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dinagosse — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 10:48:00 GMT

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Photos: Beijing

dinagosse — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 07:48:00 GMT

Dina and Aaron visiting the Great Wall

Our first day in Beijing

dinagosse — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 02:40:00 GMT

Today we see one of the wonders of the world: China's Great Wall. We drive from our hotel out of the city a bit. The wall is more into the Yan mountains. We are headed to the part of the wall known as Badaling, meaning that it is protecting the kingdom in all eight directions. ("Ba" being Mandarin for "8"). This is the area that President Nixon visited in the 1970's when he came to China. Nixon also was the first American leader to be introduced to acupuncture, essentially bringing the practice into mainstream awareness at that time. Driving into the mountains, we start to see parts of the wall and some towers at intervals along its length. It was really an exciting sight. When we arrived at the parking area, we are told we can choose either the north or the south section to hike. The north is chosen by most local people, as it is the way that was followed at one time by the emperor and it has a beautiful view. The south section would be less crowded, but still a good view. We decide to go with the less crowded option.

We start our walk along the old stones, noticing the signs that say "no graffiti," near which are carved much graffiti. It's almost all in Chinese characters, so we decide it is beautiful. After walking a bit, we come to the first tower, a more enclosed area with stone windows overlooking the expanse of mountainous terrain and the wall snaking its way over the hills beyond. I just can't stop marveling at how amazing it is. Just the part we can see from here is an incredible building feat, and it extends for a couple thousand miles all together! As we continue, there are parts that are quite steep, and have us stopping to catch our breath. The stone stairs are uneven; some short, some tall, and a few a bit slippery even though it's a dry day. Would be afraid to do this walk on a snowy day!! We pick out a tower to walk to in the time we are allotted for our travel group. Getting there in good time, we go further and further. After the sixth tower, we walk along and find ourselves for a good while being ALONE on our section of wall!! Most likely a rare occurrence for such a popular place to visit. We continue onto the seventh tower, and find that our path is blocked to further traveling, probably for restoration efforts. Still pretty happy, we head back, to check out the rest of the area. We had an incredible visit: a comfortably cool day with sunshine and actual blue sky, not the overcast, smoggy sky that locals call "Beijing Blue Sky." And we had part of the wall all to ourselves. It was more than we could have hoped for.

After the Wall, we visited a cloisonné facility. We got to see how each piece was made by hand, starting with the meticulous bending of small pieces of copper wire into shapes of intricate patterns. They are affixed to the hand-hammered copper plate or vase or whatever using one of the herbs in the Chinese Materia Medica: Bai Ji. The shapes are then filled by hand with colored enamel and fired in a old-style fire pit. This enamel and firing process is repeated seven times.

We learn about the meanings of the colors used: blue is the traditional color of cloisonné, but green represents long life and longevity, red is the color of happiness, success, and double happiness, signifying happy marriage and family life. Yellow was traditionally the color for the sole use of the emperor, signifying royalty. In modern times, all people can use yellow and it means wealth, money, and prosperity. (Grey, while not used in artistic palettes, is used for building color and signifies the 5,000 year history of the Chinese people. White is the traditional color of death and mourning. At a traditional wedding in China, both parties are dressed in red.) we tour around the showroom afterward, but buy nothing, as the things we find most beautiful are exceedingly expensive.

In the evening, we go on a night tour of Beijing. We stop in the old section of the city, with the traditional houses that were standard lodging for all residents in the city many years ago. This old section is all that remains, and is now actively preserved to keep the history alive. It is called a hutong. People still live in these houses, which feature a central courtyard, with living quarters facing inward from all four cardinal directions. Living in a house like this affords inhabitants little privacy or personal space, and is no longer desirable for younger people who prefer modem high rise apartments. Hutongs typically do not have bathroom facilities for each house, and instead have shared public bathrooms every block or so that is shared by many families. Walking through this area with houses hundreds of years old, we really felt a deep sense of history and community living. There is a small lake within this hutong area, that we walked around. Some of the old buildings, while preserved in structure, have been converted into shops or cafes. It seems like a great place to come to socialize and experience the local culture. We stumble upon a group of older men with traditional instruments playing near the lake. We stop and listen for a while to the singing and erhu and gongs, and try to imagine what the song might be about.

Our last stop tonight is the walking street market, where you can buy all manner of street food and trinkets. Sort of like a nighttime Pike Place Market, but with crazy food choices and way more people. We are already full from dinner, but had to look around and try something. Saw many types of meats grilled on sticks, a Chinese version of small caramel apples, fried big centipede, and live scorpions on a stick!! Saw a guy ordering one. The vendor takes the stick with three little scorpions, each about an inch and a half long, and throws it back into a big vat of hot oil. It sputters wildly for a while and he leaves it in the oil for longer than would seem necessary for such small morsels. Then he handed it back to the gentleman who ordered it, and said to me, "Now, no more poison inside." The gentleman then began to eat his scorpion snack, much to the delight of his friend and, of course, us. I chickened out and got something a bit more tame. Still a lot of fun.

Traveling to Beijing

dinagosse — Sun, 12 Mar 2017 01:29:00 GMT

We left North Bend yesterday (!) for our 20-day tour of China. Got a shuttle bus direct to the airport from just near our house. Runs only every three hours, so we got to the airport very early for our flight. We were able to grab a generally passable breakfast at a cafe in the terminal, and spent some time walking laps around all the gates and wondering about the destinations of all the other passengers.

Flew Hainan Airlines, a Chinese airline that compared favorably with our previous experiences flying Korean Air. Would recommend either of them over the American-based companies. Longest flight either of us have ever taken: 11 hours and 45 minutes, direct from Seattle to Beijing. I watched four whole movies during the flight, and played one of the video games obsessively for at least 90 minutes or so.

Getting into Beijing airport, the customs process went pretty smoothly. Met up with the leader of our group: Winston. Aaron wants to know if he has Anglicized his name for us. Our group headed over to the hotel was pretty large, but after tonight we will split up into smaller groups. I believe our group will be 15 people. Staying for the next three nights at the Loong Palace Hotel, a five-star sprawling place with several wings. Much nicer place than we usually stay when traveling. There are eleven restaurants and cafes within the hotel, as well as a gym and pool. There is a spa menu that includes such offerings as Aroma Rose Essential Oil package and Renal nursing essential oil massage. They also offer foot massage, which I will take advantage of to start out my Chinese trip in proper fashion.

Tomorrow we are going to the Great Wall, switching the itinerary for the first two days due to certain Monday museum/tourist closures. Supposed to be blue skies!! That in itself will be a treat because we've had near constant nasty weather at home for what seems like forever. Tomorrow starts our adventures!!

Cambodia countryside

dinagosse — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 23:51:00 GMT

Yesterday we woke, not quite as early, and got ready for a long tuk-tuk ride out of town to a couple of temple sites we were particularly interested in, north of town about 40 km. We stopped first at Pre Rup, a lesser known temple ruin that seemed of a different style than some of the places we saw yesterday. The primary stone structure seemed made of smaller brick-like stones, and we were able to crawl up to the top of the three-story structure via ancient thick stone stairs. From there, we were rewarded with a great view of the surrounding jungle, punctuated briefly with the sounds of, incredibly, an ultralight plane! Walking around at the top to the other side, we found a wooden stairs built with handrails, which I was very happy about!

