I discovered a gem. An emerald that has a healing heart. Baan Hom was created by Homprang and Christopher, two lovely, heart-centered giants whose presence energizes this home away from home. In reality it is a temple of power gifts. Yes, I loved it and slept there eight nights filled with deep dreams that dropped me into my own pond like the koi pond outside my window.

Baan Hom is a traditional Thai healing center located outside Chiang Mai. The grass heals you in this place. My days were a path I couldn’t get off and wouldn’t want to if I could. The center held me and healed old wounds.

I stayed nine days, during which i received massages and enjoyed delicious homestyle Thai meals at a table filled with interesting and congenial conversation between lovely people while little angel dogs curled up under the table or smiled hopefully. (I know this is a VERY long sentence!)

I awoke to the sounds of birds rustling and calling in the trees, koi splashing in the pond and roosters crowing their morning awakening. Holly, Katya, Jody and others studied Thai massage with Homprang during the day. Staff worked in the yard, in the kitchen, gave massages, washed dishes and drove us into town, to appointments, to markets, and to the airport.

We took walks among rice fields and through nearby hospital grounds, visited temples and Jody and i had our hair done at a local Thai salon. We shopped for celadon ceramics with Homprang during a 50% sale (and bought!). Yet there was always time and space to be held in a warm spiritual embrace initiated with Thai yoga practiced at 7:00 each morning.

Christopher, a longtime sailor, poet and Homprang’s husband, spun sailing stories and I read his articles published in sailing magazines, saw old sailing photos of him and his three daughters in the Med and recounted some of my own sailing adventures and missteps.

For information about this lovely place: www.Homprang.com

Homprang and Holly, an intern and massage student

My room was on the second floor of this traditional Thai-style house at Baan Hom.

The koi pond outside my room.

A beautiful tree within the hospital grounds.

Come aboard the Poseidon Similan Tour, a snorkeling only live-aboard tour of the Similan Islands. The boat was comfortable, the food delicious, great guide (hi Daniel), fantastic snorkeling and it was fun. Did I mention that I was ‘the American’ among 18 Swedes?

It was a 3 day/2 night trip around the Similan Islands, a tropical paradise. We saw white-tipped sharks, hawksbill turtles, dolphin, MANY beautiful fish, sea snakes, corals…it was just lovely. We swam in warm water, visited beaches, slept in bunk beds (some slept outside), watched a full moon rise and smiled a lot.

First breakfast on the boat!

At Sail Rock overlooking a beautiful white sand beach.

One of the Swedish families onboard with Daniel, our guide, above.

Sail Rock, a granite boulder, overlooking the beach.

Wave action on the beach.

Sunset at sea.

The islands have many of these beautiful, velvety rocks.

Our captain!

Happy me!

Fishing boats tied together. They are allowed to do this in the park.

Our boat at anchor.

Daniel with one of the children on board and the boatman with the dinghy.

Time to leave Bangkok and head to the beach in southern Thailand. I flew to Phuket and then took a taxi 60 km north to Khao Lak. Khao Lak was hard hit by the 2004 tsunami. The area suffered a lot of damage and many people died. The area has recovered and many homes and businesses have been rebuilt.

I stayed at Poseidon Bungalows on Khao Lak beach, a beautiful sandy private beach. The restaurant has a lovely view at the intersection of the bay and a small river. I saw elephants bathing in the river one evening! There are 15 bungalows built among the rainforest all located off a winding path that ends at the beach. I ate all of my meals at the restaurant often with a beer watching the sunset and enjoying the peace and quiet. And I was lucky to make new friends…Rosemary and Peter from London.

Here are a few sunset photos taken on the beach at Poseidon.

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The tour group spent New Years Eve in a traditional Thai teak house. It was built about 20 years ago and is very beautiful. We were invited to join neighbors celebrating New Years. We tried rice whiskey, sat on mats and conversed. It was a great experience. Some of the group stayed until 2 AM! The next morning on New Years Day we went to the local temple to give alms. People brought rice and other food gifts.

The Thai House website: http://www.thaihouse.co.th/home.htm

The entrance to the Thai house.

One of the upstairs rooms.

Every Thai house has a Spirit House mounted on a pillar outside the main house. More Hindu than Buddhist, Spirit Houses are miniature houses for the spirits and offerings are made to them. Here is the Spirit House outside the Thai teak house.

Elizabeth eating fruit for dessert. Notice the beautiful (and delicious!) tropical fruit in the basket!

Penelope with Noi, our tour leader, the morning after a long night of drinking.

Taking alms into the temple.

Tables laden with food gifts inside the temple.

Noi and Nicola outside the temple. Nicola was always smoking and taking photos!

