Insight Meditation Retreat

We're back from the temple Wat Ram Proeng (did we say 10 day retreat? We meant 7). We left a few days early for a couple of reasons. Our visa's are running short again and we need to make a run for the border, and by the 6th day we both agreed (at this point we broke our pact of silence) that we had accomplished what we set out to do. The meditation is a really personal experience. Even learning it, you're on your own. The first day there, all the foreigner meditators coming in were acclimated to the temple complex (where our rooms were, where to practice meditation, where to report to our teacher everyday). That 1st night we learned the actual technique of Vipassana Meditation, the meditation used at this particular Buddhist Temple. Two seemingly easy concepts: walking meditation (which is basically walking in slow motion), and sitting meditation (what most people probably think of meditation, sitting cross-legged on the ground). It doesn't seem like too difficult to learn, but doing these techniques in 30 min increments for 7-9 hours a day can be very tough. We ate our second meal (lunch) at 11, and after that weren't allowed to eat until 6:30 the next morning. I'm sure you can imagine my skeleton frame right now (I'm down to around 180 lbs). For the first four days, I was able to go without talking to anyone (I don't think I've gone more than three hours without talking to someone before). Mike and I communicated with each other on the 5th day by writing pad. One thing we were surprised about was that we were the only foreign meditators there without any prior meditating experience. The program was pretty heavy for beginners, but very rewarding. When we got out we enjoyed the usual spoils of the real world; pizza, beer, music, TV, etc. We're headed down to Bangkok tonight, then head south. We'll have to make another border crossing into Burma before we head to our final destination in Thailand: the beaches. Can't wait. We're on the final leg of our trip! Sooner than later we'll be seeing everyone. Hope all is well!