S21, Boogie Boarding, Sunsets, and Mangos: Student Lead Travel in Cambodia

This week there was an overthrow of the Audrey/Greg regime as the students took the reins for "Student Directed Travel".  It didn't take us long to figure out what we wanted to do as soon as Amalia put bungalows on the beach and a National Park on the table.  So, instead of heading straight to Vietnam, we decided to extend our stay in Cambodia and chill on the beach in Sihanoukville.

As soon as we arrived at our collection of bungalows only a few steps from the ocean, there was a rush to jump into the clear cerulean blue waters.  Which ocean it was turned out to be a topic of much confusion.  It was the Gulf of Thailand, guys.  1 point for Andi.

It’s been a week full of emotional highs and lows, which is really quite a fitting way to visit a country like Cambodia, whose people have experienced some of the most horrific extremes of human capabilities and yet still find ways to smile, laugh, and welcome visitors with open arms.

We started the week in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, where we visited the S21 prison that was run by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s. Thousands of people were sent through the prison for interrogation, or before being sent to the killing fields, and only about a dozen survived. We were taken on a tour through rooms where blood stains still remain on the floors and walls from the prisoners who were tortured to death. We also saw rows of miniscule prison cells equipped with shackles to ensure prisoners couldn’t escape, and countless photographs taken by Khmer soldiers of the men, women and children who were imprisoned there, as well as photos depicting the horrendous torture they endured.

After S21, we decided to make sure our day would be as sad and terrifying as we could possibly make it and went to the killing fields. Through individual audio tours, we learned about the mass burial sites below our feet where thousands of people were murdered genocidally. Pol Pot was quoted as saying that “it’s better to kill an innocent person than let a guilty person survive.” With that slogan in mind, the Khmer Rouge brutally beat and murdered adults and children alike, and then buried them in massive pits in the ground.

On our way back to our guest house, the tuk tuk I was in took a different turn than the rest of the group. I thought for a second that we might become the inspiration for the next Taken movie, but our spirits were quickly lifted when a random motorcyclist drove up and handed each of us a mango just for kicks.

Those mangoes really turned the metaphorical emotional frown upside down because the rest of the week has been all good vibes. We spent two days at a mangrove conservation site where we kayaked, swam, watched an incredible sunset from a boat, and sang moon songs to our dearly beloved moon during a lunar eclipse. We are currently located just outside of Kampot, chilling in cabanas above a beautiful river, spending our days paddle-boarding and cooking breakfast for dinner. It’s super chai.

We departed from Sihanoukville bright and early at 6:00 AM ready for a 12 hour bus ride into Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.  Our estimated 12 hours of travel soon doubled when our bus' engine broke down and we were left sitting on the roadside with our transport kindly sending smoke signals out the back.  Being the fearless travelers we are, we organized a sit-in protest against paying for private van and we were rewarded after a few hours of stubbornness with a second bus all to ourselves!  Eventually, after a breif, unexpected overnight layover in the Cambodian border town, we arrived in Vietnam.

Now the students are all planning out our remaining days of student directed travel in the wonderful, bustling city of Ho Chi Minh.  

Learning to Eat a Satuic Diet, Building Bricks, and Practicing Yoga in Peru

After the bus took us out of the city of Cuzco, steep mountains began cropping up on either side of the road. We had entered the Sacred Valley. After watching the rural (compared to city) lifestyle move by in the window for about half an hour, we came around a bend and the bus came to a stop. A river rushed along the right side of the road, along with the adobe building where we would practice yoga, on the left side of the road we saw a sign that read ëco yoga. We had arrived.

Chi-tanya greeted us and welcomed us to sradhavan (sanskrit name for the community). Several adobes were sprawled over a hill, they stopped with the beginning of a steep incline of a peak in the Andes mountain range. From the instant we arrived we felt the magic of the place, anticipation for a very relaxing and refreshing experience. On the day of arrival we had our first yoga class. As the week progressed we had an hour of meditation each morning followed by yoga and then breakfast at 9:30.

