I’ve been trying to figure out what to write abotu the time in Thailand, since we’ve been here almost 2 weeks now. Really, though, I haven’t been able to sort through what I think enough to write something coherent.

This is my first time in Asia and the most overwhelming thought is that things are just different from what I know. Not that this is a moment-to-moment struggle or anything … at that level, life just seems normal but with different food and surroundings. But when I start to understand the world around me and thing about the “activities” we’ve done, places we’ve explored … I have trouble digesting them.

First on the list of things that I have trouble wrapping my head around: Buddhism. I know that most of this is because I’ve never spent time learning what Buddhists actually believe, so this is the first time I’m trying to figure that out … mostly through the explainations of tour guides. The language thing is a minor complicating issue but I think the real problem is that I try to find corallaries in my faith. There seem to be some, but I think there are more differences than similarities. I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that they really don’t have a god or a heaven, and that so much seems to be about offering money and flowers and good wishes to try to have a better life, now or in a next incarnation. I wonder about that as we wander through temples … and how to show respect without somehow compromising something that is important to my relationship with my God.

There are definitely things I admire about Buddhism, too. The beauty of the temples (even the ones that are almost ruins) reflects the honor, respect, and worship that God truly deserves but really doesn’t get very much in the Western pentacostal world I live in most days in Seattle. We don’t spend much time giving that kind of beauty, time, and money for the upkeep of our churches, where we worship a God who made the universe.

Also, you see little momentos everywere here that remind the people to take time out of their day to remember their faith, to be “mindful,” and to take a moment out of the day to day reality to think about what it means to be a worshiper and, say, an employee or a friend (at least that’s how these things were explained to me).

We met Karis, a missionary here who used to attend our church in Seattle, and she helped us understand that there is an ever-present reality of the spirit world here in the locals’ perceptions. The reality is true wherever you go, of course, but more recognized here.

But how does this fit with my faith?

The other things … daily realities of what fruits are what. Mangosteins are fabulous by the way … and in Thailand watermelon still has flavor but jackfruit is DISGUSTING and SMELLY.

And then the more surreal experiences you never thought you’d have … riding an elephant and a ox-cart, for example … that are very exicting ad so fun!

And the conundrum of being in a country where you bargain for everything … even when the starting price is so low that if you saw it in the US you’d think something was defective with what you’re buying. How much of a responsibility do I have, as a citizen of a much richer country who makes US dollars and someone who wants the world to be an economically and environmentally self-sustainging place, to just pay higher prices because I can? Is is somehow worth the fun of bargaining or is it somehow more humanizing to pay a bit more and increase a real person’s livelihood for one day? Or is the whole idea that I can make a difference in that way just egotistical?

I’m going to stop now … I think you have an idea of what we’ve been up to (shopping, riding elephants, visiting temples … the rest is mostly reading and eating) and I”m being much too philosophical.

Nobody says Bangkok has to be you favorite, right? We just finished up 3 days/4 nights there … and I feel like I just completed a full-on jungle trek. Concrete jungle, of course.

This is my first time in Asia, and I admit to being pretty freaked out by the idea of going there. I put off reading the guide book until the day before we got on the plane and when I did open the book and start reading, I started crying at the same time. Am I going to be hungry for the next 3 weeks because I can’t figure out what to eat? How will I communicate with anyone at all?

As it turns out, the hard part was the size of Bangkok and the pollution there, not the people, or the communication. Amy joined us on our second day in Bangkok and is such a breath of fresh air. She is intrepid! What encouragement to just go for it and experience the culture … and is an inspiration to me to do the same.

More later…

I didn’t want to leave Australia without reporting that we did in fact see a couple Wallabies (I know, not really ‘roos) and a turtle.

The turtle sighting was Andrew’s, yesterday, when we went snorkeling on Green Island in the Great barrier Reef. He’s really excited, it was apparently a huge turtle, and he got to follow the Turtle (Tammy) around in circles for a while before going in. My fish sightings weren’t as great … colorful and beautiful but not nearly as exciting or as huge as Andrew’s turtle. I’m turning into a wimp! I was cold and it was 85 in the shade, with 74% humidity. A lot of wind, though.