I'm having to deal with my weird vertigo-like fear of stairs and high places quite a lot on this trip. I can't say I'm really getting any better at it. It's funny sometimes though, in that I do a lot better going up than coming down. So, once Im up there, what am I going to do, just live up there?? I've got to get myself back down. I find it encouraging to repeat a little mantra to myself with each careful step, "One step, one step, one step." I probably seem ridiculous, but I've climbed up and down stuff I wouldn't normally dare, so I feel good about the whole experience. Normally I avoid climbing up on a kitchen chair!

We get back into the tuk-tuk to continue our drive to our next destination: Kbal Spean. We pass through villages and rural communities, seeing roadside stands with what at first looked like bottles of cooking oil. I realized later that they contain gasoline, portioned off from some larger container. We see small wooden or thatched huts, often raised above ground. Chickens, dogs, cows, and even water buffalo are in fields and yards.

Kbal Spean is an elaborately carved riverbed, northeast of Angkor. It is referred to as The River of a Thousand Lingas. Phallic symbols called lingas are visible in many places in the riverbed, allowing all the water flowing down to Angkor to be blessed. We had a beautiful hike to the site, ending at a pretty waterfall. I regret not dunking myself in the waterfall due to my dread of the return hike in soggy clothes. But I will never forget the look of pure joy on the face of the 77-year-old man who stripped down to his skivvies to immerse himself in the falls. Should have joined him.

Our final stop was Banteay Srei, which my guide book described as having some of the finest carvings on earth. It was quite a drive from Siem Reap, especially on our tuk-tuk, which never reached too high a speed for fear of jolting us out of the back. When we finally arrived, we were so happy we had made the effort to come!! The carvings were incredible. It was as if every square inch of the temple was adorned, and with detail that I could hardly believe. Still visible were individual teeth of the lions, detailed flowers held by the heavenly apsaras, and intact protective naga snakes like I rarely saw at the other temples before. Banteay Srei means Citadel of the Woman, because the quality and detail of the carvings are thought to be too fine for the hand of a man to have made. Regardless, and considering construction on this temple began in the year 967, I couldn't believe how sharp the detail still was. Better stone as well??

Coming back to Siem Reap, we decided to eat at the Butterfly Gardens, where there are a thousand butterflies contained in a courtyard around where you eat. We have been having fun watching all the different kinds of butterflies on this trip; our favorite so far being a large red and white one that we have only spotted a couple times. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was dark and we immediately realized the error of our thinking: the butterflies were sleeping. Didn't see a single one.

Wandered around a bit at the Night Market and Pub Street, had a drink and some ice cream. A ladyboy invited me to come visit her bar. I told her "maybe tomorrow." Lots of tuk-tuk drivers constantly and forcefully offering their services. It's hard to stop walking and just look around, because we are immediately yelled to by vendors or drivers. I try to be understanding, in that everyone is just trying to make a living, but it is hot, we are trying to figure out which way to go, and it happens all day, pretty much constantly. I got a little snippy a few times. We are also approached separately by a woman and by a young girl, both with 1-yr-old babies, asking for milk. The baby holds an empty sippy cup that clearly has the dregs of milk in it. It's very difficult to refuse to help. "No money madam. Need milk. Milk, please, please madam. For the baby. For my sister. I have no money to buy milk." They grab my hand. I keep walking. It feels wrong not to help. I've been told this is a scam, but I wonder how it is actually wrong to basically just be begging. I feel horrible.

We are planning to sleep in tomorrow for the first time in a while and do some trip maintenance stuff. Low-key Siem Reap day, such that it is.

Photos: Siem Reap, Cambodia

dinagosse — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 00:05:00 GMT

Our visit to Angkor temples

Angkor!!

dinagosse — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 23:29:00 GMT

Big day!! We got up extremely early to meet our tuk-tuk driver at 4:30 am. We had to go get our entrance ticket for the Angkor temples. Popular place, and ticket lines can be long; I wish I'd remembered that to get our tickets yesterday. We could have slept another half-hour. Luckily, when we get to the ticketing, (my God!, what time do these people have to report to work?!), there are only a handful of people and we get our tickets right away. The two-day and three-day tickets are the same price, so we get a three-day one. There is a lot to see here!

Our plan for today was to leave before daybreak, to go to Angkor Wat while it was still dark. We walk out in pitch blackness, using the light from our iPhone, and join the assembling crowd at the edge of the reflecting pool to await the dawn. The crowd was more than I expected; apparently the early hour is not the deterrent I had imagined it to be. There were easily 500 people amassed at the water's edge, some rudely jockeying for position. I had to firmly stand my ground. Not quite as serene as I had hoped, but I was determined to enjoy this spectacular vision no matter what.

As the first light began to turn the black sky the slightest bit of gray, I could start to see the outline of the five towers of the temple. Awe-inspiring! I got some beautiful shots of the sky and temple reflected in the pool. As ancient wonder and natural beauty combine, it really doesn't get any better than this! Before the sunrise was truly "over," we decided to break from the crowd and head to the temple itself to try to beat the majority of the crowd entering. We were rewarded with a good amount of time in a side courtyard of the temple all to ourselves. We felt pretty fortunate, as few others that day would have had that experience. I felt so humbled just being in the presence of these famous towers and carved images. There is a continuous bas-relief that wraps almost 1 km around the outer wall of the temple. It depicts both historical events and mythological stories, including the fascinating creation myth of the Churning of the Sea of Milk, which involves a contest between gods and demons to extract the elixir of immortality. Angkor Wat is one of the wonders of the world. The amazement I felt was overpowering, and I had to finally remind myself that there were more temples and wonderful things to see today.

Next stop was Angkor Thom, actually much larger than Angkor Wat, and encompassing many areas. This is the site recently made famous by the "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" movie, which I guess I will now have to see. My favorite part of this was Bayon, which features 54 towers, each with 4 giant serene faces, looking out in four directions. It is debated whether the face, identical on all 216 visages, is the Buddha, the king Jayavarman VII, or a combination of the two.

Occasionally, there is a small inner shrine with an adorned Buddha, with flowers, candles, and sticks of incense. Sometimes there is a monk or someone in attendance there to ensure proper respect is paid: removal of hats and shoes, or covering of bare shoulders. We are sometimes offered lit sticks of incense to pay our respects at the shrine. Becoming a bit jaded at being offered things at every turn, I am not certain if the incense is for sale or merely available for nothing, so I am hesitant to engage these offers and avoid the shrines in search of other areas to see.

But at one particular shrine, there was an old woman attendant who saw me across the way (I was not even that close to the shrine) who walked out at me and shoved the lit sticks of incense right in my face demanding that I take them and come in near the Buddha. I breathed in the thick, strongly acrid smoke and began to cough. I tried to wave her away, but she became very aggressive, yelling, "Pray! You pray now! Pray now!" All the while waving the incense close to my face. I tried to get away by starting down some steep stairs, and she followed me! I finally yelled out to Aaron that I was freaking out on the stairs and he shooed her away. She shot us a dirty look and walked off. It seemed shockingly un-Buddhistlike behavior, and I now refer to the incident as the Temple Witch Encounter.

Our last stop was much-anticipated: Ta Phrom, described as "the ultimate Indiana Jones fantasy." When we arrive and start to walk down the path to the temple, it begins to rain. We duck inside a small ancient stone shelter to wait out the rain. It lasts a good while, and we contemplate having our mail forwarded to us there. "Aaron and Dina, old small stone structure, Ta Phrom, Cambodia." Drenched local children selling cheap plastic rain ponchos try to sell us their wares. They laugh when I point out that it is they who need the ponchos, as we are quite dry in our stone hut.

