7 Temples in Ayuttaya

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My friend Jiraporn invited me to go with her and one of her friends to visit a childhood friend who is a public prosecutor in Ayuttaya-a couple hours north of Bangkok.  The city is the site of the old capitol of Thailand and was burned down by the Burmese about 400 years ago so there are a lot of temple ruins. But plenty of intact newer ones too! Little did I know I would be trudging from one temple to another for most of the day in the heat.  I am really well-blessed for the coming New Year!  As we were walking up to one unique temple there stood about 6 huge brightly colored roosters.  No Buddah.  What’s with the roosters, I asked Jiraporn.  This is a temple in honor of the First King Rama who loved cockfighting, she said. OMG.  Ancient values. I came home exhausted.

Tonight, Christmas eve for me, I met met two Thai women for dinner and conversation…so they can practice English they say. 😉 So after a bit of confusion we finally found each other at one of the Thaksin Saphin skytrain exits. I followed them to where we were have dinner…McDonalds!  One of them lives upcountry and works for herself as a business consultant and the other works in a bank…Luk is her name…the same name as my daughter-in-law!

Tomorrow morning I will catch a bus for Pattaya to spend Christmas Day with Bob.  Wonder if he will cook dinner for me. 🙂

Roots

Posted on by Laughingnomad

When I am not out on the streets…or reading…I spend time on the internet on some of the http://www.couchsurfing.com forums discussing historical, political and cultural issues with members from all over the world…and in the process I am learning something about myself.

I have discovered recently that the word “nomad” is a bad word in China and Central Asia.  It means you have no “roots.” That you are “empty.”  In other words you don’t have an identity…maybe you are not even a person!  I remember that when I was in China I wanted to have a T-shirt made with LaughingNomad printed in Mandarin on the back.  The vendor screwed up his face and said he didn’t like it in Mandarin.

Then a woman on couchsurfing from Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, described the word “nomad” in her language.  I asked what was wrong with having “no roots” but never got an answer.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with an attitude of looking down at the “shepherd”…the “peasant” in relationship to more “civilized” people.  But what do I know.

In my language “nomad” does not have a pejorative connotation…in fact I think it is quite a romantic notion.  Even Bilbao Baggins claims that “All Who Wonder Are Not Lost.”

Then a Swiss woman on couchsurfing describes life in her country:

I and my descendant will be forever citizens of one village, despite the fact that no one has lived there for three generations and my family jumped language barriers. I could ask to become a citizen of Geneva, but I see no reason to do so, since we are in the same country and only 300 km apart.

This sense of belonging – because this is what it is, has a reason: If you should ever become destitute in the world, in another continent or in the next village, your place of origin is requested to repatriate you and care for you until the end of your days. You may never have seen your place of origins, but if Bob Lutz (former CEO of General Motors) would become destitute [he he ;-)] his village of Rheineck, would have to pay for his upkeep until the end of his life.

So it is not about no moving and discovering the world. It is about having roots. And what mobility – economically a good thing – does to it.

So I thought about this some more and this is more or less what I explained to her:

The United States was settled by fiercely independent people. My mother’s parents and grandmother immigrated from Poland in the late 1890’s to escape the Germans and work in the mines in Illinois. They sent the two oldest of 10 children on ahead by themselves by ship at the age of 17 and 18 to scout out living arrangements for the family who followed. But they were really farmers so when they saved up enough money from the mines they leased farms in Iowa and after the Homestead Act of 1903 they migrated to Montana.

My father’s ancestors started out in NYC>NJ>Ohio>Kansas>Oregon all in the space of two generations. So “roots” however defined were left behind. Most people then were farmers and looking to homestead land as it opened up westward. What took my grandparents from Kansas to Oregon was the availability of water. Most people migrated across the country in groups and whole communities resettled together.

Studying genealogy has become popular in the States with a certain segment of an older generation interested in migration routes…looking to find out “where they came from.” I have boxes and boxes of pictures, census data, copies of birth certificates etc etc. My kids,36-42 now living in Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Thailand, have not one iota of interest in all this and when I die it will probably all get thrown out in big black garbage bags.

My mother hated the isolated ranch in Montana (so isolated that they only got telephone land line service less than 10 years ago) so at the age of 12 her parents let her go to Miles City Montana and be a nanny. She was a telegrapher for the railroad in isolated stations in Idaho for 10 years. After her marriage she ended up in Oregon. Distances were great and money scarce and I remember visiting my maternal grandparents only once before they died. My father’s parents died before I was born. Aunts, uncles and cousins are scattered to the wind. The distance from one state to another is often farther than one country from another in Europe. You can put all of Europe in the state of Texas and still have room left over.

