I want to tell

After another prolonged absence from my blog I have the urge to share again. We'll see if that continues or not.
I'm sitting here in my kitchen in Durango, CO looking out at intimidatingly gray weather. I've been working on the railroad and I have two precious days off before the two week push of working every day until Christmas until 11 pm.
How did I get here?
It seems like so long ago that Annie offered to help me get out to Colorado. I joined her and Lisa on their cross country drive, but jumped out in Fairfield Iowa, a strange town where Gold tipped domes and trailer parks live in harmony. I stayed in the trailerpark with John and joined him on a trip to the Iowa State fair with his posse of Chinese exchange students. It turns out fried butter is every bit as delicious as it sounds. To those poor souls who have not been exposed to fried butter, let me explain: Take half a stick of well chilled butter and impale it on a stick (wood, not butter). Now plunge the sticked butter into a thick, sweet, cinnamony batter and deep fry it. The result is a falice of batter that has been penetrated with butter and frying oil. When bitten into, salty butter oozes out of the middle. Get the picture?
From Des Moines I caught a bus to Denver where I was greated by my bike crazed family. It turns out I had timed my arrival in Colorado perfectly with the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, a 7 stage road bike race around central Colorado. My uncles, who are already cycling enthusiasts couldn't stop talking about the race. Before it started I kept hearing, "this is going to be so cool", and then, at the race, "this is so cool." The enthusiasm was contagious and I was hooked. I ended up following half the stages in a Tigger costume, bouncing and yelling as the racers came through.
Suddenly the race was over and I was faced with the decision I had been putting off: where am I going to live now? I had been leaning towards Durango for a while, with no alternatives really getting me as excited, so I borrowed my cousin Conor's car and loaded up my belongings to check out Durango. Now here I am and it has started snowing gently. Somehow the snow is more welcoming than the gray blanket leading up to precipitation.
So I moved to Durango and started looking for work and climbing a little, which progressed to climbing a lot and looking for work a little. I volunteered with some farmers and at a raw kitchen called the Turtle Lake Refuge. I managed to snag a week of work on a strawbale house, but that ended as quickly as it came about. Finally, I managed to find work at the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Rail Road (D&SNGRR). The event of the season is The Polar Express, based on the book and the more recent movie (if you love the book, don't watch the movie). When the first train pulled in I stood on platform and watched all the kids in PJs stare wide eyed as the hissing and steaming engine came to a halt before them. The conductor stepped out and yelled all aboard and a tear came to my eye. It really was just like the book that my parents read to me every year on Christmas eve, a dream come true for little kids and a huge revenue enhancer for the D&SNGRR. I hoped that feeling wouldn't go away for me, that I wouldn't stop believing in the magic of The Polar Express. Unfortunately, when I was told that the new hire for our department failed the drug test and that I would have to work every day from the 14th until the 28th, excluding only Christmas day itself, the magic failed me. I am beginning to hate Christmas carols and hope that all the kids can get off the train quickly at the end of the night so I can blow out the lanterns, unplug the Christmas lights, clean the depot and go home.
I will write soon about the joy of building a pizza oven and baking in it.

Life in the West

I haven't published a Post since returning from Asia, so a lot has happened since then and I will list a few highlights and get back to the present.
Bike trip to Fontainebleau:
I took a ferry to Dieppe in France with Clare and Greg, two friends from Bristol. The three of us spent 4 days biking from Dieppe to Fontainebleau, going through lots of charming french villages and ending up at our final campsite just in time to meet the rest of the climbing crew for a week of great bouldering and excellent fun.

Sam and Mara's visit:
After climbing in France I hitch-hiked home and soon after getting back Sam, a good friend from College, came to visit with his sister Marah. We enjoyed excellent weather and did lots of walking and some climbing and hanging out at my appartment. It was a great way to get home to have people to share the beauty of my little neck of the woods.
I worked at my restaurant job for a month and then John came to visit:

John's visit:
Once again the weather cooperated nicely. I took John, another close college friend, climbing and he got to witness the culmination of my climbing efforts that spring as I managed to climb the most challenging and satisfying climb I have ever accomplished. We also got to go on an excellent hike that involved a little hitchhiking, a long via ferrata up a huge limestone wall, a quick dip (with my cell phone...oops) into an exquisite alpine lake, and a day walking along a very narrow and exposed ridge. We also took advantage of a bad weather day to rappel into a cave that still has glacial ice stuck inside it. All in all a very exciting visit.

LPC Freedom,
After John's visit my grandparents stopped in for an extremely short visit of 2 nights and my parents and I took them to the airport, where I also boarding a plane for the states. I headed for Freedom, NH to be a counselor at a summer camp connected to the Ecole d'Humanite (the international boarding school where I grew up, but unless i'm mistaken about the popularity of this blog everyone who reads this will already know that). I spent 5 weeks in Freedom with an excellent staff and a rowdy and wonderful group of 9-13 year olds. Everything went very smoothly and now, without much warning, i'm done with camp and facing the rest of life.

