Not often that we put up our own work but thought this job for Chang Beer was worth a wee mention. We have just launched a penalty shoot out competition for Everton fans to win a mascot experience for their children. It’s a pretty amazing prize as waiting list for the being the mascot are up to 5 years!

For our first full weekend in Thailand, we decided to get away. Most of our new acquaintances were heading northwest, to popular rural tourist town, Pai. We felt that joining them would be a blunder. Since we see them on a regular basis, we thought we should disembark, detox, and detour to some other remote Thai location. We wanted a place where we could experience the natural and fierce beauty of the north, a place we could be the only farang, a place away from the sound of traffic, we wanted Chiang Dao.

Now, I don’t want to give off the impression that this was a well thought out trip, an insightful choice. It was a) luck and b) just the product of being bad-asses (random success comes with the territory). We woke up Saturday morning to a knock on the door. It was Tom, our new amigo and fellow bad ass. “Get up, we are getting motorcycles” was all that was said, but it lit the fire. We packed a backpack, took a shower, and headed out. After securing motorcycles we headed to the nearest book store for inspiration and perhaps a map. Someone had a vague recollection of a particularly beautiful stretch of road that led to some picturesque villages that would be a perfect mission for our new biker gang. We hoped seeing some names on a map would help, it didn’t. So, Cengiz bought a map of the golden triangle, since it seemed to cover the immediate area north of Chiang Mai and we went to lunch, determined to figure out the itinerary while we fueled up for the day.

During lunch, we threw out the name of just about every city on the map and futilely debated over which to choose (since no one had any idea about any of them, I can’t believe this lasted as long as it did). Meanwhile, I shuffled through Gina’s Thailand guide (we were a foursome) and found mention of a “Pai without the party” (Pai is the popular “rural” get away, not too far from Chiang Mai, that now offers nightlife and any number of organized “adventures”) called Chiang Dao, directly north of Chiang Mai and situated under an impressive mountain. This sounded just as good as any other place we brainstormed and even had a recommendation to back it up, so the choice was easy, the bill was paid and we were off.

WAIT. Not quite. Cengiz just dumped the motorbike. OK, no blood or permanent damage? Now we’re off. It was tough getting out of the city. Thailand doesn’t do traffic lights very often, so there are lots of one way streets and turnarounds that make navigation difficult for a non-native. When you also add the adaptation of driving on the other side of the road and the lack of traffic laws in general, there is enough fear, adrenaline, and information thrown at a driver to freak out any first timer. So, being the overachiever that he is, Cengiz dumped it, AGAIN. This time there was blood, broken glass, and snapped metal, so we had to stop. After buying some really hilariously frivolous band aids, we were back on the road again (somehow the dangling break from the left handlebar was not a successful deterrent). To make sure the blood had as long as possible to ruin his socks and shorts, we were proceeding with extreme caution (and lack of speed), for the rest of the 3 hr. trip. To be honest, we were all a little rattled with the events (Cengiz was, after all, the only one of us to have been on a motorcycle) so the 45 km/hr cruising speed was widely accepted and actually turned out to be a great pace for cruising to the iPod speakers blaring UGK out of my cup holder.

The trip was going very well before our caravan was overcome by a true South East Asian rainstorm. As we were in the middle of nowhere when it hit, we have very few options and elected to brave the elements and press on. After about 20 minutes, the rain subsided, and we found ourselves cruising through a rain forest, rapidly drying in the wind. This is what we came for. The scenery was so beautiful that it was dangerous. It was difficult to keep your eyes on the road, which was also wet, and winding through a precipitous mountainside. Looking out over the trees, we saw mile upon mile of the lushest vegetation on the planet. At one point I found myself counting shades of greens as I scanned the canopy for monkeys. We slowed our pace to a crawl, the curves were intimidating and there was no reason to rush this stretch of road, especially once we found ourselves following a crooked river on our left.

