Writing Exercises to Add Wonder to Words

Jared and I have sat and down a few times to lyrically capture our experiences into our journals with organized writing exercises. Some pretty fun results have come out of it and we thought we'd share the pictures that come up in our minds. Enjoy!


One Day. . . (from Suzi)
Early morning sit, roosters sharing airspace with crackling speakers blaring something in Lao. Walk on bustling street, matching khaki slacks and Patagonia shirts. Assault by Akha jewelry sellers, persistent with their handmade wares. Their earth-worked hands and aging eyes beginning to drop some finer detail. Red-black teeth and lips, eyes piercing, colorful traditional dress. Bicycles, cruisers, seats too short, or we're too tall. Maung Sing Market, babies on hips, women with produce: lettuce, tomatoes, chilies, chicken feet, intestine. Bags of rice, fire pit grilling meats. Basket backpacks with the days grocery list. Little boys being little boys, (universalizing the planet.) Dirt road takes our eyes to wooden huts on stilts.

Monk's robes slung over deck walls. Chicken cackling through the Yard. "Can I take your photo?" asked only by gestures. "No." shakes the head of a young Lao boy in hi orange gown, seemingly posed for the shot never taken. Women beating clothes in a slow moving stream. One finds money in a pocket of a skirt. Gardens enclosed by bamboo fences: lettuce, kale, herbs.

Dirt, dust, we ride on. One woman puts on a shirt after nursing her young. Hot sun, open fields. Melons covering vast spaces of land. Men giving men haircuts, girls brushing the long black hair of an elder. Boys on bikes, baskets, soccer game after a day of school. Cane sugar, cold, in a
bag. . . "Can I borrow your bike?" . . . with ice. Tomorrow's a full moon.

Part of our first day of trekking... (from Jared)
Breakfast, western, banana pancakes and eggs lead to a bumpy van ride out of town. Locals in open back mountain tuk tuks. Our air condition on high. New eyes here with a guide. Making rice noodles. Rice milled and boiled in a cotton bag. Pounded into a sticky paste, and crushed through a screen into boiling water. Pulled out with a stick, separated and dried on bamboo thatch. All machines the way they have been forever. Engineering from a simpler time.
School children laughing. Everywhere the same; smaller world then we think. Not shy for the camera. One brave boy says something to me and runs. The rest laugh - embarrassed, amused. More time in the van.

Began trekking near a river with naked children, brown and playing in brown water, giggle and run from us. Up and over a dusty mountain road. Hardly the virgin forests I imagined. Old world slashed and burned to supply China. Sugar and rubber. The world as we know it lost without these. Banana leaf wrapped lunch; water buffalo with ginger, green beans, an omelet. Bare hands and sticky rice as utensils. The road keeps going.

Bare chested Akha women rest for their lunch. Breasts hanging from born children, lips and teeth a deep red from born tradition. Beetle nut. An hour and a half more they say, two hours later we pass through the spirit gate into the village. A young man bathing in a small stream. Lean and fit with these mountains. Attention focuses solely on us. First white people ever in the village. Feeling awkward...

They sit and watch us, we do the same to them. An intrusive camera always at our sides. A woman weaving her burial shroud in her traditional clothing and headdress. Not because she knows we were coming but because that is what the still do. I want to take so many more photos. Words will have to do...

More Photos

This page only allows 5 photos at one time. We promise, there will be stories to come.

Top to bottom:

• HMong children
• HMong girl
• Akha man with his child
• Akha women going to the fields (the women work the back breaking labor in the sun while the men stay home with the kids)
• Typical village housing
  

Photos of Laos Villages

This will be a brief one. These are just a few of the images of the villages we traveled thorough. There were a million untaken pictures, and even more unwritten words to describe what we experienced. After too much time of trying to document it all, we just let ourselves become a part of it. We did, however, spend some time doing some writing exercises to try and get to the heart of where we were. In the next day or two, we will come back and share those words along with some more images. For more pictures visit our Facebook pages. If you have a problem seeing the photos, just request to be our friends. We promise, we will accept you. Even if you have already looked through the albums, check again, we have added more photos.

