Wednesday, April 15, 2015
'15 Travels -- onward ...
Our last day in Sabang was a great one. We had our first dive as certified scuba divers in tge morning. We went to a spit called 'Kilima' and it was amazing. Five minutes after we entered the water our guide tapped his tank and pointed, sure enough there was a sea turtle -- the creature I was most hoping to see. He was swimming away from us and disappearing quickly, then he swooped back down and swam right along us! There was another person on our dive with a camera, so I'm hoping he gets those photos to us at some point. After that we went through what seemed kind of like in underwater canyon. There was reef on both sides of us, flooded with fish. It was a great end to our training and really brought everything together. I do wish I had done better on the dive, I was having some buoyancy issues from the very beginning, I was even having a hard time descending. In addition to improving my breathing, I'll probably wear more weights the next time we go. The whole thing was such a great experience and very addicting, hopefully we won't kill out budgets too bad. I can't wait to go again not only for the obvious reasons, but also to keep working on my control underwater.
That night we ended up hanging out with a bunch of the local staff of the resort, as well as a few filipino tourists who were also taking dive courses. It's always a great time to hang out with the locals, and just drink and laugh despite all the differences you might have. That night we learned the term 'scuba rat', basically a nicer sounding term for a cheap traveler. Or more the idea that anyone can travel, despite their financial situation ... You just gotta rough it and make it work, aka master being a scuba rat!
We had an invite to go fishing with one of the guys from the dive shop the next day, but already had plans to get to our next destination so just continue with that. I hope we make it back to that resort sometime before our trip is up and possibly take him up on that offer. We ended up one two jeepneys followed by two vans (stuffed full of people) to get to the town of San Jose. There's really nothing to do there and Paul and I both got weird vibes off the town and the locals, lots of weird stares and less friendly people. We were just there overnight to catch a 6am cargo ship to Coron, Palawan the following morning. The ship was actually very comfortable, it's a huge cargo freighter, but the top two decks have beds for passengers. It was quite easy to sleep, and it was about a 5 hour journey. It is quite weird to be on a boat for hours, and then look around and still see nothing but water -- you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.
Once we got to Coron, we signed up for an island hopping tour to explore Coron Island, off the mainland where all the hotels and town is. Only members of the local tribe are actually allowed to live on the island. The island itself is comprised mostly of limestone and us said to be growing every year. The cliffs are quite tall, sharp and breathtaking. It feels to me like a tropical Yosemite. Everywhere you look you are surrounded by these gorgeous, lush mountains, separated by crystal clear waters. This area has been voted the best island in the world and it is easy to see why. Our tour consisted of visiting 6 different places around the island, from deserted beaches, to hidden lagoons, to the most beautiful green lake, Lake Kayangan. We snorkeled along the way seeing more coral, and tons of sea urchins. It's definitely a little scary swimming over them so close, but you just have to keep calm and keep floating. The lagoons are a mix of fresh water and sark water, which makes for hit and cold spots as you swim and amazingly clear water. Kayangan Lake, was an exceptionally beautiful stop, snorkeling there was very cool as you could follow the limestone cliffs as the lake got deeper and deeper. At one point it's as if you are floating and looking straight down a rock face, it's the closest I would imagine you could come to feeling like an astronaut here on earth. The whole tour was such a highlight and easily the best 650 pesos (about $15!) we've spent. It not only included a delicious filipino lunch, wonderful and friendly guides (they always insist I start learning Tagalog), but also the chance to meet some fellow travelers from Scotland, Sweden and Germany. We ended up meeting up with must of our tour later for drinks -- the night of course ended up at a dingy karaoke bar surrounded by wasted Filipinos.
The next morning we woke up not feeling the greatest, for a 7am ten hour boat ride to El Nido on the main island of Palawan. This was not a cargo ship, but a small ferry boat holding about 60 passengers. Everyone sits along the sides of the boat on long benches, so you are lucky if you get enough space to stretch out and sleep. Most people figure out some uncomfortable way to do it. I had developed a bit of a heat rash the night before, so was dealing with that in addition to feeling a little hungover. The rash, or prickly heat, is common among travelers and it's best treated with cold showers and air conditioning, things hard to come by in Southeast Asia. Needless to say, the boat wasn't helping my condition. Everyone seemed to be having a pretty miserable time. I thought Paul was doing fine, but he ended up sick and passed out in the bathroom. All in all we made it, and the bait took less than 10 hours, thank god.
Now, we find ourselves in El Nido. Taking a couple laid back days, as I'm still living down this rash and anything I can do besides stay in our room (we were somehow able to find a cheap ac one in this tourist spot) will probably make it worse. We will have to head down to Puerto Princesa as we are running low on cash, and it's home to the only ATM on the island! The plan there is to explore the famous underground river park and hopefully go snorkeling with some whale sharks, but who knows what will happen or how things might change. Until next time, hope everyone is well at home!
Thursday, April 9, 2015
'15 Travels -- Time for an Update!
I guess it's time for an update from the Philippines...
It's hard to believe we've only been gone just over two weeks. It feels like we've done so much already.
On the way here, we chose to have an overnight layover in Seoul. We were able to take a break from the 13 hr. flight and meet some of Paul's family. We had a nice meal, and hung out at a hipster Korean bar before they dropped us off at a jjimjilbang for the night. I had no idea what to expect from this, but found myself naked in front of a bunch of strangers in thus new country very quickly. A jjimjilbang is a Korean sauna. You check in, are given a change of clothes and are free to go at it. The first part of it is separated, make and female. Here you can shower, go in the hot and cold baths -- each are strange colors from different herbs, and go in the sauna. From there you dress in the clothes they gave you and can head up to the common area. There is a big open space, where you can grab a mat, put it on the floor and sleep for the night. It's a little strange and weird, and almost looks like a Korean prison with everyone in their provided clothes. Apparently, it's a popular place to sleep if you're too drunk to make it home. The common area also has more saunas - a typical western sauna, a milder clay sauna, and a very hot dome shaped sauna which basically looks (and feels) like a big pizza oven. There us also a freeze room which feels great after the saunas and refreshing after the long flight.
From here we continued on to Manila. Just about another 4 hours on a plane. Getting into the city, dealing with the people and cabs wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Never felt hustled or too unsafe anywhere. We stated in the main tourist belt, Malate. It's dirty, crowded and hectic at places and makes you feel like you're back in Asia. The poverty is bad, you see many kids sleeping in the street --lots run up to you and beg for money or even water.
We spent a couple of days exploring around Manila, walked through the main park, Rizal Park - or as some locals call it, Luneta Park. From there we continued into Intramuros, a walked city which still has a lot of ruins from Spanish rule. The locals all try to get you into their bicycles for a tour and we finally gave into one. It was a nice experience, mostly just for starting to interact with the local people. The Philippines does feel different from a lot of Asia as most people do speak English well and aren't shy to talk to you, or poke fun at you.
