Sunday, March 30, 2008

Chiang Mai




View Chiang Mai Photos Part 1 here.

View Chiang Mai Photos Part 2 here.

So I have been a little lax on the blog postings due to leaving my laptop in Bangkok while in N. Thailand. I opted for that as I didn’t want to have to worry about it at the guesthouses while out trekking around. Theoretically, this was probably a good idea but when the wheels of the plane left the Bangkok tarmac, I felt like I was leaving my first born behind! We have since been happily reunited and I now feel whole again.

It was a huge relief to leave Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I really wanted to GET ‘somewhere’ after being in Bangkok for 5 days (which were 5 too many). I had lost my bank card and had to stay to work out the details of getting it sent to me (not an easy task) and also had to sort out my Vietnam visa, prior to entering the country. 


I stayed at The Libra House on Moon Muang Road, Soi 9. This is where a large portion of the guesthouses are and the Libra House came highly recommended both by friends who had stayed there and my trusty online, SE Asia bible, www.travelfish.org.

I inquired about treks and was told that there was one leaving in the morning for 2 days that included a waterfall, hot springs, elephant riding, bamboo rafting and a 3 hour mountain hike. I was quite ready to have some kind of plan after wandering aimlessly around Bangkok the last few days, so I signed myself up!


The next morning, myself, a couple from France, a guy from Japan, 2 fellow Canadians from Saskatchewan, Levi from London, and Cait and Ada, from New York, set off on our voyage. We all piled into the back of a pick-up that had 2 benches parallel to one another (called a sawngthaew). I felt a little like a soldier en route to the battlefields! Was actually a lot of fun and great for seeing the country side.


We drove north of Chiang Mai first to a spectacular waterfall, where I stood directly underneath; a most refreshing way to start the day. Then came the hot springs - nice but would be much more satisfying in a colder climate me thinks. After lunch, we went trekking up a mountain and visited a couple of hill tribes along the way. Most areas consisted of a shack or two with colourful clothes drying on the line complete with pigs, chickens, roosters, water buffalo and oxen basking in the shade nearby. 

The last part of the trek was the most gruelling physically – an extremely vertical hike to our overnight destination atop the mountain. We arrived exhausted, dirty, sweaty and hungry! So most of us had a dip in the river before being served a traditional Thai meal by the hill tribe we were staying with – noodles, lemongrass, chicken and I even got my very own tofu dish – scrumptious!

We sat by the campfire before retiring to our sleeping quarters - a large hut with thin pieces of foam laid out beside each other. It was a chilly and uncomfortable sleep but well worth it for the experience. 


After breakfast, we went for our elephant rides. I had mixed feelings about this of course but the elephants SEEMED to be well taken care of. Ada and I rode one together and neither of us particularly liked the guide we had. He sat on top of the elephant’s head and steered him down the path with a series of menacing grunts, shifting his body weight and kicking his heels. To me, he was just exhibiting symptoms of ‘small man syndrome’. I cannot relate to people who cannot relate to or feel for animals. 


He pulled out a large tool that had a thick blade shaped like a hook at the end. This made us rather nervous and fully prepared ourselves to kick his ass if he hurt the elephant in any way. We saw him use it later to hook in behind the elephant’s ear to steer it to the ledge where we were dropped off and keep his head facing forward. It wasn’t done forcefully or maliciously but seemed like an unnecessarily frightening tool to have to utilize.

When we got off our elephant, one of the guides hit the elephant beside us on the top of the head with a bamboo stick. I yelled out, ‘Noooooooo!!’. The guide didn’t even look at me, so I made a point of petting the elephant on the head in a comforting gesture while glaring at his abuser, who continued to completely ignore me. 


The next day, I made a point of going to a restaurant called Tuskers who is owned by a guy from London who had gone on an elephant trek in Chiang Mai and didn’t like how the elephants were treated. He moved there to open Tuskers, where he donates a part of the proceeds to elephant conservation. He said the guides should never have to hit the elephants. Dow, the owner of our guesthouse said that when the elephants aren’t doing the treks, they are left to roam free in the jungle. I also asked the guide that took us on the trek and he said the same thing. That’s a really nice story and I really wanted to believe them but they also knew what I wanted to hear. Elephants are profoundly social animals with strong family bonds so I could take some comfort in the fact that there were a good bunch of them together and none of them had to go at this alone.

After elephant riding, we slowly drifted down the river on bamboo rafts past hill tribe villages, fishermen and children playing in the water. Many photo ops were to be had, but I put my camera in a water resistant bag as I have been known to fall, sometimes for no reason, and I wasn’t going to take any chances!

