Las Vegas

Christmas In Chiang Mai

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November and December 2016

After a month in Bangkok and a 5 day visa run to Hanoi, I’ve been in Chiang Mai with Doug since November 21. We are staying at the Smith Residence and I have a great view of the sunrises over the city from my 6th floor balcony.

“I take care mama,” says Doug in a Thai speak accent. I open the door each morning to see a smiling face as he holds out something for me to eat…pastry, fruit or a Thai dish he has made himself in his balcony kitchen which is basically a sink. But he bought an electric wok and a little charcoal grill to grill meat and fish. We both have a water kettle for morning coffee. It’s remarkable what he is able to cook up.

My Christmas present to Doug was a fancy buffet dinner at the Le Meridien Hotel.

Meanwhile, Bob has been with Greg in Las Vegas while he recuperates after his hip replacement there last month.

Back Home in Oaxaca

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Whew!  What a ride! A week in Vegas, a month in Salem Oregon, a week in Hong Kong, 5 months in Thailand (4 in Bangkok and a month on Koh Samui) a week in Hong Kong again, 2 weeks in Salem, 10 days in Vegas and now back home in Oaxaca. Right now, I don’t care if I see another airport again!

Oaxaca is in the middle of an historical heat wave. Am I still in Thailand? Three fans on in my bedroom at night. Oh where is that Thai A/C?! Too hot to go grocery shopping!  (Maybe I’ll lose some weight.) Tomorrow I’ll just water my plants and drink what’s left of my Arizona Iced Green Tea.  And then take a nap.

Last Day In Vegas

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Yesterday got my glasses replaced that son Greg’s new yellow labrador puppy ate. Puppy? At 16 weeks he’s huge…but oh so loving! And he’s so cute when he carries his own leish in his mouth when we go for walks. 🙂 He jumps in the pool and swims after the bugs…but like any two year old he’s constantly underfoot looking for affection.  Now Greg is getting a taste of his own medicine. He he.

Greg and I (in Las Vegas) talked to Greg’s father in Thailand on video skype. No, I didn’t fall down! Now making big batches of chili and spaghetti sauce to blues music. I’m in my glory.

The Strip? What’s that?

Video Skype Mishap

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You can just imagine the look on my son Josh’s face in Hong Kong today as my chair collapsed out from under me in Las Vegas as I disappeared from view in his skype video frame! He he. Fell on my bum as he kept helplessly asking “are you alright?” Are you alright?”

Normal In Las Vegas

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Had an outside lunch with son Greg, his Punjabi surgeon friend, Jody, and his wife Heather, and Greg Smith who was a classmate of Greg’s in high school.

Playing with Val, Greg’s 16 month old yellow lab who is constantly underfoot.  He is now jumping by himself in the pool and getting out and jumping in again over and over…shaking himself on us each time. “OMG, close the door!”

Son Doug calls from Salem, Oregon

Greg gives me a knife to carry for protection when I travel. He worries about me. Gives me a lecture called the Color Code of Mental Awareness

White:    Unaware of any threat in your immediate surroundings
Yellow:   Aware of your immediate environment
Orange:  Aware of specific, potential threat; continue to observe
Red:        Aware of specific, real threat; no doubt in your mind
Black:     The line in the sand is crossed by your assailant

I clean and polish all of Greg’s stainless steel cookware

Noi, my Thai friend Skype-chats me from Bangkok.

A high school classmate visiting here in Las Vegas will drive over to see me.

Great Greek dinner last night with Greg and erstwhile girlfriend, Adela, at a Greek restaurant

Naps during the afternoon.

In other words I am no longer aware of any danger in my environment.  It’s nice.  But Greg says I should always be aware.  Ok, so I usually am when I travel.  But I figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Me In Las Vegas

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After a week in Hong Kong,  just in time to avoid the worst of the burning of Bangkok just up the road from Sukhumvit 20 where I was staying, I flew to Portland Oregon with a transfer in San Francisco on my favorite airline…Cathay Pacific.  Travel time from Hong Kong to the west coast is much shorter (about 10 hours) than a flight from Bangkok with a long layover in Taiwan or Seoul (14-18 hours).

But after 8 months in Asia, the jet lag and culture shock really hit me hard, as usual, flying to the western hemisphere from the east.  In short feeling like I have the flu on top of disorientation, lack of short-term memory (where are my glasses now…and those damn keys…and my phone!) and feeling scattered, very fatigued and strange.  So I holed up in a hotel for a week in Salem…not wanting to inflict myself on my friends…and where I could curl up on a cloud-soft mattress like a baby.

But then, beginning to feel somewhat normal again and stuck in a “cell”  the weather turned from rain to sun and I really wanted out of the hotel. And didn’t appreciate US CNN which is incredibly inferior to International CNN!  I missed the superior BBC, Aljazeera and Russia Today that I could get in Bangkok so I just relied on my computer on free wireless internet which was better than TV anyway. Then a very generous friend offered to have me stay with her and her husband.  This couple had spent a few years in Thailand in the Peace Corps in the 70’s, so it was wonderful to have someone to trade information and debrief the chaos in Bangkok with…especially since they had been following the web videos, articles, forums and tweets like I had been.  Thank you so much Judy and Bob! I hope someday I can be as generous with you!

