An ode to my belly

I long for garlicky kale, raw kale, kale chips and kale juice. Vegan banana chocolate chip walnut cookies and dark chocolate mousse. Flatbread, Oh flatbread, why must I want you so? The longer I go without you, the more ravenous I grow. Pad thai can only be eaten so many times a week, it's hard to be a veggie head in a language you don't speak.

I drink Chang, Bintang and a shot for 50 baht but it just don't seem to cure the cravings that I've got. Up and down the street I sway. Can't I just find a IPA?

All thru the market I walk around. Turtles, eels and ducks abound. I find a stall for 20 baht. Noodles again? Sure why not! One bite, two bites, three bites in... not the odd piece of meat again!!

I really should be thankful I guess. There are SO many people who have SO less.....

Just posted a video on facebook

Phuket, Thailand

We arrived in Thailand on Monday after a 2 hour flight from Bali. Even after all the craziness of Kuta, I will really miss Bali. There was SO much that we didn't get to experience but I know in my heart that we will be back. I have fantasies of studying under Robin Lim, a midwife in Bali. She and her husband started a non-profit birthing center called in Ubud called Bumi Sehat. She is currently nominated for CNN's "hero of the year award". If she wins, her center will receive a grant that they desperately need to make improvements with and buy medical supplies. If anyone has a spare moment in their day, you should go online and vote for her. (http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive11/robin.lim.html)

So regardless, here we are in Phuket, Thailand. It is BANANAS here!! It's basically like New York and Vegas had a love child and it speaks Thai. We have been staying in Patong Beach which is as we are told, the craziest of all Phuket. We met up with our friend Nick from VT who happened to be traveling at the same time. It's been really nice to have a slice of home and another partner in crime but needless to say that after we part ways tomorrow, Nate and I will hang our livers out to dry for a while!

Thursday we left Patong for the night to head to Ko Phi Phi Don. It's about an hour taxi drive and then a 2 hour ferry ride there- upon which you get utterly drenched by the waves! Ko (island) Phi Phi is a star in it's own right as it's the place where Leonardo DiCaprio found his hidden paradise in "The Beach". Judging from the movie it's desolate and mystical. This may have been the case before Leo got off the boat, but now its completely overrun with all-night techno clubs, neon, neon, neon, tourist, hawkers galore and of course - glow sticks! There is a lot of garbage on the beach, maybe left on shore from party revelers or washed up from other islands? Nate took some time out of his morning to create a little art piece - 68 flip flops all lined up, washed up on the rocks by our bungalow!

Amongst all the madness there is still beauty to be found. If you look beyond the clubs, Phi Phi's landscape will take your breath away. Towering limestone cliffs drop down into azure water. Orchids grow rampant and the waves lap onto shore almost silently. Friday morning Nick and I enjoyed the BEST dang piña colada I have ever had (for breakfast of course) and then we all hopped on a long boat to take a mini tour of the island. The plan was to grab some pad thai (also the best I have ever had) for the second day in a row and then gran the ferry back to Phuket. Normal people would probably check the departure time in advance but no, not us. It's far more exciting when you sit down to order and see your ferry at the pier about to take off! Luckily we made it just as the ferry was about to pull back. That was only part of the adventure back home tho. When we got off the ferry, instead of taking a expensive taxi right off the dock like everyone else, we decided to start walking and see what we could haggle. After a few failed offers, as haggling is the name of the game here, we snagged 2 scooter taxis. While barely speaking english, they agreed (or so we thought) to take us the hour drive back to Patong. About 20 minutes in, our one eyed driver abruptly pulled over and told us it would be 3x more money to take us all the way!?! Huh? After a minor roadside freak out, he agreed to take us to the bus station instead. With less than 15 minutes to spare our little one eyed scooter driver hauled ass on his little pink machine and just barely (again) we caught the our ride! All in all it was an exciting day filled with long boats, ferries, scooters and buses - which we found out are the way to go from now on. A taxi for 500 baht vs. a bus for 25 ($1 US = 30.12 baht)

Back safe in sound in Patong, we now contemplate our next move. Most likely we will head to Ko Raya per Ben and Alex's recommendation. We are still in search of that majestical and quiet beach paradise where our only concern is tan lines! It seems like that may be the place.

Hope everyone had a beautiful thanksgiving! We were all fantasizing about our favorite holiday dishes as we gulped down pizza and pad thai. Pumpkin pie was the majority rule :)

Gobble gobble

Heading to Ko Tao today for some giving of thanks! Hope everyone has a beautiful day filled with family and love. There is so much to be grateful for! We will be dreaming of home as we chow down on some crazy Thai food on the beach...

Kuta- Australian for Bali!

* warning: the following post is not a reflection of all tourists or countries. Please forgive my rant... I just need to get it out of my system!

