I Can Move Things With My Mind

Day 1: Made friends with the baby lizard and ants in my room, which consists of a 3 inch thick pad on the ground and 3 blankets. Nothing else. Broke the rules already by taking two naps. Feeling hungover and tired from getting in at 4 AM after more than one tequila shot off an ice luge. Not the best way to start 10 days meditating in silence and wondering what I am doing here.

Day 2: A cat jumped in my lap while sitting 'meditation style'. It completely broke my concentration and I busted out laughing. Spent the rest of the day sneezing with watery, itchy eyes. During our silent breakfast, in which I was supposed to be mindfully eating my noodles with tofu and veggies, watched dogs propagating their species in the garden. Sleepy and thinking it will be a long time until the 28th.

Day 3: A shih tzu puppy humped my leg throughout breakfast. How are you supposed to mindfully eat with that going on?! Not as sleepy, feeling very relaxed. Sitting meditation going better. Glad I'm here. It's good for me!

Day 4: Played with the puppies before breakfast. They are adorable. Dogs were at it again during lunch...this girl gets around because it's with a new man. A cat rubbed on me during my walking meditation this afternoon and tried to get in my lap when sitting. Didn't want to sneeze, so didn't let her. Broke the rules by talking to two of the others...a Swiss woman and a Bulgarian lady. Feeling at peace, struggled midday with focusing. Feeling like my mind and heart are more connected.

Day 5: Puppies licked my face today...not sure if they have their shots or not. Oh well...too cute to resist. Had some good thoughts/insights come my way today. After the evening chanting session with the monks, a man came up to me and wished me good luck in finding goodness and the light. Touching. Very content right now. Heart/mind connection growing stronger and happy to be here. Also, all the monks seemed to have shaved their heads today. Hair cuts all around!

Day 6: Changed rooms last night because Buddha Day is today at the temple...lots of activity here! Woke up in this new room with bug bites all over my back. Not so clean, these temple floor mats. Also, broke the freezing cold shower...and all this before 6 AM! Carried a lotus flower around the stupa 3 times with all the monks chanting...what a beautiful experience. It is so meditative and soothing to listen to them chanting. Joined in on a few that I could find in my chant book...very cool that I've learned some Pali! It hurts my knees/legs to sit in the lotus style to meditate. Distracted today, some good practice but not much. 4 more days to go!

Day 7: New puppy joined the other 4...a beautiful Siberian husky. Cat jumped in my lap while meditating again. Armed with antihistamines, I let her sit in my hands and tuck her head under my arm and purr away. I still sneezed. There are going to be a lot of new puppies around here as the girl was at it again...another new partner. She's been with almost every male dog in the temple I think. Not feeling well. Stomach hurts. Skipping evening chanting. Bored. Home sick. Going to bed early.

Day 8: Skipped breakfast and slept in. A man slept in the women's dorm building last night. I have never heard such incredibly loud and irregular snoring before. Remarkable. Hard to focus today. At lunch, the Bulgarian lady broke the silence by saying, "I am so sick of this f*ing chanting". I busted out laughing. Absolutely hilarious. The Swiss woman whispered to me after lunch that she admired how slowly I ate. That's one I haven't heard before, and I guess it's better than she admired how much I could eat. This afternoon, walking meditation finally clicked. Feels good to be getting in control of my mind and aware of my body. I feel at peace and like I am glowing inside. I also feel like I might be able to move things with my mind.

Day 9: Finally went to the bathroom. All of this non-activity, non-stress, no food after noon stuff has wreaked havoc on my digestive system. Another husky joined the mix. 5 puppies now. The Swiss lady gave me candles and incense to use in my room because the stench from the temple's garbage pile is terrible on my side of the building. Best meditation yet was tonight during the evening chanting. Had to literally walk through the clouds to get to the temple. Meditations are going deeper than I've gone yet...wow. Had the thought that I should stay longer, but not prepared to stay longer. Will definitely continue this when I leave. Wow.

Day 10: Meditated during the morning changing session with the monks for the first time...finally got up early enough. Powerful stuff. Played with the puppies. The poodle/shih tzu mutt is my favorite. Read on the balcony this afternoon. Watched a beautiful, cloudy day float by over Chiang Mai below. A beautiful rainbow appeared. Evening chanting with monks, writing by candlelight, burning candles and incense, listening to the rain, drinking hot chocolate...the perfect ending to a wonderful and peaceful journey into myself.

Good Afternoon Vietnam!!