Life in the West:
After a few more days in the Boston area I plan to head West and find a future. I haven't yet decided where I want to live, which is both exciting and a little difficult to plan around. I look forward to whatever lies ahead and will hopefully keep people updated on what that is.

Hope for Vietnam,

Important bus ride statistics:

Average time between honks of the horn = 6.4 seconds

The distance from my waist to my knees ≥ Distance between the back of my chair and the kidneys of the person sitting in front of me.

 Time it takes a Vietnamese person to fall asleep on a bus = time it takes to close their eyes + about 10 seconds.

Added value of a bus with onboard toilet facilities = $ 0.-, because the bus stops at least every two hours anyway.

The honking of Hanoi is incessant.  It has gotten to the point where the rearview mirror has been replaced by the certainty that everyone will use their horn to inform you of their presence. It has become an epidemic and at times the future of Vietnam’s streets look very bleak indeed. Yet there is hope, i met a few young Vietnamese who believed that, “people here honk more than necessary.” This counterculture of non-honkers is living by example in the hopes that it will catch on. They are also relying on influence from the West, hoping that as the country continues to develop and westernize, maybe they will also adopt the concepts of using rearview mirrors and right of way.

Despite the earsore, I dove into the culture by renting a motorbike of my own, the trusty Honda Wave, and I braved the streets of Hanoi for three full days and emerged unscathed.  My preparation for the streets of Hanoi was five months of travel in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, in that order. Before arriving in Vietnam, I had been made apprehensive by tales of fellow tourists being treated unkindly, ripped off, badgered excessively and overcharged to the point that many had found it to be the least enjoyable to visit in Southeast Asia. I prepared by setting up some contacts through Couchsurfing.org as well as some of Duncan’s study abroad friends. Things continued to work out as I headed from north through the country and I ended up thoroughly enjoying Vietnam. My experience opposed the reports I had received, as I found myself less pestered and more welcome than in any other country I have visited in my short life. Some examples of the hospitality I received:

 In the mountain town of Dalat I was approached by a nun, who was visiting with her nephew and offered me a place to stay at my next destination, Da Nang, where I was taken care of, fed, and driven around by the 22 year old gentleman who spoke very limited English, named Thanh, for two full days. Thanh’s family, none of whom spoke a word of English, refused to let me pay for anything over those two days, even getting the nun (who spoke English) to call me and tell me not to try to pay for anything.

Another example was a bicycling ice cream salesman I approached for a scoop only to realize I was completely out of cash. As he was dismounting his bike I realized my predicament and gestured that I wouldn’t buy the ice cream after all, but the old man calmly made me a cone, drizzled on some condensed milk and handed me the cone with a pat on my shoulder (as high as he could reach), no need to pay this time.

The final example I will give happened in Hanoi in a very touristy spot. I sat down to read my book on the grounds of a small pagoda and a woman came over and gestured for me to join her for lunch. She sat of the ground and unpacked a small feast of rice, steamed veggies, fish, soup, with lots of chunks of meat swimming in it, some meat jell-o and even some rice wine. Her friends joined and five of us sat there eating and trying to communicate. By the time I left I had also been given two passion fruits to eat and a coconut to drink and had a tentative date set up with one of the man’s daughters (that didn’t end up happening). Those were just the random acts of kindness that came completely un-looked for and unexpected. The people I met through couchsurfing were just as generous with their time, just as eager to meet and get to know people from around the world.

 The most uninteresting and unpleasant experiences I had were also the most expensive, namely the two tours I booked, one to see the Mekong Delta area, and the other to visit Ha Long Bay. The tours are westernized in a way that detracts from the experience. Everything must be idiot proof and accessible for 60+ year olds (no offense), everything is planned out, leaving no room for uncertainty and spontaneity, the food is bland and the people you meet are unexcited because all they do every day is deal with tourists. Also, you are surrounded by other tourists who were as uninspired as I was when I decided to sign up for a package tour. So basically, the tours go against many of my fundamental travel principles and thus are not my cup of tea (which was not very good either).

The opportunities

While I have been travelling I have had lots of time to read and think and putter around online. I have been feeling especially inspired recently by some alternative technologies I have been reading about, seeing, and taking part in. I would like to share some of the sources that I have found inspiring.

1. the book: Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World

This book is about a village in Colombia, South America, that is a model for sustainable living. They have built a ground up community that supplies it's energy from the sun, it's income from the rainforest while growing more trees at the same time. They are true pioneers, really forward thinking people. The book is great, a pleasure and inspiration to read.

2. Natural building:

Get on board, there are so many natural techniques that have been used forever such as adobe and cob building. An earthen home is cheap to build, doesn't require too much expertise, is beautiful, healthy and comfortable to live in and doesn't use nearly as many resources, unless you count dirt, which is an unlimited resource. Look into it, start with a homemade pizza oven: http://blog.sustainablog.org/how-to-build-your-own-cheap-outdoor-pizza-oven/ 

Here are some sites to get you excited:

3. Solar Cooling:

A college student figured out how to make a fridge that uses some very simple materials. The idea is so painfully simple it shouldn't work and yet it does.

