And there she was

Last night, I arrived in Bangkok after a long journey from Seattle.. It’s the first day of my big adventure. I woke up after 4 hours of sleep and thought.. Hmmm.. What should I do today? So, I booked a 2 hour massage, 1 hour thai massage and 1 hour reflexology. mmmm.. They were great.

The next most logical thing to do was have lunch.. So I did.. It was only 1:30p and I thought. This is my only day in Bangkok, what would I like to spend the rest of the day doing? I asked the owner of The Shanti Lodge (my guesthouse in Bangkok), if he knew of any good walking tours and he replied. “Well, what do you like to do?” I told him, 'I like to walk and look, and maybe go to a market or someplace interesting.' He said. “You should go to Koh Kret” I said, 'Sounds great.'

The word Koh, in Thai means island. I hadn’t really thought of that before I embarked on my expedition, but it didn’t matter. I hopped on the express water taxi near my guesthouse and asked the conductor where I should get off.. 40 minutes later, we were outside of Bangkok and she told me to get off here and to follow this young man with a camera.. So, I did..

He lead me to a man with a half way buttoned up orange shirt, red eyes and no front teeth.. The photographer, talked to the orange shirted man for a few minutes and finally looked at me and said 600baht.. Before I even thought to bargain or realize I was probably paying way too much. I handed the red eyed man 600baht and he ran away. The photographer motioned for me to follow him to a pier.. I did!

My boat man arrived in a totally pimped out canoe, freshly painted red with a badass motor and a 4 foot exhaust pipe. I hoped in and we were off. I sat with the wind in my hair for another 20 minutes reversing the positive effects of the massage (bu-bump bu-bump bu-bump), but that’s ok.. It was awesome. 20 minutes later we arrived on Koh Kret.




It is beautiful. I arrived at a complex of Buddhist temples which I walked through and then wandered around the small walkways of this tiny island. The walkways connect homes. There are no streets and I could see the residents were still trying to make their way back from the destruction of the floods two months ago. It was an interesting place, very calm and quite nice.



I started to head back to the boat, but had 15 minutes before my badass boat driver was to come and get me.

So, I decided to enter one of the Buddhist temples to meditate. I sat there for a bit and suddenly..

There she was..




An older woman sat right next to me and took my hand and ran her fingers along the lines. She studied them for a bit, looked at me with her aging eyes and gave me a big toothless smile and a thumbs up. We proceeded to have a very lively conversation.. Not understanding a word the other said. She took my prayer beads and showed me how to use them. Then she counted to beads to make sure they were the right number. She took my hand again and looked at my palm..

Another thumbs up.

What more can I say?

We silently left and I helped her down the stairs.

I got back on the boat and we sped back to Bangkok.

land of magic!

I heard about it 2 years ago. It had been in my mind since then. A quiet island in the middle of the backwaters of Kerala. This year, the opportunity arose and I took it.

I stayed on the island only 24 hours, but it seemed like it was days, as time completely shifted to something slower. The taxi dropped me off, and the dirver said to me, “you take canoe taxi to the other side.” We waited for a bit and a man in a hand carved canoe arrived from the other side of the water, we put my luggage in and paddled to the other side. I exhaled.

The island does not have roads, or even motorized vehicles. It is quiet and tranquil. It has walking trails and they weave in and out of rice paddies and waterways. I felt like I was in a different world, at a different time. It was so laid back and so wonderful.

I settled in, and they served us lunch, a beautiful tasty Keralan lunch. And yet again, I had to pinch myself. I had also heard the guesthouse led tours around the island and I wanted to take one. That evening we left on a wonderful 3 hour walk, learning about the plants, the culture of the island, the rice paddies, and much more. It ended with a canoe ride back to the guesthouse singing folks songs.

There is only one guesthouse on this island, it is still very very traditional. People take water taxi’s to get around and walk everywhere. It was an absolutely amazing experience and we are going here for the tour I am leading in January.

There are 2 spots still available if you are a woman and would like to see some of traditional S. India. Please contact me!

