Vang Vieng, Laos

So much has happened since the last blog post… Thailand > Cambodia > Thailand > Laos, cycling, seeing, non-believing. I’ve started posts but haven’t finished them… too much detail to cover in single entries! Highlights include going to Cambodia to visit the Angkor Wat temples, traveling between cities by speed boat, visiting the capital Phnom Penh & learning about the national tragedies of the Pol Pot regime at the Killing Fields, cycling over the Thai-Laos border and up to my current location of Vang Vieng, which is just pretty & laid back. I’m recharging (while tubing, caving, and kayaking) for my next 3-4 day ride starting Tuesday, which will be among the stiffest in my career, to Luang Prabang, then West, back out to Thailand (800km+ to go!)

To get this ball rolling, I’m posting a few pics from today. I’ll get to yesterdays tomorrow. I AM managing to post twitter updates (which you can see on the right or track @anthonyp)… will try harder to update, i promise!  I did also update My [tempermental] Travel Map.  It’s hard when you’re having fun, or passing out at 6pm from exhaustion, to work! Or maybe it’s just too much play. Ah, Happy autumn feom the tropics!

i floated down here this afternoon, (just outside my bedroom window)

my bungalow on the Tonle Sap river

Vang Vieng sunset, and those hills! in this town you don't have to do anything except open your eyes to have accomplished something today

the 10" Gecko who lives in my room, who shat on Jeff Smith today from above. perfect aim!

Burning Man 2009

Playa sheep.

Wednesday, October 14, 4:59 AM
En route to Taipei, Taiwan

For each of the last three years, I have made the pilgrimage to Burning Man. I use the word pilgrimage because for me, BM is a kind of religious experience, and it definitely has its share of trials and hard work. Of course, it’s always worth it, or I wouldn’t be traveling back and forth. This year was an exceptionally long journey “Home” to Black Rock City, as I flew-back all the way from Thailand to attend, putting my then 9-months of international travel on pause.

For me, the Burning Man odyssey is also a sacred one, so much in fact that I never really took pictures there before. In fact, fate actually intervened last year, taking my camera just before and not revealing it until after we packed-up camp to leave! The first year, I didn’t leave camp with it for fear of ruining it in the dust storms. (This year I finally did take some pictures, but practically only for the sake of showing some snaps to my family, who has to hear about it for 3 years now and whom I doubt will ever make the trip. Although you should totally go, Rob!) I don’t want to try to explain what Burning Man is here, except to say it’s not a music festival, or a hippie festival, or a drug orgy… it’s a very different things for many people, and this year I didn’t even feel like talking about it for weeks. Perhaps “What happens on the Playa stays on the Playa” sums up its personal nature for me, but also it’s impossible (and tiring as well as inadequate) to explain it to somebody who hasn’t experienced the magic for themselves, because it won’t come across. It’s too big, literally and figuratively, to “capture”. So go yourself if you want to know!

...and another Playa sheep.

front: The Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship. back: The Neverwas Haul, a 3-story Victorian house (on wheels).

That said, there is much written about it, you’ve probably already seen blips in the papers and news about it, and you can easily find photos, videos, and even documentaries made about it online too. So I took a few hundred photos this time on only 3 brief occasions:

• the morning I arrived there, about 5 hours after I got in line when the gates opened at 12:01AM on August 31.
• one blazing hot afternoon, mid-week, when I went out exploring with my friend Sandra to find bloody marys
• and finally, I took some nighttime shots of some art cars and art pieces that were still around after the temple burned on the last night, when my whole camp, except for Jordan and I, had already made exodus, as well as 90% of Black Rock City.

loved this bike. simple & effective. must GLOW at night!

camp Red Lightning at night

It’s weird to have these photos and not share them. Seeing the desert, art, and people in silly costumes without fair context is a corruption of the thing, but I’m putting it out there anyway for what it’s worth. I hope you enjoy, whether you were there or not.

Now, please check out my Burning Man 2009 photo set on Flickr!

