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25 Dec 2018

Bangkok, Thailand – December 19 – 24, 2018

by Maurice | posted in: Adventure, Cooking Advice, Photos, Sabbatical | 0

During the last 3+ months of my travel through India and Nepal I was staying at Airbnb’s of families who were cooking daily for the family and making regular trips to the markets for fresh food. I participated in purchasing food and in the preparation. I was lucky that the family had “staff” there to clean after the meals. The hospitality is a little different in the Airbnb culture here in Bangkok. People are renting their spaces and do not engage much with their guests, providing food and companionship as I have experienced in the past. Every culture has its different way of engaging with tourists (more on this later).

Everywhere I was staying, I made sure I experienced the street food, the most popular foods in the area and the local markets in all the places I was staying. I wanted to see the real cultural foods in the areas and learn how to cook them. In India, I learned what a “curry” is and the differences from the north and the south and why they are different. I learned how simple cooking Indian food really is and how complex I was making it when I was trying to teach myself back in the USA.

Now it’s time for Thailand. By the way… yes, I am seeing the city, some of the major attractions and some of the temples and I will write about them later. It’s just that the local traditions, food culture and Buddhism is way more interesting to me…

Woah! … Things are MUCH cleaner here. Street food is WAY more sanitary in this part of Asia than in India and Nepal. Cleanliness is next to godliness, oh yea! I’ve been eating like crazy since I’ve been here. Fresh fruit juices – Passion-fruit, orange, guava with NO sugar added YAYYY! Pad Thai every day. I want to learn “curry” from Thailand. Greed, Red, Yellow and Masaman curry and how those pastes are made and noodles… one of my favorite things. Where to learn?

I was learning from the locals in India and Nepal… and I want to learn from the locals here.

In Bangkok… in the big city… well… that’s not really happening. There are plenty of commercial and professional classes for big money but that’s not what I want to be doing. I do have a couple of leads here I’m following here in Bangkok though. I have a possible lead with someone who provides lunches for business people. Sort of like a personal chef. We shall see where that goes. I think that when I go up north in Chaing Mai there will be more opportunity. We shall see.

In the meantime, I’m visiting the markets. OH, MY, GOD… the food. The good, clean and absolutely gorgeous food. Watching them make fresh coconut milk. The live fish and prawns in tanks. All the Thai ingredients… the curry pastes, fruits/veg, rice noodles/papers… all fresh fresh fresh!!! WOW! I want to buy everything and cook. Yet, I’m not sure what to do with some of it. I’m trying to have patience and investigate where I can go and learn and to create what I want. Patience young Jedi!

I decided on Saturday to go to the Chatuchak weekend market. One of the largest markets in the world. It’s a little funny for me to go because I’m not really a shopper, I just wanted to see the hoopla. What I didn’t know what that across the street was Or Tor Kor, rated one of the best fresh markets in the world that I just stumbled across. After only two days in Thailand it was wonderful to walk through and see all the local items. The problem was that nobody spoke English. I spent about an hour trying to see who might speak English to no avail. On my way out of the market I stopped to look inside a shop and low and behold someone spoke English. That’s where I found my first possible contact to learn authentic thai cooking.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a day for the books. I met a Thai local who invited to take me to the morning market (6am) at Wat Klang Bang Kaew and the Lam Phaya floating market in Nakhon Pathom about a 60-90min drive from Bangkok. I was getting some really funny looks from the locals, being the only “white” person around… I was even looking for other “white westerners” and couldn’t find any except for a moment when one tour came through the floating market in the afternoon. I was getting what I wanted, a real local experience. I got some major lessons from a Thai local about Buddhism, why the locals buy live fish from the market and them release them back into the water, and some of the local foods. There was a little language barrier and we used google translate to try to bridge that gap.

Once again… all I wanted to do is buy everything and eat everything. If I ever wanted to have a bulimic eating disorder it was this day. From 6am it was food everything. Starting with a traditional bowl of Thai breakfast… porridge, meatballs, liver, poached egg, pork belly and something crispy on top. Thai charcuterie, sweets, and, yes, more pad thai. We took a boat ride down the river and it was narrated in Thai and because of the language barrier with my new friends, I did not get any of it. Oh well ????.

