Great Connections

As I've been travelling and meeting many great peeps along the way, I've realized that some tours are better than others, however, its really the people that you meet on the tour that make or break your experience. The group of peeps that I met on my Trek tour were fabulous. Most of us connected really quickly with each other, and after our trek, we spent the next 3 days/night hanging out with each other and simply enjoying life! In my 5 months of travel, I definitely laughed the most during the time I spent with this group. Thanks guys for such amazing memories!

Sonkran Festival: New Year, Thai Style

Getting soaked all day long!! Bins of water to fill up your water guns!

April 12-15

I had no clue that I was going to be in Thailand for the New Year. It just so happened, that I also chose to be in one of the best areas of Thailand to celebrate! After getting back from the trek, we began to make our way back into the city. Before I explain the ride back, I think it's necessary to explain my vehicle conditions. Picture this: a pick up truck, where the back side has benches for people to sit on (where we all were). The sides of the pick up have metal bars and when necessary, you can roll down these plastic sheets that are used as pseudo windows.

Okay, so back to the ride. About 20 minutes into our ride, I thought there was some sort of riot, or political unrest--however, soon realized that it was simply people beginning the pre-New Year celebrations by partying on the street. I guess the best way to describe this New Year is a mixture of a massive street party, a chaotic water fight and a music festival all wrapped up in 3 days. The problem with starting the party in the vehicle we were travelling in was that we were total targets; 13 foreigners, sitting in an open truck with absolutely NO ammunition (water to fight back...lol). Needless to say, the beginning of the drive back was so much fun. We would be driving, and out of no where, someone on the street would throw a bucket of water at us. I wouldn't mind the warm water, however, there were some who filled their buckets up with freezing cold ice water, and having that blasted on your back, when you are least expecting it, not so much fun.

Pretty much, from about 10 am to 7 pm the Chaing Mai streets were drenched with people celebrating the New Year. There was no way that you could walk anywhere on the streets during these times without getting soaked. I did end up buying a 'backpack' water gun to join in the fun and most of the Trek Crew agreed to meet at a certain spot to spend the day splashing, and soaking away! What struck me the most is that for a few days out of the year, Thai people of all ages, young and old, come together to celebrate. I especially loved that adults were able to let their guard down and simply enjoy the feeling of 'being a kid' again. I wondered how a festival like this would fly back home, even if it was for a day. For all people to take a day off of work, and enjoy the simple things in life. I seriously think it would be good for people's health to have a similar festivity -- without it getting out of control of course!

Chiang Mai Trek

April 11-12
Man, it sucks when you haven't blogged in a while and now I have to write from memory. So I got to the north of Thailand safely and found a great little hotel in the center of Chiang Mai. Thank goodness my dates worked out well, because the Treks were not running this whole week due to the Songkran Festivities (Thai New Year).

I really wanted to do a 2 night, 3 day trek but that wasn't available-- so I ended up getting a 1 night, 2 day trek. It seems that everything works out for a reason because what a FABULOUS 2 days it was!! There were originally 5 of us in the truck and we made our way to see the Long Neck Village. This village seemed to be set up primarily for tourists but it was still pretty interesting to see. These women and young girls are originally from Burma and have migrated to the Northern area of Thailand. They have these gold rings around their necks to stretch them out. I ended up trying one on my neck and could not believe how heavy it was! It is believed that back in the day, when these Burmese people lived in the forest, it was thought that if a lion attacked them, their necks needed to be protected and therefore, they started wearing these golden rings.

After the Long Neck village visit, we picked up the rest of the crew. The lovely spacious truck was too good to be true!! In total, there were 13 of us. It's funny how some tour groups utterly suck, and others connect immediately! Well, this was a group that just seemed to connect from the get-go, and as they say, the rest is history!

We stopped briefly at a local outdoor food market to pick up a few things and then made our way to the elephants, where I was able to ride an elephant through the jungle! The ride was definitely bumpier than I expected, but thoroughly enjoyable! After the elephant rides, we began our trek. I wish I had brought more water, as most of our walking today was uphill and it was fairly hot and humid. We walked for about 3 hours.... did I mention that it was all uphill??
About half way there, in the middle of the Northern Thai jungle, a man had a cold water and beer station set up for us. I truly didn't appreciate my cold water until after we began walking up the steepest hill yet and realized that this man was not too far behind us. He had packed up the rest of the water and beer and was carrying it all on his back. Unreal.

