Backtrack to...
Big Buddha: The province of Phuket is building a huge statue of Buddha on the highest point of the island. It's closest to heaven so that's why it's way up there. The road is treacherous, but beautiful. Elephants on the side of the road, atv tracks, and only half of it is paved. The inside is concrete and the outer layer is made of marble. The crazy part is that it's being built completely on donations. 100%. Wow. For 300 baht(9 US) you can buy a marble brick for the outside. You can write whatever you want on the outside. The things other people asked for made me cry. Some were goofy, some were selfish, but most that I could read were deep. Buddha is very giving and loving. Most people ask for good luck or money, and that's quite ok apparently. Back to Big Buddha. It was such an emotionally overwhelming experience, I haven't had the balls to go back alone. We went inside underneath of the statue to a little hidden cave and people were putting some kind of gold sticky paper on the supports of it for good luck as well. I don't know what I believe, but I know for a fact that I felt something there that I've never felt in any church. At the end of our visit we went inside the temple underneath the statue and offered and prayed to Buddha in front of the monks. In class we learned how to bow(wai) properly and to give all due respect to the monks and Buddha so I'm starting to freak out that I'm going to do it wrong. Like I said, I don't know exactly what I believe but probably better not to push any God or prophet of whatever's buttons or be disrespectful. (I think I mentioned some of this in my past blog but I wanted to expand a bit now that I have the time) In Bangkok, I lit 3 identical sticks of incense (the color red for luck) and offered them to the city Buddha of Bangkok. As I said earlier, reflecting on my past few years is something that has definitely hit home and I feel something I need to tackle, and as I have already found in the states self hypnosis and meditation are my friends and I feel that way even more here.
Enough of that. Beer and beaches. MMMMMMMM (insert phone text voice here). So I mentioned that I was the first of the group to leave - I literally left right after our last day of practice teaching. So, I spent some time drinking beer on the beach on my last night - I'm not going to have the luxury of a beach across the street from my apartment or school, much less the company of everyone in my class. So I'm heading to the bus station in Phuket to catch my 5:20 bus, right? My cab driver, even though I'm already running late, asks me if we can stop at his house quick... wtf?! Sexual innuendos aside, I obviously said no and he proceeded to tell me how I was his first cab customer of the day and that normally he charges 500 baht for a trip to the bus station and only charged me 450 so I was special to him. I was gagging at this point, and ended up giving him a 500 baht and running away to catch my bus. Yeah, I had to bang on the bus drivers window to stop the bus and let me in. Damn crazy Americans. I was starrrrrving because I hadn't eaten all day so I ran across the street to a food vender and got some quick friend noodles to eat on the bus. Found a seat and opened my feast just to have a bus worker tell my it smelled too bad and I would have to eat it outside. Fine. I packed my stuff up and found a seat and put my head down and shoveled the steaming heap of noodles into my mouth. Looked up just as my bus was pulling away. What. A. Day. Finally found my seat and thought someone was in it... he didn't look thai so I cracked a joke, wasn't received too well so I sat in the empty seat in front of him. 5 minutes later, said man practically sat in my seat with me and began discussing the ingredients to the apricot juice box we all received upon leaving the bus station. Then he commented me on my shirt and felt the buttons - realizing he had just grabbed my boobs, he haphazardly apologized and gave me a book of his to keep. "Gordon Ramsey's Playing With Fire" How did he know I was juuuuust looking for that copy in paperback?! Anyway, we chatted all night and I forgave him for his sleeping pill drunken behavior (we've all been there, right? I mean he was a beautiful british man with half a beard, crazy hat, and mouth watering accent) and discussed green energy in Australia, selling Budweiser in clubs in Bangkok, and his house in Costa Del Sol, Spain. Next thing I know, I'm asleep and in Bangkok. Yay!
I bum out at the bus station in Bangkok since I don't meet with Pod, the assistant to Pook (director of the company that has placed me) until 9. I make it to this random gas station and sit and wait. Get a few hello's, a fell weird looks, but hey, I'm sure I look how I feel - like a dirty stray dog hoping that I wasn't led to rape alley to fend for myself. Pod finally comes and we cruise in her BMW to Suphan Buri, the province where my school is.
"things aren't always as they seem"
"don't judge a book by its cover"
Open-mindedness is a virtue. Yeah, so is patience, but I already know that I don't have an abundance of that and I'm okay with it. Sure, I'd like some more, especially when it comes to long bus rides, 30 hyper 6 year olds, and people that take foreverrrrr to get ready (yes, ladies, we all know I'm the fastest shower-er in probably the world). On the surface, a lot of Thailand looks dirty and unwelcoming. Yes, parts are absolutely breath-taking, but some more city-like dwellings aren't necessarily so lively looking. It kind of reminds me of Morocco in a way, with the abandoned food huts, begging people on the street, and small children everywhere that should be in school but are out selling themselves or their families products just to buy some food for dinner. It hurts me that some people might just look at this surface and shudder, never to enter such a place and make judgment on the people that inhabit it. Peace love and understanding are a 3 legged stool. If you don't have 1, you can't have the other 2. I understand the difficulty of many of these families, and I make sure to respect our differences as much as I know how. When you try to get to know the people in a new place, this can drastically change. Which reminds me, I just got back from a walk after school to a nearby temple - very beautiful and met a few monks there. However, I also stopped in this tiny hippie/indie shop that I've been to a few times just to say hello to the woman that runs it. Upon entering I ALWAYS hit my head on the little welcome sign she has hanging in her door and we both laugh at the awkwardness of my height and how I always forget it is there. I've bought a few things from her now but this time I just came to say 'hello' even though she doesn't speak a lick of english. We literally laugh when trying to talk because we have so much to say to each other buy nothing more than gestures and a calculator to translate our feelings. Anyway, she motioned for me to sit down, so I did. Not sure what possibly we could 'chat' about, but she gave me a juice box thing... it looked weird from the get go but I wanted to be polite so I opened the straw and stuck her in only to taste what I'm sure was ground bone and wooden spoon in a liquid state - with what the box told me was "Hi- Calcium"
Juice boxes are a fad here. Well, straws in general in all drinks are a fad. Drinks in a bag? Sure! Wait, what am I talking about? ADHD much? You betcha!
"maybe all that you want to be is all that you have to be" - maybe the disco buscuits said it best?
No comments:
Post a Comment