Opaque is the new Translucent.

ask more questions!

When did we become human beings?

What were we before that?

Having become human, what are you now doing or creating that will transform us into whatever comes next?

aaahhh!

Escape from the “festering turd” that is Vientiane! (Heidi’s words, not mine)

We woke up the morning of the ninth, packed, and headed to Talat Sao, the southern bus station, and boarded the ‘international’ bus for Nong Khai, the border town just over the Mekong and the Friendship Bridge stretching across it.

After a series of little windows full of official looking people, gruff stamps of “Exiting” and “Entering” and a very unique traffic intersection where one goes from driving on the right right side to the right left side, we made it into Thailand - Land of Smile.

Contrary to this moniker, however, I was not smiling.

A few things were to blame. Little sleep on the lumpy mattress, a surprise breakfast of raw-brined-pork and sticky rice that made my tummy grumble, the subsequent enragement of bus-station-bathroom-lady my rush to the toilet (and procrastination of paying the 3 baht fee) caused, and all those uniformed authority figures setting the little ne’er-do-well in me on edge were my alibi for the inability to turn that frown upside down.

But after the precise combination of gracious back rub by Heidi, few hours nap, plate of pad thai, and bottle of beer, the world started to feel just and wonderful again.

paper cuts

Yesterday Heidi and I roused ourselves out of bed and went down the street to Yensabai Books to take a paper cutting class. The store sells many beautiful examples of the stencil cutting technique, made by our teacher Set.

The process is a tradition dating back to the 1300’s, originally and still used to assist in painting temple walls. Despite simply being a middle stage in a longer process, the stencils themselves are quite fascinating.

First a photocopied stencil is stapled to the hand made cotton paper (folded in half for our particular symmetrical designs) then we begin slowly cutting out the shape using special long, thin pieces of metal with a sharpened end of varying width, either straight or curved, very similar to a chisel. After finding the right size chisel and positioning it against the stencil, you lightly hammer it with a wooden club.

The class was 2 hours and the resulting piece was a bit rough but intricate and beautiful. Can you see the face?

still haven’t found what you’re looking for?

In the back of a restaurant menu there was a thing about common questions tourists ask. One was “Where are all the monks going?” and the answer was something like “the same place as you or I - to the market, the park, to visit family, or simply back home. Also, they want to know why you keep taking so many photos of them, and what you are looking for if you already have everything you need?”

This got me to thinking about what we are searching for when we travel, what exactly are we seeking?

Is it to see something we’ve never seen before, or to be able to tell our friends later that we saw it?

Is it to have a new experience, or to take a photo of the experiencing?

Is it to explore a culture foreign to our own, or to shop for ‘exotic’ and ‘handmade’ things?

Is it to meet and connect with new people from a different culture, or to gawk at how ‘strange’ or their clothing and customs are?

I suspect it is a mixture of varying degrees for all travelers, whether conscious or not. Here I think of Bjork’s song Hunter: “If travel is searching / and home what’s been found / I’m not stopping / I’m going hunting / I’m the hunter / I’ll bring back the goods / but I don’t know when.”

…food for thought.

some facts

…about Laos:

> The concept of possession is completely foreign to the Lao people. To illustrate this point, the word for “mine” and “yours” is the same in Lao and there isn’t even a word for an individual person.

> The only things made in Laos are basic farm crops, handicrafts, textiles, wood products, cement, electricity, cigarettes, beer and soft-drinks. Absolutely everything else must be imported.

> Laos was not accessible by road until the late 1990’s.

> The average yearly income is still less than $1,000.

> Laos is the most bombed country on Earth.

day 3 luang prabang

Luang Prabang lies in a valley, with one large hill in the center of town called PhuSi (…like the cat) Hill. Today I’ve climbed the hill with Wat Tham PhuSi resting at the top, it’s outbuildings dotting the hill, connected by snaking dragon flanked stairways. After so many grand, gilded wats, PhuSi Wat (temple) leaves a lot to be desired - but view is absolutely beautiful. To the south the Nam Khan river divides the town as it plays tributary to the Mekong behind me to the north. Luang Prabang stretches to the limits of this valley as dramatic jungle thick mountains stand watch, receding into the distant haze omnipresent during the burning season. Far below me I can hear the banging and whining of construction, exuberant karaoke, rooster calls, and the dull rumble of traffic punctuated with the occasional honk. To the west along the Mekong a large sand bar dominates the width of brown water, several boats treading their way up or down stream.

Later in the evening we go out for my birthday dinner with our friends from the slow boat. At Lao Lao (rice whiskey) Garden we participate in the Laos version of fondue - do it yourself BBQ. They bring out two clay pots filled with hot coals that rest in circular depressions in the table, a metal ‘grill’ placed over the top that more closely resembles a strange cake pan - a dome intermittently slitted to allow grease to drip through, surrounded by a moat where water is poured to cook noodles and vegetables in. A large white chunk of pork fat is placed at the dome’s apex, then the thin strips of water buffalo, pork and chicken placed across the dome’s surface. Broth is poured into the moat and glass noodles, morning glory, cabbage, egg yolk, garlic and chili is submerged. Everything is communal and we all eat as things are done, replacing it with more ingredients.

Half jokingly someone tells the waiter it’s my birthday, and asks if they have cake. The language barrier permits not much more than an enthusiastic nod. Not expecting much more than a pile of sticky rice with a candle, we are all greatly surprised twenty minutes later when a full size cake with “Happy Birthday Ian” (the Happy Birthday part in Lao) written on it, complete with blue frosting flowers, whip-cream snowmen and six candles. Amazing.

