Hello Everyone!
So, I just sat down to up-date the blog when I was swept up into the fastest birth I have every seen! When i sat down, the woman who was in labor was not very far along, but then one of the midwives came in and told me she was already ready to push. I rushed into the room and a baby girl was born within three minutes! Three minutes! WOW! I have seen some pretty fast deliveries but this is definitely the fastest by far! The clinic has been slow lately, but everyone is bracing themselves for the flood because there are 75 babies due in March. We are halfway through the month and the clinic has been pretty quiet, so its looking like a ton of babies are going to come at once!
Its been amazing to be back in the birth energy. Its so powerful. Every time I enter the birth room I learn something new, and every time I leave I feel elated and exuberant. Once you enter that room there is no telling what could happen or how long it will be until you come out again. In addition to births, the clinic has been thriving with activity. One morning I walked over to check in before breakfast and found myself involved in a minor surgery for the next few hours. A young girl was there with a cyst on her arm the size of a ping pong ball. Robin (the founder of Bumi Sehat) and Sara, a visiting midwife from the States, were bustling around excitedly preparing to remove the cyst. Only in a place like this do you find people who thoroughly enjoy cutting tumors out of peoples arms and then stitching them back up again. I watched wide-eyed as Sara made an incision on top of the cyst and then carefully removed the mass. It looked like a sack full of gray cottage cheese. Surprisingly I made it through the surgery with out getting queasy, (I'm not sure how I managed this feat) but I was very glad that I had not eaten breakfast before hand.
But not every wild experience at Bumi Sehat is bloody and gory. A few nights later, I was sitting in the acupuncture room taking blood pressures for prenatals when I notice that everyone is gathering in the parking lot in front of the clinic. I follow along and watch as a smiling, bald, Indian man leads everyone in these ridiculous activities. I notice that all of the exercises have to do with laughing. Soon everyone in the parking lot is laughing. Robin spots me and tells me this is laughter yoga. Its happening up the street right now and I have to go. No don't worry about the blood pressures, someone else will take care of those, but I must go to this. Bewildered, I walk to the yoga center up the road and join at least 100 hysterically laughing Balinese. The Balinese people there are ranging from energetic little kids to stooped over, withered grandmas. And everyone is practically rolling on the floor with laughter. I join the crowd and watch as the Indian man, who largely resembles Uncle Fester from the Adam's Family, leads everyone in more of the laughter exercises. I felt like I stepped into the twilight zone, it was so bazaar. The sound of the laughter was deafening. I could not help but start laughing myself.
Eventually, someone put music on and everyone started dancing. I mean everyone. No one in the room was standing on the sides looking awkward, every person was jumping and moving to the music. After a few songs, the Indian man had us all sit down for what he called "free laughter." Its where you merely sit and laugh. That's all there is too it. After about 5 minutes of this, he has us close our eyes and take deep breaths, but even he cannot stay serious and starts to giggle and laugh again. I later learned that this man is the one who invented laughing yoga and the Laughter Club. It started in India with only one Laughter club gathering everyday to laugh with each other and now there are over 6,000 different laughing clubs all over India. People claim it has cured them of all sorts of pain and ailments. In India when a doctor has a patient who it suffering from depression he calls up this man to find out where the nearest laughter club is. I have never been a part of something so strange and amazing in my life. If any of you ever gets the chance to take part in laughter yoga, seize the opportunity. Its not something to miss. And it makes you feel incredibly good afterwards.
I just never know what the day will bring when I wake up in the morning.
Love Misra
3.19.2008
Title: _____________....in Bali (we have no clue)
Hello Hello!
So, it's been a while. A lot has happened. Where to begin? In the beginning? Let's try it.
On Valentine's Day, we arrived in Bali after a gruelling 16-turned-21 hour long bus ride from Yogya. Sweaty, tired and stinky we were immediately swept-up into the chaotic clinic life of the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birth clinic. It was very nice to be back in familiar territory since we'd been to Ubud several times before coming to land this last time.