Here at Ta Phrom is where we expected to see the temple overtaken by large tree roots and all-but-forgotten in time. We arrive to the sounds of construction!! Ack!! So much for fantasy.

But even ancient temples need to be maintained, and we could see throughout our day different areas of repairs, patches, and replacement. Here and there were metal bands holding together a pillar, or newer mortar keeping a wall from crumbling down. While the idealistic purist in me felt like that was sacrilege, I realize that quite a lot of what I was seeing today may have fallen into rubble long ago if it hadn't been for these efforts. In fact, some of the repairs themselves looked pretty old.

Construction aside, this was a pretty amazing sight. And as we explored, we found that the site was large enough to actually get away from the machine noise after awhile. We love this sort of thing: where natural forces take over and make things more beautiful in their age and decay. We decided this was our favorite place of all.

For dinner, we decide to have another cultural experience. We make reservations at a very large buffet hall that has dinner and then an Apsara Show. Apsaras are the beautiful heavenly angels that appeared as a result of the Churning of the Sea of Milk. Cambodian traditional dance is based on the postures and mudras (hand positions) found in carvings of apsaras on the temples. After our buffet dinner with a mind-boggling number of tourists, we see the show composed of several dances and traditional music depicting the story of Hanuman the Monkey God, the apsaras, and local traditional village fishing and courtship. The dances are often slow and deliberate, carefully executing very specific poses and movements that are one of the only remaining record of ancient Khmer customs.

We discuss later the Khmer civilization, and that the term 'Khmer' has such a negative association now due to the Khmer Rouge and time of Pol Pot. The national language here is called Khmer (though they also speak French), and we have learned a lot about the Khmer history and culture. It must have been incredible to see Angkor at the time when it was a thriving civilization of a million people when London was a burg of a few thousand.

Arrived in Cambodia

dinagosse — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:26:00 GMT

:We say goodbye to Thailand, and fly into a new country for both of us: Cambodia!! A quick one-hour flight from Bangkok, we touch down into a very hot day. We thought Thailand was hot....

Arriving at the airport, we discover that we need to fill out an entry visa application. I was told that we wouldn't need a visa to visit Cambodia, but maybe it's because we are arriving from Thailand?? No big deal, until we see the part about having to attach a passport-sized photo to the application. And we see other people who seem to have these photos. We had no idea, and so when we had photos made in Chiang Mai for our Thai massage certificates, we sent the extra photos home with some stuff we mailed. Oops! In a mild panic, we approach the visa counter to pay our fee and plead our case. The man asks for my photo. I say I don't have one. He says it will be an extra 2 dollars, and sends me over to wait for my visa. I get my visa. They never do take my photo.

We had arranged for our hotel to send a tuk-tuk to pick us up from the airport, and we drove into Siem Reap. It seemed just like Thailand, except that here they drive on the right side of the road, and seemingly much slower!! We didn't hit more than about 20mph. And the other drivers all seemed to be driving at a much less frenetic pace as well. We decide that Siem Reap might be a much more relaxed place to be.

The road on the final stretch to our hotel is unpaved and quite bumpy. Perhaps that is the reason behind the slower speeds. We pass a couple of jowly-necked cows browsing in the ditches, and a beauty parlor named Gangnam Style. Our hotel is pretty nice, (of course, we've just come from the hut experience; I'll be happy to have a attached toilet seat), and I am thrilled to remember that there is a swimming pool at our hotel!! We also have a stone bathtub on our balcony that I will have to try out! We have dinner on the rooftop restaurant, in which we notice the hugest gecko I have ever seen! Probably 10-11 inches long!

Next day is recon mission and checking out the town. We walk in to town, a hot and dusty 1+ km, to check out other ideas for eating and sightseeing. We pass a couple good options for dinner that night, and grab some coffee and breakfast at a little place near the river called Sister Srei. I have Green Eggs and Ham (!), which is eggs and bacon with pesto on toast. It is delicious, and the most western-style breakfast I've had in a while. It was much appreciated. We meet an American woman traveling alone and share some sweet potato wedges with her while she tells us about her travels. She recommends that we visit the nearby Angkor National Museum, to get more background on the temples, history, and art of the Angkor structures before we see the temples. We decide this is an excellent idea. We go straight to the museum, walking along the Siem Reap riverfront. There are large stunning photographs displayed along the way; all part of the upcoming international photography exhibition in town. We enjoy going through the museum and seeing the artifacts in air conditioning! One of the exhibits was the Room of 1,000 Buddhas. We decide that there are actually 1,000 of them.

Walking around the city, we occasionally see people who are missing hands or entire limbs, and we are reminded where we are and the hardships that this country has pretty recently survived. We also have read about forced begging and scams, which make me feel so conflicted. One of the scams apparently involves a woman with a child who will approach you asking not for money, but for milk for her child. You are to go with her to a market to get the milk. As soon as you are gone, she returns the milk for the cash. There is a lot of printed literature in the cafe we visited that describes this practice and encourages people not to give in this way.

The day wears on, and we walk and walk in the sun. I decide I need a sunhat, and we stop at one of the many stalls that sells such hats and we haggle and overpay anyway for a straw hat with a wide brim and a ripped butt-ugly ribbon around the brim. I am grateful to have it and avoid serious sunstroke. We also make arrangements for an early morning pickup to go visit Angkor Wat tomorrow. So excited!! This is bucket-list stuff.

The Hut

dinagosse — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 16:58:00 GMT

We leave Cave Lodge, sadly and sorely, and head back to Pai. Pai is partway between Chiang Mai and Pang Mapha, and we thought staying there for a night would be a nice way to break up our return trip from PMP to Bangkok. The road from PMP to Pai is almost as winding as the one from Chiang Mai to Pai. I had had a couple glasses of wine the night before with our new friends at the lodge, and was feeling fine in the morning, but not so much as the trip progressed. By the time we arrived in Pai, I was pretty green around the gills. Aaron led me into a nearby little cafe for a Sprite and a rest.

After recovering for a little while, we walk back next door to the bus station to check out a map of Pai and try to decide where we'd like to stay. We pick out a couple of places listed and head out to try to find them. We want to be within walking distance of the bus station to make getting back tomorrow as easy as possible. Compared to where we've spent the last few days, the streets of Pai seem like Bangkok!! Well, not quite, but there are lots of backpackers and street vendors and motorscooters vying for right-of-way. We head left and look for the turn to the bridge over the river. I'd been told to stay somewhere across the river. We come across several little places set up like cabins or huts along the water. Since we hadn't yet located our first choice place, we decided to just grab one of these little places.

We ask a man if he has room for us, and he leads us back and back through rows and rows of little bamboo raised huts. We are given Hut #24. On first view, we think, "How quaint! It's just like our own tribal hill hut!" There's a little front porch with a well-worn string hammock that is flanked by banana and papaya trees overlooking a field. Opening the door, we see a cloth mosquito net gathered up above the bed, with walls and floor made of woven bamboo mats. There is thin linoleum over the more worn (read: broken) areas of the floor. Cozy and rustic!! And then, unlike some of the other huts, we have a bathroom. Aah, the bathroom.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have a bathroom and be spared having to stumble around at night or early morning trying to locate our specific hut again on the return trip. But this bathroom is definitely on the no-frills side. First off, there's no toilet paper. Not that unusual in Asian bathrooms I've been to, in that you are expected to either use your own or employ the hand-held kitchen-sink-type sprayer as a kind of bidet. (We went immediately to purchase TP.) This toilet also is the common gravity-fed type that requires the user to dip water from a nearby bucket with a plastic pan or bowl and pour it into the toilet bowl, as many times as necessary, until the bowl is "clean." Any TP used does not go into the toilet, to avoid clogs. It goes into the bathroom waste basket. Luckily, the back wall of the room is mostly open overhead, so as to allow plenty of ventilation. Good thing we have a mosquito net!

