Em & Trev

North Central Cascades Traverse

2011-06-03T22:14:00.009+07:00

It’s interesting how routes are created. The pre-conception for this traverse began on Glacier Peak in 2003 as Peter and I looked south at an obvious high route connecting The Enchantments to Snoqualmie Pass. At that time, we had no idea that we were standing amidst a future Cascadian crossing. It wasn’t until we were in the middle of the Central Cascades Traverse in 2008 when our eyes kept being drawn to the snow filled massif east of Glacier Peak that the inspiration for this route was born.

The plan for the North Central Cascades Traverse (NCCT) matured quickly the fall of 2009 when I entered the zone around Trinity for my first time. I remember looking at a map while on the south side of Clark Mt and double checking that I was standing amongst a continuous 6000’ descent of skiable terrain. I thought such vertical was only offered up on our bigger volcanoes and amazed that I had not heard more about the ski potential in this part of the Cascades. From then on, the map studying intensified as I tried to piece together an east to west high route.

Fall of 2010, I got commitment from my main touring partners. Finally on May 20, 2011, Adam Vognild, Peter Avolio, Rob Bolton, and myself boarded the Lady of the Lake headed for Lucerne and then on to Holden where our man-powered adventure began.

The folks of Holden Village were as friendly as fellow ski tourers had reported and I look forward to longer visits in the future (both amongst the community of the village and amongst countless ski explorations in every direction). Thanks to a long winter, we only hiked ten minutes and fifty vertical feet before we started skinning up the Copper Creek basin.

Traveling in the afternoon hours of a warm day, we swiftly followed the path of least objective hazard. This basin is a steep skier’s delight and we were impressed by the large wet slides that trenched out football field arenas in the low angle valley floor. While the forecast indicated this would be the last sunny day for who knew how long, I was relieved that conditions would become less “mushy” with colder temps. While this stability relief was long endured throughout the tour, the continuous poor visibility eventually triggered some navigational concerns.

Feeling strong and knowing we had a large climb up to Fernow’s south shoulder the next morning, we continued over into the head of the Entiat where we set our first camp. This location proved true to what we expected with most camps: a place we would want to base out of in the future for days of great ski lines.

The next morning we left early without any overnight freeze. We made good time up the southeast side of Fernow with a couple short boot sections to get over it’s south shoulder around 8900’.

We downclimbed a couple hundred feet of rocky section and then patiently waited out a whiteout before enjoying a fun 3000+’ ski into the head of Big Creek.

We set camp just before enduring an eight hour stint of rain. This was the first of many tests for Bolton’s new Beta Light shelter. It proved successful through all the tests and instills a great argument against my Megamid for two people.

The next morning Peter sniffed out a smooth route up to the Dumbell/Greenwood saddle. Clouds stayed at least a peak away this day and we enjoyed visibility throughout a fun ski to the northwest. While the map indicated we should trend skier’s right for less aggressive terrain, this route had slid to rock and we were forced to finish the descent fall line through cliffed terrain.

Peter and Adam descended left around a rocky ridge on belay where they found a ledge of 3^rd class scrambling down to snow.

Bolton had been eyeing a snowy line with uncertainty directly below us. Peter skied down to scope it out and gave us the OK. Rather than battle a pendulum repel with uncertainty of pulling ropes, I preferred Bolton’s ski line.

More than 2500’ below the saddle, we transitioned to skinning and climbed south/southwest to 7200’ on the ridge looking west onto Lyman Glacier. Adam encouraged a long “drying” break as the sun was shining. We hung shelters and sleeping bags, air dried happy feet, and enjoyed a most comforting hour and a half lounge session.

While the sun shone bright through most of this relaxation period, clouds continued to cascade down Chiwawa’s northeast side prohibiting any views of the next day’s summit ascent. Chiwawa convincingly became known to us as “The Cloudy One.” The final 1000’ ski to the bottom of the Lyman Glacier instilled smiles on our faces as our legs quickly trusted consistent mush turns.

Before the trip started, there were two crux points in my mind. The first was getting over Fernow which we had accomplished. The second was getting over Fortress and descending its huge southwest face. This second obstacle required we first travel over the summit of Chiwawa and then look for the weakness in the south ridge of Fortress. We left camp on Day four with this Fortress test and the challenge of getting to our food cache at Buck Creek Pass. Light snow showers fell from the sky and clouds stayed low preventing any looks of “The Cloudy One’s” summit. The glacier climb went smooth with the couple inches of new snow benefiting our skinning efficiency. In decreasing visibility, all of a sudden we topped out a few hundred feet lower than the map told us we should. We saw a peak a bit higher to our climber’s right and realized we missed the summit. It appeared best to descend down the other side of our high point and then hope visibility increased to shows us a good route up the peak on our right. If a weather window didn’t prevail, we could descend to the head of the Chiwawa River and work a route west over the ridge to Buck Creek. We downclimbed on belay and then ski cut belay a steep chute before committing to skiing the steep terrain below us.

The weather was not improving and due to The Cloudy One’s short observed history, we weren’t going to hang out and hope. We followed the skiable terrain first to the right and then left through firm runnels. When visibility would increase to a few hundred feet, we glimpsed dark walls to both sides of us. We finally arrived on a bench after 2000’ of steep skiing and took a well deserved break. I pulled out the map to see our options. While I expected steep terrain off Chiwawa’s south side, something didn’t feel exactly right about our descent of least resistance and especially this flatter area we were resting on. It was at this point (2000’ too late) that I pulled out the compass to confirm our direction.

I held the compass level…waited a bit, shook it a bit, and momentarily wondered why the arrow was not moving to where it should. We were headed northwest…almost 180 degrees from where I thought we were going. Lovely. We had climbed the upper Lyman Glacier too far right to a sub peak north of Chiwawa’s summit and descended into Miner’s Creek. Rather than travel back south up to the col between Chiwawa and Fortress into worse visibility and still have the Fortress crux awaiting us, we agreed to ski down Miner’s Creek and then travel south over Middle Ridge, across Small Creek, and finally to Buck Creek Pass. After beating myself up a bit for the major navigational blunder, I enjoyed the final turns of a sporty 3500’ descent!

We knew we had a lot of mileage between us and our food cache at Buck Creek Pass so got into a slow and steady pace. With pea soup visibility and the recent navigation error still fresh in my mind, the compass stayed out getting the attention it deserved. After trying to force a route in bad visibility through steepening terrain, we resorted down to safer slopes to set up camp and hoped for clearer visibility and thought process the next morning.

It snowed off and on through the night and the morning yielded the same pea soup conditions as the day before. Confirming our camp location with the GPS, we chose a more conservative route over a flatter bench of Middle Ridge at 6240’. We then descended south to Small Creek through trees (most of which were spaced tighter than one would like).

We climbed to a saddle east of Flower Dome and then traversed to Buck Creek Pass, the location of our long desired food cache. The navigation anxiety momentarily subsided while the uncertainty of our food’s security built. Will it be there? Will half of it be shredded by long claws or beaks? Will we be forced to exit to Trinity on the small rations we have remaining?

Food cache in tact and it was time for a well deserved refueling session. The cache consisted of five hanging Ursack bags…one had its strings cut and one had been pecked through its Kevlar exterior but nothing inside any of them was altered. We relished in the fact that we had an extra food bag as my brother Rob had to bail from the trip last month. We consumed all four of his dehyrdrated dinners, all his chocolate bars, and some of his trail mix. Hmm hmm good. We figured he deserved a thank you phone call and pulled out the sat phone to send our appreciation and get a weather report. He was amazed we were still socked in as it was bluebird in Seattle and he could see a good portion of the Cascades.

With his optimistic weather observation and our full stomachs, we continued south that afternoon. Bolton led us up Liberty Cap in the same 50-100’ of visibility we had grown accustomed to.

But then the heat on our faces intensified, the light through the fog grew brighter, and soon enough we had risen above the cloud layer! Mountain tops started appearing in all directions and soon the massive volcano to our west started to revere it’s bulky mass. All photo capable devices came out and we stood still to admire our surroundings.

Knowing we still had some tricky transitions with limited daylight, we couldn’t gawk too long and kept traveling south along the ridge. We skied down along the east side of Pt. 7276 and climbed back over the ridge through a weakness in the cornice. At this transition, the skylines began displaying immense color contrasts. Dark gray clouds were approaching Buck Mt from the southeast while the sun was beginning to set over thin clouds to the northwest. The result was fiery orange to one side of us and gothic purple to the other. We descended southwest and hastily set up camp below Triad Lake as a blustery rain shower moved in.

The next morning we traveled over High Pass and skied south to the Napeequa River. Again, we observed many days of fun ski terrain in our immediate surroundings. With the aid of bear tracks, Peter led us up the Napeequa and over the col to our camp at Moth Lake. The wind was howling down from the glaciers and the forecast called for ugliness so we spent some extra time digging down for added protection in our shelters. That night Adam was pretty excited about our whereabouts and kept brainstorming where else in the Cascades we could get this “deep.” I tried to share his enthusiasm for our remoteness but also wished to talk more about it the next night after we had traversed the rugged north side of Tenpeak Mountain.

While the map shows a slight bench at 6000’ amidst Tenpeak’s rowdy north couloirs, I gained the confidence in this section of the route from Lowell Skoog’s previous crossings. Thanks Lowell & Co. for pioneering this section and for the beautiful photos of that zone…it’s refreshing to see what we traveled through!

We awoke to colder temperatures, light snow showers, and three inches of new snow. I liked it…good temperature trend for stability, not too much new snow for potential destruction but enough new snow to help travel over otherwise firm icy runnels.

We made a descending traverse from the outlet of the lake and then skinned (ski crampons mandatory) to a wide saddle that allowed an easy entrance onto the Honeycomb Glacier. Visibility held in there for great travel…never enough to see the top of Tenpeak or much into the valley below but plenty to see at least a couple hundred feet.

While on the Honeycomb Glacier, visibility got worse. Map, compass, and a GPS reassurance for a preset waypoint got us through the Honeycomb, down and across the Suiattle, and down the White Chuck to where we set camp northeast of White Mt at about 6300’.

This traverse was always intended to conclude with a Glacier Peak summit ski. The weather never presented much chance to even discuss such an opportunity. The weather also did not allow other summit alternatives along the route or even the visibility to enjoy some ski descents along the way. None of us ever complained. We were close to completing a long planned ski traverse through new country. We were stoked.

The next morning we awoke to three additional inches of snow. Bolton led us through powder turns from camp and then we began our final ascent to a col west of White Mountain. The top 1500’ of our south facing run to the North Fork Sauk River consisted of pleasant powder turns. It then slushed up before finally giving way to more dirt/rock/brush than snow and we downclimbed the last few hundred feet after enjoying another 3000’ ski descent.

We hit the valley bottom a little east of the trail and had to earn some Cascadian bushwack credos before finding the trail out. Due to road closures, our car was parked off the Mt Loop Highway at the start of the North Fork Sauk River Road adding seven additional miles of walking fun to the finish.

We got into the car and were amazed at how quickly the miles peel off when rolling at 30 mph. The culture shock continued in Darrington as we couldn’t find an appropriate dining establishment. We all stared blindly out the windows as the green pastures turned to concrete strip malls and soon founds ourselves in a Red Robin consuming 3 courses of high caloric meals.

The trip was extremely rewarding for me as I got to travel through entirely new terrain with my good friends. Strong work team and thanks for a most memorable traverse!

More NCCT photos here and will add more as get them from Bolton.

Central Cascades Traverse

2008-05-14T07:20:00.021+07:00

The Central Cascades Traverse (CCT) has been high on the hit list for over 5 years. It began the spring of 2002 on a tour through various headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie. Then in 2003 as we stood atop Glacier Peak looking south, Peter and I knew we must attempt to ski across the Central Cascades. The traverse was linked quite clearly starting west from the high peaks of Snoqualmie Pass through the expansive whiteness of the Daniel-Hinman massif on through the Wenatchee Mountains to finally finish amongst the granite-laden Stuart Range. From that day on, we started the CCT scheming.