When we arrived, the clinic was bursting with other volunteers and yet there was still plenty to do. There were lots of babies being born and people needing treatment for various ailments. In one 24-hour stretch, we welcomed a total of 7 new babies into the world--wow. We've been helping out as best we can by taking blood pressures at pre-natals, assisting in births, leading organizational projects and lending a hand at the accupuncture clinics lead by one crazy lady, Dr. Bobbi. This woman deserves her own T.V. show or maybe her own chapter in one of David Sedaris' books. She gives and gives, treats and treats, talks and talks and talks--boy, she is a trip to be around. After spending some odd 4 years in Bali, her Indonesian is...shall we say...lacking? But that does not stop her from telling every Indonesian patient to lay off the "goreng goreng" (fried fried [food]) and eat lots of "sayur hijao" (green veggies) or from scolding men for smoking when they come in for fertility treatments; "I make the sperm and you just go home and kill them again! You must quit smoking or no more treatment!" They all smile and nod (so smart). Anyways....moving on.
One day, Misra's bagging prenatal vitamins (a neverending project), Cailin's in a birth and who should casually plop himself down on the couch, but one Michael Franti. That's right. Turns out he's good friends with Robin Lim, the founder of Bumi Sehat, and he's putting on a small benefit concert with all proceeds going to the Bumi Sehat clinic---and we're invited. We had a private performance of around 80 people and dinner at a gorgeous venue on the beach of Seminyak, Bali and a larger concert to follow. Michael put on a great show--he is a very charismatic, loving, generous man(not to mention an incredible and inspiring musician). In fact, we're having trouble describing him--finding the right words to encompass his....well, just him. The night generated over 25,000 US dollars for Yayasan Bumi Sehat--funds that are badly needed to build a new facility big enough to hold this thriving and growing foundation. Terimakasih banyak, Michael! Thank you very much.
Oops, time's running out and it's really really hot in this internet cafe. Not to worry, we'll be sure to finish catching y'all up to speed SOON. Sip on this and you can gulp up a few more entries in the very near future.
Lots of love,
Misra and Cailin
So, it's been a while. A lot has happened. Where to begin? In the beginning? Let's try it.
On Valentine's Day, we arrived in Bali after a gruelling 16-turned-21 hour long bus ride from Yogya. Sweaty, tired and stinky we were immediately swept-up into the chaotic clinic life of the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birth clinic. It was very nice to be back in familiar territory since we'd been to Ubud several times before coming to land this last time.
When we arrived, the clinic was bursting with other volunteers and yet there was still plenty to do. There were lots of babies being born and people needing treatment for various ailments. In one 24-hour stretch, we welcomed a total of 7 new babies into the world--wow. We've been helping out as best we can by taking blood pressures at pre-natals, assisting in births, leading organizational projects and lending a hand at the accupuncture clinics lead by one crazy lady, Dr. Bobbi. This woman deserves her own T.V. show or maybe her own chapter in one of David Sedaris' books. She gives and gives, treats and treats, talks and talks and talks--boy, she is a trip to be around. After spending some odd 4 years in Bali, her Indonesian is...shall we say...lacking? But that does not stop her from telling every Indonesian patient to lay off the "goreng goreng" (fried fried [food]) and eat lots of "sayur hijao" (green veggies) or from scolding men for smoking when they come in for fertility treatments; "I make the sperm and you just go home and kill them again! You must quit smoking or no more treatment!" They all smile and nod (so smart). Anyways....moving on.
One day, Misra's bagging prenatal vitamins (a neverending project), Cailin's in a birth and who should casually plop himself down on the couch, but one Michael Franti. That's right. Turns out he's good friends with Robin Lim, the founder of Bumi Sehat, and he's putting on a small benefit concert with all proceeds going to the Bumi Sehat clinic---and we're invited. We had a private performance of around 80 people and dinner at a gorgeous venue on the beach of Seminyak, Bali and a larger concert to follow. Michael put on a great show--he is a very charismatic, loving, generous man(not to mention an incredible and inspiring musician). In fact, we're having trouble describing him--finding the right words to encompass his....well, just him. The night generated over 25,000 US dollars for Yayasan Bumi Sehat--funds that are badly needed to build a new facility big enough to hold this thriving and growing foundation. Terimakasih banyak, Michael! Thank you very much.
Oops, time's running out and it's really really hot in this internet cafe. Not to worry, we'll be sure to finish catching y'all up to speed SOON. Sip on this and you can gulp up a few more entries in the very near future.
Lots of love,
Misra and Cailin
2.12.2008
What a Lovely Pinky Day (valentines day add in Yogya)
Hello hello! Remember us? Yes, we know it's been a little while, but, though we came close, we did not drop off the face of the earth. Thought you should know. okay. that's all-- bye.
Only kidding.
