koh tao (take 2)

so after massage class i wanted to spend my last days on the beach and doing some more diving. ideally i would have gone to Phuket and Koh Pi Pi, but the monsoon had brought poor visibility to the adaman sea. so i trucked it to koh tao and did some serious diving. i took an overnight bus, and my iPod was stolen out of the cargo hold. apparently they must have had someone down there going through bags while everyone slept. thieving bastards. it was a tourist bus, as opposed to my tibetian busride, so i guess it was a target. it was one of the only times i didn't carry things like that directly on my person. bummer.

anyway, koh tao did not disappoint. despite being dumb and getting a bad sunburn the first day, everything was spectacular. the visibility was really good and i saw a 6ft reef shark at one point, massive barracuda, squid, crabs, and even the cutest little yellow box fish at shark rock, one of the best dives ever. pictures here.

and now, its time to go home.

thai massage class

i just returned from 12 days in a hilltribe village learning thai massage (pictures here). it was beautiful - the monsoon season brought towering bamboo and lush greenery everywhere. it was tough - we practised 6 hours a day. i had to fend off yet another bug with fever and diaharea. but the class was great. the village was a lahu village ( aminority formerly from, of all places, tibet) and the german who founded the school had recently died. daily i was able to practice yoga and meditation as well as learn massage. we ate very simple (and sometimes awfully plain) vegetarian meals 3 times a day. i woke at 6 everyday to practice yoga. unfortunately, being in a hilltribe is very loud. pigs, dogs, chickens, cats, rats - they're all constantly fighting and making noise at all hours. but it was really great, and not surprisingly thai massage is an art that requires a huge amount of practice and understanding. it was interesting to see that the same issues i deal with in my yoga and meditation practice came up in my massage practice as well. i'm excited to continue studying and practicing, but for now, i'm going to get a massage myself and eat some meat. Pictures here!

villa incognito

by tom robbins. this book is hilarious. i resonated with the book because its about 3 vietnam MIAs who go missing in Laos and decided they wanted to stay missing. now that i know i'm headed home, i'm already missing the culture, the food, the weather. the book is about Bangkok, Laos, Japan, and American culture. It was excellent, but it ended a bit abruptly i thought. a glimpse of America through Japanese eyes:

Your country [America] seems to have everything and yet has almost nothing. Its unbelievable. In that vast, beautiful, powerful land of unprecedented abundance live some of the most unhappy people on earth. Oh, generally speaking, they complement all that affluence by being generous and energetic and, except for the ruling class - which is wormy with evil like ruling classes everywhere - rather decent. But they're chronically depressed and dissatisfied. Chronically.