Every jetway has "Long Live the King" printed on the side.
If this is your first visit to my blog, and this article is at the top, please scroll down to see colorful, cultural entries!
This will be a kitchen sink entry, starting with the beginning of my trip.
On my flights here I was lucky enough to sit by interesting people that told me fascinating stories. From PDX-LAX I sat by a woman who works for AFS in Portland, she told me she worked with a woman who was on a ferry that overturned in Malaysia, the woman saved herself and 7 other people by making a flotation device out of her pants!
Then from LAX-Bangkok, Nikhil, a med student in Bangalore (his parents are Indian but he grew up in the U.S.) said he heard of a girl that, while on acid, spit her gum out on the ground, looked at it and thought it was her brain, and then became a lunatic. He seemed to have encyclopedic knowledge of most things, medical and non-medical. He talked about Roosevelt's "trust-busting", the current economic climate, disease pathology, Indian building techniques etc, etc.
I missed the first flight to Vientiane (right after my flight from LAX arrived) so I waited 12 hours for the next one. During that time I tested various hand creams at the posh airport shops, clipped my nails, read books at the very expensive airport bookstore, got denied entry into the Royal Silk Thai Airways Lounge, and then settled for the Economy Lounge. (on the far left of the photo you can see part of it.). I tried to plan my itinerary for India. I walked through the cavernous (but light-filled) halls. I had a meal so spicy I almost had an out-of-body experience. (that happened again yesterday, with a green papaya salad I ordered from a street stall. I thought my tongue would never be the same. Miranda told me some people get addicted to eating very spicy food because of the endorphins that are released, I'm not there yet).
I tried to sleep.
A couple of days ago I met a Japanese girl who knew of Oregon because she loves the movie "Stand By Me". I impressed her by telling her my mom knows the lady that threw up in someones purse during the pie-eating contest scene. We laughed at the picture of Buddha with lipstick and the rice-stuffed mouth of the lion statue. (in my camera).
I like their organizational /bookkeeping skills here, it seems most businesses just throw their money into a huge drawer or tub.
I went to a movie at the French Cultural Center the other night, which in English is called "Donkey Skin". The synopsis was something like this- "On the queen's deathbed she makes the king promise he will not remarry until he finds someone more beautiful than her, the only woman that is more beautiful is his daughter...."
It is actually a fairy-tale for kids! Those kinky French. So the king tries to marry his daughter, she kind of wants to marry him (but her fairy godmother tells her not to) so she goes into hiding in the woods, disguised by wearing a fresh donkey-skin.
The festival is over now in Vientiane (the end of Buddhist Lent festival). I can now sit at my favorite internet cafe in peace, the whole last week there was a DJ outside the door, he would blast the same playlist incessently, one of the songs being a re-mix of "She wore an itsy bitsy teeny-weeny yellow polka dot bikini". My first room was right above the DJ so i had to change guest houses.
Now all the stands are being broken down and there is a slew of garbage all over. Usually it is really clean here.
Most guest houses here have a notice posted on the door. This is the second item under the "Prohibition" section:
"Do Not wash clothos, Cook, Smoke on bed and keep quiet."
I am going to interview Khanthon now... then I will write about it here later.
Maybe tomorrow I will have my visa for India! They said more likely it will be Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment