18/01/2014_Thailand

I have now met up with my traveling companion for the next four months. It is our fourth night in Thailand, and so far things have been relatively uneventful. Thailand is not as I remembered nor as I expected. This could be a result of where we are, but we have both found it a bit disconcerting how one) we have seen more western tourists than locals, and two) the locals that we have encountered seem anything but their “land of smiles” title claims them to be. I think I would be a bit embittered too, however, if I watched as an endless stream of tourists came into my home area and essentially trampled over my culture. I think this is especially prominent in southern Thailand where people primarily come to party…it has, sadly, reminded me a great deal of places like Cancun, Mexico where the bad in both cultures predominates.

It is absolutely beautiful here, though we have yet to make our way to the beaches. Our first night was spent in Krabi Town at the Nature View Hotel near to the river. Catching a bus from the airport was easy and cheap, though we were a bit confused where we were when we were told to get off the bus. It was hot and humid, but our hotel was within walking distance, so we sweated our way through the streets and made it to our destination without too much difficulty. Within half an hour of being there, however, we heard screams and a lot of commotion coming from outside of our room. Turns out, several monkeys had made their way into the hotel to raid the garbage (a rather easy task as it was open to the outdoors), and scratched one of the other guests. We think she must have screamed when she saw the monkey reaching for her coffee and scared it, which is what caused the scratch. Ironic how after nearly four months of fearing the monkey’s in Nepal, the first night in Thailand this happens. Still, it helped convince Ben that my fears are rational and now we both carry around bamboo sticks to help fight off any potential monkey bites.

 After settling into our itty-bitty room and showering, we headed out for a meal. We ended up at a rather fancy restaurant which wouldn’t have been our first pick, but upon stopping to look at the menu we were accosted by a herd of wait-staff and were guilted into stopping there. It was a nice meal – we both had pad thai (I had shrimp, Ben the squid), minus the waitress who stayed about 10 feet from our table at all times to make sure we didn’t need anything. Being the only customers in the restaurant, we felt rather uncomfortable by this, but it was easy to get lost in the scenery and flavors of Thailand. Afterwards, we grabbed some beers from a local shop and sat by the river laughing at the crab claws waving around from the dirt trying to catch their dinners. Ben and I then walked around the town, wandering through food stalls and bustling markets. It was great being able to go out at night for a change, something as a single female in a foreign country, I didn’t feel was safe to do while in Nepal. Later on, we stopped off at a bar, which, while touristy was a nice spot to stop and have a drink while we caught up with one another. We even befriended the owners son who let us play with his toy cars…at least until he was told to leave us alone. By the time we made it back to our hotel, the owners had left and closed the shutters behind them. We thought we would have to crawl underneath (Ben less sure he would be able to fit), but we decided to try one of our keys which we were relieved to discover, worked.

The next morning we woke up and made our travel arrangements to come to our current location in Khao Sok. This entailed a 350 bhat/ person minivan fee. We were dropped off at some bus station with maybe 50 or so other tourists in transit. Ben grabbed our “tickets” which turned out to be small little stickers with our destination written on them that you were supposed to put on your shirt to alert the various drivers of who was going where. Once it was our turn, we were piled into another minivan in which Ben and I got to sit up front with the driver. He didn’t speak much English, but was friendly, and we enjoyed his company. I made a comment about Ben’s tendency to take Lots of photo’s, so whenever we were coming up to a spot with nice views, the driver would alert us in time for Ben to prepare his camera, and slow down for him to take the shot. Four or five hours later, we arrived in Khao Sok where our driver picked us up at a drop-off point and took us back to the Evergreen House hotel in the jungle. To my surprise, the bug/ animal life has been rather minimal. There is a hoard of monkey’s that seem to pester the local fruit stands on a regular basis, but they don’t seem too bothered by people, and tonight we discovered giant gecko’s on the ceilings of the outdoor seating area which serves as the restaurant/ access point for the internet and tour arrangements. 

08/01/2015

As I was reading over my last entry, I was reminded of my Chinese roommates in England. At one point, they made a comment about how “shopping” was considered their sport of choice. While it is of course not a sport, I think in a lot of these cultures, it is a bit of an event. In the US (or “America” as they know it here), we shop to either accumulate excessive quantities of “stuff,” or out of necessity. I think here, any time you buy just about anything, it is a way to engage with your community. You don’t really just select something and buy it, you shop around, look at various items, inquire where they came from and how they were made or grown (if buying fruits/ vegetables), and in the process, you get to know the shop owners and build relationships so that the next time you go there, you can ask about their family or whatever else there is to talk about. Especially around the more populated areas, I don’t think there is really a lot for people to do. It is pretty remarkable how many people are just sitting around in the streets hour after hour, day after day. I couldn’t do it, I mean, what is there to even talk about for that amount of time? I guess it’s not surprising that more gossiping tends to occur in these cultures. I don’t think it as bad here as what I found in Mexico where, at least the females, seemed to thrive off of drama and juicy gossip details, and to be fair, I’m not even sure it goes on here much at all. I don’t feel the same kind of judgment I’ve felt around Latinas or Middle Easterners. I’ve certainly endured the frequent stare, but I get the impression that it is more out of curiosity or even confusion – the whole single female thing seems to trigger this.