Okay, wow--it's been, what, a month? no, not quite. Three weeks? Yeah, almost a month since our last post and, of course, there is much to tell. At the moment, it is 10 at night in the city of Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta and nicknamed "Yogya") in central Java, where we have spent a very exciting and satisfying five days exploring the labyrinthian streets, the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan, and the markets. Our first morning in Yogya, we stumbled off our 16-hour overnight bus from Bali around 6 a.m. Though we were rather sleep-deprived, we immediately ventured out to the bird market. We walked through alleys of brightly-colored cages containing, not just pretty songbirds by the dozens, but also roosters, bats, pidgeons, squirrels, hamsters, geckos, puppies and rabbits. What a zoo! So much to take in. Thoughts about animal treatment took the backseat while we simply tried to see everything around us. Beside the bird cages, there were large baskets of squirming grubs, crates of crickets and trays of rice mixed with live ants--what treats! PetsMart has got nothing on these guys! The main business in the bird markets are pidgeons, which are trained as a hobby by many who proudly showed us their fine feathered friends.
While on the subject of markets, today we came upon one of the best yet. Right in the center of town, taking up at least two city blocks, this three-story tall market was chock-full of everything you could possibly want. From underwear and toe-socks to spices and fresh produce to cleaning supplies and beautiful muslim headscarves--it's all there. We squeezed between the numerous stalls, trying to get a good glimpse of everything and walk at the same time. Men were carrying five bags of rice on their backs and old women hunched-over under the weight of coconut-filled sacks. Huge piles of fresh ginger, overflowing baskets of green limes, red chili-peppers, purple shallots and enormous bundles of the biggest sticks of cinnamon either of us has ever seen...ever. It was a pretty neat feeling to be the only Westerners ("bule"s) in this local market: a treasure.
rewind a few weeks...
Afer two weeks on Lombok, we slowly made our way up through the clouds to a tiny mountain village called Candi Kuning. The cool air was very refreshing and reminded us of the scrumptious mountain air back home, except more humid. Our plan was to hike to the top of an ancient volcanic cone (sounds neat, don't it?) called Mt. Catur. On the morning of the hike, we woke up early to beat the inevidable afternoon rain, bought some snacks at the market and set off. The trail head was supposed to be easy to find. umm. okay.... we think we found the right one...? Our spirits high, we tramped down soggy jungle trail after soggy jungle trail. Each one ending either in wildly-lush, green overgrowth or wandered steeply down the mountain (and we wanted to go up, right?). Anyways, we had a blast. The jungle was beautiful with hairy vines, fiddlehead-ferns, exotic flowers and everyplant seemed to be growing and thriving right on top of another one. Have you ever heard of a jungle leech? Well, Misra hadn't. We got up-close and a little too personal with these sneaky bastards. Fortunately the worst was done only to our pants and shoes while our blood remained un-sampled. We never made it to the top of the mountain, but enjoyed bushwacking, rambling through mud-holes and passing rural farms.
So, folks. That's all we've got time for. It's difficult trying to decide what to share and what to keep as juicy stories for when we get home. Tomorrow we board another 16-hour overnight bus back to Bali and we will soon be at the clinic and beginning our volunteer work. You can check out the link on the right of the blogpage under Yayasan Bumi Sehat for more info on where we will be spending the next seven weeks. Hope you are all doing well. Stay warm! (Ha!)
alright,
Love to all of you and Happy Valentines Day
C and M
Only kidding.
Okay, wow--it's been, what, a month? no, not quite. Three weeks? Yeah, almost a month since our last post and, of course, there is much to tell. At the moment, it is 10 at night in the city of Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta and nicknamed "Yogya") in central Java, where we have spent a very exciting and satisfying five days exploring the labyrinthian streets, the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan, and the markets. Our first morning in Yogya, we stumbled off our 16-hour overnight bus from Bali around 6 a.m. Though we were rather sleep-deprived, we immediately ventured out to the bird market. We walked through alleys of brightly-colored cages containing, not just pretty songbirds by the dozens, but also roosters, bats, pidgeons, squirrels, hamsters, geckos, puppies and rabbits. What a zoo! So much to take in. Thoughts about animal treatment took the backseat while we simply tried to see everything around us. Beside the bird cages, there were large baskets of squirming grubs, crates of crickets and trays of rice mixed with live ants--what treats! PetsMart has got nothing on these guys! The main business in the bird markets are pidgeons, which are trained as a hobby by many who proudly showed us their fine feathered friends.