Also, there are people designs for solar air conditioners that turn into solar heaters in winter.

The same principle has been used to make low tech solar freezers that can produce large quantities of ice. Check out this article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=solar-refrigeration

4. EM

It stands for Effective Microorganisms and is apparently the savior of our planet. A combination of a few different types of microorganisms (lactic acid bacteria, yeast, photosynthetic bacteria) can be cultivated to make this miracle substance. EM supposedly can be used diluted in water to help plants grow faster and stronger. It can keep compost piles, sewage systems, fish tanks , well basically anything from getting stinky and gross. It can be fed to animals to improve their health and yield (milk for example). It has been used to clean up after natural disasters such as Katrina. There are even EM recipes that people drink to improve their own health. EM is commerically available, it's quite expensive, but a little goes a long way, as you can dilute it quite heavily. There are also some recipes floating around online, but I can't vouch for any of them yet. 

How can you not get excited when you think about these things. I am starting to realize that despite the immense complexity of life, it is all so simple. The sun and dirt can take care of most of our needs. Let me know if you're inspired by something.
love to all,
Robo

Between the end of the banana season and the beginning of the coconut season

I love Vietnam. The people are friendly as can be and the places I’ve been are great. I will present some highlights of my time in Vietnam so far.

The ice cream buffet. Need I say more? Yes. It was a couchsurfing meeting in Saigon, so I thought it could be perfect. Meet other couchsurfers and enjoy an amazing buffet, all you can eat ice cream and whipped cream, real chocolate sauce, sorbet, fruit salad, passionfruit juice, oreos and sprinkles galore. I think I had about 10 mini Sundays and then some other stuff on the side.

Khan’s birthday party. I was couchsurfing in a 4 person apartment on floor 12A (meaning floor 13) of what must be one of the biggest apartment buildings in Ho Chi Min City. It was one of my hosts birthdays and we celebrated with a homemade feast and some drinks followed by a trip to a Karaoke lounge.

Visiting a farmer with a biogas digester. Duncan had worked to install a few biogas digesters in the Mekong Delta during his semester in Vietnam,  so I went to check out what they were all about. One of Duncan’s friends took me out to visit a farmer and translated for me the whole time as the farmer showed me around his fish ponds and pig stalls and then introduced me to his low budget biogas digester. Once he realized that I was truly interested in understanding the details, he drew it all out for me, pointing out some of the improvements he had made to the original system.

Dalat! The main destination for Vietnamese tourists to make a romantic getaway. Dalat is a small city in the mountains, surrounded by greenhouses growing strawberries and avocadoes, as well as more farmland, forests and lots of waterfalls. One waterfall had a rollercoaster that puts you in charge of the brakes winding down the hill through the jungle from the road to the waterfall. The other Dalat highlight was today. When I got here I met up with a French couchsurfer named Nans who had been hoping to raft down a river around here. We decided to buy some car innertubes and float down a river today. Getting there was the fun part. We drove my rental motorbike out of town and down into a flatter valley where we found a place to get our inner tubes inflated (a strange request for them in a town where we saw no other tourists all day) and then headed for the river. The river was beautiful, surrounded by rice patties and banana trees with basalt boulders strewn thoughout the river. The float itself wasn’t that successful as there wasn’t quite enough flow and the sun disappeared as soon as we got into the water, leaving us to slowly chill to the point where it was quite possible to forget that we were still in a tropical country.

Tip of the trip: Avocado smoothie, soooooooooo good!!! Just blend avocado and condensed milk, something like that, and you have a completely new way of experiencing avocadoes.

oh, and the title. It was something a Vietnamese said about when he would get married. Since coconuts and bananas grow all year round in southern Vietnam, it is a great way of not answering the question, i thought it was a good way of thinking about time in general.

rural to urban

My final day in Cambodia involved another trip into the countryside. This time I went with my agriculture partner, Kimsang. We took turns driving the motorbike to the village and then stood on the farmers plot wondering why his watermelons weren't growing.

 I was more intrigued by the fact that the cucumbers were growing on the same plot of rock hard dirt with no organic matter or water at all in the soil. The farmer was a friendly old man who also did some blacksmithing to make some farm tools that he presumably sold at the closest market. We asked some questions, took some pictures and gave him some seeds. Then along came his drunk wife, who fell in love with me. She cooed and pet me and then after a while she dragged me through some yards to the store, which was the village hang out and there someone produced a boom box so that she could dance with me.

 I was very embarassed, but didn't really see a way out, so I dance with her as about 20 people stood by laughing. I managed to pry myself out of that situation after Kimsang finally said we had to go, then we visited another farmer, who was too drunk to talk to. His plot of land reflected his drinking habit and there wasn't much use in analyzing the soil since he wasn't making much use of it. After that very rural experience I boarded the bus for Ho Chi Min and (after 14 hours) entered the bustle of motorbikes that everyone had warned me about. "You think this is a lot of motorbikes, wait until you get to Vietnam" is a common travelers comment. What first impressed me was the narrow buildings. Apparently at one point the government taxed businesses based on the width of the storefront, so now many of the buildings are only 4 meters wide, but very long and tall to make up for it. The war remnants museum was my first tourist destination and it was well done, making me wonder again how humans can be so inhumane. I was deeply impressed by the photography and at one point I had to step out of the exhibition on torture as it made me increasingly nauseous. I'm meeting up with Hieu, a friend of Duncan's from his time here. Tomorrow night i'm very excited to attend an icecream buffet for dinner. All the ice cream you can eat for just $5.- and as everyone knows I can eat a lot of ice cream.
Love to all.