We arrived at yet another ‘hill tribe’. Use the term ‘hill tribe’ loosely because it is totally set up for tourism and doesn’t really have that tribal feel one would hope for when seeking culture. 

I bought some bracelets from the ladies and felt a real bond with one of them. I don’t think either of us understood much of what the other said but when I left I squeezed her hand like I would a grandmother’s and she bid farewell with a warm smile. 


 We then got into the back of another sawngthaew and headed to Chiang Mai. It was great to take pictures out the back where elephants were strolling down the side of the road and locals cruising behind us on motorbikes. 




All in all Chiang Mai was much more pleasant and laid back than Bangkok. That’s not to say that it wasn’t polluted or congested with traffic but I felt like I could breathe a little easier there. I decided the next stop would be Pai! A small town with a population of 3000 filled with travelers, hippies, musicians, artists and new age bohemians. I knew this would be my kind of place and convinced Ada and Cait that they would love it too. 

Stay tuned for more on Pai..coming soon!



Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Bangkok



View Bangkok Photos here!


Hi all! I am now in Bangkok! I would like to say that I am thoroughly enjoying this diabolical city but that would be me lying. It’s not awful, but it is definitely not a place I will come back to often if I can help it. I had such a dizzying, wonderful time in Hawaii that getting here was a bit of a shock to the system. Landing in Honolulu with the smell of plumeria and white ginger flowers wafting through the airport is a far cry from landing in Bangkok and being bombarded by the heat, pollution and aggressive taxi drivers.

My time in Hawaii consisted of surfing in Maui and the North Shore, swimming underneath waterfalls and floating the days away in the Pacific Ocean. Staying with my Dad was an extra special bonus before embarking on this trip alone. It was nice to have the comfort of family around knowing that soon enough I would be out on my own, far away from the nest and any familiar territory.


I arrived here early Sunday morning and had opted not to stay at the usual backpacker area on Khao San Road and decided to stay in the district of Din Daeng (which I now use as a bit of a swear word in my head – ‘Din Daeng that’s cheap! Din Daeng! What is that nasty smell?). Turns out Din Deang was dang dull. So I decided to move to the Sukhumvit area, which looks about the same as Din Daeng, just bigger buildings. The same pollution, massage parlours, hair salons, street vendors and thick traffic exists everywhere I go. The smell here is a mixture of exhaust fumes, rotting garbage, street food, hot cement, a touch of eau de sewer and I am sure the dog poo also contributes to this nasty little concoction of acridness..


There are a lot of things I have seen that have made my heart ache: little kids sitting on the sidewalk begging for change, a baby elephant being lead through the busy streets as an attraction for money, a man with no legs dragging himself along the sidewalk, cats making the most horrifying noises and dogs trying to navigate their way through heavy traffic on their roads to nowhere.

 I hate to knock a place entirely though. There are SOME good things about Bangkok. The multiculturalism here is mind boggling. I thought London and New York were melting pots, this place has it all! Walking down the street is a downright cacophony of languages competing with each other over the traffic noise. In fact, the coffee shop I sit in right now has 7 other people here and not ONE of us is the same ethnicity. This, I like. I learned the proper way to say ‘thank you’ in Thai today from my barista and he seemed quite pleased at my efforts to learn. I feel such sympathy for the people trying to make a living here. The average pay/day is about $4, so it is no wonder one gets accosted at every turn to purchase something.

I am now staying at Suk 11, a fancy dancy cozy little guesthouse with a/c and hot water even! I feel good there. Alas, I must venture on! My next stop is Chiang Mai. This is where I will meditate, do some jungle treks and perhaps a home stay with one of the hill tribes. Their is also the hippy town of Pai and Mae Hong Son where I can go zip trekking like Jane through the jungle – oh-a-oh-a-ohhhhhh!



After that, it’s Laos and Vietnam...I will keep you posted...until then, laa kawn!

Hawaii


See photos from Hawaii Part 1 here and Part 2 here.


It hit me on the plane from Vancouver to Hawai’i - I am job-less, car-less, Blackberry-less and....cat-less! When reality sets in, one starts to question what brought them to that reality in the first place? I needed reassurance. At the last minute, I picked up this month’s issue of Surfer Magazine before boarding the plane to Hawaii. I read the following wise words that have resonated with me ever since. This quote encompasses the very reason why I am embarking on this little adventure.