I had a few moments during this day where I felt I was in some kind of dreamland. To be in this place, with these people, being treated so kindly, around all of these fabulous foods… I had gone to heaven. Of all the countries I have visited in the world so far… I think I found the place I could easily live.

I’ve been here in Bangkok for 5 days and its now Christmas. I’m exhausted. My feet hurt from walking 10-15km a day. I need a different pair of walking shoes; my keens just aren’t cutting it for this amount of walking. And this morning I’m going to Khlong Toei, yet another morning market with my host family to purchase the food we will be cooking tonight for a traditional Thai Christmas dinner. Stay tuned…

Merry Christmas 2018!

18 Dec 2018

What I learned after 3-months in Nepal and India

by Maurice | posted in: Adventure, Personal Growth, Photos, Sabbatical, Spiritual, The Human Condition | 0

There’s no doubt… when I was first planning this adventure I had fear in me… and other people were scared for me and had no problem communicating that to me… and some are still even scared for me. What I can tell you is that I have been able to adapt to a different way of being. Yup… when you are out of your element, removed from your own personally created creature comforts of home and place yourself in a different culture there is no choice but to adapt to a new way of being and even a new way of thinking. I would like to call it, yielding… yielding to myself and my attachment to things needing to be a certain way in order for me to be happy.

Reflecting (by writing) on my past with the intention of learning truth out of my experiences is something I have been practicing for many years. This is something I feel strongly about even in the classroom with my students. After all the years if this being a practice even some the college began to adopt this practice.

I have been immersed in the cultures of India and Nepal. The primary religion is Hinduism with some other religions of Buddhism and Catholicism interspersed where I’ve been. I’ve learned a lot about “pooja”, about the 33 million gods and goddesses and why people study the veda’s in the Hindu faith.

I learned the Buddhist meditation practice of vipassana and its Dhamma is not to be confused with Buddhism itself. I learned that Buddha’s teachings talk how the creation of the universe was not the product of chance, or caused by the will of some mysterious god, but by the result of the Law of Nature and the Law of Cause and Effect. It is also in the theory of evolution we find the biological evolution of atomic particles and how they came together to form more complex forms of life. Whomever came up with the idea of the multitude of gods and idols taught that man is not the slave of metaphysics and the people who created them from their imagination. Theologians found in religion and the god-idea a weapon to enslave the people. I digress a little.

By living in such poverty-stricken cultures for these months I’ve learned the concept of being “happy” as a state of being that we can cultivate within ourselves and not depend on the outside world for was given a more secure place in my mind and in daily practices. This is something I believe we are all obligated to figure out on our own, so we can teach it to the next generations.

America is NOT the next best thing to sliced bread like so many people in India and Nepal think. We each need to go through and overcome our own attachments to desires of having the best jobs, homes, lots of money, collecting of stuff (consumerism) to find out the answer to our happiness and peace is NOT in any of those things. I have a friend that sold their 200-million-dollar company in the USA only to tell me that they didn’t find the happiness they thought they would in all of that money. Seeing people in this part of the world so poor and yet so HAPPY was a big lesson for me.

Having spent a month in Nepal and on the foothills of the Himalayas I learned how important it is to me to be IN nature. Humans are not separate from nature as much as people like to think and we fall under all the Laws of Nature. To experience the beauty and perfection of nature the way it was created is a fabulous reminder that as humans, we are created in the same idea of perfection. Being human means being part of nature. That’s so important to understand.

I think I’ve written enough about the practices around living a happy and peaceful existence.

I’ve learned to appreciate how fortunate I am (we are in the USA) to have clean air, sanitary conditions, access to modern medicine in combination with holistic medicine and the opportunity to make better lives for ourselves and the people that live in the USA. That isn’t always the case in this part of the world.

