~goes to show, you don't ever know~

And then I had arrived at my evil master scheme. The whole two months of my voyage I was trying to squeeze a day out of this trek or pinch a couple from that country. All this balanced, of course, with my inalienable knack for distraction, for enlisting in unplanned adventures like the retreat or 4000 islands, or just for following randomly made travel companions to their destinations. But finally, I collected 5 extra nights on my voyage that I was dreaming of depositing in the Malaysian Borneo. My goal: to climb Kota Kinabalu - at over 2 miles high, I'm told it's the world's tallest mountain you can climb without needing professional equipment. So I flew into "KK", as the same-named city at the base of the mountain is referred to. The next morning, calling from the hostel to check the logistics of climbing KK, an Indian journalist, Aditi, overheard me and asked for the details. After I explained, she said it sounded interesting but a bit expensive - I understood immediately that she was my kind of person! She proposed this jungle lodge off the Kinabantan river. So in an instant I had scrapped the goal I'd been greedily collecting days for to go look at monkeys with her. Borneo's the only place in the world where you can find the goofy looking probiscus monkeys. They live in two groups: the haremwhere an alpha male takes care of his wives and their kids unlill the boys turn three or so, and the Batchelor packs, where three or four unwed males hang out till they get strong enough to fight an alpha male forhiswives. Unfortunately, the only camera I have left is this tablet and the zoom isn't that great but Aditi promised to dropbox me her photos which I hope to upload soon. We also saw crocs, snakes, other monkeys, kingfishers and the gorgeous rhinocerous hornbill.

Oh yeah, and the endangered Pygmy elephants!

These are majestic, playful creatures roaming the banks making all sorts of noise and having fun. But they also screwed up our plans as we couldn't take any nature hikes with the big oafs around. One had killed an Austrailian tourist a few years back. Instead we went on a lot more boat rides.

I was a upset because I loved the jungle hikes in the Amazon, but in retrospect the elephants are a much more rare sight than most things I would have seen in the forest so I should be grateful. Aditi was one of the more interesting (if opinionated) conversationalists Ive met over these couole months. We discussed life in India, racial tendencies, gender inequality, and political structures over the world. She's moving to NYC for her 5th masters - creative writing. I hope to visit sometime next year as Keroauc's inspired me to give NYC another chance. She's easily the most traveled person I've met so far. And oh yeah, she likes beer as much as me! Speaking of booz, I took a chance on some Borneo wine. Read the ingredients list and alcohol content!

Wine it is certainly not! But if you could imagine cough syrup cut with ethenol you'd get half the flavor of that swill. But after a couple nights in the jungle, we finally made it to KK! Aditi's unrivaled negotiating skills brought us to a nice lodge at the foot of the mountain. We took a decent hike yesterday and had every intention of climbing to a minor peak this morning but the snooz button got the better of us... oh well.

I'm well rested and at peace with the fact that I'll have to wander my way back to the Borneo someday.

I forgot to mention that I spent a bit of time the first morning at the Sabah State museum where I learned some ineresting history about Sabah, the very unique Bornean state where KK is located. It's changed hands from Brunei to the English, American, Dutch before finally submitting to Malaysia - with very specific state exclusions. I also learned about the headhunters that live here. Wehavenothing to be afraid of. The headhunting is mostly for blood feuds and to impress women, so they'd have no need for a caucasian skull!

And now I find myself at the very impressive Singapore airport waiting to meet the one and only Jeanette Ling! I can't wait for the whirlwind of adventure that awaits us! I think Jonas and Shirin from Laos will be in Singapore the same time we're here so it should be a fun reunion. Till next time, thanks for reading!

~paradise waits, on the crest of a wave~

After two desperate, patient, futile hours I've arrived at the conclusion that I have not the slightest hope of falling asleep on this freezing, shakey bus swerving throught the Borneo jungles. Time for blogging, I guess.

So I left off after getting my diving licence. We went on a couple more dives afterwards, including one where it was just the divemaster and me where we saw a ton of awesome sea creatures.

