» 2010

Although at the present moment, you all are in 2010, I am 13 hours ahead and have broke into 2011. Its 11 am on New Years Day. For the last day of 2010, I decided to climb the Great Wall of China. It was AMAZING!!!. I literally almost froze and the wind did a number on me as I was climbing up and down hundreds of steps, but it was awesome. It seems like the wall goes on forever in each direction. The line up the middle of my pics in the Wall snaking up and down the Mountains.Pics below.

As a city, Beijing is a pleasant surprise, besides the blistering cold, there is much to do and see. I am staying in the best Hutong in the city. Hutongs are  old alley ways, but mostly lined with shops or restaurants now adays. I’ve gotten the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square under my belt so far. Tonight, I hope to go see a chinese reggae band. That should be interesting.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

» 2010

Day number 6, now I am on my way to Beijing after five days in the Shanghai area.

For my last two days in Shanghai, I had hopped to visit the cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou (two supposedly heavenly cities full of gardens, temples and canals/lakes). I guess the other half of heaven will have to wait because on Monday instead of getting on a bus to Suzhou, I got on a bus to Xitang. How did this happen? Well the day before I decided I wanted to go on a tour of both cities instead of going by myself and roaming around for the day. The cheapest option was to take a one day bus trip from the Shanghai Tour Bus Station. Simple enough, but the tour would be in Chinese. That was fine with me, I really just wanted someone to take me to the important places and hang out with some Chinese people. I specifically told the lady, Suzhou and Hangzhou. I guess Suzhou sounded like Xitang. Perhaps both of our tongues and ears betrayed us that day. My ticket said Xitang (in Chinese characters). I didn’t even realize it until they dropped us off at Xitang which is an ancient (700 year old) water town, kind of like Venice, where you get around by canal and bridges over waterways. This Chinese American woman looked at my ticket and said “that says Xitang.” Oh well, Xitang was a pretty cool place. I basically roamed around its shops, bridges and canals. I had some of the best fried dumpling and potatoes from a street vendor and some good milk tea. The museums were crappy, but what do you do. There were some Chinese American people on my tour that helped me out at least, like letting me know the important fact of what time to be back at the bus. All in all there was some good photo opportunities. These water towns are quite famous in this area and there are a number of them. I am glad I got to go to one.

 Smile, Your in China!!!

I was sitting down writing out a postcard (passerby’s were stating over my shoulders because I was writing in English and with letters I suppose) and the next thing you know there is a person sitting very close to me, with her arm tightly around my shoulders and in front of me was her friend pointing a camera in my face. WTF!!! At least in India they asked, here they just appear next to you (or grab you) and start taking pictures. Its kind of jarring, before I can even say yes or protest the camera has already flashed. What else can I do but smile and laugh. Thailand has thought me to smile more, everybody smiles there in any and every situation, which just makes life more pleasant. I probably smiled more there then half my life. You can only smile back when people are smiling at you. So I smile at the bad-mannered Chinese people. Smile, You’re in China!!!

The day after made up for the previous day’s mishaps. Blessing number one – I did indeed get on the right bus or better yet my ticket was correct. Number two – there are a few people that speak English, so I can at least know where we are going on. I also made two lady friends and had two Chinese mothers for the day…Thali and Kris.

When Thali sat next to me, she waved smiled and asked (via gestures) was I alone. “Yes just one”

Then, she gestured that it was cold outside. Then she looked at my jacket, felt the fabric as if to say, this is all your have, not warm enough. I showed her that under my Northface shell was a fleece and cardigan and a shirt. She was pleased, as a mother would be. Then seeing that I was drinking tea with nothing else (I had already eaten my bread snack), she took out some of her raisin bread and offered it to me. Tasty raisin bread, my favorite. Later, she offered me an orange, and some other candies. When we needed to leave at any point during the tour, she would pull my arm or point, making sure I kept up. I spent the day with her and her friend Kris, who spoke good enough English. Thali was from Taiwan and Kris from Malaysia. Also on the bus was a Chinese man from Singapore, who spoke English very well. He had worked in Oklahoma for 2 months and said in a surprised manor that Americans are hard workers. He liked the country but thought there was a lot of waste and was baffled that it seemed that many people had two cars. “Lots of buffets” he said “$9.99”

The three of them were very helpful as we went to lunch, took a cruise around beautiful West lake and visited the scenic area of Lingyin. I had the pleasure of spending the day with Chinese people from all over China and a few other countries. In fact, I was the only non Asian person on the tour. Can you imagine, me and 25 Asian people. What a sight. Of course, like everywhere, everyone wanted to know where I was from and was my hair original/how did I make it like that. Next time I travel the world (not that there will be a next time) remind me to cut all my hair off. Or maybe I should be happy that I am intriguing and mysterious. Again, all I can do is smile. When people stare and nod towards my head, I make a palm rolling motion with my hands. The hear a “oohhhhhh” instantly.

We also visited a silk factory and saw the process of making silk, which is impressive. A silk worm’ss cacoon can basically be stretched out to the size of a double bed. Then we went to this green tea village and had some tea. There were tea bushes all around the hillsides. It was overall a great day, indeed a bunch of perfect moments. Half of heaven was not so bad who can complain about that.

Randomness

Facebook is blocked in China. Can you believe it?

