I spent the last few weeks on retreat at the secluded Thai mountain temple of Sandhisukthudongsathaan in Pa Pae, a small town about 60km away from Chiang Mai in the direction on Pai. Unfortunately, the abbot, Luang Po Phrajoed, speaks no English and greatly values the quiet of his location – he became upset in fact when I told him I would write about my stay on the internet: ‘just don’t write exactly where we are’ – so I was one of the few foreigners to stay there. Previously it seems there had only been the legendary Robert, a German practitioner who comes to stay every year and who must have been the one who added the temple onto the list of temples where foreigners can stay (in the list of Meditation Retreats in South-East Asia, included on the Media page). It is a shame though as this is a lovely place.
The temple is surrounded by and included dense jungle, which acts like a sort of natural air-conditioning system. Walking into the part of the forest which is occupied by the temple, I would actually feel the same ‘Ah, that’s better!’ I do when I walk out of a hot tropical climate into an air-conditioned mall.