Well, thanks to a giant knot in my shoulder/ neck area that has been causing me a great deal of pain over the past week (which I largely blame on the stone-esque pillows), I am lying flat on my back (no pillow!), with my laptop on my chest and tilted towards my face as I use one hand to type. That being said, this is taking a bit more effort than it is probably worth so, I’m signing out for the night. Au revoir 

03/01/2015

I’m guessing that now that the tourist season is officially over, perks such as internet access are no longer considered a priority. In the past 36 hours, I am pretty sure I have only been able to connect for about four of those 36 hours…even now, I am working in MS Word so that I can stay up-to-date on my entries, and will transfer this over when, and IF, the internet ever comes back on.  This lack of connectivity could also have something to do with the very rainy weather we have been experiencing the past two days, that also seemed to hold off until the remaining tourists had made their way back to their respective countries…leaving me rather isolated and having to, once again, repress my feelings of angst towards the NGO that had promised me work while here. What a completely different experience this would have been had that worked out, and what a shame that it didn’t. Still, I do my best to remain positive and try to make light of the situation…sometimes more successfully than others.

I am now sitting in my room, wrapped up in blankets, listening to the rain fall outside, mixed in with the occasional singing by the construction workers next door building yet Another hotel. Never in my life have I seen so many hotels in one location…it’s even worse than the Starbucks back in the States! I was speaking with a shop owner the other day who grew up in Pokhara. He reminisced about how you used to be able to look down on the valley from atop a nearby hill and see forests and never ending trees. Now, all you see are buildings. He noted how the pollution is a lot worse, too, and seemed to wish for some way to stop this incessant growth…but how? It is a very popular tourist destination, meaning, in a country where I believe something like 70% of their economy relies on tourism, it is a very attractive spot for locals to come in an effort to make money.

I watched a documentary not too long ago about the tourist industry in Thailand. At one of the hotels, there was a reported 7 staff members for every guest…which made for great customer service, but poor income potential. I suspect the same is true for here. The streets are lined with one shop after another, after another, all selling the same stuff. And I can’t imagine that the hotel industry would be able to generate much of a profit…there are just too many of them! This will only get worse, too, as it looks as though they will be building an international airport in Pokhara in the not too distant future. That’s the thing about humans…we seem to destroy the very things that we love just so we can all get a piece of the pie. I really do think that humans are the cancer of this world. We are devouring this world, our resources, cutting into the landscape to cater to our growing demands. It’s ugly, and I wish there were some way to make it stop.

In other news…it was interesting living with a family who was privy to the upper echelons of society. Both here and in Lebanon, I felt like I had fallen into a time capsule and taken back to an era where women’s main role was to support that of the man and home, with the hobby of endless socialization. I am pretty sure 90% of their time was spent attending social gatherings, and being seen at all of the “happening” scenes. In Lebanon, I had about 3 teas a day, all at different homes of friends and family. Here, however, the two events I was invited to were 1) a traditional cultural Russian music performance (which I am still trying to figure out as half of the songs were sung in Spanish – I appeared to be the only one to catch on to this, and wondered what the Prime Minister, who was also in the audience, would have thought if he had known what was going on), and 2) the opening of a new North Face store. You would not believe how many cameras were there, and I am pretty sure the Sherpa’s (the family I was living with) knew everyone in attendance. We were served latte’s and/or sushi, and spent several hours walking around socializing while looking at merchandise in a shop, nice as it was, that was probably only 20m x 20m. I do believe appearances are important over here, but I also feel a lot of it is just a façade. Sort of like when the SAARC conference was to take place, and about a week before the representatives from the various countries arrived, the “beautification” process began. Trees and flowers were planted, grass watered, trash picked up, fences painted, new street lights installed, all with the understanding by the locals that as soon as the SAARC conference was over, all of these repairs would be neglected, and the city would return to its previous state of disrepair. I noticed this, too, as whenever the Sherpa’s would take me out, we would always go to fancy restaurants, or if I was tagging along on errands for whatever reason, I would be invited into the more showy places – for example, a jewelry shop that specialized in gold artifacts made by hand on site – but encouraged to wait in the car whenever we seemed to visit the…”less promising” places. While I did find it fascinating to watch gold being melted, poured, beaten, and buffed into bracelets (I was probably the only one in the place who was more interested in the process than the actual product), I would have been equally as interested in tagging along to the hole-in-the-wall shop that was fixing a light fixture. But, I was under the distinct impression that maintaining an image of affluence was of greater importance to them, so I went along with it as I can assure you, I have had a fair number of encounters with the less glamorous parts of Nepal. 

