Desert Goats And Children

From My Recent Journey In India
Jaisalmer, January, 2007

As we pass through a desert village these children lead us in. They are proud of their small community and they want to share it with us. There are very few building materials out here so the corrals are built from rocks, with a dried up branch and some straw for shade and protection from the rain (if it ever comes).As we come closer, the goats come to us to see who their visitors are.Aw creeps up to a goat to see if she can make friends. This is just like having our own private petting Zoo.We have been traveling for three days. We have seen very few people or creatures of any kind so this is really fun for us."Na la Kaw", as Aw would say; 'So cute".

Songkran Family [Part 3]

Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2007
See [Songkran Family Part 1], [Songkran Family Part 2]
I'm so impressed by this family. They have fun together but they have a stronger bond that comes through at difficult times.
A'taw is being a great sport today. She joins in with gusto but her heart is elsewhere.
Her husband, Poung, is in hospital right now. He just suffered a stroke a couple of days ago. Our warmest thoughts are with you khun Poung. Fortunately they have this wonderful family to watch out for them both.
I sneaked this photo from another event but these are A'tui and Mao who have been so kind as to let me stay in their home for the last month. A'tui was with us on Khao San road yesterday She owns a chain of restaurants in Thailand. Khun Mao runs a Country Club in Bangkok. They are wise and humble people (and above average Karaoke singers). The Celebration today is at their home.

View (pronounced 'Wiew') is one of the daughters of Wat and Pooky (are you confused yet? I am). She is a great sport and is always willing to pose and smile for a photo. And I think her T-shirt sums up the attitude of this beautiful family; 'Life is what you make it. It's my honor to share this special occasion with this amazing group of people. Khopt khun krup, everyone.

Songkran Family [Part 2]

Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2007

See [Songkran Family Part 1], [Songkran Family Part 3]

Everyone is getting drenched at our family Songkran celebration. I'm honored to be a part of it.

Nat, his girl friend; Aui . She has the most luminous eyes. Next to her is Nat's sister; Nampeth. Nat just got back from his training as a monk. Many men in Thailand take this training before starting their careers. I just love these faces. So many of the Thais have such a radiance to their faces.

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'Aui' at the moment of impact. Fortunately, the water tends to be warm (except when some people I will not mention ((((Aw))) put ice cubes in the mix.

Aw and Pooky do a lot of work behind the scenes at these family events. Pooky is the unofficial photographer for the clan.

These are the ring-leaders of the water fights; Wat and Natty. Natty has a great spirit. He's in the midst of a round of chemotherapy for a brain tumor and yet he joins in with the best of them.

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Of all the people we doused with water, Wat is my favorite. He really knows how to have a good time.

Aw, Waaw, Wat, and Wow. Can you pronounce 'Waaw' different from 'Waw'? Neither can I. It's like the old 'Get Smart' TV show with the arch-villain who kept insisting: "not 'Craw'...'Kraw!!!'.

And look at that 'cool kat' with the women here; my buddy 'Wat', who I have nick-named 'Jackie Chan'.

It's a great pleasure getting to know 'Wow'. She's the top student in her high school and was just awarded a scholarship to the number one University in Thailand. She is also a wonderful pianist (I hear you from upstairs sometimes, Wow.) The only trouble is that one of my favorite expressions is 'Wow!' and she must always feel like I'm calling for her.

Songkran Family [Part 1]

Bangkok, Thailand, April 15, 2007

See the whole series: [Songkran Family Part 2], [Songkran Family Part 3]

Hold onto your potatoes everyone because it's day three of SONGKRAN!!!
Tenom is the Matriarch of the family.

The Songkran festival is the renewing of life through water. Each member of the family pours water into the hands of the elders and receives their blessings for the New Year.










Lek is Aw's mom and Tenom's neice. I think white is her color. Lek is so quiet and shy so it's fun to see her so slathered up.

Waew with her auntie A'tim.

They act like mother and daughter; or like co-conspirators. Look at that glint in both their eyes; trouble just looking for a place to happen.

Waew is a fashion model and was featured in Image Magazine this month in a swim-suit spread. She is also a well known VJ on MTV Thailand. [See Her MTV Website]

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Vietnam Children Mob Me

Hue, Vietnam, March 26 2006

Okay, this is what I'm trying to say about Vietnam. It's the people. They are so alive. Today I'm on a motor bike tour of the Ancient Capital of this Country. Our guides let us off at the site of one the the Royal Tombs. This place is a large green area with buildings and statues.

