Saturday, January 28, 2006

Photos at last.....

So I am back in Chaing Mai again, after a couple of lovely peaceful days in the hillsides of Pai. I will be in Chiang Mai for awhile and get settled into a nice daily routine of gym, swimming, yoga, going to classes, and working on my HPU course which is turning out to be more of a challenge than I thought. I have made many new freinds here and am slowly feeling more at home, though at times, I still get waves of homesickness, usually when I am looking at a picture of a family member or freind...nothing too serious- it is a good kind of missing....

I just found out that the night I had my purse stolen, two men were arrested by police here for robbing some other foreigners...I am hoping perhaps this is the same 2 guys that robbed me.....it is good to know the police are doing their job here. Unfortunately, we are still living in a world of "have's and have nots.."

I will make short trips to neary villages and towns this week..nothing too tourist...I like the idea of going to very small villages and just haning out with the local people.....their smiles seem more relaxed in parts like this.

I am excited that my two good freinds John And Roz will be here in Chaing Mai in a couple of weeks. It will be fun to be their guide for a few days...

OKay, off to the Night Bazaar for some "window shopping"....

hope you are all well.....





the Phuket beach I walked every morning.....

Sunset in Phuket.........


yet another beautiful face......


a rare photo opportunity of a smiling police officer

the view from my bungalow in Pai.....moooooooo.....

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

back in the swing of things...

Still in Chiang Mai....I plan now on being here till the end of February. I like the idea of staying in one place right now and making myself fit in more with the local community.

I am recovering from the shock of my little "incident" from a couple of days ago....I think the shock really hit me yesterday as I found myself staring down every motorcycle that rode past me - I don't like this feeling but it probably is a very normal one to have after being hurt by one..However, after a great night of laughter and live music with freinds here last night, I am feeling much better (and safer.) I am so lucky to already have a wonderfully supportive group of friends here.

I am going to take a 4 hour ride to the north of Thailand tomorrow to a very idyllic mountainside town called Pai. It is quite the adventurous ride up there (curvy roads for 4 hours !!) and plan on taking a few Dramamine with me. :)

I just found out my good friends Roz and John from Hawaii will be visiting here in Chaing Mai in a few weeks....this has made me very happy as I have been feeling a bit homesick these past few days...I think having my pursed snatched from me the other night just sent me into this sort of sad feeling for a bit...but like I said, I am better today...going to go join a local gym, start taking Qi Jong and Yoga classes and continue with my HPU teaching as well....

I have a new cell number !! from US: 011-66-1-029-7677
It would be great if someone could make a quick call to say hi or even send a text message as I still dont know if my phone works yet !!

Okay, I am off to get a massage as my body was a bit traumatized from my fall the other night....thank goodness, I am in the land of "massage on every corner"....

p.s. I went to go get a USB cord for my camera today and just found out they sold me the wrong one ! urgh....it will be a couple more days for pics....so sorry....

Sawatdee Ka !!

Monday, January 23, 2006

momentary lapse of reason....

Hello everyone...back safe and sound in Chiang Mai again...nice to see familiar faces and "old friends".....

I just wanted to let you know that I will be putting this "blog" on hold for a few days as I had my first (and hopefully last !) "motorcycle mugging" last night. I am fine, a bit shook up, and a few cuts and scrapes...but I did lose some money but more importantly, my camera to computer cable was also stolen ! Soooo...it may be a few days before I can share photos again...

Also, I am starting to teach my HPU course this week so I will be quite busy just doing so good ol plain hard work ! I am already feeling a bit more "out of the tourist" mode now as I settle down here for a few weeks and make myself a home here. And of course, getting pushed to the ground and having my purse stolen last night was a bit of a wake-up call as well. My attitutde with all this is that I hope the person who stole my purse/money enjoys eating well "on me" for a few good weeks !!

