Thailand: Welcome to Saturn...

[4 days ago: First day in Thailand]

On our taxi ride over to this guesthouse (which is the Shanti Lounge in Bangkok), I saw a billboard that I read as "Welcome to Saturn." I said it aloud and chuckled... which is when Sam pointed out that it actually read "Welcome to Satun." Not sure what that is exactly, perhaps some area in Bangkok, but nonetheless, I think it summed up the idea that here, where I am now, is so planetarily different from Korea, where I was.

Even after only being here for about 16 hours, that fact is apparent. Immediately stepping out of the airport, I am swarmed by a sea of bright-skittle-colored cars: mostly taxis, flaunting their peptobismol pinks, lime greens, sunkist oranges and more. So vastly different from the homogeneous neutral streaks of blacks and silvers that painted the streets of Korea.

Now, I'm definitely not declaring: "Korea bad, Thailand good." For there's that ("good" and "bad) in all things and places, and depends on from what angle you choose to see it, but I am saying that they're just so opposite (as far as i've seem so far): essentially another planet.

The guest house-- the Shanti Lodge-- is indeed not flooded in florescent (as too often in Korea), but lightly lit with an orange glow which flows out of red bamboo paper lanterns. The walls & floors speckled with rainbow-glass mosaics and water-smoothed rocks; mirrors glistening throughout like shiny puddles of water.

The food! Oh, the food! glass noodles with fresh asparagus, pumpkin, cilantro, lemongrass soaked in a zingy lemon-squeezed citrus pour. creamy green and red curries with crunchy cashews. The pineapple juice tastes like someone just crushed up and plopped a pineapple into your mouth, just after climbing up the tree & plucking one down... which, they did.

All this to say, here in merely my first 16 hours I breathe easy, I smile steady and I feel all the magic and good things on their way. straight on to Saturn.

Just when you think you simply can't do it...

So, I was sitting in my little apartment-- which is basically like a club sandwich packed tight: turkey, tomatoes, and mayonnaise oozing out, bacon flopped outta the crust, lettuce busted out like one of those champagne-poppers... which is all to say: i've got alot of shit in here-- and realizing how much I have to actually do before i get out of here, which is in 6 days! Sort through all this stuff--the clothes, the trinkets and doo-dads, figure what to keep, what to throw, ship it home, cancel my phone/gas/elec/etc., get my payments, cancel my bank account, transfer money, find a home for the hamsters (we've got 3. but one escaped already. so, 2 now), climb a mountain, squeeze 10 korean women into a tuna can, yada yada yada. I was feeling frustrated. overwhelmed. angry. then defeated. hopeless. exhausted. overworked and useless. and then... i heard the sounds.
The sounds that could either be the hands of the gods themselves, whipping ropes over their heads and furiously shaking all the tin sheds in this town; the sound of north korea sending lines of whizzing missiles our way, taking out the neighborhood one block at a time; or... or... or this:



the world doing her thing, flashing her reminders for those that will notice it.