Life begins at the end of your comfort zone
Well, Father Time waits for no one. As we glance at our rear view mirror, we have some treasures from Peru we have to share. We are very inspired to share tales of our adventurous experiences in these mystic lands. We can honestly say that when …
Passion grows in the pants, whoops, we mean plants … Imagine being up in the clouds, away from civilization with no form of communication, following a nutty little man, smiling ear to ear snipping away here and there at this plant and that one, yelling “Aaaiiiiiight.” …
We want to see if we can write blogs in random places. Now it’s no problem to find random places seeing that we are often in random houses, cities, parks, camping in the middle of nowhere, and finding little gems of a spot while exploring. You would think we’d have all the time in the world to sit down and write a bit but not having a routine, nor clear direction of what we want to do with the day, our time flies by. Our life flies by. We’re starting to realize that planning only a year in advanced isn’t far enough. Being near our 30’s we’ve opened our perspective to a 5-10 year look ahead. What do we really want?
We know writing a to-do lists for the day or week can be daunting sometimes and fun other days. When the list is written out, you have your mission. You can prioritize, get focused and start to pick away at each task until it’s all done. You may not enjoy it, perhaps because it was too much of a panic or you didn’t get everything done in that day, so you feel disappointed. But you should still feel satisfied knowing what you did today were steps that are taking you closer towards your 1 or 5-10 year goals. The hardest part of the whole process is to write the plan, to really figure out your priorities and aspirations, to extract the floating idea cloud out of your head and put them on paper. Once that is done, you’ll either get at it right away or you won’t. The difference between the action and inaction comes to what you really want.
A story from Zen Buddhism Stories:
A man goes to a hermit he sees meditating by a river and says “I want to be your disciple.” The hermit asks “Why?” and the man responds “Because I want to find God.” So the hermit takes him to the river and holds his head underwater until the man is struggling. When he resurfaces, the hermit asks the man what he wanted when he was under the water, to which the man responds “I wanted air!” The hermit says, “Come back to me when you want to find God as much as you wanted air.”
I have heard various versions of this story but the idea holds true that once you really, truly want something, only then will you find or manifest what you were striving for.
Other times you may have somehow lost the to-do/goals paper and found it later on only to realize “Holy crap!” I’ve accomplished everything on the list. Hmm, I think there is something to this idea cloud capturing. It’s like walking a dog. You can have the little guy off-leash, untrained, and running all over the place with no idea where he is and when he is coming back home. Or you can put a leash on him, harness and train him to walk nicely, and return home after a long walk with both parties satisfied. Sometimes a harness to the untrained mind to help it focus is just what one needs to achieve their goals.
To get back to the 5-10 year thing, we are trying this experiment where we write out our floating idea cloud daily to see if we can walk our visions in that direction. This is not a to-do list but a mere capture of the invisible to make it real and visible. I swear this is what wizards did back in the day before people really knew the capacity of the mind. Wizards would think of something, write it out and POOF! it would happen. MAGIC! Then they would be able to purchase all the wands and white beard creams to become Hollywood famous. We think these wizards still exist today but in a more diluted, modern form.
We actually met a wizard in Thailand named Marvin. He was leading the ONE-GET team with a vision to creative an autarktic community, living in harmony with nature so that we, ourselves, could also live in peace. He kept telling us how he wizarded his friend and wizarded another man in Thailand he wanted to work on his project with him. We were enticed by his use of the word wizarding and how many people he had already wizarded, until we realized the whole time he was pronouncing “visited” in his strong German accent. Visiting or wizarding, either way, the vision that Marvin and his team had started from an idea cloud, a possibility of change, a new way of thinking, is now magically and intently manifesting itself into a reality through the steps they are taking each day.
Maybe the secrets to wizarding were never told and people organically found the powers they possessed within themselves. These days the power of capturing idea clouds and writing them down makes all of us wizards of the future. We can use our magic within to manifest the vision we want for our future.
