Dog vs. saxaphone

We were walking on Kalayana Maitri Rd. in Bangkok the other day when we heard wonderful music coming from a small shop selling eye glass frames. Turns out a very jolly fellow was playing a very excellent bamboo saxophone for his perhaps not so appreciative dog or was she singing along?



Thai guy playing bamboo sax for his dog from ashabot on Vimeo.

We're at the Bangkok airport waiting for a flight to Seim Reap to visit the Buddha. At this point, it doesn't look like there are many fellow passengers on this flight which is a bit disturbing. Cambodia Angkor Air is known to cancel flights that aren't full enough.

"Woo-hoo! Let's go!"

But turns out we're in luck. Enough people showed up so we're on our way.

Koh Kood, hello and good-bye

Breakfast with Swami,
Mangrove Bungalow

I'm sitting at a table in the open air restaurant at Mangrove Bungalow. It's got a lovely deck which extends out over the mangrove lined Klong Chao and is a great place to start the day. The river is high this morning but that varies with the tides. It's basically the Alligator Creek of Thailand only, instead of flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Chao moves through the mangroves and palm trees on its way to the Gulf of Thailand.

Coconut boat - Koh Kood Thailand

The last 10 days we've been staying at a family run place on Koh Kood called Mangrove Bungalow. We're paying $30 (US) a night, breakfast included, which makes it all possible. There's one resort on the island where accommodations  go for as much as $17,0000 (US) a night but I wouldn't even want to stay in a bubble like that. Our cabin is 10 feet from the river. And it's a nice place. So what if nobody speaks much English? It gets awkward at times, but everybody is low key and we’re about a quarter mile from the beach so really. What’s to complain about? We point and smile and otherwise they ignore us. Here, in the land of smiles, a smile goes a long way, even when they're fake.

View from the cabin,
Mangrove Bungalow

Thailand has a lot to recommend it. The people are nice and the country itself is warm, colorful, exotic, beautiful and as lively or quiet as you want it to be. We prefer quiet and, other than the ringing of the cicada, (which I love) Koh Kood is not one of the party islands. It's quiet here. It's the kind of place people come to relax. It's a family destination. Beyond that, the tourists seem to be mostly Russian or Scandinavian. We haven't seen any other Americans. My theory is that, other than tours, most Americans are convinced the world is far too dangerous to explore.

Swami and Buddha on Koh Kood

The hard part for me is the food. There really is a food barrier and here in Koh Kood I hit it hard. It's like people have never even heard of anyone being a vegetarian. Forget about finding tofu. We haven't even been able to get beans. The other day we ordered kale at at restaurant and it came with huge chunks of pork. But we spend a good part of every day exploring the island and its beaches on a motorbike which, for me is kind of scary, but also a helluva lot of fun. The island doesn't have any wilderness but it's not overdeveloped ... yet.

Buddha looking over bay

Nothing I say today, no photos I may post, guarantee Koh Kood will be the same even a year from now. Progress. Sometimes it sucks. But, for today, Koh Kood it still kind of sleepy and rural and clean. If this were Mexico, the rivers would be choked with plastic bottles and bags and foamy with soap and sewage. Not so here. They are all remarkably clean. And we’ve biked just about every road on the island and hiked a bit and there is no litter along the side of any road or in the forest. Some homes have litter around them but it's contained. Wake up, Mexico and Central America.

Swami and Buddha on Koh Kood

In the morning we return to Bangkok for three days then we're going to Cambodia to visit the World Heritage Site, Angkor Wat. I have to clear some hard drive space before then. I'm nearly out of storage.

Biking Koh Kood

I took this shaky cam video from the back of a motor scooter on Koh Kood, an island in the Gulf of Thailand.


It is not dramatic. There is no music to spice it up. There are no amusing annotations. It's just six minutes/sixteen seconds of Koh Kood from the back of a motor scooter. Sorry, but due to a combination of having very little time online and excruciatingly slow upload speeds (it took three days to upload) this video must remain, at least for now, raw and uncut. It is, as they say, just for the record.

Three photos of Thailand

Swami in Thailand

Koh Kood fishing village

Buddha watching over the village

Thai etiquette

M. Lee and the Coconut Lady

Before we left China, M. Lee emailed me this link to help me prepare for Thailand. Worth a read if you're ever planning to visit the place. The main thing to keep in mind is that, though petty scamming is second only to tourism in the Thai economy, Thais still very much appreciate courtesy and a smile from visitors. Now M. Lee is not above using manipulation when sharing a word to wise but he told me that recently some tourist got rude about an inflated taxi fare so the driver leaped out of his cab and killed the guy with his machete.


Getting a drink of tasty coconut milk in Thailand.
Whatever the case, at least two days in, I like Thailand a whole lot better than China. For one thing, even in a big nasty city like Bangkok, there are birds chirping away outside the window. And, instead of peering through a suffocating cloud of highly toxic, ground level pollution, I can see the sky. And yeah. People do smile a lot.

