Photos in Malaysia

food intake today, vegan conversation with Vetinarian

Food intake yesterday:
2lbs of rambutans
2lbs of mangos
5 durians

Activities yesterday:
group cycling 60km, including a 5km hill that took 50minutes(approx 2600 feet elevation climb).
casually swimming around in ocean 20minutes

Have a new friend from France named Benwa....52year old that looks 30years old! He is in excellent condition and has eaten a vegan diet for 10years, vegetarian for 17years, traveling vagabond 30years. Him and I may travel through Sumatra after Malaysia.

I had 3 hours on a private beach this morning...meditation, thinking time, stretching, easy swim, enjoying my abundance of free time.....Time used to be money to me. I used to say "Time is money", but I feel that was an illusionary visious circle. Money would buy me time so I would keep earning more money to get more time which actually left me with less time.
After my quiet beach time, I met Harley at the durian seller across from the beach near the waterfall in the Jungle by the monkeys. We feasted on some durian and spoke to some tourists. One tourist the other day was a vetenarian who works with animals and helps them be healthy and stay alive when sick. Harley was asking her how she can contribute to animal suffering and slaughter by eating meat. Needless to say it was an interesting conversation to witness. I believe he left her with some thinking to do. Harley has a huge heart and really wants to save more animals from needless suffering. Harley has a direct approach with people and is very talented in his delivery. I am able to share with people better only when they ask and only by my actions. Maybe someday I will be a stronger voice for animals too.

cartoon, where do you get your protein?

Food intake yesterday.....

I ate:
4lbs of fresh sweet Malaysian Papaya
3lbs of Mangosteens
4 small bananas
1 coconut water
5 Delicious durians (varieties: hor lor, D600, Red Prawn)


activities:
swimming in fresh water waterfall pool 20minutes
Cycling up and down hill twice 45minutes
swimming in Fresh water Dam 15minutes
yoga 15minutes
cycling around town 30minutes

Are vegans too Skinny??

Do you ever get told you need to put on some weight, or you are too skinny? The body goes back to its normal size when we stop eating animal products.
Another way the body may appear too slim is by training very intensely, for example Tour De FRance athlete, Rasmussan. I wonder if Pro cyclists get told they are too skinny? Probably not, because this is what it takes to WIN.
If we look at most Pro athletes (Lance Armstrong, Rasmussan, etc..) or very active people, their bodies are slimmer then sedentary less active people.
Sometimes a body may appear too slim or lean in a society full of animal eaters. Most animals are fed growth hormones so they grow faster and produce more milk etc....that way the farm owners increas their profits.
How many wild Horses and monkeys are considered overweight? They seem to be pretty lean on vegetarian diets too.

VIDEO: Darrick interviewing the Farm Owner....

VIDEO: Darrick eat durian in penang

video of Darrick at Durian farm

4 vegans at my malaysian guest house!

This is great news for me.....4 vegans here! 3 French men, 1 Australian. This creats awesome evening conversations with other nonvegan travelors....Very inspiring and fun to hear others journeys towards veganism and in life.
My friend Harley the raw vegan cyclist from AU arrived to join me in Penang for Durian Season. Harley is a wonderful person and environmentalist who has a passion of spreading the vegan message and living a minimalistic life. Harley has cylced 500km in one day, using fruit for his food of choice.....that is over 300 miles in one day (about 20hours.)...This usually inspires non vegans to listen to him more carefully. Harley has a rather direct approach and is not afraid to speak openly about the environmental and animal devistations of a cooked, animal eating diet. It is fun to be with him as we share the message with other tourists or locals. I feel I am living my true purpose as I travel around and share the message when It feels right. Cycling by Pig, chicken, cow Slaughter houses at times enforces how important it is for me to be a voice for animals....It is challenging for me to hear the wonderful, intelligent, innocent pigs squealing and screaming in pain as they are beaten on the way to having their throats slit for slaughter. All I can do is remind people we dont need animal products to survive and thrive in life.

Yesterday's Diet-
1.5 kilos of Lamai
1 banana
2 coconut waters
4 durian
4 tomatos
small piece of raw garlic and onion
water, water, water

Yesterday's body movements-
5 sets of:
pushups
pullups
situps
handstands
lunges

-hunting for coconuts and durians

we eat durians and coconuts from the trees outside our guesthouse....how many Food miles is that? How many people had to work and drive cars and transport the food??? ZERO? I love the low environmental impact of eating fruit from my own trees....Congrats on all you that eat from your own garden!

Earthlings - part 1 of 3 (You tube clip, powerful)

This is a powerful clip narrarated by Joaquin Pheonix, please enjoy some of it

lady in black head to toe....my diet today..

Many arabic people come to Penang for holidays...the ladies all wear Black from head to toe, even covering their faces. The men seem to wear what ever they want. The ladies seem to walk a bit behind their husbands too. The kids seem to wear what ever they want.
As I was drinking a coconut water on the side of the road, I spoke to a muslim man. He and I were watching the families walk by us. I asked him why the women wear these black clothes. He said they are to 'protect' the women. Since us men are misbehaved we need women to be covered up inorder to control ourselves. Interesting religion. Maybe most men are this way, not sure.