I bet you were thinking that I was going to title my blog from Vietnam "Good Morning Vietnam" but I didn't want to be that predictable. ;) Getting to Vietnam was a bit long; what I thought would be a 6 hour boat and bus journey down the Mekong, into Vietnam at Chau Doc and onto Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon, although everyone in Vietnam still calls it Saigon!) ended up taking 14 hours. I missed the bus for tourists, so they literally squeezed me onto the local bus. My knees were basically in my chest for 6 hours in the back row of the bus, shared with four others. It was fantastic (read: a whole bunch of sarcasm) and I wish I could say that it was the last bus trip that I will ever take in my entire life, but alas, that is not likely.

Seeing Trent and Keira again and meeting their friends was so great. They have a two bedroom flat with air conditioning, hot water, a couch, a microwave and really comfortable beds. It was heavenly! I was so excited to do the dishes and was ecstatic to wash my clothes in a proper washing machine...Keira and Trent laughed at me! We slept in, went to brunch and dinner at fabulous places, did some shopping, swam in a rooftop pool overlooking the Saigon River and that was Saturday! On Sunday, we went to brunch again and then Keira and I spent the afternoon at a spa...for $12 each, we got one hour hot stone massages, facials, manicures and pedicures. I love Vietnam! We ordered pizza and sat on their couch and watched movies on Sunday night...again, heavenly!

I took a quick flight up to Hoi An from Monday to late Wednesday afternoon, after refusing to take one more bus ride in Vietnam. I left my big pack with Trent and Keira, so it was nice to travel light for a few days. I hoped on the back of a motorbike and was dropped in the old city center with no map and not a clue where to stay, what to do, etc. I met a lovely Vietnamese girl who took me on her bike to a guest house she knew of and quickly got settled in and rented a bike. I biked around the city, then went to a tailor to finally get something made...a process that everyone should go through once in their life! I spent two hours visiting fabric shops, looking at styles and getting measured. I ended up ordering a total of 5 dresses and a pair of pants...one of the dresses alone would easily go for $150+ at home, so I did not feel bad at all dropping $70 total on my purchases. However, after three fittings on Tuesday and two more on Wednesday, I realized that having clothes that fit perfectly (and are super cute if I might add!) is a lot of work! If getting a wedding dress fitted is going to require so much effort someday, I'm just going to wrap a sheet around my body and call it a day!

On Wednesday, after fitting #1, I took a cooking class with a street food vendor. The lady didn't speak much English, so her 16 year old Vietnamese friend named Cuong translated for me. The 'class' was very impromptu but the food we made was delicious, and that is the most important. After fitting #2, Cuong joined me for a bicycle ride to the beach closest to Hoi An. Her English was really good, so we talked about things that 16 year old girls like to talk about - boys. It was so adorable and opened my eyes to the many cultural differences between Vietnamese and the West. Also, I was the only person on the beach in a bathing suit after two other foreigners left. At this beach, all of the Vietnamese swam fully clothed. A group of female monks (do we call them nuns?!) all went swimming together...I got some great pictures of them splashing about in their modest brown attire. I took Cuong out for dessert and dinner, in that order...her choice! I let her pick the places and she was giddy walking into the touristy, much more expensive places than she is used to eating as the fourth child of a fisherman in the village. As we talked over dessert then dinner, I mentioned that I was going to rent a motorbike and head to My Son, a very old Hindu temple at the base of the mountains, the next morning. She said something to the effect of wow, that's cool...I've never been more than 15 km away from home. So, I invited her to come with me and I will never forget how her face lit up when she realized I was serious.

Cuong and I jumped on the motorbike and headed out to My Son, a 60+ km drive from Hoi An first thing Wednesday morning. It was so neat to hear her comments as I drove...she had never seen mountains up close before, not seen water lilies and she was smiling constantly when I repeatedly checked to make sure she was still on the back of the motorbike. She saw a lot of corn and rice drying on the side of the road and in front of people's very modest homes and said, 'wow, those people must be rich...look at all their corn and rice'. That statement instantly grounded me - hit me at my core - and again made me feel so thankful and blessed for the opportunities that I have had in my life. Very humbling. We stopped at a very local place on the ride home and Cuong told me that they never see foreigners and that I was in fact the first to eat at this particular restaurant, which explains why everyone in the neighborhood kept stopping in front to watch me eat. Meeting Cuong made my time in Hoi An, most definitely, and I look forward to staying pen pals with her via email!

