Unstoppable Songkran

Songkran aftermath... making milky puddles in our room.
Pretty much anyone who can hold a water gun or a bucket of powder gets out on the street to celebrate! Little babies to old grannies were out in full force.
And... families of four on motorbikes all equipped with water guns. Driver included.
Good luck powder/paste

Sah Wah Dee Kah Ronald McDonald!

We were wished A LOT of good luck. Including in ear creases, hair, and eye balls.

The Red Shirts 'protesting'... but really just doing it big for and celebrating for Songkran!

A meditation hall... where I spent so many hours of my life
Laura and I at a construction site on the side of the highway... because sometimes when you get off trains at 3 am that is the best thing you can find...
Train in the middle of the night
Sometimes you see them dumping sewage straight into the river and sometimes you see people swimming and fishing in it. Yikes!

Broken Robots

A Red Shirt Party Again:

While being silent and meditating for ten days, it also means you get no news about the world, including news about the country you are in. So, I came out of the retreat and got on my train headed for Bangkok right as I heard the not so lovely news that yesterday 20 had been killed and 800 wounded in a protest. Which also happened to be next to right where I was going to be staying. But, it is Songkran (best holiday in the world Iwould have to say- a country wide water and powder fight) right now and today and yesterday have been a Red Shirt party again by everything I can see. Yesterday, we could not step out of our hotel without getting drenched. We walked though a grouping of Red Shirts and by the end we were caked in powder and dripping. Needless to say, the mall security guard wouldn't let us in after this. I've got some pictures, but the computer I'm at is locked in a box, so I'll put them all up when I get home!

Survival of the Fittest:

Well, I just so happened to survive ten days of boot camp for the mind! And even more miraculously, I loved it. The straight up facts and schedule make it sound like living hell, and it kinda was the first three days but then all started going well. So, the facts... You wake up at 4 am to the monastery bell, then off to meditation, yoga and more meditation before breakfast. Then the day continues with 6 hours more of meditating, some dhamma talks, and a little chanting. There is a second meal, but no third, so in the evening you can hop in the hot spring and then off to meditate some more and take a group walk around a lake before bedtime... where you get to go rest on a concrete bed and a wood pillow!

But, I found it magical in many ways and unlike everyone else, I didn't experience suffering after the first few days. Yoga was always done by the sun rising and the night walk was around a candle lit lake under a perfect starry sky... Or it was done around the lake until a girl got bit on the foot by a scorpion which meant it could never again be done without some girl letting out a false alarm shriek or scream ruining the walking meditation atmosphere a bit. The hot spring had coconut trees surrounding it and since you bathe in sarongs and you can trap air bubbles in them creating a balloon around you for a nice rustic floatation device. Also, I know Australia has record numbers of spiders, scorpions, snakes and such but I would have to say, when everyone is meditating silently in a forest in Southern Thailand you can see a shit ton too. One day I accidentally sat under a tree that had a big bright green snake curled up in it and because of the lakes there were crocodile/kimono dragon like things that wandered around the retreat zone frequently. And, everyday you would have no problem spotting a few giant (legs the size of my fingers) spiders.

As for the meditation....The walking meditation I never really got down. It was hard not to look around and giggle at others in this time since we all just looked like broken robots. One guy going back and forth another in circles. And, I can't exactly clear my mind entirely quite yet, but I can do a damn good job calming it!

In other news, I have been grinning day and night since I got out and found out I got into Pitzer!

Hello Thailand- A Red Shirt Party

Well, me and Zoe are now in different countries which is way further apart than we have been since September. It is a little lonely but soon I will have to be silent anyways at a meditation retreat that starts on the 1st and then after that Zoe and I are meeting in Bangkok for Songkran (a huge water fight)! And then, I am home. I bought the ticket today so I now know that I will be back on the 15th, which means only 18 days left! Yikes.

I got into Bangkok yesterday morning after catching an assortment of buses, trains, tuk tuks and minivans for 26 hours. Trains in Thailand are deals though (6 dollars for 13 hours!) and if you sit in 3rd class everyone loves talking to you. I was chatted up all night and in the middle of the night with everything from "do you like the backstreet boys" to "how much do bananas cost in your country?" And, as we arrived cars and trucks full of red shirt protesters passed. Later that night I then walked through the main protesting area with 100,000 people. But, have no fear mom and dad, if you didn't know better you would think it was a carnival where red shirts were required for admission. I am of course very glad it is all being kept peaceful but it sure was funny to see tons of food stands and hear blasting pop music in a political protest.

