Meditation in the Mountains

Entry 16:
Our half-day tour in BMT ended with our tour guide, Mr. Anh, leaving us at a bus stop and telling us to wait at Lak Lake for our bus ride to the popular tourist destination in the mountains, the city of Dalat. Little did we know we were about to go on a very bumpy and very curvy 4-hour ride. We arrived after sunset, but found a nice accommodation and were on our way to find dinner somewhere quiet.

The next day, we again joined a day tour of the city and its surroundings. The first stop was of a Zen Buddist monastery called Truc Lam. We learned that visitors can join the monks for a day's meditation and met briefly with a monk to ensure our visit the next day.

On we went to the Dragon Pagoda, which was beautiful on its own, but was also next door to another pagoda that had a massive and most impressive bell.

The two strangest/cheesiest stops on the tour included the Crazy House, a hotel that has delirious architecture that forces its guests to climb up and down twisted stairs through various buildings and has themed rooms. The other stop that was not worth much mention was entitled the "Valley of Love" by the French. It is a goofy park where objects were placed for tourists' photographs. However, once the camera comes out, an employee approaches to ask for money for the photo. There is a lake you can walk around for some peace and tranquility.

The next morning, we awoke early to cab over to the monastery for a day of guided meditation. On the previous morning, the monk asked us to be present at 6:30am. Despite the rain, we made it in time, but a different monk enformed us that the abbott was not at the monastery that day and therefore he would be unable to allow us to spend the day without getting the abbott's permission. Our hope to spend the day with the brothers and sisters in meditation was not to be. Instead, we sat with this particular monk for about 30 minutes drinking tea and talking about the lifestyle of a buddhist monk. He did not want us to leave empty handed, and therefore gave us several books on Zen Buddhism. We were bummed out that we could not stay for the day, but high-tailed it back to Dalat to try to catch the next bus to Saigon.