The Adventures of Pad Thai and Liverwurst!

Better/Sunnier days in Munich.

2011-03-20T23:13:00.001-07:00

(NOTE: For any friends out there who have wondered why I may have been bad at keeping in touch recently my laptop killed itself 2 days before I left Bangkok, Thailand. Instead of trying to fix it or cart it’s dead body around I gutted it’s hard drive and left the rest in Asia. So now I am travelling lighter, but am less connected. My apologies if you don’t get fast responses from me. )

Since my last words on this blog things have gotten better. I am no longer horribly ill and it is no longer freezing cold outside. (Oliver has many good qualities but when it comes to sick person bedside manner he is below average.) However there is a still a slight loneliness about being here.

One good thing is that we have moved from Oliver’s Aunts place on the outskirts of Munich into a small room in the city center in Glockenbachviertel. In most major town centers in Germany there is always a Rathaus (town hall) most of them seem to be complete with a giant bell tower which chimes multiple times a day plus every hour on the hour … I haven’t figured out when exactly they all go off, Oliver thinks it’s 11 and I have heard them at 5pm as well. Basically if you are in Munich’s city center then everywhere you hear a massive chorus of 4 clock towers (Glockenschpiel) ring for about 10 mins. It’s quite impressive. This is why where we now live is called Glockenbachviertel… I think it’s because of it’s close proxy to the bells, and the Rathaus (pictured here.)

Why do I bother to take the time to write about this? I don’t know… I guess it’s perhaps it is one of the most simple and yet most magical things about this place, and the sound of Munich is what is slowly seducing me into a happier mood at times.

You’d think it would be the sights, and the food perhaps? Nope. During my time in cultureshock –sick land while I was here all I could do was look around me at all the rich beauty in the buildings and only see how I didn’t know if I wanted to be around them. For every lovely Gothic arch or stately giant of a building I longed for the grim and shabby small wood structures of Seattle, it’s pot-holed filled streets and sometimes even it’s cloudy skies complete with mild winter temp.

I’m now starting to look at Munich with larger eyes and while the culture shock and questions of “What the hell have I done?! Was this the right choice?” looming around me. We/I had it so good in Seattle, now I must start all over again with my art and career, with my social life. When you are sick with low morale it’s really hard to fight these questions, but most days now I feel like everything will be ok, I just need to find where I fit and no knowing where that is makes me frustrated at times.

(side note: sometimes when I am frustrated I take a walk to take in the sites and sounds and look inside the magnificent churches here. this is a photo of a Rococo style church...super lovely.)

So with the weather no longer being so cold the other good thing is that we no longer have to walk around for hours looking at apartments since we finally found one of a reasonable price. We applied and were accepted out of all the applicants for it (remember it’s Munich- a hard city overall to find a house in so when good things come up they get snatched up quick). The only downside is that we cannot move in until May 1st. By this time I will be back in Seattle and Oliver will have to face the challenge of moving in alone.

For inquiring minds who want to know Oliver is doing well. His days are also up and down in mood and I am not alone in my homesickness for Seattle. I don’t think he would realize how much he felt Seattle was home if we didn’t move back. Funny how life works as times…

His days at work leave him frustrated while he tries to adapt to our new system of thick German Bureaucracy, and it seems that trying to get anything set up takes lots of running around and waiting. The common stereotype is that change happens slowly when working in Academic institutions or with German Bureaucracy. The two combined however must be inconceivably nightmarish.

I have been spending most of my mornings here in 4.5 hrs of German lessons at the (overpriced) Goethe-Institute with a couple of hours in the schools library studying. Oliver says I have made progress in my German and some days feel more progressive than others. Language takes time, but I just feel so impatient and wish I could make faster progress. On a good note I have begun to read advertisement in the subway and most major signs ones sees while walking around the city I can comprehend…so there is signs of hope for me yet.

So now that our basic needs seem to be met, a place to sleep a place to move into, etc. Oliver and I have been able to spend some time together relaxing and not pondering too much about what the future holds we spend most of our evenings watching movies in bed (mostly the Star Wars films) and some nights out at some shows I’ve found. Heading out to eat either pizza, german or Turkish food is common. Here a whole pizza is about 8-9 euros. super cheap compared to the US! It’s been my job here to find fun things for us to do, to located the laundry mat, to do the grocery shopping and by default cook dinner. I don’t feel like a housewife (yet) and running errands has been ok and has forced me to try and use German even though every time I do I get incredibly embarrassed.

We also took a weekend trip out to Passau, a lovely town on the boarder of Austria and Germany where three rivers converge quite closely, which houses the worlds largest Organ. I'm a fan of metal and a fan of big things and Oliver is a fan of old churches and musical instruments so we both really like organs and organ music. From May - October Passau's organ gives daily concerts. So if anyone is interested in visiting during those months we will totally have a day trip to this lovely city!

The streets of Passau were long and windy and narrow and prone to annual flooding. There are water lines all over the town with historic dates from 1509 -1956 to 2008 where water levels rose so much that they flooded the first floor of most houses in the center of town.

After a tour guided day with a boat ride included we met up with some locals who contacted me via couchsurfing.com for a beer by the riverside. After that a train back to Munich at 6pm and home for dinner at our local late night curry wurst diner (curry sausage and fries) Guten Nach Wurst! Living in the city center is super convenient that is for sure!

Alright well time to sign out here since it's time to study for my weekly German exams... miss you all!

Xoxox

-Mellington

The first lonely days in Munich...

2011-03-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

So. I have been in Munich for just about 2 weeks now, and I feel like a whimp to admit that I am getting some pretty unsettling culture shock. Ofcourse it did not help my shock that during my birthday I was sick at home with a fever of 102. I was lying in bed for about 3 days before life started to get better healthwise, but by then my emotional morale was at an all time low and I would randomly break out in tears. This year I celebrated what was probably my worst b-day ever. no friends or family around except Oliver. not to give him no credit but the only thing that kept me from hurling myself over a bridge on my birthday was Oliver.... he surprised me with tulips and a very nice breakfast with meticulously soft-boiled eggs and a single candle with an optional birthday song. It was a very sweet gesture... and what did I do? I said a small thank you and then imediately burst into tears of sadness and depression.

Life has been emotionally hard here. this whole moving thing has been emotionally draining and physically exhausting. Having a 2 month vacation beforehand was really nice but has also left us a bit exhausted and just when one is done with a trip and excited to GO home we realized... oh wait. we don´t have a home. Which leads to exhausting bit no. 2: the endless search for housing.

Before I even got to Munich all I mainly head about the place was that it was expensive, beautiful and a bitch to find a house in. Some people search for months before they can find a decent place, one which has more space than a large broom closet, and one that won´t cost you an arm and a leg. for a whole week we´ve wander through the cold cold city going from one apartment appointment to another. I have never walked so much in such a short amount of time in my life, and while my clogs are good for a decent walk they are mainly good for long hours of standing. So here I am walking around in half decent shoes with no isulation from the cold and boy do my feet feel the hurt at the end of the day. Oh the bright side things are sunny during the day, but when the sun goes does holy shit is it colder than cold.

So the combination of walking around in the cold and the fear and stress of the unknown as to where will we live has compressed my morale and my health into such a frantic state of mild cultureshock. I guess it´s not just cultureshock:

of being in a new place,
not knowing how to speak the language,
having and hour long commute from Oliver´s Aunt´s house to the city,
not having any friends yet,
not having a place to live,
not knowing where I can get an artist studio space, or how the system works here

...but I guess it´s also the compounded realization of, Holy fucking shit! I just left everything I knew behind to move to a foreign place where I will be ...forever...well as long as I want to be with this awesome man.... sigh...

I think that is just as scary alone as it is with all the above.

and when I say I´ve left everything behind. I don´t just mean Seattle, but Thailand as well... but mostly Seattle and the luxurious and convenientlt awesome culture I have (had) there. sniff sniff.... it only makes it worse that I think about all the things I miss right? I should really be looking around and thinking... holy hell, I am in Munich! what a lovely city with giant churches and magnificent architechture and old world culture... how lovely.

sadly instead when I look around me at all the beauty there is all I want to do is day dream of eating sushi on Capitol hill among the slummy-looking buildings pitched beneath a gray insipid sky. when I look at the intricacies of this charming new city all I long for is the industrial parking lots of georgetown where I eat my packed lunches on my work break at my familiar studio. ....gosh I miss all those things familiar... expecially my studio bench. I can´t seem to think ahead right now.... especially since not having a place to live inhibits you from planning ahead... all I can do is miss home and ponder if what I have done will indeed be the good thing....the right thing for me later in life... :(

all I see is a possible career as a developing artist and designer I could of had in seattle and the possible communal houses I could´ve shared.... and I need to stop these thoughts since its not going to get me anywhere here....

...alright that is enough to ramble about... more happier new later...

-mel

delays and apologies...

2011-02-20T06:48:00.001-08:00

hello to all my awesome bloggy blog readers!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything for a while... life has just been super busy AND to make matters worse when I finally decided to buy my laptop a new battery the graphics card goes and dies on me 5 days later. i could kill HP right now... ugh...

Note to self... DON"T BUY HP. they are pieces of shit!

and now so I don't end with this and leave you empty handed with an update... here's a little about my time in Bangkok post-Olli....

***************************************************************************

So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged… since Vietnam really. I am now in Bangkok and Oliver has already flown back to Germany. Now my days have been filled with studying for my final gemology exam here in Bangkok, and I must admit I am relieved that our fast-paced travelling has slowed down, but am certainly not thrilled about the fact that my eyes are stuck in a microscope for 8 hours a day and will continue to be until I fly out of this wonderful country next Wed. evening.

After Oliver kissed me goodbye and after I prayed that his baggage allowance wasn’t too overweight I spent a relaxing weekend with my dear friend Pablo (pictured here in a group photo of all of us at the floating markets the day Oliver left…

…..Oooo!! Here is another one of us at the Crocodile farm!

My weekend was spent doing some long over-due working out as well as some lounging by the poolside with pineapple shakes. YUM! Pablo invited me to spend the weekend with him at his place, the Amari Residence. Instead of a hotel or a hostel Pablo decided to spoil himself a bit (and me) by getting a residence (a large studio apartment w/ house keeping and room service… but the room also comes with it’s own fully stocked kitchen and entertainment center!)

I had planned on writing another blog edition this weekend while I was doing nothing but chill-laxin’ however the overdue laziness took over and now we are here.

I must admit I haven’t been the best at keeping a total up-to-date record of my blogs. I’m usually about 7-10 days behind on my writings, which I hope you all can forgive me for, but instead of writing something right now as a re-cap to something that has already past (i.e. the whole Oliver meets the family/Chinese new year event-which I will write next!) I just needed to ramble for a bit…

After spending 2 months every single day with someone it’s weird for them not to be around. I’ll be very happy when I see Oliver again, but at the same time I think we are both happy we are having some time away from eachother as well. He is in Kassel with his friends now and I am here engrossed in my studies.

My days here kinda feel like a race against time. No joke! I have 1.3 weeks to correctly identify 250 gemstones and only after that is complete am I able to attempt to take the final exam. I usually can grade about 42 stones a day which basically puts me at completing everything the day before I fly out of Bangkok…so I only have one day to try and pass the 20 stone final exam. If I pass or fail I am on a flight out of here wed. even. If I fail… I will have to fly to GIA London for another try…. UGH! I don’t want to think about that what so ever…

Anywho, so those are my worries. It makes it even more problematic that this Friday is a freakin’ Buddhist holiday! Double ugh! (Every month in Thailand there is a “Wan Phra” or Monk Day where people take the day off to do to the temple… and this month’s Wan Phra just happens to fall at the worst time for me! ) My days begin at 8am and end at 4:30pm…. Wish me luck and pray that I don’t get more near sighted due to all this eye strain and fiber optic lights w/ spectrometers!

Ok… onto a bit of back blogging now…

I am very excited to head to Munich! A new city in a new country to explore!

Jack fruit and Jackets!