Once we figured out the train system we started to explore other areas of Manila. Upon entering the station, we saw that there was a male and female area. We were confused by this until the train came, then realized you are packed into these things like sardines. The first place we took the train was south to Baclaran market. Think huge Asian flea market. We bought shirts, socks, shirts, pants, an umbrella, etc. for probably around $10. From there we took our first Jeepney ride, to the enormous Mall of Asia -- quite a change from the market. This mall is huge, building after building and bigger than anything I've seen in the states. We spent a little time there before going to our first dampa restaurant. You walk through a market and but your fresh seafood, then bring it to one of the many restaurants lined up beside the market who cook it however you like. We had some delicious chili crabs, steamed prawns and veggies with some San Miguel to wash it all down. It was quite a feast, though if we had more cash on us probably would gave gotten even more seafood!
From Manila, the first place we headed was the Zambales coast. We were looking to get somewhere quieter after Manila and decided in some beach camping in a place called Anawangin Cove. It took a bus, tricycle ride and hike to get there. We hired a local 19 yr. old to guide us on this hike. He was very friendly and it was nice to spend some time talking with him. We expected an easy hike, but it was longer than we expected (there is not much info on this spot in most guidebooks) and ended up taking about 4 hours in the hot Philippine sun. It was still a gorgeous hike and great experience, though we ended up taking a boat back. The cove itself was beautiful. Crystal clear water, the cleanest I've seen yet. The beach is surround by mountains and bordered by pine trees, a very special piece of nature. We had shade to camp in, clear water to snorkel in and no mosquitoes! What more could you ask for??
From camping, we returned back to Manila. We had met a local family, by eating at their street food stand, who invited us to their family outing at the beach the weekend of Good Friday. We were hesitant about trusting them, but didn't want to pass up a true Filipino celebration. When we walked up to meet them some of the family pointed and laughed at Paul, calling him 'Jesus Christ'! Tis the season, and his hair was pretty crazy at this point. This was also after two separate peoples shouted 'One Direction' at him and just laughed as well. Kids randomly stare and laugh as well -- all quite entertaining. Anyways, we took off to Batangas with this family. Husband and wife and four kids. Ended up in Matabungkay Beach, where the thing to do is rent what they call a 'balsa'. Basically it's a huge raft, with tables and chairs, shade and even little elevated areas to sleep. We hung out on this all day, cooked, drank and swam. You can even signal to someone onshore who will swim out and deliver you could beer. The family had a local friend/semi-ladyboy there who hung out with us and eventually we ended up onshore in the neighborhood singing karaoke. It had to happen soon enough! The whole experience was a positive one. It was great to see an authentic celebration for this family. In the end, the Dad (and businessman) Bong, asked us to chip in and pay more than we were expecting (more than our fair share) but it was worth the experience, and we didn't end up drugged and abandoned anywhere -- so all was well! Putting it all into perspective, it wasn't a lot of money, and it all went to our warm and welcoming host family.
From there we continued south to the island of Mindoro, where we are now. We took a fast boat, bangka, to get here. The ride arriving into the harbor is quite beautiful. Lots of lush land a little islands. We spent a night in Puerto Galera, where Paul finally got his crazy hair cut and beard shaved. It took forever, but he was tight with his barber afterwards. He even had Paul take a photo with him afterwards. There are very many friendly people, and making these small connections with people on the street or restaurant owners, etc. had been very special.
From Puerto Galera we made our way to the town of Sabang, where we have been the last 5 days or so. We have been working on our PADI Open Water Diver certification. We have learned so much over the last few days, from all the scuba gear, to the ocean environment, to the more technical side of diving. This morning we finished our training, and tomorrow we have one last fun dive we get to make. There are many, many dive resorts here -- but we decided to go to one run by a nice Filipino family. Our instructor, Hobert, is a local as well. They might do things a little more sketchy than the western run operations, but I've learned a lot and we've gotten some good dives in. Still hoping to find some sea turtles, but today we passed an ocean snake which our instructor later informed us was 5x deadlier than a cobra. While passing it we had no clue!
The plan is to continue down to Palawan from here, and then back to Manila and maybe into North Luzon. We leave for Bali in the beginning if May, but not before sticking around for the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight! Lots of love to everyone at home, come visit us!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
last 9 months ... a-z
being home is a funny thing. it's hard to come back and start from nothing, to re-establish yourself and know what to do. thinking about the last 9 months is a whirlwind, i can't really digest it all ... so this is a simplified version i started putting together for myself.
A
"Adelaide or bust" -- the name of our beloved car, a '94 mitsubishi magna wagon. she actually started off with the name "huey". maybe that's why the second day we had her, she refused to start. after renting bicycles, riding to the car store, riding back balancing a heavy car battery, installing it, it still not starting, and then getting help from a friendly local ... she started again. a rebirth, with a new name, zoe. unfortunately zoe died one more time (after she was broken into to top it off) and was renamed "adelaide or bust" ... with problems good ol' adelaide got us *almost* all over the lovely country of australia.
B
"Bats!" -- one of the most amazing sights we saw on the trip. while driving down from Brisbane to Sydney we stopped in the small, but beautiful town of Bellingen. we had some dinner, and then parked down by the river to have some tea. a family pulls up next to us, sits on the grass, and we hear the dad say. "it's about to start". next thing we know the sky is filled with hundreds and then thousands of fruit bats. it was amazing to see the sky black from bats, when not expecting it at all.
C
"Conor, Cass, Courtney, and (Kaye)" -- what an amazing family! in total they probably hosted us almost a third of the time of our trip!... not to mention, gave us a home and a family to spend christmas with. it was great to see an aussie christmas and get a glimpse of the meehan traditions. google "the snowman". it's life changing.
D
"Dusseldorf!" -- because it was a random and fun stop! the flight back from France to Thailand ended up having a 5 hour layover in Dusseldorf. just enough time to get into town have a few beers and sausages and make the flight back. we were instantly transported into a taste of german culture ... the beers were delicious and cheap. one tasted practically like coca-cola, and they served it with ice cream and biscuits... yum!
E
"elephants" -- one of the most "touristy" things we did was book an elephant trek. this included a elephant ride through the jungle, followed by a bath in the river. our elephant was hilarious! we are sitting in the river on our elephant. with a thai man in the water screaming commands at him. apparently, the thai man thinks tourists want the elephant to suck up water with its trunk and spray us repeatedly. our elephant wasn't having enough. the thai man is screaming at him and he just falls over (with us on his back) and i just remember thinking, "oh god, i'm about to get crushed by an elephant"... it happened twice before the man finally stopped yelling.