We will fill you in over the next few months and hope you too become a Rambo-wizard, idea cloud capturing, cowboy. Hurry, Father Time waits for no one!
As a kid we had something in our lives that made it easier to venture out or even come back to for refueling. Something like a blanket, a parent or that shirt that was worn way too much. As we’ve gotten older, it comes out …
Writing out loud is what we do with our mouths but words are invisible and lost in the wind. Your words are like clothing to your thoughts … What shall I wear today? But I better choose quickly because I’m on the spot! It’s almost as …
Day 5: Doi Inthanon – Siriphum & Sirithan Waterfall- Chom Thong – Mae Ya Waterfall
There was nowhere to cook breakfast and it was our last day so we left bright and early to make the most of it. We checked out Siriphum waterfall and the garden near town then headed on Hwy 1009 to find more waterfalls to swim in and a place to cook breakfast. Both Siriphum and Sirithan waterfalls were big and beautiful but you couldn’t swim in them so we didn’t spend much time at each. Leaving Sirithan waterfall is where we realized our rear tire was completely flat and the integrity was gone!
With no cellphone on us to call the scooter rental place we headed about 5-6km back uphill to Doi Inthanon park. Luckily a local Thai man from Chom Thong village picked us up in his truck and loaded the scooter. He dropped us off at a place to fix the tire which ended up being overpriced at 970 THB and took about 2 hours. We gave the kind Thai man 220 THB; he was so grateful and insisted on only taking 100 THB but we wouldn’t let him.
From there we went to Mae Ya Waterfall which was a short hike and very beautiful. We swam and enjoyed our time there before heading back to Chiang Mai. When we showed the damaged tire and receipts to the scooter rental company she did not want to refund us any portion because our contract said that popped tires were the responsibility of the customer. After a little debate she returned 400 THB to us which we were satisfied with considering what we had put that poor scooter through. Although most of our kilometres were spent on highways, the majority of our time was spent dirt biking on back roads with this scooter. We definitely learned from this short adventure that we’ll need a different bike for our next scooter adventure!
Expenses: 960 THB = $35 CAD
Distance: 96 km (does not include the kilometres we were towed)
TOTAL EXPENSES for the trip: 5310 THB = $197 CAD
TOTAL DISTANCE for the trip: 825 km
Day 4: Pang Ung – Mae Hong Son – Maeaukoluang Waterfall – Doi Inthanon This was our kilometre day, we had a lot of ground to cover. We were headed to Surin waterfall but along the way stopped in Mae Hong Song off Hwy 108 to …
Day 3: Pai Viewpoint – Pai Canyon – Susu Waterfall – Pha Suea Waterfall – Pang Ung We both agreed that going to sleep with the sun and waking with it felt amazing. But we also realized that our minimalistic camping was almost too minimalistic. …
Day 2: Pong Dueat – Tha Pai Hot Spring – Pai – Pembok Waterfall – Pai Viewpoint
We woke up as the sun was rising because we were anxious all night, waking up many times to the sound of engines or people … and rightfully so, since a man in camouflage was peering in the window as we were packing up. As it turns out he was a guard, so we let him know we were leaving right away. We were told that the national parks in Thailand are all manned by the military because they are King’s land.
On our way to Pai we stopped at a scenic pullout, made a campfire for breakfast and had red rice with Campbell’s cream of mushroom and chicken. Today was our first experience building a fire in such high moisture and humidity. It was very difficult and took a lot of patience since we didn’t have any fire starter or dry kindling but eventually we did it! Although the road to Pai is windy and beautiful, oddly this scenic pullout wasn’t very scenic at all and unfortunately had a lot of garbage everywhere. We are firm believers that you should leave a campsite cleaner then when you got there, so we tidied up the place before continuing on.
Next we were onto Tha Pai (aka Pong Ron) hot spring which charged 300 THB/person and was a let down because it was under maintenance and we couldn’t go in the hot spring. Luckily the park attendant returned our money since we decided we weren’t going to stay there and camp after all. So we headed to Pai to find a coffee shop, charge the phone and walk around. Pai is a unique and enjoyable little town with many boutique shops and tourists. It would have been fun to spend a few days there but we decided we were going to keep moving on and find more nature. 