2011-02-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

We had to take an intermission from eating and walking since Oliver needed to stop by the local International clinic to get a recent ear infection looked at while I needed a nap and took a break from rush hour Hanoi motorbike traffic for a nice 2 hr afternoon nap. Oliver left as I fell asleep and came back a REM cycle later to wake me up with utter frustration at the amount of grid locked traffic he had just subjugated himself into walking through for an hour+ .

Let me interject with a common known fact: Oliver is German.

(We know he likes to mock me sometimes and pretend that he's Asian...

....but NO. He's German.)

He may not be the most highly organized German, but compared to me he is super perfectly on time and organized in every way. So take someone who comes from a country who is very good at efficiency and drop them anywhere in Asia, but ESPECIALLY in downtown Hanoi during 5 pm rush hour traffic and... well... you can imagine the shock he was having and the chuckles I was having even with the sudden awakening from my nap.

It's not that Olli couldn't handle it, but he found himself wish he could organize things in a different manner. Cars blocked motorbikes , motorbikes parked on streets, street vendors setting up shop on sidewalks, utterly no where to walk but in the street with the cars and traffic honking all around you. Basically if you just told people they couldn't drive in the city center except by bikes or on public transport (basically pull a London) things would be better...

....but then again who are we to tell a country what is better / more efficient for them when they are too busy having their own industrial revolution to waste time listening to us anyways? And thus... history is always doomed to repeat itself.

Moving on from my little rant to something more important: Jackets.

Whenever I find myself in Hanoi it always seems to be freezing cold (to the point where people are dying since there is no heating in Hanoi due to the fact that its usually tropical...ugh) So that is just what we did. We bought some nice, factory second NorthFace jackets. Hell, its gonna be cold in Germany, may as well get them and use them now!

After our jacket buying we then proceeding to partake in some jack fruit buying with a couple friends we had met earlier that night (pre-jacket buying). I guess Olli had never tried Jack fruit (this deliciously sweet cousin to the stinky, bulbously spiky Durian fruit) and proceeded to excitedly eat it while offering me some, and telling me that he hadn't tried any of this yet and why not!?

I politely accepted a small piece of jackfruit but told him no thanks to the rest since I was allergic to the stuff and some kind of resin in it made my mouth itch all over if I ate too much.

....5 Mins. & 3 pieces of jackfruit later Olivers mouth started to itch. Then it started to itch more, then the itch grew into his throat....

....and that's when Oliver decided that his new discovery in fruit he probably would never eat again... oh the Horror when this happnens!

Damn You Jackfruit! why must you be oh so tasty and annoying at the same time?

On an ending note: It you want to get your shoes shined in Hanoi. The moment they try and "re-sole" your shoes DONT"T let them do it! They will raise the price, or refuse to give you your shoes back. I may look cute and happy in this picture, but I sure wasnt' 5 mins later....

From Tropical and Warm to Freezing Cold! --Hanoi, Vietnam

2011-02-04T21:17:00.001-08:00

The night before we left the island of Koh Tao we decided to head out to a party island on the main side at a club called Moov where they had flown in a couple of UK Dj's. The party and DJ's were actually quite good. After several sangsom buckets (basically a small bottle of Thai rum emptied into a bucket of Coke and a squeeze of Lime) I was dancing my tush off with a slight worry in the back of my head about sleep since basically we had booked ourselves one last dive trip to Shark Island leaving at 7:15 am. This means our schedule for the next day looks like this:

we party until past 1am,
check out of hotel by 7am,
dive until 12:30pm- eat-
catch island taxi to boat @ 2pm,
boat to mainland leaves 2:45pm
train to BKK from Chumpon leave at 8:30pm
Arrive in BKK- 6am

ugh... so I've just set myself up for little sleep for the next 2 days. Luckily my 4 years of Burning Man experience has taught me how to pull this off and still maintain some social nicities even when groggy and sleepy.

So after we left the islands and chartered a fast boat to Chumpon where we waited for the night train to take us back to Bangkok. During this time we strolled down the street with our backpacks and camped out under the tarps of local street vendor's shanty shacks of delicious "Yaam Talay" or Seafood ceviche mixed with mint, cilantro, chilli, lime, fish sauce and a couple other local herbs.

It was a most delicious meal, and perfect before we got back on the (roach infected FAN ONLY ) night train where Oliver proceeded to have dreams of roaches biting him all night.

Back to Bangkok for lunch with my Aunt, Na Jad at a Dim Sum buffet (Aunt and Oliver pictured here) an evening out with an old friend from Korea, and we were off again on another plane....

Then we arrive in a freezing cold Hanoi, Vietnam! (The land where everything is transported by motorbike....

....Like ORANGE TREES!!!

......And BAGS OF GOLD FISHES!

(orange trees and gold fishes, huh? yeah it's Tet/Chinese New Year alright!)

Oh man! A couple days before coming here we received a warning email from Oliver's Mother about the weather. Thank goodness for that email since non of us had thought to check the weather! (And I should of learned my lesson since the last time i came to Vietnam it was Feb. and just as cold if not more!)

After about an hour at the airport of getting our Visas on arrival we then headed to check-in at the Camellia 4 at the Old-Quarter of Hanoi. Wow... this place was the nicest place I had stayed in possibly during this entire trip! It by far was the nicest I had been in in Hanoi. Hell, Right now I a typing to you on a computer that came with the room w/ frree wi-fi.HOrray!

Super clean, warm puffy comforter, great service staff and funny Viet TV! Apart from the lack of heat here (as in every building in Hanoi since no one is use to this super cold weather) this place was alright. After a check in, we then headed out into the Chaos to find some hot soup, some delicious Viet-Sandwiches and to see some Water Puppet Theater in action!

I had already been to Hanoi once with my friend Wakx and thus had seen most of the important awesome sights i.e. the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (this is a must see! super awesome history museum too! It makes you LOVE Uncle Ho!) as well as the lovely Temple of Literature. So my objective for our only day in Hanoi was: TO EAT!!! When I was here before I felt that apart from random street stalls I did not specifically find local specialty dishes as much as in other parts of Vietnam, and since my main objective in travel is to eat and sample different foods (whether I may admit it or not out of shame) I felt I couldn't let my stomach down a second time in Hanoi.

...and boy the hotel staff were helpful! They gave me a map, circled places I should go to eat, and off we went on my treasure hunt of gluttony!

An interlude of Useful Tips:

2011-02-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

We momentarily interrupt this Blog to bring you the following useful information:

Random USEFUL Tips when travelling through Thailand and SE Asia:

-Always Haggle!

....Most of you know this by now, but whenever bargaining for most things is the rule of thumb in SE Asia. While in Thailand you can only know $1-$2 bucks off your items (due to the long history of tourism and increasing popularity in having something more near "fixed" pricing) however in Bali make sure to haggle your socks off since prices are jaw-droppingly as high as 6 times the price you should be paying.

Example: Laquerware bowls, set of 3: starting Price: 650,000 IRH post-haggle "morning*" price (what we paid): 100,000.

Vietnam is somewhere in between. Since Vietnamese tend to come off as less smiley and can been percieved as more rude and unwavering you just need to stand your haggling ground. Vietnamese have the best poker-faces throughout all the country's I've been in around here, but when shopping if you have a haggling objective, try and stand your ground. You can always walk away and come back later if need be.

-The Morning Price: Buy you Shit in the Morning!

....ok, so we here in Asia believe that the first sale of the morning is lucky, and are quick to make the first buck, regardless of what kind of massive discount they give. After the first sale of the morning is made the money of the first sale is commonly useds as a charm which the shop-owner then taps on all his merchandise for a "lucky" day. Some store owners simply tap their cash register. If you watch you'll see it, and if you listen you'll hear it, (i.e. Bali) "Hello Hello! You come look. I give you morning price! Special Price! Look here!"

No ladies and gentleman they aren't shitting you... they really are out to give you a good deal... but only if you are the first.

Shop owners can get aggressive to make the first sale (with you and with other competeing shop owners) but don't worry, before you head into the market remember to have a mental list prepared of what you would like to buy, don't get side tracked by all the other amazing deals of junk people will throw at you.

Remember: the most important rule of shopping/haggling in SE Asia (particularly in Bali or in the morning) is to act not interested, as if you could just walk away and not look back...that is the best poker face. Realistically- you can just walk away, since most likely there is the same crap at the next three stalls down idetical to the thing you were looking at.

-Buy the Beer in Advance

For most outdoor shows, or train rides you should by the beer in advance. usually there is a cute old man or lady selling beer out of a bucket near an entrance to an outdoor performance. When boarding a night or day train get the beer at the train station. While you cannot drink it in the party car (read below) you can drink it in your seat and it usually costs 2x the price in the train while moving.

-Train it always at night- 2nd class-bottom bunk (with Air Con, but beware the cold!)

So the great part about sleeper trains is that they are seats in which beds fold out of. If you get the bottom bunk its actually more spacious w/ headroom and there is more privacy/darkness with the aisle curtains.

The problem with 2nd class sleepers is the Air-Con is always so "fuck me I'm in Antarctica" cold! So one time Olli and I opted for 2nd class sleepers w/ fan only. DOn't Do it unless you like sleeping with Cockroaches! Unfortunately 2nd class w/ fan doens't mean "yay it's warmer" sadly it mean "hi, I'm the older, shittier car before air con was installed and because I'm older, shittier and warmer I come with roaches!"

....yeah... so my advice: pack 2 sweaters, wear layers, book the bottom bunk (at least 3+ days ahead) and get the Air-Con Roach-free Freezer train.

-Always insist- Meter ON!

From Bangkok to Bali to Hanoi, Taxi's like to scam you. They try every trick in the book. When you get in, insist meter on, right away. if they don't get the fuck out of the cab. Any decent travel book will expound on this so I don't need to.

-Night Bus from Islands= Theft Central

So I really prefer the night train to the night bus since you can lay all the way down in the train, while the bus's reclining seats give my knees horrible aches. (NOTE: All buses around Thailand are faster than the train by several hours or more, I prefer the slow train regardless.)

The only time I have ever been robbed in all of my travels has been in Thailand one night bus coming back from the islands of Thailand to Bangkok. I "stupidly" left my snap camera and $50 USD in my large backpack which was under the bus. During the night, while the bus is moving someone hides inside the undercarriage of the tour bus and seaches for hours through peoples bags. Since they have so much time they can search carefully and repack things the way they were. The company I took when I was robbed was "LOMPRAYAH" which unfortunately is the company which runs the fastest Catamaran boats to Koh Tao. (ugh, you just can't win.)

-Fast Boats to Islands: BOOK AHEAD!

Boats heading to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand get booked up fast. As I said before the fastest way to get to Koh Tao is by booking with LOMPRAYAH (aka, theft night bus central)
it'll only take 90 mins from Chumpon to Koh Tao, but I don't recommend them for busing back due to theft reasons.

-try for Motorbike insurance ...because they will screw you in the ass!

Most motorbike rental places throughout Thailand have insurance policies. GET THEM GET THEM GET THEM! I can't stress this enough, since if you wreck or even scratch the bike you will be paying upwards of 15,000 baht and they will hold your passport from you until you fork up the dough (whether they even repair the bike or not- usually they pocket the money and never really repair minor-moderate cosmetic damage.)

-The party Car= Fun Times!

I've raved about the train travel a bit so far, but what makes it extra special is the PARTY CAR! The food cars on most Thai trains are open until 10 pm, come with a friend staff, swinging blinky christmas light decorations and blaring loud Esarn/Thai music (ala synth Keyboard) they are quirky, kitschy and really fun to have at least one over-priced beer in. Make sure you go!, but make sure to bring your valuables with you.

....And that does it for this addition of Mellington's travels tips through SE Asia and Thailand. We now return you to your regularly broadcasted blog postings.

*Thank you, and Goodnight*

*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

The Traveller´s Final Epiphany

2011-02-02T07:02:00.000-08:00

So we’ve been on the road for a while now and I am starting to daydream about what has become the most exciting part about this whole adventure: looking for apartments.

Please note that as I type these words we are on a cruise floating through the towering Limestone islands of Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam. I had always wanted to come to this Unesco world Heritage site since I had seen pictures 4 years ago, and I find myself a little surprised that now that I’m here staring at these salt, rocky sentinals floating in misty beauty that I long for choosing curtains and new fluffy pillows.