When it rains it pours

Today was a memorable day for me. It was a day that I imagined, hoped for and feared when I thought of travelling to Asia. I was invited to join the Trailblazer well drilling team for a trip to finish work on some wells. I sat in the bed of a pickup truck for 2 hours as we drove to a small village North of Siem Reap. One perk of the butt numbing and extremely dusty ride was that we passed through the Angkor compound without paying, a rare exception for westerners (Cambodians can visit the temples of Angkor for free anytime). We were a team of five, heading out to build two cement bases for the PVC pull pumps drilled last week. The base I was helping to build was for a single mother who lived with 5 girls, some her younger sisters and some her children. She was pregnant and earned under 25 cents a day. The pump was the fanciest piece of equipment on her property, which consisted of a dirt lot with some scrawny dogs and a tiny wood house on stilts with no door and nothing inside it except for a few spare clothes hanging from a beam. She cooked outside with her 3 pots and a small wood fire. Lighting at night was provided by a tin can lantern.

The work was gratifying and physical, performed in a sticky 37 degrees C. After we finished the woman served us a simple lunch of fish soup and rice. I might well have been the first Barang (foreigner) to eat in her house. The floor boards had spacious gaps between them so I could drop my fishbones though to the dog on the ground. On the way home I was talking to Scott, the director of the Trailblazer foundation, about the work and the area. He pointed out a dozen signs that warned of landmines, saying that each sign was specific to an area where a recent accident had occurred. As we drove by,  kids biking home from school waved cheerfully, some even boasting an English “hello!”

Scott revealed to me how much money gets wasted in many aid projects. He says that big NGOs often have a poor understanding of what the local issues really are and since they are not in touch with local communities, a lot of their projects never happen in the places that really need help, basically they get stuck in bureaucracy. He pointed out several wells that were broken  and out of use, explaining that the organization who built them was charging double what Trailblazer charges and making poor quality wells. Scott and Chris live simple lives, and employ an all Cambodian staff. They have also raised several foster children. If you have any money to spare or know anyone who does I strongly believe In the Trailblazer Foundation. Not only are they helping the people who are really in the most need, but they are economically efficient about it, turning a higher percentage of donor money into direct action than the other NGOs in Cambodia.

Well, that’s why I’m glad to have found Trailblazer. Check out their website at http://www.thetrailblazerfoundation.org. I’m both inspired by the work I’m involved with and humbled by the

This evening it rained, making the day even more memorable. It is the first real rain I’ve seen since early December, and it rained hard, accompanied by some mighty lightning and thunder. I can only imagine how welcome this premature rain is for those who cannot irrigate.

Crossing the Street

How to Cross the Street,

Reporting from Siem Reap, Cambodia. After a week here I am getting used to the difference between Cambodia and Thailand. Getting here was the start. To get from Bangkok to Siem Reap I took train, taxi, bus, tuk tuk, bus, taxi, and finally another tuk tuk. I joined forces with two other Americans at the border and ended up spending several days with them. We shared a room and visited the temples of Angkor together and then they moved, while I stayed to volunteer for a bit with the Trailblazer Foundation, which I will get to shortly.

Cambodia is noticeably poorer than Thailand, with many more people desperately vying for your dollars. Offerings for tuk tuk rides, useless trinkets, books, food, tours and massages engulf you in downtown Siem Reap and at the entrance to any temple. Traffic is even a little crazier than Thailand and it is common to see bikes and scooters going on the wrong side of the road. The most effective way to make a left turn onto a busy street while riding a bicycle is to cross to the left side before you get to the main road and then sneak onto the far left side of the road, going against traffic until the oncoming traffic clears and one can cross back to the right side of the road. It seems to be the common procedure and people look at you funny if you wait for traffic to clear as one would in first world countries. Following local traffic customs, we (one of the Portland, OR guys and myself, his friend’s stomach lost that battle against the previous night’s streetfood) biked out to Angkor for a beautiful sunrise over Angkor Wat. We then walked around there a bit and then headed to a quieter temple with trees growing on the crumbling walls. The next day we were full force again, and although we didn’t rise with the sun there was still plenty of time to take in the ancient sights. Our collective favorite was Bayon, a strange temple palace with over 30 towers all carved with a face on each of 4 sides. It was a maze of passageways, stairs, small rooms and courtyards. In the afternoon we sought out the shadier site of Ta Prom, which was intentionally not restored by the original French restoration team (now there is extensive restoration and conservation work to maintain the site in its “unrestored” state. The forest has filled in, creating the famous images of tree roots strangling carved walls and framing doorways. After drinking a coconut at one of the many food stalls outside Ta Prom, we were invited to see the home of our vendor; we had been joking around with her for a while. I took her younger cousin with us on the back of my bike and we headed for her village, just behind the temple grounds. It was so sweet to bike through a village and smiling faces, no one offered to sell us anything, they were now in full hospitality mode and were very sweet. The family chatted with us and showed off their fruit trees and well. The home was modest, but appeared to be quite sufficient and I suspect that many villages are in much worse condition. The tourism is definitely huge for the local economy and I suspect many of the villages around Angkor have developed due to the draw of western money.

