noodle quest 2006

this is a picture of where i will be atending thai massage school at the asoka sunshine thai massage school 80km north of chaing mai! i sure hope this is my teacher!

hello there- we have been in luang prabang for the past couple of days. the day after i last wrote, we biked to a cave and walked around it for a while. i don’t really know what the big deal is about caves. i mean they are cool but would be so much more so if they weren’t destroyed by abhorent lighting conditions that attempt to heighten the experience (i.e. green strobes behind a nice old stalagmite). then we biked to the river, hung out on a sun deck, went for a swim. the current in the river is SO strong i was pretty afraid but eventually went with it for a bunch of scary meters or so. then we went to a beuatiful scarf shop and watched my big fat greek weddng at one of the lounges where we met some very funny japanese guys who were drinking mushroom tea like it was going out of style- or out of stock.
the next morning we woke up at 9am with no bus tickets for the 9:30am minibus to luang prabang but somehow got ourselves packed, paid and boarded and to the bus station in 30 minutes. delirious we got teh two seats in front next to the driver and watched some beautiful mountanous green scenery flow by for about 6 hours. at hour 5 i got realy nausous. recalling some namelss peice of fatty tissue i hasd mistakenly consumed in a pile of vegi’s at a rest stop i almost lost it big time in the minibus but held on until we were shuttled to our super cute sok dee guesthouse where i promptly vomitted everything i had ever eaten in my entire life.
the next few days we spent walkign around, enjoying this very quaint, very beautiful temple-filled city. luang prabang has over 200 wats (temples) and some are over 500 years old. we saw a ceremony where the monks were benig cleansed and given their yearly enw robes which was very cool. also cool was the crazy music that accompanied this event.
i signed up for thai massage school which starts on the 13th of february! i am so excited! i think it is going to be evry cold and will probably need to bring a sleeping bag which i will need to buy in bangkok or somewhere… brrrr. before that we will spend a couple more days here, then backtrack down through laos and take a train down to bangkok from nong khai, the lao/thai border right below vientiane. there was an option whereby i could take a boat directly to chaing mai however i decided against it. it is 20 hours on a slow wooden boat (liek the one we took from siagon to pnom penh) with an overnight somewhere. then from the lao/thai northern border it is probably at least another 10 hours to chaing mai, so i figured better travel with jess a bit longer, then pick up some supplies in bangkok, then head back north for all in all roughyl the same amount of time.
I am uploading some photos right now from vang vieng and here in luang prabang which will be available for viewing in the next few hours.
something that is really crazy that we have deduced about many of teh monks is that many of them joined the temple as a last resort and do not wish to be monks. many of teh monks we have talked to and spent time with tell us stories about how they were desperately poor and/or lived in villages with no education past elementary. buddhist temples offers very good education as cmpared with what is offered elsewhere and for many becoming a monk is the best and only option. however, in order to receive education, fod, and shelter there is so much they have to give up (i.e. dinner, physical love, freedom). this is not to discredit the inner joy and peace that can also be gained from this type of life- i am just trying to acknowledge how the situation for many monks is less than idyllic- it is less than some intrinsic, long-held calling to the religion. many, i think, wish to leave after they ahve finished the formal education availabel to them in the temples.
today is elyse and grandma tillie’s birthdays! 28 and 85! happy birthday ladies! i hope you are all having a fabulous joy-filled time.
yesterday i had a horrible stomache ache and was in bed all day with a high fever. i think i slept for 23 hours. it was probably from an overdoes of sketchy eggplant. eew. can not think about sketchy eggplant. check out the new pics!
bye bye!
also i think i figured out how to post my videos for free on the web using google’s new video hosting site… is google taking over the known universe?
lastly, a nice pic of my cherished cuz and BEST pen pal having breakfast in bed the morning after her wedding, just a few weeks ago:

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 5:19 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.