Back on the road after Bodhi Villa was quite a shock. Breakfast this morning was not the tranquil affair, glowing from yoga and lingering towards lunch over Lao coffee and fresh orange juice.
Our first experience of Vietnam was typical, after a straight forward border crossing on motorcycles we changed bikes to get to the ferry port at Ha tien, to be told that the ferry was not running. We had head of this scam, but agreed to be taken to next stop down the road where our fears were confirmed. We refused to give the drivers any money, and took a bus to the next ferry port. They knew they were caught out, and had a wasted journey. We were very calm, and were pround of our selves for not beating them up and stealing their wheels.
This turned out to be a worthwhile stop, as it allowed me to get my laptop up and running, after the solid state harddrive became corrupted. Thankyou damn small linux and e2fsck! We also had time to get a good sleep and readjustment. Chris has been updating his blog at Chris' blog
We are about to board the ferry to Phu Quoc island for Chrismas, we hope to camp out and find at least a chicken to bbq.
I hope you folks are enjoying the seasons festivities, please hold a glass to our repective healths as we are thinking of you too.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Kampot, the sleepy town with sunsets to almost rival Cardigan bay in November
"You are a little rebel" said my grandmother, I liked the word, and enjoyed rolling it over my tongue because it sounded like pebble, and at the time I had a fascination with them.
Last night, gazing over the moonlit river at Kep, lying on a beanbag, and enjoying the local poison, I remembered the scene vividly - be careful what you say to little ones!
The Bodhi villa is as close to the perfect chillout spot as possible, and has a d1verse (divers)crowd, a number of whom have sold everything to travel, trusting in some force or organising principle was tending the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope the great Hunter Thompson was wrong to call it the mythic fallacy of the hippy movement, I'm still wearing my thai pants with pride, and practicing massage with anyone who sits still long enough!
While I still have a base in Swansea, it still a source of inspiration and some trepidation that thoughts that arise about the ugly lovely town have very little significance to the day here.
With that in mind I have been practicing daily ashtanga, my thanks go out to all the teachers and students I have met and encouraged me along this path.
The idea of the pilgrimage, seems a better description than the hero's quest my current travels. Two years since my last trip, this time in the company of a great friend from home, the experience is very different. In someways I feel previous adventures were an initiation. Less starry eyed, more compassionate the words from Auldous Huxley's Doors of perception, written about his own psychedelic fueled trip to that other side, come to mind:-
"The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend. "
Deep learning, of the type I have been hoping to achieve will always come at a price, and this trip too in carbon dioxide emissions, time, money and emotions seems a lot more effort than Huxley's 400g of mescaline. Self realization cannot be bought for 50c a tab, it is an ongoing process - but gradual steps through yoga, pranayama, and simply being present, are beginning to revive that feeling I first felt in India described by Blake as that state where:-
"every thing appears to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."
Before anyone suggests this little hippy is going off on one - (What was the vedic term, Lyd?)this time my feet are solidly on the ground, thankyou to all who brought me back to this place, and supported my efforts even if they did not understand my motivations or methods.
Hope all are well, in what I hear is a real winter this time, here's hoping to a real summer on my return. Please do keep your emails coming, it is lovely to hear the details of your lives, you are all very much in my thoughts.
Jim x
Last night, gazing over the moonlit river at Kep, lying on a beanbag, and enjoying the local poison, I remembered the scene vividly - be careful what you say to little ones!
The Bodhi villa is as close to the perfect chillout spot as possible, and has a d1verse (divers)crowd, a number of whom have sold everything to travel, trusting in some force or organising principle was tending the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope the great Hunter Thompson was wrong to call it the mythic fallacy of the hippy movement, I'm still wearing my thai pants with pride, and practicing massage with anyone who sits still long enough!
While I still have a base in Swansea, it still a source of inspiration and some trepidation that thoughts that arise about the ugly lovely town have very little significance to the day here.
With that in mind I have been practicing daily ashtanga, my thanks go out to all the teachers and students I have met and encouraged me along this path.
The idea of the pilgrimage, seems a better description than the hero's quest my current travels. Two years since my last trip, this time in the company of a great friend from home, the experience is very different. In someways I feel previous adventures were an initiation. Less starry eyed, more compassionate the words from Auldous Huxley's Doors of perception, written about his own psychedelic fueled trip to that other side, come to mind:-
"The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend. "
Deep learning, of the type I have been hoping to achieve will always come at a price, and this trip too in carbon dioxide emissions, time, money and emotions seems a lot more effort than Huxley's 400g of mescaline. Self realization cannot be bought for 50c a tab, it is an ongoing process - but gradual steps through yoga, pranayama, and simply being present, are beginning to revive that feeling I first felt in India described by Blake as that state where:-
"every thing appears to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."
Before anyone suggests this little hippy is going off on one - (What was the vedic term, Lyd?)this time my feet are solidly on the ground, thankyou to all who brought me back to this place, and supported my efforts even if they did not understand my motivations or methods.
Hope all are well, in what I hear is a real winter this time, here's hoping to a real summer on my return. Please do keep your emails coming, it is lovely to hear the details of your lives, you are all very much in my thoughts.
Jim x
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Sihanoukville
Apologies to the handful who have been reading this, Cambodian internet is not up to much. I imagine the net is taking the strain of so many people trying to sort their travel plans out. This place is filling up with folks escaping Thailand, and the locals pushing prices up to cash in.
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