After a house fire that took my mother’s first 4 children, I was born later and was raised as an only child on a sheep ranch in SE Oregon. Education was my parent’s priority and as there was slight chance of my qualifying for college after attending country schools, at the age of 12 I was sent to a prep school in another city where I lived with an extended Mexican family. Many of the girls went to boarding schools in Portland Oregon and the boys, mostly Irish sheep ranch kids, went to boarding schools in San Francisco.

Roots? What roots!

Why do I travel so much and am now an expat in Oaxaca Mexico? Because it is BORING where I came from. There is no family in Oregon where I lived most of my life and I often “threaten” my son in Las Vegas that I am going to go live with him lol. I have more in common with travelers and expats in spirit as well as in practice. So that is why, for me, home is where the heart is.  And it is true for my kids too. Even my husband who I am separated from is retired in Thailand now.

What to do when I am “old.” My son’s Thai wife says “Mom, I take care of you!” Well, I would never saddle her with that but she could arrange a nice apartment with a live-in Thai caretaker for me near Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok Thailand where they have great respect for elders. My hope is that my kids never put me in a nursing home in the States!

Besides, “family” members are often only related by virtue of blood. No guarantee that they are close at all! Statistics show that most domestic violence in the states occurs at Christmas time!

I really think there may be something true about “wandering” being in our DNA. I read an article recently that researchers have discovered a place in the brain that is related to novelty.

However, finally, at the age of 65 I think I REALLY know now what it means to be American and I am American all the way down to my “roots.”

Up The Chao Phraya River

Posted on by Laughingnomad

In my last post I mentioned Nick’s crazy flight from LA to Bangkok for a one day visit.  Well, today he tells me about the return:

 my flights back looked so good . . .  on paper.  from bkk – nrt (tokyo) i got a coach seat.  not too bad.  when i got to nrt, the nrt – d.c. flight cancelled and caused a serious domino effect.  everybody on that flight scattered to get on any other flight stateside.  i couldn’t get on my nrt – lax flight, not even a jumpseat.  i scrambled and got on an nrt – sea [Seattle] flight.  took the last coach seat. in sea, i couldn’t get on a sea – lax flight, so i went sea – sfo.  at sfo, [San Francisco] i couldn’t get on an sfo – lax flight.   so i went sfo – fresno – lax.  just got home.  what a ride.  CAN’T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!  HA! 

Glad I’m not the only nut out there, Nick! :))

Yesterday I was invited by a couchsurfing friend, who has lived in Bangkok for several years, to visit her neighborhood . It required taking the skytrain to the river…then a ferry up the river 30 stops…taking about an hour.  While on the ferry I visited with an Egyptian woman next to me who is married to a German who had a terrible accident falling off a waterfall in Chiang Mai. After two months in a hospital he was finally airlifted back to Germany with extensive after affects of his brain injury.

After this conversation I felt weird enjoying lunch of green curry and stir-fry vegetables and a visit to a lovely park next to a Wat.  But then my friend showed me her ankle that has been swollen double for a year after getting hit by debris in the tsunami.  She has been to 7 hospitals in Bangkok and no one can tell her what the problem is. I feel so grateful that my son Doug and his Thai wife, Luk, escaped injury the morning they woke to discover their bungalow under water!

The only other sight in my friend’s very Thai neighborhood was a prison which of course we didn’t visit.  Then after 30 stops back and skytrain to my neighborhood, I stopped by the Parrot Cafe  sidewalk table area on my Sukhumvit 22 neighborhood for spaghetti bolanaise and an hour’s late evening conversation with an Aussie businessman at the next table who divides his time between Thailand, Mozambique and Europe as a contract manager for a large Australian corporation. .  I visit with him often here at the cafe…mostly for morning coffee and our daily entertainment…the Bangkok Post.

Today I am contemplating an invitation from the 30- something Thai businesswoman who has invited me, it turns out, to go to Khao San Rd. (backpacker street) with them on Christmas Eve.  Does she realize I am 65, I wonder?

A Village of Two Houses

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I got “home” late last night from a day trip to a “village” just off highway 304 in Chachoengsao Province about two hours east of Bangkok.  This visit had several advantages.

