Green Climbers Home

Posted on November 4, 2013 by admin

A few years ago Tanja and Uli, a climbing couple from Germany, decided that if they didn’t try to create a unique climbers’ campground in Laos they would never know if it would work or not. The result of their hard work is Green climbers home.

The campground, slack line and badminton court included!

Failing to climb the “classic”
6c Mon General… will try again before I leave

Way out in the middle of nowhere 12 km from the closest town of Thakhek is where I’ve been spending the last few days. There are around 20 of us there right now but the place can host up to 60 people in bungalows, dormitory rooms and tents, all of which are brand new since a tragic fire burned the place down last year. The place even has hot water and 24 hour electricity which I could only dream of in Tonsai.

You can start the climbing almost from the roof of the bungalows which is really convenient. After weeks of climbing in Tonsai I was hoping my fingers would be tough but the sharp “virgin” rock began tearing through them right from the first climb.

The “KneeBar”

The evenings are pretty relaxed as people eat in the camp ground restaurant, drink beer, play card and read books, going to bed quite early. What I seem to strangely miss is the ability to cook my own food. I hate cooking but it’s been a month since I’ve even made myself cereal for breakfast. And although their camp ground restaurant is probably the more lucrative business I think a place like this should have some cooking facilities.

Anyway you are welcome to spread the word among climbers and laidback travelers but the owners refused a mention in “lonely planet” because they want to keep the place unique and fun for them to run. So don’t invite the “regular” tourists, the truth is they won’t appreciate it anyway.

Supply and Demand

Posted on October 31, 2013 by admin

On a short stopover in Bangkok I’ve decided it’s time to write about my encounters with the Thailand sex trade. I’m not sure I can make any sense of it but I’ll do my best.

Out of respect for privacy I didn’t take pics of any of the workers..

Although prostitution in Thailand is illegal it is extremely wide spread in every touristic area. I’m not sure if this is only because the “high” season hasn’t started yet but right now the supply of sex workers seems to be much larger than the demand. This creates a very strange atmosphere in the prostitution areas (which include just about every club and pub or sidewalk outside a big hotel and many massage places with “extra” menus). Many prostitutes actually harass men that pass by them, grabbing at them and pinching them. My male friends reported that they are afraid to look around at a night club because the moment their eyes cross a sex worker’s she will immediately leech on to them thinking that they are interested. Unfortunately many women can relate to this feeling when going dancing anywhere else in the world.

I was wondering how I would be treated as a female walking down one of the main prostitution streets in Bangkok. In Amsterdam’s red light district I was constantly harassed by drunken tourists who had completely lost it after seeing some naked women standing in the windows. In Bangkok I felt completely safe. I was an over-privileged white women, no one even looked at me. Some Canadians who were talking to my guy friends about a “ping pong show” seemed slightly embarrassed by my presence.

We walked into many of the “go go” bars. Outside the bars women in some type of half-clad uniform were trying to beckon people to come in. Inside, those same women were standing on a stage with poles, but they weren’t pole dancing. They were moving their hips mechanically with zero enthusiasm and utter boredom. There were no men inside the club. The bartenders and managers were all older women. I would like to believe that the women are really managing the business but that would probably be naïve. The ‘system’ at the bar is paying for a “lady’s drink” which goes to the bar and then negotiating with the lady.

We also ventured into a “lady boy” club. “Lady Boys” or Kathoey in Thai are transsexuals, some of who have undergone sex change operations. Kathoey are much more visible in Thailand and socially accepted, many of them work at shops and restaurants yet still suffer from discrimination legally and socially. The “Lady Boy” club was completely different. The moment we entered 20 workers jumped at us and sat all around us making a crazy amount of noise. When they realized we weren’t going to buy any “Lady drinks” they disappeared and one of them even tried to shoo us away. The ladies on the stage were dancing much more enthusiastically and constantly checking how they looked in the mirrors around the club, fixing their clothing and hair which was much fancier than the women in the other clubs. Some of them were utterly gorgeous and it seemed to me they were enjoying their bodies which they had worked very hard to get.