Tour to S. India
January 15-28, 2012

magic moments

For the last several days, I’ve been with my teacher and his family in a remote part of N. Kerala on the shores of the Arabian Sea. It’s been a wonderful, relaxing and very HOT (and humid) time.

Yesterday, we traveled to Thelacherri a city nearby, to deliver 3 pieces of gold jewelry Balan had made. To get there we walk along a palm lined path to the tiny winding road, catch an over packed bus to the main road and then another bus to the city. We got off the bus, took a rickshaw to the small goldsmith workshop of Balan’s (my teacher) brother. He did a little work for Balan and we took a short cut to Balan’s other brothers gold jewelry showroom.

This is where I would like to pause for a moment.. You see, sometimes this amazing experience becomes like any other day. And I need to really pinch myself to say no Samia, this is extraordinarily special. The magic hit me as we were taking a short cut to his other brother’s showroom. It was a small path between busy roads, along it were tiny goldsmith shops and one man sitting his shop sitting with his back against the wall weaving leather around a wooden drum. He was a drum maker. Something about the tranquility of the moment, the space and the light beaming into the space, made me squeal with excitement. I had to stop and sit with him for a few moments. It was beautiful, silent and sweet. It was the magic moment that popped me out of my mind and back into my heart. It was real and I am feeling so blessed.

We left the shop, found our way to busy road and sat with his brother and drank chai.

It's the little things

India! Everyday, I see something I have not seen before. Every moment is filled with creativity. In India they say ‘anything is possible’ and I love it because they believe and it is true. We have such a different mindset in the west. It’s the small things I see here that I love so much.

A man riding his bicycle down the middle of the street cleaning his ear with a Q-tip.
The sparkling sari’s wrapped around gracefully walking women.
Men soldering the finger grips on a pair of scissors.
Eunuchs dressed as women aggressively begging for money.
A horse + buggy, a street sweeping machine, a cow and a bus driving next to each other on the street.
Coconut stands on every corner

The list goes on and on. My point is, there is never a dull moment. Day to day life is full of color, is out in the open and never gets old. India shows me there is a different way to do things, puts a smile on my face and has given me so many blessings!

photos soon.

Kumar story #1. Saraswati & the diamond pendant

Oh Kumar. He is so sweet. Last year one of my friends wanted a navaratna ring made. Kumar loves making navaratna rings because they are auspicious and very powerful. It means nine precious stones and each stone represents a different Indian god and a different planet, all aligned perfectly to help the wearer in their life.

My friend gave me an old ring she had, she wanted to use the gold for her new ring, but she said, please give the diamond to Kumar as a gift. When I told this to Kumar (see story from last year here), he could not believe it. He said, “Samia, someone from America is giving me a diamond?” As a hardworking goldsmith, this is a grand gift. He was very happy. He took it home, showed it to his family, his friends. He thought for weeks about what he was going to do with it. He didn’t know if he would sell it, or make a piece of jewelry for his wife or what? Several weeks later, he said to me, “Samia, I am thinking I will make one gold pendant with the diamond placed in the middle and I will give it to the Saraswati temple as an offering.” Here he is, he could have done so many things with this diamond and he chose to give it to the gods.

Saraswati is the Indian goddess of wisdom, music, arts and science. She is very revered throughout India.


When I saw Kumar the other day, he said to me. “Samia if you would have arrived a few days back you could have seen the pendant I made for Saraswati.” He made the pendant and on the auspicious day of the Goddess during their yearly festival of Dasara, Kumar went to the temple and offered the Goddess the pendant of gold and diamond. It was beautiful (if only I had a photo). He was so happy.

The temple in return gave his wife a handwoven silk sari. A sari that had been blessed by the priests and had been worn by the Saraswati Statue at the Temple. A very auspicious gift indeed.

In the end, everyone is happy. I asked Kumar why he decided to give it to Saraswati versus other Indian goddesses. He said, “Because she is the holder of knowledge. I want my children to have much knowledge so they can live a life of happiness.”

day 2. flow

Day 2.

