Thailand, the first time

Pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/MarkSNewell/Thailand

Bangkok and TnT's Wedding
Dec 28 - 31
Bangkok during the Christmas holidays was like being in Las Vegas, crazy with lights, non-stop Christmas carols, and mega sized trees and shopping galore. For us, it was mostly about the new food experiences and getting ready for Travis's and Ticha's wedding.
We then headed outside of Bangkok about an hour to an amazing resort for the wedding festivities. There was both traditional Thai and western ceremonies, a rich array of food, and dancing under the full moon.

Koh Muk and the 'Funnymoon'
Jan 1 – 11

We enjoyed a night train to Trang and beelined for Koh Muk, an island that looked nice on a poster in the travel agent's office wall. We found wonderful snorkeling and had kayaking adventures to neighboring islands. A highlight was getting caught in a intense thunder and lightning storm while in the middle of a 5 mile crossing on a sit-on-top kayak. The sky closed in and we could only see 10 or 20 feet, except when lighting lit up the sky. We navigated by the wave chop and intuition until the storm passed. The thunder was intense at times we could feel it. Absolutely beautiful.

After a relaxing 4 days of kayaking and snorkeling, we hopped a snorkeling tour boat (the cheapest and most used for of transport between islands) and landed on Koh Lanta, the destination for Travis and Ticha's 'funnymoon' - a relaxing week spent drinking beer, playing beach volleyball, and eating delicious food. We only joined in on a few days of this, but fully enjoyed our time meeting some new friends, touring a really outrageous underground cave, and relaxing.

Chiang Mai

Jan 12 – 20, 2010
The top experiences here were our visit to Pun Pun, http://www.punpunthailand.org/, an organic seed saving peramculture farm outside Chiang Mai, and reconnecting with Chris Greacen, a friend and colleague from Home Power Magazine (18 years ago). Meeting Chris's wife and children, Chom, Sara and Ty and bringing our relationship up to date was a real pleasure. Pun Pun is a wonderful experience in itself with various natural buildings of adobe, bamboo and wood scattered about a small farm. The big achievement here seem to be successfully demonstrating to the local population how organic agriculture can restore barren soil and replace fertilizers, and how people can resume control over their food production through saving seed and discontinuing use of GMO seed, all things that Joe and Peggy, the founders of Pun Pun, have accomplished.

We took a small road trip with Chris, Chom, Sara and Ty as well as Nikola and Uma, friends from Lopez Island, to Chiang Dao, where we stayed at Makampong. Makampong is a NGO that uses theater is its primary mode of supporting ethnic people in Thailand, particularly refugee populations. They have innovative programs such as a bookmobile trailer that can be towed by a motor cycle to remote locations and to promote cross generation reading/teaching projects, all very inspiring. Richard, the founder (?)of the NGO, told a story of how an ethnic group has approached the foundation for funds to support a program to save a traditional sword dance from being forgotten. Apparently there were only two elders remaining who knew the dance form and they hoped to attract a few younger people to learn the technique. The funds they requested were to purchase 14 chickens – seven to feed the participants on a weeklong retreat in the jungle, seven to be used as an offering to the forest gods. The retreat was overwhelming successful and today there are more than 30 people who now carry the tradition forward. Yeah for community directed support.

We joined Chris as he did a couple micro-hydro assessments, which was really interesting for me. Chris and Chom have been doing renewable energy policy work in SE Asia and are the brains behind the net metering policy in Thailand and other developing countries. Chris also helped start another NGO, http://palangthai.blogspot.com/, that helps communities assess and install micro-hydro and renewable energy projects to power clinics and help provide basic infrastructure for remote villages. Super cool stuff.

After saying good bye to Chris, Chom, Ty, Sara, Nikola and Uma, we headed off to Laos.

The last of India

Pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/MarkSNewell/LastOfIndia

Auroville

Dec 19-25

Auroville, an intentional community in southeastern India, was on my list of places we must visit primarily because of their pioneering work in solar ovens and lights, steam generators, bio-digesters, green building, and other appropriate technology. The visit did not disappoint in this regard and we had the opportunity to meet some interesting and amazing people doing great work in the field of sustainability. We also had the pleasure of meeting Suzie, the sister of one of our Seattle community members. Suzie introduced us to insider aspects of the intentional community and to the Matrimandir, an incredible space for contemplation and meditation, both architecturally and functionally. To describe the Matrimandir would take pages but imagine a sphere maybe 100ft in diameter, covered in gold dimples, with passageways inside and a cool, white interior lit by a single shaft of sunlight striking a crystal.