For those who are counting, the Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage site, which brings our total for those to about 5-8 for this trip so far. Hence all the animal reports. 🙂

Sorry for the lack of posting on this website in the last couple weeks. We’ve been on the Gold Cost (near Brisbane) and near Cairns (near the top of Australia) for the last 8 days or so, mostly relaxing and taking a break from being quite so touristy. We were a bit “touristed out” and starting to feel like we’ve been away from home for a while, so it was good to have a bit of a breat.

We spent some great time with friends and family … got toured around some places we wouldn’t have thought to go without a local host. Definitely a great way to see a country! We can’t thank Kay, Gray, Margaret, Pete, and Jenny enough for their hosptiality. The other part of this that has been wonderful is watching Andrew wander around so comfortably in his “other home country.” So relaxed, so sure of where he’s going … even on th eleft hand side of the road, not needing road maps or anything!

We’re off to Thailand tomorrow, where we explore not only a new country but a culture that’s new to both of us. That should get us back into the mode of learning about the culture and where we’re going … being willing to do some work to see some interesting things. I’m sure there will be really fascinating places to see!

We’ve spent the last three days in Sydney, exploring the city, and catching our fill of the iconic landmarks that have put it on the map. The two things I wanted to see while here were the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House (including tour). Mission accomplished! And so much fun!

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is higher than I had anticipated. Or maybe I just psyched myself out about it. I was trying to figure out if I really wanted to do the bridge climb or not … as it turned out, the pylon climb was all I could deal with. And there are still another 40 meters to go if you climb the bridge. And that’s on actual steel that moves when cars and trucks are driving past. The pylon is purely decorative … a politician from when the bridge was built in the 1920-30s insisted the pylons be added to the design to make the structure more impressive and more likely to put Sydney on the map. He also insisted they be granite, not mere concrete. There’s a great view from the top!

The Opera House! Oh, the Opera House! I get giddy when I see that building – it doesn’t matter how far away we are or what angle. Andrew gets a kick out of watching me realize that this building is actually REAL. It’s not part of a fairy tale. We went on the tour today and discovered that the tiles that make up the roof are even self-washing (assuming Sydney gets enough rain)! It was a treat to be inside such a famous theatre. We were hoping to see a show, but the ones we thought might be interesting were in the small spaces that don’t really give the feel of what the building is like, so we opted for the tour instead, and learned some interesting trivia (the inside of the building was designed by a team of Australian architects after the designer of the outside quit because they were putting time and money restrictions on him after 9 years, the concrete on the inside isn’t painted so that the patrons can see the artistry of the engineers and trades people who created the building).

Alby, our guide for the “Just the Centre” part of the trip was … well, he was a lot of things. But what I appreciated most was his ability to explain the complexity of the relationship between Aboriginals and the dominant Australian culture. Obviously, just as explaining the relationship between the American government/culture and Native Americans is complicated and elusive, so is this similar situation in Australia. But Alby did his best to help us wrap our head and hearts around the questions that are out there … and this made the experience so much richer, largely because of the confusion I felt.

One of the first things I noticed on the bus ride in from the Alice Springs airport was the large number of black people (obviously Aboriginals) walking around barefoot, with and awful clothes (worse than what homeless people wear in the US). They did look clean, and some of them appeared to be part of the city’s life, but they were obviously a separate, second (or lower) class of citizen … largely ignored (?), pitied (?), and not included in day-to-day living by the dominant culture. Apparently, it can be even worse in large cities, where drugs and violence become more of a problem. Racism is still pretty strong in Seattle, but this was a shock … it looked a lot like what I imagine the US was like before the Civil Rights movement. It sounds like there are hard feelings on both sides, and for good reasons on both sides.

