ok, here is the right number. again, you might have to put a + or somthing. google it. we're confused. and in laos. TOGETHER! with emily and elsa!
85684404023
we might not come home. jk. not really. jk. but really. oh lalala.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
puhzone
ok since were only in laos for a couple weeks, em and i will probably just share a sim card
SO to reach us
the country code is 856 (wtf right?)
annnd the number is 84404023
sooo you should be able to dial
8568440423
(maybe you have to put a + at the front i dono)
if anyone tries it, will you post and let me know if it doesnt work? i dont really have any way of knowing if these things are functional
LOVEYOUALLLLLL
SO to reach us
the country code is 856 (wtf right?)
annnd the number is 84404023
sooo you should be able to dial
8568440423
(maybe you have to put a + at the front i dono)
if anyone tries it, will you post and let me know if it doesnt work? i dont really have any way of knowing if these things are functional
LOVEYOUALLLLLL
2 become 1 (spice girls reference, ya dig?)
hiya hiyaaaa
ive been in ko tao, which is an island. i lived with this fisherman named 'a' who was amazing and taught me a bunch of thai and i went snorkeling and saw SHARKS but didnt freak out.
but then there were tarantulas in my room and i did freak out.
then i got on a 6 hour ferry-12 hour bus to bangkok-12 hour bus to nong khai-crossed the border-12 hour bus to luang prabang. which is where i am now
so since im in laos, i need to get a new sim card, so i'll have a new number soon and i'll put it up here.
AND most importantly, elsa gets here tomorrow and emily gets here the 28th so finnallllyy this will be one cohesive blog and we will all be traveling together.
missssssss you all
lovejaki
ive been in ko tao, which is an island. i lived with this fisherman named 'a' who was amazing and taught me a bunch of thai and i went snorkeling and saw SHARKS but didnt freak out.
but then there were tarantulas in my room and i did freak out.
then i got on a 6 hour ferry-12 hour bus to bangkok-12 hour bus to nong khai-crossed the border-12 hour bus to luang prabang. which is where i am now
so since im in laos, i need to get a new sim card, so i'll have a new number soon and i'll put it up here.
AND most importantly, elsa gets here tomorrow and emily gets here the 28th so finnallllyy this will be one cohesive blog and we will all be traveling together.
missssssss you all
lovejaki
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
three short stories about laos
1-kip-tastrophe
the currency in laos is the kip, this series of gorgeous, multi-colored, bills, with an exchange rate of about $1=10,000 kip or 33 baht=10,000 kip.
jigga whhhhhattttt? who can handle those conversions?!!?! i withdrew 500,000 kip and felt like i was going to have a panic attack, before i realized it was like 50 bucks. every room stayed in, ice cream bar eaten is total chaos-it is really just too many zeros for my dollarized brain to handle.
'if i just bought a bunch of lychee for 5000 kip, did i get ripped off, should i bargain, or is that a great deal, wait my room was 30000 kip, or wait was it 3000. oh shit'
2-the akha women
as emily and i were sitting down to lunch, a woman from this local hilltribe, the akha, came to ask us to buy bracelets. anyone whos traveled, especially in the developing world, or hell this happens in chapel hill, knows how to deal. a polite 'no thanks,' or in our case, 'mai kwap jai du,' should handle it.
NOT SO with the akha.
20 minutes later there were 6 women swarming around us, tying hats on our head, belts around our waist, laying dozens of bracelets on the table. after some really dorky pantomime (FIRST-EAT-THEN-BUY), we communicated to them that we just wanted to eat in peace.
so what did the akha do?
sit down at the table next to us, waiting for us to finish.
in the couple days that we were in muang sing, the akha women threatened to hit us (imagine a crazy toothless hilltribe woman pantomiming that she will beat you up if you dont buy her shit), offered us pot and OPIUM ( imagine a crazy toothless hilltribe woman whispering in your ear 'OPIUM OPIUM SHHH SHH SHHH'), and invited us into their home, where we sat around and ate nasty corn stuff .
3-biking to china!
thats really the whole story. we biked to china the other day. it was awesome.
4-summary
laos is so gorgeous i dont even know how to talk about it and it smells like smoke and the only english anyone really knows is, for some reason, 'you beautiful' so everyone says that all the time and the people are so good and it is so good to see good people everywhere.
i have akha bracelets for you all,
lovejaki
the currency in laos is the kip, this series of gorgeous, multi-colored, bills, with an exchange rate of about $1=10,000 kip or 33 baht=10,000 kip.
jigga whhhhhattttt? who can handle those conversions?!!?! i withdrew 500,000 kip and felt like i was going to have a panic attack, before i realized it was like 50 bucks. every room stayed in, ice cream bar eaten is total chaos-it is really just too many zeros for my dollarized brain to handle.