F
"Fromage song!" -- France was amazing, Marie's family was so welcoming and we were luck to spend time with them ... and lucky us got to meet a good deal of Camille's family as well for her mom's birthday celebration. apparently. at parties french people like to dress up like mice and sing about cheese, who knew?
G
"Guy Sebastian" -- randomly, i am in love with the first australian idol winner, guy sebastian. one of the goals of this trip was to celebrate the new year in a different country. while deciding what to do for new years' i nearly died when the paper said he was performing for free! a sort of excited of gasp was let from me out which prompted something along the lines of "are you okay?" from conor's mom. anyways, guy was adorable and new years' was lovely. paul ended the night with a sprained ankle?
H
"heights" -- Australia has at least a couple things that would never fly in the states, one of them being climbing trees. these are trees upwards of 100 meters (300 ft!) with little metal rods stuck in the sides that you are expected to use to climb up to the top. to their credit, there is some sort a half-assed mesh type thing which i guess might hold you in if you fall. it was amazing, but on the way down i was shaking and scared and SO happy to be back on solid ground.
I
"Ian" -- we met so many overwhelmingly friendly and generous people on the trip. Ian was a random guy we met on the bus, we ended up talking to him for a while, found out we were going to the same place, and he gave us his number in case we needed anything. well, the first time our car seized to start we called Ian (as well as brian murphy) ... to ask if he recommened any mechanics in the area. he answers by saying he knows a bit about cars and offers to come take a look at it. he spends an hour or so checking connections and fiddling with things and amazingly gets it to start! in addition, he left is with tools, jumper cables, etc. and a lovely dinner at his house. not to mention more help when we got a flat tire a couple days later.
J
"Jim the Mechanic" -- our second guardian angel when it comes to the car. Ian came to our aid the first time it died, and Jim came the second time. we needed to put new tires on the car and brought them over to goodyear to have them fitted, but they were closed so we went acorss the street and met Jim, an old, jolly italian. at first he said they didn't have time to do it (I saw him repeatedly turn down business) but his mechanic said he would do it anyway so we sat and talked with Jim while our tires got put on. we got along well and he invited us out to dinner, gave us a place to stay for a few nights, and did a full check-up on the car (all free) before we took it on our first road trip. it was an amazing random meeting at that - but when we got back into town the car refused to start a second time. we were ready to sell it, but called jim for advice. he set up a cheap tow for us, housed us again and put $500+ worth of work into our car for nothing. he was a great guy, and it was sad to say goodbye.
K
"Keith and Kristine" -- while working out in the middle of nowhere "shire" of Ravensthorpe we met the sweetest couple, Keith and Kristine. they invited us out to their property for the day, picked us up, fed us tea and homemade scones, took us on a drive through the local ranges, guided us on a bushwalk through their land, taught us about the local wildflowers, introduced us to their animals (we corraled kangaroos!) and shared some great conversation. they are currently buidling their dream house on the piece of land ... all the waiter is sustainably sourced and everything will be run on solar energy. they were incredibly warm and welcoming ... and meeting person after person like this was incredible refreshing.
L
"Laurent, Leila, Livia (Dom, Marek, and Ebba) -- the spent three weeks wwoofing at the hepburn retreat center/continental house (lovingly known as "conti") ... these people were our instant family. laurent and leila were from france, livia (our yoga teacher) from slovakia, ebba from switzerland, dom and marek locals, and zalan the leader of it all. the place is a vegan retreat on beautiful grounds with plants and food growing all over. we spent a couple hours a day working in the garden or working on the grounds, lots of peaceful painting and weed-whacking (what they would call whipper-snippering). every night we would have a lovely family dinner and it was an unforgettable experience to be in an environment that was so instanty accepting. as one particularly colorful local (peter saggitarius put it, "fusion without the con". think about it!
i have so many memories of this place, coming home and being surprised by luxurious massages from our resident masseuses laurent and dom, english lessons with the frenchies (we go to gangbang now?) this place was special, i thank cass so much for telling us about it!
M
"monkeys!" -- in Thailand we decided to make a pit stop in the toen of Lopburi on our way up to Chiang Mai. the town is famous for its gang of monkeys (apparently they have a half blind leader). we check into our room see a couple monkeys on the windowsill and think its pretty cool. after that we decide to take a walk. literally, we turn a corner and there are monkeys everywhere! on telephone wires, on the sidewalks, in the streets, like pigeons. they are weaving in and out of the traffic, jumping in and out of peoples' truck beds. one comes up behind us, rips the bag we're carrying, grabs our food and proceeds to eat in in front of us just out of reach. paul bends down to take a photo and next thing i know they are on his back!
N
"Nimbin" -- the pot capital of Australia. not being big smokers ourselves, we still couldn't resist this town after all we've heard about it. it was, for the most part, a pretty innocent experience. the local lawn bowling club basically ended up adopting us for the weekend. after checking out the town (and being offered goodies at leat 50 times) we decide to head to the local bar of the bowling club to check out their karaoke night. a big old, slightly dirty and belligerent fellow with a huge white beard comes up to us and asks us if we want to smoke. why not? after doing so, we find out this character is actually the owner of the bar! so, the owner of the bar smoked us out, and to add to that the security guard tried to buy weed off of us. next came the karaoke. i never though we'd end up singing, but of course we debut as a duet singing none other than "im yours". paul goes on to sing a jet song and for me - rihanna. what? we end up winning a free 6 pack! the next day we get invited out to bowl and join a bbq - friendly people, friendly town.
O
"Opera House" -- I really didn't expect to enjoy the opera house as much as I did - it's one of those pieces of architecture that's perfect to lie down in a park and just gaze at. (the eiffel tower is this way as well, but the opera house is just so interestingly designed). i think one of the great sites of thr trip was our first view of the opera house and sydney. we were staying in the nearby beach town of manly and took the ferry into sydney the very first time. you turn the corner in the boat and get this grand view of the city, the harbor, the bridge and the opera house. it's an overhwelming view, and provides one of those "holy shit, i'm in australia" moments.
P
"pies!" -- the aussies seem to love their pies and the like. our only real job in australia was working in a roadhouse. this is a gas station/"food" stall in the middle of nowhere. the food was ... something else. either it was frozen pies we baked, or some type of frozen thing which we first microwaved and then deep fried. to make it worse, it was a bp roadhouse we were working at right in the height of all the oil spill mess. the owners were overbearing and ridiculously anal (i felt like i was in an awkward tv show the majority of the time there) but it was an experience and we got paid (unlike our other job).
Q
"quokka" -- i assumes quokka was just the name of the australian paper in which we found our used surfboards and wetsuits, but it's really like the cutest animal ever! it's kind of like a kangaroo/cat/guinea pig ... in my opinion. sadly, after i realized what it was, i never saw one in real life.