On the first full day we had a class on the yoga diet, and breathing techniques in yoga called Pranayama. In yoga there are three different types of food, satuic, rajasic, and tamasic. The satuic diet includes fresh organic vegetables and fruits. It also includes grains like corn, barley and wheat. Honey, maple syrup and molasses are the sugars of the satuic diet. For snacks nuts and seeds are suggested, and milk is on the list, as long as its from a healthy cow. To sum it up, this is a diet of natural and whole foods that are grown with care and prepared in meals with love. The Rajasic diet is partly made up of hot foods and spicey foods, they make the body soften with their intensity, therefore are only good in moderation. Other foods with strong flavors such as pungency (pickles and other canned foods), bitterness, sourness, dryness, saltyness, all promote productivity but can make the mind restless when eaten too much. When eaten excessivly the rajasic diet can cause us to become angry, lustful, greedy, violent or agitated. Refined sugar, coffee and tobacco are also considered rajasic. Too much food from the tamasic category causes us to feel heavy and slugish. Foods in this diet include meals cooked and eaten 6 or more hours later, foods with preservatives, too much salt, too much sugar, fried or reheated (in a microwave) foods, overcooked or overripe foods, meats, fish and alcohol. Eating too much, even if it´s healthy, can also cause tamasic energy. You will know you ate too much if you are extremely sleepy afterwards.

So, after going into the topic of our first class with extensive detail, I will keep the rest simple. On the second full day we learned how to make adobe bricks. The ingredients are mud, stones, water and straw. Our bricks will be used for the structure that is in progress right now at sradhavan. On our third full day we had classes on the seven Chakras. These are energetic disks located along the spine, and each one determines our outlooks and feelings on certain aspects of our lives. On our fourth (and final) full day we learned about Vedic Astrology. Many peoples signs in western astrology will move back one in Vedic astrology. For example, my birthday being May 1st, I am a Taurus in Western, but an Aries in Vedic astrology. This is because the dates for the signs are different, starting with November 15th to December 15th for Scorpio, and so on.

This final class with Chi-Tanya was a good way to use what we´d learned during our time with him, and leave with an even deeper -if not broader- understanding of self, and the role we all play in the world. All in all, the five days spent practicing yoga and meditation in the Sacred Valley were appreciated by all of us in the Inti group. After weeks of being on the move, it was wonderful to be able to completely commit to the present moment. Even though our stay was short, our experience was vast and one to be kept in our memories as we complete our ventures through Peru.

-Suntea'Ohna

Safari Animals and Holistic East African Living

Once upon a time, eleven wazungu went into the wild. These are the things they saw…. lions, tigers, bears oh my! Just kidding about the tigers and bears, but the lions were a thing. Oddly enough, two out of the three times we saw these lions, momma and papa were doing the “downtown shuffle”. In those moments we all felt that we were right inside of Animal Planet. Along with those lions, we encountered an elephant about ten feet away from our safari car! We also met many giraffes, which always inspired some to yell “TWIGA” (giraffe in Kiswahili). Along with our twiga friends we saw antelopes, greater and lesser kudus, baboons, one distant cheetah, hippos, warthogs, eagles, zebras, lizards, dik-diks, jackals and an assortment of birds.

Overall, the safari was amazing! But, one dreary night, we had quite the “shituation” on our hands (and in our pants). The clock struck 4 and three girls’ insides betrayed them. The journey to the bathroom was far too dangerous as many feared attack by rampant hippos. It was a night of terror, but of course they made it through the fire and to the morning. Our insides will never defeat us! After the dreadful night, we went back out on safari and saw a leopard, the animal we had long await to see. The safari as a whole was beautiful, and we won’t forget the gorgeous reddish-orange sunrises and sunsets. We all enjoyed our two and a half days of being tourists.

After our safari, we hopped from Iringa to Njombe in the southern highlands. We visited the local milk factory and had REAL CHEESE for the first time in a long time. At night we had a stimulating discussion on privilege and what it meant to us. At the end of our conversation, we were all aware of our unearned privileges and how they affected each individual in the group.

Along with that deep thinking, came more deep thinking at our holistic living retreat at Ohana Amani. There we met our amazing friends and teachers Chevy, Curry and Luka. Each had an abundance of knowledge to share with us. Throughout the entire retreat, Curry and Chevy pushed us to dig deep and get to know ourselves. They also taught us farming techniques, cooking, building fires, yoga, taking care of ourselves and overall simple living. Luka taught us how to make risotto and spent countless hours outside working on building the tool shed with us and by himself. This tool shed was a project given to us to benefit everyone living at Ohana Amani and teach us to take care of our bodies physically. We exercised mentally and spiritually with interesting conversations on our values, beliefs and what it would be like to go home.