News at 7:01 PM (CST)

Qihelou Jie street

We've been staying in a small hutong house off Qihelou Jie street just across the moat from the Forbidden City. Tomorrow we leave for Thailand and M. Lee's mom returns to the States. We are just three weeks into a 10 week trip and I've already taken about 5000 photos, around 24 GBs worth. I don't know if my camera will last. It's on the verge of expiring. I must be insane.

Little white cat in the hutong

I find it very hard to write anything here. I don't have the time to organize my thoughts which are, by nature, impressionistic. As usual, the prospect of leaving tomorrow fills me with dread. 

Hacking the Great Wall

Hacking the Great Wall.

Yesterday we hacked the Great Wall. It began with a very vertical hike on a forested mountain trail out of a remote village. When we got to the wall we climbed a handmade ladder to get into a decrepit beacon tower. It was all downhill from there and much of it over surprisingly rough, sometimes dangerous, terrain. It was wonderful. We ended at what is the usual starting place which was, of course, choked with souvenir stalls spread out over a nice wide rebuilt walkway.

So...rushed as usual. M. Lee has sounded the five minute bell. Gotta go but more photos to follow.

Dirt Market

Swami and Vincent at Art Zone 798

Today, and very soon, we are leaving for the Dirt Market, Beijing's giant, stupendous, "world's largest" outdoor flea market. Luckily, pollution levels are down from yesterday's extremely hazardous levels in the 300s to a lovely 50. Well, it's up to 55 now and climbing but that's still better than yesterday.

Another day, another 300 photos

Beijing 798 Art Zone

We were out all day. I'd like to post better notes about this trip for future reference but every day, by the time we get home and I finally, finally wind down enough to get around to it, the details of the day are lost or faded into irrelevance the way things do. We went to Art Zone 789 but I did take photos. Lots of photos. And posted more to the Beijing album. And tomorrow we'll get up early and launch out again. This time to a massive street market. It will be interesting. Again, I will take far too many photos to manage. And the day will fade again, like this one has faded.

Maybe I'm depressed. Maybe it's the air. Pollution has been at the extreme hazardous level for the last two days.

Beijing photo update

Practicing my Chinese style photo posing technique

 I've added a Beijing photo album. The link is in the bar at the top of the page. So far there's only a few but more to come.

Lion at Lama Temple

Forbidden City

Went to the Forbidden City today. It used to cost the uninvited their lives. Lucky for us, these days it's only few yen.

Some friendly guys at the Forbidden City.

Beijing

Sunday is maid's day off in Hong Kong. It's the law. Mostly they hang out all day in the street as they have no where else to go. It's sad. But yesterday was special. Big international festival in Kowloon. Last night I posted some photos here but no time for words.

Star above the mid-levels.
Hong Kong

Okay. It's 5 AM. We're leaving for Beijing in a few minutes. M. Lee is giving me that look. Gotta go.

Tung Ping Chau

Yesterday, we went to the island of Tung Ping Chau. I'll post photos when I get a chance. We found old graves in the undergrowth in the middle of the island, guarded by biting ants. Naturally, I did the dance to get the photos. The island also has a new graveyard down by ferry landing but they weren't cool at all. More to come. As usual, gotta go.

Hong Kong photo link

Hong Kong photos here.  Yesterday we went to Macau so the ones I uploaded this morning are from there. You won't find much of the regular Macau. As usual, I am attracted by obscure corners. We started at a very popular temple, but I

didn't get one photo of the main alter. Instead I photographed the dieties I found tucked away in a closet in a courtyard were the workers store their tools, buckets and brooms.

Ok. Gotta go. Must meet M. Lee and his mom downtown.

Outtakes

Three dragons

 

Doggie business box

Lama Island

Jackhammer morning

It's not as bad as it sounds. The jackhammers are not in my head. They are part of Hong Kong's eternal ambiance along with bamboo scaffolding and the sharp echos bouncing between the virus like residential spires rising up from the island rock of the South China Sea.

As usual, M. Lee has us on the run like rats so gotta go but here are a few photos for now. Have a great day.

View from the "courtyard"

Saddest street sign I ever saw

Hong Kong, day two

Sunny the dog

Hong Kong. We're here for 11 days, renting an AirBnB apartment located in the mid-levels which we're sharing with Sunny the dog and Yu Lee the maid. She lives and works here and takes care of Sunny when the owners are gone. All that's fine except that when we're around she stays in her windowless, closet-size room off the kitchen. This morning I mentioned that she doesn't have to do that. I don't know if that will make a difference. Maybe she's just shy.

Morning from the mid-levels

Some 100 years ago, when the British gained control of this island, they considered it a useless, hilly desert but, as is their style, they got busy conquering it and somewhere along the line, someone or other built the world's longest system of consecutive escalators. Good thing. Our apartment is located at the mid-levels but, even with the escalators, it's quite a trek down and back so crafting plans for the full day is all the more important. Yesterday's main event was visiting the Hong Kong History Museum. I give it a C+. It was nicely curated but there were no outstanding works and a lot of replicas. However, the various groups of school kids visiting definitely get an A+. They were quiet, attentive and well dressed , diametric opposites of the screaming, out of control, iPhone waving hoards of American school kids unleashed upon the Smithsonian.