OMG… the food! How backwards we have it in the USA. In these cultures, people actually eat together with their families. They understand the big carbon footprint that raising animals takes which is why most people are vegetarians in these poverty stricken countries…. Because meat costs more money than vegetables. Teaching culinary basics and the making of stocks and broths is thrown out the window by the use of all the herbs and spices here… you don’t even need those stocks/broths anymore.

Witnessing the developing countries and how they are trying to educate their youth the concept of being of service to humanity keeps getting reinforced inside of me. Once we can get past the self-centeredness of the ego inside of all of us… it’s so important to ask ourselves… How we can be the best of service to humanity? Find your most true and unique self… your purpose in life… so you can offer the gifts you have to give back to the world that nobody else can do other than YOU.

I am off to Thailand tomorrow. To experience the Buddhist religion and the traditions in the culture. Learn about the food and cooking there. And to hang out at the beaches in Southern Thailand for the winter.

15 Dec 2018

Life is simple… So are the answers… We are all the same…

by Maurice | posted in: Adventure | 0

It’s been so nice staying here in Pokhara, Nepal waking up every day to the Annapurna Mountains waving their majesty at me… but, what are they saying to me as I sit on the rooftop of where I wake every morning?

There are messages everywhere you turn but, are you awake and aware enough to see them? Even if they are right in front you and possibly slapping you in the face?

Sure, Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world, with one-third of its population living below the poverty line. It is a landlocked country with rugged geography, few natural resources and poor infrastructure. It’s also home to the most grandiose mountain ranges on the planet, the Himalayas, where people come from all over the world to see, climb and trek into. Are you seeing a dichotomy here? I certainly can feel it as I’ve been staying here in Nepal for about a month now.

There is this beauty of simplicity in the culture for the people here. Where daily concerns are whether they will be nourished with food and will they have clothing and shelter from the cold. It’s been really wonderful to ONLY have those concerns and be reminded of what’s important in life.

I think I’ve lost track of some of that simplicity in my own life back in the USA. Searching for…. SOMETHING. Happiness? Security? Comfort? Love? Prestige? Appreciation?

I make myself sit here in this beautiful place I find myself sometimes getting irritated. What the FU(K, Maurice?

Hello? Maurice? You get to live such a beautiful life, take time off from work and travel like this around the world, only to still find your irritation with what? YOURSELF! Uh Huh… I’m certainly human like the rest of you all reading this. Please don’t feel bad for me. I’m not writing this for any sympathy.

As I walk down this beautiful Phewa lakeside path a woman walks by me and intentionally rubs her hand on me leaving what looks like fecal matter on my hand and jacket. People who are also walking this path are not always aware of their surroundings and bump into me. The smell of moth balls are pervasive as they are trying to cover up the septic smell from lack of proper wastewater drainage.

I am a foreigner in a foreign land and people are curious. People are also judgmental. They like to tell me all kinds of things about myself… who they think I am, what I’m all about, how I feel, what a lonely life I lead and what my wounding’s are. Instead of being curious about me and inviting the curiosity about each other. I think our job in life is letting go of our judgments and preconceived ideas of what our lives should be like and instead, in the acceptance of what is and not finding answers in our judgment of ourselves or in others.

We are all wounded by our past to some degree. Some of us have explored those wounding’s so we are not in denial and dragged around by those echoes of the past. I’m not any more/less wounded or sometimes lonely than the next person. I do know that I will not find true solace and happiness in another person and I am imperfect like everyone else.

We are all in search of ourselves and who we truly are and sometimes that answer which is so incredibly SIMPLE is masked by all the complicated thoughts of the mind when the answer is right in front of us. We are creations of the divine and are perfectly imperfect in our flaws. Does god or the universe even create imperfection?

I’ve learned to appreciate the simple living I’m experiencing the last few months in India and Nepal living out of my backpack with the only real concerns I have is where I’m going to find clean food and shelter. The rest of the irritation or judgment I may have about situations or other people is my own attachment to an idea that something needs to be happening differently than it is.

I’m fortunate to have this ongoing opportunity to continue to practice letting go and accepting of what is. My peace and happiness depends on it. And I don’t think we can do it alone. I appreciate those of you who are witnessing me and helping me continue on this physical adventure around the globe and my spiritual practice of being at peace.

