AsiaAdventure

Varanasi, City of Shiva

2008-10-13T05:26:00.000-07:00

Varanasi, the last major stop of my time in India, was the most intense city in India I had a chance to visit. I can't imagine another city in India possessing the intensity and feel as unique as Varanasi. The city is renown for pilgrims coming to burn there loved ones and allowing their ashes to drain into the holy Ganges river. The center regions of Varanasi near the banks of the Ganges are extremely crowded and have numerous narrow and winding lanes and an incredible array of shops and businesses. The ghats, the steps leading down to the river, number over 100, most of them bathing ghats with several used for cremation purposes. Many of the ghats are associated with legends and other Hindu mythology. The ghats stretch on for miles, making for some quality walking and sight-seeing. At the moment the monsoon season is over in Varanasi and the Ganges river has fallen in height considerably, at least 20-30 ft it seems looking at watermarks along the walls. It is now possible to walk much further down the steps of the gnats than would have been possible last month. During the peak of the monsoon season the river rises to heights nearly completely covering over the height of the steps, which can be quite steep and high is some areas. During this time I would imagine the city and riverfront area has a much different feel, as there is much less area on the steps for people to congregate and hang out, particularly for the morning and evening pujas.
In many areas powerful hoses and generators are out hosing out large piles of mud and sediment which deposits itself during high river time. I would imagine the operators must uncover some interesting discoveries from within the deposited mud, probably much bones and parts of bodies. I had heard that those who can't afford cremations are often tied down which heavy rocks or other apparatus and tossed into the river after they have died. Often times these corpses wash ashore when they have decayed enough to loosen out of whatever was holding them down. I never had the experience of seeing any bodies floating around however. Others I have spoken to have talked of seeing dogs gnawing away at the riverbank on decomposing corpses.

The busiest, most colorful, and probably most spectacular of the ghats is Dashashwamedh Ghat. A group of priests daily perform various pujas, or religious cermonies, in the evening at this ghat, including "Agni Puja" (Worship to Fire) wherein a dedication is made to Lord Shiva, River Ganga, the Sun, Agni (Fire), and the whole universe. It was quite fascinating watching these performances during the evening, as crowds of devout Hindus and as well as tourists flock to the ghat to observe the performances lasting for over an hr. In a center area next to a guardrail sit countless beggars and medically downtrodden, many looking plagued with leprosy and deformed or missing limbs. Pretty much all of them sit with begging pots or outstretched hands asking for money. The levels of poverty and those living in the streets are staggering. Even if you give change to one person you have hundreds and thousands more asking a moment later. Mixed in with the people on the gnats are the everpresent cows, goats, dogs, and occasional monkeys making quick raids for food. The visual stimuli is overwhelming, not too mention the noise and everpresent strench of the place.

The primary burning gnat is Manikarnika Gnat, located a little bit north up the Ganges from Dashashwamdgh Gnat. Here 24 hr burning of corpses is going on, with constant smoke and activity surrounding the area. Walking the narrow lanes in the blocks surrounding the gnat is it quite common to bump into processions of men carrying corpses on their way to their burning location. Apparently only certain lower caste and untouchable men are employed in the process of carrying the bodies. Huge piles of wood are stockpiled and waiting to be used to burn up the bodies. Apparently it is a very precise operation how much wood and what kind to be used for each body. Wood gets quite expensive so it is weighed out carefully and the exact amt needed is used. Those with more money can pay for more expensive and desireable types of wood as well.

I was walking around in the narrow alleyways and lanes surrounding the gnat when an Indian offered to show me where the bodies were burnt. I knew there had to be some kind of catch involved but I decided to follow him on the way to the burning gnat anyway. I was taken to a bld overlooking the burning grounds. Here I was immediately approached by another Indian asking if I wanted to take pictures of the burnings. I had interest in taking some pictures as it was such a unique and surreal experience, with the wrapped up bodies smoking away on the wood stacks. The guy was unfortunately asking crazy amts of money to take photos, like over $10 US a pic, saying that the money would be going towards the cost of wood or other associated costs. This I hardly believed for a second, as many Indians I have found to be masters of conning and creating ploys to make money for themselves out of unsuspecting tourists and visitors. I stuck around for a few more moments before I had an everpresent older woman approaching me with her hands out begging for money, at which point I decided I had had enough and it was time to get out of the place. Apparently the Indian wasn't pleased with me not handing out money and tried to get in my face and grab my arm as I was walking away. When I ripped it away and and headed for the steps to get out of the place, he followed me and made as though he was going to attack me or something. I felt for no second scared or intimidated by this fellow, as he was a bit smaller and wouldn't have had much chance against me. However with the seemingly infinite crowds of other Indians nearby it wouldn't have been a wise choice to start anything. Later on I heard from other Indians that it is a somewhat common occurance for fights and other altercations to occur in the burning ghats areas between tourists and aggressive solicitors. There is also a presence of organized crime and mafia in the area which I read about in Lonely Planet and heard more about later, contributing to a culture in this area as wel as the train station.

One other burning gnat in town, although of lesser importance than the Manikarnika Gnat, is the Harischandra Gnat. At this gnat I experienced much less hassle and aggravation than the previous one. I met two Indians here alongside the river and was invited up to a small Hindu ceremony a short walk away, for a small fee of course. The one Indian was supposeably a Swami or something of that nature. Before the ceremony he jumped in the Ganges and bathed with soap, attempted to clean himself in the sacred yet filthy waters. Then I was led up to a balcony area adorned with a Shiva figure and several of his tridents, along with a group of other Indians. There was a small fire going on in which began wiping ashes on various areas of himself. The Indians whipped out a chilam, an Indian style smoking pipe made of what seems like clay. Here they inserted a combination of hashish and tobacco. I decided to be polite of course and take one hit on the pipe. However I am not a big fan of tobacco as it makes me nauseous and didn't feel like getting particularly high on hashish. It was suggested that we get some bhang and made some lassis, or bhang milkshakes. Bhang is a type of Indian marijuana concoction derived from the leaves, flowers, and buds of the plants being mashed down. It is legal in Indian and can be seen sold in various locations, sometimes advertised as Official Govt Bhang Shop. At the store we went to it was sold in small pastry like balls called 'golees', similar to the little donut balls sold in the west at Dunkin Donuts. To make the bhang lassi other ingredients are added to make the shake, including either milk or water, sugar, spices, etc. I wasn't sure exactly what bhang was although I had heard much about it and didn't know much more about it other than it being derived from cannabis. Apparently it is an intoxicant and its preparations and uses are regarded as sacred to the Gods, particularly Shiva. Varanasi, being the holy city that it is, is sometimes referred to as the 'City of Shiva.' It is a very popular drink here along the ghats and is often used as boost for meditation and to help achieve transcendental states, particularly among the sadhus. After drinking the concoction is took about 30 mins before I starting feeling the effects. Everything felt amplified and it was quite amazing walking through the narrow alleys and streets and experiencing all the sensory input in the altered state, not that one necessarily needs anything to feel like they are in an altered state while in Varanasi, as otherworldly as it it. I only drank one small cup of the concoction to be on the safe side, while the other more experienced Indians had no problems helping themselves to multiple cups. This small cup turned out to be enough for me and I feel fortunate to have been able to experience such a sublime and unique Indian experience.
One other memorable ghat I visited was the Meer Ghat. Nothing particuarly noteworthy about the riverfront portion, but to the side of the Ghat was a Nepalese temple featuring Kama Sutra type carvings and sculptures. The sculptures essentially showed sexual type situations and erotic positions, which is supposed to be the only temple of its type in the city.

A great experience I had one morning in Varanasi was taking a boatride with several guys I met at my guesthouse on the Ganges as the sun was coming up. It is a popular thing to do at dawn as many pujas, or religious ceremonies, are taking place up and down the river. Arriving at the river about 5:30/6am, the city was much more peaceful and calm before the masses wake up and everyone hits the streets. At the river the 3 of us, 1 guy from Australia and the other from England, I don't remember their names, piled onto a boat with another Indian rowing us along. We rowed up the river past observing the riverfront come alive and masses of Indians making their way to the river for cleaning and prayer. Even though the Ganges river is considered sacred by Indians, it is still amazing that they go to the river for cleaning and other purposes and don't get violently sick. The river is outrageously polluted and filthy and there wouldn't be a chance I would step foot in this portion of the river. Apparently countless sewer lines dump huge amts of raw sewage into the river. Business industry and factories along the length of the river have no problem deposting waste, chemical and biological, into the river as well, creating an absolute cesspool of bacteria and potential disease. However none of this seems to perturb or put off Indians getting into the river. Occassionally you will see a foreigner with white skin swimming through the water, god knows whats going on in his mind.

It was beautiful seeing the sun coming up over the horizon and lighting up the day. It one area there were a large group of yogis dressed in orange practicing yoga and doing sun salutations at this time. All along the stretch fascinating looking sadhus, Indians which have renounced worldly life and devote themselves to spiritual enlightenment, could be seen out around the banks meditating. Their were many of boats moving through the water carrying tourists up and down the banks. One noticable boat was filled with Thai monks dressed in their orange monk garb. Activity along the banks become more busy by the minute as Indians made their way to the river.

After the boatride, we were driven to three main temples in the city, these being the Durga Temple, the Rama Krishna or Tulsi Manas Temple, and the Hanuman Temple. The Hanuman Temple was the most interesting as scores of the macaque monkeys were all over the place. In the Hindu religion Hanuman is the Monkey God, hence this temple was in tribute to him and monkeys were given free reign within the place. Typically u don't want to get too near these particular red-butted monkeys as they can be quite tempermental and will threaten attack if they feel threatened. However here they were a bit more easy-going as they are treated with the reverence of a god.

Another spot on the outskirts of Varnasi I visited was the village of Sarnath, one of the four main pilgrimmage sites for Buddhists to visit. Here the Buddha supposably made his first sermons after he reached enlightenment in Bodhi Gaya, about 6 hrs from here on train. The site was full of ancient ruins and many temples, many representing various Buddhist countries including Thailand, Tibet, China, Japan, Myanmar, etc. There was a large museum which was unfortunately closed this particular day. About 30 minutes away from Varanasi, it was a nice escape from the constant noise and chaos of the city.

I had hoped to visit Bodhi Gaya and get a glimpse of the supposed tree that the Buddha achieved enlightenment nearly 2500 yrs ago. It is not the actual tree in which he gained enlightenment, as this tree is said to have been removed to Sri Lanka. From Sri Lanka a segment of the Bodhi tree was cut off and brought back to Bodhi Gaya, and has apparently grown back to a full-fledged tree. I would have been able to get a train ticket to Bodhi Gaya, but there were no tickets from Bodhi Gaya onward to Kolkata with the exception of an expensive 1st class ticket which I didn't feel like spending the money for. Bodhi Gaya is half way from Varanasi to Kolkata, and I didn't feel like traveling to Bodhi Gaya, and back to Varanasi, then all the way back in the same direction to Kolkata.
The rickshaw drivers, both motor and foot-powered, were constantly pulling along side of you if u were walking and asking if u needed their services. One of the rides on the main road leading to the busy Dasaswameth gnat from near my guest house was perhaps the craziest and most exciting ride I ever been on in my life. With the crowds and traffic near bumper to bumper capacity, the driver expertly swerved and turned, stopping mere inches from bumpers and pedestrians and each time expertly avoiding any contact or accident. Essentially he was driving no different than every other driver out there, but the Indian drivers have perfected the art of driving in this chaotic and superdense environment. I just held on tight to on eof the rails in the back seat and enjoyed the ride. I don't think the two guys from my guesthouse were as thrilled with the ride as I was. Perhaps it was too intense or scary for them. The rickshaw drivers are masters in navigating through the extreme entanglement of traffic and I had total faith in our driver. I'm sure accidents occur quite regularly but I didn't feel any fear. Afterwards I told myself I was going to have to take another one of these rides, even though I typically prefer walking as I enjoy walking and being on my own two feet, plus saving my money.

Jodhpur and Udaipur and Jaipur

2008-10-06T04:27:00.000-07:00

After visiting Bikaner, I took a bus south for about 5 hrs to the city of Jodhpur. Here an amazing fort rises off a huge rocky cliff. It is quite a site, particularly in early evening at dusk with the sun going down. My 2nd day in the city I took a tour of the fort, called Meharangarh. Work on the fort began in the mid 1400's, not sure exactly when it was ultimatly finished. There is quite an epic history associated with the fortress, with lots of raids and battles having occurred in its time. In visiting the tour I purchased the audio tour option and learned much about the history and other information asociated with its being. There were amazing rooms and artifacts throughout the various levels and areas of the compound. One exhibit showed an amazing array of weaponry that was utilized by the inhabitats during its days. Some horrible looking knives and daggers which spread open when inserted into one's body. The views out the high windows, particularly at the top, were great. Looking down at Jodhpur from high atop the fort, I was able to glimpse panoramically the old and new city sections. Big chunks of the old city are filled with endless blue-colored dwellings, giving Jodhpur the name "the Blue City." Seven main gates were spread throughout different areas of the fort, some the entrances decorated with cannonball hits from centuries old battles.

As always it was fun walking throughout the narrow alleyways and lanes in the old city, checking out the local life and see the bizaares. People here seemed quite friendly, more so I perceived than in other spots in India. There was some amazing shopping available in areas of the city, particularly near a huge clock tower. Textiles and spices seemed to be the big items of appeal. I bought a few nice items to hang on my wall when I get a new appt back in Denver. Some very good prices and beautiful handicrafts, although I'm sure I could have done better pricewise if I had been sticking around longer and taken an excursion into one of the nearby craft villages. The clocktower seemed to be the epicenter of the current old city with tons of shops and a fair number of tourists there. There was an awesome omelette shop selling masala spiced omelette sandwiches at the great price of 15 rupees apiece - less than 50 cents - which included 2 sandwiches. It can be quite easy traveling in India to put on weight eating cheap and delicious food, particularly when your not sick and throwing up or practicing yoga consistantly each day, even if I am walking hrs and hrs a day.

Also nearby at very good prices were freshly squeezed juices, of which I gorged on too replenish myself of vitamin C and other nutrients which I was probably lacking. There were some other palaces and sights I would have liked to check out in the city, however time was not on my side. I stuck around the city for a day and a half and it was time to get moving along to my next stop. After reading up Udaipur and Pushkar, two other notable cities in the state of Rajastan, and seeking opinions from other travelers, I decided to head south to the city of Udaipur even though it was a bit out of the way.

Arriving in Udaipur after a 7 hr long busride south, I was a bit annoying after having been lied to by the Indian I purchased my bus ticket from. Nothing major but I still hate it, although I should be used to their constant attempts by now, when I am taken by the Indians. I just need to shake off these occurances and not let them get to me. In this situation I was first off promised a solo seat next to a window, of course winding up with a neighbor in my cramped seat. Then I was told it would be a 5 hr trip, which turned into another 7 hr trip. Finally I should have shopped around a little more for my ticket, as I found out later that I had overpaid just a little for my ticket. Ultimately I paid no more than .75-$1 more, a miniscule amt not worth being annoying about but a decent amt in rupies. It is the whole business of getting lied to my face which gets most annoying. However to survive in India one needs to accept the reality of Indians constantly inflating prices for tourists and trying to squeeze as much extra money out as possible. When one looks at the drastic poverty and squalor most Indians live in I suppose the over charging and double standard for a few extra rupees becomes a bit understandable. It is getting lied to that makes me most annoyed.

I was expecting a truly magical and unique city in reading the write up of Udaipur in the Lonely Planet guide. Written up as a city "watermarked by whimsey and splendor, the Venice of the east holds strage as one of India's truly seductive cities," it sounded like a very desirable city to check out. A huge lake, Lake Pichola, lies amist the city with the floating Lake Palace sitting in the middle of it. It is quite an amazing palace, with rooms apparently available for rent at upwards of $1000 a night, quite a price for India let alone anywhere in the world. It is spectacular enough that a James Bond film 'Octupussy', was partially filmed here. As a result the film is shown nightly at dozens of guesthouses and other venues throughout the city.

Another amazing destination in the city is the immense City Palace, towering over the lake and filled with balconies, towers , and lots of beautiful rooms. I took a tour of the palace and enjoyed looking at much interesting artwork and other antiquities common to the place. High up in the palace I got great views of the surrounding area and city, particularly the nearby hills closing in on the city. It was a remarable palace but I didn't find it as stunning or beautiful as the Meherangarh fort in Jodhpur.

In spite of these interesting and beautiful palaces, I found Udaipur a bit disappointing and not quite as stunning as I was expecting it to be. The major factor was the extremely low levels of the Lake Pichola. It was much more dried up than I was expecting, as much less than ideal monsoon rains had struck the area in preceding months. Large areas of the lake were covered by unsitely algae growth, while in other areas the water was so slow the bottom was exposed creating abundant grazing area for roving cows. Garbage and litter filled areas, making for a bit of an eyesore. It is a shame Indians don't take a little more pride in their treasured cities, allowing garbage and other filthy to accumulate so freely in areas. It is such a permissive culture in which littering is generally not given a second though. It doesn't help that garbage cans seem to be relatively non-existent from what i have noticed. In the street it seems to be swept up regularly. However in common areas such as lakes and rivers trash, sewage, and refuse generally collects unimpeded. Apparently several yrs ago there was record rainfall and the splendor of the lake was renewed. I was hoping there would have been a similar situation this year but that didn't turn out to be the case. I would like to come back another time when the lake and city is in better shape.

After several days in Udaipur it was time for some long trainrides heading east across the country on the way back to Kolkata for my flight back to Thailand on Sept 30. First was an overnight jaunt up to Jaipur, the capital of Rajastan and known as the pink city. Apparently in 1876 the entire old city was painted pink by the reigning ruler. The colors are supposed to come alive most vibrantly at dusk, particularly from certain vantage points I would imagine. Unfortunately my stay in Jaipur was only for about 7 hrs during the morning and early afternoon. During my stopover in Jaipur I decided to rent out a rickshaw to take a minor tour of the city. I was also hoping to check out some of the shopping bizaares the city is known for and perhaps look for some good deals. From what I saw the bizaares hadn't really got going at that time of the day. The beginning of the ride through the city I was taken to some noteworthy sites which I don't recall the name and glimpsed at quickly. After this I was taking to a jewelers shop by the rickshaw driver where about 3 or 4 manager/owners tried to aggressively persuade me into smuggling or fronting sizable quantities of gems back into the states. Promising great profits for me with next to no risk of course, they didn't seem to quite comprehend my issue of not knowing nor trusting them. Perhaps I was walking away from a lucrative career in the transportation of prescious gems back to America, at any rate I got the hell out of the office as quick as possible. It seemed like some a shady operation and they wanted me to start signing off on papers immediately, perhaps hoping they could blinding me with hopes of easy money while eliminating any time for rational thought or reflection on their proposal.

I boarded my next train shortly before 4pm on the way to Varanasi. I was expecting a 16-17 hr trip. This of course turned into a 21 hr ride, arriving at the Varanasi train station around 1pm. The train stopped about 1 km short of the train station and waited for over 1.5 hrs before resuming the remainder. I had no idea the train station was so close or that the wait would be for so long. Some British travelers in the seats across from me found out that we were allegably 1 km away from the station and we decided to jump out and walk the remainder on the tracks. Of course 1 min into the walk the train resumed moving. I decided to jump back on the train and escape the sweltering sun.

During the course of the ride I woke up in the morning with a nasty swollen eye, apparently having been bitten by a mosquito or something. I didn't feel a thing during the course of the evening as I slept soundly through the night in relative comfort, enjoying the benefits of imbibing a slight amt of opium I had acquired previous in the wk. Otherwise sleeping in the cramped up and dirty sleeper seats are not exactly much comfort, although they do allow the benefit of lying back and not having to sit upright the entire time.

Bikaner and holy rat temple

2008-09-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

From Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj it was time to start heading on south and back east across the country for my flight out of Kolkata in several wks. On the way south I wanted to visit the Indian state of Rajastan, much of it situated in the Thar desert, and some intriguing cities in the state. The first city I was to visit was that of Bikaner, located in western Rajastan quite close to the Pakistan border. I wasn't too thrilled that the only direct route there was a day long train trip taking 13 hrs. With 2 wks left to go it is not my desire to spend and entire day cooped up in a train. My desire to visit Bikaner was to see the renowned Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok, about 30 km south. This temple is the site of 1000's and 1000's of holy rats running all over the place. They are venerated as holy according to the mythology of the Hinduism religion. Arriving at the temple after a quick 30 min busride from Bikaner on a road filled with countless camels and a quick walk down another road, I arrived at the temple and had to take off my shoes as is necessary at most temples in India. I had realized this was going to be the case before arriving even though I wasn't thrilled with the idea of walking barefoot on a filthy floor covered with rodent feces, I don't care how holy they are supposed to be. Walking into the temple, which was free in itself, I paid a small fee to use my camera and quickly spotted hordes of rats scattered throughout the premises. There were large basins filled with what looked like milk being drank by the thirsty rats. Otherwise they were scattered throughout the place, sleeping on top of each other and climbing all over guardrails and whatever else they could find to climb. In spite of being generously fed by the Indians and guests many of the rats did not appear to be in the best shape physically or healthwise. Many were quite ragged looking and corpses or nearly dead rats were lying throughout. I found out later on that a probable cause of the rat's bad health was their constantly being fed sweets and candy type products. This has the effect of creating diabetes and of health defects in the rats, inspite of their holiness. Perhaps a lesson for humans to learn in eating healthy and avoiding too much sweets.

The floor of the premises were definitely quite dirty although it wasn't quite as littered with fecal matter as I thought it may be. I still did my best to kind of tip toe around or at least mnimize my foot contact with the soiled floor. While their were many thousands of rats throughout the temple, along with a generous supply of pigeons, I was told they really come out of the walls and their hiding places after dark. I was their around noontime, avoiding absolute rodent mayhem apparently. I was told there existed 3 white rats amongst their brown pack that were considered particularly lucky or auspicious to see. Hence I was keeping my eyes open for these lucky white rats. At one point in one of the dirty corners of the facility there was a small mob of Indians trying to peek around a fenced corner, apparently in effort to see a rumored white rat. When the group scattered I attempted taking a peek myself around the corner, which was next to impossible unless I stuck my camera out and took a picture using the flash. I didn't see anything but piles of dirty brown rats and filth.

A short time later several young Indian girls who were standing in a slightly different area by themselves caught the attention of an Indian man next to me. We walked over and looked where the Indians girls were pointing and sure enough, there just happened to be a filthy white rat sleeping on a pipe or something squeezed in amongst the rest of its brown brethren. It was no doubt a white rat, although a bit discolored from dirt and other grim caked onto its holy fur. I was thrilled to be able to see one of these rare specimens and surprised there weren't more people clamored to try and get a glimpse of it. I was able to get several pics of the rat before it woke up and disappeared back into the bowels of the temple. My luck has not been too bad lately, however hopefully this occurance will add an extra punch of positive benefit to my life. I think at least if I believe in the power of the holy white rat something of fortune will happen for me. I feel lucky enough to be able to travel to such an amazing country as India and experience such moments. Perhaps also some extra luck will keep me from acquiring some obscure disease from walking around in the bizaare atmosphere and filthy floor. I was the only tourist or white person I noticed at the temple. While Bikaner and Deshnok are a bit off the beaten track, I was surprised not to see any fellow Europeans or other travelers. For such a bizaare and unique temple, one would think more travelers would make an effort to check out such a holy place.

My second night in Bikaner I wound up in a guest house in one of the neighborhoods of the city. I would up being led here by an Indian guy whose name escapes me I met at the restaurant below my guesthouse of the first night. After walking several hrs in the fascinating old city with its narrow and congested alleys, lanes and bizaares, I took a rickshaw along with my new friend to my new guesthouse. It turned out to be a nice family house several blocks in from the chaos of the noisy main street, and not too far from the bus station where I was to move on the next day. The guest house was also in the biz of leading camel safaris into the Thar desert, although I had to disappoint them in saying no to their sales pitch of such a trip. Sounded like it would a memorable experience riding a camel in the depths of the Thar desert, however I don't think it would be quite as much fun doing it by myself. Next time I am fortunate to make it to this part of India with either some friends or a nice lady I would definitely take part in one of the camel safaris. They are quite popular in this part of India, particularly in the city of Jaiselmer west of Bikaner.

My room at the guesthouse was quite nice and peaceful without their being any other guest. I only noticed 2 rooms available for room in the dwelling. Otherwise there was the owner and his wife and 4 kids, along with my friend who stays there and elsewhere from what I gathered. The weather was a bit warm and humid in my room so I decided to give it a shot sleeping with the rest of the family on the roof. The father and my friend were gone at the train station till around 2am scouring the trains and crowds for tourists newly arrived and potentially looking for a room and a camel safari. Sleeping on the roof top on a cot was quite nice for a while as their was a nice breeze flowing through the air cooling things off. On top of that the moon was mostly full and shining brightly, 2 days ago it had been full, which added to the exotic ambiance of being far off city in the Indian desert. Unfortunately the mosquitos were out in abundance as well nipping away at my feet and legs. In addition the neighbors 2 houses down had decided it was a worthwhile wk to have themselves a kirtan in their backyard. This included a number of people singing on a microphone and playing various Indian instruments. It sounded nice to listen to at first but as the hours started flying by into the middle of the night it started to get quite annoying. By around 3am I had had enough of the racket and noisy sound checks on the microphone. For whatever reason the family I was staying with had no problem whatsoever with the kirtan going into the late hours of the night. I however decided to pick up my sleeping bag inner liner and head on down into the less noisy but slightly warmer confines of my room.

The next morning, after getting up and having some tea, I took a short walk with my friend to the bus station and was on my way to Jodhpur, about 5 hrs south on a bus. This was 2 wks ago at the time of writing this journal. Several days ago I read in the news that at the main fortress in town I had stayed near and visited there was a pilgrimmage that went horribly awry. Over 160 people were killed and countless others injured an exodus of people that went crazy after some bizaare circumstances involving a rock slide or something. One reads about this sort of thing happening all the time in India during religious pilgrimmages as tens of thousands of people are walking with little to no crowd control.

Tibetan Massage Course and yoga in McLeod Ganj

2008-09-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

I started a course today - Sept 9 - on Tibetan massage with a Tibetan man named Mr. Dhondup who is highly regarded. I had a chance to have a session with him the previous week and thought his work was very good and original. He had a different style than what I had experienced in the past. The beginning of the session was devoted to postural analysis. He did some tests seeing which side of my body I put more weight on while sitting, indicating possible overuse or tightness on certain side of my body. He also did some shoulder and neck flexibility and strength tests. After these analyses he worked on my body for a while massaging in certain areas while contorting into some various stretches, reminiscent of Thai massage. After this he brought out some heated up herbal balls and placed them in various areas of my body, including my hands, feet, back of head, and some other areas. He also rubbed the packs into various areas of my body, such as my temples, which felt real nice and smelled quite good. He then did some energy work with some Tibetan singing bowls, placing them over my various chakras while manipulating them to make some whistling type noises which supposeably resonate on a more subtle level affecting the energy body or pranic body. It was quite an interesting experience I definitely felt more opened up energetically afterwards, as well as a bit spacey. I wish I had more money to buy additional sessions, unfortunately I squandered much of my money in previous months in Thailand on many thai massage sessions.

There are many practitioners in town offering reiki, ayurvedic massage, tibetan massage, and energy work and classes. Mr. Dhondup has about 20 yrs of massage experience he proclaims. He also states he has worked on one of the physicians of the Dalai Lama in the past. He is recommended in the Lonely Planet guide to Dharamsala/MG and seems to be highly regarded in town. The course entails 2 hrs a day for 5 days at 1500 rupees. Not a bad deal for about $37, a heck of alot cheaper than it would cost in the states. In spite of being dirt poor at the moment I thought it would be a worthwhile experience for my time in MG and a wise choice of my leftover money. I am now taking out cash advanced on my credit card since my bank acct is about zero. I will have to pay this off immediatley when I get home as to not incur huge penalties.

There are 6 of us in class to start off with. classes are a different subject or body part each day on a revolving sequence. Hence if there is space people can join any day. Of the 6 in class the first day, one man just happens to be from one of the massage courses I took in Chiang Mai over 4 months ago while taking classes with Pichet, the thai massage master. Funny how you bump into some of the same people over again. I had actually bumped into him the wk before while sitting in a coffee shop. He came up and asked if I remembered him, which I didn't immediately but remembered when he said from where. He is about 50 yrs old and from near Perth, Australia on the far west end of the country. Also in class are 2 American girls, one from California who used to live in Summitt County Colorado. The other girl is from the Smoky Mtns in North Carolina. There is also 2 guys from Korea.