30/12/2014

The day before New Years Eve. From my understanding, this has become one of the biggest holidays in Nepal...and in particular, in Pokhara. The population here is about 250,000. They estimate that there will be around 500,000 people here during this time. The main street has been all but completely shut-off to motor vehicles, and instead replaced by endless tables piled high with "discounted" merchandise (mainly athletic ware as the primary shoppers are now locals from the surrounding hills all flocking to this area to stock up on merchandise for the cold winter months...or so we have ascertained).
Yesterday, during our 6 hour power outage, I made my way to the lake where I spent several hours sitting on the stone wall, watching the boats and para-gliders, reading my book, telling a toothless old man that I was not, in fact, interested in his left-over hash, and chatting with a Tibetan woman who started by trying to sell me handicrafts but then, upon being told that I had no money, decided that she would sit with me and describe her various ailments until another prospective customer came along. She was rather crass, I think she even referred to the Chinese as "the bull shit Chinese," which took me quite by surprise, and would stick her tongue out to indicate a joke had just been made, but I liked her and enjoyed our brief interaction.
One thing I think I am growing to like about being here, is the inevitable treasure hunt-esque shopping experience whenever you need to buy something. Each shop specializes in something different, and there are slight variations in what each theme of shop offers. For example, when I first got here, I bought biscuits, peanut butter, sugar, tea, a cup, oranges, and an electric water heater. That entailed going to about 10 different shops for 7 different items. It is a nice way to interact with the locals, who always seem friendly and willing to help. The problem I found in Kathmandu, is that when you are not out spending money, you become very isolated. Part of that, in my situation at least, was simply that unless I absolutely needed something, I didn't really care to go out of the house. The home where I was living, was considerably nicer than anywhere I could have made it to on my budget, and while I normally don't mind walking an hour or more, it is pretty unpleasant when you have to wear a face mask that gets hot and sweaty, and don't see much more than the occasional decapitated goat or shrine intertwined among the buildings.
Well, after waking up with a pinched nerve in my shoulder, that was only exasperated by spending the day kayaking around lake Phewa, I think I have to retire for the evening and "do" something that doesn't require movement.
   

28/12/2014

Once my mom starts to push me to engage more with social media venues, I know it is time to get with it and jump on that band-wagon. So, here I am...my first blog.

It's difficult to know where to begin as I have now been in Nepal for nearly 3 months. I am certainly not going to even humour the idea of re-capping this entire time, at least not in any significant detail, as the thought of extending my commitment to working on my computer is a thought I find unbearable. Between the load shedding, a.k.a. power outages, for at least 9 hours out of the day, in addition to the unreliable internet connection, and dealing with a computer screen that will periodically turn half-black, I exhaust my patience for anything electronically related on a daily basis.
Instead, I have found myself often longingly gazing at those working in their fields or guiding their water buffalo down the streets, wishing that were me. Had I stayed in Kathmandu, I think I would have abandoned the 'civilized world' (and yes, I use that term rather generously), to try and work in the small farm behind where I was living. Every morning, I would watch the cows ushered out of the barn (again, a generous term given the wood posts precariously held upright with a tin roof secured by large rocks, and a tarp covering the entrance), an old bathtub filled with water for the cows to drink as they stood bound in place by a rope threaded through their nose which was then attached to a nearby post, and both the women and men working their vegetable plots. I am sure I have managed to conjure a romantic image in my mind of returning to the simpler times, but I still feel that is the Nepal I want to get to know. Not the westernised, or even affluent Nepal, which I will not deny being infinitely grateful for initially...especially going several days with the fear that I would find myself homeless on the streets of Kathmandu, but that is a story for another time. Once I settled in, however, had a place to live, learned how to cross the streets, shop for food, and communicate on a very basic level, I didn't want to be an outsider looking in. I wanted to understand and get to know the culture and the people on an intimate level.
This is now my 5th time to Nepal, and I will say that this experience has giving me a better understanding of the area, and I am proud to say that I have managed to pick up on a decent amount of Nepali since being here. That's not to say I have mastered the pronunciation, but I can at least occasionally convey my message, and with a bit of imagination on the part of the other, even be understood. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges I have been confronted with that has taken me a bit by surprise after having lived in five different countries on three different continents, is how lonely I have felt since being here. It's not that I haven't met or interacted with a variety of people during this time, and I am sure it would have been infinitely better if things had worked out with the NGO I was supposed to be involved with while here, but at the same time, there is this pressing void lingering in the background that makes me yearn for the company of my family and loved ones. I spoke with a friend of mine who is living in Kuala Lumpur -- he's Haitian/ German -- and he said it's been the same for him, as well. I suppose a lot of it comes down the complete lack of familiarity...with anything. A completely different language, culture, lifestyle. Heck, even the vegetables and fruits look different here! Half the time I didn't even know what I was buying or cooking with in Kathmandu, and sometimes this turned out more successfully than others.  I don't regret coming here, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone again nearly 5 months from now. Wow, that is a long time. Especially considering I didn't even know how long I would be gone for when I left. I figured at least 1-3 months, but the side-project I was working on started to take shape, and now, well, I will be gone from the States for a total of 7 1/2 months. Funny to think that over the past four years, I have spent essentially two years outside of the US. But again, I think this experience has provided bigger and more obstacles to overcome. In theory, this will be a good thing.