Perhaps we’ve been on the road too long? No! that’s ridiculous! I use to love the idea of traveling for months at a time, being a nomad, wandering throughout the world with no address… this idea was not only challenging and exciting, but freeing as well. However on this trip I find myself being content at more creature comforts (Koh Tao with nothing to do but beach, BBQ and volleyball watching) than exciting and uncomfortable places (the mosquito-filled $12 a night homestay in Ubud). I have noticed though that when my excitement for life has peaked it has been at times when freedom tugs at us and we do not know what to expect around the corner (our protest at guided tours and how we left our things and took off on a pink motorbike around Bali winding down long pot-hole filled roads through hidden cloud forests and caldera vistas.)

As Oliver and I walked through the massive expanse of a giant saltwater soaked limestone cave yesterday we talked about this. “You know Olli. I’ve seen a lot of caves in my life…”
“What are you saying, Mel? That this cave isn’t a good cave on your quality level of caves?” he chuckles at me.
“No, its not that… what I mean is, I’ve seen a lot of caves, and this cave is pretty spectacular. The main cabin is as large as one of the main caverns in Carlsbad. However, I don’t feel excited at being here.”

How awful really, I thought to myself. We are traveling through such amazing places and for some concerning reason I don’t seem to be filled with that bottomless well of wonderment any longer. As we talked, I also brought up that maybe I was traveling with someone who has less excited at these sites around us and maybe that possibly influenced me …

(Oliver, while enjoying this trip is basically fine in whatever we do. He is Mr. Neutral. From the outside this can look like apathy or boredom since the kind of perfect holiday Oliver likes is where he is being challenged somehow, being challenged physically is preferable. So when we have to sit for long hours on boats trains or planes to see/do anything it can be taxing on the poor guy since he’d rather park his butt on a beach in one place for 2 weeks and do nothing but wind-surf, swim and snorkel. He’s a darling to let me drag him around to all these historical foodie-based places in the first place! I particularly happy most of the time that he has no strong opinion and is happy with my planning since it means there are no arguments usually about what sites to see.)

…I disregard that Oliver’s disposition is influencing my lack of excitement since I am grateful for his company and moderate levels of interest. Besides, I don’t think an introverted calm travel partner could really get in the way of my Hypomanic excitement at new things, or funny things. Hell! I’m always still talking a mile a min. and pointing out all the craziness around me, “Oh wow, look fishes on a motorcycle! And look a motorcycle carrying a giant orange tree. Oh hey, piggies! Yummy pho stands…. oooooooOOOOO I want a Viet Sandwich! I can’t wait! Oh Boy oh Boy oh Boy!!!! ….yes THAT is what I sounds like when I’m going from the Hanoi airport to the hotel. I sounds like some crazy girl with an altered case of Turrets Syndrome. I’m glad he thinks I’m cute and not crazy.

Post Turrets tangent what I’m trying to say is that I think that not only is this move to Germany and this adventure with this crazy Scientist man a new chapter in my life, but I think it ends the period where I feel that running around the world is my top romantic priority. I use to feel that there was nothing better than the excitement of hitchhiking on the open road, and telling people I had no home when they asked where I was from. Now all I seem to want is home, and its kinda startling. If my 20 yr old self could see me if wouldn’t believe it. I guess I could of seen it coming when my Thai cousin asked me 2 year ago, “Mel, you’ve been to so many places, where do you want to travel next?”
“I want to find home.” I replied. “…and maybe see Jeruselum before I die.”

Yup. Home and maybe Jeruselum. That’s a pretty modest serving of life for someone who has only demanded tall orders most of her life.

I guess I call this train of thought “The Traveller’s Final Ephiphany” since once you realize this deep longing for home, you are no longer interested in “traveling” ….only “visiting” since visiting a place implies you have somewhere else you would be.

The ships steward has now told me it’s time for our last lunch. I wave goodbye to the shadowy giants of Halong Bay and continue to dream of curtain colors.

Sapphire Beaches and Raspberry Sunsets!

2011-02-01T23:05:00.000-08:00

We are already on a lovely island with nice beaches, but there is always something better around the corner.... like another island!

So we made some friends! Kandis from BC, Cananda and Ella from Sweden!

Then we charmed them into hiring a boat with us for transport out to Koh Nang Yuan (Koh means Island in Thai, i.e. Koh Tao)

Koh Nang Yuan is a stunning island with clear bright blue water and a wonderous white sand triple beach which is created by a really confusing mildly low tide. It's a private beach where the Thai government heavily restricts over-development, this making it pricy to get to and pricy to be on. There are no water bottles allowed on the island and there is only one bar on the entire beach. A bit overpriced, but man they make the best strawberry-banana smoothie I have ever had!

Here is an pic. I took off the web which truly captures this beaches awesomeness:

And so we spent the day lying on the beach, walking along the beach, playing more chess and doing some snorkelling. At a certain point when low tide is happening and the beach strips are starting to appear, the current is actually quite strong and people get pulled out to see.

This happened to a larger, older man and Olli ended up running into the water to save him and explain to him how to swim back to shore. I beamed with adoration from the shore, the type damsels have when their hero has slain a dragon or something... lol...

When Oliver came back to the shore I joked with him about how he was a life saver, he replied, "well, I'm with 3 hot women on a beach, of course I have to save him!" hehe... regardless he would've of course.

...and then we went snorkelling!

And what is better than snorkelling with attractive friends? Snorkelling with attractive friends and suddenly happening upon a floating piece of watermelon near a dive boat!

Fact 1: There are fuck loads of fishies (that are NOT shy) all around Koh Nang Yuan.

Fact 2: They LOVE Watermelon! (almost to the point that they will chew through you for it!

After a long day of snorkelling and sandy beaches and watermelon-eating fishies we headed back to the main island and up the the hilltop "High" Bar for a relaxing beer, smoke and a breath-taking raspberry sunset.

I love this place....

Chess and Diving: Lazy days on Koh-Tao, Thailand.

2011-02-01T01:37:00.000-08:00

Upon returning to Thailand we headed south on the night train to Chumpon and then the 7 am 3 hr boat ride to Koh-Tao.

Okay... so the boat ride is the hardest part about this trip since they pack you on the boat like sardines, and if the seas are even mildly rough, everyone gets sick.
There were some people drinking loads of beer getting on the boat at 7am. They were yelling and singing and gluping down booze. After we started to move, they got really quiet and turned quite pale.

Our days in Koh Tao have been super relaxing. There is not really too much to write about here accept that the time seems to pass by quickly when one is doing nothing but sleeping, eating, lying on the beach, dving, and snorkelling...

....oh yes, and chess playing... lots of chess. Yes. We have actually be backpacking around with a chess board! Oliver loves games, and even though I hate losing to him (constantly) I will at times begrudgingly play... it was part of the contract after all.

Here in Koh Tao when I lie on the small strip of beach (high tide) near our guest house, the Tropicana this is what I see....

...and this is what I see when I look to my right. Oh Yeah! Sexy!!!

That said, there is not really much to do in Koh Tao apart from just this. The next island over, Koh Pang Ngan is the crazy party island where the full moon parties happen. Tonight just happens to be the night of the full moon in Jan. and after a couple days of pondering "do we go to the next island to party?" we have decided- NO.

We've been to Burning Man numerous times and know how to stay away for multiple days and ingest all sort of manners of craziness, but that's not this trip. Besides from what I hear the day after the full moon party it looks like a bomb exploded on the island and the beach is littered with broken bottles, beers cans, and random bodies of salty, exhausted tourists sleeping. yeah... I don't know if I want to contribute to it this time... Koh Tao will be extra quiet tonight since most people will be off this island and onto the other one.

We are currently staying in the quiet and lovely Bay of Chalok Baan in the southern part of the island. Here is a view of the bay:

Yesterday we rented some snorkelling gear and swam to the next bay over, Shark Bay.

Oh man, that was a bit of a swim!

We were on a mission to see reef sharks, but after our ~2 km swim with a mild current coming around the point (it basically felt like we were swimming in one place forever) and no sharks coming to greet us I decided to catch my breath on the bay before walking overland back to our bay.

Luckily Oliver had strapped 2 weights and a liter of water to himself using a piece of old rope, so we had some water to drink on our walk back!

After a nice BBQ dinner of grilled squid, kings prawns, lobster, veggies and chicken satay (all for $14 at most!) We walked along the darkened beach while the moonlight lit the emptied bay during this starry low tide. Our favorite bar, The Babaloo Bar was one along the Southwestern edge of the bay full of fish in microwaves, fishes in beerc coolers, black light painted nooks, and lanter lit hammocks along the beach! If you ever go here be sure to order the Thai-pirinia. Also be sure to NEVER order the Pina Colada.

...oh and watch out when you get a beer! the fishies bite!

The swim left me exhausted and after the squid, the drinks and the sway of the hammock I slept quite well that night.

Bali -- The Goodbye Interlude

2011-01-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

I must admit that while I enjoyed parts of Bali, (its funny memories most of which I haven't even begun to type out here) but I surprisingly did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Here is a place I have heard about for many years, from friends, from books, even now from popular movies! (we all remember Eat, Pray, Love?).... Bali is apparantly a wonderful and magical place where people fall in love; either with one another or with the land, the people... the Gods even.

However this spirit I have heard about did not touch me in the way that it has with other people. While I loved the culture I did not think very well of the cuisine.

"Thailand: 1 Bali: 0 " As Oliver put it on day 3. I slapped him and said to give it time and we'll find better dishes along our travels... but over all Balinese food (ok- Babi Guling* aside), you just didn't rock my world. Food from Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia is another story. I love you Sumatran jackfruit curry!!!!

One of our best, most memorable meals in Bali was actually one of the "BEST" steaks we've ever had.... and boy I mean EVER!!! The sad part was... there was nothing about it.

We encountered some divers on Menjangan who told us to go to KUTA for a night and head to this place called "Rumors" if you would like to "try the best steak you'll ever had." They had been in Bali for 14 days total and had eaten there 5 times.

We were warned to stay away from Kuta, the seedy beach side town full of drunken Aussies and loud nightlife... but Oliver wanted to surf, and I wanted to try this legendary steak so we went! ...and you know what? It was awesome!

Ubud was great for culture, and Bali was nice for beaches, but I didn't feel that I connected with the place partly because I couldn't relax there since every time one walks down the street in Bali he/she is bombarded by people asking you "tranport? transport?" or offering you shirts, tours, massage, or a whole number of things quite aggressively (at least more than what I'm use to.)It doesn't help that when you walk away quickly you must take care not to step on the mass amounts of sidewalk offereings to the Gods, thus creating an obstacle course of sorts.

Now from what I hear a walk in Bali makes a walk in India look like a fucking cake walk (hecklers galor in India) but coming from Thailand, where I am in the lap of luxury with heckler-free zones I found it very difficult to not be on guard of having to force "no"s upon people. This also made me create a self-built wall around myself from connecting with people since the moment someone greeted me with a smile I already felt like they would sell me some if I lingered for too long.

...sigh...

All that said... I'm glad I went. My first days in Bali I will never forget, riding my bike beachside in Sanur taking in the temples, offerings, beaches, and smiles. Sadly though, you have not touched in in that magic place Bali, and it saddens me since you are the Second place** that I have ever travelled where I have not fallen in love. That's ok though... you can't win them all...

Even as I write this I am thinking of even more fond memories we had... like getting to watch a midnight cremation ceremony on the beach in Lovina, making friends and meeting Nung-Ah the owner of Gandra house (he and his smile WAS one of the main highlights of our time there). Our day trip to the Bali Bird park was awesome!...

....and Tanah Lot Temple... and ofcourse, diving that amazing shipwreck at Tulamben. We won't forget that.

(* delicious suckling pig grill on a spit with Balinese spices best eaten with you right hand and a side of rice!)

