The world through my eyes...

Putting my fears of India to rest

2009-04-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

There are some things in life which seem to allure us in inexplicable ways. We are pulled into its energy field until we finally surrender into the realization that we must do something, or go somewhere. Then finally we take the step and enter into it. India, the land of unity in diversity with a smorgasbord of spirituality and life lessons on every corner, has had that role in my life for some time. I’ve felt drawn to it like a moth to a flame and yet I found all sorts of reasons to avoid it until February. It was then that I finally decided to give India a chance, to let go of all my negative preconceived notions of what it was and decided to allow it to just be, accepting it exactly as it was. That acceptance took some time but it ultimately came in the flash of a single moment, when I hit rock bottom, looked at my pale and tired face in the mirror, stopped fighting and finally gave in.

I had planned to travel to Darjeeling, a mountain hill station to the east of Nepal, as a jump off point into India but the universe had other plans for me. After I’d finally decided to come and had obtained my visa, I was stuck in Kathmandu with all roads leading to India closed due to road strikes and political demonstrations. I just breathed and said, “if it’s meant to be, it will happen.” The following morning, a road opened up, the road to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. I got on the first bus and it was apparently the last bus to come through before the road closed again for another week.

Through an amazing twist of fate, I was granted a travel companion to ease my insecurities about crossing the border alone. Piers, an English, fellow Vipassana meditator, offered me a ride, free of charge across the border in the taxi he’d hired. At this point, I unknowingly embarked on a Buddhist pilgrimage through Nepal and India. On our way to Shravasti, the old capitol of India in the time of the Buddha, we stopped for tea and samosas and just like that, one of my worst fears of India began to manifest. By the time we arrived at the Korean monastery, I was ready to begin my four day involuntary purge of everything in my system, besides my organs... although I think I might’ve seen a kidney come out in the process... On the fourth day of consistent vomiting and diarrhoea without food and depleted of all energy, I caught a glimpse of my sickly face in the mirror and suddenly a thought occurred to me; this is just a way to cleanse myself of all of the negativity I’ve been carrying around with me... Surrender to it and it will pass. So I did, and that night... it did.

Funny enough the timing of my recovery and the arrival of an astonishing opportunity coincided quite nicely, once again providing an example of the synchronistic nature of my journey. Our plan was to visit Sarnath next and Piers happened to overhear the men at the monastery saying “Thai group” and “Sarnath.” It was just too good to pass up so I went to the group leader and asked if we could join them and he offered us a free 12 hour ride on their deluxe luxury tourist bus leaving the following morning.
In the days to follow, we spent time in Sarnath at a Dhamma gathering then Piers had a course scheduled and we parted ways. I met with Lisu from Finland and we continued on together to Bodhgaya, the place of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. I wish I could describe the feeling that swept over my body the first time I entered the temple grounds, hosting a descendant of the Bodhi tree under which Gautama Buddha became Enlightened 2500 years ago. The energy of a particular spot had never been so apparent to me as in that moment. Lisu and I sat and meditated under that very tree for the afternoon and delighted in the nourishing energy our surroundings had to provide. It then became evident to me that the words spoken by a friend in Lumbini; “Your karma is clearly bringing you abundance, as you’ve been given the opportunity to see the places of the Buddha which others only dream about” were absolutely true.

Upon completion of my little pilgrimage, Lisu and I ventured to Varanasi to celebrate my 29th birthday... eeeek! The only thing that I wanted to do on that day was to take a boat ride on the Ganga river and see for myself why Varanasi is meant to be the holiest city in India. The Ganga flows throughout India and its waters are used for washing, bathing, fishing, travelling and dying. Many come to Varanasi to have the ashes of their loved ones burnt on the gats and sprinkled into the Ganga, as one who is said to be cremated this way will obtain liberation from the cycle of birth and death and will not be forced to live another life. As we drifted in our boat down the river, we were witness to the amazing colours of life along the gats. Hundreds of people participated in the evening pujas (offerings to the gods) while others, only metres away, watched as their loved one perished in the burning fires. I was celebrating the day of my birth and was witness to those who had completed their lives. It was a miraculous rendition of the cycles of birth and death that we all experience in our lives. Varanasi served to prove the many wrong who advised me that it was full of annoyances and amplified challenges. I felt at peace in this holy city and in turn, it found peace in me and alleviated me of the burden of those lessons.

My next stop was Bangalore, a whopping 48 hour train ride south of Varanasi. I chose to study yoga at Svyasa University, which is dedicated to Swami Vivekananda, the man who brought yoga to the west. I left the travel trails to walk on the path of jnana yoga (intellect) but after a week of solid discipline beginning at 5 am and finishing at 9:30 pm 7 days a week, I was longing for fun and freedom. Luckily there were others in my course who felt the same and we all formed an incredible bond which supported us all through our 30 days. Aside from our busy schedule of asanas (physical postures,) pranayama (breathing practice,) lectures and indulgence in lots of food, we found many opportunities to have a good laugh. Part of the program was to learn Kriyas, cleansing techniques in which we use Jala Neti (pouring salt water between the nostrils,) Sutra Neti (Pulling a sutra through the nose and out the mouth,) and my personal favourite Vomina Dauti (drinking 2 litres or more of warm salt water then making ourselves vomit it all out.) The practices were quite intense and sometimes uncomfortable, but our Korean friend Kim helped us laugh through it by showing us his water baby, caused by the inability to vomit 4 litres of water, which he “gave birth” to later in the privacy of his washroom. I’ve provided some beautiful pictures to give you a visualization of these exercises, but don’t try this at home...

The Holli festival of India landed conveniently in the middle of our course which helped us to all get to know each other really well (if we didn’t already after barfing together) by covering one another in various colours of powdered paint. It was an absolute blast and an amazing release of pent up energy. We were also offered the opportunity to meet Ama, the hugging guru. It was the first time that I’d knowingly been in the presence of a divine soul and it was a truly remarkable feeling. She began to sing shortly after our arrival and I got lost in the sounds and music, completely engulfed in each and every word, although unbeknownst of their meaning, and suddenly it was as if something reached up inside of me and pulled out all of the emotions I held onto so tightly, and then I cried. Through those words my soul had a conversation with hers which told me everything that I needed to hear in that moment. The experience was powerful and liberating and I felt blessed to be a part of it. I also received my hug, which lasted about 0.25 seconds before and after a procession of thousands who’d come to receive darshan from Ama. And as quickly as it began, it was over but I walked away with a little something that I haven’t quite been able to wrap my fingers around as of yet.

The month finally finished after an eternity, and when looking back only days later, we felt as though it had gone by in a flash, the contrast between struggling through the difficult times and then remembering and missing the good ones. The course taught me what yoga really is through a myriad of lessons involving perseverance, acceptance and finding the meaning and the good in even the toughest circumstances. For the week following the course, I learned how to laugh my way through the challenges of life in a laughter yoga teacher training. I cannot describe how absolutely ridiculous this course was as we spent 5 days laughing our butts off in a way none of us had done since childhood. It was great! After those five days it became so evident to me the importance of laughter in uniting the world as one. I even performed a laughter session with some of my fellow passengers on the train to Delhi as it seemed suiting to lighten the mood after a clash between two groups which created some disturbance. Once we started laughing, it was as if the walls had been broken down, walls that the children of the other group climbed right on over and conquered with their laughter. The realization that it is hard to hold onto something when you’re laughing became real with that little experiment and it brought along with it harmony and unity in the purest form.

I went to the south of India to learn and I was provided a space in which to do so. After the course I realized that each spot I walk on is a space in which I can learn. Every circumstance I experience, each person I encounter, every single challenge I face and each word I hear has meaning in it. I have become a student of life simply because I’ve opened myself to receiving whatever it is that India has in store for me. As I continue on to the North and back into travel mode, I am finding myself laughing and smiling at everything. I feel like a child again, with India as my teacher and playground in equal measure.

I'm back home on the 23rd so let me know if you wlll be in town and want to hang out!

View pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/KusumaTiffany/PhotosForAprilBlog?feat=directlink

Saying Goodbye to Nepal

2009-02-25T04:35:00.001-08:00

I'm writing to you from Varanasi in India where I've been for the past 5 days. I decided to leave Nepal and come to India to do my yoga teacher training for the month of March and to explore the rest of the time. India's blog will be along shortly, in the meantime let's say goodbye to Nepal...

In the weeks before Christmas, I was staying with a Nepali family at their farm in the mountains, two hours from Kathmandu, and, as promised, I have recently returned. I found the contact information for Hasara farm in a way that seemed to be preordained by the universe. I knew that I wanted to volunteer somewhere and an Organic farm seemed to be the perfect place to integrate myself into Nepali culture, by living closely with a Nepali family. I wrote down the information for an Organic farm volunteer position and then promptly lost it. As fate would have it, I was given the information for Hasara farm, by an Israeli girl who works for a volunteer organization in Kathmandu. I was shocked however, when I returned to Kathmandu later, to find the original ad, but it was for a completely different farm, which told me that I was meant to be HERE, for reasons that would be revealed to me, in the months ahead.

Let me just take a moment to introduce you to the family. Govinda is the father, an Organic farmer, educator, jolly business man, and V.I.P to the agricultural industry of Nepal. I learn more about Organics, herbs, food and life in an hour with this man than I would in a semester at school. Mitu is the revered mother of the house, who is a master of multi-tasking. She manages everyday to wake up before the sun to make tea for the household, begins the arduous task of fixing up a healthy breakfast, while feeding the farm animals in between, she hustles three teenagers into getting ready for school, feeds everyone, washes the dishes and her face all with a smile and without breaking a sweat, before 9 am. She’s playful and cheerful yet gently authoritative, demanding respect with her demeanor alone, from everyone who crosses her path. I’m in awe of this woman and I’m taking notes from observations of her cooking and caretaking skills. She’s killing me softly with everyday extra servings of wholesome, Organic Dal Bhat. Chandra and Rudra are thirteen year old twin boys who exuberate more emotional and intellectual intelligence than any other teenagers I’ve met. They show interest in all that I do and ask me hoards of questions about Canadian culture. Rudra has taken a liking to my IPOD, uses it sometimes as a fake phone in which to make phone calls to his diplomat friends, and he now knows how to work it better than I do. Chandra has mastered the art of cross stitch embroidery, that I taught him when I arrived at the farm. I think he’s trying to make himself a sweater in which to look strikingly handsome, in the hopes that someone will take another picture of him. One or both are bound to end up as Nepali leaders with Organic farms of their own someday. Rassi is Mitu’s niece. She’s a painfully shy but incredibly sweet young girl who doesn’t speak much English but since I gave her some English books, has been reading them and sleeping with them in hopes of improving her English skills. She cooks when Mitu is busy, and the food she makes is better than anything I’ve ever taken out of a pan, and she’s half my age… I can’t begin to explain the joy I receive from spending a day with this family. Their cheer and humility make it impossible for me to get stuck in a gloomy state. In the months I’ve been around the farm, I haven’t seen a single one of them angry or show even a trace of sadness. This is truly an inspiring and astounding household.

