Bali Hai is Calling...

Well, here it is my last day on the ten day vacation part of the trek and I've just gotten around to writing about Bali. Such is the life here. You really want to spend each day greeting the sun on the beach and saying goodbye from the same spot with a pile of old New Yorkers to fill up the time in between. I am staying at my friend Isabelle's Villa in quite a busy section between Kuta and Seminyak. The house is gorgeous and I have lots of new ideas for tropical gardens. My room is spacious and cool and the furniture is dark teak wood, gorgeous. Isa has a pool area that a large open living room area looks out over. The living room is splashed with red everywhere. One gets the sense of calm and energy simultaneously. She has wonderful taste and everything is beautifully appointed.

The neighborhood seems to have sprung up in the past five or six years and I was surprised to see restaurants rivaling 3Rd Street in Los Angeles with the exception that the host is on the street greeting you and asking you to come in. Since this was my first departure... (not counting the sushi) from Thai, the first thing I ordered was a good, reliable Caesar Salad. I did not know that cheese comes pre-sliced and individually packaged here, so, although I received a very generous offer to visit Lafina Beach on the north side of the island with one of the waiters, I did not frequent Benny's Bistro. You'll be happy to know that I did find a WONDERFUL patisserie which totally catered to the francophile in me and I've been enjoying the most tasty sandwiches, sweet treats and coffee.

OK, OK, I will admit that I broke down and ordered some spicy rice and shrimp. I had no idea where that craving came from! The Indonesian food here is not that different from Thai. The local restaurants are called Warings, like Ocha Waring or Nixon Waring, etc. Usually, they have the food presented in glass cases and you pick out what you want. Stir fried ginger, slices of calimari steak cooked with mushrooms, corn fritters, rice of course, collard greens, etc. It is really delicious and my eyes are always bigger than my stomach. I've also managed to find a homemade gelatto stand down the street from the Villa and I've treated myself every day. After all that spicy food, one needs something to tame the palette.

This blog should have been named FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

Notes on Bali.
People do not come here for week, they come for months. Everyone I've met has either been here for two months or is staying for another month or two. There are a lot of expats that do business here in export as well as many factories here (including Levis and Nikes). Labor (and everything else) is really cheap. People are always bargaining with you and you argue over a dollar. It becomes principal but afterwards, both parties are always satisfied. I wonder what the locals think with all of this money walking around and knowing that everything is so cheap.

Surfing is also the national sport. Every morning, the surf classes are filled. I think I may have written that I arrived in Denpasar nearly drunk after inhaling the fumes of three Swedish guys who sat next to me on the five hour flight. At least they were polite and apologized for their boozy reek. They were on their way to Bali for several months to learn surfing. They figured it would be easy since apparently, snowboarding is their life. They were also prepared to get into some fights. This is obviously a world I haven't experienced except through "Dogtown and Z Boys" which I learned after some investigation, everyone in the Balinese surf world has seen.

The beach is walking distance from Villa Karisa. The tides are almost always low and even when it comes in, it's nothing compared to the angry roar of the Atlantic hammering at you "Here I Come Like It Or Not!". You can walk out quite a while in quite temperate water and enjoy some really soft, rolling waves. The sand is smooth and hard but small and granular. It's easy to walk on, not easy to get off your body.

You can rent a chair and umbrella for about a dollar or two each day and then get pummelled for most of the morning by vendors selling everything from replica cross-bows (no, thank you) to wooden beaded do-dads (no, thank you) to manicures and pedicures (no, thank you) to belts with buckles that say "Harley Davidson" and "Hard Rock" (no, thank you) to, well, just about anything. Everyone starts off their pitch with "Where do you come from?" and if you answer, your beach chair and umbrella becomes an island surrounded by people desperate to get on shore. At first, charming. Last day, exhausting. Once the vendors know you mean NO THANK YOU! you are left you alone. Hey, I understand, everyone's gotta make a buck.

One Night in Bangkok...

"...and the World's Your Oyster.."