Coming and Going

Tuesday, October 13, 9:46 PM
JFK Airport, Queens, NY, USA

It’s one of those rare moments that all my music sounds terrific. My ears haven’t felt like this in months. You’d think I was the happiest guy on earth, that the joy in my ear drums might be a by-product of my mind’s state… could it be the anticipation of leaving on a jet plane in 2 hours bound again for Asia? I actually feel quite average, with a splitting headache, and I had to keep my eyes, stinging with fatigue, closed to curb my nausea the whole cab ride over here. I’m on deck for Round Two of my cycling trip through Wherever, leaving on a 24-hour China Airlines flight through Alaska, Taipei and Bangkok on my way to Laos, alone. Am I meeting anyone? No. Am I excited? Sort of. The answer should be Yes, right? But my head’s not yet at all focused on tomorrow.

I’m still in New York. I’ve been here for two months and four days. When I came back I felt like a new man – even my accent was international, (much better enunciated, my words deliberate.) I was awe-inspired at all this once-familiar stuff, the sights, food, and money. My desires were so subdued… I didn’t want anything, (except for pizza and bagels with cream cheese.) I didn’t want to spend my hard-earned savings on all these expensive niceties, I was still Free. I found myself to be extremely Patient, in no rush to get anywhere or be anywhere besides Here, wherever it was.

But I got back into it hard-core in no time, living it up, spending freely, talking fast, doing many things fast, scootering around, geeking and upgrading, iPhoning, texting, my head up in the Wi-Fi cloud, going-out 5 nights a weekend and partying till dawn … so much fun!

I knew I was a New Yorker again two weeks ago when I yelled at the guy in the subway booth, who wouldn’t let me in when my Metrocard wouldn’t admit me through any of the turnstiles, but showed a $21.75 balance on his machine. “I can’t do anything for you… You need to buy another card for now and mail that one into Customer Service.” But I won’t be around to receive that replacement card, Argh! I finally lost my hard-earned patience. Now the MTA and I had ruffled each others feathers, the buses were leaving me in their wake of “clean air” exhaust (but I chased them down anyway, cowboy), the bank froze my ATM card when I tried to notify them of my upcoming travel plans and I answered their first security question wrong… actually any call to Customer Service suddenly became too much to handle. (Thanks, Jordan, for making all those calls to the Embassies for me!) I felt it like a slap in the face: I’ve been here long enough.

In the last two months, I’ve loved New York more than ever before, and New York’s been loving me right back. I think I really beat the system… because I was just visiting instead of living here, not entrenched enough to settle-into that vicious relationship of Love and Hate. Instead of working half the week and hanging with friends for the other half like any normal Socialite, I rocked out Every Day and Every Night. I saw my family half a dozen times. I went to half a hundred parties, with everybody in my freaking phone book. I chilled with Axl Rose, Ezmrelda, my awesome housemates, Jordan, and a really good new friend, Telah, constantly. I worked, just enough, to replenish the funds I’ve spent to be here again, and to visit with my boss who I actually missed too. I ate so much great veg. and vegan food (except for some cheese here and there), that I must be 80% vegan now… so easy and enjoyable with all the great food options and fellowship here. I got used to being home again, and it was Superb. It all seemed too good to be true, but I realize it wasn’t real life… it’s traveling.

Traveling in New York for me was extra special because I already know people, and we’ve got Love. As the beneficiary of bottomless hospitality and extra bonus time from everyone… and “sleepovers” every night (my favorite!)… we had way more fun than we could manage if I was a resident. We made the most of our time together, took full advantage of my free schedule, made up for lost time, and soaked-it up for the year to come! To everyone who made all this time for me, I thank you so much and please know I appreciate it!

Now I’m 13 hours into my double-decker plane ride, surrounded by the Chinese jet-set. I noticed myself in the bathroom mirror, wearing in the same exact outfit I’ve been wearing for 11 months plus new dreadlocks, and a surge of excitement came over me. Over the last two months, everyone always wanted to know, What are my plans next? All “alone” in the john I came to my senses and remembered again… I don’t have any plans! I’m right Here, right Now. Listening to the new tunes on my iPod, reading a little of Even Cowboys Get the Blues and thumbing through SE Asia on a Shoestring, snoozing, waking for a cup of tea… this is my life, again! Frivolous as it might seem, I earned it, and I’m happy. Home again, on the road, with nothing but Adventure in front of me.

