Mostly Thailand has been wonderful, relaxing, nurturing…but this morning, yikes! Nok and I were on our way to the market to pick up a few things when SLAM, we were broad sided as we were going through an intersection. The other driver ran a red light and didn’t even slow down. I think we were hit at 25-30 miles an hour.

Before you get too worried… we’re both okay physically. No trips to the ER or anything.

Both cars sustained major damage – worth a small fortune by Thai standards. The guy who hit us said his light was yellow at first, then later changed his story and started claiming that his light was green.

Anyhow, he’s sticking to his story, and the camera mounted at the intersection is broken, and nobody stuck around to provide witness. That’s the worst part. There must have been over a dozen people right there, on motorcycles and what not, who just zoomed off once they saw that nobody was dying. I guess nobody wanted to get involved, but now we’re stuck with a long drawn out process of trying to get this guy to pay for the damage. Nok had only the minimum insurance, so that won’t cover anything.

From 1:00 to 9:00 PM we were at the scene of the accident standing in the hot sun, then at the police station trying get things processed. Nok spoke to about eight different officers. I don’t know why they kept passing her around. We’re still not done. I have to go to the special “Tourist Police” so they can take my statement because nobody at the police station spoke good English. They’re doing some kind of investigation. Nok might even have to go to court to get things sorted out.

On the good side, the authorities really seem to care about justice, finding out to who is at fault, and holding them accountable. On the bad side, things take forever here!

My coaching homework (I have a coach too) this week has been to inquire into what’s perfect about everything that happens. LOL

It’s a good thing too or I could have really spiraled down into a negative place. I can’t really say that I have a great answer to that question about this situation, but just asking the question kept me in more relaxed, accepting state of mind. One thing is for sure, I sure am grateful that everyone is healthy physically. I’m grateful that we weren’t on a motorcycle. I’m grateful that if we end up having to pay for this ourselves, we’re in Thailand, because it will probably cost quite a bit less than it would cost to have it fixed in the US.

Well, be careful everyone! Stay safe. Enjoy your life. It’s precious!

This video and picture are from my last trip to Thailand in February 2009.  Cuddling up to a big tiger was one of the highlights of my trip - and NO the tiger was not sedated.

This video was taken just moments after the photo.  I don’t think they’d be having that much fun if they were sedated.

Would you like to make the next 12-months your best year ever?

If you’ve been reading my blog then you know that somehow I’ve managed to include a lot of fun, travel, and adventure in my life. I’m not independently wealthy. My company doesn’t send me around the world on assignments. In fact, I’m self-employed. I’ve been self-employed my entire life. One of the reasons I get to travel so much is because I envisioned having this life, then I created a plan to make it happen, and I worked on transforming any limiting beliefs that might have held me back.

My business is coaching people to people to create their lives by design. I coach a lot of small business owners to grow their businesses while enjoying fabulous lifestyles, and I coach individuals without businesses in the areas of career, health, relationship, and achieving whatever meaningful goals are important to them.

I recently recorded a free teleclass with my friends Starr and Sara of This Moment Events that was part interview and part workshop where I led everyone through a powerful exercise to help them create a clear and compelling vision for the year. I wanted to share this recording with you.

This call is an interesting and dynamic exploration of what will help you take your life to the next level. We discussed some of the foundational strategies I have used with hundreds of clients over the years to produce truly amazing results.

What you will take away ….

1. You will identify the key strategies to create your vision, as well as the primary obstacles which you will need to overcome.
2. You will be guided to identify any limiting beliefs and you will be led through a powerful process for changing limiting beliefs into empowering ones.
3. You will explore the keys to living your best year, which includes a balanced approach that is both yin and yang, masculine and feminine, attractive and active, generative and aligned with a natural flow.
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Get the free teleclass recording here:
Living Your Best Year

After Bali, we returned to Thailand where my father, Don, and his friend Bonnie, joined us for several days of island hopping off the Andaman coast.

Our first stop was Phuket, which was a bit too busy for our taste, but the beach at Kata was perfect, and the ladyboy cabaret in the party-town of Patong was entertaining.