I have come to the conclusion that for the most part, Americans probably would not like real Chinese food very much. Some of it is very good and normal looking, other stuff is like the strangest food ever. They eat eel, snails, every part of the pig, chicken feet, livers, some stuff that looks unidentifiable stuff, bull frog, congee (a porridge looking white dish). In the tea village there was a string of roasted duck hanging from what seemed everywhere. On top of that there was also fish and draw duck hanging outside too. On my list to try though is Dim Sum, which is meat and rice wrapped in a lotus. All the teas are good and you kind of cant go wrong with noodles, dumplings, vegetables and rice.

The pilot just announced that there are some crosswinds at the Beijing airport, so now we are going back to Shanghai. Great!!! who knows when I will get to my destination. I am really not moved by this announcement, just think its interesting….I just wonder oh a twist in plot, how will this day unfold. “I dont know what is going to happen, that’s alright with me, I open up my aim and embrace the mystery. Just for today” Words from India Arie that just happen to be playing in my ears. What happened, well we flew back to Shanghai, stayed there for one hour and then few back to Beijing. Just a 3.5 hour delay.

In the morning, as I am walking to the train station, see ladies in their 60′s doing Tai Chi outside. This makes me smile.

I think this month will be the hardest, as my trip is almost over so I have started to count my blessings.

So far, I have traveled almost 30,000 miles

met hundreds of people from all over probably from 30+ countries

50 cities/villages/towns in 15 countries

Visited sites like Machu Picchu, the Colosseum, The Cape of Good Hope and Taj Mahal to name a few

Seen the French and Swiss Alps, rainforests, volcano’s, waterfalls, cruised rivers and lakes, went on Safari, tasted some of the best wines in the world and paraglided

I can say hello in 7 languages

I read about 15 books

Rode an elephant 3 times

volunteered for 4 months in 6 countries

Dipped my foot in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans

All in one trip

Things I am looking forward to:

  1. The great wall of course – sleeping there or hiking from one portion to another (which is like a 4 hour walk)
  2. Maybe a cooking class in Japan and they also have sumo wrestling tournaments going on in January – I must find some Karaoke as well
  3. Riding a bullet train – how fast is it? – an 8 hour trip driving from Kyoto to Tokyo only takes 2.5 hours on a bullet train.
  4. Scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef – one of the natural wonders of the world in Australia with all type of fish and plant life down under.
  5. Visiting some of the Australian people I have met in other places
  6. Coming home

 

Half of Heaven

In Heaven

there are no doubt splendor all around

On Earth

there is Suzhou and Hangzhou

two twins of magnificence

Who would not be eager to enter their bliss

Yet, In this instance

I was deceived by my own tongue into visiting Xitang in ignorance

Upon the second day

I did reclaim my fate

To take in the great West Lake and

scenic settings of Hangzhou

That’s good enough for now

I’ve seen half of heaven

Can I ever complain of having to do without?

» 2010

I have been in China for all of three days now. My first thoughts are:

  1. Its cold as hell!!! The first things I bought were a hat and good pair of gloves. Its supposedly in the 30′s but feels way colder. Unfortunately, I also just figured out how to work the heater in my room, so its been pretty cold there too, but now it is toasty
  2. Shanghai is kind of like a any large city – a bunch of people (except they are all of Chinese) rushing to get places, aloof and pushy, a good amount of lights and skyscrapers and way too many places to eat and shop. Its a cool city, but nothing particularly special and a bit “how’s your father?” It can be seen in 2-3 days and I have five
  3. I have seen close to nothing the even resembles American Chinese food here. ITS A SHAM I TELL YOU!!! WE’VE BEEN BAMBOOZLED. Here are a few generalizations from my limited experience here. There is a lot of pork here and other meat on a stick (especially as street food), dumplings, buns which are kind of similar to dumplings, noodles and rice with meat and vegetables (which I suppose is the most similar to what we have at home, but its different). I have tried Chinese snacks and sweets. Snacks are good, like spring rolls, dumplings, buns and this roti thing I had today. However,the sweets in the market, I am about 0 for 5. I am really unsure on how Chinese people are so thin, most things are doused in oil or fried. Everything I have eaten has been good, but this is probably my least favorite food in the world, but Chinese food is my least favorite anyway. The milk tea as they call it here is divine and all over. You can even buy hot milk tea in a can from a vending machine. Most of my meals cost less than $5 and maybe more like $2. One dollar is about 6.67 Yuan
  4. Its pretty easy to get around. There is a good metro system and thank God its bilingual or else I would be absolutely lost trying to figure out Chinese characters. It would be virtually impossible. Not a whole lot of people speak English, but enough.
  5. I’ve visited:
  • The Bund which is similar to Wall Street. Its a historic area near the river with a bunch of skyscrapers.
  • The Peoples Square and Nanjing Pedestrian Street (its like times square meets the downtown mall)
  • The Shanghai Museum – learned about Chinese/Shanghai history, currency, ethnic groups, sculpture, furniture, currency – you name it.
  • Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition – now this was a 5 level tribute to planning in the city and it was quite magnificent. The entirety of one floor is a model of the whole nner city. There was virtual tour of the city (universal studio’s style) and you could play this urban design game and design sections of the city yourself. It was full of maps, historic pics, redevelopment plans etc. A City Planner’s Dream but regular people might not find it as exciting.
  • Yuyuan Garden and Bazaar – The garden is a few hundred years old, serene and is kind of a maze (I got lost 3 times) and the Bazaar is basically an old Chinese area that is preserved and now a market. These were my two favorites.
  • There are MALLS, Malls and more malls. They are all western style and have most of the stores you have in the US.
  • A Chinese Acrobatic Show last night (kind of like the cirque du soleil), too short but fabulous. At one point there were 6 or 7 people riding motorcycles around in this giant ball cage, women hola hooping with 20+ holas so that it looked like they were inside a slinky and all kinds of other craziness.

