Contribution & Well-Being Adventure World Tours

Travel Coaching, Custom, or Guided Tours Available

2008-03-17T04:21:00.005-04:00

By popular demand I am now available for paid Travel Coaching, and Guided or customized Tours.

Examples are:

Travel Coaching: Dealing with family resistance or other obstacles+ Where to Go When + How much + What to Bring + other Getting started issues = $45 per hour.

2 weeks Amazing Thailand: Bangkok + Krabi + Koh Surin island = $2575 including airfare from LAX, lodging, local transportation, sight-seeing tours, kayaking, snorkeling, elephant riding.

2 weeks Magical Bali Well-being Adventure: Ubud + Detox + Nusa Lombongan Island = $2295 including airfare from LAX, lodging, local transportation, sight-seeing tours, rafting, snorkeling, temple dances, detox colon cleansing program.

Interested?

Leave Comment or email to:

jamesrascon@hotmail.com

We are all Travelers thru life.

Mu Koh Surin

2008-03-17T03:41:00.009-04:00

Mu Koh Surin National Park, Thailand February 25, 2008. “Welcome to Paradise”, I say to a group of Thai friends I unexpectedly meet here on Mu Koh Surin. This island national park & marine sanctuary in the Andaman Sea is popular with Bangkok Thais as a weekend beach camping spot, and equally popular with Farrangs (foreign tourists) as a world-class coral reef snorkeling destination.

Fabulous white sand beach, pretty good visibility, big fish quality coral reefs, and virgin rainforest scenery will keep you out of the tent and actively enjoying this, my number 1 pick of outdoors island destinations in Thailand. Yes tent camping is the predominant and most affordable lodging here. You can camp at the Park Headquarters or at the more scenic Mai Ngam beach where I pitched my rental tent that I brought from Kuraburi on the mainland (60 Baht a day rental). The park also has nice large tents for rent at 300 Baht a day. These take-up prime beachfront spots in Zones 1-5 leaving the further 5 zones for private tents including large weekend group tours. There are some expensive bungalows at the Park Headquarters and they are building more.

Many couples enjoy the relaxed romantic beach setting.

Meals are served in the relaxing open-air Coop canteen restaurant. You buy coupons at the information counter and use these to purchase food in the canteen. Breakfast is 7:30 – 9:00am, Lunch 12nn – 2pm, and Dinner 6:30-8:00pm. Food is basic and affordable Thai food. I usually had fruit (30 Baht, not always available), and fried mixed vegetables on rice (40 Baht), or stir-fried chicken on rice (50 Baht). Water is always available free.

After a quick fruit and instant coffee (20 Baht) I buy my snorkel boat ticket (80 Baht) and hurry across the island to Ao Kra Thing bay and depart with the other tourists in our wooden long-tail boats for the morning snorkeling trip.

Exciting fish I saw included during my 3 weeks– A medium size Manta Ray, white and black tip reef sharks, Napoleon Wrasse, smaller sea turtles, Jacks, Mackerel, a sea snake, lion fish, giant Clams, Moray eels, even a nudibranch. Commonly seen fish of good size and variety include: Groupers, Snappers, Triggerfish, Butterfly fish, Anemone fish, Goatfish, Angelfish, etc.

Corals are mostly branching, encrusting hard corals, with noticeable dynamite fishing damage on some reefs but overall still very good quality for these modern times.

Other interesting aspects here include the Moken natives or sea gypsies. Their children are cute with traditional haircuts and simple beach play. Several sat with me while I was reading the 2nd hand magazines and pointed for me to describe the pictures to them. They enjoyed the attention but did not understand any of my English or broken Thai.

Local wildlife provides some camping excitement. A troop of Macu monkeys regularly patrols the campground watching for tasty items to steal. I brought a prized bag of mangos from the canteen back to my tent late one morning. I hung the bag on a tree in front of my tent and went to the nearby restroom. Three minutes later I came back to find a lone big male monkey eating my mangos. “Hey, those are my Mangos”, I stupidly shouted at him. Used to such statements, he just looked at me and peeled off another piece of the one he was eating, dropping the skin piece next to my tent. “Well at least share, give me back one”, I continued my monolog as I approached closer. He slowly backed away carrying my mangos. I ducked into my tent and retrieved my camera just as he was climbing into a tree.

There he sat, a mango in each hand and one foot, casually eating yellow mango, and tossing the finished seed down to the other primate below.

Walking back to my tent along the beach after dinner I spied this group of Thais photographing this fragrant white flower. They said it blooms for only 1 night. Sure enough the next day it was on the beach.

Gold at the End of the Rainbow, Mu Koh Surin National Park is indeed Paradise. And my number 1 pick for snorkeling spot in Thailand.
Trip notes: Island is only open from late November to early April. SW Monsoon prevents boat travel to the island the rest of the year.

My tour package will include getting your tent and pad and pillow as well as pier and boat transport.

What Matters To You?

2008-03-17T03:36:00.002-04:00

Krabi, Thailand March 16, 2008. What Matters to You?

Not what is important to you or what you like or what you are supposed to be doing? The question that began a life changing inquiry for me is What Matters to You, as in what activity or thing or being that for you when you’re engaged with that gives you the experience of full-aliveness, satisfaction, power, fulfillment, being in the zone, this is it. Like that what matters.

Originally I came-up with Being CONTRIBUTION & ADVENTURE is what matters to me. And I have been on this trip for 8 months discovering distinctions and variations of Contribution and Adventure.

So recently when I camped and snorkeled and walked the beaches and jungle of Mu Koh Surin National Park islands off the west coast of Thailand (see separate story) I was surprised by an insight in what matters to me. SNORKELING Island Life is the “this is it”, the what-matters for me.

Snorkeling on pristine coral reef off a paradise island is what matters to me. What is surprising about this is that it has always been so obviously what matters to me yet I had not seen it before. What I noticed is the experience of ahhh, that I get when I snorkel this paradise coral reefs, and walked the scenic beach, and gazed at the jungle surrounded by water and sky. Ahhh, here I belong, this is my element, I am at my zenith of power and confidence and freedom.

Then I noticed that in the background of my whole teen and adult life is snorkeling. The Hidden Agenda has always been snorkeling. Specifically, “when will I be going snorkeling”, as in when will I have saved enough $ to go snorkeling, or when will I have enough time-off to go snorkeling, or when will I be free to go snorkeling…

Snorkeling as in free-diving, swimming with mask & snorkel and swim-fins in the ocean over/around/ down on a coral reef. Holding my breath and descending 30, 40, or even 60 feet along a coral wall to view all manner of ocean life close-up and personal. Covering 2 or 3 km of reef in 3 to 5 hours of snorkeling. It is massive exercise and I am beautifully present and alive the whole time.

I had known that I like to go snorkeling, and that I want to go snorkeling, and that I avoid settling down. But now I have clarity that it is the desire for What Matters to Me that has me avoid settling-down, being stuck in the rat-race. With this new clarity I can now plan accordingly and create a life that forwards and is consistent with What Matters to Me. With much less guilt or distraction.

So I can retire to Mu Koh Surin islands a few months a year and be happy engaged in What Matters to Me. Or at least so it seems to me now.

So What Matters to You? Know this such that you can retire and be engaged with that for the rest of your life (retired or not).

That 1st answer is ok. But I encourage you to continue thinking about it as you go thru your life. Like me, You might discover something surprising.

Krabi Elephant Riding and Sea Kayaking

2008-02-12T03:29:00.000-05:00

Krabi, Thailand January 29, 2008. Elephants are considered lucky in Thailand. Riding one you can quickly consider yourself lucky because it is so enjoyable and elevating.

I’ve ridden elephants several times in Thailand and Nepal. This ride is relaxing and part of a 2 in1 tour I booked for 1300 baht. Here is a picture of 2 kinds of "Elephant Ears", 1 plant & 1 animal.

Normally kayaking comes 1st in the morning followed by elephant riding in afternoon. But the tide was too low in the morning so the creative Thai guides reversed the order and we rode elephants in the pleasant morning sun, had lunch, and then kayaked the mangroves and watery canyons in the afternoon.

Saw 3 troops of monkeys while kayaking. Two troops were on the rock cliffs patiently begging for fruit and 1 troop in the mangroves actually jumped onto our kayaks and commandeered all our remaining fruit and most of the fresh water.

This is part of my Thailand tour package so I wanted to reconfirm it belongs as a primary option on my 10-day Thailand package trip. Yep, this is a grand trip.

Koh Prayam

2008-02-12T02:56:00.000-05:00

Koh Prayam, Thailand January 25, 2008. “Like Koh Samui in the 1980’s.” That was the advertising slogan on a poster that caught my eye in my guesthouse in Bangkok. I had got those itchy red skin dots again, so was eager to leave the city for some clean less developed tropical island paradise.

After an all night 10 hr bus ride I took the daily ferry to Prayam Island from Ranong about 8:30 am. We passed some scenic jungle clad islets on the way to Koh Prayam, docking at the village pier about 11 am. We stopped in route at a remote island resort that had small plastic boats that came out to gather their new customers.

There are two main tourist beaches on Koh Prayam. I stayed at the longer one on the SW corner of the island. It has powdery sand near the trees and grayer firmer stuff at wide low tide areas. There is a nice reef with excellent fish life on the North end of this beach, however the water visibility is very poor. There is also the jelly fish larva stinging in the water like is common at beaches in the spring in Florida.

I rented a bike and bicycled the hilly island for exercise and scenery. The other tourist beach on the NW side of the island is even more scenic at high tide than the one I stayed at. The higher priced accommodation and food places are located here. My camera battery died before I could photograph the wonderful see thru rock formation arches at the Northern end of this beach.

Had ok massages at “Welcome Massage”. This place has affordable food in nice garden setting. There is in a cluster of good value restaurants and a convenience store that are here about 2 km inland from the main tourist beach. A restaurant and bakery owned by a French lady (just next to the massage place) has the best muesilie on the island.

The season is Dec to March when the winds and weather are not monsoon. I stayed at Bamboo Bungalows which I don’t recommend as the attitude is too high prow there. I moved to Long Beach bungalows at the north end of the beach but I don’t recommend them either as it is too far from everything except snorkeling and has a noisy Rasta weed smoking bar next door. But nice owners and great value right on beach for 200 baht.

