It's all about the journey (including a poem by K. Kavafis)
November 9th 2009 03:43
:
Poem courtesy of http://paulocoelhoblog.com/
Category: No Category
Ithaca by K. Kavafis
(Ithaca is a Greek island generally identified as the home of Odysseus, whose delayed return to the island is the subject of Homer's the Odyssey.)
As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then this is the meaning of Ithaca.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greetings amigos,
I write from Nong Khai, across the Mekong River from Laos. My plan is to relax and catch up with my online life today. Getting to Nong Khai was quite an experience! After almost a week of lazily lounging around upmarket hotels that my parents were paying for in Bangkok, I decided to recommence my exploration of small Thai towns, and what better way to thrust myself into an authentic travel experience than by travelling as the locals do, on 3rd class trains?
When I got to Hualamphong train station's Platform 11 I noticed that the people there were a bit darker in skin tone than most average Bangkokians, and many of them seemed less well off than your average city-dweller. When the train arrived - grimy, an unpleasant beige colour and not particularly welcoming, I had second thoughts... maybe I should wait for a better class of travel? A mixture of stubbornness and curiosity kept me attached to my seat.
Of course, once the train started I was all over the place; a girl sitting about three seats away from me beckoned to me to come over. I was sure my current travel companions, a shrewd-looking guy in army pants and a guy who turned out to be quite the joker later on in the trip, wouldn't mind if I took my farang self elsewhere temporarily, and so I joined the girl, her female travel companion and a random male youth sitting facing each other and communicating with a bit of jousting.
My new friend was called Chandy. She was a Thai citizen from the paddies who was going to Luang Prabang (Laos). We discovered a shared distaste for Britney Spears, which is really all you need in order to become friends with a person when you can only communicate a few words in their language. Chandy was my new best friend for the ride, hugging me, touching my thigh and telling me that I was good-looking. At the beginning of our communication she wiggled her eyebrow at me, and it took me a bit to figure out that this was not a flirtatious gesture but part of her 'cool' mannerisms. Wearing a jeans jacket and modern attire, Chandy was trying to be a sleek, modern, independent chick - her constant questioning of the guy in the facing seat seemed proof of her edgy, feminist attitude. Unfortunately, she communicated that she considered my lighter skin colour better than hers. I did what she did (tapped my arm and give the thumbs up gesture) in return, letting her know that I considered us of equal beauty. A sad reminder that the Asian inferiority complex is still at large.
I didn't mind the train trip too much - it was a fascinating glimpse into the lives of people I never would have experienced otherwise. People wrapped towels around their heads so that their faces and hair wouldn't get dirty (I wished I had thought of that), leaned on each other as they tried in vain to get some sleep, and were amazingly tolerant of the people who boarded the train at every stop and tried to bug them into buying their food products. There was a stylishly dressed, fake-eyelashed kathoey on the train who ate grapes one by one out of a plastic bag. It was a long journey from 6:30pm to 5am, and all the passengers looked inconvenienced by the lack of sleep and lack of space to stretch out their limbs. There was almost no conversation onboard my carriage, and I was pretty much left alone after I had to reclaim my assigned seat with the middle-aged men.
The thing I liked least about the train was the way that the unsavoury elements were flung upon the passangers due to the cold wind slicing through the windows. The air was cold, and by the end of the journey my teeth were chattering and I had so much dirt on my face and hair that it took me more than an hour to remove it all properly when I finally got to Nong Khai. Next time I'll catch the 2nd class air-con bus... I'm just not a big fan of the metal, dirt and grime that goes with trains. Not to mention the metallic chant of the spokes does nothing for me. It doesn't really feel like a good environment for a human.
Anyway, I'm in Nong Khai now, and I have finally gotten a good night's sleep! I'm staying at the Pantawee Hotel, which has a free computer with internet access in my room! All for 600 baht. I browsed through three wats (temples) yesterday, and today I plan to catch up with my online activities. Tomorrow I hope to see the Sala Kaew Ku, the surreal religious scupture park which is the main attraction here, and certainly the most unique.