The trip required some logistics: time, snowpack, and us being in the country. Finally this season was go-time. We had always envisioned this tour happening during sunny spring days with a reliable freeze/thaw snowpack. However, Peter becomes a father towards the end of May and his supportive wife had valid reason to want him around. So, our scheduled window was late April. Due to unfavorable weather conditions on the western slopes, we decided to start in the Enchantments and end on Snoqualmie Pass.

Robo dropped us off on the Icicle Creek Road on the morning of April 22^nd. The sky was deep blue and we were thinking starting on the sunny side of the Cascades was going to reap rewards. A few hours further up the Rat Creek drainage, the weather turned to that which was consistently hitting home on Snoqualmie Pass: clouds, wind, and eventually snow. Not wanting to get stymied by too much snow for a safe climb up from Coney Lake to Canon Mt the next morning, we pushed on. Almost 7000’ above our start, we reached Canon Mt. in a windy whiteout. With skins and compass still in use, we quickly got down to the Lost World Plateau and over to our desired descent towards Prussik Pass. We enjoyed increased visibility and a couple sections of powder turns amongst larch trees before finally setting up our first camp above Perfection Lake.

We awoke to four inches of new snow and began touring through the Enchantments. There were a couple moments when the sun won the battle and we caught glimpses of our snow filled neighbors, most notably Prussik & MacClellan Peaks. Due to continued winter conditions, we chose to abort hopes of tagging Colchuck and Dragontail and elected for the more familiar descent from Asgaard Pass to Colchuck Lake. We took advantage of some brief sight distance and floated through cold smoke all the way down to the lake. We sipped tee and admired our turns waiting for the giggles to wear off. Then we roughed a nasty descent down to Mountaineers Creek where we filled up on water and tore layers off as the sun came out. Just a few minutes later we layered back up and toured through snow showers up to camp at Lake Stuart.

Never seeing the upper half of Mt. Stuart, we discarded plans of traveling over Goat Pass and chose a more direct route over Jack Ridge via Jack Lake. In winter fashion, the visibility shut down and the wind picked up as we climbed higher. We booted over the rocky ridgeline and safely navigated down a few inches of wind-consolidated snow on a firm crust. Once down to Jack Creek, we snacked and then started a long valley day. Once more, the weather and snow conditions turned us away from our intended exploration up and over Harding Mt. Instead, we opted for the creek cruising day and skied down Jack Creek and then up Meadow Creek to the southern base of The Cradle. Consistent with each morning thus far, we awoke to new snow on the Megamid. But soon the clouds dispersed and the sky appeared to want to remain mostly clear. Odd. Through a satellite phone call, we got a weather update that the next couple days looked cloudless. We relished in the thought of seeing our surroundings and quickly headed west determined to spend the big alpine day on Daniel and Hinman in the sunshine.

We spotted a gorgeous basin on the east side of Granite Mt we wanted to climb. Before entering this basin we toured across the first set of tracks we’d seen on the trip. I pondered different possibilities, “Maybe they are snowshoe tracks…no too small. They look like boot tracks…but way out here?” They turned out to be from a bear who either didn’t have the strength to lift it’s legs out of the snow or was simply too heavy to do so.

Soon we were climbing above tree line. In addition to the decent weather, being back in the high country increased our stokage! We continued north over a ridge and then climbed the NE basin to crest the ridge and reach Granite’s summit. For the first time of the trip we could see the top of Mt. Stuart and where we began the morning before. The northern flanks of the Wenatchee range boasted tons of attractive skiing that would have to wait for another trip. To the south was the almighty Rainier and obstructing most of the view to the west sat the snow-packed NE aspects of Mt. Daniel. Grande!

We began our descent with great curiosity and satisfaction. We were satisfied that we put ourselves into a position to get Daniel and Hinman on an expected good weather day. We were curious about our descent down to Hyas Lake and if the bucket of food I cached a month ago would still be there. Curiosity and uncertainty often result in surprises and we experienced the beneficial side for both revelations. We skied dry unconsolidated powder on the descent down to upper Robin Lake and then soft spring turns down the west side of Granite. Equally exhilarating was discovering the food cache was unhampered! We set camp and consumed as many calories as we could.

Early the next morning we started skinning up a chasm into the huge NE basin and eventually onto the summit of Mt. Daniel. Glacier Peak beamed to the north and Peter starting pointing its direction and saying things like “that’s next, the NCCT” and “then there’s the NCT.” We scoped out a safe entrance onto the Lynch Glacier and began a long descent down to Pea Soup Lake. Mt. Daniel definitely separates itself from the rest of the Central Cascades by its expansive alpine acreage. Feeling like I was closer to the Chugach range than my backyard, we slid through glacial powder without a tree in site.

From Pea Soup Lake, we descended west on firm snow down to the bottom of a gully separating Mt. Daniel from Mt. Hinman. We toured up this wind funnel and then accessed the NE side of Hinman. Except for having fewer rock towers around, the wide-open whiteness was similar to that found on Daniel. We got into a trance-like zone of skinning. I admired Glacier Peak thinking of the day we were on it’s top thinking about doing what we were doing right now. Peter was reciting a self-motivational mantra: “I am light, I am strong.” Whether the mantra helped or not, Peter’s strength was evident as I observed his relentless pace up the mountain. A reliable partner to get things done in the mountains, Peter is the type of guy who gains strength during these multi-day marathons.

Reaching the summit, we admired the ruggedness of the Snoqualmie Pass high peaks and sensed a connection to finishing the traverse. We traversed west off the summit, skied some steep breakable crud above La Bohn Lakes and then sloshed through soupy snow past Williams Lake to a nice opening safe from any wet slide runouts. It was only 4:00 and we basked in the afternoon sunshine: gear dried out, bare toes breathed, and multiple freeze-dried meals were consumed. We enjoyed our only open bivy and woke up early to beat the onslaught of wet slides we were expecting.

Touring up the valley under the north side of Summit Chief was as spectacular as ever. Snow and ice gripped its rocky veins displaying that the present warming was an oddity in this long winter. At Summit Chief Col, we continued touring towards Overcoat Col hoping we could avoid a descent and climb back up under the east side of Chimney Rock. We climbed to the ridge that borders the east side of Overcoat Glacier until we hit a dead end. Falling west onto the glacier or south onto steep slopes were a couple rappel options that both required more rope length than we carried. We easily decided to ski down to the south and tour back up under Chimney’s eastern flanks. After 2500’ of safely sliding over bulletproof conditions to the bottom of the basin, we were relieved to be skinning again as we climbed up to Overcoat Col. We skied directly off the Col towards Iceberg Lake in favorable conditions: a huge snowpack limited the amount of exposed rock and the heat of the day had softened the snow.

Knowing the heat was going to start causing havoc in our surroundings, the rest of this day was all about safe speeding. We toured south from Iceberg Lake to a notch under the Lemahs where we quickly traversed one at a time to the outfall of Chikamin Lake. Here we found a safe spot and enjoyed some lunch while listening to the thunderous slides around us, most frequently from the rocky southern slopes of Burntboot Peak. We knew it wouldn’t be safe to ski south off Chikamin any time soon so extended our break. Late in the afternoon we toured up Chikamin’s north side to set camp and take a peak at our descent. Views from the summit ridge were spectacular and for the first time I was reversing the view out my condo window. We eyed our expected route under Huckleberry past Alaska towards the Kendall Catwalk and admired a ton of snow still remaining on the lower peaks west of us.

The next morning we awoke early for a less saturated descent off Chikamin. While the temperature did decrease overnight and the snow stiffened up a bit, the temperature was not cold enough to freeze the H20 falling from the sky. This was not good for the remainder of the traverse as we were camped higher than we would be at any future point west. With this in mind, plus the fact I allowed the wind to blow away the necessary maps, we chose to exit via the Gold Creek valley.

Picking our way through clouds and cliff bands, we navigated down the southwest side of Chikamin. Far from the methodology I have always envisioned while gawking out my window towards this aesthetic face, our descent consisted of careful sidestepping and long traverses. Once down on the bench northeast of Huckleberry, we safely sloshed down towards Joe Lake and finally the valley bottom. Due to a supersaturated snowpack that was still gaining water content, there was little ski success along Gold Creek. We stuck on our skins one last time and began the long waltz home. Ignoring the rain through thoughts of long sought after accomplishment, soon enough we saw the only other person we had seen since we began six days earlier: Robo our taxi driver.

There are some more pics here but for for the most part I experimented with video and the final product is far too large to upload efficiently.

Front Page News

2008-02-13T10:17:00.007+07:00

It's been a while since we've gotten around to a post, but being on the front page deserves a mention. Scott Wagar from the Bottineau Courant (my hometown newspaper) did a very nice article about our trip. The thumbnails on the right link to the two parts of the article (we were continued on A4).

It's been a crazy winter to be living up here on Snoqualmie Pass. We recently got over 10 feet of snow in two weeks. We're well on our way to having a record-snowfall year, and both the skiing and the road conditions have reflected that. Washington State Department of Transportation has a really interesting graph going that shows snowfall and closures for the last six years. We've been stuck up here off and on. But we've also had some fantastic powder days. The ski area's photo of the day gallery and the Hyak Flikr account (Hyak is the community we live in) show some of the craziness... everything from the end of January up to mid-February shows us pretty much buried. We'll see what's still to come from La Nina.

Being back and at work hasn't always been a super-smooth transition, but we're figuring it out. Trev's busy planning a spring Central Cascades Traverse ski tour that he's been dreaming of for years. Stay tuned for more on that one. I'm taking a math class at BCC, and working on getting accepted to graduate school. I'm hoping to start a Master in Teaching program this year.

As for continued blogging... we're not sure what we want to do with the blog just yet. In the beginning we set out to keep friends and family posted on the big trip, but now we're back and feel like we should be doing that by actual two-way interaction with our loved ones. But we both enjoyed the writing part of keeping a blog, so we may have some spin-offs in the works, once we decide if we have anything to say.

Home Sweet Home

2007-10-31T13:05:00.000+07:00

Our last few days in Hat Yai were a whirlwind of goodbyes and loose-end-tying, punctuated by a crazy day of playing dress-up. Pitt had the grand idea to get us all done up in Thai costume and have pictures taken. For the guys, this involved about 5 minutes of costuming. For the girls, this was a nearly two-hour process, with costume and jewelry selection followed by makeup and hair. Basically they used an Emily canvas to create a Thai-Barbie end product. It was a lot of fun, and the pictures will always be great to have. A lot of folks turned up at the bus station to see us off at 7 a.m. for an only slightly weepy goodbye. We'll miss everyone!

After approximately 13.5 hours on the bus, we caught a quick taxi to the airport for our red-eye to Korea. Our lengthy layover allowed us to get out and see a bit of Seoul on the 29th. Unfortunately, the palace we were aiming for was closed for the day, but we did have a nice wander around before meeting Kara (a friend I haven't seen since high school!) for lunch. She's teaching English to middle school girls there, and managed to shuffle her schedule and get the afternoon off. She treated us to some fantastic Korean barbecue, and we had a great afternoon visit over coffee and dessert. We were having such a good time, we pulled it a little tight getting back for our flight, and arrived just in time for boarding.

A speedy transpacific flight later, we were ready to start the 29th all over again. Trev's parents picked us up at Sea-Tac, and we headed straight for Gorditos (how long have we been thinking about burritos????). Dave and Vanessa joined us, and we thoroughly enjoyed our second lunch of the calendar day.

Now we're starting to think about things like cars, cell phones, a laptop, driver's licenses, and all the other practicalities. It's enough to make a person want to hide in the hot tub for a week. And did we mention we're FREEZING? We have officially left the tropics. But overall we're really, really happy to be home. We're so excited to see everyone in the coming weeks! The air is clear, the sun is once more our friend, and the PNW is indeed a beautiful, beautiful place.

Tropical Finale ala Similan Islands

2007-10-24T14:29:00.000+07:00

The decision to splurge on the Similan Tour yielded great rewards. Not only providing some decompression time, it also gave us our best tropical water experience to date.

