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Somehow my friend’s wallet ended up on a U.S. Navy battleship that’s somewhere in the middle of the ocean.  He was in Dubai a few days ago before jumping on an Emirates flight to Thailand to help me with a conference i’m working on.  The day before getting on that flight he was enjoying a sunny day in Dubai and in the midst of the excitement he accidentally left his wallet in the backseat of a taxi.  Credit cards, driver’s license, social security card, credit cards, and $500 in cold hard cash. Gone.

He got to Thailand and this was one of the first stories he told me when i greeted him at the airport.  Despite the significant financial loss he wasn’t too down and out. He mostly went on about the hassle of canceling and reordering credit cards, the inconvenience of not having his company credit card for ongoing projects that he’s managing, and the hassle of transferring money to another friend’s account so that he can withdraw money while in Thailand.  I felt his pain.  I can’t imagine a more helpless feeling than being in a foreign country and suddenly every sense of financial security is totally stripped from you.  It can be a paralyzing feeling.

Yesterday (only 1 day after his arrival), we needed to keep everyone in our group on their feet and caffeinated because some are struggling with jet lag and the worst thing for jet lag is to lay around the hotel.  So we went out for coffee.  I had been craving another Thai Iced Coffee so i convinced the group to walk around the corner to a nice local cafe that i found a few days ago.  The place had free wi-fi so everyone was taking a few minutes to check email.  Suddenly, without warning, Nate starts shouting in excitement and when all of us fixed our attention on him he started reading an email to us: “Hi, my name is Jeff and i’m a U.S. Navy officer on the USS Russell.  I found your wallet in a taxi in Dubai.  I can assure you that all of the contents are in tact and i see that you live in Tennessee.  I’m the head of the mailroom on the USS Russell so i will be sure that your wallet is mailed back to you.”

Wow!  At that point we were all shaking our heads and laughing in amazement.  The unbelievable odds of that happening are mind blowing.  In shock and excitement, my friend called the phone number on the email.  Turns out the ship is already back out to sea, but our new friend Jeff is mailing the wallet.  Oh, and there’s icing on the cake.  Turns out that Jeff’s wife is on vacation in the exact same city as us in Thailand so we’re hoping for an opportunity to treat her to dinner to thank her for her husband’s incredible honesty and integrity.

I want to publicly thank the officers of the U.S. Navy and particularly the officers of the USS Russell.  I’m blown away by this story.

I’m in Thailand. It’s beautiful. The weather is warm and that warmth speaks to my soul.  The town i’m in is known for it’s tourists.  Tourism accounts for almost 100% of the income here.  I’m staying in a small guesthouse for backpackers and foreign tourists.  Everyday people are coming and going from some sort of crazy adventure. Boat rides down the river, scooter rides through the mountains, elephant treks, cruises down the Mekong River to see Laos and Cambodia, and guided tours through Buddhist temples.  I don’t fit the mold. I don’t fit in. I’m not exactly on vacation yet.  I sit downstairs by the pool every morning chipping my way through emails and creatively working on the next thing on my plate while scores of college-aged people sit at the tables nearby with their Lonely Planet book in hand planning the adventure for the day.

I’m not exactly on vacation yet, but i sure love the vibe of where i get to setup shop.  It’s nice to mix things up, to work in different environments and around different people.  It makes me think differently.

If you’re into specifics and want to know what i’m working on, here’s a little sampler:

- Creatively planning a conference for 650+ coworkers.
- Planning a banquet for those same coworkers to celebrate 30 years of work in China.
- Planning a 30th anniversary celebration in Hong Kong that immediately follows the conference.
- Several other odds and ends, but those 3 are the majors right now.

Hey blog readers… let’s catch up!

I’ve been hopping around quite a bit lately so if you aren’t following me on Twitter (which is where i most frequently put updates) then it’s likely that you don’t have any idea where i am or what i’m up to.  Let me start from the top:

I was in Beijing for a long while.  A very long while.  I was part of a massively important event in October, i stayed through the November cold (celebrating my birthday and Thanksgiving), and even most of the December deep freeze (celebrating Christmas).  If you know me well at all then you know that i hate cold weather.  I was made to live in San Diego, South Florida, or Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In late December a last-minute trip to the US popped up.  I spent 4 days in Chattanooga, TN meeting new people and speaking about China at a conference.  Then i spent 4 days in Atlanta meeting even more people at another conference (which changed the world in 4 short days. For real.).  Then i spent 2 days with my family (where i saw my grandmother for the first time in 6 years!!) before flying back to Beijing.  I spent 2 1/2 days in Beijing before flying to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Now i’m nestled comfortably in 70 degree Chiang Mai.  Life is good.  I’ll be here for the next few weeks preparing for a conference, putting on a conference, and then to Hong Kong for one day to put on another event to celebrate our organization’s 30th anniversary (pics to follow).