From the man who co-wrote "CATS". I did not get the sense of Murray Head's glamorous BKK in the three days that I was there. Between super malls and gorgeous gold leaf temples plunged right in the middle of the city between motorcycle mobs and taxis on nitro, the energy was definitely chaotic, frenetic and bizarre.

We arrived on Saturday night with the group wanting to spend the last evening together. One could get a sense that people were ready to get on with their lives and branch out on their own or go home. We'd been traveling as a unit for fourteen days and although everyone was very kind and thoughtful, alone time was in order as was a day without the plethora of pests we shared space with. We ate at "Saffron" atop the Banyan Tree Hotel, about 85 floors up with a spectacular view of the city. It was delicious, presentation outrageous and billed as a "date" restaurant. We, of course, were the largest group over two. Picture "Vida" at $22 for everything. It was outstanding. At the hotel, we said our goodbyes and everyone sort of went their own way; actually, I had secretly made plans with one of the girls to go out to dinner the following night when her boyfriend from Seattle arrived in town. I had picked a favored sushi restaurant in the city guide named "Daikon". I could have cried when we finally found the street, the taxi driver having to stop at least twice to get directions. You see, Bangkok is made up of these long streets with side streets cut off of them called "Sois" and then there are alleys that branch out from the sois and so everything is connected and confusing at the same time. In any event, as I was saying, I could have cried. We entered the most extravagant, most wonderful sushi restaurant in the world. Geishas greeted us at the door, led us to our seats, whispering past the private dining rooms that surrounded the space. The entire restaurant floated on a shallow pond filled with enormous white koi fish. I was in heaven. Not to repeat myself, but I don't think I''ll ever have such fresh, succulent sushi for $15! I wanted to set up house. I know, you want to hear about the Grand Palace and the Sleeping Buddha (to which I let out an inappropriate "My God!" when entering the Wat, it's the reclining size of a football field) and the weekend market which is worth flying back to Bangkok for. I wish I had been able to go on Saturday AND Sunday. Spanning 35 acres... yes, 35 acres, it is host to stalls and stalls and stalls ... and stalls of foods, goods, art, erotica, more food, more goods, antiques, etc. It was crazy and cool bigger than the Grand Bazaar in Instanbul, bigger than the Rose Bowl for that matter! Needless to say, I felt reckless but since I was on a short leash of three hours, I was only able to cover about 1 or 2 acres. The rest I sadly said goodbye to as I looked outward of the Sky Train back to Sukamvit Road where I stayed an additional night. The next day, I met a couple of the girls from the group at their hostel on a little strip of insanity called KoaSahn Road. I'm sure I'm massacring the spelling here, so bear with me. Basically, this is a little haven for backpackers traveling from all over the world to hook up in Bangkok. There are bars blaring Bon Jovi, wide screen TVs projecting pirated movies and mobile bars on the street. Clothing is about a buck for pants and another for a top, so it's affordable to purchase a new wardrobe and dump anything you've been wearing for the past two months. It was surely a scene and a surly one at that. I don't think backpacking across the planet is in the cards for me anytime soon.

Hello, Your Elephant Is Waiting...

Ok, it seems I got the entire description of my Global Village Habitat for Humanity trip wrong! I truly thought that we were going to build houses at the Elephant Conservation Center and I'm sure that's the tale I told all of you. By now, you've figured that elephants did not join us in our numerous bucket brigades, although I'm confident that their strength would have been appreciated. Overall, the GV Habitat project is a really well run organization in which they try to give the volunteers plenty of cultural exposure, part of which is the R & R portion of the package at the end of the build. This is when the Elephant Conservation Center entered the picture.