Keira picked me up at the airport and I got my first taste of rush hour traffic in Saigon...it was insane. Motorbikes everywhere, a suggestion of which side of the road to drive on which is generally ignored, several roundabouts where it is an absolute miracle anyone actually gets remotely close to the direction they actually want to go...incredible! Thankfully, Keira is an excellent driver. She, Trent and I had some excellent wine at a rooftop bar overlooking the city - what a contrast Vietnam is! Trent made his way to football practice as it began to downpour. Keira and I had another glass of wine hoping the rain would pass, but it did not. We had one poncho that I insisted Keira wear because she was in work clothes but it honestly didn't matter. We were both 100% soaked to the core...I could wring buckets out of my clothes when we finally arrived at the restaurant. Keira's friend Mel joined us for dinner and we had amazing Lebanese food for my last night in Vietnam...go figure.

One more thing on Vietnam - it is now the only country in the world where I will drink the coffee, which is a miracle because I never drink coffee! I had one iced Vietnamese coffee every day and loved it (I also had trouble sleeping because of all the caffeine!) They make it with sweetened condensed milk and it tastes very similar to hot/iced chocolate..fantastic!

This will be my last post for at least the next 11 days...I am sure that all of you could use a break! On Saturday, the 18th, I start an adventure of a very different nature...a vipassana. For 10 days, I will be in silent meditation at the Phradhatu Doi Suthep temple in the woods north of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Here are some of the rules I must adhere to during my meditation retreat: no talking, no reading, no writing, no music, I must wear white clothes, no food after 12 noon, sleep only 6 hours a night, up at 4 AM, do not steal, do not kill (even mosquitoes), etc. It is going to be like boot camp for meditating. Just so we're all on the same page, I'm not into this stuff. I can count on one hand how many times I've done yoga and fewer times I have tried to meditate. I first learned of vipassanas from a guy I met in Africa and was instantly intrigued and knew I wanted it to be a part of this trip. It is not religious-based, although it will be held at a Buddhist temple. It is really a 10 day retreat to silence the noise and distractions of life, to listen to nature, to listen to yourself and be mindful of the present. I am very nervous about it but also looking forward to the journey itself and what things I might discover along the way. So, I'll be back in touch on or after the 28th...until then!

The Orphanage

Oh my goodness, children have A LOT of energy! After spending four days at the New Futures Orphanage, I think I need to schedule a vacation from my traveling! I spent six to seven hours a day with the children and went to bed most nights by 9 PM without the energy to even shower, almost. Despite my severe energy drain, I had such an incredible and rewarding time with the children.

There are 52 children currently at the orphanage, ages 8-17. Some of them are orphans in the true definition of the word; others are there because their parents could not afford to keep them. They live on a couple of acres with the following: swing set/playground, two outdoor yet covered classrooms, an arts/crafts room, a farm with pigs and chickens, a lake with fish, a workshop and a beauty parlor practice room. They all sleep on mats on the floor of a two-story place. After meeting and talking with each of them, I can tell that several of them would benefit from some kind of therapy which simply doesn’t exist over here. They have little to no structure, aside from the few hours a day they spend in school. They are all pretty good in English; they take lessons everyday. The children have hearts of gold and smiles that will melt your heart. I have given and received more hugs in the last four days than in the last four years of my life, so that was wonderful. Walking into the orphanage and having 10-15 little people run up to me, say ‘hello, how are you’ and be so excited to talk to me and hold my hand and have me join in their little adventures….what a feeling!

I was busy non-stop while there. I learned how to play chess (kind of), I taught some girls how to do a few line dances, I had my hair braided twice, and I went to English class at the local school…and that was day one! On Tuesday, I was joined at the orphanage by two other volunteers, a great couple from France named Stef and Thomas. Stef and I spent the morning cleaning out the arts and crafts room which previously had looked like a tornado had blown through it! That afternoon, we put on a fashion show. I helped dress up about 20 kids in all kinds of fabric and garland, set up a stage complete with a backdrop and the kids paraded around on the stage. We had three kids playing bongos and guitar to set the mood. It was hysterical and, wow was I tired by the end of that day!

Wednesday was filled with games of simon says and hangman, teaching an English class and a Chinese class. I taught about 15 of the kids basic phrases in Chinese and the rest of my time there, they kept running up to me and practicing…so cute and impressive how quickly they pick languages up! We were begged to put on another fashion show, so we had day two of prancing and parading around in pseudo dresses, capes, togas, etc. Today, my job was to push girls on the swing set, next came singing/teaching every nursery rhyme my poor memory could recollect, then I sat and had girl talk with some of the older ones….who likes who, teaching them the correct pronunciation to the song ‘All the Single Ladies’ by Beyonce…the important stuff! ;) I taught Chinese again and then braved day three of fashion week without Stef…we gave cookies to everyone beforehand to celebrate one of the little girl’s birthdays and they were absolutely wired on sugar! Fashion week was crazy!