Nok had to leave unexpectedly to be with her family because her grandma passed away. Nok had wanted to go to the island of Railay, so we put it on our itinerary. Unfortunately, she missed this part of the journey.

We spent three days there. The beach was among the most beautiful I have ever seen, with breathtaking limestone cliffs that rise dramatically into the sky. It reminded me of Yosemite, but tropical, with Ocean instead of lakes and rivers.

Here is a video taken from a longtail boat. These longtail boats are one of the main ways to get between islands, as they can easily navigate shallow waters and dock right on the beach.

There are a lot of monkeys in Bali.  I had never been so up close and personal with a bunch of wild monkeys before.

These guys and gals were used to being around people, but they weren’t domesticated.  I trusted them enough to get close, but I didn’t want them climbing all over me.  Here’s a video of me feeding some monkeys we found on the side of the road.

In the next video, Nok has some wild monkeys climbing all over her.  She had told me she was scared of monkeys because her uncle in Thailand had some monkey pets who could sometimes be aggressive.  She doesn’t seem too afraid in this video.  Maybe the Balinese monkeys are a bit kinder for some reason.

By the way, right after I returned from Bali, we went and watched the movie, Avatar, while in Bangkok.  It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time and I highly recommend it.  The planet in Avatar reminded me a lot of the rain forest in Bali, so teaming with life, unknown creatures, both friendly spirits and dark dangerous creatures lurking in the shadows, the play of light and dark, the dance of good and evil, a spirit in everything, and everything connected.  The plants, animals, insects, and people forming a complex web of intelligent life.

Bats were a big part of our experience in Bali.  We stayed at this wonderful hotel in Manduk, a high altitude village where many people go for trekking.

The rain forest is teaming with life up there and, while our hotel was neat and clean, we liked to keep the windows open at night to let some cool fresh air in, and this unfortunately also invited in a number of guests from the rain forest to visit us each night.

One night an entire nest of flying ants decided our bed would be their new nest, while we were still sleeping in it!

There were the usual geckos and spiders, but the real excitement came when a bat decided to come in and circle around our heads for a while. We thought it had left, but when I awoke in the night to go to the bathroom and flipped on the light switch, there he was, hanging from the ceiling, yikes !

In this hilarious video, Nok accuses me of screaming like a little girl ! LOL

Later in our trip we made friends with a massive bat who had a hurt wing and therefore just hung around in a tree all day eating fruit that people brought him.  We thought he was so adorable that we would visit him every day in his tree.

Check out the video, I’m sure you’ll agree, bats can be kind of cute.

Trekking near Munduk was a blast! Not only were the waterfalls spectacular, but it was interesting to see how some people still live very simply, in small homes built alongside the trail, cultivating gardens in the forest, and sometimes raising a few livestock.

We decided not to hire a guide, even though it was recommended, and ended up being lost about half the time, but that was part of the adventure.  These videos capture a bit of our trekking experience.

The lodging in Bali was very affordable.  These videos will give you a couple examples.

We traveled around a lot for the first few weeks, then decided to stay up in a village near Ubud called Penestanan.  It has been known as an artist’s village since the 1930s.  Our villa was surrounded by beautiful rice paddies and forest.  This was our place to chill out.  We loved it!

We drove the bike up over the mountains to the other side of Bali.  It was incredibly scenic and the mountains, especially around the lakes, were one of our favorite places so far.

I didn’t bring a single piece of warm clothing to Bali - no pants, no jacket or sweater. I would have been fine if we hadn’t made a motorbike trip over the mountains at nightfall!

It got pretty cold toward the top, so I bought a fake leather jacket for $8. We ended up staying in the mountains for several nights, as it was just too beautiful, so the jacket came in handy.

There are creatures everywhere in Bali. During the few days we spent in Manduk, we were visited by a bat that flew right into our room! Fun, Fun!

There are ancient temples, many of them still in use, everywhere in Bali.

Each one has a unique energy and sometimes that energy is very powerful. The location is sometimes as impressive as the temple itself.

