Reflections of 2014.

So were back in the wilds of the beautiful North East, its been a long 6 months  waiting for Sammy to join me but eventually were reunited and the discussions of where we were this time last year have began, reflecting over the incredible adventure and opportunity life brought us to spend 9 months exploring part of this incredible world.

The highs, lows and learning's of 2014.

Many lessons were learnt last year, I fell in and out of love with every country we travelled, I learnt lessons about love not just from my relationship but others, I pushed myself to limits I didn't think I could and I let myself be freer then I ever have, letting my toes travel where the adventure chose.

Travelling.

Day trains, night trains, night buses, day buses, ferries, speed boats, rowing boats, taxis, hiking, flights, walking, up hills, down hills, across country, through continents we did it all and I smiled and cried through so many as I thought my poorly sick mind could take no more, but it always did and there was always another journey around the corner. We took a 32hr train through India, a night insect ridden train through Burma, we waited hours to get picked up in Borneo, we jumped out of a taxi with a drunken Thai driver, lost on the motorway in Chiang Mai, went back in time when heading to Mexico and lost our minds and our way on the way to Bali, however I wouldn't change any of it, as like people say 'its all part of the experience'.

Sleeping.

So part of my agreement was that we wouldn't stay in basic stays and would at least hit the mid way mark, however the excitement of travelling I realised was not always laying your head on a bed and sometimes finding sleep whenever and wherever it came, from bartering cheap prices to sleep in basic but beautiful seafront huts, sleeping on night trains, spooning up in locked bays on night buses, catching a few hours on the seats in a Japanese airport, sleeping in a brothel in Mexico, the middle of a desert in India, a tent in the forest of a Malaysian island, we got everywhere, some places I slept in a perfect dream, one night I woke up with a cockroach on my face, it tested me to my limits but the memories will always make me smile.

Eating.

Samosas from every bus stand in India, Thai curry on the streets of Bangkok, Fish upon fish in Malaysia, Khmer Curry in Cambodia, Kuching Laksa in Borneo, we ate every type of food going, my vegetarianism lacked and although I never chose to eat meat there were at times a definite hint of meat flavour, I suffered but enjoyed and my culinary tastes developed and my hatred of fish bones dissolved.

Friendships.

We met and adventured with so many great people on our trip, friends we feel we have made for life, friends who were just the right people to be there at that time, I learnt and developed from some of these people and changed my views on some of life's important lessons from understanding and searching deeper in my heart for a stronger meaning. Exploring the world you realise how many people are on similar journeys, sometimes even having a parallel life in some aspect, the many nights we spent talking and sharing times and adventures, it was great to have the chance in life to go out there be vulnerable but be open to learn from people I met as strangers but soon become friends.

Love.

Sam and I decided we wanted to spend this year together, we wanted to be away from the stresses and strains life brings and connect to each other somewhere different then England, my job can be very demanding and with training to be a Counsellor the last few years I have gone through a number of changes and unfolding in my own personal world, which Sam has held me through and supported me in every stage. This trip therefore was to move on from that and have a year where the world was just about us. Wow what a privilege, hey, we spent many days and nights talking about our relationship, other relationships, family relationships, how they work, how they don't, who inspires us, who doesn't. We talked with friends we met about the meaning of love and importance of past, the strength it gives us to be who we are in our relationship now and the changes we have made due to that. We argued, cried, smiled, loved, jumped, dived, walked, ran, hiked, made decisions, debated decisions, reassured, got lost, got totally lost, but mostly we found each other, we saw each others vulnerabilities and wants and found that deep love that connects us and inspires us.

Lessons.

I never have to do anything, I get to do it.. My yoga teacher Denise Payne taught me this when one day in teacher I asked 'do I have to do this' she reminded me that I never have to do anything, I get to do it and what a privilege that is.

I have a precious human life and I am not going to waste it.. Bex Tyrer read this poem out one day when in a yoga class, it stuck with me and made me think of the adventure we were on, it confirmed the right choices about going away, about quitting my work and doing something for us, life is precious and I certainly wasn't going to waste it.

Everything doesn't happen for a reason, we live in a cruel world.