We finally made it up to the hillside village--our accommodation was a beautiful bamboo house, where we shared a wonderful dinner, some evening games, and a some of the local children also came to sing for us. Overall, a great exercise day, a big check next to one of my 'must do's' which was riding an elephant in the jungle. I also met some amazing new people. How much better can life get?

Day 2

The next day we all had breakfast together, and began to make our way down. Personally, I found going down harder than going up. Cardio wise, of course going upwards was a bit more difficult, but going down on the steep hills was bad on the knees! About half way down, we made it to this amazing waterfall, where we all cooled off for a while. After that, we were taken down to the river, where we went river rafting. I am a little embarrassed to call it rafting, because the river was so still that we barely rafted. LOL.

Along the way, there were hundreds of locals who were all close to or even in the river, beginning to celebrate the Song Kran festivities. Local children were splashing water on us as we went by and being part of this day, up in Northern Thailand was a memory I will keep forever!

After the rafting, our group jumped on a bamboo raft, which pretty much took us the end of our trek. Another group lunch together, and we were loaded back on the truck to make our way back to the city.

Saying Goodbye is never easy :(

April 10th
Well, the girls and I are going our separate ways and I must say, it was much easier to say bye to them in Phi Phi, as I didn't know them all that well at that point, and they were all asleep when I left. This time was much harder. I've been fortunate enough to have travelled to so many places in my life, but am realizing it's difficult to find good travelling partners. What's really odd is that Kelly, Lucy and Carey were so easy to travel with, yet, I barely knew them. There have been other times in my life when I have travelled with people who I thought I knew fairly well--and we were not good travel partners at all. I guess what it boils down to is personality and common interests. Thankfully, I was totally blessed to have met these 3 lovely ladies to party with, and experience some of life's highs together!

Phnom Penh

April 8-10

Killing Fields
Today we took a tuk tuk to the Choeun Ek Genocidal Center to learn about the "Killing Fields." Sometimes I feel so ignorant that I don't know about historical events such as this one. More than a million people were killed during the Pot Regime in the mid 70's. Victims were detained and tortured at this time -- and were then beaten to death by the killers with canes, bamboo stumps or the heads of hoes, they were also stabbed with knives or swords. They died without being able to say goodbye to their children or loved ones.

The victims ranged from peasants to intellectuals, foreigners, women and children. At this genocide center today, I literally walked by the mass graves where all these people were placed after being killed. Each of the graves had a simple sign that read, "mass grave with 166 victims without heads," or "mass grave of more than 100 victims, all children and women." I think the area that stirred the most emotion for me was this massive tree in the middle of all the graves that read, "Killing Tree--against which executioners beat children to death."

I have never visited any Holocaust centers, but I imagine it is just as heart wrenching as this.
There was a memorial stupa (a sacred structure that contains the remains of the deceased) literally took my breath away when I realized that it contained more than 8000 skulls and bones which had been recovered from the graves. It definitely serves as a tribute and reminder of the atrocities that took place and effected millions of Cambodian people.

Meeting a Monk

April 6-7th
Yesterday, Carey, Lucy and I went to this place called "raja yoga"to practice some meditation. It was alright. The instructor did a little too much babbling for my liking, but the actual meditation part was pretty good. She had wanted us to meditate with our eyes open, which I found really difficult--hence, I closed mine. The highlight of the session was that she mentioned that the following day (April 7th) there would be "monk chanting" at 5 p.m. We ended up staying one extra night because Kelly wasn't feeling really well, and the girls still needed to get their Visa stuff sorted out.
Monk chanting to me sounded intriguing, and off I went on my own! Just the other day I had told the girls that I would love to learn more about monks and what they are all about, and this evening I got my opportunity. Tui, a 26 year old monk of 10 years, talked to the 5 of us for about an hour. He actually said that it would be better that we asked him questions, and he would do his best to answer them. Here are some things that I learned today:

* it is not an obligation to become a monk, rather a choice. Although parents highly encourage their young teenage sons to become monks for at least a short period of time to devote part of their life to Buddhism.
* once you become a monk, you can stay a monk for however long you like.... a few months, years, or as some do, a lifetime.
* as a young apprentice monk, you must follow 5 important doctrines: no drinking, no sex, using your words properly, no stealing, and no killing (including bugs, any wild life, etc...)
* if you are a monk for a short period of time, you must follow 10 doctrines, and if you choose to be a monk for a long period of time there are 127 doctrines to follow (Tui fell under this category)
* Buddhists believe in heaven, hell, nirvana, and enlightenment. We had a good discussion about nirvana and enlightenment, and I really do need to read a little more about it.
*Tui will be leaving "Monkhood"next year, and said the most exciting thing he's looking forward to is getting a job and being able to make some money, and learning how to ride a bike! To think, he's never ridden a bike before! (one of the doctrines). He said he will most miss the strong bonds he's formed throughout the years, and meditating and praying on a daily basis, although he plans to continue his religious practise, just not as regimented.