While on the subject of markets, today we came upon one of the best yet. Right in the center of town, taking up at least two city blocks, this three-story tall market was chock-full of everything you could possibly want. From underwear and toe-socks to spices and fresh produce to cleaning supplies and beautiful muslim headscarves--it's all there. We squeezed between the numerous stalls, trying to get a good glimpse of everything and walk at the same time. Men were carrying five bags of rice on their backs and old women hunched-over under the weight of coconut-filled sacks. Huge piles of fresh ginger, overflowing baskets of green limes, red chili-peppers, purple shallots and enormous bundles of the biggest sticks of cinnamon either of us has ever seen...ever. It was a pretty neat feeling to be the only Westerners ("bule"s) in this local market: a treasure.
rewind a few weeks...
Afer two weeks on Lombok, we slowly made our way up through the clouds to a tiny mountain village called Candi Kuning. The cool air was very refreshing and reminded us of the scrumptious mountain air back home, except more humid. Our plan was to hike to the top of an ancient volcanic cone (sounds neat, don't it?) called Mt. Catur. On the morning of the hike, we woke up early to beat the inevidable afternoon rain, bought some snacks at the market and set off. The trail head was supposed to be easy to find. umm. okay.... we think we found the right one...? Our spirits high, we tramped down soggy jungle trail after soggy jungle trail. Each one ending either in wildly-lush, green overgrowth or wandered steeply down the mountain (and we wanted to go up, right?). Anyways, we had a blast. The jungle was beautiful with hairy vines, fiddlehead-ferns, exotic flowers and everyplant seemed to be growing and thriving right on top of another one. Have you ever heard of a jungle leech? Well, Misra hadn't. We got up-close and a little too personal with these sneaky bastards. Fortunately the worst was done only to our pants and shoes while our blood remained un-sampled. We never made it to the top of the mountain, but enjoyed bushwacking, rambling through mud-holes and passing rural farms.
So, folks. That's all we've got time for. It's difficult trying to decide what to share and what to keep as juicy stories for when we get home. Tomorrow we board another 16-hour overnight bus back to Bali and we will soon be at the clinic and beginning our volunteer work. You can check out the link on the right of the blogpage under Yayasan Bumi Sehat for more info on where we will be spending the next seven weeks. Hope you are all doing well. Stay warm! (Ha!)
alright,
Love to all of you and Happy Valentines Day
C and M
1.14.2008
"Transport??"
Selamat sore,
In other words—good afternoon.
It’s us again. But THIS time we are reaching out from Ubud, Bali; a breath of fresh air after our dusty trails in Cambodia and polluted cities of Thailand. Everything is beautifully green and covered in moss. Little carved faces peek out at us from every corner and entrance to family compounds—many with ceremonial offerings of white rice and flowers. We are happy to be here, though it was quite a wild ride to reach this point on the map.
Shortly after our last update when we were in Siem Reap, we made a quick dash to the capital city of Phnom Penh. In our short visit, we went to the Killing Fields memorial site; a place where great numbers of people were executed during the genocide of the Pol Pot regime.
“Today Misra and I visited the killing fields just outside of the Phnom Penh. What an intense experience. There is a large, glass stupa encasing about 800 human skulls of the 17,000-plus people who were sistematically slaughtered and dumped into mass graves (mostly cambodians, but a fair number of foreigners, too.) Within the first five minutes of being at the memorial, I was physically affected to the extent that I really believed I was going to puke. I was shaking and almost started to cry---definitely shaken up. There were large, filled-in pits where the bodies were deposited and even on the dirt pathways I could see were bones poked through the earth and had been worn away by the feet of many tourists. Shards of tattered clothing were everywhere--lodged in the ground and raked into piles here and there. What a way to start my morning! Also, in the middle of the site, there is a huge, old and gorgeous tree which is called the Magic Tree--it looks like a wise old thing and one of the only friendly ones in sight. Well, the Magic Tree was used as a stand for large loud-speakers that would radiate a loud noise (uspecified) to drown out the moans of the tortured and dying prisoners---men, women, children, educated people, "weak people" with glasses or physical dissabilities, monks and foreigners. There were signs that even shared the fact soldiers would bludgeon the heads of the prisoners to kill them so they could save their precious bullets for other uses. Augh! How aweful! It makes me so sad! I felt that it was a very important place to visit...almost as if I had a responsibility to do so--not quite sure why.
