win, lose or draw and Merry Christmas

wow, ok, love northern Thailand. i spent 6 days in the Chaing Mai region. the main thing i wanted to do was take a Thai cooking course, but i ended up kind of doing everything but that. here are the highlights:

- my new vagrant-mates: Sarah, Takashi, Craig, Pong, Sau, Nan, the other Nan, Nuran, Jake, the brother and sister from England, David, Tom, and Stephan, many more
- i fell in love with my seat-mate on the train, Nuran. he is 52 years old college Physics prof, father of three other adult Scientists. he was exuberantly friendly, preciously nerdy and very knowledge of local flora and fauna passing by out the window. he was going to a flower expo in Chaing Mai. for three days he was just going to take photos of flowers and he was so excited. he taught me helpful phrases and numbers in Thai. and offered me unlabeled small, white tablets to take for my cold, which i graciously consumed without a second thought as to whether or not that was a "smart idea". well, they didn't have poison in them. Nuran was really one of those rare unbelievably kind, generous people - he inspires me to love others without expecting anything in return.
- visiting elephant jungle habitat
- riding an elephant with Sarah - more uncomfortably, akwardly scary than i expected
- most phenomonal herbal spa treatment day with Sarah
- super hospitably fun hostel manager
- camping at hot springs with hostel folk
- sitting in outdoor hot spring under the vast Thai sky in the middle of winter (it's weird to be looking at the same stars and constellations that i'm so familiar with in such a foreign context)
- hiking through rice fields along narrow foot paths
- climbing up around the crystal clear, jungly waterfall
- picking passion fruit from tree and scooping out fruit with fingers
- sampling plethora of incredible coffee shops slash health food stores in city
- reading Red Moon Rising and Bible at said coffee shops and under certain trees
- getting lost in city alone and not caring
- joining in on random Thai church's Christmas Eve pary uninvited and completely welcomed - i was looking for, expecting some type of sacred, somber service full of peace and candlelight, but instead when i showed up with my Hawaiian/Japanese semi-religious friend, Takashi, the church members were in the middle of an exciting round of "win, lose, or draw". They encouraged us to partake of their giant buffet of tasty homemade Thai fare and gave us homemade ice cream with corn kernels. we sang, we prayed, we played games, people shared, people loved, the kids put on a Christmas pageant. the first gift they gave me was a little casette of some sermon about prayer, but then we realized that it was in Thai, so they gave me a new present, a coffee mug, with a very artistic photograph of this Western man holding a Western woman. i donated the mug to the hostel and my friend, Takashi left with a nice hand towel that will be very helpful in his travels. it was like they were expecting us or something, like i was meant to spend this Christmas Eve with this small body of believers at Grace Church Chaing Mai in Thailand. it was completely natural, completely novel. it was extraordinary and foreign and familiar all at once. a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. i think God is pleased with that church and their love for one another and for strangers.


i hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, doing old things or new.
i am now back in America - it was a long ride home.
i am trying to embrace the changes in my life.
maybe so they don't "embrace" me or suffocate me.
it's a hard transition.
but i'm choosing joy.
i'm choosing to weep and remember
and i'm choosing joy.

there are many people on this continent that
i would like to hug and to hear from.
all my love,
- m.

salty Thai rain and the red lagoon

wow - ok, Ben and i went to the beach in Thailand for 4/5 days, the Krabi province. wow, the water was warm and the perfect, electric-turquoise green, the sand was cream-colored and so fine, like powder. the waves were miniscule, which may not be ideal for adventure boarding but leaves an amazing, huge-crazy-serene-hot-tub effect on the ocean.

i hate the idea of the mask and the breathing tube and i don't really like looking at fish, but we went snorkeling on various islands and it took about two seconds to be surrounded by schools of exotic, tropical fish. we rode around on this sweet long-tail wooden boat. i love cruising on the surface of the water and i love the unpredictable bumpiness when we hit different waves. and i love how it seems like the islands are moving rather than the boat.

got burned out by the megaly touristed beach town of Ao Nong... but the last day at the beach was for sure the best. i got a late start out to a neighboring island. when we were aproaching this other beach there was a fine rain outside. i left by stuff in the shop of this nice Indian man on the island and i just headed out for the rainy coast. it was such an incredible experience being in the ocean when it's raining. i had salt on my lips without putting my head in the water, the raindrops were splashing the ocean water onto my face. as i looked out right above the surface of the vast ocean there was a fine mist hovering over the water. it was such a transcendant experience the warm water, the cool rain, the fine mist, the empty beach - it was completely sublime and i have no idea how long i was in the water or when the rain stopped, but it was mostly off and on all day.

later i ran into Ben and we went to check out this remote lagoon he had seen on the map. wow, oh wow! hard to describe. we climbed up the side of this hill using a muddy rope, tree roots and crevices - not the best conditions but the rope and the mysterious lagoon were too luring. we went up, across and back down. it was crazy slippery and strenuous. when we got to the lagoon - i had never seen anything like it. the flora and fauna had this storybook/fairytale effect. i can't explain to you this giant tree in the middle... the bottom of the trunk flanked out in five directions like a star. each wing was pretty thick and taller than me for sure. i couldn't even see the top of the tree - it was super surreal and the dirt was this electric-brick-red, super slimy yet firm. wow, this was the highlight of my island experience for sure. so, yeah, when isolated from the trendy resort/Western vacation commercial scene, the beaches in Thailand are actually quite phenomonal and full of beauty.

currently in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, loving it, more to come.

village life.

went to the village, stayed a few days.
it felt like a museum, but it was really their house.
we picked coffee in the fog, and ate pineapples on the patio.
walked out in the dark to milk the cow, but misunderstood
and thought she said "the cow has no milk."
tired and disoriented, i went back to bed.

the house was made of red clay and wood.
i stayed upstairs and the floor was slanted.
i knocked over this really cheap piece of furniture.
it was really loud and i was really embarassed.
everything i did was juto, unclean.
the family was Hindu and very traditional.
and the wife kept wanting to know which caste we were from.

the bus ride was 10 hours, mostly clinging to
side of mountain via the seat in front of us.
bedeshis sliding, laughing on the back bench of the bus
stopped in many incredible little villages along the way
slash i just finished my last parasite-killer-medicine
most likely due to the tasty village fare.

there was a wood fire in the juto kitchen where we mostly hung out.
with the daughter-in-laws of the family.
it was like a campfire, but we were inside and there was no chimney.
the young women fed me and freed me.
and they laughed when i couldn't roll the bread as smoothly as them.
putrid steamy yoghurt and sweet pickled lopsy.
burning dung for fuel and sipping home-grown coffee.
outhouses and stone-grinder-things.
primitivity is good for the soul.
it seemed like i was getting back to my roots
returning home, even though i was never a pioneer.
everyone should spend the night in a one-room-cabin
or a house made of clay - it changes things,
it makes you want to listen more and speak less.
and thank God for your rice.

after the village we
debriefed in Pokhara
paragliding, kayaking,
hiking, crying,
skipping rocks.
we visited a family that lived in
a tiny room just a block from the
tourist area, worlds apart

i leave for Thailand tomorrow
with peace in my heart.
together, nepal, together-apart.