The rest of the wk went by well enough. I was stuck with an American girl for the next 4 days. In her late twenties I believe, she was very hard of hearing and for some reason was not wearing hearing aids, which would have been helpful. It was next to impossible to communicate with her as I would have to literally yell in her face for her to understand. I don't know how she is able to get around traveling. It is difficult enough with language differences, far more so when u can't hear your own language. She said this was her 4th time in India. The 5th and last day she had some kind of cold and was constantly sniffling and then wiping her nose with her forearms. I was completely disgusting by and really had no way of communicating with her to be more clean without having to yell and embarass her. Hence I went to the bathroom and grabbed a roll of toilet paper for her to blow her nose into, which for some reason she hadn't thought of herself. Luckily a girl at the table next to me had some hand anti-bacterial lotion which she let my partner use.

The did learn some new stuff in the class but it unfortunately didn't get into the stuff I was most interested in, particularly his use of herbal packs and also postural analysis. I believe one has to take a more extended class or different course to get into these subjects. For the most part it was a beginners class, which can be useful in relearning basics. In 2 wks I go back to Thailand and look forward to taking a 2 wk Thai massage course at the Old Medicine Hospital. This course I held off till I am about ready to head home, this so the material would be fresh in my mind as I arrive home and begin practicing.

Macleod Ganj is filled with yoga teachers and centers, similar to Rishikesh. Unlike Rishikesh however, most of the centers seem to be open and operating in spite of monsoon weather and lesser crowds. During my stay at Yoga Niketan in Rishikesh I had spoken with a friend in the ashram who had spent some time earlier practicing yoga in MG. One teacher in particular he noted and recommended was an Indian guy named Vijay. He said Vijay held very challenging and demanding classes and was worth checking out. Arriving in town I noticed flyers all over town plastered on the walls advertising a myriad of classes. In addition to yoga classes, there were flyers advertising everything from massage and healing centers, music lessons with various Indian instruments, Tibetan cooking classes, meditation, salsa dancing, past-life regression and teaching English to Tibetan refugees and an assortment of other activities. One other class I had noticed and found of interest was a class teaching magic tricks. I visited the residence of the teacher and was informed he was a French man away for several wks. Several wks later I revisited his place and discovered unfortunately he had packed his place up and moved back to France. I would have really enjoyed learning some magic tricks but guess it wasn't meant to be this time.

Arriving at Vijay's studio I found a rather grungy room with a stage on one side. Dirty and semi-crumbling mats from overuse were already set up in class along with blocks and straps by one of his assistants. Vijay himself is about 50 yrs old and in incredible shape. He has apparently been practicing yoga for over 30 yrs or more and is quite a master. He is about 5'8" or so and very lean and all muscle. His classes run twice a day from 9-11am and 2-4pm. The earlier class is his intense ashtanga yoga class, a style of yoga that is the most physically demanding of all the yoga styles out there. From ashtanga yoga all the styles of western power and vinyasa yoga are derived. The founder and guru of Ashtanga yoga, Pattabi Jois, is still alive in his 90's and lives in Southern India in the city of Mysore. Vijay's 9-11am class is probably the most expensive class in town at 250 rupees, 200 if you buy a package of 6 classes for 1200 rupees. Most classes in town seem to be about 200 rupees. I signed up for a package of 6 classes after trying one of the sessions and really felt much stronger after completing 3 classes. They were very challenging and long at 2 hrs. In the US most classes are 1 hr or 1.5 hrs at the most. Afterwards I felt my body buzzing with energy, although very relaxed and somewhat fatigued. Usually there is about 10-15 people in this class, typically regulars and some taking his teacher training course. I met one girl in class from Utah, otherwise it seems to be mostly Europeans with one Tibetan Buddhist monk and a younger Indian girl in her twenties.

Vijay's afternoon class is probably the most popular class in town. it is the cheapest at 100 rupees and fills up quickly.It is significantly easier than the morning class but still challenging. It is amazing watching Vijay demonstrate asanas as he is the most advanced and skillful yogi I have ever seen, not bad for a guy in his fifties. He has complete control over his body and incredible strength. Sitting on the floor with his legs in front of himself he can lift his legs off the ground without dragging them or touching the ground and bring himself up to complete handstand with relative ease. I haven't seen him but I have heard he can do 3 fingered handstand pushups. I would never desire to be as skinny as he is but I do admire his strength and dedication to practice he possesses. Being so skinny growing up and putting much work into getting stronger and more muscular, I have no desire to fall back into the position of being extremely skinny as many of the yoga masters seem to be. Perhaps I have too much attachment to being in relatively good shape and muscular. It's tough to get away from this sort of ideal as it is so promoted in the western world.

Vijay is also a very approachable person and seem to be very humble and down to earth. When class is finished he seems to make a point to make eye contact with each person and thank them for being there. I spoke with him after class one time and he mentioned to me that he may be coming to the states, possibly Denver, at the beginning of next yr. Perhaps the most important thing I learned while in his classes was his cue to keep my chest up, instead of letting it lag and collapse. In doing this I have discovered a greater energy in my chest and heart chakra and better and deeper breathing. It is amazing how subtle little cues that you hear often in class so often don't really register mentally or often not really heard. In the right circumstances or under the proper teacher the words can take on a different effect and meaning and effect oneself more profoundly.

Another teacher I frquented during my time in MG was an Indian guy named Sivadas. In his mid-thirties, he says he has been practicing yoga over 20+ yrs and is also quite an accomplished yogi. He has a very nice studio on the fourth and top floor of a bld overlooking the valley. In addition to teaching yoga, Sivadas is an Ayurvedic massage therapist, reiki master, and does sound healing classes. I frequently went to his 4pm class for Sivananda style yoga. I had often found Sivananda style yoga to be too easy and meditative for my taste back in America. His particular class however was quite challenging and I was quite exhausted but feeling good at the end of class. One thing that did bug me about his classes is that while he advertised 2 hr classes from 4-6, he would often finish class with 15 mins left till 6pm. I kind of felt as though I was getting shortchanged.

I decided to try one of his ayurvedic massage sessions as I had never experienced that particular style of massage common to India. I didn't really need a massage as I had been doing the Tibetan massage course and my body felt reasonably good. However I am always interested in learning something new and seeing a new style. Sivadas said he had been trained in Kerala, the southern Indian state known for Ayurveda. He has learned under one of the masters there, whoever that may be. His work was good and lots of oil was used during the massage, which I reckon is characteristic of Ayurvedic massage. On a cabinet next to his massage table dozens of various avurvedic oils and other potions and aromatherapy vials were sitting. The session wasn't as relaxed and slow as I would ideally have preferred at the moment. He worked quite quick and I was surprised when the session was over so quickly. I heard him go to the bathroom in order to wash his hands. This I figured he was doing in order to wash oil off and procede to a different portion of the massage. However it turned out he was finished altogether when I noticed him sitting to the side waiting for me to get up. As I got up I checked my watch and noticed that only 45 minutes had passed. Perhaps he only does 45 mins but it was my impression it was a 1 hr massage. I should have said something to him but I didn't really feel like being confrontational at the moment and ruining the relaxation of the session. Nevertheless I was quite annoyed about him stopping so soon, particularly in light of the session, at 500 rupees, costing more than most other places I had seen in the city. In a moment of passive aggressiveness I decided to not return a book of his that I had borrowed. Instead I decided to trade it in for monetary value and for another book. Probably not the best way of approaching the situation nor for my karma, but made me feel a bit even.

Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj

2008-08-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

Dharamsala is the headquarters of the Dalai Lama of Tibet, exiled from the land by the possession and oppression of the communist Chinese govt. A very sizable Tibetan community exists here, giving it a common nickname of "Little Llasa", Llasa being the capital of Tibet. Here the Tibetans seem to coexist peacefully with the native Indians, although in observing both groups there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interaction amongst the two groups. Several kilometers up the road and a bit higher in the hills from Dharamsala is the village of MacLeod Ganj, the primary backpacker and traveler depot of the region. Located in the himalayan Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj are at about 5500 ft in elevation. The weather is a bit colder than in Rishikesh and rains for extended periods each day. Monsoon season is coming to an end soon in this area which will lessen the severity of the almost daily rainfalls. There is much incredible scenery and mountains nearby which I look forward to hiking more extensively when the rain lessens and potential of being caught in a big storm abates. It is not too much problem getting around town during the torrential rains, which can at times come down quite hard, as long as I am carrying an umbrella. It wouldn't be much fun or very worthwhile to hike longer distances in hard rain and no visibility of the mtns. All the moisture in the air makes for abundant clouds, which can be quite beautiful when they are lower in altitude and floating over the underlying valley below.

Several kilometers up one of the roads from center McLeod Gang (MG) are the small villages of Bhagsu and DharamKat. It takes about 20 mins to reach each of these villages but along the way there are some impressive cascading waterfalls which are thriving during the rainy season. Large groups of Israeli travelers congregate in these villages. India, particularly this area, is a very popular traveling location for backpacking Israelis, many having finished their mandated military duties. Beyond these villages are trails leading higher up into and around the mountains. I hope to make it to a village called Triund, about 9 kilometers away, before I am out of town. Another hr or two beyond here is snowline from what I hear. I am fairly certain about the proper trails, which don't always have proper indicators and signs, and don't wish to hire a tour guide or anything as my financial capabilities are a bit hindered at the moment. Nor do I wish to get lost.

I arrived in D/MG during the middle of the playing of the Olympic games being held in China. In the previous months various protests and uprisings had occurred in various spots throughout Asia, including Llasa and I believe Kathmandu. I'm not sure the extend to which demonstrations had occurred here in previous months, however with the large Tibetan refugee population located here there was much potential for significant protests to be held. I hear and read that protests and conflicts have occurred here in the past. While arriving in town flyers, posters, and banners were everywhere protesting the Chinese occupation of Tibet as well as the Olympics. "Free Tibet" posters, t-shirts, and flags etc are everywhere in town. It is interesting seeing how this all fits in with the Indians living here. However the Indians are a very tolerant people for the most part and I hear they have much respect for the Dalai Lama. Throughout the entire state Tibetan Buddhism is a large presence along with Hinduism, especially as one goes further north up into the himalayas and nearer the Tibetan border with India. During several of the evenings I was in MG during the Olympics the Tibetans did stage peaceful walks while chanting and carrying candles. I didn't stick around and follow the walks, which I believe were making there way towards the nearby Dalai Lama residence, but they were interesting to observe. Tibetans of all ages including maroon and saffron robed monks and nuns, and civilians along with some foreigners would be amongst those walking in the streets.

The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan gov't in exile had the choice of several locations in India during the late 50's when they were choosing where to headquarter there gov't. They ultimately chose this area and it is not hard to see why considering the areas great natural beauty. Speaking of the Dalai Lama, I had the good fortune of witnessing him in person on Sunday morning as he was making his way back to town from one of his extended trips teaching abroad. In looking at his schedule on his website one can see he maintains a pretty intense and regular schedule throughout the world. On the 24th of August he was making his way back through town on the way to his headquarters. The streets were lined with Tibetan monks, nuns, and civilians of all ages as well as other bystanders and curious onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of him. It was definitely a charged atmosphere, waiting to see one of the worlds most admired and important spiritual leaders and teachers. I almost toally missed him as he was driven through the center of town. As him and his entourage came up a hill and into town there were about 6 cars in a row able to be seen. I had my camera ready and was hoping to get a good shot of him. I think I was expecting him to be standing in a jeep or something waving to the crowds, perhaps in the middle of the entourage of cars to provide a buffer. However this didn't turn out to be the case. I was watching the cars when my friend Dolma hollered to me too "look - there he is!" He was casually sitting in the 2nd car in the passenger seat waving to everyone with a big smile on his face. His vehicle was driven by about 10-15 ft away from me and passed by so quickly I barely had time to process the moment. It felt very surreal and powerful seeing him so close. Such a humble guy to be riding in a plain non-descript sedan without a hint of luxury. Hopefully it was at least bulletproof to protect against any possible would be assassins. I'm sure the Chinese would love to see him dead and could easily do so if they wished. Just as quickly as he was driven by the crowds on both sides of the streets dispersed and life on the streets went back to normal.

I met a very lovely and beautiful Tibetan girl in her mid-twenties by the name of Dolma who I have been spending time with. The way in which we met is definitely the most unusual way I have ever met a girl before. One afternoon the red-tinged monkeys with a meanstreak were running rampant throughout the hill and area where I was residing. My guesthouse is located on the edge of a large hill and has 3 floors with large porch areas with incredible views and connecting to adjacent dwellings. The buildings are all stuffed together quite comfortably yet separate. The monkeys were running along the floors and digging into trash bins looking for food. I was trying to scare them off with my umbrella when I bumped into Dolma running up the steps to her floor. We teamed up and ran off the remaining monkeys, then spent some time watching them as they sat off just to the side. We also had some fun trying to instigate some of the larger monkeys into making their menacing faces and gestures. It usually doesn't take too much to get their attention and get them to make threatening faces baring their teeth, or feigning that they are going to jump your way and attack. After tiring of the monkeys were talked for a while and i found out she had moved to India 11 yrs ago with her older sister, fleeing the communist Chinese occupation and takeover in Llasa, the capital of Tibet. She has not seen her parents since then, but is able to speak with them on the phone every so often. She told me about some of the atrocities and horrors she witnessed in Tibet and says she has to be careful in even calling her parents in Tibet, particularly during the time of the Olympics. The Chinese govt is very sneaky and could be listening in on her conversation. She doesn't want to put them at any risk speaking about something the authorities may find offensive or Pro-Tibet, which includes much.

While she lives in Delhi and most recently was working in Agra at a highend spa doing massage therapy and beauty work, she is escaping the extreme heat of Delhi and staying for a while here. It has been very nice to have her to hang out with and get to know. She has a television in her room which I have found myself checking out. Its amazing how popular American Professional Wrestling -WWE - is here in India. It is on almost every day and one of the big names is a huge Indian wrestler named the Great Khali. He is over 7'3" and 350 lbs, plays a villian, and can often be seen adorning Indians t-shirts. I would never watch the stuff back in the states but for some reason I find it interesting watching here. Typically I have to find creative ways to spend my time - reading, yoga, walking, coffee shops, etc - it can be nice to be a zombie and watch tv without having to think too much. Dolma also has a cute little puppy dog to play with and we have been playing gin rummy a bit lately. One part of traveling I have found difficult is meeting and really connecting with certain people for several weeks of time, then getting to that point where you have to move on with the possibility of never seeing that person again. I will really miss Dolma as I have found her to be a very sweet and simple girl with a very big heart. At least I will be able to keep in touch with her via the internet.

Yoga at Yoga Niketan Ashram

2008-08-14T04:28:00.000-07:00

With most yoga venues and schools closed for the summer and monsoon season and various teachers apparently out of town, there remained a number of possibilities and places to take class. My lonely planet guide listed and recommended about six ashrams and teachers in town. In addition to these there were countless flyers and advertisements for yoga classes and workshops. Many of these flyers were outdated and advertised classes from the busy period earlier in the yr. My first full day in Rishikesh I made it a point to visit as many of the recommended sites as listed in L.P. as possible, in addition to some posted on the walls around town. One such place that I visited and I previously had recommended to me was the Yoga Niketan, near the Ram Jhula bridge and the extremely lively and noisy taxi/rickshaw stand. Fortunately the ashram was located many steps up a hill, covered by fence and far enough away from the chaos of the street to insulate against most of the noise.

My initial experience in attempting to visit Y.N. and find out more about their program epitimized the ever occurring frustrations and difficulties in speaking with Indians using the English language. While practically all Indians seem to speak English to varying degrees of efficacy, their style and manner of communicating it can be quite frustrating. Upon walking up the flight of steps to reach the grounds of the ashram, there was a guard station overseeing checking in and out of the grounds. In speaking with the attendent at the station I attempted to express my desire to learn more about the ashram and find out who to speak to about pertinent information. Repeatably he would answer that "it is not possible" or something to that effect, along with the standard Indian bobbing of the head, which I have yet to figure out. I attempted to rephrase my request about 3-4 more times in more basic and simple language but was still met with "it is not possible." Finally after almost throwing up my arms in defeat and frustration he seemed to comprehend my purpose in being there and my desire to speak with the administrators, located at a bld about 50 ft further along a pass. I think initially he thought I wanted to walk through the grounds by myself and see things, which is not permitted. However at last I was admitted into the grounds and was impressed by the well maintained campus and very nice gardens. Apparently lots of work had been put into the place to make it look impressive.

As it took much uphill walking to reach the ashram from the street, it was located high up enough to provide excellent views of the Ganges River and the distant views of the festivities alongside other side of the river. I found out the minimum stay at the ashram was 15 days at 500 rupees per day, approx $12.50 a day. This included a room with a luxuriously rigid bed, good for the back and spine, 3 meals a day, and 2 yoga and meditation classes a day apiece. We also had access to a decent library during certain hrs of the day which had a nice collection of yogic and associated literature, as well as some magazines. First bell rings at 4:30am with meditation beginning at 5-6am followed by yoga from 630 -730am, then breakfast at 8am. In the evening yoga was 5-6pm, meditation from 7-8pm, then dinner at the late time of 8:15pm. Food was decent, traditinal Indian vegetarian cuisine referred to as "Thali." This consisted of white rice, lentils and beans, a cooked vegetable mix, fresh cucumber slices, and chapati, this being a thin, flat, circulate cooked dough. It was good stuff and very filling, but tiring eating the pretty much the same stuff each meal. Fortunately if u wanted you could leave the ashram pretty much whenever you wanted, as long as u back inside by 10pm, and eat elsewhere if you wanted some variety and didn't mind spending some more money. Breakfast was some kind of rice ghoulash which I didn't often portake in, although it wasn't that bad.

When I arrived at the ashram there were approx 25 people, or inmates as we are referred to on the ashram literature. An eclectic mix from the U.S., Europe, Australia, lots of Japanese, and some Chinese. Interestingly there were 2 people other than myself from Denver, CO. One was a hippie with huge dreadlocks who said he lived in LoDo and sometimes took classes at Corepoweryoga in town. The other was an interesting native Chilean who recently earned his PhD in electrical engineering and was now teaching at U Colo Denver. His current apartment in the capital hill neigh of Denver was a mere few blocks away from one of my previous apartments. He seemed like a cool guy worth keeping in touch with. He is also a big soccer fan and player who I can find out more about pickup soccer games. Other Americans included a woman named Sunshine from the hills of Georgia, a refugee from the Evangelistic Christianity of the south. She had some shoulder issues and asked if I would do some massage therapy on her after finding out I was a therapist back home. First time I had done massage in a while. Another guy, Adam in his mid twenties from Florida, arrived in India several wks ago and plans on staying for about a yr or so, primarily immersing himself in yoga and the spiritual of India. His yoga practice was very mindful and controlled, enhanced and shaped by several yrs of Tai Chi practice prior to picking up yoga several yrs ago. I hope to keep in touch with him through the yr to see what kind of experiences he encounters and recommends, as I would love to make it back to India in coming yrs. My time in India is much too short to get around to experiencing everything I would like to. Another woman from Ireland I felt sorry for as she broke her arm walking down one of the sidewalks of the ashram, attempted to break her fall when she slipped.
Another dude, Paul in his 30's from Ireland and I believe another engineer by trade, I had a chance to play chess with. This the first time for me playing chess since being in the islands of Thailand. He has an amazing time coming up for himself, as he is traveling throughout Thailand, down to Indonesia and Australia and New Zealand finding beaches to surf at. One of the Chinese girls, Unki in her late twenties, was one of the most beautiful Chinese ladies I have ever met. She does some kind of modeling work back in Shanghai China and while here practicing yoga is escaping the madness of the Olympics in China.

The yoga teachers, three of them in their late twenties and early thirties, were amazing yogis in themselves showcasing amazing strength, balance, flexibility, and focus in their demonstrations of various asanas while leading class. While the classes were only 1 hr long and occassionally going over in time, they were very challenging and styled in a way much different than I am accustomed to. One morning the yoga asanas were ended approx 20 mins into class and we were all led outside to a patio area holding some large buckets of salt water. Here we were to be instructed in the yogic practice of nasal cleaning, the exact term escapes me at the moment. We were handed miniature looking water pitchers. With these we poured the salt water into one of our nostrils with our heads tilted, the objective to have the water come out the other nostril. This I was able to successfully accomplish , thoroughly cleansing out my nasal passages of all snot and associated debris. Breathing felt much easier. The next practice was much more challenging. This involved pouring the salt water down our throats without swallowing, then bring it up and out our nostrils. After repeatably swalling the brackish water and unsuccessfully squirting it out my nose, I frustratingly gave up while beginning to feel a nauseous feeling in my stomach from the accumulation of salt water in my empty stomach. The 3rd practice we were led into was even more difficult. Here we were to insert a stiff string into our nasal passage with the intent of guiding it down the correct passageway into our throat and up out our mouths. The yoga structor made it look so easy executring with such quickness and skill. I myself didn't come close to matching his skill. I was completely unable to get the string into the proper passageway in my nose. Instead it felt like the stiff string was being guided straight up into my frontal lobe. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling, although I'm sure I was not near deep enough to be close to brain matter. It was very difficult attempting to relax my face well enough to allow the string into the proper passage. I had one of the teachers helping me out in trying to insert it into the proper spot, but each time I would tighten my face up preventing any success. After about 6-7 tries with help from the instructor and him attempting to get me to relax my face, I started to get a very lightheaded and nausous and had to walk away. I starting walking back up to my room and almost fell over as my head and stomach were spinning out of control. Fortunately I kept everything in my stomach.

The meditation instructor was a skinny Swami with a huge beard in his 60's or something who I couldn't comprehend a single word when he was speaking for several mins before each meditation session. Fortunately I didn't enter the ashram with the intent of learning how to meditate, instead to merely deepen my practice and hopefully calm my mind down a bit more. It would have been nice if I could have understood some of his messages which I am sure were quite instructive and wise. It can be very difficult at times understanding the English spoken by Indians with their heavy accents.

My room I had assigned was spacious enough with a single bed and my own bathroom with hot water heater for the shower. The shower didn't have a traditional western faucet allowing multiple streams of water coming out. Instead it just gushed out of a pipe from the wall one thick stream. I was just grateful to have a shower in my room and not have to venture to a shared facility which often get quite filthy. It was extremely humid and often very hot during the days, making the need to shower sometimes 3-4 times a day. It was very difficult to get clothes to dry as the air was so thick with moisture. Even though I had a large overhead fan to keep things relatively cool in my room, i would still sweat much while sleeping, when I was able to at least. This would dampen up the bed and pillow sheet, which didn't typically dry too well. By the end of the wk they were smelling like strong mildew, not exactly the most fragrant smell to rest my head and nose to. Fortunately I had lots of company in my room in the form of insects to keep me from being too alone. One evening I felt something crawling on me, in turning in the lights I discovered a rather large cockroach on my leg which had crawled up from the floor. 2nd time for me in Rishikesh I have woken up with a coachroach on or around me, the previous time one tickling my toes. I was at least wearing a pair of loose pants, which I had taken up to wearing at night to protect from mosquito and other bedbug bites. It felt like I was constantly getting nipped up by something, hence wearing a pair of pants and a t-shirt for protection even though they kept me more warm than necessary I found necessary. Applying lots of tiger balm to my ankles and feet and arms had a very nice analgesic and cooling sensation, also possibly deterring insects from the distinct aroma.

I wound up ultimately staying for 17 days. Would have been nice to stay longer but felt like it way time to get moving along. By the time I was ready to leave there were few Americans or other westerners left at the ashram. Mostly Japanese and Chinese. It was still nice to be around others speaking clear English and I could get to know some during the course of several wks. Feels like the past several wks or more I had spent much of my time alone, although I am always meeting curious Indians and Nepalese while in Nepal. My yoga practice definitely felt like it was strenghened while at the ashram. I went to a few other classes and teachers while in Rishikesh but didn't feel too compelled to continue to stick around with them. I look forward to heading up north to Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan community.

Rishikesh India

2008-08-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

Rishikesh is often referred to as the yoga capital of the world with its abundance of ashrams and yoga programs. The ganges river flows through town and hindu holy men - sadhus - are walking around everywhere, along with hordes of errant holy cows rummaging for food. Two different types of monkeys are seen in different areas of the city, the mostly white with black face langurs, plus another common red tinged Indian monkey. The langurs are larger and more easy-going and quite graceful moving around. They almost look like mini kangaroos jumping and swinging through the trees and environment with their big legs. The red tinged monkeys, some species of macaque I believe, are smaller, stockier and have much more attitude. They love to growl, threaten, and show their teeth and can be fiercly protective of their clan, as I found out one time when I mistakingly was caught in between 2 young ones and their clan.

At the moment it is off-season for tourism and most of the yoga schools, so much fewer than normal tourists and travelers are in town, making my foreign presence stick out that much more to the Indians, who often look at me as though I am an alien. In recent wks the city has been besieged by tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims making their way to Rishikesh and onward to some Shiva temple outside town. Most of the pilgrims are in their twenties and teens and in large groups, all wearing all orange attire shorts and t-shirts, emblazened with different images of Shiva. The first several times I passed them in I found them a bit threatening walking in their groups often with fierce looks on their face. However I have found out they are all quite friendly inspite of their occassional intense demeanor and constantly coming up to talk to me and find out where I am from and my name. Also constantly getting requests for photos, which sometimes can getting irritating. During the several wks of their pilgrimmage the town was absolutely swamped with pilgrims and difficult at times getting around through the crowds. Pretty noisy too as they are often chanting names of Shiva and other words I find incomprehensible. It did often sound like they were chanting words like "Bum Bum" in reponse to a leader in the front chanting some other words. This chanting and racket could often be heard late into the night as the pilgrimmage apparently didn't slow down for many during the nighttime hours. During the daytime many people take to the streets, the temples, near the river, and pretty much anywhere relatively flat to sleep and rest their bodies.. Can't be too comfortable sleeping on the asphalt over night, at least cardboard and other paper is often put down on the ground to lay upon, providing cover along with protection from the everpresent cow feces on the streets

The city is located right at the base of the himalayas, so some picturesque mountains form the backdrop of the city. Like every other Indian city, the place is noisy as hell with endless horn honking from the over abundance of cars, motor bikes, and rickshaws driving the streets and working their way through all the pedestrians and cows. Street signs and lights are relatively non-existence, with the exception of seeing some non-working traffic lights at a major intersection in the middle of the city. The vast majority of the ashrams, yoga centers, gnats, and tourist areas are several miles north of the actual city of Rishikesh. Two large suspension bridges, about a mile apart from each other, cross the Ganges and lead to separate sections of Rishikesh. Lakshman Jula is located at the north bridge, while Ram Jula is at the southern bridge. Monkeys can often be seen climbing the wires leading high across the bridge. Often they come down low to the side railings and attempt to steal peoples food. One time I put my camera up to within 3 or 4 feet of one of the agressive macaque monkeys and almost had it swiped.

Coming straight out of the mountains and likely from the glaciers, the water is cold and relatively clean, free of the pollution and sewage runoffs further along its path, particularly the Varanasi portion which is supposed to be quite filthy. Gnats are set up in many spots in the city, these being steps leading down to the river. Here many pilgrims and Indians go to bathe and clean themselves, swim, as well as fill up containers full of the holy water. During the early mornings and evenings there are ceremonies going on with singing, chanting, instrument playing and the setting off of flowers with incense and flame to the Ganges as prayer and offering. One particular substance within the flame is camphor, which is supposed to symbolize the burning of one's ego. There are actually some locations in various areas of the city with decent sized beaches to lounge at and go swimming. I took a walk one day down to one of these beaches, littered with huge boulders and errant cows with the possible intent of taking a dip into the Ganges. However, this became infeasible within minutes as small crowds of Indians started coming over to stare and talk with me. At least I was able to walk in the Ganges for a little bit and get some good pictures. Next time I will have to find a more remote spot further away from the masses.
Food on the streets is pretty good, particularly the chai tea. Although it is cooked up in filthy dark pots crusted over with old tea grinds and other residue, it pretty much always comes out tasting delicious and is super cheap, typically the equivalent of paying 10-15 cents a small cup. Ingrdients are basically black tea, cinnamon, cardamon, skin milk, water, sometimes some anise and ginger, as well as other possible ingredients tossed into the typically filthy pot, heated up, and then strained into a small glass. The pot doesn't seem to be ever cleaned and is put right back up on the stove, usually covered. It's also nice getting cups that u just watched the cooks cleaned out with their fingers.

So far I have been fortunate and haven't gotten sick at all during my time in India, about 1 month and a half. I was sick once in Nepal for several days with awful diarrhea and fever, and Thailand several times. I better tap on some wood be4 I jinx my luck. So far in traveling over 7 months I believe my body has started to acclimate itself to the bacteria and other microbes in the environment no present in the US. Doing lots of yoga has also helped to detoxify, cleanse, and protect my body against sickness. Has also been over 2 months now that I have eaten meat, with the exception of one time in Nepal. Rishikesh is a holy city and hence it is vegetarian and alcohol free. I do hear that there is a restaurant and Inn on the far side of town owned by some Pakistanis that offers meat, although I haven't been there. The mangos sold by the street vendors are incredibly juicy and delicious, usually costing me 25 cents apiece. Also available for cheap are potato samosas, which perhaps aren't the healthiest being that they are deep fried, but they are delicious and fill me up.

