There’s nothing that says vacation more than starting each morning with a couple cups of fresh organic coffee. That I put it directly up my bum might be considered by some to be a complete waste, but I assure you, a daily colonic is the best use of coffee I’ve ever made. I came to Koh Samui and joined a growing number of people who use this tropical island as a getaway vacation. For those of us who came to the Dharma Healing Center, we use the time to get away from food. Not that we give up the wonders of [View Full Entry]

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Every morning at 8, an alarm bell rings in our apartment complex and this morning, it woke me up. I imagine it as a holdover from the Communist days and envision people streaming out of their apartments heading to the bus stop for another day in the factories and fields. Those days of collective action seem long gone and the people I know are already heading to work by now and the groaning buses have been replaced by people starting cars and endlessly shifting between forward and reverse, trying to get out of tiny parking places with little understanding how to [View Full Entry]

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It's snowing today. Or at least it was. For a moment. Seems everything around here lasts about a moment. Not just the weather either. Amy was here for two weeks and now that has passed, too. What a blur. It was a trip being a tour guide, such as I was. My language skills are rudimentary, but coming along. And I got to see her relive my first two weeks here. In awe at the weird things in the supermarket. The six foot towers of stuff loaded on a bicycle. The chaotic traffic. The constant assault on the senses. And then [View Full Entry]

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Last month the head of China’s EPA resigned after people in Harbin, a city in the north, discovered 1000 tons of Benzene had been released into the river that supplies their drinking water. The official blamed it on local officials who fail to enforce industrial safety standards in their headlong rush toward economic development. Take that to mean someone got paid a lot to let an industrial polluter fatten his bottom line. It happens all the time. As millions of people were left to drink bottled water, it made me think about my water situation. It’s actually pretty good. The [View Full Entry]

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Girlfriend Amy’s here so the fun has doubled. The woman is an athlete, so the day is not complete without exercise and getting that fulfilled opens lots of possibilities. Her normal route is to run around West Lake, about 6 miles. She usually does that in the morning and the other day was so impressed by the number of people out getting exercise. “China is going to take over the world,” she told me after seeing the over-40 crowd taking care of their health. Later that same morning, she went by the numerous McDonalds and KFC restaurants and saw the places [View Full Entry]

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Now that is winter, our apartment is pretty cold. Most mornings the standing water on the roof outside my living room window is frozen. This cold seeps into the concrete walls of our apartment and doesn’t really seem to ever let go. That and the single pane windows make for a great excuse to lay in bed. Heating these places is a bit of a joke. While some people have caught onto the joys of radiant floor heating, our “old” apartment, (built in 1999) has several wall mounted electric blowers. But in a two-storey place, all the heat goes upstairs. So [View Full Entry]

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There’s an old saying that has helped me get through some uncertain times: “When it seems like you are enveloped in darkness and don’t know where to turn, you’ll find there is usually enough light to take the first step.” I had no idea where things would lead when Sean and I announced we were having a Christmas party but sure enough, we found the way. The Hangzhou Harmonica Band was a real help. Mr. He Yin, an 80-year-old English-speaking member was delighted to receive my offer to play. He even stopped by one day, unannounced, to inspect the venue, but [View Full Entry]

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Christmas Crap This being China and America being in a Christian nation, I can tell you I was wondering when I’d begin seeing the Christmas decorations. They actually started going up before Thanksgiving but that’s a chronological technicality that no one here bothers with. There are trees and tinsel, red and white and now, just two weeks before the big day, nearly every waiter is wearing a red Santa hat. The folks at Pizza Hut have them. And the Japanese noodle shop. The clerks at the upscale DeCleor are not wearing them but they dress in bright red suits anyway. Wanting [View Full Entry]

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Many of you have been asking what my yoga classes are like. First of all, they are diverse. I have been teaching three kinds of classes. Hot, Flow and Basics. The Hot Class features a series of 26 poses done in a room heated to about 100 F. Flow is similar but the poses vary depending on the student’s abilities and the teacher’s preferences. The temperature is more like 75 or 80 and in Basics, as the name implies, I get some beginners. Except last night. There is always an exception. Classes range in size from one person to 20. The [View Full Entry]

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Serendipity Last I knew about Mr. He, he was playing harmonica with the Hangzhou Harmonica Band and was really insistent that I come see him again. It’s not every day an 80 year old Chinese scholar invites me to come visit, so I gave him a call. He didn’t answer, but He’s wife did. Only she doesn’t speak English so I did pretty much what I do when the phone rings here. I say “Wo ting bu dong” and hang up. This time, I tried a few words but failed. Next day, having had tips from my teacher, I called again [View Full Entry]

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