What's meant for me wont pass me, a friend text me this one day when I was worrying about something, its a mantra that lives with me always.

The Lonely planet does the tell the truth.

When Sam told me we would have the chance to meet the Dalai Lama, I obviously laughed at him, of course the LP states that in its highlighted blue box, why wouldn't it.... well it only turned out to be true and we did get to meet him, miracles do happen.

Changes.

Babies were born, friends were married, people moved away, people moved home, life carried on whilst we travelled and although people always say everything is the same when you come home for us it wasn't, we were different and we were changed, we came home 6wks early as the bank of Sam and Claire ran out, however it felt the right time and we were ready for the next adventure.

 

 



 



 

Volunteering through the powers of Yoga.

So volunteering abroad, visiting orphanages and all the ‘gap year’ student ‘doing good’ has been a major discussion for me throughout this trip, not only with myself but friends who have come out to travel and other friends we have met along the way. Overall I am against it, but once I was a 23yr old, paying a lot of money to go and work in an orphanage in South Africa, although the trip didn’t work out due to a family bereavement and not one penny was refunded it set me on a thinking a stream, thoughts of where does the money go and what was the need for me to spend so much to volunteer, it therefore has been a question always with me and a way of thinking that has stayed. 

As most of you know my passion is children and young people, it’s my day to day work, it’s what I crave doing and what I hope to be part of for the rest of my working career, so therefore I started wondering whilst away, how do I volunteer but not cause attachment problems, have to pay stupid amounts of money or just generally be involved with a problematic organisation. 

I started to do a bit of research before coming away, I knew I wanted to stay in my current way of working with young people and preferably young girls, my research didn’t come up with much apart from the standard google search, pay £’s to volunteer, with this I put the search on the back burner and decided to look whilst away. 

Whilst doing my yoga training a part of the course was karma yoga work, we were asked to carry out a project with a group of people offering some form of karma work, this really got my thoughts going again of how I can use yoga to do this, therefore it’s not a long term piece of work but more of a workshop to offer skills, experience and knowledge, it just fitted perfect with my already way of thinking but also how I could offer volunteering throughout the rest of time in Asia. 

With this I started researching again and found a blog that had information on about different organizations in South East Asia, one that came up was in Chiang Mai, called COSA, Children’s Organisation of South East Asia, the organization works with young girls who have been or are at risk of sex trafficking, I just felt the organisation was perfect for the Yin workshop I wanted to offer and the age was an age I was used to working with, except for the language barrier I was ready to put an email together and offer my skills. After a few correspondences, a skype meeting was booked, I was so nervous but excitedly the meeting went well and we organized a date for when I would be in Chiang Mai and the girls would be off school. 

I was SO NERVOUS, my stomach went poorly, my mouth filled with ulcers and I just couldn’t concentrate, it was so weird but I just felt a bag of butterflies were in my stomach. Sam helped me through my nerves and after a bit of YIN practice and my workshop written down I was ready for the Saturday to come. 

Sam drove me to COSA which was just outside Chiang Mai, then Lori (center manager) met us and drove me to the shelter, after a brief introduction I was introduced to some of the girls and given the yoga mats to start the session, the girls were a mix between 7-17yr olds and had all tried yoga before, my challenge was the language, luckily for me one of the girls spoke English and helped me translate the difference between yang yoga to yin yoga.
I had put together a 50min session, knowing that at any time the session could be cut short due to the girls attention, understanding and experience of the yoga as it is a more therapeutic style of yoga and therapy in Thailand isn’t  something that occurs as it does in western countries. 

I felt so lucky though as the girls went through 45mins of the sequence perfectly, they chatted and giggled but at times there was such serene bliss in their emotions and asana posture it was a beauty to watch. The time when silence fell was just beautiful and I could see the depth of the yoga the girls had entered and how their minds had entered the yin bliss. 

At the end of the session I gave each of the girls a small hand out of what we had done and attempted to talk briefly with them about the practice; however they informed me they were very relaxed and pointed at Shavasana as their favourite posture. 