Back to India

2008-07-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

After completing my 7 days at the Panditarama Meditation Center I was off and on my way to the Indian border to begin making my way towards Delhi and Rishikesh. While making my way to the middle of Lumbini to pick up the local bus to take me to the necessary stops, including Bhairahawa and Sunauli, the town right at the border. I found out the local bus was of course on strike so I would have to resort to another way off making the 22 + km. back to. I was able to get a bicycle powered rickshaw driven by a scruffy and very lean Nepalese man who didn't look as though he'd have the power to bike myself and my over-stuffed baggage for more than 10 minutes. However him and his beaten down and rickety bike were able to cycle for over 2 hrs through the country side and villages of Nepal to the border. Its amazing the power and stamina these old skinny men possess, as they have probably been riding the rickshaw bikes for half their lives. Riding through the country was magical, with all the Nepalese kids running out of their humble homes, typically consisting of huts and makeshift shacks, to wave at me and yell hello. The country has some of the friendliest people I have ever seen living in such poverty.

My meditative calm from 7 days of meditation and the peaceful ride through the countryside was immediately disturbed upon crossing the border back into India. The crowds were immediately multiplied many times over and the madness and touts were instantly back in my face. Fortunately the busstop I need to get to wasn't too far off, not more than 100 meters, so I was able to get there and get myself onto the first bus to Gorakhpur, which took over 2 hrs and was absolutely jammed packed with Indians crammed into every last space.

In Gorakhpur I bought a train ticket for Delhi, a 13+ hr ride in a sleeper seat where I fortunately was able to lie back and relax during the overnight journey. Made it to Delhi and had to deal with the hassle of buying a bus ticket for Rishikesh, another 6 or 7 north. Its a real pain buying from the Indian ticket dealers as they are always quoting highly elevated prices for foreigners and trying to rip you off. The first place I went to inquire about tickets I was kicked out of as they didn't appreciate my calling them out about elevated prices for travelers. My patience was already a bit thin from the past 2 days, lack of sleep, and dealing with the madness of Delhi, India's capital and one of there biggest cities. Perhaps I provoked them a bit in being asked to leave, at any rate I didn't care. I checked out a few other ticket places and finally bought one. I just wanted to get out of the city and its crazy masses, insane pollution and piles of garbage, and onslaught of the overpresent touts trying to interest me in their services and goods. Maybe another time I will spent a day or two in Delhi, just not this time around. My bus left within an hr and I was on my way to Hardiwar and eventually Rishikesh, a supposed hr north of Hardiwar and considered the yoga capital of the world. The roads were floading along the way from the onslaught of the monsoon rains but eventually I made it to Rishikesh that evening, after nearly 27 hrs of almost non-stop sitting.

Lumbini Nepal

2008-07-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

After finished up hiking in the himalayas, I stuck around Pokhara for several days relaxing and checking out the town. I had initially considering staying at one of the health and yoga centers, but being that it is off-season there wasn't much going on at them. I decided to get moving along out of town and visit the birthplace of the Buddha in Lumbini. Located in southern Nepal slightly north of the Indian border, it took a 6+ hr busride to get there. As it is the supposed birthplace of the Buddha, one of the major religions/philosophies of the world, one would think that it would be a huge pilgrammage site on the level of Mecca or Jerusalem. However, it turned out to be quite lowkey. There was a very nice and spacious garden center - referred to as Lumbini Gardens - filled with Buddhist temples representing Buddhism from various Asian countries. Also was a garden area with a holy pond and some ancient ruins with a marker indicating the exact place that the Buddha was said to have been born, over 2500 yrs ago, 500 yrs before the birth of Christ. Outside these building as I was exiting I caught site of a small snake which I was able to catch while creating a small crowd around myself. I released the snake off to the side.

In the sprawling area containing the various Buddhist temples there were two Buddhist meditation retreat centers, one of which - the Panditarama Vipassana Meditation Center - I decided to do a retreat at. Considering that the center has a pretty rigorous schedule - I wasn't sure how long I would be able to last for. The schedule calls for a morning bell at 4am and beginning meditation at 4:30am with a light breakfast at 6am. Then more hrs of meditation till 11am lunch, with a meeting with one of the meditation instructors in between to discuss progress. During the afternoon about 4 more hrs of meditation till a Dharma talk at 5:30pm and evening juice at 7pm, then more meditation in the evening. In all the schedule called for about 14-16 hrs of sitting and walking meditation throughout the day.

I wasn't sure how much of a schedule like this I would be able to handle, also considering that there is only 2 meals a day, no dinner, and complete silence the whole day. However, since I was in the birthplace of the Buddha, and although not a Buddhist myself, considered it a great place to do my first meditation retreat. I signed up for 5 days at first while hoping to complete an entire week. It took several days to get used to the routine but it turned out to be quite peaceful and calm for the most part. The schedule wasn't rigorously enforced and their was no meditation leader at the front guiding along the meditators and cracking any whips. As it was off season the center only included 4 or 5 other meditators

The heat in the area during the hot and humid monsoon season was quite oppressive at times. I would frequently be sitting in the med room and be dripping with sweat running down my forehead and arms. Fortunately we had a number of fans to help in keeping the air cooler. This didn't help however during the periodic times in which the power would go out, at least each evening for varying amts of time. I gotten used to the power outages throughout Nepal, although it is a bit annoying at times being accustomed to 24 hr electric in the west.

The mosquitos were in out in full force during the days, particularly at night. There were plenty of ditches and swamp areas filled up with water from the monsoon rains. Just had to spray myself up extra with repellant, although this often wasn't 100% effective. I could wear pants to keep covered up, but I have experienced mosquitos biting through even my pant material. Thank goodness they supplied mosquito nets around the beds. The worst part of the mosquito bites is the incessant itchiness that occurs after you get bit. It is impossible to not itch the areas, and they normally wind up turning into a rash or minor skin infection.

During the evenings one could hear packs of jackals howling and making lots of noise. It sounded at times like they were much closer than they probably were. Outside the premises were some large fields in several directions with lots of overgrown brush, making for perfect habitat and cover. It was amazing how loud they could get, all joining together in unison howling at each other and other packs in the distance. Then just like that the howling and noise would cease and there would be nothing but the sounds of crickets and insects. I never got a chance to see any of the jackals, although I was told they are somewhat a cross between a hyena and a wild dog. Also in abundance outside the med center was many types of noisy birds I had never heard before. They were especially nice to listen to during the early morning when I was still in a bit of a sleep trance and there noises were extra surreal.

Present at the center were two blind cats the center had taken in. They both had empty pits where there eyes would have been. They seemed to little problem getting around, although they didn't appear to go off too far into the surroundings. The male cat was quite loud, constantly meowing and interrupting the silence of the center.

The meditation practice itself was vipassana, or insight meditation with emphasis on breathing and observing the up and down movements of the abdomen. This was the primary object of observation in addition to walking meditation. Everything was to be conducted with as much mindfulness as possible. Doing this really allows one to be very aware of their body, breathing, and other factors contributing to moment to moment consciousness and well-being. As it is often referred to as insight meditation, insight into one's body and mind are greatly enhanced and one has a chance or opportunity to ultimately learn more about one's nature, particularly at the farther reaches of the practice which are meant to lead to enlightenment and nirvana. This however takes yrs and yrs of dedicated and focused practice.
I was not able to achieve any transcendent states of moments of rapture, but it was definitely a chance to deepen my meditation practice while practicing mindfulness and loosening up my mind. I was pleased that I was able to make it through 7 days, even if I wasn't super strict with myself in following the suggested format of the center. It was meant to be a retreat type format with opportunity to deepen one's practice. There is no way I could live this kind of lifestyle on a fulltime basis. This could be a symptom of my mind avoiding the objective of slowing and calming down
Fortunately the schedule was not enforced super strictly down to the minute and hr. I was able to go to my room when I wanted to practice yoga and do some light exercise in addition to the intense meditation. I realized my disposition is not to set up at the moment for hrs and hrs of meditation at a time. I am too physically oriented and and get too restless to be able to sit down for hrs at a time. The walking meditation started to grow on me after several days and became enjoyable. There is much for me to work on in my mind and emotions. However I was satisfied with my ability to be able to sit down for an hr at a time while doing my best to stay present with my breathing and mindfulness. Like nearly everyone else in the world, my mind has the innate tendency to jump all over the place and it takes lots of work to be able to train and discipline it and get into deeper states of mindfulness and focus. However in practicing meditation for an hr at a time there were times where I would feel greatly enhanced states of calmness and relaxation and my mind slowly starting to focus and slow down for a change.

Didn't get a chance to meet or talk with any of the other meditators at silence was observed at all times to allow for uninterrupted concentration. I was told by one of the meditation directors there - a female Burmese Buddhist nun?, her title was Venerable - that the others had been there for over a month or more apiece. One of the others was a tall German woman who had apparently been there for 2-3 months and was a Dr. back in Germany, i don't know if medical doctor or Doctorate. I was in a dorm room sharing with another guy from New Zealand. He seemed a bit out there as he would be in the meditation room far beyond the time necessary to be there for meditation. I would be trying to sleep around midnight and still hadn't heard him come back to the room. It seemed as though he was taking the retreat to the extremes, working on meditating for over 18-20 hrs a day with minimal sleep. It appeared as though he had a breakdown the one night as he appeared somewhat disturbed the next morning. For all I know he had been up the entire night trying to meditate. He was moving and acting in complete and exaggerated slow- motion and folding up his belongings as though he were exiting. The center director and primary meditative guide - a German man born in Africa and completely fluent in Burmese - I'm not sure what his title was although he was wearing the orange clothing associated with Buddhist monks, had to talk with him a while and bring him back to reality.

6 Days hiking in the Himalayas

2008-07-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

After 1 week in Kathmandu, visiting the sites and dealing with my first case of sickness and diarrhea while in India/Nepal, it was time to move one to Pokhara, the 2nd largest city in Nepal. It took about 6 hrs heading west on a bus before reaching Pokhara, situating nearby at the base of the Annapurna Mountain Range and right alongside a huge lake. Right upon arriving in Pokhara I was relieved by the absence of large crowds and the presence of clean air and relatively clean streets. The town was very lowkey as it is monsoon season and in the middle of the off-season, with very few tourists. I was able to get a pretty good rate on a nice room as a result.

While I was in Nepal, the thing to do is trek, so in spite of the monsoon rains I made plans to get out into the mountains for at least a little bit to check out the scenery and have myself a memorable experience. Initially I planned on hiking out into the mountains myself or with anyone I met as I had bought a map of the region and discovered that there are various guest homes and tea houses all throughout the extensive trail system. As a result I wouldn't have to camp or bring food with me. However I met a cool Nepalese guy in town named Prakash who seemed competant enough and persuaded me to hire him out for a cheap price to be my guide. This turned out to be a wise choice, as he was aware of all the key strategic areas and stops worth staying at as well dealing with whatever other pitfalls may occur along the way.

The first day we started a big late around 11am at the village of Phedi and hiked till about 5 till it started raining pretty hard. Fortunately I was prepared for the rain and had rented myself out a full-length rain jacket covering myself and the lone bag I was carrying. Didn't need to carry too much since I was only planning on being out on the trail for about a week or so. Also didn't need to carry food or tent, although I did stock up on some candy bars and trail mix before heading out. The first stop was a pretty cool little place featuring a farm with buffalos and goats in addition to rooms and a small kitchen with clay hearth for a stove, fired by pieces of stick and wood. The guy there said I could come back anytime I wanted and walk on the hillside with him and his family. Said he has several others who stop in from time to time and do such a thing, several Europeans.

Also got to experience for first time the imfamous leeches that I had heard so much about. However they really weren't as bad as I thought they would be, as they were tiny little creatures and were easily plucked off or dabbed with salt to remove. They do however have an amazing ability to attach to your shoes, socks, and legs and begin their blood sucking business. I saw several Japanese guys later one during the trip who had leeches which had gotten in their shoes and socks and created a bloody mess.

The second day started off with rain in the morning but thankfully cleared up within an hr or so. Finally started to get into some interesting terrain and some of the climbs were quite grueling. At times nothing but uphill for an hour or two. Was an incredible workout for my legs and I'm glad I wasn't carrying more weight. It is amazing how some of the porters and sherpas are able to carry some of the incredible loads they do, typically while wearing regular street shoes and nothing much suitable for the trails in the mountains, at least according to western standards. The clouds started to disperse some come late morning, although not completely, opening up some amazing vistas. Also amazing while hiking during the rain in the middle of the monsoon was the intensity of some of the waterfalls along the way, which were absolutely raging. Seemed like a virtual waterpark during the moments of hard rain which water bursting from all over the place. Really had to be careful and totally mindful on the trails not to slip.

Fortunately the trails were in incredible condition and much work was put into the trail system. Many of the trails have been in use for hundreds of yrs I'm sure with the existance of innumerable little villages living up in the mountains farming and ekeing out an existence. The second night we stayed at a guest house ran by 3 beautiful Nepalese women and with natural hotsprings nearby. This took another 20 min hike back down the mountain to the edge of the raging river where there were 3 hot springs pools available, although one had been covered up by the rising river. Alongside the river and up the hills was dense jungle. Hard to believe such jungle is so close to the highest mountains in the world. Surprisingly there was another group of travelers down soaking at the time, including a good looking 20 yr old American girl from Idaho who was in Nepal volunteering and hiking with some of her fellow volunteerers. The springs felt great and really helped loosen up my body and particularly legs after all the hiking. At the guest house I met a guy who was currently living in the tiny yet very rich country of Monaco in Europe. Originally from Australia, he had set up some sort of business in Monaco and was making big bucks. He was able to hire out a porter to carry his gear in addition to a guide. He had a chicken killed and filleted for himself that evening by the lovely women working in the kitchen.
The next several days were lots of up and down climbing throughout the Annapurna Sanctuary. I had originally hoped to make it up to the Annapurna basecamp but reconsidered as I wasn't carrying enough money on me. The prices at the guest and tea houses along the way get more and more expensive the further up one gets, considering the work it takes to carry it all the way up that way. Many times I saw caravans of donkeys weighed down by huge loads being transported into villages in the mountains. It would have been a nice accomplishment to make it too basecamp but I was happy enough to be out in himalayas experiencing what I could, in spite of the monsoon and lack of clear viewage. I did get one look at the high peaks for about 15 minutes the morning of my 3rd day. It was amazing seeing these high peaks, reaching heights of 25,000 ft and higher, almost twice as high as in Colorado. Another vista which I had hoped to view was Poon Hill, a popular spot providing a wide and amazing view of the Annapurnas and other various high peaks in the area. Unfortunately in the morning in which we were planning to making the ascent of the hill the weather was very cloudy and foggy, cancelling out these plans.
On the morning of the 6th day I was to make it back to the trailhead, a different one than I had started from, to catch the local bus back to Pokhara. However, there was a bus strike that day which meant no busrides back to town. We would have make it to the bus stop around noon, but kept walking for several hours more to make it several villages closer to Pokhara. Around 5pm were had reached a town not far from Pokhara where Prakash wanted to stay, i'm sure to try and wring out an extra days worth of pay from me. I however had no desire to sit put for the rest of the evening and kept walking. 4 hrs later I made it back to Pokhara, extremely exhausted, tired, and pleased to have made it back to town. In all I hiked 13 hrs minus perhaps an hour or more for food break that day. The most I had ever hiked in a day and my feet and ankles were absolutely killing me. Never felt so good to lie back on my bed and relax under the fan.

Kathmandu

2008-06-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Kathmandu was a very intriguing with its mix of ancient temples, historical Buddhist and Hindu sites, and crowded alleyways and narrow streets filled with masses of people and day to day life. Sacred cows, buffalos, goats, an dogs are to be seen quite nearly everywhere, milling around eating grass and picking through garbage and at times holding up traffic. In contrast to these interesting sites of Kathmandu is the immense traffic and crowds, dust and pollution, and mounds of trash heaps with no apparent landfill destination. The rivers flowing through the outskirts of the city are tremendously polluted with piles of rubbish and runoff from sewage drainage. Often you can see families and kids out in the water, playing around as well as cleaning themselves off with soap. Surrounding the valley of Kathmandu are a range of small mountains beyond which lay lie the high himalayan peaks.

One important site that I visited in Kathmandu is the ancient Buddhist stupa of Swayam bhunath, commonly known as the 'Monkey Temple'. Here hordes of monkeys run amok through the trees, buildings, electrical lines, and grounds creating a nice backdrop for the mainly Tibetan Buddhist site. The site consists of a large hilltop with temple at the top. At the bottom circling the site are endless prayer wheels filling with Buddhist prayers and mantras that devotees and other folks walk by spinning, sending prayers into the world.
I walked up to this site one evening and kept walking into the countryside, observing the villages and people at work in the fields. It was a very peaceful scene with all the children constantly saying 'hello' and 'Namaste'. The kids seemed super friendly and happy running around and playing games with each other, in spite of the lack of any toys with the exception of some soccer balls and some bicycles here and there. Walking back in the twilight and impending darkness was quite surreal as I was a bit high up into the hills and able to get a great view down into the valley of Kathmandu. Electricity is also turned off on particular nights for hrs at a time saving power. As this occurs the people of the city and village light up candles and lanterns in the midst of the darkness. Traffic also gets very sparse as their are no street lights working to lighten up the streets. Makes it much less hazardous to get around. Also makes me appreciate the 24 hr electrical flow in the states as well as much of Thailand and how spoiled we are in the western world. Also no real sense of danger or crime, at least that I sensed or felt, that is so common in American big cities and elsewhere. People for the most part seem quite at peace in spite of their poverty and lack of toys. They rely more on each other and have a greater sense of interdependence. It seems like pretty much everyone knows each other on a block and the community is much more cohesive, working together in the fields and just being there for each other. Many times in America I have barely met or really spoken with my neighbors , as everyone is busy living their scattered lives and locked behind doors watching television.

Another very interesting site I visited was the important Hindu temple of Pashupatinath. It is included on the list of the world's Heritage Sites and is a centre for pilgrims and sadhus - holy men - from all over the subcontinent. Here corpses are prepared and burnt, then the ashes and remains shoveled into a rather polluted river that eventually runs into the Ganges much further south in India. It was a rather surreal site itself observing the preparations of the burning sites and corpses, then seeing all the smoke filling the air. I was allowed into the area set aside for lower caste members of society to be cremated and allowed to take some pictures. Further up the river in a prohibited area is the site where higher caste Hindus are cremated. Here is where the royal family which was massacred by one of its own was cremated back in 2001 after the tragic event. Running throughout the area are mobs of monkeys making lots of noise getting into various mischief, climbing up trees and blds and running on the electrical lines. Also cows walking around in the river right below which corpses are burnt and ashes dumped into the river.

Not too far from Pashupatinath is the site of Bodhnath, or Boudha, another huge Buddhist stupa and World Heritage Site and also a centre for a large and thriving Tibetan community. Here lies dozens of Buddhist monasteries and centers of learning. There were large crowds of people circling the immense Buddhist stupa, some on the ground very devoutly prostating themselves fully the entire way around the stupa. On the outskirts of the site were craftsmen creating and fashioning Buddhist artwork and crafts to be sold in the area.

The touts in the Thamel section of the city were quite relentless, consistently in your face trying to sell travel packages, rides on rickshaws, items from their shops, as well as drugs like ganga and hashish. It didn't help that it was off season and much less tourists than normal in the area. This just made me all the more a target for the touts, as there were fewer tourists to focus on and a greater need to make money to get by during the seasonal slump in the midst of the monsoon season. The city life and culture was much different than Thailand. Here the men are much more assertive and in your face, trying to be friendly and well as figure out ways they can make money off of you. It seems like if you get a Nepalese talking to you for more than 10 seconds at one of the heritage or tourist sites, they are asking for money in return for them having explained some history or significance of the area. It is a very poor country and economy and jobs are not in great abundance. Many like to take on the role of guide or friend to try and earn some rupees. The women for the most part are very shy and in the background, much more so than in Thailand. In Thailand the women are often quite vocal in trying to interest you in massage and other services as your moving along. The men in Thailand are much shyer and reserved, with the exception of the tuk tuk and taxi drivers.
It's also interesting watching the Nepalese people interacting with each other. They are very touchy feely with other, particularly men with their male friends and women with their female friends. While the culture is quite conservative with primarily Hindu values and gay behavior is not accepted, it is not uncommon to see two guys walking down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other. Same thing with girls and their friends.

Heading into Kathmandu

2008-06-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

Riding across the eastern portion of Nepal to Kathmandu was a 13 hr busride journey. Starting at the Nepalese town, Kakabhitta, across the border from India. I boarded the bus at 4:30 am after several hrs of attempted sleep while enduring bed bug and mosquito bites, sitting next to the other lone traveler, a Canadien girl from Toronto who had recently completed a 1 month mountaineering course in Darjeeling. The ride started off eventful enough with one of the Nepalese bus workers having to forceably pull and push an elderly Nepalese man from the back of the bus out the door in the front. Apparently the man had tried to sneak onto the bus since he didn't have the money to pay the fare. At one point the old man was on his back on the bus floor right next to our seats trying his best to hold onto one of the poles. Eventually he was loosened up and tossed out the door onto the street. Fortunately he didn't appear to be injured or broken up too bad. I would imagine scenes like this occur quite regularly as the other Nepalese on the bus barely batted their eyes.

It was quite fascinating viewing the scenery and all the little villages and life we passed through on the way. The beginning of the journey was relatively flat and across open space. However, this changed by about noon time as we started venturing higher up into the himalayas on the way to Kathmandu. Didn't get to see Mount Everest or anything, which would have been straight north on the way to Kathmandu, but we did drive through some amazing and very steep areas. The roads were perched high on the mountainsides with little to no shoulder space and drop offs of easily over 1000-2000 ft. Making it more exciting was the relative busyness of the roads and the relentless drive of the drivers to push ahead and pass upcoming traffic. Thank goodness they have such loud and noisy horns which are used nonstop, behind upcoming vehicles and going around bends.

One interesting point in the trip was passing the scene of an automobile accident. Our bus had nearly stopped and was pushing along very slow at the scene of groups of people when I witnessed through my window 2 bodies crumpled on the road. The one guys head was smashed in with his brains smothered all over the road. His leg appeared to be quite twisted around in unnatural positions as well. It was quite a shocking and morbid visual. My neighbor Andrea was quite shaken. About 20 more feet up the road was a large truck with a motorbike underneath it's front end sticking out. I'm sure scenes like this are fairly common with the chaotic driving habits of the Nepalese and Indian drivers. Reading the local papers I often come across stories of road accidents and buses driving off the road over cliffs.

Eventually our bus made it into Kathmandu 13 hrs after we started. Several days later I just happened to bump into my friends, Hayden and Lee, who I had separated from two days before in Sikkim. They said their bustrip took over 19 hrs and included a flat tire and other vehicular problems.

Kathmandu is nestled in a valley and is commonly referred to as the Kathmandu Valley. We arrived around 6 or 7pm and were instantly surrounded by mobs of taxis drivers and other Nepalese offering their annoying and in your face assistance. The common area for tourists and travelers in Kathmandu is known as Thamel. Andrea and I got ourselves a taxi to that area where she had make prior reservations and was to be meeting with friends the following day at a local guesthouse. Driving in in a taxi we just happened to be dropped off right across the street from where Andrea had made reservations. This was lucky since the Thamel area is not that particularly small and includes what seems to be hundreds of guesthouses and hotels. The taxi driver and his friend tried to scam us into paying Indian rupees instead of Nepalese rupees, which of course they hadn't said anything about at the beginning. The Indian rupee is worth a little over 1.5 times more than the Nepalese counterpart. Hence once gets 160 Nepalese rupees to 100 Indian rupees. It was amusing how nonchantly they went about trying to scam us to make a few extra rupees for themselves, as if it would be obvious they wanted Indian rupees instead of Nepalese rupees whiles in Nepal.

Darjeeling and Sikkim

2008-06-10T03:46:00.001-07:00

I wound up staying in Calcutta for 3 days, 2 nights but itched to get out of the city considering how hot the place was. The temp was smoking hot with temperatures easily passing 100 F. with plenty of humidity. Heading up to the himalayas and Darjeeling area of northeastern India seemed the place to go. Myself as well the friends I made from my planeride from Bangkok, Hayden and Lee, got sleeper seats at the tourist office in Calcutta. Our tickets were of those specially allotted for foreign tourists, otherwise one has to sometimes wait weeks to get train tickets from what I have heard. We took an overnight train with sleeper seats next to some other tourist from Japan and France. Train trip took about 10-11 hrs to get to New Jalapairi. From there 5 of us rented a jeep for the 3 hr trip up to Darjeeling. Was a very slow and bumpy trip heading up into the mountains of Darjeeling, also very cloudy obscuring much of the sights but making the visuals a bit surreal at times. Could have taken a 8 hr toy train that goes super slow up through the mountains, but after being in the train for over 10 hrs, didn't feel it necessary to sit for another 8 hrs.

Darjeeling was a beautiful Indian city with a population of over 110,000 people. Famous for its tea plantations, there were tea shops all over town selling varying qualities of local tea for good prices. Also a big community of Nepalese and Tibetans making for an interesting contrast with the Indians of the region. Also many other Indians vacationing in the region, getting out of the extreme heat of Calcutta and surrounding areas. The weather was still continuously cloudy and foggy, obscuring many of the local mountainous views, however every so often the clouds would disperse and great views of the local mountain sides and valleys would be viewable.

I had set up plans along with Hayden, Lee, and the Japanese guys to get up early to go to Tiger Hill, a famous site in which one can get amazing views of the Himalayas, including Mount Kanchanjunga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world and not too far north of the area. Also potentially about to be seen is Mount Everest, 107 miles directly northwest. Unfortunately I missed my 3:00am wakeup time. I have 5 alarms on my wristwatch and didn't hear anyone of the them I had set. I wound up waking at 4am. However I heard later, as I had expected, that I really hadn't missed anything, since the sky was drenched with clouds and fog, obscuring any signs of the mountainscape.

Two other sites next to each other that I visited were the local zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, right next to each other and about a 25 minute walk from the center square of Darjeeling. The zoo was really cool. Was able to see some snow leopards, clouded leopards, common leopards, red pandas, a bengal tiger, a himalayan bear, barking deer which I didn't hear bark, amongst other animals. Fortunately the animals were not stuck in tiny little cages, but had some limited space to run around in their enclosures.

The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute was an interesting museum chronicaling the history of climbing Mt. Everest as well as the other mountains consisting the Himalayas. Lots of pictures and exhibits of the evolution of gear used in mountaineering, from bare basic gear of the older days to the modern equipment of these days. Cool panoramas of the himalayas showing how vast and incredible the range is. Also on the premises is a school teaching all aspects of the science of mountaineering. I met one girl from Canada who had just completed a 30 day course, which including about 2 wks in the mountains of Sikkim and climbing a 17,000 mountain, using all the skills they learned.

After several days in Darjeeling I decided to head up further north to the Indian state of Sikkim. To go into this territory I needed a special permit which entailed filling out some paperwork and getting some necessary signitures and stamps from two separate offices in Darjeeling. I continued my journey to Sikkim with Hayden and Lee, a 4 hr trip which had about 12 of us crammed into 3 rows in a Jeep, Indian style. Special permits were necessary due to Sikkims close proximity to Tibet, Bhutan, and China and past political issues which have incurred. I had heard from others who had previously visited Sikkim that they considered it the most beautiful place they visited in India and Nepal areas. I had seen various pamphlets and other brochures referring to Sikkim as the possible location for Shangri-li, or the lost paradise on earth. However, like Darjeeling, the weather had already started transitioning into monsoon season, a little bit earlier than normal for the season. Most sources say the monsoon season doesn't typically start until several weeks later than I was there. However, it was very cloudy and foggy, with rain periodically during the days. The views that were able to be seen were quite spectacular, right up there with Darjeeling and perhaps a bit larger. We, myself along with Hayden and Lee, stayed the time in Gangtok, capital of the state. Mount Kanchanjunga is located in the northern part of the state, hence of was that much closer to the worlds 3rd largest mountain. Unfortunately, like Darjeeling, views of the mountain were not available at the time.

I wound up only staying several days in Gangtok, as the weather was rainy and I figured it wasn't really worth sticking around. Reading up and seeing pictures of Sikkim it looks like an amazing place with spectacular scenery, with much wildlife and great hiking. I definitely hope to make it back to the state sometime later on in life before it gets more well-known and filled with tourists. Saw very few white people in town, much less than Darjeeling. Plenty of Indian tourists however.

