American Fried Rice: Burma

This week, I missed two days of school to judge an English competition, where adorable 10 year olds retold such stories as "The 3 little pigs" and then drew inspiring morals from them. Wednesday, we had a, well, I can call it a big celebration at school of foreign languages, where the kids baked Chinese and American food, and has the foreigners try some to test the authenticity. One of those dishes was "American Fried Rice." I was not quite sure how to judge a dish I'd never had and behold, there's a history; a teacher's sister, who runs a Thai restaurant in Canada, said it was invented in Thailand to feed American soldiers during the Vietnam war. Who would have thought?
Thursday I taught, and on Friday I took a long journey to Ranong to cross into Burma to get my visa renewed (so I taught 1/5 days this week, which is not atypical). I was told not to take pictures soon after the boat ride, but I got a few good ones in

(Also I tried to clean my camera lens and just made things worse, darn):

Books: Reading Capital slowly, started A Feast for Crows, been a long time since I picked up the series but after I refresh on the characters I just know I'll be burning through it again.

Music: So Chika and Mike D. recently made excellent recommendations, Chika The Weeknd and Mike The Microphones. The Weeknd is R+B so hedonistic it borders on evil; one reviewer said of "Loft Music" that it makes you feel unclean just to put it on. Yeah. And The Microphones: Wow. The Glow Pt. 2 is elegant gentle, and a little heartbreaking, words I don't normally associate with lo-fi, somewhere between virtuosic folk and rock; there a name for the genre? Elliot Smith music, Bon Iver on Skinny Love, Radiohead on No Surprises. Also listening to Bjork's Homogenic, which is pleasantly orchestral and a good running album, and Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury; If I'm going to like Southern cocaine rap, it's going to be this album. Joints like Ride Around Shining are so NOT trying to be a pleasant, easy-listen, which is a lot of what I don't like about gangsta rap: the abrasive lyrics against music no more difficult than George Michael. It makes the whole thing seem unreal, like a childish fantasy (I'm thinking of Rick Ross, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, the Kanye crew who fashion themselves street, which Kanye is self-aware enough not to). Clipse, by contrast, make genuinely menacing and unglorified music, even if the lyrics are aggressive and rude in their own way. I suppose I should clarify that I'm really praising the Neptunes, who do what they do every bit as well as the RZA in his 36 chambers-Supreme Clientele peak.

So two beautiful albums, and two evil. I try to keep a nice balance. Also, Madvillian, Good lord is that talent. I honestly have trouble believing the density of some of Doom's rhymes.

How did people apply to jobs abroad before the internet?

I mean long distance phone calls could help but how would you even find out about positions? On a related note, I'm working on arranging my return to the States in 2012, listening to Ravel, trying to slog through Capital, and here are some pictures of Singapore: I'd have to live to be 123 to have another birthday date as good as the one that just passed. We had a little farang+friends dinner and checked out some new bar where a Thai band sang me happy birthday and then talked to me in Thai for like 5 minutes while I looked at them.

Pictures:

Technology is cool, here are photos from my time in Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Vientiane, Kuala Lumpur and Khao Lak.

Click on the little text icon in the bottom left for captions. At this point, I see no need for facebook. Also they're increasingly invasive, and I know google is too, but I trust google's benignity more. That's a delightful word whose pronunciation is anybody's guess.

These past few weeks I've been reading reading reading and biking. A few weeks back I read Crime and Punishment and On Beauty. I liked C&P, but I liked it more in 10th grade, when I told my own story in more tragic, romantic terms, so Sonya and Raskalnikov made more sense to me. On Beauty was amazing. Highly recommended: her dialogue is A+. I then read a bunch of the Dresden Files which are about a detective who is a magician and it just goes right to the dopamine for me, has for like 10 years. Also, a great piece called "Beyond Gay Marriage" questioning whether gay marriage is really good for queer people/society. It's a great read if you're into pol/queer theory.

Recent History

As a map, my past month looks like this. As an Itinerary:
September 17th: fly from Phuket to Chiang Mai.
September 21st: bus to Chiang Rai.
September 24th: fly to Bangkok.
September 25th: train to the Cambodia border, taxi to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat.
September 29th: bus to Phnom Penh.
October 4th: Bus to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon.
October 7th: fly to Hanoi.
October 10th: fly to Vientiane.
October 15th: bus to Udon Thani/fly to Phuket/bus home next day.