I would stay at Smile Hut next time with best all round location and value bungalows on the beach for like 300 baht. They also have a wind turbine to generate some green electricity.

Other logistics:
Island is in Adaman Sea just south of border with Burma (Myanmar).
One ferry leaves Ranong at 8:30am for the island, and leaves the island at 2 pm.
There are no cars on the island and motorbike taxi is 70 baht across the island.
Can rent a motorbike for 150 to 200 baht a 24 hr day.
Can rent a basic 6-speed bicycle at the inland convenience store for 70 baht for 24 hr day or 50 baht for half day.
Is no central power grid so electricity is generally only on from about 6:30 pm to 11 pm.
Mostly European tourists, almost no Americans have discovered the island yet, except Chuck a Californian who lives here 6 months a year.

Bangkok Street Food - Fresh Fruit

2008-02-12T02:46:00.000-05:00

Bangkok, Thailand January 10, 2008. Fresh cold sliced ready to eat tropical fruit is my favorite breakfast. While that may be a do-it-yourself or forget idea in America, it is a readily available street food experience here in Bangkok.

This is one of my favorite fruit vendor ladies. I remember her from years ago when I 1st stayed on Khao San road here in Bangkok.

For 10 or 15 Baht (30 to 45 cents US) I buy my morning Papaya, or watermelon, and another 15 Baht for a cold young coconut to wash it down with. Actually these vendors operate into the late night hours or until they run out of fruit.

These carts are so well designed. They show their yummy fruit thru clear sanitary glass and drain the ice melt out the bottom. There are wheels and handle for pushing the cart to the best selling spot or for dashing down a side alley to avoid the police ticketing vendors clogging the roads and sidewalks.

Fruit, my breakfast for champions and another reason I love Bangkok.

Where Are You?

2008-01-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

Krabi, Thailand January 30, 2008. I’m in Thailand, where are you?

I apologize for being out of touch and not updating my blog for some time now.

As you can see I am now busy slaving away writing stories and organizing my photos to post for you.

Like in real estate, location is everything in my writing too. I am a master of places and am sensitive to the energies that various location on earth have. I have found that I do not write or write gloomy self-centered content when I am not in a happy high-energy location. Conversely I write profusely when I’m at a nice elevated inspiring view that includes water.

Krabi, Thailand is for me one of those peaceful, inspiring, and high-energy places. I am writing from the 6th floor rooftop café of KS Manson in Krabi city on the west coast of Thailand. This is one of my favorite views in the world and I recommend this spot.

Yesterday went Elephant riding and sea kayaking, but not at the same time. Then at night I ate at the night market, followed by a Thai deep massage. Later went out on the town with new friends I met at the noodle soup vendor stall. Later stories to follow…

Grand Palace

2008-01-30T12:26:00.000-05:00

Home to the sacred and mysterious Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace are, well, Grand. I just can’t get enough of looking at the ornate and colorful structures in this walled in former royal residence here in Bangkok, Thailand.

January 2001 I visited here with my friend Pan. She is Thai but had never been inside the Grand Palace. The Emerald Buddha is the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand. In addition, the royal associations with this Wat also made Pan nervous. Strict dress codes are enforced here. Shorts, sleeveless shirts, and open shoes are not allowed. You can get loaner gowns and shoes near the entrance, although they may be all loaned out during peak times.

The architecture is dominated by the green and orange tiled roofs and pointed spires. The pillars are encrusted with thousands of bits of colored glass. There are three spire-topped stupa representing the three eras in SE Asia Buddhist architecture, roughly the Cambodia, Burmese, and Thai styles.

An entire epic Buddhist story is depicted in the murals that cover the inside of the compound’s walls. These pictures are detailed and sensuous. They show battles, romances, chariots, elephants, tigers, palaces, village life, and the whole range of human struggles and desires.

The Emerald Buddha is supposedly really jasper or jade and is about 60 to 75 cm high. It sits in a glass case high up on its own pedestal. Photography is not allowed in this building. It is considered the symbol of Thai sovereignty. Sort of like our Declaration of Independence in the USA. Its origins are a mystery. Its style is 13th or 14th century Thai. Legend has it that it was made in India and imported to Siam. It has a history of being covered in plaster and gold leaf while in Wats in North Thailand. The Laos captured it around 1550. The Thais recaptured it 200 years later and moved it south to the new capital of Bangkok.
The Emerald Buddha has its own clothes. It has three royal robes, one for each Thai season: one for cool season, one for hot season, and one for the rainy season. The robes are changed at the beginning of each season by the king himself.

South of the Wats are large white marble building which are part European and part Thai in design. These are the former residences of prior king(s). The present king has another palace further north in the city.

Anyway, Pan and I walked around through lots of the grounds and buildings. But it gets hot in the afternoon and Pan was tired. So we left to go do a canal tour (separate story). Come in the morning when it is not so hot or crowded. The Hours are 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. Entrance fee is 125 baht for foreigners and free for Thais.

Enjoy the Grand Life.

Landmark Education Bangkok Center

2008-01-30T11:50:00.000-05:00

Bangkok, January 11, 2008. Visiting Landmark Education Thailand’s new Center I am awed and excited, then moved to tears. In 2006 Bangkok was the best and fastest growing Landmark Education center in the world. They moved to this new location in an upscale office/ mall building in 2007.

This started from a humble beginning in 2002 when Saichol Tangkeow stood for bringing the Landmark Forum to Thailand. I then arrived in November 2002 and had the honor to assist Saichol, BJ, Kenny, Dr. Pilastpong, Harry & Martina and other locals to create 1st Landmark Forum in Thailand, February 2003. Read more details on http://www.ilovepossibilities.info/

The Center itself has a fun and transformational design. Banners and displays show some of the many graduate Seminar topics available.

Rooms are named from Landmark Forum distinctions such as Racket.

Pillars in the office are named after the 4 pillars of performance: Integrity, Relationships, Existence, and Enrollment.

Teary eyed, I see a poster of Leaders in the center and realize that many of the original graduates and people I assisted with in 2003 are now leaders with Landmark Education; some are Seminar Leaders, some are Introduction Leaders, and some are Landmark Education Staff.

Deja-Vu all over again. I even get to meet some of these heroes and leaders of transformation again. Madori Tai from Japan who trained me in Registration Fulfillment was in the office, as was Landmark Forum Leader Jerome Downes who lead that 1st historic Landmark Forum in Thailand back in 2003.
I even got to assist inside the Money Seminar session #7 lead by Harry Springer. This was especially good completion for me on 2 counts: 1st- I had been Room Captain for Harry at his Home Introductions to Landmark Forum in January & February 2003. 2nd- I had assisted outside many sessions of Landmark seminars lead by Harry but never had a chance to be inside and watch him lead a whole session. I admire and love Harry and it was a real treat for me to assist at this engaging and insightful session.

Wanting more, I am planning on assisting at the February Landmark Forum Evening Session on February 5th, 2008.

Happy New Year from the Philippines

2007-12-30T07:31:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

From the Philippines

Spent most of my 2007 portion of my Contribution Adventure tour in Philippines, traveling, visiting friends, and assisting with Landmark Eduction.

Will spend my New Year's eve with friend Aljor and other Landmark Education friends in Vegan, an historic Spanish town in Northern Luzon. Will be staying at the x-Governors house and swimming in the pool, maybe ride in an old house drawn cart.

I love you all and wish you were here so I could share my adventures with you in person.

Kisses and Hugs. May your New Year be filled with Happy Fireworks, and Abundance of all kinds.

XOXOXO

Sinagag Express

2007-11-03T10:42:00.000-04:00

Lahug, Cebu, Philippines. I love cheap tasty food. A great fast food chain here in Cebu is Sinagag Express. My Cebu friends make fun of me because I call it Synagogue Express. The food served here certainly is not kosher. Sinagag refers to fry, as in fried meats such as pork, chicken, or beef “tapas”, or sausage or hotdog “salogs”.

I skip all the gut lining red meats and order the tanigue salog. This is a slice of tuna served on a sizzling plate with rice and an easy over egg on top of the rice. I like to flip the egg over onto the hot iron plate to cook the nearly raw top. Then I eat the egg with some of the rice seasoned with a dash of soy sauce. Yummy. I then proceed to the tuna.

All types of Filipinos drop in here to eat, or walk past on their way to somewhere. This is a great people watching spot, the equivalent of a doughnut shop in America. There are taxi and truck drivers, construction crews, telemarketing girls, policemen, late night disco dancers, and midday uniform wearing schoolmates. They all come for some fried meats & rice. This is the basic staple of the Pinoy diet.

The guys working at the Lahug franchise are friendly and competent. They want me to buy my own franchise (for which they probably get a commission). They claim their 24-hour Filipino cheap eats spot grosses at least 20,000 pesos a day. I told them this chain would do well in USA. They want me to hire them to work in America. I told them ok and worked thru the numbers with them. I converted minimum wage from US$ to pesos and they were so excited to get paid so much. That is until I also began to convert the normal expenses in USA for rent, utilities, food and transportation. I ended with their expenses totaling within 200 pesos of their theoretical USA salary. The conclusion was that they would have to come back to Philippines to enjoy a higher standard of living.

Yep, that’s why I’m here. To enjoy the cheap eats and higher standard of living that everyone can afford here in SE Asia.

LCP Revisited

2007-11-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

Dumagete, Philippines-. I was curious to find out how much of the Landmark Forum my friends at Little Children of the Philippines remember and use after 5 years.

“Hello dong!” was the familiar greeting I received entering the administrative office of Little Children of the Philippines. The head administrator, Carmenia Benosa, welcomed me into the air-conditioned office. We talked and caught-up and she rounded up most of the 8 Landmark Forum graduates that I had sponsored to fly to Manila, stay in a hotel, and take the Landmark Forum in May and September 2002.

After our group photos, I expressed my interest in checking on their use of their Landmark Education. Some agreed to meet with me for dinner. Thus began a series of mealtime lectures and informal seminars that I lead over the course of the next couple weeks with them on the island of Negros in central Philippines.

In my 1st dinner meeting it seemed they remembered the nice hotel room, the meals and discussions together. So I arranged a 2nd meeting to review the Landmark Forum syllabus with them. Only a few came to this review.

