SE Asia (Laos - Cambodia - Thailand)

La Gon Carpe Diem Fall 2010!

2010-12-08T21:39:00.001-08:00

To our Carpe Diem family of 3 months: we wish you continued learning, increasing tolerance, unending passion, continuous questioning, the strength to fight oppression, the ability to smile in the face of adversary, the ability to digest your food til you die, solid nights of sleep and, of course, good hair days...Goodbye Carpe Diem SE Asia '10! We'll miss you!

Final words

2010-12-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone out there for the last time!

We've finally reached the end of this crazy journey. Here's a quick recap of the last few weeks:

After the elephant village, the group headed up to Vang Vieng To do a kayaking trip to Vientienne. It was a lot of fun and just about everyone ( with the exception of Charley and Camille who were talking about the differences between fall an winter coats and not paying any attention) got dunked at least once in the rapids.

From Vietienne we left in two groups to fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Several of us got really lucky and get to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to catch our flight! jk none of us felt that lucky at all to tell you the truth. We flew into a ridiculously hot day in Siem Reap (Cambodia is by far the hottest country we have visited). We were lucky enough to be in the city during the water festival and got to see some really cool cultural stuff like the boat races. We also went to go visit Angkor Wat which was another really amazing cultural experience for everyone.

From Siem Reap we headed over to Battambang to volunteer with an organization called Ptea Teuk Dong which helps trafficked girls start their lives over and reintegrate into society. While we were there we helped to put a new roof over their restaurant and dig and put in a drainage system so the compound doesn't flood during the wet season. We also had a great Thanksgiving complete with pie (and some other tasty but unidentifiable Asian desserts).

After our week of volunteering we went to Phnom Pehn for a little R&R and a chance to learn a bit more about the Khmer Rouge and the Genocide that occurred in Cambodia not too long ago at S.21 and the Killing Fields.

From there we headed south to the beaches of Sihanoukville to embark on out scuba certification and spent a night on a dive boat finishing our courses. With only 3 days left until we arrive back to the States we are all trying to make the most out of the sunshine and the last leg of the trip.

See you soon!

2010-12-06T03:23:00.000-08:00

After a short comfy ride we found ourselves nestled amongst the gradually rising and descending hilltops along the outskirts of Luang Prabang to partake in Shangri Lao, our next expedition. After debriefing the previous night as to what the program entailed and the schedule we would be following, various vague ideas & expectations began to take root in each one of us as the sleek lush pamphlets made their way into curious hands.

"Relive the footsteps of an historic French explorer of the 19th century following tranquil streams and passing through dense jungle, in an original and authentic style whilst staying in luxury tents with breathtaking views."

Sleeping on these notions, a cautious excitement gave way into the following morning as we set off to wait what was to follow. Coming to a halt we scurried around to grab our bags and make our way to the camp. Stone steps marked our path as we tried to soak all that our initial gaze fell upon. For a few brief moments, everything fell into the background as our attention was cast onto the strong gentle movements of a group of elephants.

After loading our packs onto the elephants, we began our short trek through the jungle to our campsite. During our trek we got to know our two guides, Pat and Mongon. Once we arrived at the campsite (and after we ate lunch), we began to help set up our tents. Well, we tried to help set up our tents. In actuality, we kind of just held the tent poles until our guides needed them.

After setting up our tents, Pat told us to change into clothes that we could get wet and dirty. Yes, we were bathing elephants! No better way to relax after trekking through the jungle.

The first step to bathing an elephant is to mount the elephant. This consists of telling the elephant to lift her front right leg (the Elephant camp only employs females as males are known to be too aggressive in captivity). Then you step up on her knee while gripping the top of her ear. After that, you simply (or not so simply) pull yourself up onto the elephants back. Of course, sometimes you get lucky and get the elephant that can lie down on the ground so you don't have to try your luck in clambering up the elephant.

After mounting the elephant, we rode her down into the pond, then scrubbed away all of the dirt and grime with a scrub brush that we received from the elephant's mahout.

A mahout is the elephant’s keeper and constant friend. The word mahout is of Indian origin. The bond shared by an elephant and her mahout is very deep. Some elephants will only respond to a single mahout, as was the case with Mae Kham, my elephant. At dinner, we got to know all of our elephants and their mahouts as well as the rest of the camp staff. Over the course of our stay, we learned more about the mahouts and became friends with them.

During our stay at Shangri Lao, we enjoyed more quality time feeding, caring for, riding, and playing with the elephants. We went on treks and explored caves. Our group tried our hand at net fishing. It's fortunate that we had other dinner plans because the four little fish we caught would never have fed our group. On our final night, we enjoyed a farewell barbecue. After packing up camp and spending a night of relaxation at the lodge, we spent our final morning harvesting sugar cane to feed to our elephants as a goodbye present.

Doing our best to squeeze into the back of a pickup truck, all 15 of us (including guides) drove an extremely uncomfortable 20 minutes back to Luang Prabang. Then, we immediately loaded onto two spacious minibuses for our six hour ride to Vang Vieng. During the drive, a few people got carsick.

The next morning we woke up early for a day of kayaking. It was an exciting day in which pretty much everyone flipped their kayak on a whitewater rapid. The only kayak that didn't flip consisted of Charley and Camille who used the time honored technique of not paying attention and talking about Winter coats to avoid being capsized by the rapids. When we arrived at the take-out point we loaded into a song thaew for along drive to the capitol of Laos, Vientiane...

some visuals

2010-11-21T00:02:00.000-08:00

Dont forget to check our Flickr Photostream from time to time!

Pu Khao de Laos!

2010-11-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

Laos has baguettes.

That is the first thing that, on behalf of everyone, must be said about our visit to the second country in our exciting itinerary: LAOS.

After a 6 hour van ride, an overnight stay at the border, a river crossing, another 6 hour van ride, and a much lighter bag of dramamine, we finally arrived in Luang Nam Tha, a town that looks like what would happen if Southeast Asian culture and a Western film had a love child, ready to begin our first activity: Trekking. Luang Nam Tha itself seemed to be a pretty popular gateway for travelers like ourselves looking to rough it for a few days in the jungle, and functioned as a very nice transition from all the comforts of urban Chiang Mai to the rugged mountainous terrain of the Laotion jungle.

And it is most definitely a jungle. Thick vined trees, staircases made of interwoven roots, mossy riversides and damp tropical floors decorated our hike as we stumbled and tripped our way Indiana Jones-style down the supposedly well-traveled path. The 12 of us, a big sweaty panting mess, were all the more impressed by our five flip-flop clad tour guides who, despite keeping the same (if not particularly fast) pace as us and carrying just as much baggage, seemed hardly phased by the hike at all. That night, we all learned valuable lessons in packing the bare essentials. Alex, having forgotten his toothbrush, resorted to using a toothpaste covered tampon. Jackie meanwhile, in an allergy induced haze, ran out of kleenex and began systematically ripping pages out of Lizzie's book to blow her nose ("Don't worry guys, it was just the acknowledgments. Nobody reads that shit anyway!").

Returning to Luang Nam Tha a little worse for wear, we boarded a bus for Luang Prabang. Six bags of Lays sweet basil potato chips, one extremely questionable chicken skewer, and nine harrowing hours later, we arrived at the cozy, culturally rich city of Luang Prabang. The city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and these past 2 days have been crammed to the brim with temple visits and night market shopping sprees. A certain student in the group managed to spend a total of 300,000 kip in about 45 minutes. I won't name any names...except that it starts with a B and ends in "en".

To return to the original statement, Laos has baguettes, and there's no place that this is more apparent than Luang Prabang. The streets are lined with stands selling fresh chicken sandwiches, nutella sandwiches, and chicken AND nutella sandwiches (yes, chicken and nutella sandwiches are an option). One can't walk too far without running into a bakery or pastry store, or hearing the greeting "Sabaidee Madame!" The colonists are long gone, but their culture has mixed in interesting ways with Laotian culture.

Tomorrow we leave for our Elephant trek. It seems like we have some exciting and potentially thought-provoking experiences ahead that go far beyond just cleaning out poop...but that's all I'll say for now!

Until next time,

Camille, Lizzie, and the rest of the SE Asia gang!

Chiang Mai

2010-11-03T00:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Southeast Asia!

The past week was spent in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We spent the week taking a variety of classes: thai cooking, jewelery making, Muay Thai (well we wanted to try it, but to keep a long story short, it was an epic fail). Our first night in Chiang Mai landed on Camille's birthday, so to celebrate some of us went out to a karaoke bar, but it wasn't so much of a bar. There were different rooms, which each had a theme (underwater, graveyard, jail cell, etc.), and the one we choose was "bed room." We also happened to be in Chiang Mai for Halloween, so we all dressed up (cats, hippies, ourselves) and went out dancing for the night. We also completed our last week of Thai class. As a finale we learned the popular Thai pop song, Duu Ter Tum by Jobbunjob. It is one of my favorite songs now.