I was able to see one very interesting museum in the city specializing in Tibetan Buddhism and culture. Took me about an 1 hr walk in the rain to get there but it was well worth the journey. Lots of incredible Tibet Buddhist thangkas, ritual instruments, pictures, and Buddha figurines. Tibetan Buddhism is very big in the city so it was an appropriate location for the museum.

Kolkata

2008-06-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

Finally arrived in the city of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, on Thursday afternoon the 29th. Was sitting next to a couple on the plane, Canadien guy, Hayden, and Korean girl, Lee, who had been teaching English in Japan, and we decided to get a taxi from the airport to Sutter St. in Kolkata, the street known for guest houses and other places for foreigners. Quite a surreal experience being in the city of Kolkata. Absolute mobs and mobs of people whereever you go, super noisy with endless honking by all the cars and 50's era taxis throughout the city, and incredibly hot and humid with temperatures above 40C, easily past 100 fahrenheit. Saw my first pair of cows in the taxi ride on the way to Sutter St. Along with these, endless street dogs similar to Thailand. Also many crows flying all over the place in the city scavenzing for food in the gutters and trash heaps.

The beggars in the street were much more aggressive and in your face than in Thailand. I had one woman begging me to buy milk for her baby she was carrying on her shoulder. This is a common scam which I have heard about, with these woman being dropped with their or others babies to make money off of unknowing and sympathetic foreigners. The beggars, many of them young children, are relentless in their pursuit of rupees. They will follow you for over a block, or minutes at a time, tapping on you and gesturing for money. It gets of bit annoying after a while but u learn to live with it. Sometimes I just drop them a rupee or two and it gets them away from you. One time I had a bag of cookies and just handed it to them to get them off me. Other times I just start walking extra fast to get away.

The most surreal and interesting experience for me in my several days in Kolkata was visiting the Kali Temple where they do ritual beheadings of goats for the benefit of the Hindu goddess Kali. Made two visits to the temple, the first time by myself and the second time the following day with Hayden and Lee. First time there I had a guide showing me around within seconds, standing out as I do being a white foreign traveler, and him hoping to make a few bucks. I allowed him to show me around and it turned out to be worthwile and a bit educational. He showed me the stall where the goats are ritually beheaded, which was a bit gruesome with blood residue sticking to the ground, many flies, and an aura of death. My sense of smell is not that great so fortunately I wasn't able to completely take in a huge breathe of what would undoubably not smell too fragrant. I was also shown a bunch of the altars where prayers and other acknowledgements are made to the Goddess. I was able to make some prayers and toss some flowers to a statue of Kali. The platform and wooden poles where the goats are placed to be ritually beheaded are also used by Kali devotees to pray to Kali. Here devotees stick their heads in between the poles colored red from goat blood and pray to the goddess. Was a bit of an icky feeling being in such close proximity to such a location. Heard so much about diseases like tuberculosus and AIDS being so rampant in parts of Calcutta, felt like a location where it would be alive and thriving. Glad I got shots for Hepatitis and Tetanus.

Next day made another trip to the temple with the Hayden and Lee. We had decided to cut costs and got a room together which had 3 single beds. Was a rathole compared to rooms in Thailand but was a place to stay. Tough sleeping at night with the heat, just glad I didn't have any bed bugs biting me. My second visit to the temple with Hayden and Lee was more interesting than my first visit. Was much more crowded as apparently it was an auspicious day of worship for Kali. Also had a much more interesting experience as this time around they were sacrificing goats. While I didn't get a chance to see any goats beheaded in the small enclosure where the sacrifice takes place, I did get to see goats walking around along with goat corpses and heads being carrying off to be deskinned and butchered. Apparently all the good goat meat doesn't go to waste. It is chopped up and provided to the many indigent of Calcutta for food.

Wasn't able to get any pictures inside the temple area as it was forbidden unfortunately. Hayden was able to sneak a few pictures in with his camera of some goats being deskinned before he was hollered at by an intimidating Indian man holding a butcher knife and splattered with goat blood and guts. Not the type of person I felt like pushing the limits with myself.

During the day time about the only thing myself as other foreigners felt like doing was hitting up the air conditioned coffee and tea houses to escape the dreadful hit outside. The temp had to been at least over 105F and super humid. The 3 of us would go to Park St., several blocks from where we were staying on Sutter St., find a coffee house with other travelers to talk to, then move onto another one. Park Street is another famous street in Calcutta with lots of history. Half a block off of Park St. we enjoyed ourselves a fine meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Have seen them as well as Dominos and Pizza Hut in Calcutta. About the only place in India where I where chance eating chicken or meat. One of the easiest ways to get sick with diarrhea and nausea, eating meat.

Fascinating walking through the streets of Calcutta as it cools down a little bit around 5pm and seeing all the sights of city, on the main and side streets. Such a different vibe from Bangkok and very few foreigners, this time of year at least. Felt like a more aggressive type vibe from the people than Thailand, but I never felt any sense of threat or danger. The unbelievably high level of noise takes a bit getting used to. I'm glad I don't got to live in that type of atmosphere fulltime.

Chiang Mai; Heading to India

2008-05-28T02:34:00.000-07:00

Had a fun time visiting one of the popular clubs in Chiang Mai called Spicy. Filled with mostly western - falang -guys and many beautiful Thai women, it is one of the biggest dance and hook up clubs in Chiang Mai. My first visit there I went with a lovely Thai girl - Bee- who I had met in town while eating at the small restaurant she owns. The club doesn't really get started till past midnight and stays buzzing to past 4am. Definitely a much different vibe than Americans type clubs. No beautiful cocktail waitresses going around trying to sell drinks. Was primarily very polite and medium built Thai guys taking care of the drink orders. The sign at the front door walking states 3 main rules: (1)No ladyboys -transvestites or crossdressing guys - allowed, (2)No weapons, (3) No sex in the club emphasized with a picture of a guy and girl going at it.

Was an interesting experience going to the bathroom in the club. The moment I stepped up to the urinal I had one of the male bathroom attendants come up from behind and start giving me a shoulder and back massage while I was standing there trying to relieve myself. A moment earlier several guys warned - "Watch out they are going to give u a massage." These two guys turned out to be from Boulder Colorado. Kind of funny place to run into several guys living so close to me back home. They seemed pretty freaked out by the prospect of getting a massage from another guy in the bathroom while taking a pee. Not exactly the most typical experience, particularly for a westerner from the states, receiving a massage in the bathroom from a male attendant in a straight club. A moment later they were raving about how good a massage it was. It was a very good massage and I learned a couple of interesting moves from them. They did some amazing neck cracks on me. Wasn't exactly the easiest to relax, but having already drank several bottles of beer and being half drunk I was able to relax after several moments.

Such a different vibe in the club than back in the states. Very fun and peaceful type setting without the ever present threat of fights and violence so typical of clubs in the states. The Thai girls are so beautiful, most of them at least, and go out of there way to smile and get your attention. Much different than American clubs where most of the attractive women tend to act like gods gift to man and act much more aloof and untouchable. Here the Thai women are full of smiles and much more approachable. Of course many of them are working girls and looking to make some money taking guys home for sex. Makes it a bit unpredictable in figuring out girls motives when you are meeting and talking with them. It's not nearly as crazy as Pattaya or other places in Thailand, but still obviously there. One Australian guy had met and thought he had really hit it off with an attractive Thai woman. He was set to go home with her when she started requesting 1000 baht, or about $30 US dollars.

I myself was already there with a good looking Thai girl so I wasn't worried about trying to pick up any of the girls. Still fun meeting and flirting with the girls. It's a bit of an ego boost with the attention the Thai girls give. I was there later in the evening about ready to leave with Bee when an extremely good looking Thai girl came up to me and said she wanted to have sex with me. I'm not sure if she really wanted to go home with me because she thought I was attractive, or if she was a working girl looking to make some money, probably the latter although I would like to believe the first option. I didn't get a chance to find out as I told her I was already with someone and unavailable at the moment.

Today is Wednesday the 28th and tomorrow I am heading off to Kolkata- Calcutta - around noon. I am super excited to being going to India. Thailand has been unbelievable experience but it is a relatively easy and tourist friendly country, unlike what I am going to experience in India. I am very excited for the challenge inspite of the prospects of getting sick which seem to be inevitable in speaking with everyone who has traveled to India. It almost feels like my true adventure is just beginning upon getting to India and experiencing what is in store for me there. I feel like I am at the edge of a cliff and ready to jump off the edge into the unknown. I am really excited to be going to India to study yoga and meditation as well as visit the himalayas and see some incredible scenery and extreme culture. I have 100 days in India in which I plan to spend in Northern India and Nepal. I will be arriving there as monsoon season is beginning in northern India so the prospects of trekking and hiking in the himalayas will be diminished a bit. Not too much fun to go hiking for days with monsoon season showers pouring down on me. I will find out more when I get there and the prospects of doing so.

I got a copy of Lonely Planet India, a huge book taking up much space in my bag, but will be invaluable in helping me get around what promises to be a challenging and exciting journey. I have no idea really what to expect in getting to Kolkata, situated in northeastern India and the cheapest city to fly into in India. The street called Sutter street is supposed to be a top spot in the city for backpackers and foreign travelers. I anticipate extreme poverty and many scam artists and beggars looking to make money off myself. Have been told to expect it to me much more in my face and pushy than in Thailand, which can get a bit annoying in Bangkok. Will be a chance to meet some interesting folks in whatever other travelers and expats are in India at the moment. Probably won't be a whole lots of travelers in the city as well as the country as it is the hot season and monsoon season is quickly approaching. Chiang Mai was a bit slow in terms of tourists and Khao San Rd in Bangkok is quite slow at the moment. So much different than back during the high season in Dec and Jan. It is actually a bit nice walking around without the huge masses of travelers and party goers existing during the high season.

I come back to Thailand Sept 8 for a little over a month and a half, in which I plan to visit Laos, perhaps Cambodia, live in some of the Buddhist forest monasteries to practice meditation and save money, and also refresh myself in some more thai massage classes before heading home Nov 3. Five more months left for me in my journey which I expect to be quite profound for myself. I do not expect to be the same person after this time. Hopefully will have acquired much more peace of mind, wisdom, and insight into myself as well as have a different perspective on life, particularly in regards to the excessively materialistic style of living in the west and America. It's all taken for granted the high standard of living available to many living in America. I have found it very nice and liberating to travel with merely 2 bags full of possessions. Also able to see how people can be happy and live life without having such a unbalanced emphasis on money and owning stuff. More emphasis on family, community, and spirituality.

pichets studio

2008-05-14T04:25:00.000-07:00

Pichet's studio that he works out of is quite interesting. Piles and piles of incense and candles are off to the side along side many Buddhas and photos of important Thai monks meditating. Lots of clutter throughout the space with papers and other stuff scattered throughout. Large space however with lots of mats and cushions lying around. No more than 10 people in class right now as it is the slow season. I would imagine during the busy season of Nov through March it may get upwards of 30 people, which would be too much.

It is requested that each student at the beginning of each wk bring in four offerings for the Buddhas and other important figures key in Thai Buddhism and Thai massage. These consist of incense, candles, lotus flowers, and fruit. The stacks of incense look like piles of bottle rockets that could blow up at any moment. I'm not sure why he doesn't light the incense up and please the Buddhas and other celestial beings. Looks almost like yrs worth of incense stocked up.

The classes are quite laidback and informal, reflecting Thai culture. If one is coming looking for a structured class with a syllabus and lesson plans they are going to be disappointed. There are plenty of other thai massage schools in the Chiang Mai area which do offer that type of western style teaching however. However watching Pichet demonstrate thai massage in his style it is highly apparent that he is a genius in the field. He makes some of the most complicated looking stretches and moves look so simple and easy. His main area of emphasis is teaching students to feel the body, get out of your head and stopping thinking so much, which causes headaches. When we are up in our heads trying to think and analyze what we are doing, the energy flow in our bodies and hands gets disrupted and is reflected in the massage. Pressure becomes uneven and the person being worked on can typically feel and sense this. The key is to slow down and feel the persons body you are working on, observing areas of tightness and constriction and how they are reflected in other segments of the body.

Problems in the legs in the legs are reflected in the hips and lower back, which then affect the upper thoracic and neck region. It is a very holistic approach and respects the fact that the whole body is completely interconnected. Everybody has a unique body and needs to be approached that way. Most schools in the area teach structured routines with not much emphasis on feeling and sensing subtle nuances in each persons body. In a way Pichets style is similar to the teachings of Rolfing back in the states, with the idea of various segments of the body and how they are all interconnected and effect each other. It is amazing watching Pichet at work, as he is able to transition the person he is working on as well as himself so smoothy and effortlessly. He is always using his knees, elbows, and feet in the stretches and massage in creative ways. Interesting watching his massage peoples necks with one of his feet, while the other holds the shoulder stretching the region.

Another aspect of the laidback approach in class is the carefree way Pichet lights of cigarettes and smokes whenever he wants. Thailand in general is not quite as concerned with political correctness to the degree the west is. Not as many rules and laws governing this sort of thing, although I do see smoking and non smoking areas in many of the bars. Not really that bothersome though, as the bld is build with lots of openings and space for fresh air to move through. Got some noisy birds flying into the classroom and hanging out in some baskets up high, chirping away. They are fun to listen to although they get a bit annoying after awhile.

Pichet says I work like a buffalo when I am doing massage. I am using too much effort and muscle as opposed to relaxing and allowing my body to do the work. Take many yrs to master the finer and subtler arts of thai massage. His approach is much different than how I was being taught down in the islands. My teacher down employed alot of thumbwork during the massage. Apparently there are 2 different styles of Thai massage, northern and southern styles. Northern is more laid back with more yoga type stretching incorporated. Southern style is more point work working on the Sen and energy lines of the body. I myself enjoy learning more of the stretches employed in Thai massage. The southern style is a bit similar to trigger point massage in the states which I am already familiar with. More taxing on the body and fingers. Was able to get one wk in with Pichet and hope to get one more in when I get back to Thailand in Sept. after visiting India.

Start classes with Pichet

2008-05-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

Finally getting around to starting thai massage classes with Pichet Boonthume this wk. Had to delay for a while for various reasons, including Songkran - the water festival - which cancelled classes for the week, going to Pai and then staying in Lisu Village, and another wk having to travel back to Bangkok to pickup passport from Indian Embassy. So far about 8 people in class, half guys and girls. Slow season so not as busy as it would be from Nov through March. Met my first traveler from Portugal, a guy who was previously learning thai massage at a regarded school in Kathmandu Nepal. Class is pretty informal and relaxed. Start class shortly after 9am with chanting, then have Pichet do a bit of a lecture and demonstration. Afterwards and through the afternoon we are free to practice on each other.

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Had met a beautiful Thai girl named Saly who I was able to spend some time with before she embarked to Italy. There she works at a resort as a food artist carving up watermelons and fruits and stuff into wonderful artistic creations. She was such a sweet and charming girl characteristic of so many of the Thai women, particularly it seems in the north of Thailand. It seems to be the nature of backpack traveling that you meet and connect with certain persons for several days or perhaps longer, then have to disconnect and move along. Kind of sad at times but makes me value and attempt the Buddhist principle of Non-attachment, not to be confused with detachment.

Met an interesting American girl named Liz at yoga class the other day who coincidentally graduated from Penn State University. While I mentioned that I grew up in Pennsylvania and my brother attended Penn State, I didn't describe to her my lovely experience of spending time in the county prison of Centre County. Would have definitely given her a different impression of me i'm sure. At PSU she received her masters degree in some aspect of Marine Biology and has had the opportunity to travel throughout the world and various islands including Fiji. Not sure exactly what kind of studies she was doing there but sounded quite intriguing, her explaining studying certain aspects of the ocean floor and traveling in a submarine. She was only in Chiang Mai for several days till she was off to Bombay India. Ultimately within the month or so she was traveling to Kathmandu, Nepal to volunteer teaching science to the local kids. I checked out the website of the program she was participating in and discovered it included paying a fee to take part in. I travel to India in 2 and a half wks at this point, arriving in Calcutta on a Thursday, I believe the 28th or so. I definitely want to visit Nepal while I am in northern India. Unfortunately it will be monsoon season, not a great time for doing extended treks into the himalayas.

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Met my first Colombian family in Thailand while traveling by bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok one night. Not a very comfortable journey as the trip is over 12 hrs long sitting in a small little seat with very little leg room. For the some reason they call it the VIP bus, giving you a positive sense of foreboding for the bustrip. Once your on the bus for several hrs reality sets in, particularly if your squeezed in next to someone else. Then for some reason the bus driver always seems to turn off the lights around 8 or 9pm, right when you want to start reading to keep busy. Of course the private lights set for each seat rarely work. I brought a tiny flashlight to remedy this situation and provide suitable light for reading. For the 2nd part of the journey I had a chance to sit next to the beautiful daughter in her late twenties, I believe her name was Katalina. The first 6 hrs or so I sat next to her father, while Katalina and her mother sat one row over. Mother and daughter were attired in colorful Indian clothing. I found out talking with Katalina that she is a devotee of the Sathya Sai Baba, one of the most famous gurus of India. I have been familiar with Sai Baba for many yrs and previously thought it would be an interesting experience to visit his ashram and receive his blessing. However he is located in southern India, a bit too far from the northern areas of India I intend to be traveling. Sai Baba is known for his curly, frilly high hair and the ability to materialize objects and sacred ash from his hands. Whether or not his abilities are authentic or sleight of hand magic, it would still be a memorable experience to visit such a revered figure in India and Hindu religion and culture.

Lisu Village

2008-04-28T00:42:00.000-07:00

One of the experienced that I did enjoy while staying in the Lisu Village was taking a hike into the hills nearby and searching for medicinal herbs and plants used traditionally by the tribe for healing purposes. This hike I did during the morning before the heat of the afternoon with Susanon and two other guests, a dutch girl and Canadian girl, I met at the homestay who dropped in my third night. Was quite interested walking through a small forest into the hills and having various plants pointed out. Most of the clearings and hills were burned out apparently to make space to grow crops. Didn't see any animals or wildlife, probably mostly due to the burnings. I heard if you keep hiking for into the hills for 2-3 days u get to some very interesting areas, spots where monkeys, elephants, and tigers still exist. Also would be poppy fields back that far, otherwise they are non-existant from the gov't making opium illegal.

Another interesting guest who stopped in my second night in was a Polish woman in her 50's. I believe her name was Eva, she had recently came to Thailand after having lived in Varanasi, India for two yrs with her daughter, an artist. In Varanasi she explained that she was studying Japanese, a seemingly random place to study the Japanese language. As Varanasi is one of the main cities I want to visit when I travel to India in one month I was glad to have met Eva and gotten some valuable insight and information from her. Not too often that I have met Polish travelers during my four months so far, let alone a woman in their 50's backpacking solo. Just previous to stopping into the Lisu village she had done a 20 day Vipassana meditation retreat at a monastery north of Chiang Mai.

I expected the experience to be a bit more primitive than it turned out to be. While the tribe, particularly the women, still wear their traditional colorful attire typical to their respective tribe, they have also embraced alot of what would be considered modern society. While I was inside no more than five of the hilltribers dwellings, it seems as though many of the villagers have acquired televisions, dvd players, and cellphones. In addition they all pretty much own motorbikes and some own pickup trucks and automobiles, although not many. Here and there I noticed satellite dishes around dwellings and it seemed like all homes were wired for electricity. Everybody was pretty friendly in the village. It wasn't exactly the kind of homestay experience that I was expecting however. I thought it would be more inclusive of the whole community, but for the most part meals involved sitting with the family I was staying with and eating some of their homestyle cooking, which was quite delicious. One night dinner including small little shrimp that Susanan had collected from one of the nearby streams. The next night they included cooked ants or ant larvae, I wasn't exactly sure which. Tasted pretty normal with salt and spices cooked in with it.

While they possessed alot of these modern devices and luxuries, it wasn't as though anyone was living in any kind of luxury. Many places were still on the dirt without flooring overlaying the earth. Others were pitched off the ground, helpful during monsoon season and times of rain and flooding. The main road through the village and up into the higher villages was paved, otherwise all the side roads were dirt with much trash littering the place. Lots of chickens and roosters running all over

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Living with Lisu Hilltribe

2008-04-27T03:19:00.000-07:00

While in Pai I was in close proximity to many of the colorfully attired hilltribe villages living in the area. I had noticed flyers advertising homestay opportunity with one of the Lisu hilltribes with the chance to learn a little bit about their culture and lifestyle. They also had a very nice website describing their village while explaining and describing the various classes offered in the village. Several of the classes offered which interested me included learning Lisu style massage as well as the chance to meet with their village shaman/medicine man and learn a little bit about their healing work and spirituality, primarily a combination of animism and Buddhism. Other classes including learning about Lisu arts and crafts, jewelry making, meditation, detox, etc.

While it is strange enough that a seemingly primitive hilltribe village would be technological savvy enough to have their own website, it turned out to be the creation of an American expat living in the village, married to one of the Lisu women. Albert, in his 60's, has been living in Thailand for 5 yrs and in the village for several yrs. He is married to Susanan, a Lisu woman in her 40's. Together they take care of the majority of the services provided by the homestay experience. Albert takes care of the meditation, detox, jewelry making classes, etc, while Susanan the primary person instructing about Lisu arts and crafts, Lisu massage, hikes into the hills and forest to identify medicinal plants and herbs, etc.

The drive from Pai to the village of Nong Tong, near Soppong, was an extremely picturesque and windy route over a mountain pass and down into the next valley to the village of Soppong. I drove the route to Soppong and the village the day before I joined the homestay on a motorbike. Took a little over 1 hr each way and was comparable to driving Independence Pass in Colorado. The scenery was beautiful driving through the the mountains on steep narrow roads, seeing the ricefields, workers in the fields, cattle on the roads, and everything else common to the area. The next day I took a bus back to the town to start the homestay for 3 days. Wasn't sure exactly what to expect but seemed like an interesting way to experience authentic Thai life while getting away from the masses. Also hoped to learn something new and exotic while studying Lisu massage.

I was able to practice Lisu massage the day after I arrived with Susanan. It was described on the website as a meridian and energy balancing technique with acupressure. While it was a nice massage, I didn't find anything exotic or particularly different about it than I had learned in the past. It was in some ways quite similar to shiatsu which I had learned in the past. However, there didn't seem to be a focused emphasis on balancing out energy and meridians in the body. Susanan's English speaking was ok, but not good enough to be able to communicate about balancing energy and sensing nuances in people's bodies. To me it seemed quite similar to a clothed shiatsu massage that followed a routine on the body with possible focus on real tight or troubled areas of the body, of which I didn't really have any. It employed a few Thai style stretches but otherwise didn't take much from Thai massage.

I was able to receive several times from Susanan and another woman in the village, possibly a relative of hers although she didn't speak any English. Then I went through the routine myself. I had been planning on perhaps working with them for several days on learning Lisu style massage, however after experiencing the work I really didn't find it that necessary. In looking back, I believe I thought that in learning with the village women living in a tribe that they may possess some kind of secret insight or wisdom of the body which I hadn't learned or experienced yet. Perhaps their relative isolation from the modern world would have enabled them to hold onto some ancient knowledge lost from most modern people. However I didn't find this to be so. I thought the website really hyped up the massage, as well as many other aspects of the homestay, as though it would be sometime totally unique and different. This I didn't find to be so although I did enjoy the experience and enjoy taking chances in learning something new.

Another feature advertised on the website is meeting with the village shaman or medicine man and experience Lisu spirituality and healing. In talking with Albert he mentioned that I may be disappointed with the experience. Apparently the shaman speaks no English and translation from other Lisu folk possessing beginner knowledge of English wouldn't help too much. I decided to skip out on this offering of the homestay. It would have been cool if there had been a ceremonial healing or other event involving the shaman that I could have watched and experienced. However during my 3 days there nothing of that nature occurred.

Pai, Thailand

2008-04-19T05:04:00.000-07:00

Was feeling better a day after not feeling well after 4 days of the water festival celebrating the Thai New Year. Took too many buckets of dirty water to the face and mouth, likely source being the canal surrounding the old city section where much celebration was occurring. Here lots of filthy and contaminated water flows. The Thais had no problem jumping in it and swimming while also using it as a water source for filling up their buckets during the water celebration.

After a day of rest I took a minivan to the quieter, hippy town of Pai, about 2.5 hrs northwest through the mtns on slow winding roads. Lots of beautiful scenery on the ride which gave me my first glimpse of the rice fields of Thailand. I had heard lots of great things about the town and been planning on checking it and surrounding area out when I got to the Chiang Mai area. It is nestled in a valley with mountains and wilderness surrounding it on almost all sides. Not Colorado sized snowcap mtns but sizeable and majestic enough in themselves. Unfortunately I can't see a super clear view of much of the mtns as the weather is hot and hazy, obscuring some of the clarity. Also lots of landed being burned to clear space for growing crops, sending lots of smoke in the sky. There is a nice river flowing through town but not at its highest level since rainy season ended last fall and is coming up soon in several months. Also nearby are hot springs, some beautiful waterfalls and various caves. A bit too hot for the hot springs at the moment unfortunately as hot as it is.. The river and waterfalls would be awesome during and after the rainy monsoon season coming up soon. Lots of rafting and tubing opportunities available with local businesses. Tons of trekking and other opportunities to visit the hill tribes in the nearby area are also available.

As the weather is currently summertime and in the middle of the hot season, it is hot as hell and the prime tourism season has ended. Very quiet and lowkey here in Pai. Great chance to relax from the crowds and madness of the Thai New Year and the big crowds of the past few months. Kind of a Nederland, Colorado type feel to Pai as it is nestled in the mtns with a sizable hippy contigent. Also similar to Boulder with the amount of healing centers, meditation classes, and vegetarian restaurants around town. There is a big live music and jam session scene thriving in town. I found a cool little cafe serving fresh wheatgrass grown in the front of the store. Also a huge tea selection with all kinds of herbal and medicinal teas available. I got a large bag of very good Chinese herbal tea acclaimed for its healing and immune enhancing effects, exactly what I need at the moment. Can't remember the name of it as I had never heard of it before. Nice place to hang out and meet interesting people traveling from all over the world. Met a beautiful Japanese girl there traveling byself and passing through Pai for the day. I sat with her and another crazy Austrian guy telling wild stories of traveling on the trains and busses in India 10 yrs ago.

Prices are outrageously cheap at the moment as it is the low season and not as many people in town. My first few nights I had a cheap 100 baht a night - $3 - bungalow along side the river. Thank goodness the mattress had a mosquito net as there were huge gaps all throughout the dwelling allowing easy access for anything to come inside. Not worried about snakes entering as much as the nasty centipedes and spiders. I don't need them crawling into bed with me. After 2 nights in that space I upgraded for tonight. Now paying 200 baht for a place I believe would be over 1000 baht during the high season. Still doesn't have an air conditioner but as long as I have a fan i'm ok.

water festival and Pichet

2008-04-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

Water Festival still going on in Thailand, lasts for about 4 days, be almost kind of glad when it
is over tmrw as it is next to impossible to go anywhere in town without getting drenched by someone. However it has been an incredible experience being able to be here for this celebration. The streets are madness with revelers getting drenched and spraying up every vehicle and motorbike that drives by.

No way this kind of thing would be able to happen in the US. Would always be someone who doesn't want to get wet or others with bad attitudes starting up fights, eventually leading to shootings and other mayhem. I haven't seen any fights or anything remotely close to an altercation during the whole 4 days of the festival. U can tell some people don't want to get wet but they mostly accept it as part of the holiday. If they are traveling in certain hotspots of activity they are bound to get splashed, unless they are monks or quite old. After dark the watering dies down with the exception of some walking around with water guns. I haven't seen any accidents on the roads but apparently there are thousands of automobile and motorbike accidents throughout the country during the festival from people getting splashed with water as they are driving along or being drunk. Not too much of a problem here in the city in the main sections as the vehicles are all backed up and moving at a snail pace.

Was feeling a little moody earlier today after drinking a bunch of coffee and coming down off the stuff while sitting on computer, went outside back into the madness and felt instantly uplifted. Everybody is so happy and having a good time, dancing in the streets and getting drenched. So funny to see peoples reactions and facial expressions when they are splashed with icy cold water. When your getting splashed you never know if it is going to be tepid, regular temperature water or if it has been sitting in ice blocks getting super cold. It can make you cringe getting a nice bucket of the cold stuff dumped on you when your not expecting it. It's great seeing the theatrics and moaning noises.