I quickly came to two conclusions. One, that it does not work to 100% sponsor people to attend the Landmark Forum; they have nothing at stake for their lives and so do not listen deeply enough to apply the Landmark Forum to their lives. Two, that without a follow-up 10 session seminar series structure, people will not expand the distinctions of the Landmark Forum in their lives, and that their past will simply come back and displace their Landmark Education.

I also began my awareness of the gross lack of Integrity inherent everywhere with everyone here in the Philippines.

Ultimately I came to see where I failed to be Responsible for causing their Landmark Education to persist for them. I gave-up on them, rather than persisting to find a way to represence them to what they had learned during their Landmark Forum.

So I arranged another meeting. I offered to take them on a weekend vacation where we would have serious discussions and inquiries. We went on a series of long bus rides, and short stays and finally I arrived at the realization that they were tolerating me so they could have a nice vacation. They had no real interest in Landmark Education, and were not enrolled in me as a Leader of Landmark Education. Enrollment was missing.

We meet at a shopping mall food court where I took responsibility and put in Enrollment. I apologized for leaving them without a 10 Session follow-up seminar and abandoning them after the Landmark Forum. They were touched and finally listening. I continued with a couple shares of breakthroughs I have gotten using my Landmark Education. I asked them what would they like to revisit or what aspect of their life they wanted to discuss. Carmenia was interested in Integrity as a way to improve communication and results in their organization and in dealing with low Integrity families. I gave a short direct discussion of distinction Integrity using bicycle wheel example. They were really interested. We discussed real examples in their inter-staff communications. They saw the value in usefulness of this distinction. We agreed to meet again.

In our last Seminar dinner meeting we met at Food-Net a favorite restaurant and found a nice table outside. I began with the Not Listening exercise from the Advanced Course and the Communication Assess to Power course. They were so astonished and excited. I then gave my personal focused practical basic seminar so I would leave them with some tangible useful distinctions. 1st I briefly revisited Integrity as a foundation for workability. Then I gave them my killer communication distinction I got from GK a Seminar Leader in Malaysia, that it is Communication that Causes Workability. Finally I gave them the ordinary reasonableness thinking vs. unreasonableness. Ordinary thinking is:
Good Reason + No Result = The Result. Versus being extraordinary requires Being Unreasonable as access to producing breakthrough results.

So I left that final meeting Empowered that I had been a Contribution. They were empowered with new distinctions. And we all had fun inquiring into the Being part of being human.

Fisherman’s Net

2007-11-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

Lahug, Cebu, Philippines-. I love outdoor dinning. Seems to me there is never enough outdoor dinning, especially here in the tropics. One place I found with friendly attractive girls, ok affordable food, best value fresh fruit shakes, and live entertainment is Fisherman’s Net. This place is actually 3 places. There is the street front covered grill area; the indoor fancy aircon restaurant, and the back garden setting area. My favorite is the street front outdoor grill. It has a cover band of 3 young babes and a big guy that play a couple nights a week. The girls are sexy but the sound system sucks (too loud & drop-outs) as is normal here in SE Asia.

“Hi Sir”, is the greeting I always get from the single guy there. But it is the big sexy smiles I get from my waitress Catherine, the enthusiastic fruit shake girl, and the cashier girls that keep me coming back. They are so cute, have young vibrant energy, and actually provide pretty excellent service, which is a not so common combination.

I was first infatuated with the fruit shake girl because of her bubbly personality and her excellent mango or avocado shakes. Then I fell for the great body of the young cashier from Bohol. Finally the broad smile, dark skin, slim body, and bright mind of Catherine intrigued me.

I was hanging out across the street at the Sinagang Express late one night. I like the inexpensive meals and the friendly workers there. Suddenly I see Catherine approaching. It was after midnight and she had finished her shift and was walking home. She came in and sat next to me with her broad sweet smile. We began talking. “What is your passion, or hobby?” I ask. “I don’t know”, she lies at first. I notice her hair is down instead of bunched-up in the hair net at her work. Wow, thick long black wavy sexy hair! Then she begins to open up. “I like Chess”, she admits. “Wow you must be smart” I reply. “I have a friend in America who is a Chess Master”, I exaggerate slightly. Actually Larry was listed as some level of Master at one point in his long years playing chess. “Are you good at it”, I ask. “There are guys that play where I walk past on my way home. I stopped to play them and won all five games”, she offers to illustrate her prowess. “I like to play chess on the Internet, I won 3 of 4 games last time. But I don’t have time or money to play.” I discard my dirty thinking about chest and playing on the Internet, and proceed in a normal conversation.

We talk more and agree to a date to go disco dancing. I gave her 100 pesos and told her to play chess on the Internet with it. She smiled and took it. Next time a saw her she said she had won 4 of 5 games on the Internet with the 100 pesos.
We had a great time dancing at 2 discos with her friend. Dropping her off late at night, the taxi took us to her shantytown neighborhood in middle of a field a half-mile from the main road. I asked to see her house. She seemed embarrassed but agreed, but would not let me inside. I enjoyed seeing the simple bamboo, plywood, & tin roof structures under the clear night sky.

I told her I liked her and she then replied with the words all guys hate to hear, “I like you too but only as a friend”. Ouch! Ok, well she is smart and young and saving herself for college and her ideal husband. And whatever.
I eventually moved to another part of town, so don’t see much of Catherine or her restaurant anymore. Still sometime I make the effort to stop by and get those smiles, visit my “friends”, and have a tasty mango shake, and get caught in the simple charm of the outdoor grill at Fisherman’s Net.

Insights from 1st LF in Cebu Philippines

2007-10-22T05:46:00.000-04:00

Cebu, Philippines-

The 1st Landmark Forum (LF) occured in Cebu, Philippines Oct 12, 13, 14 & 16 2007. I had assisted on and off from end of July and full-time during the LF. This is a brief summary of my insights while assisting during the the weekend of the LF. I had many others prior to the LF which I'm still coming to grips with. The summary of the what's so with this LF will come in a separate entry or you can possibily find it on www.ilovepossiblity.info .

Insights:

I'm 'in-the-stands' NOT 'on-the-court' in my own life when I'm complaining or opinionating about others or myself or my surroundings. This basic fundamental distinction from day 1 of the LF is that conversations about a game (weither basketball or your life), like what spectators speak 'in-the-stands' makes no difference on the outcome of the game; vs. conversations that are the game, like what players & referee speak 'on-the-court' IS part of the game. Thus I'm 'in-the-stands' in my own life when I'm thinking or saying Cebu is a filthy city, or I'm too fat, or my sisters & brother should lose weight. This just allows me to avoid being responsible for causing something in those areas of my life, even if the causing is simply accepting and appreciating them just as they are.
When I know something & others don't, I think that they should know it and they are stupid. This I'm superior to you attitude allows me to hide my insecurity that others will find out how stupid I am. This is a combination of Racket distinction and the Already Always way of Listening distinction from the LF. In the AlreadyAlways listening topic Looking Good & Avoiding Looking bad is distinguished as a hidden context that runs our lives. So when I look good & others look worse than me I get to survive; Or at least my identity does for a short time.
A simple idea for me can be a major Out-of-the-Box breakthru for others. eg. Breakthroughs don't have to be big result type events. So its Day 1 and we didn't have any gold paper to print the LF Assistant nametags. So I say to the others well we can just print the nametags with golden color fill background. They looked at me like I was a genius and cryed out, "Yhee, breakthru out of the box thinking by James". The truth is I had seen my friend BJ already print Nametags this way before in Thailand. So to me it was neither out of the box or new. Yet it solved the problem immediately and simply and for the others it occured as breakthru thinking. So an idea that occurs as a breakthru for others is still a breakthru, even if I don't think so.

Ruthless Compassion as Contribution

2007-09-04T09:54:00.000-04:00

To have a breakthrough one must cause an Interruption for oneself.
Susie Bragg, Landmark Education Introduction Leader

I've stopped tolerating.

Stopped tolerating out of Integrities. And stopped tolerating Being Nice. This on-the-court choosing to stop tolerating is distinct from knowing out of Integrity causes unworkability, and Being Nice runs my life. Those knowings make no difference in my life or my Being Contribution & Adventure.

But when I catch myself about to say "oh its ok" when its not, or "I'll not say anything and just be nice & pleasant" when I know I should say the point that's really on my mind, or "I'll just suck it up and live with it" rather than hold someone to their promise or to do their job; and when I catch myself and I choose to stop tolerating how its going... Then my experiencing real breakthroughs in my life becomes possible. I experience my power, freedom, & self-expression when I speak-up and stand for Integrity & workability.

But don't believe me. Try it for yourself. Stop tolerating. Don't worry about being mean or nasty. You would be mean & nasty later anyway out of built-up resentment & frustration (esp. with yourself). And you can always clean-up and be overly nice if it doesn't work being straight & standing for Integrity...

Creating 1st Landmark Forum in Cebu

2007-09-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

My Possibility of Empowering Leadership is reemerging. This is a powerful way to be Contribution.

Cebu, Philippines –
Possibility is in the air in Cebu. The venue for the LF weekend and the LFES were easy to locate, great quality. “Cebu is a small world, everybody knows everybody” says Lianne Sala the local Cebuano LF Graduate standing for the LF to be here October 12, 13, 14 & 16. She and a small courageous yet influential group, including her sisters & mother, are sharing and standing for their friends, family, and local businesses to participate in this historic 1st LF in Cebu, and 2nd city in Philippines to have the LF. So far many people have registered and momentum is gathering.
We have had successful introductions at two well known local businesses and more businesses introductions and regular Home Introductions to the Landmark Forum (HILF) are scheduled. HILFs are Wednesdays 7:30 to 9:30pm, and Saturdays 3-5pm at Lianne's family home.

I am providing some training for this Team Cebu. We have had trainings on:
- Listening, Vivid Sharing.
- Landmark Assisting Program

I am excited and on the court. I already have guests and other people communicating with me for attending introductions or hosting an introduction.

Contribution Trip Notes - Transformation of Philippines Expanding

2007-07-26T06:14:00.000-04:00

{Pictures to follow}
Dropping into the Philippines Landmark Education office/ after being away for 2 years I notice something has shifted. There is an abundance of new assistance all busy preparing production supplies or computer lists or phoning. And there is an air of intentionality and ownership that I do not remember before.