I got to see my friends Dave and Syy again and meet Syy’s mother, brother and two year old niece who slept the peaceful afternoon away in a cloth swing while we visited in an outdoor covered area attached to Syy’s mother’s house.

I got to see my Vietnamese friend Nick again.  Nick is a flight attendant for United Airlines. I last saw him a couple years ago when he visited me, Doug and Luk on Koh Samui on a quick side-trip on his way to visit family in Viet Nam.  He gave me a freshly minted copy of his memoirs on that visitthat included the story of his escape with his family from Saigon in 1975 when he was 7 years old and subsequently resettled in the middle of Kansas!

Dave, Syy and I were imagining Nick lounging in first class on his flight from LA to Bangkok this time too.  But alas we gave him our appropriate condolences when he revealed that the flight was full, he got the flight attendant jump seat all the way from LA to Tokyo and a middle seat in coach seat from there to Bangkok!  We truly hope that he got a better seat on his return flight this morning….having spent only one night in Bangkok!

And I got to find out how to catch a van to outlying areas.  Skytrain to the Victory Monument. From the skytrain platform, look for one of the figures on top of the monument of a sailor holding a torpedo.  Walk in the direction that the torpedo is pointing.  Take an exit off the platform to the right…to a small street named Ratchatewi 11 that runs parallel to the raised BTS walkway above.  About half way down that street look for a restaurant called Pong Lee.  Next to the restaurant is a sidewalk desk to buy a ticket for the desired van.  Show them a piece of paper that says in Thai (presumably you have found someone to do this for you) Pratchinburi/Klong Rang/Tawa Ravadee Hotel so they can direct you to the right van in a very long line of white vans lined up on the street.  The fee for us was 130 baht one-way…or $4.00.  (But Dave said it should have been 120 baht so we don’t know whether to blame Nick or me!)

Dave wrote a little description of the “village” for his email list that I think I will lift for this post because his description is much better than mine would be. He says:

<em>the village is composed of two adjoining houses, Na Tit’s abode and Syy’s mom’s old house. Syy’s moms house is now an empty shell housing a few relics of the past including a clock stuck at 5:30 and memory filled photos on the wall reminding one of an earlier time. The house has been gutted of all inner conveniences and last night I was forced to sleep on the hard wood floor, waking up with an ache in the back or maybe an ache in the heart for the old home.

The days are warm and mild, the chickens wake us up every morning at 5. Now we have to make the long walk through the overgrown remnants of what used to be a garden but is now planted with thorny eggplants to Somsak’s home for our tri daily meals. Since we were here last, Somsak has built 2 small adjoining rooms on the estate, one for mother and one for Far. Somsak and Duen’s small room was slammed with lightening not long ago which tore out their AC unit.

Ants and papayas seem to be the big cash crops this year. The backyard is filled with recently planted papaya’s already loaded with young green fruit. The homes that were removed this year from the village have been completely replaced by the tropical vegetation and now you can never tell they were ever there. As a result, there is a new natural feel to the village, having lost its human component, and has been replaced by a veritable green paradise.

We started our meal last night with a bang, eating big green and white ants with enormous abdomens that literally pop in your mouth, making a sound akin to popcorn bursting into action for the first time on the bottom of a hot grease filled frying pan.</em>

As I sit here writing this, I hear fireworks. It seems very familiar.  Then I realize I am in Thailand not Oaxaca Mexico!  I step out onto my small 8th floor veranda and see the sky between the buildings alive with light and sound. I feel right at home because I have no idea what the occasion is…just like most of the times there are fireworks displays in Oaxaca! 🙂  This is the 3rd fireworks in a month here.  Last couple fireworks I figured was in honor of the King’s birthday.

This time…Christmas?!!

Familiar Bangkok-2009

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I like being in this familiar city again. And this is the winter…the best time of the year to be here…75 and 80 degrees during the day and even down to 60 degrees at night.  But it’s nearly the end of December now and the temperature is slowly creeping up.  But not enough to keep the locals out of their jackets and neck wraps!  But it’s winter they say!

For the last 5 weeks I have spent a couple days a week in a dental chair in Bangkok…at the Bangkok International Dental Clinic. All very competent English speaking dentists working part-time…waiting for you to walk in. A multi-story new spiffy-clean facility with in-house labs.  One tooth extraction, one root canal, four crowns and two implants and prep on a third.  My young implant dentist completed 4 years of dental school in N. Carolina and spent another 3 years as implant instructor…and now back in Thailand with his family. $1200 each implant here…and $4000 and up in the States, he says.  A no-brainer…and a holiday to boot.