 BARRACUDA

I was half expecting a mermaid to pop up because I felt like I'd seen everything else under the sea. The day continued with hours of beach volleyball until our feet were dangling limply from their hinges; but man did that make me miss summers at westpoint apartments! Maybe I'll sneak in a game when I'm back home. I said bye to my German and American friends and set out to the uber luxurious night ferry to Surat Thani.

I had a 2.5 foot cot to stuff my shoulders into otherwise they'd be jabbing my neighbors.

This was my third consecutive sleepless night, and as I'd given up caffeine back at Suan Mokkh it meant my brain felt like a bowl of porriage in a zero gravity chamber. A 6 hour bus ride to Phuket station and two hitched rides from kind strangers put me square in the tiny Jewish block of Patong Beach. After chatting it up with Eliav over a falafel at the Chabbad House, I caught a much needed meganap into the next day.

That afternoon a driver from my scheduled liveaboard (www.thejunk.com) found me. I was enjoying delicious Thai cuisine to the gentle sway of the Indian Ocean in no time!

The other three guests on the boat were seasoned divers, two Danes and a Chinese all living in Dubai. We shared great sights and stories and laughs for the next four nights. An unexpected delight I found on the boat was "On The Road", a book that refuels anybody's mad craving for life and adventure! I happily deposited my under-utilized, outdated Lonely Planet in exchange for that lyrical masterpiece. I've been collecting quotes from all the books I've been reading and here's a couple that illustrate why I love Kerouac's style:

"Then, two tired angels of some kind, hung up forlornly in an LA shelf, having found the closest and most delicious thing in life together, fell asleep till late afternoon."

or

"He didn't give a damn about anything. He is a great scholar who goes reeling down the New York waterfront with original seventeenth-century musical manuscripts under his arm, shouting. He crawls like a big spider through the streets. His excitement blew out of his eyes in stabs of fiendish light. He rolled his neck in spastic ecstacy. He lisped, he writhed, he flopped, he moaned, he howled, he fell back in despair. He could hardly get a word out, he was so excited with life."

You just feel Keroauc's passion for and tenderness towards humanity bleed through his pen. His observations are beautiful and spot on!

And so the 3 following days were spent diving, eating, napping and reading on the ship. Beer and good conversation ushered us into the nights. The first night I left my underwater camera case open... overnight... on a boat...in the ocean... during monsoon season - and naturally, I got what I deserved. A ruined camera and micro sd card where all my music used to live... :-(.... And so I have no record of all the awesome lobsters and cuttlefish and sting rays and crabs and baracuda and shipwrecks and other breathtaking submarine sights... Luckily, Fu, the kind Chinese girl who was documenting everything will send me a dropbox link to her pics which I hope to upload soon.

Sidenote: the banded sea snake of which we saw several is 20x more venomous than the most venemous land snake. It's incredible how many perfectly safe creatures there are under water that could kill you in seconds. There are scorpionfish that look just like the rock you are about to put your hand on. Lionfish that look like toys. Sharks are just about the only harmless underwater creature...

Not me, I was an underwater wrecking ball bumbling into coral and divers alike. It seems I can either stick with the group, watch where I'm going, or admire the marine life at any given moment. But when I aim for all three, I hopelessly miss. Oh well, I hope to get much more practice in over my life. Diving is the absolute coolest sensation I've ever felt. Everyone should dive. Soon and often!

~there'll be laughing, singing, and music swinging~

There are exactly two words to describe Koh Pha Ngan's full moon party: oy vey. While the island actually offers plenty of gorgeous scenery and clean beaches,

there lies a one km stretch of sand/broken glass/urine/vomit called Haad Rin beach that will send any Catholic nun running for her rosary. The full moon parties are the worst but the shore also hosts half moon, quarter moon, and no moon parties with the nights in between being parties unrelated to lunar stages. I got the full experience so that I'd never have to do it again.

Haad Rin beach is basically lined with around 10 bars.

People begin to congregate around 9 PM. The party peaks from midnight to two after which the croud starts waning. Each bar blasts dance music from dnb to psytrance to top 40 to dubstep so loud that at any given time you hear 2-4 seperate beats.