Life at the farm is busy but relaxed, noisy but peaceful, productive but lazy (just me), and a fantastic place to spend my remaining time in Nepal. In my first week at the farm I was taught by Mitu, many tricks of the Nepali Organic farm trade. She and the kids taught me how to make different Nepali dishes, including mo mo’s (dumplings), how to plant seeds along the wall of a rice terrace, and how to extract honey from a bee hive using plastic bags as gloves and a mosquito net as armor. I was also taught in a humorous manner, how to tie a sari. Govinda’s nephew was getting married and I was invited to the wedding celebrations. I arrived and the children surrounded me asking “why aren’t you wearing a sari?” I pulled the one Mitu had lent me out of my bag and a large group of women, teenagers and children assisted with the process of wrapping me up like an elaborately decorated present. I had a difficult time walking for the rest of the day but I managed. The children had fun imitating my English and teaching me Nepali, although I was hopeless, and laughing at my attempt to dance with my gimp leg. The newlyweds arrived with the entourage of the male half of the party, the groom resembling a peacock and the bride covered in red and in despair. I asked the boys, Chandra and Rudra later why she looked so miserable and they explained it was what was expected of the bride on her wedding day. She is leaving her family for the first time in her life, to live with a new family that she doesn’t know, and if she were to smile, her family would be offended, taking it as a sign that she was happy to be leaving home, and therefore ungrateful for all they had done for her. I felt that with this genuine exposure to the mysterious life around me, my understanding of Nepali culture had suddenly begun to blossom.

I was riding on a typically crowded local bus a few days ago on my way to the farm. As usual, I sat cramped with too many bodies for the vehicle to hold with no space remaining on the benches, or the roof of the bus, at least in my opinion. Once the bus man had allowed a few more to squeeze in the bus and on the roof, and the seats were surely spoken for, more women climbed aboard and found the small wicker stools, stored under the benches, on which to sit. As a woman sat down, she rested her hand on my leg and used it to stable herself on her seat. It took me by surprise, as it always does, when a complete stranger initiates physical contact, which is practically unheard of in our culture. I sat still with a motivation comparative to that of not wanting to wake a baby or a puppy by moving for fear of disturbing it to the point of losing contact. I enjoyed the sensation of closeness with the people around me, the woman with her hand on my leg, the child smiling at me when I looked her way, the man stuck to my side who would only be closer if he was sitting on my lap. It reminded me of what I love about Nepal and the Nepalis, and it made me wonder why we are so disconnected from one another in our culture.

My acceptance into this family and this community, was an amazing gift, which taught me a great deal about how to live a modest and joyfully peaceful life. Once I moved away from the money making mindset of Kathmandu, I felt included and accepted by every Nepali that I’ve come in contact with. I’ve been invited into stranger’s homes, I’ve held hands with welcoming women, I’ve been stared at and laughed at but always with a heart of curiosity and playfulness. The Nepalis have a gentle demeanor which reminds me of the laughing Buddha, as they seem to have mastered the art of laughing from deep within their gut, remaining childlike in their personalities but steadfast and vigilant in their work. I’ve been attentively taken care of each day, but mainly when my foot prevented me from functioning normally, and also when my fear prevented me from sleeping alone in the dark. Mitu and Rassi spent many nights sleeping in my room in the other guest bed, just to keep me company, saying that if they came to Canada, me and my family would do the same for them. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been capable of caring for others the way that these people care for one another, but they have certainly given me some valuable tools to emulate in my relationships back home. Their unconditional love and acceptance accompanied by all that they’ve given me spiritually, has made me wonder again about whether or not we help others in our efforts to volunteer to the same degree in which they so willingly yet sometimes unknowingly help us.

Today is my last day at the farm and I’m sitting at the back of the house, in the sun, writing my blog posting now to document my experience while it’s fresh in my mind. I am leaving for India in a few days and I have to say goodbye for now to this miraculous place. I was told by a Kathmandu expat that “Nepal is the mirror by which all of our illusions are revealed.” My experiences here have caused me to see into the depths of my being and I haven’t been given the luxury of a concealing mask or makeup to hide behind. Nepal gave me a lesson of staying put (aside from a Christmas vacation) and returning, despite discomforts, providing a challenging but effective way to see myself and my reactions through the experiences that don’t go quite as I’d expected, through my interactions with others, not always 100% positive but always perfect, and a lesson of giving me the bare minimum when I treaded cautiously and giving me everything when I finally surrendered.

My Vacation from my Vacation

2009-01-20T07:08:00.000-08:00

Journey: Papleket (Hasara Farm) – Kathmandu (by 2 busses and rickshaw) 3 hrs, Kathmandu – Kuala Lampur (flight) 5 hrs, K.L – Manila (flight) 4 hrs, Manila – Cebu (flight) 1 hr, Cebu – Sugar beach Negros (busses, ferries, tricycles, on foot, etc.) 48hrs, Sugar beach – White beach (busses, ferries, tricycles, on foot, etc.) 70 hrs, sugar beach – Manila (ferry, bus, tricycles) 4 hrs, Manila – Hong Kong – Kathmandu (flight) 6 hrs. Approx travel time: 141 hrs. Over the course of 3 weeks.

Sometimes travelling can become stressful and wearing on our bodies, minds and emotions. It sounds crazy, even to me, that travelling should be professed as a demanding endeavor, especially when compared with the 30-60 hours a week that most of us work in North America. But after the trekking fiasco, the pain of carting around my sadly wounded ankle, and the challenge of showering with cold water outside, in five degree weather, I was craving a break in the warm sun. As the Christmas season was fast approaching, without a sign of it in Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist Nepal, I was starting to question where I’d like to spend it and who I’d like to spend it with. After much contemplation, I decided to take a temporary hiatus from my project hopping in freezing Nepal, to meet my travel companion, Cam for a beach mission in the warm Philippines. The process of getting from Nepal to the Philippines, however, proved to be an arduous task in which my vacation was failing in its assignment to help me relax and heal my foot.

My Nepali family was hesitant to let me go but I taught them a new word, explaining that I’d return and left my warm clothes and winter gear at their house as collateral. They prepared a leaving ceremony for me in front of their house, and as my bus arrived, I was blessed with a Tikka on my forehead and showered with the necklace of fresh flowers they prepared for me. The lengthy story of how I came to behold a Nepali family, however, will be saved for another blog.

The joyful anticipation that I was feeling to travel to another country again, slowly faded as I arrived to the airport late at night, to a “flight cancelled” notification. The inclement weather in Hong Kong had prevented our plane from arriving in Nepal so we were stuck, without a plane, in the cold, five days before Christmas. There were some definite bonuses to my flight being cancelled, and one huge coincidence that turned out to work in my favour. I met a man from Boznia, working for the United Nations in Kathmandu who just so happened to be catching the same connecting flight to Cebu. Having two of us foreigners, and having him in business class, meant that the airline wanted to accommodate us in whatever way possible. As they sat searching for flights, all I was thinking was, please get me into your complimentary luxury hotel or business class so I can sleep. I happened to be assigned a seat in Economy class on a flight to Kuala Lampur, in which I didn’t have any passengers beside me, so I slept like a baby. The second flight, from Kuala Lampur to Manila, however, was a business class seat.

Now I gotta admit, I was a little reluctant to accept it, seeing as I don’t believe in class segregation, and the fact that my tattered and smelly clothes obviously screamed that I didn't belong, but just as I was about to exchange my seat to a willing economy class seat holder, I saw the buffet... Having scraped by on saw dust and toe nails for breakfast for the past 3 months, my mouth began to salivate at the sight of brie and baby bell cheese, fresh mango, freshly squeezed juice etc. and all for FREE!! K, I know I'm sounding a little small town girl steps into the big city for the first time, but hello, have YOU ever been to business class? Their lounge has free internet access, a collection of about 40 living rooms put together, friendly faces helping you without expecting anything in return, a golf putting room to practice your swing, a slide descending into a swimming pool, free one hour massage and bakini wax while sipping lattes, free camel rides... Okay I've gotten a little carried away... Now I understand why people sometimes pay twice the price, it's not to sit in a bigger seat, it's for the luxuries of the lounge. Next time I get "stuck" in business class, I'm coming 24 hours before my flight.

Cam met me at the airport in Cebu, where he’d been waiting for more than 2 days for me to arrive. We spent two and a half days shopping for a mini computer, which I was determined to find to encourage writing on my trip, and we spent the same amount of time journeying to our sandy destination. Travelling in the Philippines is a challenge to say the least. Every trip took double the amount of time and cost twice what we anticipated and attempts at shortcuts proved to be disastrous. On our final leg across the last remaining stretch of land, we decided to hire a motorbike tricycle to drive us for one hour instead of waiting thirty minutes more for the bus. We got about 15 minutes away when the bike failed to complete its mission of climbing the first hill. The driver seemed stressed but assured us that everything would be okay as he stuffed leaves into the bike’s body as a substitute for nuts and bolts. We started up the hill again and reached the top, only to soar down at speeds resembling that of the Mind Buster at Canada’s Wonderland. When I saw the look on Cam’s face, I knew we were in trouble. I asked him what was wrong and he replied “I can’t hear you,” certainly to save me from the burden of knowing that the brakes had failed and he wasn’t sure whether the driver knew how to gear down to prevent us from sailing over the side to a quick arrival on our beach. Fortunately motorcycle maintenance is something Filipino tricycle drivers have a handle on. When we reached the bottom of the hill safely, we asked the driver to stop, not willing to take any more chances. The bus that we didn’t want to wait for, arrived about five minutes later, and we arrived safely, but after dark, on Christmas eve.

I spent Christmas inflicted with a digestive ailment that redefined the term “the runs.” It was a non-eventful day which we spent watching movies on my lap top, in between my bathroom breaks. The remaining days on sugar beach proved to be tranquil but the weather unfortunately was not. The rain let up for a few hours on New Year’s Eve, just long enough for us to enjoy the giant bonfires on the beach, then extinguish them before they spread to our bamboo huts. We said a calm and non-sealant “Happy New Years” to each other and to the new friends surrounding us, then I threw off my clothes and hopped in the ocean to spend my first few moments of 2009 with the Phosphorescence of the sea.

This was my second trip to this country and it appeared that the Philippines which I was experiencing on this trip bore very little resemblance to the one I remember from years previous. I think this is simply because I visited my first time, in my pre-vegetarian days. The Filipinos LOVE their meat, which meant that some days my eating options were sugar filled pastries, instant noodles (beef, chicken or seafood flavor), or my own finger nails. Their idea of a vegetarian meal is anything with fish (a common misconception in South East Asia), or powdered asparagus soup, which I sadly discovered on my first night in Cebu. Cam was very patient with my temper tantrums expressing my longing for Nepal’s scrumptious vegetarian meals. Apparently I’d loved the dal bhat in Nepal a little too much, as a friendly Filipino woman made it playfully evident to me on the beach, by pointing to my belly and saying, “when is baby due?” Cam laughed and patted my tummy saying “it’s just a food baby” which I’m sure I lost by the end of my trip. I nearly jumped over the counter and hugged the manager of a vegetarian friendly Mexican restaurant, when we had our first meal in Manila.

My trip to the Philippines was challenging, as it tested my patience and revealed to me a lot of my shortcomings when it comes to accepting things as they are, not as I would like them to be. Cam and I said our goodbyes in Manila and I flew back to freezing but familiar Kathmandu. I’ve decided to spend a few days to myself with my new computer, writing, reading and eating as many veggie cheeseburgers as I can get my hands on. As I sit, overlooking the Himalayas on the balcony of a small café in the mountain town of Bandipar, I’m beginning to feel that 2009 is starting out to be a very good year indeed.