The closer we got to Uluru and the other sights in the Centre, most of which are sacred people for the Aboriginal people, the more confusing the situation became for my heart. At one of the stops along the way, one of the pub owners explained his family’s history in pioneering tourism in the Outback. What I hadn’t realized is how recently people started traveling to the places we were going. The first tours happened in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the large resorts and national parks we see today are very recent additions. When you consider that it took a while for the indigenous people to realize what was going on and how much it would encroach on their lifestyle (still the traditional lifestyle they’d been living for thousands of years), and then even longer to figure out how to communicate to the “white fella” what they felt about tourists coming to their sacred places and taking over their hunting lands … you start to realize the depth of the problems. And this is just the beginning of the issue.

According to Alby, the Australian government’s policy currently is to discover how the indigenous Aboriginal people want to live and understand their culture, with the ultimate goal being to have two very different cultures … Aboriginal and white … living side by side, understanding, respecting, and appreciating each other. I don’t know how much I believe that’s possible … or if I even think it’s a good thing. The two cultures obviously and unavoidably influence each other. It brings Star Trek to mind: is it possible to “leave no trace” as the Prime Directive instructs? Is it desireable?

All this was running through my head as we pulled up to Uluru. Add to that the beauty and unexpected intricate details of the monolith (caves, evidence of wind and water, boulders at the foot of the rock), and I was overwhelmed by the power of the place.

God will have to have His hand on this place (and the whole country) for this to get sorted out. It’s so much bigger than I can wrap my head around, and I’d guess the same would be true for the majority of people.

The other sites were not as emotionally overwhelming, but were stunning in their own right. I’d guess this is because there are fewer tourists at the less marketed sites, and fewer restrictions on where you can be and what you can do. Being able to explore King’s Canyon, to enjoy the colors and hike around on the tops of the cliffs was an incredible experience!

We spent the first week of our time in Australia on a couple of backpacker tour buses in Australia’s Northern Territory. First, we explored “the centre” – King’s Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock), and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Then, we rode from Alice Springs to Darwin, with a couple scenic stops near the top for Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) and Lichfield National Park.

I’d heard that the part of the country we were covering would be hot, dry, and dusty, and that there wouldn’t be much along the way to amuses us, apart from the official “sights.” I was pleasantly surprised.

First, nothing we saw was that far from humanity. Yes, most of what we passed along the side of the road was either Aboriginal land or cattle/camel (!) station. But stops were not that far apart and were obvious friendly “watering holes” not just for tourists but also locals. And some of them are well known … we met “Dinky the Singing Dingo” at one. He’s a dingo one of the pub owners keeps on a leash (he says you can never tame them, so it’s just “Dinky is kept on a leash”) and who decided to howl in tune with the owner’s daughters when they were learning to play piano. Now he (the dingo) is a question in Trivial Pursuit and gets visitors from around the globe who come to see him.

Second, it’s winter here. So while it was still dusty, the plants were green, you knew there had been rain relatively recently, and it was COLD at night. Don’t believe it if someone tells you it’s always super hot in the Outback … our first night it was down to almost freezing. We were sleeping – or rather, attempting to sleep – in swags (essentially a canvas sleeping bag you put your regular sleeping bag into for extra warmth and padding at the bottom). Even with all our clothes on – including hats and coats – we were still very, very cold. It did get warm during the day, but only up to about 75 Fahrenheit during the day. Don’t worry too much about us freezing to death, though. We switched to a tent after the first night and that helped a lot! Plus, it got warmer as we moved north … the night before we got to Darwin, we were sleeping on top of the sleeping bags.  There are benefits to the cooler weather … not too many flies (which are supposed to be awful during the summer – open your mouth and you’ll swallow them), and no worries about snake, which were hibernating for us.

Since we were on a backpacker bus, we were traveling with people from all over the world, most of whom were on their “gap year” trips, which means they were taking the year between high school and college (or military service and college, or high school and military service, or something like that ) to travel for 4 – 12 months. Some stop and work along the way, some just travel. It’s a fascinating group of folks from all over the world. Between the two buses, we were with Australians, English, Irish, Japanese, Israelis, Scots, French, and people from Hong Kong (and, again, the only Americans on either of the two buses). Conversations with people from these countries were fascinating, even if they were somewhat superficial. I learned about women in the Israeli military, what people miss from their own countries, how travelers choose between seeing the sights and figuring out what they’re going to eat (chips and rice make popular meals … veg can wait until we get home).

