fun night

no pics...spent the evening  witht the four chek women and the two men from the Yukon.. I drank
Chung and they did Sangsom rum and coke and now time to be in bedzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz;

Last night

This is a first for me in Thailand, a storm has arrived at such a force as to knock out the power in the guest house. Actually it is very widespread....and as far as I can see it is dark. I was in the middle of a brad Pitt moving about ta bet...now I will never know the ending. It is 7:15 and I suspect the power will be off until morning. I have three flares and my computer is charged for many hours...; and before the beer gets warm... it is time to take one.
This was a good day..class was good, acu was good, lunch was good, chocolate cake was very good and not the storm is very nice. Cool....

I went down to the lobby to get a beer and see what was happening...another journey on the ship of fools. The local Thai men were moving about being busy...mopping up and cleaning up and lighting candles.

Junior said the power will be on in an hours... but an hour in Thai time is any place between now and then. I will meditate, get organized for tomorrow and read.

The lobby was an interesting place. The Thai's walking back and forth using their phones in a lobby bright enough to see in. the Chinese playing a card came, two English speaking fellows have a deep conversation about the corruption in USA chemical companies....so same same but different. I am in 

my room now and will set my clock for meditation... and then read... and all is well  

before the police action I did take some pictures

Bonny and the Police

I went to the market today to get some pants and a washcloth.... I was surprised to see only one scooter by the market... but oh well.   so I went about taking pics of the wonderful food and then liesurely came out to be on my way....not so fast.

I first bought a plastic bag and an elastic deal to hold the bad to the bike.... fun...just like home.... then I went back for the pants....


but when I came out... I found my bike chained to another with a large padlock and a paper on my handlebar

oh oh.

A little man with a bike was ever so happy to tote me to the police station..what am I to do.  I had an idea it was near the street with the donut man...but ok I will take a ride. When you enter, you take a number. That is going to do me a great deal of good since i don't know thai numbers and there is no electronic thing like we have at home.   I found #31 in the room and actually she could speak english...so waited until the number after her.   But wait....I have no passport..Mr Jaguar has it in exchange for the motorbike... oh well....

After I paid 400 bht...about $15. Someone called ahead and the lock was taken off and Mr. Bike peddled me back to the bike.  I gave him 100 bht and then went off to Angel's to chat and buy a nice silver braclet.

Cecile's new hat

I stopped to have a chocolate cake and coffee and then decided a beer would be good....so I poured the beer and along came this you young lady with a new hat.... there are just some of her antics. She was with her mother an a friend of the mother and so I asked her name and it by any chance this was a new hat.... they laughed and said yes.  What is great was she was also at the breakfast place this morning...and guess what....she still was wearing the hat.

catch up

Once you start down the slipper slope, it is hard to stop or recover.   First I eat something not good for bonny.. then I take stuff to stop the purge then I get yeast infection and hives... now I take antihistamine and cream.....hope this is it.  I feel good, just itch.  I had a massage yesterday and she really rubbed my back... great... it didn't get the medication on...but it sure felt good.

In the morning when I scoot to class the kids are just going to school..There are taxi, songtow and scooters everywhere with little folks in uniform.  I was stopped yesterday and with my magic snap open for a picture as I ride I as able to get this little one riding behind Mom.












There are thousands of motorbikes every where. This pic reminded me of birds on a string.... but it is just scooters parked very close on the street where I was drinking some medicinal tea.

Not everything is hard...I did have a very nice dinner yesterday and I just had to have some of the deserts... bet Joe knows the location... yes it is a chocolate brownie....drizzled with chocolate and dollups of whipped cream...85bt...$3.