Auroville was a real treat and the time we spent there is one of my top highlights in India. For others interested in Auroville, I would recommend connecting in advance with a project going on there as I think it would make the visit rewarding and interesting.

Kolkata

Dec 25 – 28

A had brief stop in Kolkata before heading to Thailand. We found the city to be quite welcoming and a whole lot less intense than we expected it to be. It was brief; we walked around and shopped a lot. We also stayed in our skankiest place on the trip.

Cochin and the backwaters of Kerala

We spent a couple of days exploring various aspects of the famous Kerala backwaters. This brief amount of time gave us a peek in to a life that left me fascinated and hungry for more. I'm sure it's just romantic idealization, but given my love for the water, this area seemed like paradise: a spider web water system, ranging from small canals barely 6 feet wide to the Arabian sea; long handmade boats of teak, sewn together with coir rope (rope made from the coconut husk), and preserved with cashew oil; fruit, vegetables, coconuts and lots of fresh seafood; and the wonderful, friendly, welcoming people of Kerala, whose excellent English skills just make everything more fun and interesting.

Hopefully a few pictures will seal the deal and leave you want more as it did us. http://picasaweb.google.com/marksnewell/cochin#

Where the heck have we been?

Oh, my. Sorry we sort of fell of the planet this past month. After our last post we were sucked into the intensity which is India, then found ourselves in a 10 day silent meditation course, and later, deep in the remote west, where we were so foreign (alien, really) that families would mob us for our picture, and entire streets of people would stop to point and giggle at us. "Name?" and "Your country?" they would shout, those being the only bits of English they could mange. Somehow email and uploading files felt far far away.

We're thoroughly enjoying ourselves, and are becoming quite seasoned travelers here in "Incredible India" as the posters say. We can hold our own with even the most pushy rickshaw drivers – the true scoundrels of India. We can successfully navigate the public transportation systems, and I have managed to endure the public bus stand toilets without retching. We know the fair price for bananas, tiny and sweet, is 1 Rupee a piece (about 2 cents), but you have to bargain. We've learned that Anything Is Possible here in India. Some of the sights, sounds, and smells that were so shocking two months ago now seem rather normal…a large bull meandering into a beachside restaurant…a young boy sitting cross-legged on the back of his friend's bicycle as they bounce along a pot-holed road…a large, six foot deep man-eating hole on a major sidewalk in the metropolis of New Delhi…a herd of goats stopping traffic on a major highway, and the public bus driver swerving off the road and passing on the wrong side… The list goes on – we could fill pages of these crazy sights and experiences that are part of everyday life here. We love the richness and intensity of life here – the colors, the smells (wonderful and horrible), the textures, the tastes. It is easy to see now how people come here and never leave…or come back again and again.

Next on our agenda we're heading south to the state of Kerala. The landscape here in Goa is green, lush, and tropical; Kerala should be more of the same. We hope to venture into the mountains of Kerala as well, where beautiful tea plantations stretch for miles. We leave India from Kolkata (Calcutta) on December 28^th, and head towards Thailand. We're not sure what our plans are after that, we're still formulating them. We're not sure when we're coming home…but we will, we miss you all horribly.

Om Beach and Goa

Nov 26-28 and Dec 2–11
http://picasaweb.google.com/MarkSNewell/HampiTheBeachesAgondaOm#
Originally we weren't planning to stop in Goa, but it was just too convenient a stop on our way to Hampi (see below) to say no to the white sand, warm water, and relaxing beach life style. We decided to steer clear of the super touristy parts of Goa, and made a bee line to the quite beaches of Agonda and Om Beach (named so because the beach line is shaped like the Om symbol). Did you know that the Goa of the late 90's – the all night techno parties under the full moon – is all but gone? Yup – the government cracked down big time, as the hippy/drug/party organizing crowd couldn't afford the steep bribes the government was asking, and in the end high-end tourism had the bigger wallet. Most of Goa is now more like Cancun than India. What a shame. Some towns even have bans on loud music after 10pm, and some clubs now offer "silent discos" where all the dancers wear wireless headsets and groove to a silent beat.