I am seeing a lot of dragon statues and images everywhere... and a lot of cats and dogs weaving in and out of them!
(Ithaca is a Greek island generally identified as the home of Odysseus, whose delayed return to the island is the subject of Homer's the Odyssey.)
As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then this is the meaning of Ithaca.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greetings amigos,
I write from Nong Khai, across the Mekong River from Laos. My plan is to relax and catch up with my online life today. Getting to Nong Khai was quite an experience! After almost a week of lazily lounging around upmarket hotels that my parents were paying for in Bangkok, I decided to recommence my exploration of small Thai towns, and what better way to thrust myself into an authentic travel experience than by travelling as the locals do, on 3rd class trains?
When I got to Hualamphong train station's Platform 11 I noticed that the people there were a bit darker in skin tone than most average Bangkokians, and many of them seemed less well off than your average city-dweller. When the train arrived - grimy, an unpleasant beige colour and not particularly welcoming, I had second thoughts... maybe I should wait for a better class of travel? A mixture of stubbornness and curiosity kept me attached to my seat.
Of course, once the train started I was all over the place; a girl sitting about three seats away from me beckoned to me to come over. I was sure my current travel companions, a shrewd-looking guy in army pants and a guy who turned out to be quite the joker later on in the trip, wouldn't mind if I took my farang self elsewhere temporarily, and so I joined the girl, her female travel companion and a random male youth sitting facing each other and communicating with a bit of jousting.
My new friend was called Chandy. She was a Thai citizen from the paddies who was going to Luang Prabang (Laos). We discovered a shared distaste for Britney Spears, which is really all you need in order to become friends with a person when you can only communicate a few words in their language. Chandy was my new best friend for the ride, hugging me, touching my thigh and telling me that I was good-looking. At the beginning of our communication she wiggled her eyebrow at me, and it took me a bit to figure out that this was not a flirtatious gesture but part of her 'cool' mannerisms. Wearing a jeans jacket and modern attire, Chandy was trying to be a sleek, modern, independent chick - her constant questioning of the guy in the facing seat seemed proof of her edgy, feminist attitude. Unfortunately, she communicated that she considered my lighter skin colour better than hers. I did what she did (tapped my arm and give the thumbs up gesture) in return, letting her know that I considered us of equal beauty. A sad reminder that the Asian inferiority complex is still at large.
I didn't mind the train trip too much - it was a fascinating glimpse into the lives of people I never would have experienced otherwise. People wrapped towels around their heads so that their faces and hair wouldn't get dirty (I wished I had thought of that), leaned on each other as they tried in vain to get some sleep, and were amazingly tolerant of the people who boarded the train at every stop and tried to bug them into buying their food products. There was a stylishly dressed, fake-eyelashed kathoey on the train who ate grapes one by one out of a plastic bag. It was a long journey from 6:30pm to 5am, and all the passengers looked inconvenienced by the lack of sleep and lack of space to stretch out their limbs. There was almost no conversation onboard my carriage, and I was pretty much left alone after I had to reclaim my assigned seat with the middle-aged men.
The thing I liked least about the train was the way that the unsavoury elements were flung upon the passangers due to the cold wind slicing through the windows. The air was cold, and by the end of the journey my teeth were chattering and I had so much dirt on my face and hair that it took me more than an hour to remove it all properly when I finally got to Nong Khai. Next time I'll catch the 2nd class air-con bus... I'm just not a big fan of the metal, dirt and grime that goes with trains. Not to mention the metallic chant of the spokes does nothing for me. It doesn't really feel like a good environment for a human.
Anyway, I'm in Nong Khai now, and I have finally gotten a good night's sleep! I'm staying at the Pantawee Hotel, which has a free computer with internet access in my room! All for 600 baht. I browsed through three wats (temples) yesterday, and today I plan to catch up with my online activities. Tomorrow I hope to see the Sala Kaew Ku, the surreal religious scupture park which is the main attraction here, and certainly the most unique.
I am seeing a lot of dragon statues and images everywhere... and a lot of cats and dogs weaving in and out of them!
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