I have some good folks here in the land of the sun. these are not the best pictures but they represent some of the characteristics.. Hannah and Henry have been together for 60+ years and have known each other since they were teenagers.
Hannah paints and Henry rides to the zoo every morning....
very glad to have them in my life.

more bla bla without pictures

For me, very early in the Sunday walking market process, I start to zone out. I buy a pair of pants, a shirt or two and quit. I don't need things for my hair, or toes, and surely not the black vegetable gelatin that you put sugar on and still taste like slime to me. So I walk about and snap a shot or two until the over bright florescent lights get in the way of any kind of a decent shot in a fast/slow moving crowd. I have found that I am getting closer to Haiku thinking... I.e. I saw a very beautiful young Asian woman walk past me... and thought there is a a very beautiful young Asian woman walking past me....and once you take the judgment out...is is just “passing”... two life forms are passing.... for those that worry about me...I am fine, just refining my aliveness. I am determined not to be dying. Again,.. nothing is wrong. We are all dying....but I want to be in the process of “now” re birthing. Again, do not worry that I am joining the fundamentalist.

While I had a nice conversation with my new acquaintance, I watched people, particularly couples. Very few were really at the same place but they were trying to accommodate so no matter where they were, they were attached. She wanted to look at jewelry, he looked at jewelry. She stopped looking and he stopped looking but they were TOGETHER. I wonder if he were by himself he would say, gosh...think I will go look at jewelry. I wondered it he were to say, I want to go to the mury fight would she say, I want to look at jewelry. If she is afraid of losing him, she will cheer for the blue trunks fighter and dream of jewelry. If she thinks she can control him, she will pout until they are looking at jewelry. So is that an adult relationship or two perpetual teenagers?

There appears to be two paths, one where you are mindlessly bumping along to the next day and

adventure in a state of getting older and in a process of dying or you are awake and aware of what you need to gain wisdom. Both get old and the end is death, but the wise person is aware. Awake and alive to their own soul and personal growth. They don't live in accommodation to another in fear of missing the companion nor to they live a ground hog day life... going from one person, situation, etc after an other and always repeating ...giving too much and then feeling empty. Not taking care of their own needs, putting everything else first...

The key to a great life, from my observations, is to know what you need and seek those that help you grow to your highest and best. One rides a horse one studies “strings” ...both support... both are enriched by the experience. One takes pictures and one reads.... but at the end of the day...both are growing...and loving the other more.... ah......isn't life a hoot.  

hats off to John

25567 days

That is the number of says brother Anthony has been roaming this life in this time and in this space

so weather you know him or not, John is my electrician consult (whom I almost fried with the dishwasher install), my carpenter, my riding to breakfast buddy, my NRA/republican balance, my family brother, and Anthony my friend..l....wish him well on 70 yrs..comatos@frontiernet.net and hats off to you from  the land of smiles

monday

back to the routine...class...acu.... meditation..massage   .market..maybe night market....
Yestrerday was massage was an event...sweet Phat got me large pants....what a treat.  In the past they have provided what turns into a thong....I don't do thongs and being naked on a table it important yKoi Soi....which is a chang mail dish and very lovely. Then  scooted to the "forest" for a monk talk... I made it though 1.5 hrs ....he hardly took a breath..but it confirmed many of the things I am reading. Then I went off to Cheryl's sunday even and made it a little way down the street...2 shirts and 1 pant....  The pants are cool but the shirts are copies of what I have...Here afre some of the market items....

Painted rice boxes....I think  they come from China...and I doubt they have seen rice.... but every home should have one



Below are "sets" for kids, fancy pants and then fancy pants as a purse

dressing the children.....   

.  a wall of scrungies....

2nd sunday morning

It is Sunday morning in CM and guess what...it is a lovely 72 degrees, clear ski, and a light snog over the mountain. While I carry a compos when I am out and about since you can get on a cross street and all of a sudden you are not sure of your direction. However, if you keep your relationship to the sun and if you can see the mountains...it is very easy. Saturday was “chat” day. I arranged two meals with interesting people and breakfast with bonny. Now that going up and down stairs is not as much of a project, I don't mind living on the 3^rd floor.

I have discovered that I follow the law of mature...The more room I have, the more I scatter my belongings. I do better with stuff about than space. So maybe a smaller room, not a larger room would be a good thing. Also, I have a wardrobe that is empty...I have three stacks in my duffel and I am happy to know my clothing. I have put teams of clothing in the packs so I can just take the top of two columns and I am dressed.