I'm taking photos as usual when I see a bunch of young school children smiling at me. I point my camera at them when suddenly...
they come rushing to me like I'm a Rock star. I don't know what to do so I just keep taking pictures.
Now they're all around me giving me 'Peace' signs and yelling for me to take more pictures of them.
Every time I take another photo I hear shrieks of delight and even more children come rushing to me.

I turn my camera around so you can see what I'm experiencing at this moment. This is Vietnam. This is the magic and the power of this Land.

Saigon And Sexy Bar Girls

This is Paul from America. He toured the Vietnam War Museum with me.

After looking at the horrifying images and reading the heart-wrenching accounts from the people who of that era, we decided there was only one thing left to do. We went drinking.

Paul is an English teacher working in Japan. As we were sitting in an outdoor restaurant drinking our Tiger beers, we met up with another guy from our tour, who is from Japan. So Paul had a great time conversing with him in Japanese as we all talked about our day and decided what kind of trouble to get into tonight.

I said that as a joke but in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) you just have to sit in one place and trouble with always find you. I happened to glance at this woman and the next thing I knew she was asking me if I wanted to go for a motor bike ride. I thanked her for the invitation but declined. So then she sat down beside me and ordered a beer. I asked her why she wasn't drinking it and she told me she didn't like beer but she said she DID like me and would like to invite me back to her hotel room across the street for the very reasonable sum of three hundred thousand Dong (about twenty dollars Canadian). She sat with us for about twenty minutes and I gave her a small amount of money and she left.

Meanwhile we had many vendors come up to us selling books and cigarettes. This woman wasn't shy. She just figured that if we weren't buying what she was selling, we didn't deserve to get a free photo of her. By the way, the cigarettes here are three dollars a pack, Canadian.

So as the evening is progressing, we are solicited every few minutes by taxi drivers, prostitutes, street vendors, and women and their babies, begging. They're not destitute. They just do it because it's an easy way to get money from tourists. And all the while, right behind us, at Ten at night, these two little guys, are happily playing with the wheel of this motorbike, like it's a big sandbox toy.

The three of us decided to play pool. We were met by some lovely women who work for tips and drinks. They were great company. We left the first bar after about half an hour because we either had to take the women to bed or move along. This is the second bar we went to.

And this is Nguyen Dung. She's twenty-five years old; and a pretty good pool player. We spent a couple of hours with Nguyen and her friends. This is the thing about Vietnam that I'm finding. It is a captivating country. Everything is so intense and vibrant here. The people are so engaging. I find at the end of the day I have experienced a huge range of emotions. It's like being on a roller coaster. In this country the one thing you come to realize is that there are no spectators. We are all participants, one way or the other.

"Salaam Alekum"

Songkhla, Thailand, 2006

The Major has been showing me around Songkhla so much that this was actually my first chance to just hang out at the beach. When I came out of the water I sat down and looked over to my left.

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There were a horde of lovely Students staring at me and smiling. I got up and said: "Salaam Alekum" (God is with you), to them. They all shrieked with joy and replied: "Malakum salaam"(and with you). How did I know to address this group of Muslims in this fashion? Was it my worldly knowledge of Religion? What it my cunning instinct? No. I had just read a book by Wilbur Smith, and that's what he said to say. (Thanks Scott and Judy for that book.)
The students rushed over and asked me to take a photo of them.

Then They insisted that I join in a photo with them. I can't really explain why this happens so often to me but I love it. And to you wonderful students who made me feel so welcome on the beach of Songkhla today, let me just say "Allah Akbar." God is Great.

Children's' Day In Ubon

Ubon Rathathani, Thailand, January 6, 2006

Ted and I took a bus from Bangkok to Kohn Kaen and then over to Ubon Ratchathani on our way to Vietnam.

Linly is a 19 year-old college student we met on the bus. She was just heading to Ubon to visit her family and then return the same day. She was very excited to meet two Canadians. She told us she wanted to travel all over the world one day. I asked her where she would like to go most. Linly replied: "My dream is to twah-vell some whay with you!"

