just a quick hop, skip & a jump

Even living in a place that seems like a holiday destination for a lot of people I still feel excited to get away and travel a bit nearly all the time. My visa was set to expire on the 29th of March, so, on the 28th headed on the overnight bus to Vien Tiene, the capital of Laos, to renew it. When buying the bus ticket you can get “VIP”, first class or second class. I am always on the look-out for a deal and have a hard time paying full price for anything anymore…. I asked the lady at the counter if they had a “third class” that maybe they just didn’t tell us farang (foreigners) about. She had a good laugh and told me that the second class was only 400 Baht (about $12 US) for a 12 hour bus ride. To my dismay, the time schedule for the second class wasn’t possible because I had to work – so all the sudden I was stuck on first class. Stupid first class with all the first class people thinking they’re so great. Pfff… and it cost 560 Baht ($16 US).

I settled in to my grossly over-priced first class bus, sitting conveniently behind 2 monks with their seats all the way back, probably in some fantastic first class meditative state that I can only dream about. The seats are for Asian proportioned people, of course, and my long legs don’t seem to ever fit into the picture. Then a lovely little Thai woman about my age sits next to me with a massive smile and I feel happy we’re going to share these next 12 hours sitting next to each other. About 2 minutes before the bus pulls away, another lovely Thai woman with a massive smile comes on and hands a 1 year old baby girl to the lovely Thai woman sitting next to me. Massive smiles all around. Yea! Directly next to an infant on a cramped bus for 12 hours. Thank God, Buddha, Allah, everyone for eye masks and iPods.

Early morning at the boarder of Laos I met 2 guys who were as naturally white as I am, no bleaching of the skin for these Western boys! Mike from Sweden and James from England (speaking fluent Thai to a tuk-tuk driver). I go stand next to them and listen in on the bartering, because of course by default from here on out we were together in our travels, bound by being farang on a notorious Thai visa run. At immigration pick up Bryan from San Francisco and together we headed straight for a restaurant with huts on the Mekong River for some large Beer Lao’s. Shared rooms, beers and a combined total of about 5 hours at the Thai embassy for the next 2 days. I learned an incredible amount about the minds of men on this trip – I can honestly say I will never be the same again. Part of me wants to go back to being blissfully ignorant and part of me is glad to know what I know now, so I never fully trust those wankers again! Was all in good fun though – we saw absolutely not one thing of culture or interest in Laos, only the bottom of a few too many large Beer Lao’s on the banks of the mighty Mekong River, which isn’t so mighty at all at the peak of this hot and dry season.

Left Laos with a visa that allows me another 6 months in Thailand – perfect. Have to make one quick run over the border to Myanmar after 3 months…that ain’t no thang but a chicken wang.



Teaching is going splendidly – have been working a lot with 8-10 year old kids… they are the best! They can speak enough English to get by and they love to have fun and are really attentive and wonderful. Also have some classes with teens. And, well, teens are teens. All over the world they’re little shit heads apparently! No, they are sweet most the time… and I gotta give it to them cause this is summer session right now. The boy I teach private lessons to brought me 2 fancy pieces of chocolate cake from a bakery… I guess he liked us each pretending to be Godzilla and chasing each other around the room at the end of our last lesson together. Life is good!

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it surely looks like rain

Let me preface this with a quote from the book This Is It, by Alan Watts:

“cosmic consciousness” – To the individual thus enlightened it appears as a vivid and overwhelming certainty that the universe, precisely as it at this moment, as a whole and in every one of its parts, is so completely right as to need no explanation or justification beyond what it simply is. Existence not only ceases to be a problem; the mind is so wonder-struck at the self-evident and self sufficient fitness of things as they are, including what would ordinarily be thought the very worst, that it cannot find any word strong enough to express the perfection and beauty of the experience. Its clarity sometimes gives the sensation that it is pervaded and ordered by a supreme intelligence. At the same time it is usual for the individual to feel that the whole world has become his own body, and that whatever he is has not only become, but has always been, what everything else is.
The central core of the experience seems to be the conviction, or insight, that the immediate now, whatever its nature, is the goal and fulfillment of all living. Surrounding and flowing from this insight is an emotional ecstasy, a sense of intense relief, freedom, and lightness, and often of almost unbearable love for the world…

It seemed like the rain would never end in Amsterdam. Months and months of overcast, cold, drizzly days near the North Sea. I didn’t mind because it’s such an incredible city and I had a true family of friends; all of us living in one spot, sharing our days, nights, meals and lives together. My time in Central America coincidentally fell just during their rainy season as well. The south was not a problem, but in Guatemala I got stuck in some massive downpours and spent many days with books under a hut. Didn’t mind it there either because it made everything so lush and emerald colored.