Facebook & Twitter

Wednesday, September 22, 12:25 AM
New York, NY, USA

What the heck is going on with Facebook and Twitter? Everybody’s on ‘em, I didn’t get it at first, and now I’m on ‘em. And kinda psyched about it.

I love that people’s notions of privacy are evolving. I’m pretty damn transparent with my willingness to share just about anything with anyone I know, and not give a damn whether everybody else knows my business or what they think about it. And it seems that I’m not alone.

For that reason I invite you to jump on my Twitter. I’m anthonyp, or you can find me by my email: apolicano AT gmail DOT com

I installed the Twitter App on Facebook to post my tweets to my news feed, so now I can SMS my tweets to 40404 and it appears on both. Sweet! And doesn’t require me to be “online”. Try it!

In other notable news, for the first time today I posted some travel pictures on Facebook. (I’ve been tagged in tons, but I’ve never used it for MY photos, see?) I haven’t because Flickr has always been the sole repository for my treasured images, but now I’m double-posting (on both Flickr AND Facebook target=”_new2″), opting for both exposure and “quality” if you’re into that. (The pics on Facebook are so small!) I’m into you being into that, btw! Doing so without lots of extra re-tagging required me to develop a new workflow, which I’m excited to implement and debut. You’ll see!

What does this all mean? Plain and simple, there’s more of me on Facebook, which is where many of you spend too much time anyway, but now you can spend some of it with me! Time to be social!

FREE

Tuesday, September 22, 11:38 PM
New York, New York, USA

• I feel like I have a lot of FREE time. Wanna hang out?
• I’m still in NY, bumming around. I’m extra self-aware as not to over-stay with all my gracious hosts, all of whom make me feel extra Welcome, but sometimes I can’t help feel like a mooch, not paying rent, being a FREEloader. I try to help out & leave things at least as nice as I found ‘em, but still, it doesn’t equal rent.
• I was on Governor’s Island last weekend. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it’s an island in the New York Harbor between Manhattan and Brooklyn, closed-off to the public for decades, and it’s been a recently reclaimed as public space. Anyway, last weekend there were no fewer than 3 events/festivals going on simultaneously, and for the first time in the 3 years since it’s been open, they carried on into the night. It was magic. Best of all, the ferry was (and is always) FREE, as well as the festivals and events. Not to say money couldn’t be spent at one of them (which sucked big time, garishly sponsored by Heineken), but the Figment participants on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams represented with a full day of non-commercial music by the Warper posse, mini-golf, and beautiful art installations… it felt like a mini Burning Man of sorts. Hands down one of the best vibes I’ve felt in public NYC.
• I like being single. If I wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t be having such great 1-on-1 times with all my friends and family, and meeting new people. I don’t mean to put anybody down… I’m just happy to be a FREE bird, thats all. If I wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t have slept on 6 different couches in the last 9 days. I’m a vagabond. Hee hee, I just looked it up and I like the definition: vagabond- a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job.• informal, dated a rascal. So this rascal went to a Danger party this weekend themed “1933″, encouraging a depression-era dress-code of moth-chewed suits, I felt like I could really Hobo-out. It was great.
• Final note, as these are supposed to be short: Money sucks. I loved my week in Black Rock City, where I didn’t carry a wallet or spend a dollar on any damn thing. I love you Burning Man and your bewitching ways. Beyond money, you are FREE to do just about any damn thing you can dream, and after three years I’m not the least bit unimpressed. Default World, I love you too. But money, I still hate that I need you. Thank goodness that most of life’s riches come FREE.

There’s no place like Home

Saturday, August 8, 3:12 AM
Brooklyn, New York, USA

Speaking of different world, Wow! It’s great to be in New York. Honestly, I wasn’t missing it one bit for the last nine months. Sure, when I decided to detour to New York on my way to Burning Man, I became very excited to see my family and friends, devour real pizza and bagels, and hold my turtle nose to nose for hours, but I couldn’t see happiness like this coming from a million miles away.

