a i m l e s s

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First and foremost (get ready for this one)… I have, in fact, purchased a MOBILE PHONE!  Amusing enough, it is exactly the same nokia model as my last phone in Jersey, and I can accept incoming calls for FREE.  Big news, as this means I’m part of the living technologically-advanced world once again.  I hate being accessible, but this is necessary for my new JOB.  Did I mention I have a JOB???

 I applied online and was offered the position as ‘floater’ with an English School called “Time 2 Talk” about three months ago, before I started biking.  My new employer is enthusiastic and passionate about helping Thais to learn and speak proper English.  I’m really into the company and how professional they are (ahem, I must dress business casual!  That means tailored trousers or knee length skirts and blouses!  SHOPPING!)  The school is also associated with the Yamaha Music Center, and there are tons of instruments and musicians strewn about.  Music lessons for employees are 70% off (finally, I’ll have a proper guitar teacher!)  The teaching is pretty up-in-the-air.  I’ll be teaching some University students in Nakkon Si Thammarat, as well as some nursing students here in Surat Thani.  My apartment will be a loft above the office in Nakkon, and FREE, so my housing stipend goes directly to my pocket (erm, loans and impending yoga school bills.)  So, I’m set up.  I’m planning on spending my next five months teaching, studying Thai, guitar, yoga, and biking around these lovely cities. 

My bike finally made it here, two days late.  As it turned out, bicycles weren’t allowed on the overnight train I booked, and it took a lot of complicated gesturing to organize his arrival in Surat Thani.  But here he is, Velo, back in action.  I’m hoping to ride him to and from my Uni job, 15k one way, each day I teach. 

Being in Thailand is surreal.  There is technology everywhere, so much different than Laos.  Computer shops, high-tech cell phones, westernized businesses, english translations on signs.. and shopping malls!  With cinemas!  I saw a fantastic film by Pixar called “WALL-E,” if you haven’t seen it now is the time to do so.  DO IT!  It was my first trip to the movie theater in years, and well worth the 150 baht (<5$!  The seats were so comfortable!)  I laughed outloud when exiting the theater; there was a small vendor selling fake DVDs, and WALL-E was right there on the top.  Gotta love Thailand and it’s amazing copyright infringements.

I’ve been told my camera’s memory card has a virus, so I can’t update any photos until I find a camera-to-PC cable.  For now, if you’re looking for some photos to kill time, check out my friend Chandar’s art page.  It’s linked on the side.  Or give me a call 🙂  I’ve got “time to talk!”  Ha ha ha.

How do I start to describe this experience? 

 Marnie told me when I was first thinking of joining the Pyramid Yoga course about how things just fall into place when you find your path.  Maybe it’s a bit like the time Jessy and I were stuck in the woods behind Sayen Gardens; we were trudging through thicket and stickers and mud and branches to the eye with all kinds of difficulty.  The sun was going down and it was scary, but we wouldn’t turn around (probably my stubbornness).  After 20 or 30 minutes of  pushing through bushes and climbing over brush we came across a lit path made of concrete, about 20 feet to our left.  It was there all along.  We were going the same direction of the path, parallel.  Ironic, but that’s the way my life is positioned.  I’m resistant to doing things the easy way, seemingly, exuding all kinds of extra effort.  But the path is right there, twenty feet to my left. 

Hah. I find myself now, at 25 years old, with a teaching degree, without a job, in the mountains of northern Thailand, studying Thai yoga massage.  How I got here, I’m not sure.  But I think somehow I have found my path.  I’m sure theres some thicket and bramble.  But at least I have a direction.  Thankfully. This massage course was fused with buddhist concepts surrounding insight meditation, yoga of mindfulness, and the connection of touch.  I have always believed in the importance of touch, and it’s connection with contentment.  The Thai massage I learned integrates yoga stretching positions, internal energy lines, chakras, reiki, acupressure, and aromatherapy.  It is awesome.  After a good massage your body experiences restoration, energy, and clarity.  I WANT TO SHARE THIS. 

Our course was set in the Lahu Village, in a time where villages that are mostly untouched are people zoos, only this village wasn’t that way. People didn’t perform for us. Kids hit us with sticks. We awoke to the sound of pigs snorting and roosters crowing at 4 am. The village was ALIVE. The children were so beautiful. Learning massage amidst all this was the icing on the cake of the course. Unforgettable.   

The only way to truly experience this place is to exhale deeply when you say it.

From KoPhangan, Th…

Though parts are overcrowded by foreigners, the island maintains so much natural beauty.  The coast differs greatly from rocky shore to powder white sandy beaches.  The coral reef around the northern tip is full of schools of colored fish, many of which Bubs and I have recently learned about in the Osaka aquarium. 

We are having a beautiful time here.  The air is moist, the beach is always right nearby.  It’s a bit hot at times, sometimes it will rain thunderous downpours for hours and hours, and it’s also a bit expensive (for Thailand).. but I love it here.

 The main reason I love it here is because I have recently learned of the Pyramid Yoga Teacher Training Program that is held in the northwest jungle.  Marnie, a beautiful faerie / photographer / yogini / artiste I met while teaching in Korea has just finished her course.  She couldn’t glow any brighter.  The course not only teaches you asanas (physical postures) but delves deeply into the metaphysical world of sacred geometry, chakras, and chanting.

 So Bubs and I have magnetized a troupe of four.  Adam Shane dropped in for a visit on his way to somewhere else, plus one Marnie equals a magical four day stay on the secluded and quiet bottle beach, and numerous adventures including a 4 hour jungle trek in the pouring rain (unintentional, of course).