The Thai cooking course was an amazing experience. We each got to pick our own appetizer, stir fry, noodles, curry and curry paste. Also, we each received a cook book at the end, so we have the option to cook dishes we missed out on in class. It was really nice knowing the AMAZING food I was eating was made by me, except now my family will probably make me cook all of our meals once they find out.

Some of us also attended an event called Monk Chat. We went to a Wat (temple) and simply just found the monk chat sign, went inside, approached the monks who were sitting behind tables, and asked them questions. Most talked about Buddhism, others asked more about our culture in the US, or just life.

On our last day, some of us also did a jewelery making class. We chose to either make a pendent or a ring. We first drew a design, then manipulated our piece of silver, cutting out our designs with a saw. Sawing was difficult-I actually broke the saw blade twice! Oops! Everyone's jewelery turned out beautiful though, two people made pendents, while the rest chose rings.

We have finally now crossed the border into Laos. I was saddened to leave Thailand, but envisioning our adventures quickly returned me to excitement. Already today we took a six hour public bus ride through the mountains in Northern Laos, some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen to date. I am excited to see what Laos has in store for all of us!

SEIZE THE DAY!-

Olivia

...(edits by Alejandro... because I dislike writing)

Silent Fall

2010-10-29T03:09:00.000-07:00

May all beings be happy...
May all beings be free...
May all beings have access to and ipods and facebook during vows of silence.

(This last affirmation being our group's request to modernize Buddhist practice).

We just finished our 5 day intro to Buddhism and meditation retreat which ended in a full day of nobel silence. Nobel silence redefines silence as inadequately quiet, requiring abstinence from speaking, reading, writing, or attempts at non-verbal communication, such as body language, peace signs, or smoke signals for help. As many who have attempted noble silence before may attest, nobel silence is not quiet at all. Instead, it amplifies the noise inside our head, prompting an optimal mental state for mediation and, for many, intense self-reflection.

To ease the intensity, the retreat center chef cooked organic Thai vegetarian cuisine that would drive any Top chef judge into silence--mushroom stews, green papaya salads, tofu coconut curries, tapioca and corn deserts drizzled with sweetened coconut milk. Nearly all of the ingredients were harvested from the organic garden sprouting around the facility grounds. The bamboo and earthen huts were literally perched over the irrigation canals of a rice paddy, leaving us to feel like we were growing like grains of rice, emerging from the mud, sprouting towards the heavens, flowering with ancient wisdom with each meditation, and more appropriately for us, enduring a sickle's worth of leg pain after attempting the lotus position for a day.

Everyone departed in various states or relaxation or anticipation of mattresses to come. Stay tuned for student tales!

The Real Bpra-Te:t Thai

2010-10-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends! If you read the title, you just learned the Thai word for Thailand! But before you lucky readers learn more Thai, let's go back a couple weeks.

Bangkok was a great way to release the angst of the Mokken Village. Great shopping, (bargaining is the name of the game) and hot showers (OH MY GOD!) We even spent one night at the Lava Club night club where we drank tons of M150 (Redbull, our nonalchoholic alternative) and danced the night away with British Columbian studs and ladyboys and all sorts of exotic people! We left Bangkok about a week ago and survived the 16 hour sleeper train to get to our homestays 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai.

Right now we’re kickin’ it in Mae Rim, a sleepy northern district with comfy rural villages and 3 internet cafes (that have made a whole lot of profit this last week) and an immesasurably nice group of friendly Thai folk kind enough to take us weary foreigners in! The days here look pretty slow on paper, but they’re exhausting nonetheless. We wake up with the chickens at sunrise and eat breakfast with our lovely Thai families (Khrop Khrua Thai). For some of us, breakfast (gin khaao dtok chao) is a full 4 course meal: chicken soups and sticky rice and grasshoppers and worms (luckily not for all of us) and a whole mess of delicious (occasionally fishy) entrees. For others, every meal is shared by the family, with all members SHARING THE SAME BOWL OF SOUP AND THE SAME GLASS OF WATER. Didn’t mean to type it in capitals, but Charley feels that the caps are appropriate.

A week of Thai classes has left us with a surprisingly decent Thai vocabulary. Everyday I have a little bit more to say to my Thai family. Yesterday we had a great big laugh about how ridiculous I sounded 6 days ago.

Thai family: Khun yaak gin khaao mai? (You want to eat meal?)
Ben: Pom chuu Ben. (my name is ben)
Thai family: Rao ruu. Ben, gin khaao? (We know. Ben eat?)
Ben: Pom chuu Ben!

It’s amazing how quickly you can pick up a language like Thai when you are forced to speak it right after you learn it.

Besides a community of English speaking people, the rest of the conditions are incredibly tolerable. Showers without hot water, toilets without seat, homes without central air conditioning, bikes without brakes (this one was a little harder to manage on downhill streets). All these things have become a typical way of life for us. A couple people visit the X Center on occasion, which is a tourist-friendly 'extreme' sports center several miles down (on bikes, a good 20 minute trip) and tried some pseudo-American cuisine, complete with Dave n’ Buster’s-quality pizza and burgers and chicken nuggets. I sometimes attend these excursions, I’ll admit, but the adaptation to Thai rural life has otherwise been relatively smooth here. For the most part, Thai food is the name of the game, and I know I am not the only one who goes to sleep thinking about the next day's breakfast.

Probably the most distinct part of Mae Rim is how cozy it is. Everyone, from the 8 year old kids to the 68 year old farmers, takes a motorbike when he or she wants to go out. Going out often means going to the farm for a day’s work (something I can proudly say I did) or to a neighbor’s house for beer or noodles. Rarely do the villagers even venture out past the main street to Chiang Mai.

Lately things have picked up quite a bit. Olivia’s house is a virtual cooking school/petting zoo. One can learn to make delicious sticky rice and coconut snacks, allow beetles to crawl on his arms, even hold a rooster high into the air while singing the prideland theme from lion king!We’ve also discovered, through the wonderful generosity of Jackie and Alex’s homestay mama Pii Laa, the taste sensation sweeping the Thai nation that is Rotee. Here’s how they make it:

1: put a crepe like puff pastry on a wide black cooking surface with (canoli?) oil.
2: (personal preferance) once it has reached a light brown, craqck an egg into the concoction.
3: after the dish has reached a delicious golden brown (personal preferance again, but you’d be crazy to forget this step) slice up some bananas into the newly fluffy pastry and fold the sides to make a thick square pie.
4: Slice into 25 or so pieces, and (oh my lord) POUR CONDENSED MILK ON TOP AHH!
5: enjoy.

I don’t know if I can ever go back to french crepes.

Between going to internet cafes, eating delicious ROTEE, studying paasaa Thai, and hanging out with homestay families, there is certainly a lot of time to ponder. One can’t help but be humbled by the rural lifestyle. The lack of easy communication, the early-to-bed, early-to-rise sleep schedule, the unbelievably hospitable people, the difficulty of transportation (for us without cars or motorcycles) - all of it calms the soul and allows for great introspection. One can only wonder what 10 days at a Buddhist monestary will contribute to our self-exploration. We're gonna be soooo spiritual when we get back to the states! Spiritual and fat if they don't stop feeding us sticky rice.

Missing you crazy falang (meaning foreign or guava, depending on context) westerners with your strange western ways,
Ben, Charley, and the SE Asia crew!

Images Maak Maak

2010-10-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

Check out our SE Asia Carpe Diem semester album on Flickr!

It's a hard knock week

2010-10-04T04:11:00.000-07:00

Ahh, sweet mysterious of the Mokken Village we have uncovered thee! Upon arriving to the Mokken bay tinted with broken red bull bottles and climbing inside the Village Cheif’s house, nothing more than a living room sized shack with open windows and harsh, unshaven bamboo branches, we quickly and abruptly came to a single conscious realization: We aren’t in America anymore.

Different problems arose quickly for different people. What will heal these bug bites? How does one shower with a bucket? Why is there no toilet paper to wipe my tuchus?