Check out some Nepali and Filipino pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/KusumaTiffany/AVacationAwayFromMyVacation?feat=directlink

My Monkey Mind on Crutches

2008-12-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

Journey: Damma shringa Monastery, Kathmandu Valley - Tiffany's unconscious. Total duration of travel: 20 days...

Having experienced Nepal's many tourist attractions, I was relieved to seek refuge from the chaos in the Dammashringa Vipassana meditation centre. In a sense I left Nepal and entered the depths of my unconscious mind for a ten day commitment, which I was determined to finish properly.

I was kidding myself when I fantasized about being quiet on the day before the retreat as to not create any social temptations. Within an hour, I knew where all the foreigners were from, I was taking orders for momos while we waited for the bus, and I was dishing out meditation advice (from the girl who snuck out of her last meditation retreat.) I had to laugh when I met Kelly, my Australian equivalent, we're both asthmatic fitness instructors, with current travel inflicted digestive upset being treated with Ayurveda herbs, and we'd both taken meditation courses before, which we'd both snuck out of. And as if the universe was testing our strength, we were placed side by side in the Dhamma hall and designated beds three feet apart. It took a tremendous amount of will power not to look at her and chat at any opportunity, otherwise we likely would've lost it, snuck over the fence, found some toblerones and facebooked everyone we know...

Vipassana meditation, as taught by Goenkaji, is a technique used to examine the reality of our body and mind as it is, not as we would like it to be. If any sensations arise in the body, we are trained to observe it and not react to it, understanding its nature of impermanence. Students commit to ten days of silence and refrain from any contact with other students and the outside world. IPODs, books, lap tops and every form of entertainment are handed over on the day before the retreat so we have nothing left but our minds to keep us busy. And busy we certainly were, meditating for 12+ hours a day, an hour for each meal, 1.5 hours for discourse each night, barely enough time it seemed to fit in a shower.

Having attended two other meditation courses, I had an idea of what to expect, both from the course and my monkey mind. This type of meditation however, was completely new to me and presented many new challenges to overcome. The first came in the form of a gift bestowed upon the entire centre, from their neighbour. He must have realized how bored we were so he decided to blare the latest Nepali top ten, followed by the news each day for hours. He was perfectly in tune with the meditation schedule as well. I'd sit down and settle into a nice, peaceful, meditative groove and then suddenly the music would come. In my rage all would be lost and I'd stew in my madness for the rest of that hour. I soon realized that this was simply another lesson in not reacting and expecting circumstances to be exactly as I needed them to be in order to meditate, so I let go of the need to try and control the world around me and paid less attention to the news and more to my knees.

By day three or four I began to feel excruciating pain in my knees whenever I would sit for more than 15 minutes. Goenkaji calls this pain a releasing of "sankaras" which are mental impurities lying in the unconscious, which through meditation rise to the surface level of the mind and manifest as physical sensations in the body. We are taught to just observe the pain, and by not reacting, we eradicate the old sankaras and seize to create new ones. I was convinced however, that my pain had to be worse than everyone else's. Every moment I sat through the pain I would say to myself it's impermanent, anica anica anica, and my ego, frightened at the prospect of losing control, would assert its authority and complain, "there's no pain worse than this!" "You're going to cause permanent damage to your knees!" "This is ridiculous, you could be eating chocolate and climbing mount Everest right now and you're wasting your time with THIS!" I was fiercely determined to win this mighty battle with my ego, and eventually I did... It was the words of my dear friend Rae that carried me through, "Just surrender and trust in the process" she recommended after coming out of her meditation course. I thought, I've got 12 hours of meditating a day and seven more days to go, perhaps it's about time to give this surrender thing a try. On day four, all students move into the true technique of Vipassana through mind, body awareness and are asked to sit for at least one hour a day without moving even a tiny muscle. Despite the pain, discomfort, fatigue and a very slow moving bug of some sort moving across my face, I fought with all my might to sit for that one hour. On day six I was ready to let go of my knee pain, which I was sure I had some control over. I woke up at the usually scheduled ungodly hour of 4:30 am and wandered into the meditation hall saying to myself "the pain is done today." I scanned my body when I sat down and it was still present but I didn't attach any labels to it nor did I react to it in any way. By 6:00 am it was completely gone, and it never returned.

I've heard the many stories of miraculous experiences that people have while meditating and I've always harboured a secret desire that something exciting would happen to me as well, which, according to Goenkaji, is the strongest way of ensuring that it doesn't happen. I imagined writing my blog to tell you all that I had levitated off my cushion or had a vivid glimpse into my past or future, but unfortunately none of that happened. Instead, I was simply amusing myself with my new found ability to change my body temperature from freezing cold to intense heat in a matter of minutes, and once I'd eradicated my knee pain, I began to feel an even mass of sensation covering my body, followed by subtle vibrations in my hands and feet. The problem with the realization of these sensations is that once I labeled it as a pleasant sensation and started getting excited that something is finally happening to bring me out of the curse of boredom, like a hand tries to grasp a small hair in the bathtub, the more I tried to grasp a hold of it, the faster it would float away.

I completed the first of my two ten day courses and left the centre for a break in the middle feeling peaceful and lacking the impulse to freak out when returning to society. On the night we returned to Kathmandu, 15 or so of us got together for dinner. As we were walking to the restaurant, a rickshaw came really close to me and suddenly ran directly over my foot. Everyone else seemed to notice but me and asked "Oh my God are you ok?" Surprisingly I was. Goenkaji says that the first yard stick of progress after the course is observing how it has impacted you, then sharing it with others. I have to disagree. I think the first indication of progress should be, having a vehicle roll over your foot and observing how well YOU do at not reacting!

Following my first course, it was my sincerest intention to return and serve as a Dhamma worker for the following course. I was so adamant about serving, convinced that this would be a great opportunity to GIVE and for ten days, be completely selfless, putting the needs of the meditators before my own. So I returned to the centre after two crammed days in Kathmandu and moved through my training in usual Tiffany style, not allowing a single breath before, between or after. When I finished, the students started arriving and I was busy showing them to their rooms. At dusk I was basking in the glory of being in a position of importance, and my head was held too high to see the stairs below my feet, which I gracefully tumbled down. As I fell, dropping the box of supplies I was carrying, I heard a "snap" and the swelling of my left ankle began immediately. Turns out there is worse pain than my knee pain!

So for the first four days of the course, everyone was helping me and my torn ligaments, seeing to it that MY needs were met. It's funny how things can go so opposite from what we plan. I'm grateful that it happened though, as it truly humbled me, made me slow down and look upon each small task that I was still able to perform, with gratitude and care. Due to my slow pace, which caused me to open my eyes and take in the amazing surroundings, I ended up bumping into one of the wild monkeys who frequently visits the monastery. I was outside doing yoga one day when I was approached by the monkey who was wandering about 4 feet from my yoga mat. He exuberated peace and self assurance, surely he was a meditating monkey, practicing his own form of vipassana.

I had to laugh when I realized the irony of my injury, seeing as I had just spent a month trekking and came out without any bruises or scars. Perhaps it was meant to happen in the midst of my meditation, in a place where I was truly blessed with people to help me. When I came back from the hospital, hobbling on my crutches, Beem, the office manager looked at me and laughed saying "Oh, you're lucky Teefany, you have big sankara come out!" So now when travellers see me with my crutches and aircast and ask, "did you fall down a mountain while trekking?" I can reply "No, I did it while meditating!"

I'm sorry that don't have any exciting pictures to post, as the shot of the monkey is my one of my few pics in the past 20 days. Hope you enjoyed the blog and I shall write again soon. My apologies to those who are awaiting a reply, Internet has been in short supply in my world these days, but I promise to make an effort to get back to you soon!

Zen and the art of eating a Nepali Dal Bhat

2008-11-15T04:32:00.001-08:00

Journey: Pokhara - Phedi by bus (1 hr.), Phedi - Landruk hiking (5 hrs.), Landruk - Jimudanda - Chomrong hiking (7 hrs.), Chomrong - Deurali hiking (6 hrs.), Deurali - MBC - ABC (Anapurna Base Camp) hiking (5 hrs.), ABC - Bamboo hiking (8hrs.), Bamboo - Jimudanda hiking (6 hrs.), Jimudanda - New bridge - Nayapool hiking - Pokhara by bus (9 hrs.) Total duration of travel: 47 hrs. From October 24th - 30th. Distance trekked: Approx. 151 kms.

"The only zen you find on the tops of mountains, is the zen you bring up there." Robert M. Pirsig

It's tough to summarize the entirety of an experience, but if i were to do it in one word, this experience could be encompassed in the word "challenging." Perhaps this was exactly what I needed to realize that life doesnt always go the way we expect but that every experience is intended to help one grow, learn and force one to achieve his/her full potential. I'll do my best to explain my journey of a thousand lessons over the course of a single week.

I had reservations about embarking on the journey of the Anapurna mountains from the time I said GO. The universe certainly had a way of asking me to question just how much I really wanted this experience. Many obstacles were placed in my way, such as losing a notebook with all my trekking and guide information, hiring a guide that didn't show up and getting the run around with the Nepali's unofficial system of providing "porters" off the street with no training etc. Regardless of all of this, I was determined to go, so I finally found a porter through a reputable company and together we set off on the Anapurna Sanctuary trek.

Unfortunately arriving in the mountains wasn't an immediate breath of fresh air as I was facing a power struggle between stubborn, infamous, singing guide and strong, determined, female traveller. My decision to choose my own guesthouse against his suggestion on the first evening, was enough to send him into a rage with threats to leave if he didn't get his own way... Needless to say, the following days to come were difficult. The struggle between self respect and keeping the peace became a challenging one, but I didn't want to allow our conflict to ruin my experience.

The journey to ABC began to feel like a meditation, a cleanse, release of toxins. Every step requiring my undivided attention and awareness. Despite the physical challenge and the difficulty with my guide, I felt that I was being tested and challenged to see the beauty in my surroundings and be thankful for every step along this path. Perhaps I was attached to the idea that maybe I'd find the peace and serenity I was looking for at the top of the mountain, but with each breath of resistance, I would only become closer and closer to finding the same misery that I'd carried with me along with my hiking boots and body wash.

On my third night, I met a group of travellers from all over the world and things began to look up. The following day we all arrived one by one at our destination and gathered at the same guesthouse in the ABC at 4100 metres 13,450 feet. I wanted to go higher as I'd heard that you can prevent altitude sickness if you hike 200 metres higher than you sleep, so I was determined to make it to the snow line of the mountain. I pointed to the desired destination and Alex, our English group member, said it would take me two hours to reach that point. I insisted it would only take a half hour and he said that if I could do it in 30 minutes, he'd buy me a Dal Bhat for dinner. "Deal" I replied as I ran towards the snow line.

Perhaps it was slightly irresponsible of me to take this bet, due to my asthma and aching limbs. The severity of the altitude hit be about half way up and caught a glimpse of the deep canyon that lay directly below the narrow ridge I was climbing. I stopped to breathe at ten minutes, fiften, twenty, then I made a run for it and i arrived in exactly 23 minutes. Once I caught my breath I stood on the ledge and screamed a sound of success. Down below, my friends sighed with relief that I was alive as they had lost sight of me ten minutes previous. After my scream, a stream of emotions filled my body and for a million reasons... I cried. It was a much needed release of emotion which signified my pride of being able to do what I've often been told that I was limited in my ability to accomplish, due to my asthma. I also realised that I had accomplished my primary goal, which I had set before coming to Nepal. It has become quite clear to me however, that coming to Nepal to trek, has very little to do with trekking itself. The Dal Bhat, by the way, tasted great, even though I haven't mastered the art of eating it with my hands yet.