 

The biggest annoyance are people coming up to you in the tourist areas trying to sell you bags and watches & people spitting (I mean clearing everything in their nasal passages and throat).

Randomness

I thought I might escape the consumerism of Christmas while in the East, but certainly not. There are Merry Christmas and Happy New Year signs everywhere, trees and lights decorating buildings and Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You” blaring from every mall speaker.

Every train station has about 4 exits, but there is one with 20 exits. Of course most of the time I manage to go out of the wrong exit and am nowhere near close to my destination after that.

Shanghai has been one of the few places that there are actually natives staying at the hostel. I haven’t met one Australian.

Apparently you have to watch out for English speaking Chinese students that come up to you, act friendly and want to talk. They are known to target tourists, become fast friends, go to tea or dinner and you get stuck with the bill. Case in point, David sits next to me on a bench in the Shanghai museum and sparks up a conversation. Is he just a nice person who sat down for a rest and decided to be nice to a foreigner while practicing his English or is he a preying con artist? Who can ever tell these things. Anyway we had a nice conversation and I proceeded to finish my museum tour. I think traveling has made me realize that people around the world are much nicer than you would think, but it has also made me suspicious of most people I meet. Its kind of unfortunate that I always have to ask myself, “what is this person being so nice?”

I am tired of being a tourist, so I’ve decided to join couch surfing (more for meeting people than for sleeping), so I can at least meet up with some locals for coffee or a drink and get some more insight into the culture and people.

For my last two days here, I will visit the heavenly garden cities of Suzhou – the Venice of Asia known for her gardens and Hangzhou – known for it’s “West Lake.”

Thanks for the Christmas wishes blog readers.

The China I’ve found is not a delicate dish

nor a cabinet for storing precious porcelain

rarely used but always seen

But what a character she has turned out to be

with ten thousand expressions

I can not read

And if you would not trade me for all of this tea

you have obviously never tasted chrysanthemum leaves

» 2010

 

Its freezing and I will be visiting the Great Wall sometime while i am here.

» 2010

I have managed to ride an elephant about 3 times within a span of a little over a month. On, Saturday, my final day of volunteering, they took Max, Richard and I on an elephant ride around a Hill tribe village and down a river. It was fine, except for ours broke wind a few times and the one in front of us stopped dead in its tracks to take a dump while we waiting behind it. I also touched an 180 lbs snake. The two guys took a pic with it around their neck, but I passed on that one.

Off to Chiang Mai I went that evening. I’ve had quite a nice time since I have been here too.

First I am staying at a guest house with a TV in my room for a whopping $13 a night for a single. During this entire trip, I can count that times on my hand that I have had a room to myself and a bed larger than a twin. Also, my favorite show in the world Law & Order SVU is on constantly. I don’t really even watch TV, but I LOVE SVU.

Market Madness

One of the most impressive things about Thailand are the markets. I visited the Night Market and the Sunday Walking Street. The night market was a bunch of vendors in buildings and lining the street with chain stores around like Starbucks, really cool, but the Walking Street was amazing. It’s probably over a mile of streets full of vendors, ranging from food, to souvenirs, street performers, clothes, home décor….pretty much everything. Its full of people and the merchandise is all reasonable priced as well. You can just walk around this place for hours. It’s a great Sunday evening activity.

Trekking

Riding an elephant three times is a charm…not. I went on a one day trek, through the jungle which included elephant riding. Our elephant wouldn’t move unless you gave it a banana. Ever smelled elephant breath? It pretty much smells like grass. I would have passed on the ride, but it came with the tour. You ride an elephant, trek through a few hill tribe villages (we visited the Karen and Hmong tribes), through the jungle, over unsteady bamboo bridges, across rivers and bypassing rice fields. They threw a waterfall in the mix and then go rafting down the river on a bamboo raft. Rafting was my favorite, you just relax on raft while someone pushes you down a river (although you are about half submerged in the water). The rest of a the tour is a bit “hows your father.” That’s an Australian phrase I learned the other day that pretty much means, unimpressive like “nothing to write home to mama about.”

Muay Boxing

Muay Thai Boxing is one of the biggest sports in this country. I wasn’t really that interested, but then decided to check it out. There were 5 matches, starting with children who looked about 10, one lady’s fight and the rest were young men. Its like kick boxing meets regular boxing, as you use gloves and your knees and feet. It was definitely entertaining especially with all the crowds responses. All the boxers did a bit of a dance before the fight, which was kind of strange.

Thai Cooking

One of the top things that I have done in Thailand and probably around the world, was this one day Thai cooking class. It was so fun and delicious and you got to make all of the Thai classics, 6 dishes all together. It all begin with a trip to the market. We learn the Thai cooking basics – rice, rice noodles, glass noodles or egg noddles, palm oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce, palm sugar, coconut milk, basil, garlic, chilies, lime, lemon grass, ginger and coconut milk. We actually made fresh coconut milk. You just shred up coconut, put it in a bag with wholes, add water and squeeze out the milk.