Tomorrow I am off to Southern Thailand for a meditation retreat. I am a little concerned about not speaking for 10 days, waking up at 4am and only getting 2 meals a day... But, for 10 days I figure I can handle most things! There are also a lot of rules from "Intend not to sleep or sit on luxurious beds and seats" to "Intend not to take away any breath(abstain from killing). " At least I can handle the latter rule!

Is it Ashing?

Monks receiving morning alms

3/24-25: Jungle (?) Trekking, Kayaking and Time with Mr.Elephant-

We set out on a jungle trek and within the first few minutes it became clear that it would actually be more like an introduction to slashing and burning jungle. Revelation number one: the last two weeks we spent in Laos were not cloudy from grey skies but grey from everyone burning the jungle in prime jungle burning season, which happens to be March. We got to see quite a lot of cut down jungle getting ready to burn, jungle on fire, and piles of ashy land. And, a little bit of the real jungle that is left. Ash floated through the air, day and night and people in the villages would just casually watch the hillside next to their home burn away. It was hard to see how fast the forest is being taken down here but also who is going to be the one to deny people the right to farm land so they can feed themselves.

After receiving a coating of ash and breathing in oxygen with a side of smoke we made it to a small village where we spent the night. The kids had their own little world in this village. Also, if you are bigger than a baby you can take care of a baby there, so little 4 or 5 year olds would be happily totting around little 1 year olds on their backs. All the kids loved having their picture taken and would giggle away when you showed them the picture of themselves.

In the morning we were greeted again by the gang of children and they pulled out a english/lao picture book which created much entertainment for both parties. We then were off trotting down hill to the river, once again through decimated forest for some white water kayaking. It was pretty mild kayaking although there were technically 6 rapids I think. And as kayaking came to an end we still had three hours left to hang out with elephants. We learned a little bit of elephant lingo before getting plopped on an elephants neck (although I can't say our elephant was a very good listener). I kept pushing the 'don!' (spray water!) but he seemed to prefer just flopping over sideways and fully submerging himself when he felt like it.



Looking for gold along the river apparently



This beastly thing is what they call a pig...



This was the point when I stopped to take a picture while our guide was up ahead desperately yelling for us. Turned out we would have to start hustling to make it into the green which was being sparred (at least that day that is) before the fire made it down the hillside to us. We then passed all of the land that was slashed and about to be burned and made it into the green and uphill as ash from the fire floated up to us.
Hillside of jungle turned to ash for growing rice.
3/21-22: Canoeing in Nong Khiaw-

We rented a canoe in Nong Khiaw after being heavily cautioned about currents and questioned if we had ever paddled something that floated before. We set off and despite their skepticism about two small white girls going upstream in a canoe made of a few boards we made it to a lovely little deserted sand bar. We did end up having to share with a herd of water buffalo though, but they were good company.

Canoeing back down we happened to hit bathing/swimming/clothes washing time. Kids came down with tire tubes and the parents came in sarongs toting shower caddies (just like everyone has in college!)
animals eating garbage (typical) out of a garbage can (super duper rare)

The swing that made me face/arm plant into a tree.
Before hitting the tree
Hand made and hand dyed paper drying in the sun

Tubes and Jars

3/15: Tubing in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is pretty much making it big in Laos because of a 3 kilometer tubing route they have set up, so of course while in Vang Vieng for a week we gave it a try. First of all, there is a cartel going on with all the tube companies so they charge obscene prices. Second of all, it turns out the 'experience' is mostly about the congregation of bars boasting free alcohol. But, luckily the 20 bars have packed themselves tightly at the beginning so soon we were off bumping (dry season means not enough water for tubing at times...) along the river. The highlight for me was when 6 little kids spotted me coming down and instantly flocked to my tube. Soon it was me plus 6 little kids on top of me on one not very large tire tube. Half the time was spent seeing who could be on the top of the pile and then eventually a balance was miraculously achieved and I ferried them down the river a bit.

3/17: Plain of Jars

Yesterday we made an excursion to the mysterious Plain of Jars. It is simply a large area where huge jars of unknown origin are scattered throughout fields. These are not little glass jam or jelly jars though, they are stone jars weighing 600 kilograms to one ton. Also, to this day no one has been able to figure out why exactly they might be here. Some of the speculations I couldn't help laughing at while looking at a jar 5 times my size and imagining it being used for wine fermentation of extra rice storage.

A flying squirrel pelt. Although we have seen similar dead rodents for sale in the market for eating. Yesterday we spotted what looked like a run over possum.

We made sure to adventure here without a guide so we could be bad people and climb on weird ancient artifacts.