Almost as soon as the picturesque stretch ended, we saw the signs we were looking for, so we followed with a right hand turn and enjoyed the 2 km to Chiang Dao. The city isn’t much. Which, I guess is the point. I ran into a Dutch Pirate (no joke) and he couldn’t recommend anywhere to stay or eat so we grabbed a beer at a local shop to rest our soar necks and hash out a plan for accommodations. I saw a sign for a home stay who’s name seemed familiar, so we scoured the Lonely Planet to confirm. They agreed, “Malee’s” was the place to go, 4 km back up the road we had come, situated right under the mountain.

The home stay was perfect. When we pulled in, we weren’t sure we had the right place, it seemed abandoned. Then, we were greeted by the hounds and a “receptionist.” After being showed some bungalow’s right out of a movie, we quickly payed the man for the night and got started on his refreshingly cold Chang beer collection. It was already pitch black, I could barely see Tom across the table, and after 3+ hrs en route, we were exhausted. Dinner was a distant thought, but one we thought should be heeded none the less. We hesitatingly asked if there would be dinner served that night, it was so dark we were sure it was going to be a difficult request. It was 6:00. Of course there would be dinner, if we could just wait for them to prepare the grill, it would be served within the hour.

The fresh local coals sparked like a pile of flint; the deep reds flying through the air against the pitch black were mesmorizing, like projectile magma from a personal volcano. Exhausted, the four of us faded into the dark silence, entranced by the visuals. We were broken from this moment of rest by a small creature scurrying round behind us in the dark. It jumped up and bit tom. It was a “Peter.” Now “Peters” are the rarest creature I have encountered. They resemble your standard 8 year old Germanic Thai, but they also speak French and English and are fluent in snake hissing, barking, and tiger growling. They climb with the agility of a chimp, can identify any vegetable in the garden, but particularly prefer bananas, and (as any cold blooded creature) enjoy curling up to warm bodies, specifically homestay guests. Peter was our entertainment for much of the night, biting bottles, bodies, and bananas and showing off his mastery of Muay Thai and genital crushing to anyone in his path, no matter the size. Peter’s mom, the unbelievable Malee, is unbelievably amazing. She not only speaks several languages, has a nack for decorating, runs the most efficient guest house I have ever been to, knows first aid, knows everything about the area, and makes friends with other people FOR you, she also has jokes. As she was brutally cleaning Cengiz’s wounds, she would remind him that there would be “no loving tonight, you have to stay off your knees” or that he should go to the hospital, not for medical care, but for “a sexy young nurse.”

After the wounds were cleaned up, we were served with heaping portions of pork cuts, chicken wings, fresh shrimp, squid, salad, pineapple, and a variety of magnificent, home made condiments. It was absolutely delicious. We spent the rest of the evening eating, drinking, meeting some fellow visitors, and figuring out that we should hit the sack so that we could be up and chipper for the 5:45 sunrise from Thailand’s most sacred place, the Wat atop the overshadowing mountain next to (and above) us.

Cengiz and I made it up the 500 stairs to the mountain, in pitch black, which was not easy. Most of the climbing was just keeping a rhythm. We couldn’t see the steps but knew the pace and length of each stride so as not to miss the next. Once up the steps we came to a wat, dug into the side of the rocks, with a look out tower lined with and guarded by Thai basilisks. We patiently waited for the sun to show, but were let down. The overcast skies left us with a gradual glow rather than any kind of “breaking of dawn.” However, we were alerted to the exact moment of the sunrise as we were lucky enough to hear th monk alarm clock. At exactly 5:45, when the sun started its rise, a loud high pitch sound crashed out of the jungle. Unwaveringly, it held its note as a symphony of other jungle sounds -chirps, croaks, howls, clicks- joined the note, like an orchestra tuning to the oboe. The morning went from a deafening silence, to an even more astounding roar of sound.