My friend Aljor Perras, the Center Manager & Registration Manager & ILP Weekend Leader & Seminar Leader, greets me and we catch-up quickly. Soon I'm assisting in my old familiar role, making Registration Fulfillment calls to complete participants Landmark Forum Information Forms & Hello Calls.

Transformation is alive & real here in Philippines. This is the Largest Landmark Forum (LF) in the Philippines! Turns out to be 184 participants starting on Friday July 20, 2007. And they have a LF scheduled for Cebu in October. Cebu is the 2nd largest city & in another part of the country.

And Aljor is not doing it all. There is Mylene as Course Supervisor with an abundance of CSA(s). Gids as Production Supervisor with several PSA(s). Lianne has has taken over Registration Fulfillment from Miguel as he does production. So many new faces as Iintroduction Leaders & Introduction Leader Program participants and assistants. Turns out there is 2 Introduction Leaders Programs running concurrently here.

I listen to one woman's "too busy" concern and acknowledge her commitment to the love & relationship with her daughter. And tell her it is the too busy conversation that she honors instead of promises to her daughter that is her barrier to experiencing the success she desires as a mother. She calls me back to thank me for our conversation and confirm her attendance at LF. She did in fact attend the LF and even put her name tag in the Interested in Assisting basket at the end of the weekend. Best of all was seeing her hugging & crying with her daughter on Sunday night, Day 3 of her LF.

Other highlights:

Zeline De Leon assists again in Registration Fulfillment/ Admin with me. Another of the original heroes from 1st LF.
Insights on discounting my contribution. A participant drops out during Day 2 of LF. I see that I failed to have him complete his LF Information Form so he had nothing at stake. I start to blame myself. Then I interrupt this and see that I'm discounting the 45 others that I DID complete their Information Forms and/or their Hello Calls so they were powerfully set-up to attend & complete their LF. From this I see that taking on an Accountability in playing a big game includes that risks of failure, and the the joy of success resulting in full Aliveness in living a life of contribution.
LF Evening Session (LFES) has 531 guests. This is a major breakthrough for the Philippines.
The LFES is attended by Emelia Marcos the former President's widow.
The LF In Action Seminar has 97 people registered so it will be the largest Landmark 10 session Seminar series here in Philippines to date.
Day 1 create All is Well and Day 1 normal kaos & "I'm too small" fear with my Registration Fulfillment Accountabilty goes amazingly smooth.
Day 2 I create being Generous and have inspiring interaction with 3 street kids giving them Happy Meals, which they take home to families.
Day 3 to LFES I take on Being Peacful & Enrolling. See how much I make things & people wrong. Practice giving up that and allowing peace to arise. Wonderfull complement to Being Enrolling as is allows me to really listen & get in other people's world.
Coming FULL CIRCLE, the LF Leader was Poorani who I assisted at her LF here in Jan 2003, and with her as she Lead a LF in Orlando earlier this year.

[More story(s) to follow.]

Lembongan - Snorkel boat trips

2007-07-17T03:45:00.000-04:00

Seems everyone has a side business selling snorkeling trips here on Nusa Lembongan. Buying bottled water at a small shop behind my bungalow the shop owner says he has 4 people already lined-up if I go it will be only 50,000 Rp ($6US). I agree to go, as this is a bargain compared to the normal rate of 75,000 Rp.

Next day at 10am the two couples and I wade thru the shallow lagoon water in front of Agung Bungalows and climb into our wooden outrigger motorboat and off we go. The shop owner, turned Captain, informs us that we can climb up on the roof if we want which I do to enjoy the view & avoid the sea spray.

This is the standard tourist snorkel trip: 1st stop is Nusa Penida for a drift snorkel along part of the wall and onto the reef flat in front of the village of the same name, Toypeka. Nice corals & cooler clear water. Mostly small reef fish but I spot a large triggerfish.

I point out a banded sea snake to the other tourists and one woman, named Asia, gives me her underwater camera for me to free dive down and photograph which I do including a picture of my finger on the snake as its head is safely in a coral crevice.

It was off this wall in 2003 when I free dived down about 50 feet to visit my scuba friends and saw a giant Mola-Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) that was about 3 meters long & high (10 feet). This deep-sea fish was probably 1200 lbs and came up to the wall to be cleaned by cleaner fish and to be petted by the dive master.

We start talking and begin a relationship that lasts for our stay on the island. Asia & Rich are Aussies with great stories of Darwin & Northern Territories. Chris a Canadian working in Australia and Ashley an Englishwoman, are the other couple.

Next stop Mangrove. This is a shelf reef area just outside the channel entrance to the mangrove estuary that covers the NW corner of the Lembongan. Nice easy reef with good coral and less current than Nusa Penida. Some sweet lips and Angelfish but all the fish are skittish here due to spear fishing.
We enjoy the wonderful views of the island and ocean on way back to our starting point. I get some good photos of where I’m staying at Tarci Bungalows and nearby Agung Bungalows.

Contribution & Adventure Trip Notes - Nothing is possible, and not difficult

2007-07-15T04:28:00.000-04:00

I awoke this morning and realized it is Sunday. And 1 week from Day 3, Sunday, of a Landmark Forum in the Philippines. This week will be the 5th time that I will assist full time at a LF in the Philippines.

So when looking for a Context for today what came to me was "Nothing". Not your ordinary nothing, as in "what are you doing? Oh, nothing" meaning not anything particularly noteworthy. This Nothing is very noteworthy. It is the Nothing that allows for anything to arise and be possible in reality right now. The enlightened Nothing that all participants in the Landmark Forum experience on Sunday, Day 3 of their Landmark Forum.

But what I immediately had to deal with was my resistance to, or avoidance of Nothing. My inner voice said "oh Nothing is too hard, too significant, too big a thing to be in all day. You can't do that". So I told self "you've been in Nothing before, you can do it again". Then I noticed a fortune cookie fortune from the day before that had fallen onto the floor next to my bed. Picking it up I read it. It said," Nothing is impossible, only difficult". I corrected it to read:

"Nothing is impossible , or difficult". What I meant it to read is: Nothing is possible, and not difficult.

Then went out for my day. Wanted to fix my sandal so ask hotel manager lady where I can fix it (rather than I already know at the local market there should be a shoe repair guy). She directed me to Mr. Quickie shoe repair at a large shopping mall where I'm now posting this. The girls at Mr. Quickie (interestingly no men work at Mr. Quickie) loaned me a pair of chinellas (flip flops) while they quickly repaired my sandal.

Then I read my email. I got an email from June Paley a Landmark Introduction Leaders Program Weekend Leader. She has been coaching me by email. In part of her email in assisting me with an ongoing inquiry she asks me, "what are you committed to?" I had several immediate reactions or thoughts but still came up with "I don't know". This was immediately followed by "and I should know". I replied to her saying I would keep looking for what I'm committed to.

10 seconds later, the next email I read led me to a transformational essay by Laurence Platt on Living in I don't know:
http://laurenceplatt.home.att.net/wernererhard/livingin.html

Reading that inspiring essay I get the automatic & inauthentic phenomenon of the "and I should know" that follows my "I don't know". Then I'm suddenly free with my "I don't know" and I'm moved to tears by the experience of living life as an inquiry; just being with and bringing Nothing to "I don't know" allows for life to naturally and easily unfold. A profound access to Contribution and Adventure.

And an expression, or manifestation of the context of Nothing...

James Traveling from Bali to Philippines via KL

2007-07-13T05:20:00.000-04:00

Flying tonight on Air Asia from Bali to Kuala Lumpur Malasia for overnight at airport. Then morning flt to Philippines.

Assisting at LF next week in Manila area.

Salamat Tingal Bali, Bye Bali. Sampai Jumpa, see you later.

Nusa Lembongan – Snorkeling & Deep Conversations

2007-07-13T05:07:00.000-04:00

Went snorkeling with 2 couples and became good friends sharing meals & trips & late night conversations about life.

Chris is quite enlightened and interested in taking the Landmark Forum. Rich is an "Observer" and enjoyed starting and listening to our inquires about life & happiness. Asia has the underwater camera. Ashley(?) was good listener and sport.

More details later...

Nusa Lembongan – Being a Local

2007-07-13T05:00:00.000-04:00

Asked Mrs Argus to assist me to dress-up in my traditional Bali ceremony outfit. She referred me to Belong, a local man hanging out with us at the Argus Shipwreck Bar & Restraunt. He quickly wrapped me in the two sarongs, purple sash, and udong (head band).

The other westerners asked me where & why I had this outfit and eventually I got around to sharing how I had inventing Being a Local. Thus I experience a relatedness and ability to contribute & be contributed to no matter where I am. Robert, an Australian tarzan look alike, gave me a ride to the village temple/ dance area on his way to watch a Rugby match at the islands only sports bar.

I arrived and like the other tourists was taking pictures over the temple wall of the islanders gathering for the Kuluningan Ceremony.

“Come with me” I hear a strong confident voice say. Turning, I see a smartly dressed middle aged villager motioning for me to follow him. I think, oh of course, I’m a local. So without saying anything I follow him around the wall, over the steps, and sit down next to him in the dirt inside the temple among the couple hundred villagers. I follow his example & adjust my sitting to the cross-leg position like all the other men of the village.

He introduces himself as “Ricky”. Then answers questions to the other villagers in Balenese. I imagine their dialog like: Villagers- “why did you bring this guy in here?”, Ricky- “he has proper dress like a local so is entitled to be here”. That settled, the village men & women surrounding me smile at me and settle in to looking forward or talking. Just like that I’m accepted as a local.

A woman with a fussing infant moves from the crowd to sit on the entrance step right behind me. The cute little kid proceeds to playfully push on my back with his feet. I occationally bump the knee of the guy just behind Ricky. I try not to stare at the cute young woman with her mother just to my front left. Mostly the women are in family groups on the left and men on the right.