We have finally uploaded photos from the last few weeks of travelin' fun:

Similan Islands
Khao Sok
Trang

The Similan Islands are world renowned for the clear underwater beauty they provide to many scuba divers, and are shortlisted to become a World Heritage Site. For some odd marketing reasons, they are never mentioned for snorkeling, leading one to believe that all the good sights are too deep for us tankless swimmers. Wrong. The east side (monsoon protected) of the islands provides abundant acreage of shallow coral gardens before rapidly dropping to deeper depths that are still visible in the 20-25 meter visibility we were lucky to enjoy.

This convenient geography allows the snorkeler to get close looks at the complex ecosystem surrounding the shallower reefs while also being able to peruse the steeper drop offs for the bigger creatures of the sea. And you can do it at your own time for however long you want without worrying about running out of oxygen from your tank. Plus, if you are into free diving you can also experience the depths as "any person can free dive comfortably to depths of 30m." This was easy for Olaf (owner and guide) to say right after he did spend a large portion of his first snorkel session poking through corals 15 meters below us. I guess after a couple day course on technique, free diving is quite simple and appears to be gaining momentum in the underwater community. Not having taken the class or gained the technique ("Look at me, I'm about 3 meters deep!") we settled into the more relaxing position at sea level to observe the hard (brain, staghorn, mushroom) and soft (cup sponges, seafans) corals housing parrotfish, clownfish, triggerfish, lionfish, pufferfish, unicornfish and other numerous neighbors.

Whether observing terrestrial or marine habitats, I am usually the one scanning the perimeter more often with hopes of catching a glimpse of the larger inhabitants while Em is deep into a plant or coral deciphering its function. This trip the more sensational creatures treated Em to some private viewings. She got a long look and short swim with a black tip reef shark, and a face to face (hoping the current doesn't do something bad) experience with a sea snake.

Some other highlights were giant moray eels, crown of thorns starfish (Yeah for Andrew Wood) and swimming with large sea turtles. We observed an octopus get pecked at by a group of black fish (apparently must have been in their territory). Most fascinating with the battle was the octopus's defensive camouflaging mechanism: If attacked while on the sand, the octopus would flash white, in contrast to the dark red and purple of its usual coloration. We finally watched it settle in on a hunk of coral, mimicking both the color and texture. But if we had to pick our favorite underwater encounter, it would be swimming along with a green sea turtle. First we saw it slowly moving above the bottom, grubbing on algae and grasses interspersed among the coral. Even though it noticed us, it definitely didn't feel threatened and continued its grazing. We then followed it into the deeper waters where it slowly rose to the surface for a breath of air before being joined by it's mate coming from our right and then swimming slowly off into the blue abyss.

While this underwater world is truly phenomenal, the beauty of the live aboard boat is you can snorkel as long as you please. And there are temptations to not being in the water as life on board is quite comfy: endless coffee, tea, and fruit, bottomless meals of top notch food, full time shade, beautiful views, and the consistent boat rocking back and forth that rivals any Thai massage for deep relaxation to both body and mind.

The Similan live aboard dive season begins in November but Olaf ran this trip early to satisfy Hans & Natalie's vacation schedule allowing them to get in their third "Similan Tour" and for Olaf to get a look at how the conditions were after the monsoon season. This meant us four guests were outnumbered by crew (all of which were considerate and fun) and enjoyed the solitude of moorings that normally would be shared with many boats, most of them running their loud air compressors and herding up their guests with megaphones. Tough to believe after our silent visit, and all the more reason to patronize the off- or shoulder- seasons!

Just in case we hadn't been spoiled enough, our path back to the mainland intersected with a large pod of dolphins. Whether it was jumping, breaching, fast surfacing races or spinning around longitudinally while playing in the water off the bow of the boat, they were excited to share their zest for life.

We won't be doing such tricks, but we look forward to sharing fun filled moments with our friends and family at home very soon!

Goodbyes, Trang, and Khao Sok

2007-10-17T13:20:00.000+07:00

The last two English camps were hot but successful - a heat wave hit Hat Yai just in time for Dylan's arrival. After two days of fun with the kids, we were all droopy but happy. Our going away party with the Smart English crew was also a very good time. We all went to one of our favorite Thai restaurants, ate yummy food (some of which P Toi, our manager, cooked for us) and sang bad karaoke. A lot of people had some commendable things to say about us, and we were given some very nice Thai clothes that we look forward to wearing on special occasions at home. We'll miss all of our friends from Smart English!

With school officially wrapped up, we hit the road to show Dylan a bit of South Thailand. We headed first for the Trang coast to Haad Yao Nature Resort, where we had a fantastic self-guided paddle through the mangroves to a HUGE cave. After exploring the cave, we headed back only to hear from Khalil (the resort founders' son, and a great cook) that we'd actually missed the "main" cave, which was up a ladder to the side. Dylan and Trevor couldn't resist heading back, and braved the turning tide and setting sun to do the real thing. I settled in on the deck to read a book. We also had the good fortune to make it over to the "secret beach", which can only be accessed at low tide. With tons of small caves and rock arches, it might be the prettiest little beach we've seen so far. For a small beach, it also offered a lot of prime nature-viewing, with langurs (leaf-eating monkeys), brahminy kites, a white-bellied sea eagle, and the tracks of a small monitor lizard, which we followed in and out of the rocks.

Anxious to get out to the island, we headed for HYNR's sister operation on Koh Libong, where one has the opportunity to boat or kayak into dugong habitat for a chance to see the rare animals. This trip was not possible at the time, and after enjoying the beach and extremely friendly village for a couple days, we decided to head for Khao Sok National Park a bit early.

We checked into the Rainforest Resort, a quiet establishment along the Sok river, and picked two bungalows up on the hillside. We saw a flying lizard on one and a beautiful green tree frog on another, so we decided this must be the lucky place! Our big jungle hike the next day was outstanding. We saw lots of hornbills, langurs, macaques, lizards with horns, and countless other amazing examples of tropical forest life. We swam in a beautiful little gorge on the Sok river.

The next day we decided to go up to Cheow Lan Lake to stay in a floating bungalow. The boat ride to the bungalows alone makes the trip worthwhile: huge limestone cliffs and pillars shoot straight up out of the lake, with thick forest growing on seemingly impossible slopes. We took a lot of pictures. Arriving at Ton Teuy, we enjoyed some fantastic food, and found the staff very friendly, and very encouraging of our Thai!

Unfortunately this beautiful place was struck by tragedy on our first day there. A group of 9 people (2 Thai guides and 7 tourists) was caught in a flash flood through a popular cave near our bungalows. In the evening hours we watched a large-scale search and rescue operation unfold. A single tourist was the sole survivor. The caring, diligence, and effort of all involved was touching and impressive, even if the end result was extremely sad. As the search stretched into the second day, we made plans to leave early, and were an hour away from boating off the lake when the operation concluded with the celebration of finding the survivor. With our concerns of being in the way allayed, and the bungalow staff insisting that we stay on, we opted to stay one more night. We had a fantastic connection with the staff that night, talking about the park, what happened, and their friends who were gone. None of us will forget this experience any time soon.
Back at the Rainforest Resort, Dylan had one last lunch with us before catching a bus for his "One Night in Bangkok" (and one day, too) before flying home. He was there for my 100th Thai bird (the ruby-cheeked sunbird across the river, not the mystery sea eagle on the lake - sorry Dylan)! We were very glad to have him here with us, and think a good time was had by all.

Initially it looked like only the lake portion of the park would be closed, but then it was announced that all parks in south Thailand would be closed for at least a week for a safety assessment. After sneaking in one more short hike, we decided it was a firm sign to head for the beach, and that we should treat ourselves to the fancy snorkel trip we've been contemplating. Our boat leaves the day after tomorrow, and we firmly resolve to sip fruit shakes on the beach until then!

Students, Waterfalls, and Students at Waterfalls

2007-09-30T20:38:00.000+07:00

Our last couple weeks have focussed on finishing classes with our students, enjoying ourselves exploring Ton Nga Chang waterfall, and hosting Em's school's English camp at another waterfall.

We both finish teaching class this coming Wednesday and our last camp is this Friday. The program we work for (Smart English Hat Yai) holds English camps for each of the three schools where we have western teachers. Em's camp (last Friday) was the first of the three. Pictures from Jiraporn's camp and school are here.

A couple weeks ago Em began teaching a "Thai animals" section that would be covered again in a couple of her camp activities. The topic looked so fun I piggybacked some of her materials (often the case this term). Teaching a topic that excited me gave me another glimpse at the beauty of educating. I have been more focussed on trying to get the students to learn English in a fun manner and still enjoy this principle challenge. But taking this opportunity to research and teach a topic I'm interested in yielded additional rewards of this work.

At the camp, Em conducted a Scavenger Hunt where teams had to find cut-outs of different animals amongst a forested creek bed. Each animal had a secret code written on it, and the first team to return with all the correct codes won. I held a hornbill relay where students raced to see who could carry the most food to their respective nests. They first had to collect one peanut with long tongs and then run to their nest and drop it in a small hole in future board (similar to the small opening mudded together in a typical hornbill nest). If this activity didn't wear them out, I then conducted a "Mother Monkey, Mean Tiger" activity which replicated a survival of the fittest game in an exerting fashion. The day did have some spoken English, some fun games such as tug of war, balloon relays, and of course some song singing.

Em and I have spent the last couple weekends exploring around Ton Nga Chang Falls. This area boasts seven tiers of falls, and they are all quite impressive. While this area is a popular tourist spot, almost nobody hikes beyond the first couple falls (.5 km from the trailhead) so it is an easy place to get intimate with the jungle.

On our first voyage we spent more time in the middle tiers exploring the rocky creek beds, inspecting a large toad, and swimming in a pool where we found a 6-foot-long dead rat snake. On the second trip we blazed a trail to the last of the waterfall (#7) where we saw a long millipede, admired more types of orchids, enjoyed more swimming, and heard gibbons. Whether it's gibbon calls, cicada chirps, or the gurgle of the stream, the natural noises of nature are a great reprise from the horns of the city.

We are excited to spend time soon with our friend Silky (also known as Dylan). He lands in Hat Yai on Thursday and will ~~sing songs at~~ observe my school's camp on Friday before we head out for some fun beach time and jungle exploration.

Homecoming!

2007-09-20T06:30:00.000+07:00

It's official! We have our tickets and land at Sea-Tac on October 29th.

There are definitely mixed feelings going home... excitement about seeing family and friends; re-emergence of food and place cravings; sadness about leaving behind new family, friends, and food here; satisfaction at successes and lessons learned; and thoughts of the things we're not getting around to, and want to come back for another time. Making it all happen (skiing in India, living in Thailand) was such a big focus for so long that shifting to longer-term goals back home has been tricky, especially as we try to enjoy our remaining time here.

Thinking about seeing all the familiar faces at home reminded me of an article I read a while ago about facial recognition. The researchers said that we recognize faces by comparing them to an internal template in our mind that's a composite of the faces we're used to seeing. We recognize the face of our grandmother, our favorite barista, or our best friend by noting how that face differs from the template. The idea is that a person's template is likely tied to the ethnic group(s) they are familiar with, and when dealing with another group it's really not that "They all look the same", but that they all differ from the template in similar ways. We noticed when we first got to India, we had trouble recognizing people we'd see periodically. But after several months, remembering new people got easier. The same happened in Thailand. I wonder, now, if we'll go through the same process back in the US? I went to a pub that's one of the main foreigner hangouts in town the other day to trade some books, and had the startling realization that all of them looked the same! To be fair, they're all middle-aged, portly, balding men of (mostly) British decent, but still.

Big, big thanks Tarah, who gave me the lovely birthday gift of carbon-offsets for our flights home. More info on offsetting flights (or almost anything else you can think of) here: www.TerraPass.com

Making peace with Thale Ban

2007-08-26T10:07:00.000+07:00

For our third long weekend out of the last four, we loaded the motorbike and headed to Thale Ban National Park. Yes, this is pronounced like the terrorist trained posse from the Mid-East. No, we did not need to create an improvised explosive device to enter the park gates.

