Climbing Up North

As Suzi finishes off her training and testing, I have been testing myself through yet another part of this country as I'm (you guessed it), climbing. Charlie and I have been in Chiang Mai area for a few days now climbing in one of the coolest areas I have ever climbed. The grades are honest, but best of all, the crag is clean. There is a really neat company in Chiang Mai who manages the area for free, builds shade areas, provides free water so as to cut down on plastic bottles piling up, makes trails...etc. However the coolest part of it all is where we are staying.

Just a few Kilometers away there is a home stay/bungalow place. My Thai is getting a bit better, and our hosts speak next to no English. Needless to say, there are lots of impromptu games of charades, like every time we try and communicate. They cook us three meals a day (which we never order, they just make us really great food), and even deliver lunch to the climbing area for us. All said and done, room and board, Thai lessons, and really amazing hospitality costs about $7.00 a day.

We have taken a rest day in Chiang Mai today and are back out to the home stay soon. So great. No Internet, no distractions, early to bed, early to rise. A few days more and then we fly back to Bangkok for a few days before I see Suzi again.

I have realized that it is quite a pain in the rear to upload photos on to blogspot, so I have instead loaded most of my Thailand pictures on to facebook. If there is anyone that wants to see them, you should be able to log on with out having to be approved by me to see them. However, if you need me to approve you, then I will okay you as my friend and you can go on to my profile into my photo section and see the photos there. There are a lot of them. For all you parents that don't know how to do this, ask your kids, they will help you. Until next time...

A Morning of Yoga

Morning asana practice in the Chala
Mysore Style Yoga (meaning we all do the poses in our own time and the teachers come around and adjust accordingly.
Student from Jackson Hole, WY with her coffee enima bag hanging in her closet, waiting for her morning colon coffee high.
A view of the ocean-front salt water pool and herbal steam room.  Yeah, I know, I'm roughing it.  

I thought I'd throw in some more pictures for you all.  I was hoping the asana practice photos would be more telling, but, alas, they're not. Ashtanga is traditionally done in a "mysore" style.  Mysore is the name of the place it originated in India, and it means doing the sequence of poses in the silence of our own breath in our own time.  It's a really powerful way to practice, moving with our own breath and the energy of the other students.  Four teachers float through the room giving guidance and adjustments where necessary.  I have learned more than I bargained for, and without getting heady about any of it, have traveled more internally than I ever could on foot.  A journey of a lifetime!

Northbound and Around

I have made my way from the beaches and the Southern tropics (for good, i fear), and have begun the Northbound journey. No matter how far I stray from those vast mountainous lands of this planet's North, I continue to return. This time, there was a small stop in Bangkok. I met up with Charlie (Alaska friend) and few of his friends to take a break from the third world and hang out in the plugged in world again. Lots of taxis and malls, movies and Mexican food, even bowling. It was nice to treat myself to a bathroom with soap and toilet paper in it for a change. Hey, if Suzi can do it, so can I. However, like anything, a lot of it gets to be... well, a lot. So, like anyone with no direction and the world at their finger tips, we hopped a train.

Three hours on the local's train we arrived in Lopburi. Not before sharing our journey with a few monks and a drunk guy that got beat up by the police for harassing everyone. We knew to come here because it was supposed to have some of the only climbing in central Thailand. A good reason to stop on our way up North. We found it all right. Not before taking one of the scariest motorbike rides of my life. In the South, everyone drives with laid back approach. Not up here. But we made it, two days in a row. The climbing was great, but unfortunately we didn't get any good pictures. On the second day, we topped out on a beautiful 600 ft limestone tower. 7 pitches of moderate 5.10 climbing. Just in time to see a Midwest style thounder storm with no rain roll across the farmalnds being prepared for planting sunflowers.

Not only were we able to climb here in Lopburi, we just so happened to get here during their once a year festicval honoring the death of an ancient king. Everyone wearing shiny clothing. a traditional Thai opera in the old temple, bad butt rock with Thai girls dancing on stage. Lots of fried food and plastic shit being sold. An elephant begging in the street. Not to mention that it goes on all night... right across the street from our quaint guest house. No sleep for Jared and Charlie. Oh yeah, and the bed bugs were great too...