Please don't let this put a damper on your day.” --from one of Cailin’s emails
Afterwards, we made our way back to Bangkok in time to catch our flight to Denpasar, Bali. Except…it didn’t quite work out the way we planned. Rising bright and early on the morning of our departure, we took a taxi to the airport. There we discovered—oh no!-- the departure time printed on our travel itinerary was off by one hour. We had missed our check-in cut-off by ten minutes, thus missing our flight to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and connecting flight to Bali. Bummer. After arguing with the check-in lady (“please, please let us through—we can run—we can still make our flight!”), she was firm in saying there was nothing she could do and pointed us towards the sales counter. In the end, we each bought ourselves two new plane tickets , waited in the BKK airport for seven hours, boarded our flight after an additional hour of delay and landed in Kuala Lampur for an overnight-layover (no flights left for Bali until the next morning) just in time for dinner.
Where to eat? Well we’ve got McDonalds or Asian Food. Asian Food it is! What’s on the menu? Well, looks like we’ve got a lot of options to choose from—that’s nice. Oh. You’ve only got Nasi Lemak? Fresh out of EVERYTHING else? Hmm. Nasi Lemak or Nasi Lemak? We’ll take two of the Nasi Lemak, please.
Stuffed on Nasi Lemak (white rice with fried egg, peanuts, and some beef chunks with sauce), we found this airport was also fresh out of seats and any place to sleep. We spent a very strange, very long, very uncomfortable and rather amusing night on the cold, hard tiled floor of the only terminal in the entire airport. We couldn’t help but notice the large sign hanging from the ceiling boasting “Low-cost terminal of the year”—woopdeedoo. Luckily we survived the night. Any future airport slumber parties will probably be very cush in comparison.
Since our arrival in Ubud, Bali, we’ve been thoroughly enjoying the following: scrumptious food, a working toilet, free breakfasts included with accommodation, very friendly people, a lively market, dances, loads of fresh fruit, ample sleep, and the amazing artistry of the Balinese (among many other things). We have enjoyed a silversmithing course where we made some silver jewelry—foot-pedal-powered blowtorch and all. Last night we went to see a Kecak (Ke-chek) fire and trance dance which told the story of the Ramayana with amazing dancers and costumes. The only music was the rhythmic voices of over one-hundred men dressed in checkered sarongs and sitting in concentric circles around the dancers. This was followed by a man dressed as a horse who was in some sort of trance and danced through a fire of coconut husks—prancing over red-hot coals for a good five or ten minutes. We saw the sooty, but unharmed feet of the dancer afterwards—ouch?
Thursday morning we leave for the Gili Islands of Lombok (the island just east of Bali)—by evening we should be settled in on one of the three islands. We have until mid-February to travel through Lombok, Eastern Java and elsewhere in Bali before we return to Ubud to volunteer at the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birthing clinic. Hope all of you are enjoying this new year!
Best wishes, love, everything good, cheers, “mimpi manis”,
Us
In other words—good afternoon.
It’s us again. But THIS time we are reaching out from Ubud, Bali; a breath of fresh air after our dusty trails in Cambodia and polluted cities of Thailand. Everything is beautifully green and covered in moss. Little carved faces peek out at us from every corner and entrance to family compounds—many with ceremonial offerings of white rice and flowers. We are happy to be here, though it was quite a wild ride to reach this point on the map.
Shortly after our last update when we were in Siem Reap, we made a quick dash to the capital city of Phnom Penh. In our short visit, we went to the Killing Fields memorial site; a place where great numbers of people were executed during the genocide of the Pol Pot regime.
“Today Misra and I visited the killing fields just outside of the Phnom Penh. What an intense experience. There is a large, glass stupa encasing about 800 human skulls of the 17,000-plus people who were sistematically slaughtered and dumped into mass graves (mostly cambodians, but a fair number of foreigners, too.) Within the first five minutes of being at the memorial, I was physically affected to the extent that I really believed I was going to puke. I was shaking and almost started to cry---definitely shaken up. There were large, filled-in pits where the bodies were deposited and even on the dirt pathways I could see were bones poked through the earth and had been worn away by the feet of many tourists. Shards of tattered clothing were everywhere--lodged in the ground and raked into piles here and there. What a way to start my morning! Also, in the middle of the site, there is a huge, old and gorgeous tree which is called the Magic Tree--it looks like a wise old thing and one of the only friendly ones in sight. Well, the Magic Tree was used as a stand for large loud-speakers that would radiate a loud noise (uspecified) to drown out the moans of the tortured and dying prisoners---men, women, children, educated people, "weak people" with glasses or physical dissabilities, monks and foreigners. There were signs that even shared the fact soldiers would bludgeon the heads of the prisoners to kill them so they could save their precious bullets for other uses. Augh! How aweful! It makes me so sad! I felt that it was a very important place to visit...almost as if I had a responsibility to do so--not quite sure why.