The following morning, basking in the glory of reaching my destination, I felt elated. That feeling was soon replaced with shock as I realised that my porter had decided to leave the highest point of the mountain, the most desolate and rural place I'd ever been on earth... without me. I searched high and low but I knew in my gut that he'd left. Someone said it was beceause he'd been drinking, another claimed he was crazy, either way I was without one drunken or dilusional porter to carry my 12 kilo bag for the remaining three days of my trek. I thought to myself, following the wise words of my former YWCA supervisor, Kim, "If this is the worst thing that happens to you today, you're doing pretty good." After all, I was feeling incredibly healthy, happy and I had many people around to help, it definitely could have been much worse.

Fortunately I was offered a hand by a kind Polish guy named Piotr, who noticed me in tears of frustration as I mournfully tried to carry my combersome burden. He took part of my load and we set off to reach our destination, which was 7 hours away. The first day of carrying my stuff wasn't so bad, although it made me seriously contemplate travelling lighter and sending my bag over the cliff a few times. The following day, however, I realized what we would be up against, stairs going straight down, then up 500 metres and a mountain that would show no mercy. I needed help so I prayed for a porter, returning from unloading his burden in the hills. Two men arrived shortly after and said they couldn't help but they quickly exchanged some words with an old man who was carrying an enormous load, surely equalling over 30 kilos. He looked at me and said "put your bag on top." Piotr and I looked at eachother in shock. I replied "No way, you're carrying too much already!" He insisted saying that it would be no problem and added that he would appreciate the extra money to help feed his family. Some people say that Nepali porters are super-human. These men are the skinniest but strongest men I've ever met, carrying up to 100 kilos in one go, hopping over rivers, trodding up stairs, running over rocks and all in their flip flops. Needless to say, we made it to our destination, and we were huffing and puffing more than our porter.

It was tough to find a porter the following day as it was depawali festival where brothers rush home to receive their "tikkas", a blessing from their sisters. I'm pretty sure the dogs and cows didnt sign up for participation in this festival though but they too receive tikkas on their heads, displaying their colourful brands with lack of amusement. We finally managed to find a porter at a guest house in New Bridge, the teenage son of the owner. So 13 year old Deepak and 15 year old Subash became our young porter/guides, quickly and carefully guiding us to the end of the trail. Deepak's English was pretty good. He talked about the sports he liked to play and I taught him how to sing "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas!" He explained that they went to school in Gandruk, 2 hours away from New Bridge, and they walk for two hours, rain, snow, sickness etc. up hill... both ways. I enjoyed their company immensely and was sad to say goodbye at the end of the day, but happy to make it back to Pokhara safely, with only a few bruises and aching limbs as souvenirs of my experience.

I had to deal with the trekking company the following day and it was difficult. Eventually I had to go above them to the Trekking Agency Association of Nepal to get most of my money back. I agreed to leave half of it anyway for Subash to pay for his food etc. Besides, the president of the company said that he would have to accept responsibility for what he'd done and apologize in order to receive his pay. I felt that this was very reasonable and I was happy to put all of this behind me.

And so the chapter of submersing myself in the busy tourist circuit of Nepal, despite my reservations, came to a close. It was surely a test which has strengthened both the trust in my intuition and the muscles in my legs. The next chapter involves a journey into the great depths of my being in meditation for the next month. Perhaps it will prove to be an even crazier journey than the one I just completed.

To see photos click on: http://picasaweb.google.com/KusumaTiffany/ZenAndTheArtOfEatingANepaliDalBhat#

Come as a Tourist, leave as a friend...

2008-10-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Journey: Vang Vieng Laos - Vientiane by bus (4 hrs), Vientiane - Nong Kai Thailand by bus, tuk tuk and taxi (3 hrs), Nong Kai - Bangkok by train (12 hrs), Bangkok - Kathmandu Nepal by slow taxi and flight (5 hrs), Kathmandu - Chitwan by suicidal busride (8hrs), Chitwan - Kathmandu - Nagarcott by bus, motorbike (12 hrs), Nagarcott - Kathmandu - Dunche by motorbike, bus, on foot (14 hrs), Dunche - Syabrubesi on foot trekking (7 days), Syabrubesi - Kathmandu - Pokhara by bus (20 hrs) Total Travel Duration: (I need a calculator) 246 hrs. From October 1st - October 23rd.

Other than my 6 countries in 24 days stint around Europe in 2002, this one takes the cake for amount of land covered in 3 weeks. No wonder I'm exhausted! I've decided to take it easy in Pokhara, well at least for today, as tomorrow I leave for another trek for 7-10 days around the Anapurna Sanctuary. But first, lets go back a few weeks to catch you up.

Cam, my Aussie travel partner, flew out to see me in Laos, about half way through my stay. We spent about a week together in Vang Vieng before flying out to Kathmandu Nepal. We had an interesting ride to Bangkok airport however, before our departure. For whatever reason, we were never informed, the traffic in Bangkok was bumper to bumper and we could have walked faster to the airport. It turned out there were 5 people in our minivan on the same flight to Kathmandu, so we were all pushing to arrive in time for our fight. In the midst of the traffic, I had to pee more intensely than I could ever recall. The driver was not waiting for me, even if I decided to try peeing on the side of the road in the middle of Bangkok. So Cam cut the top off of a 1.5 L bottle and handed it to me. Luckily we were in the back of the mini bus but everyone knew what was happening. Cam and I killed ourselves laughing, while everyone else seemed mortified. I peed about a litre of liquid, and when we finally arrived at the airport, I said to one of the other passengers, "I can't believe I peed that much!" She replied, unimpressed, and without a smile, "I can't believe you peed." Leaving the serenity and simplicity of Laos and arriving in large and stinky Kathmandu was crazier than the reverse culture shock I experienced when coming back to Canada, well not really...

We did our best to get out of there asap and took a bus shortly after arriving to Chitwan National Park in search of Rhinos and Elephants. For a city which seems to have been taken over by the tourist industry, it was incredibly hard to get to. I supposed it was because we weren't part of the packaged tours. After an eight hour bus ride, we took another bus, then a mini bus, which over-heated and started smoking on the way. Cam dove out of the window, and the locals fell to the ground laughing at him and taking turns making jokes in his favour.

We went on a one-day safari in search of wildlife, which we found a lot of. Down the river on the canoe, we came dangerously close to two masmongruel Crocodiles, which are aparently the most dangerous in the world. They didn't seem to be phased by our passing. Sandpipers and Stocks flew over our heads as we made our way to the trail. The mission was of course to find Rhinos. I was more concerned with how to escape if a Rhino charges us than seeing them at all. We came across many termite hills, families of Monkeys, tons of leeches, wild boars and elephants (used heavily in the tourist circuit), but unfortunately, no Rhinos. We stayed that night in the Wildlife tower and two Rhinos came really close to the tower. Although we didn't manage to get any pictures of them, it was amazing to see them quietly drift into the meadow, two ghost-like figures, being gawked at by a group of tourists.

We came back from Kathmandu and the next day rode a motorbike to Nagarcott, a two-hour ride up the kathmandu valley, which was supposed to have amazing views of the himalaya mountain range at sunrise. We stayed at Eco-Home, a guest house run by a joyful man named Semanta. Everything he did in his life seemed to have meaning. The guesthouse was designed completely eco-friendly, everything down to the menus was recycled. He also ran a volunteer program for the people in the local community, helping with different projects to assist them with becomming healthier and happier. There was a lot to be learned from this man, and his giving nature made us feel like family, staying with him. I think his guesthouse was the first of which we saw the slogan "Come as a tourist, leave as a friend." Although the motto he expressed regulariy was something along the lines of "Smile, your life depends on it."

Touched by our experience with this man, we decided to visit a friend of his on the way back to Kathmandu. He owned a Fair Trade work shop where we received a tour of the ladies working and bought some of their crafts. Our time was limited though so we went back to Kathmandu quickly. The following day we hopped on a bus to Dunche to do the Lang Tang trek.

We didnt have a bus ticket so we had to pay a bit more to ride in a mini bus to the half way point of Tusuli. In this town we were offered a ride on the tourist bus which was packed on the inside and had exploded upwards with bodies hanging off the roof, no doubt clinging to the rail for dear life. He said 100 Rupees (about $1.25) and pointed at the roof. We declined. Finally we found a chartered bus and paid a lot more than we should have for a suicidal bus ride that got us 3/4 of the way to Dunche where there was a landslide blocking the road. We walked over it and found our way on another bus and an hour later, arrived in Dunche, lucky to be alive. On the way back we drove over the landslide in the local bus, being the guinea pigs for other busses to come... I closed my eyes and prayed.

The trek is hard to write about. It's difficult to put natural beauty into words. It was difficult to walk up hill for 6 hours a day but I was lucky to have Cam as he carried the heavy bag and listened patiently as I moaned and groaned the whole way... But it was a fantastic challenge, one I was greatful to experience. Best to look at the pictures as they will tell the story of our trek.

After the trek, Cam had to leave and move on to his main purpose for returning to South East Asia, a 4 month apprenticeship in the Phillippines. One can't express the bond you create with another that you travel with for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through challenges and joy, and a variety of cultures. You would only know it if you've experienced it, but it's wonderful. I was so blessed to have him with me on this part of my journey and his departure in pursuit of his own dream, helped me to be pushed back on track to what I came here to do.

So here I am in Pokhara, leaving on yet another up hill journey through the mountains. It was challenging getting to this point and I am interested to see how the next week presents itself. After this trek I am embarking on an entirely different journey of going inwards to another 10 day vipassana retreat.

Check out my pics and please write back with any comments, questions and updates on your lives.

Namaste and lots of love,

Tiff xo

Check out my pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/KusumaTiffany/LaosToNepal#

My return to Asia

2008-09-14T03:15:00.001-07:00

Journey: August 24^th – Sept. 11^th Toronto – Vancouver (4 hrs), Vancouver – Taipei Taiwan (13 hrs), Taipei – Chunan (4 hrs), Chunan – Hualien (5 hrs), Hualien – Chunan (5 hrs), Chunan – Taipei (3 hrs), Taipei – Bangkok Thailand (4 hrs), Bangkok – Nong Kai (13 hrs), Nong Kai – Vang Vieng Laos (5 hrs) Total duration of travel 56 hrs (over the course of 18 days.)

I’m back at the organic farm in Laos. It’s been an unbelievable year and a half since I was last here and it seems as though so much has happened since then. Guess life’s like that, close your eyes, suddenly you wake up and you’re so much older than the last time you looked in the mirror. The farm has changed quite a bit since my last visit but I also feel different. Ah the realities of life and change, as the Thai’s would say, “same, same but different.”

I left Canada on August 24^th. It was difficult to leave, but I felt that it was time. Rae and dad came to the airport with me to see me off and thus I began my journey.

