View from my bed at "Moondance"
Sad is this day, when I get up for my last day, in my little paradise.... We say our goodbyes and Pa gives me 2 liters of homemade Coconut oil, clean and with no additives- makes my skin feel like the skin of a newborn babe in arms!
I give her son, who's home this weekend, a birthday present, we bought it together yesterday, when I had my final " Falang oil massage" and she had her Thai massage, wanting nothing of the mess of taking off clothes and getting rubbed in with peanut oil mixed with eucalyptus..... But I think it's fantastic stuff! But then, I'm a "Falang" ( Western foreigner) through and through...
Last night we had a splendid dinner of fresh caught fish with mango/lime sauce and had our last game of dice, which seems to be designed exclusively for loosing (my) money! I made MaiTais in the bar and we got a bit tipsy - all of us..... The Taxi; Pa's cousin; Thani's boat, is ordered for 3 o'clock and the last thing to do, is to make a 360° turn and trying to capture the image of heaven in my mind....
The fast catamaran takes me to Chumporn and back to the usual tourists schemes -" We sell you a combo ticket= Ferry + train to BKK incl. bus transfer to the station.. This gives us the liberty to dump you in a bar/restaurant of our choosing, halfway to the station, where you can spend some money on the falang friendly food and expensive beverages, while you wait for your train..."
So there I sat, in the middle of bustling civilization... Next to a "Pink shop" where... Yeah, you guessed it; EVERYTHING in the shop were in different shades of: PINK !
Hallelujah, the madness of this world... I felt starry eyed and strangely out of place....
- As there's a train every hour to BKK and beyond, it was a logistical nightmare, to herd everyone together for the right departure times... It contained some yelling and then a lot of repeated yelling.. As falangs are all very independent creatures and prone to wandering and not least, complaining and asking the same questions at least twice... But in the end we all got to the station alright... The first group had been driven off at 19:00, and the last (This is me) at 23 hrs... So to my surprise, we all met up again at the platform; The trains were late.... very late; as in not coming. But everyone lived in hope, they had been told every hour, that their train would be there within the next hour- for the last 4 or 5!
Before I got that far, however; I realize, that my train was at 21 hrs instead of 23.... I buy a new ticket to, what later turned out to be, the only train that night to BKK and as my "lost" train was late, I got a 60% refund.... Man, Sometimes it does pay off, to be forgetful and messy... Was that pure luck or what? So at 1 AM, I could wave goodbye, to all my new found friends at Chumporn main station... My new ticket was a 1st class sleeper, which my old ticket wasn't, as the very unfriendly travel agent on Koh Tao had informed me, that everything was sold out and only 3rd class available for the next month or so..... So; happy, happy, sleepy me.... All the way to BKK, in a freezing aircon compartment for the next 9hrs.
Woke up to the sight of the ripped backside of Bangkok, people living and eating at street restaurants, literally right next to the tracks... Amazing, to live a whole life less than 2 mts from thundering engine noise and squeaking of train breaks............ Bangkok main station is clean, but the subway is immaculate.. The same kind of driver less train, we have in Copenhagen, but the customers treatment of the premises, is quiet different.. This looks akin to respect - The skytrain as well...
Went to Silom Rd. to my reserved room at "Sawadii Guesthouse".. But didn't like the look of it, so as I'm now in the habit of paying the same fare twice and preferably more expensive on the rerun; I took a taxi right back where I started from, to the "Shanghai Inn" a boutique(!)hotel right in the middle of "Chinatown" - As soon the bellhop had closed the door after letting me in my room - I did a little dance and uttered several; "YES" !!! I haven't seen this kind of deranged luxury at any given time on my trip or before, for that matter, the only complaint is that they failed to make the satellite dish work for the foreign channels on the TV... I can truly say that Thai TV isn't all that.....
After a mad shopping spree at and then a quick trip to for some electronic gadgets, I didn't do much more in Bangkok, besides taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Asia.... My trip home on SAS night flight to Copenhagen, was not as comfortable as the on the one going out, but never mind... My very good friend Mette (My ex husbands ex wife) was waiting for me, in the chilly Danish summer morning..... I only had about 20 hrs in Copenhagen - one night in my own bed, before heading to Amsterdam, The Netherlands for, what supposed to be a three day sailing trip in the North see on the mighty "Stad Amsterdam", but by the grace of my daughter Ninon, who invited me to stay, turned into a rare privileged full week and all the way through the prettiest part of Denmark to Kiel, Germany.... More of this in posts to come!
-0-
What did I bring home from this trip abroad? I don't really know yet...
Something about having faith in the basic goodness in strangers, the effect it had on me (- it made me cry with gratitude) when treated with endless respect and generosity (spiritually as well as physically) by new found friends... (Some of them being extremely poor, from a financial viewpoint). The everlasting (hopefully) impact of my own emotions when shown a random act of kindness, or the broad minded and ingenuous camaraderie with virtual strangers, Asian as well as Western ..........
Knowing that I'm perfectly capable of being on my own in strange places, adapt quickly to the situation at hand ( This did, however, not come as a surprise....) Cementing the fact, that a woman alone can travel safely anywhere, when sticking to a few sensible rules... That acting on a impulse or according to a sudden intuited "feeling", can be rewarding in every sense of the word and has brought me heaps of joy. And in some cases; a lesson well taught as well!
Experiencing the ease and simplicity with which most people lived their lives, with their basic needs, down to a bare minimum, still living a very rewarding life; It made me wonder about all the extra weight of "bare necessities" I carry about , in order to go through the motions, of what is known as MY LIFE....
Seeing all aspects of the "Rich man- Poor man" syndrome, that is so blatantly obvious outside of northern Europe, also makes me ponder about the big "Wheel of fortune" in sky;
Who is born where and under which circumstances! Where and how is our destinies doled out? And what are the criteria?
It gave me pause, when considering growing old in a country, with precious little health care, clinics, hospitals or doctors as in Laos. The contrast in our ongoing and in our society, necessary ethic discussions about euthanasia and life prolonging medication for demented geriatrics in our understaffed "Homes" (- where only the food will differentiate the days..)
It sets Denmark in a perspective... Now I find the Danes; Rude, impolite, unsmiling, self centered, spoiled rotten and narrow minded. It makes me sad to see Copenhagen so dirty, with people just throwing trash on the street. It makes me sad to hear, how people, young and old, speak to one another without respect or consideration, what so ever... Try to cross a "Cycle path" either entering or exiting the bus; Only a fraction of the city's lawless bikers will actually let you pass - The rest of the mad hordes will send you the evil eye while making you spin in perfect pirouettes as to avoid a head on collision.... and In my line of work, I interact with hundreds and only one in ten actually says hello or goodbye; They go straight to what they want and "patience" or "thank you" is not in their vocabulary...
Okay, I'll stop now after my last point of critique; Danes will litter without a second thought! I can remember,when visiting foreigners made respectful fun of the neat cleanliness of Copenhagen! Saying; "You could eat of the streets".... Well, this is all in the past now! Copenhagen is as dirty as any third-world city...
(Saw this later - 17/8 in Politiken - It basically concurs with my complaints)
As a tentative conclusion; I don't think, I can even begin to fathom, all the implications or the tangible impact, all these encounters will have on my future......
I'm looking for a online course in teaching English, grab a job at an NGO in Vientiane and sublet my flat for two years....... !?!
No comments:
Post a Comment