April 27, 2002
Heading Home
On this, the 42nd day since I left the US, I'm heading home. Last night after yet another boat trip back to Phuket I grabbed an early flight back to Bangkok. After a comfortable night at the Asia Hotel near the airport and a delayed departure I'm finally aboard Cathay Pacific flight 754 to Hong Kong. Ironically what will take just over two hours in an airplane took me over four weeks by land. I have to admit, it was quite a journey. And, although this might have been my best adventure yet, it also included some long miserable travel days and nights. In true Jeff-fashion I have a few lists to present in this, my last Southeast Asian journal entry. OK, here is the first one... Here are all the major travel modes I used and the number of times I used them. I started this list after about my sixth bus ride.
- 25 Buses - This calculates to a long bus ride every 1.5 days.
- 15 Boats - The coolest was the longboat trip down the Mekong River in Laos.
- 9 Flights - I'm currently aboard flight number seven of nine.
- 6 Treks - I think treks count.
- 5 Trains - I think trains are my favorite mode of transport.
- 2 Jumbos - A jumbo is like a big tuk-tuk. Very uncomfortable.
- 2 Tuk-tuks - See comments above.
- 1 Motorbike - No I wasn't driving.
- 1 Bicycle - I barely lived to tell about this bike trip in Yangshou.
And, this doesn't include the dozens of short taxi, tuk-tuk, motorbike, and cyclo rides necessary to get around the various towns. Well, with my first list out of the way, I might as well jump into another. Right?
This morning as I sat at breakfast and watched a table full of Malaysian businessmen eat and excitedly take no less than eight photos of themselves, it dawned on me how different our cultures are. This isn't much of a profound statement, but these guys did make me think... They made me think that if people are so drastically different in different places then people like me should be able to make a few changes in their lives to adjust and move away from certain damaging "norms"... Does that make any sense at all? Oh well, who cares, it makes some sense to me... The next two lists contain what I'll miss and what I won't miss as I leave this part of the world. First off, what I'll miss:
- The Food. When I was here in 1994 I really got tired of eating rice all the time. Not this time, I was having Asian food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Out of all of it, Thai food is my favorite. Or maybe Vietnamese.
- The Treks. Even though one of my treks was severely hampered by a hangover, all of them were amazing. Amazing experiences and great exercise.
- The Asian Airlines. These Asian airlines are the absolute best. I traveled on four airlines as I made my way over and back: Northwest, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines (thanks to a timely bump), and Thai Airlines. Singapore Airlines is the best and Northwest doesn't even compare (PS - After another bump off Cathay in Hong Kong I ended up taking Northwest home. It was crap, but it was a faster route home).
- Smiles. The Southeast Asians, especially the Lao, rarely ever frown. It's a culture of smiling, easy going people. The Vietnamese and the Chinese may always be in a hurry, but everyone seems smiley.
- Rice Fields. The process, the hard work, the greenest green. Every time I took out my camera and snapped a photo of the rice fields I was disappointed. The stepped rice fields are one of the most stunning sights to behold. To bad it cannot be captured on film or maybe that's a good thing...
- Buddhism. The Buddhist way of life seems pretty balanced and focused on what is right. As with all religions it may have its problems, but I guess I don't know of any Buddhist extremists killing one another or others in the name of faith. The Buddhist temples are a quiet refuge, the monks are pleasant and devote, and the meditation is relaxing and seems very useful.
OK, now for the stuff I won't miss. I'm not sure why this list is so long, maybe it's my cynical nature. Here goes:
- Tuk-tuks, Motorbikes, Noisy Longboats, and anything else that uses one of those noisy, smelly two-stroke engines.
- Loud Talking. Quiet down already, I can hear you! It's not like I understand Chinese anyway, so you don't have to yell. Also, all that rushing around and budding in line stuff has to stop.
- Chinese Tourists. The brightly colored hats, tour company stickers, and obscene free duffle bags with advertising on the sides. Can anyone be more obvious? With all the Chinese tourists running around, even an American can blend in.
- Karaoke. It's just fucking wrong.
- Stares and Laughs. What is so funny? It's not like everyone in China doesn't have a satellite dish and isn't watching CNN, MTV, and reruns of Friends every night. How strange can we actually be. Oooh, weird western people! Yikes!
- 50-something Year-old Men with 18 Year-old Thai Girls. No comments needed...
- Chop Sticks. It may seem cool to slide into your favorite nuovo-Chinese or trendy sushi restaurant, but the bottom line is it's difficult and somewhat gross to eat rice and especially noodles with chop sticks. That said, I actually like the other dominate way of eating in Southeast Asia. Using a big dominate spoon and a loading fork is pretty smart, better that the way we do it at home.
- Hunched Over Old Women. It's really sad to see some of these hunched over women from years and years of carrying huge loads balanced on bamboo pendulums across their shoulders. It's awful, I will never again complain about my bad knees or bad back again. All of our western ailments pale in comparison to these pseudo-slavery inflicted wounds.
- Last but not least, I'm really going to miss Long, Bumpy, Dusty Bus Rides to indiscriminate festivals honoring such things as grave sweeping. Yes really.
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