From a Birthday I Will Never Forget to A Reminder From Mama Earth

A few things to touch on in this reflective blog post… I have officially had my first international birthday, I feel fairly confident on a motorbike now, and I visited an incredibly eerie site of a historic rescue mission! So let’s attempt to dive in (pun intended but you don’t get the pun yet)!

I got a year older! Woo Hoo 24! The day started in Pai, Thailand with a super yummy breakfast in town. Followed by the coolest breathwork workshop that led directly into a sound bath… when I say this was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had… There is no exaggeration. I won’t get into my experience too much but I will say that colors are magical and I must get a tiger tattoo. After this somewhat path-altering experience we ventured via motorbike to Mo Peng Waterfall. Where we swam at the base of a waterfall in the middle of the jungle. As Izzy and I were sitting in the water and just looking around at how beautiful this place was, the sky had never been so blue, the water had never felt so refreshing, the greenery had never looked so green. The kind of presence that I was given the space to experience was so beyond beautiful all day. The rest of the day was filled with playing cards, delicious food and wonderfully interesting and engaging conversation with the person I love. It was a beautiful day. Did it feel like my birthday? Kind of… Izzy made sure I felt special on “my day” and very sweetly reminded me it was my birthday every…hmmm… 20 minutes. It was also the first birthday I have spent away from “home”. Of course I got phone calls and beyond kind messages from people I love, but I was so far from everyone that fulfills such a special part of my being. I feel particularly lucky to have Iz in moments like that where I feel the distance of my loved ones. It isn’t always so easy to be on an adventure like this, of course there are moments of hardship like our failed festival attempt… but the hardest moments really are when I wish someone from home could be with me along the way. Whether it's a tipsy tubing adventure with Lis, taking a challenging but refreshing yoga class with Zan, playing with kittens with Zo, zipping through the mountains on motorbikes with my dad, singing karaoke with my mom and Xiao yi, picking out matching bracelets with Havi, giggling and talking shit with my girls over cheap drinks, the list goes on and on. I guess this goes to say I see parts of all of you here and they are some of my favorite but most heart wrenching moments. I miss and love you all so much and I wish I could be sharing so much of this with you. I guess writing about these experiences feels like a way of sharing them with you guys. So, my birthday was a beautifully present day shared with my person and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything, as well as being one of my harder days away from you all. 

Okay, I must move on or I will gush about all of you for the whole post… which on second thought I might just have to do for one of these. It might make me feel a little closer to everyone. 

Motorbikes! The providers of freedom! We really have discovered that if we don’t have an easy way around it is hard to find the motivation in constant travel to figure out what we want to do, find how to get transportation, figure it out in our budget, etc. etc. We’d much rather be able to walk wherever we want to go or drive ourselves with the flexibility of making last second decisions to “go check that place out” or even just stop to take a picture. So, solution, motorbikes! Now that we are comfortable with them we’ve got all sorts of good stuff planned all the time! The other day we drove about an hour and a half north out of Chiang Rai, I will tell you about this later. We even considered driving about an hour and a half south to feed sheep!? It’s all very exciting. Anyways, longer rides are also a great place to take in all of what we are doing. There is something very peaceful about the hum of the bike, the wind from zooming around, the warmth of the sun, it all makes for a great place to think. Of course when I’m not avoiding other bikes, cars, stray dogs, the smell of exhaust, oh and bugs flying into my face at 60 km/hr and occasionally into my eyes… but of course other than that it is a very peaceful and beautiful experience. Driving on the freeway is much more pleasant when you look to your right and see fields of rice patties and to your left and see jungle covered mountains with cliff sides covered in the most gorgeous greenery you’ve ever seen. Not to mention once you get off of main roads and start driving through smaller towns full of wonderful smiling faces that are all living their own wonderful lives. You get to see so much more life on a bike, there isn’t that separation that exists between pedestrian and car, you are just there in the environment with everyone you pass. Sharing space. There is something so heart warming about sharing a smile with someone and giving a small bow of your heads as you pass each other. I think that is my favorite part of riding the motorbikes. 