I learned one very important thing about orphanages in Cambodia: string is to orphans as cigarettes are to prisoners. Colored string is traded whenever you lose at volleyball, chess, soccer. Girls and boys lobby and push for anyway they can get their hands on more string in order to make bracelets and other little things like it. I quickly recognized this, went to the local market and bought them out of string (a whopping $6 out of pocket). You would have thought I was the King of Cambodia with how these kids thanked me and went crazy as I was handing out the string. As a result, I was blessed with all kinds of homemade things. I now am proudly sporting 5 string bracelets, two string rings, one anklet and four things to dangle from the zipper on my purse. So cute!

My days at the orphanage were fantastic. It is incredible how attached you can become to children, and they to you in such a short amount of time. It was hard to say goodbye to them all. One of the many things I learned through this experience is that there is no way I could ever be a teacher and for those of you who are or were, God bless you! I am spent!

Today, I will jump on a boat and float down the Mekong River into Vietnam. I’ll be in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) by Friday night and will be spending the weekend with Keira and Trent, an Australian couple that I traveled with in Africa last year who are now living there. I haven’t been in an actual home since September 2009, so I am excited for some of the comforts of home and to see some old friends! Until next time...!

Angkor Wat!

The Angkor Archaeological Park is by far one of the most impressive places I've ever been. I have always heard of Angkor Wat and wanted to visit - it's the largest, best preserved of all the Angkorian temples. What I didn't realize is that there are tons of other temples from other kings and other times in the area. I spent the last three days, at least 5 hours a day, touring a total of 18 temples...there are way more but honestly I didn't have the endurance to visit them...I am templed out!! I hit all the contemporary favorites though. My personal favorite, second to Angkor Wat of course, is Ta Prohm, aka the jungle temple. They have intentionally left quite a bit of it in ruins. Nature is taking it back...massive trees growing in, around and on the temple. I felt like I was in one of the Indiana Jones movies, or at least some Playstation game where there are guys jumping over sandstone rubble and swinging on trees. Very, very cool. The bas-relief carvings on most all of the temples are so detailed. It is incredible to think of the craftsmanship and labor put into the making of these massive structures. Formerly Hindu, then converted to Buddhism like all of the temples, Angkor Wat is believed to hold the ashes of King Suryavarman II, making it the largest ever building to hold a corpse. Five million tons of sandstone, incredible carvings and detail and all completed in 40 years...unreal! The sunrise this morning overlooking the reflecting pond was yet another moment on this trip causing me reason to pause and be eternally grateful for what I am seeing and experiencing.

Cambodia is a very poor country and people here learn the art of selling (hustling!) at a young age. Outside of every temple, there are children selling all kinds of things - books, bracelets, stuff. It is difficult to look into their beautiful brown eyes and not give every one of them all the money you have. Unfortunately, giving to children just promotes the cycle and so I do not support it. It can be trying to be constantly followed, begged, tugged on to buy something. So, I came up with what I consider cute little responses. Actually, I've been doing this since Bali, where the people are incessantly asking you to buy stuff too. It's the only way I've been able to keep my sanity when walking the streets in Asia! Here are my responses to various questions. 1) Where are you from? I reply, "My Mom and Dad". They always giggle. 2) Do you need a taxi/tuk-tuk/motorcycle/ride? I say, "No thanks, I can fly. Or, no thanks, I want a helicopter." This is really funny only when their English is good enough! 3) Do you want a book? "No thanks, I can't read." It's a lot of fun to actually laugh with the people instead of just constantly saying no!

On my first day touring the temple, actually the first two days, it poured rain off and on. I was wearing flip-flops (aka thongs, as my dear Aussie friends would call them!) and ventured back to a temple that few tourists get to. On the way, a cute little boy started walking with me and kept telling me "lady, be careful, it's wet". I quietly applauded his observational skills and then completely wiped out. Cambodian mud is very thick...it covered me from my shoulder to my toes on the left side of my body. This marks the first official fall since arriving in Cambodia. If I think back on it, I am quite clumsy. I have fallen in basically every country since Indonesia. In Bali, it was off the motorbike into the rice field. In Malaysia, it was climbing up a mountain...I went in the wrong direction! In India, it was down a small flight of stairs in the rain. In Thailand, as Gerad and I were walking on the beach, I didn't see a volleyball net tied onto a tree and walked right into it and kind of fell backwards into the sand in slow motion. Now this. It is truly remarkable that I have not broken anything!

