actually, everything is possible

greetings from orcha!

i'm sitting in our hotel lobby providing afternoon tea for the mosquitoes and hoping that i wont get malaria and thus this posting will be worthwhile from at least one vantage point! my plan was to post pictures in some format to go along with this post, but both flickr and facebook are refusing to let me in, so i'll have to try that the next time i'm near wifi (which is not as frequent as i'd imagined)

preliminaries: sorry that i'm not capitalizing this properly (or bothering with grammar), i'm still getting used to this netbook keyboard and using the shift key more often than not results in caps lock! i will make it a goal to make my writing less annoying!

where i'm at/have been:

i'm on a GAP tour from delhi to kathmandu right now and it's been a bit of a whirlwind -- safe to say there is NO possible way that i could travel the country with such efficiency without a guide -- nothing is especially clear and everything is a chaotic! we started in delhi (after a smooth flight that spat out my luggage at the end) and have already been to jaipur and agra (home of the taj mahal)... today we are in orcha, a small village in madhya pradesh (check the link above). we're staying in these 'tents' which are outdoor tent/hut things on the compound of a pretty posh resort.... it's really very peculiar... we have a tv and outhouse-ish shower/toilets inside of our rooms as well as air con and a fridge? we're about to go to a prayer ceremony which i will be woefully underdressed for followed by a contextually inappropriate party among the members of our tour (we had out tuk tuk stop at a 'liquor store' (ie a barred up shack) on our way into the village... i know, i know!)

highlights:

the taj mahal lived up to its billing -- even in the wake of a dicey GI day in my world.  we were there for about 2.5 hours and it literally flew by.  the thing that was most amazing is that although there were tons of people there, it managed to maintain an air of serenity.  you can sit and walk around and feel utterly enchanted by the awesomeness of the building, to the exclusion of all of the people milling around you.  they give foreigners these red 'shower caps for your feet' to use when you walk in the actually structure but i couldnt resist walking with the cool marble against my feet.  the building is truly a wonder and got me wondering: what kind of person conceives of and builds something like this? how did he treat mumtaz when she was alive? how must it have been to be imprisoned by one's son for years and looking out across the lake at the taj mahal?

impressions:

since people had cautioned me about streets flowing with excrement, i have found india much less overwhelming than i might have.  the traffic is chaotic, the streets are dirty and the air smells a mix of burning something (garbage? diesel?) and waste (cow? human?)
[insert night of drinking and a lack of certainty about what current GI problems relate to, nevertheless, back at it in the lobby]

cont'd:
what is far more overwhelming than the surroundings is the condition of some of the people i am seeing.  there are no shortage of beggars or people trying to hawk souvenir products.  while most of the people begging look alright, there are those who look badly deformed or obviously quite ill. guidebooks and people will tell you not to start handing cash out on the road because the line will not ever end, cannot ever end.  one of my travel mates has even suggested that it is dangerous to show that level of vulnerability while out on the streets and i can see where that comes from.  but then it seems that the goal must be to ignore the suffering of all of these people and carry on with your holiday? i cant seem to reconcile this type of goal with being human. in fact, i'm not sure how to reconcile the situation with myself at all quite yet.  rest assured this is not the last you'll hear of it.

on a lighter note:
some of you have asked me what i've forgotten/missed... here goes!
i forgot my beloved q tips --- and i am only somewhat ashamed to say that they have appeared to me in at least one dream since arriving -- ear hygiene is important!!!
i also forgot one of 3 t shirts that i planned to bring with the hopes of just buying all my clothes in india (that plan hasnt worked so far yet, lots of tourist clothes, not actual tasteful indian ones) ... jess helped me out in a jam and gave me an emergency one, but when i got here i realized that it says "DAM U"!!! -- in a land where you cant show skin, i've elected not to wear the expletive t shirt :) (but i appreciate the sentiment, jess :))
finally, i have managed to lose a whole host of items over the past 7 days, for reasons that i am yet to determine but given the scant number of things i've packed, is causing increasing concern. i lost a strap to my main backpack at the airport, nail clippers in jaipur and then i left my pjs in the hotel in agra (and so now the DAM U shirt has found a purpose!)

where next?
tonight we are taking the night train to varanasiinternet, there might be two postings in quick succession (i know, exciting! ;))

ps - click the heading to go to pictures (i think)

up up and away!