After we went to the market, to pick up and learn about all of our ingredients, we chose the 6 dishes we wanted to make, sat and talked with our table mates while they fed us Thai snacks, broke into groups and were off. Over the course of the day I made: Pad Thai, Papaya (they have a green papaya here which is more like a cucumber than the fruit we are used to) Salad, Chicken and Coconut Soup, Green Curry Paste from scratch, Green Curry Chicken and Sticky Rice and Mango for dessert. Full is not even the word for the feeling of my stomach at the end of the day. We had to eat everything we cooked in addition to tasting some of the other stuff people made at our table. Everything was fun and easy to make, it was a friendly environment of learning alongside other travelers and the food was good. At my table, there was a German couple, two Chinese women and a couple from Australia. They had to roll us all out of there. To top off the day, they gave us a free cookbook with all of the recipes. I think you can go and look at the pics they took of us online at www.baanthaicookery.com.

Pad Thai Recipe (Serve 1)

***Note you will have to do the grams to ounces conversion

Ingredients

250 grams of rice noodles

50 grams of chicken

3 tbsp oil

20 grams of Chinese chive or spring onion

1 tsp. Sugar

2 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 egg

30 grams of bean spouts or cabbage

1 tsp chopped garlic

50 grams of tofu, cut into 1cm tubes

½ cup of water

Method

  1. Heat the oil over low heat, add garlic and fly until fragrant (golden)
  2. Add chicken, tofu and stir until the chicken is cooked
  3. Break the egg in and spread the egg with the chicken
  4. Add noddles and water, stir until tender
  5. Season with fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar
  6. Add the bean sprouts and Chinese chives
  7. Turn off the heat
  8. Serve with fresh vegetables, add line juice, top with ground peanut or chilies to taste.

 

Today is my last full day in Thailand and then I am off to cold cold Shanghai for Christmas. I really enjoyed my time in Thailand and would highly recommend it. The people are nice and many of them speak English, the food is good, things are super cheap (on the street you can eat dinner or $1 and in restaurants $2-$5), it’s easily navigable and depending on where you go there is a range of forest/nature, city/culture/entertainment and beach paradise on the island down south. Its a good introduction to Asia. Its slightly too touristy, but you really cant loose. If you had a bit of time you could easily go to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia or Malaysia from here as well. A southeast Asia tour would be well worth it. If you want to volunteer there are a number of worthy causes from working with Hill tribe people to ex sex workers.

Randomness

How do you know you are in a touristy place??? There are usually a great many tours for adventure sports. Its so interesting that everywhere you go its the same thing..bungee jumping, rafting, ATV driving, zip lining etc. I would say Costa Rica, Capetown and Chiang Mai has the most of these that I have seen around the world.

Fear is irrational – I was thinking the other day, how I am not afraid of elephants, or the horse at our volunteer that apparently chases people. Both of these animals could easily trample and kill me. However, I am hyper aware of the presence of gecko’s, which are about 3-4 inches and just as afraid of me. That just goes to show you how irrational fear is sometimes.

There is a saying here in Thailand, “Same, Same…But Different.” Most people use “same same” frequently, in the same way one would use the world similar. But then you may add the different in there. So if you were to ask me what Ostrich tastes like, I would say – “same, same to steak…but different.” Its ironic but widely used.

The Hilltribe women chew this red stuff that makes their mouth look completely red and bleeding. I realized this a while go, but apparently another guy didn’t. He turned to me and said “that lady with the bleeding mouth just tried to sell us something and she looked like she just spit out a tooth.” “No, it more like red tobacco.”

Thailand means “freeland,” but its former name was Siam…like the Siamese cat, which I have seen a few of around here.

Bye Bye Thailand….and Merry Christmas to you all!!! In the spirit of which I am about to go freeze my butt off in China. I think it snowed there this week.

» 2010

At the end of last week, the rest of the volunteers (Max, Richard, Gina, Adam, Melissa, Cazumi, Tae and Patti) and I  made our way out of the country side into Chiang Rai town. There is not much of an actual town, most people come here to trekk into the hill tribes.  However, there is a night market, a few temples and a few bars and clubs. In the spirit of backpackerism/tourism we went for a few drinks and proceeded to dance the night away. I got some stiff dancing competition from the ladyboys. Lady-boys as they are called here, are flamboyantly gay males and/or males that cross dress or both as these categories sometimes overlap. They are often involved in the entertainment scene such as cabarets. Anyhow, they can dance well, so I had fun trying to out do them, because really, what woman wants to be out danced by a man dressed as a woman? They seemed surprised and excited at a REAL woman dancing well. It was funny…..fortunately I didn’t bring my camera so there is no evidence of this dance off. hahahaha

Basides eating dinner at a buffet where you cook your own food (there was so much variety it was insane), it was a rather uneventful weekend. Monday, I went to see the White Temple and the Black House. Pics are below. Both are modern buildings almost opposite of one another in style and on opposite sides of the city. Oddly enough the White Temple has a mural inside with all kinds of interesting characters like Neo (from the matrix), transformers, cell phones, clouds – kind of random. The White Temple was easy to get to but the Black House was a bit tricky. I couldn’t find the thai name anywhere and nobody knows where it is. Thus, we got on a bus not really knowing where we were going and this woman (who didn’t seem to recognize the name) was supposed to tell us when to get off. Fine enough, but this was almost a mile from where the building was. So we had to go in the direction where we saw the tip of a large black building. Thankfully, we were following the right marker. On the way back there were no buses or taxis, so we wondered down the highway for about 30 minutes until a bus arrived going back to town. Aggravated is not the word for my mood at this point, but we made it back and that is what counts. We should have just took a sung tow (taxi), but I gave up trying to bargain with them and caught the bus. On and Sung tows (I am spelling it wrong) are really taxi pick up trucks with benches in the back. Thailand is the biggest importer of pick-up trucks in the world.