For the cherry on top, we were surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and luscious pine trees. The house had hot showers, a fire always burning and an abundance of books. We haven’t even talked about the food! On Easter we walked down to a grand waterfall and had a picnic consisting of savory, cheesy and everything-in-betweenie stuffing, a salad, watermelon and pear cake home made by chef Chev. The meals following after did not once fail to impress us. We had fresh salad from the garden everyday, pizza, risotto, potato au gratin, stir fry, fried rice, potato soup, frittata, french toast, potato salad, spaghetti, garlic bread and cupcakes. All the food was fresh, local and mostly from the garden. We loved every minute of being spoiled with such delicious food.

All in all the holistic retreat and our new friends has been yet another amazing experience in Africa. So much gratitude and love goes out to Chevy, Curry and Luca!

On Top of the World: Updates from India

This world we live can be such a beautiful place if you let it be. If you open yourself up to what it has to offer you can find yourself again.

This week Shanti India found themselves in the Asian fairy tale of Sikkim. Famous for its wide variety of plant life, that attracts botanists from all over the world and opportunities for mountaineering tourism. We arrived at our destination of Yoksom by being hosted by the Ajam residence a small mansion run by a lovely family. The village of Yoksom is surrounded by lush Caradom farms stacked on the rolling hills and clouds that cover like mist forming massive imaginary landscapes. Each night we were met with epic thunder storms that clashed against black sky. And each morning a smiling child walking in the garden with his mother.
As we take in the remote beauty of the forest, we are given chance to focus on our next task as a group, our 35 mile trek through the Kanhanynga National park. With the goal to reach the summit and witness the rising sun over the worlds highest peak. In our adventure we were in the most capable hands of our crew of 11 men, 13 horses, personal cook and cooks assistant. We were treated with the utmost care. And will always remember their kind faces as they served us chai every morning, played Frisbee with us after the summit and served us a delicious cake with the message "see you soon".

In our trek we encountered first hand the wide diversity of vegetation offered in this unique tropical forest. As the altitude changed we were able to see the lush green forest covered with ferns that would be foraged later for our meals. To the highest altitudes where we were literally walking through clouds. We found as a group that each of us were pushed in ways we never could have imagined. A rewarding experience that was achieved by our own two feet, each strain in our muscles a reminder of the unforgettable sights were were able to see. Looking down from the mountain they were many opportunities to stop and take in the big and small complexities that lie hidden in every organism. We were not only given the chance to take in the landscapes but were able to see the unique relationship between the mountain and those that call it home.

Frog Juice: Food Updates from South America

Sunset above Arequipa

Rolling along with the food blog theme (considering food is one of the things we're enjoying most in South America), I wanted to share some of the weirder foods we've gotten to taste down here.

Cuy: I tried Guinea pig, which is a famous Peruvian dish but is available basically everywhere, in Pucara, Ecuador, where my homestay mother slaughtered one of her own guinea pigs to eat for dinner. Despite the strangeness of actually having to rip the meet off part of the skeleton with my hands, it was pretty good. Just have to avoid thinking of an actual guinea pig while you're eating it.

Chicken: At first glance, this would seem like the one food that couldn't be weird. Chicken is for people who don't like any other food. My homestay mother in Pucara, Magdalena, was nice enough to make me chicken after asking which kinds of meat I could eat on the first day. I assured her that I could eat everything, I had no dietary restrictions and would try everything, etc. So when she handed me a bowl of soup with two fresh chicken feet in it, I held back the initial shock and tried to eat them. I really did. But when Magdalena saw I was virtually gagging trying to eat around the toes, she offered me another piece of meat. I graciously accepted and began eating.

It was a chicken head. I realized this when I was done eating and was looking at the skull with eyes still in tact. That's how chicken becomes weird food.

Avocado Ice Cream: This credit actually goes to Gabriela, who ordered it when we were in Cuicocha right outside of Otavalo. I tried a bite, and it's basically just really creamy avocado. Weird, but a good way to eat ice cream without hating yourself.

Last but not least, Jugo de Rana: That means frog juice.