I arrived in Taiwan, this time without a new school to pick me up from the airport, no scooter for transportation and no home base, but I still felt like I was coming home in a way. Being back, I knew that Taiwan and I had learned all that we could from one another. Taiwan being an old friend that I know I can call upon anytime I need her and I shall always be loyal to my friend in a time of need. I stayed with my chinese family for a week and went to visit my friends in Hualien for the following week. I spent most of my time packing up boxes upon boxes of things that I couldn’t somehow manage to get rid of. Look out Canada, here comes my stuff!

I said another tearful goodbye to Taiwan and flew back to noisy, stinky but dependable Bangkok. A productive day was had, searching for a flight to Nepal and a train out of Bangkok the next night. I took the overnight train where I met Sanda, a Buddhist nun, about my age from England. We had a great conversation that night and I felt we gave each other so much just in those few hours. Upon arrival to Nong kai, I met two English guys who hadn’t learned the tricks of the trade and were severely ripped off at the border. I discovered later though that I have become incredibly stubborn my bargaining skills, while the English guys were riding in a nice air conditioned mini van, I saved $1.50 US to ride with the locals for double the amount of time, on a hot local bus with a chicken as my only companion. I did however get to witness a rather strange local treat of cockroach/beetle like creatures. I questioned the woman beside me with communication in the style of charades, she made a gesture of breaking the bug apart, then raised her hand to her mouth and made a slurping noise, finishing with a smile and a thumbs-up. She pointed at me then the bowl of treats as if to inquire would you like to try some? I said, “No sorry, I’m a vegetarian.”

After the shoulder injuries I sustained from my last trip, I had wildly imaginative day dreams of carrying a bag as light as a feather. People would say to me, “you’re travelling for a year and that’s all you brought?” My fantasies were shattered with the reality of being Tiffany, as in actuality, I’m lugging around two huge backpacks and a box on a small trolley. People now look at me and say “how long you travelling for, a year!!! And what on earth is that helmet strapped on the outside of your bag for…?” Don’t ask… I told the English guys “It’s for the tubing you came here to do, you mean you didn’t bring one? Good luck!”

So here I am, back at the Organic farm for a month to write and live in the mud hut that I have been dreaming about since I left last time. A small, hand built hut made entirely of mud, straw, wood and bamboo. Even the couch is made of mud and it’s surprisingly comfortable! I’ve met most of my roommates, the geckos, ants, two bats and a family of mice. I’ve given a written notice to the landlord that the snakes and scorpions may not return until my departure in one month. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, as my balcony overlooks the mulberry bushes, river and mountains, no shortage of inspiration here. Now I’ve just got to find myself a Fred Flintstone and my life is complete J

Lessons I’ve learned thus far; One should NEVER under any circumstances thoroughly tape a box before going to the post office, Even half a kilo can ruin your day, Taiwanese rarely share their name with someone else, it is completely unique to them, they can however, change their names if they find out that someone else has the same name, and the most valuable lesson, wheels, no matter how appealing they may seem, are never a good idea when lugging your stuff through third world countries!

Check out my pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/KusumaTiffany/BackToAsia#
Copy the link into the internet web address line

The Butterfly of Freedom

2008-08-27T01:40:00.000-07:00

As I prepared for this journey, so many people asked me how I can just pick up and go. How I can leave everything and everyone behind and travel with just a bag on my back.

I had a hard time answering until I received a card from my coworkers at Goodness me. This I feel explains a lot of how I can justify living as I do :)

On the front of the card was a picture of butterflies inside a box. One of the butterflies had flown out of the box. The card read:

The Butterfly of Freedom

"Why do you fly outside the box?"

"I fly outside the box because I can."

"But we KNOW the box. We are SAFE inside the box!"

"That, my friend, is why I leave it.

For you may be SAFE... but I AM FREE!"

Back to my homeland...

2008-01-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

Journey: Taiwan - Vancouver (flight 15 hours), Vancouver - Revelsoke (Hitchiked 12 hours), Revelstoke - Victoria (Bus/Ferry 16 hours), Victoria - Hornby Island (Bus and Ferry 4 hours), Hornby Island - Victoria (Ferry and Hitchiked 4 hours), Victoria - Vancouver (Bus and Ferry 2 hours), Vancouver - Toronto (Flight 4 hours), Toronto - Hamilton (Drive 1 hour) Total duration: 58 hours, over the course of one month...

Happy 2008 everyone. Time to say hello to the new and toss the old out like a bag of rotten potatoes, taking the good ones out of the bag first of course... It has been a long time since I wrote and informed all of my wonderful friends around the planet what it is that I am up to these days. It's strange to be writing a blog from home, as I feel that it is a way to tell you about my travels, and I don't think home = travelled territory. Nonetheless, here's the past few months in a nutshell...

When I left Taipei, I felt a little anxious about returning to my homeland as it was never part of my plan. I felt that I needed some time with friends in beautiful BC before going back to Ontario to get adjusted to Western culture again. I met up with a couchsurfer Darren in Vancouver and he let me stay in his wonderful home right in down town Van, near the beach. My friend Dustin came the second day and met up with us, and we continued on to Revelstoke (where he lives) together in a travelling art form commonly known as (dad don't read this part) hitchiking! It took us about 12 hours and we travelled in about 5 different vehicles and met some really great people including an interesting woman with all of her material posessions in the backseat, and the father of two guys Dustin knew from Revi.

When we finally got to Revi I decided to stay for about a week to spend some time with my ol friend from Taiwan and get aquainted with his wonderful girlfriend Shannon. Not to mention the amazing scenery of Revelstoke being a magnet keeping me there. All those pictures of beautiful landscapes with snow capped mountains in the backdrop, picture that and more. During the week we hiked a lot, saw lots of bears, went swimming in the nearby lake and visited Dustin's newly purchased land, which is in the middle of nowhere, well it's close to Neeeewwww Denver! That one was for you Dusty ;) I made some new friends as well and as it turned out, through a very strange coincidence, Ryan knew a guy that I'd met in Thailand three years ago, Randy. Such a small world. So I contacted Randy and told him that I'd met Ryan and he said, "well why don't the three of us meet up and hike a glacier?" Well it wasn't coffee but hiking a glacier sounded like a good idea to me, so off we went.

We left Revelstoke with Ryan's friend Tom who was passing through on his way to Calgary. The three of us hiked up Roger's Pass, which is beside the highest point on the cross Canada hiway. When we reached the top, the weather changed incredibly fast, and as we were walking down, we got hit by hail the size of peanut m&ms. Afterwards, Ryan and I drove for two hours to a wee little "town" called Spillimachine, although I don't know if it can even qualify as a town... We set up camp and went to Radium hotsprings, which is actually a very large outdoor swimming pool equipped with hot water and chlorine... We made a feast back on our campfire and then turned out the flashlights. The next morning Randy magically appeared! The three of us set off on our big adventure. He brought us to the old little cabin that he used to live in as a child, and a waterfall close to the glacier. At the base of the Bugaboos (name of glacier) we had to porcupine proof our car but putting a fence around it and wooden pillars. There were also signs around saying, "Do not pee on or near the deck as porcupines love urine flavoured wood." Welcome to Canada folks :)

It took us about 3 hours to hike the trail up and the view was indescribable, amazing beauty that made me so proud to call this my country. We reached the top, which had a cabin with a full kitchen and HEAT! It was September but even in the summer, there's ice and snow at the top, being a glacier and all. We couldn't stay long cause sun down was coming fast so we made our way down, eating fresh raspberries along the way. It was an incredible experience and I felt blessed to meet and be reunited with two wonderful people.

I took the overnight bus back to Vancouver and then a ferry over to Vancouver Island the next day. I met up with two of my best friends Hayley and Troy and we went straight to the ocean. I stayed at Hayley's house with she and her roommate Dan, who was a very friendly and environmentally aware kinda guy. The three of us and Troy went dumpster diving at the local health food store one night, justifying along the way how doing this was saving the world by saving perfectly good food that used up fuel to transport it there and energy to break it down afterwards. That's just us, saving the planet one bunch of kelp at a time...

Hayley and I took the bus to Hornby island the following weekend. It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Victoria and then a 40 minute ferry to Denman then Hornby. The only mode of transportation once on the island is hitchiking unless you choose to use your feet. Everyone is used to this though and helps everyone else. We stayed at a wonderful place called Deerheart Sanctuary which was in a beautiful forest setting with deer running around day and night. We camped and used their outdoor facilities, washroom and kitchen. They also had a Yurt which is a mongolian hut, in which we did yoga and meditated. The island has a very special feel to it, people feel drawn there for very profound reasons and some never leave. Hayley and I both felt the beauty of the island and enjoyed exploring it. The fall festival happened to be on this weekend so we went and met up with many of the locals, which was a fortunate opportunity as Hornby at other times of the year is overrun by tourists. We both felt sad to say goodbye and knew that we'd be back.

I spent another week in Victoria and celebrated Hayley's birthday with her. She came back to Vancouver with me and I got to spend some time with my cousins, whom I hadnt seen in years! We also hiked the grouse grind, which I was very proud of as last time I forgot my inhaler and didnt make it... I again felt so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people in such a beautiful place. It was time to leave BC and continue on to Hamilton Ontario, which was my purpose for being in Canada.

As most of you already know, I came back to Canada to help a family member. My mom found out in the summer that she had breast cancer. My initial reaction was of course shock and fear but I soon replaced that with strength and certainty that she will get through this. I began to look at the word Cancer and realized that you can approach it in two different ways. You can see it as a disease, as something responsible for taking lives. Or you can see it as an opportunity, if caught in time, to fight it and look for reasons to survive. To not say "I may die of cancer" but rather "I can-cer-vive!" So that was my attitude and I came home to see to it that this is exactly the way it would go.

Surprisingly, despite my plans to travel, my return for this reason was not a difficult decision, although I was really afraid of coming back to live in Hamilton after 9 years! My mom didn't know that I was coming back when I did so my dad picked me up at the airport and I surprised her. It was a very emotional reunion and I knew that this is exactly where I am meant to be at this time.

Life is tricky and the universe has a way of placing you exactly where you need to be at certain times. Sometimes things don't always go as we plan, but that's why a plan is just a plan and not a certainty. We never know until we're actually there doing it. Therefore the only time and place that we can truly depend on, is here and now. I've tried not to resist being here, although at times challenging, it has been surprisingly comforting and positive. I've been given fantastic employment opportunities which have put me in two wonderful organizations, working with very positive people. I have a new niece whom I love spending time with. I've met some really great new people and had a great time catching up with old friends. And I felt so excited to be able to spend Christmas with my friends and family. I again feel very greatful to be provided for and I'm certain that when the time is right, I will continue my worldly journey.

I wish everyone reading this a magnificent 2008. It is going to be a great year, filled with positive change, growth and happiness beyond our imagination. I feel that 2007 was a challenging year for many and I feel confident that after every period of suffering, an even greater period of joy will follow.

I look forward to hearing from you and your feedback is always welcome.

Love and peace

Tiffany

Check out my photos from BC and Ontario at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.7brszinj&Uy=-tvrhju&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Click on the above link or cut and paste it into your internet address line. Enjoy :)

Plans, puppies, Burma and a piece of Pi

2007-08-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Journey: Pi Thailand - Mae Sai border (10hrs), Mae Sai - Tachilek Burma (10 mins walking), Tachilek - Kuang Tong (3 hrs), Kuang Tong - Loi Moi (2 hrs), Kuang Tong - Tachilek (3 hrs), Border crossing (10 mins walking), Mae Sai - Bangkok (12 hrs), Bangkok - Taipei (4 hrs flight), Taipei - Ju Bei (45 mins by car.) Total duration: Approx. 10 days.