Please don't let this put a damper on your day.” --from one of Cailin’s emails
Afterwards, we made our way back to Bangkok in time to catch our flight to Denpasar, Bali. Except…it didn’t quite work out the way we planned. Rising bright and early on the morning of our departure, we took a taxi to the airport. There we discovered—oh no!-- the departure time printed on our travel itinerary was off by one hour. We had missed our check-in cut-off by ten minutes, thus missing our flight to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and connecting flight to Bali. Bummer. After arguing with the check-in lady (“please, please let us through—we can run—we can still make our flight!”), she was firm in saying there was nothing she could do and pointed us towards the sales counter. In the end, we each bought ourselves two new plane tickets , waited in the BKK airport for seven hours, boarded our flight after an additional hour of delay and landed in Kuala Lampur for an overnight-layover (no flights left for Bali until the next morning) just in time for dinner.
Where to eat? Well we’ve got McDonalds or Asian Food. Asian Food it is! What’s on the menu? Well, looks like we’ve got a lot of options to choose from—that’s nice. Oh. You’ve only got Nasi Lemak? Fresh out of EVERYTHING else? Hmm. Nasi Lemak or Nasi Lemak? We’ll take two of the Nasi Lemak, please.
Stuffed on Nasi Lemak (white rice with fried egg, peanuts, and some beef chunks with sauce), we found this airport was also fresh out of seats and any place to sleep. We spent a very strange, very long, very uncomfortable and rather amusing night on the cold, hard tiled floor of the only terminal in the entire airport. We couldn’t help but notice the large sign hanging from the ceiling boasting “Low-cost terminal of the year”—woopdeedoo. Luckily we survived the night. Any future airport slumber parties will probably be very cush in comparison.
Since our arrival in Ubud, Bali, we’ve been thoroughly enjoying the following: scrumptious food, a working toilet, free breakfasts included with accommodation, very friendly people, a lively market, dances, loads of fresh fruit, ample sleep, and the amazing artistry of the Balinese (among many other things). We have enjoyed a silversmithing course where we made some silver jewelry—foot-pedal-powered blowtorch and all. Last night we went to see a Kecak (Ke-chek) fire and trance dance which told the story of the Ramayana with amazing dancers and costumes. The only music was the rhythmic voices of over one-hundred men dressed in checkered sarongs and sitting in concentric circles around the dancers. This was followed by a man dressed as a horse who was in some sort of trance and danced through a fire of coconut husks—prancing over red-hot coals for a good five or ten minutes. We saw the sooty, but unharmed feet of the dancer afterwards—ouch?
Thursday morning we leave for the Gili Islands of Lombok (the island just east of Bali)—by evening we should be settled in on one of the three islands. We have until mid-February to travel through Lombok, Eastern Java and elsewhere in Bali before we return to Ubud to volunteer at the Yayasan Bumi Sehat birthing clinic. Hope all of you are enjoying this new year!
Best wishes, love, everything good, cheers, “mimpi manis”,
Us
12.31.2007
behold! boulevards of bruised backsides!
Smiling faces. Dusty, bumpy roads. Herds of water buffalo in the road. Bikes. Young children all over the place--trying to sell you anything for "only one dollah, Ladyyyy. please, you buy? Ladyyy!" Motorbikes hauling loads five times their size and weaving around numerous pot-holes. More bikes. Everything is covered in a layer of dust. and... giant temples galore.
Yes, ladies and gents Cailin and Misra are in Cambodia!
Yes, ladies and gents Cailin and Misra are in Cambodia!
Soursdey Chhnam Tmei!
(Happy New Year in Cambodian)
This is our fourth night in the town of Siem Reap where people come in droves to explore the breath-taking temples of Angkor. It being high-season over here, the enormous crowds of tourists are almost a sight in themselves. For the past three days, Misra and I have been spending our time visiting the temples and wondering at the incredibly detailed carvings which cover every wall. The architecture must have been something to behold back when it was first constructed, but now--it may even be more so due to walls barely held up by supports, leaning at odd angles, and the fact that--hey--they're still HERE! Trees that belong in the jungle book and imaginative fairy tales have wriggled their roots in between large stones and grown on top of glorious gateways and towers; their behemouth trunks shooting up up up.
