What a Day It Was

Yesterday I wandered around Chiang Mai searching for items to be used in my unicorn costume. I got lost walking around and found an interesting cafe and eventually the big day market where i found the ~perfect~ unicorn shirt...it's white and entails sequins and lace!

And then we went to Wat Suandok to see Thich Naht Hahn and his crew from Plum Village (his monastery in France). First, they taught us these wonderful chants and we all sang and did some sitting meditation. It's really amazing how much energy you can feel in a room full of meditating people! and then all the plum village monks and nuns sang a beautiful, heartbreaking song in french. *i cried.* and felt a little homesick but it was lovely. TNH spoke about breathing practice, sitting meditation and mindful living. Here are a couple of quotes I found particularly enlightening:

"The mind must recognize and reconcile with the body. This is the practice of love and kindness directed toward our whole body."

"It's easy to think of happiness as something attainable in the future but not the present moment. Walking meditation teaches us to recognize joy and beauty in the now, in every step."

"The purpose of compassionate listening is to help the other person to suffer less. Don't stop the other person or try to correct them. You have to recognize the suffernig of the other in order to fully understand them."

"You cannot hlep the other person to change except through changing yourself first. Likewise, you cannot love the other person unless you love yourself."

Oh and my favorite part of the night was when there was a big lizard (we call them "du-kaes") started calling and TNH stopped his speech and then said, "I enjoy that sound." And then he proceeded to talk about bringing listening into our breathing practice. Ahh it was such a nice talk.

And then it was followed by a nice dinner with Hilary and Otto. And then Otto took me to this amazing place called Le Brasserie, home to probably one of the most ridiculously talented musicians in Thailand. Tuk played a short set by himself first and pulled out some wicked blues and folk rock. Then a band joined him and they played songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young. Mind you, these musicians are rarely known by most Thais so it's doubly wonderful to hear them played here. Everyone in the place was mesmerized. It was completely quiet and the candlelight made it feel like even more of a religious experience. Yes, it was a beautiful night.

Random News

Well the most exciting news of the week was that my cousin Beth had her baby. I can't wait to meet Ethan James in October! I'm so excited for Beth and all the new experiences she will have.

Other than that, there is not much going on here. I've started my new job at Yonok though i'm not teaching yet, so i'm mostly going in to work and ust playing on the internet and writing course syllabi. i'm teaching 12 hours this semester (which is damn better than my hectic schedule last year!) 2 sections of English 101, a public speaking course and advanced reading and a few hours of lab time. everyone at yonok seems very cool. i've taken to eating lunch with all the thai office workers. they think it's really funny that i'm vegeatarian and always chide me by offering me such delicacies as pig chin and skewered frog. i'm still getting used to riding the bike everyday. ps mom if you read this, can you send me my driver's license? woops.

we've been spending lots of time with Lampang friends...eating japanese food and watching flicks, dancing and playing darts. hilary and i have decided to host a "Magical Creatures" party next weekend. we're decorating the living room like an enchanted forrest and of course, i will be donning some sort of unicorn get-up.
my friend kirk said, "your parties are always like Burning Man" which i took as a compliment.

ooooh and on tuesday, we are going up to chiang mai to hear Thich Naht Hahn speak. if you aren't familiar with his work, he is just about the most amazing peace activist ever. he is a vietnamese buddhist monk who worked with refugees during the Vietnam war. he was exiled because of his anti-war sentiments and was actually the person who taught and inspired MLK jr (who later ended up nominating Naht Hahn for the Nobel Peace Prize). i read his book "Being Peace" and i'm so excited to hear him speak.

and this is what i did last night:

I love you Amy!

I've been thinking about my sister a lot lately. She was sick for awhile and it really made me realize how important she is to me. She is so good with kids and I admire the fact that she's not afraid to share her opinions and to just be herself. And even though she is a fierce home-body she has come half-way around the world to visit me...TWICE! Rock on Amy!

So here we are:

Dance Party!

