How Jetlag Spurred a Spiritual Experience

If there’s one positive to jetlag it’s that you don’t have to fight getting an early start on the day. Even in the din of a well-draped hotel room, you’re up and at ‘em at an hour you normally don’t see.

That’s always been my experience, at least.

Today was no exception. Despite being comfortably cocooned in my villa at the Sofitel Centara Grand in Hua Hin, and despite being three days into this trip (i.e. far enough removed from the long journey from Salt Lake City to Southeast Asia) the eyes opened and stayed open. My internal clock still has me somewhere over the Pacific, I think.

So I took to the beach, about 100 yards down the orchid-lined footpath between the resort and the Gulf of Thailand.

I’m not a religious person, but this morning’s walk was nothing short of spiritual. First, the sunrise. It was dark when I embarked, but within what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes — hard to say exactly, because I didn’t have my watch or phone — I could sense night giving way. With each step, the sky along the horizon changed — from a dull purple to, eventually, a fiery orange that gave definition and color to the wispy clouds hovering above.

At its most intense level of orange, I sat on a wooden chaise lounge chair — one of hundreds that later today will undoubtedly be occupied by sunbathers — and took in the scene. I shoved my feet into the flour-like sand, inhaled the briny air, and stared at the waves gently rolling in.

Not a couple minutes passed when two figures then converged — one from my right, another from my left — and met probably 20 paces in front of me. Two women. One a Buddhist monk, with shaved head and white robe. The other in hotel housekeeping threads. They spoke for a second, then the maid lay alms in a basket hanging from the monk’s neck. The maid got down on her haunches and into a prayer position. In turn, the monk sang a prayer. The two were silhouetted against that bright orange sky.

“Jetlag,” I thought, “ain’t half bad.”

(This entry was first posted on June 7 at www.itsinhuahin.com/blog)

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