This morning, Misra and I fell out of bed at the painful hour of 3.30 because we were under the impression our tuk-tuk driver was going to pick us up around 4 to go see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Well, turned out he was arriving around four and that we would leave closer to five. umm. okay? When we woke ourselves up for the second time (dark:thirty a.m.), we set off for the grand temple down chilly morning streets. It has been our experience that roads in Cambodia are, ahem--to say the least: bumpy. We do not recommend attempting to eat or drink anything as a tuk-tuk passenger in Cambodia. Any such attempts my result in choking, an unexpected shower, or complete disaster.
Anyway......sorry. back to the story. Misra and I were surely some of the first to arrive at Angkor Wat this morning in the pitch black. We waited in the dark and watched the sky grow progressively lighter. Behind us, we could hear the crowd of eager tourists assembling. Radiant colors of peach, orange, deep red and yellow announced the arrival of the last sunrise of the year 2007. When the sun peaked above the horizon, clouds........yeah. okay. not quite. As the sky grew lighter, the only color in the sky was...gray. gray gray gray. oh well. The temples following more than made up for the disappointing dawn.
We are both loving Cambodia. People are so friendly.
Misra and I are shocked to think that the first leg of our trip (Thailand and Cambodia) is almost over. We have five days until we fly to Bali, Indonesia from Bangkok. Where did this month go? We are just living it day by day.
Hope you are all well and enjoying your New Year's celebrations. I know we are both looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow morning.
Cailin and Misra
By the way, in our room there is a sign by the door that reads, "Please turn off lights before living." ha!
12.24.2007
Hello Everyone!
Cailin and I have spent the last five nights on the beatiful island of Lanta. The trip to get here from Chiang Mai was quite the shlep! We boarded the night train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, and the following night hopped on a night bus down to the coastal town of Krabi. Once there, we climbed into a crowded mini van which we rode across two ferry rides to Koh Lanta. Phew! After all that travel we were both tired, hot, sore and in desperate need of a shower.
After some rest and a freezing cold shower, we set off to explore the pristine white beaches and clear blue ocean. Unfortunatly Lanta thrives almost completely off of tourism, and we just happened to be visiting at the peak of high season, Christmas! This became clear as we boarded a small long tail boat for a day of snorkeling. Wedged between a family of six, a young european couple and seven Thai tourists, non of which spoke much english, or cared to, we set off to the first stop on our four island tour.
As it turned out, just about every other snorkeling company on the island went to the same spot! Dodging the feet and flippers of everyone else we squinted through the bubbles at the colorful fish. As the day went on every single boat seemed to be folloing us. At the famed Emerald Cave, we paddled our way through the dark passage, constantly whacking people in frony and behind us. I felt like I was on a ride at water world, waiting for a dinosaur to stick its head out of the wall. In the end, the trip made up for itself with the picturesque islands, home cooked lunch, and of course all the pretty fish.
Today is Christmas on Lanta and it is the strangest thing. The fake christmas trees, lights, and music seem so out of place. People walk around shouting "Merry Christmas!" in their thick accents and we have to ask twice to find out what they are actually saying.
Hope everyone is having a great holiday!
Misra
Cailin and I have spent the last five nights on the beatiful island of Lanta. The trip to get here from Chiang Mai was quite the shlep! We boarded the night train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, and the following night hopped on a night bus down to the coastal town of Krabi. Once there, we climbed into a crowded mini van which we rode across two ferry rides to Koh Lanta. Phew! After all that travel we were both tired, hot, sore and in desperate need of a shower.
After some rest and a freezing cold shower, we set off to explore the pristine white beaches and clear blue ocean. Unfortunatly Lanta thrives almost completely off of tourism, and we just happened to be visiting at the peak of high season, Christmas! This became clear as we boarded a small long tail boat for a day of snorkeling. Wedged between a family of six, a young european couple and seven Thai tourists, non of which spoke much english, or cared to, we set off to the first stop on our four island tour.
As it turned out, just about every other snorkeling company on the island went to the same spot! Dodging the feet and flippers of everyone else we squinted through the bubbles at the colorful fish. As the day went on every single boat seemed to be folloing us. At the famed Emerald Cave, we paddled our way through the dark passage, constantly whacking people in frony and behind us. I felt like I was on a ride at water world, waiting for a dinosaur to stick its head out of the wall. In the end, the trip made up for itself with the picturesque islands, home cooked lunch, and of course all the pretty fish.
