pictures!

we finally uploaded our pictures to a disc, which makes it oh so much easier to put them online! i've started the process of putting them on picasa, and you can follow this link to take a look at the album-in-progress.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/carsonandmelissa/EuropeAndBeyond




Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~Mary Oliver

it's easy to meet great people in a small town

pai is flooded with new years holiday tourists, the streets are full tonight of everyone, the riverside is crammed with tents and cars that drove in from other places, from the south, from bangkok, from everywhere near. much different a place than last week! today we took a ride out to a guesthouse in the country and had lunch, and then went to one of the nearby temples, this one up on the hill, with over 300 stairs to climb to reach the top, big-leaved trees on either side with their leaves falling off (remember, we are chasing fall!) and then at the top, we went into the temple and a monk welcomed us in. we sat with our feet not facing the front, as that would be rude, and put our hands in prayer looking up at the golden buddhas in front of us. the monk motioned for us to come closer, and with two other people, he dipped this bamboo brush thing into water and flicked the water over us in a rhythm, as he recited a mantra, said it was for good luck from the buddha, showering us all three times...i felt renewed. we went outside and bought two little packs of offerings...three sticks of incense to light, a yellow candle, and a little boquet of white or yellow flowers wrapped in woven banana leaf. we took those back inside and a thai woman told us how to light the candle, light the incense, say our deepest prayers and wishes, and then stick the incense in with the rest of them, and the flowers on a tray for our offerings....lighting the incense reminded me of how in all the catholic churches we visited in europe, there were always trays and trays of little tealight candles burning, and you could light one for someone and keep it burning there for them....here, the incense keeps burning for your prayers and wishes and for "good luck from the buddha" too....the monk acknowledged us again, so amazing to look into his eyes, i felt so humble and blessed to be there, the light pouring through, this little temple above pai with an extraordinary view of the valley and mountains beyond.

we've had lots of little synchronicities and nice things happening....we had a wonderful christmas dinner buffet at one of our favorite little cafes, the good life. they cooked a buffet for all the farang (foreigners) to celebrate christmas. i saw the people who had played music the night before at phu pai (really great! the band is called the tonic rays) and asked if we could sit with them. they said yes, and it was lots of fun, turns out the guy is the editor of the thailand lonely planet for the past 20 or more years! then another friend of theirs came to join, and he has also traveled extensively in SE asia, and we all had the greatest conversations. we met them later at phu pai, and met a friend of theirs named sarah who lives here, and it turns out carson and i met her two years ago at burning man at an acroyoga workshop at the heebeegeebeehealers camp!! we all thought we looked familiar to each other, and somehow she remembered how we had met...amazing! then they led us over to a bar that just opened that night for bikers...the couple both ride big motorcycles and were so sweet, and there we met the taco lady, who kira had told carson about just that morning! turns out they are not making their delicious, fresh homemade tacos anymore, which kira enjoyed very much when she was here, but we got to meet the taco lady none the less through this network of newly made friends :) the next night we dined with a musician named fantuzzi who i had seen play in bellingham when i was like 17....he is in pai with his girlfriend and they invited us to join them at na's kitchen...we went to watch them play later, and lo and behold it was rebecca and cyril from our first night out on the town! we'd all been bummed that we hadn't gotten each other's contact info that first night, and luckily rebecca had stayed an extra week in pai (which seems to happen to everyone we meet) and just happened to stop by phu pai that night :) how great, as she already feels like a great friend and we may have convinced her to come to burning man next year :)

we are both deeply immersed in our books right now, carson with shogun, and me with jonathan strange & mr norrell....we switched when we got to thailand, as we each finished the other while we were in italy. they are both over 1000 pages and we are both 3/4 of the way through. today i bought harry potter #3 to keep going with that series...if anyone has book recommendations please send them our way, it's quite easy to get english language books here. in fact, english is everywhere in these towns and it's the preferred second language.

we keep thinking of our choice to stay here for another month...on one hand it sounds so nice to relax and really deeply explore this area, and on another, we think, should we get going? will we get bored, are we not "doing" enough? so hard to not be 'doing something' all the time, living with some 'purpose' that seems 'worthwhile' than just relaxing...learning how to do that better every day. so we'll see. we have to go to chiang mai next sunday to head up to the burma border to renew our visa, and also to go to the chiang mai sunday market again and have juice at Juicy 4U of course! if we want to leave Pai a little early, than we can just forfeit a little of our month's rent....but our place is so cute, with a great view and our own little table with chairs to sit at, and windows all around, a larger clean bathroom, and a little refrigerator to hold yogurt and fruit and carson's favorite cookies from pai blues down the street.