We went into a small temple next to the large one. Here we lit incense, left flowers and said prayers for the new year.

The monks live in a complex next to the temple. Here they wait in line to enter the temple where they chant prayers.

Saying goodbye to the three sisters who manage the Thai teak house. Noi is still recovering from New Years Eve!

The recent Thai flood, the worst in fifty years…the Thai teak house was flooded for three months. The only way to get around was by boat. The suburbs of Bangkok were hit the worst because the government focused on protecting the inner city.

We went by long-tail boat on the klongs (canals) of Bangkok to return to our starting hotel. We passed canal houses that were lined with high-water marks from the flooding.

This teak house was half-way submerged during the flooding. Notice the watermark.

Many canal-side temples were flooded. The water is still high.

After the tour ended I went to the weekend market in Bangkok. On the way back to the hotel in a taxi I saw this monitor lizard creeping out of the bushes! At first I thought it was a crocodile because I read that crocodiles escaped from a farm during the flooding.

During WWII the Japanese wanted to establish a supply route to Myanmar and India. Using prisoners of war and Asian laborers the ‘death railway’ was built under extreme conditions and many people died, around 100,000 Asian laborers and 16,000 POWs. We visited Hell Fire Pass, a difficult railway cutting through rock where many died.

A view of part of the cut taken from above.

A view along the track area to give a sense of scale.

We visited the museum at the site and I was moved of course. Many veterans and their families have returned to the site. Here is a ceramic ‘Peace Vessel’ made by a former Australian POW installed at the museum. May we all be at peace. May all wounds be healed.

Beautiful Penelope, my roommate.

After the visit to Hell Fire Pass we took the train on the railway built by the POWs to Kanchanaburi where it crosses over the Kwai river, the site of the famous bridge over the River Kwai that was bombed during the war.

On the train overlooking the River Kwai.

The inside of the train.

A huge Kwan Yin statue overlooks the Kwai River Bridge. This is the only female statue that I have seen in Thailand.

At the Kanchanaburi train station we were picked up by rickshaw drivers, a disappearing workforce in Thailand. The drivers were mostly in their 70s! Here is a photo of a family on a motorbike that I took while I was seated in a rickshaw.

Penelope in her rickshaw being walked up the rise of a bridge.

The ‘new’ concrete bridge over the River Kwai.

We stayed at Apple’s Questhouse in Kanchanaburi. We relaxed a bit, had massages and took another rickshaw ride to a small market where I bought two sarongs.

The morning of the fourth day of the tour we took a Songtaew 1 hour to a Karen village, TiPuYe. The Karen people originated in Burma. We watched a “Karen Dance’ performed by a beautiful group of girls. Then we visited a classroom of young children who sang a song for us. We gave them gifts of fruit and played games. They were beautiful children!

A beautiful Karen girl dancing.

Young children watching the dance from the classroom entrance.

Some beautiful photos of the Karen children in the classroom:

After the dance and classroom visit we toured the village which is totally self-sustaining. Americans can learn from this tribe! The Queen supports traditional silk weaving in this village (pays the women a salary then sells the weavings in a Bangkok store). We had a Thai-Kare lunch which was simple and delicious.

We then traveled to Thong Pha Phum, a 40 minute drive from the village, and checked into our next lodging. Afterward we hiked up a local hilltop to visit a temple and see the view. I was huffing and puffing a bit!

The local temple. In the distance on top of the hill is another temple, the one we visited.

A beautiful green Buddha.

To get to the temple we walked across a suspension bridge that roller-coasted up and down as we walked like a bunch of drunks.

We rose early the next morning to take alms to the monks. We stood outside this restaurant and offered rice, curry and bananas to the monks. It was a moving experience for me. The monks were so humble and light. They are not allowed to earn money so they ‘beg’ for everything. The locals feed them and contribute to the upkeep of the temples.

I decided to do another Intrepid tour. This time an 8 day trip to west-central Thailand. We explored remote and rural areas. It was a journey through limestone mountains to the border of Myanmar (Burma). We also visited historic WWII monuments, Karen and Mon villages and offered early morning alms to monks.

My roommate was lovely Penelope, a Greek Cypriot living in Rome and raised in London. I meet the most interesting people traveling! She was on the tour with her friends, Elizabeth and Nicola, from Naples. It was good luck to have them on the tour and I enjoyed their company immensely.

We spent the night in Bangkok and headed west the next morning with our guide Noi. After changing buses in Kanchanaburi and nearing our overnight stop in Sangkhlaburi, our bus broke down in a mountainous area. Having experience with broken buses, I headed out to the nearby lake to take photos accompanied by Nicola and Penelope.