The ECC is located in the Lampang province about 32 km outside of the city, and is home to the elephant hospital along with several elephants "in training" for the forestry department. Elephants have long been used by the forestry department harvesting teak, since been embargoed. As these elephants were "put out of service", the government wanted to give them a safe haven to live without the fear of poachers. Thus, the "Home Stay Program" was invented. The cool thing about the elephants in service to Thailand is that each is given a "mahout" or trainer/caretaker that remains with the elephant throughout their entire life, which can span to 90 years of age. The mahout lives on the conservation center's grounds or, should the elephants go back into forestry, travel with them to the jobsite. Their families live on the outskirts of the center. The job is seven days a week. My mahout was a frisky young man named "Li" and my elephant, Pankora. I was told right off the bat that she was A. in love with her fellow elephant, JoJo and B. she was spoiled. We were a perfect match.

Most of you probably think R & R means "rest and relaxation". Ha Ha. In our neck of the woods it meant Rise and Ride. We had to be ready to walk three miles into the jungle at 6:30 AM!
#*($&#$. Indeed. After camping out in a bamboo hut (so many new ideas for the backyard treehouse), enduring a night of enormous worms, screetching geckos, and roosters that just didn't give a damn and crowed whenever they wanted, we hiked through the jungle, literally, through the river and split off with our Mahout until we located our elephant. We returned to the grounds bare back, which was awesome, albeit a little rough on the behind.

During the day, I fed Pankora, "trained" her, which was just for show, participated in the demonstration for tourists, gave her a bath and rode her back into the jungle about 4:PM. The hardest thing was getting on the elephant. Everyone preferred the leapfrog option in which you order the elephant to "map long!" and then hoist yourself by jumping over their heads, landing backwards on the neck and then turning yourself around to face front. Believe me, it's easier than trying to get up from the side. I never thought I'd be this close to an elephant in my life and the opportunity was wonderful. Pankora, definitely in love, was gentle and really quite sweet unless there was sugar cane around. They are quite a site and we were privileged to spend such nearness with them.

The Center also is host to the Elephant Hospital and to several male elephants whose owners couldn't afford to keep them any longer. The tusked ones are kept in a special area at night to fend off poachers. There were several young elephants at the preserve and two had recently been born within the past three months. There is a great website detailing the homestays, the conservation program and the progress of the elephants. If you'd like to see yours truly on top Pankora, check out their website at www.changthai.com and click on the top Habitat Group link. Since we're all in our denim mahout suits, you'll best pick me out by the green hat!
Enjoy and more to come on last thoughts of Bangkok and arrival in Bali.

Thai'ing one on

Forgive the word play, couldn't help myself! I've just reread my previous blog entries and send apologies for repetition. It's hard to go back and forth here on the old 28k dial up. I don't think I've done the trip justice, so I'm going to fill in a few blanks.
1. Where I stayed - The Tip Chang Hotel.
This is where the team was put up for the build. Listed in The Lonely Planet as "one of the more modern hotels in Lampang" a description we all found pretty hilarious. In fact, we used "Tip Chang" as our own adjective, such as "looking a little Tip Chang there". Indeed, bedbugs and micro-ants were our roommates. The rooms blatantly advertised mold, peepholes in the walls and curious dark hallways, but considering that I truly thought I'd be sleeping on a dirt floor, it was luxurious. Every morning at 7:AM we met for a breakfast of various meats, rice and croissant. Oddly, the croissant was quite good. The hotel also was home to "The Dizzy Disco" which thumped throughout the entire building until 5:30 AM. We finally got them to turn off the music when the club closed at 2:AM, much to the consternation of the staff that had to man the desk 24 /7. Another club was hidden in the basement, I didn't investigate.

2. Our Driver. Yo Yo, constantly upbeat and a Habitat homeowner himself. What a joy to meet each morning with that smiling face. He would pull up in the Song Tel and take us out into the villages of the Lampang province and then pitch right in with us mixing motor and laying blocks. One by one, he tried to teach us a very popular children's tune - the "elephant song" which goes something like Chang! Chang! Chang! something something lu- bow. I'm sure Brian & Christine know it. I will certainly miss Yo Yo. He was one wonderful spirit.
3. Cement This!
I think I mixed about three thousand tons of cement, gravel and sand and laid about four thousand blocks. Antonio would be proud.
P.S. This does not mean I will build your retaining wall for you.