'if i just bought a bunch of lychee for 5000 kip, did i get ripped off, should i bargain, or is that a great deal, wait my room was 30000 kip, or wait was it 3000. oh shit'
2-the akha women
as emily and i were sitting down to lunch, a woman from this local hilltribe, the akha, came to ask us to buy bracelets. anyone whos traveled, especially in the developing world, or hell this happens in chapel hill, knows how to deal. a polite 'no thanks,' or in our case, 'mai kwap jai du,' should handle it.
NOT SO with the akha.
20 minutes later there were 6 women swarming around us, tying hats on our head, belts around our waist, laying dozens of bracelets on the table. after some really dorky pantomime (FIRST-EAT-THEN-BUY), we communicated to them that we just wanted to eat in peace.
so what did the akha do?
sit down at the table next to us, waiting for us to finish.
in the couple days that we were in muang sing, the akha women threatened to hit us (imagine a crazy toothless hilltribe woman pantomiming that she will beat you up if you dont buy her shit), offered us pot and OPIUM ( imagine a crazy toothless hilltribe woman whispering in your ear 'OPIUM OPIUM SHHH SHH SHHH'), and invited us into their home, where we sat around and ate nasty corn stuff .
3-biking to china!
thats really the whole story. we biked to china the other day. it was awesome.
4-summary
laos is so gorgeous i dont even know how to talk about it and it smells like smoke and the only english anyone really knows is, for some reason, 'you beautiful' so everyone says that all the time and the people are so good and it is so good to see good people everywhere.
i have akha bracelets for you all,
lovejaki
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A few pictures in no particular order
The precious boys at my homestay. Picture them and me singing My Heart Will Go On for the grandpa. Priceless.
This morning we washed our clothes in the river. These women laughed at us a lot and tried to help. It takes a lot of skill.
Houseboat this weekend. It poured down rain and was awesome.
Munnar just after sunrise.
This is what I am learning to do?
traffic patterns
just when i'd perfected the art of passing stopped buses on my bike, i learned that in india, a bigger problem is trying to pass the occasional elephant. literally couldn't do it without riding into some mud.
also, i'm taking woodcarving now! guess what i'm making. and it's not a dolphin.
also, i'm taking woodcarving now! guess what i'm making. and it's not a dolphin.
Monday, June 8, 2009
break it up kids, the party's over
change of plannnnnnnsss
we were supposed to get visa extensions today, no big deal right, BUT the extensions that were supposed to be 500 baht (read: $15) were hiked up to 1900 baht(!!) which has got me saying, to quote bert, "EFFFFF!" "EFFFFFFFFF"
so now i'm border-hopping.
laos, anyone?
its actually going to be pretty sad to leave the 'gang' thats formed here; a little anglo-crew of irish med students, a hilarious australian guy named dave, a few new zealanders, a scottish guy named ollie who i went to a temple with yesterday and he really almost killed me on the motorbike ride up but thats ok, and us, the 'mericans.
i also had my first 'your thai is really good compliment.' they might have been kidding.
lovejaki
we were supposed to get visa extensions today, no big deal right, BUT the extensions that were supposed to be 500 baht (read: $15) were hiked up to 1900 baht(!!) which has got me saying, to quote bert, "EFFFFF!" "EFFFFFFFFF"
so now i'm border-hopping.
laos, anyone?
its actually going to be pretty sad to leave the 'gang' thats formed here; a little anglo-crew of irish med students, a hilarious australian guy named dave, a few new zealanders, a scottish guy named ollie who i went to a temple with yesterday and he really almost killed me on the motorbike ride up but thats ok, and us, the 'mericans.
i also had my first 'your thai is really good compliment.' they might have been kidding.
lovejaki
Friday, June 5, 2009
Vijnana Kala Vedi is heaven. I feel so at home here among fellow travelers and artists in the tiny town of Aranmula. It's nice to be staying in one place for a while. There are about 15 of us here right now, from all over the world: France, New Zeland, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, the US, from ages 11-40. The center is spread out in eight different houses around the village, centered around the main office and guest house where we all eat together four times a day. The food is so delicious.
They gave me a bike. At first I was quite terrified, but I only have to go down one scary road full of buses to get to my house, the rest is just little neighborhood roads full of cute kids and dogs. I also live near the Pampa river, and like to take morning strolls down to it to welcome in the day.
My days look like this:
I wake up around 6 or so, go to yoga at 7:30, go to breakfast, go to Kathakali class from 9-11, take a shower, go to violin from 12-1, go to lunch, read for a few hours on my porch, go to tea, go into town/study/practice/socialize depending on the day, go to dinner at 7:30, go home and practice, go to bed around 10.