The most distressing part for me was seeing very young women. It’s true that it is very hard to tell with Asians but I’m pretty sure at least some of the workers were underage. I guess the interesting upside for me was seeing representations of all the various body types, fat, thin, old, tall or short. The Hollywood “one women to fit them all” hasn’t yet taken hold and since this is a market governed by supply and demand I guess this means that when men are free to choose what they want they don’t all want the same thing.

In general I’m not against the sex trade. I would rather strengthen sex workers, care for their health and erase the “stigma” society sticks to them than drive them to the underground where pimps rule. I obviously don’t know enough to make any real judgment about the Thai sex trade but the power dynamics and the freedom sex workers seemed to have (negotiating their own price and saying no to customers they don’t want) gave me some semblance of hope. Yet the bottom line remains, mixing so much sex and money leaves room for so little sexy.

Paradise Lost

Posted on October 22, 2013 by admin

I know I’ve disappeared a little in the last few days. I’ve made it out to Tonsai, a remote beach in Thiland, dominated by climbers. It’s where the ghost of Bob Marley has come to live and smells of ganja mixed with tiger balm, sweat and magnesium. Such beautiful people on a beautiful beach that I find myself contemplating ‘what I have done to deserve this?’

Beautiful beach beautiful people

The uniqueness of Tonsai starts with the remoteness. It’s not an island but there is no way to get to it over land. Getting to the “modern” Reily beach is done by treking through the jungle or crossing over slippery stones at low tide. This means there is no law enforcement around, and “sex, drugs and Bob Marley” rule the island. But that’s only the beginning of the story, there are many such remote beautiful places that have been taken over by big resorts and hotels. Tonsai is different. Locals own all the small bungalows and restaurants. The reason for that seems to be due to Tonsai’s one major imperfection. Its beach doesn’t have enough sand. At low tide the water front moves far out and a stone field takes over making it almost impossible to get into the ocean while at high tide the water covers the entire beach and you have to wade through the waves to go from one bar to the other.

Climbing with monkeys!

This is not the only imperfection that keeps the main stream crowd away. There is no electricity in Tonsai during the day and no hot water anywhere on the beach. When it rains the paths become one big mudslide, evil mosquitoes are always buzzing around and sometimes you literally do get ants in your pants!!!

Pink Floyd reggae style with a violin… Nuff said!

Most everyone that comes to Tonsai comes to climb the beautiful cliffs. Even those that didn’t come for that get sucked into the sport/art. Climbers don’t usually just pass through, they come for longer periods, which allows for a real comradery to develop between climbers from all over the world. I’ve already written about the sharing and support I’ve found in climbing culture and Tonsai is no different, only more international and the night life is more active. With fire shows, drinking, some really good local bands and some terrible open mic nights and obviously the weed (some mushrooms and LSD too).

Locals playing a crazy game that combines Soccer and Volleyball

There is also a very interesting symbiosis between the locals and the climbers. I’m hoping that it’s not just the money that the climbers bring in that makes the locals who have ‘seen it all’ so laid back and ok with it all.

Anyway, I’ll probably be here for a while more…. It is my version of paradise after all.

Behind The Scenes

Posted on October 5, 2013 by admin

When you become part of a place it’s harder to look at it from the outside which is why even though I’ve had loads of experiences in Vietnam I haven’t been writing much. But now, already in Bangkok there are a few things I would like to share.

The Red Flag

Each newspaper is focused on one issue, sports, economics, world affairs …
The whole world outside of Vietnam is a scary terrible place!

Vietnam still suffers from many remnants of communism. As a white foreigner it was hard to feel them myself but by talking to locals a very restricting picture was painted. Bars and clubs must close by midnight, all the news-papers are strictly censored by the government, students must belong to this “communist youth party” in order to study and if anyone is hosting a foreigner overnight they must pass the foreigner’s passport details to the police.

The police appear to ignore white people but the Vietnamese that come in contact with them will be the ones the police try to get money from.

Here are two examples from my life: A Vietnamese who joined a climbing trip was blamed by local authorities for being the “tour guide” even though he had paid for the trip like all the foreigners and was not the guide! The authorities tried to force him to pay a “tour guide fee” even when the real guide tried explaining the situation – the authorities confiscated the Vietnamese’s identity card!

