Yo, are you out there?

(our third roommate)

Mary and Dana: We need some comment love, people. We miss you, and we like to see your words. Even if it's a hello or whatev.

So, leave us some comments. Just click on the comment link at the bottom of the post and proceed :)

Dana: As I sit here in the internet cafe a fan oscillates hot air around the room giving a false impression of relief from the damp, thick air. The sound of water rushing over a fall is in reality the heavens opening and a drenching rain pouring down with thunderous booms and the occasional flash of lightening. This rain brings a slight coolness to the air, but with it also comes humidity. I'm learning to embrace the feeling of sweat dripping down my back and in between my boobs. I tell myself I better be releasing impurities from my body with all this sweat in order to keep my sanity in this heat.

In yoga class here on Koh Phangan before we practice our asanas (yoga poses) we do a series of warming exercises. One exercise involves digging your thumb into a specific spot on your belly located below the breast bone in a clockwise, then counter-clockwise direction. "This may be particularly uncomfortable and even painful for those of you that have a lot of toxins or have been under stress in your life," our teacher explains to the class. When doing this exercise I experience a good deal of discomfort, but despite the pain I find myself smiling, I smile because of the memories that flicker in and out of my conscious mind. Memories with friends, moments in Mexico, the Parrot, tequila and Sunday night rituals. "Oh wait I'm lost my focus, I'm not thinking about what I should be," I say to myself. This process of learning to quiet the conscious is quite challenging for me, for I do not have a strong practice in meditation. My mind is of a crazy monkey that jumps around erratically, leaping from one vine to the next with no real direction or idea where it is going. Here at Agama, through daily practice I am learning how to grab this crazy monkey by the hand and kindly ask it to chill the @#*& out and let me focus on one point of concentration. My monkey has its moments, but I have faith.

Alright, that was my best effort to sound like a writer worthy of publishing something on the internet that the whole world can read (yeah, I know the whole world is reading our blog, hah *smile*)

Today is day 11, but it feels like we've been gone for at least a month, not in a bad way of course. It feels like my life in San Diego is worlds away and it actually is; how quickly I've become used to not frequenting the Bird and riding the Madwagon. I miss my cliff runs and the friends that I spend time with. San Diego is a place I frequently refer to as "paradise", so it is weird coming to a place that is oozing with beauty in a whole new class. The yoga center we attend for hours a day is located on the tropical blue ocean and our classroom feels like it is in the center of the jungle. The walls are screens on three sides with the fourth made of cement. During lecture the sound of a gecko lizard still causes me to giggle to myself , it literally sounds like it is saying "gecko" (you must experience this if you haven't already). My monkey mind is often whisked away from lecture distracted by the sounds of nature. A bullfrog flairs its throat, the chatter of exotic whistling birds, the hum of crickets that can drown out the sound of the teacher create the jungle music I have become to love. I'm in the bush and it's amazing!!

I've been having a superb time with my bosom buddy Mary. We have been learning so much about life, ourselves and how to make living with each other in a one-bedroom sharing one bed most enjoyable. I've known Mary for only a year and a half now, but going on the trip with her has brought us so much closer and my love for her only even stronger. She is such a gem and a wonderful companion to travel with, I am blessed to have her here with me. My love for her must be apparent to those that we attend this yoga program with, because we had quite a funny conversation with a fellow named Teo. Yesterday during our morning tea our new friend Teo asked if could ask us a personal question. As he scrambled for the right wording and stumbled in his Australian accent, he formulated the question inquiring if Mary and I were in a partnership or just friends. We both looked at each other and burst into laughter. I guess the tiger balm shoulder massage I gave Mary in class and the frequent sightings of us both riding on a motor bike with our arm around each other may have given some the idea we were lovers. Ohhh how hilarious that moment was...still makes me laugh now. Last night as we lay in our king-size bed in our new bungalow home propped up against pillows reading our books we both spontaneously giggled. "Are you laughing because we're like a couple reading in bed together?" I asked. "Yes exactly," Mary replied. "Yes."

Here is a short little poem Mary and I enjoyed from a book given to us by a friend here that I wanted to share with you:

The Happy Virus

I caught the happy virus last night

When I was out singing beneath the stars.

It is remarkably contagious--

So kiss me.