Hopefully, I will still have wonderful stories to share but for now, it is just putting my "nose to the grindstone" for a bit and licking my wounds for the next few days....

hope you are all well....

warm aloha...

Thursday, January 19, 2006

still in Phuket...

Hello from sunny and very warm Phuket, in the south of Thailand..I am just finishing up a week here of serious rest and relaxation- just what the doctor ordered- I cant remember the last time I have rested so much. It is amazing what this kind of calm does for ones body, spirit, and mind. I have been having wonderful dreams as well, including one of my mother, talking very calmly to me- very beautiful.

I have been trying to upload pictures for a few days now but have been consistently having problems- not sure if it a local connection problem or not.....but keeping it all in perspective, I am amazed this little town(completely devastated a year ago) even has a computer that I can use to connect to the rest of the world.

I am off to Chaing Mai again tomorrow and will update with more photos soon....

Hope all is well with you.....

sending you warm, calm thoughts...

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

remains of the day.....

PHUKET, one year later.....

I am back here in Phuket after not being here for 5 years. I needed to return here to really see for myself what devastations had occured here. I returned to the same bungalows I stayed before though the specific room I requested was completely destroyed. I have also found out that this bay (Bangtao) was one of the hardest hit in the tsunami though I am amazed how everything seems to have gone on "as normal" here. The only remains I see here are bits and pieces of scattered cement, tiles, brush, a few broken trees...there seems to be a lot of rebuilding around me yet it seems all so quiet.

I am surrounded by butterflies here. And for any of you who knows my association with butterflies, you will know I feel quiet peaceful and happy here. A huge butterfly even greeted me on the doorknob of my room when I first arrived. It just sat there as I turned the knob and then gently flew away.

The waters are so amazingly warm here- I am trying to think of a way to describe how perfect it feels....it almost has no feeling at all when you enter it..it is like the perfect temperature of a bath that has been cooled for a minute or two...so gentle....and it is wonderfully quiet here. I sense all children of school age are back in their classrooms....I am happy for this silence. Many of you know I have also been craving this quiet for a long time. I am sleeping very well and very long here. Even the "calls to worship" from the local mosque sounds very soothing here and is a reminder how people of all religions seem to get along so well here.

I will stay in Phuket a few more days and then head back up to Chiang Mai this weekend. It seems much more expensive here compared to where I just was ; though paying 35 dollars a night for a bungalow here (see pic) probably still seems like an incredible bargain to most. I may return here to Phuket when it become low season in March...we'll see.....I need to be in an area where I have cheap internet access as I start teaching my HPU online course next week. It will be fun to share my cultural perspectives to my students back in Hawaii- hard to believe I can teach, being so faraway ! Technology truly is an amazing thing at times.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Friday the 13th.....


Okay, it's Friday the 13th here and I woke up feeling the need to take good measures to "protect" myself...So I decided to put on a black top (something new and different) and wear a Greek evil eye necklace around my neck....

I also woke up missing my cat today.....(cat lovers will understand this pining)...and lo and behold when I opened the door of my guesthouse this morning, there was this very peaceful looking cat (not black) just outside my door looking at me....

thought it was a pretty good sign for what will hopefully be a wonderful day....

now I have to just watch out for those darn ladders.

Happy Friday the 13th (and Full Moon ) !

"It's Greek to me.."



Okay, so here I am , thousands of miles away from Athens , Greece, yet , as luck would have it, I have met half the Greek population here in Chiang Mai ! (5 out of 10 aint bad on my first try !).

I am always amazed how no matter where I travel in the world, I find Greeks...and with them always comes a great Greek restaurant. No exception in this case as I had a great meal at Zorbas last night in Chiang Mai with my new found Greek freinds Yannis, Maria, Costas, Costas, and Nikos ...They welcomed me with open arms and I felt like family at the end of the night.

OPA !!!!!

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

buddhas everywhere...



