Travel Journal:

my first trip out of the country - seeing beauty in a burnt...


seeing beauty in a burnt field with cows.... 2007-01-20
 
hi everyone...

that last one prolly seemed a bit random... i had to use the bathroom
and didn't realize there was a toilet in the place (i suppose i should
ask next time?).... any way to continue from where i left off (and
where i would have like to elaborated more)...

So we have made travel buddies.. Ivan, Whitney, Jesse and tinke (like
tinkerbell). We have been hanging out with them. they are really
interesting...

Ian- environmental science major and cal poly
Whitney- history major at UCSB
Jesse- traveling till he starts teaching english in japan (he's an Aussie)
Tink- Traveling Aussie

We spent the day with them yesterday. We saw how Thai silk is made.
Its pretty amazing. Every sq meter takes 520 cacoons (so for every
silk shirt you buy you kill about 500-1000 silk worms). We also saw
the first temple that I really want to go back to. They have these
bells that are the most beautiful dissonant sounds you have ever
heard... when you strike them in order the tell a story and are
predictably melodic and center around one drone note....... but most
people never hear it because they go and hit a few here and there so
they dont get the full experience... its a prayer walk.... speaking of
prayer i have decided that, while i appreciate buddhism as a religion,
i do not like it. I love/follow the principles that are its foundation
but i find that praying to buddha as though he was a god misses the
point..... the point to me being that we are all buddhas and have just
forgotten it..... I also find it amusing, despite buddhas (and this
goes for taoism as well) insistance on his humanity, and the
insistance that the teaching is a way of life not a religion, people
nonetheless deify these people and turn their teachings into a
dogmatic/ritualistic religion......

We also saw a hmong village way on the outskirts of Chang Mai. We are
going a a 3 day trek tomorrow with a totally awesome guide named Lar.
I talked to him for a while at the village, his english is really good
so we were able to communicate about religion and his family life
other stuff like that....... Actually he is going to take us to the
village where his wife lives and we are going to get to meet his wife
and their 7 month old baby!!!

The place we are staying at is pretty kool too.. we have a very
central location so it is easy to get to lots of places.. Chang Mai is
a trip....

So Whitney was telling me about how she was in Fresno at one point and
saw a bus of japanese tourists snapping pictures at a burnt field with
cows in it in front of an exxon sign... She explained how kool she
thought it was kool that they could find beauty in such a desolate
place.. I had a similar experience last night... After the hmong
village we went to and all you can eat steak bar/blues club. Both the
bands were doing english cover songs (they did a rad cover of hotel
california). I played pool and was surrounded almost entirely by
"white" people...

Now in the states i never do things like that i find those sorts of
place to be the most disgusting detriments to humanity's
consciousness... But something about it was different and it was less
seedy and it occurs to me how it is all what you make it.. I had a
good time though... after we went to the night bazzar

I am getting really tired of the bad american music though.............

I am still constantly fascinated by the lady-boys and social
acceptance of tranny people. I understand the desire to become female
as there are periods of time in my life where i have hated my
masculinity so much that that seemed appropriate... but it is weird to
me that a lot of them are prostitutes... I am really curious to find
out why and what that is all about....

we are going to the night bazzar tonight and it will probably be a few
days before i send out another exciting installment because we are
going on a trek..... As for today i have no idea what it will be
like....
if the first few days are any indication than it will be totally
different from any of the previous days which, as i let go of my
comfort inclination and embrace what is actually here, i become more
accustomed to it and actually welcome the change.....
 
Map and Photos for my first trip out of the country
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Thailand Journal : my first trip out of the country - seeing beauty in a burnt field with cows.... Travel Photos
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