a simple twist of fate

I really don't feel an urgency of any kind to divulge the miserable details of my stolen passport and money, but I would like to share how a potential disaster turned in to a beautiful opportunity to build community. As Dylan would say, it was a simple twist of fate, but it was also a magical cure for my misery. Somewhere between Bukittinggi and Dumai, Sumatra, my little purple bag holding all my valuables was lifted out of a bigger bag (only in there so that I could sleep without wearing it-- sure wish I had kept it on me!). However, I didn't even have much time to mope about my losses (except filling out police report, etc), because two men were suddenly offering Tony and me the sanctuary of their home and school. Mr. Muchsin and one of his former students, who now teaches with him, invited us to exchange room & board for English conversation with the students of the "Grand English Course" training centre (two small classrooms next to Muchsin's small house). Muchsin's goal is to connect his students (of all ages & callings) with native English speaking travelers who happen to be passing through Dumai, and so we ended up spending three days helping students to practice their English. It was a very rewarding experience to be with students who were so eager to learn about our world and to try out their speaking skills with us. Plus, they were all so beautiful! I mean really radiant and pure-hearted. Muchsin and his family were so incredibly warm and welcoming, giving us a room of our own and feeding us meals, tea and snacks, even though his family of six struggles significantly . Tony and I were so taken with the passion Muchsin has for his work, his investment in his students' futures (he believes strongly that English will help them achieve so much more). We really had a very meaningful time being a part of Muchsin's world, and it was quite hard to say good-bye. But alas, I had to fly to Jakarta for an emergency passport (with Tony's cash), while Tony took the ferry to Malaysia. Still, I feel blessed to have a piece of rotten luck turn into such a lovely memory of making connections in Dumai.

The good, bad & smelly....

After leaving Bukit Lawang, we traveled to Brastaghi (also spelled Berrestaghi). From those highlands to our next destination, Bukittinggi, would be a 22 hour bus ride. On line, the ride was dubbed, "the world's worst bus ride", we were determined to ride it out. Yes, it was bad, but I doubt the worst; only two bathroom breaks in a span of 18 hours. The highlight came at 3:30 a.m., just thirty minutes after I finally fell asleep, everyone on the bus must pile out of the bus & walk up a muddy hill in the drizzle so the bus can make an attempt at the hill. From atop the rise I watch as the bus guns it & charges up, up, up. Near the top I watch in agony as the back wheels start to spin & the bus slides sideways. Fortunately there is a wench set up at the top & the bus is pulled the rest of the distance.
Two days into Bukittinggi we meet a mild Muslim woman wearing the traditional head scarf speaking excellent English. She wants to know where we are going, where we are from & if we like coffee? "Yes." we say to the last question. She tells us that she has a business in locally grown Sumatra coffee, but it is not any ordinary coffee, mind you, this stuff has been eaten & digested by wild critters, like civets & monkeys & then pooped out! It is said that the digestive enzymes affect the coffee beans in a most excellent way. I know what you're thinking, who in the blazes would have dreamed up such malarkey to even give it head room to be born as a thought?
So we set the stage for tomorrow to visit this woman's village, Batang Palupuh. A short bus ride out of Bukittinggi delivers us to a idyllic town squeezed into a narrow valley with tall steep rock walls. The coffee beans are located by villages & collected, they are then washed before roasted & pounded. Want to know what it tasted like? Becca or I will tell you if you ask one of us.
That same day, our hostess tells us that the largest flower in the world, Rafflesia arnoldi, is in bloom lucky for us & calls a local guide. Becca & I ride through amazing misty valleys, through small quaint villages & rice fields before embarking on foot up steep slippery slopes. Visions of Bukit Lawang's orangutans come flooding back. After some 40 minutes of hoofing it & stream crossings we head straight up again, low & behold, there is no denying it, this flower looks like something from deep space. It is three & a half feet in diameter & our guide says this is a small one. Nearby are two volleyball size orbs looking like purple cabbage heads waiting 8-9 more months to flower, which lasts seven days before the parasite, with a rotting meat smell to attract pollinators, fades to black. The day teaches us that smelly things are not all bad. TLC

Two days in the Sumatran jungle.