Very “yellow” news – a wife discovers her husband cheating on her makes front page.

A foreign friend was staying with a Vietnamese family. The family complied with the law and passed his details to the police who later came knocking on the door demanding the Vietnamese family pay a fee for hosting him.

In both cases the Vietnamese authorities didn’t communicate with the foreigners directly but instead harassed their own citizens.

Where America actually won the war

I visited Ho Chi Min (Saigon) for a few days and was amazed with the difference. Everything that I liked about Hanoi was gone. Western brands were everywhere (Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC and more), Big supermarkets, Shopping malls; the markets were geared towards tourists with very aggressive selling tactics. Night life was heavily influenced by the prostitution industry and crime levels are much higher. I was navigating with my phone’s GPS when two guys on a motorbike tried to snatch and grab my phone from out of my hand. They didn’t know that they were dealing with climbers’ fingers so I latched on to the phone and instinctively dropped my center of gravity and they just zoomed by empty handed with hateful looks on their face. As my brother pointed out, the west has not only gotten to Ho Chi Minh, it has corrupted it.

Practicing Wing Chun on a Climbing trip, more or less sums up my time in Vietnam. Photo by Nam, Check out his photo blog! http://cvlom.blogspot.com/

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the amazing people I met in the Vĩnh Xuân Nguyễn Gia (Nguyen’s Wing Chun) who accepted me into their family! As well as everyone from Vietclimb bouldering gym.

Viet Pride

Posted on August 14, 2013 by admin

I might have missed the Jerusalem pride events this year (I heard they still got a stink bomb thrown at them L) but I did join the LGBT community and supporters in Hanoi for their second pride festival ever.

All the colors of the rainbow

Hand made pride flags!

Preparations for the fashion show

The first two day of events happened at the Gothe institutions and included lectures, movies and a fashion show. The organizers did their best to provide a high tech environment, with five laptops, two web cam’s broadcasting live, a high res video camera man and instant translation through ear phones. The translation was meant for the few foreigners like me that joined the mostly local crowd. Unfortunately it wasn’t a very good translation so it was quite hard to follow.

There were intense monsoon rains the first two days which might have kept many people at home, those who did come heard LGBT community members talk about discrimination, gender roles and the fact that everyone asks them if they are married and when will they be married? The truth is I get asked the same question without anyone knowing my sexual orientation. Anyway, turns out annoying people in the crowd that just like to hear their own voice is an international thing, there was some straight guy that works in the medical field who was relentless in his jabbering. I’m pretty sure he was saying some bad things about the community but with the translation I got he might as well have been talking about eating pizza. Then came a sudden power outage to remind us that we are still Vietnam.

All motorbike are created equal

Photography is a dangerous occupation!

The next day I woke up super early to get to the main event, the parade which was supposed to be a bicycle parade!?! I was way too chicken to ride a bicycle across town so I thought I’d join by walking. That turned out to be impossible as people were riding really fast and in fact, at least half of them were on motorbikes not bicycles. So I hitched a ride with a young women. There must have been a few hundreds of us driving down the crazy traffic of Hanoi with cars and motorbikes zooming all around. I couldn’t help but think that the parade might be a homophobic ploy to try to get rid of the gay population, “assassination by motorbike accident”. Luckily no one seemed to get hurt.

Love the shirts! Hate the motorbikes!

I’ve organised a few parades and political demonstrations in my time and I have to say the organizers did one hell of an amazing job. Each participant got a free T-shirt, flag and water bottle. And there were tens of bikes decorated in the colors of the rainbow riding one after each other.

Self portrait from back of a motorbike!

It’s been a long time since I felt that I’ve been to some “underground” event. I felt this in Hanoi pride week, not because they were hiding but because it felt like something new and exciting coming into being in this quite traditional city. While some places in the world like Russia are going back into the dark ages banning homosexual behavior and using violence against the LGBT community (you can sign a petition to postpone the Olympics that are going to be held in Russia here until LGBT rights are returned) , it was great to see so many young teenagers come out in support of gay rights, marching this country forward!

A Skeptic Needle?