Speaking of western money, here is the one of the local schemes. A young boy comes up to your dinner table, tries to sell you a book you don’t want. You decline and after a while of begging he tells you that he needs the money for his baby sister who he is trying to support. His mother died and he needs to buy her formula, powdered milk he calls it. If he goes a day without food it’s okay, but his sister needs powdered milk today. So you feel sorry and you also feel better about buying him something that he really needs instead of buying his stupid book that you’re just going to throw away. So he takes you to the store and points at a jug of formula. You ask the storeowner how much it costs and he says $12.-, so you keep asking until you find the cheapest formula they have for $5.-. He takes it and thanks you kindly and then returns it to the store as soon as you leave to get the money back. This happened to someone I met and then yesterday I saw it happen again to someone else.

After visiting the Temples I turned to the volunteering opportunity that another traveler I met in Chiang Mai told me about. The Trailblazer Foundation works with rural villages improve public health and education. They install wells and supply water filters and have built a few schools, and donated many mosquito nets and flip flops. They also have an agriculture department to test seeds, EM, and mushroom growing and promote organic farming and gardening methods. I have been helping to fill plastic bags with a sawdust mixture, steaming them and then adding spores. The bags are placed in the mushroom hut and eventually start producing impressive amounts of mushrooms. I am working primarily with a Khmer woman named Voleak, but the heads of the foundation are American. I have been really enjoying It so far, just based on the relaxed yet productive approach. I hope to stay here for at least another week, we’ll see what actually happens.

So Far So Good

Reflecting on my time so far I realize that it's been very smooth sailing. I guess it depends on what you call rough waters, but really I've had a very relaxing time. I had a fever for one day and diarrhea for one day, separate events. I've never been seriously ripped off so far and haven't had any accidents so far. That probably means I have something in store heading into Cambodia and Vietnam. Or maybe the good karma that has been gracing my entire life is especially potent in these buddhist countries, where it is more of a hard currency than an abstract concept. My stay at Pun Pun had to draw to an end, even though I couldn't see the building go up all the way. I got to participate in finishing the walls to their final height as well as putting a layer of plaster on all the walls, a very satisfying step. I was shocked by the bustle upon my return to Chiang Mai, and especially shocked to see how expensive Bangkok is and how different it is from the rest of Thailand. Here are some pictures from Pun Pun:

The solar hot water showers, so simple, yet very effective. The water is heated in the two black 55 gallon barrels.

The beginning of our building. The wall shot up on our first building day. This was after only an hour of brick laying.

My facial spa treatment extended to my whole head, apparently the clay sucks out toxins and sickness. It felt great

The final height of our building. We are covering the bricks in another layer of mud to create smooth walls that can then be painted. The tree painting is done with a paint based on tapioca flour, clay and natural pigments.

My Daily Routine at Pun Pun,

I have developed a somewhat regular and yet always new routine here at Pun Pun. Breakfast is at 8 am, and is usually something I would never think to eat for breakfast, but am now used to and enjoy. Examples would be rice soup, barley and mung beans with soy milk, fried rice, last night's dinner and so on. At 9 am the community work starts. Everyone is expected to help out in some way. I have alternated between building with adobe and working in the garden planting and weeding. I have also helped prepare lunch, which is between noon and 12:30 pm. Before lunch I usually jump in the pond with all my clothes on, to wash off my muddy, sweaty stuff and self. Lunch is always delicious and the buffet table always starts with a big pot of brown rice. After lunch is siestaand then the afternoon is unstructured, so I have time to read, or help my buddy Pop with seed saving, anything that doesn't involve being in the sun too much, since the afternoons are extremely hot (between 30 and 40 celcius). 4:30 is watering time, so whoever isn't doing anything important grabs a watering can and we douse all the beds. Recently we have started installing a watering system similar to driplines, but it will take some time before everyhing is set up. I have often used that time to get some more building done instead, since the temperature is pleasant again by that time of day. Another jump in the pond is necessary after building with mud, followed by a solar hot shower before dinner. At 6:30 the bell rings for the last time of the day to announce another wonderful meal of brown rice and tasty soups and salads. In the evenings I either just read, or hang out some and then read. I dream about building an earthen house and wonder what life has in store for me. I use the internet briefly at the neighboring hippie farm run by a group of non-thai volunteers following permaculture principles.