At the end of our conversation, he asked if it would be okay to personally bless each and every one of us. I awaited my turn and kneeled in front of him where he proceeded to tie a small piece of string on my right hand and wished me good health, and happiness. Once we all had our red strings tied on us, he asked us to close our eyes and he chanted a prayer in Cambodian, to bless us one more time. It was spiritual, and moving. It reminded me of all the amazing moments I experienced with Father Norm in Africa. It also goes to prove, for me anyway, that there are so many other things that can enrich us spiritually besides going to church on Sunday. I'm glad I ventured off on my own today, as it was definitely a spiritual hour.

OVERWHELMED

April 5th (I think) ... maybe the 6th?
So hot today that we didn't do too much. I had to go get some bank stuff sorted out. When I left what seemed like the 10th bank I had to go to, I decided to go to the corner store to get something to quench my thirst. On my way into the store there were several young girls and mothers holding their babies (children or siblings) begging for milk. The begging here is different than what a person would experience in Cuba or Mexico.

It is total desperation.

So of course my heart broke and I told the one little girl that I would buy her some milk for her sister. Smart little cookie that she was, she took me to the most expensive "powdered milk" products and asked if I could buy her a few canisters. I told her that I would buy her a carton of milk and she randomly grabbed one, which happened to be skim. I put that one back and went to look for one that had the highest amount of fat in it. She politely thanked me as we walked out. I then realized that I had gotten something for the baby, but nothing for this 12 year old little girl. I asked her if she too was hungry and she shook her head yes. I offered to get her something too. Of course, my dumb ass Western brain thought she'd ask for chocolate or chips. Instead, she asked if I could buy her some bread or rice. Bread I could buy, but I thought some fried rice might be better, so I suggested for her to come back to my hotel where I could order her something from the restaurant. I could see that she was a little hesitant, so I asked where we could go that was a bit closer for her and she pointed towards a side street.

We began walking together, her baby sister on her hip, and I happened to turn around to notice another little girl (age nine) and a mother and little baby also following us. Call me a sucker, but how could I possibly give rice to one and refuse the other two? So we all went to a local restaurant to eat some lunch. I don't think the waitress was too impressed that I was bringing in a handful of beggars into the restaurant, but I really didn't care. You could see the excitement in the children's eyes, and of course, wanting to take full advantage of the white tourist, they all wanted to order the most expensive things on the menu. The waitress I reckon proceeded to tell them in Cambodian to not take advantage, and they all ended up ordering chicken fried rice. The waitress also told me that they wanted to order a shake each, and asked whether that was okay.

I experienced two amazing things sitting at that table. The first one humbled me greatly. When the rice came out the older sister blew on the rice -- like a little mom-- and fed her sister the whole time. She did not once put a spoonful of rice in her mouth, until her baby sister didn't want any more.

As a teacher back home, I'm always dealing with kids bickering with each other, and fighting. Very rarely do I hear students speak highly of their siblings. Here on the other hand, these two sisters shared a bond with each other, that most people in our Western world will rarely experience. This young girl displayed compassion and love, virtues that I try to teach on a daily basis. These virtues do not have to be taught here, as they are necessities for survival.

The second thing that struck me was that I was sitting across a woman -- we did not speak the same language, and live such different lives, yet we both felt so connected to one another. I smiled at her in awe of her strength and determination, and doing whatever it took to feed her child. She smiled at me, who knows what she was thinking?

After waving goodbye, we both went in opposite directions.... both on the same dirt road. I met back up with the girls, sitting by the pool, and had a full emotional breakdown. I felt guilty going to put my bathing suit on and cooling off in the pool, while these people have to continue to live like this. I don't feel sorry for the Cambodians, however, it's really difficult for me to grasp how it's possible that there is such extreme poverty, when as a nation, we have the funds and resources to be able to feed everyone in the world. I just don't get it.