It feels like a busy time, but it’s a glorious time as i bask in the sun, sipping on Thai ice coffee, and spending quality time with a few people that i only see a few times a year.

Hopefully, i’ve had the chance to see a few of you during these travels.  If not, then hopefully our paths will cross soon.

This time Jeremy and i were in Beijing and a small town in Jiangsu Province.  I only make these videos because i think Jeremy needs to prove that he actually works when he’s out on the road. (that’s a small inside joke, but seriously, he works hard).

My friends, Jeremy and Nate, joined me in Longde to help put together some compelling footage about the lives of our English teachers, their students, and their city.  The two guys did a phenomenal job and were loads of fun to work with.  I always enjoy working with people who love what they do, are creative enough to bring the beauty out of the places we go, and are professional enough to take their craft seriously.  Here’s a short video of Jeremy working hard in Longde:

While walking down the street in Longde a friend turned to me and said, “If you ever want pictures of old people and kids then you should just come to Longde.”  His observation is very accurate as majority of the population is either elderly or school-age.  Most of the working-age people have left Longde to go find work in bigger cities.

In China, we often talk about “migrant workers”, or those who migrate from rural areas into big cities to find higher paying jobs than what they are making on their farms back home.  These migrant workers are coming from places all over China that are much like Longde.

Longde is a tiny, rural town in southern Ningxia Autonomous Region.  The population is hard to measure, but probably somewhere close to 25,000 people.  It’s nestled into a small valley and is absolutely gorgeous.

I was walking up one of the hillsides one day with my friend who lives in Longde and he said to me, “Do you smell that?  That’s the smell of fresh air.  Do you get much of that in Beijing?”  Of course he was being sarcastic with this last question and was trying to rub it in my face that he has access to beautiful fresh air anytime he wants.  Longde is a beautiful place surrounded by mountains on all four sides.  Climbing any of the mountains gives you a spectacular view of the countryside and the city down below.

Something else is also beautiful about Longde: the people.  The people of Longde were among the most endearing, kind, and gentle people i’ve ever met.  They were eager to talk and hear about where we were from and why we were visiting Longde.  They don’t see many foreigners in that small town so seeing us was a real treat for the locals, but it was also a treat for us to receive so much hospitality and warmth.  I was in Longde with two talented artists and we were documenting the lives of the foreign English teachers and what it’s like for them to live in such a rural place.  Longde is much like stepping back into the 70′s or 80′s in China so seeing our teachers’ lives and the relationships they’ve built in the town was a wonderful experience.  Below are a couple of pictures that my friend Jeremy took while we were there.

I got to Hanoi, Vietnam a few days ago and am working on a new project that’s going to help bring new teachers to Vietnam.  Even though i’ve been here before it was hard to know what to expect until we got our feet on the ground.  So after our arrival i started to get really excited for what we’re going to share with the world.  Vietnam is a special place.  The food is unlike any other i’ve ever had, the traffic will make your head spin, and the people are so kind with a special love for smiling and a love for foreigners.  I’m looking forward to sharing more glimpses of what life here is like and why we believe it’s important for us to educate the future leaders of this beautiful country.  Here are a couple of photos:

Pad Thai.
Sun.
Warmth.
Cool breeze.
Morning coffee.
Watermelon shake.
Motorbike riding.
Late night movies.
Outdoor restaurants.
Shorts.
Flip flops.
New office.
Old friends.
Encouragement.
Listening.
Talking.
New Friends.
Conference.
Stomach Flu.
Refreshing vision.
Fresh excitement.
New directions.
Glass bottle Coke.
Ribs and Fries.
Stories.
Dreams.
Overwhelmed.
Exhausted.
Rejuvenated.
Ready for what’s next.

If you don’t follow my tweets then you wouldn’t know that i’m currently in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  If you don’t know that i’m in Thailand then this post is destined to confuse you in a serious way.