We managed to find two idyllic out-of-the-way beaches to relax, eat lots of fish, and swim for countless hours a day. We were horrified to realize that we hadn't been swimming in nature since last December when we went to Belize! (Yes, we did spend a month ON the water this August kayaking, but the water was so cold we only bathed – no swimming). I had not been feeling well since we were in Gujarat – low energy, no appetite, nauseous at times – and finally, three days ago, came down with my first real tummy bug of the trip. Om Beach was a good place to recover and eat bland tourist food for a few days.

Hampi

Nov 29 – 2

http://picasaweb.google.com/MarkSNewell/HampiTheBeachesAgondaOm#

Hampi has to be one of the most recommended destinations by fellow travelers, enough so that we added it to our plans. We were not disappointed. The site reminds me of Joshua Tree with massive rounded granite boulders strewn about, only here there are hundreds of temples, some dating back more than a thousand years, dotting the landscape. It's an epic place, and in its day is said to have rivaled any of the most magnificent European cities, including Rome. We found the 'scene' to be quite relaxed and loved the feeling at our guesthouse, the Goan Corner. Picture a slackline strung between a few palms, a view out on to rice fields in the process of being harvested and backed by a stunning ridge of orange boulders the size of houses, and the warm glow of sunset and tanned bodies. Hampi is super big with rock climbers who flock here for the phenomenal bouldering. In the evenings a family atmosphere pervades and stories are shared.

Our days in Hampi were quite warm as we ventured out to visit some of temple ruins. A river cuts through one side of Hampi and is still plied by the traditional woven round basket 'boat'. Dara and I rented a moped as a heat beating strategy and had a blast tootling around in this ancient, surreal land.

Gujarat & Bhuj

Nov 20 – 25

http://picasaweb.google.com/MarkSNewell/Kutch#
One of our most interesting days in Kutch, the western region of Gujarat state, was a full day of exploring several villages outside the city of Bhuj. We arranged a guide/rickshaw driver, Barat, who was such a sweet soul; we enjoyed our day with him immensely. We traveled along narrow bumpy single track roads through bushy, dry terrain dotted with the occasional plots of cotton and castor oil. We stopped in a large village with a huge contemporary Hindu Swaminaraya temple – so colorful and unlike other Hindu temples. Next we visited a small settlement where a tribal family (father and two sons and their wives) were weaving shawls and blankets. The colorful work was done on large looms similar in size to a grand piano. The family was in its fifth and sixth generation of weaving. Next on our tour with Barat was a visit to an extremely poor village. I find it difficult to describe my experience except that I was humbled by the welcome we received and uncomfortable in the contrast of knowing how fortunate my life is to have no want for food, access to good water and a wonderful home to go back to, not to mention the privilege of education, great jobs and unheard of recreational and leisure opportunities. Poverty can be found everywhere in India, but this was perhaps the first time we had sat in the homes or kitchens long enough for me to really take it in. These people seemed to have so little opportunity to improve their lives that it is likely that the same situation would continue for their children and grandchildren. The experience for me wasn't sad, though seeing the face of a very young girl, perhaps a year old, so covered in flies that she was clearly overwhelmed was very heart wrenching. Overall I found the visit sobering and something that will stay with me for a long time. I'm still left wondering what kind of assistance or access to resources would be helpful or appropriate and I don't think there are any easy answers. I have a new found appreciation for the challenges of community and economic development in such poor areas.

Many of the homes we visited were constructed from adobe-like earth bricks, and plastered with a sand, clay and cow dung mixture. Having studied and worked on cob buildings (cob is the English name for a building technique using clay, sand and straw, and can be found many places in Europe) it was very interesting to me to see similar technology being used in the dry regions of India. Kutch experienced a major earthquake in January 2001, when 20,000 people died and over 1.2 million homes were destroyed. The man who built these buildings said they were unmolested by the earthquake, save minor cracking, but I don't believe this to be true for all these adobe based buildings.
After lunch in the home of a friend of Barat's, we stopped at the workshop of a family of traditional bell makers. Dara and I fell in love with these melodious bells, once used for livestock, and brought some home with us. The next stop was in the home of a family of Rogan artists, an art form based on oil painting on fabric. This family of seven artisans is said to be the only remaining people who know this art form. We found it to be quite stunning. Our final stop of the day was a Rabari village that made lacquer ware. We were treated to a demonstration of wood turning using a bow to make a wooden spoon, which is then decorated with multiple layers of color.

It was a long and full day and on reflection, left me with a deep appreciation for the traditions and craftwork that have continued for generations, and grateful that in our modern world these crafts continue to be a source of livelihood and pride.