we will continue to eat lots of smoothies and lassis and carson his iced coffees too. and whether we stay in pai for another month or not, i think we're planning to go to laos after this, and then to cambodia, and then back into thailand to visit the south after the hordes of tourists leave. oh, but i think at least a horde of tourists are here in pai tonight, and i guess we're two of them aren't we. it feels like we've been here for AGES, it's been 10 days or so, but it does feel like a home.

we are starving for check-in emails, and would love to hear from anyone who reads this! does anyone have any creative or interesting questions about our trip for us to answer?
much love!
melissa

merry christmas!

merry christmas to all at home!
your faithful travels experience a surreal holiday in a warm place, with christmas decorations put out for the sake of the tourists, and bands playing christmas songs for us too, little santa hats floating around here and there... :) our wheatgrass juice bar place, where our favorite girl works, she is soooooooo sweet and friendly and welcoming always and excited to see us, and us her, we all just smile and smile and laugh...they are cooking a "christmas" buffet tonight of traditional thai food from the area, and they invited us to come along. it sounds like fun!

i wanted to describe the beautiful paper lanterns we see floating in the sky every night....you can buy them from the night street vendors, and i haven't seen them released yet, but they fly up into the sky with a candle? or oil? not sure, but all aflame, and become these little glowing orange stars in the sky as they float up and up....our friend cyril said to make a wish every time you see one. i think they are for letting go of what you want to let go of, symbolically, putting it all into the little lantern and letting it float on up there and release. last night we saw quite a few, i love them!

today we are going to go check out the place on the hill...perhaps we will rent it for a month...i really just wanted to say hello and send love! hope you are all enjoying being with your families and loved ones and friends, if you are! we'll be there in spirit!
love,
melissa

welcome to pai-radise

until we get our camera contents uploaded, i've resorted to getting images from google images to at least share a little of what we are seeing with y'all (though i suppose you can do the same!) the first two pics are of the surrounding valley and mountains here, and the third is the cutest little coffee place here in the VW van that we walk by every day :)

we are writing blogs simultaneously right now so i don't know what carson is sharing, but wow do we love pai! we have been going going going on our trip and now.....stop and breathe and be. we find more things to love about this place every day. the night before my birthday we sat down on the side of the street that is full of food vendors, clothes and things, little bars that remind me of burning man, etc. for some homemade indian food, samosas, fresh parantha bread, dal, chai, and vegetables...so yummy!...and we met the two other people who were sitting at our table randomly that didn't know each other either...a woman from west virginia and a man from northern france...we all started talking and talked of traveling, in india, in thailand, in bolivia, how to keep traveling, our love of traveling, etc, how you really do just want to stay in one place for a while to soak it up (cyril had come to pai last year intending on a three day stay and stayed for three months!). we walked through town a couple of nights later to the be-bop, the for sure most happening place after 10:30 or so, and there were four bands from bangkok playing, the most rocking roll almost metal music but really good, and the place was full of thai people and travelers and smoke and lots of buckets full of thai whiskey and thai red bull that have seven straws that everyone passes around and drinks together (carson discovered my trick of bringing the liquid up to my mouth like i was taking a drink, but then not sucking any in, he knows me too well :) it was so fun though, we all danced, and stayed till they close, we met some other people from holland, france, slovenia (who were so excited when we told them we'd just been there!), portland (!!), germany, and this great thai woman named bee that kept calling me "honey"....we all hopped on motorbikes after they closed and headed to don't cry, this place on the other side of the river that stays open till seven a.m. and has a big bonfire outside to sit around. by this time it was after midnight, and everyone sang me happy birthday around the fire! so special!! carson and i made it home by 4 and gratefully fell into bed. my birthday was wonderful, a breakfast by this place that has this huge beautiful outdoor pool a little bit out of town, a nice oil massage done thai style, lunch/dinner at our favorite place, na's kitchen (we ate there tonight too!), and we when to the most beautiful bar/music venue last night called phu pai where there is acoustic music, a man played guitar so brilliantly as we sipped on our fresh mint/lime/orange/sugar cane/thai rum mojitos, candles everywhere, remixed billie holiday music on inbetween acoustic acts....it was a really special day!

today we took a motorbike ride up into the hills out of town, checking out different places for more of a long-term rental. we saw everything from a bamboo grass shack for $5 a night, to a absolutely gorgeous landscaped former-orange-plantation pond/river/lotus blooming resort bungalow for $75 a night (a LOT for these parts!) we met some great people at all the places, co-owners from japan, new zealand, england, and their thai spouses. we found one place for around $30 a night that is absolutely gorgeous that we are going to inquire about renting for longer. we just happen to be here in the highest tourist season of the entire year, new years, so after that there will be more openings (we can stay at the place we are in for as long as we want). we just love it here....especially getting out of town a little, all the rice paddies and hills and green everywhere, and the people who are so very kind, and fellow travelers. we met a guy from england today who has just been extending his visa for a few years! he told us he will talk to some farmer friends and see if they have any places for rent.

