Sunday, June 30, 2013

June 29th & 30th: 3 stories, all saying the same thing

bike ride to the west of Luang Prabang
same bike ride
veranda outside my room in my new guest house in town - Xieng Moan Guest House
garden of my new guest house
interesting plant at new guest house
laundry in the window
sunset on the Mekong from our cafe
sunset on the Mekong
village wat

Regine, Gertrud and I at a village wat
Sheila, Regine, Gertrude and I went on a bike ride yesterday morning on a dirt road along the Mekong, east of Luang Prabang. We stopped at an "artisan cafe" in the middle of nowhere. During the course of the conversation, the term "maximize your potential" came up.  What was discussed was how manipulative this expression is: become more successful, more ambitious, work harder, consume more. But I sort of liked the expression, because what popped into my head was "be 100% present to each moment." in my mind, that would be the ultimate maximization of my potential. 

village roadside laundry
more village laundry
As I have been wandering the street and countryside of Luang Prabang, I have come to realize how "un-present" I have been, thinking of other times, wondering what I will do next, how long I will stay, where I will go. It made me realize how difficult it has been to step into what I call "travel mode" - being present to that which is before me. What also came to mind was an experience/lesson I had a few years ago. It was November, 2009 during my sabbatical year. I was in Dharamsala, India, which is the Tibetan refugee capitol, the home of the Dalai Lama. There is one main street on the hilltop village of McCloud Ganj, where the Tibetans live a few miles above Dharamsala. At the top of the main street was a tea stand. The steps next to the tea stand was my favorite place to sit, watching events below me. On one occasion, and Israeli woman joined me on the steps, waiting for her overnight bus to Delhi. After a little conversation, she said to me, "You don't have to try. Everything is coming to you." I thought she was talking of my location and the view. No, she corrected me, it is not about the view. A philosophy for life then, is what I thought. A nice philosophy. But I was corrected again. "I am talking about you." She was a "seer," and what she was talking about was much more personal. She was seeing into me.

village wat - wats everywhere
wat laundry
young monks- the second from the left spoke good English
I met a Spanish woman named Marga a few days ago, on two week holiday in Laos. She is busy every day - trekking, waterfall, river cave tour. She just came back from a two day tour, working with elephants. She told me of her first time on the elephant. There is a big platform on which you can sit upon, but the elephant trainer, the mahout, suggested she ride on the elephant's neck, while the mahout took his seat on the platform. What I thought as she was telling this story was: "feel the elephant beneath you." I imagined each person with his or her imaginary elephant beneath them, riding on our elephant's neck, with the bulk and stability of an elephant beneath us - rooted to the earth, secure and strong in our place, if only I could feel it.

fish and sausage barbecue stand

interesting flower on very thorny plant

Thursday, June 27, 2013

June 26th & 27th: Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang is a sleepy, little town in Northern Laos, nestled in the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. 
Ferry across the Mekong River
little cafe on the Mekong
view to the south from the outskirts of town
The French control of Laos has influenced its architecture and cousin.

main street of Luang Prabang
French bakery - apricot and coconut pastry
There are wats and orange monks everywhere.




children trying to get fruit out of a tree at one of the many wats.

Wat doorway details
fruit market - I was so happy to find mangosteens here. 
Mekong River laundry
Monk laundry
Good food, sweet, soft spoken people, beautiful scenery - not much else to say.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

June 25th: Last Day in Bangkok

Great last day in Bangkok. It started with a morning walk, liver on a stick in spicy Thai sauce, and a quiet space at a beautiful wat.

Wat bells
I went with Sheila to a new section of town: Phaya Thai. I think this is what Bangkok used to be like: quiet soys (small streets), friendly people, great street food.

little boy I met on the street who I taught to use my camera, and who laughed and laughed
his grandmother who laughed as I took her picture
vegetable cart
While Sheila was at her hair dresser, I wandered through the district. I found a town within the town along the railroad tracks - little places to eat, small businesses, tin houses with no windows. Amidst all the wealth of Bangkok it is easy to forget that there are poor people living desperate lives.

railway shantytown laundry
woman near the rail road tracks cutting fruit
durian
big pot near the railroad tracks
We went to another area of town for lunch - Sheila's favorite South Indian restaurant - idli, sambar, vada, and coconut chutney. I went back to my favorite street stall for more squid - cooked with just chilies and basil. That is all. That is all it needs (except for more chilies).

Tomorrow we head to Luang Prabang, Laos.

best squid
June 26th: I got up early and noticed the street carts people were already setting up. So 5:30 am I sat next to a klong (small waterway), and drank a cup of coffee (12 baht - about 20 cents). There was a slight breeze and a trickily, water sound in the klong - a nice way to start this day.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

June 24th: street food, laundry and the American Dream


Sheila and I have developed a little routine. I wake up early, wash my clothes, and walk for a few hours. By the time I come back, Sheila is awake. Then we walk, eat, walk, drink, eat, walk and eat. 

This morning I got a cup of nescafe and sat on the sidewalk. I met a Nigerian man (there are a lot of Nigerians living in this neighborhood). He spoke perfect English, explaining a little of Nigerian history: colonized by the British, and then independence on October 1st, 1960. There are over 300 dialects in Nigeria, so English is the common language. There are so many Nigerians in Bangkok looking for a way to make a living. Some of them sell drugs. The man I met used to be a preacher, and now is a rapper. He dreams of going to America. 