This park sits on the southwest portion of Thailand bordering Malaysia and hosts wet ecosystems ranging from tropical rainforest to mangroves. The park headquarters and bungalows we stayed in are located next to a small lake tucked between steep forested hillsides. This valley is a huge migratory path for birds and one can see many different species throughout the year, including multiple types of hornbills.

The hornbills are most prevalent after their nesting periods (springtime) and we never saw one of these bulky-billed beauties. But we were treated to many types of swallows and swifts darting around the swamp salas and boardwalks at all times of daylight. Never seen but always heard were the rare barking tree frogs.

One morning we headed to the Wangpra Meadows for wildlife and bird viewing. The directions on all park & internet resources were correct but they neglected to mention that the final 10 km after the last left turn was a bumpy dirt trail well suited for a motor cross race. We took our time scooting in while enjoying the calls from two different families of gibbon monkeys. Play the video below to hear the sounds of these majestic mammal callings.

While the meadows were a little too wet to trek great distances, we were lucky to see a couple falconettes, banded woodpeckers, leaf birds, and crested bulbuls. That afternoon we took a nap after lunch hoping the rain would stop. Hours later and no sign of the precipitation relenting, we threw on the ponchos and headed out into leach territory.

Park headquarters has a group of nature trails that places one immediately into the lush diversity of this jungle. While the trails are longer than we might have expected, we never completed either of the two loops. Throughout the weekend, we started out on three of the four different legs and each time were forced to do some difficult trail finding before wisely returning. We learned later that the park strongly recommends a guide and this time of year there are no guides. Thinking of myself as an experienced mountain traveler, I continue to be humbled by the difficulty of navigating dense jungle climes.

On our bigger nature trail walk while hearing another family of gibbons, Em spotted a flying lizard. I only saw it resting on the tree, but she saw it fly (twice). Right after this, we heard some rustling in the upper canopy and looked up to see a gibbon swinging elegantly through the trees. Not only smooth, but this creature also traveled through branches making hardly any sound at all. He stopped a couple times to give us a good look and it was quite memorable. We see macaques (long tailed monkeys) around Thailand all the time and admire their swift mobility. But after seeing the gibbon in action, we have a whole new appreciation for acrobatic agility.

Click here to see more photos of our Thale Ban trip.

The Friday night before we left for Thale Ban, we had a dinner party at a nearby favorite restaurant for Em's birthday. We frequent this place regularly because of the ambiance on the outdoor deck. Sure enough, it rained this particular evening so we sat inside where I sadly realized there was a karaoke machine in action. True to eastern entertainment, this karaoke machine was the hit of the evening as the ladies couldn't put the mic down. Pitt dominated one microphone for a couple hours while Em, Gi, Win Win (Gi's 5 year old daughter), Toi, and May sang a few back-up rolls.

Teaching is going well and I continue to learn the importance of "mixing it up." While I am strongly encouraged to follow the school's syllabus, I really wanted to throw some environmental education into the loop. I figured since my 5th graders were working on recreation activities and a very smart group of kids, I would try to introduce the "Leave No Trace" concept. The first challenge was working on translating with Jean, my assistant. I then headed into the classroom with various pieces of garbage for the kids to guess their decomposition times. Not expecting them to really be able to have an English conversation about the topic, I think it went well and some of them learned the importance of packing it out. I think I also gained some false respect from some of the tougher boys since one of the articles was a cigarette butt.

We ♥ Phatthalung

2007-08-14T13:59:00.000+07:00

When we first started planning a weekend roadtrip to Thale Noi in Phatthalung province, out came the trusty Lonely Planet. I went to the "Southern Gulf" section... no Phatthalung. Must be under "Andaman Coast"... well, that can't be right - no Phatthalung there either. It seems to be the only province (that we know of) completely left out of our guidebook. Poor, neglected Phatthalung! We got a few ideas off the internet, and set off for the non-existent province. (pictures)

We opted to take the roads less traveled (and, it turns out, less signed) hugging the coast of "Thale Sap", the large complex of inland seas that get progressively less salty until you reach little, freshwater Thale Noi. We stopped for lunch on a small peninsula, and encountered a shrimp-lover's dream: prawns the size of lobsters, no joke! While we were waiting for our food, I went to grab my camera from the bike, and the waitress pointed across the road, where she was headed. She said "shrimp", and motioned for me to follow. There, in a shallow cement tank, were the most enormous shrimp I'd ever seen. She fished one out, and we walked back. I returned to the table babbling excitedly about freakishly large shrimp, and I think Trevor didn't really believe me until our Tom Yum soup came with a 16-ouncer in it. [I think they were giant freshwater prawns - Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Common length: 20cm/7.8in. Maximum length: 34 cm/13.4in. Weight: 0.32kg/0.7lbs - 0.40kg/0.9lbs. Big shrimp.]

Closer to Thale Noi, we pulled off to investigate the "Phatthalung Botanical Garden" which turned out to be a kilometer-long boardwalk through some interesting swampy forest. By then we were both getting stiff and sore from the bike, so it was a nice break to stretch our legs and check out the birds and trees.

The park bungalows were unfortunately full, but Pitt had booked us a room at a nice guesthouse along the main strip of shoreline, and we got settled and took a stroll to check things out. The existing park accommodations are some fairly nice bungalows over the water. At the other end of the strip, some new bungalows under construction looked like they might be park service as well, though all the signage was in Thai. On that end, the water vegetation was fairly dense, and there was a lot more opportunity for wildlife watching directly from the pathways.

Our early-morning boat ride was really beautiful. The lotus were definitely done blooming, but pink and white lilies were still in fine form, and Thale Noi's bird life is always amazing. We saw purple swamphens, egrets, little grebes, brahminy kites, white-throated kingfishers, and little cormorants in abundance. Bronze-winged jacanas, common moorhens, purple herons, yellow bitterns, little herons, blue-tailed bee-eaters, greater coucals, and lesser whistling ducks put in frequent appearances. It was also interesting to watch the fishermen at work, plying the lake with traps and nets on a fairly small scale. We did a complete loop of the lake, including a quick trip under the bridge and into the next lake (Thale Luang).

In the afternoon we set off in search of Khao Ok Thalu (A mountain/karst with a hole in it - though I'm not sure that the Thai name has anything to do with a hole). Our first turn off the main road became a circumnavigation of the karsts, which wasn't what we had in mind, but turned out to be really beautiful. We stopped at a little temple with some nice statues and a stupa set into the cliffside. We'd almost given up on finding a trail up the mountain, when one last side-road attempt put us in exactly the right place. We started up some stairs....1,050 of them that went all the way up to the hole, which offers an interesting perspective on the town below.

At the top there was a gathering of monks and other folks, and we had our first encounter with the extremely friendly Phatthalung People's Association - a kind of social/service club with members who came from Phatthalung and currently live there or in Bangkok. Many of them had done some kind of run/race from Thale Noi early that morning - 20k - then walked up all those stairs to finish it off. They were having a cleanup party, and had invited monks from all over (even one from Malaysia). When we got to the bottom, more folks from the PPA offered us food from the chow tent. We tried valiantly to turn it down (already ate... very full... couldn't possibly...) but accepted some water. Which led to fruit. Which led to noodles. I felt like I'd been to Granny's house, in a good, very full way.

Monday we started the drive home, heading over the bridge (which we'd been under on the boat ride) and down the coast. We made a loop around a cape, and stopped at a wildlife preserve. There wasn't much to see, but a nice covered pavilion on the water overlooking the mangroves made a pleasant break. And of course we stopped on Koh Yo (Yo Island) for late lunch at our favorite seafood place. Yummy!

Total mileage: 430k.

Railay, Krabi

2007-08-01T14:56:00.000+07:00

Thailand's coastline is famous for those crazy, dramatic limestone cliffs and islands that shoot hundreds of meters straight up out of the sea, and look like they should topple over any moment. Nowhere are these features more photographed - and hyped - than in Krabi. A four day weekend (hooray again for bountiful Thai holidays) gave us just enough time to see what the fuss was all about. (pictures and map)

We arrived on Railay Beach Saturday afternoon, and spent some mellow time just enjoying being out of the city. Our place at the Railay Beach Club (thanks so much for the recommendation, Bodhi!) was pretty amazing, and we had some good chill time on the deck enjoying the natural setting. On Sunday we had a beautiful few hours of paddling, poking around the karsts (the name for those limestone protrusions) and sea caves.

Monday was reef day: ancient reefs in the morning, and new reefs in the afternoon. Those improbable karst formations are actually the remnants of an ancient barrier reef that was 5,000 km long. When the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia 30 million years ago, the same forces that created the Himalayan Mountain range uplifted the reef, the end result of which can be seen throughout Southeast Asia. Water erosion carved the stone into the existing karst formations. (Geology-in-a-nutshell courtesy of Thom Henly's great book Reefs to Rainforests, Mangroves to Mountains.)

Monday morning we explored the two well-known caves in the area. The Princess Cave (Tham Phra Nang) is really more of a huge hollow in the cliff with a shrine at the deepest point, which is right on the beach under a massive overhang. The walk there along the base of the cliffs offers plenty of opportunity to poke around in small cave openings. The Diamond Cave (Tham Phra Nang Nai) is more impressive from a cave formation standpoint, and with lights and a pathway, was really easy to get around. While you're walking around wondering at the fantastic things water can do with limestone over time, it's hard to imagine that even further back this was living reef at the bottom of a shallow sea.

To do the "new reef" part of the day, we unfortunately had to take a boat trip out to some outlying islands. Apparently there used to be reef just offshore, but it's been almost entirely destroyed by dynamite. We snorkeled at three different islands, and were impressed to see a lot of neat things we haven't run into anywhere else. The soft coral was very cool, with lots of long coral whips, barrel sponges, and some lovely little sea fans. We saw a barracuda and a harlequin sweetlips, and we got to snorkel through a cave.

Tuesday morning we decided to brave the hike to "the lagoon" (AKA the princess pool). We were warned that the hike was pretty gnarly... and this proved correct. Muddy trail, muddy rope, rock scrambles with rope assist... It was also an amazingly beautiful hike, ending at a lagoon completely surrounded by towering limestone cliffs. Well worth the effort.

Trails, Tests, and Tranny Talent

2007-07-27T10:43:00.000+07:00

Final Visa Run

A couple weeks ago I finished my last visa run to Penang, Malaysia! Ahhh, this still brings an extended exhale of relief. While Em has had an official "work visa" since November, I have been conducting regular "border hops" with the periodic trip to Penang for a tourist visa. On this last visit, I finally got to the long sought after "Penang Hill" and hiked along a trail I heard was the "real deal." Considering I was more tired and sore after this 8 mile jungle walk than I was after climbing and skiing off the top of Mt. Rainier, I concur that it was the real deal.

Midterms

I, and my students, seem to have survived midterms. After colleagues looked over my test, I was a little concerned that I made them too difficult...what, me have high expectations? It is easy to relate to my best students and perceive that any signs of boredom in class are because the lessons are too easy. I was in Malaysia while my first classes were tested and returned to comments from the substitute that they were hard and direct quotes from students such as "this is difficult." Yes, I was happy to hear that they were using such good English to complain. So, I was immediately thinking of extra credit opportunities and excuses to tell the administration in a country that does not fail students. But after grading them, it seems their whining was exactly that. Sure, 90% of the students did not get As but most of them did well and I was happy with the range of grades.

Seven Falls

I recently hiked at Ton Nga Chang, a nearby tourist spot boasting seven levels of waterfalls. With an entrance fee and well maintained pathways (at the beginning of the hike), I figured it would be a simple walk around a nice stretch of waterway. But sure enough, it satisfied some wilderness craving as after the fourth falls the trail connected with stretches of rocky river bank and demanded some jungle route finding. The irony was I was only able to get to the sixth falls as after that point, I explored dense forest and steep embankments without finding any sign of a route progressing further upstream to the seventh and final falls. I enjoyed some quiet time at the sixth falls listening to the sounds of cicadas and gibbons radiating from the jungle around me and cooled off with a dip into the pool (which is probably how I got the leach bite on my chest I discovered hours later in our apartment) . I also visited with a rather large millipede as shown in the photo (that's my finger in the bottom right corner of the picture).

