Daeng's Beautiful Thai Jungle

I am blessed to have such a lady like Daeng Klaverkamp in my life.  Her rags to riches life is an inspiring story.  From a poor up bring in Eastern Thailand she has brought herself up!

Her passion is taking care of her entire family, effortlessly!   She is humble and well knows how lucky she is.  Generous beyond belief and is grateful for her journey. And although I do not know her entire story and all of her past, I do know there is much yet to be written.

I was welcomed and shown an amazing time for the one month I spent in Thailand.  They graciously picked me up at the airport at midnight in Bangkok.  We stayed at their condo they keep in Bangkok before heading south to the beaches in Pattaya for several days where Jason and his friend, Jake, joined us.  Then headed on to their 'sanctuary' in the jungles of Na Chaluia.  Her and her husband, Geoff, fondly refer to it as the 'Wild, Wild West!' - "it's lawless!"

Their son, Jason, is a jewel, and is a wonderful blend of both Daeng and Geoff.  I was lucky to have been able to spend some time with him in Pattaya.  There is much love and passion in this family of three.

She set me up to travel and visit her friends and family and for that I will always be most grateful.  It enhanced my Thai experience beyond expectations.

Here are my favorite pictures of my time spent with the beautiful Klaverkamp family on their 80 acre farm where they have cash crops of rubber trees, cashews, bamboo, and palm trees that produce palm oil.  The teak wood they tried to grow did not pan out! But the mushrooms certainly have!  Thanks to them for being such great stewards of the earth and not clear cutting their land like everyone else seems to be doing!

Daeng has been collecting rare hard woods for years and recently finished their guest house built out of it, which I called my 'palace'!  Their main home is under construction at this time and one day I hope to return to see the finished 'labor of love'.

I will miss them, and Daeng's dear mother who I feel in love with, and of course my 'palace' too!  But it's time to move on!  Laos bound!

My Favorite Monk Ceremony!!!

Sunday, May 19th - 2013!!!  This has to be one of my top highlights yet!  This was SO different from the other two monk initiation ceremonies that I went to!  It started out with music, singing and dancing - and oh yes, drinking!!!  Then more music, singing, dancing and drinking!  The music, singing, dancing and drinking lasted the ENTIRE time throughout this incredible ceremony!  Here are my favorite pictures of one of my favorite days!

It started out when an ordinary man walked out into the party with just a sarong on and I soon learned that he was the man to soon become a monk.  I took his picture!  Luckily, because now I have the before and AFTER!!!

Shortly thereafter he was placed in the center of the courtyard.  A basket of banana leaves set on his lap.  Then out came the scissors!  Scissors of all shapes and colors!  First the only 'real' monk started slowing cutting his locks and placing the hair in the banana basket!  Then one by one scissors were passed around and I took took part in the process too.  When most of his hair was blessed off, then came the water and soap!  Lathered to perfection it was time for the monk, once again, to begin the ritual of shaving the new monks head.

The new monk has a large wort on the back of his head and much care was taken as to not shave off the wort!  Slowing and carefully the monk shaved the man's head.  The man himself shaved his own mustache!  I never saw the eyebrows come off, but they did!  After he was completely shaved and clean many stood in line (myself included) and poured water from a 'dirty' bucket over the monks shoulders and head!  Maybe there were some special blessings inside the bucket that just appeared dirty to me?  I am uncertain about that - as I am uncertain about a lot of this 'special' ceremony!

If I turned away for too long to sip on my cocktail I would miss a lot!!!  When I looked back they were smearing some yellow goop all over the top half of his body!!!  Was I drinking too much?  It kept getting weirder and weirder...but stranger things were still to come!

Again, they drenched him with buckets and buckets of water - I was afraid they were going to drown the poor guy!    When that part was over he went upstairs....and I followed!!!  I didn't see him change into his white ornate ceremonial monk outfit, but he did - and it was beautifully adored with many, many gold Buddha necklaces - which I saw him often admire!

Next he was sitting in front of a makeup artist!!!  (One cannot make this shit up!!!)  If the other monk ceremonies that I went to did this - it was for sure behind closed doors!!!

A well dressed lady began meticulously applying face makeup all over his head and face, giving particular attention to the wort!  The newly shaved eyebrows were now drawn back on, including eyeliner and lipstick!!!  It took quite a long time to get his look just right!  She then took off all the large, beautiful rings she was wearing and put them on his fingers!   He was looking rather pretty and finally ready for the official ceremony!

There was a nice lengthy ceremony upstairs with just me and a few of the family and his closest friends!  Ha!  Everyone else was still down stairs playing music, singing and dancing - oh, and did I mention drinking???  After much chanting and prayers and the official blessings by the monk who tied some strings around his wrists, which had to be of great importance, as people kept making sure I was getting pictures of that!

Next he sat in front of a large white clothed stature - I never saw what was under that cloth???  He next put on designer sunglasses and kept looking at himself in the mirror!!!  I think he needed a drink!!! And I'm sure he wanted one as the basket of his farewell blessings included whiskey, a full shot glass, cigarettes and money!  He must have been a wild ass - that's probably why he is choosing to become a monk!

After much time passed...our 'gorgeous' monk got up and EVERYONE followed him as he left in the back of a highly decorated pickup truck for the temple!  My batteries were dead (both on my camera and in my body) and Goy had just arrived so I chose not to go to the temple.  But I bet they all continued to sing and dance around the temple three times!  That I know for sure!