Prubangboy

You can keep your phone and you don't have to be silent. That's as lax a retreat as you can get. You can also opt into silence by wearing a Silence-badge (no one will talk to you or talk near you). A silent retreat with no phone is at least 10 times more impactful, but whatev's. The food is veg. curry with a lot of cabbage in it and rice. Not much food after lunch. Downer: the chanting (long and dull). But Asians love a good, long vibrational chant. If you try to dodge the chant, they will come knocking on your little kufti-hut door. In the west, it's either chant-lite or chant-optional.

It's a forest retreat between MHS and Pai. Grab Cab-able. https://www.wattamwua.com The English-speaking Abbot gave us amulets and had a little chat with us (we donated a big bag of rice). As per the custom, the abbot passed the amulet to an assistant to give to my wife -lest he inadvertently touch a woman. In Laos, The abbot of Luang Prubang had never touched a woman in his entire life (he was 80). It was a matter of great local pride.

Had one ND and my wife had one. Verdict: a very blanked-out sleep, live 5 mg of Xanax. Maybe we were too baked from pot to find the tunnel of light.

Def has the hottest women in Buddha-dom, plus the Boheme glamor of The Beats. BUT: Numerically tiny, like sub-Quaker. Prob 90% of them world wide are in N. California. And like you said, just too hard. I did a week in Mount Koyasan in Japan. The hard mat was part of it. No thanks.

Because spiritual practice is no guarantee of anything. Are catholics saints? They have a lot of exemplary saints to point to (many of them made up), and yet, on average, catholics are nice people who are trying to lead a better life and like that particular lifestyle brand. I live next door to an advanced Hindu meditator who has a scholar level knowledge and deep connection about Shiva-worship, both as a Jungian icon and diety. When we moved in, he asked us, "I hope you don't mind a little Vedic chanting". We told him that we'd pay extra for Vedic chanting. He took us at our word, It's been a wailing, glottal-stopping journey. He's going home soon, we're crushed. We talk about meditation a bit, he's def hit the Jhana states. On the other hand, he recently warned us to buy Crypto because Biden will soon be faking an alien invasion (like the moon landing) to take over the world (via Ukraine). The worth of meditation is mostly interior for the meditator. Whether that work makes you a more evolved or loving person is on you, not meditation. That's why I, who love meditation, almost always urge others not to do it. The guy who said it makes him nap needs to take the cosmic spiritual lesson that he needs more rest in his life and maybe a bit more hydration. He's good to go. As to the Thai aspects, I see those as more poor person in poor places behavior issues. You'd find the same defensiveness and worry about status in Cancun or Bradford.

"Why is MY gene pool so bad? I think that cousin was really my aunt."

I love that guy. Has the deets, will engage. A solid must-click when I see his name.

I'm 71. And said so a couple of times in this thread. This is another thing you do after, I....I....don' unnnerstan..... ("help MEEEE"). You pretend to misremember things to strengthen your non-arguments. But since your own age seems to be on a sliding scale (along with your sex count), you may indeed be as genuinely confused as you front.

"World Rated" art galleries? Pretty goofy. A lot of people here are Brit or commonwealth. Famous around the world for their odd, fusty, sexual squeamishness. Until they get in a room with a 1,000 baht new friend. Then the creepiness seems to just evaporate. Like magic.

Amongst the legendary imaginary internet hard men, one particularly hilarious poseur shows some mercy in altercations that happen only in his own head.

Man, I would love that. Anal dilation width details? Sign me up.

Further thought from my wife, just now: "He thinks art galleries are posh" -followed by snort of derisive laughter.

Def get in touch for a meal. Status update: I'm on a weed fast. Maybe for good. My wife looks in here and won't meet you. As she put it: "He's no StickyRiceBalls".

It sounds like you agree with me. Pre-Thailand, your life was terrible (prob some rage and sadness in that mix). Most people I meet here are processing some life trauma. That's among oldies. The young in my building are here for NGO work or Muay Thai. Thailand is like the old conception of The French Foreign Legion, which people famously joined to "forget". Except for Laurel and Hardy, who forgot what they were trying to forget by the time they travelled by foot to Morocco to join.