(**The first place where I have not fallen in love with the land, people place was Cambodia. Cambodia can be a difficult pill to swallow. It is a hard country, full of struggle sadness and all too recent echos of countrymen killing countrymen. Let it be known that it's not that I didn't like Cambodia. -I would return to Cambodia before Bali.- but Cambodia isn't a country to love, it is a country to feel. If no one told you what to feel you would feel her. She is viceral, She is sprase, deserted and a pre-carpet bombed landscape that can leave you breathless... while the hard faces of it's children can leave you shaken and stirred. In short, Cambodia is anything but soft.... it is real, very real though.

...But that's a story for another time.)

As the plane took off we reflected, and Oliver and I found that we were quite relieved to get back to Thailand.

The Return Home... where ever home is...

2011-01-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

And so off we sped over climbing mountain crater rims on our little pink motorbike back from Lovina in the north heading south down to Ubud going back on a different route from the way we came.

The weather changed from tropical humidity to cloud forests to just plain cold.... and I mean freezing!

We stopped at a hillside town to fill up a liter of petrol (Benzin) from a used water bottle into our tank and put several layers of clothes on. Brrrr!!!!!

The ride was a truly breathtaking journey that lasted about 4.5 hours. When we finally reached the highest town, Kintamani, we stopped at the towns major intersection to gave up at the oldest Pura on the island. I guess we had stopped a moment too long since a little women ran out to us frantically holding a big plate of offerings and incense telling us she needed to bless our motorbike.

IN one feel swoop (before we really had the chance to say yes or no) she threw holy water on us, chanting while walking a circle around the bike. next she took a square banana leaf plate of flower offerings, folded it in half, then shoved it into the space between the bike and the licence plate. She then lit some incense and stuck it straight through the top of the folded mound of offering. She then stuck flowers in our ears and pushed grain of holy rice onto our foreheads.

She looked like a professional. We were thoroughly blessed.

After some picture taking with the women we asked if there was any hot Soto Ayam (delicious Balinese chicken soup w/ ginger and spices) shops near by, since we were wet and freezing from driving through clouds in the past hour. She made some more frantic gestures, told us to park our bikes and follow her. She then proceeded to run into the building of a small shop across the street, shout a few things in Bahasa, and motioned for us to sit outside.

She then began cooking Soto Ayam for us in the small shop/house/building place while the people who actually lived there worked around her hastily. Soto Ayam appeared in less than 2 mins with sweet hot tea and as we ate we laughed about this whole event, all the while flowers and rice falling off of us as the clouds continued to roll by on the street. All the ladies involved in the operation were very sweet and let us snap a picture before we sped off again, this time warmer!

About 30 mins past Kintamani we rounded a corner and the distant half blown shape of Mt. Batur surfaced from the left to greet us. The view was stunning, (and really cannot be captured in this measily little photo here.)

Shortly after the mountain view we began to decend in altitude and the weather became warmer once again. Thank God! The drive past Mt. Batur was the coldest place in Bali we had experienced so far. I think temp. plus wind chill factor had us driving through 45 degree weather --- we were prepared only for 85 degree weather.

Upon decending we stopped to take off our layers and found ourselves along a hillside town of rice paddies and spontaneously decided to go off the major bi-way in search of a stroll through some lovely fields... and boy did we find a nice walk!

We hit Ubud by about 4:30pm surprised our friends at Gandra house and a surprised Nung-Ah returned our lovely pink motorbike back to where it came from.

Lovina: Hot Springs, Cold Beaches and Everything in Between

2011-01-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

The original plan was to head directly to the small town of Permuteran ...a place really only known for being where you take the boat to Menjangan Island -aka- a snorkelling and diving haven for the most part all year round.

However the moment we stopped to rest in Lovina a friendly Balinese man approached us telling us he could make a us better deal on our dive trip to Menjangan than any place in Permuteran could AND he'd even throw in free accomidation. Skeptical I let Olli deal with that situation while I proceeded to borrow the nice man's cell phone and call the dive shop in Permuteran. Sure enough the dive shop wanted around near $80 for 2 dive per person while the man in Lovina offered us a room and 2 dives with meals and transport for ~$55 ...how does this country work?

...and so we tired travellers and our pink motorbike were coaxed into staying in Lovina, the place of the black sandy wind-swept nothern beaches.

Luckily for us it was the lowest point in tourist season there and there were only about 30 foreigners in the whole place. Ultimately the town gave an extra lazy/sleepy vibe.

Unluckily for us it was the lowest point in tourist season because the sea was ultra rough and unforgiving while the cloudy skies poured down heavy rain at least once a day allowing the humidity to rise and eat us alive.

Seas being rough or not Oliver wanted to swim, and nothing was going to get in his way... not even 3 meter waves. As I watched from the black sand shore in a mild panic while beached coconuts periodically punched me in the ankles (thrown ashore by the nasty incoming waves) I watched Oliver get thrown around the washing machine of the surf, finally exiting the waves with exhaustion and a butt full of seaweed.

I asked him if he'd has enough of being tossed around. He confirmed that it was rough waters out there, but maybe he'd try again tomorrow if he could find a make-shift body board... oh boy here we go...my reckless German is at it again! :P

Rain and wind aside our first day of diving was awsome! travelling to the NW coast of Bali is like coming out of a rain cloud. while the rest of Bali is raining it is sunny to Partly cloudy with decent to good visibility.

The original plan was to head directly to the small town of Permuteran ...a place really only known for being where you take the boat to Menjangan Island -aka- a snorkelling and diving haven for the most part all year round.

On our diving trip we made some friends, saw eagle rays, a sea turtle, digging trigger fish, and a variety of fish and coral life all of which I cannot name at the moment since there was just too many...

We decided to spring on the nicest "resort" in town (a whole $40 a night!) and stayed at the Sea Breeze Cafe and Bungalow wow! The place was nearly deserted that we felt like we had our very own private poolside bungalow and beach bar!

So remember that body boarding crack Oliver made which i told you about?

...Well turns out one night on a shopping run at the local night market Oliver managed to buy a crudely made, large, plastic water/gas/liquids container and a length of rope which he then tied to his leg and ran out into the surf again in a half pitiful attempt to body board.

half way throught he hilarious session (so said the faces of the Balinese hotel staff) oliver has somehow mange to rip the skin off his knuckles again!!! (we all remember the glacier sliding incident on Mt. Rainer from last year?)

Oliver definitely took advantage of the pool that next afternoon (by the he had found a delapidated green slime covered surf board which he then attempted to use for morning wave playing only to get more cut up with) and proceeded to nurse his wounds with a large application of beer in the pool outside our bungalow.

Apart from diving, swimming and generally relaxing in Lovina the only other things we managed to do was take our motor bike our to the Air Panjar hot springs (about 8 km west of Lovina) where we spent an afternoon in the jade waters of the local natural public baths taking funny pictures and dunking eachother under water.

Oliver even spent some time entertaining the public while walking upside down.

The hot springs were surprisingly delightful since the weather was cloudy. As I relaxed in the water I reflected on all the nomadic homelessness we were in.

When I first left Seattle I was a little scared, but this small fear only dawned on me once I was tasting my first couple days in Germany. a shock of, "wow, Mel, you're really leaving everything behind now... " I never have felt like I was doing the wrong thing or anything silly like that, but I guess my mind at that moment felt like I should be realizing something, and that the permenance of this ultimate move overseas was nothing like travelling, but instead a commitment to reassimilating somewhere.

...I only trembled a little though....

..because I think my genes for being scared of the unknown abroad is broken. Maybe this is a blessing and maybe this is a curse, but whatever it is it allows me to jump into crazy adventures like "Germany until TBA" with excitement, even with small shivers of fears.... and I guess, yes... I love Oliver.

Wind-up Melli

2011-01-26T04:59:00.000-08:00

If Oliver could make a wind-up Doll of me called "Southeast Asia Travel Mel" the three main things it would say are:

-I'm Hungry!

-My Tummy Hurts...

-OOooo! Jackfruits!

The Adventures of Little Pink Motorbike!

2011-01-19T17:36:00.001-08:00

So we left Ubud... quickly one morning... on our little pink motorbike adventure~!

Our motorcycle ride took us up through windy roads of mountain towns and through parade processions. (As I may have mentioned before the Balinese have a festival for rice, tooth filings, deaths, birthdays, building roads, blessing cows, temple birthdays, etc etc... the long list goes on. ) We had the blessing and the curse of being stuck in a parade procession (the curse since it slowed us down, the blessings because it was not only interesting to watch, but goodluck since it also slowed all the cops down who would be interested in bribing us if they stopped us to check our licenses, or lack there of...oops)

Bali has several pre-blow volcanoes on it with deep calderas which have several lakes.We took the route north around Lake Tamblingan and as we drove around the rim of the caldera we stopped at a ridge-side cafe to have a coffee with pineapple pancakes and to give our butts a break. While there we encountered a couple of guys with bats, lizards and a baby owl trying to get us to take pictures with them.

I gave in.

So these are not small bats... they are more like Dog Bats! The have long snouts and very VERY visible genitals! The funny part is watching them pee, where they they turn right side up hang from the branch pee at full force and after they finish they shake there little butts to get any excess pee off so it doens't drip on them when they hang back upside down. Hilarious. ok... maybe I'm amused by simple things...

After coffee and bat pictures we got back on the bike for the long stretch through the mountain and down to the NOrth coast.

After 4.5 hours of travel we hit Lovina, a sleepy beach side resort town. OUr goal for the the day was to continue onto Permuteran-an even smaller little beachside town, but closer to the Marine park on Menjangan Island where we were heading to for 2 days of diving however our butts hurt too much so after a little bit of price comparison, haggling and chatting with the friend of a local hotel owner who convinced us diving and rooms would be cheaper in Lovina.... we stayed. Nothing beats $10 rooms over looking rice paddies!~

A 7 min. summary...

2011-01-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

...it's 7mins to 10:30 pm and the Ubud juice bar is about to close, but I feel that it's been way too long since I've written something, so this random summary will have to do... pictures later people... sorry.

So we got to Ubud and spent 3 days immersing ourselves in traditional dance, puppet theater, and other theatrical performances every night and spent a day with a rented car and driver taking us around to silver smithing factories, wood carving, the Bali Bird park and the famous temple by the sea, Tanah Lot. These were all fun (ok the Bird park was the best part! ...and I could of done without the industry tours really) but by the end of it when we were about to rent another car and driver to take us across the island to the far northwest part of the island (for killer diving) we decided to change plans the day before and spontaneously ditch half of our things in Ubud, take 1 backpack and 2 people and have some freedom from drivers and tours for once. Skeptical and scared at first I shortly realize... this was the best decision we could of made during the whole trip!

Oliver and I really don't like organized tours...actually we kinda despise them. So the most exciting and liberating thing and REAL thing was for us to take our own transport to see the real Bali through windy roads of mountain towns with cloud forests hugging volcano craters and sacred lonely temples perches on top of peaks and every turn....

...shit. 7mins are up. sigh.. Oliver hates it when I come to the internet places since I take forever typing in my blog or writing to people.. I keep telling him it's not my fault my inbox has 40 emails and his doesn't have as many. He knew he married an extrovet....damnit.

Gado-Gado Kisses!

-Mellington

Ps: will re-edit this blog with pictures asap.

Diving At The Crossroads of the Gods...

2011-01-08T05:44:00.001-08:00

I had heard from friends and other travelers that Bali is a place steeped in culture and a unique place among Indonesia (while the rest of Indonesia is Muslim Bali has remained a stronghold of Hinduism ever since the trade winds brought it here.) I think that when one comes to Bali its kind of like coming to a convention, or holiday retreat for Gods. Everywhere there are spirit houses and shrines and temples, pronounced “Pura” in Bahasa Indonesia, the language of this country of islands.

Now I am use to having spirit houses since most private residences and business have spirit houses since you must give daily offerings of food, incense and flowers to appease the spirits of land and house… however here, the Balinese make our daily offerings look like a cake walk of minimal ritual. 4-5 times daily I see Balinese locals walking around with giant baskets of offerings balanced on their heads as they make there way around the property, the street and sometimes even the block giving offering in front of the house on the ground, to the spirit house inside the yard, the spirit house outside the yard, the local statute of Ganesh down the street, as well as any neighboring statues or guardian statues that guard the house. The offerings look pretty handmade- a large banana leaf shaped into a square shallow bowl (about 5inx 5 in.x 5in.) filled with flowers, rice, sometimes deserts sometimes even cigarettes!-all topped off with a sprinkle of holy water. By the evening it is hard not to step on these little square banana bowls since they are in front of ever establishment on the street…however by morning they have all magically disappeared by 7am and fresh ones are put out.