Indeed, we ended up completing 75% of the 100th house. Everyone involved was very moved. You don't realize what an accomplishment you've contributed to until you actually give the house over to the owners. For ten days, you're mixing and shovelling and carrying and scraping and filling in floors and of course you see the progress day by day, but it doesn't carry any emotional weight until you hear the stories from their own lips and watch them take possession of the house in front of their extended family & neighbors. Both families asked that we sign our names on a cement plaque by the front door with a peaceful, joyful wish inscribed in Thai.
3. Lampang.
I didn't get a good sense of the city we camped out in since the Song Tel does not really have any windows, but rather slats between the roof and seats. Exhaustion hits you at the end of the day, especially when everybody is covered in sweat, dirt, cement, bug repellent and sunblock. By the time showers were had, it was dark and we were off to a team dinner. There are night markets everywhere. That is something I will also attribute to Thailand. Similar to the Grand Central Market or the Flower Market, (better yet, picture a supermarket covered by large cafe umbrellas), these enclaves are open early in the morning or at night and sell anything from Palm Bugs (yes to eat) to clothing boasting strange epithets (such as "Kangaroo Make Money!") to puppies, ice cream, knock off Levis and tons and tons of food, fresh or cooked right there. There is the most amazing kinds of fruit, my favorite being either mangostein or dragonfruit or pomelos. I want to grow them at Oak Grove! Dogs and cats run freely everywhere. When I asked about that situation, I was told that they lead peaceful lives. Hmmm. The streets are filled with mini-motorcycles that storm towards you like schools of bass. Although there are just as many pedestrians, I still haven't figured out how best to cross the road. You just sort of jump out when there's a space. Jaywalking in New York is MUCH easier, believe me.

4. Spirit Houses. Everywhere, people have spirit houses and they can range to the most outrageous to the simplest construction of plywood and left-over corrugated tin. Inside, you'll find icons, but also food and sodapop and the remains of burnt incense. Someone correct me if I get this wrong, but I believe the spirit houses are posted in front of people's houses so that ancestors can have a place to visit without actually inhabiting the house. I really like that practice and Boots, our team leader's wife, asked if I would be interested in a "spirit house import" partnership. Could work. Could add it to my roster of careers to come!

5. Butterflies and spiders! There are so many colorful species and huge too! I remember reading in "Love in the Time of Cholera", which takes place on an entirely different continent, about a character whose spirit left clouds of yellow butterflies whenever she was present. I saw that at the Elephant Conservation Center. Clouds of yellow butterflies, it was truly magical. And huge, white catapillars (about 1 inch thick by 8 inches long - don't ask me metric conversions please) destined to be the most gorgeous flying creatures. I wished I could be there when their cocoons burst open. Everytime I saw a spider, it was bigger than the last time and streaked with yellows, blacks, reds and long, dainty legs. Webs would span across the little stream by House 98. How is it that webs can be so strong and capture such grace and shimmers of sunlight?

Signing off and more to come later on Bangkok and the Center when I'm a little more awake. I've spent the last two days by the pool or the ocean lazily flipping through old New Yorkers and jotting down observations in my journal to share with you!

Cement This!

I would be writing more often, but the internet over here is not the high speed DSL line y'all are used to! The cafe I frequent is run by two young women who are very sweet and more importantly, own their own barista. That's right, I've found coffee. And coffee with real milk and not creammate or Nescafe! And let me tell you, although those 4:PM Starbucks runs are great (thanks to Damian), there is nothing like the taste of this coffee after you've been mixing hot water with brown flakes from a plastic package! So, between the choice of a faster internet connection and the world's greatest coffee, I'm choosing the coffee. Chaing Rai was absolutely beautiful and I finally feel like I got a sense of the country. There are lush mountains and little townships with glittering temples along the roadside. Ten of us crammed into a minivan for what we were told was a three hour ride - more six by the time we climbed the mountain and arrived at the Thai military retreat that was offered to us. It seems that the team's leader's wife, Boots, is friends with a General in the army here and he was generous enought to put us up for the night. The cabins were really nice, but definately infested with bugs. Nobody slept well, but we woke up the the most spectacular views. The retreat is used when the Royal family is in residence at their summer home. The Queen mum, who passed away in 1995, had worked her entire life for the welfare of the Thai people and one of her missions was the gardens up in Chaing Rai. In the early nineties I think, the growing of opium became illegal and she became concerened about the dwindling hill tribes who had used this production for their living. She build the summer palace and spendid gardens surrounding them of which the care and maitence is members of three of the various hill tribes.