At this point, after two weeks here, I feel in some ways that I’m back in my old life. After all, I’m sitting here on my couch in Brooklyn, my belly is full from 2AM pizza from our late-night neighborhood spot, Axl is snoozing in the shadows, and I’m on the internet. Just like old times!

I’ve seen most of my favorite people in the world. The fam: Dad, Dineen, uncle Tommy, Mommy, Robbie, Cristina, Dave, Devon and Dylan. Then I came to the city and spent a full week friend-hopping, and damn is it nice! Gabriel, Sara, Jordan, Sandra, Jase, Nolan, Irene, Jade, Victor, Daniel, Mr. Wright, Sarah, Adam, Lux, Jeff, Jay, Ian, Clara, Lane, Alyssa, Anna, Eric, Maria, Kenny, Joy Lynn, Nicola, Gary, Carlos, Fatih, Olga, Ziya, Super Mike, Holly… Yes, even going into ‘work’ was really nice. I crashed local parties in the building, visited a farm in CT, spent a weekend at a secret camping party in the mountains, went swimming in rivers with old and new friends, attended a boat party in a Bushwick canal, snuck into a sold-out concert, biked around between boroughs at 3AM on borrowed wheels, relaxed at my Dad’s house (and really really enjoyed it), dined and rode scooters around at Google, floated in and out of my apartment and onto the couches of friends. My new roommates Ian, Konrad and Teague are all awesome, and Axl and Ezmrelda (Amy’s cat) are all getting along swimmingly. Even just being online again, I’ve re-connected with so many, and it’s been an absolute blast. Ahhh, home sweet home.

You’d think after this love fest (did I mention the perpetual food orgy!?) that my trip would be over. On the contrary! In 30 minutes (4:30AM!) my taxi will be here to whisk me away to San Francisco, where I’ll hop in a rental truck, help with the cooking of our camp meals and prep for the drive out to Burning Man in less than 24 hours! (Yes, I’m starting an all-weeker with an all-nighter, Oops!) Between the birthdays (mine & my bro’s), catching up with my peeps, and enjoying the precious thrill of the End of Summer in NYC, I’ve barely made time to prepare for the camping trip, for the Burn, and for the next frontier of my international adventure: New Zealand. I mean really, I barely pulled off the first two. When I get back I have a lot of last minute arrangements to make (like my flight!) for the next chapter.

Before I post this and pack it all up, I just want to thank you, New York, for all the love. I have been perpetually surprised and humbled by how nice each and every place I have visited has been, especially the people, so open, giving and caring. I thought the world had you licked, New York, but I was wrong. I feel so cheesy saying it but this has been the most pleasurable stop on whole trip. Freakin’ New York! I thought I was done with you, but now I know: I want to come back every August to enjoy you at your finest, roll around in the lovely flowers of your incomparable meadows (of everything), eat pizza, and go to Burning Man. Let’s keep this ball rolling… Next stop: Black Rock City!!!!

Thailand rules, Anthony drools

Saturday, August 8, 5:49 AM
Kuwait International Airport

I feel like I just left my new lover, lady Thailand, and I miss her already! The last fews days I spent in Bangkok, shopping for souvenirs in many markets (such fun!) I stayed with Cara and her adorable little pincher of some kind, Poofy, who who’s not fluffy at all but had a cone on her head (the dog not Cara) until yesterday. Poofy, like many dogs who don’t take well to strangers, took an instant fondness towards me, and slept snuggled up to my head each night. The world’s making a dog’s best friends out of me. I had planned to meet-up with two other friends as well in the city, Leo from Tacome Pai/Leon (France) and Jessica from High School who’s living there now with a boyfriend, but in the last minute they fell through due to a broken angle and a return flight to Demarest, our hometown in New Jersey, where I too will be in another half day to celebrate my dear brother’s 40th birthday.