There is at least one flaming jump rope goint from 9-3 and various poi and staff displays throughout.

The locals stupidly try to charge anywhere from a quarter to a dollar for bathrooms so at any given time a look toward the ocean will reward the observer with at least 6 men peeing. Boats run every half hour to shuttle paetygoers back to Ko Samui, where people stay if they cant find a room or want to avoid some of the havoc. Of course drugs abound although buckets filled with thai red bull syrup and various hard alcohols are most peoples' poison of choice. At about 11 PM the first 'zombies' begin to appear. Overpartying 19 year old brits and israelis can be seen swaying to and fro or being carried by thai security guards or even falling face first into the sand. By 2 AM entire episodes of walking dead unfold before you. Heres where they end up.

So why would I want to to stay up till 5 AM through all this, and how did I manage? Very early into the night I met what could have been the only two other chill people on the island. Catie left her high paying real estate gig to wait tables and climbed her way to managing a 100+k a night grossing complex of bars, cafes, restaurants, and nightclubs. In one year! There she met James who runs one of the bars along with being involved in the music industry. He works as often as he needs to travel for a few months out of the year and this was her first time overseas. I couldn't help but bond with people as cool as these, often over perspectives one acquires working in food service but also over general life issues. Furthermore, my debit card got canned that day and I only found out when I was out of cash. Without even letting me think about it, these two paid for my beer, water and other goodies throughout the night. When I have the time/money to make it to Brisbane Australia, I have two very very kind people that I can't wait to visit.

THE PARABLE OF JAY
A little after 1 a frantic, discombobulated Canadian (who insisted on sporting an Irish accept for no reason) stumbled across our seaside picknick when we were just hanging out on the sand. Jay had asked if we heard some idiot down there jump on the microphone at one of the bars and scream "Has anyone seen Emily?" He admitted that it was him! He said he had lost the love of his life through the night and was desperately trying to find her. He broke down crying to us, explaining how much she meant to him and on and on and on. We calmed him down, entertained him with stories, and nursed him back to mental stability. I told him I dont know how he can find Emily again but there are so many wonderful things to enjoy here that he might as well relax and enjoy them. He did, staying with us for a while, until it was time for him to go and continue his quest, this time, a bit more levelheaded. After we'd forgotten all about him, Jay and Emily come walking over and, delighted, he screams" look guys, I found her!" He actually came back to show us! We were flattered.  All Emily could say was "doofus! I was right where you told me to wait for you" and the three of us erupted in laughter. But there's a moral to be learned there. Even though Jay was piss drunk throughout this fiasco (and Emily was all too sober by now) I think we're all guilty of this at times, at least I am for sure. Sometimes, when we get so anxious, so nervous and frantic and panicky, we forget some very obvious and helpful facts. If we can remind ourselves to, its usually worth it to settle down, take a deep breath, maybe even take our minds off the issue and come back to solve it. Jay illustrated that very well and gave us a great laugh in the process.

Five days later, I've fully recovered from the madness. You're reading the words of a certified open water diver. Scuba diving is INCREDIBLE. I might stick around here, Koh Tao (Turtle Island), to get my advanced certification before heading to the left coast for hopefully a liveaboard diving excursion. I say hopefully cause we're getting into monsoon season but I'm optimistic. I bought a go pro ripoff, still for a good chunk of change, and here are some of my favorite photos after my two dives yesterday. It's a shame I didn't have it the day before when the visibility was much better

And, oh yeah, one more thing. You ever walk by a shop and see something and think: "I've got to have it!". That happened to me the other day. It was a barber shop!

Little cute gekko sold sold seperately! But a kid from the meditation retreat who I ran into today was still able to recognize me so I'm hoping the folks in passport control will. Also, James and Catie are on this island so I'll try to bump into them again before I head out. Later.

~once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right~

Suan Mokkh, my tormentor, my teacher.