R
"Rod Caddies" -- (of http://rodeofest.com.au/) ... Rod provided us with our first couchsurfing experience ever. he was an amazing host and so laid back ... i remember walking into an unlocked house with no one there and us just wondering if that was normal. Rod is one of the most laid back and generous people I've met. and to top it off, he's interesting as heck! he is a former ex-professional bull rider. a couple months ago he shattered his pelvis and is now taking to organizing hiw own rodeo events. he is trying to bring the rodeo out of the small rural towns and into big cities at cheap prices for families ... thanks to Rod I am also now randomly a published australian writer ... Rodeo magazine! we stayed with him and he helped us out during some tight times, and shared some good ol' aussie folk songs with us.
S
"sunset surf" -- I don't know what we would have done if we didn't surf. It was the one thing we could do in every town that always provided a great experience and didn't cost a thing! I've always been intrigued by sunset surfs but never seemed to get the timing right, until our very last surf in oz at manly beach near Sydney. the waves were perfect and everything was bathed in the most beautiful shades or orange, pink, purple and everything in between. we surfed for hours and were some of the last people out of the ocean. it was absolutely beautiful.
T
"Trat" -- a little random town we found ourselves in one night in Thailand. we had a beautiful room for about $3 a night and the most amazing night market right up the street. we had plate after plate of food and deserts for at the most 50 cents each. from Trat we took a ferry to Ko Chang island. i remember grabbing a raft form our beach bungalow and just floating on it in the ocean, looking at the outline of the island, and having trouble believing i was where i was in that moment. halfway across the world in one of the most beautiful and peaceful environments I'd ever experienced. our big island activity was renting a motorbike. we rode it all the way around, through the jungle, and through rocky dirt roads that the bike was surely not meant to handle. the most amazing sight was probably a black cobra. we turned a corner and he was there in the middle of the dirt path, perked up, neck flared out looking ready to attack. it was incredible to see it in person, luckily he retreated because i was too amazed to even feel like i was in danger.
U
"uni" -- out of all the weird things we ate, this was probably my favorite. fresh uni right out if the urchin, looks weird and feels weird but i thought it was quite good. a little salty a little sweet and a little rich. the weirdest thing we ate was expectedly in thailand. i had seen these little waffle type things on a stick and had been wanting to try them all day. so in the evening we had our dinner and went to get some for our sweets. i bet into it and its filled with ... hot dog.
V
"Vegemite" -- another one of my now favortie things I tried. for months I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. towards the end of the trip vegemite on toast with avocado was my absolute favorite breakfast. paul liked it with peanut butter??
W
"Wallaroo" -- one of our funnest weekends was spent in this town, somewhere we would have never went if it wasn't for yet another amazing person we met on the road. the second time we vistied Conor in adelaide he introduced us to his lovely Toby, who within five minutes of meeting us invited us up to his familie's home in Wallaroo for the weekend. his parents are the sweetest thing, they wake you up with hugs in the morning and the rest of his family there is just as friendly. we spent a day out on the boat, snorkeling and trying our best to catch all kinds of seafood. despite our catch we had beautiful fresh seafood to eat all weekend with wonderful company. we were there on halloween weekend, which apparently isn't a big australian holiday. what did we do? watch ghost - yes, the demi moore/patrick swayze ghost.
X
"x-rated" ... never mind
Y
"yoga" -- one of our funnest days on the road trip was in the hippie haven of byron bay. it started out with a 6am yoga class -- which inever thought we would have gotten up for. but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes i've taken, all for a measely $5. that set the tone for a great day. after that we ventured to the local farmer's market, had a surf in byron's beautiful blue waters, and then another yoga class (this time free!) ... something about yoga and surfing in the smae day makes me feel so good, twice a day yoga makes it even better, and all of that in australia makes it the best.
Z
"Zalan" -- Zalan, probably the most interesting person we met on the trip. he was the owner of our vegan wwoofing sanctuary, conti. he is a 62 year old fruitarian, with long dangly arms and legs and a long dangly rat-tail. for just eating fruit, he was always working non-stop. weeding in the garden, painting floors, hauling clippings, he was always moving and searching for him was a daily activity. one of the funnest memories was preparing the monthly raw foods banquet with him. his approach was different than any raw preparation i've done and i learned a lot. strictly into whole foods, he refuses to use salt, spices, even onion or garlic. oh, and prefers to use 3 ingredients or less in everything he makes. he definitely has his own way of doing everything, and i'll remember a lot of it. his food was delicious! i have endless stories about him ... one of those people i won't soon forget.
while trying to rebuild my life down here it's helpful to look back on the year like this and realize everything that happened ... anything i'm going through now was worth it. looking through this list, i realize just what an impact the people i met had on the experience. i remember before leaving someone telling me it would be the people we met that would be the most amazing -- and i didn't really think that would be as true as it turned out to be. i can definitely be shy when it comes to meeting new people -- but this trip has reaffirmed how many amazing and genrous people there are out there -- and that's probably one of the things i was most grateful to realize and take away from the whole experience. i think when traveling you're more alone and more likely to reach out to others and it turned out amazing every time -- one of my goals now that i'm back is to try and continue that in my day to day life.
<3
A
"Adelaide or bust" -- the name of our beloved car, a '94 mitsubishi magna wagon. she actually started off with the name "huey". maybe that's why the second day we had her, she refused to start. after renting bicycles, riding to the car store, riding back balancing a heavy car battery, installing it, it still not starting, and then getting help from a friendly local ... she started again. a rebirth, with a new name, zoe. unfortunately zoe died one more time (after she was broken into to top it off) and was renamed "adelaide or bust" ... with problems good ol' adelaide got us *almost* all over the lovely country of australia.
B
"Bats!" -- one of the most amazing sights we saw on the trip. while driving down from Brisbane to Sydney we stopped in the small, but beautiful town of Bellingen. we had some dinner, and then parked down by the river to have some tea. a family pulls up next to us, sits on the grass, and we hear the dad say. "it's about to start". next thing we know the sky is filled with hundreds and then thousands of fruit bats. it was amazing to see the sky black from bats, when not expecting it at all.
C
"Conor, Cass, Courtney, and (Kaye)" -- what an amazing family! in total they probably hosted us almost a third of the time of our trip!... not to mention, gave us a home and a family to spend christmas with. it was great to see an aussie christmas and get a glimpse of the meehan traditions. google "the snowman". it's life changing.
D
"Dusseldorf!" -- because it was a random and fun stop! the flight back from France to Thailand ended up having a 5 hour layover in Dusseldorf. just enough time to get into town have a few beers and sausages and make the flight back. we were instantly transported into a taste of german culture ... the beers were delicious and cheap. one tasted practically like coca-cola, and they served it with ice cream and biscuits... yum!