Our toilet also had a detached seat, that one could place on the rim if desired, for precarious balancing during use.

The shower had hot water! Sooo welcome after today. No floor basin for the shower water; no drain for that matter either. The water just dripped down through the floorboards onto the ground below.

The town of Pai itself was kind of a cross between the hippie wonderland of the Oregon Country Fair and the agricultural areas of a state fair. There were scooters, and big backpacks, all manner of stray dogs, Jesus- and Russell Brand-lookalikes everywhere. Great choices of street food any direction you looked: dried cuttlefish on sticks, black sesame cakes, different teas served in bamboo tubes, fried oysters, and even nachos! I've been mostly avoiding any attempts at Mexican foods here. We pick a relatively popular looking place, receive menus and are then never waited on. After 20 minutes, we leave and head across the street. There, I order a mixed fresh berry juice and chicken with holy basil and chili. Assuming this was chili *paste*, I am blind-sided by searing hotness in my face from a incredibly hot Thai chili pepper I just ate. Wow! Seriously lethal! The smaller the pepper, the hotter it tends to be, isn't that true? I eat a bunch of rice to try to soak up the heat, and drink a ton of my berry "juice," which actually came very thick and cold like a shake. What luck for me! Aaron's dinner was less eventful, but he did add squid to his list of "Meats Aaron has Eaten on this Trip."

Sleeping in the hut was interesting; between the generously-firm and sloping/domed mattress, to the raucous calls of the overly-drunk Japanese fellow down the way.... to the call to prayer at 5:00 am, and the rooster crowing at 5:30.... We slept great. Early rising today to catch the 8:00 van back to Chiang Mai. Stopped back at our old Hollandra Montri guesthouse to say hello again to our pals there and to gather our bags. Not traveling so lightly from here on. I could still get rid of probably half of my stuff!! We get a tuk-tuk to the train station to wait for our train to Bangkok. Hanging out at a coffee shop, we see a familiar face!! It is Claudia from our massage training last week! She's going to Bangkok too, on a later train. We catch up a little and we tell her all about Pai.

Today will be a long travel day-and-a-half, encompassing four cities and two countries: Pai, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Siem Reap.

We have a 1st class sleeper car on the train on this trip, which I hope will be a bit more restful than our first trip up to Chiang Mai several weeks ago. We are Cambodia-bound!!

Photos: Pai

dinagosse — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 19:57:00 GMT

Our overnight stay in Pai, Thailand

Tham Lod cave

dinagosse — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 01:32:00 GMT

Yesterday, I woke up extremely sore from our three cave adventure the day before. Thankful I am not actually injured, but it's still pretty difficult to get out of bed, descend stairs, or navigate a toilet. As much as I'd love a day of rest, recuperation, and reading by the river, that is of course not what we are going to do. Being that it is our last full day at Cave Lodge, we at least have to see the world-famous local cave: Tham Lod. It is a twenty-minute walk along the river to the cave entrance and visitor center. We make our arrangements to enter the cave, which involves hiring a local guide with a kerosene lantern and flat bamboo raft. We are also told there are a lot of fish in the river and are encouraged to buy three bags of fish food that smell suspiciously like dog kibble. I am quite concerned about doing any more caving after the adventures of the previous day, and try to ask if the walking into the caves is difficult or involves any climbing. They assure me that it does not.

We follow our guide to the cave entrance, which is already pretty impressive. The opening of the cave was about 50 feet tall, with some stalactites visible and the Lang River flowing into the cave. This is the same river that flows in front of our lodge. We walk to our raft which is about two feet wide with very low stools, no more than eight inches high along the 15-foot long raft. Our guide sat in front with the kerosene lantern, and a driver was in back, propelling the raft with a long bamboo pole into the darkness of the cave. Unlike other tourist-destination caves I have visited in the US, there is no lighting in the cave, except for that of the guides' lanterns, and the occasional visitor's flashlight (sure wish we had had one!).

Once inside, the cave interior grew to amazing heights, and we could not really even see the very ceiling of the cave. We could see formations descending from the top, but in the low light, unless directly illuminated, it looked like the night sky at the very end of twilight. There was the sensation almost of being outside, looking up at the sky, into vaguely distinguishable clouds in the low light of early night. We could hear the soft watery noises of the raft being pushed slowly forward, with a slight echoey feel of being enclosed in the cave.

The river passage through the main body of the cave was amazing, but there are three "rooms" that you can also visit. This involves getting gingerly off the raft and onto the shore of the river and climbing stairs up into these side areas, each with their own group of incredible formations. I was very thankful for actual stairs today, as this made it easier to get around with my stiff legs. The stairs were quite steep however, and often very narrow, which required me to place my feet sideways on each step. Some steps had some buildup from the dripping from the cave ceiling, so still some worries about slipping at times.

The first cave was called Column Cave, having a stalactite and stalagmite that had joined to create a thick 50-foot tall column. There was one that looked like a tooth, one was an amazing full Buddha, one a frog, a crocodile, and an anaconda descending from above.

The second cave was Doll Cave. No specific dolls that I remember, but again very interesting formations; from different types of crystalline groups that looked like a futuristic city, to one that looked like an udder.

We then saw a couple of foot-long carp-type fish come right up to the boat, which seemed like our cue to break out the fish food. Throwing a handful into the water, we were rewarded with a show of several hungry fish swarming the area with their heads practically out of the water to get at the kibble. So I dumped in the whole bag. We had to laugh at the noisy, splashing feeding frenzy we got out of that one. You could actually hear their mouths slurping.

Going further into the cave, we began to hear a lot of squeaking/chirping noises which we assumed were a whole lot of bats flying around overhead. We saw a couple here and there clinging to the walls as we passed by. Finally we start to smell them as well. Bat guano. Not a smell I will soon forget.

The last cave is Coffin Cave, so named for prehistoric coffins found here that are thought to be at least 2,000 years old. There are other caves in this area that also hold these coffins, some that amazingly still contain human remains. These coffins are made from logs, hollowed out and refitted together, some being over 12 feet long. There are over 200 caves in this region, many having archeological evidence of human activity from far before the Thais inhabited Thailand. There have been iron tools found and wooden vessels constructed on primitive lathes. There are one or two caves here that have a species of blind fish that is found nowhere else in the world and was featured on BBC's Wild Earth. The folks from Cave Lodge took them to the cave.

After walking back to the Lodge from seeing the caves today, we decided we had one last must-see thing on our list to do before leaving Pang Mapha. We returned to the exit of Tham Lod cave, arriving about 4:30. We wanted to make sure we arrived early enough to be there when it started to become twilight. We were joined shortly afterward by three other people from the lodge. Around 5:10, we started to see the first few birds: the black-tailed swifts!! And at 5:15, the show really started. Birds started to gather overhead and swirl around and dart into the mouth of the cave; coming home to roost for the night. More and more birds gathered, chirping so loudly all together that it seemed almost like a swarm of insects. Still they kept on coming, swirling and dashing into the cave. It was amazing how they didn't collide. How could there possibly be room enough for all of them!!? Impossible to even try to count them. Over the course of about the next 50 minutes, we witnessed a steady solid stream of bird frenetic energy flowing into the upper reaches of the rocky crevices. We agreed there must have been almost a half-million birds. Amazing!! Apparently later there is also an outpouring of a similar number of bats, but it was fast approaching nightfall, and we still had two rickety bamboo footbridges to cross over the river to get back.

