Long time in coming - 9spiration

Hello, those of you still reading this thing. I have taken my longest break from writing here, but I'm BACK! Back to writing, back to Bangkok, and back to life. What have I been up to, you might be wondering, well it's simple: a whole lotta nothing. Yup, normal life, Thai style.

Okay, normal for me. Most of my life in the last week has been shut up in a guesthouse, cooking on my little campstove, writing code, and venturing out to eat meals with my now-roommate-Paola. I've been eating questionable foods that typically turn out to taste better than they look, taking myself out on the motorbike for little cruises, dancing by myself in the moonlight overlooking Chiang Mai, flirting with danger (who took the form of a remarkably charming ER doctor - and I ran when he asked if I liked spanking, "um, I have to make a business call... NOW."), playing with elephants....

I'm seeing that there is a lot more story here than I'm letting on. I now can identify three breeds of jungle chickens and their fighting style, training, medical care, food, etc. I'm also familiar with a remarkable group of artistic elephants who actually paint OTHER elephants. Ah, self-awareness in the animal world is so amazing. I spent an afternoon lazing about a sala with hundreds of local at a resevoir on Army land, and held a variety of local insects. I also made my first offering of a monk kit at Wat Jet Yod. Absolutely clueless as what to do, I watched two women go before me but got up to the front of the line and froze. One of the women came back, showed me how to hold her hands as we poured holy water from one vessel to another in time with the monk praying over me and then the sprinkle! The rest of my day felt amazing and blessed as I wandered the ancient wat, turned in my motorbike for a full refund of my deposit (did he even LOOK at that Click???), and boarded an overnight train to BKK.

The train to Bangkok was unique in that it left just before sunset and afforded much more views than the straight night train, including watching the sun rise over misty fields. The train culture is alive and well in Thailand, one of the last countries in the world still offering these types of regular schedules and rides. All along the tracks, parents show children how to wave and tons of Thai and farang watching from the train enthusiastically return their efforts. The train line is an artery lined with villages, food shops, stores of the few-tables-of-things variety, and clusters of housing ranging from amazing-someone-lives-there to high-end condos. Occasionally the train is boarded for vending food between stops and I'm devouring a bag of fresh-cut pineapple for 20 baht. Life is delivered to you as you're delivered to your destination.

I spent the first part of the evening chatting with two 21-year-old Danish women on their first big solo trip. Bed bugs, romance with Thai men, and being worried about knowing what to do with your life dominated the topics. I slept hard for hours after that, arriving slowly into Bangkok, past many assemblies of "houses", little vignettes into Thai life, the man huddled under a freeway pass with his fighting cocks (Burmese kickers!), and long, curving stretches of canals offering tantalizing views of houses perched on their edges. Again I swore to rid myself of at least another 10 kilos of gear as I hauled a bulging backpack and heavy carry-on onto the MRT, BTS, and finally flagged down a taxi. The taxi driver made sense of my attempts at Thai numbers, lost us deeply in the circular 1.5-car-wide "streets" of Sukhumvit 65, stopping every 10 feet and asking for directions from other taxi drivers, store owners, and the guy trimming trees. Finally we found the hotel, Paola who had waited here for 4 hours for my arrival, and a shower!

I took a four-hour nap and woke to venture into the familiar streets, BTS, shops, and a favorite Lebonese restaurant where Paola and I shared a huge shisha of double apple, Tabouli, Baba Ganosh, and spicy carrot salad on steaming hot Nan. It's good to be here, and mixed heavily with my feeling about the last time I was in this city. I am making plans to dine with my friend Simon (the mine-wire connection), Nurze, and hopefully Aaron as well. I am hoping the face-to-face contact will de-mystfy this story I've been carrying around for the last two months.

Tomorrow is a trip to the Indonesian embassy for a visa to Bali and I'm hoping that Paola and I can make a neat adventure into some neighborhoods. She leaves on Wednesday for a cold, earthquake-filled homeland of Italy, with the same trepidation of any holiday traveler looking forward to returning to what was, wondering if anything could possibly change.

Just your average water buffalo