…to continue from the last entry.

Just after 10:00am as promised, the cook arrived to let me out, not in… does sound a bit strange, huh? So at the end of the alley, there was my driver… real nice fellow who barely spoke English and so we never really discussed the mix up at the train station and I was content to just leave it lie . It very well could have been my error for all I know.

The ride to Tam Dao and the Belvedere, a 4-star resort hotel I was staying at, was to be about a two hour ride from VPV… and it was. The Belvedere was also up high on Tay Thien Mountain and about a 20 minute drive to the Truc Lam Buddhist Monastery that I was hoping to visit the next day.

So why do I choose to be up high in the mountains, especially after my cold, foggy experience in Sapa? I believe this is the Zen koan that I should be sitting in contemplation of, because as the driver ascended Tay Thien for the Belvedere, I realized that my hunch was correct… it was going to be cold and it was going to be misty and foggy. As a matter of fact, I can truthfully say that Tay Thien Mountain was much foggier than Sapa, not even close. Fortunately it was daytime that we were going up the mountain, and fortunately there were many more guard rails than the trip to Sapa…that was very, very reassuring . However, often the numerous hairpin turns leading up the mountain made those to Sapa look like straight pins.

When I arrived at the Belvedere, the driver let me off, I thanked him and went inside to check-in. This place was gorgeous, this place was a very large complex of villas and buildings housing a swimming pool, a health spa, a conference center and a ballroom…75 villas & rooms in all. The 'however' is tho, that this being the winter, the only thing open was the restaurant. In fact, I only saw 6-8 staff the entire time I was there and I saw no other guests there at all. Fortunately, a new front desk receptionist Huong started last week, because she was the only person here that spoke any English and she was very helpful and friendly. If not for Huong, I’m not sure how I ever would have communicated with anyone…tho again, in this very large 4 star resort, I was the only guest.

But it was cold, very, very cold…and the genius who designed Belvedere must have thought there was humor in having uncarpeted, cold tile floors and a shower without a door to keep the heat in . Oh, and take a look at the room heater in one of the pictures… this room had about a 15 foot high ceiling, tiled floors and a tiny heater that so obviously won’t be able to warm the room.

I was able to order from the menu tho… and they did have internet in the reception lobby, so that worked out well and really was all that was important for the one night I decided to stay. But again, it was bitterly cold, both inside and out, and the waiter served food in his winter coat, the cook cooked in his winter coat, and the desk receptionist receptioned in her winter coat. They think nothing of it but my guess is that the inside of the rooms/common areas in both here and Sapa, it is in the 40’s…. could’ve been even colder, I really don’t know, but in the restaurant, you would see your breath when talking... very plainly.

Anyway, as it turned out, it really was a wonderful stay and I happened to enjoy it very much…my meals were excellent, Huong, my one friend was a delight to chat with, and once dressed properly, it was much like camping out during the winter, only indoors .

But really my primary reason for the visit was to see the Truc Lam Zen Monastary, although I really knew nothing about it other than the little I could find out online…

Just a bit about myself, my background and my knowledge and experience with Zen Buddhism. Since my college hippie days, for whatever reason, the simple tenets of Zen life has always had a strong draw for me. But really, other than an addiction to the David Carradine Kung Fu television shows of the time, and reading the short book of Zen koans in Zen Bones, Zen Flesh (required reading for any hippie of the 70’s), I really know little about Zen Buddhism in any formal way. In fact, while I do read newspapers and magazines with a great appetite, I believe the last full length book I read was Exodus in high school…that assumes Cliff and Monarch Notes do not qualify.

So while I have always found the entire Buddhist life of simplicity with less reliance on the fast paced, complicated everyday life events to be appealing, it was unrealistic for me to live in my actual life even if I had the skills and discipline and desire to do so . It was when I lost most of my hearing about 8 years ago, that made a simpler life more possible…by necessity and with seemingly little choice.

I took up gardening with an obsession, planting impatiens after impatiens endlessly each year, painted my entire house myself where that just ain’t done, and built stone retaining walls around my house. I truly love doing ‘mindless’ simple tasks, planting flower after flower, trimming hedge after hedge, doing brush stroke after brush stroke, and laying down rock after rock….it’s all somewhat the same for me & I often can do this hour after hour and day after day.

So that’s pretty much my experience with any resemblance to Zen Buddhism other than that I do meditate, or rather quiet myself, when things get frenzied or I feel frazzled…but without any everyday discipline.

So I did want to make sure I visited a Zen Monastery while in Vietnam and when I read about Truc Lam, I made sure that I visited here . My driver arrived at the base of Truc Lam and I told him that I planned to be here about 2 hours and if it stretched into 3 or 4, I would pay him additional. More likely I said, I may be out in one half hour.

From the base, I looked up at this imposing flight of steps leading to an archway, thru the archway was another imposing flight of steps leading to the actual Buddhist temple. I saw no one around at all and just started walking up the couple of hundred steps. When I arrived at the top of the final flight of steps in front of the temple, I saw my first people. Walking right in front of me was a procession of perhaps 25 monks. We acknowledged each other with a small bow and hands placed together in front of the chest.

Well, they were the only people I saw at Truc Lam except for a gardener and a handyman I saw. I just kept walking up and around the grounds for 2 or so hours and it just seemed to get quieter and more serene as I went up . Finally, I walked down back to the Temple, took off my shoes and walked inside this large but simple building, no chairs and just a rather elaborate alter in the front. I stood there quietly and then from somewhere behind the alter one monk came out and we bowed to each other and he quietly stood near me for a bit. He then walked to the side of the alter and banged this very large Zen brass bowl…gong…gong…gong. Each time, it just vibrated and resonated after for perhaps 15 seconds. He bonged the bonger perhaps 5 or 6 times and then he was finished. 

That monk was the only person I saw at Truc Lam Temple other than the procession and the handyman. I took a different path down some narrow stone steps that I expected to also lead to the parking place where my driver was…there I met 3 people, 2 girls collecting aloe plants and a fellow who asked my help with reading the numbers on his watch, for which I asked him if I could take his picture.

I’m sorry I didn’t take many pictures in or closely around the actual temple…just didn’t feel reverent or appropriate…  tho when I did arrive back to the car, all I could say was "Wow, holy shit".