Today is Christmas on Lanta and it is the strangest thing. The fake christmas trees, lights, and music seem so out of place. People walk around shouting "Merry Christmas!" in their thick accents and we have to ask twice to find out what they are actually saying.
Hope everyone is having a great holiday!
Misra
12.22.2007
Hello everyone!
Sorry to leave you all high and dry for the last bit. It is difficult to update this here blog on a regular basis--this is an update-as-we-want-to creation (we want to keep you up to date, but--hey--we're traveling and sometimes the blog-juice just ain't flowin'). This way you get more juicy updates rather than a few lines saying 'we're alive--we left chiang mai and are now in the island of Lanta in southern thailand. that's all for now, cheers!' Well, unless you want that, too...?
Sidenote: I want to reassure you that we are eating well and are living off of more than "food on a stick" which was mentioned in our last post.
Anywho.
Misra and I arrived in Chiang Mai after leaving BKK via night train (pretty fun way to travel). We lost no time in getting to the ecovillage outside of Chiang Mai called Panya Project (www.panyproject.org) . Here we could wiggle our toes in red mud used for their earthen building projects, eat fresh food from the land and from local village markets, and get to know some very interesting people of the Panya community. There were several other people, slightly older than us, who were just passing through to get an idea of what Panya is all about--what working towards sustainable living looks like and what living in the boonies of thailand looks like (by the way: with a community like Panya's, the picture which was painted for us on the way through was awesome.) The regular members of Panya are very inspiring and totally jazzed about the direction their lives are taking with the help of their community.
We left the ecovillage too soon (anytime would have been too soon) with another passing-through-Panya-person, Aletta from New Zealand, and we stayed one (yes--only one) night in the city of Chiang Mai. Misra and I are really getting the sense now that one month is barely enough time to sample a few cities in Thailand--let alone the whole country.... Chiang Mai was a much nicer experience than Bangkok: cleaner, easier to take in and met some neat people.
Shoot... the internet cafe we are at right now is closing--so I will finish this update sometime soon. But let me say that we are on the beautiful (and small) island of Lanta in southern Thailand. Juicy bits about the beaches, funky cafes, snorkeling, resorts and motorbikes are soon to come. Happy Holidays!
(umm...hmmm. that's an interesting whirlwind-ish post. ha!)
Cailin with Misra over the shoulder
Sorry to leave you all high and dry for the last bit. It is difficult to update this here blog on a regular basis--this is an update-as-we-want-to creation (we want to keep you up to date, but--hey--we're traveling and sometimes the blog-juice just ain't flowin'). This way you get more juicy updates rather than a few lines saying 'we're alive--we left chiang mai and are now in the island of Lanta in southern thailand. that's all for now, cheers!' Well, unless you want that, too...?
Sidenote: I want to reassure you that we are eating well and are living off of more than "food on a stick" which was mentioned in our last post.
Anywho.
Misra and I arrived in Chiang Mai after leaving BKK via night train (pretty fun way to travel). We lost no time in getting to the ecovillage outside of Chiang Mai called Panya Project (www.panyproject.org) . Here we could wiggle our toes in red mud used for their earthen building projects, eat fresh food from the land and from local village markets, and get to know some very interesting people of the Panya community. There were several other people, slightly older than us, who were just passing through to get an idea of what Panya is all about--what working towards sustainable living looks like and what living in the boonies of thailand looks like (by the way: with a community like Panya's, the picture which was painted for us on the way through was awesome.) The regular members of Panya are very inspiring and totally jazzed about the direction their lives are taking with the help of their community.
We left the ecovillage too soon (anytime would have been too soon) with another passing-through-Panya-person, Aletta from New Zealand, and we stayed one (yes--only one) night in the city of Chiang Mai. Misra and I are really getting the sense now that one month is barely enough time to sample a few cities in Thailand--let alone the whole country.... Chiang Mai was a much nicer experience than Bangkok: cleaner, easier to take in and met some neat people.
Shoot... the internet cafe we are at right now is closing--so I will finish this update sometime soon. But let me say that we are on the beautiful (and small) island of Lanta in southern Thailand. Juicy bits about the beaches, funky cafes, snorkeling, resorts and motorbikes are soon to come. Happy Holidays!
(umm...hmmm. that's an interesting whirlwind-ish post. ha!)
Cailin with Misra over the shoulder
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