The music & ceremony begins and Ricky gives me flower pettles & instructions for praying. “Use flower not 1st time but on 2nd & 3rd & 4th”, says Ricky. He seems unsure about the 5th time and starts to ask another man, but the music pauses to signal its time to pray. Up go the hands together and then to the forehead and back down. Ok that’s 1st time. Now 2nd time and I see the flowers pressed between the fingertips going up and rush to put my pettles in place; “Put flower in hair”, instructs Ricky after hands come down; so I stuff my yellow pettle in back of headband like the guys ahead of me. 3rd & 4th time again with quick prayer and stuffing flowers in hair. Seems like no flower for last cycle; just as well as I’m out.
[Pictures later]

Then comes the blessing holy water. As the priests & priestesses wade thru the sitting people they are springling drops and then pouring water on people. More instructions from wise Ricky, “hold hands like this”, as he demonstrates a cupped right hand on top of left hand. “Drink 3 times then put rest on head”, he continues. He skipped the part about raised palms on knees to accept the sprinkles. Proably too opvious to explain.

The priests cames and did whole blessing of a group of 3 women in front of us and then it was our turn. The sprinkles, I had to adjust from cupped palm to accept sprinkles properly then back to my cupped position and dripple, sip, dripple, sip, dripple, sip as we were holy watered like 3 potted plants.

Then I almost did a big fopaw. Immediately following the holy watering a silver bowl with yellow rice grains was presented to us. Hands went in to get their share to stick on foreheads & necks. I instinctly reached with my hand and stopped myself just as Ricky started to say something to me. I lowered my unclean left hand and reached into the bowl with my right hand. A collective sigh arouse around me followed by the unspoken, “I told you so not to have stupid westerner in here”. Surviving this near disaster the ceremony continued until all were holy watered & rice adorned.

Then it was over. Ricky, I & the back row hurried out to make way for the crowd exiting the inner temple. Ricky explained that he brought me inside because I had proper attire. He pointed out his house nearby and suggested I get a good spot to photograph the following dances.

Then we parted. And I was back in the mists of tourists. But somehow I was now also I part of the local community. There seemed to me the villagers didn’t look at me like they did to the tourists there. I talked with some other villages and they related to me like a local.
Invent a possibility, share it, and be it. Then it becomes real in the world.

Nusa Lembongan – Beach Kung Fu

2007-07-13T04:54:00.000-04:00

Stopping at a local beachside Warung for lunch I got to talking with a village man. Turns out he is owner & instructor for Lembongan island Kung Fu martial arts and volleyball schools. I knew volleyball is big on the island as there are many volleyball nets set-up around the island. But I never thought about martial arts on a small island.

Soon a couple young boys in black kung fu outfits appeared. One boy is so peaceful & quiet until I try to photograph him. Then he is all smiles & joyful. He & his friends display & enjoy getting their photos taken.

The Kung Fu Master informs me that “only 40“ are going to Bali next week for a competition. There are more than 40 students on this small island! Gee then probably ¼ of the island has some martial arts training. I guess they don’t worry about terrorists here.

Later I get photos of the whole school practicing their forms on the beach at sunset. There are boys, girls, and adult men with varying belt colors.
Wow, kind of like a Karate Kid movie!

Nusa Lembongan – Manta Point

2007-07-13T04:52:00.000-04:00

Flying along underwater just an inch off the back of the giant Manta Ray I thought, “I can fulfill a fantasy”, so I reached ahead and grabed the firm rubbery upper edge of his wide open mouth. But reality instantly ended my fantasy. Upon feeling my touch the Manta accelerated with such power & quickness that I knew I could never hold on. As he shoot ahead I saw that he was trailing a long string or fishing line from his left wing. A sense of shame came over me for being so rude & selfish with the poor trusting Manta. I apologized thru my snorkel hoping that I did not chase him away from his needed visit to the cleaning station here at Manta Point of Nusa Penida.

This was one of more than 8 Manta Rays that I and many scuba divers observed at very close range. I say more than eight because the low visibility limited my range of vision so I could only count 8 in my vision at one time. But I am sure there were several others just beyond the 9 meter (30 foot) visibility. The low visibility was due to dark clouds, strong surge currents & sand sediment from large ocean swells crashing on the nearby rocky shore.

The Dive Master knew right where the Mantas were. I just followed the diver’s bubbles until we reached the “big rocks” he had told us about. I was beginning to doubt that I could see them in the low visibility, but then told myself “I think it must be pretty hard to miss a big Manta ray even in these conditions.” Then, like on cue, a big dark shape glided in below me. My 1st gaint Manta Ray glided less than 2 meters under me then up around & over a big rock mound near the surface.

I followed the Manta to the top of the rock mound and soon was surrounded by a squadron of silent sea gilders. They ranged in size from some smaller 1.5 meter (4 foot), some medium 2 meter (6-7 foot), and couple really big ones 2.5 – 3 meter (9-12 foot). They glided over the rock one or two at a time. Once over the top of the coral encrusted rock they would flare open their mouth & gills to allow the smaller wrasse fish to come in to pick off parasites or algae or whatever else cleaner fish do. Occasionally a fish would bite too much and the large animal would twitch & flip a wing tip to accelerate leaving the little biter. Their funnel flaps where usually twisty curled but occasionally during cleaning they would be out in feeding position on either side of the wide mouth.

They had individual white markings or in the case of one large dark Manta almost no markings. So they were easy to identify by size and markings.

My line trailing Manta returned to get cleaning and even seemed to offer me another opportunity to swim with him. I was out of breath from a recent dive & having trouble with the strong surge so gladly thanked him without following.

Other fun behavior the Mantas exhibited including rising up at approaching another Manta then turning aside to just barely miss colliding; like two macho guys bumping chests. They swam with very little effort. Small flaps of the wing tips was more than I could do with vigorous kicking of my swim fins. I noticed that sand had settled on most of their backs proably from the sandy water in this small cove. I swept some sand off training edge of one large Manta’s back and felt small stiff hair bristles there.

As the morning progressed, more & more SCUBA divers surrounded the floor of the rock mound. Rather than fleeing to open water it seemed that the Manta’s out smarted the divers by hovering closer to the shallow shore break, right in the foamy water just a couple meters from the shore. Except for the heavy surge making it difficult to manuver, this was great for me as 6 or 8 Mantas would be surrounding me right at the surface.

Once in position alongside or just behind a Manta I could slip over to just behind him and kicking swim up into his draft. Then with arms out stretched ahead I could just glide along like one of the small cleaner fish for as long as my breath would hold.

My cavorting with the Mantas was abruptly ended by a tug on my swim fin. The Dive Master let go of my fin & signaled me to swim back to the boat. There all the divers, out of air, were already waiting for me. Time had stood still. More than an hour had pasted and it seemed like only a few minutes.

Next stop Crystal Cove. There I had good time snorkeling the clear water & good coral, dodging many small jelly fish & large dive boats, exploring the nice beach, and viewing the topless Balanese woman doing laundry in the fresh water river flowing into the sea.

The SCUBA divers on my boat had a very lucky day as they encountered & photographed 2 large Mola-Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) along the deep wall at the edge of Crystal Bay. They showed me the pictures & said the fish was at least 2 meters tall. I had encountered a 3 meter fish myself on my previous trip in 2003, so knew how excited they were.

Still Crystal Bay was anti-climatic for me. Flying with the many large Manta Rays at Manta Point is one of the most outstanding Adventures of my extensive underwater life; and surely one of the great Adventures of my 2007 Contribution Adventure World Tour.

Side Bar – Recommended Dive Operator is Drift Dive, located on Lembongan Island at the beach in the main village. Contact staff members Ketut or Kadek at 036624495. They have a fully equipped dive shop and fast fiberglass boat with capacity to carry eight or more SCUBA tanks. Trip included simple lunch (Nasi Goreng or Mie Goreng) and bottled water. Cost for snorkeler when have 2 or more divers is 150,000 Rp ($18). Divers pay about 700,000 Rp ($80) for two dives. Other area dives are less because it is a long 45 minute trip to Manta Point from Nusa Lembongan compared to 15 minutes to most other Nusa Penida sites. Other dive operators from Bali offer this trip too but will be more expensive or a much larger group as they travel much farther.

Nusa Lembongan – Tarci Bungalows & Agus Shipwreck Bar

2007-07-13T04:33:00.000-04:00

Arriving at Tarci Bungalows on Nusa Lembongan I’m warmly welcomed by the staff & Mrs. Agus with my old finger shake. I’m embarrassed on two counts. First I don’t immediately remember them yet they remember me. Second, I had quit & forgotten about my finger shake habit, and in fact been advised to quit it by several leaders whom I admired. So here was a piece of my less mature past still alive here. On this remote island came real evidence that who I am is a result of enrolling others so that they have that listening of me.

My Bungalow is #1 with great view of ocean, beach, & restaurant from the 2nd story balcony. In the day the dark rectangles indicate the seaweed staked out in the lagoon. The shallow reef edge separated the seaweed farms from the crashing surf. At twilight & into the night farmers & wading fishermen create a peaceful romantic setting as their lanterns drift about on the calm lagoon.

The attached Agus Restaurant and Bar is main hangout for the local characters associated with this family beachside establishment.

“But why?” jokes Ming, Kiwi middle-aged surfer that settles here for much of the year. He also sky fishes with a kite and fishing rod.

“We were playing for small Bintang”, states Mark, losing another chest game against a Lembongan islander. He is an Aussie middle-aged surfer Johnny Weissmueler look a like.

“Hey, good morning-g”, Mrs. Agus cheerfully greets me.

“Fruit salad only, papaya & banana with no pineapple”, says Komang Ace headwaiter & excellent customer service staff guy. The staff all know my breakfast routine. My dinner is usually grilled tuna, salad, sautéed vegetables followed by more fruit salad.

The staff all have other side jobs or family responsibilities. One waiter, Wayan Samba, also was a boat captain on one of my snorkel trips, and helps his parents with their seaweed farming. Made Grobag hangs about always ready to joke with guests or locals.

This place is like home for me. Owners, staff, & regulars treat me like family. Snorkeling & diving around the island is excellent. Can affordably rent bicycle, motorbike, or kayak. And world-class manta ray & Mola-Mola encounters are readily available. Great views, great food, great company in relaxed beach environment. My total for 11 days of bungalow, breakfasts, & dinners is 1.9 million Rp, which is about $220. But then I got the family discount…

Sneek Peek - Nusa Lembongan

2007-07-10T08:31:00.000-04:00

Some quick pics from this Island paradise off the coast of Bali.

Beach view on Nusa Lembongan.

My lodging at Tarchi Argus Bungalows, Nusa Lembongan island.

