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Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter: March 2006

Dear Readers,
I've been travelling for nearly six months now and I have to admit I'm tired after all my adventures. After leaving Korea, again, I spent one month in Thailand. Then I travelled northeast on a night train to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. And I will be leaving Laos in a couple days, going back to Bangkok and then going home in a couple weeks.

I really look forward to seeing people and places, cooking my own food as well as buying big servings of food at restaurants, and, yes, getting back to work. But I've had one more major adventure here in Laos but the truth is I'm a very slow traveller and doing the type of travel where ones goes to a new city every couple days always really exhausts and stresses me: so much pressure!

Then despite my best intentions to do nothing on a particular day, to take a break, I have a completely new experience or see or hear something that strongly affects me. For example, on one of my first days in Laos I decided I'd take it easy, except for visiting the National Museum in Vientiane because I honestly didn't know much about Laos at all. There I saw displays on the amazing diversity of tribes in the mountains who practice shamanism of different kinds and I was touched by what I read and saw there. Then I went on to the recent history of Laos and was shocked. The information written in English beside each picture, artifact, or display was definitely pro-communist and anti-capitalist propaganda but some of it was just plain blunt and heart-breaking. For example, written below a display case with old rifles was: "These weapons were brought by American imperialists to kill Laos people." In one picture people were protesting with some signs written in French and one in English simply read: "US go home." And I thought to myself: "That's a very reasonable request."

I didn't really know the US was in Laos during the Vietnam War. It turns out Laos was one of the most bombed countries in history by the United States of America. Without getting more into that, the ways that America destroyed Laos with bombs and the way the Western world seems to be now destroying Laos with money has been on my mind and breaking my heart. I want to write more about it but I'll be able to do so better after processing it more. Truth be told, the same goes for Japan: many people have wanted to hear more about my experiences and impression of Japan and I, skillfully if I may say so, avoided the subject last newsletter. Honestly, I find Japan heart-breaking as well. When I try to write about it too many thoughts and feelings come up and sometimes I just stare blankly at the page or computer screen. Basically, I don't like how Japanese people treat each other: man, woman, and child. I also don't like how they treat me! In the meantime let's get to the news:

On a much lighter note: "They sure Monked the Marley." These are the words two Canadians thought another Canadian said in a rural area in Thailand, northeast of Bangkok some weeks ago. In actuality, my friend Daryl said: "They sure monked him early." in reference to the ceremony he missed earlier that day of cutting off a young man's hair to begin his initiation in to monkhood. I happened to wake up early enough to view the end of the ceremony and be enthusiastically urged to take some scissors and contribute to the balding of the monk to be. In Korea, I met Daryl and Wes two guys from a small town in Canada outside of Winnipeg.

Anyway, they left me in Korea back in late December and eventually found jobs teaching English in Bangkok. Wes was still staying with a friend in Bangkok but Daryl had his own place and so he let me stay at his apartment. Two girls from that same small town, named Janelle and Kyla, were also teaching English in Bangkok. They had been there awhile, they'd become good at Thai, and they'd made friends with some Thai girls and their families. They were invited to a weekend out at the hometown of one of the families for a ceremony for someone becoming a monk. And they invited Daryl and me along because every Thai monking ceremony should have a couple ignorant white guys involved. It was a wonderful weekend. People were very surprised, and pleased, to see us foreigners there and we were constantly being urged to eat and drink wonderful Thai fare by everyone, urged to dance by old women, and urged to sing by whoever was still awake. What more could one want?

There were many people there, all friends and family of some kind, and they all helped prepare the food: slaughter the animals (I didn't see or hear that part but heard of it), cut the meat and vegetables, and cook different meats with different vegetables in different sauces for various delicious dishes. There was a light, almost sweet, one with cabbage and chunks of meat, many spicy ones some covered in a light red sauce, some with cuts of fatty pork, many with ground up white meat, lots with fresh vegetables, and many with rich, oily sauces. And one took whichever dish attracted one and put it on some plain white rice or thin white noodles. And one repeated that ritual until one was satisfied. It was divine.