Apologies for the spelling errors and the unfinished draft. We finished our 100th house yesterday, had two house dedications and a party last night. It was great fun and very emotional for all. We are off for the R&R portion of our trip, which is to the elephant conservation center here in Lampang. More to come ...
Kat

To massage or not to massage

September 17th.

Here we are at the end of week one and we've already finished both houses! We will start on the 100th house here Monday after a weekend visit to the Northern province of Chaing Rai. The affiliates here were so pleased, they invited the Director and Chairman from Bangkok up to visit our sites. The families are thrilled and we will officially have the house dedication on Wednesday. Gang, I cannot tell you how much we get done before 10:30 in the morning! The families have to provide the land that the houses will actually be built on, so many of the structures are within an extended family compound. I have been able to meet aunts, uncles, cousins that have joined the help. The past two days have been "bucket brigades" in which everyone lines up end to end and we fill walls and floors with concrete and gravel. I wish I could say I've developed some serious muscle tone, but all I can boast is sore shoulders... thus - the trip to an herbal spa on the outskirts of town.

Our team leader, Ramsay and his wife Boots have a house here in Lampang (as well as Tyler, Texas if you can believe that!) so we look to them for the cool restaurants and curios. This is the group's second trip to the herbal spa. The massages are 150 Baht (about $3.50). You have to change into these cotton pajama type pants & top and sent to a group room where you are pulled and pounded and stretched for about an hour. I had the "herbal ball" treatment last night. Basically, you are pounded with hot camphor and it is the perfect relief for sore muscles. I can't think of a better way to end a day of hard labor!

More about Thai food. We are so lucky here. I didn't know what to expect when I signed up for this trip. I really just looked at the dates that would be good for my schedule, packed a bag (yes, just one) and then repacked it after a quick conversation with LeeAnn, missed my flight and arrived\ in a crazy city. Seriously, I thought we would be roughing it, but instead, we are treated like visiting royalty. Everyday at the jobsites, we are cooked for by a group of women who provide great snacks and the freshest of fruits and meals. Just yesterday we had blended lime coolers and the day before than, ice coffee. Ok, that was my request!
We break every morning at 10:30 when these lovely little sweets laid out with cool drinks. These are either sticky rice with sugared banana inside, crispy rice with a caramel type drizzle, mini egg white pancakes with sugar and chives. The sugar and chive mixture is popular here and is very nice on the palate. Something to try at home. Last night, I had coconut meat braised in sweet basil. Delicous! I have been trying to learn how to properly say that in Thai and phonetically speaking, I think it's "Lum Thai -r Thai-r" but everyone laughs when I eagerly exclaim that!
We've all be given nicknames as well, and not surprisingly, mine is "Maow" for "cat". Everyone loves that!
Went to Chaing Mai for the evening and saw this live show of "traditional Thai dance" which was the equivilent of one of those big Hawaiin luaus. The boys performing the instruments could hardly keep from laughing. The structure was beautiful, however, and the highlight of the evening was sending off these homemade hot air balloons that eventually burn up. You put all of your negative thoughts into the balloon and send it away. It was lovely to see the wind take each one into a straight line and we stayed to watch these burning lanterns get carried further and further away like an illuminated kite tail.
We leave for Chaing Rai in about an hour to stay at a military "retreat" on the border of Burma. It sounds really cool and once again, I have no idea what to expect. There are a lot of trek groups that hike up in the northern thai regions among the surviving hill tribes. From what I've learned, the King (yes, descendant of the same King from "The King & I") has been really trying to curb the opium growth in the mountains and his mother, concerned about the people's welfare, built a summer palace there with beautiful gardens as well as coffee & tea farms for the people to tend too. It sounds spectacular and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of the lush and colorful foliage. The King and Queen are very beloved and I've gathered from the locals that the government is extremely progressive in it's care for the Thai people. I find the social practices that have been enacted really moving. It goes to show you that government works can really benefit the people.