since being in thailand, i have felt so peaceful, powerful, and connected. carson and i were talking today and i was thinking of my "home" places, those that i love the most where i feel so good and inspired to be in...bellingham of course, and heartwood always, and maui...and here too. it feels like we've been here for a couple of weeks, yet it's our 4th day! we are familiar faces now at our wheatgrass counter, one of the girls who works there is so sweet and is always happy to see us there, smiling, kap kun kaaaaah we say and bow to each other. i put my hands in prayer here a lot to say thank you.

tonight at dinner we met a man from texas who lived in hawaii and he told us of swimming with the sea turtles, honu, in hawaii and how he rescued a big "grandaddy honu" from under the coral, and then a few days later a turtle led him out to a community of turtles and they were all just swimming there facing him, as if to thank him. on thursday night, cyril told us of his time in senegal, and how everyone there is dancing, all the time. to think of not dancing is....unthinkable. constant rhythm and movement. if a person dies or gets married, they dance for three days and three nights, nonstop, people come and join from all over, dancing and dancing. i want to learn to dance like that! i want to be free in my expression. yesterday when carson told a thai woman at the massage place that it was my birthday, she just started laughing and raising her voice so excitedly, "happy birthday!!" laughing and laughing so happy for me, we both laughed so hard too, i felt so honored.

come to pai! (morgan, you would love it!)

i'm sure i'll write again soon, but i hope everyone is having a beautiful holiday season, we miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
love,
melissa

ramblings from pai

hello from pai!

it is i, carson, you're not so faithful blogger saying hello to you from southeast asia. i am sitting in this internet zone in a huge padded leather chair relaxing. the chair slightly reclines, and so i'm taking advantage of that and slouching down slightly just to be the most comfortable that i can be. i have no sandals on, as you don't wear sandals in this particular shop. it is cooler up here in the mountains and so at 8 pm i am wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and my bamboo jacket that i purchased at same-under-neath in portland during the mississippi street fair (20 bucks! normally 110 what a bargain!) my head is shaved...i did that in chiang mai last week. on my wrist is a red coral bracelet that i got during the sunday market from a really nice girl from holland. each piece is fire red and about 1 inch long. there are 34 pieces strung vertically. i also purchased a really amazing ring that is all silver on the band, with a black pearl from southern thailand on one side, three really small horizontal stones one on top of the other, (moonstone, a deep black one, and an orange one) and then a vertical turquoise stone on the right side of the ring. i wear that on my pinky on my left hand. i am slightly tan, and like i said...really comfortable right now! today was a very nice day and pretty typical of what we are doing right now. we woke up in our beautiful bungalow, hung out for a little while. we walked a few blocks, and then sat down at the wheatgrass bar that we frequent daily, having a delicious shot and some tea. there we met steven from victoria b.c., who was really nice. then we walked down to this great organic restaurant that is situated right on the river. we sat in big plush bamboo chairs on an open terrace and talked, eating delicious breakfast. then we walked back to the bungalow, hung out during the hot midday sun, ate some cookies with peanut butter from a great local bakery/restaurant. we decided to go out for a scooter drive to find another place to stay that is a little out of town, and so upon leaving we met another person from holland and chatted with him for awhile. we took the bike out and rode up hills and on the left side of us had an amazing view of pai valley, and on the right side we checked out some really funky places, and some amazing pristine places. all ranging from 5-70 dollars per night. next, we started driving back to ginger's secret garden. we rode the scooter up a hill to the cafe' and sat down in the sun in some really nice reclined bamboo chairs, i drank iced coffee and melissa a smoothie. there, we met claire, from france who we had seen the night before at an acoustic bar. she was hilarious and really nice. then we met jim, from england, who has lived here for 4 years and has lots of connections and owns a bar in town and is really friendly and helpful. he's in his 20's, and had just gone into the jungle with a machete knife and come out with some orchids. he cuts off a section of log that they are growing on and then puts chains on either end and hangs them in his house. i guess they get huge! he asked how long we are staying in pai and we said maybe a little while, because we love it here. and he offered to find us a place to live. so now we are looking at renting a house in pai for a month or so, to really soak it in here and take advantage of the mecca that it is. we came back to town after watching the sunset and ate fresh fish and curry at our favorite restaurant with coconut mango smoothies (for 8 dollars) and now we are here!