--Hafiz


(we're definitely lovers now *wink*)

Liz--when Mary and I were at the Full Moon Party a few of the booming sound systems were pumping out "Lizzy Music" and we danced and laughed saying, "this one's for Liz!!!" We miss you bubby!!


(our fourth roommate)

Alyssa cheers to your beautiful baby bump...Mary pointed this beer out today at the store. Avery is going to be a Leo, right? xoxo

We must go further!

Dana and I each picked out our own tongues scrapers - mine is copper, hers silver. Our Neti pots are identical white plastic. The rock salt, which we dissolve into water and flush through our noses with the neti pots, was purchased at a very clean and quiet organic grocery in Tong Sala, with five employees that studiously ignored us, their only customers.

Thus we began our purification practices, an important part of our yoga program. This was also the day of the full moon, around which the completely impure, but very famous, Koh Panang Full Moon Party revolves. So I rinsed my eyeballs with cold water, Dana thoroughly scraped her tongue, and we set off in an open-backed covered truck that served as a taxi, to balance our purity with a little partying.

On the outskirts of Haad Rin, the southernmost tip of the island where the infamous monthly Full Moon party is, our taxi stopped and filled with English girls in tiny skirts, sipping alcohol from sand buckets, their bodies painted with fluorescent paint. They griped about the 50 baht fee, and when the taxi stopped, one of the girls vehemently exclaimed, "No, this is unacceptable, for 50 baht you must go further! Further!" The weary driver finally got back in and began to drive. Dana and I couldn't help but find this irritating show somewhat adorable, because "further" just sounds so great in an English accent.

As it turns out, English accents were not in short supply. The beach was teeming with the British, boys in tiny swim trunks and fedoras, and girls in Koh Phangan tank tops and little else. Dozens of other nationalities were sprinkled in the mix, everyone in some state of undress and fucked-up-ness. One tall, pale man stood in place, swaying gently on his feet like a palm tree, starring at nothing. A cluster of Asian women in sports bras undulated wildly on a platform stuck in the sand. Vendors lining the beach yelled about the quality of their "Buckets" (sand buckets filled with ice, a flask, and a can of soda, to be mixed by the buyer). Everywhere was music - trance, drum & bass, techno, and pop dance tunes - and everywhere was neon. The beach was thick with people.

We were on a mission (and here comes a moment of full disclosure, so Mom, don't be mad). We were looking for mushroom shakes.

The last time I ate mushrooms was in college and spent the night adventuring through the woods, swimming in Lake Champlain. It sounds trite, but, glancing through the trees at the stars beyond, I saw in threads in the fabric of the cosmos. Since we've been talking about cosmic energy and alternate states of consciousness in our yoga lectures, I've been thinking about my mushroom experience, and vaguely craving another. It's a short trip to Samadhi if you have 500 baht.

The shakes were hard to find, and we had to ask a lot of people (as with nearly everything else here) before discovering that we had to go to the end of the beach and climb a stone staircase to a bar called Mellow Mountain. Fortunately, when we pooled our brightly colored bills, we did have 500 baht, and we sipped our shake in the open air bar, making friends with New Zealanders, dancing, and looking out over the bamboo railing at the crowded beach bellow, a film set to the throbbing beat that was all the different sound systems combined. Water taxis swayed gently in water that also served as an impromptu urinal for drunk men and swimming hole for other enlightened beings, wading out with their arms outstretched and their eyes on the moon.








Jered, this song goes out to you...




View from our first home.

Death on Koh Phangan

Mary: If it had been a nice, slow, kind cockroach we could have made it work. One of us would have scooped it up into a glass or with a bag and thrown it outside. But it was a quick fucker, maliciously quick, and it raced across Dana's bed, so it had to die. You know those stories of mothers lifting cars to save their babies? That was me and this cockroach. But the cockroach was the car, not my baby, and I didn't lift it, but instead smashed the shit out of it with a sneaker.


It was the biggest cockroach I've ever seen.


In other news, Dana and I got a house today! Right around the corner from Agama yoga studio, and across the street from the beach. It is laid out with a big veranda, and three doors, each with different locks. One leads to the kitchen, and two doors go to the one bedroom we'll share. Why does the bedroom need two doors you ask? The answer is, I have no idea.