After taking some video and pictures, we headed back down to base camp. Tom was still struggling with the local stomach bug he picked up the evening before and Gina was playing with Peter. We mounted the bikes, loaded up some emergency TP, and took off for home. Cengiz regained his confidence so we ripped through the country side at nearly twice our previous speed. The rush was incredible and the weather couldn’t be more perfect. Along the way we randomly came upon an elephant, grazing near the side of the road. The beast’s hunger and resounding sense of power was intimidating and though it was docile and obliging to our attention, my heart was pounding and my spider senses activated to a state of hyper-alertness. After taking off again at breakneck speed, we found ourselves making ridiculously good time, good enough to warrant a detour at Shri Lanna National Park. We didn’t get to boat out into the lake to the floating house or uncover the park’s waterfalls, but it was a beautiful backdrop for some lunch and a break for our bike sore backs.

When we finally were getting into the city area, we reduces speed with the increased danger of the traffic and things stayed well… for a while. Rain once again started pounding the troupe as we were just entering the city’s center. It was uncomfortable, but we had ridden in it before so we pressed on. The city’s moat, which is now the center of the city’s main avenue, is easily the most difficult traffic for a first time rider. We cautiously entered the avenue and I made the turn to enter our final stretch before dropping the biks off. When I looked in my mirror, no one was following. I pulled over and waited for 5 minutes, hoping my comrades would be following shortly. Nothing. I assumed they took a different route, we had said “if all else fails, meet at the shop.” So, I headed there to drop my bike off and meet them. I was waiting long enough to get a table next door and order a beer. My stomach was beset with a pit the size of a watermelon- Cengiz dumped it on the wet turn and was in the hospital, I knew it. I waited for a solid 20 minutes until they finally rolled up. As Tom and Cengiz went to go settle up, Gina explained to me that Tom T-Boned a Tuk Tuk and flipped it. He was ok, and the tuk tuk driver survived with minor scrapes. A quick 1,000 baht bribe was sufficient to keep the police out of things. The damages to the two bikes cost a total of 600 baht, so financially it was no big deal. And, with everyone safe, we walked back to the hotel, laughing at the absurdity of our 50% casualty rate and enjoying the sheer sensation of relief that we made it back. Nostalgic musings about the paradise we enjoyed at “Malee’s” didn’t hinder the cloud 9 high either.

Geen zorgen, die titel is gewoon een truc om lezers te trekken! :p
Alles is in orde.

Ik zit nog steeds in Bangkok, was de eerste dagen zo moe van de reis en alle indrukken dat ik maar besloten heb om dagtrips te maken. Zondag ga ik naar Cambodja.

De afgelopen week heb ik heel veel gedaan: Tijger tempel, watervallen, Bridge over the River Kwai, olifanten rijden, sky bar (trendy bar boven op een wolkenkrabber!), thai massage, fish massage, beetje gewinkeld, PingPong Show (:O later meer), real floating market, schorpioenen, sprinkhanen en meelwormen gegeten. En nog veel meer! Heb ook veel andere reizigers ontmoet en elke avond gaan we wel iets drinken. Gezellig!

Ook ben ik erachter gekomen dat Tuktuk en taxi niet efficient zijn, maar de Motor taxi dat wel is, echt heel stoer! De motor gaat overal doorheen en staat nooit stil. Dus erg Bangkok dangerous Jan en ik hebben wel een stoere Tuktuk rit gehad, waar we de chauffeur hebben overgehaald om een wheelie te maken!! Dat was echt lachen!

Als het goed is doet mijn Macbook het morgen weer, dan zal ik fotos uploaden en een langere blog plaatsen. Ik moet nu gaan, want dit internet cafe is niet 24 uur per dag geopend.. Dus word eruit gezet!

Alrite some good soul on youtube made a Full DIY karaoke version of this song, so finally we can all see the whole mv while learning the lyrics! So everyone check this out!

Also, Julian Cheung (張智霖) also known as Chilam, released a new single. Though I only remember him  in TVB series and some of those Series’ theme songs, apparently he debuted in the entertainment business as a singer but chose to pursue an acting career. Well nonetheless, he’s got a good song out so here it is…

Enjoy! oh btw lyrics here http://hk.music.yahoo.com/album-song.html?songcode=YAH100006297

Lovely… Full of Emotions. Enjoy…

Credits to Sarah Chang

The second day was a big day for the Chang(e) Caravan project.  In the morning, we marched from the entrance of Ancient Siam to the ’Bench of Public Appeals’.  Before the long march, a small ceremonial activity was done with one of the elephants, Tong Dang, along with his mahout, to pay respect to the holy figures located in the entrance of Ancient Siam.