The people on this island are about half foreigner half Thai.  This worries me. 

Marnie and I depart in a few days for Chiang Mai, a city in the north of Thailand.  I will join her in a 12-day Thai massage course in the mountains (if you thought I gave good back rubs before… pheeewww!) and then meet up with Bubs for some jungle explorations.

The biggest dilemma in my life is as follows:

“Should I stay or should I go now?”

I am applying for the yoga teacher training program at Pyramid for next year.  February 2009 until April 2009, back in Thailand and  learning to surround myself with purple energy forcefields and shaping my body and mind into tip top condition.  When I am accepted, I have this big decision to make.  I need help making it.

If I go home, I will spend a lot on a flight.  Then car insurance, gas prices, find a job, catch up fun.  Then another flight back in 6 months.

O R

Or, I could teach somewhere for 6 months, still traveling, and save up enough for the course.  Maybe Australia?

That’s where my mind is.  Once I figure it out, I will be all anicca and awareness.  But for now, mitote.  Mental chaos. 

The Thai new year begins in mid April, with a big water festival called Songkran.  It is celebrated all around the country, in big cities, the airport, villages, roadside restaurants, etc. 

 We arrived in Bangkok just in the thick of it.  I knew there was something going on, yet still felt surprised when a guy dumped a bit of his freezing cold water bottle on me as I passed him outside the airport.  “It starts.”  Bubs and I figured out a way into the city.  We left via minivan bus flying over 100 km/hr with the sun beginning to set over the smog-coated city.  Stepping off the bus, we were confronted by lots of people drenched head to toe.  Men and women, children, teenagers, dogs, everyone was wet and dirty.  Most were splashed with some sort of white clay (all part of the fun!)  There were clear plastic bags of water hanging off many benches that lined the main intersection.  Here come Bubs and I, hot and tired, sweating and dirty, with packs huge and heavy… perfect target… somehow we skirted the water and ducked into a cab.. protection!  

On the cab ride to the hostel we drove through Songkran craziness.  Kids with hoses were totally dousing motorbike, taxis, tuk-tuks, and passerbys.  Reggaeton pumped out shop windows, Thai people danced on tables to the tunes while running around and dumping water on each other.  We got settled, put our cameras in ziplok bags, and headed out into the fun.

 The streets were LINED with people.  Everyone had either a water gun, water bottle, hose, or plastic bowl with wet clay that smelled like tea tree oil.  They smiled as we passed, eyebrows raised, and with a short nod of appreciation from us, they dumped water on us or shot us with their water guns as we ran off or dumped the ends of our warm water bottles back on them.  All this water fun was quite relieving, it was HOT.  You know how I’m always cold, well I dried off in literally 30 minutes.  Not cold.

As we continued on our way to Khao San Rd. (land of the whiteys) we saw a huge crowd forming in the middle of the road.  There was a show going on a few blocks ahead, where the kids were so plentiful they stopped all oncoming traffic.  If you have ever been to an emo show, you would understand the expressions, dances, and clutching high-pitched singing that was taking place.  Girls bopped, boys two stepped a bit, but most of the crowd was under 20.  Thai pop, or maybe Thai emo?  Either way it was super cool to hear that same genre on the total opposite side of the universe.  Bubs and I hung out for a bit with the underagers, realized how old we are now, and headed out to the “bar” scene.

 Khao San Rd. is lined with backpacker stuff.  Shops, hostels, cafes, food vendors, travel agents, and the same thai fisherman pants (that are sold near our hostel for 100 b and cost 450 b here.)  The streets were no longer full, they were MOBBED.  It was like Warped Tour, only way wetter and happier.  Ladyboys passed us by, smearing white clay on our faces with smiles that couldn’t be broken.  Children splashed in the muddy rivers pouring down the sides of the streets.  Tourists armed with waterguns and bathing suits ran around like crazy people, playing some sort of rambo game I was not at all interested in.  A big plate of Pad Thai on the street was 30 b, and DELICIOUS!  Dogs were everywhere, and they were so happy too. 

As you continued down into whiteyville, you see more and more travelers, more and more dreadlocks, more and more tattoos, piercings, ‘alternative’ folk sitting in cafes with big expensive cameras, documenting the action.  Further down, we came to more of the ‘bar’ spot where everyone is drinking or drunk and girls danced on tables in provocative ways.  Not our scene, so we bailed.  Curfew time, the police set up a blockade not allowing more people into the area.

The best part about this festival wasn’t the water or the drinking or craziness.  For me, it was at the end of the night.  Some young boys, maybe 15 or 16 grabbed a bit of the garbage that was strewn about, some buckets and empty bottles, and started a rhythm.  Bottles clashing, sticks slamming on buckets, bits of here and there, with the most mesmorizing rhythm.  Then they were dancing and singing, covered in mud and water and dirt, all around the street.  It was an expression of true freedom. 

We kept meeting people in our days following Songkran who said, “If that would have happened in America/Canada/England/Wherever… there would be so much fighting, drunken debauchery, etc.”  They were right!  Yet here, in Thailand, this ‘scary scary’ place across the universe… people of all different types can coexist, celebrate, party hard, without getting out of hand. 

Why?!  Why can’t we do this?  Why the meaningless bar fights and drama?  Why the oversensitivity?  Why the lack of LOVE?!  Everyones layers just merge together when partying in America.  All the insecurities and pent up frustrations are taken outside where they belong, never dealt with, only reacted to.  I’m so guilty of this too, which is the most frustrating part.

I’m trying, though.  Walk the talk with me.  Our generation needs some changes. 

L O V E