Greetings from Pai

I'm in the "reggae-hippie" Northern town of Pai, Thailand, up near the Myanmar (Burma) border, a town which has more dreadlocks per capita than any other place I've been in the world. .Gorgeous mountains and meandering river here. Unfortunately, it's burning season (burning the fields to prepare for planting). So the haze you see in the picture below is smoke, not pleasant for breathing, worst early morning and early evening.
The pictures here are complements of Jen from Winnipeg pictured below with Guilluome --- two great folks who I met in my December TEFL training program.
The woman here is grilling a black sticky rice pancake (similar to the Japanese "mochi"). After it's grilled, it's sprinkled with condensed milk and black sesame. Yum!

"I'm off to see the wizard.....

...the wonderful wizard of Oz"

I called this blog, "The Journey Home" and the phrase underneath reads, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." Now I'm off for a 21-day Vipassana meditation retreat wondering if the time will support the "knocking away" of Oz's screen separating Truth from illusion. Or whether it's simply an illusion and fantasy to think that a meditation retreat will help in that quest. And of course laughing at myself, knowing that a core Buddhist teaching is that any hope/craving simply leads to increased suffering; this moment is all we have.

Below is a picture of me and Lek, me in my monastery whites.


Afternoon visitors to our guesthouse today included:
Mr. Kaz, an artist from Japan who spends his winters here;
Zulu, a Hungarian Thai Massage practitioner who lives here in Chiang Mai; and Christine, a Korean-Australian who's been on the road travelling and working for many years.














Notice the Chinese New Year decorations hanging on the front porch of the guesthouse.

A Death in Laos

Just before New Year's I met Vanh and spent time with her family in a small village about 20 minutes outside of Luang Prubang. On Jan. 12th, I wrote several posts about her family, our visit and the bacci ceremony.

There are two beautiful pictures of Mama that I posted on my blog on January 12th. But I wasn't able to rotate them; so she's pictured on her side. One of the pictures is posted below again.

In January I was invited to Vanh's wedding. And most recently I learned of the cancellation of the wedding due to Mama's early death. Here's the most recent email I received from Vanh on Feb. 4th (written I'm quite sure by her fiance whose English is excellent):

dear Tammy
all we are well and happy to hear from you all the time so now now we think our wedding ceremony will be cancled and perhaps next year becuase my mother died on 1st we have just finished for her burning ceremony yeterday and tomorrow we have ceremony by making merit to her as the lao tradinional and after tomorro we offer things and serve breakfast to the monks and novices at the temple and then finish for our ceremony.
all well and every thing are going well
wish you all a good working, health and all successful
all with love
Phong and Vanh














May her memory always be a blessing.

An early initiation.....

It's not unusual to see tiny toddlers, about 1 year old, standing on the front of a motorcycle in front of a seated mom or dad who's driving down the street. With their tiny hands, they hold onto a mini set of handlebars. Daeng Mooi hasn't gone out on a motorcycle ride yet, but here he is with his dad Nong "playing". (This photo and the next 3 complements of Judy Stoloff; thank you very much.)

Judy & her elephant friend & coagulated chicken blood

After Judy (Stoloff) spent time with the elephants, she came to visit, see my guesthouse and meet some of my Thai friends.














We spent a great day at a Thai cooking school, learning 6 dishes each (we chose different ones) on an organic farm outside Chiang Mai. Nong (Daeng Mooi's dad) told us that HIS Thai cooking was undoubtedly better. So I went shopping with Nong, and then he put Judy and I to work, chopping the chicken and eggplants and garlic and thai basil and more. He was right --- his Thai Green Curry was better, MUCH better, although I avoided the coagulated chicken blood which appears in most chicken dishes.....

My newest nephew.....

Here I am with my newest nephew, Daeng Mooi, who I've been living and hanging out with for the last 3 months. He'll be 7 months on Sunday. Lek (his mom, who's Chinese-Thai) planned to take him to Bangkok to be with her family for Chinese New Year's (today) but it didn't work out. So I decided to play "Chinese auntie" and went to the market yesterday to buy a Chinese decorated "red envelope." I put the red envelope (with money inside) under his mosquito netting this morning as he was napping...

For Tina....

My sister-in-law Tina LOVES orchids and has dozens in her home. The 2nd Annual Sukhothai Orchid Festival was incredible. My photography doesn't do it justice. I've been to an orchid festival in WA state. Doesn't compare. Above is one of the many displays at the back of the fair --- too bad you can't really see the waterfall running in the middle. Below a couple of more shots.

Kukkik & her family

Kukkik adopted me after I bought a small bottle of hair conditioner from her family's market stall in Sukhothai. I hung out on a stool as we played and talked. When her Mom invited me back to their house after the store closed, she started jumping up and down with glee begging me to come. Most of our time together was spent in front of her child's version of a English-Thai dictionary. We came upon a picture with all sorts of different fruits and helped each other pronounce the names in English and Thai respectively. Luckily, my Thai has become good enough to share, "We don't have this one in the United States" when we came to fruits like "mangosteens" and "durian" and a few others. Later that evening, we were later joined by Kukkik's sister and her sister's boyfriend.

Sukhothai: Buddhas, a 10K, and the King's colors...

Sukhothai, capitol of the first Thai Kingdom and a World Heritage Site. Buddhas and ruins galore. Truly remarkable and awe-inspiring. I'll post more pictures when I'm on a faster computer.








And a 10K run (why not) with Bu. The race was in celebration of King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai (1300's) credited with creating the written Thai alphabet and expanding the Sukhothai. And the pink shirt (given with registration to the run) in honor of the current beloved King of Thailand.



For years the King's color was yellow; and you can still see many yellow King shirts around every town. But after a recent illness, an astrologer told the King that it was too much yellow that was partially responsible for his disease, and he should be surrounded by more pink. So the yellow shirts with the King's insignia are now on sale (really) and pink ones for sale everywhere at full price, being worn by men and women.

Since the King's sister's death about a week ago at the age of 88, however, black is the official color of mourning for 100 days. All public servants and teachers and t.v. reporters are wearing black blazers to honor her memory. And black shirts are now being featured at every store front.

Mama's "Chew"

After dinner, people dispersed, but I watched as Mama (who was toothless) brought out a basket and carefully opened it and several pouches inside, creating a careful mix for what looked like a handrolled cigarette, but it was some sort or chew. Hm. And below is a picture of her before the ceremony and dinner; a beautiful woman!

Dinner at Vanh's & Bacci Ceremony

Vanh's sister preparing dinner in the kitchen. And below we're in the midst of a Bacci ceremony honoring Mama, a young girl who had survived a serious illness, a couple who had been away from the village for a long time, and me! the newcomer to the home. Vanh is next to me; Mama in the white sash. We blessed the altar which had the strings, and then tied them on one another's wrists with blessings (I don't know what blessings they bestowed on me, but there were a lot).

Laos, Laos, Laos

Over the Mekong River, geographically so close, yet worlds away. This picture is of Vanh's brothers house, as we sat on the front porch of her mother's house. Vanh is a waitress in the cafe where I had breakfast my first morning in Luang Prubang. After several short conversation clips as she passed by my table, she invited me to "her mother's party". Ok! Little did I realize that it was a Bacci ceremony in the countryside with her entire extended family and many others from her small village. (I continue to be SO lucky with the people I'm meeting and the invitations I'm receiving!)

Without the help of photoshop, I don't know how to shrink and rotate pics, so more will have to wait until Chiang Mai or a greater dose of patience with figuring this out.