To give you a visual of this amount I took a “before” and “after” picture of one of the shrines:

“Before” ---notice this lovely stone alter with minimal offerings at 8am.

“After” ----this is around 9pm at night, the shine is now packed in offerings above and below. Here is Gods get a lot of attention!

It makes me wonder that if this is the retirement resort where all the Gods have flocked to when others stopped believing in them, since here there are gods for everything and everyone to pray to. There are Gods for rice, Gods for birth, Gods for wind, Gods for tooth-filings, even Gods for relieving bad music! (I should know, I prayed to him one night to stop this really awful techno at a beachside bamboo bar, and lo and behold! It worked… wow...and…damnit! I guess I need to make some offerings at our next Pura stop.) Along with all these Gods there are also festivals for all of the following just about everyday I am told, and it’s very common for people to be parading down the street and dancing and singing daily. Oliver (with his efficient German mind) sometimes wonders how anyone on the island really gets anything done since… well efficiency is NOT the word either of us would use to describe how anything is done around here. However I would use the word “Happy” to describe the people here… oh…and the word “Hasselers”…. Since everywhere you turn it seems there is someone trying to aggressively sell you something. One time I aggressively gave into getting a beach massage and while she was massaging me she was trying to sell me stuff from her shop… blah… not cool. Sometimes this gets rather annoying to say the least, and you get far less Hasselers in Thailand, which surprises me to say that.

Of course our opinions could be eschewed since we have only been here for 4 days now and in the beachside surf town of Sanur --aka Dutch tourist/expat central. We have yet to truly experience the culture of Bali full-force and are hoping to do so at our next destination in Ubud. For the past 5 days I have spent my time riding my bike around town and up and down this lovely beach-front side walk that goes the entire length of Sanur, taking random photos of the coast as I go. Olli has been spending the past 4 days getting his PADI scuba diving cert. and that is the main reason why we are camped here in expensive-land. There not much to do here, but lie on the beach, read, spend money on overpriced meals and drinks, and go scuba diving or windsurfing. Oh, I did my first windsurfing lesson 2 days ago! It was rather fun! I enjoyed it and would probably consider doing it again…so Olli is going to try and locate his beginner windsurfing gear when we get back to Germany… yay!

Here's a picture of some random cock-fighting we saw on the beach, it was pretty awesome and also pretty brutal. FACT: before gambling, cock-fighting was actually a ritualistic tradition here only performed in temples during festival holidays.

Yesterday we woke up early and drove 3 hours to the north part of the island for 2 fun dives at Tulamben… it was a beach dive to the Shipwreck, USSA Liberty- a cargo ship during WW2 which was sunk offshore by a Japanese sub.

The ship made it to land and was unloaded where it sat on the beach near Tulamben for over a decade until an earthquake ~1967 rocked it back into the ocean a convenient 50 meters from the shore. Yay~! Even for rainy season it was a lovely dive, and the perfect beginners dive since the wreck ranged from 6 meters-28meters deep and you were able to swim through the hulled. Apart from the basic impression of a ship the massive object was a playground of sea life, teeming with hundreds of colorful fish, bright coral, and poisonous organisms. We swam up to sandy beds of sea kelp which were actually a field of sea snakes disguised as kelp who would slither calming and retract into their sand holes as we drew near. Swimming through the inside of the boat was like being inside a beautiful opera hall with intricate chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, while the rotted out hull created pillars of coral which spiral upwards with fish of all sizes-singular and in schools- swimming past us in their underwater highways. It was simply spectacular and we are thinking of heading there again.

Alright, it’s time to check out of the guesthouse and head to the beach one last time. Then onward to Ubud!

New Years Offerings --aka--lowering the excercise 2010 deficit

2011-01-05T21:45:00.000-08:00

After getting dropped off in Chiang Mai central we immediately booked a trip for a day hike jungle trek on the 30th then got picked up by my friend Marisa and Paul.

Marisa is a British-born Thai-Chinese-German 3rd culture kid who upon first glance you think is a gorgeous 100% Asian, and then you notice her stunning green eyes and obvious English accent. We met in AUA Thai language school in BKK about 3 years ago and have kept in touch since. Paul, her partner in love, and in business, is from Singapore and is a trained raw food chef and together they are about to open a café in 2 months—not of the raw food kind, but of the veggie friendly.

During our 3 day stay in Chaing Mai we didn’t really do many touristy things in town. (I mean, maybe it’s just my jaded sense of humor, but the things most do in Thailand are eating, shopping, and getting massaged.—God I love my country!)

Day 1—after a stunning lunch of traditional Northern Thai cuisine with Marisa I took Olli to Doi Sutep, the stunning temple on Sutep mountain. Olli tells me he needs to see at least 3 temples before he leaves Asia… I tell him you can see three temple by just walking through Chiang Mai for 3 hours!

The weather was lovely as we wandered around the temple complex while people lit candles and burned incense as giant glints of gold reflected sun danced around the giant chedi.

Whenever a slight breeze would come you might hear a subtle wind chime of a prayer bell, calling out from the underside of the intricate roof where thousands hung. After this we went back home to Marisa’s for a relaxed evening of XBOX playing and beer drinking. Beforehand though we made sure to buy some lotuses and incense and do some merit-making offerings for the New Year. (hey Mom this merit making picture is for you!!!)

Day 2--- jungle trekking; 8am-5pm.

Basically the pictures speak for themselves. Lots of jungle.

Lots of pretty rural hill tribe villages, lots of farming.

Our guides were nice, and Olli even was able to learn more Thai while we were on this hike. He’s finally picking up on some of it. He knows about 5 words now-- I’m impressed.

Along the way home we also stopped by the Doi Chang Dao caves and saw some very old Buddha statue. The cave was a little over 600 meters deep…really cool cave temple. I will try and insert more of these pictures here at a later time.

Day 3--- New Years Eve Bike ride!

Okay, so even though the length of this bike ride was unexpected (and complained about it a lot on that day, I embarrassingly admit since I must have been a bit of a pain) this was by far the best way to spend the last day of 2010 –aka- clearing my lack-o-exercise 2010 deficit.

We got a late and lazy start to the day and the 4 of us all took a long bike ride around the hillsides of SW Chiang Mai totaling at about 50km at the end of it all. It was a super awesome day of a bike ride, not too hot (ok, well going up steep mountain dirt roads kinda sucked). After riding through long stretches of winding mountain roads we began to head back to the city and stopped at a shack along the highway that was grilling meats… well ok not really meat… just chicken butts mostly. Yes, you head me! Delicious skewered fatty chicken butts! Yum! My favorite! Olli was a bit disgusted. Apart from me and the chicken butts we all ordered sticky rice and hot cucumber and papaya salad. We laughed and ate and I complained about my legs starting to hurt, (but after a beer my morale was up) and I poked fun at Olli saying that we had popped his cherry for unsafe street food.

After a very long final stretch of the bike ride (with a detour to the train station to buy tickets) we headed home to get ready for the evening. Marisa and Paul had invited us to a friends house for dinner, drinks and a low key NYE.

On our jungle trekking day Olli and I found a street side vendor selling those fire balloons and fire works AND fire works that you attach to the bottom of the fire balloons which you light *at the very last min* when the balloon has generated enough hot air to lift off, then you have a rocket balloon with sparklers, firecrackers and eye hazards shooting off everywhere. Everyone loved them, but the hostess was a bit concerned since we were accidentally lighting her front yard on fire… oops… I wish we got pictures of this but there was simply too much chaos that we forgot to capture it. Just imagine 12 people with 7 fire balloons (3 of which had fireworks) in a small garden with power lines overhead all trying to light them at once…. Yeah… a little chaotic.

After Olli prematurely lit Paul’s fireworks and scared the lot of us the smoke settled and we all looked and eachother, laughed and shouted “HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!” and gave hugs and kisses while we watched the Chiang Mai sky filled with hundred of fire balloons…..

Here is a youtube video of these amazing fire balloons in action:

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

Christmas in Pai.... a day later...

2010-12-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

So since I struggled with feeling well all day on Christmas we didn't really celebrate, but instead went out the next evening. Since we're a day ahead here it was kinda like celebrating Christmas Seattle Standard time. Around New years, and now every holiday really in Thailand we have these giant paper balloon type things which you set fire to a wax-shaped donuts at the bottom of the balloon and while it burns it filled the balloon with hot smoky air and then lifts off in the same fashion a hot air balloon does. While the balloon fills you and your group of friends must hold it up and take funny pictures with it!

In Pai ever night we were there you could see the little twinkles of these fiery balloons dot the night sky. The fly up so high that they either disappear from view or become like stars while they confused the constellations.

The evenings in Pai were quite cold. It was kind of like BM. You have to head home before the sun hits the horizon to put on your cold weather fuzzies! while drinking at a bar one night I though this jolly drunk Thai women was wearing blue cheeseburger earmuffs on her head...WOW! I want I want! turns out they were blue strawberries! ....still cool. The women caught me staring at her while I was dancing with the bar staff (hey they convinced me it was a good idea!) After a bit of conversation she found out Olli and I were on a bit of a honeymoon and thought we were cute dancing, she bought us drinks and gave me her earmuffs! YAY!

So while Christmas blew chunks for me (quite literally... eewwww!!!) the day after was great fun with fuzzy blue strawberry earmuffs, bamboo bars along the river lit by Christmas lights and flaming balloons that look like stars in the sky!

Recovering in Northern Paradise...

2010-12-28T20:09:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Sunny Pai in Northern Thailand where I have been recovering from a 24 hr stomach flu on Christmas eve and have now been relaxing into the art of doing nothing. I chose this place for Olli and I to get over jet lag in the best way possible: 5 days of sleeping, reading, eating and massages.

when we are not doing one of the 4 major things I just posted we are riding around the hills of the Mae Hong Son province on our motorbikes to waterfalls, hill tribe villages, canyons and the lot. Unlike southern Thailand (full of activities, water sports, nightlife and fast entertainment) Pai is a place where one comes to literally do-nothing.

A common motto in the town is "Do nothing in Pai" or "Slow Pai". As I've described before and as Olli will agree to Pai is kinda like a more permanent Burning Man suburb. There a large relaxing presence here followed with it's closeness to being around a beautiful natural setting combined with rustic bamboo bars on the river, massage parlors galore all navigable by bicycle. There is also a huge new age spiritual hippie vibe that is all over the town with Reiki healing classes, yoga sessions among other things as well.

We also came here to spend the holidays with my dear cousin Lek, but upon arriving in Bangkok I had found out that my uncle/Lek's father had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only has about 3 months to live. Lek +family is shocked and devastated at the news of this Lek had to stay in Bangkok, but gave us hugs, pre-bought train tickets and permission to use his house while we were there.

So while our days have been awesomely relaxed here in a large private house alone (complete with full kitchen, 2 cute dogs and a cat to keep us company with a rooftop balcony for sunrise reading and living room hammock!) it has also been quiet and void of my awesome cousin...

We had such a good time relaxing in Lek's house that I had to include pictures of it-kitchen,upstairs,living room, etc (also, the main picture up top is Olli reading on the rooftop balcony.)

Today we head to Chiang Mai on the 4 pm bus where we will spend the next 3 days jungle trekking visiting mountain top temples and eating drinking and laughing with my good friend Marisa (who shares my same name in Thai) Marisa is a Thai-Chinese British half-child or "look-krung" who I met studying Thai at AUA language school in Bangkok. We became immediate friends about 3 years ago when I lived here and have kept in touch every since. New years will be great with her!