I am trying to live like American TV...with a six second delay. My processing...i am washing my face just as I am doing the washing is getting closer. Today at the market I am going to secure a face washing cloth. Since I only have hot water with the shower hose, I scrub my face in the shower.

I am getting much closer to simple living or simply living. I have no place to go and nothing to do. I am planning my living space after Kim goes. This will be my daily living spot during the teeth so it is important to be comfortable. I know the Kristi...and I will have to get it settled before we leave for ENP (2 weeks). 

Yesterday, I had a long lunch with my new associate Jeannine from Canada. She is staying near the TCM and QiGong side of CM. She has made it her own with a rug and lights and curtains but keeps her back door open that looks at the mountainsss and Doi Suthep (wat on the hill). It was a long leisurely chat lunch... In the morning, I eavesdropped on a traveling sangha having a monk chat. 

 They had questions and wanted the answers in simple direct terms. At the end, they wanted to read something as a group, get their questions together and then meet next week to have them answered. (sssst...there are no answers...it is the question). There were kids in class behind me which always draw my attention. And last evening, had a bowl of Pho with Henry and Hannah...such nice folks....I am watching championship bocci... Salt is the movie this am... it made a mess in Albany when it was being made.....

30 .bhat to the $1 $5.00 for an hour massage.

so time to post, pictures, shower and break the fast before my 2.5 hr body scrub and oil massage with a hot wrap..... I will be a pig in a blanket....lol

more pics less talk

I went to a Wat or two yesterday....there are those that come to bring gifts and make merit and the statues themselves..these are two views...

.

some thoughts for those that are on a journey

The lessons.

1. Getting sick I sent pretty orchids yesterday so you could enjoy the colors of Thailand. The real colors of Thailand for me are the lessons to be learned. In my meditation I began to understand getting sick. I never get sick in Thailand. I don't do risky food things and even eating on the street, I know the vendor..so what was that about. I now see that it was a symbolic reminder that I need to rid my self of the junk – faults beliefs, others bla bla, politics, religion, CH drama, junk.
2. Letting go. Last year when I came, I had a community responsibility to finish... and it was not my time...but now.. it is...so I projected everything out of me as a symbol of starting over. I now can be very mindful of what fuels me... physically, spiritually and emotionally. I need to leave much of the “stuff” to those that are into “stuff” and just smile. I can laugh at those that think they actually “know” truth... for maybe it is time for them to be sick so they can empty. How many people are trying to “become” when they have no idea who they are. Being alive might just mean be curious, innocent, open to the possibility. How cheated those that KNEW the world was flat since they missed the rest of the picture. Maybe there are many flat worlds.
3. Meditation. In letting the symbol of the purge be the release of history, anger, dogma, knowledge, my meditation]has just been about silence. No one is talking in my head for all that is “truth” is just the silence. As I watched Georgette die, I saw her go from many conversations and asking me if she made sense. “you make sense to you and you are talking about that which will help you let go of stuff...get forgiveness” and in the end, like her life, she did it her way....”the time has come”...and that was it. When someone dies, they usually continue their lives. If the life has been examined, then it might be profound. As the monks gathered around St.Francis they were poised to hear his last words of wisdom. He looked out the window and said.... Brother Donkey, forgive me for not always being kind and thank you for carrying me on my journey. I don't think those were the words the monks thought they would hear....It is all perspective.
4. Other times in ChiangMai. As I walk about I feel the energy of those that have been on the streets with me in the past. Some for a short time...some for a week or several trips. Each energy was different.. there is a difference between introspection and isolation. There is a difference between curious and searching... some searched...some were on vacation to be entertained...and some might have off to become a child of cruiousity. In truth, you only need to go to one Wat..all the Buddhas look alike... for it is not the outside...it is the willingness to face your alone self...the child...and start to look at you larger family...the stars, the mountains, the flowers, the sleeping dogs, the leaves...all with a new and empty eye – full of compassion and empty of judgement and opinion.
   
