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.