On Tuesday, we were supposed to be leaving for a  3 day hilltribe homestay, where as the term suggests we stay in a village with one of the 8 hilltribes in this general area. We would live and eat with them and do some kind of teaching or construction project. Instead, we ended up going to volunteer at The New Life Foundation, a drug rehabilitation center.  I was at first disappointed (because I was looking forward to the cultural experience), but then it ended up being just what I needed. Why? Because, at this point in my around the world journey I am honestly tired, kind of over it and looking forward to coming home. I am torn between being weary and still wanting to have a good time and explore. Anyway this rehabilitation center was PLUSH, brand new and in the middle of the jungle. There is a swimming pool, we all had our own rooms with a nice bed and bathroom and a beautiful lake nearby. We did yoga and meditation every morning followed by breakfast and then some work around the foundation during the day. I mainly painted, hacked some weeds growing around he pineapple garden and carried wood for the building the other team was building.

The focus of The New Life Center is trying to provide a serene environment for former users (who are passed the chemical dependance stage)  to recover and engaging the residents in the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is basically trying to live in the present moment and engaging it fully – both the good and bad emotions i.e. being fully alive. I suppose this is particularly important for addicts because addiction is a form of escapism. One of the main focuses of mindfulness is meditation as a way to remain centered.  I am very far from a Buddhist, but really struggle with being present as my mind tends to wonder crazily. Since my trip is coming to a close, I has started to get me into planning gear for return, more focused on the future than present. Getting centered and being prompted to live in the present – because HELLO I am on an amazing trip around the world, was helpful. I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend a few months ago. She was saying she had a perfect day until she got into a car accident in the evening. Obviously this ruined here day, but to get to the point, she said – “we are always looking for the perfect day or week, but I want to start relishing in the perfect moments”.

So some off my perfect moments this week were:

Eating coconut curry chicken and eggplant – so sweet and spicy and just good!!!

Finishing the task of painting the entrance gate at the New Life Foundation and gazing at a job well done. The conversation while working on it together was great as well.

Scoring a point in the basketball game we played one afternoon.

Beating the gardener at Jenga. Both of us thought he would win, because he had much more strategic moves and steadier hands but I prevailed.

Riding a bike down to the lake – the wind blowing through my hair, the fresh air and greenery were perfect – there was not a soul round.

On my way to the lake, I saw and waved at two older ladies seated in the front of a house. On my way back, they waved me over and we had a gesturing chat, took photos and they invited me to lunch. That was priceless, thai people are so nice. They seemed generally happy to meet me and the feeling was mutual.

I had some strawberry yogurt yesterday. I know this sounds random, but this is like regular food to me amidst all of the Thai goodness and continual rice. I had rice porridge and that was definitely not a perfect moment. YUCK!!!

I had some really good conversations with the residents of the New Life Foundation and learned a bit about their stories and what lead them there. I love hearing peoples stories. Just some background, there are Thai’s  and people from other parts of the world there. The Thai people are generally struggling with Yaaba, a heavily used and often homemade thai drug that is smoked throughout the country. Its very addictive and it is a HUGE problem. Most people start at a very young age. One of the guys started at age 11 and another girl there was only 17.

I also met a Dutch (former) Monk who now works here. You can here a bit about his story here.

On our way back we stopped for some fried bananas and I had a taste of green tea with milk.

Randomness

My room at the foundation was wonderful, until I found a gecko in my toilet. I tried several times to flush him, but he was resilient against my tactics.  I spent the rest of the week either using another toilet or in fear that a gecko would jump up my arse. On top of this there was a new gecko noise blaring from somewhere in my room (that wasn’t the toilet). It sounded like the noise you hear in a cat fight. This I would here 1-3 times during the night. Needless to say I got no sleep. I woke up pretty frantic one night because I thought one of my hair locs was a gecko’s tail. On a similar note, supposedly if you pull a gecko by the tail, it will pop off. Hopefully I will not have to find out.

Tomorrow is my last day volunteering for the whole trip. HORRAY!!! We will go for an elephant ride to celebrate. Been there done that….how many people can say they rode an elephant twice within a month. Then I am off to Chiang Mai for few days, its about 3 hours from here and is a Thai must see. There I am going to take a Thai cooking class.  So pumped about that. I will be spending Christmas and New Years in China. At least I can share in the cold of the Christmas season because its like 80 degrees here. I must say i do not really miss hearing cheesy Christmas music though.  I’ll miss you all and Christmas wont be the same so l’ll just  pretend its not Christmas (its really not hard here)  and treat myself to a Chinese acrobatic show if i can get tickets.

» 2010

Some of you have referred to my life right now as “living the dream?” Mmmmm sometimes, then others it seems more like a not so glamorous dream, but not exactly a nightmare either. I just though I would share some signs with you all

The life of a volunteer


Itchy – I probably get bitten by at least 10 mosquitoes a day. They are all usually within the same hour. Seven pm must be feasting time because between 7 and 8 pm in the volunteer office mosquitoes come out in full force. I got 6 on one foot yesterday. All of the volunteers’ legs are red and blotchy.

Stretchy – There is a decent amount of down time and to break from eating rice meals, we are constantly eating junk food. Getting wider wider and wider. Seaweed flavored chips are my favorite.