Now HERE is where I want to post the beautiful pictures I took. Que mala suerte then that my memory card failed in Cambodia and I only have photos from HCM onwards. If any are good I'll post them later. So words will have to work. All I know is what the words know, yeah?

Part 1: Thailand

I had come back from Singapore - the whole city so carefully colored in the lines- on 9/14, and I spent the next few days getting my life together so I could depart in peace. Stayed up all night and took a 6:00 bus to Phuket on the 17th, that afternoon I was in Chiang Mai. I walked with a PiA fellow there who is working with a rock climbing group and the rest I covered previously.

Chiang Rai. I found Mike -my first ITBF, In-Transit-Best Friend- who showed me around town, and we ate with the PiA crew/their friends. Chiang Rai struck me with how much it resembled the rest of Thailand. I worry for this country. Sometimes it seems like the whole thing will fall to endless sprawl, which apparently exacerbated recent floods. Nonetheless it was nice to get a flavor of different PiA life. The boys up there have a good dynamic and Mike in particular is making great progress with Thai. Turns out, Thai universities aren't so different from Thai high schools, at least, the kids are similar, carefree until they fail and then worried about their futures.

While there I visited the White Temple, which, in a country that is remarkably architecturally conservative, stands out. It really is as bizare as these pictures from the internet imply. The artist, Kositpipat, has a vision and he certainly carries it out, so the outside is covered in dragons and mermaids and intimidating white statues and the dude from Predator, while the inside is a mural of pop culture images, keanu reeves and superman and Doreamon flying around the burning twin towers. I found it somewhat upsetting. The whole thing seemed very profane to me. That day I finished Blood Meridian , which also left me feeling a bit sick and confused. It was an astounding book though. I have been thinking about the War is God passage a lot in the past few weeks. "As well ask men what they think of stone." I next went to the Golden Triangle, from which you can see Burma and Laos simultaneously over the Mekong, drank with the fellows and headed to Cambodia.

I had one night in Bangkok before a 6:00 a.m. train. I wrote:
"2:45 a.m. 9/25: Now this is definitely the most interesting thing I've seen so far. Hualamphong Plaza, hard floors and lights on, 75-100 people sleeping, some dirty, some on mats, smoking, monks, some sitting awake in silence, travelers, saying hello to me, asking if I am ok. I am wearing a pink Chang V-neck, Nike Shorts and the adventure shoes, leaning on my backpack propped against a column. A group of men plays and observes a checkers game with bottlecap pieces, a toddler in braids an ornate dress crawling among. The man nearest me, 30s, tattooed skeletal, twitches over cigarettes. Little one cries, why is she awake? It is 3 hours until my train, an alarm set for when sleep comes, but I'm traveling alone, so I can plan 12 hours in a city, 4 in dumb movies, and none in a hotel room, brush my teeth in a mall bathroom. Lives in bags, towels as blankets, bare feet on an older woman with a bandana in her hair, tired and careword are indistinguishable. Trash and dust along the edges, Singapore this is not. Thai guy in a skullcap with an older European, a vivid story, two inscrutable women track their steps. I can smell the ink and hear the checkers man drink."

I took a train to Cambodia, beautiful rice paddies endless on the way, and thus ends the Thailand chapter.

Part 2: Cambodia

At the border, everyone was trying to extract money from the foreigners, but an American expat nurse who had done the crossing before gave some guidance, and soon thereafter, she, I a Dutch fellow and a Spaniard were sharing a taxi. The Europeans could speak in French, I could speak Spanish with one and English with the other, and by the time we got to Siem Reap, we were moving together, sharing a hotel room in a hostel recommended to Carlos, de Espana.Rafael, of Holland, was sick, Carlos was on his own ,so I went to Angkor wat that first day on a tuk-tuk , that thing I'm so glad Phang Nga does not have, and took pictures. It was fine. People describe seeing the giant temples as life-changing but they were just nice. I thought a lot about impermanence and grandiosity that day.
Tuesday rained, I sat in the hostel and ate and read War and Peace. Wednesday, biked Angkor Wat with Carlos, drank with Norwegians there to study ecotourism but really just abroad for the same reasons we all went, I miss the Onion being free, but they believe what they wrote.