So now we hop a train this evening to Chaing Mai to visit and climb some more before I head back down to meet Suzi in Bangkok in 2 weeks. And a bit of exciting news... I think we are abandoning the Laos and Vietnam plan and are opting instead for a trek through Nepal and a visit to India. More updates about that soon. I was planning on uploading pictures, but as with everywhere the internet is really slow, and so I would have to dedicate another entire hour. Soon...

Yah for Photos!

My cozy nest at Yoga Thailand. Don't let me fool you, all thes saline vomit sessions, coffee enemas, nasal flossing, and candle gazing is ruining any sort of restful night sleep.

Welcome to the jungle!! I spy a Jared behind that leaf!

A coiled fern graces us in the jungle near Kiriwong village.

Kayaking in the Andaman Sea. A day off from climbing in Ton Sai.

A shadow puppet made from animal 

hide. Every bit of this is made by hand in Nahkon Sri Tammarat. The man that began this lost art performed a shadow puppet play behind a large white backlit screen.

One of the many poses of the Buddha, with the seven headed serpent who is said to have protected the Buddha during a great storm by forming a living shelter around his body.

A beautiful lotus flower. Holds much symbolism in the eastern world. Is referenced a lot during this yoga course. One form of symbolism is the place where the energy from the universe and the energy from the earth unites at our heart's center, the house of the lotus flower.

This post is severly disorganized and confusing. Not user friendly at all.

Never Sure What is Next....

I have had an epic last week or so of climbing some of the harder stuff I have ever climbed. After Suzi left, it was boys week out with the Alaska boys, Charlie Thomas, Kyle Hardie, and I. Cold Pancakes with Nutella, peanut butter, and bananas for lunch, with a dessert of bloody knees and sore feet. Ahh... what a life. That is until my brand new, super nice sunglasses got stolen... by a monkey.

To keep the story short... We were just about to start a long multi pitch climb, when I decided it would be fine to leave my bag on the first belay ledge so I didn't have to carry it up the hard climb. And sure enough, as soon as we left, some Israelis called up to us that a monkey had gotten into my bag and were making off with a black case. I couldn't believe it. I am yelling in disbelief at the monkeys and all the spectators at the restaurant below to do something. The only response was absolute laughter. Someone got a picture of the assailant trying on the glasses, and once I get it my hands on the picture you will all see it. Hence forth, I was known as, "Woah! you're the guy who got his sunglasses stolen by the monkeys!" (high five, ha ha ha). So, after all of that excitement, it was time for a change in scenery.

While Suzi is seeking an inner balance in what sure sounds like Utopia, I am off and running, not knowing what lies ahead. Just last night, I left the climbing to continue on around the Southern reaches of the country. Once again, the ever present sounds of motorbikes dominate the sound scape, and the nauseatingly appetizing smell of street food and fish is all that I smell.

I have met up with another friend I met while visiting with Lek in his jungle paradise garden. Birdee is a French man who has abandoned the European ways for the tropics. He too owns a small bit of land, a garden, full of fruit trees from the world over. Birdee is a fruit tree collector of sorts. His garden has over 60 fruits from a dozen different countries represented. I think I have heard of 3 of the fruits before. I have rented a motor bike and will be spending the next few days working with him on his land. It is a wonderful example of Agroforrestry and permaculture ideas, much like I saw in Brazil. After this, who knows what is next.

I was planning to upload a few more pictures, but Birdee's Internet connection is really slow. Hopefully I will be able to do so soon.

Yogatastic

As you all probably know I'm across the peninsula from Jared in the Gulf of Thailand, in a posh Yoga school on the island of Samui. I feel completely out of touch with the Thailand I've known for the past month, but not complaining. Hot showers have replaced cold ones, aircon has replaced fans, western toilets have replaced squatting holes, blankets have replaced thin sheets, a pleathora of vegetarian dishes have replaced meat on a stick, and English has replaced Thai. My days are spent doing an hour of breathwork, two-2 1/2 hours of the postures, two hours of brunch buffet, 5 hours of theory, philosophy, anatomy, and asana (postures), another yoga class, herbal steam room, swim in the ocean, dinner, reading, and sleep.

I'm not going to get all hocus pocus on all of you but have been learning a ton. We're staring into candles, making clicking sounds with our tongues, drinking salt water and throwing it up. . . we'll have to speak personally for me to give any more detail. I've gotten into yoga postures I never thought I'd see myself in, and it's only been one week of training.

More to come, and, I know, I know, pictures are coming too.