Bangkok going up and up
 My Nigerian friend told me that he doesn't want to be a Nigerian. He wants to be an American. "But why, " I asked. "Nigeria is your mother." "Yes, it is my mother. But I want to be an American." The American dream - such a provocative and enticing fantasy. "It is a myth," I tell him. "True for so few people." "No," he corrects me. "The American dream is true. Work hard. Make money. Be free."

delicious morning street food
 "But look around you," I reply. "It is the same here. People get a little space. They wheel out their cart. They make a little money. They try to survive. This is the same." "But I want to be an American," he replies.

shanty-town laundry
 Our conversation reminded me of two things. 1) I take my students to Vietnam every year. The most common reflection my 14 year old students have at the end of the trip is how happy the Vietnamese have with so little. I know it is a cliche, but students talk about how there is little correlation between wealth and happiness.

apartment laundry
 And 2) I bring in a guest speaker every year, Dr. Bezruchka, to my Global Studies class to talk to the students about the determinants of health, asking the students why it is that Americans rank so low in life expectancy while more than half of the world's health care dollars are spent in the Untied States. He points out to the students that studies show that the typical factors affecting health, such as smoking, exercise and diet, are only a small percentage of the contributing factors to poor health. Dr. Bezruchka points to two main factors: income disparity, which is a leading factor to poor health, and a sense of community or camaraderie, which is an important factor contributing to good health.

I wandered through the back alleys this morning, called soys, and on the way back, realized that I don't need to go in a loop or circle. Coming back down the same street is new again, for it is a different perspective on the same thing.

chicken on a stick

Beginning of my summer trip: Bangkok through June 23rd

Here is what I know (and maybe a little traveler advice for anyone heading to Bangkok), or at least think I know, since traveling inspires a little skepticism about "truths." 

1. The train from the airport into the city of Bangkok stops running at midnight. I missed it by a few moments, and maybe I could have made it if I would have rushed through immigration and knew where I was going. But it was hard to find the tourist information booth to give me information about how to get into the city. And it is just not my way to rush, especially that first moment when I land in a new country. If traveling could be a religion, then it would be mine. And that first moment is something very holy to me. I cannot and will not rush it. Anyway, the train is on the first floor. It costs 150 baht (about $5) and takes 15 minutes (the express train). A taxi costs 5 times that amount (by the meter) and takes at least twice as long. 

2. Even the taxi drivers get lost in the disorganized sprawl of Bangkok. I had a street address and a google map for my friend Sheila, who I was meeting in Bangkok. Here is how Bangkok works: it is divided into a number of neighborhoods. In between the main streets are numerous alleyways going every which way. And even though the small alleyways are named, the houses and buildings take on the street name of the main street, and the numbering system is no system at all: across the alleyway from building number 77 is number 3, and the next number is 112. And the buildings in next alleyway might start at number 23. So the taxi driver, after going round and round, discarded me at 1:15 am with "I am 100% sure this is the correct place," and drove off. It was not the correct place. 

3. The Thai people are very friendly, and, at times, even helpful. Luckily, early in my wandering of the alleyways a sweet woman named Som took pity on me. She spent the next two hours directing me in my wandering. Finally after almost 2 hours of searching, we found Sheila's apartment building. It was now 3 am. So, all in all, it took 26 hours, door to door. But it seemed like 30.

4. The car is king in Bangkok. Unlike Vietnam, where most people drive motor scooters, and everyone makes way for everyone else, the Thai driver convoy at times seems to go on forever, and crossing the street can be a challenge.

5. Bangkok has the best street food in the world. Restaurants on carts fill up the sidewalks, especially in the morning. 
morning street food
6. There are mangosteens everywhere. They are smaller than the mangosteens of Vietnam, but just as delicious, and way cheaper (about 35 cents a pound, whereas the Vietnamese price when I left at the end of May was about $1.40 a pound). 

3 mangosteens
And then there were two: inside the indescribable mangosteen, the most delicious fruit in the world.
There are other good fruit as well - dragon fruit and rambutan
Sheila had many surprises for me - a bag of mangosteens, and Portuguese egg tarts, which are similar to the traditional Chinese egg tarts, but ever so much better. We used to eat Portuguese egg tarts together in Seattle. There was only one bakery that made them, and then they stopped making them and we were left adrift with no reasonable explanation. Sheila first discovered that Portuguese egg tarts were sold at Kentucky Fried Chicken in China. And so it is true for Bangkok as well.

Sheila and a Portuguese egg tart
7. The rainy season in Bangkok is pretty nice. The rain cools things down and the climate is pleasant   so far. It hasn't rained all day, and it hasn't rained very hard. 

8. There are wats everywhere. This is my 7th trip to Bangkok, and I am still wandering across wats I have never seen before. 



Wat Arun
9. There is only one mosquito in Bangkok. And he found me. Now there are none.

10. River travel is the best was to travel in Bangkok. 

And so I'll end my first entry with some laundry shots (still my favorite thing to photograph).

My first picture this trip
laundry from the river taxi
street laundry