Yet amongst the myriad of cultural shocks and physical dillemas, none could count the Mokken’s treatment of us as anything but a comfort. A relief for some, and a shock for others, the Mokken’s certainly did not act as one would expect. While we may have thought our purpose in the dispossessed refugee camp was to supply labor, we found that our services were only half as efficient as the villagers, who put up the infrastructure of the community center that we funded in little under a day. One could not help but feel that, when we were finally allowed to hammer nails into the carefully laid boards of the community center floor (and what a pile of bent nails we left) that our efforts were less helpful and more to feel like we helped. In the same way we desired to feel the joy of contribution, the Mokken’s wished to hold the prize of ownership. Unlike many of their houses, which the Thai government built without the Mokken’s needs or wants in mind, the Mokken’s wanted their community center to contain within it the craft, labor, and pride of Mokken culture.

This left most of us with 3 hour work days and immense free time, so we were happy to oblige.

After leaving the Mokken village, filled with mixed feelings about our laborious if not limited contributions, our difficult living conditions and our comparatively luxurious treatment, a trip to a nearby beach and actually mattress covered beds with real running showers was more than a welcomed holiday. It was paradise. -Ben Greene

2010-10-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

A picture of the dock outside of our sleeping quarters at the Mokken village at low tide.

2010-10-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

The conditions at the Mokken village were in stark contrast to the well-resourced surroundings of the ashram where we conduted our orientation. The Mokken people traditionally lived at sea on self-made fishing vessels, small boats that look like large canoes tents on top. In fact, the first Mokken sea vessels were carved out of solitary large trees akin to the construction of Native American dugouts. The Mokken traveled up and down the coasts of South Asia, following good weather and better fishing. Though completely nomadic, the Mokken were (and still are) community oriented, spending all of their lives at sea grouping, dispersing, and regrouping. The leader of the Mokken village told us, “[The Mokken] only came to shore to deliver a baby or to weather a bad storm, where they would climb up into a large strong tree.” The Mokken have a tough time with the concept of personal possessions, know how to read subtle clues in nature and, more than anything, love the sea.

Modern society, with political drawn boundaries on our oceans, fishing licenses, natural park regulations, and coastal development rights have put an end to the traditional Mokken way of life. Approximately 30 years ago the Mokken started to settle in the beautiful islands on the southern coast of Burma and off the west coast of Thailand. They built stilt houses made of sturdy branches and thatched roofs. The floors, also made of branches, were placed just a few inches above the level of high tide, so occasionally a higher than normal tide washes over the floor of the house. In fact, a full moon tide during our stay in the village washed over the floor, causing us to move our sleeping bags into a missionary-built church standing about one foot higher. Though the islands are breathtaking, the Mokken are squeezing out their existence in an area few people would even consider camping at over a weekend. Freshwater is collected from the rain and stored and cisterns, the toilets empty directly onto the ground (low tide) or into the water (high tide) below, the waste-strewn paths between houses are covered knee deep by the tide, and much of their food must be caught daily.

Navigating boundaries

2010-09-30T00:20:00.000-07:00

We took an overnight bus to Ranong, departing from the primary Bangkok bus station, a fun multi-tiered maze of tasty eateries and shopping stands that make bus stations in the United States look like dirty shopping mall parking garages. After buying some last minute supplies and slurping down some spicy noodles, we boarded the overnight bus to Ranong. We arrived 8 hours later, sleep-deprived and disorientated, and made our way to the boat dock outside of the Ranong Custom’s house.

The boat dock and port at Ranong is an experience in itself. Ranong is only four miles from the Burmese border and the dock has the feel of a marine version of a run-down border town on stilts: traditional Thai fishing boats outfitted with loud two-stroke engines crisscross the intercoastal; fisherman from Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia (and perhaps further) smoke hand-rolled cigarettes while preparing their enormous aquamarine and bright orange fishing vessels for work; women en route to town from the surrounding island villages to purchase food staples donned umbrellas to protect themselves from the blistering sun. The busy scene was both beautiful and an intense depiction of survival, of finding food and sustaining oneself on dwindling ocean resources.

Our group passed our bags Chicago fire house style down to one of the large Thai fishing boats, inches away from the standing water on the boat floor. We took a breathe of the diesel-laden air and made our way to the Mokken village at sea.

From the Lily Pad to the Sea

2010-09-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our group endured the brutal 15 hour plane ride with turbulence, a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong, followed by a 2 hour plane ride, then a 2 hour bus ride to gratefully arrive at the idyllic Wongsanit Ashram on the far outskirts of Bangkok. The Ashram has made for a perfect landing to Thailand: clean and spacious meditation halls provide prime space for our orientation meetings, while rain on the metal roofs and the symphony of geckos, frogs, and toads in the lilypad-filled ponds below our trees houses make rest and relaxation come naturally. Best of all, the staff at the ashram have provided us with more than sustenance for our long days of orientation. The kitchen food arrangements are ones that could make the cover of a Conde Naste Traveler Magazine: Tom Yam soup with fresh caught seafood, homemade rice noodles, garden-harvested vegetable salads, pad thai and glass noodle salads, fried fish, mangos, mangosteen and rambutans. We suggested to skip the rest of the itinerary to stay at the ashram and eat, but alas, adventure, service, and tuk-tuks await....Tomorrow we depart for Bangkok and the Mokken Sea Village with high spirits and healthy bodies.

...And They're OFF!

2010-09-15T23:07:00.000-07:00

Team SE ASIA came together seamlessly, and will be embarking over the Pacific in only 2 short hours. Look for more from the group members themselves in a couple of days!

WELCOME!

2010-09-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Sawadeecap or Sawadeecah (for the females)!

With less than a week remaining before we depart for our semester in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, we feel an overwhelming excitement to meet you and begin our adventure together! As we sit at the Carpe Diem Headquarters in Portland trying to finish our final preparations, and hear the rush of the cool rain on the roof, we can’t help but daydream about hearing tropical downpours on roofs across SE Asia.

This is our first entry of our story together. This blog will be a great way for you to keep in touch with family and friends over the course of our journey. Over the course of our adventure, we will be rotating a designated blogger of the week, giving each of you a chance to share your experiences online. Be sure to inform your fam and friends of the link!

Be excited! The next few months are sure to be filled with lots of amazing food, beautiful scenery, and lots of opportunity to explore personal growth through our group dynamic. As you make your own final preparations and pack your backpack (remember less is more), you might have some questions, feel free to email us!