Nicola taking a photo of a pineapple plant.

Our broken bus.

Nicola showing a little girl a photo he took of her.

After a few hours the bus was running again and we made our way to P Guesthouse overlooking Khao Laem lake.

The group took a boat ride on the beautiful lake the next morning.

We passed underneath a wooden bridge.

Explored a submerged temple. The lake was created by damming a large valley. When the dam was filled villages were inundated including a large temple.

Drove past beautiful cliffs.

And swamped land.

And up a river way to a Karen village.

Where the group was to go on an elephant ride.

Here’s Penelope perched on top of her elephant.

I couldn’t bear the thought of riding an elephant after my experience at the Elephant Nature Park so I stayed behind in the village with Noi, our tour guide. After the group returned from the elephant riding we were served a lunchmof fried rice and pineapple.

A view of the home of the village headman.

After returning to P Guesthouse we took a Songtaew to Three Pagodas Pass which is located on the Thai-Myanmar ( Burma) border. We looked across the checkpoint gate into Burma then browsed in the adjacent local market after a sweet iced coffee.

The location of Three Pagodas Pass in Thailand.

This woman and her two boys were sitting in the shade at the side of the road near the border. The two boys’ faces were covered with a white substance. Our guide told us that the white face is considered beautiful and protects them from the sun.

Later we visited Wat Wangvivegaram and walked across the longest wooden bridge in Thailand.

Wat Wangvivegaram. This Mon Wat (temple) was rebuilt in the 90s on a hillside overlooking the old valley after the original was submerged by dam water. The unique structure mimics a temple in Sri Lanka.

That night a group of us visited Baan Unrak orphanage outside the town. Didi, the founder, looks after 130 abandoned children. The Thai-Burma border has a lot of social problems. Refugees from Burma face discrimination, poverty and abuse. We went on a tour and afterward sat on the floor to watch a show given by the children which included a juggler, dancers and singers. A little girl sat next to me and asked to use my camera. She took photo after photo and seems to be a budding photographer!

Please visit the orphanage website. Baan Unrak is supported by the Intrepid Foundation and we gave a donation which was matched by Intrepid.

http://www.baanunrak.org/

this photo was copied from their website. “Didi (on the right) started the home with her Norwegian friend Oddrun Skare in 1991, both of them full-time volunteers for the Neo-Humanist organization.”

The budding photographer.

Lovely Luang Prabang! I miss you! Vientiane is a drab cousin. I spent three nights in the capital including Christmas Day. I had a nice French dinner Christmas evening and raised a glass of wine to all of my loved ones. I was happy to leave on Dec 26 to fly to Bangkok.

The Laos and communist flags flying on the bank of the Mekhong River which marks the border between Laos and Thailand.

Breakfast on the balcony of my room.

The bungalow at Sala Inpeng where I stayed in Vientiane.

There was a beautiful temple complex nearby. This is the main gate.

While in Luang Prabang I stayed at a wonderful guesthouse managed by a smiling and generous Mr Wong. I also had the good fortune to meet up with friends from Bisbee, Kate and Grady.

Mr Wong and Joel, an American staying at the guesthouse. The three of us had drinks together on a terrace overlooking the river. The guesthouse is in the back.

Kate and Grady at the night food market. We had a wonderful meal for $1.25.

The three of us at the Night Market.

I LOVED Luang Prabang. I loved the magical, civilized beauty of it. I loved my wonderful, lovely guesthouse. I loved the sound of the monks chanting in the temples at sunset. I loved the Night Market, the arts and crafts, the sweet people with the soft smiles. I loved the politeness, the beauty of the trees and flowers and rivers, the wats, the light.

I met up with Kate and Grady from Bisbee. They had traveled from Chiang Mai on the slow boat and arrived after three days in Luang Prabang. We spent two nights together exploring the night market and eating in the night food market. It was lovely to spend time with them again. Warm wishes my friends for a safe and wonderful journey until we meet again in Bisbee next year.

I visited a small, old temple located on top of a hill in a village across the Mekhong river from Luang Prabang. The temple, or Wat, had an amazing, powerful energy in it. It touched my heart.

I hired a fisherman to take me south on the Mekhong river. We went, the two of us, in a boat similar to this one.

We stopped at a small village. A group of children were playing in the water and they let me take a photo.

Traffic on the river.

At the end of the day many villagers bathe in the river.

We set off on the river at daybreak. Here is a photo looking south.

Each village seems to have a small temple.

And a monk.

Who can resist the faces of children! These live in the most southern village that we visited where tourists rarely go.

Headed toward the shore and our boat after visiting a village.

My boatman, the fisherman.