APW: Travel Blog #2 - Honolulu to Manilla to Rak Tamachat

Design a life that makes you happy and stimulated.  Create this in a sustainable way that includes abundance for you to give back for all the gifts we are given throughout this life. Live.  Learn.  Live.

Grateful to be alive, breathing country air, choosing to be on the road again.  My spirit has in a few short days begun to feel more calm and free.  The road in front of me leads into the illusive horizon.  I recognize how I’ve changed since the last time I engaged in travel.  I recognize how I will continue to grow and be different, though at the core, I will always be the boy who fell asleep face first into a plate of spaghetti.

I begin my travel, inevitably, with lessons to learn.  Immediately tested with expectations, and how to be patient with your path, and to not get hung up on what you think will be, because there is no true knowing.  All of this translates to: I miss my flight to Bangkok.  It is becoming an unskilled art of mine, to (un)intentionally not take preplanned flights to places.    And having familiarity with this feeling, I chose to avoid feelings of annoyance and disappointment with the expense and the adapted schedule.  So I sat at the airport, accepted the circumstances, and instead enjoyed another 2 days on Hawai’I, exploring the island of Oahu for the first time.    I ventured to the north shore, met a permaculturist from New Zealand on the bus, met some world travelers at hostel I stayed at, hung out on the beach at night, and took one last swim in the Hawaiian seas.

Accept the challenges and changes with introduce themselves into your lives.  Even if they appear disagreeable, invite them in and learn from them.  Do not reject the circumstances that have been placed at the table in front of you.  Rearrange your ingredients, get creative, and cook up something wonderful.

Food for thought:

In the two gifted days on Oahu, I was able to talk story about organic farming with Oahu and Kauai Natives, along with a boy from El Paso, the customs security agent, Israeli and German Travelers.  Previously when traveling I was an observer and listener, now I feel I have something worth sharing.   I will share what I have learned about healing the soil, for the benefit of the plant, the humans eating and breathing, and the ecosystem.   It all fits perfectly, into a natural ecosystem that this world has distanced itself from.  Who knows what any of these conversations lead to?  I was on a whim when I traveled to Hawai’i on a great friend’s suggestion 4 years ago.  We never know what we will become, only that every influence in our lives nurtures growth.

I will not preach, and I let most ideas be, but when a philosophy has the potential to harm the natural world and its inhabitants, it can spread like wildfire, I will stand up and have a go at balancing the larger forces out there.  I will do what I can and find my peace with the rest.

Incredible Person of the Day Award:

On my flight to the Philippines I sat next to a Chef in Waikiki.  He visits his family at home in the Philippines every three months.  What a beautiful responsibility he fulfills.  He told me is so grateful to be able to work away and come home and provide for his wife in children.  Not many are so fortunate to be able to provide for their family and live their passion.  I admired greatly this man named Jazz.

View from the roadside #1: bench at Waikiki Sunset

There was man offering directions and laughing the pigeon’s ineptitude of receiving them.  He did this for hours, waving his hands wildly, raising his eyebrows to the sky.  He was incredulous and mocking, using the rolled up newspaper to slap his hand in disbelief or direct the pigeon towards the ocean, as if that is where his destination lay.

He performed 10 meters in front of me, while next to me lies my backpack: my only belonging and reliable portable home for the next 6 months.  Next to my backpack sat an elderly Japanese woman, a real stunner.  Equipped with silky gray hair, a gentle thin smile and an elegant oriental summer dress. 

The trolley on the street rings behind, footsteps flood the street, all shapes sizes and colors, a woman plays ukulele to the ocean, which plays percussion for her.  The music of the city.  A city both beautiful and contrived.  With splatters of Hawaiian, Polynesian, International and Metropolitan culture all mixed and spewed on shore from belly of the humpback whale.  A culture that breeds pro surfers, executives wearing ties, bikini models, homeless haircuts, Polynesian dresses and all walks of life.  Similar to Las Vegas for me, Honolulu is a city that does not belong in its landscape.  And it is strange, having lived in such close proximity to this metropolis, but not seeing it face-to-face until now, to feel this way.  We are 2400 miles away from a great landmass, and it is both strange and beautiful, to say a hui hou to Hawai’i from Hana to Waikiki.

I spend my last day here waking up with the sun on the North Shore.  I arrive by bus to the Bishop Museum and then make my way to Waikiki.  Through the long uneventful hours of riding the bus I sit and admire the landscape and introspect on the idea of spending time with oneself.  I have been tossed around the island last year like a rag doll, though this was all my choosing.  I am choosing now to remove myself from the world of clutter and distraction and focus on nurturing myself and relationships and communities around me.  I live with the undesirable sacrifices I made last year. 

Back in Waikiki, a man in robes walks by carrying a torch and touching the flame to the tikis across the boardwalk.  A woman next to me tells me she is unable to write about more songs cause they all end up with pain.  Can’t escape the ‘he-done-me-wrong’ loops.  I offer her a smile and hints of forgiveness.  The sun drops a few inches closer to the horizon, the hula dancers are in swing, and the hokulea and company of twinkling stars awaits beyond the darkening blue sky.  A German with a beer belly, white tennis shoes and an ironed aloha shirt sits down on the other side of me and snorts.  A big smile spreads across his face.  He loves his wife.  He loves his life.  Isn’t America beautiful?

200 years ago who would have thought this would become of Waikiki?  On this trip across continents and seas I will be measuring how times travels across this modern world.    And how the inhabitants of these lands balance its influence.  What do I know?  I don’t lay claims to know more or anything.  I am here to observe, speculate, grow, seek and participate.

As I consider all this, the man arguing with the pigeon returns.  Frustrated, laughing and smiling, I love it all.

 

Soon to come:

My journey to Rak Tamachat in Thailand.
Overview of my natural buildings course.
Ethics regarding the introduction of a non-native species into an environment.