Back at the lodge later, we had a great dinner. Aaron had Thai crocodile in curry paste and Dina ordered the Shan special, which is what the local staff eat (from the Shan villages in the area): vegetarian, spicy, soy-fermented deliciousness with rice. We also had a great time chatting with our new friends (who said we didn't miss anything with the bats: it was much too dark to see). I spoke with Rich who has been living in Thailand for three years and has a girlfriend in Cambodia. He gave me lots of tips for our travels there when we go in a couple of days!! He also told me some great stories about staying with his girlfriend's family in a very poor village there. One story involved the time he was trying to step outside late at night for a pee, without his glasses. Starting down the stairs, he didn't see the black dog lying at the top. He fell headlong down the stairs, knocking himself unconscious. When he awoke, he was in bed slathered in toothpaste. Apparently the custom is to use toothpaste to help heal scrapes and bruises. Kind of like Windex in the movie "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding."

Today we caught the van back to Pai, to spend the night there before returning to Chiang Mai to catch the train to Bangkok to catch a plane to Cambodia. Lots of travelling coming up!! Got to get some rest!!

Waaay outside the comfort zone

dinagosse — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 01:04:00 GMT

If travel is supposed to bring you into experiences you would never normally have, then today I have truly travelled. We signed up for a tour of three local caves today. There were eight of us, plus our guide, Ahn. The first thing they say to me is, "You probably want some long pants and closed-toed shoes." Umm, I don't have either of those things. I'm wearing shorts (as are several of the guys, Aaron included) and I figure I'm signing up for some knee scrapes. We each are to bring two liters of water and a knapsack, and we are further supplied with a bag lunch of rice, meat/herbs, and a banana muffin. We are then given headlamps, a bamboo staff, and helmets. I am immediately a little nervous. We load up into the back of a pickup truck and are taken to our drop off point.

First thing, we start to walk on the trail to our first cave: Fossil Cave. It rained yesterday, so what might have been mercifully firm soil was now slick-as-snot red clay. I'm wearing Chaco river sandals. The trail is steeply up and down and up and down into rice and bean fields, jungles, and hillsides. I am sliding all over the place, mostly just falling down. I lose count of how many falls I have had, and with little pride left and a growing fear level, I just sit down. I "hiked" for about 1.5 km, on my butt. In the mud. Yes, I did. I tried to "ski" in a squatting position much of the time, to avoid falling too far behind, though several times I caught up due to others also having difficulty with poor traction. I'm covered in mud, and complete the picture by swiping mud marks across my cheeks, Rambo-style.

We get to the cave, and put on our helmets and headlamps. I am instructed in how to point the light down, rather than ahead, so as to see my footing, rather than the view. Now, as many of you may know, I am afraid of heights a bit, and also of falling. Of course, I've fallen already probably over 40 times today.

Going into the cave is like nothing I've ever attempted before. It's dark, but there are nine of us looking around with our headlamps so things are illuminated somewhat. The rocks we are climbing around on on slippery and muddy, and at odd angles. I needed some help navigating my footing several times, but Aaron was very supportive and the others were very helpful too. We saw a cave snake, and a bat flew really close to my face at one point. There are stalagmites and stalactites all over, and crystally patches here and there. Beautiful formations and tall cathedral ceilings. Spectacular!! I was very grateful for the helmet on several occasions, when I stood straight up into stalactites.

Then we hiked to the second cave, Waterfall Cave. We were told that this one would mentally challenge us, and to be prepared. My god! I mentally challenged myself plenty getting through that last cave. So we hike again through fields and hillsides and mud. Beautiful countryside, with amazing limestone karsts, rice paddies, and even a couple local people harvesting rice by hand. Our guide stopped to help them cut sheathes of rice for a few minutes on our way past, I assumed to thank them for letting us pass through.

We arrive at Waterfall Cave, and are told to leave our bags, cameras, (basically anything we have with us) behind at the entrance. Some of the men take off their shirts, as we are informed that we are going to have to do some swimming!! I'm not taking off my shirt, so I'm all set. We go into the entrance and right away we are wading in a calf deep running stream. Now I'm happy for my river shoes! Soon we get to an area where the ceiling of the cave is lower, and now we have to crawl for a short distance, through the water, until we can stand once again. Thankfully, the water is not glacier run-off, like it would be back home. The water temperature is cool, not shocking, and actually a bit refreshing considering our hiking in the sun earlier.

Then we get to an area where the ceiling is only about two feet from the cave floor. We have to shimmy, lying down, like trainees in army boot camp. Through the water. It was pretty amazing, and the bottom was often kind of sandy here rather than rocky, so it wasn't too painful. I found it exhilarating!! At the end of the crouching, crawling, shimmying area, we start to hear loud rushing water: the waterfall!! We look, one at a time, down into a dark abyss where the water rushes straight down about 30 feet. Amazing.

Then, the return trip. It seemed quite a bit more difficult coming back out. I realized that it was because we were now shimmying against the current. My legs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each, as I tried to keep my pace. I knew there were others behind me trying to make their way too, and didn't want to trap them while I rested. At one point, coming up against the current, I had to tip my head sideways to get under a rock; which put the side of my face in the water. At least I didn't have to hold my breath during any of this, which I was worried we'd have to do at some point. After getting out of this cave, we had a much-deserved break, and ate our lunches. Our guide picked some tiny chili peppers from a 6-foot bush growing nearby to add to the meat mixture. I tried to bite a bit of my pepper, but even from just breaking the skin of the pepper, I could tell it was way too hot. Enough challenges already for one day!!

We hike another 1.5-2 hours to our final cave. We are all mostly in at least wet pants/underwear, and it is a warm day. We take several brief breaks to rest and take photos, and to wait for me while I do more butt-walking. I am starting to feel a lot of muscle fatigue, and I'm concerned about having enough strength left to power through this last cave. It's still muddy and I keep falling, and there are places where even the butt-walking doesn't make it less scary, as it looks like I could slide quite a ways in certain places. I get frustrated at my general inability to walk like a normal person, and there are a few secret tears.

We finally arrive at Christmas Cave, our final challenge for today. First we climb down and up some more slippery rocks into a beautiful little grotto where I see the entrance to the cave, and it involves a bamboo ladder off a ledge. Frustrated and tired, I feel panic rising. On top of everything else, I really hate ladders. I promised myself I would rally and rise to all challenges presented today, but I break down here and just can't do it. I stay behind in the grotto for about 30 minutes while the group goes on ahead. I am extremely disappointed and somewhat embarrassed, but relieved at the same time. I listen to the voices of the group echoing in the depths of the cave for quite a while until they finally fade and I am left in quiet reflection by myself.

When I hear them again, I get out my camera to get a video of a tired and muddied Aaron climbing out of the cave. He said the formations in this cave were definitely the most impressive of the day. I am very proud of him for getting into all the caves! He is a rock star, at 63!! We break a moment, and then start the one-hour final hike back to Cave Lodge. Again the mud and slipping thwart me, and I am frustrated. Aaron stays with me and we discuss how far from my comfort zone I journeyed today. I feel ridiculous as I traverse the slopes on my butt again, but my shoes are just not up to these conditions. I refuse to beat myself up too much, since these are wild caves and not easy going. Never having done anything like this before, I did two of them. I find out later that often people back out of Waterfall Cave part-way in due to the difficulty of crawling through the water. I felt good that I actually thought that one was fun!!