The part that might remind people of the scandalous Thailand we hear about was the entertainment involved in this celebration. It seems to be a fact that Thai people like entertainment: watching it and putting it on. On Saturday night there were some professional singers and dancers along with what seemed like most of the women and children from the party who put on their own dance shows. There were young children wearing make-up and pretty dresses (and some boys not in dress of course, well, no, not "of course") most of them with big smiles on their faces and sometimes when they did a certain move of the hips or shoulders everyone in the audience would cheer. Then the young, and some older, women got on the stage and moved everything their momma gave 'em. But front and center of the group was one girl who was totally flat-chested and had no hour-glass figure whatsoever: that is, she was born a boy, had her hair done up pretty, and was wearing make-up.

The fact is, Thai people are very proud of their "lady-boys" (as seems to be the preferred nomenclature out here) and they are not all prostitutes: it's just the life a lot of them have chosen and been supported it really seems. From all the stories I hear there is a lot of prostitution and QUASI-prostitution in Thailand, but I'm just saying my friends and I have had good experiences with Thai people. Okay, we've all experienced drama, difficulty, and incredulity with people's behavior but that's the way it is everywhere, ne? I'm just trying to say they are real people, complex, wonderful, and terrible but not all are only motivated by money to spend time with white people. Sometimes I personally feel like I'd need money to be motivated to spend time with certain white people: you can meet some real jerks in travel (as well as some very cool fellow travellers and anyone reading this MUST be very cool or I wouldn't send it to them). The truth is Thai people are really funny and friendly, can be a little nuts, make BEAUTIFUL smiles and eye contact (it is the Land of Smiles), and are a real pain when you go to touristy areas and they want to sell you things.

Anyway, I did spend most of my time in Thailand in the city of Bangkok and it is in fact a hot, smelly, and dirty city. But I hung out in my friend's small but nice apartment and around his neighborhood, near the center of Bangkok but far from tourist sites, and I enjoyed my time there. Maybe I needed time to relax, think, and sort some things out from my experiences in Japan and Korea. I tried to write a lot but the key word there is tried. Anyway, I learned some Thai, certainly learned about their food: some of it is very good but street food, which most people eat, was difficult for my stomach at first and I was often forced to buy my food at 7-Eleven (which appears to own Thailand as there's one or TWO on every street). It also turns out that Pad Thai, which I often enjoyed back home, comes in all sorts of forms in Thailand some of them a lot dryer with less noodles and more vegetables than the greasy, wet, mixed-up noodles you find in Ahlington, Massachusetts and, in fact, some places in Bangkok.

I did enjoy some of the nightlife including when I went to a party for everyone who works at Daryl's school. It was at a place called the "Coliseum" and included a DJ, live music, and dancers, including, of course, men dressed as women. They love 'em. At one of Wes's company parties they actually did go to some nude entertainment. I never said they weren't all strongly into sex, I just said they're not all prostitutes. Wes and I have also had a really cool time checking out dance clubs together, though I, personally, haven't seen the ping-pong show or any nude entertainment despite how much the "tuk-tuk" (basically, a small, smelly, open air taxi) drivers might want us to check them out. Maybe that's something I'll have to remedy when I go back to Bangkok in a few days but we're not sure exactly what happens at the ping-pong show and I'm not sure I need to find out.

I hope I haven't traumatized you readers, from beginning to end! There's certainly more experiences I'd like to share which I didn't get to and basically all of my trip to Laos: I'm a slow writer and a slow traveller but I'll catch-up soon. Laos is maybe the biggest culture shock I've had (probably with Thailand as number two) but not all bad shocks and I'm ultimately definitely happy I've had the experiences I've had. And that is a good feeling to have in the end.

Take care everyone,
Eli