Last Saturday we dressed all snazzy, put on our dancin shoes and headed over to tony and ilona's place for a 5-hour dance marathon. thanks to tilona for making a super-sweet dance mix which started out with all of our favorite 50's dance hits, worked its way through soul and funk and ended up with hip-hop. whew! i could barely tear myself away from the dance floor. as a special added bonus, i decided to don the tail. it's been awhile...



our friend jamie came down from chiang mai. i think she really fit right in with our group of friends and it seemed like she was having a great time.




meanwhile on the porch, the partying was getttin outta control:


Sarah was worrying that her kids might find these pictures online!



and now for the dancing!





yay it was the best night!

Funny Pictures from Laos

As you can see, Hilary and I really began to take liberties with our pictures. I think they turned out pretty well!

Inside the Fish Mouth (these first few pics are from the Sculpture Garden in Nong Khai)


Ganesha is riding (what else?) but a rat. Hilary tells a secret.


Feigning boredom with the old folks


This was probably my favorite sculpture


Archers!


My hot-ass boyfriend in Nong Khai


Soldier Girl?


I put my face behind the face of a Thai angel. Turned out kinda cool i thought...


Hilary on the weakest tire swing in the world. Our thai friend commented, "She looks like a hilltribe child."


When we were taking pictures at the top of this monument, it was sooo bright that we couldn't manage to get any good shots. I look like I just ate a lemon!


Hilary with her loads and loads of kip!


Jumping into the Lagoon


Old Lady Crossing


At the top of the hill (Wat Phu Si) in Luang Prabang. Contemplating rivers...


Sharing our roommate blessings at the Bascii Ceremony


The spider on my slow boat. yikes.


Can you see my reflection in the glass?


And finally, this really funny guy we met in Vang Vien. Jin really liked to make crazy faces in pictures.

About Communism and Buddhism in Laos

After the revolution, the new communist government changed everything about Buddhism in Laos. They wouldn't allow the monks to meditate and they changed all the texts so that they are friendly towards socialism. They banned many of the Thai teachings (which are essential to Theravada Buddhism) Even now, the monks have to go through a political training during their novice period. Things have slowly been changing recently. About 3 years ago, they finally decided to allow the monks to meditate again. Of course, many of them didn't know how as it had been banned for nearly 30 years. Hilary and I went to this photo exhibit in Luang Prabang and the photographer had been allowed to go with the first group of monks that were going on meditation retreat. It was amazing and heartbreaking. There was one picture of a young boy getting his hair shaved off and one tear trickling down his face. There were images of monks meditating on rocks and in the forrest. It was all so beautiful that i couldn't stop crying as I looked at their experiences. How life-altering to finally be able to learn this essential part of one's religion.

"Nothing whatsoever should be clung to." -The Buddha when asked to summarize the core of his teachings.

Travels on the Mekhong

Hilary and I split up after Luang Prabang because I had to get back for work and she wanted to continue north. In order to get from Luang Prabang to the Thai border at Huay Xai, I had to take a slow boat on the Mekhong River for 2 days. I had heard that it was a horrendous journey....cramped up in wooden benches unable to move for 8 hours with no food on the boat. But it actually turned out to be a great experience. Apparently the direction I was going there were a lot less tourists. The boat was a wooden long-tailed boat with comfortable seats and they would lay out mats on the ground if you wanted to have a rest. There were just as many Laos people traveling as tourists and everyone seemed to share their food and swap stories as the gorgeous scenery passed us by. I saw an elephant bathing in the river and tons and tons of water buffalo, who are my new favorite animals. The weather was cool and the mountains were misty. We went past tons of little villages and could see the people coming down to bathe in the river in the late afternoon. It was pretty smoothe sailing until the girl i was sitting next to decided to open her curtain. There was a HUGE spider the size of my hand inside the curtain and it had an egg sac. We very quickly evacuated our seats whilst making a big fuss. Everyone on the boat was coming over to see and take photos. Ironically, the monk in the seat behind us never moved or even flinched. How do they do that?