Some very cool parades and other celebrations going on as well in the town during the daytime and evening. Saw some Thai girls dressed up very elaborately in traditional wear on a stage doing some dance routines, was very beautiful too watch. One of the main boulevards in the old city is closed off to auto traffic and is filled up for about a mile or so with vendors selling food on one side and all kinds of cool stuff on the other. Lots of beautiful artwork, tribal stuff from the hill tribes, jewelry, silk, the usual t-shirts, etc.

Was riding my bike through town today and saw a girl from yoga class from about 2-3 months ago on Ko Phangan. I had also seen her about 3 wks ago in Bangkok on Khao San Rd. So funny how you keep running into familiar faces like that. She had also stayed at my guesthouse while on Ko Phangan. One would almost think it is some kind of destiny that I keep bumping into her like that. I think her name is Mika or something like that, she is from Belgium and in her mid thirties. Nice girl but pretty average looking. She was telling me earlier when I saw her in Khao San Rd. about trekking for 1 month in Cambodia and how much of an amazing time it was.

Went and met one of the primary thai massage teachers I want to learn with. Named Pichet Boothume, he is very highly regarded as perhaps the best teacher in the Chiang Mai area. He is about 20-30 minutes south of town so I had to rent a motor bike to go figure out exactly where he was located. Took me a while trying to figure it out with the address I had written down off the internet while asking various Thai people. They had me going in all directions. The language differences can get quite frustrating at times. Eventually I drove by a police office and stopped in to ask for help. His address didn't make too much sense to the police officer but fortunately I had his phone # as well. The officer was able to give him a call and then write out a little map for me.

Was an interesting experience meeting him. Speaks decent English but I still didn't know exactly what he was talking about at times. As I drove up to his place he was just sitting in his drive way no doing too much of anything. Was kind of surreal to meet someone I had heard so much about and been looking forward to learning with. Chatted with him for a little while, he seemed a bit out there but had a huge smile as most Thais do. He explained how his teaching philosophy essentially revolves around learning to really sense, perceive, and feel the body, instead of merely mechanically going through the thai massage postures as most schools and practitioners do. I look forward to starting learning with him on the 21st if all goes right.

Chiang Mai -water festival

2008-04-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

After arriving back from Pattaya I was able to pick up my new passport several days later and promptly purchase myself a bus ticket for Chiang Mai, the main city in Northern Thailand where many of the big time thai massage schools exist. The overnight busride up took forever, about 12 hrs, and I had a horrible air conditioner vent streaming right down at my face the entire time. The bus was the cheapest way to get up to Chiang Mai, otherwise I would have taken a train, which I will probably do on the way back as they have beds on them. Also possible to take a airplane up north, but I didn't feel like paying the extra prices for.

Chiang Mai is an amazing city. Absolutely full of incredible and centuries old Buddhist temples with Buddhas of all sizes and styles inside. Many of the temples are quite rundown with crumbling brick formations and look like they have been around forever. Some are several hundred feet high with surreal looking Buddhas lodged halfway up on the side. It is very mesmerizing being around them and their sense of history. Also many Buddhist monks of all ages walking around in their orange robes. Was talking with a few of them and asking where some good monasteries to go meditate would be. Many options in Chiang Mai as well as throughout the country. Some of the western monks I was talking with have been living in the forest monasteries for 10 yrs or more.

I picked a great time to make it to Chiang Mai. The Thai New Year is celebrated each year from April 13 -15. The new year celebration is referred to as the Songkran Festival, sometimes called the Water Festival. Everybody is going crazy in the streets dumping buckets of water on everyone, hosing everyone, and squirting water on everyone who passes by, except for older folks and monks who are given upmost respect in the Thai community. This goes on for about 4 or 5 days and the main streets in the city are mayhem. It is a crazy party and everyone is drenched with water. There are big barrels of water filled up from hoses everyone dips into for water. Many times people dump large blocks of quickly thawing ice into them so that you get really cold water, the best water for dumping on people and really shocking them. I got a nice little squirt gun that is fun spraying into people's faces with. Lots of others got huge pump squirt guns that really blast water in your face and body. Pretty much everyone and all ages are involved, the little kids on up to middle aged and older folks. So cool seeing the excitement and exhilaration in the young kids faces as they are enjoying themselves. The busiest activity is on the roads along the water filled moat surrounding the square shaped old city portion of Chiang Mai. Here there is lots of fierce water battling between people on pick-up trucks cruising the streets and those on the sides.

I read somewhere that the dumping of water on everyone is a way of washing away bad luck for the year. Also a great way to cool down in the heat of the hot season in Thailand. The heat is not as bad up here as it is down in Bangkok. Bangkok was almost unbearable at times. Chiang Mai is so much more cleaner and peaceful. It has an amazing spiritual vibe about itself with all the temples, monks, thai massage schools, and healing centers throughout the city. The mountains and hill tribes are nearby and tons of opportunities for trekking are available.

Seen several elephants being walked around town during the evenings. It's amazing seeing how huge they are in person, standing over 10-15 ft high. Hopefully get a chance to ride one later on during a trek in the mtns.

Pattaya

2008-04-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

While I had heard that Pattaya had a decent prostitution scene, I was not prepared for how insanely widespread and busy it actually was. Street after street was filled with bars filled with beautiful, and some not so beautiful, thai women working to sell themselves for the evening or a couple hrs. The busiest street of all was Walking Street, an crazy street filled with gogo bars, strip clubs, entertainers, and thousands of prostitutes. Some of the interesting street performers including a little girl around 8 showing off insane contortionist skills, a young Thai boy continuously juggling a soccer ball for hrs, some magicians, some animals showing off tricks, etc.

Another interesting aspect to the prostitution scene was the inclusion of many beautiful blond haired Russian and European girls out selling themselves for apparently lots more than the typical Thai girl. Apparently Pattaya is marketed very big back in Russia and many Russians are seen and heard walking the streets. I remember having heard Anna Kournikova the tennis player was paid several yrs ago to sponsor Pattaya. I only saw one club where the Russian women were to be found entertaining. Located on Walking street, there was a large glass showcase on a 2nd floor showcasing single Russian ladies dancing very provacatively on a pole. Outside of this spot, I didn't see any other locations in around town featuring Russians or European women. I had also read that there is a contigent of Jamaican men hustling themselves out to Asian, primarily Japanese women. It must be quite low key as I didn't notice any of this scene in my hours of walking through the city.

Perhaps the most bizaare aspect of the whole scene was the masses of older white men, primarily European, strolling around with their young Thai girlfriend or prostitute. Many of the men appeared to be in their 60 or 70's, although all ages were present, and i'm sure were having the time of their lives, paying pretty much next to nothing with the value of the British pound and Euro. Also plenty of pharmacies around town advertising testosterone supplements for over 40 men to enhance sexual drive and increase lean muscle. Viagra and other sexual aids were also widely advertised around town. I try not myself to be judgmental of these men as it seems so weird watching these older men walking around with the young women half their age. I didn't talk to too many of the men but the one's I spoke with all seemed very friendly. I would imagine that would be the effect of spending a wk or two out of country carousing with the sweet thai women. For a divorced, single, or widowed older gentleman Pattaya is definitely the place to be. Back home there is no way they are going to be able to acquire a women with the youthfulness, beauty, and charm the Thai women possess, even if they got to pay for it. The backpacker scene was relatively non-existent in Pattaya. One evening around 1am I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel reading and observing the scene and saw two twenty something guys bringing back two ladyboy transvestites back to their rooms, hopefully they were aware this was the case with them.

While I was quite tempted on many occassions to break down and buy one of the women for the evening, I was able to hold off my urges. The combination of paying for a woman in addition to diseases and the number of men that these women have been with is a bit of a turnoff and deterent for me. I had fun flirting with the women and talking with them. I did get an awesome 4 handed oil massage from 2 beautiful thai girls for about $15 dollar. They didn't get me off or anything but pretty much covered everywhere on my body. They made it clear that I could have paid extra for more. Found another thai massage place offering 1 hr for 100 baht, or a little over $3, quite an amazing price and the cheapest I had found so far.

While I had considered doing a muay thai kickboxing camp while in Pattaya, I decided against it the day after I arrived. My back was feeling sore and achy and I didn't feel up for it. I did however find a very nice health club called 'California Wow', a weird name, offering yoga classes about 5 times a day. This I decided to do instead and signed up for several days. The instructors were Indian and quite good, doing yoga in styles and sequences that I had never done before.

I actually had a television in my room for the first time in a while. Typically I am fine without one as it costs more and I just read or doing something else instead. It was interesting having it and flipping through the channels. One of the most interesting shows I watched was professional wrestling from Japan. Definitely a big constrast to American pro wrestling. The audience was very quiet and polite and would clap when the wrestlers pulled off a tricky move. The crowds in American pro wrestling are mostly a bunch of adolescent and young men acting crazy booing and cheering very loud. One could see older women in the front rows of the Japanese variety. It's like they were at the theater or something. One wrestler I noticed from 15-20 twenties yrs back in the WWF was Kamala, the Ugandan giant. Hard to believe he has been around that long if it is the same wrestler.

no scuba diving and back to Bangkok

2008-04-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

I had been hoping to head back to Ko Tao and take part in open water scuba diving certification at one of the many diving schools present on the island. I had found a school which offered free lodging if one signed up with them. Upon leaving Phuket on the way to Ko Tao I decided to spend the night on Ko Samui, two islands south of Ko Tao. This including taking a minivan from Phuket to the coastal town of Surat Thani, about 5 hrs, then hopping on a huge and slow moving barge carrying hundreds of people along with automobiles and several large carriage buses. The barge trip took about 2 hrs and I finally arrived in Ko Samui around 8pm. Hitched a ride in a old thai man's pickup truck to town and found myself a room for the evening.

Woke up the next morning and while I was packing up my few belongings and reaching for some cash, I discovering that my passport and money pouch were missing. I had most recently seen them the previous morning upon packing and leaving Phuket. I had gotten my passport back from my guest house where they had been holding it in collateral for the motor bike I was renting. I have absolutely no idea how it got missing in the one day. I had put the passport and cash in my belt pouch and put that into my small backpack. Then during the day I was on a mini van with only 3 others and had nobody sitting right next to me, only in front and back of me. My pack was next to me the entire time. On the barge trip my backpack was next to me the entire time and I don't remember anyone ever being up next to me. I had no visitors in my room during the night. Hence I have no idea how it either fell out of my backpack or someone was super sneaky in grabbing it out. All I can figure is perhaps the zipper on my backpack loosened and opened up somehow and the moneybelt fell out. I was quite shocked and devastated for a while as I figured my trip was over and a new passport was going to cost thousands of dollars. I am constantly vigilant and aware of my wallet, keys, and passport, continuously checking my pockets throughout the day and making sure everything is safe and secure. All I can figure is that it was a karmic thing and it was meant to happen, the killing off of negative karma from one of my past wrongdoings.

I sat for several minutes in disbelief and anger then finally got up and decided that I was going to have to visit the police and the immigration office which was nearby.

At the immigation office I spoke with a British guy who had had his passport and belongings stolen a month ago. He explained that he only had to pay about $200 British pounds or so to get a new one, so that helped put my mind at ease slightly. After speaking with immigration for a moment they told me to go to the police and file a report. This I did and also got a chance to speak with the US Embassy back in Bangkok. They told me that I would have to come back to Bangkok to file for a new passport and that it would only cost me $100, a hell of a lot cheaper than I was originally expecting. One hears that stolen passports on the black market can sell upwards of thousands of dollars. I figured there would be a substantial financial penalty for applying for a new one.

Upon leaving Ko Samui that afternoon and arriving back in Bangkok the next morning around 5am after being on the overnight bus, I was back on Khao San Rd. looking for a new guest house and being pestered by the everpresent ladyboy transvestites roaming the streets looking to make money. Several hrs later I visited the US Embassy to file for a new passport and was informed it would take 2 wks for the new one to arrive. This gave me 2 wks to kill and there was no way I was going to spend 2 wks in Bangkok in the middle of the hot season. The heat and humidity during the daytime is quite oppressive. Its tough to be outside during the daytime, particularly while enduring the 100 degree heat made worse by the emittance of all the exhaust and heat from the countless cars, motorbikes, and tuk tuks. However, as hot as it gets in Bangkok, it is still a joy to walk for hours throughout the city and check out the different neighborhoods, streets, and markets. There is so much life, energy, and culture on the streets of Bangkok.

After considering the possibilities I figured it would be best to head for one of the nearest beaches close to Bangkok. I chose to head southeast to Pattaya, about 2 hrs away, hoping it would be a bit cooler with coastal breeze coming off the ocean. I was also considering doing a 5 day thai kickboxing camp to punch and kick out my anger from losing my passport and money.

Phuket

2008-03-26T03:32:00.000-07:00

Left Krabi late Friday morning the 14th and made it to Phuket several hrs later. The minivan I was traveling in took myself and some other travelers to a travel agency on the island. The largest in Thailand and connected by a bridge, they showed us a list of guests houses and accomodations to stay, mostly on the upper end. I had been thinking of staying in one of the more well known areas of Phuket on the western side, such as Patong Beach, but the prices they offered me were a bit more than I wanted to pay. I wound up getting a room in a guest house in Phuket City, located more on the southeastern section of the island. I still wound up paying a little more than I was hoping. However gets tiring after a while searching around trying to nickle and dime to find the cheapest place. I had been fortunate in Ko Phangan paying about $6 a night for my room, especially with it right off the beach.

I wasn't sure exactly where Sky and Soozie were staying on the island upon arriving but it turned out I was actually quite close to where they were staying. They were crashing in Sky's cousin's place who was living with his Thai girlfriend/fiancee. I talked to them a bit that evening and decided to meet up with them the next morning at the yoga studio where Soozie was guest teaching. She was teaching at a very nice upscale hot yoga studio in a mall called Central Festival, about 15 minutes from where I was staying.

Met up with them Saturday morning at a Starbucks beneath the yoga studio. Soozie was teaching an 11am and 4pm class on Sat and Sun. I decided to do the late afternoon class with Sky. In between then, we went on a ride to one of the local beaches in Phuket that had been devastated by the tsunami 3 yrs ago. While there was no residual damage left from the tsunami, that I could see at least, there were signs indicating tsunami zone as well as a marker indicating how high the water had been on that fateful day. Also appeared to be some towers with sirens to warn of incoming tsunami. I believe I read about 5000 tourists died in that particular tsunami.

Class at 4pm with Soozie was awesome. She is a very talented and devoted teacher and my body definitely needed the class. While I have been making an effort to practice on my own, it has been sporadic at times and it is still much easier practicing in a class room setting with other students. It's not always easy motivating myself to practice in the small guest rooms I have been staying at, squeezing my practice into a small cramped area. My body always feels so much better after practice, particularly my lower back which I have noticed lately has been getting a bit tight and achy from long busrides in cramped seats. My mind always feels much more peaceful and calm. I miss the daily yoga classes from over a month ago while practicing at Agama yoga on Ko Phangan. When I get to India in several months I will really get a chance to immerse myself in yoga and strengthen myself

After yoga the 3 of us went to a cool thai style seafood buffet. Basically one goes to a center area where all kinds of seafood and meat are laid out uncooked. No amazing cuts of expensive fish or meat were available, but one can take as much as they want. Once you grab what you want, u take it back to your table and cook it up yourself on a burner in the middle of the table. A really interesting concept that I had not seen previously in Thailand. Also an amazing price at $3.

Had a chance to finally trade massages with Soozie as well the night before I left. We had been meaning to trade for a while since meeting each other back in Denver several yrs ago. I would see her now and again in Denver at yoga, then she would be off out of town for a while. She had moved to Hawaii with Sky in the past yr to live. We didn't have a massage table or anything to practice on but managed on some sort of air mattress. She specializes in cranialsacral style massage, first time I had received it before. We only traded for about 45 mins apiece but I could feel that she has very good hands and really knows what she is doing. Look forward to trading with her again for a longer session.

Never made it over to Patong beach on the other side of the island, the most famous beach of Phuket having all the night life. Mostly heard that the beach is a bit dirty and overrated with all the mobs of people there. Otherwise I can pretty much imagine what it is like in regards to the night life, probably quite similar to Patpong in Bangkok with all the sex clubs and prostitutes available, although with more nightclubs for dancing. Figured I wouldn't really be missing out on too much by skipping on it. If it had been a bit closer to where I was staying perhaps I would have changed my mind. I didn't feel like traveling 30 mins or so by motorbike to get half drunk and then have to make my way back.

Krabi

2008-03-26T03:05:00.000-07:00

Krabi was a cool and beautiful area I managed to stop in for about a day and a half. Was essentially on my way to Phuket to see Soozie and Sky but jumped on a bus taking me to Krabi, several hrs from Phuket. Got there around 6pm and found myself a pretty nice room. Just hung out for the evening and went riding my motorbike and walking around town. Not too much going on in the town except for the usual markets, some bars, and plenty of massage parlors. The best sights are outside of town including incredible rock climbing around the beach of Railey, as well as the touristy beach area of Ao Nang Beach. Also dozens of small, isolated islands including Ko Phi Phi, where parts of the movie 'The Beach' were filmed, and James Bonds island, where one of the James Bond movies was filmed. I rode my motor bike the next morning from the town of Krabi over to Ao Nang Beach, which took me about 30 minutes. The beaches were pretty nice, but extremely crowded compared to those on Ko Phangan. I would have liked to have gone for a swim but decided not to since I still have a bunch of small infections from mosquito bites and itching then swimming in the ocean every day. The bacteria in the water softens them up and makes it more difficult to heal.

Anyway, I decided to rent out a kayak from Ao Nang and paddle myself over to the beach of Railey to see if I could see any of the rockclimbing formations popular with climbers. While i paddled around some huge limestone formations and the scenery was incredible, I didn't see any areas teeming with rockclimbers, at least along my route over to Railey. Was still a great workout 90 minutes of kayaking by myself.

I would have liked to have paid one of the tour guides to go rock climbing, but since I was heading to Phuket the next day I didn't have any time to do so. Perhaps it is something I can do on a future trip to southern Thailand.

Visa Run and Phuket

2008-03-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Left Ko Tao on the 11th of March on an overnight visa run to the Burmese border, across from the Thai town of Ranong. While a typically high speed boat takes about 2 hrs to reach the town of ________ from Ko tao, the overnight barge was very slow and took about 5 hrs or so. There were cots and other places, mainly on the floor, to sleep on the barge. I was one of the last persons to make it too the barge as I had been getting a thai massage and almost missed the boat. Supposed to leave at 11pm, I got there about 10:50 as it was untying its ropes. Nevertheless, I was able to find a spot on the floor crammed in with everyone and their bags and attempt to sleep for a few hours. Wasn't the most comfortable but definitely alot cheaper than the other options. As the overnight boat rides are quite cheap they attract the usual crowd of backpackers and Thais looking to save money and not spend a fortune.

Upon arriving at __________, myself and others doing the visa run were escorted to a minivan for the several hr drive then to the border town. Arriving there, we were further taking to a river and had to carefully walk through several boats to get to a boat taking ourselves across the river to the Burma side. The river was extremely wide and took about 20-30 minutes on a pretty shitty motor boat to make it to the other side. Here we were able to go to the Immigration or Consulatate office to get stamped for being in Burma. Could have stayed there 2 wks which would have been an interesting experience as the Burmese town, I'm not sure of the name, had a different kind of vibe to itself. Lots of peddlers there trying to sell super cheap Burmese whiskey, pills, opium, and all other kinds of assorted stuff. After making this run across the border we were taking back across the river back to Thailand and to the Immigration office to get renewed Thai Visas. I was able to get 60 more days good till mid Mid.

While most of the other travelers I was with were intending to head back to Ko Tao and Ko Phangan, I myself had other plans and intended to head down to see friends Soozie and Sky in Phuket. After getting our visas stamped I had the driver of our minivan take me to the bus station where I was going to grab another bus to head down south on my way to Phuket. Right as I was arriving at the bus station there was a bus just getting ready to pull out and go to Krabi, an area of Thailand renowned for its limestone cliffs, amazing scenery, rock climbing, and also not too far from Phuket. I decided to hop on this bus and was immediately back on the road again heading south to Krabi. This trip took about 6 more hrs for me before I arrived in Krabi. In essence, I had been either on a boat or bus for about 17 hrs straight since leaving Ko Tao the night before. Was great to be able to get off the seats and stretch out a bit. Found a taxi and was able which took me to a decent guest house for the night.

Back to Ko Tao

2008-03-13T04:09:00.000-07:00

Victoria and I left Ko Tao mid afternoon on Monday to make our way back to Ko Phangan. Tuesday we went and checked out a different yoga studio on the island called Pyramid yoga. High up on a hill with a nice walk through the woods to get to, I had heard that the yoga studio was in the shape of a pyramid and quite interesting looking. However, they must have several studios on their property as the studio we had class in was not quite the shape of a pyramid. It was still a very nice studio and it was amusing listening to a bunch of rustling in the roof, constructed of leaves and other natural components from the environment. A moment later a medium sized rat came bursting through onto one of the beams up high, making its way across the room and disappearing back into the roof. Also sitting up high in the beams were a couple of large sized geckos relaxing and perhaps waiting for a meal to come their way.

On Wed, after having packed up my two bags, I was on the road again and back up to Ko Tao. I really enjoyed my time there, and wanted to experience the island a little more and perhaps do the scuba certification. My first day there I returned to Shark Bay to snorkle but didn't have any luck in seeing a black tipped shark. The next day, Thursday, Victoria rejoined me on the island. I was unable to talk her into doing the scuba certification with me, but we still had a great time together for the next 4-5 days. I decided to postpone doing my own scuba cert. as I preferred to spend my time with her while holding off on the cert. The next day we went snorkling on Shark bay together. The coral reefs weren't as stunning on the bay as I had seen in other locations, but it was nice being in a new spot and antipicating what may come up next. We had swam out a distance when Victoria decided she wanted to head back to the beach. I swam out a little further then decided to make my own way back to the beach. Upon arriving back I found Victoria in a shocked state as she had the luck to have one of the black tipped reef sharks swim by her on her swim back. Still a bit shaken and trembling, she commented how it happened so quick as the shark cruised right by her, paying no attention to her whatsever.

While I went back to Shark Bay several times in the next times to press my luck in seeing a shark, I had no such luck as the weather was on and off rainy and windy during the next several days. The visibility was terrible and only in certain spots could one see much of anything. One other beach we visited that was quite nice was Tanote Beach on the eastern coast of the island. While not possessing a huge beach, the snorkeling was supposed to be great with more chances of seeing non-dangerous sharks. However, like Shark Bay, the visibility was not very great due to the weather of the past few days. I would love to go back to the beach on a day of clear visibility as areas of visilibility I did observe were quite nice.

Our last day together was on Monday as Victoria was leaving that afternoon. Waking up that morning I spotted one of the large thai centipedes crawling along the baseboards of the room. About 3 or 4 inches long with sizable legs, they are supposed to pack a nasty bite and be a bit venomous. Thanks goodness it hadn't made its way onto the bed. I snapped a few pics of it and swept it out the door and off the porch, safe distance from the door. We were praying for good weather and lots of sun as the previous days weather had been so erratic. We were blessed with a beautiful day and headed back to our favorite beach, Shark Bay. It appeared as nearly everyone else on the island had the same idea from having been couped up from the foul beach weather in recent days. We arrived at the beach around 10 am and it was still relatively free from people. However, by noon prime beach space became scarce due to the influx of beach goers. I felt like I was on the French Riviera or Miami Beach observing on the beautiful European women sunbathing and swimming topless. I felt very lucky myself to be sitting alongside Victoria, very beautiful herself but a bit modest to be walking around and swimming topless.

Later in the day I had to drive Victoria to the pier to drop her off on her way back to Ko Phangan. She only had about 3 days left in her trip before she had to head back to Munich. I felt very blessed to have met her and have been able to spend about 3 wks with her. I will always remember the times I had with her on Ko Tao and Ko Phangan. She totally made my stay more memorable and worthwhile and I was quite sad to be seeing her leave. We will keep in touch through email and perhaps I will get a chance in the future to visit her in Munich if I get a chance to make it too Germany.

Ko Tao

2008-03-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

On Sunday March 2, Victoria and I boarded a boat north to check out the small island of Ko Tao, world renowned for its coral reefs and scuba diving. After having been on Ko Phangan for the most part of two months, I was itching to get moving and visit some new places. Victoria had recently arrived 2 wks ago for yoga at Agama but had Sunday and Monday off from class and wanted to explore with me. We got ourselves a ticket for that morning and arrived on Ko Tao around 10 am, after a boat ride of a little more than 1 hr. Upon arriving at the main dock of the island and working ourselves through the usual melange of in your face and annoying taxi drivers and other associated solicitors, we made ourselves to a little restaurant to get something to eat and rent a motorbike. After inquiring with several scuba outlets about good coral reef and snorkeling spots on the island, they recommended heading to the southern portion of the island to several of the main bays, Chalok Baan Kao Bay and Thiang Og Bay, also referred to as Shark Bay.

Arriving at the beach, we walked around a bit, talking with some of the scuba diving schools and found ourselves a nice place to stay for the night. After settling in to our accomodation, we went out to the beach and had ourselves a nice swim and returned back to land where an awesome thai cuisine and seafood barbeque was starting up. We feasted for a bit and chatted with some others enjoying the BBQ. We decided not to drink too much that evening as we wanted to get up at a quality time the next morning and do some kayaking.

After breakfast the next morning we acquired ourselves a kayak and took off into the ocean on the way to Shark Bay. Within 10 minutes of paddling we managed to capsized the kayak and my snorkel set sank, along with Victoría's sunglasses. I was pretty annoyed as I had spent good money on the set and was planning on using them for a bit more. It was impossible to find the items as it had rained a bit lately and the water visibility was not great, in about 6 ft high water. Making it over to Shark bay around a bit of a peninsula called Ar Mae Rock took about 30 minutes. Shark Bay was beautiful and is known for having black tipped reef sharks swimming along the coasts not too far from the shore. There is also a chance for a rare sighting of sea turtles. As I didn't have my snorkel set I was unable to swim around snorkeling and observe the beautiful marine life under the surface of the ocean. However, shark bay made for good swimming and laying in the tropical sunshine. Having the kayak for about 4 hrs, eventually we had to make our ways back to the pier to catch our boat back to Ko Phangan in the mid afternoon. A very beautiful island with definitely a different feel and scene than Ko Phangan. Not as much of party or yoga scene like Ko Phangan, but essentially all about scuba diving, with dozens of companies promoting different levels of certification. The most basic certification offered is the 4 day Open Water Scuba Certification, going for about 9000 baht, or $300 US dollars. In addition, many of the schools throw in free basic lodging if you sign on with them. After graduating and receiving the certification, one is certified for life and can scuba anywhere in the world. The prices are then quite reasonable on Ko Tao for additional dives, with dives at the various sites around the island and region generally starting around $20-25 per 45 min-1 hr dive. After one completes the Open Water Scuba Certification they are also eligible to go on for more advanced scuba programs, including deeper sea diving, adventure diving, rescue diving, etc on way up to becoming scuba master and scuba instructor.

Soozie and Sky

2008-03-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

Feb 29 2008

Was able to see some friends from Denver on the island of Ko Phangan. Soozie and Sky had been staying in Phuket for 2 months staying at Sky's cousins place. Initially I had met Soozie several yrs ago after I had attended one of her yoga classes at corepoweryoga. Later on I was at Dana's bday party at Opal restaurant in Denver and bumped into her there and introduced myself. She is also a massage therapist, however we have not been able to find a time to trade with each other. In addition to living in Denver part of the yr, Soozie and Sky also live on the island of Hawaii. I attended one of Soozie's yoga classes last Dec several wks before I was to leave to Thailand and discovered that she and Sky were going to be in Thailand the same time I was.

We finally we able to meet up Friday night as they made their way over to Ko Phangan for the Halfmoon party in the jungle. Was great to be able to hang out with them and see some familiar faces from back home. The Halfmoon party was very cool. We arrived around midnight or so as crowds were starting to pile in. We stuck around for several hrs before deciding to head out, right around the time the party was pulling into full gear. The moon parties here really don't start peaking till around 2 or 3 in the morning. Anyway, several hrs were enough for me and I didn't really need to be partying on night long till dawn. I just winding sleeping too late the next day and wasting half the day.

Planning on making my way over to Phuket within the wk to see them. Soozie is teaching yoga classes at a studio in Phuket so looking forward to attending one of her classes. Probably won't stick around for too long as I have to do a visa run and then start heading on up to Chiang Mai to take some more thai massage classes from local teachers and masters. I had been planning to attend a very cool sounding thai masage workshop entitled 'Thai Massage meets Osteopathy'. However I recently received news that the workshop is waitlisted and I am number 12 on the list. I had no idea that the workshops fill up so quick. A bit disappointing but I will undoubably find other valuable classes and workshops to attend.

neighbor, cats, spider

2008-03-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

Have another interesting neighbor next to me at Jinda Bay on Ko Phangan. She is a lovely Korean girl, I don't remember her name, who is visiting the island and heading back to Korea within the week to resume her studies in Economics. Only 23 yrs old, she is here by herself and has already traveled to around 30 countries in her short time. She has already been to India 3 times, twice by herself, as well as many of the middle eastern countries. I was able to persuade her to check out the yoga center and take in some classes. The 2nd day she was here she decided to walk to the yoga center and back in the morning, a 3 or 4 mile walk each way. Then in the afternoon I noticed her walking back a second time to make it to class at 4pm. I picked her up on my motorbike and gave her a lift, saving her legs a full 2nd trip.