Posted on August 2, 2013 by admin

Ten minutes before I left for my first ever Acupuncture treatment, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science published an article titled “why acupuncture is giving sceptics the needle”. If I had any inclination to believe in god or fate or whatever I’d say it was a sign telling me not to go. Luckily I don’t so I can bring you this tale. Read on…

I might not believe in God or even Chi for that matter but I do believe in the well documented Placebo effect. As I’m suffering from a mild L4/L5 pinched nerve, the cause of which I’m not sure I want to know, I thought why not try it. Even the article the Dawkings piece was based on said some research indicated Acupuncture could help in lower back pain. Besides I love Dr Mae-Wan Ho’s theory about how quantum coherence might allow our cells to communicate at a much lower level and she muses about acupuncture being able to affect that network.

I freaked out a seeing this still on the table with all the needles in...

I freaked out a little, seeing this while still on the table with all the needles in…

After I explained to the head of the clinic my symptoms she took a look at my tongue. She asked me to lay down while she and her assistant preceded to examine me by pressing at certain points, moving my legs around and stretching me here and there. I think it took a long stressful 10 minutes. I felt I was in some test waiting to hear the important results. Finally she said my spine was healthy and my energy levels were good. Which I’m hoping means my nerve pinch isn’t caused by a slipped disk.

From there I went with the assistant who started out with the best shiatsu style massage applying very strong and focused pressure. Then she swabbed my back with alcohol and my stress levels jumped up. I tried to stay calm while she inserted the first needle. It felt somewhat between a pinch and a static electric shock. Not too painful but still an ‘ouch’ moment. She went on slowly inserting more needles each of which felt different. Within a few seconds of the needles’ insertion the pain subdued and some weren’t felt at all.

Then she said I will feel a “tok tok tok”. Just as I began saying I don’t feel anything I yelped out as fast week electric shocks began pulsing through my lower back. That’s when things got really strange. I started feeling as if I was being stung by needles in placed the acupuncturist wasn’t even touching me, the thigh I was lying on, the back of my hamstring and the fingers of leg, all of which on the left side which is being effected by the nerve pinch. As the Acupuncturist’s English wasn’t the best it was hard to explain to her but when I did she went on to place needles in those area’s that I mentioned that she could reach and massaged the rest.

I was quite surprised at how dynamic and changeable the feelings were. Each point was sending out completely different signals every few seconds. At times the pulsing was almost unbearable, a moment later it was almost unfelt, then I felt pleasurable pressure on my lower back and suddenly my right shoulder felt as if it were pricked. I was being my regular animated self, giggling and screeching, when a woman that was getting a massage a few meters from me, said through a cloth certain that separated us, “next time I want to have what she’s having”, after which I struck up a strange little conversation with her trying to explain how strange it all felt.

Before the needles were removed I asked the acupuncturist if she could take a picture. I think she thought I was insane but still took the photo J

Then she asked me to turn on my back and started stretching me in a thai style massage.

I felt very strange getting up but could still feel my nerve pinch. As the whole treatment had cost me just $7 I wanted to tip the woman but she wouldn’t let me.

After effects:

I kept on needing to pee for the next two hours. Then after a nap I woke up my lower back feeling very stiff, as if it had a hard workout, but I couldn’t recreate the nerve pinch feeling that happens only when I arch my back. I kept wondering if my subconsciousness wasn’t allowing me to arch as far as I usually do but I really did my best to contort every which way. The lower back pain was there but the shooting pain down my buttock was gone. Latter I went to my regular kung fu class and at some point managed to recreate that nerve pinch feeling but it was still much harder to reach and the pain was much weaker.

The next day I woke up and the nerve pinch is pretty much back to usual, but the whole experience was strange enough so I’m willing to recreate the experiment on Sunday…I’ll see how it goes.

Sacrificing Coca Cola

Posted on July 25, 2013 by admin

I had hoped that communism had erased the stronghold of religion in Vietnam. I was wrong. Although like everything else I’ve encountered in this country, things are stranger than I expected.

Pagoda

Almost all the population is Buddhist, they believe in a form of ancestral worship, the afterlife and karma. Even though many of the younger generation don’t have a strong belief they still consider this part of their culture. The Vietnamese follow a lunar calendar and go to pray at one of the many Pagoda style temples that decorate the city at the beginning and middle of every month. That’s where things get strange.

