Back From Wu Wei Si

Location: Dali, Yunnan Province, China
Local Time: Thursday, October 19, 2006 - 7:36am

Well, I'm back from Wu Wei Si. It is the weekend up there, so no training is going on right now, and the Daoist monk should be back from his vacation soon, so I'll go train with him.

Wu Wei Si was a good place to train for a while, try to get a little back in shape, learn a couple of Shaolin forms. I was stiff and sore for the entire first week. I'm not use to training 5 hours a day.

The second week was much better. I injured my hamstring in the first week, so I haven't been doing the kicks, but I was still fit enough to do the low stances and train the forms.

They start by teaching you a form called Shaolin Hua. It is a basic, intoductory form. I must say though, it is a much more interesting form than the basic forms they taught us in Master Liang's studio.

After I learned that in the first 2 days, I decided to learn the Shaolin Mantis form. It is pretty nice, lots low stances, only one kick, which was good given my hamstring problem. It is a very pretty form, and I decided to spend the second week just practicing it.

Nadav is an Israeli who was also training up there. He learned Mantis at the same time I did, but decided to do Eagle form for his second week. He demonstrated for me yesterday at the end of the day. Wow, what a nice form. Maybe I should have learned that one in my second week. :-)

All in all, there are 6 or 8 kids up there who train full time. They range in age from about 8 years old to 18 years old. I'm told some of them are orphans, in the care of the monastery. They have a very strict life style.

As a visitor, I didn't have to participate in the Buddhist cerimonies, nor in some of the special training sessions. The kids are up before 6 am, chanting. At 7 they go down to the stream, about 1 - 2 km away, and get a bunch of rocks that they carry back on their heads. Then, they train sit ups and the punching back until 8 when we have breakfast. They have free time until 9 when we start training in basics, which lasts until noon when we eat lunch. After lunch they have a little free time, then they study lessons for over an hour. Training begins again at 4 and goes until 6 when we eat dinner. After dinner, they have more chanting, then they train forms for an hour or so. Lights out is at 9:30pm.

There were other foreigners up there training with me. Some for shorter periods of time, some for longer. Amir and Nadav are two Israeli's who started at the same time I did two weeks ago. Amir was in Mongolia for 2 months, and now he's going bicycling to Laos. Nadav was is a Thai kickboxing camp for 3 months before coming here, and he is staying at Wu Wei Si. He'll be training there for possibly a few months.

Aden is a British bloke who was there for 2 weeks before before I arrived. He's going with me now to see Xiao Yun, the Daoist monk. Before training at Wu Wei Si, he trained with a different Daoist monk near Wudang Mountain.

Patrick is a German who was there before I arrived, and plans to stay for a while longer. He trained for 2 years at a Shaolin Temple a few years ago. He says the training here is very similar, though not exactly the same.

Rohm and Omar are two Israeli's who came last week. Omar plans to stay for many months. He came to China specifically to train here. He heard about it from a friend back home.

Notice an Israel theme? Well, welcome to life on the road. It seems that no country has as many travellers as Israel, and you meet Israeli's everywhere. Every where except countries where they are not permitted to enter, like Malaysia and Pakistan.

Well, I have a couple days of relaxation and eating here in town. The food at the monastery was exceptional, but in the second week we got a new cook. She has a preference for spicy cooking, and there were days when I had definate stomach troubles. Since the toilet is a short walk outside the monastery (which has no electricity at all), stomach troubles in the night are not a light matter.