Only one complaint – we saw absolutely NO KANGAROOS on this trip!!! We did see wild camel, wild emu, brumbies, wedge-tailed eagles, and crazy horned lizards, though, and they were great. Who knew there were camels over here? They were imported by Afghanis to travel the outback since horses just couldn’t do the job. Go figure!

Before I get too far in this tonight … I need to tell you to go check out Andrew’s blog (link on my page) if you want more detail about what we’ve done. That just doesn’t seem to be coming out in what I’m writing tonight and this is supposed to be the last post for the night.

So … Penguins. We only missed them because we didn’t come in December. Evidently, that’s a major month in the penguin breeding and chick rearing cycle, and had we come to New Zealand (specifically Portobello and Omaru) then, we would have seen hundreds of little blue penguins and the rarer yellow-eyed penguins. As it was, we saw 12 little blues and 1 yellow-eyed penguin. They are such wonderful animals! I think part of that is because I still think they are some of the funnier animals God created – kind of like the palm tree of the animal world. The little blues were so great. They’re only 1.2 kilos at full weight and only 1/3 meter tall. The 12 we saw were on a protected site, checking out the path to make sure it was clear and then scurrying to nesting boxes.

I’m not complaining, though. We’ve been really lucky to see lots of great animal life on the South Island. We got to see animals I didn’t even know lived in the same habitat … not just penguins but also dolphin, albatross, shag (a kind of bird, sea gull sized), and a kiwi (or was it a dummy furball placed by the nature park staff) (the kiwi was on the north island, in Rotarua). We didn’t see the elusive kea, an alpine parrot that supposedly lives near the end of the twice hiked flat hike. Plus sheep (of course, it’s NZ!), cattle, deer (which they farm for venison … evidently a pest prior to farming – they’d been introduced by settlers and it didn’t turn out so well), and bunnies (which we almost mistook for penguins in the dark).

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about the Lord’s Prayer the last couple weeks. Mostly about how there’s so little in there about asking God for what we want. I do that a lot … God, please keep us safe … help us figure out where to stay tonight … help us find a parking spot…. And I still believe I should ask God for what I need rather than worry myself silly about it.

But how much trust would I have in God if I were able to ask him to supply my needs for the day (AKA “Give us this day our daily bread”) and just leave it at that.

When you think of it, that’s the main request in the Lord’s prayer … the first part is about acknowledging God as Father and that His plan for the planet and our lives is best. Then the asking part … daily bread (what we need). The rest is about helping us do what God has asked: forgive the people who have hurt us and pass up temptations.

I wish I had that kind of trust – that God knows what I need and that He’ll give it to me when I need it.

Our holiday training program has been in full effect since we arrived on the South Island of New Zealand. The short description of the program is this:

1. Go on long hike
2. Stretch, drink water, and massage sore muscles
3. Once sore muscles have recovered, hike more
4. Make sure the hikes go up … flat is not encouraged.

I say all this in good jest. We did find one relatively flat hike, out to a view spot of Mount Cook. It’s good that this one was flat, since we did it two days in a row. Only the secodn day had a good view of the mountain. Seeing this mountain is kind of like seeing Denali – it happens only when conditions are right and conditions aren’t right all that often. One girl who’d been staying in our hostel for 3 days said that the day we’d left “there were more mountains out than she’d known existed.” And that included Mount Cook. Here’s what it looks like on a sunny day.

The other couple hikes, though, went straight up. And, I guess, down on the way back. I’m OK at up, and Andrew’s pretty good at down, but together, we’re each other’s limiting factor. The good part about that is that it gives you good time to look at the world around you and the views you find along the way can be incredible!