I’ve enjoyed an International Street Fair in Lumpini Park with a Thai friend…seeing Chinese Opera Face-changing for the first time.  Amazing!  A thanksgiving dinner with my husband who came up from Pattaya where he lives…festing on a huge hotel restaurant buffet with a friend of his who is here having physical therapy on his shoulder. A trip to Khao San Road, a colorful backpacker walking street where you can get your hair dreadlocked, with my son Doug just before his temporary return trip to Oregon.

I really enjoyed seeing the comedy…Julia And Julia…and recommend this movie (screenplay by Nora Ephron)…especially to anyone who cut their teeth on Julia Child’s French Cook book and/or watched her TV cooking show.  Meryl Streep did a great job…you almost forgot that it wasn’t Julia up there on the screen.  And I love those lay-back lounger chairs in the new theaters here.  Wasn’t so impressed with the new Scrooge in 3-D.

I like my familiar neighborhood on Sukhumvit 22.  I like to sit in front of the Parrot Cafe and have my morning coffee…checking for email with free wifi on my iPhone.  I like the meaty German breakfast at the Bei Otto German restaurant with wonderful home-made German rolls.  All the foods that Oaxaca Mexico doesn’t have.  I like having side-walk noodle soup while sitting on one of two small plastic stools…for 30 baht…less than a dollar.  I like the Thai massage I can have as often as I want because they only cost 250 baht ($7.50) for an hour.

But I could really do without all those incessant insufferable Christmas carols in all the malls.  Paragon Mall and other nearby malls are covered with outside megalights and the area just off the skytrain is expected to draw thousands at an extravagant New Years Celebration.  It’s a Buddhist country…but anything for a party! Everyone lines up in front of Christmas displays to have their pictures taken by friends or anyone nearby who is willing to serve as picture-taker…many of them Japanese tourists.

An American friend and his Thai wife flew into Bangkok yesterday from the States.  I called Dave to give directions to my serviced apartment.  After a long explanation he said, you know, we must be very close to you.  These are two well-traveled people (him and me) who have found their way in countries all over the world!  So he sort of followed my directions…walking a very long way up Sukhumvit 20 to Sukhumvit St…down Sukhumvit St…over to Suk 22 and down to the corner of my little street where I was waiting for them in front of a cafe.  After a little catch-up visit we rose to walk on to my hotel.  This is where you are staying, Dave and Syy exclaimed!  Yes, right there on the left, I said.  We are staying there too!!! We just shook our heads…bewildered…and laughing at how we could have misunderstood each other so badly.

But tomorrow I’ll have a chance to get out of the city into the country-side to visit Syy’s family in a tiny village.  A Vietnamese friend who works as a flight attendant for United Air is flying all the way from California to Bangkok so that we can join Dave and Syy in the village for lunch…then Nick will fly back to LA the next day!  Well, I guess if you get a free flight in first class you don’t mind the trip so much on your day off!  So to get ready I have been reading the directions to my new Sony video camcorder.:((

Best Dinner Partner

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Last month I had the best company and dinner partner ever…my son who is a chef at The American Club…a family club for American expats living and working in Hong Kong.  Because employees and their families are not allowed to fraternize with the members, made do with some of the best restaurants in Hong Kong.  As we made our way through courses of a meal, Josh would explain what to eat when and how.  He would explain how a dish was made and why.  The best cooking lessons ever.  We treated ourselves to a Japanese fusion sushi restaurant with a young very creative chef…a friend of my son’s…who presented us with dishes I had never seen before.  A close follow-up was a Korean restaurant that featured Waygu beef that melted in your mouth.  A dining experience almost as good as the three months we spent with Josh when he was a chef in Manhattan.

The American Club has two sites…one a Country Club in an outlying area of the island, which we visited by bus, and the Town Club located at the top of a Hong Kong high-rise…which I did not get to visit on this trip…but maybe on the next one.

