Bangkok or BusTransport, taxis tuktuks and Buddha aaaahhhhhaaaaas

 

Aaaaahhhhh the sights and sounds, tastes, smells and things of a big city, talk about a 5 sensory overload, shocking and stimulating at the same time, a 5 Star adventure, where luxury is as available and present as poverty. But whether its one extreme or the other, the thing that seems common to all, as a culture and nation is happiness - based on Buddha’s teachings of; right view, thought, speech, behavior, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and meditation.

 

Such is the opening para in The Teaching of Buddha, a book in our hotel room, ‘donated by Society for the Promotion of Buddhism’.

 

But I’ve jumped ahead, just getting here was an adventure - We left our Hotel room in Hua Hin at 11.59am having made an 11.58am internet booking for a hotel in Bangkok for our next step! Our transport as pre arranged, should have been a short tuktuk ride to a minibus ride of 2 1/2 hours to our hotel door. WELL…tuktuk turned out to be a comfy taxi, and minibus turned out to be an almost air-conditioned bus, that with waiting and traveling time took us 5 hours and an additional taxi, thus arriving in Bangkok in the dark,  in the heart of old town Bangkok.

 

Our next day (1^sst real Big city day) started innocently enough with an early wander around the block to witness the early morning energy compared to the bright lights and buzz we’d arrived square in the middle of the night before. A hotel breakfast might have seemed like the safe option from the bright glare of vendor food, clearly exposed to flies and exhaust, heat and oxidation!

 

Stepping out again ready for a day of exploring, took its first turn, at our first turn in accepting a ride from a tuktuk driver who for the huge sum $Bht10 (50c) would take us through alleys and backblocks and over canals, and alongside palace and poverty - to the first of what would become Mr Tuks wild ride in pursuit of Buddha’s, temples, photos for us, then gas coupons for him…you see we found out that now for the up sell to $Bht50 he would wait…all day if we were inclined, for us – to then take us to ‘special shops’, where even if we would please just spend 10 minutes he would get a free petrol voucher.

 

At one Buddha experience we got some amazing advice from an excellent English speaking local, who had a Maori friend and taught economics. He spoke of a last day opportunity for foreigners to buy gems tax and duty free at wholesale, that was a politically generated incentive from government to boost the economy after the recent unrest. Unrest was a blip on my radar, but one that caused many people, indeed the Australian Prime Minister at the time to call for people, to cancel their trips.

 

Anyway, fun and flow and Grace and ease was truly present for me in my day of being led to the opportunity and seizing it…more of which I can’t speak about herein.

 

One temple experience was to arrive and see a vendor making caged birds available to be freed for a donation, for bringing good luck, and I was immediately transported to the scene in a movie with Richard Gere (help me out her, the title escapes me?), in which he does the same. Lori took the opportunity and I was able to capture it on camera, perfectly in front of three monks who had just arrived to bow before Buddha.

 

Our most sublime moment of the day was to arrive at a temple and be present to the timeless vibration of monks chanting, a captivating, blessed, sacred and inspiring experience we had been eased into with flow and Grace – to which we are ever present and grateful. 

Gratitude - Foundation of ALL

Here in our day place and trip, we are face to face with the symbol and energy that underlies our joyourney, that of Gratitude. 

Here again I am drawn to a gorgeous hotel whose very foundations are centered on gratitude as witnessed in this photo, and as linked to the following website: 

http://www.gogratitude.com 

In Lynne Twists “Soul of Money” book I am rereading and youtube clip I am revisiting she speaks of Sufficiency and the two branches of Gratitude being: 

GreatFULLness – infinite possibilities, the experience of life that’s one with all (God), that’s so fulfilling it flows over to being in….

THANKSgiving – for absolutely overflowing, and so grateful that all you want to do is to give and share and serve and make a difference, giving back to….

GreatFULLness…

…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXvosTss4gg

So here I am, at the delightful family owned ‘MyWay’ hotel, Hua Hin Thailand, in the GreatFullness of life, living in the flow of the fullness beyond my wildest 5Star dreams, taking relaxed and inspired time to share and inspire.  