Yep those are coca cola cans!

From my time in Japan I expected the entrance of the temple to be filled with small stalls selling stuff. Bringing offerings to the temple is also quite typical. What I didn’t expect is the type of offerings. A pyramid of coca cola cans set at the top of each altar along with a similar pyramid of beer cans made me gawk in shock. Although I guess there is some sense to it, if this is what you like in this life you might miss it in the afterlife.

How about buying some fake cash?

People left big trays filled with offering that included fruit, Oreo’s, drinks and loads of cash. Some of the amounts of cash looked to be awfully big until I noticed you could actually buy fake cash outside of the temple to put in your offering! Seems Judaism isn’t the only religion with a long cheat sheet.

I was wandering what happens to all the food but it turns out people just leave the offerings in the temple for a few minutes, moving them from room to room so they can be blessed by the different gods and ancestors. Later they take their plates back and the food and money are considered blessed.

There were trays to leave donations for the temple and also monks taking donations and in return for some type of food that has been in the temple for a long time so it’s “super blessed”

I asked if people weren’t afraid their offerings would be stolen, but the notion itself seemed outrageous as steeling from ghosts will mess up your Karma for life.

Viet Climbing

Posted on July 24, 2013 by admin

Viet Climbing

One of the best aspects of climbing is that it takes you to the most beautiful places; in that respect the climbing trip to Huu Long was no different, though other things were… read on.

Mud on the way to the crag

I don’t usually join ‘group’ trips but climbing isn’t that popular here so rocking up to some crag and hoping to find people with equipment wasn’t really an option. Also foreigners have to rent a car with a driver and the roads are crazy! For these reasons I thought it best to join Viet Climb, the local climbing gym’s, organized trip. There were around 12 of us, mostly from France and the U.S. There were only two Vietnamese, one of them works for the gym. When I asked why there were so few locals I was told that Vietnamese like soccer and swimming but climbing is very new and not popular here.

Anyway, the trip started with a two and a half hour drive in a mini bus, luckily the air con broke down only a few minutes from the crag! The whole way there (at least the points were I was awake) seemed to be filled with houses along the highway and the same small stores you see everywhere.

No hands rest point

The crag itself is situated in the back yard of some farm lands which probably don’t know it but seem to be practicing Permaculture. To get to the crag we had to walk through a mud pool but it was really close to the road so it wasn’t too bad. The heat and humidity were another thing entirely. I really doubted my ability to climb in this weather. My shirt was drenched even before I touched the rock! For those of you who know my aversion to using chalk and are thinking that now I would see its usefulness, sorry I’m going to have to disappoint you. The sweatiness was way beyond what any little bit of white powder can deal with.

I started by leading a really well bolted 5C and flashed it feeling dizzy from the heat when I came down. The rest of the day I top roped some 6a-6b+ but had to rest once or twice on each route. The routes were really fun with big side poles and strange overhanging features with very good jugy hand hold, and a lot of interesting no hands resting places.

Food!

Tired!

We had a great lunch break eating local dishes a local family cooked for us. Getting back to climb after that was a very hard feat indeed. Luckily it cooled down. Unluckily heavy monsoon raining started shortly after. Somehow some sections of the rock managed to stay relatively dry so I kept on climbing in pouring rain and almost slipped on a wet jug. Coming back down from the crag when everything had turned to one big mud slide was a mission of itself but eventually we got back.

We were soaked filthy and all scratched up but all complaining aside it was a good day.

Culture Shock!

Posted on July 8, 2013 by admin

My first week in Hanoi was filled with so many ups and downs, ins and outs it’s hard to put it all in words. That’s doesn’t mean I won’t try. Read on…

Typical street

First 48 hours

It’s so hot even the dog can’t be bothered to move

I knew it would be hot and humid but knowing is one thing and feeling is another! The crowds, the constant movement, the noises of chickens and motorbikes everywhere put me in a state of shock. The first 48 hours in a new country are always the hardest so I reminded myself to observe and put my critical thinking on hold.