Where to begin? I guess, first, I must as objectively as possible supply the bare necessities to understand the particular tradition of Buddhism (Theravada) in the way it was taught to me. Then I'll discuss the structure of the retreat, my experiences, and share some personal insights acquired in the process. If any of these four sections don't interest you, skip them. I'll caution that the fourth part in particular, my insights, is a bit personal, strong, maybe even radical, so don't even bother reading it if you're not open to entertaining different perspectives. And if you do read it and think I've gone cookoo afterwards, do me a fsvor and have at leadt one more conversation with me before writing me off. You'll see thst I'm the same as always with only a few new perspectives I'm toying with. I won't apologize for them, though. I will apologize for the length of this post and only mention that it reflects 11 very meaningful days in my life. And I'll apologize for the lack of pictures but reiterate that a silent Buddhist meditation retreat is no place for photography (you'll have to take my word that the nature I was surrounded with was spectacular!)

FOUNDATION
All Buddhism is founded on four basic principles:
1) All life is suffering/unsatisfactoriness (Dhukka).
2) Dukkha originates from attachment/desire/craving/clinging.
3) Dukkha can be stopped.
4) The eightfold path will lead to the cessation of Dukkha.
If any of this interests you (including what the eightfold path consists of), read about it on the web.

Theravada is an attempt to cleanse Buddhism of the culture specific superstitious gunk that has accumulated in its scriptures over the years and return to the origins of the Buddha's (enlightened one's) original Pali teachings. This means discarding Tibetan fables about demons and titans, condescending against superfluous zen haikus, and following Buddha's simple discourse on what forces govern our lives, what we need to do to end suffering, and how an enlightened person will see the world.

In this vein, a point I found most interesting was that although reincarnation and kammha (karma) are thought to be central tenets of the worldview, Buddha never actually mentions reincarnation. The notion is a mistranslation of the Pali word for birth into rebirth so that Indian princes, 1000 years after Buddha, could herd their flocks into doing good (I happily accepted this and all other supernatural redactions). These are the basic foundational beliefs of the 3 monks teaching us, more or less devoted dissiples of the highly esteemed late monk Buddhadasa (Budda's slave) who founded the monestary. He was one of Thailand's most famous monks. Most other Buddhists, including Theravada, do accept reincarnation.

We were taught that enlightenment is conciousness realizing itself. It's the realization that no I or you or that exists. There are no objects or subjects but just energy taking on different, impermanent forms. The impermanence causes natural suffering because of our (not truly 'our' but the 6 senses - mind, body, taste, sound, smell, sight - of conciousness creating the illusion of 'our') attatchment and craving for permanence in a natural state of impermanence. Buddhists believe that every time one of the forms of conciousness, conditioned through a lifetime of ignorance, percieves an object, a new illusion of self, or ego, is born. Hence countless references to 'birth' in the buddhist scriptures mistranslated as rebirth. Therefore, the cessation of craving and desire will lead to the cessation of Dukkha. The way to achieve both of these is through meditation. The particular breed of meditation taught to us, Anapanasiti, means mindfullness through breathing.

STRUCTURE
4:00 AM wake up bell
4:30 AM 5 minute morning reading then sitting meditation
5:15 AM yoga
7:00 AM Dhamma (nature/reality/truth) talk
8:00 AM food reflection, breakfast and free time
10:00 AM Dhamma talk, sitting then walking meditation
12:30 PM food reflection, lunch and free time
2:30 PM Dhamma talk, walking then sitting meditation
5:00 PM Pali chanting then Loving Kindness meditation
6:00 PM tea, hot chocolate soy milk and free time
7:30 PM sitting then walking then sitting meditation
9:00 PM bedtime
9:30 PM lights out

These were the first 4 days. They started replacing Dhamma talks with meditation on day 5, and finally day 9 was 1 meal and nothing but meditation; day 10 was like the first few plus manual labor and group sharing before bed. This structure may seem monotonous at worst but hardly unbearable. Why would 10-15% of participants drop? Ah the colorful details...

