Monday, July 14, 2014
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Chang Mai, Thailand :: June 2009 :: teaching yoga, studying massage & lots & lots of amazing food & markets!
teaching yoga, studying massage & lots & lots of amazing food!
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Chang Mai pics |
Monday, April 27, 2009
My 2nd visit to Thailand January to July 2009.

My 2nd visit to Thailand January to July 2009.
So, I havnt written much lately as I was offline for most of the teachers training. Was actually very nice to be online only 1 hour a week or so. More time to enjoy LIFE before the internet. Getting to know new friends, snorkeling the coral reef zones near my bungalow & hanging out with the colorful fishees, reading good books & sitting in hammocks for many hours! I even invented a new yoga asana , "Hammockasana" ...the pose of the hammock! Enlightenment gauranteed!
The teachers training was incredibly life-changing experience! I mean really, can you imagine going to daily practice & lectures for 4 hours morning & another 4 hours+ in the evening for yoga 2-3 hours each class (including pranayama, meditation) and lectures, plus other meetings, videos, etc...6 DAYS A WEEK! Our life in between was a hustle to do errands, eat & study. No free-time for other stuff really. But WOWSERS...what a journey! This type of yoga intensive is well known for not only purifying & strengthening the physical body, but activating the prana (what chinese call 'chi', japanese 'ki'...the life-force), stabilizing the mind to deep states of peace & equanimity, and harmonizing & healing the emotional body. A pledge we signed for no alcohol or drugs this time for cleansing the bodies completely. All of us ate yogi diets (vegetarian, some vegan, lots of raw food, thai curry vegetable tofus, etc.). Apparently there are before & after photos of each of us 20 in the TTC on Jason Milne's Facebook page (our main teacher) and you can really see the difference! Growth in the right direction! Health & Happiness.
By the 2nd month some of us were so ready for some NON-YOGA things...like dance parties! Although I swore I would not DJ while doing TTC to totally absorb myself into yoga immersion, I could not resist the offers. They needed me! It was apparent the 2nd week, when they had an Indian themed performance art piece & dance party...with no music for it! So, i hopped on the Agama Yoga dj bandwagon & found myself doing 1-2 parties a month, playing my style of "Beats Without Borders" global electronica mostly. We did have a few smaller beach hut parties , one a Funk party, the other a Gypsy/Balkan Beats party where i played those styles. What fun people to dance & party with!
After the TTC, a few of us started teaching at Agama. I was feeling like waiting until June to teach Agama (as its very challenging style & need to integrate more), so I taught a very small class of 1-8 people , 6 mornings at Monte Vista Healing Center. A gentle Hatha Yoga class that was my first 'real' teaching of yoga. I liked it much more than teaching English (just cant do that anymore, unless its with smiling Buddha Tibetan young adults like in Dharamsala, India).
There was an extracurricalar Tantra 1 workshop I went to April 1-5th. It was very very informative about how to enhance your sex life 10x. 100x. 1000x. The ancient art of tantric love-making explained in 30-40 hours in detail. Wow. Didnt know it could be that good. Another new spiritual path to study & practice! Really, it makes sex a spiritual path, with goal of actually raising Kundalini in methodical manner to reach towards Enlightenment/Nirvana/Samadhi/Enrapture & deeper states of daily bliss, ecstasy & real happiness, healing the self & even sending out healing energy to others. much more but come do for yourself if interested. The books out there these days have too many errors & misinterpretations of THE WAY. Our main yoga school founder, Swami Vivekananda really knows what he is teaching as he's practiced 'fanatically' since he was 19 or so (25+ years). I have decided to bring Swami to host this workshop in Maui next October 13-18th. I hope it will be successful & people can really get inspired from this too.
My plan is to stay here on the island one more month taking it easy mostly. Reading lots of books, sitting in the ole hammock, swimming & watching movies from my new super-patio view home. Still doing month 7 of Agama Yoga lessons, but only 2x a week so lots of freetime. Just signed up for another type of yoga & massage 7 day intensive course which i'm real excited about...and its at Pyramid Yoga on the mountain i live on (5 minute walk)! only $200 for 7 days of learning Abdominal Chi Massage, Anasara Hatha Yoga (lots of partner poses, heart opening focus), and 14 vegetarian meals included! What a bargain!
