Observations from Travel
I just returned from 16 days in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma. I saw recycling like you wouldn’t imagine. Ever thought of wrapping your groceries in big leaves? I became grateful for our tap water. Even the Thai people don’t drink water out of the taps. I thought about respecting the office of authority, even if you don’t like the person in it. Thai people don’t criticize their King in public or in the paper, though privately the can raise all kinds of questions. Slamming candidates isn’t allowed. Questioning the job they’ve done is. I walked among elephants and rubbed their trunks, learned not to roar when a gecko lizard scampered along my wall, and discovered that things like ivy, morning glories, red ants, crickets, and even rats can be eaten. I saw a society that is still able to shut a shop by just drawing a shade and walking away for an evening, knowing that people might drop into the stall for a snooze, but they won’t take anything. I walked across the bridge on the River Kwai and learned that Hollywood did it again. The prisoners of war didn’t detonate the bridge, he USAF took care of that, several times–there was no River Kwai, but rather the Meiklong and the Kwai Noi. A misunderstood Thai word got the Maiklaung renamed the River Kwai by the GIs, and led to the movie that was more fiction than fact, except for portraying the tough conditions for the Allied Prisoners of War.
I have a zillion photos to develop and I imagine one of my characters will fly off to Bangkok one of these days. An airplane is a glorious thing. It gets people together, jet lag or not. I think I could figure a way for someone from my novel Snap Me a Future to go. Perhaps Shelby McCoy, the heroine, her lover Benjamin Keith, or someone new whom I haven’t discovered yet. Maybe you could check out the book at dlsijpress.com and shoot me an idea of how you See Shelby on a jet to Bangkok.
I’m glad to be home, but again struck by the rich diversity of expression of universal ideas, and handling of universal needs for food, love, shelter, clothing and shelter we humans can come up with.
When I get images out of the dark room, I’ll post one or two.
Posted on June 13th, 2007 by Connie Gotsch
Filed under: General
I can’t wait to see pictures, Connie. I’m soo jealous! I never knew that about the River Kwai. Sounds like you had a fascinating trip. I think I’ll pass on the red ants and rats, though.
I’m glad to hear you had such a wonderful trip Connie. Travel certainly does broaden your horizons. I spent a few days in Bangkok on my way to Nepal where I did a trek. Both place gave me many memorable experiences. I’ll never forget seeing the majestic Himalayas at such close range. I was also astonished to see all the monkeys running around in the “monkey temple” in kathmandu. Life certainly is different in that part of the world to what it is in the West. Will look forward seeing your photos when you load them. Hope you got an action shot of a gecko scampering along your wall!
Thanks both Pat and Kelly. I have all the negs developed and will start on contact sheets soon, from which I will choose candidates for work prints, then select from those ones to enlarge, and finally choose the best of those. I saw monkeys running around Aknor Wat. They were a foot from us and looked us right in the eye, the little monkeys!