E
"elephants" -- one of the most "touristy" things we did was book an elephant trek. this included a elephant ride through the jungle, followed by a bath in the river. our elephant was hilarious! we are sitting in the river on our elephant. with a thai man in the water screaming commands at him. apparently, the thai man thinks tourists want the elephant to suck up water with its trunk and spray us repeatedly. our elephant wasn't having enough. the thai man is screaming at him and he just falls over (with us on his back) and i just remember thinking, "oh god, i'm about to get crushed by an elephant"... it happened twice before the man finally stopped yelling.
F
"Fromage song!" -- France was amazing, Marie's family was so welcoming and we were luck to spend time with them ... and lucky us got to meet a good deal of Camille's family as well for her mom's birthday celebration. apparently. at parties french people like to dress up like mice and sing about cheese, who knew?
G
"Guy Sebastian" -- randomly, i am in love with the first australian idol winner, guy sebastian. one of the goals of this trip was to celebrate the new year in a different country. while deciding what to do for new years' i nearly died when the paper said he was performing for free! a sort of excited of gasp was let from me out which prompted something along the lines of "are you okay?" from conor's mom. anyways, guy was adorable and new years' was lovely. paul ended the night with a sprained ankle?
H
"heights" -- Australia has at least a couple things that would never fly in the states, one of them being climbing trees. these are trees upwards of 100 meters (300 ft!) with little metal rods stuck in the sides that you are expected to use to climb up to the top. to their credit, there is some sort a half-assed mesh type thing which i guess might hold you in if you fall. it was amazing, but on the way down i was shaking and scared and SO happy to be back on solid ground.
I
"Ian" -- we met so many overwhelmingly friendly and generous people on the trip. Ian was a random guy we met on the bus, we ended up talking to him for a while, found out we were going to the same place, and he gave us his number in case we needed anything. well, the first time our car seized to start we called Ian (as well as brian murphy) ... to ask if he recommened any mechanics in the area. he answers by saying he knows a bit about cars and offers to come take a look at it. he spends an hour or so checking connections and fiddling with things and amazingly gets it to start! in addition, he left is with tools, jumper cables, etc. and a lovely dinner at his house. not to mention more help when we got a flat tire a couple days later.
J
"Jim the Mechanic" -- our second guardian angel when it comes to the car. Ian came to our aid the first time it died, and Jim came the second time. we needed to put new tires on the car and brought them over to goodyear to have them fitted, but they were closed so we went acorss the street and met Jim, an old, jolly italian. at first he said they didn't have time to do it (I saw him repeatedly turn down business) but his mechanic said he would do it anyway so we sat and talked with Jim while our tires got put on. we got along well and he invited us out to dinner, gave us a place to stay for a few nights, and did a full check-up on the car (all free) before we took it on our first road trip. it was an amazing random meeting at that - but when we got back into town the car refused to start a second time. we were ready to sell it, but called jim for advice. he set up a cheap tow for us, housed us again and put $500+ worth of work into our car for nothing. he was a great guy, and it was sad to say goodbye.
K
"Keith and Kristine" -- while working out in the middle of nowhere "shire" of Ravensthorpe we met the sweetest couple, Keith and Kristine. they invited us out to their property for the day, picked us up, fed us tea and homemade scones, took us on a drive through the local ranges, guided us on a bushwalk through their land, taught us about the local wildflowers, introduced us to their animals (we corraled kangaroos!) and shared some great conversation. they are currently buidling their dream house on the piece of land ... all the waiter is sustainably sourced and everything will be run on solar energy. they were incredibly warm and welcoming ... and meeting person after person like this was incredible refreshing.
L
"Laurent, Leila, Livia (Dom, Marek, and Ebba) -- the spent three weeks wwoofing at the hepburn retreat center/continental house (lovingly known as "conti") ... these people were our instant family. laurent and leila were from france, livia (our yoga teacher) from slovakia, ebba from switzerland, dom and marek locals, and zalan the leader of it all. the place is a vegan retreat on beautiful grounds with plants and food growing all over. we spent a couple hours a day working in the garden or working on the grounds, lots of peaceful painting and weed-whacking (what they would call whipper-snippering). every night we would have a lovely family dinner and it was an unforgettable experience to be in an environment that was so instanty accepting. as one particularly colorful local (peter saggitarius put it, "fusion without the con". think about it!
i have so many memories of this place, coming home and being surprised by luxurious massages from our resident masseuses laurent and dom, english lessons with the frenchies (we go to gangbang now?) this place was special, i thank cass so much for telling us about it!
M
"monkeys!" -- in Thailand we decided to make a pit stop in the toen of Lopburi on our way up to Chiang Mai. the town is famous for its gang of monkeys (apparently they have a half blind leader). we check into our room see a couple monkeys on the windowsill and think its pretty cool. after that we decide to take a walk. literally, we turn a corner and there are monkeys everywhere! on telephone wires, on the sidewalks, in the streets, like pigeons. they are weaving in and out of the traffic, jumping in and out of peoples' truck beds. one comes up behind us, rips the bag we're carrying, grabs our food and proceeds to eat in in front of us just out of reach. paul bends down to take a photo and next thing i know they are on his back!
N
"Nimbin" -- the pot capital of Australia. not being big smokers ourselves, we still couldn't resist this town after all we've heard about it. it was, for the most part, a pretty innocent experience. the local lawn bowling club basically ended up adopting us for the weekend. after checking out the town (and being offered goodies at leat 50 times) we decide to head to the local bar of the bowling club to check out their karaoke night. a big old, slightly dirty and belligerent fellow with a huge white beard comes up to us and asks us if we want to smoke. why not? after doing so, we find out this character is actually the owner of the bar! so, the owner of the bar smoked us out, and to add to that the security guard tried to buy weed off of us. next came the karaoke. i never though we'd end up singing, but of course we debut as a duet singing none other than "im yours". paul goes on to sing a jet song and for me - rihanna. what? we end up winning a free 6 pack! the next day we get invited out to bowl and join a bbq - friendly people, friendly town.
O
"Opera House" -- I really didn't expect to enjoy the opera house as much as I did - it's one of those pieces of architecture that's perfect to lie down in a park and just gaze at. (the eiffel tower is this way as well, but the opera house is just so interestingly designed). i think one of the great sites of thr trip was our first view of the opera house and sydney. we were staying in the nearby beach town of manly and took the ferry into sydney the very first time. you turn the corner in the boat and get this grand view of the city, the harbor, the bridge and the opera house. it's an overhwelming view, and provides one of those "holy shit, i'm in australia" moments.