We all tried a bit at the market in Arequipa, though I could only manage a few sips. The ingredients are a live frog that is then skinned and boiled, honey, molasses, maca (a Peruvian grain) and some sort of broth that are all then blended together and strained for any chunks.

Getting over the initial disgust of drinking something you saw living 2 minutes before, it tastes like a bunch of sugar flavoring over what you'd expect a raw frog to taste like. Gabriela liked it, I definitely did not. The other tourists we gave a few sips to had mixed reviews as well.

Those have been our food adventures thus far, but we still have a month left to see what else is being sold.

Bonus: We saw a stand of frog skeletons and cows' heads to be cooked in soup. Bon appetit!

Shanti in Sikkim: Updates from Cameron

The view from the Top of the World!

Overnight trains are almost becoming comfortable — compared to train station floors. 

We left the busy city of Calcutta and looked onwards towards the mountains of Gangtok, Sikkim. After our first jeep ride we were eager to make our way into the nearest cafe to grab pizza, hot dogs, and a cake to celebrate the 19th birthday of our wonderful group mate, Hava. We made our way into our homestay and found out we would be eating a second dinner. We had missed home cooked food since our homestays in Jaipur. 

Our week in Sikkim was filled with volunteer work, gazing out into the endless mountain ranges, and enjoying our playful hosts. We first volunteered at a government operated school where we tried to play duck, duck, goose, and red-red-rover all with minor use of the English language. We then took our Shanti group to a rehab center for men where we got to know the patients and enjoyed singing songs in English and Nepali. It's been the first time since being in India we've been able to look at these vast mountainous landscapes and escape the plains with their never ending busy cities. As we prepare our bodies for the 5 day trek through 35 miles of trails we are about to endure we are thinking positive and excited for the hot shower at the end!

Cam

Painting a Children's Library and Adventures to Angkor Wat

This week we left Thailand and moved on in our journey to Cambodia. We all knew that this week especially was going to be a pretty emotional and heavy because of what we were about to learn. We left our hotel in Korat to travel to the border of Thailand and Cambodia. There we crossed over and got our Cambodian visas and found a bus to bring us to the train station. We drove to PTD which stands for Ptea Teuk Dong and that is where we will be staying for a week. During that week we helped paint the library that the children would use and the gift shop, we learned about how mushrooms are grown and put the mushroom spores in crushed corn cob where they would grow, and we also taught at the English school in PTD. It was such a rewarding experience, especially seeing some of the kids faces light up when they saw the newly painted walls in the library! On one of the days we went around and we took a bamboo train down this track which went through these trees, we ate at a local market and climbed steep stairs to a temple, we went a temple where there was a ton of wild monkeys, saw thousands of bats leave this cave, and lastly we saw a killing field and a memorial which was super hard for all of us. We later watched a movie about the killing fields which was super emotional and its all about what was going on in Cambodia during the late 70's and early 80's. Unfortunately some of us got sick including me on the last few days of being at PTD so we missed another day that the group went into the city which was sad and it sounded super fun! That is where the picture attached to this blog is from. Today we are in Siem Reap having a rest day and also visiting Angkor Wat.

Traveling Mishaps and Learning Swahili in Tanzania

It's been a long and very unlucky transit to get here but don't worry moms and dads we made it. There will be a series of unfortunate transportation events that we will cover first starting off in Rwanda. Our wonderful day started at the airport early in the morning at 6am. We arrived there by 6:30 for our 9am flight only to find after an hour of sitting and waiting that our flight was delayed to 5pm. We were all very caught off guard and slightly angry. The airport services fortunately sent us a car that took us to the world's fanciest hotel (in our opinion). Consider that our standards at this point are low, nonetheless this hotel was amazing. The hotel had hot working showers, laundry service, spa, free food, a pool, internet, white robes (most importantly) and did I mention we all got our own rooms with queen beds and tv's? We were basically celebrities for a few hours. This day was also someone's birthday (Marley) and it turned from a not so good day to the best birthday ever. Sadly our time at the hotel was coming to an end and we had to say goodbye to all those western wonders. We got back to the airport at 3pm for our 6:15 flight which was once again delayed. This time it was not to our surprise because there was a massive storm going on right before our flight. Eventually we finally made it to Dar es Salaam and quickly found a car to take us to our hostel. Surprise! Our hostel cancelled our reservations, we so pleasantly found out once we got there. So for 2 hours we drove around in search of a place to sleep. We were all tired, grumpy and some feeling nauseous but after a long frustrating journey of being rejected by hotels, we came across the Holiday Hotel. Not the Holiday Inn, but the Holiday Hotel (we're hipsters). The next morning we ate a quick breakfast then jumped on a bus to Morogoro. After a long bus ride we made it… Or did we? Just kidding – our bus passed our location so we lugged our big packs (not too far) back to the Lutheran seminary where we would be taking Swahili and staying with our homestay families for a week. Although Swahili was very difficult for most we had our wonderful homestays to come back to after a long day of school. We all had great things to say about our homestays:

Cat: Hello this is Cat! Adrienne and I had a dynamic week with ou big homestay family. These days were exhausting for our minds with swahili school from 8am to 4pm then off to home to interact and try to relate. This week was a constant challenging effort to communicate even with those in our family who knew english. In our home no one ate while guests ate, and the rest of the family ate throughout the day and not together. The Mama of the house was the only one with very little english understanding, and it was elating to understand each other more and more as the week went on. Some awkward cultural misunderstandings and many fun curious times gave us an experience full of valuable learning and more valuable questions. We ended our stay with a fun night of games, conversation and gift exchange. Then a mellow morning of goodbyes. So happy to have met and sad to leave as we were just beginning to make great connections.

Cassandra: We had an amazing time with Mama Esther! It was an honor having her be our mom for a week. We had many fun times with out family including dance parties with Tina the houseworker, holding screaming baby piglets, making dinner for the family and laughing at each other for pronouncing certain words in Swahili. Our time felt too short but was definitely worth it.

While we weren't at our homestays we were either in class learning Swahili, at chai (tea in Swahili) time, playing volleyball or tossing around the ole frisbee. There was one day where our amazingly wonderful and blessed leaders let us watch Lion King, a movie that was so necessary for this trip! We also had a lesson on Tanzanian culture where we learned many things that were both surprising and enlightening. It's crazy how different American culture is to this culture! One of our teachers had silly shirts every day, one saying "refuse to be broke" and another Nike-slogan-gone-bad that said "always hard" which probably was supposed to mean always tough. The last day of our homestays our group separated into 2 groups, one going to hike this beautiful and "sexy" mountain as David would say and the other went to the Maasai Market. Both groups had an equally great time. Highlights of the mountain included a refreshing mid-hike waterfall to wash away the rivers of sweat cascading down our glistening faces, a former German mission almost in ruins that now serves as a campsite for travelers, and breathtaking views of the city of Morogoro and surrounding mountains. Highlights of the Maasai Market group included so many cows, Kongas, goat meat, skinning of cows, seeing the traditional maasai clothing and a few girls getting proposed to a few times. We also received our diplomas for our weeks worth of Swahili! Sadly we had to leave the day after the mountain and masai market and hopped on a bus to Iringa. Hey look, our bus was 2 hours late picking us up from Morogoro. You could easily say the Tanzanian transport Gods aren't happy with us… At all. All of us have had many ups and downs especially considering this being the halfway point of our trip but overall have had a great time. We're now in Iringa and so ready for our Safari!

Feasting on Some Local Food in Arequipa

Greetings from Arequipa!!

After leaving Pucara, we spent a couple of days in Quito to prepare ourselves for Peru. Some of us ate some bad bus food and suffered the consequences, but it wasn't anything too serious. Our last night in Quito we all went out for a nice dinner with a beautiful view of Quito at night and had some great gringo food and pancakes and apple pie!

The next day we said goodbye to Ecuador and headed off to Arequipa. Fortunately and unfortunately, our flight form LIma to Arequipa was cancelled so we spent the night in Lima. Even though we all really wanted to get to our homestays in Arequipa, we got the chance to spend the night at an amazing hotel for free! We had a free buffet for dinner and breakfast, and we binged. We piled our plates high with pastas, potatoes, steamed vegetables, cheese that wasn't queso fresco, rice, sweet potato puree, salad, radishes, tiramisu, apple strudel, chocolate cake, rice pudding, and dulce de leche. Suntea'Ohna ate four cups of jello, and Gabriela had a line of dessert cups in front of her. For breakfast we again filled our plates with eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast, yogurt and granola, fruit, 3 types of potatoes, toast with amazing strawberry jelly, cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants, and more. Betsy and I smuggled out some rolls and chocolate croissants for the plane ride later. I'm still ​feeling the effects of eating so much nearly 5 days later, but it was so worth it.