Then Singapore. Ohhh, Singapore. At first the weather was great – warm and sunny, palm trees and shopping malls, swimming pools and sports cars… it could have been California. In the fall came my first experience of a true ‘monsoon season’. The rain came out of nowhere, fast and hard. Sometimes it came down straight, but more often than not it seemed to flow sideways. Instant pools would form on the marble sidewalks and I was convinced the rain even came from below, shooting up instead of falling down. I felt like Forest Gump in that part of the movie where he’s trapped in such incessant rain. The details escape me but it was a really Forest Gump-like feeling anyway…

Thailand is known for some massive amounts of rain. One horrible reminder of that is being in the south on the islands, some of which were the hardest hit spots of the Tsunami in 2004. Devastation and death spared no one; it’s chilling to see the pictures of people hung on walls of bars and restaurants, a memorial to friends and family lost in such an incredible act of nature.

In the north the rains aren’t as frequent as in the south, and for the past months Chiang Mai has really felt a bit like what I would imagine living in a desert feels like. It’s not that sauna-like feel of Singapore with its soaking wet heat… but the kind of heat like when people in Arizona justify their 115 degree temps by saying “Ohhh, but it’s a dry heat”. Yeah, it’s like that. A big, beautiful, blue skied, mountainous, palm treed Thai desert.

Until the 17th of March. It was a night like any other… which are actually nights like no other at all. I was with friends - Chris (England), Katia (Paris), Karishma (India), EiEi (Burma). We found a little alley way type open air family run store that had some tables set up outside for locals to come and take a load off, enjoy a large, cold Chang beer for about $1US… or a glass of homemade rice wine for 6 baht (20 cents US). Being the vagabonds we’ve become the 20 cent glasses of rice wine (imagine clear rubbing alcohol in a glass. Can be used to clean the floor, or spruce up the night) made our little hearts leap with happiness. If you dilute it with enough water it tastes a bit like Clearly Canadian. Ahh, the memories.

The family that runs the store took us in like we were their long lost foreign children. The most outspoken of the bunch, Mikey (Mouse) and his pal who’s name I never even caught, are men in their 60’s who apparently enjoy serenading near strangers with English love songs, dancing in the street and laughing for what I dare say was no reason at all. No reason being all the reason you need, I guess! After they introduced us to the 20 cent glasses of homemade Chinese whiskey (yikes!) we were all best of pals. I was hammin’ it up with them so much, from the outside it must have been difficult to tell who was crazier, them or me.

And then came the rain. The first I have felt here in the north. EiEi is the cutest, tiniest little person I have ever seen in my life. She comes from Rangoon, Myanmar and when we stand next to each other she comes up to about the bottom of my ribcage. She’s terrified of the rain. She dashed back to her place with the look of frightened mouse on her face. In the meantime, the crazy Western girls, Katia & I, danced in the rain like it was our job. In fact it was our job this night – to celebrate such a simple and commonplace thing as a little bit of rain and to make everyone laugh and come together and realize how being ridiculous can be so necessary and so pleasurable all at once.

The women in the family put our purses in plastic bags and hung them on nails so they didn’t have to touch the floor or get wet. Eventually we all squeezed in around the table under the awning and enjoyed a snug little family atmosphere while the rain continued to downpour and the little boy of the family had an English workbook in his bag and all the sudden he had 4 very buzzed English teachers, every 6 year olds dream, I’m sure.