P
"pies!" -- the aussies seem to love their pies and the like. our only real job in australia was working in a roadhouse. this is a gas station/"food" stall in the middle of nowhere. the food was ... something else. either it was frozen pies we baked, or some type of frozen thing which we first microwaved and then deep fried. to make it worse, it was a bp roadhouse we were working at right in the height of all the oil spill mess. the owners were overbearing and ridiculously anal (i felt like i was in an awkward tv show the majority of the time there) but it was an experience and we got paid (unlike our other job).
Q
"quokka" -- i assumes quokka was just the name of the australian paper in which we found our used surfboards and wetsuits, but it's really like the cutest animal ever! it's kind of like a kangaroo/cat/guinea pig ... in my opinion. sadly, after i realized what it was, i never saw one in real life.
R
"Rod Caddies" -- (of http://rodeofest.com.au/) ... Rod provided us with our first couchsurfing experience ever. he was an amazing host and so laid back ... i remember walking into an unlocked house with no one there and us just wondering if that was normal. Rod is one of the most laid back and generous people I've met. and to top it off, he's interesting as heck! he is a former ex-professional bull rider. a couple months ago he shattered his pelvis and is now taking to organizing hiw own rodeo events. he is trying to bring the rodeo out of the small rural towns and into big cities at cheap prices for families ... thanks to Rod I am also now randomly a published australian writer ... Rodeo magazine! we stayed with him and he helped us out during some tight times, and shared some good ol' aussie folk songs with us.
S
"sunset surf" -- I don't know what we would have done if we didn't surf. It was the one thing we could do in every town that always provided a great experience and didn't cost a thing! I've always been intrigued by sunset surfs but never seemed to get the timing right, until our very last surf in oz at manly beach near Sydney. the waves were perfect and everything was bathed in the most beautiful shades or orange, pink, purple and everything in between. we surfed for hours and were some of the last people out of the ocean. it was absolutely beautiful.
T
"Trat" -- a little random town we found ourselves in one night in Thailand. we had a beautiful room for about $3 a night and the most amazing night market right up the street. we had plate after plate of food and deserts for at the most 50 cents each. from Trat we took a ferry to Ko Chang island. i remember grabbing a raft form our beach bungalow and just floating on it in the ocean, looking at the outline of the island, and having trouble believing i was where i was in that moment. halfway across the world in one of the most beautiful and peaceful environments I'd ever experienced. our big island activity was renting a motorbike. we rode it all the way around, through the jungle, and through rocky dirt roads that the bike was surely not meant to handle. the most amazing sight was probably a black cobra. we turned a corner and he was there in the middle of the dirt path, perked up, neck flared out looking ready to attack. it was incredible to see it in person, luckily he retreated because i was too amazed to even feel like i was in danger.
U
"uni" -- out of all the weird things we ate, this was probably my favorite. fresh uni right out if the urchin, looks weird and feels weird but i thought it was quite good. a little salty a little sweet and a little rich. the weirdest thing we ate was expectedly in thailand. i had seen these little waffle type things on a stick and had been wanting to try them all day. so in the evening we had our dinner and went to get some for our sweets. i bet into it and its filled with ... hot dog.
V
"Vegemite" -- another one of my now favortie things I tried. for months I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. towards the end of the trip vegemite on toast with avocado was my absolute favorite breakfast. paul liked it with peanut butter??
W
"Wallaroo" -- one of our funnest weekends was spent in this town, somewhere we would have never went if it wasn't for yet another amazing person we met on the road. the second time we vistied Conor in adelaide he introduced us to his lovely Toby, who within five minutes of meeting us invited us up to his familie's home in Wallaroo for the weekend. his parents are the sweetest thing, they wake you up with hugs in the morning and the rest of his family there is just as friendly. we spent a day out on the boat, snorkeling and trying our best to catch all kinds of seafood. despite our catch we had beautiful fresh seafood to eat all weekend with wonderful company. we were there on halloween weekend, which apparently isn't a big australian holiday. what did we do? watch ghost - yes, the demi moore/patrick swayze ghost.
X
"x-rated" ... never mind
Y
"yoga" -- one of our funnest days on the road trip was in the hippie haven of byron bay. it started out with a 6am yoga class -- which inever thought we would have gotten up for. but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes i've taken, all for a measely $5. that set the tone for a great day. after that we ventured to the local farmer's market, had a surf in byron's beautiful blue waters, and then another yoga class (this time free!) ... something about yoga and surfing in the smae day makes me feel so good, twice a day yoga makes it even better, and all of that in australia makes it the best.
Z
"Zalan" -- Zalan, probably the most interesting person we met on the trip. he was the owner of our vegan wwoofing sanctuary, conti. he is a 62 year old fruitarian, with long dangly arms and legs and a long dangly rat-tail. for just eating fruit, he was always working non-stop. weeding in the garden, painting floors, hauling clippings, he was always moving and searching for him was a daily activity. one of the funnest memories was preparing the monthly raw foods banquet with him. his approach was different than any raw preparation i've done and i learned a lot. strictly into whole foods, he refuses to use salt, spices, even onion or garlic. oh, and prefers to use 3 ingredients or less in everything he makes. he definitely has his own way of doing everything, and i'll remember a lot of it. his food was delicious! i have endless stories about him ... one of those people i won't soon forget.
while trying to rebuild my life down here it's helpful to look back on the year like this and realize everything that happened ... anything i'm going through now was worth it. looking through this list, i realize just what an impact the people i met had on the experience. i remember before leaving someone telling me it would be the people we met that would be the most amazing -- and i didn't really think that would be as true as it turned out to be. i can definitely be shy when it comes to meeting new people -- but this trip has reaffirmed how many amazing and genrous people there are out there -- and that's probably one of the things i was most grateful to realize and take away from the whole experience. i think when traveling you're more alone and more likely to reach out to others and it turned out amazing every time -- one of my goals now that i'm back is to try and continue that in my day to day life.