Friends reference -and I'm the one who's out of date? You can never argue anything because you really have nothing to say beyond "look at me". Your various interruptions are 100% about that. Even in this simple discussion about whether playing the creepy card is loser move, you are incapable of staying on topic.

Tell us more about this paralyzing creepiness you suffer from that seems to flick on and off like a light switch. Is it a physical sensation, or just a temporary malaise that attention has briefly shifted away from you? Your creep-aversion is wholly made up and completely unbelievable -unless you can articulate it. But like your planned physical confrontations with people here, that's likewise never going to happen.

I...I.... don' unnnnerstannnn -is your other big dodge. If you're so easily sexually creeped out, stop going to hookers. I mean, duh.

No wait. YOU'RE the bigger retard for leaping into the troll net like a dumb carp at every slight provocation. And: Nothing is lamer then the insult of creepiness. If you are so easily creeped out, time to buy a fainting couch. Creepy is a term used by people without any real complaint, as a weak attempt to shame. Women use it when an unattractive man approaches them. So conveniently vague. Just a dumb, cowardly dodge. You use it about every third post. Because you have no insult game either. You thought that people talking about sex was "creepy". Are you a Mormon? You say you had sex with 400-550 women (depending on the post), and yet when OTHER people talk about sex, you retreat behind your powder puff like a fop and sniff, "it's sooo creepy".

Iron clad rule: Any BigNok post past page one and a half is just him fighting over absolutely nothing with people who hate him, but are totally lacking in terms of amusing insult game. It's like watching retards walk into street sign poles, but without the comical BONK! sound. I see a lot less posting by me in his duller than dirt feuds in my future.

The child is a hostage used to extort cash. And when push comes to shove, the child will side with the mother, not you. Eventually, the mother and the child will leave and/or find another branch to swing to. After 6 years of a worsening situation, it's time to go. I supported someone else's kids for 8 years. Those kids don't speak to me, through no fault of my own. It's a loss, but I got over it. And so will you.

Looked hard at Borneo. You're pretty much locked into a pricey tour these days. Sulawesi is unique among junglish places with a little bit of anthropological interest in that it lacks a strong touristy brand. You virtually never hear about the place. I'd liken it to Trinidad, a place with a lot of interest that doesn't really need or particularly want tourists due to natural resources and port status. See also: Amazon Rain Forest, Madagascar, African Safari, Easter Island -other expensive places where you're kept well on a leash. Small boat cruises to the little Indo islands run about $500-$800 a day, with a painful single supplement if you go alone. Oddly, Antartica cruises are very forgiving about the single supplement these days. But doing them outside of the summer months is pure misery. This coming burning season is my year to push out the boat, travel-wise. I want more of an Indiana Jones type experience than luxury (but not too onerous) It's not been hard to find places to take my money. The adventure travel segment has plenty of vacancies.

Doggedly not deciding is really just stealth-deciding. My friend in Laos who wrote a big Laos Culture book got a secret vasectomy so as not to be bothered. That's stealth-deciding I can get behind.

The common denominator among the late age Dads in Roi Et is that they were really unhappy, relationship-wise, pre-Thailand and finally feel emotionally supported and useful. Could they have gotten that kind of joy elsewhere? Who can know? I was fine back home. I've had a lot of great love from women and can prob always be with someone high quality if I want to be. Here or there. That's not me being more evolved or desirable than Roi Et-Dad, that's just the dumb luck of the draw of who you meet and how you play it. Where does the urge to merge come from? Hopefully, not a place of scarcity.

I am agog at the number of late age dads here who are happy. Partic when they came here for a good time instead. Read their stories; are you like those guys? Me: no double-way. As my friend dying in a dead bedroom marriage in Japan said: "You go to bed with Suzie Wong and you wake up with Yoko Ono". -Don't be that guy. If she's 35 (and Thai?) the train is leaving the station for her. You'll be fired soon enough, so front load the anal now.

Other than my wife and my Sulawesi-bound friend, the world pretty much forgets I exist whenever I leave the room. Any real judgment of me is reflexive and very short lived. People just want me to be cheery and brief. Thailand is a very good teacher of this.