I can’t say this isn’t what I was expecting, only because I really had no idea what to expect. My loving mother attempted to make me research all of the places that I would be visiting before venturing forth, but that’s no fun, right? The food here is incredible, but now matter how hard I try to order spicy food I feel like they’re giving me a watered down American… Read More
Hello family and friends!
I am super happy to be in Thailand. The flight to get here was rough. A 12 hour and 5 hour plane ride. We had about 24 hours of travel but it was well worth it! Chaing Mai reminds me of China Town but with BEAUTIFUL Buddhist temples on every other block. I can’t wait to explore the rest of the city! We start our Thai… Read More
hello family and friends, this is Alex DiPaola and Anna Cleveland. Sawasdee (which is hello in Thai). We are on a scavenger hunt through Chiang Mai. We have only been here two days but so far the trip is great and we are having a great time. We are staying in a guest house here and will be there for the next five days, then we will be moving on… Read More
Carpe Diem! Seize the day … because today we have a full Southeast Asia group and they are looking chipper and ready to dive in! It was remarkably pain free to meet everyone in SFO, and I’m looking forward to lots of “aha” moments throughout the next three months!
May the journey be meaningful, fun, and full!
Yours in spirit,
Ethan Knight, Executive Director… Read More
Hello from Portland! Here at Carpe HQ we are enthusiastically preparing for the upcoming semester in Southeast Asia. Not too much longer and we’ll be on our way to Thailand! We will calling you all in a few weeks to touch base before we head out, but until then you are welcome to call or email with any questions that come up. Looking forward to meeting you all next month!… Read More
To our Carpe Diem family of 3 months: we wish you continued learning, increasing tolerance, unending passion, continuous questioning, the strength to fight oppression, the ability to smile in the face of adversary, the ability to digest your food til you die, solid nights of sleep and, of course, good hair days…Goodbye Carpe Diem SE Asia ’10! We’ll miss you!… Read More
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Hello to everyone out there for the last time!
We’ve finally reached the end of this crazy journey. Here’s a quick recap of the last few weeks:
After the elephant village, the group headed up to Vang Vieng To do a kayaking… Read More
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After a short comfy ride we found ourselves nestled amongst the gradually rising and descending hilltops along the outskirts of Luang Prabang to partake in Shangri Lao, our next expedition. After debriefing the previous night as to what the program entailed and the schedule we would be… Read More
Laos has baguettes. That is the first thing that, on behalf of everyone, must be said about our visit to the second country in our exciting itinerary: LAOS. After a 6 hour van ride, an overnight stay at the border, a river crossing, another 6 hour van ride, and a much lighter bag of dramamine, we finally arrived in Luang Nam Tha, a town that looks like what would happen… Read More
Greetings from Southeast Asia! The past week was spent in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We spent the week taking a variety of classes: thai cooking, jewelery making, Muay Thai (well we wanted to try it, but to keep a long story short, it was an epic fail). Our first night in Chiang Mai landed on Camille’s birthday, so to celebrate some of us went out to a… Read More
May all beings be happy…May all beings be free… May all beings have access to and ipods and facebook during vows of silence.
(This last affirmation being our group’s request to modernize Buddhist practice).
We just finished our 5 day intro to Buddhism and meditation retreat which ended in a full day of nobel silence. Nobel silence redefines silence as inadequately quiet, requiring abstinence from speaking, reading, writing, or attempts… Read More
Hello family and friends! If you read the title, you just learned the Thai word for Thailand! But before you lucky readers learn more Thai, let’s go back a couple weeks.
Bangkok was a great way to release the angst of the Mokken Village. Great shopping, (bargaining is the name of the game) and hot showers (OH MY GOD!) We even spent one night at the Lava Club night club… Read More
Ahh, sweet mysterious of the Mokken Village we have uncovered thee! Upon arriving to the Mokken bay tinted with broken red bull bottles and climbing inside the Village Cheif’s house, nothing more than a living room sized shack with open windows and harsh, unshaven bamboo branches, we quickly and abruptly came to a single conscious realization: We aren’t in America anymore.
Different problems arose quickly for different people. What will… Read More
The conditions at the Mokken village were in stark contrast to the well-resourced surroundings of the ashram where we conduted our orientation. The Mokken people traditionally lived at sea on self-made fishing vessels, small boats that look like large canoes tents on top. In fact, the first Mokken sea vessels were carved out of solitary large trees akin to the construction of Native American dugouts. The Mokken traveled up and… Read More
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We took an overnight bus to Ranong, departing from the primary Bangkok bus station, a fun multi-tiered maze of tasty eateries and shopping stands… Read More
Our group endured the brutal 15 hour plane ride with turbulence, a 3 hour layover in Hong Kong, followed by a 2 hour plane ride, then a 2 hour bus ride to gratefully arrive at the idyllic Wongsanit Ashram on the far outskirts of Bangkok. The Ashram has made for a perfect landing to Thailand: clean and spacious meditation halls provide prime space for our orientation meetings, while rain on… Read More
Team SE ASIA came together seamlessly, and will be embarking over the Pacific in only 2 short hours. Look for more from the group members themselves in a couple of days!… Read More