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Was spending the night at Victoria's place the other night when we were awakened by some incredibly noisy cats nearby going at it with each other. At first we weren't sure if it was some human babies crying or if it was actually cats getting ready to fight with we each other. The sounds of the cats didn't sound distinctly feline at the beginning but almost more like babies. However, after a while it became obvious that it was cats making the noise. It was the most bizarre sounding cats that I had ever heard in my life. At one point it was going on for about 10 minutes or so and we could here some of the neighbors yelling to shut them up but it didn't faze them. It was quite amusing at first listening to the cats but after a while it became apparent it wasn't going to stop. I had to go outside and and throw something in the cats vicinity over a fence to get the things to shut up and run off.

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One night after the incident with the cats I got a call from Victoria immediately after she had arrived back at her bungalow. She was totally freaked out as there was a huge spider on the mosquito netting surrounding her bed. Typically she is quite ok with insects and spiders as they are all over the place and a part of everyday life. They are in one's bathrooms and on walls everywhere. She requested that I come over to her place at once and get rid of the thing. I was more than happy to oblige and interested to get a look at the thing. Upon arriving at her place and finding her keeping a safe distance away on her porch, I walked into her place and found the huge specimen calmly sitting on her net. I decided to get some toilet paper to pick the spider up and take it outdoors. My first several attempts to snare the spider were unsuccessful as I was a bit reluctant to put all effort into grabbing it due to its size. However, there was no way I was going to let the thing get away. Just as it was getting close to escaping and making its way around the corner of the netting to the wall. I was able to pick it up successfully in the tissue. I took it outside to a light to get a better look at it. I'm not sure exactly what kind of spider it was but i'm sure it could definitely do some damage biting somone. In examining the tissue after letting the spider go, I could see some moist spots permeating the paper. I would imagine it was venom from its fangs as it was probably trying to bite me when I was picking it up and squeezing it tightly in the paper.

Hike to high point on island - Khao Ra

2008-02-26T03:21:00.000-08:00

Today - Feb 26 - finally accomplished a goal I had been wanting to complete since I arrived on the island, that is hiking to the high point on the island, called Khao Ra. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get around to doing the hike, although i have been busy with yoga, swimming and snorkeling, touring the rest of the island, and doing all others kinds of stuff. Been a while since I had done a long and rather challenging hike, probably since doing the hike to Bottle Beach about a month and half ago. Today's was much more difficult as I was hiking uphill to reach the summit of Khao Ra - 627 meters above sea level. The weather was beautiful starting off and throughout the hike, with lots of sunshine and plenty of time in the trees to keep cool. The weather for the past several days on the island had been lots of rain during the days and nights - not the most favorable weather to be hiking in. The trail was quite slippery in spots from the previous days precipitation, and would have been that much more if it had been pouring during the hike. Wasn't too much of a factor hiking to the summit, but descending I had to be extra careful with my footing to avoid slipping and falling on my ass, which happened a couple of times.

I was able to summit the peak in about 2 hrs, the standard time suggested for the hike too take. The trail was fairly well marked with plastic water bottles, although at the beginning I wound up off trail for a bit until I bumped back into the trail walking through the woods. Wasn't able to see any wildlife save a few lizards along the way. I would imagine most wildlife and reptiles are scared off by hikers and the noise and vibrations they create moving along. I only saw 2 hikers along the way up. I had the summit all to myself when I reached it and was able to get some nice pics of the island from the top with the ocean in the distance. There were alot of misty clouds moving in veru quickly and this had the effect of obscuring much of the vista available at the top. Took me much quicker to get back down the mtn and back to my motorbike, only 1 hr. I didn't have any problems losing the trail on the way back and seemingly had the mtn to myself as I didn't bump into anyone on the descend.

I may have one more hike ahead of me on the east side of the island which I am considering in the next few days. Otherwise my next hikes to come will most likely occur in the northern Thailand and Golden Triangle Area and promise to be quite epic. Northern Thailand is very mountainous and forms the very early foothills of the Himalayas several countries off. In speaking with others who have been in northern Thailand and the Chiang Mai area there are numerous tours, treks, and hikes available in the region. Some can last for upwards of several wks and can include hiking deep into the forest, possibly riding on elephants if I choose, an experience promising to be exciting. Still a faint chance I may take a train down to Malaysia and do some trekking in the jungle down there, the next country south of Thailand. Would be amazing but doesn't fit into my budget and schedule very well at the moment.

Full Moon Party

2008-02-25T04:51:00.000-08:00

The full moon party was supposed to have occurred on Friday Jan 22 as was listed on the internet as well as being common word of mouth. The actual lunar full moon was the previous evening, however as it was the Buddha's bday or a Buddhist holiday, depending upon who one listens to, the party was postponed till the following night on Friday. It was then postponed again from Friday evening to Sunday evening for reasons nobody is quite sure about. Possible reasons I have heard include an election on Friday to their having been a recent death in the royal family. At any rate, it was figured that it would still be quite crowded and partylike in Haad Rin, the site of the full moon party, as everybody had been coming into town with the expectations of the party being Friday evening.
Myself and 7 others from yoga class decided to take the journey across the island to Haad Rin to check out the scene. Included in our group was a fun loving and free-spirited black Canadien woman named Beth, short for Bethleham, now living in Australia and finishing up her law degree. She was much fun watching skip down the street as well as sing random songs from all genres of music. She is defintely one of the most unique persons I have met so far. Too bad she only sticking around for 4 days as she was visiting a friend at Agama Yoga and just passing through, kind of like a wind blowing through town. Another girl, Victoria, a beautiful blond from Munich, Germany who recently arrived and is attending yoga class as well. Traveling by herself, she is only 23 yrs old and has already spent extended time traveling through South America, Europe, New Zealand, and Fuji, in addition to being here in Thailand. I have definitely enjoyed getting to know her. The youngest one of our group was Sheila, 20 yrs old and one of the few Americans I have met abroad so far. She is definitely a very mature spirit as she has been traveling by herself for several months now, earlier being in China for several months. Here she is studying yoga while her husband is stationed in Iraq with the army.

The Haad Rin scene was quite crowded although limited partying was happening during the evening. Typically on the beach at Haad Rin, especially during full moon time, their is one party and music set after another on the beach blasting music with everyone dancing and reveling. However on this evening there was no music playing on the beach, nor very little playing in many of the bars and clubs. Apparently some edict had been issued by the government subduing the partying for the evening, in light of whatever issues were postponing the full moon party till Sunday night. Our group still did manage to hit up several establishments and enjoy some of the delicious mushroom shakes common to the town.

King Cobra outside Cosmic EnergyMassage

2008-02-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

I stopped in the other day to the massage business I had been learning thai massage at, Cosmic Energy Massage, to practice and was greeted by the owner, Mr. Roeng, with a big smile. He excitably spoke in his broken English of a king cobra in the back. I wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about but I found out soon enough as he lead me out back behind the business. Lying on the ground next to the porch was a large dead king cobra. Apparently that morning he had heard his dogs barking in the back and he went to check it out and saw the beautiful specimen coiled and hooded up, defending itself from the dogs. His dogs didn't know any better as it was probably the first time that they had encountered a cobra snake. According to Mr. Roeng several times the dogs came too close to the snake and the cobra bit them. However it must have been a dry bite as the dogs survived and showed no sickness. In addition, the cobra must have been there since the previous evening as he had heard his dogs barking in the back the night before but was unable to view the snake. May have been disastrous for someone to have walked through that area in the darkness and to be struck on the leg by the cobra. Usually however cobras and most snakes head for cover as they feel the vibration of upcoming footsteps. Also quite amazing that the snake was in the around that it was, so close to the human population and the beach. From what I have been told king cobras are typically to be found in more remote locations away from civilization and the danger it poses for them. Higher up in the mountains and deeper in the jungle are most ideal for them. There there is more food for them to seek out, typically in the form of other snakes from what I have heard. King cobras are one of the few snakes which will eat other snakes.

The snake was a beautiful specimen,around 10 ft long or so, although not in the condition I was seeing it. Mr. Roeng had killed it and it had been decapitated, with its head buried so that no possible accidental post death bites may occur. It is possible there could be a spasm or something along those lines even in its death and it could bite and poison someone. Being that his family, wife and daughters, are often at the business along with much other human traffic, no need for such an accidental biting to occur. In additon to the head being chopped off and buried, the snakes abdomen had been cut open and one of its organs taken out, I believe its gall bladder although i'm not for certain. This organ was placed in some thai whiskey as a special concoction intended to bestoy strength on those taking a shot. Apparently according to either chinese medicine or thai folk medicine, the cobra possesses much strength which can be passed along to anyone portaking in certain of its parts. The gall bladder is one such of this parts which is said to make one strong. After viewing the snake and getting some good photos, I was offered a shot of the whiskey with the gall bladder marinating inside. There was no way I was going to decline such a noble offer, so I happily chugged a shot down. While I got a decent buzz from the whiskey, I can't say that I acquired any additional strength or powers from the gall bladder having been in the whiskey. One probably needs to take continual drinks of the potion over the course of several days for that kind of result to materialize.

2 days later I went back to Cosmic Energy and Mr. Roeng asked where I had been as I had missed out on the feasting of the cobra the day before. He and several other thai massage therapists and friends at his business had eaten the cobra, probably in a barbeque. The eating of the king cobra is also supposed to bestow strength on those eating it. I was very disappointed that I had missed out on such a feast. The eating of the snake also apparently raises your body temperature much as he commented on one of the guys eating it who had taken a shower to cool down. Seconds later he was sweating again, apparently effects derived from the cobra. Mr. Roeng also swore that the snake had made him stronger, both in his muscles as well as sexually. He pointed to his groin with a big smile on his face stating essentially that he was stronger and more virile. I asked his wife who was sitting several feet away if this was true and she laughed and said she didn't notice anything different about him.

It's unlikely that I will have the benefit of seeing another king cobra while on the island of Ko Phangan. However, from what I heard regarding the markets of Chiang Mai and Laos, markets there quite regularly serve up cobra meat and other kinds of Asian delicacies. I was talking with several lovely Australian girls in their early twenties who had spent time up in Chiang Mai and Laos. The one girl, Kaz, said she had drank a concoction containing tiger penis, another bestoyer of strength according to Chinese Medicine.

Snorkeling on Ko Mah

2008-02-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

One of my best snorkeling experiences so far has been on the tiny little island of Ko Mah, right off the northwest coast of KoPhangan. It is easily accessible by walking on a sandbar from the mainland. While the snorkeling outside the resort I have been staying at is very cool with beautiful coral reef formations, there is not many fish to be seen. This is the result of large fishing boats cruising up and down the coastline with huge nets pretty much scooping up everything in its reach. Not many fish and other marine life survive. I did see 2 octupuses on separate occasions scurrying along the sea floor, along with a sea snake or eel backing down into a hole in the sea floor. Otherwise u are left with the coral to admire and lots of single fish and few schools of fish to observe.

Ko Mah on the other hang is another story. The location is typically loaded with fish and one can see legions of fish in the 1000's and 10,000's and up completely enveloping you. All kinds of fish with different exotic and fluorescent colors and shapes. One school of fish I observed was made up of tens of thousands of black and white zebra striped fish cruising their way around, completely obscuring anything else that may have been in the area. At times it is like being in a virtual video game with all the vivid fluorescent colors and visuals omnipresent. A complete different world than anything I had ever seen before.

As the coral reefs are instantly right off the island of Ko Mah, surrounding it and extending back to the mainland, one doesn't have to swim far at all to reach the reefs. Often on other nearby beaches you have to swim several hundred ft into the ocean before you reach the coral reefs. Apparently large fishing boats have to keep a certain distance between themselves and main land. Or at least this is done as the waters are so shallow that they need to be out a distance to be at a safe enough depth. The condition of the coral reefs and all the fish present at Ko Mah being so close to coastline prevents over fishing and allows huge numbers of fish to thrive at the location, making for incredible snorkeling.

On the main problems with the Ko Mah and it's incredible snorkeling and presence of fish is that many other snorkelers and swimmers are present, making it a necessary for one to be mindful to not bump and swim into other swimmers.

Another Crazy Neighbor

2008-02-13T04:45:00.000-08:00

Another interesting and different person moved in beside my unit in the past wk. She is a Belgian women now living in New York City who goes by the name of Boogie. In what appears to be her mid-thirties, Boogie sports dreadlocks and is a practicing witch. As I was talking with her on of the first evenings she moved in, she told me more about her passion of being a witch and some of the practices she gets involved with. I don't really remember precisely what she explained in regards to her witchcraft practice, although she said she is not into black or satanic witchcraft.
Later on in the evening as I was practicing some yoga in my room I could hear her, 2 rooms over, doing some witchcraft in the form of chanting and what sounded like pounding on drums or something. It was all fairly entertaining and made me feel more alive and appreciative for my time and experiences here in Thailand.

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Met my first African American here on the island of Ko Phangan several days ago. It is uncommon enough to meet many Americans, let alone a black one from the states. I was hanging out outside of the 7-11 talking with a friend from yoga school when I heard a bunch of commotion coming from a large black dude about 10 ft away. He was ranting something about water to the clerks in the 7-11 and tossing water all over the place from a collapsable type jug. He seemed a bit out of control and I was just hoping the situation wasn't going to escalate into anything violent. The Thais are very laidback and non-confrontation, but if you cross them I have heard they can get quite vindictive and violent. Apparently the country has one of the higher murder rates by gun in the world.
I just stood back and observed and thought he potentially sounded American byhis accent. As I was heading over to my motorbike he turned out to be heading in the same direction and his bike was parked next to mine. I asked him what was going on and he said something about them giving one price for some fountain water, and then upcharging significantly when he was leaving. Didn't seem like that big of a deal, but miscommunication occurs often with the language differences. I asked him where he was from and he said New York City. That would definetely explain the attitude he possessed, as attitudes in NYC are much more in your face than here in Thailand, where much significance is placed on keeping your cool and saving face. I told him I was from Philadelphia and we talked a bit. He was with a beautiful woman from Taiwan. Didn't get a chance to find out what he was doing here or for how long.

Hike to Haad Khontee from Haad Rin

2008-02-07T23:02:00.000-08:00

Did a relatively short yet tricky hike on Sun Feb 3 from Haad Rin, the sunrise side of the town where the full moon party occurs, up the coast to the next beach, named Haad Khontee. In looking at the map of the island there was indicated a trail leading from Haad Rin over to Haad Khontee. I had a hell of a time attempting to locate where the trail begins as the map doesn't go into exquisite detail listing and noting all relevant landmarks. After searching in the area I assumed the trail would begin, I was luckless in finding a definitive trailhead. I decided to try my luck in following a path leading up to and beyond some bars and bungalows along the coastline. The path ran out and I decided to just hike and climb along the huge rocks and boulders along the coastline, many very steep in themselves. This was much fun at the beginning as I had lots of energy and the scenery along the coastline was quite beautiful with the ocean crashing into the rocks below. However, I didn't make the hike as easy as possible for myself as I was wearing flip flops and hadn't brought any food along with me. I have gotten used to wearing flipflops as I have worn them everywhere I have been in the last month and a half, including on some short hikes in the woods to various waterfalls and landmarks. I also assumed their would be somewhere to grab a bite to eat upon making it to my destination. The hike appeared to be very short as one can see a section of the beach of Haad Khontee shortly up the coast and around a bend from Haad Rin. It took me about an hour and a half to to get very close to the beach I was aspiring to reach. Haad Khontee is a very small beach with only one resort present on it. From a near distance away I got a good glimpse of the beach and didn't notice a single person lounging or hanging out on it. The actual beach itself didn't appear to be too pristine or luxurious as lots of debris and fragments of nature looked to be washed ashore. I decided not to travel the last portion to arrive at the beach.

It was getting later in the afternoon and I didn't want to risk traveling back in the dusk and soon to be approaching nightfall. It wasn't a large hike by any means but a bit tricky navigating myself through the boulders and steep slabs of rocks. There were also areas where I had to work my way through thickets of foliage, including some areas with some nasty prickers. Several times while working my way through thickets of bush I managed to acquire numerous less than friendly ants all over my legs. I would frantically work to slap them off myself as I felt them treating me like dinner. After I had hoped and assumed that I had them all off of me I would feel a nasty bite high up in my shorts and work maniacally to smash it. Finally, dead tired, sore, and thirsty, I made it back to where I started. After getting myself something to drink I made a quick trip to the ocean to cool down and clean myself off of all the caked on dirt and grime plastered on myself. The ocean felt wonderful and the surf was much different from on the other side of the island. Lots more waves although not ones large enough to surf on. Upon getting out I noticed lots of scatches and small cuts on my body acquired from navigating through the boulders and folliage.

After cleaning myself up in the ocean resting a bit on a lounge chair, I decided to wander back up to the streets to get myself some food. One of the first places I bumped in was the Cobra Bar, a lovely establishment showcasing nightly snake and scorpion shows, with their cobras as the main event. I was checking out a large poster in the front with pictures of the cobras and of thai women with scorpions crawling all over their bodies when a beautiful thai girl came out with a large python wrapped around her shoulders. We started talking a bit and she noticed all the scratches and nicks all over my body from the earlier hike. She told me to come inside and stay put as she was going to grab some first aid supplies. Minutes later she reappeared with a first aid kit including hydrogen peroxide and other ointments to put on my cuts. She took care of my wounds and I found her name was Ooy. She was down from Bangkok for a short time to help out with the business. I bought her a water and we talked for a while and I showed her all the pics on my camera and I learned more about the business of operating a Cobra bar. While they had some cobras on the premises locked up in some crates, they didn't possess a king cobra as they were apparently quite expensive to acquire. I jokingly offered to go up into the hills to find them one if they would pay me well. After hanging for a while I got Ooy's phone number and promised to come back later in the week to hang out with her and watch one of the shows.

Bad Drivers on Ko Phangan

2008-02-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

Lots of horrible drivers here on the island driving their motorbikes around. Seems like everyday I meet or run across another person who is bandaged up or has some nasty wounds from crashing their bikes. I used to think that it was primarly a women thing being bad drivers but increasingly more and more I am coming across guys with bandages and cuts. My first week staying at Jinda Bay Resort on the island I met a French girl who had flipped her motorbike over while driving up a steep hill heading toward Haad Rin on the eastern side of the island. She wound up with a heavily bandaged and stitched up foot and ankle. Another day when I was pulling out onto a road I looked to my left up a small hill and noticed a girl pull out from the other side of the road and fly across the road straight into an enbankment. Fortunately she didn't appear to be injured and got right up. Another girl in my yoga class came into class the other day wearing a cast on her left arm, apparently broken from wrecking her bike. In addition, my friend Samantha from yoga class has crashed her bikes twice and has the scratches, scabs and scars to prove so.

While definitely lesser in number than the women, I have encountered guys here and there who have driven their bikes into the ground. Several days ago I met a man sitting next to me at the computer room from the US with a heavily bandaged up wrist and hand from sliding his bike into the road. He said he tore a nice sized chunk of skin off of his hand. Must have hurt like a bitch I would imagine. I have had a couple of close calls myself , mostly on heavily rutted up dirt roads off the beaten track. Fortunately I have been quite lucky and have good enough strength and balance to control the machine. Most people I would imagine are wrecking their bikes at curves and bends on the main roads when they should be slowing down. This seems to be the main area to show caution when driving on the roads here. At most of the curves there is often alot of gravel and small pebbles that can have a ball bearing type effect if you are going too fast. Easy to lose control on this gravel and go sliding into the street, ripping and scraping up chunks of flesh from all areas off the body. It seems to be pretty common sense to slow down alot when approaching these curve and bends in the road. On the straight aways it is fun to gun the bikes and get them going pretty fast. The speedometers are in kilometers per hour, not miles per hour as in the U.S., and I have gotten mine up to around 80 kph. in certain straight aways.

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Picked up a Thai hitchhiker this past Sunday heading on down to the town of Thongsala. Not too often u see a Thai out hitchhiking for a ride. He was an older man and I figured I would help him out an give him a ride on the way I was heading. I felt a little apprehensive along the way cause u never know if someone has ulterior motives or is trying to be sneaky. I was wearing my backpack and hoping he wasn't trying to stealthily sneak his hands into it and grab stuff. I know it's paranoid thinking but one has to be aware of these kind of possibilities. I haven't been robbed of anything yet nor have I lost anything valuable thus far. All it takes is a momentary lapse in awareness and shit can happen. It was also kind of weird how the gentlemen kept trying to speak Thai to me along the ride. I know some Thai language - just some basic words and phrases - but he was speaking sentences to me as if I possessed some level of fluency in the language. I suppose he was just trying to convey where abouts he wanted to be dropped off at. Eventually I reached his destination and dropped him off. He was quite grateful and smiled appreciately and grandly as the Thai people do so well.

Observations on Ko Phangan

2008-02-01T23:13:00.001-08:00

Was riding my motorbike on the mountainous east side of the island on the main dirt road when I decided to check out a dirt road heading off to the side into the jungle. I wasn't sure what to expect but figured it would be interesting side adventure. After driving about 5 minutes up and down a very rutted out dirt road I made it to a cleared out area with about 5 shanty like dwellings and several thai men sitting on the porch toward the center. As I neared the men on the porch one of the thai men punched his fist and pointed in the direction of another thai man walking down another dirt path holding a basket. I wasn't sure if the guy was angry that I had entered his little village area or if he wanted to direct my attention to the guy walking down the path. Something about the tone of him hitting his fist didn't exactly strike me in a very friendly manner, although I could have been misconstruing his intentions. However, as the guy carrying the basket neared me I noticed that out of the basket flowed a large reptilian type tail, either of a lizard or snake. A second later I saw that inside the basket was a large dead monitor lizard with its guts handing out of its torso. It was a pretty impressive site and the first time I had really seen a large monitor lizard on the island as of that point. The man took the basket over to an area to do whatever to the lizard. I would imagine that it was that evenings meal. Would have been interesting to stick around a have a bite of the lizard. I'm sure it would have been quite tasty but I will have to postpone that kind of delicacy till later. However, I didn't like the vibe of the first guy who had punched his fist and felt it was best to take off out of the small village.

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Have had many interesting neighbors thus far in my stay at Jinda Bay Resort. So far I have stayed in the same room for about a month and am itching to get moving along. I have a pretty good deal on the rm at about $6 a night - 180 baht - and it's nice staying put for a bit and not having to worry about packing everything up and moving around, not that I really carry too many belongings in the first place. Also unlikely to find much cheaper than 180 baht a day. One of the first neighbors I had was a guy named Field, a guy from Canada who had created the name for himself. We were neighbors for about a wk till it was his time to move along. He said he was taking off to Bali for about a month to meet up with a friend. In the next several wks I had some neighbors from South Africa. Talked to them briefly but didn't really get a chance to find out much about them.

One of the more interesting characters that moved in during the course of my stay was one of the yogis from Agama Yoga. He called himself Mop-Mop and was staying with his girlfriend, Muff-Muff, also practicing yoga at Agama Yoga. They were never in any of my classes as I was in the first month and they were in their third month. Classes at Agama Yoga start at month one and work all the way up to month twenty and higher as one graduates each progressive month and completes each set of higher spiritual and yogic teachings. Students in their respective months have their classes separately, although I'm not sure exactly how it works as one works their way up the ladder of months. Not too surprising both Mop Mop and Muff Muff were from San Francisco in the states, some of the few students I had met at Agama from the U.S. Mop Mop was a pretty interesting guy but moving out with his girlfriend the following day to rent out a house near the yoga center. He mentioned he had attended the University of Pennsylvania several years ago in Philadelphia.

After Mop Mop and Muff Muff moved out the next day 2 beautiful British girls moved in for a day. I met them the following evening after I had been hanging out with friends from class. They were both 18 yrs old and traveling through SE Asia and India for 5-6 months together. I had a chance to hang out with them for about an hour or so talking and getting to know them. Unfortunately they were taking off the next day to somewhere else on the island. I found it really impressive that such young ladies were traveling together for so long. They mentioned how during there time in Bangkok they visited one of the ping pong shows in Patpong. Funny listening to their story of being at the show and observing a Thai woman, sitting near the stage of the performing women, nonchanlanly eating a plate of noodles during the performance. For most people watching the raunchy performances doesn't exactly inspire hunger for food.

Had a couple of other Americans move in for several days in the past wk. They mentioned how they had been teaching English in China for about a yr and were taking a vacation to Thailand for several wks before heading back to China. I believe they mentioned they were from the New England states. Didn't see them around too much and didn't learn too much about them.

Sunday Jan 20 2008

2008-01-24T00:26:00.000-08:00

Finally had a full day off from yoga class so I decided to explore the island some more and check out some beaches on the far side of the island I hadn't been too.

The previous night I had been at the Black Moon party, referred to as Black Moon Culture on flyers and advertisements, and didn't get home till 5am. Had a good time at the party with some friends from yoga class. It was held on a beach on the southern side of the island, near Haad Rin which hosts the monthly Full Moon Party. Danced some and drank some beer but otherwise didn't have too wild a time. Had been hoping to have a happy shake as they are referred to on the island. They contain some kind of mushrooms i'm not too familiar with but was told make you feel good in natural drugfree way. Unfortunately they weren't available at the party site so settled for a few beers. Mostly the beach was filled with a bunch of Europeans and other numerous Thais attempting to sell ectasy, acid, and other dangerous drugs. Lots of techno, trance, jungle, and other varieties of rave style music conducive to such a party. Many people getting their bodies painted up with designs glowing in the purple lights. Others out on the beach playing with fire and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Was a good time but nothing amazingly incredible that I need to go back again. Also seemed like too many guys and not enough girls. I guess it didn't really matter though since I was there with some nice looking chicks from class.

Sunday morning got up a bit later than I hoped from having been up so late and jumped on my bike to get out in the sun and explore the island. My first stop was beach of Thong Nai Pan in northeastern Ko Phangan. A beautiful and isolated beach that took me about an hr getting to driving on beat up and rutted mostly dirt roads through the mountains. Alot of dust driving on these roads from pickup trucks and other large construction trucks kicking it into the air. Lots of construction and development going on in areas throughout the island with this side no exception.

After Thong Nai Pan Yai I headed south back where I came from and turned down another road leading east to a series of waterfalls and carvings on rock from past Thai Kings. I didn't visit them all but was able to see one of the rocks where King Rama V carved into. This carving was located at the Thongnang Monastery. This I checked out and was shown around by one of the monks living on the grounds. I only saw 2 monks present, one older in his 50's and another in his early teens. Perhaps there were others off in a separate area of the Monastery but I didn't see any others. They tried to interest me in coming back and spending a few nights meditating at there facility. I was shown a small primitive looking shack in which I would spend the night. Nothing but a small, cramped up space with concrete floor and no door, perfect for insects and spiders to crawl up with me. Certainly not be a cozy situation but would definitely make my trip to the island more memorable. When my time at Agama Yoga is up after the 30 days I am considering heading back and giving it a shot for a night or two.

After visiting the Thongnang Monastery I kept heading east to check another one remote beach highly recommended by the authors of Lonely Planet travel guide. The roads were very tricky but I was able to make it too my destination soon enough. Arrived at the small and neighboring beaches of Haad Sadet and Haad Thong Reng, very isolated by themselves on the east side of the island. I would image most people arrive at these beaches via boat as the roads were very primitive and would be very tough carrying luggage and other gear on a motor bike. Much different than the west side of the island, the ocean gets deeper much quicker and had more waves than the calm and relatively placid ocean on the other side of the ocean. Beautiful beaches with bungalows and cottages high up into the cliffs on the side. I didn't have much time to hang out or jump in the ocean for a swim as it was getting late in the afternoon and about time to get back on the roads before it got dark out. Along with Bottle Beach, I would consider these two beaches the most secluded and peaceful I had visited so far. There are several more isolated beachs areas south of these two on the way to the southeast corner of the island that I hope to explore later on. The southeast corner of the island is referred to as Haad Rin. It is the party capital of the island where the monthly full moon party occurs

Thai Massage classes at Cosmic Energy Massage

2008-01-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

I have added to my already busy schedule while in Ko Phangan and started classes on thai massage at Cosmic Energy Massage. I enrolled in a 30 hr program where I am able to work basically 1 on 1 with the head teacher, Mr. Roeng. Mr. Roeng, i'm not sure of his first name, owns three massage business on the island with his wife and primarily occupies himself with managing and teaching during the day. While driving down the main road near my guesthouse I noticed his business and an advertisement for thai massage classes. I suppose I had a good vibe off of his business and himself personally, or just really wanted to start taking classes on the form of massage prevelant to Thailand, but I signed up without even receiving a thai massage personally from Mr. Roeng. However, during the first day in class with himself and another woman, Audra, a medical doctor from California and also taking yoga classes from Agama Yoga, I found out that he is a very skilled practitioner and I look forward to learning much from him.