Until next week,

Alex and Jackie

On the journey between Chiang Mai and Phuket

2009-11-27T23:22:00.000-08:00

After enjoying a semi-permanent home in Chiang Mai, the shorter 'chapters' of our journey over the last few weeks have made for a whirlwind of new sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feels... one of which is the tightness of our backs from shifting loaded backpacks from songthaws to trains to taxis to boats to pickup trucks to get us from north to south Thailand.
Out of Chaing Mai we first traveled for 16 hours on an overnight train to Bangkok, and were all pleasantly surprised by the cozy quarters the train official so effortlessly converted our seats into. Still a bit bleary-eyed, we negotiated our way into taxis to take us to the Camillian Center for a volunteer opportunity arranged by Tessa. We arrived into the welcoming care of Faisal, a Pakistani-Canadian man who has been volunteering his time as coordinator of the center for several years now. The main branch of Camillian, which has been working since 1995 around all issues of those affected by HIV/AIDS, is in Rayong. The Bangkok branch we stayed with was recently inaugurated in January of last year. They currently serve about twenty-eight kids who either have some sort of physical disability, mental disability, or are HIV+. Half live there permanently, and the other half arrive each day for day care. Their stories are each unique and inspiring-- often a tale of having been abandoned in hospitals or dumped on the streets, though if you didn't hear it, you'd hardly believe since these little ones have made such progress.
The facilities at Camillian are impressive, with a four-floored building, courtyard with trampoline and exercise equipment, physiotherapy rooms with walking bars, weights, straps, balls, etc. The staff is ample; providing for a nearly one-to-one ratio of care for these adorable kids.
We spent the days helping in the early mornings by washing, dressing and feeding the babies, and during the morning sessions would assist in whatever ways were useful-- with physiotherapy, art projects, teaching English, or jumping on the trampoline. In the afternoons we would often join some of the cooking staff in teaching some basic recipes for baking, including chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. Though they've had a large gas oven since first opening, it hasn't been used simply because there isn't a custom of baking. So though it took some leaps of trust, the staff allowed Tessa to light it up. After several repeats of the procedure, we're hopeful the oven will find good use now.
All in all, the Camillian is well-staffed with some tremendous-hearted caretakers. So while not in dire need, they greatly appreciate volunteers for their injection of new energy, moments of relief for the full-time workers, and as links to the world outside the Camilliam compound. We enjoyed our days laughing and playing with the kids who have such warm and accepting souls, though we also agreed that the work is exhausting! We have great appreciation for the dedication of caretakers who wake up day after day to challenging tasks of meeting multiple needs.
We were able to take a mid-week break and go into Bangkok to explore a bit, have some comfort food, and do a bit more market shopping (y'all are really in for a superb holiday:)), and Alecc, Tessa and Steph had a bit of time exploring a Saturday market just before taking off on another overnight travel trip...
This time we continued further south on a 10-hour bus ride to Ranong. Arriving around 5:30 am, we waited a few hours before being scooped up by Akong and Down, two employees of the NGO called Mirror Art Foundation. They had both spent the night on Koh Lhao, the island on which we were about to go, and had to wait for the tide to come in before motorboating into Ranong to meet us. After a market breakfast of coffee, some fried doughs, sticky rice, fried chicken and shrimp, we and our bags made our way out to the island. Koh Lhao is home to about 50 families of Moken people, who are a population who have historically been 'sea gypsies', but have largely been forced to become land-bound. They are neither accepted by Myanmar nor Thailand, and therefore live in a limbo space characterized by powerlessness and impoverishment. Being a people of the sea, Moken have intimate knowledge of the waters but little know-how of construction and land-based living. They space they've been relegated to is little, and is covered in many areas with trash and sewage.
The political situation is frustrating, to put it mildly. We were there on a project to help build a community center in order for the villagers to have a space to meet, organize and hopefully collectively improve the living conditions of the island village. In our first tour of the island, however, we learn that a community center does, in fact, already exist. The issue is that post-tsunami the Thai government declared the land on which the center exists to be Thai national park land, and thus illegal for Moken to utilize... ridiculous and sad, really.
Nevertheless, in the spirit of continuing on, our group furthered the building of the community center by gathering rocks and sand from the beach, and purchasing construction supplies from Ranong. Our task was to pour cement beams to support the posts that will hold the raised floor. The land on which this is being built is questionable... on marsh and sewage, but we acknowledge we are there a short time, and trust in those who are overseeing... So over the days we learn the ropes of tying off rebar and mixing concrete. Sometimes we work with just our crew of seven, and often times we're joined by over twenty women from the community, and we are amazed at the difference of how much we're able to accomplish. Such a palpable demonstration of the power of solidarity.
During our time on this humble island, we're well-fed by Peenow, a strong woman (one of only 3 Thai citizens on the island) who advocates for Moken rights. We also sleep on the edge of their meeting space, which is a large dock built of long, round branches. After dinner, we lay out our sleeping bags on top of mats, and enjoy the adventure of the night, of the tide from low to high right underneath us. Sometimes we're rocked by boats that sway into the dock with the strong breeze; often we're awoken by strong stenches of fish or otherwise... Certainly our most unique slumber spot of the trip.
The last evening at Koh Lao, the village appears for a short gratitude ceremony in our honor. There are speeches, certificates and t-shirts gifted, and then we each stand behind a pot of food and help distribute to the awaiting community. It's special to see each face, albeit a brief passing of time with each individual there.
And the next morning we move on, this time hopping on a boat to a garbage-less oasis called Koh Chang (Elephant Island). The motorboat ride through the Andaman sea is gorgeous, and we're all enamored with the peacefulness and beauty of the long beach. We soak up each moment there-- to swim, lay, walk, eat, set off fireworks:)... the feel of the contrast is immediate-- to be able to use fresh water more freely whereas it was in scarce supply on Koh Lao.
And yet another contrast met us last night, as we arrived after another 6-hour bus ride from Ranong to Phuket. Though this beach was pummeled by the tsunami just five years ago, development came back in full steam... and we find ourselves in a tourist jungle at the location of our last destination of Patong beach. Steph, Alecc and Tessa have launched into three days of their course for open water scuba diving certification, and Brian and I attend to end-of-semester duties.
As we count remaining days of the trip on one hand, we marvel at the journey... it's been a challenging one, each of us pushed in unique ways to contemplate who we are, where we stand, where we bend...

Check in mid-week and hopefully you'll read of the wonders of the Andaman:)

Pun Pun and other fun

2009-11-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone sorry for the lag time.

We have spent around a month in the interesting city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. The five of us spend our time in different ways.
-Brian has taken a Thai Massage course with Kuan Amanda. He has also taken some time to reflect on his different goals in life, such as his future coffee shop.
-Amanda has done a variety of activities, the Thai Massage course, meditation group, yoga, and exploring the city.
-Tessa has spent her time rock climbing, teaching orphans to cha-cha and making the BEST memories of her young life with Alecc and I.
-Alecc and I have spent our time in a similar way, as the se Asians say, "Same, Same, but Different". We both volunteer five days a week at Care For Dogs. Care for Dog is a dog shelter for abused, and abandoned dogs in Chiang Mai.

Alecc at the shelter and with my Favorite dog Malgoh the dog on the bottom center.

Some group things we have done together...
-Monk chat: a really cool thing, where ppl can come together and average ppl can ask a monk any question that comes to mind.
-Three weeks of Thai Language school with Kuan Sompop. Favorite thing I learned: Jing-luh?! (Really?) Jing-Jing! (Really!)
-Sunday market, Night Market, Day Market= A lot of shopping = many gifts for the people we all love. <3>

-AirportPlazaaaa. Alecc, Tessa and I all saw the movies Surrogates, and 2012. After 2012 (which we saw on the premiere, last night, we stumbled on a rock concert. No one was dancing and the three of us along with our new Chinese, Thai and Sweden friend went to the edge of the stage and started dancing. Suddenly everyone got up and started grooving! The lead singer hopped off the stage and joined in with us and all the 14 year old awe-struck Thai girls! A memory I'll never forget.

-One weekend our gang went to Pun-Pun!

Pun-pun is a crazy organic hippy seed saving Eco-farm. We slept on the most uncomfortable thin mats in the eco friendly building. The most important thing to know about this weekend is that we found out half the people at this place drink their own pee. Its quite shocking but after an explanation its not quite as weird as it first sounds to western ears. There was also a awesome monk at this eco-farm, that made painting for all of the girls. A man named Justin who lives at Pun-pun with his four month pregnant German girlfriend taught us how to make bread. Pun-Pun was quite the experience I won't forget soon.

Our trip is quickly reaching its end. With only 19 days left we head to Bangkok tomorrow, to volunteer for 5 days at an organization that work with orphaned children who are HIV positive and have disabilities. Tessa organized this volunteer position for us and I am quite excited to start our work there.

P.S. I miss Tyler and Conor now almost as much as Alecc and Tessa do. haha
-Love
Stephanie

A few pictures

2009-11-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

A group shot with "grandpa" and Mong at the boat races.

After a good luck ceremony performed by villagers during the last night of our trek.
Resting after a long day of hiking.

On the trail

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Meditation Retreat

2009-10-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

Right outside Chiang mai on an Eco-farm we met Matt. Matt was a retired wall street stock brocker whom found buddhism, moved to Thailand, and was here to teach us about meditation and yoga. We had a rigorous meditation schedule starting at 7am with meditation a break/morning yoga and breakfest, meditation and buddhism lectures, then a lunch break, back to meditation until dinner and then a night yoga session. After the night yoga we do more meditation! Our enviornment was very beautiful. The Eco-farm had different types of houses, both bamboo and clay huts that we were living in and practicing mediation and yoga in. The huts were surrounded by lush plants and little ponds with huge fish. These fish were the garbage disposal medthod utalized by the family. Any extra food we had on our plates we would feed to the fish, and believe me they would jump for it! There was a cat, Meow Meow, that would meditate with us and dine with us as well. Matt was an excellent teacher of Buddhism. He had a wonderful take on impermenance and change. He explained the four knowable truths and the 8th fold path. He also talked about how the culture of Thailand has really changed Buddhism. Many monks are not joining the monastry for the religion but for an education. They do not practice buddhism nor do they teach others, not to say this is all monks. He also discusses the belief that the lineage of female monks was broken, according to thai traditon, so female monks can not be ordained here. This, however is changing and there many monks that believe in equanimity. Matt has a very idealistic take on Buddhism and stresses that you should not ever become Buddhist but pick and choose the ideals you do agree with. He encouraged us to challange whatev er we were told and be open to everything he was teaching. The retreat went well, asside from the one day we had a silent retreat. We were not suppose to look at each other, talk to each other, or use any form of silent communication. It weas brutal for us girls, the leaders did well with this! All in all the retreat went well and we learned tons about Buddhism, Yoga and Mediation.

Gibbons & Ziplinning!!!