The universe seems to have a way of surprising me when I least expect it. It's interesting planning a trip of this nature and thinking about where you're going to be in two months, and who with... It doesn't matter though because you can plan all you like but in a minute all those plans change, the faces around you change and soon you're sitting right back where you started knowing that this is where you are meant to be at this time...

The changes in regards to my trip began with an email in Pi. I was enjoying my time in the beautiful valley. Amazing scenery, cozy bungalow all to myself, friendly locals and travelers and stunning sunsets. I had finally decided that I would return to Taiwan for the summer to work, mainly because I left a sweet, gorgeuse, and wonderful little puppy back in Hualien and needed to find a way to get him home. Yogi is his name and he is a Tu go doggie (the name for mixed breed in Taiwan.) Anyway, I had finally found someone who would take him back to Canada and my mission was to get him ready. Plans all set, confidence in tact, I checked my email one week before my flight to find that Yogi had been hit by a car and died... I was, and still am devastated. He was such a special friend and although I never had any plans to adopt a dog (hence my intense allergies) he kinda adopted me. But that's life, and I have to believe that everything happens for a reason and I will see him again...

The following day, I decided that I needed a change of scenery if I didnt want to go insane with what ifs and such. The opportunity came with a guy I met in Pai JJ, who introduced me to the guy (Freddi) he'd been traveling with, who was heading to Burma that night. Keeping up with my no plans status, I decided to join him. 10 hours later, we arrived at the Mae Sai border.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into really, I hadn't done any research for Burma whatsoever. So when I entered the country, I received a little map that had a town about 3 hours north on it, called Kuang Tong, and decided to go there. The cultural change from Thailand to Burma aka Myanmar was seen instantly. The government officials at the border were pretty scary, they asked me a million questions, took my passport and said they'd be keeping it at the border until my return, gave me a handful of "permits," and they wouldn't even accept my American currency in the account of too many folds... When I hit the street, I could see that this country was much poorer in comparison to Thailand. I was interested to learn more about the country and decide for myself why it was that tourists are often advised not to visit.

It was strange traveling here on the account of needing to hand out passes wherever you go, as the government needs to know where you are at all times! I was pleased to find that there was a tremendous amount of chinese influence in this part of the country though, because this meant that I could communicate with the locals, something a lot of travelers are unable to do. I met a young girl on the bus to Kuang Tong who invited me to meet her family and helped me decide where I would stay. At this point Freddi and I had decided that we would just do our own thing, so this gave me plenty of opportunity to mingle with the locals. I checked into the only real backpackers in town that wasn't run by the government, and slept.

The next few days were incredible. I bumped into a local man on the street who was anxious to show me around. He introduced me to Li Li, a chinese woman from Beijing but who'd been living in Burma since she was 13. I spent that afternoon with Li Li touring around the city and chatting. She told me that she and her family moved here because there was more freedom and opportunity here than in China. Strange because the locals have very little freedom and opportunity. She plays tennis and told me that she and her father would return to Beijing for the olympics. Not sure if she said to participate in the olympics or watch them... I asked her where I could use the internet. She said "Ohhh no, you can't use the internet here!" She could only use it with a special pass and in another town three kilometers away. Locals are not allowed to use it and there is no way to get connected, except of course if you want to bribe the government officials on the top of a sketchy hill, which I was not prepared to do. Oh, and a one minute phone call home would have cost me about 6 USD for one minute!! She told me that almost everyone she knew didn't have a passport. Unless you are really rich, you aren't allowed to have one, but you can get special passes that will allow you to go to Thailand or China temporarily... A lot of people don't even have enough money to go to school as the government doesn't pay for it, so if you don't have money, you don't go... She was very careful about talking politics and such with me in public cause she would have gotten in trouble, not as much trouble as a local she said, but definitely trouble.. Wonder what trouble would be in store for a local talking to a foreigner... and why? Brings the question of freedom and human rights to a whole new level...

The following day, Li li, Mister um... Cant remember his name, and I set of for Loi Moi. An old village high in the mountains which was colonized by the English years ago. We had to go to the local immigration office and get a pass, which I had to pay a bribe to get, on top of the men at the office being incredibly sleezy. When we got to Loi Moi, I had to pay yet another bribe for them to let me enter, despite my having a permit. I was beginning to wonder if it was them who asked for the bribe or the old man who offered it to them... One US dollar was more than a lot of people make in a day, so I wasn't too upset in having to pay them. Nonetheless, it was worth it becuase Loi Moi was incredible, like a little heaven tucked away on a mountain. There were horses grazing in the fields and beautiful little houses covered in flowers. It was definitely worth the drive.

On our way back we visited a boy's orphanage. They were really intrigued by my presence, I think most of them had never seen a foreigner before. Even just asking them for high fives received a very happy response. I went with them to play soccer under the nearby temple and spoke a little with the owners, congratulating them on taking on such a wonderful task.

The next few days were spent cycling around the city and trying to find a place to swim, which ended with me finding a square hole filled with brown water with about 15 teenage boys inside... Not my cup of tea, but it looked like tea.. or coffee maybe... Anyways, the girl that I met on the bus to Kuang Tong had tracked me down and found me at my hostel. She invited me to come out to her house in the country and see the hotsprings. Very excited, I went with her. The drive out there was spectacular, rice fields with a huge fluffy cloud backdrop, and horses running by. Her family was so sweet, they wanted me to stay with them, but I'd already booked my bus for the following morning. She (wish I remembered her name, but it was chinese and not easy to remember) brought me to the local school which reminded me of little house on the prairie, see pictures below. I've considered going back to teach but I'm pretty sure that would not be permitted, I might cause too much trouble...

I wasn't able to get to the heart of the problems in Burma, but I could see a lot of them with my own eyes. People that are expected to adhere to a very strict set of rules, no socializing with foreigners, no passports, restricted travel, corrupt government officials... But the people were still... happy. As it seems is the case in all the countries I have visited. Those who have very little and yet don't need any more than that... Something to be learned from this?

When I left Burma, I knew that I needed to go back, and next time see more of the country via arrival in Yangon. I wasn't allowed to travel there by land because the space of land between where I was and where the capitol city is located, is where a vast majority of opium is grown and sold. There's been reports of a lot of violence in that area, as well as witnesses of military training of children... You can learn more at:

http://burmalibrary.org/reg.burma/archives/200102/msg00016.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5071966.stm

Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced Ong San Soo Chee), Burma's pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolises the struggle of Burma's people to be free. She is currently under her third house arrest and the government has continually restricted her movement within the country and abroad. See the link below to learn more:

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/aboutburma/aung_san_suu_kyi.htm

And a great site to learn more about Burma is www.voicesforburma.org

The more aware we are of what happens in the world around us, the more we can help or bring awareness to those who can...

I'll leave you with that thought. I am leaving for Canada in one week from Taiwan. Going back temporarily to help my family and then will be traveling again. Let me know if you want to meet up, I'll be in BC for the month of September and then onto Hamilton, near Toronto.

Love and peace to all of you,

Kusuma/Tiffany xo

See Burma photos at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.43yistu7&Uy=-89sp5m&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=329394716108_797120681503

My crazy month in Laos, China, Laos and Thailand...

2007-06-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

Journey: Chinese Border - Muang La (2hrs), Overnight in Muang La, M.L - Kunming (18hrs), 4 days in Kunming, K.M - Dali (4hrs), 4 days in Dali, Dali - Li Jiang (8hrs), 2 days in Li Jiang, L.J - Kunming (16 hrs/due to bus crash), Flight Kunming - Vientiane Laos (1hr.), V.T - Vang Vieng (4hrs), 10 more days in Vang Vieng, V.V - Luang Prabang (8hrs), 3 more days in Luang Prabang, L.P - Nong Kiao (4hrs), N.K - Muang Noi by boat (1hr), 5 days in Muang Noi, M.N - N.K - Odomxai - Luang Nam Tha (8hrs), Overnight in L.N.T, L.N.T - Thai border Huei Xai (4hrs.), H.X - Chang Mei (3.5hrs) Overnight in Chang Mei, C.M - Mai Sariang - Mae Hong Son - Pai (3 days/driving motorbike through the mountains.) Total time for this journey, approx. 25 days...

Phew!! It looks like a lot when you list the amount of hours traveled... It's no wonder I am vegging in Thailand at the moment and not wanting to move! Looking at my pictures and hearing about all the places I've seen in the past 4 months you might assume that I am the kind of traveler who likes to cram as much as possible into a short period of time. Really it's an art, this type of travel I mean... It takes a lot of energy, non-planning and lack of trusting instincts to pull off what I've done in the past month. Oh the stories to tell...

It all began with a coin toss and a rock fall. Sasha and I planned to go to China from Laos to meet up with her boyfriend Lloyd in Kunming, Yunnan province. Being the painfully awful decision maker that I am, I was debating on staying in Laos a little longer as China just didn't feel quite right. So I tossed a coin, and it landed tails on China. We went to the bus station and as the bus was minutes from leaving, we stood in the rain, Sasha wrote a C in the sand on one side of a big rock and L on the other, gave me a small rock and said "drop it." It, of course, landed on the C side... So I paid my 20,000 kip (2 bucks) and hopped on the bus to China.

Two days, 4 buses, a scary taxi ride, and much lack of sleep later, we arrived in Kunming, at 3 am. The woman at the front desk wouldn't let us see Lloyd in the dorms so we checked into a room and decided to kidnap him James Bond style. We tip toed past two guards and a hotel clerk, carefully working our way up the stairs and woke everyone up in the dorm, but we accomplished our mission, obtaining one surprised and sleepy Canadian boy.

We spent 4 days in clean and modern Kunming, doing I don't really know what... That much travel makes one delirious. We then headed to the old town of Dali. It is apparently one of the only places where one can get a true glimpse of old China. The town and buildings were charming but it seemed like somewhat of a theme park with travelers from all over the world eating in "Tibetan" style restaurants with vegetarian lasagna and brownies. The mountains are said to be spectacular in Yunnan province, we sadly could not see any due to the massive downpours of rain. I had a very unfortunate mishap involving a poorly run guest house and a crazy Chinese man, making me question what I was doing in this country, with public rest stop washrooms that need a sign which says "Beware, enter only with blindfold and gas mask," when I could be enjoying beer Laos and relaxing in Vang Vieng. Nevertheless we continued on.

We paired up with a couple from Holland and took a minibus to Li Jiang. Our goal was to see Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is supposed to only be around for a few more years due to plans to build dams and destroy the nature in the surrounding area. We drove past the oldest pagodas in China, where they were charging something crazy like 20 USD to enter, and continued on. We had strong hopes that the weather might be better in Li Jiang but sadly it wasn't, and it was colder. Unfortunately I started to get sick from the wet and cold and spent our first night sucking back inhalers and fighting off the hotel cat, who insisted on sleeping in my bunk bed. The following morning, I decided to turn around and go back to Laos.