Overall I felt the workshop went well, the girls engaged and there smiles showed their enjoyment, the questions in my head still lay there and I felt that I was stronger in my decision about volunteering due to the conversations had whilst there. I did however feel so privileged to have the experience and the chance to offer yoga to the girls, when focusing back to my karma yoga I wondered what my aim was with the girls and realised the smiles on their faces were what my aim was and however they took the experience they all seemed to enjoy it.

Three stops through Thailand

Our trip through Thailand was done in two different parts; our first part was coming into Thailand through the busy lights of Bangkok from Malaysia. We left our beautiful Petani beach behind, choosing to cross into Thailand through the land border, then onto the sleeper train to Bangkok. The train journey was possible one of the best train journeys of the trip, where we even got our beds made for us and our food delivered to our seats, we arrived into Bangkok at 2pm a bit later than expected, but due to the comfort of the journey the feeling on the train was good and not the usual stress fueled feeling. We had 3 nights in Bangkok and had booked a hotel in advance as didn’t want to be stuck with accommodation near Khoa San Road, we had however stayed one extra night in Petani but had emailed the hotel saying we would be arriving a day later, however when we arrived at our hotel we were informed the room was booked, lucky for us next door came up trumps with a nicer room, balcony and cheaper, score, welcome to Bangkok. 

Our first day was spent recuperating and relaxing, we went to find Sam’s favourite Thai curry stand, which nicely still stood up to its amazing tastes, we took a walk down Khoa San Road and I got the standard traveler hair braid and a few other treats, as much as it was tourist trap heaven it was still so much fun to see it, experience the mentalness and dine on some tasty mango sticky rice and coconut ice cream, with our tummies full we headed back for a much needed sleep and fun the next day with two very good friends.

The following day was all about Chatuchak Sunday market, we were meeting our friends Ash and Mike, Ash had just arrived back from Canada after heading home for a week and Mike had been travelling part of Malaysia and into Bangkok with us, so we were super stoked to be meeting up with them again for some Bangkok silliness. We met the guys and spent hours venturing into the depths of the market, laughing at the crazy sales, vast amounts of tie dye clothes (yes I wanted them all) and hoards and hoards of home ware (honestly any nearer home and I would have been on manic buy). After the market we chose to head out to where Ash and Mike were staying and enjoyed some tasty broth at a ‘make your own’ restaurant. After numerous beers, laughs and experimental broth recipes we noticed the time was getting late and we were miles from home so jumped in a taxi heading back through the metropolis of Bangkok. 

Next day was visa Burma day, we spent the day heading back and forth getting our visas for our flight out the next day to Mandalay. We met Ash and Mike that evening, taking them to Sam’s talked about Thai lady to enjoy some Thai curry then for a tower at a hilarious locals bar, plenty of power ballads and a lot of beer, what more could one want!

After two weeks in Burma (http://claire-yvonne.blogspot.com/2014/08/beautiful-but-bewildering-burma.html) we flew back into Bangkok but headed straight out on another flight to Railay for some southern beach action. Heading to the southern beaches had been a real debate between Sam and I as Sammy wasn’t sure he wanted to head back to the beaches in the south, my only bargaining tool was he hadn’t been to Railay and it wasn’t an island like the other beaches he had previously been too. So with an agreement made we had 3 days booked to see some limestone cliffs, enjoy the clear blue sea and get back into some beach time. We arrived by night in an incredible long boat, Thailand dreams coming true, Sam had booked us into accommodation off the beach and after a hefty walk we found our stay up in the trees, jungle esk, we couldn’t believe our luck at this incredible find, sea view, up away from everything, amazing room and all for £12, deal. Our first two days were incredible and Railay was everything I had hoped for, beautiful ocean, stunning scenery, limestone cliffs surrounding the beach bay we were on, massages on the beach, warm swims, yoga in the mornings on our balcony, it was just idyllic and I couldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else at that time, sadly though things took a turn for the worse when I come down with sun stroke and my third day was spent hauled up in bed feeling sorry for myself.  We headed out of Railay the next day and I had luckily managed to get back to an alright way, trying to take the positive attitude that at least I had two beautiful days and now fully understand the beauty of Thailand’s Southern beaches.