The rest of the month’s plans include: visiting with my turtle, Axl Rose, and checking-in on my apartment; seeing how the babies in my life have grown (nephews, neighbors, friends’ kids); celebrating my own birthday in a few days with the family (the big 2-9!, and hopefully later this week with some close friends; picking up some needed supplies for the next leg of my world tour in New Zealand; and going back Home to Black Rock City in the Nevada desert for Labor Day week (aka Burning Man), passing through San Francisco both ways. I will also dutifully drop-in at “work” for a few days, to help keep things running at my patron contract law/geek gig (“QLTT”). Quite a lot of plans for a month, but it will be nice.

So yep, it’s back to the States for a spell. I can hardly believe it. The sun just came up over the desert horizon, and here I am in the Kuwait airport, with Arabic lettering and beautiful women with diamonds-sparkeling from the uncovered bits of their head-to-toe dress all around.

On the plane I had a great conversation with a Thai-Saudi woman in her mid-forties who has a guest house in Saudi Arabia but lives in Phuket (capital of prettiness in S. Thailand), and she gave me her number so that I can call her next time I visit. Another example of people just being awesome, open, inviting. The flight was interesting. Besides being stuffed twice on my 3am-5:30am flight (running against the time zones so it was ctually 5.5 hours), they handed me a Snack coupon to eat some more in the airport during my 3 hour layover. Which may prove insightful as to why these Arabic men on the flight were so beefy and a bit loud (too many calories!), a noticeable change from the smaller, gentler, and quiter Thai guys I’ve grown accustomed to who eat little and glow with composure and Buddha’s eyes. The man in the seat next to me kept spazzing out and flailing his muscles during his sleep (Ow!), and when he woke I watched him pull from his fanny pack a small white box with a dozen diamond rings inside, to see how they fared in the shifting altitude. Big money, big food, and big muscles out here.

All these women with only their pretty faces and hands showing have an alluring power. I suppose all women can play jump rope with the heartstrings of men all around them, as the moon drives the tides with each turn. Women, women, women. The Thais were a super-sexy bunch. In many cases, girls are part of the sex industry, and then many others are warming up to foreigners to get closer to their wallets, but either way, they’re a fun, sexy, attractive bunch, and I’m proud of them, in regards to what I’ve just said, for turning the tables on men with their irresistible ways. The result is that many foreigners are dating or marrying Thais, and the melting pot swirls. I like the Thai-Arabic connection on this flight; the plane half full of half-bloods. Even Mayedak, the woman I chatted with on the plane, has a bicultural family, and is herself covered like the rest of these women. I wanted to say something cheesy like “I want to have a mixed family myself someday”, because, really, I’ve always found it ever more enticing than the same old norms of monocultural unions. Not just the faces, and the dark creamy skin, but the merging of cultures is what’s so fun and valuable. I imagine how lucky Mayedak’s two boys are to grow-up in both Saudi Arabia and Thailand, to have both worlds. Now they’re in school in Bangkok and Phuket, beautiful Phuket. I left MANY stones unturned in Thailand because I want to come back again and again. I’ve found my happy destination, where the smiles work like a virus, and there are too many beautiful but different places to explore, be they in the mountains or on the islands. Speaking of different worlds, I marveled again today at how, as soon as you step on a plane, you enter a completely different world. Wow! Cross a border and the world goes topsy-turvy! This is why I love traveling, and crave the regular juxtaposition.

OMG, and I hungry again!? I’m training for the American food-fest that will succeed the Thai food-fest. It will be be Bigger, Longer, Uncut, and I will be Fatter. (Thailand food was so good, and esp. since I wasn’t eating the copious animal meats my indulgences always left me feeling light and nice. You’re the first country that leaves me wanting more!) But yes, Cheese, bagels, pizza, hummus, sandwiches, and Italian food await me. Bring on the juxtaposition!

I love you Thailand, and thanks for all the fish (whether I knew I was eating it or not!)

Cross My Thai and Hope to Die

Saturday, July. 25, 11:57 PM

Ban Tai, Ko Phangan, Thailand

So much I can say, plucking randomly from any of the last fourteen days. Thailand has been very good to me. If I threw it all into a wok and simmered it on low heat for as many hours as it would take me to type it out, we would have a reduction that tastes like: I Love Thailand.