I said a sad goodbye to Lloyd and my lovely travel partner Sasha before boarding the overnight bed bus to Kunming. This bus actually has three rows of bunk beds all along the bus, without any seats. It was a cozy bus ride, until in the middle of the night I woke up to the bus swerving, and a sound that can only be described as terrifying, as the bus collided with a transport truck and the highway's central railing. It was a little like a movie, people screaming and crying, the smell of leaking petrol, nobody knowing what to do... With only a small bruise on my leg, I left the bus to find the truck overturned, the metal coils it was transporting all over the road, along with its gas supply. Not surprisingly, people were smoking while standing in the gas puddle, so with my Chinese ability I told them how dangerous that was and luckily no one was blown up. Almost everyone seemed to be ok, most surprisingly the driver of the truck as it was crunched. The front of our bus was as well, and I heard later that our driver had lost his leg. It was truly one of those moments where you look over the other side of the highway, see the huge drop off and realize how incredibly lucky you are to be alive...

When I arrived in Kunming I changed my game plan of taking the 40 hour bus ride to Laos and hopped on the first flight back, which just happened to be an hour after I arrived. I made the flight, which also connected perfectly with the bus to Vang Vieng. Perhaps it was all the chaos of the previous night, but It wasn't until then that I realized I had a full blown respiratory infection and felt like I was going to die. I made it to the organic farm in a few pieces and said a quick hello to some friends before checking into a room and sleeping for 12 hours straight.

The next ten days were spent doing exactly what I needed; relaxing, laughing with friends and getting my health back on track. This return also gave me a chance to truly see what an impact the owners of the farm, the employees and the volunteers have on this community. It was so impressive to see the way in which this village was united and how everyone had so much interest and respect for the English class, run 4 times a week. I taught a few times and had a wonderful experience, getting to know the kids and the adults in the community. As fellow travelers know, its very rare to get an opportunity to have an authentic meeting with locals that are not working in the tourism business. I was happy to be a part of this and to be back in this amazing place.

A friend from Australia, Cam was still at the farm when I came back, so we decided that when he was finished his teaching contract with the farm, we would head north and travel together for a while. We left on the 27th after vegging in town for a day, getting a good dose of movies and friends episodes. We went to Luang Prabang and took a day trip to the waterfall that I had visited 3 years previous, and was now about 1/10th the size... From there we took a bus to Nong Kiao in the north of Laos, and then a boat to Muang Noi, our desired destination.

Muang Noi is a quiet and very undeveloped village which has streets of mud, is run on generators and has only been seeing tourists for probably less than 5 years. We found a bungalow with hammocks overlooking the river for a dollar a night (50 cents each.) On our second day we talked to some travelers who had visited the villages in the surrounding area and raved about how great it was. So we packed our bags and the next morning we headed out into the unknown. (I say the unknown because we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!)

We first visited a cave, about a half hour from town and hiked through rice paddies to the first village for lunch. We indicated that we wanted to hike to the village close to the waterfall, and a villager showed us the way to the path. He left us with a point uphill and a laugh saying "you go uuuuup!" Ok, how hard could it be? Three and a half up hill climbing hours later, knees shaking, skin burnt and only 100 mils of water left, we finally spotted the village. Both Cam and I are used to being stared at, that's the nature of being a foreigner in a foreign land, but this gave a new definition to "stare." When we entered the village, I think everyone came out of their house, and every child gathered around us. Luckily they understood "water" and people even said "you stay here!!" offering their houses for the night. We settled into one family's house and shortly headed off to the waterfall. About half of the kids, maybe 20 of them, surrounded us and then showed us the way. It happened to be straight downhill about 40 minutes walk, but the kids ran, in bare feet, I slid most of the way, mostly on my bum. When we finally got there, the waterfall was nice but all we wanted was to rest. 40 minutes later we were back at the house, fed a dinner of instant noodles and bamboo shoots and then attempted to go to sleep, when a group of mid 20s guys arrived with a boom box on one of the guy's shoulders. They played their music and sat in our room, very little was said due to the language barrier, it was all very bazaar. After an hour or so they said good bye and we got some much needed sleep.

The following day we hiked down the 3 hour mountain trail and made it back just in time for a massage in the first village. We made it almost the entire way back to Muang Noi when for the last 20 minutes we walked through torrential downpour and sloshed our way through the mud. We finally made it back and I had my first leech on my leg. There were a few travelers in the restaurant who looked horrified at the state we were in, no doubt rethinking their plans to venture into the void the following day.

From there its all travel talk, border crossing into Thailand, motorbike trip around the mountains of Mae Hong Son, and finally a chance to settle in Pai Thailand, where I am now. Cam stayed for 3 days, then to stay on schedule with getting back to Aus in time for the school semester, he had to leave. It was sad to say goodbye to another fantastic travel partner. That's the tough thing about traveling, always bidding farewell to good people... But there's always more lovely folk to meet right around the corner. I'll probably stay here for the next ten days, teaching Chi Gong and chilling out in my bungalow by the swimming pool of my guest house. Life.. Is good.

I am heading back to Taiwan on June 28th to teach summer camp and make some more money before going to India and Africa. If you're going to be in Taiwan, let me know so we can grab a coffee and swap stories.

Love and miss you all,

Kusuma aka Tiffany xo

Copy and paste these addresses into your internet browser to see pictures of my trip.

Check out my pictures from Northern Laos at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingReg.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.a4s58qvv&Uy=qoa9i8&U
post_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=339753252791_152045769
403

Check out my pictures from China at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.af3olxf7&Uy=-7vimxj&U
post_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

My Return to Northern Laos

2007-05-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

Journey: Pakse-Vientiane (12 hrs), VT - Viang Vieng (3 hrs), VV - Luang Prabang (8hrs), LP - Luang Nam Tha (8hrs), LNT - Muen Sing (3 hrs), MS - LNT - Boten/China border (6hrs) Total time for this journey: Approx 18 days.

I am currently in Li Jian Southwest China, which is approx. 30 hours away from Laos and relatively close to the Tibetan border.

We have covered quite a bit of land over the past month, bus after bus and tuk tuk after Song tao, we managed to see a lot of Northern Laos and make our way to China. This blog however, is to update you on the remainder of our time in Laos.

We left Pakse in southern Laos, sadly, and ventured north on the overnight bus to Vientiane, the capitol city of Laos. Our mission was to extend our visas, which is aparently a difficult task during Laos New Year when the government offices stay closed for days, weeks even past the actual holiday. So we decided to hop the first bus to Vang Vieng.

For those of you who haven't been to Laos, Vang Vieng is a beautiful haven wedged between limestone cliffs, on the Nam Lik river (which connects with the Mekong.) The last time I was there I found it incredibly inspirational and longed to return. This time we stayed at the organic farm which is 3km outside of town. The owners of the farm help the community in various ways and they appreciate the help of volunteers to keep the various activies running. They have built a school where they teach English to the children and adults in the nearby village, every evening. I attended the class a few times and was blown away by the friendliness of the locals and their passionate desire to learn English. We also worked on the garden and participated in a few activities to support the locals, ie. learning cross stitch embroidering. Sasha and I haven't stopped since we left the farm, making all sorts of cool stuff. Yes, I am officially a grandmother...

We had an awesome time at the farm with great people from around the world. Some days were spent tubing down the river, while enjoying the unique menus in town, special pizzas and such. And nights were spent playing mafia, and insane card games causing us to acting like monkeys, dancing rediculously with each win, while simultaneously managing to finish off more beer than my whole trip combined... with the help of an Aussie ;)

I wish I could stop to tell you the various stories that happen along the way but it's so hard to find the balance between what I think to be funny and exciting and those stories which you had to be there for. I guess I'll have to save those for when we see eachother once again.

After ten days we said a sad farewell to the farm and hopped an 8 hr bus to Luang Prabang. I can't say that I have much to report from here as we really just spent our time pigging out on great food (thank GOD for the french influence... cheeeese mmmmmmmm) and shopping at the market. We were too lazy, or too full of food to motivate ourselves to see anything, although I'd already been there so it was alright with me.

We then had about a week to see Northern Laos. The main attraction here is trekking in the tribal villages and enjoying the country side. Due to the weather we weren't able to do much of either. We did however find a great place named Adima which was only 10 kms from the China border and within walking distance to local villages. We walked to two or three in one day and witnessed the tribes in their natural setting. The children were very friendly, one was very anxious to show off his mud tobogganning skills, sliding down on his bare tooshie... We seemed to attract the attention of half of one of the villages while playing a detuned guitar and singing along with the locals. My sad attempt at brown eye girl was a big hit :) It was great to have the opportunity to see all of this with our own eyes and without the assistance of a tour guide. It created a great experience and it was a nice way to end off Laos.

Despite my clinging to Laos, and my desire to return to the farm to vedge out for another month, I hopped a bus with Sasha to the China border. We were sad to leave and honestly extremely culture shocked the second we crossed the border. It's amazing how two countries that share a border can be so incredibly different. When I write next, I'll fill you in on China and my plans for the summer, perhaps back to Taiwan, or Canada even??

Wishing you all well. Thank you for reading about my adventures and following my progress through my travels. Your input, comments, and questions are always appreciated.

Love and peace,

Kusuma aka Tiffany xo

Waterfalls, Turkeys and dolphins in Southern Laos

2007-04-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

Journey - (Thai) Bangkok- Ubon Ratchathani - (Laos) Pakse - Ban Nakasang - Si Pan Don - Don Det - Don Khone - Ban Nakasang - Champasak - Pakse - The Bolaven Plateau - Pakxong - Tad Lo - Pakse

Where to begin?? We have only been in Laos for 15 days but I feel like we've lived here for years. Every place and its people welcome us with open arms, warm hearts and inviting smiles. Sash and I both feel as tho we've been here before, as if lived or visited in a past life...

This country is a kind reminder to any traveler of the beauty of living simply and in peace. During the years of the Vietnam war, Laos became a hideaway for many Vietkong attempting to escape US attack, as well as a "secret" location to hide and transport war weapons. Unfortunately because of this, Laos was bombed to pieces and became the country most bombed in the entire world, per capita. You'd never know it, the people never talk about it, nor show any hostility, anger or resentment for being unfairly pushed into a war. They are incredibly peaceful and seem to be happy with what little they have, and are willing to share their homes, their lives and their hearts with eachother and the many tourists that pass by each year. The children are also so lovely. They smile, laugh and play everywhere, having a seemingly normal and happy childhood, which is so nice to see.

We began our journey to Laos via 12 hour sleeper train from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchthani. We had to endure the south east asia travel craze by making our way on foot, motorbike, songtao and bus to the Southern tip of Laos. Destination Si Pan Don, the four thousand islands. 12 modes of transportation, 3 currencies, 2 countries and 24 hours later we finally reached our destination, confused and a little lost but happy to arrive.

Si Pan Don is home to many islands which have a unique culture unto themselves, with waterfalls, friendly locals, irrawaddy dolphins, bathing water buffalos and virtually untouched beauty. We stayed in a fantastic bungalow overlooking the Mekong river, huge balcony, running water, and mozi net, all for 2 USD a night! We spent 6 days in Don Khone Island exploring, relaxing, hangin out with the locals and trying to spot dolphins near the Cambodian border. Mission accomplished and minds settled from our 24 hour travel fiasco, we left Don Khone and moved a little north.

Champasak was the old capitol city of Laos. We couldn't figure out why... There were supposed to be over 200,000 locals but we couldn't figure out where they all went! When the sun went down, so did everyone in town, the town was so deserted, it was eerie. Sasha endured her first dose of food poisoning, I tried my first Laos coffee and began my addiction, and we saw Wat Po, part of the Anchor Temples... That was pretty much our experience in the old capitol.