On a side note the rural jungle is not a quiet place! Every morning we wake up to the sound of something different. On morning 1 there were about 20 roosters crowing next door at 6 am w/ me vomiting in the bathroom below (ick!) but by morning 2 all the rooster from the village were gone! Olli suspects they were all killed for a Christmas dinner :P However Morning 2 greeted us with the loud clamoring of a dozen birds walking across our metal roof... we call this the "Alfred Hitchcock wake-up call" while Morning 3 were dogs barking and bird calls with the occasional motorcycle kick back.... Morning 4 was "lets blast Thai music" day. Thais don't really have sensitivity to noise pollution, and it seems that the basic rule of thumb is that everyone in the village must like the same type of Thai music, so why not just blast it so everyone can hear! Yup... ahh... Thailand, how I've missed you!!!

Airport closures and jet lag... drunken train ride to paradise.

2010-12-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

~9:00pm-Dec 20th - Manama, Bahrain - We have been in the air for about an hour now on the last flight before we get to Bangkok. This will be my third flight in a week. Getting out of Europe was a stressful nightmare of our trains to Frankfurt being delayed and/or canceled with me getting to the airport 10 min. before my flight check-in closed... whew. (Oliver was on a Thai airways direct flight leaving 2 hrs later--long story.) The snow-storms had shut down Heathrow, Paris and was in the process of shutting down Frankfurt as well. As I ran to my flight I saw hundreds of makeshift cots with stranded travelers camping out waiting for some news of departure or delay....

The air in Bahrain is hot and muggy at night, but surprisingly pleasant, especially coming from a cold winter wonderland in Germany. Someone then tells me that this is a winter/cold season for Bahrain and I gulp... this place would be too hot for me. I hope that Oliver made his flight out before more snow.

Dec. 22nd- Bangkok, Thailand - We've arrived! The Bangkok sunshine welcomed us in our extremely jet-lagged state. We have spent the past day or so sleeping, getting a massage, buying books and meeting the family.

Olli and I took the night train from BKK (Bangkok) to CM (Chiang Mai). The ride was a crazy and restless one since we both got upper bunks close to a loud opening door all night which made my dreams smell of cigarette smoke and engine exhaust. we had several drinks in the "party" car to make invite sleep more easily. Next stop: Paradise in Pai!

Castles in Kassel!

2010-12-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

So the night before we left Kassel for Frankfurt I met Oliver long time old friend Nils who drove us home that snowy evening and took me up to the Hercules!

The Hercules is a large romantic-style edifice that was built by a regional king, which has an eerie green laser light which points to is like a beacon from the downtown area. Here is a picture of what it looks like on a srping day... it's pretty impressive! It's a giant facade castle (not liveable) on top a large hillside with a terraced garden with waterfalls....

Here it is at 15 min. to midnight in between snow storms with laser-light. usually the Hercules is lit up and you can see it shining like this icy blue colored castle looking down upon the city. shortly after midnight the lights go out and the only thing left is the green glow...

damn it was cold... but super surreal~!

Alright, now time for some sunnier updates!

Xoxox- Melli

Snow, saunas and Too much SAUSAGE!

2010-12-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

So, this is my first blog from our around the world and back tour. it has only happened finally after 4 days of rest in Germany. After a week of craziness in packing and running around sleep deprived trying to get all things packed up and taken care of (and failing in some departments and thanking some wonderful friends who helped pick up my inexcusable slack!) Olli and I were off on our way to the airport only to be stopped by bags being 4 kilos overweight and surprised by a new 8 kilo carry on restriction! OMG!....anywho after all the stress of travel we finally arrive in Kassel, Germany. yay!

We immediately went to the hospital in Kassel to visit Oliver's mother who had been very sick with pneumonia with a stop along the way to buy flowers. I was scared and nervous to meet Oliver's parents since, well... due to our sudden marriage parental units on both sides really didn't have much time for judgment, discernment or say in the matter. All in all it was a pleasant first meeting (as pleasant as one can make it when you are sick in a hospital bed) Next stop: Christmas market! So during this time of year each large city's center has a Christmas market, where tiny cute stores pop up and offer a wide variety of hot mulled wine, speckkuchen (meat fat cakes! yum!) egg nog, cookies, potato pancakes and many more delicious things as well as shops where one can buy Christmas decorations, candles, wreaths... the list goes one. Lets just say the Germans know how to do Christmas! we had arrived during a wintery snow-filled week and walking around in a winter wonderland, sipping hot mulled wine topped with Rum while eating Speckkuchen was.... heavenly! Yum!

However as the days have progressed I've realized... I did not bring enough warm clothing! oh no! People like Markus and Trinidad and Suzanne had warned me about the cold, but there's nothing that can really prepare oneself for weather like experience. My pathetic Northwest standard of cold was nowhere near as cold as it could get....and this wasn't even freezing! Oh boy... what have I signed myself up for?

THANK YOU ELLERY FOR MAKING ME THIS AWESOME SCARF!!! IT IS WHAT IS KEEPING ME WARM!!!

During our 4 days here we've been doing lots of eating, sleeping, and visiting family. Oliver's parents live in a village outside of Kassel called Zierenberg. It a quaint town which I have forgotten to take up close pictures of but have included one of it from afar from the train. Our days spent here were low key with breakfasts and dinners of sausage, bread, pate, and cheese with his father, Fritz. During day 2 we went to the town of Korbach to visit Olli's other sister, Katrine.

We brought his Nieces and Nephews an Xbox w/ Kinect game console and we all went crazy with it. fun times! We had a great dinner full of sausage again and headed back home to Zierenberg the next day. day 3 was Germany Sauna day! If you've never been you should go! The place is called a Therme and its a build up - once natural- hot spring area where there are co-ed and separate, nude and none-nude sauna options! There were about 10 saunas all with different temps. 80C 90C 100C 45C infra-red saunas, Solariums, colt plunges, and outdoor pool complete with snow and icicles! there were sleeping rooms, steam rooms, chill spaces with fire places... even a bar which served mainly beer and...you guessed it... sausages!

NOTE: Olli has been experiencing a bit of culture shock as well. the reason I keep mentioning the bottomless amounts of sausages I've encountered while here is because before he moved to the states Olli had never quite realized just how many sausages his people consumes in their daily life, now everytime we go anywhere there sausage for meals, people carrying sausages, selling sausages and, yes... even sitting butt naked at a German sauna, .5 liters of beer in hand eating-Sausage!

while this is funny for him, it is a bit concerning for me... since, well I have just realized that I don't particularly like sausage! Liverwurst yes, pate-awesome.... sausage... hmmm not everyday please. It's times like these I'm relived I can cook. I am very much looking forward to locating the Asian food stores in Munich! I'm not saying that I don't like hefty wholesome German sausage and congealed meatloaves but well... it's nice to mix it up a bit... and both Olli and I have been incredibly spoiled living in Seattle where we can have Ethiopian, Sushi, Thai, Viet, Korean and Greek all in the same week.

Tonight is our last night in town and we finished our time here with watching old Super 8 films of baby Oliver when he was 1, 2 and 5 years old. they were super awesome films to watch and a nice peak into the past of my partners childhood. I have really enjoyed hanging out with Olli's father, Fritz. he's a pretty quiet guy, but has been interesting/interested in me as well. Yesterday he took us out to a real traditional German restaurant and gave me a tour of the town church which was built in the early 1400's. the church was closed, but he disappeared for a min. and appeared with the key from somewhere.

Anywho it's about 1am here and Olli and I must wake up and catch a train to Frankfurt at 7am to get our flights to BKK around 11am. I hope we get there and not snowed in due to weather conditions. Olli is already asleep and I should get there too! I've included some pictures of us on trains, snow-covered towns and family below... I'm excited for warmer weather! Yipeee!!!

Sleepily Yours,

Mellington

Zzzzz.....

Update and change of blog!!! (not like anyone was ever reading this one anyways)

2010-12-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone...and no one at all!

So this blog has basically been a blog I started a long time ago mostly as a blog for me where i could back-log all these past journal entries from my travel and thoughts while I lived in Thailand. However I've been really bad at upkeep on it and figured that maybe I could give it a face lift and use it currently for my travels around with Oliver as we make our way through culture shock winters in Germany to culture shock tropical Thailand all along the way as we meet new family and in-laws that we never thought we'd have.

So I've changed the name from "the broom closet archives" to "Pad Thai w/ a side of Liverwurst to go." and will now (hopefully) begin my life as a better blogger to keep you all updated off in Seattle land, Santa Fe land, and Thailand on my adventures of travel and then moving abroad.

...and sure, maybe one day I'll get around to posting those old writings i made in 2008 while in Asia.... but for now... pictures of snow to come!

Xoxox

-Mellington

A long-awaited Post!

2010-04-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Alright, it has been a very long time since I have posted, and many things have happened over the course of this year and a half so let me try and cum things up in a nutshell.

about a year ago I moved up to Seattle and, after a brief stint of moving to Kirkland I am now located centrally in The Emerald City. I move my studio into an awesome space full of artists and blacksmiths call Equinox Studios in south Seattle. http://www.equinoxstudios.org/

Last May, right as I got a job as a jewelry sales rep. I also got the opportunity to work on a large art installation for BUrning Man, a giant interactive art festival in the Nevada Desert that experiments in communal living and concepts of radical free expression. The project: a 35ft tall interactive rubiks cube which required three people at three control panels to solve it collectively... a real experiment in collaborating on a large scale project, that's goal was to itself stimulate collaboration among stranger. www.groovik.com

After a long summer or basically 20hr of work a week on this giant cube (I helped with Welding, soldering electronics, and sewing mainly.) I got a not so surprising lay-off (recession, blah) conveniently a month before Burning Man. We went, we installed, we had amazing success!

Post Burn I immediately landed a full-time job in high end custom jewelry design with Green Lake Jewelry Works and after a summer of hard work on art I began to have a normal and routine life, and due to the fact that I was designing jewelry 40 hrs a week my studio time, and attention to my personal work decreased, and my focus and attention to my gemological studies picked up.

Nov. and Dec. of 2009 were filled with busy holiday season happenings. Equinox had a winter opening on Dec. 12th and I basically worked 40hrs at my job and 20 hrs a week or myself with my goal of trying to create a small but stylistically solid production line for the holiday art opening. In the end I created 30 pieces in 4 week and sold 1/3 of my inventory the first night and another 1/3 over the next month... ok so it was a hit! I was a bit surprised! but it made me confident that I could potentially sell my work and that low and behold people really liked it!

Jan. 2010 took me to Thailand where I studied at GIA, the Gemological Institute of America and took several final exams and completing 85% of my Graduate Gemologist Degree. By the time I am certified I will be able to identify, and confidently purchase my own gemstones for my jewelry/metalwork, not to mention I am able to discuss gem knowledge in choosing appropriate gemstones for custom design work for customers and friends.... aka a good skill to have. (not to mention a good thing on my resume if ever wanting a job in my field.)

...whew... ! that was a lot... still not done with updating, more to come!

Wheee!!!!

-mellington

Asian-American troubleshooting... (Dec. 2007- Udon Thani, Thailand.)

2008-12-18T23:09:00.000-08:00

Okay.. so I am super duper tired and
> going
> > > through mild "family shock" as opposed to
> culture
> > > shock... well it's both combined... which is
> > > worse...
> > >
> > > I think I'm just running on too little sleep...
> but
> > > being "really different" is just effecting me
> right
> > > now. So you ever have that? When you look
> at
> > > your family and you look at yourself... and you
> > > realize... "WTF! I'm really strange." Usually I
> > > always wear the "Strange" badge with pride and
> enjoy
> > > being abnormal... since the strange ones... the
> wise
> > > ones...we are the ones that create evolution,
> > > change, progress... with such a large emphasis
> on
> > > everyone wanting to be normal... to blend in...
> it
> > > makes me confused and fuzzy at myself... who I
> am...
> > > etc...I feel like I'm on a deserted island... I
> > > sound melodramatic, but it's nothing I can't
> deal
> > > with... I enjoy being alone on deserted islands
> > > sometimes since it challenges me to find myself.
> > >
> > > ...okay maybe I just need sleep and should stop
> > > thinking...
> > >
> > > -I am taking tomorrow off of any family
> things... I
> > > hope... only school and Gym. So I should be
> online
> > > by 11- 11:30pm before I run to the Gym.
> > > Maybe we can chat.
> > >
> > >
> > > Miss you.
> > >
> > > -Mellerini*~

Before the Flight...