Today was a special day. Even though yesterday was my birthday it felt like it was today. I weeded and jumped in the pond, so far on track for a normal day. Then after lunch we got into serious baking mode. I made bread dough, Justin made pizza dough and the baker, Yao, made chocolate cake, bread and pumpkin pie. I also harvested tomatoes and squeezed out the seeds to save them. I fixed the wobbly table that has been bothering me since I got here and we fired up the home made pizza oven. Glorious pizza kept sliding in and out of the ovens mouth and at the end I got to bake my bread the way bread was always meant to be baked. After dinner the lights went out and the chocolate cake made its appearance briefly before being distributed among 20 politely eager adults and a pair of surprisingly restrained kids. This was not just any chocolate cake. The cocoa mass came fom Nate, one of the community members from the states who also owns some land in bolivia where he grew, harvested and processed the cocoa. Talk about fair trade, I help him build a coffee shop, he gives me the best cocoa I have ever tasted to use in an oozing rich cake. The wonder of the moment was enhanced by it's rarity in Thailand.

Now I'm wondering how I can find a way to build a sod roof on my nonexistent earthen home built on land I can't even conceive of in a country yet to be determined with money that I don't yet have. So if you want to give me a birthday present, find me a plot of beautiful land that your buddy wouldn't mind me building on without a permit.

Love to all

P.S: I think the hot season is officially starting.

Pun Pun,

I’m finally on a farm, or something like it. Pun Pun is a sustainable living and seed saving center. I’m in the middle of a 10 day course here called get grounded where I learn their techniques of sustainable living. The workshop is very informal and laid back. The founders of Pun Pun, a Thai named Joe and his American wife Peggy, believe in making life easy and simple. Without much money they have converted a small hill that could only grow weed grasses into a small farm with lots of trees and adobe huts scattered among the beds. In our sessions we’ve covered compost making and gardening, seed saving, natural health techniques, making soap and shampoo, and several food products such as tofu, kombutcha, rice wine, jam, chlorophyll juice and yogurt. Now we are moving on to natural building techniques, focusing on adobe. We have made some bricks that are quickly drying in this dry and sunny landscape. Today we will start to build a house and then we will learn about plasters, paints and finishes. This course is truly inspiring, and it really makes me want to live in a country that doesn’t have strict building codes because it can be so easy to build your own earth or straw bale house. Joe said he built a small house for $13 using earth and salvaged materials.

Today we built! It was amazing how fast we made progress. We built up the small building about 1.5 meters in just 5 hours of work. As Peggy warned us, it was addictive. All you do is mix up mud and use it as mortar. Because you are not dealing with concrete, everything can be done by hand. If we had enough dry bricks we could easily finish the wall in another day. Tomorrow we will plaster the section of wall that we built today. This dry climate makes it very easy as we don’t have to wait long for things to dry.

Horses and Elephants

I've already been back in Chiang Mai for over a week again and just saw Clare off to the islands of Southern Thailand. We climbed 5 days together with great success.

Crazy Horse, notice the ears

Crazy Horse Buttress, as the climbing area is called, has some great, unique climbs. One highlight was climbing a detached pillar, transferring onto a stalactite and then onto the main wall again. Another was scrambling into a cave to find a route that led towards a hole in the roof of the cave.

There was also a crazy climb featuring stalactites that stick out horizontally. Clare and I were both pleased with our climbing and with the area. I will meet someone else to climb with for this week.

Today, for Clare's last day up North, we went up to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp, home to over 70 elephants. We arrived just on time to see the show, involving elephant soccer, basketball, music, and painting.

unfortunately he didn't score on this attempt

It is extremely hard not to fall in love with the elephants. I hadn't done anything like this on my trip so far and I'm really glad I finally got around to seeing some elephants. One deterrent had been my fear of it being overpriced, but when we got there the tickets didn't seem to be mandatory and we got to spend the afternoon there for free.

This young elephant was particularly cheeky

Chiang Mai take two

I'm back in Chiang Mai and it rained last night. I've spent about 3 weeks in this area and that was the first rain i've seen. In order to stay in Thailand for long enough this time, I had to go to the Thai embassy in Vientiane. I thouroughl botched the whole process. First I got to Vientiane on saturday evening, and wanted to go to the embassy the next morning before someone told me it would be closed on Sunday, of course. Then I went to the embassy on sunday, but got lost on the way there and then after waiting to hand in my documents for 2 hours I had forgotten something and time was up. So I finally managed to hand in my application on tuesday morning and picked it up on wednesday afternoon. I teamed up with a German guy for going to Chiang Mai. We got a tuk tuk then a bus, then another bus and then another bus. The first two buses were extremely slow, which bothered my German travel companion immensely, but I like taking local buses and watching people hop in and out as part of their daily lives. A young German couple was travelling with a nursing baby, which deeply impressed me. The journey back to Chiang Mai took about 14 hours and the baby was relatively quiet for the whole trip, wow.
Now I'm in Chiang Mai and Clare has arrived to hang out and do some climbing. Yesterday we got our first day in at Crazy Horse Buttress. It is a great climbing area. Lots of small sectors with well marked paths and a huge initiative to keep the area clean. We climbed 7 routes, including a 6a chimney ( i love chimneys so I found it to be the easiest climb of the day). I onsighted a 6b+ as well, which I was very happy about, it being my first day climbing in a while. Unfortunately I got a heat stroke and was feeling weak and awful in the evening. I slept forever and today I feel recovered, but we didn't climb today. We hope to get an early start tomorrow and get some multipitch climbing in. On another note I went to the market today and got a bamboo sticky rice steamer and made myself some authentic thai sticky rice.