As Lori and I walked the beach yesterday we witnessed many a washed up starfish and were reminded of the story of the man throwing them back to “make a difference” to the ones he was able to save, not all of them, but enough!

Vendors and Real Estate Vending

We didn't get out of our hotel til noon, but had by then caught up with our darlings and blogs. I'd had a swim after brekky which we had early at 7am...since I'd been awake from 5.30am and reading outside on the balcony.

We wandered down the road til we could find a hotel to walk thru to the beach (we being on the other side of the road) and came to a white sand beach that reminded me of both Manhattan/Redondo and also Surfers Paradise with slightly less highrise/hotels, and had only gone a couple of hundred meters before we saw 2 massage Vendor ladies and finally - spontaneously got our on the beach massage together...not like ‘on’ on the beach, but on the proper wooden frames they use. Next along came a horse vendor that we'd read about...you can rent them $15 for 30 minutes. I was tempted and may do a ride tomorrow.

All sorts of vendors bring all sorts of stuff to try to sell you, but have official status to do so, wearing a permit. I was holding back....in ‘dont buy on first day’ mode, but Lori brought a dress, and got herself a pedicure. In the end we'd walked the 4 kms of the beach to get to the real heart of the action. Once there, about 6pm now, we were just happy wandering up and down all the little streets full of market type stalls vendors, bars shops shops and more shops..If I get asked to have one more thing made for me, 'special price for you, overnight be ready, special tailored...anything" I'll just have to have another massage!

Lori took a video of me watching my best Thai food to date, prepared for me, from the back of a rickshaw type mobile food station by a vendor woman, who when given a tip a quarter the value of the food was my new best friend. Understand I handed over $BHT40!

Whilst in the full flow of our travel day yesterday I calmly showed Lori a text that had come through from Patterson, saying property number 2 had been sold, confirmed by words from his follow-up email thu:

 

“Real Estate Agent did an open home on your ** street property today and had 10 people through....two very keen.  She said within 1 hour one called in an offer to settle within 10 days. I said **$$’s counter and it could be his.  She is on the way for me to sign the deal.....

 

I will keep you informed of your new life as it happens!  Trust you are having a great day.”

 

Here I share with you my new life as it is happening, my finding50, new life years to explore, to enhance, evolve and inspire 50 more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog on Bus to Bangkok and Beyond

We’ll we’re not on Koh Chang now Dorothy.

A 6am wake up saw us ready and waiting for the promised taxi at 7am, which didn’t show up till 8am. An hours trip then in the back of a pick up to get us to the ferry for another hours trip to the mainland…all going smoothly enough. Another taxi to get us a half hour to the bus stop and fortuitously just in time for a bus departing for Bangkok at 11am. So here we are and for the first time I’ve broken out my battery power to pen a blog and listen to a Wayne Dyer/Marianne Williamson CD, sharing an earphone with Lori.

How appropriate that Wayne is quoting T S ELLIOTT “At the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know that place for the first time.” 

Eight hours into our travel day and probably another eight to go!

So what I haven’t shared is the last two days that took us from White Sand Beach resort to a Fisherman’s Village in the south of Koh Chang called Bang Bao. No fancy pools here, a beach in the distance, but what truly drew us in and excited us was a pier that seemed that stretched about 2 km’s into the water, surrounded each side by shops that once closed are peoples lounge and bedrooms, kitchen and dining all in one! Beyond the shops, multi-colored, ‘varying in degrees of seaworthiness’ boats were lined up taking tourists on island, fishing and diving trips. What really amused us was this sign...a forbodeing one perhaps...."Hell 'ath no fury, like a body neglected??" (Given I was wearing my StarkHEALTH cap at the time!!!

We were divinely guided to a wonderful place to stay called Buddhaview, and through the floor planks came a constant reminder that we were living,

eating and sleeping over water. What a delightful contrast from resort living to feeling like this was some real and ancient lifestyle we were getting a peek at. This part of the island promised both sunrises and sunsets, but instead brought us the first and

 only rain and clouds of our trip.