righttttttt. i have only been in pai for just over 4 days, but it feels like i've been here for a couple weeks. my life feels like a dream here...i think about what i do and it is all so idyllic. i wear an easy smile on my face, and i just relax and let life happen and enjoy the familiarity and unfamiliarity of it all. i wonder a lot how long it can last for?? does it just keep going while i'm in pai and able to do all of these amazing things, how do you keep it going and going... some people get here and it seems like they never leave. some people travel and they never want to stop, or they never do stop! i thought i would be here for a week or two and now we might rent a place for a month or two. (for 100 dollars/month!) there is definitely a circuit of travellers and once you tap into it it's easy to see how people just keep it going and going. sometimes in the states though it's so hard to see how it might be possible or how to step out of that routine! soooo, i wonder and ask and right now i just know that i am very fortunate to be here and that when i do come home it'll be the perfect time! and the lessons that i'm learning i'll just take with me forever and tell you all about my experiences often so that i willl always keep them alive!! so get ready to here stories and maybe repeat stories a lot!

well, i guess that is all for now! i hope that everyone is enjoying the holidays, they are somewhat surreal over here being in hot weather and a buddhist culture.
much love to you all!
carson

pai in the sky.....

(walk down the path, take a left, and there is our little bungalow at breeze of pai!)

do you remember that scene in the movie "Amelie" where she takes the blind man's arm and steers him across and down the street for a minute and, as fast as she can, tells him everything she sees, describing every color and expression and detail that she can to his eyes who cannot see? sometimes these blogs remind me of that scene, i want to recall everything i can to all of you who are reading, so that you can see what we are seeing and can be connected to where we are.

first of all, the sunday market in chiang mai, where we left off last time....wow!!!! i had a dream that night that i wrote a blog about it and all i could write was wowwowowowowowowowowowow! it was so amazing, expansive, and huge, you can't even see everything in one night because it goes on for blocks and blocks and down side streets, everyone selling traditional thai foods and clothes and jewelry and handmade fabric beadspreads and pillowcases and paper lanterns, foot massages, thousands of people strolling, locals and tourists alike, street musicians, blind men singing, some of the most amazing photography i've ever seen....we met two wonderful women by the bee pollen stand that we hope to get together with when we return to chiang mai....and this market goes on every sunday! it's like a festival!!

we spent a couple more days in chiang mai, mostly drinking delicious fruit smoothies at Juicy 4U, and eating good food, and walking around our little area, and visiting the sweetest internet cafe owner ever who always said hello and thank you so graciously and each day had a sweet little offering outside his door, a fresh cup of water and a piece of banana bread or a roll, or an orange...i love all the little offerings by the doorways, or on the other altars that are everywhere here. we also walked up to a temple in the evening as monks were chanting, and sat outside on the steps looking through the open doors and being almost hypnotized by that chant, it's so beautiful and soothing and rhythmic and familiar and new, the orange robes, all of them facing the buddha, so strong and holy. we circled this beautiful golden monument outside that pointed up to the sky and had buddhas looking out in four directions, under the moon.... wow.

we took a bus to pai yesterday, it's a 3.5 hour ride with over 700 curves in the road, up higher into the mountains (but still warm, it's not chilly in thailand for the winter here :) and met two great guys from israel that we ended up running into two more times in pai (it's quite small) and we had lunch with them yesterday too. it's so nice to be here, much smaller and surrounded by nature, hills all around that look like they have fall colors on them, a river...our little bungalow at breeze of pai is so nice! we walk through the little path covered in huge leaves and have our own little porch, it's new and clean and comfortable, just for the two of us (we are both quite tired of european 8-bed dorm hostel living and shared showers!) so far, we have been walking around the town and eating the delicious food. we just found the best thai restaurant, called na's kitchen, and it is so cheap and so good, run by these three sweet (everyone we meet is sweet) thai women. we had a red curry with coconut milk, local eggplant (nothing like the eggplant we have at home, more like a zucchini), fresh basil, and pumpkin which was so yummy just like a kabocha squash! and we also had a salad with little slices of onion, carrot, cucumber, lime, tofu (made fresh in pai daily, somehow we are both enjoying tofu here) little chilis and fresh mint...wow!! and the best coconut shake ever for 70 cents! yum yum, i think we will go there every day. we also found an all organic restaurant called the sanctuary, which is more expensive but delicious, and a cute coffee shop called 'all about coffee' that has the sweetest little art gallery upstairs and some art by a local 5 year old boy on the walls. we are also taking a daily wheatgrass shot at this little cafe down the street, they serve unlimited tea with it, carson's first wheatgrass :)

carson just rented a little motorbike so we are about to go cruise up into the hills...there are hotsprings nearby, and waterfalls, and much else, i'm sure...i feel a little nervous to jump on the back of it, but we both have helmets too :) i'm sure it will be fun to feel the wind in my hair!

my birthday is tomorrow and i think we are going to try to find a yoga class in the morning and then have dinner in the evening, i don't know what else yet :) i'm sure it will be a nice day though! my birthday is the first day of winter, the solstice, and it feels strange to be in such a warm place for that day!

i will write again soon! we're off to cruise the road!
love,
melissa