Morning descent

As for the flight over, it was...doable. I want to say dreadful but I reserve that category for United's so-called "food". That was dreadful. Bring.Your.Own. Other than that, I just pretended I was a larva for 14 hours. Once we landed I focused on being calm as a lizard until we got to the apartment and I could finally sleep. Lucky for us, we got there about 7 pm so it was easy to pretend that it was night instead of 7 am. All in all, travel time was about 28 hours.

Hong Kong waterfront from the ferry.

I feel surprisingly normal abut I know I'm not entirely over jet lag yet. I popped up this morning at 5:30 so we shall see how the day goes. We're headed out pretty soon and down the escalator. The day's big adventure will be to check out a couple of markets and then lunch at a convent. Also, today is Yu Lee's day off, so we get to walk Sunny. There are bottles of water in the dogie bag to wash the pee off the street and newspaper to catch the poo. Apparently people can sue dog owners if they don't wash up after their dog.

Street scene from the tram

The night before

Reflections
in a mud puddle

My alarm is set for 3:30. The cab picks us up an hour later and our plane to SF leaves at 6 am. Then we will have a five hour layover in San Francisco before our fourteen plus hour flight to Hong Kong. All in all, it will be about 24 hours of travel. I feel exhausted just thinking about it.

The last few days have been all about chasing the details. They seemed endless. And, I know not everyone has this problem, but I have also had to deal with my demons and their irrational, irritating, seemingly endless stream of "what ifs". Yes, yes... there is (fill in the blank) in China and (whatever-whatever) if you forget something. Crazy.

Movin' slow

Keyboard Cat readies
for our departure.

We're a day behind. We didn't leave for Oregon today as planned but we will leave in the morning. No big deal. We don't leave for China until Wednesday. But my bag is packed. It's so full, it looks like it's going to explode. The main thing  is having all the cables, batteries, charger, mic, camera etc. I think I have everything. The bulky part is packing for two seasons. Beijing will be cold. Hong Kong will be warm. And Thailand? Hot. Really hot.

The crazies

We're getting down  to it, deadlines closing in like walls. So what do I do? As usual. Blog about it. But not for long. I'm currently having my morning coffee so this is permissible. But must finish packing which, at this point, will require either magic or giving something up. I'll be living out of this backpack for the next 2 1/2 months.

Next stop China then Thailand

Plus there's so much still to do here, including hose the spider webs off the house and call the animal shelter. When Dwayne and his wife were unceremoniously whisked off to assisted living, his cat Snooky had to stay behind. The son bought the house, moved in and Snooky was banished to the front porch. She's half crazy without Dwayne looking after her and now Nevada's bitterly cold winter is coming. The neighbor ladies are counting on me to get her into the no-kill shelter which, at the risk of coming off as one of those horrible, buttinski neighbors, I will attempt. The crazy's in the details but we leave in the morning no matter what. Ok. High class problems for sure, except for Snooky. Keep your fingers crossed. So gotta get busy.

PS. Standard packing list (via M. Lee) By comparison, my only pack is the size of her day pack. Crazy huh?

PPS. Henry the Frog is still alive. He sounds really old now but he's croaking outside my window at this moment. The guy must be a wizard.

One picture is worth

Ok. Time to roll this page forward.

I'm very distracted at the moment. We leave for China in just over a week and everyday I'm running around doing errands so tonight I have little tolerance for words although I have spent an absurd amount of time fussing over these few. It must end. Here are some photos instead. 

Mr. Leo discovers Florida
and an egret in the Century Plant
Summer 2013

Those are Frankie's feet in the lower right hand corner.

Bird on the Century Plant

Leo in the fronds

Meeting the mammoth of long ago

Father, son and the sea

This is how we do it

Winds of Change....

CORRECTION: It has been called to my attention that, according to Snopes, Warren Buffet did not write this Act though he did inspire it. Sorry. I should have checked myself. You know what they say about something being "too good to be true". Anyway, it's still a good idea. Of course, getting Congress to pass it would be...well...you know, impossible.


*Congressional Reform Act of 2013*

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. 

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Don't you think it's time?


But what the hell? Pass it on.

A journey of 3000 miles ends here.

Home.

At least for a few days. We got back on Sunday but I've been running ever since getting ready to leave again in two weeks for China. But yes. The Seven O'clock Magpie did show up Monday morning, 7 am. We've been gone since spring but that bird never gave up. She keeps coming back. She knows the minute I get home there will be peanuts.

Notes along the way

Alachua temple

Stopped at the Hare Krishna Temple in Alachua yesterday. Had a brief but nice chat with a couple who live there. They are second generation devotees. In other words, they were born in the movement. Like the devotees in New Vrindaban, they were quick to acknowledge New Vrindaban's bad old days during the '70s. That's the period my kids and I lived there.

Cool Al's code. Behave or leave.

We are in Jackson Mississippi tonight. Had dinner at Cool Al's. It's a burger joint but one of the only places in town that offers vegetarian and vegan food. We both had the Jamaican Burger and sweet potato fries. Fantastic. Four stars.

Tomorrow's destination: Amarillo Texas, about a 700 mile drive. With lunch and stops it will be a 13 or 14 hour day.