Mr. Roeng, 37, is a graduate of the famous Wat Po massage school in Bangkok in addition to learning from many other teachers in Thai massage and Thai healing arts. Just feeling his strength while working on me and seeing the muscles popping off of his thumbs you sense he is well practiced. He says he has been practicing thai massage for over 10 yrs. So far the best part about learning with him and his wife, also a thai massage teacher, is the 1 on 1 attention received. They said classes at Wat Po typically involve large numbers of people and frequently the teachers talk on a microphone. So far in 3 days I have either worked on Audra or his wife, often with him a step away to teach and provide feedback. We have a instruction manual with sequences of up to 90 steps, good for a 2 hr thai massage session.

I look forward to gaining a solid foundation of Thai massage training while at Cosmic Energy. From there I will expand my teachings while traveling to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Here there are a number of renowned teachers and schools I look forward to checking out. I may also take a workshop at the Horizon Muay Thai Boxing Camp at Haad Tien Bay in Ko Phangan. Horizon Camp occassionally offers Thai massages workshops focused on working on athletes, specifically Thai kickboxers.

Being mindful of the moment

2008-01-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

I am learning the importance of being in the present moment my time here in Ko Phangan. Too many times I catch my mind drifting off into thoughts totally irrevelant to my time here in Thailand. Often I will be in yoga class, snorkeling, hiking, etc and find that I am not mindful and in the present moment. My body may be where it is at that moment, but my mind is elsewhere, lost in random thoughts or making plans for something in the future. At these moments I must bring myself back to the present moment and experience everything in my immediate surroundings. In addition to following my breath and feeling my feet and legs solidly connected with the earth, or the water if I am snorkeling, I like to take in all the sights, sounds, colors, smells, sensations, and other various sensory information in my environment. While riding my motorbike in the jungle through the mtns or along the coastline with the incredible bluish-green ocean to the side, I need to remind myself that I won't be staying in such a beautiful place forever. Having my mind and consciousness totally in the moment is one of the best ways to appreciate where I am at.

I had been dreaming of coming to Thailand and Asia for many yrs and it seems like such a waste during my short time here to be lost in random miscellaneous thoughts having no bearing on my life in Thailand or in general. Fortunately I am aware of the minds tendency to drift off in thoughts and into other irrevelant places. I do my best to bring myself back to the moment and attempt to control and guide my mind. The practice of yoga has been really helpful in staying with my body and breath and expanding my awareness. However, even during yoga I must remind myself to come back to what I am doing when I observe my mind trailing off. I look forward to taking part in a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat in the coming months. This kind of retreat will be highly beneficial in deepening my practice of mindfulness and meditation. I have talked with several people at Agama who have completed 10 day Vipassana retreats and they have found it to be amazingly therapeutic and beneficial for the quality of their lives. There will definetely be much that comes up for me on all levels of my mind. However I believe it will provide a great opportunity to deal with negative emotions and thought patterns as they come up and gain a greater grasp on them.

Agama Yoga

2008-01-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Have currently been at Agama Yoga for 2 weeks. It has been a very positive and transformative experience for me so far. I am enrolled in a 1st month intensive which includes lecture and yoga practice twice a day for 2 hrs apiece. There is another 3rd lecture following the second yoga practice of the day. None of the sessions are mandatory to attend as one can come and go as they please. However the more attention and focus you put into the program like anything else the more you are going to gain and benefit. The first month program goes in a cycle from day 1 and progresses till day 30. Anyone may step in and begin classes during the month as stated on the website and flyers you see throughout the island. However there is a natural progression from day 1 so arriving in the middle of the month leaves one in the middle of the cycle. I wasn't aware of this upon arriving as the advertisements are a bit misleading. I was lucky enough to arrive slightly before day 1 of the cycle began.

Combined in with those taking the 1st month intensive are others taking part in a 3 month teachers training program. In all there are upwards of 50-60 people present at the yoga classes. There are also others you meet who are taking classes and in there 2nd and 3rd months. These folks only meet 2 or 3 times a wk in the afternoon. I would like to stick around and take the 2nd month although I don't know if it is going to happen for me. I don't think it will keep me busy enough if there are only 2 or 3 sessions per wk, although I would be permitted to continue the yoga classes with the others in the 1st month intensive. In addition to Agama Yoga having a center here Ko Phangan, which happens to be there main yoga center, they also have sites in Chiang Mai - northern Thailand, India - Rishikesh and Dharmasala, as well as Greece and some other countries throughout the world. The school is becoming very popular worldwide and expanding with workshops and classes. Not yet in the U.S. but i'm sure it will be there eventually. In my classes I have met few Americans. There are many Canadiens and mostly Europeans. From Europe I have met lots of people from England and Greece. It's always interesting meeting new people in class and inquiring where they are from. Until this place I had never met people from Switzerland, Austria, Poland, etc.

It's a great healing environment and many people in class are participating in detoxification program and special diets. As the yoga center is situated with a resort called Ananda Resort, they work nicely together as Ananda has a restaurant with a very healthy mean and organizes all the detox programs. I have met many taking part in 10 day detoxs which include drinking special fruit and herbal concoctions at certain times of the day as well as including colonics. One guy in particular from England here with his wife from Poland is doing a 10 day fast and looks completely wiped out from the diet. He is in very good shape as he is a personal trainer and planning to move to Australia to be a trainer with the rugby clubs. His goal with doing the fast is to cleanse and detox his body and gain more energy ultimately. Last time I had seen him he was about 5 days into the fast and looking pretty worn out and tired from the lack of nourishment. It will be interesting seeing how he is feeling after the 10 days are up. The drinks and various herbal concoctions are formulated to cleanse out the stomach and intestines and get rid of toxins, impurities, and other residues present in the body from our typical modern diet and contributing to ill health. The end result is a more energetic and healthy body and mind with less disease-contributing toxins in the body. I don't think that I could do a 10 day fast at this point in my existence. I would be interested in doing a 3 day fast and detox at the maximum. There is a liver cleanse which only last for 1-2 days which interests me and I may take part in.

Another special diet others are participating in is a 10 day brown diet fast. Brown rice is a staple of the healing diets associated with macrobiotics and other dietary healing systems of Asia. I myself have been including brown rice in my diet more regularly but am not ready to take part in a 10 day diet only including brown rice. I think it is alot easier for the women participating as they are smaller and don't need as much food. However the times where I have ate only brown rice for dinner around 6pm and nothing afterword my stomach and innards have felt very harmonious and healthy the rest of the evening. My primary goal diet-wise while at Agama is to eat less and stop drinking sodas and eliminate as much as possible sugars and other sweets from my diet. I am also eliminating drinking beer and alcohol during the wk. and drinking nothing but water and fruit drinks. The fruit drinks - banana, pineapple, strawberry, mango, etc - are delicious but do include sugar, but not too much. The wknd is another story as I permit myself to lapse and drink and eat more liberally.

Hike to Bottle Beach

2008-01-16T05:54:00.000-08:00

The hike to Bottle Beach was my first hike on the island of Ko Phangan in the forest jungle. Located on the north end of the island, it began near the beach of Haad Khom and ended at Haad Khuad , also known as Bottle Beach. I was able to find the beginning of the trail easy enough from following the island map, as vague as it can be at times. It was around noon and very hot and sticky out. It didn't take long before I was drenched in sweat. However, soon enough I was under the canopy of the trees and it cooled down a little bit for me. The trail was not excessively well tread like those in Colorado, or perhaps other trails on the island. Fortunately there were empty water bottles hanging off trees and bushes indicating the way. There were times however when I would reach a large clearing with rocks and boulders and it would take me some exploring and testing of locations where it appeared the trail was resuming. Some of the spots would dead end into nothing but thickets and I would have to turn around and make my way out to retry another spot. While the forest was dense with trees and vegetation, it was not so incredibly dense to be considered jungle, at least in my opinion. I have since been in the interior and eastern side of the island where I would definitely consider jungle. I was quite close to the coastline so I would imagine that played a difference in it not being quite as dense as the interior of the island.

Towards the beginning of the hike I saw several small monitor lizards scurry off into the bush. However, with the exception of these, I didn't see any quality wildlife, reptiles, or insects the duration of the hike. The hike was demanding in spots as it was on the side of a steep hill. Sometimes it involved climbing nearly vertical up portions of the trail. Compared to some of the climbing and hiking in Colorado it was a day in the park. About 2/3s the way to my destination I lost the trail and wound up along the rocky coastline. This was fun to climb and navigate through. I heard later from a thai boatman that in the mornings he often sees monkeys coming down to the rocks to scavenge for crabs. I didn't have the privilege to spot one however. The coastline had a nice seabreeze with beautiful views of the bluish green ocean. Eventually, nearly 2 hours after I had started I made it around a bend and had arrived at the far edge of the remote and isolated beach, primarily accessible by boat on the ocean. I walked by a bunch of abandoned huts with incredible views of the beach and ocean. With a little bit of work one could have themselves an amazing place to live. Finally I made it too the beach. Not very crowded as there are only 4-5 small resorts and sets of bungalows to stay at. A perfect place for one seeking peace and tranquility away from the masses.

I decided to take a swim in the ocean and cool down a bit. I wasn't aware of it at the time but I heard the bay there has very good coral reefs. I will have to get back again and go snorkeling. I stuck around the beach for a couple of hrs lounging, swimming, and getting something to eat. Since it was a small and isolated beach there wasn't that many people present at the beach, as compared to some of the other beaches on the island. Very laidback and relaxing vibe on the island.

Since it was getting later in the afternoon I decided to take a ocean boat back to where I started instead of hiking my way back through the forest. I met a Canadien couple who were on their way back to the other side of the island and was shared the boat with them. No sense getting caught in the woods in the dark and getting lost like the British couple.

possible cobra sighting

2008-01-13T04:53:00.001-08:00

I took a drive Sunday afternoon southeast on the island to a road which heads north in the mountains and past the location for the well-publicized Half-Moon party. This particular party is one of the three main Moon parties, along with the Full Moon and Black Moon parties, that occur on the southeast section of the island, pretty far from where I am staying at the moment. The half-moon party sounds cool and different cause it is in the jungle instead of the beach where the other two are. There are flyers and advertisement for these parties everywhere u go on the island.

I found the location so now I know where to go when I make plans to attend the gathering. I jumped back on my bike and headed north and took a turn on another path where I was almost attacked by some stupid dog which started chasing me very aggressively on the left side of my bike. Fortunately I practice yoga and have good flexibility and was able to lift my leg off the pedal high enough that the dog couldn't bite the leg. I'm glad it was that side cause my right leg controls the main brake along with the hand brake. A second later the dog lost interest or I left his territory but he stopped chasing me. Would be a wonderful thing to be bitten by a rabid dog.

I got back on the main road north and headed up for a while till I found another turn advertising waterfalls, which I took. I went for a distance and spoke with some guys who said the waterfall was pretty lame at the moment and not worth checking out. During the main rainy season I'm sure it would be amazing. I kept going for a little bit and found another turn on the left side and decided to check it out. I drove up it for a distance till I arrived at an abandoned shack and walked around a bit examining things. Didn't look as though anyone had been there for a while and I decided it was about time to turn around and head on back. I did notice alot of trees with carvings spiraling down their side to a container to collect a thick, foamy and sappy looking discharge . I was told this is used to create rubber.

As I was heading back on the dirt lane I was on an uphill portion and noticed what appeared to be a hose or cable or something about 15 ft in the distance. As my vision improved I noticed the object started moving and it was a huge snake which was spinning around very quickly and heading back into the bush. I tried to get off my bike to check it out but was too slow. I was also wearing flip flops which didn't help getting my footing.

The snake, brown and about 8-10 ft long moved in a very quick and powerful fashion and had the appearance of a cobra, possibly even a king cobra. The cobras I had seen at the snake farm back in Bangkok had been less then 5 ft long and this one was much longer and larger. It all happened so quick that I wasn't able to get my camera out and take a picture or even check the reptile out. It also moved away so quick that I didn't get to see if it hooded up or not.

It was a huge adrenaline rush and I was pretty pumped up about it for a while. I can't wait to go back to the area and see if I see it again or another one. I will probably wind up taking a guided tour by one of the local Thais who knows the area. There is also monkeys deeper into the jungle which would be exciting to see.

In talking with a reiki master the other day I had mentioned to her my intrigue with finding and seeing a cobra in the wild. I was wondering what it may symbolize and she told me it symbolized transformation. That is one of the common themes for my trip to the Asia to seek transformation of myself. Perhaps something deep in my psyche resonates with the symbolism of the cobra.

Riding Motorbike up the coast to Haad Khom

2008-01-13T04:05:00.000-08:00

Since I got a motorbike I am able cruise up and down the roads of the island and check out the different beaches and scenic spots. After having read one of the guide books to the island and the section under hikes I was intrigued by one of the hikes suggested in the northern end of the island leading to one of the most remote, isolated, and beautiful beaches on the island, Bottle Beach or Haad Khuat. Haad means beach in Thai language. Looking at the map the hike starts near another remote beach, Haad Khom which I could assess by my motorbike.

The first day I got my motorbike I decided to ride north up the coast to check out different beaches, some waterfalls, and to find out where the trailhead for Bottle Beach starts. The views were spectacular and it was so nice to be out of the hectic pace, noise, and pollution of Bangkok. The road, which alternated between being paved and just dirt in different sections, was far enough away from the coastline in most spots that one couldn't see the beach. There were signs and turns available throughout the route allowing access to different beaches and notable resorts present at them. The first beach I arrived at was at the town of Baan Chaloklum. It is a huge bay with beautiful bluish/green waters and great coral reefs. I was looking to make the proper turn for the beach of Haad Khom but turned incorrectly down the wrong road going south and drove past signs for Paradise Waterfall. I decided this was worth checking out and drove up a road for about 5 mins arriving at a small restaurant and lounge where the path starts. I did a 20-25 min hike up a path through the forest wearing flip flops with some Germans and arrived at the waterfall which was very nice but not at its finest and fullest flow. During the rainy season several months ago I'm sure it would be amazing but it was still worth checking out. I think the name, Paradise Waterfall, made it sound more epic than it was. There are some other waterfalls on the island which I look forward to visiting that are supposed to be amazing, one in particular on the eastern side of the island which has carvings by past kings of Thailand. It is a series of 3 waterfalls and is considered to be sacred by the Thais.

After leaving the waterfall I drove past a Buddhist temple, or Wat, and decided to check it out. As I made my way into the main temple area where the primary Buddha figure resides, I took some pics and noticed to the side of the Buddha was what appeared to be a wax figure of an old monk sitting in a chair. I walked up closer to examine the figure and was startled to discover that it was an actual Buddhist monk sitting deep in meditation. I wasn't sure for several moments whether or not it was an actual real person or a wax figure as the monk was completely motionless and didn't appear to be lifelike. Something about the color of his skin and the absolute still and calmness made him appear unreal.

As I made my way back to the beach I drove up some beat up and rutted dirt roads and finally made it too Haad Khom, the area in which the hike to Bottle Beach would begin. I wasn't planning on doing the hike at the moment, which was late afternoon, but just wanted to get an idea of where to go the following day. Haad Khom is a pretty isolated and beautiful beach itself with only a small number of guest houses but with a very laidback and peaceful feel about itself. As I was walking on the beach I noticed not too far in the distance a familiar looking guy with snorkel gear and a large tattoo on his right shoulder. It was Eelco, the Dutch guy who I had met on the way to the island and shared a room with the first night. It had been about 2 days since we had parted ways. It was pretty amazing just happening to bump into him in one of the more smaller and isolated beaches on the island. We spoke for a little bit and I told him my plans of making a hike the following day to Bottle Beach. He told me he had heard a story that day or the previous of a British couple who had gotten lost on the path and had spent the night out in the forest/jungle by themselves with no food or flashlight. That would have to be a pretty scary situation being out there without any of the essential supplies and in complete darkness and noise with all the animals, reptiles, and insects. We promised to keep in touch and go snorkeling together sometime.

Staying at Jinga Bay

2008-01-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

Found a real nice place to stay on the west side of the of the island on Haad Chao Phao beach called Jinda Resort. It is about a 10 min motorbike ride away from Agama Yoga where I am doing yoga retreat type training. Consists of twice per day yoga training with so far lots of lecture along with a evening lecture following the second class.

After spending the first night on the island in the southwest corner town Thongsala I took a pickup truck taxi up the coast 5 kilometers I believe to the Agama yoga center and was dropped off. From there I was able to rent a ragged and beat up mountain bike across the street from the center at a store. With this I could pedal the coast until I found a decent and respectable place to stay. After riding up the road for about 30 mins on an undersized bike with messed up gears and underinflated tires along with both my bags handing off my shoulders, I started checking out some places along the coast and found a great deal for a room at Jinda Bay. For 200 baht or $6 a night I got myself a room with a porch about 50 feet from the beach. It has a double sized uncomfortable bed and its own bathroom and shower with cold water instead of a community one. I could have splurged an extra $3 more and gotten a villa practically right on the beach. However I can see the ocean from my porch area and and can walk 20 seconds to the beach. I have gotten used to taking cold showers while in Bangkok so it's a small price to paying for living at such an exotic and beautiful location so close to the beach and warm ocean. There are coral reefs great for snorkeling and scuba diving a hundred yards or more into the ocean. The water is extremely warm and shallow for a distance until it starts declining and you get into the coral reefs.

So far I have gone snorkeling once and it was an amazing experience. As you swim further out into the extremely clear deeper waters you can see schools of smaller fish and other solitary larger fish and other interesting marine life. I saw a sea snake or eel back down into a hole and peak its head out a few inches. A friend of mine at the resort told me of seeing some porcupine fish and a whale shark. Unfortunately at the moment I got to be a bit careful in heading out into the waters as I have a bunch of cuts on my feet and legs from swimming and playing beach soccer the other day. I'm not sure if I cut if on coral or just rock and other sharp stuff but going into the shallow, warm water can inhibit the healing process. Apparently lots of bacteria thrive in these warm , shallow waters and can cause infection. I have been religiously putting on disinfectant and antiseptic cream throughout the day to heal up and prevent infection.

I also got a motorbike from a store next to where I am staying. Practically everyone on the island is riding around on some form of motorbike or moped. It only costs $5 a day and I was able to get a cheaper deal by paying upfront for several weeks. The motorbike gives me pretty good access to most of the roads on the island. So far I have explored the west, north, and south parts of the island but haven't really gotten into the interior and the east side of the island. The central part of the island is very mountainous and holds the largest mountain on the island. Will be a great hike one of these days when I'm free. The east side of the island is less developed with more isolated beaches and less roads. I'm not sure exactly what kind of shape they are in. It's possible I may need a dirt bike to access some of these lesser developed roads and areas. Some guys who were staying at my resort had rented out dirtbikes for a bit more money but were able to access some roads very rutted out and more rugged, roads not exactly accessible for my motorbike.

Muay Thai Kickboxing

2008-01-09T04:19:00.000-08:00

While grabbing a bite to eat after arriving in Ko Phangan, I noticed some flyers on the wall promoting some muay thai kickboxing matches that evening. Sounded like a really fun thing to go watch and a bit cheaper than the matches back in Bangkok. Back in Bangkok it is only really possible for foreigners to obtain pricey VIP and ringside tickets to matches at one of the venues. It would be awesome to watch some high quality fights from the ringside but I also got to watch my budget and conserve my money for other stuff.

The arena location was just on the edge of town so it was easily within walking distance for me and Eelco to walk to. The ring was outdoors, not too far from the beach, and was pumping loud techno music from some huge speakers. We got there at around 9:15pm as the matches were advertised to start around 9:30. It was a small kind of backyard venue with bleachers on either side of the ring along with seats and standing room space on all sides. There were mostly foreigners at the beginning however the place filled up with alot of Thais as the fights began and the evening progressed. Advertised on the promotion flyers were three fights with foreigners going against Thai fighters.

The first several fights were rather lastluster were both fighters appearing to be around the age of 12 or so. Most interesting during the first fight was listening to one of the mothers hollering and urging her son on. I couldn't tell exactly which fighter she was her son as she was speaking in thai. She was standing quite close to me and in speaking with her later she told me it was her son who won of course. Also interesting was watching all the gambling going on amongst the Thais. Gambling is a large part of the experience for Thais attending their kickboxing matches. The music played during the fights was cool to listen to as well. I'm not sure how to describe it but I would reckon it was some kind of thai music related to thai kickboxing culture. It had a very exotic and eastern kind of sound. However, once a fight was over and it was between fights it was right back to the techno and rave music.

The most interesting and exciting fight of the evening turned out to be two 7 yr olds going at it against each other. It was about 5 or 6 fights into the evening and it was hard to believe that such young and innocent looking kids were going to be kicking each others asses. It was nearing midnight when these kids got to the ring. While watching one of the kids in his corner oiled up and waiting for the other fighter to make it too the ring, he just appeared very calm and almost disinterested. Soon thereafter the other fighter made his way to the ring and they both started doing their pre-fight ceremonial dance in the middle of the ring. During the dance the fighters face each direction in the ring typically with one knee down and do some strange ritual movements and what I would imagine are prayers. They were also wearing ceremonial head and arm pieces. I'm not sure what the true purpose behind the head and arm pieces and the ceremonial dance but I believe they are something spiritual, probably Buddhist, in nature.
The previous fighters had also performed the ritual dancing but at a substantially lesser level. These kids were really impressive to watch and looked as though they had done it 100's of times before. The crowd was really cheering and alive while watching these youngsters prepare themselves for battle.

The fight itself turned out to be quite exciting to watch as these kids were obviously very trained and skilled. Their punches and kicks were solid and crisp and they could take getting hit with some solid shots. One of the kids executed a perfect round house kick although he missed his opponent. None of these kids or any of the other guys in the other fights were wearing headgear either. I would reckon the gloves everyone were wearing were around 12 or 16 ounces, pretty standard sizes. I don't remember who won the fight but it was definitely the most exciting and compelling of the evening up to that point.

Soon after this fight one of the first foreigers finally made his way to the ring, probably some time after 1am. They had advertised 3 foreigners to be fighting but it was hard to believe that it would go on so late. The first foreigner was from England, about 22-25 yrs old, and I overheard some of his friends and supporters talking him up on the sidelines and saying he was very good. I was expecting an exciting match with lots of engagement from the crowd as he seemed to have many supporters and of course the Thais would be rooting on their guy. Before the fight, both fighters did their ritual dance and the English guy was very good and looked as though he had practiced his routine to impress and fulfill the tradition.

The fight was going well for the first round when all of a suddent the power went out in the entire arena. Lots of yelling and hollering but everything kept in order considering all the drinking everyone was doing. I waiting for about 5-10 mins for the power to come back on and when it didn't it was time to split. It was getting late and I didn't feel like waiting forever for the power to come back on. It would have been tough for the fighters as well as they were all warmed up and in the middle of the fight, then made to sit and wait in their corners. Since I left I'm not sure if the power ever came back on or not and if the fight restarted.

It was awesome action and since i'm on the island for at least a month or more i'm sure I will make it back again.

Trip down to Ko Phangan

2008-01-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

After 17 days in Bangkok, it was time to head out of the city down south to the islands, specifically Ko Phangan. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, it is here that I plan on doing a 1-month yoga intensive at Agama Yoga as well as explore the island and enjoy the ocean. My bus left Bangkok at 9pm ish to make the overnight trek down south. Through Sarin I was able to obtain a cheaper than normal ticket as she gave me a wholesale price without any markup profit for herself. This cost me 500 baht, or about $15. Typically prices are 550 baht on up to over 1000 baht for taking a train.

I was lucky enough to grab a seat with no one sitting next to me. As a result I could stretch out more freely and ride in more comfort. It was still tough to sleep and reading was out of the question after about an hr. as they turned off the lights in the bus. Also playing on the television screen in the front and middle of the bus was some crazy horror/vampire flick with lots of screaming and bloody dismemberment. Was a weird choice of movies to play.

After several stoppages along the way for food and to stretch out, we made it to the wharf in the town of Chumphon along the gulf of Thailand. Here I grabbed a speedboat to make the last legs of the trip to Ko Phangan. This portion turned out to be more exciting than I was expecting. The ocean and waves were extremely active and choppy during the 2 hr voyage to the first stop, the island of Ko Tao. The boat was undulating up and down and it felt like being on a roller coaster. Off to the sides you could see small, isolated and probably deserted islands, but for the mostly part if was overlast and grey at the moment, about 7 am.

Pretty soon it became apparent why they had plastic bags all over the tables between the benches. After about 15-20 minutes of riding up and down in high, choppy waves many people were getting nauseous and grabbing for bags to vomit into. I myself was beginning to feel a bit of lightheadedness and sickness in the stomach. The motion of going up and down constantly on the ocean did a number on my stomach. I decided to walk outside the cabin for a moment as someone explained that it could alleviate some of the nausea and sea sickness. However the moment I stepped outside I inhaled a strong breatheful of cigarette smoke from the thai boatmen outside smoking. This did nothing but worsen my condition and I had to stagger back inside as it was tough keeping balance with all the motion of the boat. A moment later I joined the folks inside in grabbing myself a plastic bag to unload myself. I hadn't ate too much but did have a stomach full of digesting orange juice from drinking a huge container, about 30 ounces or so, of it on the busride down. I got a good deal from a vendor on the street in front of the bus back in Bangkok just before leaving and had decided to drink healthy on the way down. Consequently my vomit had a lovely orange hue to it. After puking I felt much better and laid myself down on the bench and went to sleep.

Shortly after we arrived at Ko Tao, an island slightly north of Ko Phangan and regarded as one if not the best scuba diving islands in the region with all the coral reefs off the coastline. The views from the boat of Ko Tao were spectacular, with bungalows doting the coastline on up into the hills. Palm and coconut trees were everywhere to be seen. However it was still overcast and cloudy so visibility was not superb to see too far into the distance of the high hills/mountains of the island. After docking for several minutes to pick up more passengers and let off others, we were on the way to Ko Phangan. The ride on the sea at this time was much smoother and peaceful, thank goodness as the boat was jam- packed and would have been a horrible time for everyone to be getting sick and throwing up.

Approximately an hr later we arrived at Thongsala, at the southwest tip of the island and the main docking and loading station of the island. Visibility was still back as the weather was very overcast and cloudy and slightly drizzling. At least it was warm out. A far cry from previous days in Bangkok where it seemed everyday was full of sweltering sunshine and it never rained once. I had met another solo traveler on the boat, a guy named Eelco, 35, from Holland. He had recently quit his job as a police officer and was taking 4-5 months for himself in Thailand. We decided to save some money and share a room together. We were able to find a decent guesthouse in the town with 2 double beds for 300 baht apiece. We decided it would be fun to check out a thai kickboxing contest later that evening.

New Years Eve

2008-01-07T00:47:00.000-08:00

Spent New Years Eve having a pleasant and authentic thai dinner with Sarin alongside the Chao Phraya River with great views of Wat Arun, one of the most magnificent Wats and structures in the city. I almost destroyed my mouth in eating some of the hot pepper that are typically put into the thai dishes. Usually I pick the peppers and push them off to the side as they are much too hot for me to eat. I like mashing up bits of them and putting them into the food i'm eating as a way of trying them on a lesser level. As long as I got some rice avail to subdue the heat. Water is not good is lessening the heat sensation and can actually make it worse.

Most of the restaurants and vendors in the Khao San Rd. area are aware that the tourists are not as able to handle the hot peppers and spices as the Thai folk. As a result they are mindful in how much peppers they put in the meals and often on each table there is a glass bowl filled with the peppers and seeds sitting in water. From this anyone can scoop out a spoonful to their liking and preference.

However, we ate our meal around 11 pm and then went on a walk down to one of the piers where some other people were hanging out. There was not a countdown where we were standing but we could see firewalks from all directions of the city. One of the thai men in the restaurant starting shooting off a gun into the air. Even though it is not the official new year for most Thais as they are Buddhist and the Buddhist New Year is celebrated in early April I believe, Thais love celebrating and having a good time. It is a national holiday for Thais and many go on vacation for several days to get away.

After observing the fireworks and hanging on the pier, Sarin and I took a walk into the city and she took me to one of the nights markets. Here I was able to observe all the trucks unloading fresh produce and fruits in bulk. Lots of fruits and vegetables that I had never seen before in my life. They are then broken down into smaller units for stores and restaurants to use and sell. We also walked through a flower market where the thais were hard at work making bouquets and other creations with the flowers.