View of Mt. Agung volcano Bali from Lembongan island.

Sunset view from my bungalow.

Micro-Loan girls who made Contribution volunteering with micro loan NGO in India.

Some Future stories:

On Being a Local
Manta Point
Beach Kung Fu Kids
Snorkel Boat Trips
Invasion of the Christain Surfers
What do you want out of Life & other conversations with Rich & Chris
Characters of Argus Shipwreck Bar

Great value beach town of Padagpai Bali

2007-06-30T12:21:00.000-04:00

Wanted to get in some good snorkeling and ocean yet return to Ubud for the big Galungan ceremony so I went for 2 days to Padagpai a small harbor town on SE coast of Bali. Looked and around and found one of few beachfront ocean view rooms in town for great bargain of 40,000 Rp (about $5).

Found great seafood & other eating values in Padagpai. Scenic views of beach, harbour, ocean & islands from Kerti 2nd story restaurant across from beach, also at Blue Lagoon beach. And the Best Brownies in SE Asia at Topi Inn & Restaurant. I made exception to my no sweets diet for Topi's all natural 100% local chocolate & no flower brownie. Excellent!

Colonic Toxin Cleanse at Ubud Sari resort

2007-06-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

As Contribution to myself and for restoring the Integrity of my well-being I did a 6 day "Total Tissue Cleanse" at a Spa resort that specializes in this here in Bali. Ubud Sari resort has various packages for 3 to 6 days in length and from basic without accommodation to all-inclusive with pampering facials, body wraps and various massages.

[Add pictures later]

I did the 6 day basic $314 package. This included daily Colon Hydrotherapy treatments by a experienced Nurse named Yani and her assistant technician Yanti, 3 sets of herbal supplements/ vitamins/anti-parasite bills each day, and one 1 hr foot reflexology massage. This is accompanied by limited fasting & lots of water & ginger tea during the entire 6 days and the following day. Also free dry sauna, herbal steam sauna, cool water jacuzzi, and hot showers with towels & sarongs are available as much as you like during all 6 days.

I ate a lot up until the day before anticipating going hungry.

But in reality I never really got hungry on my diet of fruit for breakfast, fresh fruit juice for lunch, fruit juice or lite vegetarian soup for dinner. Talking with another fellow faster, we wondered why we ate so much before. And even now 1 week later I am eating vegetarian & fish meals and very little carbs. I find it unnecessary to finish even half my rice and have given-up bread & chocolate. I even no longer add sugar to my tea or coffee. I never thought I could drink coffee black before and now I am. I just find sugar repulsive now.

I also maintained a very active adventure schedule the whole week with trekking, all day bike or rafting trips. Never ran out of energy anymore than I normally would have.

So I asked Yani questions during my treatments and there is a nice clinical chart display of potential unhealthy colon configurations on the wall. Their website & brochure describes the problems a unhealthy/plugged/spastic contracted colon can cause, and the benefits of colonic cleansing. I did this to detoxify my body & allow my colon to function more effectively. This will allow my free diving & exercise period to be more effective so that I can maintain enough sustained exercise for 2 -3 weeks to lose weight & get in shape. I also suspect my family suffers from effects of unhealthy colons and am experimenting to see if this will be beneficial for them.

Yani explained that different people's treatment goes differently. Some clean out whole colon in 1st couple days and rest of days are clear. Some like me are late releasers and major stuff not loosen enough to come out until days 5 & 6. I really felt a corner of my colon unblock & flow out kind of like an ice dam melted and suddenly the ice begins to flow. Ontologically I did have to generate being unattached & relaxed before the dam melted.

My pregnant looking lower abdomen did reduce some (mostly gas) but not as much as I thought it would. And as far as I can tell I did not really lose any weight. This seems rather illogical but perhaps I drank a lot of water just before I stepped on the scale the last time.

Anyway I have a calmer sense of myself and higher integrity with my digestive system and body. I also noticed I have much whiter healthier looking finger nails now, but that could just be all that time in the steam sauna. I'm mostly impressed by the major shift in my diet that I have naturally manifested with seemingly no effort. I really don't crave any foods except vegetable soups, fruit juice, and fish.

Well am soon going to Bali coast and then to Nusa Lembongan island for major free-diving & snorkeling to lose that extra 30 lbs and get in tip top shape. That will also be major Adventure.

Bali Legon Dance

2007-06-30T10:37:00.000-04:00

Some pictures of Legon Dance performance at Royal Palace Temple in Ubud, Bali:

This performance is really a series of modified & shortened traditional dances.

Balinese dance and accompanying Gambolin music is characterized by quick jerky disconnected head & eye movements and stylized slower walking like dance steps.

I bought my ticket from one of the young ticket hawkers so he could make a small commission (my price is same as at the gate).

Contribution Trip Notes - I Manifest Responsibility

2007-06-29T11:46:00.000-04:00

Ubud, Bali, June 28, 2007 - Today I Manifest Responsibility, insights, compassion & relatedness.
I wish to credit the Dali Lama for this posting and today's insights:

This morning I read "The Essence of Tibetian Buddhism" with my breakfast of fruit salad. When the Dali Lama was sick he said 'I have manifested illness today'. Wow, this is so great! I instantly got Responsibility as in the Landmark Education Charter at a whole deeper level: The willingness to be cause in the matter of ones's life, ultimately it is a context one chooses to live.

Cause in the Matter of one's life... Everything that shows up for me is my life and if it shows up in my life and I choose to be Responsible for my life then I also choose that it all shows up because I MANIFEST it to show up. Cause in the matter = Manifest. So great! I love this word Manifest!

So 2 or 3 days ago I manifested a sore throat then a drippy nose & some mucus in my lungs. Looking at this deeper I see that I manifested illness symptoms (I am not really ill) to stop my Strong suit of moving-on, so that I can rest & complete my internet uploading requirements; that is to be whole & complete.
From this insight I can have Compassion for my body & "self" that I manipulate myself back & forth to gratify my needs & wants for survival.

I also Manifested Raining today in order to have opportunity to breakthrough my attachment to sunny weather. So I looked at the rain newly, and the gray sky, and the exciting waterfall in the ravine, and the doves finding shelter under palm fronds. And my attachment to the sun and my complaining about the rain faded away. A relaxation, peace, and freedom arouse in its place. Then like magic, the rain subsided and the sun that had been missing for 2 days returned.

I Manifest breakdowns as opportunity for breakthroughs! Can life really be this simple & this powerful? YES, it already is (or rather you already are). But you must be Willing to be Cause in the matter of it ALL.

Galungan & other Ceremonies of Bali

2007-06-29T10:03:00.000-04:00

Imagine having Christmas twice a year! Plus Easter every month, and prayers each morning at home and again at work. Then you begin to get the busy worship & ceremony schedule of the Balinese.

Galungan is their Christmas like occasion. They prepare a long bamboo with curved tip, covered in palm leaves with rice & intricate woven palm frond art pieces hung from it. This is displayed in front of their family compound sort of like a Christmas tree in the front window. The straight part symbolizes strength and the curved part symbolizes respect.

On Galungan morning the families go to the community temple, the women toting the day's feast on their heads. This is also an occasion to dress-up in their best traditional outfits.

Once inside the temple the food is blessed and sprinkled with holy water by the high priest or priestess. This process is repeated to bless each person. They then gather their offering/feast and proceed back home.

In the afternoon the children gather in small performance troops and go house to house performing a Barong dance & gonging similar to Chinese Lion Dance. They are rewarded with small amounts of money. So this is like Trick or Treat and Carolling combined.
[Photos to follow at later time]

Other Monthly lunar Ceremonies at local temples are occasions for villagers to parade to & from the temple with their offerings & musical instruments playing.

Click on Archive Articles on Left to View Postings

2007-06-28T13:44:00.000-04:00

I am posting so many stories at one time that they are not all displayed on this web page. Click on Posting titles on left side of page to view the ones that are not displayed.

Sneak Peak of future Postings

2007-06-28T13:14:00.001-04:00

Contribution Trip note 6-24-07

2007-06-28T12:53:00.000-04:00

Found Christain Church, English service is at 0900.
Sermon is about Being of Service: Having more $ not lead to happiness. eg. Mrs Walton of Walmart fortune giving her $ and time to many causes and says 'that she wants to be known when she dies by what she did [caused] not by what she has.' This is key to Happiness.

Later I talk to sermon woman (her & husband from SF, California). I share my thyme of trip is Contribution & how ofcourse her sermone is about that. I share about Landmark Education and recommend for her when they return to SF.

Then 20 seconds later meet Ruslan Wiryadi the editor of new Ubud magazine who wants me to email him my Bali articles & pictures. Just the break I wanted to get publishing credits so I can submit my writing to National Geographic & other big time publications.

By being possibility of Contribution in service of others I am contributed to even more than I give... This stuff really works!

Contribution & Adventure Trip Notes 6-23-07

2007-06-28T12:38:00.000-04:00

Ubud, Bali June 23, 2007:

Being Unreasonable as access to Adventure. eg. my voice is saying "It's too far to 2nd rice paddy trek and you have a 2pm colonic appointment." But I go anyway. Leave 9:30am arrive at trailhead 10:30am.
Contribution must me allowed. At road to Syan Terrace trail head, a guide boy want to guide me & I don't want but he guides on ahead anyway. I reluctantly gradually give up my concern about $ and see the value of his guiding. I accept his advice for alternate return route that adds value to trek. He interprets with a local farm lady who brings a refreashing coconut for me to drink. He even gives me a free lift on his motor bike as I'm obviously tired. Thus I make it to my 2pm colonic on time.

Wise Quote - June 21, 2007

2007-06-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

Man needs escape as he needs food & deep sleep. - W.H. Auden

Contribution & Adventure Trip Notes 6-15 thru 6-19

2007-06-28T12:12:00.000-04:00

Day 1 Ubud June 15:

Being Aware = Being Alive.
Openess & trust Essential to allow contribution. This opens up access to expanded adventure. Thus manager of Gusti's Bungalow suggesting Bike Tour occurs to me as Contribution & opportunity vs. selling & pressure.
Contrast to ordinary view - Contribution (as sacrifice) vs Adventure.
But openess/trust & view that others are Contribution must be a Choice. If I have to be open just to be polite then no real contribution is possible. eg. the 2nd & 3rd Artist wanting to sell me their stuff, and I pretend to listen & be open when I'm really just wanting to move on.
Completion as Access to restoring power. Get complete each day with excess sales people, my talking too much to other tourists, my expenses higher than expected. I read the source document or Budhist handbook to get complete and have compassion for myself & others.