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

my mother holding me as i watched my father climb up and write the number of our house on 8th street (the house i was born in) above the entryway with a jumbo piece of blue chalk.

day one

…in Luang Prabang. After some book trading, pizza with free beer, and a pleasant movie in the upstairs of a book store called L’etrange we quickly made our way to the nightly market in search of som-tham, spicy green papaya salad (one of my favorite Thai/Laos dishes). Mixed in with the usual assortment of fishermen pants, hill-tribe-stitched purses and random objects, and Beerloa t-shirts I was surprised and dismayed to find quite a bit of antique relics.

Things like old pipes (probably used for years by some villager somewhere), animal products like huge turtle shells, assorted horns, teeth and claws, many different varieties of Buddhist objects like small statues and necklaces, and lots of random objects that were likely cherished and coveted by the families who owned them. The selling of these things is depleting Laos’ heritage bit by bit, and is quite sad once you realize many of the things would probably otherwise be something of a family heirloom.

This is just one of many markets that exist solely because of stupid or exploitative tourists. One of many that includes small birds in cages at temples that can be released for ‘good luck’ and a fee of course (only to be caught again later because they are so docile); the human zoo some trekking has become (especially among the long neck tribes); the Tiger Temple - one of numerous tiger petting zoos who’s tigers are almost certainly drugged; and, perhaps the most insidious of all, the huge sex trade that is so prevalent in SE Asia (and all over the world) of both adults and children.

These markets exist because there is either a conscious demand for them, or just plain idiocy to fall for the scam, primarily by tourists. No market can continue to exist without customers so please, if you travel be smart and be aware of exploitative scams and practices that are present wherever a tourist treads, and don’t become another customer.

On a more positive note we did find our som-tham down a cramped alley lined with food stalls just minutes before closing time. I said “mahk phet” - make it spicy - and asked for 4 chillies (I usually go for 5 or 6). But these ‘mouse shit’ chillies (they seriously call them that) were in a league of their own - larger , lumpy, and intensely red. Just a few bites in Heidi said my lips were so red they looked like I had a thick layer of lipstick on. Not only did we agree that this was the spiciest som-tham we’d had yet, but most likely the spiciest dish we have ever eaten. It took copious amounts of water, a baby loaf of banana bread, and lots of spitting to cool my mouth afterward. I was determined and I finished it all - as they say in Laos “a-hahn sep lai!” - the food is very delicious!

some travel favorites in no particular order

+ Sunrise at the foot of the Sphinx then private entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza (I mean inside the thing) before the torrential waves of tourists are let in.

+ Swimming in Cleopatra’s Spring, a natural spring with crystal blue water, in Siwa, a beautiful oasis on the north end of the great sand sea.

+ Crashing a wedding in Alexandria. The five-tier cake was rolled out, complete with blaring techno, smoke machines, and lasers!

+ Crystal Mountain in the western desert where huge veins of quarts run over every surface of exposed limestone. We made camp just in time for the vibrant red, yellow, and purple sunset over the wind blasted rock formations.

+ Sitting quietly in the cool limestone caves of Wat Yai Prik, the Buddhist monastery I stayed in for three weeks on the island of Koh Si Chang.

+ Sitting for morning meditation and chanting at 4 AM, listening to the bats swoop right by my head back into the main cave.

+ Trekking in northern Laos on a new route (only the third group on it) then hanging out with the Lenten tribe villagers. Later raw duck blood (mixed with cooked duck heart and liver - spicy and delicious!) with dinner, and too much Lao Lao, the rice whiskey that might as well be gasoline.

well then…

MarchTwentyFiveTwoThousandEleven

I’ve started to actually post stuff on this blog I created ages (a year) ago as a way to more easily and creatively share my travels, thoughts, and interests with my Family (that means all you amazing people out there who make me all fuzzy inside).

As some or most of you may know I have been traveling since November, first in Egypt for a month with my lovely friend Jonie’s tour Explorations of Light, and then Thailand since December.

First came working on an organic farm for a month in the north (through WWOOF), then three weeks at a Buddhist monastery on the island of Koh Si Chang. Now my beautiful and talented friend Heidi is here - we are currently exploring Laos with plans to find a quiet island in the south upon return to Thailand.

Two days ago there was an earthquake in the neighborhood, reported at magnitude 6.8 it’s epicenter was in Burma. Heidi and I were in Huay Xai on the Thai/Laos border (between the first and second circle on that pic above). The initial tremor only lasted a few seconds, briefly knocking out power, with a few aftershocks through the night. Nothing serious where we were, but exciting for me as it was my first earthquake! The next day we boarded the slow boat to Luang Prabang - a two day journey with an overnight in the village of Pak Beng. The first day on the boat was quite cramped, but today we discovered the early bird gets the luxury boat: four person wooden tables with room to spread out journals and laptops, and plenty of leg room. As the boat plied the sometimes turbulent brown water we watched the thick hilly jungle and white sand beaches slide by. Sights included small hill villages, villagers fishing and panning for gold, and the must faster but scary speed boats (they wear helmets, yikes). One of the best part of the journey was the chance to meet and get to know the other travelers on the boat - we met two awesome couples, Jamie and Deena from San Francisco and Greg and Michelle from Canada. Now we are settling in to our great guest house (free water, coffee and bananas!), and if our dinner experience with our new friends at Utopia restaurant is any indication, we’ll be here a while…

PS - the new Radiohead album comes out on my birthday, March 29 (and I wouldn’t be disappointed if someone got me the special ‘newspaper’ edition)…