After spending the days playing on temples, I spent the evenings in the very pleasant city center of Siem Reap. Hung out with a couple of German guys I met for two nights. Last night, my tuk-tuk driver, Kuonn, whom I hired for my three days of templing, took me to a very local place. He ordered. This is what we got: sliced, raw carrots, beans, cucumber, some types of grass(!!) and parts of a cow that we dipped in some kind of clearish sauce. I have no idea what parts they were and so I asked Kuonn. He said the inside parts. Again, very observant. I think the only reason I did not get violently ill is because of the Angkor, Cambodia's finest and only beer.

Made it back to Phnom Penh tonight. On the bus ride, a woman played music aloud for the bus to hear from her cell phone, this is also common on local buses in Asia! She sang quite loudly to her music. She was also tone deaf. I could not withhold my laughter. Sing like no one's listening I suppose rings very true to her! Tomorrow, I will figure out a way to get to Ta Koe, a tiny village about 79 KM from here. I'll be volunteering at the New Futures Orphanage for the rest of the week...can't wait to meet the kids! Happy Labor Day!

The Smiling Country

I am in love with the people of Cambodia. They are incredibly friendly, always smiling (hence the country's nickname and title of this post!) and so helpful. I landed in Phnom Penh on Sunday afternoon. I shared a tuk-tuk to the city center with the guy sitting next to me on the plane. Gilbert (he goes by Gil) is from the NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). His job since Katrina hit is playing online poker. Apparently he isn't so good at poker because he freely shared that he was $20K in debt. He also mentioned no less than three times how upset he was that his peanut butter had been confiscated from the Thai airport security. It takes all kinds to make this world go around. May you get a full house or at least a flush Gil!

Didn't do too much but walk around the city center after settling into my room. It is quite a strange feeling to actually have a bed all to myself again...I've kind of gotten used to having someone around over the last two and a half months! Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is a nice city. It's obvious that I'm inching closer to China though, as the markets here sell all sorts of bugs, dog, frogs, birds and such. On the other hand, due to the French colonization, the city was planned with wide boulevards, lots of parks and green space and a really nice boardwalk area next to the Mekong River. Makes for good people watching!

I ventured out on Monday to Wat Phnom, the temple of which the city is named for. It was a-okay as temples go, lots of cats, kittens and an elephant. With all due respect to my Buddhist brothers and sisters, I have seen enough Buddhist temples to last a lifetime, so this one didn't stand out in any particular way to me. The only real highlight was a man who forgot to say his prayers to himself and was literally shouting to the point that he drew a crowd around him. Of course I joined in to watch the spectacle unfold, although I had no idea what the poor guy was praying for because I don't speak Khmer! That evening, I was again reminded of how much closer I'm getting to China by the fact that at 5 PM sharp, the largest park turned into an outdoor aerobics and dance studio. It was awesome. One group that I watched for a really long time had about 100 people jazzercising in the park...hilarious! Mom, you would have fit in perfectly! There was another group of 5 guys dancing...Cambodia's up and coming version of N Sync. It made my day watching these guys try to dance all together. Smiles all around.

On Tuesday, I headed to the killing fields and to the now Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (aka S-21), the former high school where torture and interrogation was conducted during the Khmer Rouge regime. Pol Pot and his followers were brutal and merciless. It was very sobering to be walk among the fields where over 9,000 were buried in mass graves. The field I visited is only one of 380 killing fields in Cambodia...a total of over 19,400 mass graves in all. The estimated 2 million, or 25% of the Cambodian population, that perished during the genocide is unthinkable to imagine having happened less than 32 years ago. It was a very reflective, quiet day after that. What strikes me more than anything is how the Cambodian people have rebounded, how they are today...happy, peaceful and friendly...to go through something like their country did and to be so positive after is truly inspiring.

Wednesday I hung out in my room, having come down with a nasty little stomach virus. Shockingly, my room had a TV with HBO. Has anyone seen United States of Tara? It's hilarious and makes me wish that I had multiple personalities too. Today, Thursday, I'm feeling slightly better. I had enough energy to survive a 6 hour bus north to Siem Reap. The Cambodian girl next to me works at a bank, so we chatted about that and had a nice ride up. She fell asleep and rested her head on my shoulder for the last two hours of the ride...very cute. The next 3 days I'll be touring Angkor Wat. Very excited to see these temples...very likely the last on this trip, so at least I'm saving the best for last!