Men are required to wear a sarong (a large cloth wrap) inside the temples. This may be your one chance to see me wearing what looks similar to a dress, so enjoy!  Hehehe

We’re currently staying on the mellow north shore of Bali in an area called Lovina.  We’ve spent several days not doing a whole lot - getting massages, exploring different restaurants, swimming in the pool, etc.

It’s very nice here, but we’ve found the local vendors quite aggressive and annoying. I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve experienced this before, but this is on another level!  I’m sure there are worse places,  but this is enough to really get on my nerves! Sometimes we take the motorbike just to go a couple of blocks, because we won’t get hassled to buy a dolphin cruise, move to a new hotel, or any number of other things they are selling.

One massage therapist handed us his flyer, which had a bunch of nice quotes about the quality of his work. I might have contacted him later to schedule if he hadn’t hung out by our table waiting for us to finish eating so he could continue his sales pitch. “Pushy” would be a nice way of putting it.  Here’s a video from some local fisherman pulling in their catch for the evening.

Nok and I rented a motorcycle for $3.50 US per day for the remaining 19 days of our time in Bali.  Bali is small enough that we can drive ourselves anywhere we want to go.  That doesn’t mean it’s easy to get around.

There are no really good maps here. Most of them leave out many smaller streets and turns. So we’ve been lost as much as we’ve known where we were. But that’s part of the fun! It’s good to have an end in mind, but in the end, the journey is what matters.

We consolidated [...] Continue Reading…

Dance is an important part of the Balinese culture and religious ceremonies. You can find dance performances everywhere. The dancers and the live music that accompanies them, are really quite interesting. The costumes are elaborate and the stories, while confusing to the untrained eye, communicate an amusing sense of drama.

We especially enjoyed the female dancers, who sometimes isolate their heads from the rest of their bodies, while doing this captivating thing with their eyes.

We were fortunate to be in Ubud during the annual celebration of the main temple.  This entailed three days of performances and ceremonies.

The food in Bali is delicious and affordable.  However, Nok and I are totally spoiled coming from Thailand.  Food is to Thailand, like art is to Bali.  Plus, almost everybody eats out in Thailand, and the vendors make their profit from a large number of sales, rather than a big mark-up.  This makes food surprisingly cheap in Thailand.

We’re paying 2-3 times as much for food in Bali. However, we’re mostly eating in restaurants geared to tourists. Gusti and Gustu took us to one of the local eateries (not for tourists) and it was some of the tastiest [...] Continue Reading…

When we arrived from Thailand we went straight to Ubud and checked into Mandia Bungalows on Monkey Forest Road.

Ubud is the main center for art in Bali, and Bali is just oozing art everywhere you look - from the abundant dance performances that tell spiritual stories, to the unique music, paintings, stone carvings, and elegantly designed and decorated furniture, walls, ceilings, door frames, etc.

Ubud is quite friendly for tourists, yet still has a local feel and culture, unlike some of the beach areas that seem more “made for tourists”.

We liked Ubud.  It’s a little bit up in the mountains, [...] Continue Reading…

This 2.5 minute video was taken during our mini-vacation to the small town of Pai - about 3 hours from Chiang Mai by bus.  On the way up to the waterfall we stopped to say hello to a rather large buffalo cooling himself off in the mud.

Elephants like to get their back scratched.  Sometimes flies will lay eggs in their skin.  You can imagine how much that might itch.  They will destroy trees in order to get that itch scratched.  The trees in the Elephant Nature Park all had protective fences built around them.  See the video.

The Yi Peng Lantern Festival is a unique traditional practice of Chiang Mai inhabitants.

Traditional beliefs say that with the floating of these huge hot air balloons, the troubles of the person launching it also go away.

We also put our prayers for peace into the balloons before we released them.

The “Elephant Nature Park” near Chiang Mai, Thailand rehabilitates physically and psychologically injured elephants and treats them with the great care and respect they deserve.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with many of the elephants in Thailand.

Here I am having a great time feeding an elephant.  I forget the exact amount they eat per day but it was something around twice my body weight.  Imagine how much they must poop.  Yikes!

Bathing the elephants was fun.  They seemed to really appreciate it too.  You had to be careful of the poop if you were downstream.  Here’s the video if you don’t see it above.