2009-10-16T02:21:00.000-07:00

We made our way to Huay Xai, a border town on the Thailand/Laos border, so that we could enjoy the Gibbon Experience. Getting to Huay Xai was quite the adventure as it required taking a 14 hour bus ride. We all boarded the bus at 7pm and prepared ourselves for our travel into the night. The bus wasn't very crowded which was quite nice as it allowed us to spread out so that we could lay down and sleep, or attempt to sleep. The bus made a few stops along the way and one of the stops was in a town with a "market". The offerings in these little markets were chocolate, ice cream, chips, live beetles, maggots, fruits, and vegetables, among many other things. Ice cream was our sustenance of choice during this stop. We were told that the ride would be fairly smooth except for the final 2 hours which were supposed to be "bumpy". As with most travel in the developing world, the actualities of the road conditions and duration of the trip are grossly underestimated. The road was to say the least non-existent in many places. The bus would crisscross the road in order to avoid or attempt to avoid huge potholes created by the rainy season. When the bus couldn't avoid the potholes it shook and bounced as if you were on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The northern part of Laos gets so much rain during the rainy season that road washes away and to try and keep up with the road maintenance would be a huge job even for the developed world. They were gracious enough to play Laotian music for the duration of our bus ride as well. This music was definitely much better than the karaoke that drones into the night that we've experienced on many previous occasions. We arrived in Huay Xai around 9am and all piled into our tuk-tuk to make our way to the Gibbon Experience office before finding a guesthouse for much needed showers and shut eye.

The Gibbon Experience, created by the vision of a man from France, is an organization that works with local villagers to protect the 123,000hectare Bokeo Nature Reserve. The money paid for the experience is used to fund the entirety of the project so that they are not reliant on outside donations. They invest 1Euro/hectare to change the economy from forest destruction to forest conservation. Forest conservation and canopy visits generate as much income every year as a logging company could do once. The long term goal is to be able to hand the entire project over to the Lao people.

Getting to the reserve required a combination of riding in vehicles with 4WD capabilities and hiking. We traveled on the main road for about an hour before we turned off to head down this "road" that started on one side of the river and continued on the other. Yes, that's right.....the trucks went straight through the river, no bridges needed here. The drive out was bumpy and hot but, overall not too bad. The drive to return to the office on the other hand was another story. It had rained while we were out playing which turned the "road" into a mud hole. The trucks were sliding all over the road. At times we were pushing through ruts that were almost 2 feet deep and filled with water. One of the trucks had engine trouble and had to wait at the top of a hill to cool down a bit before continuing. The other truck ended up getting completely stuck in the mud which resulted in us getting out and watching the developing world at its best. The locals got out, evaluated the situation, and stood there in disbelief laughing. Then the action: find the head of a shovel under a seat, cut down a tree to use as the shovel handle, start digging the truck out, hook the trucks together, and then finally the truck came out and we were able to continue our journey. We were all relieved that the trucks had actually come to pick us up though as we had heard many stories about how people had to hike, 5 or 6 hours, out to the main road during and after rain.

We spent two nights and three days out in the canopy. Moving around in the canopy required a combination of hiking and ziplining. It was amazing to be out in the middle of the forest gliding along taking in the lush greenery, sounds of nature, and huge limestone mountains. Our nights were spent in a tree house that was as high as at least a 3-story building or maybe higher. The meals were brought in to the tree house from the kitchen which was back at "base camp". We got up at 6am the first morning to go out with one of our guides in hopes of seeing and hearing the Gibbons. As our guide said, we were lucky. We saw Gibbons playing around in the trees and were able to hear them doing their morning singing. Our tree house was the only one out of the three to see the Gibbons. We made our way out to a tree house that was about an hour away from ours and as luck would have it, it started to pour on our way back. We were all drenched when we finally got back to our tree, but fun was had by all. Leeches, enough said, though there weren't as many here as there were on the trek. We spent our two nights in the tree house conversing, playing cards, and relaxing with a Kiwi/British couple. They were a great duo who had been traveling around in the area for 3 months and were soon to head to New Zealand to get back to the "real world".

Luang Prabang

2009-10-16T02:20:00.000-07:00

We descended from the hills of Lao into our home base of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage City, looking ahead to three days of relax and exploration before traveling onwards towards the Thai border. We had a good meal and rest in preparation for the next morning when we made our way to a set of brilliant clear blue waterfalls. Tessa and Amanda chose to pump their way to the wonderland by bike—a gorgeous and sweaty 32 km ride, where they met Alecc, Brian and Steph who had gone ahead on by tuk-tuk. We enjoyed swimming in the cool water with some small jumps down the falls until we discovered the rope swing. Steph cycled around again and again, gracefully Tarzaning into the water about a dozen times, and setting the example for many of us who somehow managed to get mangled by the rope on the way down (no worries, all in one piece, just some black and blues…). We had lunch together, each downing yet another fruit smoothie, before setting back for the city. Tessa and Amanda were expecting a difficult ride home, but were pleasantly surprised by a more downward-sloped return on the bike ride back. The sun was lower, the schoolkids were slapping them high fives and tuk-tuk riders were giving thumbs up as they rode past.

The waterfall trip was a glorious adventure in itself, its bliss only to be accentuated by a visit to a Buddhist temple for evening chant. Brian, Tessa and Amanda sat at the back of the temple as monks trickled in throughout the prayer-chants, with us mimicking their sitting and bows as best possible. Toward the conclusion of the hour, the 25-plus orange-robed monks all turned their faces from the Buddha statues towards us visitors at the back and offered us direct blessings. The powerful energy waving over us was overwhelming; one of those moments that will surely live on in mind and heart’s eye.

From waterfall to monk blessing, we topped off this magical day with the boat lantern festival, an occasion marking the end of rainy season and honoring the legends of Luang Prabang. “Mr. Jim,” one of our two thoughtful, attentive guides from the trek, was again our guide through the throngs of people who congregated at night for the boat and lantern festival. We joined the sea of Laotian and internationals moving toward one of the oldest temples in Luang Prabang where we were mesmerized by the array of decorative boats on display—one made in the shape of a rooster, another a dragon, another a lotus flower... There were about thirteen of these in competition, each the work of a different village from the region. Mr. Jim’s girlfriend was kind to make our group several small offering floats made of banana leaves and flowers so that we could make wishes for good future and send them into the Mekong River with the thousands of other glowing art pieces floating along. All the time there were fireworks exploding, both high in the sky over the river as well as close to our ears… keeping us alert and amazed.

The next day we spent in our unique ways… Brian, Alecc and Stephanie rested and enjoyed the calm and beauty of the city, while Tessa and Amanda took a tuk-tuk to the infamous Buddha caves. After an hour’s ride down a bumpy, dusty, windy road, we crossed a river in a long canoe to the entrance of the caves that hold over 2,000 discarded Buddha statues. The landscape was breathtaking, the energy of the space inexplicable, and the mysteries of the formations humbling. Thirsting for more, we stopped off at the beginning of the footpath up to the highest temple in Luang Prabang, Phousi, and climbed our way up the hundreds of steps to an impressive sunset view over the city. We descended into night market, where all of us enjoyed our last night of shopping.

Our last day in Luang Prabang we filled with a fun cooking class led by two highly-organized Laotians who taught us how to make about a dozen typical dishes. Lots of laughs, good eats, and new Aussie friends… “you like a spicy, you make a spicy, you no like a spicy add the sugar then no spicy”

2009-10-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

The trek....
Let us give you a break down each day of the 5 day trek and 2 day water rafting in Laung Prabang.....

Day one,
we got into several different moving vehicles and meet our guides Mong and Mr.Jim. What wonderful men they were and they treated us so well along the trip. One hour later finally making it to where we begin. Hiking through many river, rice fields, mud, climbing up intense mountains and making trails that never really exist. Along the way we visited small villages to rest and played with cute puppies. After a long day of 6-7 km (5-6 miles) we finally made it to our village. Tessa, Amanda and Brian all doing fine, while Stephanie and I....well....were still alive.

Day two,
Well to start off the morning hiking up a huge hill in the hot heat, and Stephanie and I barely making it up the hill. Counting down the number of hills we had to cross, other than that getting to our guides and their life stories. But along the way we came across LEECHES! First one to notice was me with the leech on my shoe. So we doused our legs and shoes with bug repillant because appreantly that wards of leeches BUT only if you don't stop moving until you are out of the leech zone. So I've never seen Tessa and Amanda move so fast for an hour in my life and the rest of us trying to keep up. But I have to say we did walk out of that situation leech free with no blood bites. Around 4 p.m. we finally made it our village to rest and take baths in the cold river with the village people.