Beds are hard as a rock – We basically sleep on bunk beds with a board and a maybe 1.5 inch mattress which feels like compressed cardboard. In my room there are 3 inch gecko’s on the walls, spiders and noises. There is a LOUD “gecko” alarm which comes from the bathroom. It apparently comes from a large gecko about a foot long. I’ve never actually seen it and don’t want to. The sound  happens randomly and I can hear it through my earplugs. There are also rumors of a family of mice that jump into beds. That reminds me of India (they jumped in beds a lot there). I guess Asian mice have no home training “no jumping on beds.” Speaking of bugs, the keyboard to my computer has been overtaking by ants. I just killed 6 of them.

Rice for breakfast lunch and dinner. To be fair its usually paired with something really good and lots of veggies (which I appreciate). But rice, rice and more rice.

“oh I am really hungry, what is for breakfast?”

“rice”

“not that hungry” – head on table in bewilderment

Also, over the thatch roof area where we eat is a colorful (i.e. poisonous) spider the size of my hand. That’s appetizing!!!

Washing clothes is fun too. You cant get too preoccupied with other things because there are a few steps that require your attention.

  1. Turn the water/faucet on to fill the machine
  2. Let it fill to the level you want it. Put your soap and clothes in and turn on wash.
  3. After the wash stops. Come back and turn on drain.
  4. Let the machine drain. Turn the water back on and let it fill up again.
  5. Turn the machine on rinse. After 15 minutes come back.
  6. Take your clothes out and put them in the spinner for 8-15 minutes.
  7. Take them out and hang them up.
  8. Wait for hours or days for them to dry.

Don’t get distracted and or forget like one volunteer did. You will have mildewed clothes. Depending on how humid it is here, and its pretty humid, it could take a few days for your clothes to dry. Mine are all thin or quick drying so it only took .5 days.  Look on the bright side, this is a lot better than washing by hand yourself. A lot better.

Here is a question we volunteers discussed the other day: What part of your body is most sensitive to freezing cold water? Answers: Legs, chest & back. Back won out. I can’t let cold water run on my back, it almost hurts. So, I will probably have a dirty back until I get to Chiang Mai. Hahahaha!!!!

I thought I would share the toilet sign/directions with you all as well.

I am quite used to all these inconveniences, so much so that it all seems funny.

Overall, this week was laid back and fun. We taught at a school in 3rd and 4th grade and then at a childcare center and on Saturday to village children. I didn’t get to teach monks, so that was disappointed. My favorite were these random games, which none of the English speaking volunteers knew how to play. If you got out in these games, which we did because we didn’t know how to play, you had to get up and do a dance. A dance you didn’t know in front of the whole group. All it good fun though.

Oh there are other random animals as well. At least 3 cats, 5 dogs, a horse that will chase you if you look it in the eye, a pig (I only hear it onking, now sure of the exact location) and a pond full of goldfish. Good times!!!

Sitting here

by a pond of gold fish gulping sweet air

Long banana leaves droop

teasing the water with a touch

My new friends share the same spirit of volunteerism

Resting from work, we sit on logs in an open sala

Cats roam while noodles are eaten

and empty water bottles bow next to bare feet

The late afternoon sun peaks through

clouds shifting patiently across a blue sky

There are 75 degrees of heat, but its cool

in the shadow of the ripe shade

The landscape is lavishly lush

interrupted only by thatched roofs and bamboo

Where am I?

In the land of the Thai’s

The country side of Chiang Rai

» 2010

As you all know, I have safely arrived in Thailand. I immediately liked it and think it will be one of my favorites. I spent the weekend in Bangkok, which was also an experience.

Thailand

The Ubiquitous in Bangkok

There are 7-11′s everywhere. Sometimes two on one street and tens within a mile.
 

Street Vendors with everything ranging from bugs, to fried chicken, noodles to pork on a stick. I LOVE the food here, there is such variety of dishes. It seems like the possibilities are endless. I also ate a couple of things that looked kind of nasty but actually tasted good. One thing, kind of looked like an eyeball but I think was some kind of rice flower with some sweet peanut mixture n the middle. Very good. Of course there is Pad Thai but I also had papaya salad, which they do about 10 different ways. Its an unripe papaya shredded and mixed with other veggies. So it doesn’t taste remotely like a papaya.

Check out my pics for images of Thai food.

Shopping Malls and Markets

On the street where my hostel was, there were at least 5 mega malls. Including one which had 8 levels. Its called MBK and is considered the largest mall in Southeast Asia. You can get lost in this thing. There is a whole floor for food. There are a number of these large malls, so you can buy anything. If you get bored with malls there are markets day and night. I went to the largest market in Southeast Asia as well, the Chatuchak Weekend Market. You can buy furniture, food, pets, antique, clothes, trinkets, dishes or whatever else you heart desires. Its gets 100,000 visitors a day and is crawling with Thai people and tourists alike. I went to a flower market and a few night markets as well. Its market/mall central.

Pictures of the King

Thai people deeply LOVE/RESPECT their king and photographs a the king pretty much everywhere you go. It happened to be his birthday while I was here, so there are literally pictures of him everywhere with lights, decorations and celebrations going on all weekend. In the movies you MUST stand and salute the king while a song is playing, which I believe is the national anthem. At 8 am and 6pm this song is usually played in public places and people stand still in homage to the king. To say anything bad about the king, you can be imprisoned. This is random and has nothing to do with the king, but selling drugs gets the death penalty.

Buddhist Temples & Monks

There are Buddhist temples all aroudn towns/cities. They are adored and elaborate in the central area. I visited a few famous ones: The temple of the dawn (Wat Arun), the reclining Buddha and the emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), as well as the Grand Palace. Most of them are decked out in gold leaf. The reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) is a HUGE and takes up an entire building.