But all good things usually come to an end and after 12 days I left Josh to his job and his high-rise and took a short flight to my next destination…Bangkok Thailand…and to visit another son, Doug, who lives with his Thai wife on Koh Samui.  Having already visited my oldest son, Greg, in Las Vegas, I have such a terrible job…making the rounds to visit my kids! 🙂

Experiencing a Hong Kong High-Rise

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Well, as expected,  here I am at 2am wide awake on the island of Hong Kong. After a somewhat frenetic 3 weeks with Bob and I taking up Doug’s kitchen and entire dining room table in Salem Oregon, Bob has returned to his home in Thailand and I am now ensconced in Josh’s 800 square foot flat in a 70 floor high rise…one of hundreds and hundreds that line the horizon.  I have only admiration for Amy who arrived here by herself after almost 2 years living in Beijing to find a flat prior to Josh’s arrival!

There was visible health monitoring upon arrival at the airport…a system left over from the SARS and Bird Flu days.  Had to fill out a form reporting any symptoms of illness and coming out of immigration the arrival crowds are “scanned” by some sort of technology for temperature readings and any person showing a high reading is pulled to the side. I don’t know what they do with you from there and I didn’t wait around to find out! :))

Hong Kong is often mistakenly thought of as a city or a country. Actually it comprises a small peninsula bordering mainland China called the New Territories, Kowloon, on the southern tip of the peninsula, plus a group of islands, including Hong Kong Island across Victoria Bay from Kowloon, and covers about 1,100 square kilometers. Although Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories came under the rule of the British as a result of the Opium Wars between Britain and China (1939-1942), the area is now a part of China since the hand-over of the lease by the British in 1997 and has maintained it’s status as a Special Administrative Region. Each stage of Hong Kong’s economic development can be linked to events in China and the two economies continue to become interconnected as Hong Kong “looks over it’s shoulder.”  But as far as I am concerned, culturally it is another country distinct from mainland China thanks to the British.   Also, along with southern China that used to be called Canton, the everyday language is Cantonese although English is widely understood and spoken especially by the business community. On the other hand, the various dialects of mainland China, based on the Beijing dialect, have melded and have become known in the west as Mandarin. Cantonese and Mandarin speakers do not much understand each other.

Only 20% of the land mass is urban. Typically, Asians don’t mind high-density living so “city” planners left the bulk of the island to itself and built “up.”  Josh says Hong Kong Island has the highest population density of any urban area in the world.  And I might add…the most expensive. It has surpassed Tokyo! It’s clean and efficient. A high-speed train (runs on time almost to the second every 10 minutes) brought me 30 minutes from the airport right onto Hong Kong Island for $10. Contrast this with the $60 taxi ride from the airport in Las Vegas Nevada to Greg’s house!

When I was here twice before, I stayed in Kowloon. It was just a short ferry ride across the bay to Hong Kong and I only explored the terminal area…not imagining where/how people actually live here…although Kowloon, which used to have a small town look, now looks much like Hong Kong Island with it’s own wall of high-rises.  For a couple thousand dollars a month, you can imagine how small an 800 square foot flat is compared to my apartment in Oaxaca which is 3 times the size for $300!  Tidy by necessity. Josh’s one bedroom has a double mattress on the floor…the corner of which has to be lifted up to get the door closed! It took a bit of juggling to find a place for my 2 small pieces of luggage and computer bag. Josh gave me his bed and he took the big comfy leather couch in the small living room…but I think tomorrow we will switch so I can roam around in the middle of the night without waking him…if  “roaming around” is what you would call it given the amount of space. :))  But I can also go out on the veranda with a straight-ahead view of the bay and Kowloon beyond in between 2 walls of high-rises.  But lest I give you the wrong impression, behind his tower is about a 3-block by 1 block area of free space with swimming pool, gym, a children’s play area and a restaurant you would never know was there looking from the street.

So Josh has already given me an access lesson to his flat.  The tower has about 6 doormen, (actually I think more for security,) but you have to know which tower entrance to use…a magnetic card letting you in the door.  Then an elevator takes you up to level 6 (car park) where you get another elevator that takes you up one more floor to his flat. So no just stepping out into the city like it is for me in Oaxaca.  I hope I can remember all this when Josh goes to work tomorrow!  He says he will take me for a tour of The American Club where he is a chef. But first things first.  I MUST NOT lose the card or the key at this stage of the game because my iPhone still has “no service” for some reason (I haven’t mastered it’s secrets yet) and I don’t yet know were I can find an internet cafe!  Hence no contact with Josh if I get locked out.

Incidently, I’ve never seen this before but in all those apartments very few have their curtains drawn on their windows at night so you can see clearly what everyone is doing in their living rooms.  Josh says they just don’t think about it…they just see what is in front of them.