Day three,
Sore, tired, exhausted and ready for a nice bed not the hard board ground - Stephanie & Alecc
Sick, sneezy but keeps on moving with no complaints - Brian
Feeling good, ready to hike more and have a lot of energy - Tessa & Amanda
So we found out that day four and five were going to be harder, and more up hill and downhill. And the last few days have been the easiest.....
With that all being said Stephanie, Brian and I all went back to Laung Prabang to rest and relax, and Tessa and Amanda kept going....

Day four,
Amanda, Mong and I ( Tessa) woke up early and hopped on a little river boat to cross the river to begin our hike. The boat was horrifiying and rocky...and very unpleasant but short. We then began to test Mong's trail knowledge by counting the number of rivers we crossed that day. The trail was exceptionally beautiful and very overgrown. Along the trek we passed many villagers our size or smaller and carrying massive bags of rice and on ther backs and heads. The looked very tired. Randomly Mong stopped and started digging at the side of the trail. We were very curious and he said he was digging up Lao potatoes. He found three for us to eat. They were white and watery tasting but very good! Also along the way, i was very obessed about the mushrooms growing along the trek and proceeded to ask him if each and every mushroom was poisonous or not. It paid off and we found some musrhooms we cooked for dinner that night. We arrive at the overnight village at 3pm and help make sticky rice and mushroom pumpkin soup and fried pumpkin. After dinner I taught Amanda, Mong, and the children of the village how to do the cha cha...and one of the little girls reciprocated the gesture and taught me some Lao club dances.

Day Five,

Day five was the more difficult day. It was and intense incline, and the path was almost invisible with large plants and grasses, which had sharp edges, growing over the path. It was an incredibly beautiful trek and for lunch we stopped at a village near the gold hill. Gold hill is where the villagers orginally discovered gold. There are still people mining and panning for gold there and many chinese helping as well. After lunch we contiuned upward for about another hour and then started on the "flat" ridge of the mountain. There we had found lots of mushrooms, but not without competition! Mong was wearing a red shirt and a cow had deleveloped an interest in him and began to charge us. Mong, the magician and madador saved us again and chaced away the cow three or four times! After the vicious down hill section Mong filled us up with sweets and we abruptly finished the trek at his "Moms" house. He was a man of many moms...She was a very sweet women and we helped her make this special sticky rice and covered with coconuts and sugar!

Day six,
So Brian, Stephanie and I got onto a truck and drove an hour and an half through the dusty and bumpy road to the village where the rest of the group to meet up with them. Gathering everything we need such as our life jackets and helmets, we headed on down to the river to start our exciting raft journey. Along the way we hit small rapids, went swimming in the nice cold water to cool us down from the heat, and just having a great time. Finally after rafting for about 4-5 hours we made it to our village to rest for the night for the next day of rafting....
But that evening the family where we were staying did a prayer chant while putting on strings on our wrists and saying good luck prayers for the future. It truely was a touching experience and something that none of us will ever get the chance to experience again.

Day seven,
Our last day of adventure...It was a sad day because we had to say goodbye to our guides to whom we all came very close to. It was a good last day because we all played games on the raft and pulling eachother off the raft. Oh man did that get dangerous. Along the way we finally hit some fun rapids that made us work. The day came to an end to our trip, we made lots of memories, laughed a lot of laughs and challenged ourselves in various ways....

So far thats all thats happened....Will keep you all loved ones posted.

Peace, The Southeast Asia Group

A bit of a rant...

2009-09-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hey There everyone.
SOO much has happened its difficult to recap it. Some highlights are as follows: Our group did a Tuk-Tuk ride for peace on International day of peace in Battam Bamg(No idea if that's the correct spelling, seen many version for the name of this city). Lots of fun, we got some advice there from a Buddhist Monk. He guided us through mediation telling us the the importance of breathing. "We often hustle through the day and our breath becomes subconscious. To breath is to live, it is the gift of life. Let your breath become conscious and enjoy your life". I found his words powerful.
The next day we left Battam Bong and took a short six hour bus ride to Phenom Phen the bustling capital of Cambodia. In Phenom Phen we went to the Russian Market and all bought cheap bootlegged dvds and tv shows. Alecc and Tessa also each bought really cute clothes. I am sticking with my Cambodia Jeresy I bought way back in Siem Reap. We also all indulged in massages! It was my first massage ever, and I am definitely a fan for life now. Amanda indulged perhaps the most in the massage as she got two or three here.
However, these past three days in Phenom Phen haven't been all play. Yesterday we went to S-21 and the Killing fields. S-21 was a prison for enemies of the Khmer rouge which kinda turned out to be everyone. In s-21, we saw blood stained floors, make shift prison cells that are smaller than what a person would put a dog in, thousand of photos of the inmates the Khmer rouge killed, old torture devices, etc. At the killing fields the sights included a tree used by guards to beat babies to death, hundreds of mass graves, signs informing us that the chemical storage room used to stand here. Needless to say, we were all very traumatized. We had many good discussion over the subject at dinner that night, which helped. One being why no schools in the U.S. teach about the Khmer Rouge genocide. Our answer was probably because many can argue that America is in a large way responsible for the genocide and the Khmer Rouges rise to power. Of course, France, Thailand and China are also in fault as well. I suggest anyone reading this does a simple google search about the Cambodian genocide, it is enlightening.

Well...seems a bit of a bad note to end this blog on but...
The group is packing up for Laos tomorrow and new adventures.
Peace to all
Steph

Let's Paint!

2009-09-16T03:29:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I would tell you where exactly we are but my role in the group does not involve pronouncing or spelling names correctly. What I will tell you is we are painting! Painting classrooms to be exact. We finished our two base coats of white paint in the three classrooms we're working on and graduate to sky blue paint tomorrow. We're painting classrooms for the street families compound where we are currently living and volunteering.

Much has happened since our sleeping jet lagged days. I informed Tessa to acclimate her mouth to coca cola. We visited Angkor Watt, one of the seven wonders of the world. We have ate crazy amounts of rice. Brian taught us the glory of a lime juice drink. Tessa and Amanda argue regularly at breakfast about everything and anything (all in good fun of course). Tessa and I agree attachment can be fatal. Alecc is getting a steady supply of naps while attempting to read. Tessa on the other hand managed to read 130 pages of the lonely planet book last night. AND EVERY night we all have been ënjoying"the loud karaoke the plays from the club that's right behind where we sleep.

Anyhow... Life is good. We're all bonding together very well and faces all our adventures as a team.

Peace out
Stephanie
and the rest of the crew (though please don't hold them responsible for anything I wrote as they haven''t seen it yet and I'm eager to see their faces as they read this wonderful blog.)

The beginning of a new adventure!

2009-09-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

The five of us are all well rested from 35 hours of airplane travel and ready to explore Siem Reap. Walking around the city is crazy with mopeds, bicycles and cars to watch out for. The people are so sweet and kind. The place we are staying at is Nilla Villa Guesthouse, and when walking and meeting the place all of us fell in love. We are all loving what we are seeing and can't wait to see what's coming up next. The weather is beautiful but humid, and we haven't came across rain yet (knock on wood). But our next adventure we are off to is the Angkar Watt, which we are all pretty excited to see and take in. Miss you all and can't wait to tell you more. LOVE YOU!!!

Alecc, Tessa, Staphanie

It's official ... let this journey begin!

2009-09-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

I've just gotten off the phone with the leaders and it appears that our small group is all together and hanging out! They actually share the first leg of their flights with team India, so it should make for some good conversation during their long transit across the Pacific. For now, everyone seems to have arrived early and we are all set to go!

Please stay tuned for blogs from the students themselves as they arrive into Siem Reap and roughly every week thereafter!

Yours in spirit,

Ethan

Pre-departure Excitement!

2009-09-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

From a buzzing Carpe Diem HQ, we leaders Brian & Amanda excitedly and humbly post this first blog to launch our South East Asian adventure. In a week, we will fly off from San Francisco en route to Siem Reap, Cambodia where we will begin our team orientation. From there the adventure will unfold as it will, each day gauranteed to gift us with opportunities for growth and understanding both as unique souls and as members of our dynamic global community.

