Travel
Walking and Travel
Bruce Chatwin in India
As a nineteen year old, Bruce Chatwin introduced me to the latin phrase, solvitur ambulando (The Songlines). Translated as ‘it is solved by walking’ I liked the phrase immediately. It has become a talisman to be kept in my thoughts. I have not only sought solutions by walking but also by running and cycling. Physical exertion is part of the process. This phrase to me is about abnegation of immediate responsibilities freeing myself to remember or discover my own core responsibilities. We bog ourselves in uneccesary essentials (lawns need mowing, dogs walking, gutters fixing… ) it is good to remind ourselves of what is actually important to just live and be happy. Solvitur ambulando is my reset button to living.
Tourists start out with lots of gold (suitable for shopping with),
a credit card, lots of food, some maps, and an expensive camera.
Most monsters don’t like being photographed.
(Nethack)
I have not had the chance to go for a walk/run/ride this past week. My work and home chores have taken precedent. Next week I am visiting Tokyo. I am starting to look forward to walking its streets. There is something rather lovely about landing in a completely new environment and wandering around like an interplanetary alien exploring ‘this city thing’. The aimless explorer who has been defined by Baudelaire as the ‘botanist of the sidewalk’ or the by the situationists as a drifting psycho-geographer. These romantic notions are appealing but in all honesty I will be a tourist. I will walk the city with my phone in hand and no doubt share a few snaps on social media. I will eat food that is new or unusual to me. I will buy souvenirs.
Readings
- How do we re-capture the moment of our first arrival to a new place? Tokyo Journeys: Travels in Psychogeography
- Unreal cities: Sohei Nishino’s magical photographic maps of London, Tokyo and utopia
- A visual diary of Gail and David’s Tokyo Drift
Zoo
Ev in his element in Chiang Mai
Ev has flaked out on the bed. We went to training this morning, and followed that with a trip to the Zoo. I had been looking for an excuse to hire Noi’s Songtaw. Noi and her partner (Nuu-ie, I think) looked after Evan when he got lost on our first night in Chiang Mai, see my last post.
So the Zoo was Zoo-ey. Animals needlessly imprisoned and all that. The biggest drawcard for the Zoo was a newly born Panda. So we skipped that and followed a heap of Thai’s into ‘The Snow Dome’. We had no less than three safety briefings and everyone had to don protective gear. I got in trouble because I did not put on the allotted snow boots. Then we were taken into an airlock and given one last briefing before being led into a room. It was about the size of a tennis court and full of snow and some plastic frozen pandas. Everyone went wild and squealed, then ran around like dills. It was nice to escape the midday heat for ten minutes.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the ‘Lanna Muay Thai’ video instead.
Ev was buggered by the time Noi dropped us home. So he has been reading and is now sleeping. I went to training and am now sore, tired and hungry. Time to wake him up I think….
Knackered
It has been hot and sweaty at training tonight. A few of our club are going to Loiktroh for a fight tonight. I think Ev and I will give it a miss. We are pretty stuffed.
We did go to Loiktroh. It was a memorable fight.
The Japanese kid got really smashed it was actually pretty awful to watch. But go ahead and click the video link if you like seeing young lads kicking the shit out of each other - Loiktroh.avi
Here is some of the stuff Ev and I have been up to today. He is much better at the exercises than me.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the ‘Exercises’ video instead.
Wong
Evan in he ring with Wong
Day 2 of our Muay Thai training and I am sore all over. My old bones are showing the wear and tear they’ve had over the years. After this mornings training we took the scooter for a ride around town.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the ‘Scooter Commute’ video instead.
Ev was very scared riding round the corners. He does not like leaning.
Thailand 2009
A crap snap from the train when we set off to Chiang Mai
Just before leaving Bangkok we visited Lumphini Park which was fantastic. Everyone in the park was dancing, jogging or playing around in boats. If I was homeless I’d live there.
Here is a video of all the people dancing in Lumphini Park:
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the ‘Dancing in the streets’ video instead.
I loved the hat on the statue and wanted to pinch it but Evan pointed out that, It was made of stone and would not fit, and … I was an idiot.