I spent two weeks at Tacome Pai, enjoying a sort of lazy farm-life routine that left little time in the day for anything but a few hours of work, lots of lounging around with guitar strummers, swimming in the pond, river and hot springs, hiking in nearby streams, forests, waterfalls, and canyons. Also made a nice habit of hitchhiking by pickup truck to the hippy town of Pai every other day or so for some junk food and espresso drinks.

It’s easy to see why it’s such a popular spot, this particular eco-village hosting dozens of travelers during my short stay. There were the 3 day dabblers, on a tight schedule onward (many en route to Lao/Cambodia) all wishing that they alloted more time in Pai. There was the overnight group of 17 Thais with whom we feasted on BBQ and set adrift flaming rice paper lanterns into the sky. And there was a core group who spent a week or more, a half dozen which will likely become long lasting Facebook friends, and some I really hope to see again out there somewhere. Besides all the socializing, I further communed with the rice paddies as well as the adorable cats and dog on the premises… eating rice you actually husked with a giant wooden seesaw is a pleasure, and so was submitting to the persistent kitten who wanted to share my bed. I freakin miss them all: especially my French buddy Leo with whom I spent some time every day, cruising around on motorbike and sharing many adventures and long conversations. When I told Sandot, the father of Tacome Pai, that I will return, he said I Know you will!

Five of us departed together, and we spent the next couple days traversing from the very top to the bottom of the tall country, on overnight buses and trains, songtaew, a monorail, subway and long boat. In Bangkok I went to a snake farm with a friend Elle and her 6 yr. old kid Raphael, where we got so very close to striking vipers and king cobras, and even held a giant python. Also in Bangkok we went to coffee with a friendly man named Mr. Tee, ate sushi, saw Transformers 2 (which was sequel-sucky), took the water taxi up the river, and snacked our way through the endless market. I took the last half of the journey solo (but meeting much new company along the way), on an overnight train/bus/3 hr. ferry to the island paradise of Ko Phangan (where the movie “The Beach” was supposedly inspired.)

Haat Rim beach, as seen from the hills (where we attempted to hike through the jungle to the next beach... after 3 hours in the woods we came back!)

The last week has been too fun. Ko Phangan can party, and apparently so can I. Living on the beach in bungalows never gets old. Nor does sleeping out in hammocks, going to a new beach or two every day, and hopping in pickup trucks outside 7 Eleven to all nite parties with beach friends. The clock doesn’t matter here, as life happens in whatever time it pleases. I actually rented a scooter to get around the island, and it was so fun to ride, not having used my own in about a year! Yesterday, when I got it, I rode 95km, exploring and swimming around the island like crazy! The beach I swam in this morning, Hat Yao, topped them all, competing for the best ever with those of Hawaii. (I’d say the aesthetic of cliffs sharply rising everywhere make these even more spectacular, not to mention the swiss family robinson tree houses, natural bungalows and bridges connecting them.) I’m smitten.

I actually headed down south to work at an Organic Shrimp and Oyster Farm, would have been my fifth in Thailand, but it wasn’t meant to be. So I’ll take a 2.5 week vacation on the beach as a consolation prize. You might not hear from me again until I’m back home for Burning Man!! I still intend to fly back after to New Zealand for my next Big adventure, but as of yet flights are not booked. We’ll see where the planes, trains and autos take me!

Where The Bamboo Grows

Saturday, July. 11, 5:02 PM
Pai, Thailand

music: Black Moth Super Rainbow’s “satanstompingcaterpillars” album

It’s official… I’m in one of those places where time whizzes by. I’m surprised that it’s Saturday, thought it was still mid-week. As soon as I woke-up, I jumped in the pickup with 5 others and we headed off into the forest to collect bamboo for a new bridge. I had a tiny preview while at Second Home at how building with bamboo is quite involved, especially the part where you pick it!