Okay, moving on again. The Tham Luang Caves. WARNING: If you do not want to know the outcome of the story before watching the film “13 Lives” (about the story and filmed at the actual cave) do not read any further…If you know it already then feel free to keep reading! Quick-ish history lesson (can it really be called history if it was only 6 years ago? Doesn’t matter let the story commence) on June 23, 2018 there was a group of 12 boys (ages 11 to 16) and their soccer coach (25 years old) that entered Tham Luang Cave to explore. Following their entry to the cave a monsoon began and the cave quickly began to flood. They became trapped inside, while fleeing the rising water they ventured 2,315 meters into the cave. When they had been discovered missing a few hours after their entry the rescue mission began. The entire mission was internationally documented  and took a total of 18 days to rescue the boys. This effort was no small mission, the operation included an estimated 10,000 people. Including Thai military, Navy SEALS, international responders, and locals from surrounding communities. There are so many factors in this story from people diverting water from the top of the mountain into rice fields, flooding and destroying entire rice patties sacrificed by local farmers in an effort to slow the flooding of the caves, to international divers that performed the rescue itself. I couldn’t possibly touch on all the details so just the final outcome and briefly how. A group of highly experienced international divers made the 6 hour dive through incredibly small submerged tunnels with very strong currents just to find the boys on July 2nd. For the next 8 days the rescue was debated and finally done on the 8th after all of the needed supplies were delivered to the location the boys had made it to. What supplies you may be wondering? Supplies to sedate the boys, and dive them out of the cave. Nothing like this had ever been attempted and they truly had no idea if it would work, especially considering they had to readminister the sedative halfway through the dive to ensure no overdose with the initial administration. From July 8th to 10th the boys were one by one rescued. The story was a miraculous feat with only one casualty of a Thai diver named Sam. The first question I wondered when I heard about this was how did the boys survive? Upon watching the film (one of many that exists) I found out that the coach taught the boys about meditation. I cannot imagine the fear that they probably experienced in this excruciatingly long experience of being trapped, but with meditation the coach was able to help all the boys keep a sense of calm and hope through the 18 days. It is an incredible story. 

Now that you know the background. A few days ago we visited Tham Luang Cave. It is in the middle of a beautiful jungle area and when we arrived we had to park outside of ThamLuang Khunnam Nangnon National Park. We walked up a hill for about 10 minutes when we got to the base of the cave. The area was partially developed, certainly more than it was in 2018. The energy was… eerie. It was nearly deserted, with just a few workers, a small group of Buddhist nuns, and later a group of students on a field trip of some sort. We immediately felt the energy shift as we got closer to the cave, we looked at the exhibits with pictures of the rescue and even walked through a non scaled replica of the cave with information of depth into the cave and things that had occurred at those points. And then we went to the cave. How to describe the cave? It had stone hanging from the ceiling like icicles, making a jagged and intimidating entrance. This wasn’t the only intimidating aspect of the space, it smelled of fresh rain in a cold and ominous way, with the sound of dripping coming from every direction. I can’t imagine being trapped with nothing but the sound of the drops of water adding slowly but surely to the rising water levels that threatened your air supply. It was cold in the cave. Normally this would be a relief from the humid and warm air in Thailand but it was the kind of cold that was unwelcoming. Like I said, the energy around the cave was eerie but the energy once entering hit you like a wave, it felt almost as if you could feel the lingering stress and pure worry of the rescue team, the deep doubt but hope that the insane mission would work and save the lives of these kids. As it was a beautiful experience in the fact that the boys lived and a miraculous rescue was accomplished it was also a very humbling experience in the recognition that Mother Nature is so powerful and will remind us when we are in too deep. A reminder to think about the adventures you embark on, yes it may look beautiful but it is more than its beauty. 

Another reminder that came from this adventure was given through the conversations about the incredible community. Thousands of people flocked to the location of the cave to help save the lives of the team inside. Without the efforts of everyone involved the boys would have surely drowned. People diverting water from the top of the mountain to slow the rise of the water seeping into the cave, people sacrificing an entire season of crops to hold the excess water, the people funneling water out of the entrance of the cave, all incredible. But I believe what was most amazing was the amount of energy being funneled into the cave versus the water being funneled out. Thousands of people believed the boys would be okay, that the divers could do it, that the boys were still alive before they were even found. I like to think that they could feel this energy and were able to draw strength from those outside of the cave, helping to keep calm and fill them with hope. I think it was the collective love that kept them alive more than anything. Maybe that is why it all happened. To remind us of the power of a determined communal love. What a beautiful reminder that is. 

Thank you for checking in. I love and miss you all.

Love,

Luna