   
   If you enter your day stressed, it will not un-stress without stepping out and going back to the root and  starting over....   If we keep seeking we will get stuff... and does the stuff make us happy.  I know from last summer and fall....most of what is held dear will end up in the dumpster... for your treasuer..is just stuff....but a good word and kind thought...is golden..
   
   
   I don't know if  there is anything beyond this...but I hope to stash a few golden moments in the karma bank....just in case.    

flowers

having a scooter that actually has all the functions working gave me confidence in going out to the rim.  The rim is the windy road to strawberryville that I took last year.  I will do the trip again, but for yesterday I only went to the western part of the road.   You acftually take the road to ChiangDao and ENC to get to MaiRim and then a side road through the mountains. (yes Joe, I remember always there is no AAA but with a few 1000 bht and folks with trucks...i am sure I can get back)  Also, it never feels hot on the scooter but my hands and arms definately have color.  When you go this way, you go to the Snake Farm, the Tigar Farm, the Monkey Farm etc.. and finally flowers.   Since I went to the large batanical garden a few years ago with Monika, I oped for the Orchad Farm.  As you can see in the picture, I have a helmit with a shield which was ever so helpful when the leaking garbage truck roared by me on the highway.  So flower lovers.... and color seakers.   These are the morning group.

 The let them grow in very small hanging boxes ( about 3x3) so the stringers are just hanging in the air.  This was a small flower but I wanted to get the fuzzy feet of the stringers. (very technical terms)

There were red onces but I did not like the way the color came out and want to work on them ...as you can see some are large and grow almost alone and other grow in a little bunch....  the next is my favorite.  I think it looks like a bad boy....mmm maybe I am saying too much about me......

 I think this will be one of Cheryl's hangouts. There is a great deal of western influence all over and In town everywhere there is more than a  a subtle western flavor  but in the country with the clothes hung on bamboo poles and dogs sleeping in the road...you are in Thailand.

 This was a shot from the hilltribe market yesterday.  It reminded me of the dust bowl pics I took when I took the class. I was hanging out around the corner and eventually everyone forgot me.  The 1st generation is watching her daughter sleep while holding her child... and all in the sewing and materials room.   The copy does not pop like the picture will when printed... I think this will move into my favorites.


   
Breakfast at Juniors before class

The scooter stalled out on me several times and I eventually had to push the damn thing back to the shop.  They would not give me a refund...but I was a afraid for my life.  I left Mr. Mechanic and went to Jaguar...what a difference... so I hoped on the scoot and went to the country.
I never feel more adult than when I am alone..and knowing  I am OK when alone.  I laughed at dinner when  I picked up a book that compared growing up with learning to swim at age 42.....then another book said the only reason we love is because of our fear of being alone....lordy...that is where I scooted home.... ...

I am caugtht up

I have watched the DiVinci Code, Eat Pray, Love, and the entire season 5 of Law and Order along with the Office. I spent about 14-15 hrs in bed over the past few days..so with the tv going... I see some..sleep some.     It is time to be better, they are about to introduce reruns of Whitney....lord... I am ready for the home if that is my fate.   This is the 401 blog.  I am going to get them organized, edited, and put some into a folder.   I will be sure to include the oil massage and the woman who thought I must have birthed many babies.  I will try to do better with my explanations of what is happening or what I am doing.   When the computer goes to auto save...the cursor goes where it would like to and I start typing and then the computer finishes what it thought I was saying...so the blog is bonny and spirit.
I made it to class today and felt like I got my shoulders down...but always more to learn.  We worked on heart and I must say, there have been many fewer tomtom's.
I am trying to get us booked at the Riverside....now for those of you that want me to step up.this will be $85 a night...and why not....  I am paying $10 now. . and I am going to stay at Junior House.... I have grown fond of the bathroom.
So what do I see beside Jok and baked potato.... I see many many more people and many Chinese. I will try to catch up with the woman with cranial work...tomorrow and also catch a dharma talk in the evening.   with luck, I will have a good mean this weekend.   I am off to negotiate a better scooter so I can go to stawberry vile tomorrow... I am reading about the 9 pillars of Qi..and now I need to do more energy building... i am almost up to most human's  and far above more "old" folks... so gaining on it.  
Off to laundry, scooter, and pictures.....