A transcendental travelation


We should have known better. We should have, yet again, trusted our instincts and the advice of fellow travelers. We should have....not gone to Kuta!
Having spent the majority of our time in Bali in the beautiful area of Ubud, we really were jonesin for some beach time. Nate and I have both shared fantasies of surfing our way around the world and from what we had read, Kuta is said to be a great place for beginners. Nice easy surf and some pretty inexpensive lessons. Boy howdy did we make a mistake. Well, I can't really say it was a mistake as we now know where we DON'T want to return to. Kuta is essentially Cancun but swarming with Australian "dude bros" on spring break rather then Americans. Had we not had the misfortune of landing there during the off season, it still would have been a poor choice. There is no resemblance of the beautiful Balinese culture and spirituality that we experienced in Ubud. Rather it is a massive, overwhelming display of neon, hawkers and vomit. Ha, well maybe not that severe but it really was such a juxtaposition. Sadly the beach is very dirty and you can't walk more than 10 paces without some swarm of ladies wanting to rub you down for a few rupiah. God knows where those hands have been before!
We managed to escape for the day on Sunday with our Dutch neighbor friends and take a tour to see two temples. One of which belongs to the royal family and the other being the famous and highly over-touristed, Tanah Lot. It is a series of three small temples, each built on its own natural peninsula on the ocean and one of which can only be reached at low tide. They are dedicated to three separate gods. The largest being for the Water God, the second for higher learning and the third for transportation. They were incredible to see but you cannot help but feel so saddened by the tourism surrounding what is meant to be sacred. It looks like the carnival came to town and brought the worst of the souvenirs with it- complete with live snakes and velvet posters! I know that we will experience this almost everywhere we go and as tourist we think, gosh how can they do this to their country? How can they exploit their heritage like this? But AS tourist we feed into it and just fuel the fire. It maybe wouldn't be half as discouraging if tourists on a whole were respectful but in the larger more populated areas it's as if all manners are forgotten. People seem to feel entitled. Entitled to "western food", demanding service right then and there and do not respect or learn about the customs of the country they are in. Why travel if you just want everything you have at home?
It takes courage and an open mind to step out of your comfort zone. We all want to feel safe and it always feels good to have a piece of home when abroad. I just hope that Nate and I will continue to follow the road less traveled...


...and I guess we must look pretty exotic over here because people from Java always want to take their picture with you!

Nate-Guy Post. Version 1.0

Nateguy entry 1
Version 1.0

Blessings to all whose eyes are awake.
So whereas Amanda has been providing beautiful blog tapas of our travels, I think my style is more of a blog entree...maybe even buffet. help yourself and sorry if there are repeats....

We spent eleven days traversing California's northern coast, with a good chunk of it in the spanking city of San Francisco. Small towns, saskwatches, bad beds, the whole deal. Highlights include, but shouldn't be limited to;

Paula the Impala.
Our trustworthy rental car.

The Avenue of the Giants.
Epic Redwood trees. Ancient brothers standing firm. No comparison to anything in the East. Nothing, nada. Show me a drive thru tree.... Sorry East Coast.

Mr. Dave-Guy and Ms. Laura Kelty, Briandeye and Sir Scott.
Four of our closest friends sharing some city adventures. Love love.

A new haircut on Haight Street.
From an awesome, well decent, Asian dude at his family's hair salon. Fifteen bucks. The price even included a drunk street woman. She smelled of pee and ranted nonsense all while eating her drippy burrito...INSIDE the salon.

Trinidad California for a reggae show.
A quasi-we're-lost-drive, but an amazing evening filled with friends, family, African food, Amandala musicians and Rise Up Family.
Do good...do good.

A missed flight to Bali...
12am differs from 12pm. Lesson learned, as Amanda has stated earlier. We got the same flight the next evening no problem.

I was greeted in Bali by the kind lady in front of me. She decided to vomit backwards and towards my feet just as we hit the runway. Why she didn't use the complimentary airline provided barf bag, we will never know. Luckily I was spared direct hit...It was eerily similar to the episode of Seinfeld where Newman gets hit second hand by the magic loogie.

Our first night at the hotel in Sanur I woke up to reeeaalllyyyy bad, really bumping dance music at like 4am...I thought it was our neighbors partying and just rolled over to catch up on my zzz. The next night though, the same music came on at the SAME time.
Not cool. Amanda slept through the first night's clubbing but not this one.
It's 4:11am. I went to investigate.
Lo and behold it was not our neighbors as I believed. The hotel was hosting a week long conference for some Asian computer company. I guess 4am seemed a good time to go to the tennis court, located outside of our room, to practice aerobics with possibly the worst, loudest music they could find. We got up pretty early that day.

Ubud is a happening little spot with lots of expats, European visitors and us. Religion, mainly Hinduism is so alive here. You can feel its pulse in the streets. In the homes. In the faces that always smile at you. Every day, life is given to the Gods with daily sacraments and offerings. The people may be financially poor, but they are rich in spirit and they share and care more than any culture or region I've experienced.
Now that I'm away from the farm, and the hustle of every day work work work, I've been given time to reflect on the very negative experience I received back in VT. It hasn't been easy. Seems like I held it in for the past two months and have only begun to face these demons lately. But I can't think of a better place to heal. Combine that with the undying patience and open hearted love of Amanda and I know my wounds heal. Time, Nate-Guy time...love to all.

Here in Bali...

There is peace amongst the chaos. There are hidden temples and shines everywhere you can see and everywhere you cannot. You try to avoid stepping on the small offerings that were left on the sidewalk from the day before and find yourself stepping on another one in the effort. The flow of traffic has a mind of it's own and whole families and a dog somehow fit onto one motorbike. Rice fields are sprawling within the confines of the busy city center and yet harmoniously they sing together. Bali is simply unlike any place I have ever been. Devotion is the pulse and lifeblood of this nation. Our waiter the other night, stopped work to light incense and pray at the alter off to the side. In the afternoon women will sit and make baskets out of banana or palm leafs for the next days offerings. The owner of our guesthouse gathers flowers every morning to line all the stairs, tables, statues and alters reminding me that there is prayer in all of our actions.
I wish this was something we understood more as a nation in the US. We are so worried about getting to work on time and updating our Facebook page that we don't give the proper love to all the gifts that we have been given.
We have been here only a few days but as more time passes, I become more grateful and more loving. Thank you Bali for opening my eyes again.