In preparation for this trip, I read a lot of books about India.  The one exception is the book that I am finishing on the eve of my departure, Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski.  It’s a great read and since I’ve already bored many of you with the details, I’ll spare you (you’re welcome).  Let’s just say that if you are inclined to wanderlust, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Over the past months as I’ve shared my most recent scheme, many people have asked me, ‘why!?!’ often followed by ‘why India!?!’  Honestly, I don’t exactly know why India.  For a long time something in my heart has drawn me there and finally my mind has caught up.  Maybe by the end of this chapter of my blog, I’ll be able to answer the question.

As to the former question, a passage in Mr. Kapuscinski’s book gave me a suggestion for a possible root of my nagging desire to get out and see what everyone else is doing:
“Herodotus was therefore a Greek Carian, an ethnic half-breed.  Such people who grow up amid different cultures, as a blend of different bloodlines, have their worldview determined by such concepts as border, distance, difference, diversity.  We encounter the widest array of human types among them, from fanatical, fierce sectarians, to passive, apathetic provincials, to open, receptive wanderers – citizens of the world.“
For me, there is some magic to the idea of long-held traditions, the cohesiveness of culture.  But it is the fact that we all have these things, ours by accident of our birth that make the last words of this passage resonate with me.  Citizenship of the world compels me to see it, but also to involve myself in it… so that’s how I end up t-1 days from 4.5 months of seeing (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka?) and being and 1.5 months of doing (South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre).

First stop? Delhi!!!

Thank you everyone, for a most lovely send off!

(For those of you who are already penning a cheeky comment, go ‘head, I can take it! That said, I promise that my entries will get more entertaining when they are not being written from my go transit mobile office ;))

 

kindle test

checking to see whether my extra slow kindle will allow me to post, fingers crossed!

great massages and other lao wonders

hello hello,

time has most certainly been moving quickly these days -- leaving aside the fact that i've been delinquent in maintaining this blog thus losing much of my potential readership and ensuring that i will forget many of the details of the past six months -- i am trying to make some amends

because i have fallen in love with at least one aspect of the law (the affinity for lists) this entry will be relatively concise...

today during what was potentially the best massage of my life i got to reflecting upon my time in Lao and how it has changed (and not changed me) ... to summarize:

changed:

1. danger certainly has a new meaning -- in this country i have driven a motor bike daily, jumped out of tree houses on unsupervised ziplines over the forest canopy and taken a speed boat that the rough guide considers 'life risking'

2. language -- broken english has become one of my vices (add that to shortening my words and i'm virtually incomprehensible)

3. patience- - this blog may not make it seem like it, but i'm definitely more patient than before -- case in point: when someone almost hits me on the road these days i just laugh.. no yelling, no cussing, just laughing (this might also fall under danger, come to think of it)

4. sticky rice -- i knew i loved it before i ate it, and i will miss it

5. humility -- dont get me wrong, i still think i'm right about most things -- but my job has also taught me that on a fair amount of subjects, i dont have a clue

unchanged:

1. i still cant look someone in the eye who is picking their ear with a key and also maintaining a conversation with me

2. i still cant stop laughing when they try to crack every bone in your body during massages (even during the excellent ones)

3. i love me some bread and yoghurt -- never caught on to that noodle soup all the time thing

4. my wit-- assuming you agree with me that i once possessed some, being around people from around the world who do not find me funny has not stopped the wise cracks (ps, i wouldnt say that now is the time for a crack about how people at home are also not amused -- let me have it, at least till i get back!)