I'm having a really hard time getting my photos posted, but don't fret. Hopefully by next publish, they will be somewhere on this blog!
Saweeta ka!
Kat

Thai food for days...

Got here safely! Right now, I'm in one of the many internet cafes here in Lampang. It's such an odd city, I haven't quite got my bearings yet as we arrived, had a welcome dinner and went to work at the two home sites early the next morning. We have to be ready to leave by 7:45 AM which is just about when my alarm goes off for work! We ride to the sites in the back of a covered truck fitted with two benches, I think they're called Song Tel (meaning two benches) and it's hard to see out the windows. The homeowners are helping with the build as are other family members. Everyone lives together here, extended families on the same plot of land. We are using mostly 2 inch cinderblocks on a concrete floor for the house. Both are three rooms with a outside covered kitchen area. Both are going really well and we will probably be completed with the two houses by Friday. That doesn't mean we can leave, it means that we'll start two more houses. The local affiliate is trying to reach a goal of 100 houses in two years. We are 96 & 97. There are a lot of people who have done Habitat before so there is no small amount of drive to get to 100 before September 28th.

The climate and surroundings are very similar to Hondouras and refreshingly, not too hot or humid. It's been just perfect altough there is much sweating. Now, most you know that I don't eat Thai food. I am happy to report that the food has been wonderful. We have a local woman who is cooking lunches and break treats for us. Sticky rice with fruit wrapped in banana leaves, lots of lemon grass based soups and tamirind spiced pork, I could go on. It's delicious, but by the end of this trip I will have had about sixty meals of Thai. There isn't a lot of variety here. In fact, there is none; although one of my co-workers here has offered to take me out to a steak dinner later this week in Chaing Mai.

More to come and hopefully I'll be able to key in some thai and photos to boot!
Kat

Leaving Los Angeles

Here I sit on Eva Airlines listieng to the orchestal music that is softly playing on the monitors. A banner in the background dislays that it is Eva's own orchestra and they are all dressed in what I would call the "Eva Green". Brilliant. We are on the plane at last (2:AM PST); an hour delayed but no one seems to mind. There are plenty of people at work. I've never seen such a crowd at the counter or around the galley. Of course, I was supposed to be on yesterday's flight and would've been arriving in Bangkok just about now. Indeed, it wouldn't be journey if some Kat inspired mini-calamity hadn't occurred right before take-off. Not having inspected my tickets, but casually tossing them on the dresser, I failed to adhere to any good Company Manger's: Read Your Tickets. All of Them. So when I called at noon to get my seat assignment, thinking to myself how smart I was, I was informed that I was nowhere in the system! For some reason, the stress of the past few days melted away and I became postively serene. I even finished my final essay for acupuncture class. I think I was waiting for my mini-mishap and now it was far behind me. So here I am, a day late, but fully prepared for this trip. Eva's orchestra is beginning a marching tune, we must be close to take-off. We are delayed due a flat tire. I can hear the maitenence engineers at work and the whir of the pneumonic socket wrench sporadically bursting away. The airline is quite comfortable in a cozy way. We all get lovely wool blankets in orange to compliment the teal colored seats as well as travel slippers. Hoards of newspapers were passed out as we came down the jetway and everyone is, I imagine, eagerly awaiting either Shrek 2 or lights out.

More to come,
Kat