That night we caught the Chiang Mai sleeper and everyone, except me, slept. It was very comfy and everyone was friendly but I just couldn’t sleep.
Here is a video of the train loo:
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the ‘thai train loo’ video instead.
Overnight Train
The inside of the carriage before bedtime
We caught the overnight train up from Bangkok to Chang Mai. It was lovely. The other passengers were friendly and we all exchanged travel stories. The staff bought us food and we settled in for a long journey.
Still recovering, hot but not hungry
As the day wore on staff came down the carriage and our second class seats were folded out into beds. The hard working train staff later bought us tasty treats.
The inside of the carriage after bedtime
We arrived the next morning on time. Ellen picked us up and took us on a whistle stop tour of her neighbourhood before setting us up in a swank overnight apartment. We had a shower and short nap.
In the arvo Ellen and her neighbour Donna took us out for what turned out to be a traumatic evening adventure.
More of which later …
Still sick, want bike
I could not get enough of the wheeled contraptions
Ev seems to be staging a recovery. I’m still dying though. Not much time left now, I leave everything I own to Scampi. Good Dog. Except my super sports socks, I’d like to be shot into the sun with them on, all of them.
Cheri says:
Please bring me home a trike, like that one. I promise I’ll give you a ride down to ‘Bambi’ on it.
Chang Mai
I edited these to highlight their awesomeness
Yum Cha for Colds
We tried some Tom Yum and Coke for breakfast yesterday. The lady in the stall thought it would be good for our colds. I’m not sure Evan enjoyed it.
Our first few days here have not been going so well. Evan and I both seem to have come down with a really annoying cold. We have been mainly laying around in our room coughing and sneezing. I went for an early morning walk today and took a few snaps. Now I am stuffed. I am hoping we feel better tomorrow as we will be catching the Chang Mai overnight train.
Shark Attack
We went to the Curryfest last weekend which was pretty good. Of course we ended up spending most of the time with Emrys in the playpark with hundreds of kids.
Em at the curryfest
I have just returned from a weekend at Station Creek with Ev. We hung out like feral boys. I bought Ev some of that Coopers Malt drink (fake beer) and real beer for me. We went fishing, peed in the bush and didn’t wash.
…and so his path to manhood progresses.
Whilst I was standing in the water, with my handline and a piece of pilchard, Ev spotted a hungry shark heading straight for me. So I told him to go get the camera for a macho photo opportunity but he freaked and told me to get out of its way. Then I saw it…
Carpet Shark
A monster… no not really and Evan didn’t even get the camera, but it did go straight for me.
I think it just wanted to hump my leg or be friends. It was a fantastic looking wobbegong or ‘carpet shark’. They get their name from the beautiful deep pattern on their skin which resembles a persian rug.
Anyhow I was in its way, so I hopped back onto the rocks, wasn’t scared… honest.
The wobbegong hung around a while, which sort of put us off fishing as we didn’t really want to catch such a beautiful creature - we had a tin of beans for supper instead.
…so much for us going all cave-man.
Evan makes himself comfy
Evan catches some bait
Ev Fishing
Off the rocks
Camp-site marauder
Moshav Zofar
Always cheerful, Katsyuki Uemura was a good friend
Katsyuki missed speaking Japanese. It was too hard to truly express himself. Katsyuki and his friends had been involved in a motorbike fatality. It was something that broke his cohort and he set off travelling. I never got the full story but we often shared our trauma over a few Goldstar beers.
Unfortunately I have lost contact with Katsyuki. I did hear from him once when I lived in Brisbane. He had married a Japanese girl while working in a factory. He sent me a sweet photo of them both smiling in matching tracksuits.
In our shared accomodation. Narelle and I had a puppy and a pomello tree.
Narelle was an Australian woman I shared a shed with in Moshav Zofar. I was quite smitten but she was oblivious. We lived in domestic bliss with a stray puppy that Narelle loved and, our pomello tree (which I loved) outside the door.
Each day we would drive our tractors across the minefields and out to the polytunnels. We would tend to the tomatoes, melons, capsicums and pumpkins and then drive back with stiff backs to drink beer in the concrete bomb-shelter. I am still in contact with Narelle from time to time and hope one day to surprise her with a visit.