Onwards to Phnom Penh. I met Micah, who became my second ITBF, and Kristen, and walked in on their lives, sleeping in their living room, pursuing what they pursued. Phnom Penh is a tough city, dirty and loud and a clear-overabundance of Tuk-Tuks and mototaxis, meaningful work not forthcoming. Kristen and I went to the torture museum , appropriately emotionally exploitative and disturbing. Cambodia is 50% 22 or younger, and people older than my parents were essentially impossible to find in the capital, but other than that, the genocide is a somewhat silent presence. The PiA+friends crew is about ten in number and tight, just the kind of friend group I've cherished(coveted) since, what, 2006? that's not so long. I got to choose the initial movie for their Film Club, so we watched Bad Education. I bought a set of 18 of Almodovar's movies for $3, I'm going to watch them all this year.

Life of reading and running, group dinners and frisbee, you were mine once, summer 2009, you are Micah's now, and I went on to Ho Chi Minh.

Part 3: Vietnam
Traveling, everyone wants to be friends- Carlos Rafael and I moved together- so on that bus to Vietnam, I spoke to an American girl from Seattle and two guys from England, all 2011 graduates, and soon the four of us were a traveling pack, sharing two rooms in a hostel, drinking and touristing. HCM wasn't my cup of tea. We went to the War Remnants Musuem and learned why war/America is bad, the presidential palace, a cathedral, some markets, and the tunnels the VC used to stay underneath American bombs, and nothing grabbed me. I was tired. It was the nights that counted, meeting up with an Israeli girl and Portugese dude with whom we had seen the tunnels , introducing myself to some guy who I recognized from the War Remnants Museum (6' goth dudes stand out in Vietnam), hopping with him and his Minnesotan traveling friend who had nannied in Germany, it blurred, and I flew to Hanoi, said goodbye to the three, exchanged emails.

Didn't like Hanoi so much. Another wild, somewhat irrational city, But the Museum of Fine Arts was beautiful and a refuge after weeks of moving too fast. Did I? I thought I wanted to see everything and I did want that! but it took a toll; I needed to schedule in a day of rest. Like Valelly said, you only understand the opportunity costs in retrospect, how could I have known? I lived the local PiA drama for an evening and talked to Europeans who work in banks. I walked around the crowded alleys of the old quarter and over West to the museums and open streets, breathed and realized it was time to move on again, so booked a flight to Vientiane.

Part 4: Vientiane . The first place that was calm, where people just want to be nice since Thailand. Mike, my third ITBF- Mike Mike and Micah, thank you thank you, you made my trip- picked me up and we spoke: he went to his evening classes and I went to read along the Mekong, for which Mike's picture is perfect. Dinner with the fellows, and I spent my days reading in cafes, finished War and Peace, over-descriptive and wonderful thing that it was, and wrote all day. The dust got in my throat and I was ill, like Mike has been, and it didn't matter, all we had to do was sit and look out at the water. Charlotte incorporated me into a lesson about maps- how Bangkok and Phang Nga look the same but are different, maps show some things but hide others. How wonderful it would be to teach in such a supportive teaching environment as theirs! Former professors at Swarthmore seem to like it as well. Perhaps someday.

Vientiane was my favorite place to visit, the one I could most picture relocating to. I could lead a full exterior life there. Reading is my focus here. I realized that while traveling. I'm not precisely sure when. It was perhaps when Charlotte said "maybe learning Thai just isn't that important to you." It is, and it isn't, I want to be functional, but my heart is in books right now.

It was quite a trip. I need to digest more of it to have any analysis. Now I want to talk about Art.