At this moment I am on day 5 of a 7 day detox colon cleanse/fast. Holy smokes! I never thought i'd do this!!! Well, "maybe when i was older was my excuse." Or, "I've been a healthy vegetarian organic food eating guy since 1994, no need." But man...I talked to many many people here who thought the same. They did it anyway as the testimonials are abundant that it is a very positive healthy thing to do. So, i'm doing it! Yikes! My energy has been fluctuating like a roller coaster ride, up & down, highs & lows! Today, mostly lows. Havnt left the patio all day. Thats why i'm finally finishing these Blogs! All i can say is my highs have been really high. Feeling light at times & people remarking "your shining" several times that exact phrase. OK, when i'm done i hope to be shining more often! I have 'lightened up' a bit too much though in my opinion. Maybe 10 pounds so far & i was feeling totally healthy normal weight of 150lbs lean mean peaceful machine male weight before, but now 140 & looking a bit skinny. Oh well, I will gain it back, & have fun doing it! Food, Food, Food! Oh how I/We LOVE food huh?!? The ultimate attachment. I will be taking a Thai food cooking class at some point! Mmmm....
better not talk about it more right now! I'm drooling...
They say to think of it as "It's gonna be fun gaining back that weight, in a healthy way!"
And speaking of health "Cleansing the colon of wastes and accumutaled mucous and faecal matter is perhaps the single most positive thing a person could do for their health. The colon is the waste bucket of the body, and hence keeping it clean will help to ensure your body runs smoothly and efficiently."
But, if you want to know more about this kind of purification of the body temple done by colonics & how it can give great boosts in health, wellbeing, clarity, energy & deeper connection to the Self, check out the testimony of the man that started Orion Healing Center (where i'm doing it):
http://www.orionhealing.com/ourvision.html
But seriously, I was going to talk alot about personal experiences with this full system of Yoga, but I think i'll just say a few words & keep a low profile on the personal journey. Feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding Yoga & this school (www.AgamaYoga.com).
As for other things non-Yoga (which at this point me & most of us here are craving!)...i'd like to talk politics of all things. Things are heating up with the Thai redshirt protesters in Bangkok with 2 tanks being seized by them on April 12th (hey, my birthday, i should have been partying on those tanks with them)! Trying to oust the current prime-minister isnt easy! Besides that I am writing about other topics such as global changes/worldshift 2012 manifesto, obama nation & his speech to congress which sounds promising & other more philosophical ideas about life, progress, security & success. You can read that blog with link to video of the tank party & other real informative sites:
http://emptythemindnow.blogspot.com/
Trust me...you gotta read up on at least the WorldShift 2012 :: State of Global Emergency, and Obamas speech. Lots of hope & fear in the air! Choose HOPE!
Bless Bliss , Be Loved, Beloved & Enjoy The Universe,
Adrian ::
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thailand :: 2nd visit Jan/June 2009
My 2nd visit to Thailand January to July 2009.
I'm here this time on a mission mainly to study at the Agama Yoga school on Koh Phangon (tropical island in south), do their 3 month yoga teachers training intensive, stick around the island another 2 months (total of 5 on the island) studying the complete 8 limbs of Yoga (the original Yoga, before being turned into gymnastics by Westerners consists of Yama, Niyama, Asanas, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Concentration, Meditation, Samadhi). So, there's lots to learn & focusing on learning this from probably one of the best schools in the world, bringing back the ancient true forms of the complete Hatha Yoga system. They also teach health, healing, tao, tantric sexuality, diet, cleansings, Tibetan studies, lucid dreaming, mantras, & more. Not getting bored here, as each class is a new lecture, video & pamphlet. This school offers 5+ years of the above mentioned system of kundalini tantric based Hatha Yoga. After 9 months in India & checking out many schools there, not to mention back home, & seeking online, i'm grateful for finding this school in Rishikesh, studying some in Vancouver, and now coming to the source of the action, their main school here in Thailand where a great community of over 100 yogi's in training gather, share food, have dance parties, potlucks, meditation retreats, workshops on everything you can imagine, and yes....do Yoga together! Really feels like a 2nd home here!
But let me back up to the first few days I spent in Bangkok. What an ancient Asian labrynth that place is!
It's been 7 years already since the first time here back in Feb/March 2002. Man...i forgot whata lovely place Thailand is! Kind people, beautiful temples & all things exotic & different from what us westerners are used to. Bangkok was again a fun mysterious flow of temples, riverboats, KohSan Road tourist trinkets & the oasis guesthouse, Shanti Lodge. Same Same as 2002, but different. Thats what they say here in their broken English, "Same, same - but different!" I did alot of the same things this time in Bangkok, but somehow it was like a totally new experience. This place continues to intrigue me.