As best we can, we will capture our journey to share with you on this blog. Please check in, post a comment, and vicariously enjoy the ride:)

The Final Countdown

2008-12-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
As our trip comes to a close, it's time for the final blog. We find ourselves possibly stranded on Koh Tao, and as being stuck somewhere goes, it definitely could be worse. (More beautiful beaches and scuba?! No! Anything but that!) As most of you probably know, the situation in Bangkok prevents any possibility of leaving on our scheduled Bangkok- Hong Kong flight. As of now we don't really know what's going on but we will find out soon. Hopefully. Enough with the boring technical stuff. On to Scuba!
We arrived in Koh Tao a few days ago and had a day to just relax after a lot of travelling. The next day we watched our orientation video. A little schooling the next morning and then BAM! we were jumping in the pool with all our gear on to do some practice. The next morning we had some more school and then that afternoon we headed out to sea! Unfortunately, it was really windy and there were huge waves. The water was not ideal conditions for a first dive. But we geared up and jumped in anyway. We all grabbed on to the anchor line and slowly followed that down, descending into the depths of the ocean (about 15 meters... pretty deep). You could only see for about a meter or two in front of you and the current was very strong. After 20 minutes we slowly made our way to the surface, with a safety stop 5 meters from the surface to prevent decompression sickness (basically just allowing the excess nitrogen in your body to leave you in peace). We had a break on the boat and moved to another location to try our luck there. It was shallower and supposedly more protected so it should have been calmer, right? Not so much. The current was extremely strong (stronger, even) and did not make for a fun diving experience. But the next day we went out again. Luckily, the wind wasn't too strong and blue sky was seen for the first time in a long time. The conditions were infinitely better: the water calm, the colors present, the abilitly to see one another also present. It made for several good dives. The sun even peeked out during our break so everyone sun bathed on the top of the boat. We may or may not dive today (a few people have to do some makeup dives) but as you can't fly after diving and we are in a sort of might fly might not fly limbo, we didn't want to risk it. But hopefully we will all come back scuba certified and ready to check out the waters around where we live, whether it be ocean, lake, pool, bathtub, or what have you.
So with that we bid adeiu to wonderful Southeast Asia. Hello home, hello culture shock, hello friends and family that we have missed terribly.
See you soon!!
much love,
Team Seasia.
^ o ^

5 Nights In Bangkok and a Moken Village

2008-11-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Hello one and all-
Completed our student ran free travel which we spent exploring the vast complexities of Bangkok. It was a little hard getting used to the city life, which was far more hectic than Chiang Mia. Regardless the city was great. Spent one of the days doing a cooking course which varied with 10 courses and a trip to the market to know what we were using. And with all the travel and work, Team Seasia had a date night; which included dinner and a movie (James Bond). But don't worry, thats where the date ended. After a few more days exploring Bangkok we bused down to Ranong to start work with the Mirror Foundation on the Moken People's Island of Koh Payam. The Moken People are known as "Sea Gypsies" and have been ocean dwelling people for several hundred years. But know with the world changing they have settled on some small Thia islands, although not very welcome. With our time with them we worked on several projects including building a housing shelter for their power generator, laying a cement foundation around the well making it easier to bathe, dug a huge pond which will soon become a fish farm, and finally help lay a huge cement foundation around another town building. All in all we kept very busy and enjoyed our time with them, and they informed us we are welcome anytime. And with that we leave you to go S.C.UB.A.!!!!!!!!!
So until next time....

IWP and Home Sweet Home

2008-11-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome back faithful readers, hope all who read this are doing as well as Team Seasia. After our adventures in Chiang Mia, the troop set off for IWP, a women's justice center located in Mae Rim. There we learned much about Buddhism, eachother, and our inner being; deep stuff. There was a tight schedule of meditation of various sorts throughout the day; from sitting mediation, to walking meditation, to yoga. It was a little hard on the group at first, but it started to grow on us, and some of us are still doing it after the justice center. We had some wonderful teachers that taught a great deal about the different types of Buddhism, as well as meditation techniques that were both calming and frustrating. After the IWP we embarked on our most immersed expiriece yet; homestays with families that spoke absolutely no english, which it turns out dramatically increased our thai. Living with the families was an incredible expirience, it really gave us a sense of thai life style that we would have never had otherwise. Team Seasia's morale is high, although living with families made the team miss being back in familiar homes; regardless it was one of the most memorable expiriences on the trip. Next up on the agenda is free travel picked by US!! so look out team leaders...muahahaha.
Much love,
your adventurers on the other side

Fun Fun at Pun Pun (and in Chiang Mai)

2008-11-04T22:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings,
apologies on the lateness of this message as well. A week and a half or so ago, seasia traveled to Pun Pun organic farm to learn about organic farming (obviously). There we learned from nightly slideshows the importance of seed saving and the ease of earthen building.
We did a variety of different tasks every day. One day we made compost, a mixture of manure, old straw, banana leaves, and EM (a multipurpose substance that is incredibly easy to make, you just take fruit or old food and cover it in sugar then leave it for 2 weeks et voila! You either have yourself a delicious drink or something to pour on your compost to boost its ability to help the plants it will be put on... end of tangent). We watched videos on the importance of variety in food and how horrible monocropping is. It was very inspiring. Team Seasia is definitely going to return to the states with a bigger awareness on the importance of shopping organic.
We also learned about earthen building. It's so sad that people spend 30+ years of their lives saving up to buy a house when all you need is dirt, rice husk, and water. So easy. With just a little bit of effort you can build your very own earthen home, exactly as you want your home to be for ridiculously inexpensive costs. We watched a slideshow with different photos showing examples of the countless posibilities for earthen building.
With minds filled with hope for the future we headed back to Chiang Mai where we started our language and massage schools. However, we lost 1/4 of our Seasia team on the second day back. Something that was incredibly difficult to deal with and accept. His presence is sorely missed by all of us. We managed to try and start up our normal routine again, definitely with a missing presense. In the morning from 10-12 we studied Thai. Afternoons from 1-4:30 we studied Nerve Touch Massage, a technique designed by the famous Mamma Lek. It's incredible how quickly we were all able to pick up on language and massage. After a short 5 afternoons we got our certificates in Thai Massage. And our notebooks fill up more and more daily with information that helps us speak Thai to locals. We're going to have much more time to practice when we're staying with our homestays, which we're all looking forward to.
Now off to our afternoon session at the International Women's Partnership for Peace and Justice. To talk about our country's victory. Yay Obama!!

A delayed Gibbon Experience

2008-10-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

Hello avid and probably confused readers!

I would like to apologize for this late entry on our Gibbon Experience as it was almost assuradly not quite as recent as the timing of this blog would indicate! try about 2 weeks or so back in time.

In any case we all enjoyed the Gibbon Experience immensely. Trekking through hilly and steamy jungle terrain was not nearly as high in quantity as our Nam Ha Challenge but it was certainly close to it in quality in some places. Anywho our first day consisted of jeeping in on a 4x4 truck a 3-4 hour drive if I remember correctly. The last hour and some change was spent on some really rough roads and muddy tracks festering at the bottom of almost every big hill. I think it is also safe to say that the drive back was just as entertaining.

But onwards to the meat of our adventure....and you will hardly believe it...We stayed in treehouses way up in the canopy or even above! wowzers! Falling out was a most guaranteed way of dying. Never fear all precautions for safety were set in place. Getting into the tree houses required a harness strapped to you and a roller thingamajig attached to the harness.....and lastly attaching the roller to a steel cable stretched out from a thick stable tree to the treehouse. A small push and off you went, Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiipppppp! and presto there you were. It should also be mention that some of these ziplines spanned many gullys and at a maximum of about 300+ meters in length for some of them and had a glorious height...errr well high enough to see everything below you :D <---(thats a smily face)

Our days consisted of eating meals in tree houses zipping around and believe it,or not, that we never saw ONE gibbon. Other than that it was a fairly cool experience flying across gullies at about 40+ mph on a steel cable....and I heartily suggest signing on for a gibbon experience...if only for the zipping around HEHE!

PS. I was having a gastly time with my photobucket account....the computers here not really great as they upload 1 picture per 10 minutes or so. Ill be sending out a disc or something to each member of our trip so they can share with their friends and families sometime after the trip. PEACE OUT!

Jungle Excursion!

2008-10-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings faithful blog minions!

For the past week, and a day on either side of the week for rest, our motley crew have been occupied with our group trekking choice of THE NAM HA CHALLENGE. This trek, picked from a website given to us by our trip leaders early in our trip, was a 7 day excursion into the jungles of luang namtha and around the Namtha national park. The terrain was very muddy and full of the most feared creature known to man! THE LEECH! these little critters were the plague of the jungle we were in. Not all the spiders and mosquito bites and the slipping and sliding down slick muddy paths all put together could rival the leeches' bloodsucking ways. In short the hike was challenging and we all struggled on different levels physically and mentally. Every day consisted of waking up around 7-7:30 and eating breakfast. Gear was packed damp sweaty clothes were donned. During this wakeup process sticky rice wrapped in palm leaves and water was distributed. Each day varied in length but a few things remained constant. Leeches, long stretches of thick mud, humidity/occasional rain. Around midday we would break for lunch and rest up for about an hour and the finish off the rest of the distance. Getting into "camp" was always a welcome reprieve from our blood thirsty parasites and a good opportunity to peel off our sweat soaked clothing and lay down and shower at some point while our guides prepped dinner for us. It is only now that I will mention that lunch and dinner were most definitley a group affair. Each one of us had our own plate piled with sticky rice but if you wanted soup meat or anything else with it we all found our hands or spoons dipping into the community dinner platers or bowls. During the entire trip we saw amazing scenery and small villages. I feel safe to say everyone was glad to have taken part in this adventure and even happier to get into clean clothes.......to be continued!