Bukit Lawang is a small town at the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, one of two places in the entire world that is home to Pongo abelii, the Orangutan, Borneo being the other. Bukit Lawang is a small town that is still transforming itself from the heart wrenching flood over five years ago that claimed 300 lives, or one-third of the town's population. Being at the edge of a vast track of protected rain forest on one side with palm & rubber plantations on the other side, everyone you meet in town is either a farmer or a guide. The ramifications are deep, more jobs for people in the trekking industry or the persistent tide of plantations chews at the edge of forest boundaries.
Thomas is a fast talking salesman with a sense of humor & anywhere else in the world he would be selling you your car or home insurance policy, but here in the jungle he is selling himself to take you way out there & get you back the next day in time for dinner.
In the morning we climb up towards the rays of a brilliant yellow sun leaving the rubber trees behind (the trees that are saving the world, not just by their carbon sequestering, but because, well rubbers come from them). At the edge of Gunung Leuser N.P. we come across a Thomas Leaf monkey low enough on its perch to shake hands with. The day wears on, you wouldn't need the steeply intense hills going down & ricocheting back up to sweat due to the humidity, but we have both. The ground is tricky from being wet from last nights rain, the rest is just like you would expect it to be from the movies: the enduring machine-stamina buzzing of cicadas, the wet litter of tree leaves that could cover half your body, vines from high up descending to the ground that Tarzan would trust to swing on, far-off animal calls & the heat.
Orangutan is the Indonesian word for "man of the forest" & by early afternoon we have our first sighting. These orange haired primates have the uncanny appearance of an unshaven person; there is, for me, a certain mirroring-back feeling in their presence. Their climbing agility is beguiling for their size, having the largest arms of all apes, they climb upside down, hanging off a tree trunk sideways, they climb to the ends of branches until the branch bends under their weight sending the orangutan down like riding an elevator. It then grabs onto the branch of a neighboring tree & continues onward like this. When they are not eating fruit or the leaves of the Maas tree, they are breaking apart termite nests in the trees feeding on the winged insects.
At the evening time we sit content in our shelters as rain slams down in large drops. Three ft. long monitor lizards are active at the stream feeding just 15 feet away from where we camp. As we ready ourselves for a well earned sleep, a guide spots a snake slithering through our make shift jungle kitchen, but the thin long dark snake is no ordinary herpetoid, it is more deadly than the king cobra.
By the second day we have had four encounters with orangutans, close enough to reach out & touch, including two mothers with baby in tow. A beautiful ridge network so thin you could go tumbling down either side takes us to a river, lunch & inner tubes that float us back.

Tony and Becca on the balcony of our Phuket palace. Yes, the resort life was grand (and the best part of the island, besides our little hike along the coast)

The ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia were very enchanting. We had such a great time wandering around the different temples.

Tony and I gave our farewell speeches to the school in THAI. We were dreading it, but the crowd appreciated it so much we were glad we made the attempt.
HAD to get a pic of our favorite teacher friend, Ajan Sompit, whose laughter we so wish we could bottle up & take with us!
Our little English Department going away party included some FINE karaoke tunes, all in English (Carpenters,Elton John, Beatles, Denver,etc.)

Good-bye to Mancha Khiri

It's our last day in Mancha Khiri, and we still have most of our packing to do, house cleaning and some last photos to take, but otherwise we are quite ready for the next stage to begin (and I can promise you I won't miss the awful sappy Thai-pop love songs that are always blasting at the internet cafe where we blog!). Yes, tomorrow we set off on the beginning of our six weeks of travel, starting out slowly-- with a return to Chiang Mai. I'll be meditating for five days while Tony finishes his dental work (lucky boy). Then it's off to Siem Reap, Cambodia for four days. Next stop: Phuket for a week, before making our way further south, with a few stops, to jump on a ferry to Sumatra for two weeks in the wild. We end our journey in Singapore, where we are staying with friends until we fly home (on April 13th). We will have some fun stories to tell from this trip, I am quite certain. . . It has been very good to live in one, mellow spot for four months, soaking up the culture & environment. And it has prepared us nicely to hit the road with new energy & intrigue. HERE WE GO!

King Cobra Village snake boxing....