Our next stop was up to Chiang Mai and we had 7 days booked to explore the hills of Chiang Mai, we arrived to a hostel we had booked, but soon left when we were shown our room, after a trail around a few hotels I managed to come across a real sweet stay and got a room on the 5th floor looking over part of the city.

Our days were spent wondering and visiting the wats, heading far out of town, getting lost and searching for hot springs, we clocked up 800kms on the scooter but everyday was a new adventure and so exciting seeing the beauty that surrounds Chiang Mai.

Some of our main adventures was to a place my brother recommended called Ngat Dam, which is a beautiful dam in a national park, you get the boat to a floating hut and spend the day swimming in the dam, relaxing and the evening eating at your hut, enjoying the silence around you.  It was such a special experience and so nice to drive out into the unknown and a new national park then sleep in a floating hut. The following day we headed to some incredible hot springs, which were so warm but so incredible, after not having a bath for 6 months to fully submerge and relax in the pools was just so soothing and was a perfect way to end a dusty scooter ride.

Another day I carried out my volunteering which was incredible (see volunteer blog post for more details).

Sam also got us to the Chiang Mai horse racing which in itself was just hilarious, we actually stayed most of the day, somehow managed to get a few winners and have a real laugh seeing the different way horse racing is carried out in another country. Overall it was a pretty surreal experience but a very different one at that and a very fun way to spend a Saturday, kind of felt like being at home but humid and sweaty!
Interestingly after the horse racing we drove back past the infamous ‘tiger kingdom’, which brought my thoughts to animal tourism in Thailand, and my thoughts on this in comparison to horse racing, I do admit it is one I struggle with as I have been brought up with horse racing through my step dad and as you all know my husband he loves a little flutter on the horses, so therefore as much as I don’t agree with aspects of horse racing I do enjoy going to the racing on derby day, however I don’t fully agree with the grand national and was pleased to hear the jockey being fined in 2010 for over use of the whip.

In Thailand a lot of elephant ‘sanctuary’s’ are present and as mentioned above tiger kingdom, my thoughts had been that with enough research I would find a elephant conservation project where we could meet orphaned elephants and it wouldn’t be so ‘tourist’ like where options of riding and feeding are, more like an environment where they are rehabilitated back into their natural world. Sadly though I didn’t find this and was just given leaflet after leaflet of riding, feeding, petting information, which as you all know is not something I am interested in. Tiger Kingdom is on another level, it’s a petting zoo where tigers are drugged up so people can have their photos taken with them, lying next to them, cuddling and petting them, its vile, its animal cruelty at its highest and is so sad the people of Thailand think every westerner wants to partake in such vile animal tourism, sadly though it’s the uneducated of us who feel things like this are acceptable and a great experience, now don’t get me wrong I was the 18yr old at SeaWorld watching the killer whale show, it didn’t click straight away but sometime after I realised that a great beauty of a killer whale shouldn’t be in such a small tank and certainly shouldn’t be on show for again us westerners. At the time I went to watch the show as I wanted to see a killer whale, I wanted that picture and I wanted that experience, how many I’s did I write there? But that’s the answer isn’t it, it’s always I, that selfish part of us that wants that experience, it means we forget the animals experience, how it can’t be right for everyday 2/3 people wash and bathe an elephant, humans wouldn’t like it so why would animals? I was asked the question recently do us humans think were better than animals, places like this could only make me answer yes, as otherwise why would we constantly feel the need to have this specific experience of touching, feeling and riding, after answering these questions and having this realistion I went back to our experience in India at the national park and there was no better feeling then seeing those 18 elephants in the wild, seeing them in their natural habitat and experiencing them in the way they should be living, therefore what difference would it make if I went to a conservation centre, it would never be as natural and beautiful as experiencing animals in the wild.

Chiang Mai really give a lot and at first I was intrigued by this city I had heard so much about, my first impression wasn’t that of wonder but I soon fell in love with the city and could see why people end up getting comfortable and resting their packs. Our 7 days were perfect for us, such a perfect amount of time for a great deal of exploring but with Cambodia on our minds it was time to move on and come head to head with the Poipet border, Thailand/Cambodia’s notorious nightmare land border.