What a task… first we drove down a long dirt road (painfully, as sitting in the back of the pickup is no luxury) which winded through soybean country for at least 20 minutes. We parked, set out through the soybeans and into the green forest with 4 machetes, and cut down… 50 big bamboos? A LOT. Then we chopped them into 4 foot pieces, then split each 12-16 times (depending on their width) to make 1 inch bamboo slats. How many did we make you ask? 500 was the goal, we made over 700. To be honest, the two Yon hilltribe laborers did a majority of the hard work… while the 4 of us phalang had to rest at regular intervals. It was seriously hard work, and after 4.5 hours I hit a wall… so the next couple hours were the hardest to keep going, especially the part where we carried the tied bundles out of the forest on our shoulders and backs. In addition to the bundles of slats we prepared, there were also had about 30 8-foot hunks (like 2×4s but way thicker) to use for bridge supports, of which I could barely carry 3 at once but the Yons each carried six at a time! I wish I had a picture… I carried my last bundle on my shoulders behind my neck, with my arms up and to the sides… Tom laughed that I looked crucified… haha, I felt like it!

a phalong looking on while the hilltribe people work tirelessly... as usual!

Besides being hard work, the day brought many small pleasures as well. The bamboo forest was really pretty, with a million greens (including various butterflies, some bright lime green and white, others bearing a broader spectrum of bright greens, or completely yellow. A stream ran by our worksite, and Sandot (the ‘dad’ of TacomPai) suggested we made a dam there to feed the surrounding forest (which we’ve just stripped of 50 of it’s finest, really a drop in the bucket though so to speak!) Within an hour we made a fine dam that filled-up knee-deep, and I was so inspired to make one like it for my turtle baby back home!

forest pond, prototype for Axl's future chateau

Sandot brought a lunch for us to all to share… sticky rice, pumpkin curry, and pickled vegatables. He laid out a table of large leaves which he cleaned in the pond we made, and the laborers deftly carved out bamboo plates and chopsticks for us to use. Amazing! Also simply amazing were the water flutes he brought out, bamboo of course, cut to arms length and tied with bamboo string to make a sling, with little holes poked between the sections to keep the water-in and from splashing while being carrying around… it just astonishes me that Everything here (in TacomePai world, at least) is made of two things: Bamboo and/or Teak, both of which are Everything you need for beautiful and practical living.

Also fun was the ride back… imagine a pickup loaded with bamboo, but carrying 7 people (me sitting on the back, barely holding on throughout the 30-minute return drive, which felt just like a jungle safari. We drove very slow, up and down the hilly and badly eroded dirt road, as not to loosen the tied up lumber and precariously balancing phalang in the back. Dog tired, and still crawling with ants (me oh my, so many ants!), I felt peaceful and happily depleted, hanging on and taking in the scenery that money can’t buy in the West. I imagined this life, working hard in paradise every day, building things with only hands, machetes, bamboo and teak, a constant labor of love and purpose. (I also imagined, if this was my job, quitting after 3, no 2, maybe one day!) Haha. Lazy phalang I am, dwarfed in my capacity by these remarkable and capable, smiling workers.

My evening had a cool refreshing destiny named beer. A bunch of us (3 on a motorbike) rode into Pai for a drink and some live music. The beers, (two, in moderation), quenched my well-used body like liquid gold, and the 2 musicians who played at the TacomPai music festival, right here, last fall, were great. A place I heard about, Mama Falafel, kept tantalizing my mind and tummy, so eventually I set out with a friend to find it. When we found it it was 10:30pm and they looked like they were closing, but I implored “please don’t tell us No!” and the smiling Thai couple said Ok, falafel sandwich? Mmmmmm… for the next ten minutes I watched his culinary alchemy, making me the tastiest falafel sandwich I can recall ever, fresh. He fired-up the fryer, spooned-out fresh falafel balls and cut french fries (which went inside the sandwich too, Israeli style). He chopped up 3 fresh tomatoes and 2 cucumbers, spooned out tahini and very special home-made feta cheese… as I ate it my Mmmmms were uncontrollable, and my belly was full into the morning. Two notes about this meal: first, it was perhaps the tastiest falafel ever, due to it’s freshness and love. Secondly, though, I got uncomfortably full, my tummy hurt a couple hours later, I was burping and tasting it over and over, and I realized at once what I love and hate about western food: it’s so tasty and pleasurable going down, but you feel like crap afterwards, with an over-stuffed and bloated tummy, and bad breath to remind you what you’ve just done to yourself. In contrast to the fresh and healthy rice and noodle meals I’ve grown accustomed to eating every meal, this was borderline disgusting. I’m happy to have been reminded about the dark side of the home food I sometimes lust for… instilling a deeper contentment with how good I have it right now eating locally.