What are you doing about your own irritation? How are you cultivating your own peaceful state of mind?

9 Dec 2018

Humility – Annapurna Conservation Trek – December 2-7

by Maurice | posted in: Adventure, Love, Personal Growth, Relationship, Sabbatical, Spiritual, The Human Condition | 0

After only five days in the Annapurna Mountains… or is it… after five long days in the Annapurna Mountains… I return back to Pokhara, Nepal… humbled… on a multitude of levels that I’m not sure I’m going to be able to explain let alone understand and integrate into my being. In all honesty… I don’t even want to write about this… a part of me feels that since I am unable to communicate my complete being triumphant and joyous… and sharing the truth of some of the shame and embarrassment I am experiencing on my blog will only exacerbate what I’m feeling and I know all about the Law of Impermanence.

Here I sit at 2500ft above sea level returning to Pokhara, Nepal after being at 10,500ft above sea level for 3 days in these small villages of Ulleri, Ghorepani, Tadapani and Ghandruk in the Annapurna Mountains and feeling my bodies exhaustion and sore muscles. After planning with a guide (Min Gurung) for a 6 day “trek” and thinking that would not be enough for me, I made my permits and registrations for 8 days, so I could stay a little longer… and here I sit back in Pokhara after only 5 days… humbled.

My body is exhausted, and my muscles are fatigued and twitching, and I can feel every muscle in my legs with every stride I take. This could be some of the reason why I’m resisting writing now and forcing myself to do it. I’m “should’ing” all over myself. The thing I advise my students and coaching clients NOT to do… I should’ve been able to do the entire trek. My body should’ve been able to do it. I should’ve been in better shape preparing for this. I should’ve been able to get closer to the mountains than I did. I should’ve been able to be more peaceful in accepting my limitations. UGH! It’s a downward spiral of self-created misery.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system let me mention what an amazing experience this was. To experience a few of the tallest mountains in the world up close like this was an incredible experience. When I woke up in the mornings, when the sky was the clearest all day and I saw these majestic peaks I was brought to my knees in tears. The sacredness and meanings of what these mountains hold to the local people was made apparent every morning I was able to see a few of these 24,000ft mountain peaks in their fullness. It’s hard to put into words.

This is the main reason I came to Nepal… to experience these mountains up close, yet my ego thinks I should’ve been able to be on the top of them. (Ooops, there I go again should’ing on myself :-). YES! I did get pretty close to them. It’s incredible the amount of effort it takes to get from one village to another, where they are only a few miles apart. It’s the vertical up and down that’s hard on the body. For instance, it took almost a two-hour drive to go 15 miles, as the crow flies, back to Pokhara from where I was picked up by the bus. This is why…

A Humble Way of Life – Clean Water, Clean Food and Personal Hygiene

Living life at higher altitudes like this is a different way of being. Simplicity. Just a normal existence of eating food and a warm shelter is what’s mostly on the daily agenda. If you are looking for something that cannot be provided locally, remember, everything needs to be carried by mule or by foot from the lower elevations. People grow most of their own fruits and vegetables.

I remember being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon for 17 days where there is a pack in/pack out rule. And when I say, pack out… I mean EVERYTHING… there is no burying your fecal matter, you carry it with you and out of the park. Up here in the Himalayas is very different. When I was at 10,000ft+ and walking across running water I could smell the septic, or the lack of a septic system. The water that was coming out of some of the guest house toilets and grey water were just running down the mountain. No wonder why all the well water here in Nepal and India isn’t fit for drinking and every home has to have a filtration/reverse osmosis machine in order to drink the water. And with these machines… I wonder about the process that the water has to go through in those machines that just strip all the life-giving qualities out of it.