OK, Kathakali is the hardest thing I have ever done. I had no idea I could sweat this much. To start, you have to basically stand in a squat the whole time, on the sides of your feet, and with your toes curled up. It's hard to describe but it's extremely painful. So I do about an hour of footwork and body exercises like that, and then I have to exercise every muscle in my face and hands, including my eyeballs, without blinking. Eventually tears start streaming down my face (out of necessity not sadness). My teacher is SO strict, and SO good at Kathakali. He yells at me a lot, "Eeeemmeeeleee, don't lose, don't lose this one!!" When I do something right he just grunts. Occasionally I get the treasured, "yess." He also pulls lots of "when I was in school we had to..."s. But so much crazier than getting hit on the hand with a ruler when you misbehave.
Violin is really fun, I am learning to read karnatic music. It's hard because no matter how much I detach myself from my western ear, I can't convince myself that my scales are correct. I walk around with variations of "sa ri ga ma pa da ni sa" stuck in my head. My teacher thinks it's a good idea to wake up at 4 to start practicing. We'll see how I do with that.
Ok, off to some backwaters for the weekend. Love to all.
They gave me a bike. At first I was quite terrified, but I only have to go down one scary road full of buses to get to my house, the rest is just little neighborhood roads full of cute kids and dogs. I also live near the Pampa river, and like to take morning strolls down to it to welcome in the day.
My days look like this:
I wake up around 6 or so, go to yoga at 7:30, go to breakfast, go to Kathakali class from 9-11, take a shower, go to violin from 12-1, go to lunch, read for a few hours on my porch, go to tea, go into town/study/practice/socialize depending on the day, go to dinner at 7:30, go home and practice, go to bed around 10.
OK, Kathakali is the hardest thing I have ever done. I had no idea I could sweat this much. To start, you have to basically stand in a squat the whole time, on the sides of your feet, and with your toes curled up. It's hard to describe but it's extremely painful. So I do about an hour of footwork and body exercises like that, and then I have to exercise every muscle in my face and hands, including my eyeballs, without blinking. Eventually tears start streaming down my face (out of necessity not sadness). My teacher is SO strict, and SO good at Kathakali. He yells at me a lot, "Eeeemmeeeleee, don't lose, don't lose this one!!" When I do something right he just grunts. Occasionally I get the treasured, "yess." He also pulls lots of "when I was in school we had to..."s. But so much crazier than getting hit on the hand with a ruler when you misbehave.
Violin is really fun, I am learning to read karnatic music. It's hard because no matter how much I detach myself from my western ear, I can't convince myself that my scales are correct. I walk around with variations of "sa ri ga ma pa da ni sa" stuck in my head. My teacher thinks it's a good idea to wake up at 4 to start practicing. We'll see how I do with that.
Ok, off to some backwaters for the weekend. Love to all.
millipede in hong nom
subtitle: return from internet-less.
things happen very fast. ok so...
i left udon thani,
went to chiang rai for four days, went trekking through the jungle (trekking=climbing like my life depended on it which it really sort of did, staying with the lahu, a hill-tribe, accidently getting pushed down a waterfall/creek but im fine)
said bye to everyone except felipe and emily
got to chaing mai.
its like chiang mai:thailand what chapel hill:north carolina, new york city:new york, chicago:illinois, new orleans:louisiana etc. otherwise, its not the capital but it probably should be because its definitely the coolest city in the land.
its also interesting because there are travelers here; in udon thani and chiang rai it was still exciting and weird to see any non-thai person, but this is backpacker land. there are hostels everywhere, and travel agencies and english words(!).
one strange thing is that, unlike the states, where you hail taxis when you need to go somewhere, in thailand, the taxis hail you. as if youre going to inexplicably realize that you actually do need to go to the tiger sanctuary, or the elephant camp, walking down the street is a constant barrage of:
YOU YOU WHERE YOU NEED TO GO? I TAKE YOU TO SEE ALL OF CHIANG MAI! DON SUTHEP TEMPLE! RIDE ELEPHANTS! ONE HOUR 50 BAHT!
-nooo sorry man i dont need to go anywhere (continuing to walk down the street)
OK OK FOR YOU 10 BAHT YOU SEE ALL CHIANG MAI! YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND? IF YOU HAVE NO BOYFRIEND I TAKE YOU EVERYWHERE FOR FREE! ALL OF CHIANG MAI!
that said, its very fun to speak english and hang out with people without the language barrier. we've met some irish med students, who we have been trading travel stories, book suggestions, and pieces of rotee with (rotee= a sort-of crepe, with egg and banana in the middle, covered in chocolate or evaporated milk or honey).
logistics: i have skype now! like everything, the name is jaki.bradley. and my phone works for real now!
the plan is to stay in chiang mai for a couple days, say bye to felipe, travel with emily (schaffer) up to pai, a little town of 3000, for a bit, come back, mayyybe go stay in a monastary for a week (!) then meet emily (anderson) in chiang mai for the high-velocity adventure.