After W+P I opted for something light, twenty thousand leagues under the sea; I got back and Michelle gave me the Chronology of Water, which was pretty great, maybe the best memoir I've ever read. I'm thinking of Oates's A Widow's Story and perhaps Nothing to Be Frightened of. I've been listening to beautiful music again -i'm still predominantly listening to aggressive rap but hey, I needed music to put to the experience of traveling- enjoying Shostakovich's tenth, My Brightest Diamond, Jens Lekman, this song in particular by the Tallest Man on Earth (the second MBD and 1st Lekman song I"ve linked to are seamless on a playlist). I have an idea for how "ASEAN blur" on piano would but I need to wait to realize it, and the kernel might die by the time I can sit down and hash it out. I can't just dream and write the whole thing, I need to be playing.

I'm going to Malaysia tomorrow because I need to finally get my Non-Immigrant B Visa which has been a hassle of uninspiring details. I have a few days there and will take them leisurely. When I was moving, a month ago, it was always, next stop, utopia, and now, I am watching myself move, I will have calm time someday. It will Follow the Rain.

Traveling alone

I had plans for this year, and for this trip, and in a crucial respect, they're not panning out: I spend a majority of my time alone. I thought this would be a big group trip and we'd all move around Asia together, like DC Swatties and CYDC used to hit Wonderland as a pack. But no one's vacation schedules quite line up so I'm reading at most dinners again.

I'm starting to love it. I'm in Chiang Mai now, and I've been able to spend my 3 full days here precisely as I want to, which basically means zero time in museums. A) On Sunday I rented a bike and hoofed it to Doi Suthep about 10 miles outside the city and a mile up in elevation. It was a tough ride, but the temple and the view were beautiful and cruising down for 10 miles at a 10% gradient passing songthaews and motorcycles was among the most enjoyable and reckless half hours of my life. B) Yesterday I pretended to be a Gibbon by ziplining through the jungle and learning a grand total of zero about natural life, along with some British German and Australian tourists who were super nice. Everybody's nice in settings like that. C) Today I climbed the limestone surrounding the city, some 5as and a 6a before a different 6a was my downfall and we had to plan another route. It was just two climbing dudes and me in the whole site (it was raining on and off, which made things a bit tougher). What a great sport. It's so good to feel at ease in nature, like coming down from the middle path in the crum, running with the wolves. I would have been born well in a different century's hunting party.

Sure company would be nice sometimes, especially around 8:30 p.m. each night, when I feel the urge to inquire something like "excuse me good sir, which way to the bacchanal?" And would I rather have Dan here? Well yes, but that's always true. But there are big upsides to traveling alone. I've recently finished Twain's The Mysterious Stranger and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which were fun, Madame Bovary, which I really enjoyed up to the last 10 pages at which point it got all melodramatic in that way 19th century literature sometimes does, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which was often astoundingly beautiful but went on a few lengthy tangents that didn't do it for me. I just started Blood Meridian, which is hard to read in long sessions.

Perhaps I'll follow this up with a long post about how I'm going to try to make the most of my year here, facing the predicament of being productive in solitude, when no one knows or cares whether you waste the days away watching the Wire (which is mad good) or studying Thai or R. To me, it's high-stakes.

I also just got a letter from the foreign service for an in-person interview next February in D.C. and I am trying to decide on whether to say yes. The idea of a position is frightening. I honestly took the initial exam thinking I would fail but here I am, some rounds in. I'll meditate on it. Good thing then that I'm going to Angkor Wat in a week. First, Chiang Rai. I'm off to Burritos, the second time in 3 days. Forgive me but I've had a lot of Thai food these past few months.

in a rush

somehow the night slipped away from me and a lengthy post about my 4 days in Singapore -which were tight- will have to wait until mid October, which is the next time I can update with pictures. For now, I will say that you should go to Singapore if you get the chance, and this is something like what it looks like, and this.
Now, I'm going to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Cambodia Vietnam and Laos, and I've planned no step beyond my flight at 10:00 a.m. today! Here we go.

2 most excellent developments

1) My visa expires tomorrow so I am taking an unplanned trip to Singapore for the next three days-- SWEET. 2) One of my classes asked to learn about rap so I finally, FINALLY got to incorporate the Wu Tang into a lesson, using the first lines of Protect Ya Neck to demonstrate that rap is rhythmic, often aggressive, full of slang, and that the sounds clip and blend to make it easier to say.

I am writing a 3 month report on my time here now and I will post portions of it when I'm finished.