Pembok waterfall was our next chase. We were excited to feel refreshed and swim again and even more excited when we could do some small cliff jumps about 10-12ft. From Pembok there was a sign that said 7km to Pai Viewpoint so we thought why the heck not. Turned out this was a crazy road made for off-road scooters or dirt bikes versus the one we rented and when we finished the 7km we came to a sign that said another 3km. These 10km took us well over an hour to do and some of the inclinations were so high that Paulina got off the scooter and walked, and eventually we both got off the scooter and just hiked the last kilometre to the top.
We were ecstatic to finally be at the top and immediately decide we would camp there because the scenery was beautiful and facilities were great! Pai is at an elevation of approximately 480 MSL while the viewpoint is 1624 MSL, so we climbed over 1100 meters on a little 125cc scooter … The villagers seemed impressed with our tenacity. We camped there for free and were blessed to have help from locals to start the fire since yet again there was no dry kindling or wood. The villagers used pieces of wood that seemed to be naturally saturated with a lot of sap. We later found it for sale in the markets at 6 THB per bundle. We cuddled up by the fire, got mesmerized by the flames and soon after sunset headed to sleep.
Expenses: 160 THB = $6 CAD
Distance: 85.8 km
“Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to I know that you’re gonna have it your way or nothing at all But I think you’re moving too fast” TLC – Waterfalls Actually, DO go chasing waterfalls! Especially …
About three months into our trip, we were starting to get bored of being tourists, feeling unproductive and lacking genuine purpose each day. We’d often wake up in the late morning and wonder “What now?” We’d heard many great reviews from people we’ve met travelling …
Today, on the topic of dumpster diving, we’ll be discussing the German man from the Vipassana meditation center that we met. We are going to endeavor into this conversation about our meeting with Max Maximus and the noticeable garbage and waste we see in the world. Max was a young, 20 something-year-old, that joined us in the meditation course and Will had the privilege of meeting on the first day. He was quite interesting with a small frame, long dreadlocks and baggy flower-patterned pants. As we started to peel away the layers of the onion, you could see Max was at war with what we call garbage. He believes in not wasting food and has taken a stand by making the example of living off less then $10 a day, and some days nothing at all, for the last three years. He wants to prove that it can be done and this world is so plentiful that you have everything you need right here and now.
We would have never guessed from how Max carried himself that he was a homeless drifter. If we knew about Max’s story prior, we would have expected him to smell bad which we were surprised to notice he didn’t. He was self-educated and held high values for the global environment plus cared for hungry people deeply.
When the meditation course was all said and done, we had a more in-depth discussion with Max. He opened up about his passion for psychedelics and some comical stories of him trying to get his parents onboard with it. For the last couple years he has been emailing his mom long letters detailing specifics of his “trips” … oddly she has never once responded. On the other side, Max’s father was invited by Max and his siblings to join on a family bonding trip in the Australian desert … where Max and his brothers tried to convince him to try some psychadelics. Their father denied and was paranoid the entire trip that his sons were trying to drug him which ruined their family bonding time.
Max also mentioned that while on his mission he met a German girl in Australia who shared the same mindset as himself. This enlightened us that either there are many people out there who truly realize garbage as a problem, or the Germans are weird. But no, Max is justifiable. He is actually a pioneer in the garbage warrior arena and how he plans to reach the fight of this arena is to dig deep and understand where are all the places uneaten food lay to rest. So Max accomplishes this by penetrating into the steel containers we call dumpsters to retrieve his treats for the day.
Check out this quick four minute Canadian video: Dumpster Diving 101
We piled into the back of a truck with Max and some others to get transported to our next destinations. The conversations started to flow and spiraled into very entertaining topics … See, having more heads than one to ask Max questions about his life was perfect. We found out Max does busking and juggling in major city centers to support his low budget lifestyle. That he met his girlfriend dumpster diving for food as well and it’s a game they like to play. We learned about his circle tattoos and that they are a representation of all matter around us. And we learned that Max has his life set up in a way that is slower paced then the ones we know for ourselves.