EXPERIENCES
Verbal silence is imposed at all times. That means no excuse me's, bless you's or even thank you's, let alone shared feeling or idle banter. Physical and mental silence is encouraged, meaning no wandering minds, no noises and no recreational writing (I broke and wrote a poem down on day 9 :-/ also I could not stop endless music playing in my head, throughout).  Mindfullness is to be practiced at all times. This means when walking, focus ONLY on your footsteps, when brushing teeth ONLY on that, etc. Daytime temperture ranged from 90 to 100 degrees with evenings cooling down to the 70s. And ahhhhhhh the damn misquitos!!! The first few days I tried not to put the toxic spray crap on but suffered at least 50 bites a day. Mornings and nights were catostrophic but it wouldn't be rare to catch a dozen or more nips during the day. Through t shirts through socks through pants. Wrap a blanket around and your body is steaming inside, pouring buckets of sweat out, and still the little demons find pockets of unprotected flesh to nozzle through. Had enough Dukkha yet? Oh by the way, you should be practicing mindfullness, focussing on breathing, absolutely NOT killing the misquitos, and, oh yeah, meditating! Good luck. But you know, by the end of it, entranced in meditation, I was able to notice the little buggers land, suck, and leave without stirring. THAT is patience! But the hardest part wasn't the drowsy mornings, bland meals, itchy days, hungry nights, or even sleeping on a wooden pillow on a bamboo mat on a concrete shelf, in a tiny cell; it was being trapped inside my own head for 10 days straight. Anger, shame, hatred, loneliness, depression assault you periodically like a swarm of hornets. You don't know when they will strike or why. It could be that last a-hole who dilly dalies in filling up his bowl at lunch time so we all have to wait for him to say the food reflection. It could the beautiful dragonfly that you want desperately to call your neighbor's attention to. It could be the barage of mistakes you've made that persist in squeezing your concience while you're trying to meditate. It could be the pretty girl over there who's name you wish you knew (guys and girls sit separately and dress modestly to avoid unavoidable unnecessary distractions). And every time that cancerous question pops up in your mind like a scorpion in your blanket rousing up a storm of flustered fury: "why shouldn't I just leave right now? I can meditate a bit, I know the monastic life isn't for me, why am I torturing myself like this?" And you never really get the answer to that question but you just dust yourself off and go back to meditating. Or maybe the answer finally came in an unexpected way. After a stunningly clear moonlit sky on night nine and a rewarding hour to lie under it, after what could have been the most refreshing sunrise I'd ever seen the following morning, Ajahn Po, the 82 year old ex abbot delivered his final talk. His wisdom and a very successful meditation session that immediately followed triggered my greatest insight. I'll get to that toward the end. First, a couple lesser, but still valuable, ones. Keep inmind these ideas havent even fully digested in my mind and are extremely difficult toarticulate. Maybe you'll think they're dumb or cheesy or maybe you'll think that ten crazy days like this can warp anyone's mind into stupidity or maybe you'll immediately ridicule the thoughts then step back and give them at least a bit of consideration before writing me off as another overdosed antichrist hippy prophet. Just a few more ideas to bounce around your skull, that's all. Can't do any harm, right?

INSIGHTS
1) There exist 7 billion parallel realities. There is an objective reality, a physical world, matter, energy, particals, forms, objects floating around. And there is an internal, subjective reality called conciousness. Conciousness is a reflection of the objective reality conditioned by perception, thoughts, and feelings. When I see a toy truck with my eyes, my eyes are the subject and the toy truck the object. But immediately I notice its blue color and I think, I've always liked blue, I think of a similar truck I had as a child and miss my childhood. Immediately, that neutral toy truck takes on a positive connotation in my mind. Or maybe I think of the underpaid chinese workshop slaves who made that truck and I think its a symbol of american vanity. Or say I think of welfare and I realize how my family wouldn't have adjusted to living in the united states without welfare checks. I accept welfare as a positive social construct. Or maybe I think of the millions who have spent their entire lives on welfare and think how it's dragging down our economy and incentivizing laziness. My reality posits that it is a negative social force. But all along the physical objective reality remains neutral. It doesn't care about me or my family or the chinese or humanity or organic matter or the world. None of that stuff matters to the true objective reality. Individually, we assign value to things, whether we do so conciously or it's slowly injected in you by the religion your mom or dad brought you up on, or what the latest reading at the marxist circle you've been attending planted in you. Call it buddhism or existentialism or maybe recognize that the two are sides of the same coin. But if we scrape away the filmy layers of socialization, if we skin our ego of the by products of perception, thought, and feeling we come to a dull, grey reality, but the only objective one there ever was or will be: perfect equinimity. And the fact remains thst while no one will ever know the pure dull reality there are 7 billion versions of "things as they truly are" delusions floating around. And it's very difficult, heck in most cases impossible, to entice someone else to hop off their little floating cloud and onto yours.