Nightlife

There is a new hot spot in town we visited last Saturday night with Pitt, P Nutt, and P Nutt's clan. We had appetizers and drinks outside before entering the swanky flavored interior. Due to P Nutt's local respect, we were treated well all evening and had a nice stretch of tables near the band. It was my kind of dance atmosphere as there was no dance floor but rather the move your shoulders around a bit while holding a drink standing by your table dance scene. I got a little loose and soon enough was throwing around my famous "surfer" dance.

Towards the end of the night some expensive talent entered exposing more skin than cloth. While we are pretty certain they were all born men, they still successfully won repeated looks from all genders. Most likely out of the clientèle's league, or simply too intimidating, there weren't many folks approaching them. One began venturing around and soon enough was over dancing between Em and Pitt (likely because Em was one of very few present who could really dance). To my blind regret, I learned later from Em that the first few seconds she was dancing with us, she had both breasts fully exposed.

Next...

Tomorrow morning we're heading for Railay Beach in Krabi to enjoy a little vacation over the four day weekend.

"OK" is almost always the right answer

2007-07-16T16:59:00.000+07:00

A couple weeks ago my school started talking about a teachers' trip to Surat Thani. And by "talking about" I mean in Thai. "Teacher - go to Surat Thani" is about the only explanation I got. So, what the heck - "OK". (pictures)

My school's Kruyai (literally "Big Teacher", but basically the principal) speaks a little bit of English, and a couple of the older teachers have tried to talk to me... But most of the teachers at my school are under 25, don't speak much more English than I do Thai, and are mostly caught up the school's fairly clique-y teacher scene. I thought, if nothing else, I would end up talking to someone in the course of a two-day trip.

After getting up at 3:30, we rolled into Surat late Thursday morning, parked, and I still didn't know what was going on. It turns out we were at a huge school expo. Sixty schools from all over south Thailand had endless rows of booths displaying all kinds of projects their students have been working on. There were books, origami, beadwork, string art, paper and cloth flowers, ceramics, mini ecosystems, melons carved into flowers, paintings, etched glass, fossil replicas, and much more - all made by students. Big display boards in each booth gave extensive information (in Thai) so that other interested teachers could find out more about the projects.

By 2:00 we'd all had enough of the heat and the crowds. That's when they told me where we were headed next: "Teacher, go Koh Samui." Koh Samui is a big tourist island with lovely sandy beaches. "OK." Unfortunately, after driving the hour to the ferry, we found the boats were full. So we eventually found a place along the shore with a perfectly nice beach. After a full day of having little to no idea what was going on, where I was going, or what was being said, it was nice to just sit on the sand for a while. There were a few minutes there when I was wondering what on earth I'd been thinking to agree to this little outing. I'd spent the day mostly hanging out with Kruyai, and the other teachers still didn't seem overly friendly (maybe because I was hanging out with the boss like some kind of pet poodle?). But before dinner folks started warming up. It turns out the older 6th grade teacher actually does speak some English, she's just really shy. And her friend - the older kindergarten teacher - offset that by not knowing much but being very willing to try. Between that and my really basic Thai, I started to feel more a part of the proceedings. And as dinner and the evening went on, even some of the younger teachers seemed more friendly.

In the morning we tried for the ferry again, with no luck, so went to plan B: "Teacher, go temple." "OK." We went into the town of Nakhorn Si Thammerat, to Wat Phramahathat. Then we continued south into Phattalung province, and Wat Khao Hor, which has a nifty cave and a small shrine on top of a limestone karst.

We were all starving when we left the second temple, and the principal assured me that our lunch destination was only ten minutes away. With a name like "Ban Thale noi" (translation: small lake sea, or something like that) I was thinking seafood, so was pretty surprised when it was only mediocre vendor food along the lake shore. But after lunch I found out why we were really there: "Teacher, go boat. Birds." Definitely "OK." Thale Noi is a large freshwater marsh, with endless stretches of lillies, lotus, and water grasses - and tons of water birds. (I didn't have my camera with me, but someone's put up a very nice article and photo gallery on AsiaExplorers here.) We spent an hour and a half in a red-white-and-blue painted wooden boat, gliding amongst the blooming lotus, getting up close and personal with purple swamphens, pygmy geese, purple herons, little cormorants, brahminy kites, egrets, and little grebes. Fantastic birds. The big excitement for the principal and teachers that came with (only six of us) was snapping off the lotus flowers and seed pods as we went, but they seemed impressed by the birdlife as well. Not a bad way to end a very interesting two days.

In the Routine

2007-06-20T15:20:00.000+07:00

We feel as though our more routine recent lifestyle has lacked some of the sensational adventure we have been blessed to post so often the last year and a half. This excuse for not posting in a while aside, we continue to enjoy life and experience the idiosyncrasies of this culture.

While we grow relationships with our Thai friends, we have accepted that they have a different tone than those with friends at home. Thais live much closer to the surface, preferring not to discuss deeper issues, and allowing very little penetration by themselves or others to the deeper core. Hence, all the smiles. This reaction is easy, and often positive, but does not portray the core contentment we think of as the root of a smile. For example, if there is something bothering a Thai, they would rather smile it off, keep it out of sight,and out of mind. To their credit, they are fairly successful at keeping it out of mind. This is quite different from what I am used to.

This shunning of issues is quite apparent with the country's contemporary affairs. To us, it feels as though the country is likely experiencing a low point in recent history (sounds a bit like home:)). The "temporary" military government seems to be lacking tangible progress and the violent conflict in the deep south seems to be getting worse.

But you wouldn't know it at the dinner table. Not much talk at all. Most of what we get (and this is with our friends that we know we can push) is that it is not great news so people elect not to talk about it.

Staying with the pushing the norm strategy, I have been having a blast joking around with colleagues at school, especially our good friend, Pitt. Pitt and I both teach at the same school and eat lunch together with a couple other teachers in our program. Pitt is an extraordinary individual who has traditionally stayed to the professional expectations of back straight and how are you today interactions. During my first week back in Thailand, I was not sure if she even understood the concept of sarcasm. Well, I am happy to say that now she delivers it to me daily!

We all got embarrassed pretty good last week at our school's "Teacher Appreciation Day." Our school hazes the new teachers by mandating a cat walk performance and then a speed eating contest including getting a coin out of a bowl of flour. All good fun, and that much more supportive of my mission of having fun in the classroom. This objective of "having fun" seems to lead to success in most all aspects of life.

This does not mean it has been all (happy) laughs for me while teaching. I had one great scenario during my second week where my assistant Jean (translator when needed and class controller) had to leave class. I thought I would be fine, but learned my class management skills in this country have a ways to go. Sending kids out of class is a huge wake-up call to the kids, which they despise. In this class, I "tried" to send the back 2 rows out, but with the language barrier and the fact it has probably never been done before, this attempt at class control failed miserably. Soon, there were more well-behaved students outside than the rowdy boys in back. If any other English speaking person (especially a teacher) could have seen my debacle, they would have been on the ground laughing. I was also laughing (inside). So, after a few minutes of complete failure with this, I calmly announced "All students back inside and sit down."

Then there is my after school tutorial class with four-year-olds. Both Em and I are doing a couple of these private classes a week. I did not know how excited I was about this young age, but want to support the new business started by our friends Pitt and Gi. It was the beginning of my second class when the round boy with permanent innocent look grew a wrinkle of frustration on his face just before he puked down his shirt and onto the floor and many seconds before his brain ordered his hand to rise up and try to catch some of it. Coincidentally, this student is evolving into a favorite as his innocence is sincere (unlike some wiser students who use the look to get away with everything) and his round figure can sit in the half-lotus as natural as any bodhisattva.

Socially, we had a surprise visit from a buddy Jase (fellow NATR volunteer) a couple weeks ago . During his stay we helped Pitt move apartments, then she took all of us to dinner at a swanky little restaurant. Jase intended on buying Em and I dinner since we put him up. Refusing to be defeated of the kind gesture, he demanded on buying us many drinks after dinner. Thanks bud.

Last weekend, we headed to Songkhla with Pitt and Pee Lek to help Pee Lek plant trees at the temple he recently spent ten days practicing Buddhism at. It was great to get our hands in some soil again. We then worked some of the tourist hotspots with ice-cream on the beach, a lift up Tang Kuan Hill for good views, and topped it off with another great seafood meal on Ko Yo. (pictures)

All the news that's fit to block...

2007-06-10T18:23:00.000+07:00

Hooray for fruit! I came home from the fruit stand with a full bag yesterday - you're looking at $2.20 worth, minus the mongosteen I ate as soon as I got home.

In the current round of political squabbling here, it would seem free speech has definitely come out the loser. As a result, we currently can't view our own webpage, or any other Blogger site. YouTube is blocked, and Google is supposedly cooperating with the government (as they did in China) to censor search results. Political websites and websites of free speech projects (like the Tor project) have also been blocked. Also on the computer front, we're having some trouble with ours, so won't be as speedy on the replies as we have been.

In happier news, we had a whole truck-full of visitors from Phang Nga last weekend. A bunch of the crew from Kuraburi came down for a visit, and we hung out in Songkhla, ate too much seafood on Koh Yo, and took in the really extensive museum at the Institute for Southern Thai studies.

May 31st was a big Buddhist holiday here, and we celebrated by going to the temple with Pitt and P Noot. We weren't very smooth holding our lotus/candle/incense combo - Trevor burned the middle of his incense, and I kept dripping hot wax on my fingers, when my candle wasn't going out - but we made it around the temple three times under a lovely full moon.

Then we went and bought a motorcycle. We brought up with them over dinner the matter of the bike we were renting from their relative, and that it wasn't working out very well. Turns out someone had asked P Noot just that afternoon if she could sell a bike for them. We headed over for a look, decided it was a good deal, and bought a new (to us) bike.

It seems like there's a lot going on at home right now - weddings, parties, new babies, new opportunities. Congrats to all! It's easy for us to start thinking and talking a lot about home, and what's next... and forgetting about where we are and all the great opportunities we have right now. Both of us are still busy with the beginning of the new term. I'm starting to feel more competent all the time, and Trevor's learning lots of new tricks and enjoying the adventure, so we think it's going well. Thanks again to all the folks who sent us new music last month - we're really enjoying it!

Breathing at Suan Mokk

2007-05-21T20:54:00.000+07:00

While Trevor was having a look around the Jagatsukh, I was exploring my mind at a meditation retreat. Suan Mokk - a forest monastery in Surat Thani province - offers a 10-day session with instruction in English. I'd been looking at it ever since I decided not to go to India, but was a little intimidated. My last attempts at meditation were part of my college yoga class, and mostly I just fell asleep every time. The instructor would come by and gently nudge me, saying "work on staying awake." The online description of this retreat sounded pretty rough: two meals a day, a 10-day vow of silence, wooden pillows... it probably wouldn't fit into my schedule anyway, I thought. School prep, visiting friends, etc. No time. Two days before the start date, my calendar magically cleared, so I set off for Surat, feeling very uncertain about the whole thing.

Schedule for days 1-8:

04:00 *** Rise & Shine
04:30 *** Reading
04:45 Sitting meditation
05:15 Yoga / Exercise
07:00 *** Morning Talk & Sitting meditation
08:00 Breakfast & Chores
10:00 *** Dhamma Talk
11:00 Walking or Standing meditation
11:45 Sitting meditation
12:30 *** Lunch & Chores
14:30 *** Meditation Instruction & Sitting Meditation
15:30 Walking or Standing meditation
16:15 Sitting meditation
17:00 *** Chanting & Loving Kindness Meditation
18:00 Tea & Hot spring
19:30 *** Sitting meditation
20:15 Group walking meditation followed by Sitting meditation
21:00 *** Bedtime Goodnight ...
22:00 LIGHTS OUT
(*** signifies that the Large Bell will be rung just before the activity begins.)