We also got a flat tire on our scooter today, which we found out only after riding it for an awkwardly long time down the coast road. A man fixed it, smoking a cigarette right next to the engine the whole time, while his itty-bitty nugget of a son looked on intently. We now have one scooter each (you were right, Dakota, way better), and they both have full tires.

Gettin' Flexy and Makin' Friends

Two days ago, we met Kristen at the night market in Thongsala. Kristen is one of Dakota's friends from the India Agama Yoga program, and is now doing the same program here - the same place where we started our month-long yoga course today. We got her number that first day, and left her to eat catfish, pad thai and mango sticky rice on the beach. Stray dogs came by and waited politely for me to finish my catfish with chili oil (dear jesus, so good), then I walked down the beach and threw the bones and head for them to eat. I couldn't remember whether fish bones are ok for dogs or not, but these strays seem to have strong constitutions - they all look amazingly healthy, and they're the only beings I know here that actually drink the water. Dana and I then watched the sunset and slept off the effects of the all-night bus ride the night before.

Kristen has proved to be an invaluable friend. Yesterday she picked us up on her scooter and took us to her house, a bungalow perched on stilts right above the sea. She made us banana coconut smoothies, while the little girl of a Thai neighbor repeatedly tried to scare us by hiding a rubber snake in a cookie tin. We then rode to a tea house, where the owner Pepat agreed to help us find a house and a motorbike of our own. Today, she came through on the motorbike - it's a manual, so we're practicing shifting on the winding coast road here on Koh Phanang, where we are the only people in helmets. Safety doesn't take a holiday.

We were also introduced to quite a few Agama Yoga students by Kristen, who invited us to an art show at Pepat's place. Meeting so many of them before class relieved some anxieties, and we began class today with a few friends already. Our first class was great - meditation and a lecture followed by a very basic practice. Some of the language is familiar to me from my yoga studio in SD, Namaste, and I found myself thinking of my teachers Elka and Theresa, and how much they would like this.

Tomorrow we go to look for a house - Dana wants air-con and we'd both like a room of our own, but we'll see what we can actually get. Our highest monthly quote so far has been 10,000 baht, which works out to 150 dollars each per month. Worlds away from my California rent, or for that matter even my Missouri rent! Paradise is cheap.

Learn Thai and Get a Six-Pack

First sunset in our new home
Mango sticky rice with coconut milk...delicious!

Mary showing me the way to enjoy catfish






Spill on motor bike. My bad (Dana). Turning in the sand is not a good idea. No real injuries to report, still in high spirits. Motor bike and swim is my new found way to keep cool, or should I say less hot...

Tomorrow we start our yoga program, pretty excited!

Reason #1 why I am like Biggie

We found the cheapest Chang and best seat in the house :) Chai-yoh!




Mary: When everyone wants your money, how do you know who to trust? I now know how Biggie felt - mo money, mo problems. I'm poor enough in the U.S. to qualify for free health care at some places (planned parenthood, I love you), but here in Thailand I'm like a pasha. Everybody wants to be your friend when you have a white face, visa card, and clean clothes.

This means that, much like Biggie, we are having a hard time finding people to trust. This was scary our first day, as we dealt with misleading tuk-tuk drivers, overpriced tourist agencies, and a series of people giving really bad directions. But the second day was much smoother, thanks to our first trustowrthy Thai friend, Joe at TAT (tourism egency of Thailand).

Joe hooked it up, and we found ourselves with a plan to explore the city via a nice cool local ferry (15 baht - about 50 cents-ish), and reservations on a bus/ferry combo to Koh Panang that night for 700 baht less than we'd been quoted. Hell yes. Joe, if you're out there, you are the shit. And Biggie, if you're out there (we all know you're not really dead), lets be friends.

Dana: We have officially arrived in Paradise!!! Pictures can not do Koh Phangan justice...this place looks like a screensaver times 1000. My current challenge is to figure out how to be outdoors without melting...Brian from back home suggests "milkshakes"---mushroom milkshakes??? Haha, need to get our bearings first...heading out to explore now with my bosom buddy Mary. "Yeah the waters not cold, but at least it's wet." Bubble bubble bubble :)

You talk Thai?

We arrived in Bangkok yesterday afternoon, asking people in line at
customs what day it was and feeling entirely sleep-deprived, confused,
and above all, really god-damn hot.  Neither of us has stopped
sweating since.