I stayed up chatting again with Leo in the moonlight treehouse, our routine for the last 5 nights. TacomePai is a special place, indeed, ever more beautiful and complete than the fancy polished junk in neighboring Pai… out in the forest life is so good, simple and best that I know.

Moon Out

Tuesday, July. 7, 10:47 PM
Pai, Thailand

The moon is so bright tonight, I can see for miles. This hut I’ve landed-in is the best one yet, as I can look out over the silver treetops from bed. And this isn’t even among the most impressive ones here, all of them bamboo masterpieces. I’m burning through Thailand, on my fourth farm already in only 2.5 weeks. I liked each of the previous 3 for different reasons, and left them prematurely for 3 separate reasons… asthma, to make-up, and to break-up. Yeah, I left Ken’s Adventure1 Climbing Park & Garden early because Amy and I decided not to travel together anymore. I feel so self-conscious and weird writing about this, something that was unfolding, unplanned, only 24 hours ago. I haven’t even mentioned it to anybody here, not that I know anyone really, but I’ve shared time, space, and conversation with many! I’m still in shock, and I’m not proud of it. I returned to Happy Hippy House, the last guest house that Amy and I shared, and it was so weird to be in that same room without her. Máek and his friends who run the place asked about her, and I half buried the truth with a reply about us splitting off again, a recurring theme in our co-wandering. It’s been a rough day, restraining loneliness, a feeling of emptiness, depression, and guilt. But I got up, kept it going, made it out of Chiang Mai, survived 4 hours of motion sickness on the mini-bus (with excellent company) which took me here through endlessly curvy mountain roads to Tacome Pai in Thailand’s own hippy mecca.

Tacome Pai kitchen area

Tacome Pai is a home-stay I found from an alternative to the Wwoof list, and already I think it’s charmed me beyond them all. It’s most similar to Sadhana Forest in that it’s a permaculture farm, all the building is made of natural materials (BIG-time bamboo!) with lots of creativity and love. It’s a refreshing change from the concrete construction I’ve gotten accustomed to all over. They have built huts and bungalows in the styles of 7 different northern Thailand hill tribes. All the chairs, staircases, and even a huge swing, are made of logs and gnarly beautiful hunks of trees from this property. Bamboo is used like I’ve never seen before: all the kitchen-ware (spoons, dishes, cups), again many creations to sit on or hang in, the plumbing… the sinks are small waterfalls cascading into log chutes. Simply (but rather intricately) beautiful! After eating dinner that we cooked over an open fire, we ended the day with communal music playing and singing around the fire, drinking kau lao or white rice whiskey poured from a plastic bag into a bamboo shooter. I happen to be among great musical talent, and I can honestly say it was the most enjoyable campfire music jam I can recall (maybe except for that live house bonfire party on the beach in Arambol, Goa… that was perfect.) Leo, a kid from France, even played us some bamboo techno. Classic!

And here’s some Randomness, inspired by Simi’s blog:

• Do you ever sometimes just LOVE the Shuffle on your iPod? It’s rare for me, but today it’s just consistently kicking ass.
• I taught myself to count yesterday, quite useful. neung, seung, saam, sii, haa, hok, jet, pet, kau, sip!
• i decided, since I don’t have a phone anymore, that I want to get an iPhone 3GS. this is going to be tricky, as they’re not here in Thailand yet, and I can’t exactly just buy one in the US and break my contract immediately and emigrate… or can I?
• I’ve been touch-typing this whole blog entry again! Still 8wpm, but I’m having fun!
• I love you! Yes I do! Thanks for reading my silly self-important blog. I’m really not (important) but I do still love you. La ti sa wat kap! (Good night!)