On the way back there were masses of thai folk outside the Grand Palace where the Temple of the Emerald Buddha resides praying and asking the Buddha for a blessed 2008. Here I had visited my first wk and was amazed by how beautiful yet small the Emerald Buddha is. Along with the huge reclining buddha at the Wat Po adjacent to the Grand Palace, these were the 2 most amazing Buddha figures I have encountered so far. I will be back in the area in about 1-2 months after my stay in the islands to do thai massage training at the famous Wat Po. I had intended on doing this during my first few weeks in Bangkok but wound up getting sick for several days my 2nd wk in town and couldn't take part. Then I discovered that most of the teachers would be unavailable for instruction as it was the holiday and vacation season and most were away for the moment.

After about 17 days in Bangkok this was my last night before I would leave heading to the island of Ko Phangan in the south. The time went by quick and it was an amazing experience. In talking with many travelers they were surprised that I lasted that long in Bangkok. Most travelers use Bangkok as more or less a travel stop for a wk or less on the way to other destinations, such as the islands or Chiang Mai in the north. Bangkok is very noisy, polluted, and dirty but I enjoyed my time visiting all the temples, walking through the bowels and alleyways of Chinatown and the surrounding markets, hanging on Khao San Rd, and doing thai kickboxing.

Patpong

2007-12-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

While Thailand possesses a strong and everpresent spiritual and religious tradition in the form of Buddhism, with spirit houses at nearly every house and business, along with Buddhist monks walking all over the city, it also contains the polar opposite with the existence of the infamous Patpong district. This area, centered around 2 main streets referred to as Patpong 1 and 2, contain some of the most extreme and hardcore sex shows and gogo bars in the city, possibly the world.

As long as I was in Bangkok I figured I may as well check out the shows everybody talks about and the tuk tuk drivers are always trying to drive you to. What better time to check out the shows than after u have been meditating at a Buddhist temple severals hrs beforehand. Since the Patpong district is about 7 miles away or so I decided to take a taxi to the area, cost me about $3. Arriving there the scene was totally different than during daytime when I was there the previous wk. It was pretty calm and not much going on there during the daytime. Just a bunch of pushy hustlers trying to interest you in going to particular massage parlors with brochures full of beautiful thai ladies. This time however, the time was around 11pm, the entire area was jam-packed with booths selling the usual kind of stuff in the booth, i.e. t-shirts, buddhas, necklaces and jewelry, some knives and other weapons, touristy stuff, etc. Right next to all these booths are the go-go bars where u can see all the ladies inside dancing. All kinds of people walking and browsing around, foreigners, thais along with families, kids, and old folks. It always amazes me the tolerance and laid back manner of the Thai people and culture that they are able to accept some things in their society as though it were no big deal.

The most annoying part was all the hustlers and pushers trying to get you to check out there shows along with girls grabbing you and trying to pull you into their businesses. I was primarily there just to check out the ping pong shows that I had heard so much about, in which the girls shoot ping pong balls and all kinds of objects out of their coochies. After I had walked around for long enough and had enough of the outdoor scene, I decided to give in and check out one of the shows that the pushers outside were trying desperately to get u into. They walk around holding pieces of paper listing all the stuff that go on inside and that the girls get into. As I walked up the steps and into the go-go bar area with the stage in the middle, I noticed that the bar and strip area was primarily empty with the exception of a bunch of dancers. Within seconds I was swamped by about 5 pushy attractive thai girls vying for my attention and trying to make some money. They were all over me and grabbing my hands and putting them all over themselves. A second later a bartendress lady comes by and tries to interest me in buying an overpriced beer for about $5. I said sure, I would have a beer to watch the show. Then she was pressuring me into buying the girls drinks of coca-cola for about $3 a piece. At this point I had pretty much had enough. I was only there with the interest in seeing a show and didn't desire to be the center of attention for all the girls trying to get me to buy them overpriced sodas along with other services. It was a bad situation and I had to get out. At the moment my beer arrived at my table I jumped up and said I had to get out of there. They tried to grab my arms and keep me there but there was no way I was going to stick around in a empty bar wasting my money away.
I made it safely back out to the street and decided I was going to go back to a warehouse area several blocks away that the taxi driver had dropped me off earlier in the evening. Here it looked crowded and like the real deal in terms of an authentic ping pong show.

The only catch was that u had to pay a higher cover charge to get in, 500 baht which comes out to about $15 US dollars. I would have gone in earlier but I wanted to walk around the general area and see what was going on. At this point however I just wanted to see what I had come down to the area for and experience what one of these sex shows was all about. I paid my money and walked in. Thank goodness it was crowded and I didn't have to worry about a bunch of working girls trying to pressure me into buying them drinks and other services. 1 or 2 girls did try and interest me in buying them an overpriced 150 baht, $5, cup of soda but I just laughed at them and said no thanks. I'm not sure what kind of moron is going to spend that kind of money on a soda for some relatively unattractive bar girls just so he can talk to them for a bit.

Anyway, the stage area was dimly lit and u really couldn't see much of anything. Music was blasting with American music of course. It's weird here in Thailand how at the clubs and bars America hip hop and other types of music are always playing. Just goes to show the influence of America and its pop culture throughout the world. There were an assortment of different groups and nationalities in the crowd with almost as many women as men. Intermixed in the crowd were Indians, Thais, Europeans, Australians, couples, groups of guys, singles, etc...

In regards to the show, the women were on stage in the middle and it was kind of tough at times to see what they were doing as dark as it was. They were not exactly attractive and didn't seem for the most part to have much enthusiasm for what they were doing. Basically they seemed to be going through the motions as though they had done their act a millions times before and were just there to make a buck.

Essentially here is what I saw the women perform at different times:
1) shooting ping pong balls out there pussies while standing up
2) pulling longs string of confetti and other objects out of themselves. Sometimes the strings would keep going on and on for 20-30 ft or more.
3) one women pulled out a string with what apparently had sharp objects on it as she demonstrated afterwards cutting paper with the objects tied to the string.
4) shooting darts out of themselves into balloons and popping them. This was funny as the couple within range of the darts went scattering to make sure them weren't hit by the darts.
5) lighting up cigarettes with their pussies and blowing out candles
6) sucking bottles of sodas out of one bottle into themselves and transferring to another bottle. This was amusing as well as some of the crowd members got the hell out of the way to make sure they didn't get sprayed by contaminated and shaken up soda
7) shooting banana looking objects out of their coochies, sometimes past the stage area and making people scatter.
8) one grotesque looking thai man and women having sex with each other on stage in all kinds of different positions.
9) other acts that I can't remember at the moment

I stuck around for about an hr or so just to take in the freak show and to hopefully not miss anything worthwhile. For the most part the show was pretty subpar as it was so dark and noisy in the place and the angles to watch the girls perform their skills wasn't typically lousy. However, it was great to have actually been able to make it to a real-live thai ping pong sex show. I can't say that I would ever go back, but it was an experience nevertheless all visitors to Thailand should experience. At least those who are not easily offended and have strong stomachs.

Friday night: Sacred and Profane

2007-12-29T23:38:00.000-08:00

Friday evening was an evening of experiencing two extremes of Bangkok life. The first part involved visiting a Buddhist Wat for vipassana meditation practice. This was followed by a trip to the go go dancing and ping pong centre of the city, Patpong.

One of my main objectives in traveling to Thailand is to establish a firm and steady meditation practice as a means of calming and centering my mind. I had previously practiced and studied meditation in the US, however my practice is weak and relatively non-existent. It has been about 10 yrs since I had taken meditation instruction while living in Pennsylvania. Here I had learned mindfulness based meditation with an emphasis and focus on the breath. I had always found a greater sense of calm, peace, and clarity of mind following practice, particularly when I was with a group practicing together. However, while meditating solo, practice is less easy as I am more prone to get off track, lose discipline, and stop.

One of the main styles of meditation that has always interested me is vipassana, or insight meditation. While it is essentially a Buddhist style of meditation, one need not be Buddhist as it is essentially non-sectarian in character and practice. This meaning that the practice can be learned and practiced by anyone regardless of their religious affiliation. Vipassana is a self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind. Ultimately, through practice and direct experience, one comes to learn and transcend the causes of suffering and achieve greater levels of awareness, peacefulness, open-heartedness, non-delusion, and self-control, amongst other benefits.

In surfing the internet I was able to discover that there is a Buddhist Wat, or temple, not too far south of me that offers meditation classes to the public. It was located slightly north of the Grand Palace which houses the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, about a 20 min walk or so. Along the way there are many sidewalk vendors selling lucky amulets and buddha figures, manyof which are meant to be worn around the neck. I have bought a bunch but none so far that I have worn. The temple, called Wat Mahasat, is a large temple area and it took me a while to find someone in the temple that could speak enough english to direct me to the meditation classes, held at sector 5. As I arrived at the meditation area I spoke with a beautiful Indian woman who was working the front desk at the moment. She offered me a pamphlet to read over explaining the practice of vipassana. She told me to come back in 30 mins. and that there would be no english instruction that evening , although i was welcome to join in. Fortunately I had enough background in this style of meditation that while instruction and guidance would be beneficial, it was not absolutely necessary.

In the meditation area there was monk leading instruction in thai for about 20 lay Buddhist female nuns? dressed in all white. The male monks dress in all orange and can be seem throughout the city. They are held in the highest esteem and not to be disrespected. Practically every male during the course of his life lives the life of a monk for an extended period or 2.
Anyway, the meditation started off which 30 mins of walking meditation which essentially involves very slowly and mindfully totally focused on each step and the various phases of each step. It can be a bit tedious at first but eventually your mind starts to calm down and you gain a greater sense of calm. With increasing levels of practice greater and greater levels of awarness and insight or supposed to naturally evolve.

After the 30 mins of walking meditation, we sat for 30 more mins. This I found more difficult as there were not western style meditation mats or cushions available and everyone sat indian style. My lower back muscles are not conditioned for this type and duration of sitting so it was difficult for me. Nevertheless, the slow and deep diaphramatic breathing was soothing and I could feel myself relax and slowdown. U are not supposed to change positions when it becomes uncomfortable and painful. Rather u are to stay in the position and observe what comes up without clinging to the sensations and feelings as they occur. The attitude of non-attachment and non-judgment is also to be observed with thoughts and feelings as they occur.

Finally to my relief the 30 mins was over. I definetely felt calmer and relaxed in my stomach, heart, and mind. It is a difficult practice to start but with continous practice the benefits are invaluable. I went back Sat night for more and expect to make it Sun night.

Next blog will detail Patpong experience....

first room with air-conditioning, actual mattress

2007-12-28T01:20:00.000-08:00

Splurged an extra 50 baht, or about $1.66 US dollar and got a nicer room with air conditioning and an actual mattress, instead of the 4 inch thick sad excuse for mattresses I had been sleeping on, which pretty much felt like I had been sleeping on the floor. Now I am up to paying 300 baht per night. Plus the room has a small television with a few channels on it including HBO, although I doubt that I will ever use it, unless I want to watch some soccer, or futbol as the rest of the world calls it. My last room cost 250 baht per night and was noisy, hot - had a ceiling fan -, and not very comfortable although I don't need or expect to be living in much luxury during travels in Asia. It was a traditional style thai house - that is what I was told - with an old thai man running the front desk and I think a family living there. There were cats running in and out of the place. In the alleyway outside the house there were mobs of cats slinking around and making all kinds of noise of night keeping me awake. Them damn things can be noisy when they are in heat and looking for attention.

In regards to soccer, the thai people are mad for soccer, particularly English League Futbol. It could also be the influence of the many foreign, mostly European, in the area I am at, but soccer is on television at most of the bars and televisions u see in the area. During the big games involving teams like Manchester United there are often groups of people sitting around watching and cheering on the teams. There are even a few large screens in the area that play soccer for large groups to watch. I was told that every year several of the big name English League teams come to Thailand put on some exhibition games for the people here. It has been a while since I have played soccer but I am looking forward to playing some beach soccer when I make it down to the islands in about a wk. Just hope I don't mess my ankle up at all. I think I will have ankle problems for life on my left ankle from tearing ligaments about 15 yrs ago.

I have already lost about 5-7 lbs since being here. I feel alot slimmer and leaner from when I arrived. I weighed myself today and came out to 84 kilograms while fully clothed. This comes out to about 184 lbs. I was around 190 lbs when I got here. I am sure I will be down to 180 in several wks, especially after I get down to the islands and start yoga training all day, and playing soccer and hiking during off days.

Merry Xmas from Bangkok

2007-12-25T03:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone from Bangkok, Thailand, not exactly the Christian capital of the world. Although it is a Buddhist nation with little need to honor Xmas, it is acknowledged around here to a certain degree as there are many foreigners in the area who are Christians, mostly from Europe. It is amusing to hear Jingle Bells and other Christian songs being played in coffee and internet shops. It seems so out of place and non Christmas for me as I am used to being back in the states with family and in cold weather during Christmas. Here it is hot and humid and feels like summertime. Other than Xmas songs, there are vendors selling santa hats and other Xmas paraphanelia on the streets.

For me, I have spent most of the day sleeping as I am recovering from being a bit sick the past few days. I started feeling like I was coming down with something last Friday but that passed by quickly and figured I was all ok. But come Sun night I got hit hard by something and haven't had much urge other than to sleep and do next to nothing. It has given me a chance to catch up reading on a few books and finish them off.

I was considering going to a doctor later this evening but think I am going to be ok. My thai girlfriend Sarin, who owns a travel agency a block away from Khao San Rd, was going to take me to her doctor and get some meds if necessary. I am still feeling a bit lethargic and tired but my stomach no longer is as queasy and rumbling as it was Sunday night and yesterday. I had bad diarrhea but was able to hold off throwing off, although I was quite close to letting it fly. Sarin has been very nice in tending to me when I went to visit her Sun and Mon night, going out and buying me some healthy thai food and giving me some meds. She is also very helpful in giving me travel advice and information about airfare prices for locations in SE Asia and India. I have also learned lots of good insider info on Khao San Rd and whats going on in the city.

This past Sunday had started off well for me and I didn't feel ill in the morning. I took one of the thai busses for the first time to one of the largest weekend markets in the city, the Chatuchak Market. It's not easy figuring out the bus system in Bangkok as none of it is written in English and Thai isn't exactly the easiest language to figure out. However, after talking with Sarin and some other people I was able to find out a couple of bus numbers and locations where they stop in order to make it to the market. The market was absolutely huge, unlike anything I had ever been to before. Pretty much anything u could ever hope to shop for, although I didn't purchase anything except for some food which may have contributed to making me sick. I enjoyed walking through the animal sections. Was hoping to see some king cobras or other venomous snakes. There was one person who had what I think were cobras although their hoods were not flared up to indicate cobra. Lots of fish and birds for sale. One person had bags of sting rays for sale. In addition, lots of entertainers walking around working for tips.

Had to postpone thai massage training for several days cause of being sick. See how things go and hopefully can begin Thursday or Friday.

2nd muay thai class,very sore

2007-12-22T04:46:00.000-08:00

Went to my second muay thai kickboxing class today even though I was a bit sore today from yesterday. Now, about 3 hrs after the last class finished, I am definitely very sore but feels great. It's a blast working with the thai trainers practicing all the jabs, 1-2s, knees, elbows, kicks, and all the other drills they have us doing. There is no one on one work so no chance of getting injured. Today there were a bunch more guys training, more than yesterday at least. Was one beautiful thai girl training who looked like she been doing muay thai for a while. Only done 2 classes so far but I really enjoy it, working on putting together combinations and absolutely sweating my ass off in the humid thai weather. There was one other thai guy training who was in phenominal shape and competes professionally. Small guy but ripped, he was throwing combinations of 10 - 20 punches while working with the trainers. Tons of power for a small guy.

I would like to go watch some professional matches at the stadium out here sometime. I spoke with several agencies selling tickets but they only seem to be selling front row VIP tickets for pretty expensive. Foreigners have to pay much more to attend than the common thai people, until at least u know enough to find the proper connections.

Was hoping to go out tonight and get boozed up and have some fun at a club, but they are not selling alcohol in the city tonight and tomorrow cause of some election coming up. I wish i had bought a bottle of something before today. Not looking to get totally drunk or anything but having a few drinks makes it more fun being out. I may go down to the ping pong shows down in the Patpong area, the wild red light district where the girls shoot ping pong balls and all kind of objects out of there private parts. The taxis and tuk tuk drivers are always trying to drive everybody down there, asking if u want to go see ping pong show. I like to ask thai girls what a ping pong show is, acting innocent like I have no idea what it is. Many find it funny and laugh, asking if they can come along with me. One girl at the coffee shop speaking in her thai accent said that they shoot ping pong balls out of their pussy. Everybody is very laid back and pretty non-judgmental around here.

Got my clothes back nice and clean and folded. Nice to have some clean clothes after several days. Won't take too long to get them all sweated up and dirty again. Gonna go get a thai massage in a sec, will help with all the soreness from the muay thai classes. Looking forward to starting up thai massage classes this Monday at Wat Po.

Muay Thai Kickboxing

2007-12-21T03:58:00.000-08:00

Took my first muay thai kickboxing class this afternoon. Signed up for 3 classes to save money and get some good workouts while learning some new skills. Classes are actually kind of expensive around here, paid over $12 US dollar for each class. Cheaper signing up for package deal. Gym is located down a narrow alleyway across the street from Khao San Rd. I noticed the gym last wknd and been wanting to take classes there. Earlier in the wk while watching there were some real tough looking fighters training. They were not there today, I was told a bunch of the fighters typically in the gym were out of town. Today it was me and 3 others training. One Japanese guy about 40, a tough looking white girl with lots of face piercings about 25-30 - not sure where from -, and an older guy about 50-60 from Vancouver. He seemed real interesting. Said he was going to Nepal in about a month to do thai massage training. Will have to write down name of center he is going to.

Was alot of fun being trained by the thai guys who were in incredible shape. Practiced lots of 1-2 combinations, kicks, elbows, and knees. Also jumped rope, hit the bag, and did warm up and cool down stretching and situps with everyone. Was about 2 hrs long. Lots of people walking by and checking out class, along with alley cats walking in and out of gym. The cats are everywhere sneaking around. Almost didn't make it too class cause haven't been feeling real well today. Feeling a bit under the weather but didn't feel like sitting around doing nothing.

Going to get a thai massage in a bit. Hopefully will make me feel good enough to head out tonight to a bar and have a few drinks. Be my first Friday night in town. Lots of fun going to bars around here. Only really been out once so far and but got tons of attention from beautiful thai women. Its amazing how the most beautiful thai women will just come right up to you and start talking as though they find you to be a god. The thai women love white guys and find lighter skinned ppl more attractive.

Got a larger, better room today several blocks away. Paying some extra money but larger with double sized bed. Much more comfortable than the room I previously stayed at. Still too cheap to get air conditioning, the fans work well enough for me. Gave my dirty laundry to the owner of guesthouse to get cleaned, an old thai man about 70 or so. Cost me 80 baht, or about 2.50 dollars. I didn't receive a receipt back or anything, but was told it will be ready tmrw. Hopefully it won't get lost or anything as I gave him 3/4s of my clothing. Clothes are cheap here but don't want to have to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff.

Kicked Out of the Oriental Hotel

2007-12-19T06:35:00.000-08:00

Today I took a river barge from my area - Khao San Rd. - as a way of seeing the city from a different perspective plus to make it to a part of the city that I hadn't been to yet. So far I had mostly stuck in my area and gone south down to Chinatown, primarily walking and taking the tuk tuks. It takes pretty long getting around to different part of the city as traffic is quite congested and often bumper to bumper. Getting on the river - the Chao Phraya - is a much quicker way of getting around and I wanted to check out the Silom Rd and Patpong area. Both of these areas are busy business areas during the day. Some of the most expensive real estate of the city is in this city. Patpong streets are toward the east end of Silom Rd and contain the wildest and most outrageous strip and gogo bars. In the area adjacent to the west side of Silom Rd and next to the river is the Oriental Hotel, considering one of the most upscale and exclusive hotels in the city with incredible service. Since I was in the area I figured I may as well walk past the Oriental Hotel and check it out and see if I could walk in the place. There were many bellman and expensive cars in the outside foyer of the hotel. As I was approaching the front door I was told by one of the bellman or some official that I was not dressed properly as I was wearing shorts and not allowed in the hotel. I told him that I just wanted a quick peak and to check out the prices. Surprisingly he let me pass on through the door and didn't give me a hard time. The inside of the hotel was quite amazing with huge chandeliers, very posh and expensive furniture, along with huge windows and high ceilings. I could see the pool through the windows and figured I would go check it out. There were two very nice pools with ppl lounging around the area on chairs. I walked up somwhat near the pool but chose not to actually go into the pool area, but up to some bushes. I was wearing a some decent pair of shorts and a tank top with a small backpack on, not exactly the kind of upscale look that would go over to well with the crowd, as evidenced by the comments by the doorman at the beginning.

I was able to get a few quick pics of the pool area as well as the inside and was walking around the foyer about ready to walk down a hallway into some other areas of the hotel when the outside bellman approached me and told me that I was going to have to leave. I just told him no problem as I was pleased to just get a look and feel of the place. Definitely very upscale and fancy. It would be great to have a chance to hang out at the pool and go swimming some day, although I'm doubtful I will make it back to the place. I'd have to dress up and wear a pair of nice pants and shirt just to get back in without a hassle. The heat in the city definetely makes you want to go swimming. It will be great making it down to the islands in several wks to go swimming in the Gulf of Thailand.

Dental Work

2007-12-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

Was able to see the dentist this evening with little to not wait. Dentist had been trained in the US so at least he had some good and credible credentials. I believe he went to SUNY Buffalo. He told me his daughter went to school at University of Colorado at Denver. Pretty school world. He had a picture of the Colorado rockies San Juan mountain range on the wall. Since I had a root canal last month and had a temporary filling, I was looking to get a crown over the tooth to fill it up. I had been told previously that my current filling would last for several months, andthen I'm not sure. Anyway, the dentist here put in a more permanent filling instead of a crown. He told me it should last for about 5 yrs. I was basically in and out of the office. Cost me 2500 baht, or about $70-80 US dollars. A crown would have cost me about $250 here depending upon the quality of it. In the US a crown would cost about $1200.

Also had a great thai massage session today inthe neighborhood. Cost me 250 baht for 1.5 hrs, or about $7-8 dollars. Was incredible work. Looking forward to starting thai massage training here in the city. Went to the Wat Po yesterday which is one of the most renowned training schools in the country for thai massage. Much more expensive there to receive a massage. Paid over 300 baht for just an hr. Also visited the huge reclining Buddha on the grounds of the Wat. Probably the most incredible Buddha I have seen so far in Bangkok. It was absolutely huge, several hundred feet long and about a hundred feet high. Taking pics of the Buddha as well as everything else out here does no justice for how incredible it is. The artwork and architecture of the Buddha as well as the surrounding area was great. Hoping to go visit the Grand Palace tomorrow where the Emerald Buddha resides, the most revered Buddha in the country.

Met an interesting guy from New Zealand along with a Scottish woman at the thai massage place today. They both been traveling all over Asia themselves and had just met that day. The guy said he was going to be biking Cambodia in several days for a few wks. Going to try and meet up with them for some drinks this evening if I can find them. She had mentioned a certain in the area, forget the name of, which I will try and locate

1st night in Bangkok

2007-12-18T00:25:00.000-08:00

Finally getting around to writing on blog. So much to write aboutsince i've gotten here. Todays - Tuesday - is my fourth full days and the time has flown by. The trip started off early Thursday morning on a flight from Denver to LA sitting next to the only baby aboard the plane. A nine month old named Amelia who enjoyed crying the entire first 2 hrs. Thank goodness this didn't occur on the 2nd and 3rd longer legs of the journey to the other side of the world. These flights were 12 and 6 hrs long respectively. Never been on flights that long before, mostly just slept and read the entire times. Sat next to a nice Vietnamese girl on way to Japan. Flight outta LA to Japan was delayed about 1.5 hrs, hence almost missed flight from Japan to Bangkok. Arrived in Japan just in time to make connecting flight.

After arriving in Bangkok airport had to go through admission progress and get visa stamped. Very long lines for this, was able to get luggage very quickly afterwards. Thank goodness no complication in getting my one piece of luggage. Although didn't bring much would have sucked to have had to replace everything and get new malaria pills. After luggage, went to currency exchange and got some thai baht for my US dollars. Exchange rate is about 33 baht to 1 US dollar. Earlier in the yr it was about 40 baht. Unfortunate how the US dollar has plummeted so much. The British pound is the strongest currency, at around 65 baht per. Euro is next in line.

Got money and then focused on getting taxi to take me to Khao San Rd, the backpacking, bohemian, and expat mecca of Bangkok. Many taxis were asking upwards of 800 baht for the taxi trip, particularly pretty girls holding taxi signs. However, I was able to share a taxi with another traveler from Australia and pay about 300 each to make it onward. The first thing I noticed upon stepping into the Bangkok atmosphere was the heat and humidity, even for 12:30am at night. Still beats the hell out of the frigid cold weather of Denver . Feels great here in the mornings and evenings. Gets very hot during the afternoons, especially when u add in all the heat from the exhaust of the cars, buses, and motorbikes. And this is considered the cooler season, with the hot season to come around April and May.

The drive from the airport to Khao San Rd. was amazing and eye-opening, my first moments in Bangkok outside the airport. Since it was about 1am or so at the time I couldn't see everything as during daytime, but under darkness and city lights it was quite a surreal experience. Driving past all the street vendors, pictures of the king and buddha figures, Thai and Buddhist architecture, and thai script everywhere were the things which most stuck in my mind, along with warmth and heat. First time I had ever really been out of the country and I was now in the middle of one of the most exotic cities in the world. About 15 mins later I arrived at Khao San Rd, nothing in the US quite compares to the experience in the area, at least where I have been. Like being on South Street in Phila time 1000 with all the street vendors, music blasting, world travelers and thai folk milling around, etc. Absolute sensory overload with action everywhere. Iwas only on the street about 30 seconds before I was approached by a group of beautiful thai women asking me everything about what i was doing that night and if I would like to hang out with them. They may have been prostitutes although I never got around to talking money or anything with them. Also possible they were ladyboys, the infamous category of men transformed into very passable women, some impossible to tell the difference after taking hormone pills and having surgical procedures done. However my goal was to locate my guesthouse in the area for the evening, the GreenHouse. I walked halfway down the street, which is about a quarter mile long or so, just taking in and absorbing all the sights, sounds, smells and feel of the street. I had forgot to write down the exact address of the place although I near Khao San Rd within a block or so. I had booked reservations online the day before. Asking several people I was given vague directions by a seemingly inebriated traveler to make several turns going down the street, turning at an alleyway, and then making another turn at the end of the alley. I wasn't sure exactly what I was told but deciding to give it a shot anyway. After making a couple quick turns i looked up and there the sign was, for the GreenHouse. It felt as though I had received divine guidance in finding the place so quick. It can be challenging finding places in this city as there are so many signs and other sensory distractions.

When getting to the front desk I inquired about my name and found out a room had been saved for me. Wasn't sure if my internet request had gone through or not. It turned out to be exactly what i expected, a nice small little room with a single bed and fan. The bathroom and shower for me was community on the hallway. The shower is right on the wall next to the toiler and water sprays all over the place, draining right next to the toilet. It keeps the bathroom pretty clean with the soap and shampoo cleaning everything off, except for some of the more dirty bohemian folks around here. The room cost me about 300 - 350 baht, I forget exactly how much, about $10 night. My next place I found was 200 baht a night, about $6. Today several blocks away I saw something for about 100 baht. I didnt' check it out and it may have been dormitory living, not sure. As long as i got a room with a lock a bed, and access to a shower I am relatively content. I don't spend to much time in room so don't really need anything that luxurious. Just somewhere to sleep and take a shower. So much to do and explore around here. Can almost be too much at times heading into the streets after being indoors in a coffee shop or internet cafe. The heat and all the movement and chaos can be overwhelming.

2 Days to go

2007-12-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

3 nights and 2 full days left to go.. working at getting everything organized, paying bills, and cleaning up apartment. Getting rid of car tmrw morning to guy in Aurora, have to ride bike and bus back to town probably in the snow. Hard to believe I will be in tropical weather in 4nights from now in Bangkok. Will be quite amazing arriving there around midnight on Friday night, still need to look into getting a room somewhere near Khao San Road in Bangkok, then walking around the city for a while taking it all in. I don't think I will be able to sleep as I will be so keyed up from being in a plane for 15 hrs or however long it is. Be cool to walk around and maybe make it down to Chinatown.

1wk b4

2007-12-08T18:52:00.001-08:00

going to asia in 5 days