<3
Sunday, July 4, 2010
i've never been to 7/11 so often in my life...
yes, a weird opening statement after close to three months of traveling and no update - but i can't get over it. i really believe 7/11 owns part of asia, it must. it's at least twice as worse as starbucks in the states ... but it's a reliable place to get toilet paper (i have not yet totally embraced the thai way of spraying myself clean - how do you know when you're done?)and water. that is another thing in itself, friends -- i have been going through so many plastic water bottles. ugh! i feel guilty but i don't really know how else to go ... you can't drink the tap, sometimes i see centers to fill up on filtered water for my kanteen but they are few and far in between -- and in this heat you can't risk it. any advice from any fellow travelers? asides from that it's a big shenanigan to just buy a bottle of water before they try to throw it in a plastic bag with a plastic straw ... and they look at you so strangely when you refuse!
but, other than that travels are going smooth enough. i've officially seen the biggest spider in my life, or should i say caught a glimpse of it before i closed and barricaded the bathroom door? or should i say before paul closed and barricaded the bathroom door as i was standing across the room next to the front door if it came to that. hopefully that's the end of those stories. the food has been great - strangely enough the weirdest thing i've eaten wasn't because of crazy ingredients or anything like that -- it was just plain weird. i thought i'd get a delicious smelling waffle for desert and i bite into it to find that it's filled with ... hot dog? eww.
there's so much to catch up on - and with a limited time to do it in, i can already feel the randomness of this passage growing and growing.
at the moment we are in a town called lopburi, famous pretty mcuh only for the fact that it is overrun by monkeys. apparently the monkey gang is lead by a half blind geezer, though i haven't had the pleasure of seeing him yet. it really is one of the strangest things i have ever seen - there are so many more than you would expect. this morning a monkey ran up behind us and grabbed half of our breakfast goodies and then proceded up the telephone pole to eat in in front of us out of our reach. yesterday paul was bending down to take a photo and before he knew it a monkey was on his head ... it's very surreal --
almost a weirder phenomenon than the elephants! how fun was that?! some of you have probably seen the photos but we did an adventure trek which included elephant riding, bathing and a camping trip to the waterfalls. such a beautiful couple of days - but so many mosquitoes. i was worried the elephant riding experience might be a sad one - but the elephants seemed happy tromping through the jungle and the river. i would have liked more interaction with them, the guides assume you always want to be riding them so you barely see their face -- but it was a great experience. very weird because you are thrown right in there and you just do it.
....
france! what a great month as well - marie was an amazing host, as i would have expected ... we saw so many beautiful places, met some wonderful people and ate SO much good food. i think the french food has officially captivated paul's heart ...
i will say this about france - apparently at parties they like to dress up like mice and sing about cheese? it's true, there is photographic proof.
...
the last couple weeks in australia were great and i'm starting to look forward to going back. we took a roadtrip through pretty much outback land -- very interesting camping and roughing it in the middle of nowhere ... and still i have seen the most beautiful beach of the trip there. our last week was spent with a couchsurfer (apparently an ex-pro bullrider of australia?) and his couchsurf-ees. it was amazing how quickly we all became so a close group.
...
somewhat of an update of a good amount of time - i know i'm missing tons of great stories. today we are on a train to phisanulok, and then to chiang mai. from there we fly to souther thailand, into phuket. then some of the crazy beach time will begin ...
at least, that's the plan ... we'll see how it actually goes.
<3
but, other than that travels are going smooth enough. i've officially seen the biggest spider in my life, or should i say caught a glimpse of it before i closed and barricaded the bathroom door? or should i say before paul closed and barricaded the bathroom door as i was standing across the room next to the front door if it came to that. hopefully that's the end of those stories. the food has been great - strangely enough the weirdest thing i've eaten wasn't because of crazy ingredients or anything like that -- it was just plain weird. i thought i'd get a delicious smelling waffle for desert and i bite into it to find that it's filled with ... hot dog? eww.
there's so much to catch up on - and with a limited time to do it in, i can already feel the randomness of this passage growing and growing.
at the moment we are in a town called lopburi, famous pretty mcuh only for the fact that it is overrun by monkeys. apparently the monkey gang is lead by a half blind geezer, though i haven't had the pleasure of seeing him yet. it really is one of the strangest things i have ever seen - there are so many more than you would expect. this morning a monkey ran up behind us and grabbed half of our breakfast goodies and then proceded up the telephone pole to eat in in front of us out of our reach. yesterday paul was bending down to take a photo and before he knew it a monkey was on his head ... it's very surreal --
almost a weirder phenomenon than the elephants! how fun was that?! some of you have probably seen the photos but we did an adventure trek which included elephant riding, bathing and a camping trip to the waterfalls. such a beautiful couple of days - but so many mosquitoes. i was worried the elephant riding experience might be a sad one - but the elephants seemed happy tromping through the jungle and the river. i would have liked more interaction with them, the guides assume you always want to be riding them so you barely see their face -- but it was a great experience. very weird because you are thrown right in there and you just do it.
....
france! what a great month as well - marie was an amazing host, as i would have expected ... we saw so many beautiful places, met some wonderful people and ate SO much good food. i think the french food has officially captivated paul's heart ...
i will say this about france - apparently at parties they like to dress up like mice and sing about cheese? it's true, there is photographic proof.
...
the last couple weeks in australia were great and i'm starting to look forward to going back. we took a roadtrip through pretty much outback land -- very interesting camping and roughing it in the middle of nowhere ... and still i have seen the most beautiful beach of the trip there. our last week was spent with a couchsurfer (apparently an ex-pro bullrider of australia?) and his couchsurf-ees. it was amazing how quickly we all became so a close group.
...
somewhat of an update of a good amount of time - i know i'm missing tons of great stories. today we are on a train to phisanulok, and then to chiang mai. from there we fly to souther thailand, into phuket. then some of the crazy beach time will begin ...
at least, that's the plan ... we'll see how it actually goes.
<3
Monday, May 3, 2010
and so it goes ...
in two days time we will have been in australia for two weeks.
two weeks away from home. two weeks away from friends and two weeks away from family. two weeks of not really knowing at all what is coming when we wake up in the morning.
and it's going to turn into nine months!
at the moment i am sitting on a great friend's couch after a day of wondering the city of adelaide. i've developed a routine here-- get up, pack away my sleeping bag, wonder down to the library to check email and keep connected, jump on the free 99c bus down to the central market to grab whatever looks good, fresh and cheap! the central market is an awesome gathering of produce, bread, cheese and food stalls from around adelaide. when the market isn't open (sundays and mondays) we resort to mediocre grocery stores and asian markets. i'm writing this on a monday night and am so excited for the market to be open again tomorrow after a weekend of eating mi-gorengs (a slightly better version of top ramen) and random grains (which we acquired earlier in the week from the market) with the only vegetable that ever seems to look appetizing, bok choy.
right now we are kind of in a state of flux. by now we should have definitely been off of conor's couch, happily picking fruit and raking in cash in the countryside. unfortunately, it didn't happen. we ventured 3 hours out into the country to find the farmers are having a horrible season and work is slim. we could stick it out at the hostel and wait around for possible jobs, but no one knows when they'll come, and we don't really have the money to afford that. so, long story short we are back on conor's floor. (thank goodness for him!)
this week is planned to be spent looking for any type of job we may be able to find back in the city, in the hopes of saving up some cash to get to france. in any case, this evening we've decided we're buying our one way tickets to france soon and then figuring it out from there. if work doesn't present itself this week, we plan on catching a ride to perth (western australia) and escaping to live more cheaply in thailand until france comes along in june. such an adventure, eh??