Monks all over and besides their robes seem integrated into modern society. There was one on the train using his IPhone. They have buzzed heads and are are garbed in orange cloth.

Thai Massage Services

Pretty much all over town, there are businesses that give thai massages. In some places people are getting them out in front of the establishments. I got an one hour foot massage for about $6. It was great. A full Thai massage looks hurtful, they basically twist, apply pressure and contort your body. Doesn’t look fun. There is also a fish massage, with a tank full of little fish that suck on your feet. Looks crazy. You can also take massage lessons and cooking lessons. I want to take a cooking lesson in Chiang Mai when I go next weekend.

More on Bangkok

I liked Bangkok. Its modern/western, clean and there is lots to do, see and eat. It was a nice change from India and a good resting place between volunteer experiences. I was met near the airport by one of my Servas hosts, Nan, taken to my hostel and then out to dinner in the bumping area of the city. Then, a friend of a girl i met in india, has a friend that basically showed me around all day in saturday. We met up with her friends that were also traveling the world.

There are lots of high risers, a train and subway system as well as a river transport system. Like Guatemala, Peru and India they also have tuc tucs.

Random things about Bangkok/Thailand

There are TV’s with advertisements on the metro

Time difference from East Coast: 12 Hours ahead

Weather: Probably in the upper 80, humid and there is a lot of fog.

They have the cleanest and best squat toilets I have come across, because they can get pretty nasty. There is a spray head by it though. What do you do with that? After a number two, spray your behind and clean with your left hand. Strange. As someone put it to me, if you stepped in crap, you would not just wipe it off (like we wipe after dedicating in the west), you wash it off (which is what they do here). Which is why people regard the left hand as dirty.

The people; The people are very nice, polite, relatively quiet and smile a lot.

Greeting: Wai – putting your palms together in a prayer-like fashion bowing your head and saying Sa wat dee-kha/krup (female/male) . Depending on the age/status of the person you may wai high (near your forehead) or wai low (center of your chest). For example, monks get a high wai

Heads are sacred so don’t touch them and feet are dirty. You must take your shoes off when entering a house, don’t point your feet at people and don’t touch people with your feet.

Volunteering

Now I am up north in Chiang Rai, where I will be volunteering for two weeks. Its beautiful up here. It looks like the landscapes I have seen in movies set in Vietnam. Lush, green and leafy. I’ve gone from the City to Rural, Thailand.

Mirror Arts Group works to better the quality of life for Hilltribe people (Thailand’s highland ethnic minority people). They operate a number of projects and programs to combat their everyday struggles with unemployment, poverty, drug addiction and lack of Thai citizenship. They also run a project to combat human trafficking as well as a volunteer program to work on teaching English and construction project in the villages. Human/Sex Trafficking is a significant problem in Thailand. Basically people are stolen and forced into low/no wage labor or the sex trade. Sex tourism is also a pretty big industry here. Men come to Thailand for sex holidays for prostitutes. One mirror teaches English is because if people speak English, they have more opportunities and are also less likely to fall into situations where they are trafficked.

Mirror offices in Chiang Rai are in a communal complex with the staff and a few local families. We have 3 meals a day of Thai food and its almost always rice. I had rice for breakfast or the first time, at least it had eggs in it. The beds are hard, there are many mosquitoes, geckos etc and the water is cold. But its a nice place, the people are great and it feels kind of like a camp or retreat setting.

Volunteers in the teaching program rotate between 6+ sites around Chiang Rai. Learning English will increase the skills and employ-ability of the local youth. Our curriculum themes are pretty much set and depending on the age group and creativity of volunteers, we plan lessons. Today we went to a school and taught the children about Christmas. One kid, when asked what he wanted for Christmas said “A Home.” So sad. : (

Today in addition to teaching, we helped with an on-site drainage project. We laid concrete for a drainage pipe so the ponds on campus would not overflow during heavy rains. It was nice getting my hands dirty.

Later this week, I am looking forward to the conversational English classes with Monks we will lead. FYI – monks cant touch women and cant me passed anything by a woman. Next week, I will go on a home stay to one of the hill tribes and teach or do construction or both.

Bangkok

» 2010

Thailand ends at Chiang Rai, the mountainous province that touches borders with Myanmar and Laos. This is soft adventure country, where you can enjoy trekking to various hilltribe villages, mountain biking and river rafting.

» 2010

I have now completed my 3 week stint in India. What an experience!!! It is indeed an incredible place. I will absolutely return. After you get over the initial shock of the place and realize that anything can happen, its get nicer…richer. It is actually the most interesting place I have been. Working with the children at the orphanage was a great experience. They are lovely children and I will miss them. Its amazing how attached you can get to people in only a few days. I’d like you to meet a few of the people that encompassed my life in India.

One of the first people I met from Lakshya was KuKu (that’s his nick name), he is 33 and one of the main directors of the bag making establishment and orphanage. He is from up north near Tibet and looks a bit more east Asian. He is quite the character, but I really liked him. He always made it known that he was our big brother, and if we had any problems he were to come to him. He picked us up every morning in a rickshaw to the orphanage, came with us back at night and hung out with us as much as he could. He lives right around the corner from where I was staying with is wife and daughter.

The other adults were Mala and Remesh – a couple with 4 children (and one on the way) that pretty much run the place. They are both former orphans that married. They have done work with rescuing children from the Delhi station, where most of the children at the orphanage come from. Soni (my favorite), Dolly (a little tomboy), Ichha (so cute and always has on a hood) and Vansh are their children. What a cute group of kids. Mala is 29 and speaks a bit of English, but Remesh speaks very little.