I just realized I have been here a week and have not sent you an image that I see at least several times day in this coutnry..that is the image of budddha, in all shapes and sizes..here are two amazing Buddha statues I saw yesterday- one is made of emerald , the other gold....

I find it amazingly peaceful looking into the face of Buddha and enjoy his beautiful eyes and smile....

a few more pics from Chiang Mai....



here is the Gold Stupa(yes, the whole temple is covered in real gold, from over 700 years ago) from Doi Suthep that was completely wrapped in orange ribbon by the end of the day....

also here is a picture of me with my new found Irish friends Fiona and her daughter Rohan at a juice bar in town. The owner of this bar lives next door to a couple who just moved to Chiang Mai from Hawaii...small world, once again....

more images from Chiang Mai.....



Just wanted to share some more shots taken yesterday at the most sacred temple in Thailand....seems I can only download a shot or two at a time with each entry I make here.....
enjoy....

Monday, January 09, 2006

"elephants,dogs, and monks, oh my......"


So I have made it to Chiang Mai, the "second city" of Thailand, 520 km north of Bangkok. Once again, I was quickly amazed how far one's money goes here as I paid $40 for an hours flight on a beautiful 747 jet to get to this city. The plane was half empty and they still managed to serve us drinks with peanuts in a beautful pink and purple wrapper; How they survive here with such low prices is still a great mystery to me.

It has been great meeting people here who are doing similar trips/journeys as I am. I am realizing more and more that I am not such a "rarity" after all in the sense that so many people are travelling on their own for months at a time..it is wonderful to learn so much from other people's stories- I have learned so much in just a day from being here....this is an amazing place for adventure of all kinds.

I befreinded a wonderful mother/daughter team (see pic)from Ireland within hours of being here- it was as if we had been friends for years- really lovely people with such a bright outlook on life. I sense already we will be lifelong friends- this is one of the greatest joys of travelling for me- meeting people "serendipitously" and then becoming friends for years to come.....it just reminds me more and more how every person we meet in our lives is really there for some special reason;in this case, Fiona and Rohan have helped me to feel so quickly at home in this 'faraway' city.

Yesterday we went to one of the (if not THE) most sacred Buddhist temple in all of Thailand- Doi Suthep. The legend has it that Buddha sent a white elephant up the mountains of Chiang Mai with sacred relics on its back in hope of finding a place to build a sacred temple. The story goes that this elephant walked up the mountainsides some 20 km before it literally collapsed and died in this spot. It goes without saying that there are not only lots of amazing gold buddhas in this temple, but heaps of dedications to elephants as well.

As luck would have it, we 'stumbled' upon an amazing ceremony while we were there. (see pic). A local temple was making an offering to this sacred site and part of the ceremony entailed about 200 or so 'parishioners" lining up (men in front, women behind them) around the main temple with a very long buddhist orange cloth- it reminded me a bit of what the Greek artist Christof would have done with a long piece of cloth in his psare time !. These 200 or so Thai people walked around the temple several times chanting a beautiful song while a sacred monk stood infron with flowers and incense, chanting softly to himself- it seemed like just another day on the job for him.... Eventually the cloth was wrapped around the bottom part of the chedi (the bdudhinst "steeple") with this huge orange clot- it was a beautifil site to see......pictures wont really capture this feeling but hopefuly you can get a sense of how special the moment was.

I am now contemplating several options during my week's stay here- will most likely do a meditation retreat for a few days as well as visit another friend who has a health retreat just north of this city. Again, having someone I know here just helps to make the world seem so much smaller and so much more safe and freindly..it is a great feeling. I also want to take a Batik class as this is something I have always wanted to learn.....I feel incredibly blessed to have this time right now to fill my spirit.

I hope you are all well- it is hard to believe that is just a week since a left but do know I think of Hawaii and friends/family daily.....bye for now and thank you for letting me indulge in sharing my journeys with you.

It really helps me feel more grounded and connected to you all while I trapse around this amazing country.

hugs,
me


Saturday, January 07, 2006

the children....