2008-12-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

A new haircut before the flight, courtesy of my kick ass friend and stylist, Eric Smiley: www.helicopterhair.com (shameless plug!) Seattle and SF locations!

....also I have included a picture of what the city inside my head looks like.... ENJOY!

-Mellington Cartwright III

Random Postcard: Siam and the Things I Forgot

2008-12-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

One)
>
> 'I am going to do what I want to do...' -This phrase does
not exist.
>
>
> Sure... the sentence is doable in Thai... but the concept
that people in the Western world have of this so-called
idea does not process the same way in Asia. Basically...
you never 'do' what you want to do. Every decision you make
is always made with the family in mind. Here people don't
function as independent, self-reliant people no matter how
independent, strong-willed or self-reliant. You always keep
the family in mind... you always work with the family in
mind, and what career you may have, and whatever man/women
you may marry... you always keep the family in mind. Your
life is ruled with your family in mind.
>
>
> Two)
>
> -I am a giantess among everyone here. Everywhere I gaze
are small petite women with no curves and tiny bone
structures. When you are the Amazonian stranger here you
can't help but feel... well... a little large and out of
place... no matter how damn slanty my eyes seem to be.
>
>
> Three)
>
> -Living with 14 servants in one house makes you Lazy.
Yes... servants... and yes....lazy. My Aunt's house in the
heart of Bangkok is a residence up top and business below.
We run a chicken distribution center and have live in
workers in one half of the house while the other side
belongs to the family, a caste system divides us in
between. It is not like India-don't worry-but still seems
unfair to my American eyes, even though the entire system
makes perfect sense to my Thai sensibility. The systems is
called Yai/Lek (big/small)The idea is that the servants.
(the littler brothers) help us, they are suppose to listen
to our every comment and criticism, we (as the big
brothers) pay them, and give them shelter and if they get
sick we take care of them.
>
>
> -So unless you have been asleep while reading this you
may of realized... yes... I am in Thailand now.
>
>
> -Mel
>
>
>
>

A filibuster love letter...

2008-12-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

Wow.... so I found this in the back corner of my document and have decided -in a bold movement- to post this rambling bit publically. Why? well... it addresses my feelings at a time when I was about to take steps into the abyss of the culturally shocked and unknown... it also shows me how full of love and life I must of been....

Why I Participate in love....

Dear Mister Vagabond,

So by now you may realize that I am not one for small talk… I am one for deep things, since deep things don’t scare me. If you choose to read on, be prepared! hehe

You have allowed me to learn another important lesson. You have made me admit to myself the selfish dream that I have. “I want to find the anchor to the Balloon.”

I want to love and I want to be loved.

(–the second lesson is that this is a flawed idea.)

I am not looking for a place to call home I am looking for someone to call home. Don’t freak out-I am not saying you are that someone, but when we meet someone in life that seems… the mirror image of many facets of us it is hard not to realize that there is actually a possibility out there of someone who could actually be a part of us… not because we want to necessarily “be” with them, but moreso that “they are” already…. Us! This is a very exciting epiphany to have, (and goes way beyond the excitement that playa sex or that international booty calls may bring.)

There is no “I” want to be with this person because they are A B and C, and I don’t like E D and F about them… it is more of a conversation about:

You cannot hope to find someone to bring something to your life that you cannot already bring yourself, and if real love isn’t co-dependency or being with someone… then is love finding wholeness in yourself, remaining conscious in your quest for wholeness, and sharing the evolution of each other together? That must be it.

To lead life as self-growth, but to experience it with someone for the sake of sharing lessons? Is that what love really should be? Is that how love can be selfless…and unending?

My problem isn’t: I shouldn’t love since loving people only leads to pain, hurt and loss… (which is very true in and of itself, which seems cowardice in and selfish.) The problem that lies within me IS loving too much, to hard… what I’d like to call the next step in loving- first facing the ideas that YOU will be hurt… and there will be loss. –if the only constant is change, then how can their ever be anything else? Right? - but that hurt and loss comes with the perspective of ownership, and the possession of love.

When we try and possess love it doesn’t work. When we show love in a selfless, and honoring manner and treat it as it’s own living entity, independent of what, where or when it may occur, and when it will leave, then this step is to a love that cannot hurt you…I am working on it, but it is very hard to master since it goes against everything we are taught, in media, in the home, in Western history of what love is.

A part of me loves you selfishly, but know that ALL of me loves you as selflessly as I can, and respects you to know how I feel about you, and to also know that there is nothing in my emotions that I can keep from you, and that you will always have someone to say anything to anywhere, at anytime. My loyalties to my love in friendships run deeper than most anything. When you have me, (unless you do me a great wrong,) you have a friend for life.

If, in fact my capability of expressing emotion and showing love is one of my strengths, I feel that it could possibly be my greatest strength of all… and possibly the key to happiness.

So I love you, and, yes, part of me is in love with you as well. My attraction to you I think lies deeper than anything as superficial as sex however. It appears to lie inside your spirit somewhere since-you seem to feel it as well as I do- we seem to be cut from a similar cloth.- My attraction to you lies in the fact that we seem to share the same small bits of soul, and the same passions and fervor for life. This does not mean I think you are my one-and-only soulmate (because that would be silly)… but that you are, hopefully, one of many that I may meet that share that same piece of cloth we are cut from, and that hopefully one of those pieces of cloth will want to hang on a line together, live life passionately, and see a future in being two rather than one. I feel that this small hope is a weakness… a flaw in the idea of wanting to be loved.

Now I could be all like the other girls (who I probably share similar emotions toward you with), Confess my love to you, which I have, and demand that you reciprocate or die at the hand of my insults. This I have done many times before, yes! (Ofcourse! What female hasn’t?!) But I have realized since then that this is only a way to suffering. Anything that I may feel, be it jealousy, envy, sadness I cannot be with you (which are all there in a subtle way since I am human and female) I feel is my own. Nothing I feel I can ever blame you or anyone for since they are my own and I have to own them. I believe that only when you conquer your own self-pity, your own sadness, your own want of possession, only then can you love with respect and truth. I dream of it but I cannot ever expect anyone to be honest and truthful to me in their love, nor can I ever expect anyone to love me, just as I cannot expect anyone to make me more whole of a person. However, I can become whole and I can truly love if I try my hardest not to have expectations and love without the hope of reciprocal love and/or emotional gain…even at the price of death or departure, this is the way I can make love stay.

Maybe this is why I choose and try to love with as much energy as I can muster. I get hurt all the time, but I keep doing it again and again….why? I think in the end I feel that I have not given up in humanity perhaps… or that I feel that the people I am drawn to love really need a type of caring that I hope to give. (note: I try and not make everyone my best friend) I know that my duty as a loyal friend becomes apparent when signs appear, and feelings that draw me to people happen. I’m not talking myself up as some psychic or guru, but I feel things, follow my heart and see where it leads me… and it’s usually to that. And that those people that I hold dear have some great truth to teach me as well…

…and now you may wonder what great truth have you taught me? Well… all of this. Your lessons have contributed to a continual evolution in a series of perceptions on love, and loving. I think apart from trying to look for an anchor to the balloon of my soul, I am looking for a way to love where love will not end in disappointment. It is a long, hard road full of concepts that lead in no self-gain, no progression to companionship… thus no future…and that is the scariest of all.

Love without a future seems trivial, and of no interest to people because the common idea of love is to find happiness with someone until death do you part, right? So of course why would anyone try to be capable of loving without any hope of a future with that person?

Sadly, the flaw in love with great expectations is that we will always end in hurt. Hurt that we project onto others, and hurt we cause ourselves:

There is a difference in hurting someone and hurting yourself that people can’t seem to get right. When you feel jealous or envy whether or not rightfully so you are choosing to hurt yourself. Ofcourse it is hard to let go, not hold grudges, forget the past since we have only the present...yada yada…but a step in the direction of understanding hurt is to own the hurt you create for yourself and to differentiate it from scapegoating that someone is hurting you.

I am sharing this not so you may know that I “like you”-yes that is a factor- but rather that you have allowed me to articulate a great truth along my path.

I hope to show every person I meet an open-mind and loving kindness regardless of who they are or where they come from or what they do. This is why I participate...in ....life.

-Mellington Cartwright III

Random Postcard: Bouncing around in Limbo- The Pacific Northwest.

2008-12-11T01:10:00.001-08:00

So here I am in the small town of Burlington, WA in an auto glass shop getting my rear right window fixed. Why do I need it fixed? Because it was smashed in by crackheads… yes crackheads in southwest Portland at 3 am.

However before I explain my predicament in this small town between Seattle and Vancouver, Canada let me rewind…

Olympia, WA: dive bars, movie marathons, knee surgeries, cleaning house.

My arrival back to Olympia was a culture shock all in its own. To walk down the streets I grew up on and randomly run into people I knew every 10 yards was very odd. For the first two nights I was greeted with pub crawls and cocktail reunions at my old haunts, however the partying and late nights right after Burning Man finally took its toll and I became bed-ridden for the next 3-4 days. I was not sick, or ill, just so exhausted I couldn’t seem to move around or have any energy even after 8-10 hours of sleep.

After exhaustion passed I began to clean house immediately. My days we filled with throwing away boxes of junk. My goal was 10 boxes… so far I am at 11. During this time I was also spending time with my dear friend Sam who had just come out of a knee operation, so my evenings we spent watching movie marathons and eating ice cream with my invalid friend. So life, for the first two weeks was fun, and…calm…. And then….

…I got restless.

Seattle, WA: Salsa dancing, coffee shops, blind dates, Thai classes, and cloudy skies.

Pretty much every week I have been in the Northwest it is safe to say that I have spend at least 2 out of every 7 days in Seattle. Shannon, one of the most amazing women in my life, and long-term crush had been living in the Emerald City since she returned from a year in Edinburgh. We met on top of the sundial overlooking gasworks park as the boats sailed across Lake Union while the kites flew high above, walked the streets, talked for hours in coffee shops and went on long bike rides while we watched the leaves turn along the University paths. We would salsa nights away.

I’ve been attending my old Buddhist temple and taking Thai classes twice a week.

Portland, OR: Couchsurfing madness! Breakfast parties, steaks and strippers, couchsurfing roadtrips to the Oregon Coast, cycling around the Willamette, auto vandalism by crackheads…oh, and more salsa dancing…!

Yes, Portland was crazy fun, and just plain crazy with Shannon at my side once again! (I kidnapped her…hehe), and at 5:45am I awoke to a CSer Eric calling my cell waiting to meet me outside with 3 other CS friends to take a road trip to the coast when I found that the back window of my car had been broken into, pieces of my window lie smashed all over the road, and the only item they took was a friends backpack. Sadly and fortunately these thieves were idiots! They ran down the road with the pack upside-down and the contents dumped out all over the street. Our sweaters and granola bars littered the sidewalks. The only thing we were missing was what to tell my friend Ethan when he asked for his pack back…. oops… Apart from that the trip to the coast, the hike up to Haystack rock and the drive back was amazing. Cycling in Portland with Shannon was beautiful and we were welcomed with clear, crisp skies and the sun shining through the clouds. We dined on Moroccan food with live belly dancing and the next night Lebanese at one of the best restaurants in Portland and one of my favs, Nicolas Restaurant. After we hit the clubs to sample some Portland Salsa! We ended our time there with a spontaneous breakfast party we threw at our CS hosts house where we invited 10 other surfers in the area for bacon, pancakes and eggs galore! Our goodbye to Rose City was grand!

…and now I am heading up to Bellingham. To, yet again throw another CS gathering, and yet again continue on my journey of itchy feet. In 4 days I shall be in Boston… then beyond!!!

South Tacoma Way.

2008-12-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

When midnight seems to transcend through me and the hours to 4 am I stir. As I listen to melancholic chords that harmonize and synchronize my heart to distant ideas of home I am awake. I am awake in my stillness… in my sadness and in my unsettling soberness.

I am dreaming on South Tacoma Way. I am dreaming of fields of grass after February rains toward the back of the baseball ditch just left of the track and field on which we use to run. The trains of life are long, and intersect at distant stops like San Antonio where we are… where we never thought we’d be over half a decade later after half a decade of silence. Train stations are funny.