Day 4 Ubud June 19:
Balese people believe everyone has 2 spirits - One God that gives voice saying Yes you can, and One Demon that gives voice saying No you can't.

Bali Bicycle Eco Tour

2007-06-28T11:09:00.000-04:00

A colorful offering on the dashboard of our minivan ensured a safe & comfortable lift up to Breakfast at scenic lookout point at lake Baktur. An ornate Garuda mythical bird decoration guards the Coffee & tea while breakfast was a standard buffet of fruit & Bali banana pancake and scrabbled eggs.

We tour a small botanical garden before starting to bicycle. We see vanilla, cocoa & coffee plants. Our tour guide shows us how they hand roast, crush, and filter out the coffee grids from the coffee bean shell.

We taste the local handmade Bali coffee & hot chocolate.

Next comes tasting real fresh local fruits including ripe chocolate. White large seeds of the cocoa fruit are the size & shape of garlic cloves and have a tasty sweet white flesh similar to the Mangosteen fruit. After eating the flesh what remains is the hard dark 100% chocolate nut. The nut itself does not really have any taste; chocolatiers add sugar & milk to the processed chocolate oil & powder to get chocolate candy.

A Bamboo factory is our 1st stop as we bicycle downhill on small village roads. We see them separate the hard sheath for weaving mat & walls from the wood and pulp. “Nothing is wasted”, says our guide. The bamboo wood is used as cooking fire fuel & the pulp fed to live stock.

Bamboo grows incredibly fast. Here we see a sapling that will be 3 meters (10 feet) high in 1 month.

We also get a lecture about typical Bali family compound & life. Cooking house is on East wall with door facing west, meeting platform in center, family houses on south & southeast, old people housing on west, and family temple on NW corner. Unlike in the West, in Bali it is the youngest child that inherits the family property and thus is the leader of the family.

Antique statues made to order! The boy make 8 "antique" statues a day.

Next stop an ancient village Temple with Balinese architecture & special Hindu paintings. The Temple is organized to represent the 3 realms of Bali: Sacred Mountain interior, common fertile flat land, and adventurous surrounding sea.

For energy snack I enjoy a ripe green banana, a variety that is common in SE Asia.

We stop to view rice harvest and threshing to separate the rice from the harvested stalks. Harvesters take a break and enjoy some water that we give them (Contribution).
This is where we had our 1st casualty. One guy of our group lost control while stopping and toppled over injuring himself on the bicycle and roadway. He was helped up, was treated on the roadside & courageously finished rest of the trip with us. Later an older lady also crashed on a tight turn. She finished the trip inside the following support van.

We stopped at the optional ending point just after crossing a small dam. I could not resist, so the others watched as I crossed thru the shallow river. Once on the other side my companions told me to start back from higher up so I would go faster. I did this and realized they just wanted to see me create more of a splash and get wet! (Adventure)
Due to our 25% casualties and that most of us had already seen it, we skipped the Monkey Forest sanctuary in Ubud and drove directly to our buffet lunch at a nice open air restaurant just East of Ubud. A good selection of local dishes and relaxing companionship conversation was a nice way to end our tour. I share Landmark Forum with several people who express interest and say they will checkout the website.

Thanks for your Comments; Answers to some Qs

2007-06-28T10:57:00.000-04:00

I am encouraged to see that people are leaving comments. Thanks. So to address some common questions about this BLOG:
I upload pics & stories when I both have access to high speed internet and make time to do the writing, organizing photos & uploading/editing my blog. It takes me about 2-4 man hours to organize, write & post an article. So it does also cost some $ but internet access is not expensive here in Bali or later in Thailand.

I am currently in a internet blitz mode getting all the uploading I can done. Tommorrow or next day I will be moving on to coastal Bali & then to Nusa Lombongan a small island off the coast. There is no fast internet there, only slow expensive email internet.

So i will soon be entering a couple week no growth period for my blog site.

Bali Whitewater Rafting

2007-06-28T03:40:00.000-04:00

Going over the edge and plunging down the 4-foot drop our raft buckled in half sandwiching me between Alli & Chad up front and the two guides beside & behind me. Water poured in, the guides rebounded off me, the raft flatted out, and we were floating along now gently down the Sungai Ayung River again. This was 3 minutes into our rafting trip and one of only three or four serious Class III drops.

Lovely waterfalls & narrow Jorge walls, a rockslide, and free floating are some of the other highlights of our morning float trip. This is definitely Adventure showing up in Ubud, Bali on my 2007 Contribution Adventure world tour.

The toughest part of this trip is the extreme descent & ascent of the hundreds of stairs down & back up the ravine. At least there is a fun open-air tram up the last bit.

A welcome shower, changing room, and tasty lunch await us at the top. I didn’t bring a change of clothes or a lot of mullah but Alli & Chad gave me 25,000 RP ($3.50) to buy a nice cotton Hawaii type shirt in exchange for my emailing them my photos of our rafting. Thus another expression of Contribution is exchanging and sharing.

Is the food safe to eat?

2007-06-20T08:10:00.000-04:00

You’ve heard ‘Never eat salads or fruit unless you washed them with bottled water 1st ‘.
Ok, and you would miss some of the finest fruit & vegetable eating in the world.

My breakfast included with my lodging at Gusti’s Garden Bungalows. Papaya & Pineapple piled high with Banana, plus a Banana Jaffle (toast hot pressed around fruit). I wash it down with real Bali Kofe & tea with sugar.

View from my breakfast table of waterfall and stream in lush ravine.

My “Warm Salad” was different and tasty. A cooked halved tomato stuffed with warm herbal cheese is a unique vegetarian dish at Sari Organik. My fresh watermelon juice is mixed with crushed ice to chill it and served with slice of melon.

Sari Organik Warung is vegetarian heaven in the rice paddy fields adjacent to Ubud. It offers a range of delicious, wholesome dishes prepared from chemical-free vegetables from its adjacent organic research station garden. Price about $5.50

Their clean restroom has pretty stain glass window.

I discovered this peaceful spot walking thru the rice paddies.

I later went back there for Bali’s 1st Official Rice Tasting Competition (later story).

I have dinner at Ruma Roda, a local family restaurant across the street from Gusti’s.

This dinner is tuna in a nice tamarind sauce, and Sayur Urbin (spelling?) local vegetable leaves and grated coconut in a light sauce. Served with rice and some diced cucumber & peppers in a sweet sauce. Nice Papaya juice with lime added to bring-out the sweet flavor.

Desert is fresh Papaya with lime served in traditional banana leaf bowel.

All for about $3.50. You too can afford to travel with James' ContributionAdventure world tours!

Anyone can now Post Comments

2007-06-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

I have changed the setting so that "Anyone" can now leave a comment.

Sorry I didn't realize the default setting was that you had to have a goggle account to leave a comment. Have changed that so now should be more user friendly.

Off to my foot reflexology & colonic treatments... Here from you soon. - James

Treking in Rice Paddy near Ubud

2007-06-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

Trail. Ducks. Ceremony Procession. Artist in his outdoor studio.

Note: Artist uses only wood stick not brush to color traditional art.

My Room in Ubud - Gusti's Garden Bungalows

2007-06-18T09:31:00.000-04:00

120, 000 RP which is about $13 US is what I'm paying for this room with these views. Price includes breakfast (see next post), towels, and swimming pool. Nice warm shower in clean western style restroom, all tile. Note Mountain in background & kite in tree.

James Arrives in Exotic Bali 6-14-07

2007-06-18T09:26:00.000-04:00

Poster at Airport. Not an exaseration. Bali really is a land of intricate art and refined culture.

Ubud is cultural center and is where James is at for his week of detox and local adventures.

Transit in Malaysia & View Volcano over Java.

2007-06-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

Stop over Kula Lumpur International Airport. Ate malay cafeteria food.

View of Volcano as fly from Malaysia to Bali, passing by these volcanos.

2007-06-18T09:10:00.000-04:00

Great trip on Malaysia Airlines. Cutie Stewardess is from Saba.

Picture uploading not easy from Bali

2007-06-18T09:03:00.000-04:00

Twarted to upload pics again. Finally found broadband place. But no disk drive. Will use my USB thumbdrive to upload.

Random Trip Notes Orlando to Bali

2007-06-17T06:15:00.000-04:00

Arrived ok in Ubud Bali but Internet connections are slow. Will try uploading pictures and stories later. 6/12/07 - 6/14/07 Insights:
In transmit was aware of and occurring of various forms of Contribution and Adventure.
CONTRIBUTION:

Coaching Lucy for her to see Beauty is What Matters to her.
Well being;Raisenetts vs. Ice Cream, California blond Body builder.
Sit next to Teacher and her HS Team to win National Championship of Quiz Kids.
I share myself with cute Indian Grad student. Later Smiling Indian women shares with me.
Stewardess brings water in middle of night, like I get at home.
Airport cutie offers to take my pic at Taiwan airport.

ADVENTURE:

Malaysian jazz on plane (Cerita Cinta, Karma Shabda).
Talking pic with hot Malay Saba Stewardess.
Ocean Man, Documentary of Cuban and Italian guys who free dive to 152 meters deep.
Openness / Trust Essential to allow Contribution. And Opens up access to Expanded Adventure;
Contrast to ordinary- Contribution as sacrifice, VS. Contribution as Adventure. Similar to Enrollment vs. Convincing. Thus Gusti Mgr Enrolled & Reg me for Bike Tour which occurred to me as contribution to a new adventure vs. convincing me or selling me. Because I was Open/ Trusting. And Openness is a Choice, not to be polite or look good.

BEING FULLY AWARE = BEING FULLY ALIVE. State of awareness allows for insight.

Ok will send pics if Internet shop is fast enough:
Bike Eco Tour Lake Baktur to Ubud.
Rice Tasting at Organic restaurant in middle of scenic Rice Paddies.
Hindu Procession.
My Breakfast and Dinners you wish you had.
Volcano from airplane.
My luxury $13 per night place with great views.
Travel thru Taiwan, Malaysia worlds best airports.