I love sharing the message of eating more fruits and veggies and being a vegetarian....I tell people vegetarian when I travel, because most countries don't have a word for 'Vegan' yet.

I ate yesterday:
5 durian (14kilos)
10 rambutans
2 coconuts
16 ounces of freshsqeezed sugar cane juice
1 mango
1 slice of watermelon

Activities:
I rode about 70km all over Penang on my bicycle, ran 20minutes, did yoga 20minutes, swam 10minutes

pictures in Thailand

this is Gretta's Daughter, Rachel and two Thai friends in Chanthiburi

Penang, Malaysia-nature, eating, freetime.....

Hi there,
This island of Penang, Malaysia is so full of natural wonders. I am staying at a Guest house (Ms. Lohs)that is about a 5 minute bike ride from the following:

--a Huge Resivoir/DAM for swiming
--Forest with trails going for many miles
--Ocean to swim with white sandy beach
--several waterfalls with pools for swiming
--National park with many animals, birds, insects
--Trails to isolated white sandy beaches.
--Fruit orchards:Durian, rambutan, mangosteen, starfruit, lamlai
--Botanical garden
--Hills for cycling and running
--limited tourism

All this with the creature comforts available as needed too.

I visited with some nomads at the guesthouse..one guy, Kevin from UK is about 60years old and has lived in about 30 countries and has decided on SE ASIA as his home for the rest of his life....he is very interesting and currently enjoys long daytrips into the jungles and beaches here in Penang. His Brother came and visited him for one month and that was longest time they had spent toghether....I was thinking how its interesting how most of us wait until the later part of our lives to connect with Family for long periods of time.


Yesterday I ate and drank the following:

3liters of water
one coconut water
16ounces of fresh pressed sugar cane juice
5 Durians
10 rambutans
2 tomatos
1 piece of sweet raw corn

Yesterday I did the following activites:
--2hour cycling ride with a new Malaysian serious cyclist, John.
--30minute run on the beach
--30minute ocean swim
--gentle cycling around some natural areas for 1hour
--Durian feast with Malaysians
--Sharing fruit with Malaysians and tourists
--1hour meditation
--30minutes reading
--30minutes writing
--1hour slow walk through durian orchard (almost got hit by two falling durians)

I have so much free time at this stage in my life, its such a contrast for me compared to my 20's and early 30's.....I am Loving it soooo much....I have time for people and activites...I can say "YES" to a game and have fun with it.

Vagabonding Rocks!
D

photos from Thailand

I won the 10km uphill race, fruit power

After spending the day relaxing at a National Park on a pristine Beach here in Penang, I was cycling back to look for some Durian to eat. I hadn't eaten anything all day except 16 ounces of fresh squeezed sugar cane juice and it was 5pm......I was heading up from the beach of T. Bahang and some man passed me on his road bike, doubling my 'cruizing' speed. He didnt say hello or acknowledge me, which seemed odd at the time. I decided to follow him for a while and see how I good keep up with him. After about 10 minutes of grueling Uphill I was within 20yards of him and continued to push myself even though I only had my flip flops on and not my cycling shoes......AFter 20minutes of talking to myself with positive energetic thoughts, "You have more energy than this Darrick, pedal harder".....I was 5 yards away, and continued to push hard. I turned my Hat around backwards, so the words, "FRIEND NOT FOOD" were visable to him as I planned to pass him and be first to the top of the 10km hill. Side by side with him, I said hello and told him he was hard to catch as I pushed on by him and smashed it to the peak of the hill and waited 4minutes for him to arrive. We had a nice chat and he is from Denmark, living here in Malaysia for 10years......what a great opportunity to share with people my veganism...its very shocking to most people how I can have energy to walk around, let alone win races.
I realized during my pain of climbing the hill with a heart rate around 170beats per minute, that I must show people what can be accomplished physically on a diet of only raw fruits, and by making animals our "friends", not Food.


I am staying at a place calle Mrs. Lohs Guest house now, refered by Harley. This place is a secret little haven that most people will never know about, must be referred by someone. Most the travelors here are very experienced travelors for many years (two people here now from FRANCE, one of them knows Harley and is interested in learning more about veganism here name is 'LOAU')...I fit in perfect here....nicely rough around the edges, with several dogs, plants, trees, outdoor porch swings.
Found the durian seller across from the beach, 'TONY', Eng Hoe Durian farm...famous for 'Capri King', white flesh-bitter sweet, nice fiber, slightly creamy....I also Had some 'Red Prawn'( sooo deliciously creamy and sweet, still my favorite!) $12ringit per kilo, normal price. I tried some of Tony's special durian from his farm with no name, but he named it today with me, 'ENG HOE', which was his father's name who died 2years ago. 'Eng Hoe' durian variety, is delicious and only $6ringit per kilo!!! this is an amazing price for the quality! Tony, the owner of the farm, Knew Harley from last year as someone who would eat large quanitites of rejected durian for free. Tony speaks perfect english and I am finding many Malaysians speak english, unlike Thailand.