Amid jet-lag my psyche is swirling…on the road since retirement in 2002. Since 2005, after 4 months in a sublet in Brooklyn, there were several more months in China and SE Asia.  Then after a couple months in Salem and Las Vegas, a year and a half in Oaxaca Mexico 2006-7.  Then several more months in China and SE Asia again.  Then back to Oaxaca November 2008.  Now Hong Kong and Thailand and wherever else. So I guess you could say, like many famous people do, that I “divide my time” between Mexico and Asia with “vacation time” in the U.S in-between. And I do mean vacation time. It sounds romantic.  It is…only in retrospect! :))  But I’m not complaining.  I am very lucky.  I feel like a 35 year-old. I could be sitting in a plaid barco-lounger in front of the TV…feeling my third-age…65 years.

A Month in the States on the Way to Asia

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 This mainly for fam and friends…

Flew into Las Vegas from Oaxaca the end of September to spend a few days with my oldest son, Greg.  Always a big treat.  My old U.S. Samsung flip phone was on it’s last legs and Greg couldn’t get ahold of me when I landed so he decided I needed an iPhone so he bought me one.  I can even text on it like all the kids all over the world. I have a Mexican phone and a Thai phone for local calls but I keep the U.S. number/phone just in case I get a court order to appear for something…or my kids can reach me in an emergency! :))  Otherwise I use video-skype on my computer that I travel with.  Come to think of it I also have a WiFi skype phone when I don’t have my computer with me!  With my cameras and phones and computer, it’s now called “Flashpacking” Instead of backpacking!

Bob flew in to Las Vegas from Thailand while I was in Vegas…was fun listening to all the banter between the two of them.  Then we both flew to Portland where we are ensconsed in our middle son’s (Doug) rental house in Salem where he has been for the last few months trying to earn some money so he can go back to Thailand.  His Thai wife, Luk, was here with him for a couple months but her tourist visa ran out so she is back in Thailand waiting for him to return in November.

Otherwise lots of errands like the accountant, bank, doc, pharmacy, going through stuff at the Azalea St. house to give to Doug and other stuff to set aside to take down to Oaxaca. Took my little computer to the Apple store for some more memory and re-install of the OS which I hope clears up some of the goofy stuff it has been doing. Toyota is dead so guess we will just store it at the farm until Doug can arrange to have a new motor put in it. Took the little ’94 Lexus in for a rehab so it ought to serve us well while each of us is in Oregon in the future for visits.

Got my Thai visa at the Thai consolate…very easy and quick…1 year multi-entry…good thing Bob was with me cause we used his retirement visa as a back-up to prove that I was going to Thailand as a tourist to visit family. Cost me $175 but is better than going across the border every 15 days or flying in and out every 30 days. You’d think they would make it easier for tourists to go spend money but they are trying to keep out the backpackers who they don’t like very much and who don’t spend much money.

Bob saw his mom for her 90th Bday…we will go up to Portland again next Sunday for a family get together again with her and the rest of the family.

Josh, after a visit from his wife, Amy, this last week, has informed us that they have agreed to go their separate ways. He seemed quite relieved and was actually pretty chipper. Think the worst of the bad feeling was the shock a couple months ago when she left Hong Kong and told him she didn’t think it would work.  We are relieved a decision has been made.

When I get back to the States from Asia next spring I’m going to drive some more stuff down to Oaxaca.  Have looked at so many cars I am now thoroughly confused and can’t even remember the first ones I looked at. :((  As of now it looks like the Toyota Rav4.  Nice highway driving but hardy enough for Oaxaca potholed mountain roads.

Bob and I both leave on Nov 1…he back to his house south of Pattya in Thailand and me for Hong Kong to see son Josh. Doug will leave for Thailand first or second week of November so he will be there by the time I leave Hong Kong for Thailand. So I will see him and Luk on the island of Koh Samui.

There is a huge couchsurfing get-together in Istanbul in May but I just realized I might not be able to make it. My MEX visa is up June 16 and I think they said I needed to come in 30 days before to renew…or whatever it is they make you do. So if I am going to fly back to Oregon, pick up the car, and get down to Oaxaca by the beginning of May, I’ll have to leave Asia about 2-3 weeks before that….in April sometime. I’m thinking out loud here. March and April is hot in Thailand so maybe I’ll roam around Turkey and Syria before flying back to the States. Unless I’m sick of being on the road by that time.

So we have a few friends to visit still and some phone calling to do and should be good to go by Nov 1.