‘Aloha is the breath of life, the energy of life. I think we all have X amount given to us, and the only question is: how did you expend it? Surfer terms are so applicable: did you drop in to be seen or did you sit deep and take your wave? The tube of life and the tube of the wave, same thing: it’s risky. And yet, for the guy who gets there and experiences it, it’s the highest. ‘

- Kahu Billy Mitchell

Like most visitors to Hawai’i, I assumed ‘aloha’ just meant ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’ and ‘welcome’...so, I was surprised to learn that there is much more to it than that; it is a way of life, a part of the Hawaiian people’s lifestyle and culture; a religion, even. Someone told me that in ancient times, Hawaiians used to greet each other by touching each other’s foreheads and breathing into one another’s mouths to symbolize and remember the importance of breath and that they are all connected, living aloha. This means extending warmth and kindness to others without return for us to exist in harmony. When explorers arrived from other countries and did not greet Hawaiians with this intimate ‘handshake’, they were deemed ‘haole’. The term, Haole, (pronounced ‘howly’) translated means ‘ha’, as in ‘breath’ and 'ole' meaning 'without’. Tourists to Hawai’i who do not respect the meaning of ‘aloha’, can expect to receive this title, which can also mean ‘dead’, ‘soulless’ and ‘unwelcome’.

Since my announcement that I would be quitting my very comfortable and secure job and leaving my life in Vancouver to pursue an adventure on the other side of the world, I have barely had a moment to stop and think about how exciting all this is and how lucky I am to be able to do this.....let alone, just breath.

On February 19th, the day I left Vancouver, I went to pick up my malaria pills and observed the people around me going to work, shopping, minding their business and perhaps just having an ordinary day. For a moment, I panicked. Maybe I too wanted this to be just another ordinary day - no plane to catch, no important documents to scan, no visas to apply for or itinerary to plan...no stress. But then I reminded myself, isn’t that exactly WHY I wanted to leave in the first place? Do I not have the rest of my life to be ‘normal’, ‘comfortable’ and ‘secure’? Every day was starting to feel like the same day. I was Bill Murray in Groundhog Day...playing a much less exciting character..a B movie release. I was getting a little too comfortable with rolling out of bed, putting on my slippers and going to work...in my living room. All day I sat in front of my laptop, eating and drinking coffee. All night, I sat in front of my laptop, eating and drinking tea. All the while, my neck, back and wrist were screaming at me to make a change already! I was always finding excuses not to attend a yoga class or a social event because I was too busy with my ‘Tracey To Do List’. I am/was always SO pre-occupied....my mind always reeling. I don’t remember being this way pre-Vancouver. Is it because my passion for photography had grown exponentially after moving to a city where I barely knew another living soul? Did I occupy myself at all times so I didn’t have to feel how alone I really was? One thing is for certain, I don’t remember the last time I was bored or wondered what I could do to keep myself busy.

Photography is one of those passions that you just want to keep learning about. The more you shoot, the more questions you have about the ever changing technology, lighting, lenses, editing software and on and on. Not only that, but if one wants to make a career out of being a photographer, one must also market themselves, which is what I hope I will now have time to do.A reoccurring issue that has come up in the last year or so is the fact that I don’t really breathe. My shiatsu practitioner said that I hold my breath, even when I speak. My massage therapist started working on my diaphragm because she felt it was tighter than normal. I even had a psychic tell me that the root of all my health problems could be rectified, if I would just ‘breathe’. I discounted all of this of course. How could I not be breathing? Is this not an automatic process for everyone? And, if in fact I didn’t breathe, would I be here to write about it? Finally, I started reading about how women are naturally shallow breathers which may correlate with having heart attacks early in life. SO, I started to go to yoga on a regular basis to FORCE myself to breathe as I had caught myself on several occasions sitting at my desk, a zombie, barely moving oxygen in or out.

There is a theory that people who don’t breathe are trying to cut off the emotions they feel in their gut so that they don’'t have to deal with them in their head. Sometimes emotions are hard to deal with and if there is a way to not have to feel the bad ones, then by all means, why wouldn’t one try to cut them off? That seems like a good short term plan but then where do these emotions go if they are not felt or dealt with and what are the consequences? I don’t plan to find out.

So this brings me back to ‘aloha’. The past 2 plus years of my life, I have been literally feeling like a bit of a ‘haole', if you will...coming up short on breath and connecting with nature and community. I'm ready to start breathing, riding that tube of life and living ‘aloha’!

'With an attitude of Aloha we can gain from the wisdom of the wind and the wisdom of the water and the wisdom of the soil and the wisdom of the trees and learn from the truths and revelations presented by the non-human community.'


- Curby Rule