Today, I had an experience I would like to share. I experienced myself in a detached sort of way. It happened right in the middle of my day.

My mind stopped thinking about the next thing to do, stopped worrying, freting, pestering me and when I stopped my perspective changed.

I watched as my body went about it's business. I looked around, noticed who I was with, and where I was going.

Never in my dreams could I have imagined it...

There I sat, in the Belfast Airport with my Northern Irish wife and adorable blonde Australian baby son, having had several weeks to visit Northern Ireland. I was on my way to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. And I was doing this calmly eating a freshly made (backpack brought) avocado with tahini on oatcakes!

Is this really me? Is this really my life?

Yes it is! I took a deep breath and laughed!!! More on this...

Thailand is an amazing place.

Yes, it is lush, beautiful, tropical & mountainous, with beautiful beaches, friendly people and delicious food!

The food is fresh, and bountiful.

That, plus a culture founded in Buddhism - be nice to eachother, look out for eachother, happiness and gratitude - what else could you ask for?

Devon was quite at home. Seeing as he was conceived here, we wondered how he'd like the place ... and he WAS right at home!)

This year Devon met some elephants - and we met them again!

This elephant must have recognised her and didn't want her to go...

Elephants are magical and gentle creatures. They are super smart.

Eight of the camps elephants are now in the Guinness Book Of Records. The eight elephant artists - Kongkum, Wanpen, Kamsan, Lankam, Duanpen, Songpun, Punpetch and Pu Ood spent six hours skillfully creating a modern impressionist painting to depict the gorgeous natural scenery of Northern Thailand. To find out more check it out here at the official Maesa website.

The picture here>>>>
is a photo of the painting that one of the elephants painted in front of us!!

AWESOME EH!!??

From feeding to football, the elephants were fun to be around.

To see more of our adventures at the Maesa Elephant Camp click here.

This is the benefit of being an adult in Thailand.

If you want to ride a motorbike with a baby on the back in a harness then you CAN!

Devon loved it, and felt comfortable enought to sleep through it! He's such a great traveler.

We made up a special page of all the modes of transportation Devon has used on his 2nd Round the World trip. The list is astounding (and cool, and cute!).

** Devon travels the globe by plane, train, automobile, tractor, motorbike... **

You'd never know he'd just caught chicken pox (somewhere between Belfast and Chiang Mai).

The little guy just rode along, happy as ever, sometimes just sticking his hand out instead of looking...

It's amazing what his little body does with these types of things. 8 chicken pox is what he had. One of them was itchy and he barely noticed.

What a WONDER you are my boy!

Doi Suthep is on the mountain overlooking the exquisite city of Chiang Mai.

It's spire glints in the sunlight and can be seen from any part of the city.

Upon arrival, Devon looks on in amazement, having never seen a city from above before... >>>>>

He just loved getting his photograph taken next to the many statues of Buddha.

He kept saying "Just one more picture, just one more..." Holding his little finger in the air.

He is very cute!

See our visit to Doi Suthep - Click Here.

Seeing the headline of the newspaper out of the corner of my eye, I stopped.

I thought for a moment of whether there was any way easy way I could tell Tila that a bus was BLOWN IN HALF two blocks from where we used to work together in London!

There wasn't.

"Tila, I need to tell you something. Something horrible has happened." I showed her the headline.

It took Tila five minutes to calm the hysteria and crying. I watched detached as my mind sought to turn me as well with it's inner hysterics.

Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe.

WAR is not the way...

How ignorant are we to believe that it is?

No person should have to die because of bad politicians.

Would you want YOUR family to die because of it? Or, would you try to find another way? It looks to me like it happens because there is no profit in peace.

Discraceful. We should be ashamed of ourselves for fighting.

"The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are."
~ Jack Kornfield.

When I was a kid, the age of the hippies was waning.

Peace, schmease. "Stop slacking so much and get real," the hippies were told. "Let's build bombs, let's get aggressive, let's get control!!!"

With John Lennon dead, Martin Luther King dead, Osho dead, JFK dead, Mandela in jail, Werner Erhard with a death threat, who'd want to stand for peace? The hippies?

What hippies? Where'd they go?

Sometimes we are proved ill equipped to handle issues such as these. Peace is the ONLY way.

It's all of us or none of us. When are we going to grow up enough to see it?

I think it's time we, as human beings, take the next step in evolution.

A sustainable and peaceful evolution.

This seems like the basic premise for living.

Devon's little body began to show spots.

We thought they were mosquito bites (seeing as his mummy had lots too).

For two days he was a bit clingy, but we never suspected chicken pox.

We had it diagnosed several days later after getting home to Fremantle Australia (for by then, surely mosquito bites would have gone away.)

He's a great little man and he even had the chicken pox gracefully.

Chedi Luang is amazing. Built almost 600 years ago, the chedi would have risen high above the city.

However, a century after it was built it was destroyed (either by an earthquake or lightening bolt). The Thais have never re-built it because no one knows what the rest of it looked like!