catch up

The internet was down just as I was to blog...so I did some morning things like finally go to the pharmacy.  What a lovely lady...of course whoever was in the room now knows the liquid had gone from green to brown...but now everyone on the reading area also knows.  Dr J says I am losing weight...well that is one way to do it... so I am now sipping electrolytes and taking meds 2x a day.  I think when I jumped back into trying to eat...not a good think....I will be great friends with the Jok women for that is what they both said... no fruit/veg/sticky rice...only rice soup until return to  solid.  I didn't do class today..but I will tomorrow,.  So back to yesterday...I did two colages.....I am frustrated when I try to put in individual pictures...so that must wait until I am less weak..and with more patience.
I am on a quest for patches of hilltribe material so yesterday afternoon...I went off the the part of the morning market dedicated to the tribe folks.   When I got there, I was trying to stand off to the side so I could get my barrings and not be in the way.  Along came this woman....who had another idea

Where I was standing was next to the blue plastic curtain... and that was not a good think...she had just made a sale and was still clutching the 20bt and screaming at me to move my butt.   I of course started snapping and that did not make her happy.... I moved and she plopped down her two baskets that she was carrying with a stick on her shoulder.  I moved to the other side of the isle...and she gave new meaning to invisible...I almost broke into cellophane man....she was hawking to those around and did not appear to being doing well.... her only "sale" was to give a piece of orange to the little boy.  Not sure the mother wanted him to have it...but she new better than to refuse.

I have many pictures of the colors of the hill tribe market and there did not appear to be lots of scraps...I did not try to barter... but at first pass...the woman wanted 30 bt (about $1) for one square.

This appears to be the general market for the hill tribe folks.  They sell pompoms in bulk by the baga and by color..in pages.  There is some yarn...which I thought they use in the stitching and thread.  the pieces are in the center...When I see how cold itis.... this is sent with warmth....

Monday Evening

I came back to the room and watched the inauguration so I did not make a story.  I learned on Facebook that old neighbors Michael and Jack were at the event, in the parade, and at the balls... and as Jack said, if I don't see the Pres today, I will see him at the office tomorrow.  And am I surprised?  Onward to my wonderful life... By the way, it is a slow go here.  I am up functioning...but I am in the room sleeping more than I have every done.  and why not.   Dr says...need to rest... and the "tomtoms" are much less and my knee is getting stronger.   So now with some story and pictures. As I strolled along to dinner last night I caught one of the four legged sewer creatures having a snack in a left pan in a small cubby kitchen.  I waited for a long  time to see if he would return since he was rather cute sitting in the pan...later he popped out from under the cabinet and scampered away.  I don't like to say this, but I think this is the kitchen of a street vendor.... I only eat that which is cooked on site and in a wok of great heat.

There is a great deal of sweeping that goes on all day long.  It might lead one to think that things are more clean...but maybe not. The evening shadow sun warms the stone and casts some shadows.  While I enjoy the still life, I am very fond of the people.  I love to make up stories for them.   Here are a few that popped in my path last evening....

I called this man....waiting for the bus...and of course there are no buses in Chaingmai.and accross the street is miss I'm too sexy for my pants.

This band of music folks are carrying everything and don't have much concern about getting their belonging packed.. One thing....they have shoes.

QiGong class

 I had my first class today and it was very good to get back even if I was a little tired.  My balance is terrible... just can't hold my leg up...but I will work on it.

the class is in Rod's house.  He and his wife and child life upstairs.   I was sorry to hear the cat is "gone".  The cat was often sitting on my scooter after class or being toted around the yard ...

This is my "new scooter" and helmet parked next to Rod's bambool

You arrive early and sit in the back yard and have a special tea... this was blood tea to give my blood energy.




The flowers are everywhere and it is easy to just walk by and not take notice of the beauty.

 There are people and photos at every corner...and around every bend