On the final walk back to the lodge, we passed a local woman who laughed at how muddy I was. It was pretty remarkable. It took a lot of showering before the mud would come off of my legs and feet. I'm stiff and sore already. Not planning any big adventures for tomorrow. No injuries, amazingly, after more falls than I can count!! Very tired!!

Going north to Pang Mapha, Thailand

dinagosse — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 00:42:00 GMT

Today we checked out of our Chiang Mai guesthouse, the Hollandra Montri, which has been our home for almost three weeks. I felt sad to leave, as we've gotten to know some great people here and have had a great time. But more adventures await us, and we want to take advantage of being in this part of Thailand by seeing some of the surrounding country. We decided to travel light on this leg of the trip, which meant leaving our bags in the storage area of the guesthouse and basically just bringing day packs with us for the next four days!! Hope I decided the correct things to bring!! Wishing my day pack was just a little bit bigger.

We walked to the bus station again, this time to catch a "VIP" van instead of the bus. This meant a four-hour trip instead of a six-hour one. Frankly, the bus was a bit more comfortable, but I began to see the advantage to the van as soon as we started on the road north to Pai (another good destination on the way, where we will be headed on Saturday). Our trip today is about 200 km, on the windingest road I have ever seen. Hairpin turns and practically switchbacks, one after the next, for most of the way. Motorists in Thailand drive on the left side of the road, which makes these drives particularly dangerous for those like us who drive on the right. Easy to get confused, and I had several moments today where I thought a crash was imminent, since it seemed like everyone coming around a curve was coming from the wrong angle! We frequently passed slower moving vehicles, like busses and scooters, and I was glad not to be one of the ones driving a scooter on this road!

Our destination was the stop before the end of the line near the Myanmar border with Thailand; a little town previously called Soppong, and now called Pang Mapha. Our van driver stopped briefly here in Pang Mapha (PMP) for some reason. We had been seeing signs for our lodge and for the town, so we disembarked too. As we were looking around to get our bearings and deciding our plans for our return bus trip on Saturday, it became clear that our driver was trying to call us back to the van. I had not yet learned that Soppong and PMP were in fact the same place, and I thought maybe he knew something we didn't, about obtaining transport to our lodge, or getting return tickets or something. But the proximity of the road to our lodge seemed closer at this current stop, so we insisted that he leave us behind. I found out later that had we gotten back on the van, we would have been taken all the way to Mae Hong San, the end of the line, over an hour away.

It didn't seem like we had a lot of options at our current location, for information or for transport to our lodging, which was still 9 km up a side road. Didn't see any pickups for hire, let alone taxis or tuk-tuks. Would we have to hitch a ride? Pay some random local person to take us? Walk the rest of the way? We have no phones, remember. We have decided to leave PMP on Saturday for a day back in Pai, halfway between here and Chiang Mai, so as to be a little closer to Chiang Mai to catch our 5:00 Sunday train back to Bangkok. The place our van driver stopped seemed like the first place to go to try to book the return trip, but the woman at the desk had left a note saying she had stepped out to eat. (By the way, it was written in Thai, and I actually understood it. A happy moment!) So we go about the business of securing our more immediate transport needs, to the lodge. We see a sign for "local guide, trek, and transport" and go to see if someone is there to help. And there sits Toy, a very friendly and helpful man who agrees to take us there, and even arrange to come pick us up on Saturday morning to catch our return bus! Mission accomplished. He said he'd give us a few minutes to go get our bus tickets straightened out and then meet us "under the big tree." Ummmm, which tree would that be exactly...??? My plan was just to go out and stand by the street looking conspicuous, but then he showed up at the ticket desk.

And the place we are staying for the next three nights: the Cave Lodge. Wow. This place is amazing!!! I wish we had more time here, but we are going to try to take advantage of the time we do have. There are little bungalow cabins and some backpacker-type dorm accommodations, and the whole thing overlooks the Lang River with a jungly backdrop. There are over 200 caves in this area, some of which have cave art, navigable rivers flowing through them, spectacular cave formations, prehistoric coffins(!!), and varying degrees of spelunking difficulty. Some have sections that involve crawling or water. Aaron and I signed up for an accessible-sounding guided trip in the morning where we will visit 3 caves. With my extra-light packing, I sure hope I brought the right clothes for this. Should be amazing! I'm so glad we decided to get out of the city. It's quite beautiful here. Apparently there are gibbons here, too. I'm hoping to see one!!

Photos: Soppong/Pang Mapha

dinagosse — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 23:38:00 GMT

Our time staying at Cave Lodge

White Temple and Black House

dinagosse — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 02:09:00 GMT

Today Aaron and I decided to go on a day trip adventure to Chiang Rai, a three-hour bus ride northeast of Chiang Mai. We were told yesterday, during our recon mission to the bus station, that the bus left every hour from 6 AM to 6 PM. We headed out in time to catch the 8:00 bus, and found out on arrival that it, in fact leaves at 8:30. Hmm, OK. Guess we had enough time for coffee after all! So we booked our tickets, as well as the return trip on the last bus from Chiang Rai at 5:30 PM, to make sure we get back today. We run over to a nearby coffee shop so Aaron can grab an amazingly hot Americano coffee with cream but having no cream. I get my now requisite "cafe yen," or iced coffee. It comes in a pretty big cup, which I am really excited about until I get on the bus to discover there is no bathroom on board. I also picked up some bus snacks: a little pack of cookies and some durian-cream wafer cookies. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with durian, it is a large tropical fruit with a knob ly outer peel that is banned from hotels and public transport due to its distinctive and quite unpleasant smell. It has a nice flavor though, if you can past the fragrance. I figured the cookie form would be ok, but they turned out to be a bit of an acquired taste as well.

Our plan for the day in Chiang Rai was to see the famous White Temple, and I had done just enough research to know that there are two bus stations in Chiang Rai, the White Temple being closer to the first stop, so we disembarked there to the concern of the bus driver who seemed worried that we were surely getting off at the wrong stop. We hired a taxi to take us to the temple, and agreed on a price of 300 baht for the ride, considering he agreed to wait for us while we did our sight-seeing thing. After marveling at the white shiny symbolism of purity and the journey from earthly temptation into heaven, we realized that we surely had enough time to also see another attraction in Chiang Rai: the Black House. I had read the two were located near one another, so we asked our driver if he could take us there. We had a good deal of difficulty trying to figure out just how far away the Black House was, but he seemed to indicate that it wasn't far. So when we are still barreling down the highway twenty minutes or so later, we are getting pretty nervous. After all, we have a 5:30 bus to catch, we have no idea where we are, and we are now travelling with a man we cannot communicate with who we don't have a monetary agreement with concerning this change of itinerary. I am desperately trying to locate the Black House on the map I found in the cab's seat pocket. Finally we arrive, and we decide we shouldnt stay long, since we still need to get back to the city center to find the other bus station for our return trip. We agree to meet our cab in only 30 minutes this time. The Black House turned out to be much more interesting, with its themes of bones, horns, and black colors. The artist died somewhat recently, but he had lived on site in a black whale-shaped building at the edge of the extensive grounds. In contrast to the all white, mirrored surfaces of the White Temple, the Black House is said to possibly be a vision created in contrast. It represents the awareness of living with mortality and human temptations. We found it beautiful and compelling, which reminded me of my reaction to reading Dante's trilogy last year; I by far enjoyed Inferno over Purgatorio and Paradiso. Speaks to my darker natures, I suppose.