The living conditions are, well, monastic. Suan Mokk International, where the retreats are held, is a couple kilometers from the monastery itself, on very pleasant semi-forested grounds, with several large ponds. The rooms are little concrete cells (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) with a concrete shelf built in as a bed. You get a straw mat, a blanket, a mosquito net, a lantern (candle) and a wooden pillow. Two meals a day - very plain, wholesome vegetarian food - and tea or Milo (sort of like hot chocolate) at dinner time. Men and women have separate sides of the dining and meditation halls, as well as separate hot springs. The hot springs are in secluded natural settings, and are a welcome relief after evening tea, loosening up those tired back muscles just in time for one last stretch of sessions. Almost all of the sitting meditation sessions are in a large hall with a sand floor and no walls, leaving us open nature - leafy green views, birdsong, and mosquitoes. We picked our meditation spots on orientation day, and spent every session on our very own burlap sack, 2'x2' cushion, and two pillows to support us in our chosen posture(s).

The type of meditation taught at Suan Mokk is called Anapanasiti, or mindfulness with breathing, as it was taught by Ajarn Buddhadasa - the monk who founded the monastery. There's quite a bit more about that on their website, but from the beginner's perspective, you basically concentrate on your breathing, following it in-and-out-and-in-and-out-and-in-and-out while trying not to think about the future, or the past, or anything at all except your breath. Try it for five minutes, I dare you. You quickly find that the mind is a very, very busy place. The biggest challenge is trying to convince your wayward brain that breathing is more interesting than thinking about that movie you saw last month with that actress... what's her name again? -- oh, right, meditating-- in---out---in---out -- oooooh! I have a whole Ziploc baggie full of Easter candy waiting for me back in the apartment! Yippee! -- shoot. supposed to be meditating-- in---out---in---out---in - Buddhist nuns don't really look much like nuns at home. That whole shaved head business. "The hills are alive..." -- no... meditation time-- in---out---in---out -- and the bell rings. The first few days were mostly 45-minute sessions of that. I might have given up fairly early on, except for the extremely patient and well-timed instruction offered by all of the fantastic folks who volunteer their time to staff the retreat.

Aside from the afternoon chanting session and optional interviews with instructors for those of us having trouble with the meditation, most of us kept the silence for the entire 10 days. In a lot of ways, this was a relief. It was nice to focus on the reason for being there, rather than having to be social. And the retreat wasn't easy - I think we were all sore, and frustrated, and not used to living in a monastic setting. I think a lot of what we might have said would have been venting our difficulties, and not exactly conducive to our purpose there. Silence was also a great help in "being mindful", which was a major focus of the retreat. The idea is that one should stay in the present moment all the time, and be aware of where you are and what you're doing. So again, less thinking and fewer mental distractions. Trying to keep your actions silent as well as your voice is a great way of becoming much more aware of every motion you make. Working on staying mindful all the time is really difficult, but helped create a frame of mind much more conducive to meditation.

As for things NOT conducive to meditation... Who knew the back had so may different individual places that could complain about sudden over-use? Thankfully, we did yoga for almost two hours every morning - led by Machee Aree (AKA The Bendy Nun). By the end of the retreat I could almost manage all of the various sitting meditation sessions without ending hunched over in a very non-meditative posture. It helped that I started making more progress on the staying-focused front after day three. I could really feel that I was getting somewhere in training my brain. I would recognize almost right away when my attention started to wander, and manage longer and longer stretches when that didn't happen. You eventually reach a certain level of concentration where you experience some really interesting physical and mental sensations... it actually feels like you've gotten lighter, and you get a sort of happy buzz. You no longer have to follow your breath as closely all the way from nose-tip to navel (the figurative end-point of the breath) in order to keep your attention from wandering. It's when you can consistently reach this level of focus that you can begin to cross over into "Insight meditation". Or so we were told. I'm a little hazy on exactly how all of that works, or exactly what to expect... I'm still working on that focusing bit, and figure I'll cross the Insight bridge when and if I come to it. My current challenge is staying focused and productive during those sessions that aren't going so well... gently bringing myself back as many times as necessary to the breathing without being critical of myself.

Day 7 was a landmark day for me. I hadn't slept much at all the night before, as I was scheduled to give the morning reading, and I was nervous. It went fine, and the rest of the day was maybe my best from a successful-meditation standpoint. In one session I was just reaching that point of lightening and lifting when the bell rang. The bell for the end of sessions wasn't the big monastery bell, but a little one the session leader/instructor would tap three times when the time was up. My whole body rang with the bell. It may have been the strangest thing I've ever felt. In the next session, I was really deeply focused when I felt a tap on my knee - my neighbor was pointing to the frog that was nestled in between one of my pillows and my leg. I didn't see any reason to shoo it away, so I went back to meditating, and at the finish of a very good session, she was still there.

Days 8 and 9 were harder. I was frustrated that my back still hurt, and if a session didn't go well, I'd feel like I'd totally failed... which was giving me some kind of weird meditation performance anxiety. Luckily, we had The Loving Kindness Lady. I never figured out her name, and I think she was a layperson, not a nun, but she gave a talk about the importance of loving kindness in meditation, and how it begins with loving (accepting, forgiving, etc.) yourself. Until you love yourself, you cannot love others. In our interview, she said that when I felt self-doubt, instead of trying to ignore or avoid it, I should turn toward it and say "hello good friend". She explained that these challenges and difficulties present us with our best opportunities to learn and grow. She also said that I should be using my successes and some loving kindness meditation to build up the positive energy in my heart, and draw on that strength when confronting challenges. I left the interview wondering how and when I'd let my positive feelings toward myself ebb to such a low point, and decided that cultivating some loving kindness toward myself should definitely be a higher priority.

All of the "Dhamma talk" sessions giving instruction on Buddhist teachings were really interesting as well, and a good compliment to the meditation practice. It took some adjusting to slow to the teaching pace and very different instructional style of monks whose first language is not English, but it was good to learn to slow down and listen. The teachings of the Buddha can be an enriching experience for anyone, regardless of their faith, and I appreciated the spirit of openness with which the talks were given. Personally I remain undecided on the self/no-self issue. I think my subconscious doesn't care for the idea... on about day 9 it staged a mini-rebellion, with a whole assortment of songs popping into my head that prominently featured the word "I". Perhaps most notably "I am the one and only / nobody I'd rather be / I am the one and only / You can't take that away from me..." I don't even know who sings it, and it may or may not have been an improvement over the Sound of Music medley I'd been trying to suppress all week.

To sum up a really long post, the retreat was by no means easy, but it's probably the best thing I've done for myself in a very long time. Setting up a regular meditation practice outside of a retreat setting is easier said than done, but we have been doing yoga regularly. And Trevor and I are thinking about going back together for another 10 days after the school term ends.

Steep Mountains to the Thai Classroom

2007-05-18T07:40:00.000+07:00

Due to timing, we decided that our final ski trip would be up the Jagatsukh Valley. This conclusion involved carrying in 12 days of food allowing for many fun opportunities. So, with the backpacks full of food and some climbing gear, we weren't too ashamed to hire porters for the first day.

Rob and I went in a day ahead of Jeff and Dusty (our new great friends from Canada) as they wanted another day to get over some stomach illnesses we all endured. The trip started with good karma as we were able to drive up 600m and 10 km farther than expected. There is a huge hydro project going in (combining water from both the Jagatsukh and Hampta Valleys) and the worker's road enabled us access. While this project is great for access, the net result appears negative as man is tainting a most spectacular piece of nature.

After leaving the village of Khanol, we walked up the south side of the valley hearing consistent dynamite explosions from the north side, watching massive boulders being pushed down the cliff through dust storms, and trying to gauge the battle this development team was fighting. In addition to the steep eroded hillside the first 10 km of roadway switchbacks through, this blasting section was taking place on a few hundred foot cliff. Crazy.

Not soon enough, we were past the noise and into the Himalayan wilderness. This was apparent as we spotted many Himalayan griffons gliding around. To no surprise, we had to push our porters to get them up near snowline. Even though they only walked for four hours, it saved our bodies from hitting energy depletion on day 1. The next day Rob & I enjoyed a nice ski into a large basin before the afternoon thunderstorms began. This weather pattern was fairly consistent throughout our trip....decent mornings followed by afternoon showers accompanied with entertaining lightning and thunder.

Jeff and Dusty arrived that afternoon and we were all stoked to move camp up to the end of the valley into some primo ski terrain. Well, the weather pattern fluctuated that next day as we woke up to a little shower and after making a dash for it, had to set camp short of our final destination due to rain and hail. But finally, on day 4, we beat the weather to our destination and set up camp at the base of the Goru Valley.

From this camp, we optimized the weather windows and scored continuously great skiing. On the second full day there, Jeff, Robo, and I summited Pachim Pahar at about 5040m, enjoying some fast turns off the summit on a couple inches of new snow and then a great gully ski to the valley floor 1100m later.

On our third day we ventured farther up the Goru, each few minutes gaining additional looks at tasty terrain. There was one ridgeline providing a couple steep chutes that awakened all of our taste buds and we knew we had to sample its spice before this trip of gluttony was over. The next day we climbed up around these lines and soon found ourselves on top of the desired goodies. Peering over the edge onto our options, we began getting nervous stomach flutters, wondering if we were eligible for such fine dining. With stable conditions, we could not leave such culinary treats to spoil with the springtime heat.

Robo, our professional paparazzi for the trip, dropped into the central chute first to get some photos. Dusty followed linking consistently great turns down a wonderful fall line. Jeff decided to ski a sportier line skier's left, forcing him to make a couple turns above a rock band and through some rocks to enter the chute proper. He made it happen and put a new hunger in my belly. Seeing there were many delicacies left in that line, I also went left.

We were all breathing heavily half way down our chutes requiring a quick rest before finishing. At the bottom we shared hoots and hollers as the endorphins raged through our bodies.

The next day was our last day of skiing as we needed to move camp down the valley before the long march back to civilization. All still buzzing from the previous outing, we were content to just get some turns in for the last time of the season. We ascended a high point at the end of the Goru Valley rewarding us with views into the Malana Valley and further east amongst the peaks of Spitti. We skied steep chutes back into the basin and then, sure enough, decided to muster the energy to boot back up for one last feast off our favorite ridgeline.

This time Robo and I skied a line skier's right adjacent to a hanging glacier. Robo went first, not scared to let his sticks bomb over hard pack steepness. Quite impressive. I felt things out; more hesitant to make a mess but still excited to explore a new treat. Dusty put together another smooth descent down the central chute and Jeff finished with a fantastic line coming directly into the central chute through some rocks.

Wow, what a trip of skiing. We were all happy to have skied some steep lines safely amongst big mountains and impressed to continue to enjoy each other's company. "Pick 'em up" and "5-3-5-2" were often hollered from one tent to the next to put a smile on our faces.

After this trip, Robo and I maximized on our one full day in Manali with some shopping and final chais or mango shakes with friends. Then it was an overnight bus to Delhi, some A/C movie time with the bro before departing ways, then an overnight flight to Bangkok followed by an an overnight train to our apartment here in Hat Yai. I enjoyed that first night of good sleep before waking early and heading to school to teach English to Thai elementary students.

Yes, that's right, I have decided to teach and am stoked for the challenges! Due to Em's respectable performance, her program (Smart English) has hired me for a part-time position this term. When meeting with the boss, she (and all the Smart English team) reassured me that I would do well since I have Em for help..."she is the best."

After the first two days, I am optimistic about the situation. I have fourteen hours of class time and so far the class size has not exceeded 30 students. I have a Thai teaching assistant, Jeen, and there is another Smart English instructor (with Thai assistant) at the school, which makes for good lesson sharing in addition to the respectable library Em has created. It is apparent that one could choose to just get by and lean on the given materials or create some fun lesson plans (with contingencies of course) and be that much more competent. So, I have lots of work to get caught up and then comfortably ahead.