One car ferry, a songtao, and tuk tuk later we reached Pakse, determined to head north but once again changed our plans when we realized the beauty surrounding this area. Sash and I began a mission to see if we could do the Bolaven Plateau with just our day packs for 6 days (mainly for me because I need to prove to myself that I dont need all the "stuff" I carry with me.) We left on the 10th and took a local "bus" along with 19 locals, chickens, live fish and 4 gas tanks to reach our first destination, Pakxong. We stopped at two spectacular waterfalls along the way and hitchhiked the rest of the way. Arriving at Dusk, we hunted for dinner and found it at the town coffee festival where we ate the spiciest papaya salad and I gambled away 10 cents, convinced I could win, hahaha. We then checked into the only guesthouse for miles, the Pakxong hotel, which reminded us of The Shining, but decided to endure it for the night.

The next day, bodies still intact, we hitched to Tad Lo (said to be the foreigner or "farang" hangout of the area.) This little town, situated around the largest waterfall in the area, was a fantastic place to get stuck during Buddhist new year. Tim, the local tour guide and farang co-ordinator, organized the new year festival (in Thai known as Song Kran - Song = watering, Kran = time.) Its been 2050 years since the birth of Buddha, and the Lao people celebrate by spending time with friends and family watering and cleaning their buddha statues, and eachother to ask for and give good wishes, good luck, clean the slates and start over new. This involves an incredible amount of H2O and lots of happy, drunk Lao locals. We took part in the celebration preparation in Tad Lo and enjoyed the waterfalls, as well as hiking to nearby villages, where we were confronted with locals shocked to see foreigners, as well as evil turkeys that traveled in packs and attacked/drove us out of the village... Not kidding!

Today actually, we left Tad Lo in hopes to move to the north but once again plans have changed when we realized the impossibility of traveling during the new year festival. So we surrendered to this reality and are enjoying getting soaked to the bone with water flying in every direction! When we left Tad Lo we grabbed a ride with local transport but his little bus broke down... So we decided to walk along the country roads until we were invited to a local party on someone's front lawn, where they soaked us, covered us in baby powder and insisted on us drinking Lao Lao and Beer Lao with them while we all danced to very Karaoke sounding Lao music. Although enjoyable, we had to bid fairwell when our driver spotted us, surely amused, and picked us up. We got half way back to Pakse when he wasnt going any further, so we had to change transportation. Hitchhiking in this country has proven to be not only very safe but incredibly entertaining. Our next ride came from two pickup trucks full of Chinese men who let us take over the water buckets in the back. We would drive for a while, then slow down to soak the locals who happened to be unfortunate enough to be standing at the side of the road when we drove past. Needless to say we didn't make it to our guesthouse in Pakse with a single dry patch of skin or clothing or our bodies.

Ahh Laos, such a fabulous place to be, especially at this time. We shall continue to the north and in about 3 weeks we're onto China. Will write again in the meantime. Please check out my Laos Pix, best ones yet in my opinion, and not to be missed :) Comments, suggestions and Q's can be posted here or sent to kusumatiffany@gmail.com.

Love, peace and happiness to you all,

Tiff aka Kusuma xox

Check out my Southern Laos pix at : http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.arwdqt2j&Uy=-5s3375&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=255348901784_260182767403

Thailand!!

2007-03-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

Travel in Thailand: Bangkok - Krabi - Railay beach - Koh Yao Noi -Chai ya (Suan Mokkh) - Koh Samui - Bangkok - Kanchanaburi - Bangkok

Hello everyone,

I am back with more from my eventful tour of our beautiful world... I've updated my entire blog with more info to the right of my update, check it out :)

When I originally wrote this blog I was sitting in an internet cafe on Koh San Road in Bangkok Thailand, surrounded by fellow travellers racing to see who can type home the fastest. For those of you who aren't familiar, Koh San Rd. is the Backpacker's haven of Bangkok. Its every new traveller's haven of convenience mixed with diversity, wall to wall shopping, and of course, hoards of tourists from all over the world.

Sasha, my lovely friend who I met in the Philippines over 2 years ago, decided to take up the challenging task of being MY travel partner on this journey. She and I met up in the south about 3 weeks ago and we will be together until we finish travelling India, approximately 8 months from now.

My journey in Thailand began with a flight from Ho Chi Minh, one quick night in Bangkok, and a long bus ride down to the south, heading for Ko Samui. However, I met two great folks on the bus and decided to change my plans to Krabi, ah the nature of travel and its unpredictability. Kristen and I had an awesome time together being beach bums in Railay beach and then travelled together to the quietest island we could find, Ko Yao Noi. Located just 1 hour East of Phuket, this island has around 8000 inhabitants and at one time, during high season, there are possibly 50 tourists altogether on the island... I celebrated my birthday on the island with a great motorbike ride around, A picnic on the beach and what birthday would be complete without a downhill skid and wipe out on a motorbike...? Don't worry, we laughed far more than we cried following our little "accident." Sasha came to the island to meet us the day after my birthday and we stayed there, doing pretty much what beach bums tend to do for a week.

On the 27th we said a sad goodbye to Ko Yao Noi and boarded the ferry to the mainland. I parted with the girls close to Surat Thani, as I intended to make my way to Suan Mokkh, the buddhist monastry where I would meditate for ten days, beginning March 1st. The man on the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere and said, you, Suan Mokkh, Suan Mokkh, and pointed out the window at the hiway. I reluctantly climbed off the bus, lacking confidence in my surroundings, and waved a quick good bye to the girls. A woman looked at me and said, you go Suan Mokkh? Come with me.. So she put her arm in mine and lead me across the street to where her husband, a police officer, was waiting. They put my bags in the back of their truck and we climbed into the cab together. I figured this was pretty much how things worked in nowhere town, so I just went along with it. They stopped shortly after and bought me a huge iced chocolate milk and then we drove like mad people, passing every car on the road to arrive at the monastry. When I asked her how much early in the ride, she said 50, but when I arrived, I realized she meant 50 kms, which we covered in a matter of minutes and all completely free of charge. It was a nice treat :)

The next ten days at Suan Mokkh were challenging. I thought this time was definitely going to be easier than the last, me being a clear headed, meditative yogi... However, I had my work cut out for me. They say the average person has around 16,000 thoughts a day, I am positive that my count is around 160,000 tho, and most of which I should be arrested for thinking in a monastry... I made it alright through the first 7 days but cracked around the 8th day and started chatting with some fellow slackers, and on day 9, snuck out of the monastry for a beer... Not something I'm proud of but it only gives me a reason to do it all again! And properly next time!!

Afterwards I met up with Sasha in Ko Samui. Our time there was pretty mundane aside from meeting some very lovely people, a lovely couple from Hungary and some old friends from the Spa, but we basically spent our days roasting in the sun and enjoying the amazing food at the Spa. The only productive thing we did the entire week we were there was a one day fast, which ended with us squeezing teeny lemons and seasalt into large bottles of water, to chug them and end up with unmentionable bodily reactions... Needless to say, we were cleaned out!

We left for Bangkok on a crouded bus that blew two wheels in the middle of the night! But we arrived safely, and tried to plan our next move. Pai, in the north was our desired destination but due to HUGE forest fires causing incredible smog and terrible air, we are steering clear of that area and instead decided to go to Kanchanaburi until our visas for China, Nepal and Laos were finished processing.

Our last destination in Thailand, Kanchanaburi ended up being a very nice surprise. We found a quaint little spot called the Jolly Frog, which has a nice grassy courtyard with hammocks, right next to the river Kwai. Remember the movie "The bridge over the river Kwai?" Well I walked over the bridge and watched some very daring kids jump off it as well. I was very fortunate that the owner allowed me to teach Yoga so we spent 8 days there doing yoga, and not much else :) The picture on the top of this blog is ofme with the children in Kanchanaburi who are in training to be monks. We spent some time with them on one of our tours, trying to communicate through hand movements and laughter, I even caught a little guy hangin out in a phone booth, a must see in my photo update.

So thats all folks. We are on our way to Laos tonight, I will surely keep you all posted on my travels. I welcome your comments, questions and personal stories from all of you. Please keep checking back periodically and check out my photos, the links will be posted below.

Wishing you all love, peace and happiness on your own journeys.

Tiff aka Kusuma

My pictures from Thailand, Click on the link or cut and paste it into the web address line:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.8m9p17er&Uy=-2wwhds&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=675429833224_523635317403

Travel adventure part 1 - Vietnam

2007-02-25T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hello friends, family,other world Nomads...

(Introduction note: This is my first time tryin the blogging thing so bare with me. Go grab a cup of coffee, and a comfy chair, Vietnam is definitely one to read about. I'll work on future blogs being fabulously entertaining in a shorter period of time ;)

Okay so Vietnam! The first destination on my round the world tour. A land of contrasts, where noise and beauty collide. A great place to start off due to small challenges and annoyances reminding me to use my patience and return to my center daily. Preparing me for the road ahead, and giving me an example of the beauty and diverse cultures we encounter while travelling.

I spent 17 days total in Vietnam travelling from North to South. My comfy pace allowed me to see the change in culture and appreciate the different locations as I moved through this beautiful land. You may think that 17 days is actually quite short but its definitely an improvement to my insane 6 countries in 24 days fiasco in Europe! So, my intentions with Vietnam were really to wrap up the South East Asia circuit as well as to see the progress the country had made since the war. Being completely ignorant about history in general has given me a large incentive to experience different countries and learn for myself. Throw away the textbooks, I'm goin in!

I'm in no position to give you an accurate overview of the county's progress, so instead I will simply give you my impressions. From what I know of communism, it didnt seem as though the people are under any harsh government regimes and had to adhere to any strict rules. I often had to remind myself of the fact that there was even a war 30 years ago! I did notice a difference in the people from the North to the South. I warmed up both physically and metaphorically as I moved South. The people definitely grew on me and I found them to be very warm and caring.. They often gave me a reminder, much the same as those in Cambodia, that there are people much worse off than some of us claim to be, and yet they are incredibly happy. Many examples for us to live by.

As far as my experiences go, I left Saigon with a warm fuzzy in my tummy, feeling as tho I had experienced 2 months of travel rather than 2 weeks. I met some awesome people reminding me that the world is a very small place and that after that initial hello, friendships are easily created. I had a blast in the middle of Vietnam in the mountains of Dalat and the beaches of Mui Ne, went tobogganing down huge sand dunes, and motorbiking all over the countryside, celebrated Tet (Vietnamese new year) with the locals in Saigon and slept on a boat in the middle of the bay of dragons (Halong Bay.) Pictures are a must see.

So I guess thats one down and many more to go. Each day I travel I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have this amazing opportunity to see, taste, feel and experience this beautiful world of ours. I know that each step I take is one towards a greater future and a lifetime of fulfillment as I am pursuing a dream and living out part of my purpose here on this earth.

Much more to follow in the near future. Until then enjoy my updates and photos (which will be sent along shortly.) Please keep me posted on your lives, some with great comfort of which I am sometimes envious ;)

Love and Peace

Tiffany aka Kusuma xo

Check out my photos from North Vietnam at http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.bc4hlz03&Uy=-m6pkjk&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=905726501761_652530736403

And the photos from South Vietnam at http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=a415xus7.5ad53xcr&Uy=eihfz3&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0