And now Shaw Lash . . . . ?
Yes, something certainly did hit me and like puberty, everyone has to ride and there is no turning back. Maybe it was the state (sorry/sad/precarious)) of world affairs. Maybe it was anxiety over the upcoming election and whether Americans will ever be welcome in the rest of the world again. (I am sewing maple leafs on my bags) Maybe I woke up this year infected with the Buddhist non-attachment syndrome. Or maybe I heard that in India, one is free to follow bliss when one finishes the duties of raising children and managing a family. Free agency granted for time served.
Or maybe the door just opened on this incredible opportunity to travel (sometimes to travail) and to reflect on what comes next in my so called life. And who wouldn't go through that door. . . to go see life with new eyes and to be born again on the side of the road. 'For first we travel to lose ourselves and then next to find ourselves'.
So my epic journey can be your vicarious vacation, I have forced my old brain to learn how to photograph digitally and to transfer jpg files in the cyber cafes of the world. I have struggled to climb the learning curve that birthed this webpage and hope that it can grow along with me as I travel. So come blog with me - send me your tips and the names of your friends along my way. And keep me in your prayers as I will hold you in mine.
-Each trip stop will
have a photo and
some info. If you
want more, click on
photo and it will take
you to another page
with more prose and
pix.
Sept-Nov: Hawaii
Dec-Jan: Southeast Asia
Feb: New Zealand
March-mid-June: Australia
Late June: South Africa
July-August: Peru & Brazil
Return home before Labor Day '05
My travel actually started this past summer with trips to the Carolinas and New Mexico to see friends before I hit the world road. My long-time sped eddy sister friend, Kathy Crain, arranged for us to facilitate a workshop on teamwork for 30 Korean students at a retreat center on top of a mountain in North Carolina. This pic is my group, all of whom were on their 1st ever trip outside of Korea. Compliments of Groovey Gael, they also had their 1st ever Challenge Course session. In Korea, the oldest male is the acknowledged leader in any group so my Leander friends can imagine what I did with that. Can you pass the blindfold, please . . . . . .
I guess, technically Hawaii is still domestic travel but it does not feel like it. I am endulging myself now and you can see how at www.mauiretreat.com. I am in the Dolphin Room. My digital camera is screwing up (really the company said it is not me) so pix are off for now. But someone was filming the beach party I was at on Sunday - x-rated but can be viewed at www.nko.org.
Maui, the Valley Island, was indeed wowee, right from its abundance of Birds of Paradise and Heliconia to its Sunday beach party at the clothing optional beach with an array of naked fire dancers. Though my commute from town to home wound past the site of some of the best Big Wave surfing in the world (the Jaws), I was too early to see Laird Hamilton in action. The volume of water that makes the waves only comes in the winter. This was my relatively luxurious stop with a car to tour with and a large canopy bed with ocean views to wake up in. I had a marvelous 2 hour lomi lomi massage and helped raise money for a Bali Birthing Center. And per usual Gael, the person representing the Bali Clinic was a former Austin gal who had lived at Greenbriar and wanted to reminesce about the night the Armadillo closed.
My next stop brought me to Big Island - the Orchid Island. Much different accomodations and community here at Pangaia. (www.pangaia.cc) . This is a raw food diet community, made much easier since the food grows all over the place.. The jungle is the pantry and full of fruits I can't spell, pronounce or recognize - more learning curves to climb - capoeira, African drumming, showering in front of people half my age. (Mar used to say young people should not have to see old people naked) I am the elder woman and both the younger women and I are enjoying that. And if I can come up with a deterrent for the flies, I will be the saint. Do all those hanging plastic bags of water really work? Write me if anyone knows . . . . .(click on pic for more)
Though it is hard to tell, the baby elephant is blowing in my ear. It was an intense olfactory experience as well. Boonchai (long ago member of the Sherman tribe when he lived with us for his high school years) took the pic and along with wife Waneda, were my tour directors in Bangkok. So almost 40 years later, I could really appreciate what a challenge it was for Boonchai to be a 14 yr. old Thai in Corpus Christi, TX. All I have learned to say in Thai is their greeting and thank-you. But Bangkok held no appeal for me (affluence buys combustion engines and more pollution than all but 4 other cities in the world) , so after a week I had moved on north, to the city of Chiang Mai. From here, I would trek into Hilltribe villages and plan a trip into Laos and Cambodia. (Click on pic)
Sam and I joined up first of February for 'Mother & Son Do Down Under'. Here we are standing above the Cook Strait after just crossing from the North Island (milder, gentler land though Mt. Doom is there) ) to the South Island (dramatic, rugged, adrenaline junky land). Sam's list of to-dos includes bungey jumping from the tallest device that will allow it (something that could detach his retina), whitewater rafting some Class 5 & 6 rapids,, abseiling & canyoning, rock climbing, and tramping (hiking) into back country for days. I have agreed to participate in white water rafting, rock climbing (indoors), abseiling & canyoning, and day hikes only. We are both happy to be together for whatever in this incredible land. For once, my expectations were exceeded and I am daily in awe of the visual delights that are New Zealand.
We are now travelling members of SERVAS, an organization that links travellers with hosts in the hope of promoting world peace through cultural exchange and up-close acceptance of differences. We have met incredible Kiwis who have made our travel much richer, so much better informed and just more like home. (Click on pic)
'In a sunburnt country' - hotter, drier and vaster than Texas (though the Texas King Ranch was the largest Texas ranch, their ranch in the Outback is larger than all of Texas) yet the Outback comes filled with parrots. Though you can momentarily forget you are far from home in this landscape, the songs of the Down Under birds (kookaburras, cockatoos, miner birds, weird crows) definitely tell you different. That and the presence of large mammals that move vertically rather than horizontally. Also feral camels that can wander in front of the car with some lasting effects. All and all, a most varied and interesting place. Between the land and the wonderful Aussies we met, Sam and I feel very 'at home' here. (click on pic)
My time here was limited (9 days) but I managed to move fast and travel hard in order to get a sense of this schizophrenic place as it recovers from the apartheid years. I went to Krueger National Park to see lions & leopards & zebras and I went to Soweto to see how the other half (6 million) live in Jo'berg and to visit the only street in the world to have 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners' residences - Mandela & Tutu. At the Apartheid Museum I turned the corner to see a large Confederate flag hanging from the ceiling for the exhibit about American Apartheid - lynchings, �separate but equal�, Jim Crow laws. (click on pic)
Mom and Shaw hooked up in Sao Paolo after Mom�s brief stop in South Africa-- both were so relieved to be back in the warm embraces of a Latin country. We booked a simple Fiat for the month,and headed out. Stops included Ilhabela, Minas Gerias, lots and lots o' drivin', and Shaw�s much anticipated introduction to surfing on the beaches of Bahia-- and Mom's wannabe status with the board shorts and fondness for Bahian babe bodies.
Read on (click on pic) to follow our journey....
This country offered us 2 divergent travel choices - either cold very high country (12,000 feet) or equatorial steamy Amazonia. Perversely, we chose the latter. All the better for mom to get ready to ease back in to a Texas summer . . . (click on pic)