I arrived in Bangkok 6pm December 29th, 2008 after about 42 hours journey from Maui! That consisted of a plane leaving Maui late at midnight, spending the night sleeping on a cement bench (good thing i brought my yoga mat!) at an unusually quite & calm Honolulu Internaitional Airport (where I chained all of my bags up together & slept a decent 5 hours). I woke up & caught the 7am China Airlines long 12 hour flight to Taipei, with a quick transfer to another China Airlines 4 hour flight to Bangkok, arriving to the metropolis about 5pm. From the airport I caught the Airport Express shuttle (only $5, 150baht) one hour to Khoa San road, and then a local tuk tuk (motorcycle covered wagons - called rickshaws in India) to Shanti guesthouse in Thewet area.
Shazaam! I was thouroughly pooped after that, but managed to have a full power first day checking out the many big temples nearby. The first thing I noticed about being back in Thailand is the spirit of these people. Very light-hearted, kind, gentle, smiling people. A people that are over 90% Buddhist - which means most pray daily for world peace/inner peace, with many meditating regularly, visiting temples for offerings of incense, flowers & prayers for their health, wealth, family & the world. When I changed money at the airport I saw the woman working there do a prayer with palms together (called a wai, same gesture as Namaste in India) & eyes closed before beginning work that morning. When I went to the bank to cash a US $100 bill the next day, a tear came to my eye as the bank teller woman did the "wai" bow to me & the glimmer in her eye shined bright with peace & happiness. The Asian Thai spirit is strong! It is so amazing to be in such a big city such as Bangkok (7.5 million people) and hardly anybody honking (unlike India, and America for that matter!!!). The people hardly even harassed me to purchase things as I experienced in many other countries ("hey friend, want to buy silk scarf"). There is great respect for personal space here. Well, except when you are in a dense over-filled market, filled with people shopping through dozens of baskets of food things you've never seen before, many unidentifiable such as seafood (mostly still alive!) and vegetables that may as well be from another planet! I never cease to be mesmerized by the exotic and sometimes downright yucky aromas of these food markets (well, its the huge piles of fish that gets to ya).
The first morning, I took a riverboat down the Chao Phraya river. How fun! Many people get around by these boats for less than 50cents a ride. It was about a 15 minute ride from Thewet area of Shanti Guesthouse to the grand palace & main temple district. So, me, the farang (foreigner) I am, six feet 3 inches high, towered above the average Thai person, and Thai entrances! Ducking down carefully everywhere I go! I went to this one temple to meditate & ran into a happy-go-lucky tuk tuk driver who took me to about 4 different sites for free. Well, not exactly free - he received 300 baht for taking me to 3 different tourist traps (each only 2 minute stop - a custom suit shop, travel agent & jewelry shop). It really made his day...he was laughing & ecstatic for making an extra days wage (i think average day wage here is about $5). We went to Gold Mountain (incredible panaramic view of entire Bangkok), Marble temple (of course these are the western names for these unpronounceable Thai names) & Standing Buddha (100 foot high standing buddha that people prayed to). The Happy Buddha temple was closed. But I was still happy! Here you will see some photos of that adventure. Overwhelmed with beauty & respect for the intricate art that went into making these humongous temples! Deep respect for the people who are devoted to the path of peace & prayer in this Buddhist tradition.
Me & my new job as a "Tuk Tuk" taxi driver! Well, just think, some of your are so gullible you think i'm serious about this!?!
Hawaii :: grand finale of 16 month trip
Hawaii :: checking it out to see if I want to move here. my 3rd visit to this magical land of beaches, bamboo forests, waterfalls oh my!
for my grand finale of this 15 month global adventure i spent my last month in Hawaii, on Maui with a good ole friend Mattius, who hosted us, and my dad. For my dads 60th birthday present i flew him over to spend 3 weeks with us. This trip was also to sess out Maui & Hawaii & make sure I want to move there next year. at first I had many big intentions for all sorts of activities to fill the days, but I slowly began to understand "maui time" & let go of the agendas. enjoying this time became more about being rather than doing. Mattius has been living in this deluxe yurt that is run off solar power. This is exactly what i intend to manifest! I love these yurts! A yurt combined with a wooden eco-home such as offered by this company: www.mandalahomes.net\ would be ideal & affordable sustainable natural living! He has wireless internet, a nice kitchen, plenty of space for living. but with 3 of us there it got to be a little tight at times.
Daily we feasted on the fresh bananas, papayas & avocados growing in his front yard. how cosmic to have your fruit growing in front of you! i could get used to this...