Back to the Clock Tower, an ornate center square landmark in town, where we knew we could find our way to the bus station. Another three-hour ride back to Chiang Mai. The bus' air conditioning sure works well. we recommend anyone taking these busses bring a jacket!! Tomorrow we will leave Chiang Mai and head to our next destination: 8 km north of Soppong, a four-hour ride from Chiang Mai. We plan to spend the next three days out of the city at a place called Cave Lodge, where will commune with nature, go kayaking, explore a river in a cave, and just relax. We will be very near the border of Myanmar. More later!!

Photos: Chiang Rai

dinagosse — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 01:54:00 GMT

San Kampaeng Hot Springs

dinagosse — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 01:08:00 GMT

Today after class, our teacher Dot arranged for a group of us to travel outside of the city to the San Kampaeng hot springs. We were told it's a fifty-minute drive from the city, but a thirty-minute return trip due to less traffic later in the day. Aaron and I were pretty excited to have a respite from the city to relax from all the activity of the last couple of weeks. A drive through the countryside gave us cooler temperatures, more rural roads, rice fields, and starry skies on our return home!!

Before going to soak in the springs, we went to see the geysers and meandering hot water streams that had been built into a relaxing park-like area where you could hang out in the shade, eat lunch, and dangle your feet in the warm water. Vendors sold little wicker baskets, containing 3 eggs and a little tiny Baggie of soy sauce. At the source point of the springs near the geysers, there was volcanically hot water being piped into the start of this meandering stream system. In this area were hooks where you can hang your egg basket and cook your eggs to whatever level of soft- or hard-boiled you prefer. We apparently didn't leave our eggs in long enough, since they were pretty gooey when we tried to crack them open. Aaron ate them anyway, but I found their rawness pretty unpalatable and decided the experience of cooking them this way was sufficient.

The hot springs grounds comprise a relatively large area including bungalow cabins that you can rent overnight that have private tubs inside.We opted for swimming in the main hot springs pool for 50 Baht apiece (about $1.50). There was a very hot area of the pool where the hot springs water was being piped into the pool, and over that was a "waterfall" of cooler water that you could let fall on you. I thought this would be relaxing and kind of like a massage, but I found it to be just very splashy into my face and so basically swam around letting the heat and chaos of the city wash off of me. And sneaking up behind Aaron pretending to be a shark. Our group got out of the pools just in time as a large European group arrived and proceeded to be loud and obnoxious. We were grateful that we had had some more peaceful time to ourselves for a while.

By this time, most of the little snack stands were closed, and we still had an hour before we were to be transported back to Chiang Mai, so we all found one little place that had some chicken on a grill out front and some tables inside. Our group of about eight went in and did our best to order a couple cups of tea, some beer, and chicken. The proprietors spoke almost no English, and my Thai seemed to not be getting the ideas across too well, but we all eventually ended up with a little to eat or drink. There was a lot of laughter and misunderstanding. And pantomiming. The proprietors were really good sports, and I had a lot of fun trying to communicate and joke with them.

Tomorrow is our last day of regular class. We have our final massage exam, which I hope I can complete comfortably as I seem to have strained a muscle in my lower back during the dry run today. Geez, I just can't seem to stop hurting myself!! Saturday, Aaron and I have a four-hourr private tutorial with our teacher, Yan, in which we will cover a small taste of his vast knowledge in therapeutic and OsteoThai techniques. He has asked us to specify what we would like him to cover, and to "be precise." I can't imagine how I will decide how best to take advantage of this opportunity to learn from such a master.

Prepping for massage exam

dinagosse — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 01:13:00 GMT

Today we finished learning our final segment in the Thai massage sequence: the face massage. Not usually a big fan of face massage, both as giver or receiver, I thought this would be not much of a highlight of the training. I said to myself, "Well, this isn't even going to ...zzzzzzzzzz." So ridiculously relaxing. Everyone is getting face massage now. Watch out. Especially cool combined with the preparatory step of washing our hands in fresh bergamot water first.

After finishing the instruction for today, we have completed learning what could amount to probably almost a four-hour traditional Thai massage. Our task now is to perform a two hour to two-and-a-half hour massage on Friday to pass this course. A "lottery" was conducted to pair us up with the partner we will have for the next two days to plan, practice, and finally give our massages. We are expected to learn any physical restrictions our partner may have, including injury history and personal preference for perhaps one type of spinal twist move over another. There are quite a few exercises that I will be unable to receive due to my shoulder dislocation problem, which my partner will have to safely work around. This will give her more time for my new favorite: face!! I'm in good hands though; she's an Osteopath! Aaron and I went over the general sequences this evening after class, to start to reduce dependence on the manual we've been using, that includes sonething like 140 illustrated positions and options. We will not be able to use any notes during our final test. I'm figuring I'll be ok as long as they don't care too much if I switch some orders around a bit and look confident no matter what.

Tomorrow after class, many of us have arranged with one of our teachers, Dot, to get away into the countryside to a hot springs to relax before our exam. A fifty-minute drive to get there and a thirty-minute drive back home (less traffic later), and should be back by 8 PM. Plenty of time for us to go over a few things again for the test should we be so motivated. It's a great group of people, and it will be really nice to spend time together outside of class a last time Before we all go our very separate travelling ways.

This past week and a half of class has really been amazing, in no small way even just for me on a physical level. I have felt significant change in my lower back and hips, after a couple of good lower back tweaks the last year or two when I've felt pretty crooked. I can sit through a whole day of work on the floor with only minimal stiffness now. Amazing. I had one morning of intense emotional release: just a very heavy feeling of grief that prompted emails to family to check on everyone's well-being. Also, due to either this hip shifting or to the amazing thickness and density of the pillows here, I seemed to have partially dislocated my jaw. I could not touch my back teeth together on my left side. Disconcerting and painful, and very difficult to eat for a day or two. I spoke to one of the master teachers here, Yan, who agreed to take a look at my jaw the next morning before class. So we showed up early to school, and I had one of the shortest but most intense bodywork sessions of my life. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I felt very achy and intense radiation up into my jaw and head from points on my shoulder (the left/non-dislocatey side). At the end of the session, I could click my back teeth together again. Took another day and a half, but I feel pretty much back to normal again. Wow.

Last night, Aaron and I decided we just wanted some Western-style (translation: American-ish) comfort food. We ended up at a place called the Chiang Mai Saloon, where I proceeded to order the most white-girl dinner ever: a club sandwich and white wine. Half-way through the sandwich, I realized that I was breaking one of my Cardinal rules of traveling in Asia, which is Thou Shalt not eat Mayonaisse. Fortunately, I did not get sick, so crisis averted. My other Cardinal rule of travelling is Thou Shalt Not Pet Strange Animals. (I'm still ok on that one, thanks to the example set by my friend Doug while we were all travelling in Tibet several years ago and a strange dog decided to bite the crap out of him. After Lets-Get-Rabies-Shot mission, I added that rule to my repertoire...but that's another story.)

Anyhoo, it's hot here: about 90 degrees this week. Hard to concentrate through the sheen of sweat that coats me during class. I look forward to getting out of the city tomorrow. Aaron and I are trying to decide on some concrete plans for our post-training Chiang Mai time. We are thinking about doing some kayaking down this flat lazy river from up in the hills north of town.

Hope everyone is well. Your emails are always appreciated. It's been fun sharing this with you all. We are enjoying our time so far!!