Located in north east Thailand, Isaan province is little known, overlooked by most tourists, it boasts no indigenous tribal people, has zero beaches; yet it is the capitol of Thai silk, home to spectacular National Parks, origin of Maw Lam music, & location of Ban Khok Sa-Nga, King Cobra village. Two hours on the main route from home, 20 minutes down a small two lane, then 10 minutes on a dirt road lands you in a small village where the main attraction is an elevated stage surrounded by four small bleachers. As we arrived the Maw Lam music was pumping accentuated by a lively female MC. Eight Thai women came out from behind an enclosure with large snakes around their necks & shoulders. As they took their place on stage, they made two rows front & back & began dancing to the music with the snakes around them. Their stage act was punctuated at the end as they held the snake's head & put it into their mouth, this was the beginning of our King Cobra experience.
As the music started up again, two men mounted the stage from the side, one with a stick, the end hooked & used for handling poisonous snakes. The other man casually took his time taking off his shoes, pulling up his socks. The man with the stick walks to where there are a number of wooden boxes, flipping the lid open & pulling out a snake with a very large girth & easily measuring 10 feet long, dark in color with off-white bands around the body. The snake glides half the distance of the stage, the female MC is warming up, the music is winding up & the man with no shoes makes his way towards the snake grabs its tail & pulls the snake towards him. All of a sudden the snake rears up one-third of its length, agitated, a hood expands around the head, it's the famous & feared King Cobra!
There is a perceptible excitement now in the MC's voice, the man in socks is in a crouch & makes a move at the snake, the pitch of the music heightens, the cobra strikes as the man dodges backward, finds new footing & throws a punch which lands on the snake, the MC's voice has gained momentum & treats this like a major sporting event with a blow-by-blow commentary. The snake makes it's move & tries to slither away only to have its tail grabbed & pulled back, it uses the backward momentum & strikes at the shoeless man who sidesteps the attack & delivers a glancing blow downward atop the snake's head. The two face off in a very mesmerizing way, the cobra rearing up with full hood swaying from side-to-side, its opponent doing the same, slowly he reaches out towards the snake until he actually has his fingers around the snake holding it, lets go turns his back to the snake & bows to the crowd.
These cobras don't spit their venom like some cobras do, but they are no less deadly. The show features a few more boxing matches before the last act, a man with the largest cobra of the day, wrapped around his neck & shoulders. Some of his antic have to be seen, such as putting the cobra's head in his mouth & then down his pants until half the body disappears. And yes, that's a cobra that Becca & I are holding, she stepped forward first while I was hemming & hesitating. -TLC

gettin' cozy with the cobras!

Dining out in Mancha Khiri

The English Department teachers took Becca and me out for lunch one day. Conjure up all you know about Thai food: the peanut sauce & flat noodles of Pad Thai, the sharp lemon grass taste of Tom Yum soup, the rich creaminess of coconut milk with green or red curry spices, the firey bite of papaya salad, the minty freshness of spring rolls. Now cast all those flavors, aromas and visuals to your culinary sensory side pocket; our lunch represented nothing of the sort above. Of the many dishes that made a debut on our lunch table were beef spleen cubed & boiled with fresh cilantro; strips of cow udder fried on a bed of lettuce; parboiled beef tripe with raw diced yellow onions & spring onions & red chili peppers; fried squid with curried crab eggs & sliced green onions; boiled-until-coagulated beef BLOOD cubed with ground beef, green onions & Thai eggplant, and somewhere amongst all of those savory organ delectables was the cow's moo.

yes, a bit like Halloween-- unfortunately, we were taken seriously! Thai royalty for a night.

our home

entering our last month in Mancha Khiri

Lately it has become apparent to Tony and me that we're darn comfortable in this little town in northeast Thailand. We are settled into a sweet house on stilts (refer to photos above -- including an outdoor squat toilet house where Tony is washing his clothes & a separate, fabulously rustic kitchen). It is so pleasant to lounge on our deck or underneath in the hammock, listening to crickets in the evening, birds during the day. We have at least one enormous spider in our toilet house and an oversized gecko in our bedroom (Tony is still trying to identify it--well, and draw it, of course). Other than those, we have squabbling pigeons on our tin roof and loads of mosquitoes during the night (thankful for a mosquito net for sleeping!). Inside are quite a few framed pictures of the king & queen, as well as old family photos of the folks who are renting this place to us. It really is a delightful home... I have also been excited about setting a bit of a running routine for myself, and I really do like it because it is so beautiful out on this red dirt path that winds through rice fields and a roaming lake. I pass hardworking fishermen and farmers and children tending to water buffalo and cows, admiring the footbridges and dwellings that are nearby while I take in the glory of the setting sun and its reflection in the water. The other evening I came across two young men who had JUST shot & killed an enormous snake, at least five inches wide & plenty long. It was lying there just short of my path. Whoa, that thing was massive! Tried to show it to Tony the next morning, but it was not there... Also in recent news, Tony & I took part in "The Best of Mancha Khiri" which happens every January along with the orchid festival. People come from everywhere & it lasts for three days. We were asked to participate in a Thai fashion show--sounded harmless enough, until we spent three hours in a beauty shop where they made us even more white, stripped me of my eyebrows (well, not entirely, but more than I have ever wanted taken off). Anyway, we paraded our new selves for the awe of the town and now our photo is on a large banner hanging over the beauty salon on the main street! Our students thought we looked sooooo beautiful. I wasn't much in to the attention, especially being stuffed into that green gown, and I missed being paraded in front of the audience because I was off trying to find my shoes when they announced Tony's name.OOPS. But what I did love was the drama production-- the story of how Mancha Khiri came to be (immigrants settling here, etc)-- and all the dancing, performed by our students. Altogether it was quite the festival, including luminaries sent off into the night sky. I am so impressed that the town comes together like this every year, demonstrating their community spirit & pride... Really, I just dig walking around this place, soaking in the lifestyle of the people here. It is an easy place to live and appreciate simplicity amidst smiling faces and a relaxed pace. Can I get an "A-MEN!"? A-men...love, Becca