My dad & I went on a few touristy expeditions. we went on a snorkeling boat trip to Molokini reefs & Turtle Town. I swam about 5 feet from a huge turtle that didnt really pay me much attention (he was probably thinking "yeah, yeah...i've seen thousands of you guys" and i was thinking "wow! second time i've swam with a turtle!"). lots of colorful tropical fish too of course! The other big trip we did was a sunset dinner cruise. This was free because we went to a time-share presentation. Other highlights were hiking in a big bamboo forest, swimming in a waterfall pool at Twin Falls, Spreckelsville beach, HoOkipa point watching the surfers, Little Beach 2 visits, boogieboarding 2x...and seeing Willie Nelson play at Charlies , which was a smaller unannounced show! he lives there half the year & likes to just stop in every now & then.
"on the road again, i just cant wait to get back on the road again."
good way to end my trip...someday i will move to Hawaii, even if just for a year. must be done...
JAPAN #1 :: November 2007 :: 6 action-packed days/5 late nights
JAPAN :: 6 action-packed days/5 late nights
I finally made it to Japan! Since a young child I have idealized aspects of their culture such as ninjas, martial arts, the samurai strength & willpower. Later I grew fond of their Zen Buddhism, temples, art, architecture & history. Japan, a land where many samurais once roamed, now replaced by business men in black suits who seek a different kind of power. Most things have changed into a post-post-modern futurism of digital buildings & consumerist culture that for me was overwhelming. But…some things never change. The rice, bamboo & seafood are still abundant. The old wisdom within their culture remains, and can be understood if you are an observant outsider.
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Coming from total of 10 months in India & Nepal, two of the poorest countries in the world to Japan, one of the richest was again another cultural shockwave. My 6 day visit was short, but action-packed & full of good times & interesting people, thanks to new friend and fellow music freak Risa. Thanks to her I saw 3 music shows (2 for free on guestlist), went to Thanksgiving big dinner in Yokohama, a sleepover & BBQ in Kamakura surfing community & I met many of her music business friends who were all my kinda people…fellow music fanatics. Thank you Risa for giving me the red carpet style tour of your area! The first day in Tokyo I went on a walk & subway to Shibuya, right to the heart of Babylon central shopping district where thousands of fashionable and well employed youth were out shopping as usual. The crowds were interesting to me as I people watched & compared to India/Nepal big cities. So much money in this country! Probably more than all 1.2 billion + of India/Nepal combined in this small country! These people are all rich…my goodness are they rich compared to 80% of the world that lives in poverty! Yen power! Shop shop shoppin’ til your droppin’! I didn’t see anybody in all of Tokyo that wasn’t wearing new designer clothes & sparkling clean (you know Japanese have history of taking daily baths & clean clothes & when foreigners first came over on ships, and today, we were quite stinky & dirty to them). I went to a music store & checked out all the latest gear (I havnt looked at new stuff since I left last year). Wooo…a new KAOS pad…cool! I didn’t go to “Electric Town” where most technology/electronic gear is sold. Not really in the mood to buy. Just here to observe & have fun & meet people! After Shibuya went to Japanese Garden & park to rest, had picnic including that little bottle of wine I stashed from airplane! That night, Risa took me to a huge 10+ band/djs show at the main arena for sumo wrestling, which rarely has music shows. Got there a little late for dj Krush so only caught his last 2 minutes of sound effects outro madness. The rest of the music was not so appealing to me/us so we left to a techno future funk night her friend organizes at a little club. I was uber-tired but managed not to fall asleep standing up, barely! (should have drinken some coffee). Met some more music friends, & I dug the retro Herbie Hancock techno remix tracks that were most definitely funky & to my liking! Finally after almost 2 nights of no sleep (airplane, then this) we went home around 3:30am. Good intro to Tokyo yo!
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black is the color of choice. dressed to impress like a rolls royce. slave to the fashion, and the money you don’t save. you better not show emotions & be well-behaved. if you focus mostly on material your heart grows cold. missing out on simple things in life & then you grow old. where is the love & big smiles wide?
maybe I will go search the old countryside…
That’s very judgemental yes, but what can I say. poetry in motion.
heck, I too like wearing black, spend money freely, and am trying to not show my emotions as us westerners do. The asian way is more introverted and revolves around saving face (meaning not showing negative emotions in public or you ‘lose face’!), instead of freely expressing your emotions like us westerners have from the beginning of time (“adam, your a fucking jerk!” , “hey eve, go to hell!”). There must be a compromise in between the two ways.
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Expressing some in healthy way and therefore not repressing emotions, but not getting out of control. I know in my recent life (these travels) I have begun a quest to control my emotions through yogic exercises such as deep breathing/pranayama, uddhiyana bhanda & other asanas, & just being aware & controlling the mind from being negative & wasting energy.