Walking together with the Chang(e) Caravan team, students, elephants and Ancient Siam’s visitors was a very uplifting moment.  Although the sun felt like 5-inches away from us—the students were singing and cheering loudly (we wanted to sing along but unfortunately the song was in Thai) until we reached the ’Bench of Public Appeals’ for the day’s activities.

People—especially the children—were amazed by the giant gentle creatures they could not stop staring and stroking them.  Watching the children and the elephants, you could not help but feel the urgency of securing a better future for them, as they will be the ones who will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change.  Our journey with the Chang[e] Caravan was a useful tool in helping spread the message across – from children to adults and world leaders alike.

Dr. Alongkot—the elephant expert educated everyone of the importance of elephant extinction.  He shared the knowledge he learned about the elephant’s history, habitat, belief, ecology and their connection with humans, especially in Thai society.  ”The youth is the most impacted people.  They are the ones who will continue our work in protecting nature”, said Tara Buakamsri, Greenpeace Southeast Asia – Thailand Campaign Manager.

Inside the ’Bench of Public Appeals’, we met two lovely girls who helped with the painting activity for the children.  The children illustrated their feelings upon meeting the elephants and their opinion on climate change.

Ben and Fine are two high school students that volunteered for this special occasion in the Chang(e) Caravan. ”Drawing is a simple way for children to express their opinion and feelings about elephants and the environment”, said Fine.

In the middle of our chat, a little girl approached us and asked Ben and Fine if she can draw a picture of an elephant.  While she was drawing, they asked her a couple of questions and praised her for her wonderful drawing.  She also wrote a few sentences behind the artwork.  With the help of Ben and Fine, we finally understood the story of her drawing. The drawing by Kata, an 8 year old, was of an elephant eating leaves from a tree with a short message saying: ”Trees are important for elephants because without trees, the elephants would not have food to eat”, said Fine.  And behind Kata’s drawing, she wrote:

I was very excited to meet the elephants

Tong Dang (one of the elephants)

I’m very glad I was able to touch the elephant

With love and care (then she drew a big heart in the middle of the paper)

The older kids also expressed their opinion and feelings through drawings and writings.  Below are a couple of their artworks, hopefully they inspire you as much as they have inspired us.

PS: Thanks to Ben and Fine for translating the Thai writings for us.

“We should stop global warming so we can have a clean earth, so the world can stay with us for a long time. We should help and protect elephants so they stay as Thailand’s icon for the country forever”

Pornphirom

-Hani and Lalit-

We were still reeling from our mindblowing visit to Pangong the previous day. We woke up from our Pangong Tso hangover to a rainy day in Ladakh!  Apparently, there is literally no rainfall in this 11,500 ft. desert! And we had to have rain on our final day at Leh. We had planned to spend the entire last day at the Ladakh Confluence but the rain threw all the day time programs out of gear.

Shrinath managed to get Chang – some local brew (made entirely out of barley) through his local contact. But for some obligatory tasting, none of us really were up to it. We ended up having lunch at the Leh View Restaurant and Jayanth and I had to hail a Tata Sumo to bring us back on the 1km short drive to Hotel Lasermo post lunch due to the rain.

The drizzly, cloudy day seemed to continue into the evening. We headed out to Sindhu Ghat in Choglamsar (site of Ladakh Confluence) with some trepidation on whether the evening programs would take place. I was determined to see Rodney Branigan (did not perform on the last day finally ). We arrived to a light drizzle and the temperatures started dropping. We entered the Film tent (powered only by Solar energy – sadly could not function on the last day) to grab some Confluence Tshirts and those who did not have headgear, got themselves some welcome ear muffs. We found out to our relief that the evening Musical programs were on. The main stage was not usable for whatever reasons on that day and the performances were moved to the smaller “Nyima” Stage.

