talks.

Steve Jobs certainly didn't benefit from alternative therapies.

And from being fruitarian too. :\

Tropicalevo

I trust only referenced statements from Wikipedia. In this case there is also info about first aid on other sites.

The big suckers are harmless (unless you eat one).

The vinegar is for the small blue ones. Called bluebottles in Oz and called portugese-man-o'war elsewhere (I believe).

Better take a minute to check yourself with Google before posting that kind of info.

You should not use vinegar against bluebottles, but against box jellyfishes and irukandji. Bluebottles stinging can be stopped with hot water.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o'_war#Venom

Vinegar is not recommended for treating stings. Vinegar dousing increases toxin delivery and worsens symptoms of stings from the nematocysts of this species. Vinegar has also been confirmed to provoke hemorrhaging when used on the less severe stings of nematocysts of smaller species.

Good question. I'm not sure that it works on all species of mosquito, but i imagine a simple Citronella spray is better than using nothing and it is a natural non-toxic product.

I posted about Citronella and DEET some time ago. "Natural" doesn't mean "safe". And Citronella sucks as a repellent.

At the end of Maenam Walking Street (near non-working traffic light on main road) there is a nice bike rent, 3000/m for popular models of Yamaha or Honda (got mine at November).

No power in Ban Tai ~7.30 - ~10.00. Well, I slept for two more hours.

OFF! in Tesco Lotus is 127 Baht.

I have found three meditation centers in Surat Thani in the lists from the pinned topic:

Suan Mokkh (Surat Thani)

Wat Kow Tahm (Phangan)

Samui Dharma Healing Center (Samui)

...and one in Google:

Dipabhāvan (Samui)

Samui Dharma Healing site looks a little crazy to me (books and articles about diets) and Dipabhāvan isn't mentioned in any list of Buddhist meditation centers.

Could anyone make some recommendations? Thanks!

Thanks for advices.

Actually, DEET performs much better than citronella: 1, 2, 3. As you can see, citronella must be reapplied in 30-60m, when DEET lasts up to 4 hours.

And "natural" doesn't mean "safe" or "good", natural stuff is still made of chemicals synthesized by other living creatures. Why don't we hug "natural" cobras and chew oleander? Ceylon type citronella is considered dangerous in EU.

Article from Tropicalevo's link is hysterical because it is published on herbal medicine site. Also, there is no single reference, so I'll better read about DEET in wikipedia.

Small "Sketolene" bottle (4-5 days for 2 ppl) is ≈50b in 7-11 and OFF! spray (9-10 days) is ≈300b in pharmacies!

How do poor local people protect themselves with such crazy prices? :|

Any cheaper stores on Samui?

If so many asians are lactose-intolerant, why do they buy all these huge amounts of milk and milk-based drinks? I see tons of bottles everywhere: 7-11, FM, Tesco.

Ban Tai is back.