In my youthul impatience I have overseen a few more details that I feel need some more attention. I would like everyone to know that our guides were and still are the most amazing set of people we could have possibly gotten to lead our trip. Their names were Sai(pr:Sigh) and Me(haha no funny pr: there). Sai's grasp of english was simply amazing and all of us spent lots of time conversing with him about various aspects of our hike or just pleasurable things about life in general and even some more complex things. He was very aware of the group and called breaks for water or catching breath appropriately. Me was know to us and prove himself worthy of the nickname jungle man. He apparently didn't speak english except for a few words but I feel that I speak for the group that he definitly understood more of our conversations than he let on. He was a strong hiker and great companion for sitting around to lounge during breaks or in the evening. Both were great cooks and they cooked us all our meals!

The terrain itself was something most people in the world never get to experience. Mountains+Jungle made for a very rough terrain to hike in. The mountains themselves during our hikes upwards never really took more than an hour to get up and it was even faster down if it was muddy or just good trail, slower if it was wet rock. Seeing exposed views at the tops of these rolling mounds in the land made for a startling view of a very dramatic and extremly green landscape.

My trip leader thought it might be a good idea to include sounds we were exposed to during the hike. For the most part it wasn't very dramatic. In some areas you could hear cicadas whirring whatever sound parts furiously together to the point that you could swear they were everywhere....and now that I think about it they probably actually were.

All the towns we stopped at to spend the night in were very pleasent. The people in the village accomodated us and fed us their own food and provided sleeping arrangements to boot. It was an amazingly kind jesture on their part. The people here in Laos, all the places we have been, have been extrodinairily friendly!

ps. heres a link to some pics I have taken during the trip take a peek! its in the South east Asia album (ill be adding more as the trip progresses but since I started late it will take some time to catch up to our current place :D)

http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a10/Burtoxulous/Sout%20east%20Asia/

Only the beginning

2008-10-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

After saying our last goodbyes in battambang we backed up and headed to Siem Reap. Seven hours of travel by boat and we arrived at our new home, Nita Villa, for a couple days. Our first day was spent touring a silk farm and learning the meticulous process of silk weaving, all the way from silk worm to silk shirt. Later that day we also got to see some stone and wood carving studios. Both of these places helped train locals in the trade and then hired them after the training period. The next day we visited one of the wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. The entire day was spent touring the massive site and ended with a not so climatic but very peaceful sunset on top of one of the outer lying temples. One free day later and we were on a plane to Laos, the second country we are visiting. Our first night we met with a carpediem contact named Dave who took us around and showed us the city of Vientiane. The next day we got to experience some local delicacies in the form of herbal sauna and traditional massage. We then traveled by bus to Loangprahbang, an event that ended up lasting 11 hours. Once we got here we got settled into a new guest house and woke up the next morning ready to explore. After deciding to rent bicycles we rode around all day visiting various memorials and wats. The next day, today, we went to see some epic waterfalls in the nearby mountains and after hiking up a near vertical trail to get to the top we cooled down in the pools of water at the bottom of the falls. Tomorrow we leave for our next activity, trekking for seven days in the mountains, at eight a.m.

Battambang- and the Adventures in Ptea Teuk Dong

2008-09-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

Hello one and all-
Greetings from Battambang, we arrived here after a lengthy bus excursion and have been staying at the Ptea Teuk Dong Center for rehabilitating those who have been affected by the sex trade. The people we have been living with are simply wonderful. Their hospitality is is only matched by their graciousness. In our time here so far we have had the opportunity to partake in several projects; including building a straw roof on a building overlaying a beautiful pond, as well as digging a rain outlet from the pond for more water access. The mix of work and heat has been hard on everyone but the morale is high with all the positive energy from those staying their. As well as physical work we have been teaching English in the afternoons to most of those at the center, who are learning what we teach amazingly fast. Going nonstop all day has led us to a fairly regular schedule of settling in when it gets dark and waking up when it gets light, although to our surprise on the first night there is a religious anniversary underway which involves loudspeakers started to blast chants and prayers from about 3:30 in the morning to about 5. After a few days of this we decided to ventured out at 4 in the morning to the source to find hundreds of locals lighting incense and conducting ceremonies so early in them morning. All and all it has been an incredible experience staying here, and hope the best for everyone we have been with. Our next adventure is a boat trip to Siem Reap, so until next time...
Goodnight and goodluck
Team Seasia

Final days of Phnom Penh

2008-09-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

Hello readers,
We find ourselves on the final eve of our time in Phnom Penh. Yesterday the group visited the Killing fields. It was quite emotionally trying. We saw the Bone Tower which housed thousands of skulls of the victims of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. We then moved on to see the many mass graves that were scattered all around the surrounding field. It was very painful just learning about the atrocities committed in this country. After wandering around the grounds for a little bit, we stopped to sit under a tree,just thinking about everything we'd seen. James pulled out his mandolin and played some tunes, something that the group really needed after the sadness of the day.
Later in the afternoon we went to visit S21, the Khmer Rouge prison. There were thousands of photos of prisoners and Khmer soldgers. Our tour guide was herself a victim of the Khmer Rouge.
The group came back and stayed in for the rest of the day, reflecting on everything we had seen and heard. It had been an emotionally exhausting day and it's something I don't think we'll ever truly understand - how things that horrible can happen to good, innocent people - but we are all glad we saw these places. All our educations had great holes in the times of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It's nice that they are now filled and that we know more about this wonderful country we are in.
Tomorrow we head out by bus to Battambang where we are going to begin some volunteer work. There might not be internet access there so until next time, over and out from the Seasia team.

Eager to Explore!

2008-09-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hello from Phnom Pehn!!

Yes, after some rough spots in the journey, we are safe and sound in Phnom Penh. The students are on a scavenger hunt as a means to explore the city and get a bit more comfortable with their environment. We are well rested and energized! Tomorrow we will go to The Killing Fields and S21, both historical sights of the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. We have already heard a very personal account of one man's experience and losses during this time....so much sadness, yet so much hope as the country moves forward. The country's population is very young, as can be seen in the countless teenagers cruising down the streets on their scooters, sometimes piled 3 and 4 per bike. Don't worry...the group will not be riding scooters or mopeds!!

That is all for now...the students will be blogging from here on out...expect to hear from us in a few days.

We hope everyone is healthy and happy....we are!
James and Dawn

Flight Delays

2008-09-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

The group is doing fine and as we speak have all their luggage and some good meal & hotel vouchers from Cathay Pacific as they've had to make an unexpected stop over in Vancouver, Canada. There were some minor mechanical issues that caused the stopover and subsequent cancellation, but there's some good news. Everyone for Southeast Asia that was booked on the Hong Kong leg have been rescheduled to depart at 2:55 AM and will arrive one day later into Phnom Penh.

I've just been on the phone with the Travel Consultant at Global Vision Travel and despite the unexpected hiccup, we both were extremely happy to have the pilot make the call to cancel the flight before being stuck over the Pacific ... this is yet another reason we love working with Cathay!

Yours,
Ethan Knight

Notes from the Airport

2008-09-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

It's official, the group is complete! The group leaders just gave me a call and they have their full group - yes, everyone is there! There's been one piece of last-minute changes as Marissa unfortunately decided to postpone her journey this semester. We'll miss her, and trust that she made the right decision for her. It takes a lot of courage to do what's right in the moment despite the momentum in another direction - and she made her decision. So, our inaugural Southeast Asia program begins officially with 6 amazing people who in about three hours will be airborne and embarking on a journey of three-months and a thousand experiences.

Yours in spirit and adventure,
Ethan

2008-08-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

2008-08-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hey there ya'll...hope this finds you all in smiles and excitement. James and I are currently in training, going over the intinerary, becoming enchanted with it all. The more that we discuss the trip, the more we realize how truly magical and rewarding (and yes, challenging!) this journey will be. We hope that you are all as excited and ready as we are, and look forward to meeting you all. Feel free to email us with any questions/comments/etc. that you may have.

We're downloading a couple of photos that Ethan took on his recent trip to SEAsia, hope you enjoy them...

Be well, see you soon,
Dawn and James