The underworld

First there was the bus ride. I rarely have trouble sleeping in cars, as a matter of fact they often have a soporific effect on me. The bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was quite a challenge though. It was steep, extremely curvy, and at times very bumpy too. Then there is the town that is know to all as a tubing destination. I knew that tubing in Vang Vieng was a big deal, but I still couldn't grasp what the big deal was. Okay, it's an innertube, and you get really drunk, what's the big deal. I found out that the big deal is that Laos has extremely cheap whisky (lao lao) and no safety regulations. Within 50 meters of the put in, you pass 5 bars with blasting music and free shots. Not just one free shot to lure you in, but unlimited whisky shots to make sure you never leave. The rope swings and zip lines are the really special thing in my opinion. You start 6 meters over the ground (not always over the water) and swing like tarzan. Depending on which bar you're at you may have a very limited fall zone, where letting go or falling off at the wrong point would land you in very shallow water or no water at all. The lack of safety makes the rope swings especially fun.

The zip lines are just comical. Starting high above the water and accelerating very quickly towards the end that is so abrupt it usually flips the rider off. Most drunk zip liners land head first from about 4 meters up, the lucky ones are flung off so violently that they complete a full backflip and splash upright into the river. The tubing itself is boring, so most people do it once and then just go hang out at the bars on the river and dance, drink, and swing away the afternoon.

It also so happens that Vang Vieng is situated in a beautiful valley surrounded by limestone mountains riddled with caves.

notice the shack on the left for scale

The last too days I have spent my time exploring 6 caves in the area. The coolest one was Than Hoi ( I think). We followed a volunteer guide along a passage for two km of mostly easy walking. There we came across a stream of clear and refreshing water.

Me jumping into the refreshing waters of Blue Lagoon, outside one of the caves.

We waded upstream and then took off our clothes and swam for 20 m to a small and gentle waterfall. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done, and the water and air temperature were perfect as well.

The only downside to an amazing day of caving was that our guide wanted us to pay him $20.- when were were done. We refused, as the average tour guide working for an agency only makes $4.- a day. We gave him a very generous $6.- but he was very upset with us for not paying his price. We talked to some locals at the guesthouse and they said he didn't deserve more than a dollar.
Now you may ask who "we" are. The first two days in Vang Vieng "we" included a german woman who left this morning for Vientien. This morning I got up at 5:30 and ran 4 km out of town to an organic farm where I was to help out with the goat chores. I arrived at 6:30 and helped clean the stalls, feed the goats and give the babies some milk. I intended to help with the milking and cheese making, but during breakfast I met some americans who are longer term volunteers at the farm. They were planning an outing, so I joined them for the day. I got to experience true Lao generosity when the goat keeper let me borrow his motorbike to ride into town and get my stuff so that I could stay at the farm tonight. The intended trip fell through when the local friend of the volunteers didn't show, so we went spelunking instead. It has been an eventful day and I hope to do some more goat work before I head down to Vientien for a new Thai visa.

What boat?

After leaving Luang Namtha, I went straight to the next couchsurfer, who was a german guy named Chris from the same volunteer program as my host in Namtha. There were 4 germans in the house and I went out to dinner with them and then to a Lao club, which was really fun and cute. That was my one night in Oudom Xai. Actually, the night wasn't over. We returned to their house and to my surprise the party had beaten me home. I was feeling a little nauseous from a questionable lunch and ended up not sleeping at all, feeling too nauseous to sleep, but not quite enough to vomit. The next day in the bus was miserable, but since I'm reading The Power of Now and it tells me to just be present and not keep thinking about the past and the future I tried to sit with my discomfort. I'm not quite there yet. I found myself having very high expectations of getting off the bus. Happy to be out of the bus I headed towards downtown Nong Kiaw.

View upstream from the bridge in Nong Kiaw.

What a beautiful place, deep in a valley bellow limestone cliffs split by a tranquil brown river. I shared a room with a Russian named Taras, and then went to check out some caves with our neighbors, two German travellers. I decided to take the boat down from Nong Kiaw to Luang Prabang with the German's. We went to the pier and bought a ticket around 9:30 and waited for the boat to leave. At 11:30 we were informed that although people had signed up to take the boat, only 7 people had actually showed up and gotten a ticket. They refused to leave unless we pay double or find more people to fill up the boat. So we walked to the bus station and waited there for 2 hours for a minibus to fill up. On the 4 hour bus ride we had to get out and wait for an hour for the bus to cool down. We finally arrived in Luang Prabang, and after much searching found a cheap room. Once we got over the frustrating day, which wasn't too hard for me, since time is not really a precious commodity in my life right now, I found the town to be quite charming, just as everyone had told me.