Our bus is the long slow regional kind, not the motorway express, and the contrasts are extraordinary. As countrysides flash by, it seems more care, colour and capital goes into exquisite temples and grounds, than housing. And yet this is the making of a culture, stee

ped in faith first, living with less as more, a shrimp and a smile more valuable and available to most, than the banquets and 5 Star comforts we’ve been enjoying. It brings us to awe and appreciation for our abundance in all forms.

Now with batteries literally recharged, in body and computer, I can report our safe arrival in Hua Hin, about 220kms south of Bangkok on the opposite coast from where we’ve been. A 16 hour day, without knowing the how of it, without getting lost or ripped off,  or worse pissed off – we felt supported and guided all the way. We calmy arrived at our destination, with only the name of a hote

l a friend of a friend had given us. Grateful to be safe in our room, it was lights out just on 10pm. To recap:

6am wake, walk to 7am taxi..wait for it til 8am for hours trip to 9am ferry 45 mins, 10am taxi 45 mins to 11am bus 6.5 hours to Bangkok, another 45min taxi ride between bus stations, in time for quick dinner and catch 6.30pm bus to Hua hin, arrive 9.30, find taxi to hotel, get horizontal by 10p. The most amazing thing was our transport costs for the whole day only added to the equivalent of $50NZ (4 taxi’s, 1 ferry and 2 busses – over 900km’s)

Could we have done it any other way, - WHAT and miss all 

the fun and flow and Grace and ease…..well, we’re not young backpackers understand…..We are of the age when a good a challenge as this makes a damn good story, and our achievement can give us a grateful giggle, and our readers some inspiration for what’s possible following a speed manifesting mojo – ModusOperandi MoreJoy!

Same day, but for two different expressions of the same experience, go to Lori version:

http://speed-manifesting.blogspot.com 

 

 

 

Making a Difference

My morning started beflore daylight, when, not sleeping I got up to read myself back to sleep. However upon finishing reading I noticed it had become light enough to take a morning walk, and enjoy the peace and beauty of this place.

I set out with an intention to walk to the other end of White Sand Beach and back, to see how long it would take. A Somewhat disturbing contrast to the beauty, was how much trash was strewn.

Well, in living this go with the flow lifestyle, I am ever present to any and all opportunities and inspirations, and one surely presented itself. My morning reading had opened and reminded me of the power and value in making a difference, and not buying into, ‘that’s just the way it is’ (Lynne Twist).

In that moment, there before me was a girl with a sack picking up some rubbish, In that milisecond of decision time, I overrode my origional intention to keep going as I was nearly half way back, instead stopped to join her. Moments later as she went her way and I mine,..now with a handfull of rubbish (treasures thrown out and returned by the tide), I was gifted a large trash of a sack to put what I’d gathered into - Now my new mission became to fill the sack and that would be a good deed done for the day.

Without any words a couple of people started to do the same, coming up to me with the trash treasure they too had found, helping me fill my sack. As I kept walking homeward, and picking up stuff thrown idily, I found myself in a more mindful, serviceful place…and so too I imagine did others as more miraculously joined in this new and silent reverence for nature.

The more people joined us the more fun it became. A worker whose job it was to take care of ‘just his patch’ was drawn much beyond his usual duty, bringing the now dozen of us more baskets and sacks and taking away our collection. What had started as one person and a sack had became more than a dozen people and a truckload full! Looking back, we had amazingly cleaned a good kilometer of beach.

I got to chatting with one Thai woman from ‘the North’ who told me she had gone to America to study for her MBA in business, married an American, now living there with a child. She introduced me to her brother and two sisters who had simply, organically, heartfully, become part of the magic of making a difference.

Today I wasn’t looking for heart stones…though I did find two to give away to the MBA woman and her brother. Today, whilst not looking I found…more than 50 Inspirations - 50 kilos of trash as treasure. More connection to the heart and soul of people than I could have dreamed, more inspiration than I can express herein. I found not heartstones, but heartsouls, and my heart heaves a greatFULLness.

50th Birthday Rerun

It feels like I’m having a rerun of my 50^th birthday day…being doing and having all the things that inspire and support me in my perfect day of dreams come true.

 

My morning started at 5am with a read and walk – on purpose in service (see making a difference s

tory), then led to sharing Exercises with Lori. It then moved into a yoga practise and meditation…all before 9am, when it was then time for a lovely breakfast.

 

After breakfast to get back to our room we pass by the massage tent. I had chatted to the girls after dinner last night and found out they are available there from 8am to 8pm and that a good day was giving about 5 massages each. My immediate response was to want to take care of them too, so the post breakfast flow led me to them to do just that.  The girls Pen and Supap enjoyed life ‘on the table’ just as I had set out to do this trip – to receive many massages, but also to spontaneously gift them. This moment was echoed in our stay at Faasai, where I had gifted massages to Bronwen and my therapist Kan. Herein lies the heart and soul of my Thailand trip.

 

What better to follow then to just have a morning massage today. Perfect timing as it turned out to be a much quieter, connective experience, some of which was missing in the experience yesterday afternoon. Lori, by the way got her perfect massage in the quiet and the magic of her perfect sunsetting time.

 

So here I am still before noon, spending time to capture and share some of my inspirations. The work lies with Lori now helping and teaching me to get these stories, and piictures and videos posted for your entertainment.

Magical Massage – Moments and Musings

Having just finished today’s massage and having moments of reflection therein (ok guilty to all of you my clients who I encourage to get out of your head) I’m drawn to my keyboard to let inspirations fly from fingers to the keys.

Thai massage - The same technique, two very different settings and yet an equally effective result…….. At a physical level.
For me though the real, extra value comes from the level of connection a therapist is able to make between her self, Source and client. The more present, focused and intentional the therapist is able to be, this better and deeper connection, leads to a more soul satisfying experience.

At Faasi my massages were inside, in a lovely spa ‘sala’, in seclusion and silence, save for the soft soothing sounds of spirit-filled music.

Here at Grand View Resort, I deliberately chose to experience an outdoor setting, nothing much between me and the sea, the sun shining down, the warm wind blowing and my wonderful therapist.
Yet the scene was set up for two persons to receive at the same time and I was excited at the prospect of Lori to be joining me. When one speaks of flow, and things don’t quite go as imagined, the very essence is to let go and let flow. Lori, bless her completely, got busy doing my technical support, and I found myself beside a stranger…. who happened to be the aforesaid Dee’s mother. Well - talk about a family affair. Dee, her sister, her 2 children and husband, her niece brought to my session a very different SSSSSSShhhh!!! Social, spontaneous sharing of chatter and laughter,

Even the therapists were having fun, interacting, freely chatting - quite unlike the Silent sacred space I’m used to providing for my own clients, and that which I enjoyed at Faasai.
So what is my inspiration in these musings? That there are many different roads to Rome, and no one way is the perfect way, that all ways when experienced with awareness allowing, acceptance and appreciation are perfect. Perfection lies in choosing to be with people, places and things just the way they are. As author Byron Katie would say in her book of the same name “Loving What Is. Both settings, and all of my massages experiences here in Thailand have surpassed my expectation and been perfect.


On a special note going back to Faasai and sharing the different types of massage I had there, I received 90 minute ‘The Royal Thai’ treatment one evening, and got up early the next morning for a 90 minute Ayervedic treatment. Royal Thai included being rubbed with hot compresses that were filled with the freshest of herbs, fruits, flowers, ginger, salt and secret spices, lovingly grown, gathered and ground by Bronwen and her staff. The Ayervedic session included a pre and post session hot shower, Swedish style strokes rubbing on specially formulated oils for my body type, a steam and another rubbing covering in a special herbs and spice and everything nice blend.

My body could not be any happier, my heart any more warmed, my soul nurtured.

I’m already coming back for more and I haven’t yet left. Please someone call my Mum Dad and Darling…I’m not coming home till I’ve had my full of 50! 50 Inspirational, magical massage moments.

My friends, I hear you calling……I am calling you over here with me, pack up your troubles in yer ole kit bag, leave ‘em at the door before you jump on the plane.