From the top down:

• An Akha woman who hosted us for the night
• Typical village scene with animals having free roam
• kids running form the camera
• laying out freshly pressed rice noodles on a bamboo "screen to dry"
  

A Dialogue

by, Suzi and Jared

After a much needed month of independent adventures, team Suzi and Jared are back! We met up on March 3rd, where I had to lie my way past security at the airport to meet Suzi at the baggage claim (lovingly greeting me with sweaty palms.) We then immediately hopped a train to Chiang Mai (after being bestowed many gifts that Jared picked up along the way.) It was nice to be back to the noise, dirt, street food, and begging baby elephants in evening rush hour.

We jumped on the train with a mere moment to spare. Packed with a bunch of drunk backpackers, ordering buckets of assorted beers and liquors, it seemed like the perfect venue to reconnect after such a long time. Good thing that we could close the curtains on our smaller-then-twin-sized-bed and exchange stories of hour long meditations, nutritional therapy lectures, emotional yoga moments, near-misses in crazy Thai traffic, Brazilian super models, and Bangkok brothels. At some point, I thought i heard one of the European tank-tops run to the bathroom to let loose his bucket in time. After 16 hours on our scheduled 12 hour ride to Chiang Mai, Jared and I bounce off the train, into a tuk-tuk, and whiz off to a cheap guest house in the heart of the backpacker district.

Thursday morning found us in the back of a truck with 5 European travelers making our way to first a local market then a farm to learn how to cook Thai food. At the market were pigs feet and fish sauce, a dozen varieties of rice and the slaughter of live fish to order, fried chicken feet and cell phone stores, Suzi with a mouthful of some unknown Thai fruit. Tommy, a 23 year old Thai guy, was quite the impressive teacher as he walked us through rows of palm and papaya trees, lime bushes, ginger, cilantro, lemongrass, eggplant, basil, and pineapple. Jared was awarded with many smiles and giggles as the other members of the group affectionately listened to him stumble over his eagerness to continue to learn Thai. Really, I just made more of a fool of myself then anything, and caused us all to eat 20 minutes later then our scheduled time. But at least i learned important life lessons... like how to say ginger in Thai (which I've already forgotten.)

Making curry paste (from scratch, with a mortar and pestle!!!), soups that were always too spicy for Suzi, noodle dishes, spring rolls, and some weird coconut milk desserts. We could hardly eat just the beginnings of it all, let alone the leftovers 2 days later. After having spent all this time in different kitchens, I couldn't break my old habits and had to be told countless times to"Keep the pan on the heat and use the metal spatula like Thai way!" Tommy ordered. Bob and Cathy, the 'Jared way' didn't really work out for him this time. After a long and hot day in the kitchen, it was back to the room for a nap.

So much more has happened, and so much more to come, but for now we will leave you in suspense while we cross into Laos tomorrow. The plan is to be there for two weeks before returning to Northern Thailand and then on to Nepal. Until next time....

Concrete Heat Waves

A constant heat, waving me down from this Bangkok concrete landscape. Skytrains and subways, a market with 10,000 stands, always street food. Playing mandolin with a Thai bluegrass band on the street. Supermodels and movies. Stray cats wandering into 7-11 coolers. Massive amounts of people everywhere I turn. I am getting ready to leave this city once again.

Since coming back to "town', I have spent my days waiting for Suzi's arrival from Yogaland trying to get cheap dentistry and wandering into the city, getting intentionally lost. I have found myself at an indoor rock climbing wall in the center of a mall. A Chinatown maze of markets selling pellet guns, used tools, black market porn, toothbrushes with no wrappers, and children's toys. I even spent all of last night playing dice and cards with some Brazilian supermodels in their apartment. Speaking broken Portuguese, dancing to Samba, laughing a lot, a foreign country inside a foreign country. Even in sweat pants they are that beautiful; the men and women.

To add to all of this, I was able to run into yet another friend from Alaska who is living here training Maui Thai boxing. Another couch and a hot shower. Movies and popcorn. A great overall visit.

I meet up with Suzi in a few hours from now. Excited to say the very least. It will be good to have a cribbage partner again. We are catching a train to Chaing Mai this evening. From there we have a few days before we need to make a visa run. Plans constantly evolve. For now, Northern Thailand and a trip South through Laos are on the agenda for the next month. After that, Nepal is cresting on our horizon. Always exciting when at the mercy of the unknown.