We also got to shower with hot water, watch ''Whip It'' in English and Harry Potter in Spanish (with some helpful narration on my part), and sleep in the most comfortable beds with more than one pillow each!! It was a magical experience, and greatly appreciated after spending a week in Pucara.

The next day we finally made it to Arequipa and met our homestay families. The homestay pairs are as follows– Olivia & Caroline, Besty & Suntea'Ohna, Iris & Gabriela, and Ale (Jake) is solo. 

These next two weeks our schedule is a little different than usual. We split the group into two smaller groups – one group (Betsy, Suntea'Ohna, Gwen, and Ale) is taking Spanish classes from 9-130, while the other (Olivia, Mac, Gabriela, Iris, and Caroline) is helping paint some rooms at a local home for girls. The painting group chose a nice green fro the girls' room, and we managed to complete 2.5 rooms this week, and I'm still chipping paint off my fingers.Next week the groups will switch.

Durin our free time we have had fun haning around the Plaza de Armas and Real Plaza in town, and have explored some cool artisanal markets. For our fun Friday night out, we all went to the movie theater to watch Insurgent because it was playing in English. Even though it was pretty cheesey, we still had lots of fun and sort of felt like we were back in the States for a bit. Tomorrow we are going on a bike tour through some pre-Incan ruines.

Learning Mindfulness at the Thai Plum Village

After 5 days spent discovering the busy cities of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, we get a chance to slow down at the Thai Plum Village, a mindfulness retreat center that was established by Thich Nhat Hanh. Each morning starts at 3:52 am. Monk time is 8 minutes early. We usually start with some sort of seated meditation or chanting, followed by a walking meditation. After that we have a small break and head to breakfast by 7 am. Some of the time we ate seated in circular rows on the floor of the great hall, but other times we sat family style on long tables. We had to wait for the sound of 3 bells and bow to our food and each other before we could start eating. Following that was 15 silent minutes of mindful eating. It gave us a chance to really taste our food and slow down. After the 15 minute bell rings we were excused and can start talking. Then we have a break until its time for Dharma Teachings. Those were opened up with singing heart opening songs that you can't help but smile when you sing them. They went over many things, but they all centered around the "5 Mindfulness Trainings", which were reverence for life, true happiness, true love, loving speech and deep listening and nourishment and healing. Following Dharma teachnings we had an hour and a half of "total relaxation". I really can't tell you much about it because every time, before she ever started talking, I fell asleep. Once we all wake up we do some sort of activity. Sometimes its question and answer from head monks and nuns, or other times we break into groups and tell what we're thinking. Not everyday was the same, though. One night we had tea meditation, and our last night we hiked up a beautiful hill to eat dinner and watch the sun set. There are so many things I loved about Plum Village, but the biggest one was waking up at 3:52. Here the moon doesn't rise until a bit after 4, so not only do I get to see the moon rise, but also the sun rise and set.
They gave us an option to vow to live by the 5 mindfulness teachings. At 4:52 am the monastics carefully folded their orange ceremonial robes and the head monk recited the 5 teachings and asked the practitioners if they accept the teachings into their life, to which they responded "Yes, I do" and prostrated in gratitude to the Buddha. Later on the participants received certificates that had their Dharma names in them, such as "Great Understanding of the Heart".

The monks here are so different than any others that I've met. You're allowed to, and even encouraged to look them in the eye and smile with them. They also have a mindfulness bell that goes off every 15 minutes. It doesn't matter what we're doing, everyone stops and goes back to mindful breathing. It's meant to remind everyone to be here in the present moment. We also were fed vegan food, but I had no idea it was vegan until someone told me. Much to everyone's surprise the community was mainly Vietnamese, so Raisa got to be our translator. You go girl.

P.S. Tito you'll love this: We were doing a sharing circle and a man only spoke Thai, so he had his friend who spoke English and Thai translate. Then a French woman who also spoke English translated for a man who only spoke French.

Out of respect for tradition, nobody took pictures of the ceremonies or meditations, but I do have some from Ayutthaya and our hike. Photo cred to Joe.

Pop gan mai!! 

-Iris