We started walking towards the venue as we passed the sign board “Please talk to strangers” – a reminder of the spirit of this confluence. All the rain had created enough slush to recreate a mini Woodstock – too bad, there were not that many hippies there to be rolling around the mud with gay abandon. We were carefully navigating towards the stage when we heard the soulful sounds of this wonderful music wafting towards us and it drew us right up to the stage before we knew it. And this is how we discovered Vedanth Bharadwaj, a gifted young musician from Chennai, who was brave enough to get up on stage and belt out soulful Kabir songs before the crowds arrived. The wet weather did not seem to matter anymore as we witnessed 4 songs from Vedanth that totally elevated our spirits through his wonderful, warm music. Vedanth certainly made new fans that day and we hope that he will play in Bangalore soon. Here is one of the videos from his wonderful set -

Post this we had a set from Delhi’s Suchet Malhotra who performed percussion to some club beats that he had assembled himself. He was decent but they let him play for almost an hour and a half. My heart sank as there was to be no Rodney Branigan and we entered the final act of the day – Bauchklang, a beatboxing group from Austria. Beatboxers make all of their music with their vocal chords and there are no instruments. We were treated to a good one hour of one of the best live performances I have seen in a long time. All the slush in front of the stage area got added with people on top of it and we could only see bouncing heads. Bauchklang confessed on stage that since their craft is so lung intensive, they figured they will play for 25 minutes given they are performing at 11, 500 feet – the energy of the crowds got them to cross over an hour! And no one in the crowd was complaining They were clearly clutching for air. The below video will give you an idea of what I meant about their craft being lung intensive -

Please find the overall roundup and daily reviews of the Ladakh Confluence from Indiecision here. The overall highlights with some brilliant photos of the Ladakh Confluence can be found on the official site here.

We ended the Ladakh Confluence ‘09 on this great high note. Thanks to the organizers for this brilliant concept that drew us to Leh all the way from Bangalore. The vivid memories of this trip will stay with us for a long time to come. Additionally, this blog will continue to remind us of the wonderful time we had in Ladakh and I sincerely hope it inspires others to visit this wonderful land and it’s people. One can rest assured that this will not be the last time we visit Ladakh as I have every intention of visiting again!

Melanie Oudin has a legitimate chance to make the top ten. Notice I didn’t say she would win grand slam titles or become #1. It is far, far to soon for anyone to make those predictions. So media people, just calm down! For now focus on one key component of this story:  at 17, Oudin’s mental toughness is second only to Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, which explains why there is room for someone like Oudin in the top 10.

Women’s tennis is deeper in terms of physical talent then ever before. But height and power do not make for a healthy sport. The mental frailty exhibited by the top 30 is unprecedented in the history of tennis. Shevedova’s match against Jankovic was illustrative, because it quickly devolved into a chokefest that lasted for three sets (and Shevedova went down in flames in the next round). Jankovic, Ivanovic, Dementieva, Safina, Kuznetsova and all the other -ovas just cannot get it to together mentally. So many of the women players are just wandering around the sport aimlessly waiting for something to click because they’re talented. I’ve given up!

I have been waiting for someone like Odin for a while now – someone who would compete on every point, someone who can keept the ball in the court while the other player made errors in bunches. Someone like… Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario. You can’t tell me that there isn’t room for a Sanchez-Vicario in the top 10.

Oudin modeled herself after Justine Henin – see the washboard stomach and intensity on every point. Playing tennis at this level takes real work mentally. We may see Oudin inspire a new generation of young American women, the way the tiny spark plug, Michael Chang, did on the men’s side 20 years ago. There is nothing quite like competition and envy to spur young players on.

I don’t fault the media for making a huge deal about this. The Americans have been waiting for a long time for a successor to Davenport, Venus and Serena. It doesn’t mean the latter two are done (although Venus…). But the ten year gap between Serena and Oudin is striking. During that time the US has barely had another woman crack the top 100! Oudin’s dramatic entry onto the stage is another reminder that it isn’t always the cant-miss prospect who makes it big (anyone seen Donald Young lately?)