Tomorrow I start my 6 days Fasting Colon Hydrotherapy Total Tissue Cleanse. So tonight I eat a lot!!! :)

Please leave some comments to let me know I'm not wasting my time.

Adventure Travel 101 – Useful Travel Rules

2007-06-12T03:28:00.001-04:00

So you want to travel, see the world, experience exotic cultures and places with minimum of expenses and mistakes. Well you’re in luck. The following is a valuable guide to worldwide travel including my exhaustive list of do’s and don’t which I call my “Travel Rules”.
First off you have to be mentally prepared to prepare for a major trip. That’s right the preparation is the hardest part. You have to face all those concerns, fears, and reasons that have always stopped you from doing everything else in life you always wanted to do. Concerns like Uncertainty (I’m not sure where to stay, or how to get there, when to go, etc.). Concerns like I won’t have enough Money, how do I get enough Time off work, or what about my Stuff at home (house, car, pets, kids, etc.). You’ll also have to face criticism from all those relatives and friends who will ask stupid questions, which of course you have no idea how to answer. Questions like:
Why are you doing this trip?
How can you just up and go?
What do you bring for five months on the road?
How can you afford it?
Where will you stay?
Aren’t you afraid of Terrorists?

So cheat and use some of my answers or make-up your own. Remember this is adventure; no one really cares about the truth.

My Answers to Common Questions:
Why am I doing this trip? Make up a good emotional or spiritual growth story. Something like: “It all began with my approaching mid-life crisis. I promised myself I would do Bali for my 40th birthday. But I had to do other stuff with friends and relatives for the last two years instead. But still a promise is a promise. So SE Asia here I come.”
How can I just up and go? What do I bring for five months on the road? How can I afford it? Ok, well I’m in between jobs now and I’ve arranged my life to do my retirement as I go. So without debt or children to care for I can travel when I’m able and willing. All my travel belongings fit inside an internal frame backpack with zipper-attached daypack and a small gym bag. Normally everything would fit in the pack and the gym bag is my “overflow bag”. The overflow bag is doubling as a laptop/ valuables carry bag on this trip. As far as my budget goes, previous experience shows it costs about the same to travel as it does to stay home. A reasonable minimum figure is about $20 per day for SE Asia. I’ll splurge a bit most days so my realistic budget is $30 per day. These figures include airfare averaged out over the duration of the trip. [Of course, I’m not actively working so the cost does not include lost wages. Don’t tell them this.]

Where will you stay? Hey, that’s what guidebooks are for. Want a cheap place in some city you’ve never been to? Forget the Internet. Get a Lonely Planet guide book for that country and you’ll have your selection of guest houses to choose from with details of the price, beds, bathroom, view, lobby, service, attached reastraunt, bar next door, address, phone, fax, and reading room book selection.

Aren’t you afraid of Terrorists? Ok, fear of Terrorists is the latest “in thing” to fear; or maybe its SARS, or bird flu, or dirty public toilets. Hey those things can all get you right there in Podunk, USA. Unless you’re planning to travel as an undercover agent for the CIA its unlikely you will be heading into known terrorist hangouts. Contrary to mistaken American opinion most of the rest of the world is safer than USA big cities such as NY, Miami, or Los Angeles. Violence to tourists is much, much lower in SE Asia and many foreign countries. I have always felt a lot safer in the back streets of Bangkok than the back streets of New York, or LA.
Travel Rules
Ok so your all set to go. You’ve navigated through all the concerns and preparations and ready to buy your ticket around the world. Great! Shopping for tickets brings you to Travel Rules #1 and 6. When shall I go? And where to get best airfare?
Travel Rule #1 states, “go when you can”. This is the most important and most used Travel Rule. Do it now, don’t wait tell later. This applies both to planning your trip and going to the restroom. You never know when you’ll find another opportunity or available public toilet.
Travel Rule #6 states, “buy the cheapest tickets as you go”. Thus if going around the world it is better to buy cheap one-way to Bangkok, then get onward tickets from there to Bali, Nepal, Europe, back to USA. Your trip may take longer than the validity period of the cheapest tickets, and prices for onward tickets are usually less in undeveloped countries.

So you’ve arrived on some nice tropical island and want to find a place to stay and place to eat. This brings us to Travel Rules # 11 and #22. Travel Rule #11 states “when deciding between places to stay look for Grass Roofs, views, and quiet”. It is useful to combine this with Travel Rule #22, which states “when deciding between places to eat avoid places recommended by Englishmen and favor places selected by Germans”. These are rather obvious rules. Grass roofs are cooler and less expensive, views and quiet are more satisfying. It’s also easier to sleep if there is not an all night Karaoke next to your room. Unless you are English, it is unlikely what Englishmen think of as “good food” will either fill you or you’ll think is tasty. An example of a “Good English breakfast” is something like a piece of white bread toast and plain tea. Compare this to a “Good German breakfast” which is more like 3 eggs, 3 sausages, 3 pieces ham, 3 tropical fruits, piece of smoked marlin, banana pancake, piece of carrot cake, 2 pumpernickel bread toasts with mango jam, banana milk shake, and a large coffee with cream and sugar. Of course if you want to maintain that low intake diet then go with the English.

So you want to see the local sights. This brings us to Travel Rule # 34 which states “never join a group tour when you can do it yourself”. In general, doing it yourself is a better value, more enjoyable, more satisfying, and better way to meet locals. In a tour you’ll meet only other tourists, have limited time, a fixed itinerary, and use private transport. It is also a higher security risk, as group tours are very noticeable and predictable targets for both criminals and terrorists. Plus you gain confidence and meet locals as you learn to arrange your own public bus, public boat, local meals, and real entrance fees. “Khow Tourd Crap” means, "how much?" in polite Thai. You’ll likely get a pretty smile, a 10-cent bus ticket, and satisfaction of connecting with a local.

Time to meet that romantic someone special or at least get laid? This brings us to Travel Rules # 42, 46, and 48. Travel Rule 42 states “British are great for good conversation but not good romance”, and Travel Rule 46 states “East mixes best with West”. Then Travel Rule 48 states, “Latin American babes are hot and they know it but Asian babes are beautiful inside and out”. And of course you should save any marriage proposals for your 2nd, 3rd or maybe 20th return trip.
Speaking of women and onward travel brings us to Travel Rule #50, which warns “never base your travel plans on some woman you just met”. I have missed many a good spot or lost valuable time (and usually money too) by moving on too fast from a great locale or missing a great onward travel opportunity because of my infatuation with a new hot babe. There was the time in Townville, Australia when I passed-up the opportunity to get paid to crew on a luxury sailboat all along the great barrier reef to Bali, Maldives, Seychelles, Red Sea, Mediterranean, to Spain and France. All for a cute Dutch blonde with green eyes. Then she runs off to work on a shrimping boat leaving me alone, boatless, and disappointed.
Well the trip is almost over and you are thinking what to bring back as souvenirs. Well Travel Rules # 126 and 129 simplifies your life here. Travel Rule #126 advises to take advantage of goods and services that are bargains and useful to YOU. These include fashion clothes, spare eyeglasses, teeth cleaning, medicines, doctor visits. Travel Rule #128 simplifies your shopping by advising don’t buy any souvenirs except what people specifically asked for. People will just chuck your hand carved wooden elephant or colorful batik shirt into the back of some closet. Your treasured gifts will disappear in the next garage sale or to the Salvation Army.

The fact is that no one will appreciate your trip except you. When you return home you still will be faced with the same critical anti-travel environment that you left.
Your home, family, work, country’s economy, and TV programming are all geared toward you staying and living the normal predictable stable home life.

But you will know. You will remember those magical moments. That rainbow stretching between two islands on your Ferry ride in Togian Islands, Indonesia; the primeval fear of the Tiger charging while you ride your elephant in Bardia National Park, Nepal; the painful bliss of a 2 hour Thai Massage on the beach in Koh Samui, Thailand; reflected moonlight and fishermen’s lanterns in the shallow lagoon of Lombongan Island, Bali; the violent giant wooden cart festival in Baktapur, Nepal; the smiling face and yellow dress of the banana vendor in Anni-ni-y, Philippines; dancing all night on the beach at the full-moon party of Kho Phangan, Thailand; the vivid colors of the Orchid Garden in Singapore; the new tastes of inexpensive foods at the night market in Kota Bahru, Malaysia; stimulating snorkeling with two topless Swedish babes at Tioman Island, Malaysia; peaceful tropical island view from your outrigger canoe in the lagoon of Cook Islands; and the perfect sunset over the fringing reef at Bora Bora.

You will remember those few weeks or months when you knew Freedom.
And always keep in-mind, Travel Rule #1, “go when you can”.

James Edward Rascon is the Mad Traveler. In 1986 he arrived in Indonesia; during his first day the ferry he was riding caught fire. In 1987 he arrived in Cambodia; soon civil war broke out. In January 2001 he arrived in Philippines; a few days later mass protests forced the president out of office. Coincidence? You decide.

2007-06-06T16:34:00.000-04:00

James Flys to Bali June 12; Loses June 13th over Pacific

2007-06-06T15:55:00.000-04:00

Flying June 12 Air Trans Flight 745 departing Orlando 3:44pm arriving Los Angeles (LAX) 10:11pm.
Then transfering to Malaysia Airlines MH95 at 1:40 AM June 13 to Kuala Lumpur, Malysia arriving 12:15pm June 14. [Rest of June 13 dropping into the Pacific crossing the International Date-line].
In the Malaysian capital I transfer to MH853 at 2:55pm arriving in Denpansar/Bali, Indonesia at 5:55pm June 14.

There I will catch a taxi to Upud, an artsy tourist destination surrounded by lush green rice fields. After a couple days rest and final bengging, I begin a week's fasting, herbal supplements, & colonic hydrotherapy.

Then off to Nusa Lombongan island via Sanur of South Bali coast. There 3 weeks of intense free diving, kayaking, biking, and body surfing exercise combined with fresh fish, rice, tropical fruits will complete lossing 15 - 30 lbs and restoring optimum health.

Anyone want to join me?

Welcome to My Plog

2007-06-06T15:06:00.000-04:00

My first plog allows you my family & friends to communicate with me as I travel around the world leading an extraordinay life and touring some lucky people on Adventures of a lifetime.