new pictures to view, caving, soppong, departing friends....

the common area at cave lodge

i just uploaded some more pictures!
http://picasaweb.google.com/carsonandmelissa/EuropeAndBeyond2

click around on that site, all of the rest of our pictures can be found in other albums under our account.

we are back in pai after a three day adventure to soppong with our friends rachael and mike, to visit caves and stay at the fabluous cave lodge, owned by an australian man who has been living in thailand for the last 30 years and knows everything there is to know about caving in the area....our friends just left yesterday for chiang mai and the south, we feel a little wistful without them, the four of us like a little team, crusing the mountains on our yahama mio motorbikes (not recommended to rent for two people, sometimes it barely felt like the motor could haul us up those steep hills, and rachael and i had to hop off to let the guys ride up solo)....

both nights up there, we stood outside the cave openings and watched literally hundreds of thousands of swifts (swallow-like birds) flying into the cave to roost at night, coming in from everywhere and swooping down and up into the inner reaches of the cave....as the dusk proceeded, the bats began to come out in dozens, flying just over our heads to enter the dark for their hunting....frogs croaked and sang and made sounds like a digeridoo, echoing the huge cave, filling the caverns. we met a great traveling couple from portland and had fun talking of the neighborhoods and our favorite restaurants there...we saw our friends fantuzzi and shoshanna again....enjoyed homemade muesli with poppyseeds (living in the region of the golden triangle, lots of poppies, lots of opium up there, at least used to be)...read the australian man's memoirs of his times up in the area....entered hare cave with its dripping stalagtites and stalagmites, creepy and dark when you turn off the beloved flashlights, you could never find your way out without them! but beautiful too, out of this world formations, crystally and white, some like little white crystal hairs growing off their base, humid air, steamy and dark, so welcome to see those sun rays pouring through the entrance and to go back out into the green earth. we saw meditation caves where monks meditate and sleep, little doorways into the earth with a platform to sleep on and a yellow robe hung outside to dry. eating fresh food from a garden at our guesthouse, playing pingpong quadruples without rules, laughing, sleeping poorly on hard-matted bamboo hut floors with a visiting orange haired/blue eyed cat in the middle of the night to cuddle up in the warmth between us.

back in pai, we said good bye to our friends (how sad!) to enjoy an-every-other-table-is-full dinner with two californians at the curry shack (perhaps the best curry in the world, green coconut curry, served in the fresh coconut with pieces of coconut floating in the curry itself)....we talked of meditation, yoga, spiritual teachers, our experiences thus far, helpxing, and the like....and this morning at the good life, fresh wheatgrass shots (finally!) and conversations with a regular there, hello to our friend chloe we met last night, and breakfast with another californian....it's so fun the people you can meet, here, anywhere, if you are open to meeting them and have the time to share yourself!

now we are back to the question....hmmm...do we stay in pai through the end of january, as we have already secured our house till then. not sure....we spoke with the portlanders in soppong about laos, where they just came from, and of cambodia too....we are still thinking of going there next. chloe is going to bali next month and that is close and sounds fun too...who knows? we are going to take some time apart today and get in touch with what feels right for our next movement.

carson is reading the lord of the rings, fellowship of the ring....i'm reading a beautiful book that my friend nishkama recommended, the hummingbird's daughter, it takes place in mexico and every time i read it i want to go there, eat some tacos and salsa and guacomole, beans and rice, learn the language.

i love watching the city below and the sun setting as we drive up to our place every night...or the lights if it's dark, the little smiling moon on it's belly lighting up the sky a little...last night i saw one floating lantern, make a wish....orion's belt, other stars, the whole milky way out in dark soppong, all those other worlds, all those other places, so many places to explore, just on this earth!!

enjoy the pictures! we'll upload some soon of the pai experience, the friends we made here, some cave formations, and our little cottage with twelve windows, a wood floor, and the most comfortable and clean bed in thailand!