travelling tales mixed with poi and tai chi

Hello land of poi, ive had to sign in with a new name my old name was sneeman i think but ive lost the details.
Well, im in Bankok on ko sam road right now, and I have around 12 more hours to go until my flight leaves and so i thought i would add a topic to the homeofpoi. this may be abit long winded as i have so much time to spare so please don't read if your looking for something specific or not in the mood for soemones ramblings

So, this is the end of my travels for me. I left school, after finishing my alevels in England and worked in the big fast running, impersonal, stressful world of BT as a phone agent for the billing side. but i actually worked for a sub company called client logic who i left after 4 grooling months as i thought the company was treating the customers like crap.

I then traveled to thailand with 3 other friends who i've known now for a very long time. we decided to go to Thailand as we didn't think we had enough money to survive europe, as thailand is so much cheaper than anywhere else.
Thailand is amazing, the people are so kind, the place is so beutiful (in most parts) and it has a real good vibe to it. I traveled with my friends down to the south where the full moon party happens on one of the islands. Unfortunatley for us we had to wait 2 weeks 5 days for the full moon party but found an idealistic beach in ko phan nang called hat yaan. This beach was paradise and is just around the corner from where the full moon party happens but is much more layed back with some real good open minded travelers coming and going.
we made a real good group of friends here and after 2 weeks in hat yaan went to the full moon party. My personal opinion is that the full moon party was good to go to for the experience, and at one time ( I think the original parties started in India) and at one point must have been indescibably good, with people coming together, walking naked, thanking the sand that you walk on and the beuty of the surroundings.
Now its all about drinking buckets of Thai red bull mixed with one can coke and one hip flask thai whiskey. Which is alot of fun and on other nites except the full moon, is a great place to socialise and make laughter. But the full moon party has moved on now, from people almost drowning (and sometimes) in the sea which has turned a yellowish orange colour due to the human dischanrge. The poor dogs that roam the beaches must hide for there lives, and the amount of litter is sickening. Its hard to walk, even if your sober everyone else is so gone past that stage that its a waunderying struggerling mass with a huge sound of all sorts of music and discobobulated dancing. An experience all the same, and we left shortly as the sun came up. We then traveled up to northern thailand which for me is the best part.
From the Northern most city we went to the country to the east of thailand called Loas. We traveled along the mekong river in loas for 2 days on a slow boat and the scenery was astonding. From loas I split up with my friends and headed south slowly. the first few days were amazing as i met someone and cruised the streets of Loas in full confidence. He then left after a couple of days and i was on me own. This kinda scared me, when your by yourself you look out for everything always watching your back, and in loas i found this abit hard. I had got myself a big bag of very strong #### and thought it best to blaze it. This set my paranois well off!
I was in my guest house, (the only guest at the guesthouse) and some Loas folks were having a party outside and i thought i could hear them chanting America! and then one person asking how many people there were and anouther guy saying one (agghhh thats me there talking about!) Well my bags were packed and i was ready to run at the next sign of danger but the loas party people left pretty sharpeshly after 9pm and and once outside the guest house i realised that it was just my mind playing tricks on me!
through loas i made my way down to the bottem in the capital called Vitainna where i met a nice american lad who suggested going to Bankok with him, and then going up bymyself back up to Chaingmai, the Northern capital in Thailand. from here he said you could do a 130 km motor bike ride to this amazing place called pai. i jumped at the chance as i didn't have anything else planned and got myself up there in 2 days via 2 night trains. I rented a bike a 125 cc honda (still a moped but seemed like alot of power to me) and then made my way up to pai. This was superb, the best thing I'd done, through mountains and winding valleys small stops for a rolli and back on my bike.