Jamon is the cook who is always smiling. He has a wife and one son. He took us over his house to meet his wife and have chai. Many of the small children here wear the equivalent of eye liner, so he also tried to get us to put some on. I passed. He and his wife’s marriage was arranged when he was 19 and she was 10. As he tells it, when they came to her house to talk about marriage, she was still playing. I think they didn’t actually marry until she was 13. All of the people I met here were in arranged marriages which were usually arranged when they were children.

The woman we spent the most time with making bags in the village was Kusum. I think she was in here mid thirties and had at least two children. While we hammered out bags on the floor of her living room, she would make us tea and we would eat cookies. Undoubtable every day, while we were making bags, a crowd of between 5-15 passerby villagers would gather in the doorway to just watch and stare. It was actually pretty hilarious how much we were stared at.

Kusum, has a store adjacent to her house, where she sold a whole bunch of things, but mostly women would come over to buy bracelets. She would grease up their hands to force them on. She was sweet and gave me and Charlotte rings on my last day.

There is a deaf women who I never got her name, but she is older and helps out around the place.

Some of the kids names are Lokesh, Kishan, Mohen, Suraj, Ranchit, Surraya, Seetaram, Sunil and Bhupenda. I absolutey fell in love with them. They all LOVED taking pictures, so I have loads of them just posing and being silly.

As a mentioned before, my favorite was Soni, who just turned 12, speaks really good English and loves for volunteers to wash her hair with shampoo. She is 12 but is little, so she looks around 8. She is vibrant and talkative . She was learning this song for school when I arrived and would recite it to me every day. I can still hear it in my head with her little India accent.

“Round about and round about and round about we go

around the merry roundabout we are riding high and low

our prancing horses leap and bound

and gallop high above the ground

As roundabout and aroundabout

and roundabout we go”

She would also make me watch and count as she jumped rope. I think her highest uninterrupted turns was 67. The day I left she gave me three groups of long hugs as I walked to the auto rickshaw. I picked her up with one arm (she is tiny), swung her around and gave her three bunches of kisses. She walked me to the door and blow kisses as I drove away. Sooo cute!!! I was honored that she learned my name (all the kids just say Didi) and called me Didi Ebony.

My second love was Surraya who is about 4 or 5 I believe. He was rescued from the Delhi station and has a bunch of scars on his head, as he was beaten with a rock by somebody (presumably his mom). Be cause of this he has some developmental challenges and can not attend regular school. When he first arrived at the shelter he was rather wild and ate anything he could find. He was used to scavenging anything he could from the trash at the station. He cant speak a word of English but we connected anyway. He would climb in my lap for hugs or a ride or we would play happy slap (hands in prayer fashion and tips of fingers touching, we would try to hit each other hands before the other person moved away). He was a bit rough in the beginning but after some affection was quite gentle. He was sleeping when I left, but woke up to say “bye didi” as I kissed him on one of the little scars on his head.

ALL of the children are like regular children, they love to laugh and play and hate to do homework. It was a joy meeting them and as I write this I am realizing that I will likely never see them again. I am getting teary eyed thinking about it.

As far as the woman’s work, it was not as I expected. The women basically make bags and we helped them. I was hoping to interact with more women from the village and actually either teach them English or do some education workshops. Almost all of the women have not completed their basic education. I think it would be good to get them organized and have more control over their production and sale. They only make about 1.25 rupees per bag.  They have to make a lot of bags to make any decent amount of money. 1 dollar is about 45 rupees to give you an idea of exchange rates.

Its funny that the hard places have been my favorites. They are usually more flavorful and provide the best stories. I really wish I had more time and energy to travel around India, but its top on my list of countries I have been to that i want to return to. It’s a place that take so much energy to travel you want to go just there and not 16 other countries too. See you later India…..

Randomness

One the things I loved about Indians, was they gave me a new meaning to the phrase “sitting Indian style.” These people know how to squat and can do it for long periods of time. Feet flat, butt almost on the ground, knees completely bent. I can barely squat for 5 minutes.

Most Indians eat with their hands but forks have been available my whole trip. On my last day at the orphanage, there were no spoons available, so I had the luxury of eating rice and daal (lentils) by hand. It wasn’t half bad, I managed to clean my plate.

All around the rural area i was in, you will see piles of cow dung disks. The women collect dung, and then make patties that dry in the sun and are used for fuel. They are EVERYWHERE!!!

I am now in Bangkok and will spend the weekend exploring here before I go up to Chiang Rai on Monday to start volunteer teaching English. Bangkok is a great city already and boy is it hot and humid. Its in the upper 80′s, there are many things to do and places to see and I took my first real shower in 3 weeks this morning. Its the city of mega mall, there is one down from my hostel that I will explore today, then hit some sights this afternoon and take a night bike tour. Tomorrow I will meet up with a friend of a friend for some market browsing and then maybe go listen to some live music at a blues place called the Saxophone. On Sunday, I hope to take a 52KM bike ride in the countryside and then come back for some festivities in the tourist area for the Kings birthday. After two weeks in Chaing Ria, I will go to Chaing Mai and then probably be off to China. I am trying to figure out where to go there. I am scheduled for Shanghai and Beijing, but am thinking about adding a city or two while I am there. Who knows when I will get back to China. Its the countdown people, I have about 8 weeks left until I am stateside.