This is my very dear friend Joy, who I met last year in Ubon. We arrived on children's' Day so we had a chance to meet Joy's niece at a parade. I can hear my Mom muttering to herself: "Why do they need children's' Day? Every day is children's' day..."

This is 'Oy' (on the left); another woman I met last year. Joy, Oy, Loy, and Coy were giving out free Ice Cream to the children on this day as part of the festivities (okay I made up the other two names.).

These are some of the cutie pies who were dancing in the festival.

The costumes were wonderful and the girls could really dance!

These two girls were crowned as Princesses for the day. They were very excited to get attention from the visiting Farangs. I gave them tiny Canadian Flags just after I took this photo.

And how about this cutie patootie? (as my sister would say). This is another one of Joy's nieces.

This little guy was just too cute to pass up. Thai children are not shy at all at having their pictures taken.

Jude's Tibet

Jude is a lovely woman I met while travelling in Thailand in February. She is a teacher from Britain who is on an 18 month assignment, teaching English in China.

She sent me some pictures from her recent trip to Tibet. I told her how much this place means to me so she sent these pictures to inspire (tease) me. I know I have to go there (again). This is her at a carpet factory.

She is posing here next to the Yarlung Valley.

Jude has an infectious smile which must have made it very easy for these children to respond to.

When I see this picture of the Potala Palace, I get the strongest sense of deja' vu.

Jude loves China and the people of China, but she told me a poinient story about the political climate as it effects the Tibetan culture. She wrote:
"It is a fabulous place, so beautiful - in fact I think it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. That is just in terms of scenery, although the culture and people are fascinating too. The sad thing is how the Chinese government is trying to kill the Tibetan culture off - the Chinese street names, Beijing time although it's 3 time zones out, building horrendous communist style monuments outside key Tibetan monuments, imposing the language and education... awful. I am interested in the Free Tibet campaign now, although of course all the websites are blocked so I may have to wait. "China" is great in China, but not when it is imposed on another country like that."
Jude is not able to see my blog in China. I have to send it as a word file to her email address.

Chiang Mai Trek: Karan Tribe

The Karan Tribe are a primitive band who migrated from Tibet, two hundred years ago and have maintained their language and customs, for the most part totally cut off from the rest of Thailand. "Karan" means "People of the Land" or "Dirty People" because they tend not to wash very often and the world they live in is very dusty.

This is a little guy who hung around our camp fires at night. In fact, we had to fish him out of the fire a few times. He had no fear.

Kam showed us one of the banana trees the villagers grew. They use absolutely every part of the tree.

The Karen villagers live by growing rice and soybeans. We hiked through this breath taking landscape for three days.

Corey (shown on the right)is a student from Santa Cruz. We had a very interesting discussion on the last night of our Trek, about politics and his concern that California is being lost to the extremist Republicans. He said he is searching for a place that will make him happy. Once he finds that place he will settle down there. He's 21. I wish I had his insights at that age.

We put money together and begged the villagers to let us buy this rooster and eat him so that we didn't have to hear him crow at 1 am again...

The third village we stayed in actually had budgies. I took this picture for my favorite budgie fancier, Diana Rainbow.

And a kitty cat that Kirsten befriended. Kirsten and her husband Chris are from Sydney Australia.

Dennis negotiated the purchase of one of the handmade pieces the villagers made on their looms.

And these two children came out to wave good bye as we travelled through their village.

The children were a joy to see.

When I saw this scene in the village I thought of you Mom. I don't know why...

We passed through some wonderful waterfalls between the villages.

We had a campfire every night and sang songs. These are some girls from Sweden who were on our trek (in the front)

This is one of the Thai guides. He only knew Beatles songs but he really rocked.
This little girl was thrilled to have her picture taken as she fished in the stream we passed.

Here is a proper picture of Kirsten and Chris from Sydney, having breakfast.

Kam told us about this village. It was a hot spot for Cocaine. Then four years ago, when the new Prime Minister was elected, he cracked down on Drugs. Twelve hundred people were shot in the first month. Kam says there are no more drugs here now.

The beauty of this land and it's people can't really be expressed. I just hope I'm able to give you a glimpse of what I see. Perhaps you will want to see it for yourself. And I hope you enjoyed my cute animal pics Sarah. I always think of you when I take them.