On that note, I'm going to go to bed -- t-9 days left of work and counting. Rest assured that a 'serious' entry is on its way!

much love,

c

why sometimes i can see a tim hortons mirage in the distance...

hello and happy new year!!

I'm sorry to not have been updating this blog properly -- owing to 1 part laziness, 1 part nothing really happens out here on a regular basis and 1 part a suspicion that no one really reads this! (hahaha, that is not accusatory, i only read it because i write it)

However, some of you have taken note of this and mentioned it to me in recent months.... and finally, i have a new story to tell -- a story of working for free in a country... but being ineligible for a proper visa...

now speaking of visas... although i am working here for months the government has refused me a proper visa --- i probably have told you that i have to go to Thailand every month and get a new tourist visa to stay here -- in the interim, i'm stuck in Lao!!! in addition to being terribly annoying ... they also insist on taking a new page in my passport to put a visa on and i've had to give them all 6 of my travel photos... but i begin to digress...

which leads me to yesterday: most recently i got a courtesy visa that didnt cost the usual $42 usd ... i was told i could extend it from here in Vientiane and couldnt leave the country until i go home to Canada.... fine... then on wednesday they say, we need a picture of you (i wonder, where the f are they keeping the other 6 pictures that they already have of me???!!) ...fine, i go and get them.... then yesterday they say 'we cant extend your visa from in Vientiane' -- so that means that I have to go to the border .... as we pull up to it around 4:30 i think to myself, this might be the last time i come to this border, then i think, maybe the last time in my entire life... i ask myself -- do i feel sad? i laugh, the answer is no. i suspect keysonne (the leader of the Lao revolution) heard me from beyond his grave....

i get my passport stamped to leave the Lao -- i only have 2 pages in the book and before can say anything (assuming it would have been understood) the damn woman stamps one of them... i cross the border into Thailand and come back to Lao... i go to get a new visa and they say they cant give me one because my passport is full... i show them the blank page --- apparently its the observations page that can only be filled by my government... (who knows that???) anyway i say, but i live in Vientiane, i work there, cant you just put it over an old Lao visa then? (there are, afterall, 4 in my passport already) --- i cant exactly go to my embassy in Bangkok right now... the dude says he cant help -- i'm incensed -- it was the knobs at his border control who took the last valid page of my passport to begin with!!!

i tried calling my boss and the assistant here -- but they wouldnt answer their phones.... this was remarkable because everyone answers their cell phone in every situation here... anger = rising... i then called a friend to send me the number of our embassy.... i cant tell you i was happy just then, i cannot. finally i got ahold of our assistant who spoke to the customs dude to no avail, she managed to get ahold of my boss who spoke to him for a long time and also with our project driver (who had the misfortune of waiting for me) and finally they gave me this special insert visa and let me go -- but its only good for 30 days!!!

that means i have to try and get a Canadian passport from Bangkok in a month! here are the ways that is difficult:
1. no one here has known me for 2 years
2. no one here has that damn stamp we need to put on the back of our photos
3. i need to send my passport and drivers licence to Bangkok, so i'll have no id and i'm flying domestically twice next month!!!
4. my citizenship card is at home -- so I need someone to go to a customs office and have them fax it to Bangkok
5. it takes 3 weeks to process and by monday i'll have expended half of my week of buffer period......

to summarize:

cost to leave Lao: 4000 kip
cost of shuttle bus accross bridge: 4000 kip
cost of shuttle bus back to Lao: 20 Bhat
Lao visa: 42USD
Canadian passport: 105 USD
someone at Australian Embassy to certify my existence: 49 USD
picture of my self with stamp (if this manifests itself): 40,000 kip
express mail to thailand: 20 USD
staying in Lao 2 more months: priceless????? (i wont tell you what i think the answer to that question is)

please note: if i end up living on the bridge between Thailand and Lao like that dude in the Tom Hank's movie who had to live in an airport -- i expect that you use the above information to save me!!!

at least i cant say this week hasnt been interesting, hey?

with any luck, i'll see you guys soon!

c