.

soon enough

as in a few days i'll put the rest of the stuff up from thailand, cambodia, and vietnam. then in time i'll add stuff from switzerland, although it wont be in such large amounts...


if you're curious: fc.edu

so much to know, so little time

i've got about a million pictures and videos to share but i imagine it'll be at least a while before i get them up... i finished my massage classes and spent three days with my step-mothers family in a small town about 5 hours out of bangkok (phimai, if you've followed the blog). i drove for hours and hours all over the place on a vespa type thing and saw all kinds of really cool, rural-like scenes (and all without a single crash). i also got to spend one day helping work. it was a type of small scale fish harvest where a pond was drained and we ran around slipping trying to grab up all the fish still working around in the mud. plus some.


after that i went on a three day meditation retreat (which was thankfully entirely free since i had about 15 bucks in my account at the time). it was all in english and pretty rad. in total, about 16 hours of meditaion, some extremely interesting dharma talks given by a very expirienced buddhist monk, and a lot of vegetarian food (although monks and people on these types of retreats dont eat after 12 in the afternoon (and yet we stayed up until 10:30 every night and woke at 5).


now im back in bangkok, wrapping things up. im sure after a few days in switzerland i'll be able to find some time to finish posting all the things from thailand. maybe 10 or so days...

out of date update

basically, after i got back from vietnam i moved closer to my massage school and have been attending for about ten straight days. its super rad. its an advanced course so im learning how to cure all types of ailments, mostly headache / muscle strain type stuff.

there are only 3 other students (all international since the class is in english) but the room we work in is filled with mostly thai students. the theory part was interesting with a different teacher each of the three days, two doctors and one master massage lady (the class was pretty expensive by thai standards). the location is amazing, right next to wat phao (just look it up). at lunch i hang out with the students (france, japan, iran) or go to wat phao and watch kids play soccer. some morings i go to this outdoor group stretch thing inside the wat phao complex. its awesome.

in the evenings i'll hang out with some thai friends i've met, or some other people from my massage class, or just go exploring or skating. theres so much more to do in the next 9 days before i leave...















"there's hospital just across the river." was the reply to any hesitation in eating all the different herbs given to us to try.

imagine there's no country

and goodnight



it was short but nice. stayed with some amazing family friends from southern california in ho chi minh for x-mas. a lot more pictures and videos to come. thai internet doesn't mesh well with certain websites so its not always easy to get these things going...

Bangkok blurb 2

of course, everything on this blog is about a month behind. it'll take me a while to get everything up from the cambodia and southern thailand trips, but heres a little something in the meantime...

as with all of the pictures on here, click to enlarge.



some people build out onto the river. its like squatting since because they're over the water they dont have to pay the government anything.


reclining buddha




in the bottom left corner is a large doorway if you want an idea of the statue's size...






grand palace (for the royal family)


one of two couchsurfing "meetings" i've gone to. about 30 or so people at a beer garden, about 20 different nationalities.



temples
they have these government sponsored work out dances in public places all over the city all the time. pretty damn entertaining. despite the rice with every meal tradition, a lot of thai people dig western fast food. dancing the pounds away...


one of three skateparks

commute by boat. it goes down a pretty narrow canal that cuts through the city. they have to lower the roof by a pulley system when it goes speeding under low bridges.



i'll give em credit for trying


view from the roof of my massage school


looking the other way


one very common type of bus. reminds me of a boat. about 24 u.s. cents for a 50 minutes ride.




in my defense i was dead tired and kept the first take

red tape

postponed until tomorrow. Lots of additional costs. getting a visa for vietnam has been a hassle.