My first morning I awoke at 07:00, government speakers were playing loud music in the street. After the music there was a long speech of some sort and then some more music. These public announcement by the government start each day here. How weird is that? Although I guess it means you don’t need an alarm clock.

Buses and chickens that will probably be eaten by the end of the day.

I began my exploration and discovered that there is a very different balance between the public and private sphere than i’m used to. Children play in the alleyways and all house doors are open allowing me to peek inside and see them going about their business. Most of them are sitting on the floor busy with making food or sawing or some other activity, a lot of them with a big flat screen in their living room. Sometimes I’m not sure if it’s a house or some sort of business, probably both. And all motorbikes are parked inside!

My living room, not my motobike.

It seems everyone in Hanoi is busy selling something, anything! Women balance huge baskets on their shoulders or push huge carts with anything from bottled water to vegetables or clothing. Everywhere there are small stalls on the sidewalk selling food or services, even barbers.

Different style of ATM’s for all the buying?

Even wheelchairs are used as a sales cart.

Almost everything seems to be manufactured and sold locally with very little western influence. After feeling very embarrassed when three women in a local store were running around me I managed to find one of the only ‘supermarkets’ in the city, where I could quietly walk around with a cart and even a little air-conditioning. It was still quite messy compared to anything you find in the west and was nearly empty. I’ve made a resolution to try and buy from the markets and locals, we’ll see if I stick to it.

Food fields 100 meters from the markets and houses.

It was a nice surprise to discover there’s no McDonalds, no Pizza Hut and no Starbucks. I have seen one KFC which was empty. It wasn’t as much fun to discover none of the local places have air conditioning. The truth is I don’t see how any of these chains have a chance here as the Vietnamese seem to have invented fast food. At each corner cheap fast local dishes are sold. Another delightful surprise was how un-spicy the dishes are. Each table does have these red malicious looking sauces and cut up chilly you can add to your plate but I don’t have the nerve to even try.

Hot breakfast

Despite the heat Vietnamese start the morning with a boiling chicken noodle soup called pho for breakfast. Maybe if you’re hot inside you can trick your brain into thinking it’s not so hot outside?

Clubbing

Party time!

On Friday night I joined my flat mate to an opening of a new club. I was surprised to discover great electronic music and a multicultural environment that can give Berlin a fight. The place itself had an edgy atmosphere, being in a converted old office building that wouldn’t pass any inspection. Then suddenly the music turned to strange wedding type music making everyone run away from the dance floor. My flat mate thinks it’s a ploy to get people to buy more drinks as dancing people don’t drink.

The simple life?

While I’m finding some things very complicated, like crossing the road (although I’m getting better at that), or dealing with the bills and money, (my slight dyslexia seems unable to cope with the amount of zeroes 500, 5000, 50000, 50000?) and communicating (even when I try saying I don’t understand in Vietnamese I’m probably saying it wrong) other things are so simple. I mean, there are no coins for one! And when I needed a sim card all I had to do was go into a store and pay $4 for a prepaid and put it in my phone. No filling endless forms and registering online to activate it like Australia. I even have 3G! What exactly does this cell phone package include I have no idea, but for $4 you can’t really go wrong. Another example of this paradox between simplicity and complexity happened when I itched a stupid mosquito bite. A dangerous infection got into my blood system and my whole hand started to swell. A quick visit to a friend of my flat mate who’s a doctor and then a visit to one of the many pharmacies where I bought antibiotics without any need for a prescription. I don’t want to think how complicated that would be in Australia.

Try crossing this road!

Getting around is another example, navigating the small alleyways is very confusing along with walking amongst the thousands of motorbikes. Everyone keeps on telling me I should get a motorbike and it seems that every family has one! I’ve seen families of four ride on one motorbike, none of them with helmets (although by law they supposed to) while the driver texts on the phone! My mom will be happy to know there’s no chance of me joining the biker club. (Although I’ve been on my kong fu teacher’s bike, hoping his lightning fast instincts will keep us alive). The truth is I don’t see the need for them as, amazingly, google transit works here showing me what buses to use. And although there is no schedule, so far I have found the bus system surprisingly ok. They are old but have a sort of air conditioner and I never had to wait more than ten minutes. For 25 cents that’s not too bad. There is a guy who sells tickets on each bus. One of them actually pocketed my money and didn’t give me a ticket. When I discovered I was on the wrong direction of the bus an English speaking local wanted to give me her ticket but the ticket guy objected and I said it was fine. No need to get her in trouble for a quarter.
So, despite the hardships, the foreignness and the fact that going outdoors is still a mission for me (especially since two crazy monsoon rains have come out of nowhere in the past two days) I am uncharacteristically optimistic and starting to get the rhythm of this city.

