Vancouver Spring...

Hi all

Well it's now officially Spring and the weather seems to be co-operating with the calendar...a stunning day outside and it seems like the whole city is coming into bloom...people have a bit of Spring fever (little bit giddy from the sudden influx of sunshine) and every man and his dog is out walking.

Here are a few pics from Stanley Park from this morning (the cherry blossom and magnolia trees to bore you as promised), a statue of Robbie Burns, my cousin-in-law Randy who just can't seem to get enough coffee and my place of work.

I have also added a new page element to the blog over here on the right hand side --->
...a few randomly generated movie images from Vancouver...enjoy(!?)

Love
G

Maldives: A Weekend Getaway

Hi everyone,

I know that many of you will hate me when they see this posting. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was invited to the Maldives for a weekend getaway. My costs were minimal for the trip to this very expensive destination. It was a great weekend of snorkelling off of some reefs, swimming, more snorkelling, more swimming, and lounging around reading. The water was AMAZING and when I was snorkelling I saw sharks, moray eels, turtles, parrot fish, barracuda, angel fish, sting rays...and the list goes on. The photos I'm attaching are all about the water...so no explanations are necessary. There is one extra that I threw in because I thought it was quite stunning with the Maldivian boy against the white sand beach.

T

Doi Tung and Bangkok

Wat Arun, the other side of the Chao Phraya in Bangkok
Street baristas...love at first site (80 cent espresso)!
Doi Tung Coffee Shop in the Botanical Gardens

Meeting between partners and villagers on the Myanmar border

Doi Tung sunrise

Hi everyone,

yes, it's been a long time since I last posted. Things are getting busier at work with my livelihood responsibilities; the war is heating up so we are having a lot of meetings on security issues and emergency response; and I had eight days away in Thailand (half work and half vacation).

The trip to Thailand began in the Doi Tung region outside of Chiang Rai. This area straddles the Laos and Myanmar borders, the infamous Golden Triangle (opium poppies). I organized a group of NGOs and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce Sri Lanka to go and view a development site. The basis in the program was to rid the area of opium by diversifying the livelihoods of villages in the area. The Thais were well ahead of their time when the project began in 1988. They realized the social problems that came with opium (addiction, prostitution, and the sale of their children to be sold to "entrepreneurs" from Bangkok who were recruiting them into the "sex travel" trade). They also realized that opium was the only source of income for many of the people in the villages. Rather than destroy all of the crops, they did needs assessments, introduced new crops such as coffee and macademia nuts and then brought in social programs that helped addicts, built capacity through vocational training, and provided medical services.

20 years later and the project has found its place in high end niche markets. Macadamia nuts, coffee, pottery, decorative paper, handicrafts, and tea are now produced in the region and sold in shops throughout the region and in Bangkok. There is also tourism (hotel, botanical gardens, Opium Museum). It's an amazing accomplishment and the average per capity income in the region has increased 10 fold since 1990.

It was very inspiring, and the hope now is to take the learnings, and principles associated with the project into the Sri Lankan context. The burning question is "how do you create such an initiative in an area in conflict"?

After the tour, I took a bit of personal time and spent four days in Bangkok. It's not the place I remember from when I was last there in 1990. It's glitzy, efficient, clean, and more expensive. It was great to wander around though and rediscover the city. The highpoint was definitely the street baristas ready with my morning espresso.

T

Coffee and Spring

Hi All

It has been a little while since I posted so I thought I had better get my act together.


Well it is official I think I have developed a coffee habit...in the grand scheme of things I guess it beats a heroin or crack habit. I don't 'have ' to have a coffee everyday but I certainly seem to look forward to having one each day. Here is a sign from the local coffee shop "The Laughing Bean" near my meditation centre that I thought was quite amusing...

In other news it looks like Spring is on the horizon (despite the dusting of snow that we had earlier in the week). The white cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom so I will bore you with a few photos of those in the coming weeks.

Stanley Park that got trashed by the recent storms is starting to open up a few more of the internal trails over the last few weeks, but the seawall will remain closed for some time yet. I was wandering in the park today and something caught my eye...."Spot the bicycle"

Here is a pic from last week as the sunset hit the mountains:

And one more just because I liked it:

Terry is in northern Thailand this week with a group of NGOs who are investigating a livelihood project that was set up in the golden triangle. I will leave it to him to post some pics and news when he gets back.

Lots of love to all

G