So now, after almost missing my plane because of bumper to bumper traffic from Salem to Portland, I am in Las Vegas with weather in the 80’s and enjoying my son Greg and his new toddler, Val, a very sweet yellow labrador 18 month old puppy.  We have plans for a Bar B Q with his friends and a Cirque du Seleil show based on Elvis. If it is as good as the one based on the Beatles during my last visit to LV, it will be a fine evening. Greg is at work. Think I’ll curl up and take a nap.

A Month in the States on the Way to Asia

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 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. 😦

A Gift of Love

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My unexpected Christmas “Mass” occurred last night in Las Vegas of all places: Out of the dregs of post WWII Liverpool bubbled brilliant words and revolutionary music…channeling truth and prophecy even they were probably not completely aware of. Helped along no doubt by the Maharishi and the magic mushrooms of Hautla Mexico. Listening as if for the first time to the voices of a generation looking for love.

Imagination. Beauty. Fantasy. Originality. Hope. Transformation. Multisensory and Whole Brain Inspiration. Lifting…transporting…touching peace and love. Brought to us by unbelievable modern technology and the Sufi dancers of the “infidel.” Thanks to the souls of the multicultural priests of Cirque du Soleil…and the Beatles. “Love.”

Gooey overstatement? I risk cynicism. Who is to say the experience was not as transcendent as meditation? Hadn’t I just been studying Aristotle’s metaphysics of Potency and Actuality before that 1962 Beatles Tour?  Maybe last night just evoked the feeling of Possibility…of True Revolution that was born in that 18 year old new soul.

Thanks for the gift, Greg, and for the legacy of the Beatles.

Peace and love to you all in the new year!

Waiting for Alaska Flight 624

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Had a heck of a time getting out on the plane in the worst storm in the NW in 40 years! After a two hour trip from Salem to the Portland airport over icy washboard Highway 99 because the freeway was plugged with snow plows, the HUT Shuttle driver kindly unloaded my 6 duffels and 2 carry-ons and then helped pile them all onto a cart at the airport. Then, hitting a bump, I dumped the whole load in the middle of the street in front of a block long line of cars! Thanks to the generosity of two young guys who refused a tip, (it’s for our good karma, they said) I made it into the airport! A nice gentleman helped me lift my carry-on into the compartment above on the plane! Now my 42 year old son and his girlfriend are heaping loads of love and care onto me!

May you all enjoy similar care from complete strangers as well as family!

Oregon In Summer

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Oregon is most delightful in summer! Everything is so green. And my mouth has been watering for local strawberries, raspberries, peaches and cherries. And Walla Walla Sweet Onions! Cars obey the rules, garbage is picked up and motorcycles don’t try to run you down. And sweet faces of old friends are a joy.
This blog has just been sitting here while I have been planting flowers and maintaining the house for the last month since I’ve been home. I’m not used to house maintenance. I’m not used to making appointments and keeping them on time. My inner mechanisms are a jambles. The world news is upsetting and I’m sick of the negative campaign and mindless pundits. So I have been planting flowers. And enjoying my home. It’s like being in a 5 star hotel after all the cheap guest houses in Asia.

A couple weeks ago I was treated with a visit from two of my sons…Josh and Greg. They were on a mission to see their 92 year old grandmother in Portland. Josh was in between jobs so he spent a few days here and treated me and some of our old friends to a wonderful dinner here at the house…4 hours in the preparation of. Just like old times. I loved the banter. I miss it now. Then he flew to Las Vegas with Greg where he spent a week or so before flying to Hong Kong to join his wife Amy and begin work. They are happy to finally be out of mainland China…especially with the Olympics coming.

I’ll have a month of peace before Doug arrives from Thailand the first week of September…leaving the end of October. And time to catch up on my reading. Finished “Bangkok Blondes,” a book of short stories by expat women living in Bangkok. And “Tales From The Expat Harem,” also a book of short stories by expat women living in Turkey. Now I’m reading a short history of the Balkans where I hope to go next fall.

I am looking forward to leaving the house in the care of a renter in November and returning to Oaxaca Mexico for a couple of months before going to Cuba and Guatemala with an American expat friend in Oaxaca. Then I hope to go on to other Central and South American countries before returning to Oregon next summer. So that’s the deal…taking advantage of a window of time while I am still able to walk and before the cost of airline fuel prohibits any more travel.

In the meantime I spend time on http://www.couchsurfing.com making friends in all the prospective countries I will be visiting. It’s an online community where you hook up with friends and arrange to stay with them…and they with you. And join CS activities in their local communities. If you travel try it! You’ll like it!