Pai was just as good as this american fellow had suggested and i spent a week there. I then legged it back to Bankok to meet my friends and say my fair well. They had gone to anouther full moon party, and were leaving on the original date.
I managed to prolonge my flight for anouther 3 weeks, but it was a real tough desicion as i had Glastonbury tickets, (an amazing 3 day festival in England) and many people were looking forward to seeing me again. The phone call to my girlfriend was one of the hardest things i had to do. She was going to Glastonbury and was stooked that id managed (well she managed!) to get me a glastonbury ticket.
i felt pretty selfish after that and i don't think i would have made the desicion to stay if it was not for a course that I'd seen which was advertised as a 10 day meditation and martial arts course.
I said my fair wells to my friends a couple of long nites on tai whiskey and some good fun and then they were off!
From here i went south again we 3 peps that id met in Bankok, and we headed to a jazz festival on the beach. Was real good but still lacked something. From hear i missioned it down on my own again to anouthern southern island called ko pipi. here i spent most nites at a place called hippies bar and got to know the Thai people there pretty well. They all practised poi and staff in the day time and it was real good to join them.
I've been poiing since christmas and have been poiing quite abit on my tavels. It was great to do it with them as they all had there own style, some slow and rythmic and some fast and crazy.
each nite they put on a fire show to the audience and invited me to do it on my last nite. The fire parts were hand made out of a towl! But had huge flames and worked really well. i'd just lern't a new trick that can only be done in the sand. I'm not sure of the name of the move but its like the weave but done sideways and above your head and then down for one spin infront of you waist and then back up to the head again. I'd been able to do this for about 3 months already but in the sand you can run around in a circle and get lower and lower. I started my session to the doors, 'break on through to the other side' and knew staright away what my dance would be like. Manic! and it was. i'd already sunken a few bottles of chang beer ( which can range anywhere from 6.4% to 11% alcohol and even won an australain award for this) the bottles are 660ml and really hit the head.
the music went on and i grabbed my poi's from the bucket and lit them up. there was one other person poiing with me but he was content to jsut stand at the front and play around abit whilst a ran around behind him next to the sea. I started slow but it soon became fast and as i started the circle of the new trick i knew i was going to have to take it to its extreme. The result was a tangled mess with me on the floor! i got a cheer from the crowd though and managed to untangle my poi's and gain abit of respect.
At one point we all poiied together including a 3 year old kid with a fire staff! And that was ace.
Afer this a guy came up from the crowd and decided that he was to have a go. He was pretty good, better than me but he had consumed to much beer and was only interested in the speed of the tricks. He ended up wripping the poi's around himself like I've never seen and got tangled so bad that he couldn't let go. He looked over to the Thai people but fortunatley one of the poiiers was already behind him and pushing into the sea. He got back up and went straight back into it, but personally i think he would have gained more respect if he had come out of the sea laughing and holding his pois up and then going back into it after a little wait. But fair do's.
I said my good byes and with a head torturying depressing, believing everyone was talking about me, hang-over i headed back up North. The thai whiskey called samsong does that. it brings you up so high that your dancing along the streets and then wacks you right back down in a the day long hangover. I havn't drunk whiskey since.
Then a 2 day travel from the island back up to the north where a studies tai chi (which was the martial aspect of the course) mixed with meditation. I ate sooo much fruit and drank sooo much water that my body must have been loving it.
i hadn't meditated before and it was real hard to get into. we studied 4 types, one real slow walking meditation, which wasn't too bad, a standing medition which for me was grooling, and 2 sitting meditations. I remember after one of these meditations that i just stayed sat down and was in one complete thought train. as you know that voice, (the narater) in you mind, well i managed to slow it right down and and was completly content just to sit there. But that only happened the one time.
i was abit dubiuos about this course, just before i went into it i gave my mum a quick phone and said, 'aghh i don't know about this course, i don't want to mellow out i like being hyper' She told me that it would be a good experience and not to worry and it was.
Tai chi is amasing, since doing it my poi skills have increased amasingly, my feet have a new balence and i can jump, 360 and just rampage abit more without falling over. my body feels like is smooth now and ive even straightened my semi arched back out. Thats what made the standing meditation so hard, too much leaning over doing computer typing and roller blading (in the older days) led my postuer to be always leaning over but now its alot better. if anyone else has this problem then try sleeping on your back but don't go to sleep like this as its usually really hard and streess's you out, just roll over if you remember when you wake in your sleep or in the morning if you set your alarm one hour in advance then do it then. It works, and standing whilst looking in a mirrow at your back and try and straighten it, and then concentrate on your breathing. try to breath in and out through your stomach going up and down and not your lungs. Then breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 2 and then let out for 4 seconds and then relax for 2. Keep checking in the mirror and don't get distressed, i did, but it just takes time. and then you will have a new posture!
I learn't some crazy things about the government and read books on how 'where the mind goes energy follows'. and this one prinsiple can explain levitation, curses, good luck charms, statues gaining energy, reading the future (although i was told that we do have freewill and are not determined and so anyone reading the future can only make a good prediction on it and that the world changes every second and so as soon as you see one future that future may have taken anouther path.) i was even told that the univers in mental but i don't know anything about this apart from apart from afew principles and pratically all that im talking about comes from my teachers mouth. To actaully know something you have to have a realisation for yourself you can't just be told it, you can understand why something works but it may take a life time to grasp the actual meaning of it.
i was also told alot about hemp! theres a book coming out about it and why its been band. I don't know the name but hopefully it shall have as big an impact as stupid white men.
I must stop talking, i don't now how people will percieve this whether its like someone just trying to big themselves up, or someone showing poeple inspiration to go travelling and do tai chi and meditation (and yoga!). I'll keep in contact on this thread so any feed back would be wounderful.
thankyou for being openminded enough to read the whole thing and don't worry if it seems like aload of horse poo to you. i don't care (too much, as everyone different!)
Well time to get my flight back to merry old England, anyone who has any good travelling tales or anything on the above then please share your knowledge:)
love sam

[ 14. July 2003, 17:31: Message edited by: still living ]

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