We have been waking up way too early. Maybe just good prep for the impending time change/jet lag. 😦

More Thoughts On Dialogue…Aikido

Posted on by Laughingnomad

In the Indian tradition of Anekantavada, the doctrine of non-absolutism, there are three ways to have a dialogue : ‘vaad’ or a discussion, which seeks to understand the opponent’s point of view and explain one’s own in order to reach the truth; ‘vivaad’ or an argument, which seeks to impose one’s own point of view over that of the other; and the third, ‘vitandavaad’, which merely seeks to bulldoze the other person’s views, without really offering any alternative thought.

Truth is universal if not absolute.  Aikido is a martial art founded in the early 1900’s by a Japanese man, Morihei Ueshiba, who wanted to teach a way for people to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. To control the aggression of an attacker with caring and without inflicting harm.

I am reminded that about 30 years ago, at a mind/body conference, I took part in an Aikido workshop led by George Leonard (for further study read “Education and Ecstasy, The Ultimate Athlete (which deals at length with aikido) and The Silent Pulse.) A 3rd dan Aikikai practitioner, Leonard was a particularly charismatic practitioner and my experience with him would have a profound effect on me for the rest of my life.

Wikipedia:  <em>The word “aikido” is formed of three kanji:

* 合 – ai – joining, unifying, harmonizing
* 気 – ki – spirit, life energy
* 道 – dō – way, path

Aikido is often translated as “the Way of unifying (with) life energy”[1] or as “the Way of harmonious spirit.”[2]

Aikido is performed by blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on. This requires very little physical energy, as the aikidōka (aikido practitioner) “leads” the attacker’s momentum using entering and turning movements.</em>

and

<em>One applies aiki by understanding the rhythm and intent of the attacker to find the optimal position and timing to apply a counter-technique. Historically, aiki was mastered for the purpose of killing; however in aikido one seeks to control an aggressor without causing harm.[2] The founder of aikido declared: “To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.”[6] A number of aikido practitioners interpret aikido metaphorically, seeing parallels between aikido techniques and other methods for conflict resolution.</em>

Now I don’t propose we all become control freaks and walk around in a defensive posture (which sometimes invites attack) but there was something particularly powerful in being taught this “attitude” using both a mind and body analogy.

Non-Absolutism-The Principle of Multiple Views

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 

 A friend posted this on a couchsurfing forum today.

Anekantavada, the doctrine of non-absolutism, a multi-dimensional approach is of paramount importance in today’s troubled times.  Anekant is a basic principle of Jainism dealing with the multiple nature of reality. It deals with particular aspects, but does not deny the existence of other attributes or qualities.

Anekant means non-insistence on one’s view-point only. In the world of philosophy this doctrine adopts the policy of ‘coexistence,’The fundamental principle of Anekantvada is to tolerate others’ views or beliefs; one should not only try to discover the truth in one’s own views or beliefs, but also in other’s views and beliefs.  Anekantvada establishes the truth not by rejecting the partial views about reality but by taking all of them into consideration.

Anekāntavāda also does not mean compromising or diluting ones own values and principles. On the contrary, it allows us to understand and be tolerant of conflicting and opposing views,while respectfully maintaining the validity of ones own view-point.

Lord Mahavir stressed  freedom of expression through his unique doctrine of Anekantvad i.e. the “Principle of multiple views. It discards absolutism of thought. It propounds mutual understanding. Anekantvad teaches the lesson of religious tolerance, which is essential to remove the present air of hatred and conflict prevalent on the national and international arenas. Views are bound to differ, because we are guided by different conditions. Hence, it is wrong to think oneself absolutely right and all others absolutely wrong.  Such an outlook is imperialism in thought.

The world is sharply divided into multiple opposite camps.There is an ‘either . . . or’ in world politics. Peace, therefore, demands a new logic, a new outlook. Had the world leaders adopted the philosophy of Anekantof Lord Mahavir to understand others’ points of view, the mental reservations, misunderstanding and clashes would have been banished and an era of global peace would have prevailed.

Non-absolutism is the ideology of a new civilization of peace and non-violence. The ‘all or none’ approach has brought us to the brink of total annihilation, hence the non-absolutist approach in thought, word and deed is the only way before us.

For more :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekantavada

Anekanta is a Sanskrit word anekānta (manifoldness) and vāda (school of thought)

Peace for all

Disclaimer: The intent of post is not to propagate the Jain religion.