One awe-inspiring topic that came up (at least to us) was about how Max hunts in the urban jungle food court. Like a stalking predator he lingers and watches people from afar as they order their food, how they go about eating and the general health/hygenic conditions of the person.
It’s something I think we’ve all had come across our minds when we are in food courts, “Are they going to finish eating that? Because I totally will!” Unfortunately, most of us are too embarrassed and don’t want to raise any social radars of being gross so we stay quiet. But we didn’t stay quiet, we started telling people we met about our dumpster diving friend, Max. We were inspired by him to be less wasteful and decided that this was one mission we had to test on our trip.
A few weeks passed by, we found ourselves in the expensive city of Singapore at the Zoo with empty stomachs. But there was a shiny golden halo hovering over a box of half eaten KFC left for dust and our minds shifted into hunter mode. We noticed that people around us would be in the general area for about 6-8 minutes then a new batch of observers would come to check out the monkeys habitats. So we perched ourselves beside the “could have been wasted garbage” KFC and as soon as we notice there was new crowd of people around we grabbed the treat as if it always belonged to us. We were so excited to be eating soggy fries and a crispy skin drum sick. We can honestly say that this scavenging gave us a rush. It’s not something you’d normally do and it really is like your trying to be a food ninja making the least amount of moves until you are in a checkmate scenario with your prey.
We had our thrill and felt like we would now try for bigger game in our travels when the time was right. The second and most exciting experience was in Phuket in a shopping center. We just happened to see two of the most gorgeous, half eaten gourmet sandwiches just laying there with no owner! We had to move fast because there were table cleaning demons who were moving at a ferocious rate. So we huddled up and game planned it to be a solo suicide mission. Will was the hunter for the tray prey while Paulina took watch … We really wish we videoed but maybe next time! Now sitting in front of us were these two amazing, rich, thick, fresh slabs of rye bread, we knew we hit the jackpot of garbage wars. Our hunt was different this time, the first time was about the flow of people but this time we didn’t have fast moving traffic, we had people that tend to be focused on their own worlds while they eat and don’t necessarily pay much attention to what’s happening around them. (Quick two minute video test to check your sense of attention: Attention Test.) So Will swooped in to linger for a moment, with full confidence that this had been our sandwich all along, and departed quickly with two fists full of greatness and another thrilling meal.
So although on man’s trash is another man’s treasure, it has been our lunch. Our foodcourt scavenging experiences have fit the budget and been entertaining, it has also made us open our eyes to notice when we’re walking around how much food does go to waste. It’s funny, it’s who happens to you in your life that will inspire you to experiment with how you’re living your life. Whether its a significant or small influence, it all counts toward you being curious, open-minded and further educating yourself. That’s why sharing these experiences with everyone is great because it also allows you, the reader, some time for reflection and gives examples that you may choose to emulate in your life. I bet there is something inside of you who would totally do the same and grab those fries off someone’s table or finish up the tasty pasta dish that is barely eaten. We will report with more experimental learnings along the way and we want to impress upon you that you can always have a thirst for firsts … so save on waste and try it out! Until next time our fellow friends of the world.
Stay tuned for Germany in August … maybe you’ll find us feasting out of supermarket dumpsters. There’s no better way to learn than experiencing first-hand some of the things we hear about which will also help to maintain an authentic, organic, fun life ahead of us.
When we started telling our family and friends of our plans to leave our jobs, homes, vehicles, pets, and entire lives behind to take a year off to travel, not too many people took us seriously. It’s not that we needed to convince others anyways …
Us too! That’s why we can only ask ourselves the question of “Why not?” rather then the excuse of “Not now.” Our writings will warmly and chillingly introduce many moments of our life that have unfolded and that are yet to unfold as we continue …