I couldn’t help but think of the Buddhists outlook on life, or more specifically, on the non-existence of an after-life as we Westerners tend to perceive it. Their philosophy is if there is no next world, then this world becomes holy. I left there feeling as effervescent as could be, glad the rain fell to bring about a little ‘cosmic consciousness’ and the overwhelming feeling of love for the world…

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The Rose of the North

Ahhh, Chiang Mai. The second largest city in the country, the aptly named 'rose of the north'. A charming old city, established in 1296 - sacked by the Burmese (twice) and now considered the 'cultural capital' of Thailand. There's a moat that runs in a pefect square around the center of the city, with old castle wall ruins on each corner. Fountains, flowers and wats (Buddhist temples) permeate the landscape. Some days I think I see more orange robed monks then bohemian style tourists.

I left Singapore in December, managed to escape the most rule ridden country I can imagine without one slight infringement. Maybe the fact that they charge $8 for a bottle of beer helped keep me such a law abiding citizen....saw malls give birth to other malls in the time that I was there... beautiful to witness the true miracle of life.

After countless dodgy buses through Malaysia and one death trap boat ride I landed in Thailand. The path North was paved with beaches, beers, sunscreen, surongs, dance parties, spicy food, coconut shakes, like-minded wanderers, wretched bus rides, beautiful sunsets and just a few paralyzing days of some sort of food poisoning...

Bravin' it through Bangkok and the ancient capital of Ayuthaya for a bit, night train to Chiang Mai and couldn't sit still so headed more West, toward the boarder of Myanmar. Mountains and chilly weather filled me with a giddy delight, as did the fantastic group of friends that came together in those few weeks. Elephants and huts and motorbikes, ohhh my.

Then came a crash course month in teaching English... have been to like 6 colleges and in about 6 years but Cambridge whooped my ass! At the end of four weeks I felt a bit dead inside... like yesterdays flower. Mid-way through the fifth day after the course was over I sprung back to life (as did the other people that stayed here after it was over) - we started livin' the Chiang Mai way... bottles of whiskey at a bar for about $10, and keep em comin'.

It's not all just whiskey and roses here.... have been doing 'monk chat' at a wat near my apartment, Wat Suan Dok, built in the 1300's. It's stunning and on a clear day you have a view of all the mountains just behind it. The monks want to practice English so they invite people to come and have a chat... I've been reading random Buddhist books for years and like almost all Americans it's nearly impossible to really put any of it into context when you're a world away from it. Cause even heading to a temple in the States you're walking outside into a whoooole different world, filled with attachment and craving. Here there are little spirit houses and places to make offerings on every corner. It's been 'enlightening' to talk with such humble and understanding men. Most are from Cambodia, a country with an incredibly violent history and yet an incredibly resiliant attitude. I don't subscribe fully to Buddhism or any other form of organised religion, but they are certainly worth emulating in day to day life.

Now there are just 2 of us left here and we've spent 2 weeks tramping around, looking for jobs, because we're both equally as poor at this point. It's strictly street side food for us, 70 cent plates and you can bring in your own bottle of rice wine for an additional 70 cents, so we're gettin' by quite alright. When you have nothing and want nothing, you're free!

And, I found a job and got a 6 month contract! It's summer school in Thailand at the moment, so it was actually a bit difficult to find anything, I feel really lucky because I love the place where I am and it's 2 streets away from where I live. The New Zealand Educational Services Language Institute... it's bright and colorful and full of lots of life and lots of resources (rare for Thai schools). Started yesterday and they throw you right into the blooming, buzzing confusion of a class full of 4 year olds who speak almost no English whatsoever. There were 6 girls, all dressed fully in pink. There was one little boy who came in late, threw up everywhere and then left. Not sure if it was all the pink or he just didn't feel like screaming at the top of his lungs, running around in circles and jumping on my back like the rest of them....

Today they put up a united front against me - sticking out their tongues, not listening whatsoever, telling me 'no'... screaming 'no' is maybe a more fitting way to describe what they were doing. I won them over with tickling and piggy back rides, like the giant sized American big sister they never had.

A week or two of babysitting the cutest little devils I've ever seen and I can move on to adults, thank Buddha ;)

So, for now am enjoying the irrepressible satisfaction with the gift of life. Am spending more time with Thai friends, and it's as entertaining as any blockbuster movie. It's as hot as an oven here sometimes... good thing I'm cool as a cucumber.

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