Me and the Buffaloes...

Today I saw water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis, out in a rice field. I'd heard that water buffalo could be fierce, unpredictable & out & out fearless; so donning my rubber boots I approached a small herd of five adults & four juveniles very cautiously. Upon my approach they eyed me with little concern so I took my cue & moved closer until I finally hedged within 15 feet of them. I sat cross-legged in the clumps of dirt & vegetation with my drawing journal on my lap drawing these hefty creatures. Farther away a few rolled in the mud insuring their skin protection from biting insects & the thick Thailand heat. As I became absorbed in the observation & meditation of drawing, a young buffalo approached just inside my peripheral range. It stopped & stood next to me as I sat there uncertain of the next moment & bracing myself to be rolled. It first sniffed the brim of my baseball cap, then my nose, the corner of my book, then my hand which it proceeded to lick nonstop for 20 seconds. The wild water buffalo, sometimes classified as a different species, can be a terrifying beast; these "domestic" ungulates have had some of that bred out of them. Further encounters with the water buffaloes & their herders taught me that there are times when distance is required. Both genders own horns & both are sizeable as mature specimens. The female of a yearling emits a thin whine to keep track of her young & the yearling sounds a braying for locating it's mother. TLC

Wildlife encounters.....

Greater Adjutant Stork Leptoptilos dubius, Malayan Sun Bear Helarctos malayanus.

White Handed Gibbon Hylobates lar, Asiatic Elephant Elephas maximus.

Vang Vien, Laos for New Years!

Just managed to upload the photos that are to accompany this entry (my machine can't handle writing + photos together), so please refer below... Our New Year's holiday journey turned out to be naturally divine-- surrounded by beautiful scenery and submerging ourselves in outdoor activities. We kayaked down a river below giant limestone cliffs, which Tony & Howard climbed the following day. While they were climbing, I ventured off on a mountain bike to see what I could see. I found myself scrambling over a dried river bed to reach a cave that claimed to have a buddha inside. Sure enough it did, as I discovered, following my fearless spiderboy of a guide (see pic), but then suddenly my guide decides to take me on his own little adventure through the most ridiculous passages imaginable. Oh,and just before setting off, he shines his 25 cent flashlight on the biggest spider I personally have ever been that close to. Then we were pretty much headfirst through the cave--only my guide happens to be barely 4 feet tall & skinny as a rail, so he really could slink through crazy thin cracks, leaving me alone to squeeze my way. It was completely black & I was mostly lying flat, crawling the best I could. Luckily I was so caught up in catching up that I didn't have much time to contemplate all the what-ifs. Let me just say, that was one of the freakiest, unnerving situations I have ever gotten myself into. Thankfully it was over quick enough (20-30 minutes). When I think back to it I get a serious chill, but I also can't help a bit of hysterical laughter. CRAZY!...And all I got out of the spiderboy was "Money for guide?" You bet I paid him-- for not leaving me in there to rot!... The rest of the day I made sure to be thankful for air & light & space to move about in. I met a wonderful female traveler from Holland, Ester, and together we road to a village, where we were unexpectedly asked for more cash to go any further. Just like that, we were chasing after three new guides (same size as spiderboy) up a very steep climb to the top of a mountain (check me out at the top in photo, taken by Ester). Great heart exercise, spectacular views and lovely company. Ester & I share a love for photography, village children & bagettes with cheese, so we were living this afternoon just as we like. And I was thrilled to have a little female companionship, after three months of male only! I do believe that Tony enjoyed a day of male bonding on those walls of limestone, too. Vang Vien is a fabulous vacation spot! We even got up early on our departure day to check out the rising sun and mist all around the mountains, fields and river. Majestic place. I really enjoyed the bus ride back through all the beautiful mountain villages, as well... back to school for us now! catch ya later. Becca

Our trip to Vang Vien, Laos, included hiking, biking, kayaking, rock climbing, and cave exploring, with our buddy Howard