Well, it all started with my early morning, 3 am. I did a little yoga and proceeded to read until it was time for breakfast at 7. At 10, I checked out of my hotel in hopes, I would find a place to live for the next month. It seemed it would happen as I had 3 people looking for me. One of whom showed me several places, none of them very nice. Quite dingy actually. I told myself, if worse came to worse, I would just take one of them. Around 1pm, I still hadn’t found anything and decided to go out on my own and literally start knocking on doors to see if there was a flat available. Of course, I started this adventure with a place in mind. I marched over there, the owner was sitting on his porch, I asked if his flat was available and it was.. It was that easy! It was on the low end of my budget and it had all the necessities I was looking for. What more could I ask for?

From there, I hopped in a rickshaw, and went to visit Kumar, I had not seen him yet and he has a new workshop, it’s so much bigger 10X6. We chatted for a bit, his son was there with him. Then he said, ‘Samia, come to my house and eat a little bit, and then I will drive you home.’ So, of course I did that. And the food was AMAZING. And it was fun to see his family + I got to meet more of his extended family.

He took me home to my new little spot and I got a call from the airlines, my luggage was on it’s way. So, on the way to pick it up (at the hotel, I had stayed at the night before), I stopped by the internet store to get my internet broadband card recharged. The man told me, it would work the next day, but I plugged it in and boom, it worked. I asked him why it was working and he said, “madam, I have no idea.” Ok no more questions.

I left, picked up my luggage with all my items inside, and took a rickshaw back to my new flat.

It’s interesting how the day just flowed perfectly, I was never rushed, it all worked out in perfect order and I got everything I needed to done.. I must cherish that moment in time as I know, it will not always be such.

I have a wonderful Kumar story to share soon. Keep on reading..

day 1. unexpectedly super chill.

12 hours is a long time to lay horizontal, but somehow I just did it.

After arriving at 4 am yesterday a big holiday in Mysore and spending some of the day looking for a flat, with no luck, largely due to the holiday, I came back to my hotel, had a rather large lunch and came back to my room to read and take a ‘nap’. I think this may be the first time I’ve napped in the middle of the day on the first day of traveling half way around the world. At home it would have been 2:30 in the morning. Here it was 3 in the after noon. I peacefully read for an hour and then, I fell asleep, uh oh. And woke up at 7pm. I thought oh I should get up and go out and do something so I can sleep tonight, but instead, I put my pajamas on and curled up with my earplugs and fell back asleep, until 8:30 when Kumar excitedly called… ‘Samia you are arriving in Mysore. This is very good. I have been busy with my relations due to a big festival function today.” I pretended I was awake and engaged, while listening and nodding, not that he could see me. We hung up and I went back to sleep. This time for 3 hours, waking thinking for sure it was at least morning and I could get up and do some yoga and be awake for the day. But it was only 11:30pm. What to do? I thought to myself, if I ‘get up’ now, I will not stay awake all day and I may make the same mistake I made today and ‘nap’ too early. So, I rolled over and took a deep breath in and tried to fall asleep and did. Yay! Until 3:30, which is what time it is now and I feel like it is ok to be awake, as I did actually sleep 12 hours.

In some ways it’s great, when I fell asleep I had had a sore throat that kept getting more sore as the day went on. I had bought some throat lozenges and drank hot tea before I took my ‘nap’ and now my throat feels totally fine.

Unfortunately, I slept through the ‘big festival function’ which I somewhat regret as I love new experiences. But it’s ok, Diwali is soon and I know I won’t sleep through that.

During my time away from the hotel yesterday, I recharged my mobile phone with 360rs, looked at 4 flats, none of which will work for me and drank one fresh yummy coconut. When I returned, Air France called me and told me my luggage would arrive Friday afternoon. Which is 3 days after I left. I hope they are correct.

I have 3 people searching for apartments for me. I absolutely LOVE looking at flats. So, I will keep looking until I find one I like and the price is right. So, today should be fun. Plus, I will go and see Kumar and start working on our jewelry.