In addition, both Em and I are also teaching some private classes two afternoons a week through a program Em's friends just began. We had our first session yesterday and it was nice to be in a classroom with only eight students and also a Thai teaching assistant. The not-so-nice surprise was the four parents who also attended the hour and a half class. Turns out it was all good and they were supportive of what I did.

So, from the Indian Himalayan peaks straight to the Thai urban classroom. Pretty cool.

Em is great and it is wonderful to learn some of the strengths she gained during her meditation retreat, which she plans to write something about later.

And finally, we are both very excited to be on similar schedules these next few months!

Nina Anderson Larson

2007-05-15T14:22:00.000+07:00

My Grandma Nina passed away on Friday. She'd been out working in her garden the week before - finished planting the dahlias and moving on to the begonias - and had a stroke. Grandma was an extremely active 86. All of us are glad she was able to do what she loved, right up until the week before her 87th birthday. Her autobiographical obit (on the right) sums up what she thought was most important. Not long ago, she and I traded emails talking about teaching, and we were looking forward to talking more when I got home. It was fun to be sharing something she felt so passionately about.

Body Surfing and Happy Teeth in Phuket

2007-04-28T19:03:00.000+07:00

Quite a while ago, I planted the idea with Vanessa that she should come to Thailand for some dental work she's been putting off. A few months later, having secured a week off from work, V was actually here! The visit was much too short as far as I'm concerned, but it was great to have her here. (I'll try and work on some pictures later...)

We got a recommendation from a friend on a good dentist in Phuket: Ruadee at Dent Smile. Within a few hours of arrival a very jet-lagged Vanessa found herself in the chair, well on her way toward a couple of crowns. Disoriented? Maybe. On a day off from dentistry, we went on a snorkeling trip to the Kai Islands. The coral wasn't much to look at, but there were tons of fish, greatly encouraged by the fact that the guides were feeding them. We stopped at one snorkel spot, and two tiny little islands with gorgeous sandy beaches and row upon row of beach chairs. We got a little sunburned. After several appointments, we finally finished up both our teeth. I had a few fillings, and V had more than a few. We had a big night out to celebrate. An Irish Pub, a cranky lesbian bartender, some very strange eyes, a live Thai-pop-cover music joint, and late-night noodles added up to an interesting night on Phuket town.

The next day we fled for the P&T Kata Guesthouse (always great to be back there) off Kata Beach, and two days of beach umbrellas and fun in the waves. I had no idea V was such a big body-surfing enthusiast - good times, and sand everywhere. Too soon it was time to head for the airport. We headed in for aloe massage treatments ("OK... he not real man"), then a quick pack-job and she was gone.

Back in the Mountains

2007-04-26T17:35:00.000+07:00

Just returned from our first trip back in the hills of northern India and wow is it great to be back in snow country! I think Dusty summed it up great when she justified my sustained energy to climb as "eleven months away from mountains." It has been quite rejunivating to be back!

In addition to the large masses of snowy earth that calls my soul, my return trip to the Kullu Valley has yielded warm welcomes from the friendly communities of friends we made here last year. After the 16+ hour bus ride from Delhi, we arrived in Manali to the warm hospitality of Peter's family: hot chai, showers, and peaceful views up the valley from their balcony.

On our first full day in the valley, Rob and I hiked up to Solang where Em and I lived for most of our season. Just before Solang, we were stopped at a river where villagers from Burruwa and Solang were building a bridge to connect the two communities. We helped throw some stones into the approach and appreciated being allowed to share in the communal chore.

The next day we got on our skis for a day trip up into the Gulaba region. We both felt the altitude but still enjoyed almost 4000' of spring turns as Robo caught his first glimpses of this vast high country. We descended to the bottom where the Himalayan Ski Village was sponsoring a ski contest. I ran into a bunch of local mountain acquaintances there and soon enough we were strongly urged to attend the awards ceremony and eat lunch. This was Robo's first no silverware eating experience and being the rough-Alaskan-working-next-to-the-wild-things-guide he is, he was quite the natural with his bare hands.

The day was great as I recognized most of the attendees and immediately felt like I was back amongst a community of friends. I think the fact I returned has given me a certain level of respect from locals while simultaneously boosting their pride in their backyard. Lots of people continue to ask how Em is doing and sending love her way. She is missed by many.

Building to the community of great people we have met here in the Kullu Valley is the Canadian duo of Jeff and Dusty. Fabulous folks and instantly we hit it off. They are kind of the Trev & Em of this season as they have been living at The Iceland Hotel in Solang since February.

They invited us on their "final trip" to Rohtang Pass and due to the obvious synergy, it was a no-brainer to accept. We were delayed a few days on our departure as the Army was not allowing us to our desired road drop-off point due to the fact that the "Chief Engineer" was in town. We tinkered with trying to get permission as it is just a liability issue that they wouldn't allow us to pass their road block. Sure enough, two days later we were allowed up as any sort of liability concerns seemed to have left town with the "Chief Engineer."

We spent seven days camped up on Rohtang Pass (~14,000') and enjoyed some very sport lines. It was a perfect first trip for Rob and I as we had one base camp allowing for day pack (lightweight) trips, were camped high for instant acclimitization and had quick access to many great routes that did not require early morning starts and huge vertical gains.

Conditions were fantastic with consistently sunny mornings and a stable spring snowpack. In addition to great skiing, we shared tons of laughs with Jeff and Dusty. They are both holds-no-bar sort of jokesters and it was great to throw jokes around so easily.

We had such a great time that they are going to join us on our next trip up the Jagatsukh Valley. We are hoping that this journey will be another false "final trip" for them!

Invasion Complete

2007-04-11T12:58:00.000+07:00

And they are off...all of them. Due to the upcoming holiday (Songkran: Thai New Year), Em could only get a train ticket home leaving yesterday afternoon. With the parents flying out early yesterday morning, I am now solo and transitioning myself from the smoggy chaos of Bangkok's transportation system to the unlimited visibility on top of Indian Himalayan peaks. Very excited to see Robo and tour around some big mountains with him.

So, my parents trip. Overall, fantastic! (Phuket, Kuraburi, Ban Talae Nok, Koh Surin, Golden Buddha, Bangkok... pictures are all here.) I feel very fortunate that they made the journey to see us, and Thailand! For all of those who questioned if "Rondo can do Thailand?", time is proof, and he did. But not without chasing down some of his normal comforts, which could be quite entertaining considering he was still doing it with his own joking style that many native English speakers might struggle to understand. For example, let's take his daily coffee request: 2/3 hot water, 1/3 steamed milk (soy if they have it), light on sugar (vanilla if they have it)...then returning half a cup later to refill with hot water. Even veteran baristas in the Coffee Capital of Seattle struggle with such a demand. But Rondo is Rondo, and with his joking mannerisms (and untraditional tips in these parts), he got what he wanted and everyone was happy (if confused) after the exchange.

Continuing from Em's post, we headed out to the Surin Islands where we all camped for a couple nights. We departed the Kuraburi Pier on a 30 foot speedboat boasting triple 200 horsepower outboards. Rondo loved it. In addition to the beautiful terrestrial landscape, the marine life and water clarity around the Surins never disappoints so we had a fantastic couple days. During each snorkel we swam amongst various schools of tropical fish over a diverse spectrum of hard and soft corals and one day I was lucky enough to see a Giant Moray Eel . One afternoon Obb led us to the other campground via beach and nature trail. We waded back around granite rocks to a burning red sun falling into the Andaman Sea. Adding to our experience on the Surins was the fact we got to share it with some of the Kuraburi crew including Gordy's father, Allan, who was visiting from Scotland.

We went directly from the Surins to our desired long-stay (4 nights!) location of the trip...Golden Buddha Beach Resort (GBB) on Koh Phratong. We had some extra fun while leaving the Surins as we made a detour to the north to pick-up some divers on a larger boat. Not only was the extra scenery nice, but this next episode of fun made the journey...moments after pushing off the other boat, our driver gunned the engines almost flipping (intentionally we think) a crew member off the back of the boat. Rondo couldn't believe it and I had to restate with sincerity that the boat we were on has the reputation as the most professional out of all the operators providing transportation to/from the Surins.

We were dropped off at GBB on low tide, which meant a decent wade in with all our gear. Upon arrival we dropped baggage off in our house and then walked some of the beach before checking out the restaurant. Mom wisely went for a mango shake which was as good (and without added sugar) as any I've had. The sweet mangoes are in season (along with a few other of the 20-some mango species in Thailand) and we relished in them whether on the fruit plate with breakfast or part of dessert for lunch or dinner. The food at GBB exceeded expectations. Since Em and I are usually eating at local eateries for 30 Baht a meal (and darn good grub), we were critical going into GBB with its more western prices. But we must admit, all of it was delicious and they were not short on food. With buffets for lunch and dinner, I think I was successful in putting on a couple pounds before heading off to India.

Besides great dining, there were other treats at GBB. Each night we enjoyed the sunset from a beautiful location: our home's deck, the beach, the restaurant, or hornbill hill. The beach landscape is beautiful and isolated. Directly west of the resort is a golden sand beach that stretches 10 kilometers to the south without anything on it but crabs and the periodic squid trap that floated in from the sea. North of the resort is a bay that boasts a couple rocky islands and an inlet to mangroves and palms. One morning we rented kayaks and drifted into this canal with the rising tide until the overhanging palms and branch debris prevented any further progress. We paddled underneath some frolicking chestnut-headed bee-eaters and continuously saw our mystery cormorant. According to the bird guidebooks, there are no cormorants in this part of Thailand but we saw this Little Cormorant multiple times around GBB and Em also sighted one up the coast while we visited Ban Talae Nok.

The area has tons of birds, and we all enjoyed seeing the resident oriental hornbills each day. We also saw a gliding lizard (which Emily observed fly from tree to tree a few different times). The environment of Koh Phra Tong is quite unique to Thailand as its interior is mostly savanna: flat and sandy with a few trees here and there. Em and I did a morning walk in this Africa-like environment and saw more waterfowl near a couple ponds.

On our third day at GBB, Gordy, Allan ,and Obb arrived with some of the villagers from Tung Dap. Tung Dap is a village I spent a few days in while researching "voluntourism" opportunities and absolutely loved their core communal way of living. It was great to introduce Pin and Nu to Emily and my family and spend the afternoon swimming in the bay with them.

Our last night we played Bach Deng and got to see Pee Tah in her element. Pee Tah is a friend from Kuraburi who does accounting work for GBB. She loves money and loves Bach Deng! Yes, there is gambling, yes, she won most of the money.

We snuck in some more beach time before departing GBB by longtail back to the mainland. We spent our last little bit in Kuraburi hanging out around Jeab's shop and eating dinner with friends one more time at "The Strip." Our bus arrived early and unfortunately we didn't get to try the crab Jeab got for us. Thank you Jeab for your continuous help and friendship!

The overnight bus trip to Bangkok was smooth and soon enough we were on the multi-modal tour of the big city! We started by taking a taxi to the weekend market where one could get just about anything. Thinking my parents would be the big shoppers, Em and I were surprised to find tons of good stuff and got gifts for friends and ourselves! We left the market via Skytrain (elevated rapid transit) for Siam Center in the new Bangkok (no stalls here, this is western shopping with touchscreen directories, real designer names and prices, Starbucks, etc.) From there, we took a canal boat taxi west towards Old Bangkok where we walked around Democracy Monument, through Khao San road, and then finally to our hotel. A big day out.

The next morning, we met a tour guide at the Grand Palace and saw a few of the historic sites including the Royal Palace, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Temple of the Reclining Buddha, and the Temple of the Dawn. We saw and learned much! I am consistently impressed with how much detail older Eastern rulers put into their homes and even homes or burials for family members. As our guide showed us the elaborate gold-plated structure Rama I made for his parents, I was surprised my dad never asked me how his structure was coming. While most of Rama I's work was traditional architecture boasting gold and ceramic materials, much of the Grand Palace was constructed during Rama V with a combination of Western and Eastern architecture. The main hall has a traditional European look with an elaborate Thai roof. Interesting, but it works! We ended my parents' stay with a candlelit dinner on the Chao Phraya River.