More to come…

Yes Or Yes? … No!

Posted on June 20, 2013 by admin

My current host in Australia had an extra ticket for an internet marketing seminar and invited me to join him. I presumed it would be some sort of scam/pyramid scheme but as I’ve never been to one of these events it qualified as an anthropological experience. It did not disappoint!

Seriously photoshoped pic of the lecturer

Around 100 people gathered at the conference room of some local hotel, most of them were around 60+ years old, obviously not the most internet savvy. The lecturer spent the first hour saying ‘I’ more times than I could count. He recounted his life story filled with small failures, allowing people to relate to him and large successes, flashing the immense amount of money he’s made, causing them to look up to him. If you, like me, are wondering why such a successful entrepreneur would spend his time in these small seminars? Well, if you choose to believe him, he only teaches 30 days a year because he wants to give back to the community.

His rhetoric’s was straight out of a parody on self-help lectures, or maybe evangelist ceremonies. Forcing the audience to complete his sentences, making them move for him and repeating over and over: “Yes or Yes?” leaving no room for disagreement while they all chanted after him “Yes”. His self-contradictions were just as funny saying things like: “My book has everything in it and we’ll go through most of it today and so much more than what is in the book.”

Perhaps trying to avoid potential lawsuits, he gave a disclaimer saying that there was no guarantee for success, it was up to us. He concluded this part with a long story I don’t really remember but the lesson was “If you want to make money you have to want it more than the air in your lungs!”

The next session was about convincing us that an internet based business is the best and easiest way to make money. In fact the best way to do it was to write an e-book on some niche topic and sell it (which is actually sort of what I’m trying to do with Young Hero Tales minus the selling part). There was actually some info here, mostly how to outsource and get others to do everything for you from writing content to building your web site to marketing. There was some general good advice about making your customers feel unique and how to market an idea. He also mentioned some useful web sites for researching traffic and outsourcing. In-between these recommendations he slipped in some of the websites he actually owns and offered people licenses for marketing his products. All they had to do was build a web site, which could be done using his tools and hosted by a company he is vested in. A ‘one stop shop’, in his words, a Pyramid scheme, in my opinion.

15 minutes until the discount runs out! can you see how i’m running? out of the door!

I asked him what he thought about the donation model as my generation does not pay for content. He turned the question to me “How do you do that?”
Based on success stories like Amanda Palmer I told him “By connecting to your customers, getting them to like you and creating good content. If they want you to keep on creating they will support you”. He liked the part about connecting to your customers but was obviously disgusted by asking for donations. He even hinted that I must have a self-esteem problem if I don’t want to charge people. “If you want to succeed you have to change your model or change the market you are targeting because this is not how the world works!” he said. To which I replied “Or change the world”, which actually left him at a loss of words for about a second and a half. I guess I don’t want to make money as much as I want the air in my lungs and the truth is I don’t want to live in that type of world, I seriously hope I’m not alone in this.

Finally, before lunch break, came the pressure to register to his mentoring program. He used the same methods he recommended to us moments earlier, trying to make us feel special just by coming to his lecture. He gave a special offer for just 15 minutes saying that his experience shows that ‘those that can make fast decisions’ are the ones that succeed. He even shoved in some fear tactics by saying “What is your plan if you don’t come to this program?” My bet is he paid the first guy that came up to register and maybe even the second. Unfortunately there were more than just two people waiting to register when I left.

Still In The Trees

anthropological experiences from the fringe frontier

Green Climbers Home

Supply and Demand

Paradise Lost

Behind The Scenes

Viet Pride

A Skeptic Needle?

Sacrificing Coca Cola

Viet Climbing

Culture Shock!

Yes Or Yes? … No!