So today I made it down to the Pattaya orphanage- a dream come true....I had read about this orphanage many months ago and knew that it was a place I needed to go visit. I ended up riding down in a car with one of the major funders of this orphanage (Thomas Vincent- who is also from Hawaii ! for more info on his foundation, check out:TJVincentfoundations.org) as well as my friend Helen, who was on her way down to Rayong to a children with AIDS event. It was a special ride indeed.

I had never been to an orphanage before and really had no idea what to expect. I knew I would be moved by the beauty of the children and indeed that was the case. From the moment I first walked on to one of the playgrounds with a bag of candy in hand, I was hooked. There I was with a dozen or so 3-4 year olds running around me, smiling and politely holding out their hands for a candy.Some even put their hands up in prayer position and thanked me...we laughed, wrestled, ran around a bit and then it was time for lunch for them...

It was a happy place, there is no doubt about it. These children are so loved. And they are so blessed to have so many people taking such good care of them. The founding priest (Father Raymond Brennan) just passed last year and tributes to him were everywhere- he was quite a man and very well known in Thailand for all the work that he did with this orphanage. Many children here go on to graduate from high school and several have higher degrees in education as well..One of the most touching moments for me was meeting a man named Luke , who grew up in the orphanage and is now one of the managers of the orphanage, 35 years after first being brought to the home....he just had his second child born last month, on Dec. 7th, the birthday of Father Raymond Brennan.

After playing on the playground and getting a grand tour of the property, I was brought to the"baby room", a wonderful series of rooms where newborns were either lying in cribs or playing all over the floor...what a site....I didnt know who to play with first !...they were all so incredibly beautiful...

I ended up holding and playing with a very sweet little 1 year old boy (see pic) and when his eyes locked onto mine, he just let out the most amazingly beautiful smile- as if we had known each other for years- a very powerful moment indeed..... In that instant, I began to truly understand the feeling a parent must have holding a child of their own- no words can truly describe the love that I suddenly felt for this child and for the sudden appreciation I now have for parents everywhere.

I know I will be back here to spend the day again..I am also now encouraged to continue visiting orphanages as I travel throughout this coutnry ....a hug and smile truly go so far...for everyone involved.

Enjoy these beautiful faces......

Thursday, January 05, 2006

sawadee ka !


Made it at last to Bangkok......the quietest 15 hour flight I have ever taken.....lots to be said for the Chinese (flew China Air) and what they will be sharing with us in the upcoming summer Olympics...they are efficient , without a doubt....the only airline I have received my own pair of slippers, and I was flying coach....

It has been a wonderful first 24 hours...had a great Thai massage first thing this morning to get all the aches and pains out of my body from the long flight....a great gift to myself...was holding out for a week for this 8 dollar treat !....

I was again reminded of why I so much wanted to come back here...Everyone smiles and greets you as if you are their best friend...A small Thai girl even blew a kiss at me today as I walked past her....these people are amazingly connected to spirit....there are offerings everywhere...I was blessed to witness a group of bank employees this morning lighting incense outside their building making offerings of thanks to Buddha before they started their work day....They do this EVERY DAY...a lot can be learned from this act of thankfulness....

Got my Thai cellphone today !! You can now call me if you want !! 011-66-9-513-9702.........Feels nice to have a local number now......Call anytime...I will call back if you want...

had a nice dinner with my freind Helen Berger tonite- her husband james is a theater friend of mine back in Honolulu..She is a former Miss Thailand (and a Mrs Hawaii 2002) so she is sort of a celebrity here.....she has a great job-lots of great work comes with her fame ......and I will be riding with her this Saturday with another friend to an orphanage in Pattaya to make a visit and play with the children there...more on this to follow....I know it will be a most powerful experience...

No pictures yet as I have avoided looking like a tourist today...will post some in the next couple of days....

Just wanted to let you know I am fine and thinking of you all...

warm hugs....