I will miss the Thai food in India and am not stoked for the rice/beans/chapati combo I will consume twice daily hoping that it was cooked in boiling water. But the pull of the Himalaya outshines such gastro concerns.

In just a few hours, I expect to see Robo wide-eyed in the Delhi airport clinging onto our ski gear!

Kosto Invasion Part 1: Phuket and Kuraburi

2007-03-30T17:13:00.000+07:00

Ron and Pat's Thai tour is finally underway! They rolled into Phuket last weekend, and we all spent a couple of days in Kata lounging under our beach umbrellas, enjoying the very nice pool at their hotel, and drinking decorative fruity drinks. The guys were burning up the backgammon board, and only getting slightly sunburned in the process.

Rolling directly from there into little Kuraburi must have been a little bit of a shock, but everyone seems to be adapting well. We got to hang out with the NATR crew before they took off for a fun/work retreat, and it was good for Ron and Pat to meet all the crazy kids Trevor's been working with. We were also happy to treat them to some real Thai food - considerably cheaper than Phuket options, and a lot yummier.

On Wednesday we went with Andaman Discoveries into the village of Ban Talae Nok. Trevor has been out there a lot as the program has been developing, and it was really great for him to watch the community members warming up and getting more involved with visitors, as well as seeing us have such a great time. We drove along the beach and were given a run-down on the tsunami damage, and the rebuilding process. Back at the new community center, we got to meet some members of the soap-making committee, and make our own soap strings. It was neat to see how the ladies have been able to come together and make some supplemental income for the village. Our tour guide, Tui, did a great job of translating back and forth so that we could ask questions and joke around with them.

The villagers who participate in the homestay program rotate, so each home has a chance to play host and the money is more evenly distributed. A woman named Maria cooked us a tasty fish/veggie/rice lunch at her house, and then she and a couple of the ladies helped fit Pat and Tui and I out in headscarves. It was a hot day, and the extra headcovering made it that much hotter! I suppose the ladies must get used to it, though. After lunch we learned how to make roti - a kind of traditional fried bread/pancake. We weren't super-smooth like our instructor, but it was fun. We finished the day off with a row in the mangroves before saying goodbye and driving off into the sunset.

Thursday we went out "fishing" with Bau, a fisherman friend of ours. We only did a little bit of fishing (he said the water wasn't very good for fishing - in terms of tide changes or clarity) but we did get in some primo beach and snorkeling time on a lovely little island. A quick tropical shower on the way in left us completely drenched, and Bau's mom considerately offered us some hot coffee and biscuits to help warm up.

Friday we followed up some fantastic Dim Sum breakfast with a bit more beach time closer to Kuraburi. Very lazy, with books and backgammon. Back in Kuraburi Pat and I both had lovely Thai massages (!) followed by Som Tam dinner with Jeab. Today we did a fairly rough hike up to some gorgeous rock pools on the river. Ron and Pat were troopers on the hike in... Ron came out as the grand champion with 9 leaches! Yay Ron! We were all in agreement that the destination more than made up for any hardships along the way, and we spent a pleasant couple of hours swimming, resting, and sliding around on the rocks before hiking back out.

Tomorrow morning we're off to the Surin Islands for some more great snorkeling, and then we'll be at Koh Phra Tong for yet more beach time. So far team Kostanich has been up for the Thailand challenge, but can they handle another week of sand and sun? I'm guessing yes.

Tranquilo Tarutao

2007-03-22T16:05:00.000+07:00

The longer we are in The East, the more we appreciate (and miss) the easy access to wilderness found at home. The island of Koh Tarutao just gave us a strong dose of this love to roam around privately amongst wild flora and fauna (pictures).

Tarutao is the largest of the 51 islands constituting the Tarutao National Marine Park in the Andaman Sea abutting the sea border with Malaysia. Em and I spent a few days on Koh Lipe last month which is the only island not run by the national park system as the government donated it to the sea gypsies who have lived there for centuries.

These sea gypsies have allowed private bungalows to continue to pop up along the beachfront. While Koh Lipe still possesses a very nice vibe and does have excellent coral right off its beaches, there is hardly any native environment above sea level around and little room to wander. Koh Tarutao, on the other hand, is massive and only a fraction of it has been touched by man. The park system has three areas offering bungalow accommodations, dining, and camping. There are many other spots to throw a tent but the access to fresh water, good cooking, and most importantly, being camped at one of the prettiest beaches I've ever visited, kept us in Ao Molae from day 3 until we returned to the mainland on day 12.

We spent our first two nights at Ao Phante Malaka, the park headquarters and pier. If we didn't know Ao Molae existed, we would have had a wonderful time staying in Phante Malaka for our entire visit. Our first morning, we chose to hike to the lookout just behind the camp for sunrise. We noticed a few macaques (commons monkey species in these parts) on the way up, thinking it was cool. Minutes later as we watched the red sun rise from the east, we had one macaque pretty much force us to move. His anger began by snorting at us and scratching the ground like he was a bull about to charge. Then he grimaced at us and violently shook the tree he was holding. OK, time to move on. In the gazebo at the top, we had more problems. We took out a snack, soon realizing that this was a mistake. Once they saw we had food, they became a little more aggressive. As I mock charged one of them, he mock charged back towards Em. OK, time to leave.

I went for a run right after this and had some more hissing from the macaques. We figured we would report their unpredictable and somewhat frightening behavior to the park staff as we expected they would send some rangers up to the gazebo to knock the monkeys around a bit and remind them who's boss. Oh no. Instead, they reinforced our concerns, "Yes, they are dangerous....and if they bite you it is worse than a dog biting you." Lovely. We were also told that it was best just to give them any food we had so they would stop threatening.

Our last day at this spot, we noticed macaques getting into the restaurant's trash and very little effort from staff trying to stop them (a sign on the front deck of the same restaurant threatened a 500 baht fine for feeding the wildlife). Given the food-human connection around park HQ, the monkey behavior made sense. Whenever we saw macaques away from this spot, they were logically more fearful of our larger size, less convinced of gaining a meal from us, and never really a problem.

Before leaving Ao Phante Malaka, we took a long tailed boat up the mangrove-lined estuary to the entrance of Crocodile Cave. Yes, there used to be crocodiles in these waters and our guide was not totally convinced they were all gone. On the way to the cave, we saw a couple large water monitor lizards before the boat grounded. This tour must be done at low tide to safely get in and out of the cave and it must have been really low this day. So, the driver, us and the other couple Tony and Katrina got out in the water to help push the boat. Fortunately, Tony was a large Dane whose strength probably saved us from waiting for the tide to rise. We went up the cave initially on a small wooden raft until we got to dry land and then were led around on a longer-than-expected walk amongst huge stalactites, stalagmites, and other impressive formations.

We had a great visit with Tony and Katrina, and they added to our desire to check out Ao Molae as they bragged about the beach where they were staying. In no hurry to leave as we were enjoying the shade the pine trees provided while still basking on the sand, we still decided to pack it up and head south to Ao Molae.

There we slowly but surely sunk into some serious beach time without ever really getting bored. We had snorkeling on either end of the bay, great bird watching with hills rising steeply behind camp, were centrally located for great walks or morning jogs to a waterfall hike, other beaches, a cross island journey, or back to park HQ via beach or road. These road walks turned out to be quite enjoyable. Because the path was cleared wide enough for a vehicle, it allowed space to view birds unlike the limited visibility while hiking in the dense jungle. It also served as a great wildlife corridor as we learned that humans are the minority of species utilizing this path of least resistance. There is a park maintenance pickup and shuttle bus that probably combined for ten daily trips on the main road, less on the smaller fork our camp was on. So, when walking on these "roads," we would see one vehicle every couple hours.

One day we made the 12 km journey to the east side of the island where the prison was located. Tarutao has a crazy history (including the filming of Survivor for all you reality TV buffs) going from sea gypsies to prisoners of war to pirates and to its current state of conserved recreation. For more facts on this lovely isle and marine park, visit here. And a map of the island - helpfully annotated with all the key Survivor locations - can be found here.

During this 12 km journey, in addition to tons of birds, we saw scorpion, snake, macaque, dusky langur, monitor lizard, geckos, and the most unique fauna of the trip, the palm civet. This four legged, skunk-marten like creature came bobbling towards us like he was drunk and blind. I kept looking at him waiting for him to notice us and wondering how he had lived so long in this wild world. Upon Internet research when returning home, we first identified it, and then learned that it is a nocturnal animal and explains his confused behavior when we saw him.

I can not leave out the bird life. It has taken some time, but I really started to appreciate the hobby of bird watching on this trip. I think it was because we sat in some neat spots where we were surrounded by noises of the jungle. Plus I have been outdoors with Em long enough where there is some residual knowledge/pleasure coming my way. Our first day on the island, we saw the oriental hornbill and continued to see many of these tropical beauties, one morning counting nine in one tree. White-bellied sea eagles and Brahminy kites are also found in abundance, and we often watched from the beach as they circled and dove over the water. Multitudes of tiny, jewel-like sunbirds were showing off their iridescent colors along the roadsides, while Asian fairy bluebirds and racket-tailed drongos swooped about more furtively in the understory.

So, where is the beach time you may ask. Oh, it is there, sometimes all day, but always some every day. The water was usually calmest and hence most clear in the mornings so this was the prime snorkeling time. Though not nearly as good as around the further-out islands, we really enjoyed the occasional snorkel, conditions permitting. We also got in some nice morning and evening strolls, just seeing what the ocean tossed up on shore that day, and what the crabs were doing about it. But most of our beach time was spent laying on the sand in the shade of a large casuarina tree. We would venture into the sun for quick swims or a few tosses of the Frisbee or longer sessions if it was cloudy or within a couple hours of sun rise or sun set. Mainly we read books or played cards while our eyes were able to stay open. Tough work. There is a stereotype of islanders that they are lazy and don't think or care about too much. After 11 days, we easily see how this stereotype can be true and at some level, admirable.

Even though we packed our home stove, we usually ate one or two meals in the restaurant and got to know the staff. The "laying around in the hammock, have to get up to cook every once in a while, yes I am lazy and no I do not care about much" staff. Good folks.

We are now preparing for a little quicker pace of travel as my parents arrive this weekend for a couple weeks of beach and culture fun. Look out, Thailand!

Aunt Nancy

2007-03-05T12:55:00.000+07:00

My Aunt Nancy passed away yesterday, Saturday March 3rd. She loved her church and her music, and was on her way out the door to practice before playing in a wedding. She couldn't catch her breath, and Uncle Ches had her sit down in the car, where she quietly passed away.

At Jenny's wedding (she played for that, too) she stashed the last bottle of good red wine to make sure the two of us could have a glass later. We decided that family should get to drink the best. That was almost two years ago, and unfortunately we haven't been able to get together since. I'm very glad she had the foresight to hide the merlot, and very glad I got to share it with my Auntie.

We'll miss you, Aunt Nanc.

Happy New Year, China!

2007-02-25T16:28:00.000+07:00

Yes, this is Thailand, but the Thais have never met a festival they didn't like, and there are a lot of ethnic Chinese living here, so they do it up pretty well here in Hat Yai. Chinese New Year was actually last weekend, but here it stretches into a week-long celebration, culminating today (pictures). We kicked off the day at dawn with a dragon- and shrine-filled parade, followed by a yummy dim-sum breakfast, and some crazy firecracker dancing at P Noot's Car Care business (video 1 - above, and video 2). The teams of shrine carriers from the parade spend the day going from place to place around the city blessing homes and businesses by dancing madly around under a super-long string of exploding firecrackers. Noisy and smoky, but fun to watch. Mid-day we all retreated from the heat, then regrouped for an evening at the festival. Many of the men who hauled shrines around all day turned up for fire walking (video). A bed of hot coals was prepared in front of the Chinese temple, and participants raced across singly or in groups with their shrines. Most ran at a dead sprint (can't say I blame them) but those that went at a more deliberate pace got bigger cheers from the crowd. Afterward, we saw a lot of men and boys limping around very gingerly, and one being carried by his friends. Welcome, year of the fire pig.