Thai Herbal-Ball Massages

dinagosse — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:20:00 GMT

Ok. This is the third time I've attempted this post. Internet access is unreliable here, as is website compatibility. We've had three wonderful days of the Loy Krathong festival. Thousands of lanterns floating up into the sky from points all over the city. It looked like a stream of souls travelling up to heaven; peaceful and ethereal. Also thousands of Khoy Lom candles floating down the river in a steady stream. Flickering candlelight reflecting in the water in the dark of the evening. Just down the river from our guesthouse, hundreds of people were lined up releasing their offerings into the beautiful lines of lights twinkling in the easy slow current of the Ping River. You could buy a whole tray of banana trunk segments (peeled from the trunk cross-section like an onion), with a candle shoved in the middle. One tray of about 15-20 of these for 40 baht (a little more than a dollar). Our guesthouse is right on the river, so we hardly needed to leave home to experience all of this.

Loy Krathong also comes complete with fireworks, which is beautiful, and somewhat dangerous at times when walking near the river. People are randomly shooting fireworks into the river. Or in random directions depending on aim... There are also the inevitable illegal big boomer ones, which is unfortunate if you care to get any sleep before, say, 4 AM.

There is a restaurant adjacent to our guesthouse that serves authentic Thai dishes from a variety of regions of Thailand. We have not been brave enough to try some of the items: pond snails, ant larvae, bamboo worm shells, horseface fish, chicken knuckles, and all manner of frog. Aaron actually did order deep-fried frog, which he enjoyed very much. I was disappointed, however, that it wasn't served as a whole frog. I do have to admit it was quite tasty, though it contained about as much bone as meat. We also discovered that often beer will come served in a glass with ice. I'm not sure how hot it would have to be for that to seem like a good idea. We are learning to anticipate this and order beer, and wine, without ice.

Yesterday, Aaron and I took a one-day workshop in Thai Herbal-Ball Compress massage. Our teacher was Kru Dot, who has been the assistant instructor in our regular classes over the past week as well. She is a practitioner not only of Thai massage, but also herbal medicine, acupuncture, and a host of other modalities as well. I hope to be able to receive a treatment from her sometime this coming week. For our one-day workshop, we started with a walk around the alleyways near the school. We picked, smelled, and often tasted many different plants cultivated in the school's garden or growing wild by the alleys (or neighbors' yards). On our walk, we went by our teacher's home and were treated to "burnt" coconut to drink (more coconutty taste) and got a look at her ylang-yang tree. Some neighbors were out, and we were invited to try some homemade Thai herbal tonic whiskey made with some special herbs that are obtained apparently by a day's journey up a mountain. Very special to be allowed to share this. Aaron also tried some rice with some sort of blood soup. I decided to pass on this round.

Back at the school, we learned to prepare the herbal compresses. We chopped up fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, pandanus leaves, galangal root, soaked tamarind pods, soaked acacia pods, sea salt, camphor and menthol (not too much, "just a pickle!"), and fresh turmeric root. A lot of turmeric root. My hands are still yellow.

Then we were to put the herbs in a square of muslin (?) cloth and tie it into a ball. We did a fair-to-poor job of reproducing our teacher's example. We saved the soaking water from the tamarind and acacia, and added some more of the other herbs to that for the steam room for later. The herbal balls went into a steamer. Then we were given sarongs and went into a steam chamber built for the occasion from PVC pipes and shower curtains. Surprisingly effective! We sat on little stools and steamed in the herbal/camphory goodness from the steampot. Then we used the herbal balls to massage our arms and legs and each other's backs. It made our skin kind of yellow, and Aaron still has some yellow patches in his hair. Felt wonderful. Coming out of the steam chamber, it was amazing how cold the 85-degree day felt! After a shower, we changed into new, dry sarongs and traded Thai-style herbal compress massages on the mats. Then we went home and slept for 3 hours.

Tonight we are going to hit the Sunday Walking Market again. Lots of things to see. Chiang Mai is so colorful and fun. So much to do!!

Massage class and Loy Krathong

dinagosse — Thu, 6 Nov 2014 02:44:00 GMT

We have finished our third day of class at the Sunshine Massage School in Chiang Mai. There are sixteen of us in the class, and we represent nine countries: USA, France, Germany, UK, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Argentina, Spain, and Holland. The classes are conducted in English, which is fine for everyone except a couple from France who I think are understanding only a little bit of what is said. They seem to be enjoying themselves and learning right along with the rest of us. There is a wide range of experience level variance in the class: little background in massage all the way to experienced practitioners repeating instruction. It makes for interesting conversation.

For those of you less familiar with Thai massage, it is quite different from the Swedish or deep tissue forms that most people are more familiar with in the US. It is traditionally done on a mat on the floor. The recipient remains clothed in loose, comfortable clothing and the experience is not unlike yoga stretches combined with firm compression to muscle groups. After three days in class as both a recipient and a therapist, I already feel significantly more comfortable in my body. The deep ankle ache that has plagued my sleeping hours for over two months is completely gone, and I am able to sit through class and practice on the floor almost completely comfortably now. I will look forward to how great I'll be feeling by the end of these two weeks!

Today is the beginning of an important Thai festival called Loy Krathong. Aaron and I specifically timed our trip to Thailand to coincide with these festivities. One of our teachers, Dot, invited our class to join her at the Chinese Daoist temple after class to receive a blessing and make flower offerings to float on the river. Of course we jumped at the opportunity to participate directly in the festival in a meaningful way, rather than merely watching others (though even that is quite beautiful!).

At the temple, we invited into the sacred space and separated into male and female groups, standing in order of age from oldest to youngest, men and women on opposite sides of the room. Starting with the two men, there was a ceremony involving prayer and incense and chanting of a mantra, and then the master opens the third eye of the participants. It is all for the purpose of bringing truth and goodness to your life. We were given lei garlands of wonderfully fragrant flowers that smelled like jasmine.

After the ceremony, we all created our own flower baskets from a cross-section of banana tree. We folded rectangular sections of banana leaves into a rough approximation of our teacher's demonstration, which we then affixed to our banana trunk section with small nails. It was to look somewhat like a crown, we decided. Then, orchid blossoms are tucked between the points of our folded leaves, and the straightest orchid stem is left intact and inserted in the center of this creation. Three incense sticks and a small candle complete the picture. The little candle looks a lot like the little custard pies you see at dim sum restaurants. Then we had the option of adding a cutting of our hair to send away any bad luck with the floating offering. It took some doing to get a snipping with the very dull scissors. We each added a 1-baht coin for luck.

Then, after a group photo with our creations, we walked down to the river. On the way, Aaron bought a small baggie containing two little fish. It is believed that freeing animals or fish can give you good fortune in your life. At the river, we had our candles and incense sticks lit,and we prepared to release the baskets, called Khom Loy, into the river. Couples should release theirs together. Aaron was also trying to release his little fish, and so asked me to help him hold his Khom Loy. As I grabbed it, it slipped and I half dumped it into the water, putting out the candle. Oops!! I felt terrible. Our Khom Loy did cling together as they started to float away.

Then we were also able to send up a lantern! So beautiful to see all the lit lanterns floating high up into the sky on the breeze. You light a ring attached inside the 3-foot high cylinder of gauzy material and wait until the flame creates enough heat to cause the lantern to float up. If the weather cooperates, I'll have some amazing pictures over the next two days of what Aaron says are literally thousands of these floating everywhere!! Unbelievable!!