I find the food in this part of the world fabulous, even as basic as it is. I’ve learned to really appreciate organic farming even more since I’ve been here. You never really know what kind of pesticides farmers are putting on their garden. If you were poor, my guess is that you would do almost anything to ensure you wouldn’t lose one of your crops. Sikkim has become India’s first fully organic state. In some ways this is way more progressive than in the USA. As far as meat goes, it is far more expensive than vegetables which is the way it should be. The USA has this a bit backwards… when I go to the grocery store and find meat that is less expensive than vegetables it makes sense as to why our culture is suffering from a health crisis. If you liked that video… check this one out. It’s time to advocate the government to make some changes in how they can support better eating habits in the USA. The government is hiding this information from the public in order to protect the status quo.

Along with the conversation of clean water and organic food there is a question about personal hygiene in this part of the world. Coming from a Judeo-Christian upbringing and culture there is emphasis on cleanliness. The expression “cleanliness is next to godliness” was first recorded in a sermon by John Wesley in 1778, but the idea is very old, found in Babylonian and Hebrew religious texts and is still invoked to this day, often as a requirement to wash or clean up. In the Jewish faith there is a blessing that is said when washing hands. Is being clean a sign of spiritual purity or goodness? I’ve stayed in people’s homes that are clean to the standards of USA clean and I’ve stayed in places that had cockroaches and rats (not for very long though). I trekked into the Himalayas and didn’t wash my clothes or shower in days… but not showering or washing clothes for weeks? That’s a completely different idea of cleanliness.

The Humility of Yielding to Myself

As I was putting my body through the ringer trekking up into the mountains I could feel my irritation growing at people and my surroundings. I was paying my good hard-earned money to have this experience and I had sometimes felt entitled to get what I wanted. Mostly when I was cold and wearing wet clothes after a long day of trekking. India and Nepal are cultures where some people feel they do not need to wait in the queue, or to have the awareness to watch where they are going (walking down the sidewalk or even driving a car).

I could feel my own irritation and all I could do is be with it. I could feel how entitled I felt to be the one closest to the wood stove, so I didn’t have to be cold. I was tired of everyone else’s entitlement and me being the one to have to wait in the queue. Everyone could go fuck themselves. I’m sure nobody else has had these moments in their lives. I wanted to move everyone else’s wet clothing from hanging over the stove and replace it with my own clothing, so I could be dry after 2 days of wearing wet clothes. I was tired of smelling the same old stink from people who couldn’t take showers and wash their clothes. I was tired of having to deal with living conditions that I thought weren’t good enough. Yup… I was tired.

One of the expressions used here is … “Wat to Do?”. It is said when there is supposedly nothing to be done in a particular situation. I think that expression is used to not have to try to even do anything. Sure, when you are at 10-15-20,000ft in elevation you need to be in complete surrender to your surroundings, I get that.

In these moments I knew I had to be my irritation and be my frustration and that taking it out on people would not do me any good. I knew the cravings I was experiencing were going to bring me nothing but misery. I knew I needed to ask for what I wanted, peacefully… to be able to have dry clothes for the following day. I was wearing dry clothes and was mostly warm and I was able to sit around the evening fire, just not in the king’s chair. I needed to yield to myself… nobody was going to do anything for me. I was in unfamiliar territory and I had a guide with me and guest house owners whose jobs were to help out trekkers like me.

Eventually I got over myself and was able to get warm, dry my clothes and get into more acceptance of my surroundings. The alternative was my own self-created misery. Plus, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to do anything that would mask what I was feeling or experiencing. Sometimes having a beer is nice… but not to get away from being present in the moment.

The moral of this story…. Suffering is Optional

I’m recovering and feeling my body heal from this trek. I’m able to accept and appreciate more and more as my body heals what I just accomplished… walking up the mountain in the time I was able to do it in. I’m continuing to appreciate and be grateful for this 50-year-old body of mine and for the experience that I have been given at this moment. I’m respecting the different cultures I’ve been able to live into and offer my perspective whenever it is asked for. I’m able to continue to practice the art of letting go and yielding to myself in the moment so I don’t succumb to my own self-created misery.

We are the ones that get to choose how we want to live and even how we want to feel. What are the practices you have in your life that allow you to point your own mind into a peaceful direction and existence when you think you aren’t getting what you think you want, or what you are getting isn’t what you asked for?

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