Briefing at LAX

2008-12-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone in New Mexico land and abroad!

My apologies that I have been out of touch for so long… I have basically been flying so fast from place to place that it’s been really hard to sit down and focus on writing people.

In the past couple of months I have been to: WASHINGTON- Bellingham, Mt. Vernon, Olympia, Seattle, OREGON-Portland, Lincoln City; MASS-Boston, Maynard; CANADA-Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island; MAINE-Portland…and now Los Angeles, California, where my flight is delayed back to Seattle due to heavy rains and winds hitting the Northwest.

Why you may ask am I in LA? Well, basically on business having to do with my Thailand Visas and paperwork. I flew in this morning and am flying back this evening. So now I guess I should officially state that I am leaving this continent! My ticket is booked and I am flying to/moving to Thailand on November 24th… AKA next Saturday!

Life in the States, since I became without a permanent home (weekends in Seattle, weekdays in Oympia, and most of the time out in New England somewhere…) has been pretty crazy and full of traveling, and crossing off things on my major check list of things to do before I move overseas.

But before I ramble and rant incoherently since I am so so good at doing that (some of you may know…especially if Kristin has been talking crap about me again :P ) Let me rewind a bit and give my readers a couple installations of my events. These are slightly backdated and relay, in short detail, my happenings of the past 1.5 months in chronological order. –You should be receiving another email shortly after this one titled: “Limbo” –The Great Pacific Northwest.

Once again, thanks for reading, and keep watching the email box for more updates!

Greeting from Truckee, California!

2008-12-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

…and that’s how the postcard would begin if I could send a postcard to each of you.

I leave for Burning Man shortly after I press the send button. My drive from Santa Fe to here-about two miles down the road from where the Donner Party cannibalized themselves- was just about as crazy and random as an encounter with Mel may seem. From trying to sleep in the community park in Flagstaff, AZ where ho-bo’s awoke me and asked if I was hungry and wanted to go eat with them (I did by the way, and it was awesomely delicious! They even gave me a bag for the road!) to swinging on giant kidney-shaped pillows on Sunset Blvd, a stroll through a corset shop in Hollywood to jumping in lakes at 6500 at sunset with a bottle of the most amazing sherry in my left hand and a dear friend in the other…

However, before I continue this story of my perpetual motion let me just make you all aware that the morning I left Santa Fe- just moments after the sun had just begun to play on the tops of the Sangre de Cristos- it seemed that my heart was breaking a thousand times. As I flew down I-25 I made sure to fly and to not turn around and look back since most of you who know me knew how hard it was for me to leave that beautiful place that most of you still live in. That wondrous place with the most hypnotic skies had her long fingers dug straight into my hair and seemed to be pulling harder the faster I was flying away.

But now… I’m gone.

I will never forget that that was home. And you are reading this right now since I want you to know that I thank you for making that such an amazing home to be in…

…and with that short piece of bittersweet accompanied by grotesquely long run-on sentences I will seal my electronics in their air-tight pockets, and head off to a week in the dust of the great Black Rock City.

-See you after Burning Man!

Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mellington Cartwright III

(Aug. 2007, Truckee, CA: This was actually before the Burn. oops.)

Pic: me with my lovely new elephant friend PHIL! while we drink wine and do funny dances!

PS: lunar eclipse tomorrow!

Dying, Reawakening and Decompression in Reno, Nevada.

2008-12-10T09:10:00.001-08:00

(Sept. 2007, Reno, NV.--on the road, back from my first Burn.)

I have just finished dyeing my hair blue in the Peppermill Casino hotel in Reno, Nevada. Temp: 91 degrees outside- Time: 10 am- State of Mind: Cuture shock. Hours of sleep in the past 24 hours: 12

Average hours of sleep per night at Burning Man: 3

Before the 12 hours of sleep only interrupted by small meals and bathroom breaks I had been playing in the desert with only about 2-4 hours of sleep a night. The days were at least 100 degrees if not more and full of afternoon dust storms that would white out all peripherals leaving you with yourself, your goggles, and only 3 feet in front of you to see.

The heat and dust were harsh, yet cleansing. After day three you no longer care about how clean or dusty you are… you submit yourself to the vastness of the space you are in, and the deadly midday heat that humbles you.

Here you are neither rich nor poor since money is not a factor. There is no money exchange among people in Black Rock City (accept for only coffee and ice if you really need it) You are not judged by how much you make, or your financial position in society…what may only matter is how awesome your costume looks to you, and if it’s what you truly love to wear if you could wear it every time you decided to celebrate. In the city we give gifts without hoping to receive something in exchange… or we give gifts or help in gratitude of generosity and kindness.

For those of you who know nothing about Burning Man you should research it. For those of you looking for a once in a lifetime experience that you will find nowhere else that will shock you, cleanse you, and allow you to celebrate…I highly recommend you look into it. It is found in a city that only exists for 7 days a year, growing to become the 5th largest city in the state of Nevada. It is a city where your money is no good, where you can be whoever you are, dress however you want, and be accepted by a society that is built on openness that welcomes you.

My week began in loneliness… arriving late Monday night on the Playa where Black Rock City (the city and prehistoric lakebed where the Burn takes place) I pitched tent alone… the first in my camp to arrive… then I jumped on my bike at sundown, face painted like a clown, corsets and all-and explored the illumination sculptures lit up in the vast darkness of the desert.

The sky was my first friend, leading me along in the darkness as I experienced the wonderment alone. As the week progressed I began to collect a merry band of traveler and friends to explore with: Maddy and Andre, dear friends of mine I met while couchsurfing in Boston the trio of us we inseparable, and their hearts are my home- Patrick, a Canadian couch surfer with a wandering heart and a vibrant spirit, I would wander the desert with him and kiss under the stars and illuminating orbs of light, and fireballs as we passed them by- Micheal, a healer who helped balance my chakra points and allowed me to mediate and reflect on internal anger and pain, and to honor my feelings and to forgive myself. He was my guide, and a trusted friend. Together we balanced each other and taught me what unconditional love meant without possession and without physical intimacy.

Some of you may ask me if I had fun- yes I did, immensely. However “fun” is not the reason I went. I went to end an era, to burn things I plan to leave behind, to say farewell to friends of the past, and anger of the past, and to forgive myself, and prepare for my journeys to come. I came to burn my sadness, and to honor myself.

This experience has opened my eyes, made my heart humbled, and created amazing bubbles of thoughts in my head concerning revelations on humankind, kindness and the life force of the world. Do I sound a little Hippy-Dippy-New-age? For those of you who know me I am very pragmatic, practical and logical, and over analytical, but the energy and healing that the desert shoved into my soul while stripping me down of many other social factors has stirred something greater in my awareness of mortal role in this reality and my interactions with people.

I cannot explain to you what happened in the desert to me this past week among the raves at night, the interactive art, the bouncy castles full of naked people, the tantric orgasmic breathing workshops, the hair-washing camps, the revolving martini bars, the geodesic domes full of shag carpeting, the giant 3 person swing covered in dildos, the pleasure palace sex tents, the trampolines, the crazy art cars, the dust storms, the massages, the healing tents, the monkey chanting, the lessons of unconditional love, the swinging hexagonal canopy bed with the starlit view, and the circus performances and carnival people I be-friended. All of the memories listed above are small snapshots of the building blocks of my inconceivable week of evolution.

For those of you who have written me… thank you… for those of you who haven’t… thank you for reading my writings. My apologies that this email was a touch longer than I had anticipated, regardless I hope you all are well wherever you are mentally and/or physically. I send my love, and will see you soon!

I feel a world away from where I was when I left Santa Fe. Now I this small hotel room I begin to pack my bags for my next journey to another kind of home. Next stop: Olympia, WA, the smell of the South Puget Sound, and the shade of evergreen trees…

Wheeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mellington Cartwright III

the grains of white sand run down....

2008-12-10T08:52:00.000-08:00

Santa Fe, NM- Aug. 2007: (my painful and conflicting thoughts on leaving the magic here.)

Current mood: nostalgic
Category: Life

I am feeling that my heart will break. I do not want to leave Santa Fe. Every sunrise and sunset I will miss, and promise to kiss the last 14 that I will see in the magical and wondrous place that I have lived in for 363 days it will be.
People beg me not to leave... artists...cyclists....boxers...editors...business men...bookkeeper...collectors...writers....curators...waitresses...all good good friends.

It seems that this community has opened it's arms to me with much love (and...sure... come drama... okay...mucho drama) and I love this community just that same. Everyday I bike down the road I see at least half a dozen people I know, and most of those who I adore to spend time with. I will miss my critical masses...I will miss my Thursday night salsa dances and my tango classes...I will miss boxing class, lifting weights and self defense... I will miss volunteering at the CCA and photo and wine auctions... I will miss BBQ with Lynn and sunsets on Kristin's roof deck with a glass for chardonnay... I will miss the endless stars that hover above the japanese bath house, and I will miss the beating sun shining on me as I jump off of red rock cliffs into Lake Abiquiu. There will be no more drinks with Pascal... no more goth clubs with Liz... no more movies with Merin... I will miss all those people... I will miss the studio and working until 3-4 am ...I will miss feeling the insides of my soul as I fall back in love with myself over and over again with the help of my metal friends and my saw in hand....I will miss cooking with the club, and the fun times of eating out at my favorite noodle bar... Mu-Du. But most of all.... I will miss my mentor, Kristin...

This is that land that Georgia O'Keffe lived in and never left. She stayed at Ghost Ranch, and died in Santa Fe. I now understand why... this place is magical and if it wants you to stay it will suck you in and hold you tight... in all of it's drama... in all of it's solace... in all of it's quiet and baffling beauty.

Northern New Mexico...how my heart feels like it will being scraped with a rusty file I miss you so. I do not want to leave your endless hugs from kissing sunshine to biting snow to windy spring time and tasty autumn. You are, and will forever be a part of my heart, but I cannot stay since the train of Mellington Cartwright does not stop here.... as much as a part of me would like for it to stop upon one of your still mesas where I could meditate out one hundred miles in every direction.

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-Mellington Cartwright III

Where the Nomadic Journey Began...

2008-12-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

from Sept. 15th 2007:

(when the journey of a year began after I sold all my things, had a massive going away party in Santa Fe, stopped by Burning Man for the first time and became homeless for a while.)

To the Wonderful of Wonders!

hello everyone! Okay, okay... I'm sorry that it's taken me so damn long to get off my lazy ass and upload these pictures. ugh! but I finally did!

okay, so below are two links.

one is to Burning Man : http://www.flickr.com/photos/13256378@N08/sets/72157601943684976/

and Santa Fe/Going Away Party : http://www.flickr.com/photos/13256378@N08/sets/72157601960530790/

hope that no one will muffle me with a pillow because I was so slow in getting these to everyone. I will be sending out more updates soon, but currently I've been to exhausted in the evenings to get online between cleaning house, and helping my friend Sam who just got out of Knee surgery. Regardless I will be responding to emails soon.

Hope you are all well and having a lovely romp through life!

Wheeee!!!!!!!!!!!

mellyMElly Melly-Mel

2008-12-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

HI! Welcome to the back closet of Mellington's archived stories.

Most of you have probably known me as a metalsmith. Well... some of you also know me very well as a wandering vagabond. While I have been homeless and anything BUT stationary for the past year and without studio to call my own I have been writing quite a bit. Lots of travel writing, memoir writing, some fiction, but mostly it has been a yeah of non-fiction. Since my life has been so crazy since 2007 I have decided that I need to catalog my experiences.

So here you have it! I will begin posting all of my mass emailed stories, random postcards from the road, hops through countries, hitchhiking through korean green tea fields, bribes from small town vietnamese mafia, lave in the desolate and peaceful Bhutan all the way to fitness centers in Singapore, Christmas Eve in Laos and the never-ending story of my search for balance in the duality of not only being masculinly feminine, but Asian-American overseas and back again.

Thanks for reading my archives. Please do let me know if you enjoy them!

Sincerely ever yours,

Mellington L. Cartwright