A few days ago a couple of friends had just arrived to Thailand from China and we wanted to have a good time together.  Since i’m here for quite a while preparing for an annual conference i decided to rent a motorbike for the extent of my stay to save myself the hassle of bargaining for red trucks and Tuk-Tuks (Chiang Mai’s form of public transportation).  When my friends “John” and “Larry” arrived they decided to rent a motorbike for a day to zip around the city for a good time.  We decided to drive up a mountain to a well-known Buddhist temple that sits on top.

As we slowly made our way around the hairpin turns and avoided the giant tour buses we gradually ascended this mountain.  On the way up we saw a very small and simple wooden sign off the road that said, “Cave.”  I yelled ahead to the guys on their bike to tell them to pull over; that we should check out this cave.  From the side of the road there was just a tiny, narrow path leading into the forest.  There were no other bikes or cars or people around so we wondered why no one cared to go in this place, and frankly, we were a little frightened of the unknown inside the jungle of Thailand.  So we walked forward.  Soon the trail lead us down a very steep grade into the valley of the mountain.  The trail was narrow and rocky with the trees creating a canopy of shade above our heads.  After about 15 minutes into our hike we came upon a broken wooden footbridge that lead across a 15-20 foot drop into a deeper part of the valley.  On one side of the footbridge was the drop-off and on the other side was a giant rockface.  We tested the sturdiness of the bridge first and then went across one at a time.  When we got to the other side the rockface turned into more of a cave-like shelter.  And just ahead of us we noticed that someone was clearly living in this area as there was food hanging from the rocks and branches.  We quietly whispered to one another that we think someone is living here so we slowly eased our way around the rocks.  And then, just like we had stepped into a National Geographic magazine, there was a Thai Buddhist monk wearing a bright orange robe with a yellow ribbon around his waste sitting indian style on a rug with a small fire going.  There didn’t seem to be any flames in the fire, just a small stream of smoke slowly rising from the burning wood.  He sat close to the rock, facing it like a small child who sits too close to the TV.  We slowly approached and when he heard us he turned around in a graceful, smooth motion that i think only monks are capable of.  He wasn’t annoyed or bothered and we politely bowed in the traditional Thai way because it felt like we were walking into his home.  We couldn’t communicate beyond the universal smile and nod so he turned back to the fire and we walked as slowly as possible to make sure we didn’t disturb him, but to also take it all in.  I’ve never found a monk living in the jungle before so i wanted to make sure i smelled it, felt it, and let it soak into my memory.  Thailand is a mysterious and wonderful place.  There are monks who live in caves.

(note: i’m slowly writing a series called “Why I love…” to highlight some of my take-aways from the various places i’ve visited in Asia).

In the Spring of 2010 i had the privilege of spending two weeks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia creating a short film (coming very soon).  The heat was nearly unbearable like when you’re trapped under a wool blanket with the heat on full blast in your house.  It felt all-consuming.  It was like the sun’s personal mission was to make my skin catch on fire.  While we were filming in a remote village outside of the city we had to stop multiple times throughout the shoot because the cameras were overheating.  So i guess the question still remains, why do i love Cambodia.

The answer is simple and pure: it’s the people.  There’s a common theme that runs through southeast Asia; smiles.  The people love to smile.  Cambodia has walked the hallways and back alleys of hell and somehow the people have emerged strong and full of smiles.  Their history from the Khmer Rouge is dark, depressing, and runs deep in the DNA of the country.  Maybe the people are happy because they’ve quietly and collectively decided that they don’t want anymore conflict.  They just want to have a peaceful life to share with their families.  Peace is the feeling i felt in Cambodia.  They just want peace and happiness.

There’s a deep part of me that hopes i never go back to the S21 Prison Camp or the Killing Fields, but there’s another part of me that feels like i need to go there every once in a while to remember what deep sadness feels like.  When i was in those places i physically felt my mind racing for safety under the blanket of numbness.  I had to tell myself to walk into that moment, take it in and be moved by it.  Numbness to such a tragedy is dangerous because that’s when we forget to learn from it and never allow it again.  To walk into it means to see the tortured, raped, and murdered ones as a part of humanity.  They died without reason and without dignity and that’s deeply alarming.  “Let your mind walk into this”, i would tell myself while i walked the halls and caught glimpses of what hell might be like.  I looked deep into the eyes of the murdered ones, the tortured ones, the raped ones, the babies, the women, the old men, the young men, the scared ones, and the brave ones.  My heart broke for Cambodia.  I want them to have their peace.  They deserve it.

What are your thoughts on Cambodia?

(note: the photos on the right under “Photos on Flickr” are from Cambodia. Click them to see more.)