Hard work but worth the battle, the internal battle, the mind
is your greatest enemy, ya know?
I could not believe how quiet & still nearly everybody was on the trams/subways after noisy husting & bustling India!!! Polar opposites! Here space is respected & everybody is so sensitive!
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When you sit down next to somebody they get a little nervous & move. In India you were crammed 3 or 4 into a normal 2 seat
space in a bus & nobody budged. Indians held hands, laughed,
talked the entire way every single bus I went on…alive…living
fully with what they have…friendship, open-hearts & conversation. Talking the latest Bollywood or Hindi pop music or relationship gossip. I’m sure there is another warmer livelier side
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to Japanese public life that I just did not see. Maybe at their homes, weddings & parties things get looser? Heck, I was only there less than a week so I am no expert on this ancient culture & their modern ways.
Next day, Friday November 23rd…Thanksgiving dinner at her friends in Yokohama (the place I’ve been reading in two Shogun
books – where the foreigners first built a settlement near Tokyo in 1800’s). Now, not so many foreigners. Actually most days the places I went I was the only foreigner in site! I kept noticing how much this tall blond guy with red beard & old faded traveling clothes must look in comparison to them. I stood out, but I’m used to it now after 15 months abroad. While at the dinner party I asked Risa’s friends where I could go to see the poorer neighborhoods, ghettos, homeless & drug addicts of Tokyo…but nobody knew. Guess everybody is rich in this place! They were surprised that I did not eat any turkey & I explained my 99% vegetarian diet last 12 years & that really I am not fully vegetarian but ‘pescatarian’ (seafood eating) as I believe that works for me. I ate lots of stuffing and some fish. To this point I had not drank alcohol in over 3 months and have been purely vegetarian since Europe when I last had some fish here & there. I love seafood, “when I see food I eat it! when I seafood, I eat it!” I lost about 15 pounds in India and am looking like a skinny, but healthy yogi these days. I don’t mind so much as I know I rid myself of many many toxins with that 300 hours of yoga & a few cleansing techniques, but…now I would like to gain back that weight in a healthy muscle building
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& diet of more pasta, seafood etc…(got any other weight gain tricks for me???) That night, stayed night in nearby Kamakura,
a very cool beach town/surfing mecca smaller community nearby.
Stayed at Mikee’s, guy part of Cynic Records and that funky techno night. I felt him a fellow kindred spirit musician friend. His music studio & little home with ocean view balcony was very inspiring (see picture). This is what I crave & will manifest soon…someday soon I hope, inshallah! A place to call home for long-term that is near ocean, lots of hardwood, big windows, a good space for music studio, record collection, zen space, silence,
and creating a harmonious home. Ahhhh….how this traveler now yearns for that. Funny huh, we always want what we don’t have.
Maybe I’ll get that & then want to travel again someday, but at least I want a foundation to go back to. Am I ready to buy a house
or should I just keep renting nice spaces like this…? Time will tell. Little 7 year old daughter Nina playful in the morning. We all went for a walk to show me some temples & the beach on our way to the BBQ / Buffalo record label cozy day lunch party. Surfers everywhere around here. I like this place! Surfing & music. The simple life…this is it!
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5th day I went to Asakusa to see big Shozeiji Temple area. Impressive! Except for the 100’s of stores & market stalls surrounding it peddling products to tourists (can you tell that I am sick of all this consumerism, especially the cheesy plastic tourist crap?). But heh, I couldn’t find a calendar of zen/japan nature but found some postcard art that style. then I got the heck out of the market & went into old japan style…the temple. Offered a yen coin , clapped 2x & prayed as is custom. Walked around & took more pictures than a Japanese of these old style buildings (they were bombed out in WWII and rebuilt after, so not fully authentic). After walked down to riverside park and had sushi picnic on bench and lo & behold…there was a homeless person!
I gave him some sushi & he was like “Ahhh…tank you very much!” It’s rude to eat in front of people with no food so it felt right to share. His smile was golden! After I went to Harajuku,
and again there the next day. Here is supposed to be a more hip area. There were a few street vendor artists selling on the streets that I talked to…I think that makes a ‘hip’ town if there is original art & vendors that are allowed to sell without getting hassled. 2nd day I came back to see the Emperor’s shrine & temple park area which was another nice rebuilt old style temple grounds that has been occupied & a place to pray since around the year 600 AD I think.
When leaving Japan at Tokyo Narita airport the Japan Airlines check-in employee asked “Do you have anything fragile inside?”
I replied, “Yes, my heart!”