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Archive for January, 2007

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Comforts and Culture shock

Friday, January 19th, 2007

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Robert Frost

…even if that means a late night airport trip, a kitchen table covered with papers, a rapid end to ice cream supplies, and a jet-lagged zombie wandering the house at all hours of night. 🙂

Yes, I made it. Back to St. Louis, home to my storage garage. Luckily my parents don’t make me sleep there. 😉 I admit to pouting a little on the extended journey home as the people and views got progressively more “normal” and bland. Pretty soon I was in the gate leaving for St. Louis surrounded by scowls over laptops and cells, women with highlights and heels, my Indian shirt and jingly anklet officially out of place. All the same, time with family will make this a fun, not just necessary, stop before I leave the country again soon.

I really doubt that I’ll write too much over the next month unless you are strongly curious about the state of my tax return, business wrap-up, or how my nephews are doing in basketball (awesome of course). I am looking forward to a February Florida/New Orleans roadtrip for friends and Mardi Gras and will arrive in New Zealand on March 1st.

So, until the other side of the equator….
Until then, looking forward to the unfamiliar but oh-so-fun PHONE CALLS! 😀

Posted in Transitions | No Comments »

Departure Eve

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

Ah, Bangkok. Again. The greatest sensory pleasures here are cool mid-day showers, mango with sticky rice, and the visual stim of buzzing Khao San Road. It is sentimental in a way though. Bangkok has served as the confluence of all legs of my trip. I have favorite eateries, recognize shop owners, and pass tables that are linked to people and memories.

My sole goal for today: find “Monk’s Bowl Village,” perfect finale for a monk-peeper. But not so perfectly easy to get to. No tuk-tuk driver had heard of it and wanted to charge $7 to go looking. Finally one agreed to 10 baht (30 cents) if I do “a stop.” That means entering a shop and playing interested so that the driver can collect a gas coupon. I failed the first one. Didn’t look long enough at silk ties and boxers. Second try, a travel agency, meant spending 20 minutes of amusement asking questions and looking at pictures of places I’d already been. But, tuk-tuk man was happy. Until his engine stopped one block away. Then he kicked me out into a taxi, who also didn’t know the way and kicked me out onto the sidewalk. But, finally I found myself surrounded by shops selling all things orange and monk-like including “care kits” of yellow umbrella and towel, matches, condensed milk, and even chocolate. I made a few purchases to shopkeepers’ confusion: “This….it’s for monk??”

Even my ride back had humor. My motorcycle taxi driver had worrisome conversational habits: talking with his hands and trying to make eye contact. I watched the road for both of us while he pointed into the air: “Amelika? GOOOOD country” and proceeded to count….um, favorite presidents?….on his fingers. “Number ONE, Lincoln. Number TWO, John F. Kennedy.” Damn if he didn’t even include George Bush in the interest of exhausting all English words he knew.

Since then, money spent, I’ve wandered the streets begging baht for a street dinner. I went from one WE BUY EVERYTHING shop to another greeted with head shakes and even snickers when they peeked inside my little baggy of “treasures.” Finally, my Hindi phrasebook earned me a banana pancake. I was hoping to also gain a fruit shake, but no one seems to want my India map, skytrain ticket, and gold glitter nail polish (don’t ask). 🙂

Tomorrow, 27 hour journey home. Guess that means that it’s time for taxes, billing, roadtrips, paperwork, phoning….yeah, reality calls. “Reality” includes many people that I’ve missed talking to though, so I won’t resist too strongly.

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot quotes

With that bit of clarity: FAREWELL SOUTHEAST ASIA!!

Posted in India | 1 Comment »

Gluttony

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
It began like this: "You're going to Kerala? Then you MUST go to this resort my friend raved about." Of course, initially I dumbly deceived myself, mistaking EUROS for rupees on their website. But, since that ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in India | No Comments »

The verdict

Saturday, January 13th, 2007
OK, it was worth it. (Did you expect a different answer?) : ) It was cool to wake up to the bi-tone amplified Muslim "call to worship," even if that was at 5am. I went on the early ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Magic, impulsivity, and pests

Friday, January 12th, 2007
If you leave a place while you still love it, it can remain magical forever. Maybe that's why I finally peeled myself from Alaska. That's why I just left Cochin. Wanted to preserve the peace, the awesome ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in India | 1 Comment »

Changing Coastlines

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
Just when I decide that I can't choke down another gulp of chunky air scented of urine, I find myself looking at the sea with a fresh breeze. Just when I think that I won't survive yet another close ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in India | 1 Comment »

The continuing list of things I have learned in India….

Sunday, January 7th, 2007
How to puncture, prod, and turn a goat's eye into pulp. "Surgeon" is not a career change option. How to eat soupy rice, with my fingers, off a banana leaf. When I walk down the sidewalk, I'm walking through homes. ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Maturity

Thursday, January 4th, 2007
On the operating table this morning, the 83 year old provided the longest, most involved cataract surgery we'd observed. Most were completed in <20 minutes. Less time than a haircut to make an incision in your eye, ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Happy New Year’s!

Monday, January 1st, 2007
It's just a number thing; a digit changes, a page turns. Funny though that it has such the power to make people celebrate life with new fervency and form plans to make it---and themselves---that much better by the next ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in India | No Comments »