Thursday, March 17, 2011

ERAWAN BLISS

We walk down the dusty road, pothole marred and lined with vegetation beaten down by the dry season. The village is small, rural and dominated by the monastery and minions of Buddha placed throughout the hills. The bulk of the population seems to be either canine or monk. Near the temple a tree stands by itself, providing shade for the temple guardian, a small monkey who watches over the grounds and fends off evil spirits. In the tree a monkey-house has been constructed to provide sanctuary from either blazing heat or pouring rain. The monkey has the most important job in the village.

We are going to a soccer match. Not to watch, but to start it up. We had acquired a ball during the trip from Bangkok, something to keep ourselves busy and active during various stops along the way for food or toilet breaks. It was now the most shiny, new and fun-creating item in the village. We kicked it along the road as we moved towards the school, attracting stares and interest. Soon the village knew where we were going and word spread like wildfire.

The school is the center of activity and the villagers have gone to great lengths to maintain a quarter sized soccer field out front. Upon arrival we had to jockey for dominance with the local cow herd which had meandered onto the field to help “mow.” Unfortunately they had also left behind steaming bovine paddies which were scattered across the field like land mines. After clearing the mowers we began to kick the ball around and weave between the dangers with tender attention. Many of our players went barefoot, and many a player got a squishy surprise between their toes or slide tackled into a smear of excrement.

The game slowly starts, first only us foreigners (know as Ferangs) were stupid enough to brave the late afternoon heat, but soon the eyes which had tracked us down the road began to materialize into able and excited bodies, ready to get involved in the game. Before long we have a full on soccer match raging, our smallest player coming in at 4 years old and the oldest one probably being myself at 27. People zipping by on scooters or bikerx stop and before long the whole village knows of the crazy Ferangs playing soccer in the heat and cow shit.

The game battles on and we all end sweaty and laughing at our predicaments. I come away bloody from sliding into a gravel patch, my buddy comes away covered in yellow, green cow excrement highlighted by half digested grass fibers and everyone leaves happy.

Erawan National Park is an amazing place, just outside of Kanchanaburi, Thailand it includes a number of impressive cave systems and an incredible multi tiered water fall. We spent a few days basking in sheer Thailand bliss. Food cooked fresh and bursting with flavor and spice good times with the generosity and conditionless compassion of the locals. We bushwhacked through the jungle to the top of a mountain, dodged giant bat-eating cave snakes, fended off mosquitoes and scorpions and helped out our friends with crops and landscaping. We guarded our vitals against marauding thieving monkeys who tried to steal our lunches, mucked through murky swamps that smelt of carcass and re-discovered the elusive “Joe Banky Shit Cave” of IVS lore. Nowhere inundates you more quickly into Thailand than this part of the country. We would be traveling far and wide, into some regions far from comfortable, but as a microcosm, Erawan is the Thai’s Thailand. Village life is largely simple, healthy life. It is an amazing pace of life.

























BRAIN OVERLOAD AND IMPENDING DOOM

Bangkok, Thailand

Sitting looking out my window over the roof-scape of the structures below, I am reminded of youth. I remember distinctly the same view 10 years ago when I was fresh and scared, excited and full of wonder. That view was one of my first in Thailand and was one of my first international moments. Now I look over the same roofs and wonder how I got here? How has this world turned 365 x10 times, 3650 revolutions since I last saw this? What has changed? What is the same? Are the differences going to be within me or within Asia? I think both.

I feel strong. Good. Ready to be in a position of responsibility, ready to approach this job with correctness and draw the distinction between work and vacation. It is interesting to feel comfortable here because frankly I do now know this place well anymore. The last time I was here I was 17, however I do feel able to travel with confidence. Who knew that aimlessly rambling and popping out the other side still alive could be turned into a salable asset, that travel hours logged can make you marketable? I don’t feel confident about Thailand, but I do feel comfortable in Thailand. I feel ready to take it on without crippling nervousness in a position of semi-authority.

This entrée already deserves a borage of knocking on wood. Ultimately writing about my current optimism will of course guarantee hard times to come. That is the way of the world, the world of my luck. I know down the road there will be troubles, hard times, confusing situations and moments when I feel inadequate. Those entrees will also have to be written and when I look back on the rosy writing of today I will surely laugh. Well hopefully.

I love the bright and wide eyes of the students. It is incredible and empowering to see their mentality and outlook change right in front of me. I see connections made, assumptions shattered, questions formed and questions resolved. In many ways it feels like watching a child develop. Never is a brain as busy as when it is subjected to new environments and surroundings. Traveling is literally the fastest way to make new connections within the brain, it is a biological fact that not since infancy when the human brain is truly like a sponge, can the brain develop as rapidly as when abroad and stimulated. There is no other way to learn so much so quickly. The standard and formal paradigms of education fall to the wayside as a traveler begins to learn with all senses at once . No longer is information transmitted solely through words on a page interpreted through eyesight and translated for the brain to process. Instead holistic over-stimulation smashes into the cerebral as sounds, smell, touch, sight, taste and emotion transmit new information simultaneously.

It is excitement. It is the greatest hit. It is what all travelers ultimately come back for. I can watch it in my students and I can feel in brewing within myself. Bring on the confusion!!!!