i am going to try to put pictures up soon because it is so beautiful here and things aretoomuchtoofast to possibly explain.
i really love and miss you all.
lovejaki
things happen very fast. ok so...
i left udon thani,
went to chiang rai for four days, went trekking through the jungle (trekking=climbing like my life depended on it which it really sort of did, staying with the lahu, a hill-tribe, accidently getting pushed down a waterfall/creek but im fine)
said bye to everyone except felipe and emily
got to chaing mai.
its like chiang mai:thailand what chapel hill:north carolina, new york city:new york, chicago:illinois, new orleans:louisiana etc. otherwise, its not the capital but it probably should be because its definitely the coolest city in the land.
its also interesting because there are travelers here; in udon thani and chiang rai it was still exciting and weird to see any non-thai person, but this is backpacker land. there are hostels everywhere, and travel agencies and english words(!).
one strange thing is that, unlike the states, where you hail taxis when you need to go somewhere, in thailand, the taxis hail you. as if youre going to inexplicably realize that you actually do need to go to the tiger sanctuary, or the elephant camp, walking down the street is a constant barrage of:
YOU YOU WHERE YOU NEED TO GO? I TAKE YOU TO SEE ALL OF CHIANG MAI! DON SUTHEP TEMPLE! RIDE ELEPHANTS! ONE HOUR 50 BAHT!
-nooo sorry man i dont need to go anywhere (continuing to walk down the street)
OK OK FOR YOU 10 BAHT YOU SEE ALL CHIANG MAI! YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND? IF YOU HAVE NO BOYFRIEND I TAKE YOU EVERYWHERE FOR FREE! ALL OF CHIANG MAI!
that said, its very fun to speak english and hang out with people without the language barrier. we've met some irish med students, who we have been trading travel stories, book suggestions, and pieces of rotee with (rotee= a sort-of crepe, with egg and banana in the middle, covered in chocolate or evaporated milk or honey).
logistics: i have skype now! like everything, the name is jaki.bradley. and my phone works for real now!
the plan is to stay in chiang mai for a couple days, say bye to felipe, travel with emily (schaffer) up to pai, a little town of 3000, for a bit, come back, mayyybe go stay in a monastary for a week (!) then meet emily (anderson) in chiang mai for the high-velocity adventure.
i am going to try to put pictures up soon because it is so beautiful here and things aretoomuchtoofast to possibly explain.
i really love and miss you all.
lovejaki
Monday, June 1, 2009
Y'all I don't even know where to start.
Feeling overwhelmed last night, my first night at Vijnanakala Vedi, I re-read an email that Monica sent went she was in Kerala. In it she describes feeling like she's been here forever, a feeling I am perpetually overwhelmed with every time I realize how brief my time here really is. Every moment here, from the colors to the food to the feeling of a sunrise hike in the Western Ghats, is just so full. Since my last post, I have bathed an elephant with a coconut, hiked in Munnar, visited monkeys and other wildlife in Kumily, rode on the back of a motorcycle to Cherai beach, and filled the time in between with wonderful Keralans and fellow travelers.
Oh, my last night in Fort Kochi, I sang My Heart Will Go On with a bunch of little boys for their grandfather (Benson's father). I couldn't stop laughing. They didn't quite get it, it's just their favorite American song... I recorded it and WILL find some way to incorporate it into my thesis :)
After four buses and four hours, I made it to Aranmula, where I am at Vijnanakala Vedi for the next three weeks. It seems wonderful here, I will write when I've gotten a bit more acclimated. Everyone wakes up before sunrise and goes to bed at 10. We eat four delicious meals together every day, and do lots of sari shopping. That's all I know so far.
Love and miss you all.
Feeling overwhelmed last night, my first night at Vijnanakala Vedi, I re-read an email that Monica sent went she was in Kerala. In it she describes feeling like she's been here forever, a feeling I am perpetually overwhelmed with every time I realize how brief my time here really is. Every moment here, from the colors to the food to the feeling of a sunrise hike in the Western Ghats, is just so full. Since my last post, I have bathed an elephant with a coconut, hiked in Munnar, visited monkeys and other wildlife in Kumily, rode on the back of a motorcycle to Cherai beach, and filled the time in between with wonderful Keralans and fellow travelers.
Oh, my last night in Fort Kochi, I sang My Heart Will Go On with a bunch of little boys for their grandfather (Benson's father). I couldn't stop laughing. They didn't quite get it, it's just their favorite American song... I recorded it and WILL find some way to incorporate it into my thesis :)
After four buses and four hours, I made it to Aranmula, where I am at Vijnanakala Vedi for the next three weeks. It seems wonderful here, I will write when I've gotten a bit more acclimated. Everyone wakes up before sunrise and goes to bed at 10. We eat four delicious meals together every day, and do lots of sari shopping. That's all I know so far.
Love and miss you all.
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