even with all the uncertainty the trip has been great. we've already petted koalas and kangaroos, surfed in australian waters, seen plentiful beaches and rivers, eaten vegemite and fish and chips on the beach, learned some about local culture (bogans), and like the rest of the country have become wrapped up in a little reality tv cooking show called masterchef.
i knew starting out that the actual trip that happened would be drastically different than what we had planned. seeing it actually beginning to happen (and so soon!) is exiciting but also a bit scary. here goes to seeing where we'll be nine months from now.
cheers!
two weeks away from home. two weeks away from friends and two weeks away from family. two weeks of not really knowing at all what is coming when we wake up in the morning.
and it's going to turn into nine months!
at the moment i am sitting on a great friend's couch after a day of wondering the city of adelaide. i've developed a routine here-- get up, pack away my sleeping bag, wonder down to the library to check email and keep connected, jump on the free 99c bus down to the central market to grab whatever looks good, fresh and cheap! the central market is an awesome gathering of produce, bread, cheese and food stalls from around adelaide. when the market isn't open (sundays and mondays) we resort to mediocre grocery stores and asian markets. i'm writing this on a monday night and am so excited for the market to be open again tomorrow after a weekend of eating mi-gorengs (a slightly better version of top ramen) and random grains (which we acquired earlier in the week from the market) with the only vegetable that ever seems to look appetizing, bok choy.
right now we are kind of in a state of flux. by now we should have definitely been off of conor's couch, happily picking fruit and raking in cash in the countryside. unfortunately, it didn't happen. we ventured 3 hours out into the country to find the farmers are having a horrible season and work is slim. we could stick it out at the hostel and wait around for possible jobs, but no one knows when they'll come, and we don't really have the money to afford that. so, long story short we are back on conor's floor. (thank goodness for him!)
this week is planned to be spent looking for any type of job we may be able to find back in the city, in the hopes of saving up some cash to get to france. in any case, this evening we've decided we're buying our one way tickets to france soon and then figuring it out from there. if work doesn't present itself this week, we plan on catching a ride to perth (western australia) and escaping to live more cheaply in thailand until france comes along in june. such an adventure, eh??
even with all the uncertainty the trip has been great. we've already petted koalas and kangaroos, surfed in australian waters, seen plentiful beaches and rivers, eaten vegemite and fish and chips on the beach, learned some about local culture (bogans), and like the rest of the country have become wrapped up in a little reality tv cooking show called masterchef.
i knew starting out that the actual trip that happened would be drastically different than what we had planned. seeing it actually beginning to happen (and so soon!) is exiciting but also a bit scary. here goes to seeing where we'll be nine months from now.
cheers!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
clean slate.
i'm hurdled into one of the few spots of free space in my studio right now. clothes and belongings are strewn about around me, my knees are blotched with white paint ... and i'm realizing how easy it is to escape reality.
i never thought it would be this easy, but all you gotta do is pack up and run away.
that's kind of what i feel like i'm up to with this trip -- a chance at amazing experiences and life lessons, but also a chance to get away. maybe i'm just being a little too reflective, while painting my blue walls back to white -- but it just seems like such a wiping free of life and responsibilities i'm creating, such a clean slate.
such simpliflying! i really am purging myself of everything superfluous that i own. extra clothes, unneeded indulgences, old books that someone else can now learn from ... etc etc etc... gone! it feels great to finally be forced to do this -- i am already looking forward to the simplified life i will have when i return!
one by one i feel that i am unraveling life's deceptions. there is no right or wrong way to live. i don't work anywhere close to five days a week, i don't have any money saved up -- yet i live by the beach in a community i love and i am going on a nine month trip ... things can begin to happen if you're willing to think outside the box and just figure out how to do it!
i never thought it would be this easy, but all you gotta do is pack up and run away.
that's kind of what i feel like i'm up to with this trip -- a chance at amazing experiences and life lessons, but also a chance to get away. maybe i'm just being a little too reflective, while painting my blue walls back to white -- but it just seems like such a wiping free of life and responsibilities i'm creating, such a clean slate.
such simpliflying! i really am purging myself of everything superfluous that i own. extra clothes, unneeded indulgences, old books that someone else can now learn from ... etc etc etc... gone! it feels great to finally be forced to do this -- i am already looking forward to the simplified life i will have when i return!
one by one i feel that i am unraveling life's deceptions. there is no right or wrong way to live. i don't work anywhere close to five days a week, i don't have any money saved up -- yet i live by the beach in a community i love and i am going on a nine month trip ... things can begin to happen if you're willing to think outside the box and just figure out how to do it!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
today ...
... a woman at worked stopped me and said, "i have to ask you this. you seem so centered and relaxed. do you work towards being like this, do you meditate?".
it was an interesting question and gave me a little to think about. i don't really try to be anything. i think that i am naturally pretty laid back -- i can definitely get really excited about things, but never get too worked up. things don't really seem to get to me -- if you don't treat me well, you're not worth the time and i just don't deal with your issues. i don't really stress about it.
it was interesting actually being questioned about the way i act, rather than just being myself and doing it. things definitely get to me at work, dealing with the public, but today it was reinforced for me that everything is as big a deal or as little as you make it in your head. it was nice to hear from this woman that i may exude a calmness, and i was inspired to get in touch with that more.
i told her i have a lot of free time to myself, off of work, just to focus on life and being - which i think has a lot to do with my overall happiness ... but she didn't seem to take that as an answer. she replied, "just in general though, if you were in a stressful situation you wouldn't collapse, you would be gathered enough to deal with it."
i took our conversation as quite a compliment ... an observation from a stranger can be an interesting thing, what does this woman really know about me and how i will hold myself in a certain situation? but strangers many times have the most unbiased views of us ... i think they are important to take in every once in a while ...
it was an interesting question and gave me a little to think about. i don't really try to be anything. i think that i am naturally pretty laid back -- i can definitely get really excited about things, but never get too worked up. things don't really seem to get to me -- if you don't treat me well, you're not worth the time and i just don't deal with your issues. i don't really stress about it.
it was interesting actually being questioned about the way i act, rather than just being myself and doing it. things definitely get to me at work, dealing with the public, but today it was reinforced for me that everything is as big a deal or as little as you make it in your head. it was nice to hear from this woman that i may exude a calmness, and i was inspired to get in touch with that more.
i told her i have a lot of free time to myself, off of work, just to focus on life and being - which i think has a lot to do with my overall happiness ... but she didn't seem to take that as an answer. she replied, "just in general though, if you were in a stressful situation you wouldn't collapse, you would be gathered enough to deal with it."
i took our conversation as quite a compliment ... an observation from a stranger can be an interesting thing, what does this woman really know about me and how i will hold myself in a certain situation? but strangers many times have the most unbiased views of us ... i think they are important to take in every once in a while ...
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