2) Belief is slavery. Any and all forms. Whether it's the adament assertion that the scientific method is the only reliable teacher in life, or the firm knowledge that the village medicine man can heal your soul after chugging down ayawasca, or the notion that God loves you and wants you to follow His good word. The moment we accept a value or ideal or principle and rank it above others we commit our morality to that ideal. We shackle ourselves to feel guilt every time we act in a manner that does not uphold the ideal and reward ourselves when we abide by it. We dismiss the fragments of reality that appear dissonant and embrace those that resonate with our "noble truth". Finally, our actions change. We put forth concious, considerable efforts to progress our value whether its philanthropy or joining the army or creating an intentional living community on the fringes of society that worships aliens and mayans its all driven by our desire to please our Master. But here's the most important part to remember: we choose our own masters. Or at least we should. It seems like a good idea to put as little reliance on other people's master instead choosing the one that appeals to us most, individually.

3) Thankfully the excruciating philosophy ends here. This insight is more personal and less offensive. Throughout the retreat I started realizing that it felt good to meditate. I decided I liked it and would want to carry it on to every day "life after Buddhism". It shouldn't be too hard,  right? An hour a day. I can find that sort of time. Oh, and yoga, too. I could notice a distinct freer, looser, happier body after my morning yoga sessions. I'd make sure to find time for that too. Oh but there's still chess. I've told myself I'm going to get better for a long time. When I get back I'll be sure to play regularly. And dang I really got to got GOT TO pick up the guitar again. In london I had like a dozen tunes that I wrote thst were awesome so I got to get back to that level. And if I find the time I'll learn the mandolin and accordian, too. I've always wanted to pick those up. And of course I have to continue writing recrearionally. And I already told myself I'll start going to the gym again every day so I can't waver on that. I'll find time to keep reading before bed and learning russian and maybe even pick up a latin book again. And on and on and on until I got myself so overwhelmed, so worked up, that I decided to give up on meditation, and then yoga. And then I realized thst this fall I open the first page of the hardest chapter in my life. I'm taking 4 phd level classes. I'm working 20 RA hours a week. I'll be at the library 50 hours a week. I won't have time for ANY of it. At all. That's an utterly depressing thought when you have as many passions and interests as me. I was crushed. Until the morning of day 10 when I heard Ajahn Po speak. He told us that we were lucky and not just for the normal reasons. He said we're lucky because we're in sound mental health. We're not crazy so we have the opportunity to bring joy into the world for others. We can do acts which benefit the world. And that reminded me of why I enlisted for this painful meticulous academic life in the first place. It'll be the greatest opportunity I'll ever have to discover the knowledge that can bring benefit to the world on a wide scale. Whether I'll ever get to that level is questionable and realistically improbable but it's sure as hell what I've always aimed for and what I'll continue to aim for. Meditating immediately after this insight I had a 'doh' *facepalm* "OF COURSE!" moment. Humans! That's what the universe evolved us here to do. That's what our 'niche' is in the world. Thats why we dont have sonar like dolphins or the superpower of sleep like bears. Our unique gift is to feel pleasure not just when we improve our own environment and that of those immediately surrounding us. We are capable on enjoying philanthropy and altruism! (As an economist I firmly maintain thst we do those things solely because they give us pleasure and not out of some pure selflessness). We are stimulated to act in such a manner that actually improves life for other people, for other animals, for plants, for the entire planet, even! That's got to be it! Our "purpose" for existence - a phrase I've always loathed but have suddenly come to understand.