So after all the excitement, we had a Beer Laos and awaited the end of our 9-hour boat ride. That night we stayed in a tiny little town called Pak Beng. I mean, they cut the electricity off there at 10 pm and so we had to carry flashlights around. I'd heard about some bandits in the town trying to break into people's rooms and steal their stuff so i was pretty worried since I was on my own. Luckily we found a great cheap guesthouse owned by a lovely family. I was speaking to them in Laos and they ended up asking me to help them. They had just bought a computer (the first one in the entire community!) and were having trouble setting it up because none of them could read english. Everything seemed to be fine until i tried to access the internet. First I discovered that they had not connected the cord to a phone line and then I started to wonder, "Where is the modem?" They were asking me, "What is modem?" Of course, i could only explain by saying, "It's a little black box for the internet." Turns out they didn't have one so they would have to buy it. I felt bad and could tell they were quite disappointed. However, I was successful in helping them set up their CD and DVD players so that was good. It was just amazing to be a part of this interaction...seeing people using their first computer in 2007! I felt good that I could help them a little bit and they really took care of me for the rest of the night and next morning.

The second day was getting a bit grueling. In my sleep the night before I had felt like I was still rocking on the boat. The Mekhong is nothing to mess with! We saw giant whirlpool and undertows and sometimes the current was so strong. It's such an important river that sustains people in so many countries: China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia. You could just feel its life-force.

The family that owned the second boat was very nice and they had a little boy who I played with quite a bit. I chit-chatted with Ricardo, this crazy Italian lifeguard who travels every winter because he collects unemployment from the Italian government. He told me about traveling in Myanmar (which is next on my wish list) and what it was like to be in Italy during the World Cup. That night we stayed in Huay Xai which is still in Laos but the other side of the river is Thailand. We ate at a restaurant called Nut Pop which played extremely loud Laos folk music and good food. After 2 days on the river it was good to be back on solid ground.
Here are some pics:
Ze boat-

Ze river-

Water Buffalo

Morning Mist-

Pak Beng Village

Luang Prabang

On the bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang we had to brave very high mountains with steep cliffs (no guard rails of course!) and it was a lovely ride. In the villages, the people would wave to us and the children would run after the bus. There were thatched huts spotting the hills and gardens and rice fields. The sky became suddenly very dark and it started to pour. It was raining like never before and surely, the driver couldn't see where he was going but he continued on as though nothing was wrong. It actually started to hail (during hot season!) and the wind was whipping our little minivan all around. We passed by a few HUGE boulders that had fallen from the cliffs and i thought for sure that we would either fall off the cliff or be crushed by a boulder. After about a grueling half an hour, it let up and we passed out of the mountains. The good thing was that when we arrived in Luang Prabang the weather was cool and misty with clouds snaking around the mountains and rising up from the rivers.

Luang Prabang is located at the confluence of the Mekhong and Chan Rivers and there is a beautiful hill in the center of town that has a temple and the Buddha's footprint. It's a nice place to watch the sunset over all the town. The city used to be the capital of the Lan Xang kingdom (also known as the Lanna kingdom which included parts of northern thailand). Much of the architecture in the town has a distinctive style-the roof eaves hang very low to the ground and there are beautiful mosaics made of metalic glass. The temples are sooo colorful so i fell in love at first sight.






The murals tell the story of the Jataka which recounts the Buddha's previous incarnations (I think they explain his 12 lives before he was Siddhartha).

And of course the best part of the town was, the food:


This is a picture of the river moss that we were wild about. I brought back about a pound of the stuff as well as some Laos Lao. I figure we can have a "Laos" night in Lampang. We loved the special Luang Prabang salad which was made from watercress, boiled egg, other veggies, peanuts and a sweet sauce. I think we ate it every day in Luang Prabang! We also enjoyed the sticky rice and Laap- minced pork (or tofu) with mint and coriander, garlic and chili. it's super spicy but the sticky rice cools it down.

tomorrow i will tell you the story of the cave.