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One of my favorite parts of being here is the lack of safety regulations

It's packed with old temples and has a great evening market. I spent 3 night in LP with the Connie, the German girl, visiting temples and roaming about.

The king's palace in Luang Prabang

The only reason I haven't taken more pictures like this is that it's so normal here.

We also visited a nearby waterfall with a rope swing downstream.

I spent an hour that evening skipping rocks and taking pictures with 3 local kids. They had very high expectations of my Lao, which I repeatedly failed to meet.

Two of the kids I hung out with at the river.

This morning I finally managed to get up early again and went to see the monk's alms procession. This involves lots of monks walking down the street with a container and lay people sitting on the sidewalk giving each monk a pinch of food(rice). The monks must have amazing immune systems, since every person who they receive food from touches it. I found the procession to be unspectacular, so I slipped away to the top of the hill in town where I sat alone and took pictures of the mist and sun rising.

Now I'm in my room in Vang Vieng, which I am sharing with an Indian I met on the bus ride down here.

trekking in Luang Namtha

I got to Luang Namtha and started looking around for a company to trek with. I was hoping to do a 3 day trek at least and at the second office a group of american's walked in right after me. We decided to book a trek together to lower the cost. It ended up being under $70.- for 3 days and 2 nights. We met early the next morning and took a tuk tuk first to the market to pick up some lunch food and then into the hills to our trailhead. We started up the trail and were quickly engulfed in the jungle. The trails was good, but there are no signs to indicate where they might lead. After a few hours of walking with frequent rests we reached the first village where we spent the night with a local family. They cooked us an extravagant dinner over little firepots and we chased it with their homemade rice alcohol. The second day involved the most and steepest hiking. We visited a waterfall and solved riddles as we walked along, making for a very enjoyable day. Finally we reached the Akha village where we spend our second night. The greeting here was much warmer than in the previous village. Shortly after arriving we were sitting around a fire playing a game that involved singing an akha song and slapping each others hands. The dinner in this village was a simple banana flower soup with food (rice). We hiked out on the third day along streams and through rice fields back to where we started. I was one of the few members of the group who was spared any misfortune. Out of six trekkers one had to leave on the morning of the second day with bad knees and two members suffered prolonged bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. Despite this everyone deeply enjoyed the trip and was also happy to be back in a guest house. I am now still in Luang Namtha. i've met a couchsurfer from Germany who is showing me some of the better restaurants in town and hooking me up with volunteers from his program who live in other parts of Laos. I plan to take the bus to Oudom Xai tomorrow and rent a scooter there to check out the far North territory of Laos.

Here are the last few days in excerpt:

Just got to Lao today. I feel both a little lost and also very at ease. I'm not sure where I'm going next. Either I'll take the slow boat down to Luang Pragang or I'll hith-hike somewhere, maybe Luang Namtha. I have to remind myself that I'm not in Thailand anymore, since I've been there for over a month and haven't ever been to any other country in Asia.

Heading North tomorrow. Spent the day with Nok(couchsurfer). Here are some things that you don't see in Europe.

A restaurant where going to the bathroom involves walking through the kitchen into the back yard. When I ordered my meal I asked if I could watch the cooking process. I was able to help by mincing the chicken with a butcher's knife. Nok agreed to cut my hair and we did it right on the sidewalk of the main street. Her friend came out from the internet café that she was working at and helped cut my hair too. That's just a small excerpt of how different things are here and I have to remind myself of it, because to me this way of life without rules makes sense and works. When I paid for my meal it was 42'000 kip and I handed a 50'000 note and she gave me a 10'000 note back and said that was close enough. People are generally very trusting. Nok gave me the keys to her brothers scooter and hopped on behind me, trusting that my scootering experience was sufficient. How wonderful. She showed me a cool little weed that shrivels up when you touch it.

Arrived in Luang Namtha. Nok gave me a ride to the edge of town and then I tried to hitch-hike. The first guy took me 3 km and then offered to take me to his town where they were celebrating mung new year (must look into this). So I went and got some food and everyone stared at me. Many people were wearing the traditional old clothing. It turns out the guy just wanted to get some money. He started offering me a wride for 100 dollars. I hiked back to the road after sitting there for almost an hour. I finally got a ride another 10 km or so. Very nice family, they offered me water when I go to their place on the side of the road. I then pulled over a bus, which took me the rest of the way. We passed through countless bamboo shack villages in steep hilly terrain. Luang Namtha is more modern again, but I would really like to find a good way to spend time in some of the small villages.

sunset abot and sunrise the next morning below.
These pictures are both from Chiang Dao too.



New Years fireworks after some chanting at the temple.

Here are some pictures from my trip up to Chiang Dao.


i love all the typos here. Especially when the do such a nice job painting them onto wood

Temples everywhere. Makes you forget about all the small beauty all around.

My Chiang Dao crew posing in front of the big mountain.

Sam and Tom.