In this altered state we bought ice-cold
cokes in glass bottles on Koh San Road and wandering through the
vendor-choked streets.  Birds on spits and birds in cages, cold
beverages of all sorts, underwear and dresses and strange spiky fruits
in piles.  People on top of people, everyone eating noodles or rice in
broth out of bowls and by and large ignoring us.  Both of us had
aching backs from the astonishingly lengthy free chair massages that
we'd gotten in the "Green Relaxing Room" at the Taiwanese airport
(officially the most soothing airport I've ever been in).

We wandered away from the crowds and found ourselves in an enclosed
area of white buildings with intricate gold designs on the trim and
windows.  A young monk in a gold robe passed by, not meeting our eyes.

"Are we supposed to be here?"  Dana asked.

"Until someone tells us to leave," I answered, as we rounded a corner
and found ourselves in a small, green square.  A tall black Buddha in
front of a smaller gold one, both dressed in gold cloth.  A sign nearby proclaimed that we were on the grounds of a Buddhist University.
A mob of young men in sports jerseys and shaved heads, dyed gold, walked past, some sneaking glances at us.

"Sawadhi Kap," a man approached us, who we found out was a university employee, "Today is a holiday of Buddha.  Tuk-tuks are 20 baht for city tour of Buddhas.  Government pays for gas.  See big buddha, lucky buddha, black buddha..."

He continued, and convinced us that this was the right decision. A tuk-tuk is basically a motorcycle with a cart attached, kind of like a really fast golf-cart, with a reputation for ripping tourists off.  But hey, it sounded like a good idea.  We climbed into a fast moving tuk-tuk, roaring through the streets.

"I feel like I'm in Epcot," Dana said, and I laughed.  A rooster crowed on the side of the street, stray dogs slunk out of the way, and motorcycles with three people on them roared past us.

We managed to see all the Buddha's and make it out of the tuk-tuk without too much damage - we only paid 20 baht (less than a dollar), but were dragged to a sketchy travel agent, who we said no to, and ended up getting dropped off at a Buddha, trying to walk home, and ending up walking in circles.

At this point, the sun was going down and we'd both hit a wall of sleeplessness and heat.  We sat down at a restaurant, next to a fake waterfall, and ate noodles, drank Chang beer, and felt the life return to our bodies.  Exhausted, we drug ourselves home, to cold showers, 10 hours of sleep, and (on my part) terrible bed-head. 

Tonight, we are bound via overnight bus and a ferry to Koh Panang, to start our month-long yoga program at Agama.  After hearing today about the bombings last night in the financial district here in Bangkok, I am glad to leave.  This new life has really begun.

-Mary

(Enjoy the pictures!  Sorry about the preponderance of photos of myself.  Dana is the photographer, so she gets me mostly, but I'll try to fix that for next time and sneak some shots of her)


I'm full of jitters as I sit here in this relatively cool internet cafe...after a breakfast of tea, yogurt and fruit I'm satiated and ready to explore.
I'm going to let Mary do most of the writing in this blog, but of course I don't know how to keep quiet and I'll be posting from time to time as well.
What today holds for us is unknown at this point, maybe a bike tour through the city...lots of water, maybe a Chang here and there for spirits. One of my missions for today is to find a pharmacy that sells some sort of sleep aid.  This 10-hour bus ride will be best survived by some p-groove and shut-eye.

Until next time, Namaste friends.

-Dana

And here we go...

A few hours ago, I was making some tuna salad and was about to have my first experience watching Glee, at the advice of a friend who would probably rather not be mentioned (at least not in the context of loving Glee).

Dana called while I was happily toasting bread,

"Mary, I think we might be leaving at 12:30 Wednesday morning."

We'd made all our plans around a 12:30 Wednesday afternoon flight. We had a ride to LA. I had a haircut appointment. Dana hasn't finished moving out of her house yet.

"Are you sure? Let me check," I walked to Liz's bedroom, where I'd been camping on an air mattress for the last week. Neatly packed in my backpack, slotted between my passport and debit card, was a flight schedule. I pushed away Liz's cat and sat on the bed with it.

"Yup," I said, after reading and rereading the schedule, "we leave at 12:30 Wednesday morning."

"Shit."

And here we go.