And so my mind came full circle. I understood that my academic pursuits, what I'm dedicating my life to, is to bring benefit into the world. Somehow some way I will aim to do so. And I won't be able to do it unless I'm happy with and about myself. So as for those distractions that were cluttering my head before, I could see clearly now that they're not so important. I need to do the bare minimun of those things to maintain a positive mindset and physical health, and the rest is nonsense. A mere obstacle to the task at hand. Marvel comics never had a superhero that played chess real well. And no one ever made their mom cry proud tears of joy going to the gym. And so, my life, my values, and my obstacles were shifted into perspective.

And as for the rest of my time here on holiday, well I guess all that's left now is to enjoy it. Thinking and suffering over, I've made my way toward Koh Pha-ngan, infamous for its 40,000 people crowds during the full moon parties. And guess what?Tonight happens to be a full moon. It's time for Buddha to venture out of his cave and make some friends to share the party with. And if you've made it this far into my head without vomiting I want to thank you for giving me a venue to voice my inner monologue. I think everyone should try something like this sometime.

~when the rocking, rolling music meets the rising, shining sun~

When I told Jose she was the second person I met who's raved to me about the meditation retreat she replied that I'd probably meet a third since things happen in threes. Those insights have no place in my worldview so I shrugged it off and left it on the backburner.

The journey to Suan Mokkh International Dhamma Hermitage first brought me to Krabi for three days to spend with friends. The first night, Henry biked down to catch up on a month's worth of our respective travels. (Now him and Luke are in the land down under seeking employment). Before we knew it we'd managed to entice a couple Torontites (an econ major teaching eng and a marine biologist working in IT) into a discussion of whether free market economics or a politically corrupt oligarchy under the guise of capitalism has crumbled societal and ecological balance and how to get off this disasterous crash course. The two econ nerds maintained that carefully regulated but ultimately free markets can reverse the downward spiral while Henry and the marine biologist argued for a more heavy handed suffocation of corporate power by a benevolent government. Martial law in Thailand cut our debate short as places to buy beer closed early and everyone knows meaningful discourse is empty without booz.

The next morning I hopped a ferry to the Railey peninsula to meet my Chiang Mai hostelmate, Mike. Railey is separated from the mainland by a sizeable mountain making it one of the best places in Thailand for rock climbing amd base jumping.

Mike and I followed a couple American girls, English teachers playing hooky, to Ton Sai, the secluded north side of the penninsula. We were greated by this giant peace sign,

more beach art and happy shake solicitations. I immediately realized this was the Pai of Southern Thailand (an overhearing sun-bather confirmed my view). We lounged sipping beers watching the most incredible slackliners and jugglers

while geeking out about good music with a couple Nova Scotians. I was pleased to learn that Nova Scotia is exactly as depicted in Trailer Park Boys (which if you haven't watched you should); it has a reputation of being the white trash of Canada but is populated by kind, welcoming, simple, nature-loving folk. I'd love to visit someday.

We later met Mike's college buddy up and tresspassed  around a blocked off cave before heading to East Railey, the party side. We watched a quiet lounge with an acoustic guitar blossomi nto an open mic event before developing into a crowded bar, raging Poi show,
 and finally devolving into a mindless grindfest of trashy european techno. We opted to recede into the deserted ocean landscape alive with phytoplankton (which for obvious reasons I could not photograph).

The next day and half I flopped around Ton Sai, eating, resting, and even finding creative solutions to my chess-pieces-but-no-board problem.

It met another chick from St. Louis, a marquette grad who's been abroad four years now floating between teaching jobs.

So besides Mike being a fellow Jewish travel junkie keen on chess, making decisions by flipping coins and having wallets with coin pockets, it was interesting meeting him for another reason. He fulfilled Jose's prophesy by also doing an anapanasiti meditation retreat in India. He HATED it. He said that though it was a transformative experience he could not tolerate the Buddhist dogma that they tried to jam down his skull. He took issue with the Buddhist's closed minded approach to mind altering substances and pointed out that the strict mandate of sexual abstinance would lead to the annihilation of humanity. It planted a seed of caution in my mind but I was not to be deterred.