A new group email… A new outlook.
Hey everyone,
I’m in bed, in a clean bedroom at half past ten for the first time in… too long. And look, my theory that the state of my bedroom directly reflects my life is proved right, I’m already ticking off my to do list at a rate of knots…
I’ve just read over some of my recent blogs. It’s great to read about everything that’s been happening here. What I love most though is getting anything, even a word from you guys. I know it doesn’t take much effort to publish a note to hundreds of people, I know some of you better than others… I just hope to hear from people I haven’t heard from in a while. It’s such a pleasure when you so far from familiar things and people.
Saying that, things are becoming familiar here - which is inevitable. I’m nearly at my six month point, over half way through my time here. It’s very hard for me to believe. I just keeping getting more comfortable here, every week seems to bring so much; temptations, challenge, excitement, frustration, boredom, fatigue… a lot of fatigue. I had a moment just the other day on my bike, it was the flash of a memory of being in a strange city, that seemed never ending and unknowable. I realized after holding it in my mind wondering where it had happened that it was here, only months ago. The city seems so small to me now, so many of its corners explored and so many streets a day to day part of my life.
One thing that has characterized my life post Philippines holiday is a kind of procrastination that I think has been a by product of me learning to relax a little. It’s meant I have put so many things off and fallen out of touch with too many friends. A mistake I intend to rectify now my room is clean. . Learning to relax a little on holiday was no bad thing though. Many people thought it was strange for me to say that I was beginning to feel the start of an adventurous spirit. I was just getting this great release from being on holiday, especially with my friend. His great spirit is more than catching especially traveling round such a cool country as the Philippines. As predicted that feeling has stuck with me.
– I’d like to interrupt here to give a shout out (if that’s appropriate in a ‘note’) to my friend Rob who I went to the Phillis with. He’s been a big influence on me in my time here. He has helped me to live in the moment and enjoy the excitement, thrill and ‘comedy’ of this crazy life. He’s leaving soon and I’m really going to miss him –
Taking up where I left on the Philippine holiday story with one eye on the clock whilst trying to remind myself people have better things than to read other people’s extended diaries. I had just told you about the drunk, karaoke filled ferry ride and I was exhaustedly tapping on the keys of an internet café in a dusty port waiting to get to the island we intended to spend the rest of our holiday. Well, that did prove more difficult than imagined. We emerged from the café to find that a ferry would not cross the frustratingly small stretch of water. Much debate followed and a diverse crowd of tourists gathered becoming increasingly intent on, somehow, getting across to the island. All this was much to the amusement of the locals who had already set up camp and were ready to see through the night on the plastic chairs of the waiting room or the no more comfortable chairs of the broken static ferry. To cut a very long story short, we found ourselves in someone’s back garden and clambering onto a small boat, handing over cash to a guy who even in retrospect had an unnecessary shadiness about his character. It was a real moment looking round the boat at the Swedish, Japanese, Chinese… Once on the island safely it was a case of drinking and relaxing and just enjoying the island as much as possible (despite the rain). Much dancing with the shy and giggling bar girls that populated all the bars there and a ride around the island that entailed another Karaoke pit stop much to the pleasure of the crowd of onlookers that crowded around the gates of the crappy little café it was in. Too many memories to remember and all this in just over one week.
Hmm… Its really getting late now, I’ve got to go sleep. I’ve kinda written this whole thing backwards finishing just about where the last one left off. Oh well, I think it gives you an idea of where my head is at. I can see that a change is coming, yet another out look. A new influence in my life, moving me towards friendship and all that can come when people get to know each other really well. Saigon continues to excite and challenge, but all that it brings me only deepens my appreciation of what I already had when I got here: friends and family – the most precious things in the world. I will get back on top of things and reply to backlogged face book messages and emails. Sorry guys. Here’s to appreciating each other and cheesy group email sign offs!! Hooray!
James.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Hey everyone.
Hey everyone. I’ve been meaning to sit down and share what’s happened in my world with those who are interested, and its good for me too (I don’t want to forget these things).
Right now I’m in a dead poor and dusty port on the Island of Cebu in the Philippines. I’m on holiday away from Vietnam for the longest time so far and I’m having a great time. To be honest I’m feeling bit flat right now. I’m really tired, but I’ll explain why in a mo.
The rest of Christmas day was a really odd day. Maybe the strangest since I’ve been in Vietnam. I just was really missing home to be honest. It started off great with the ‘Happy, happy happy, Go Vap’ experience briefly wrote about. I just started to feel a little self-conscious and after a trip to the pool, found myself wondering around town not knowing what to do with myself… It picked up though as my friend Trevor came to my rescue and invited me round. I ended up dancing like a crazy fool.
It was pretty much the same story for New Years eve too. Though I missed everyone loads, I did have a lot of fun.
It’s been a good year so far. After the partying of the festive week was over, things went back to normal. I found myself really happy to be back in my routine. Something from that time stuck though. It felt like the Christmas period was just a shaky time for me because in some ways I’m trying new things here and meeting people that are making me think about my life philosophy how I think of myself and act in certain situations. He feeling I’ve felt since this time, has been a kind of carefree-ness or the begins of an adventurous spirit. I’ve felt much more of an urge to get out there meet people and take life head on.
Is tough to explain, but its exciting and interesting too. There are ups and downs, but I definitely feel I was just working something out over Christmas, and I feel a little freer. Maybe I let some ideas I had about myself go, maybe a sense of being overly worried about other people’s feelings and fearful of situations has been lifted.
It’s just meant that I’ve been happier. I’m still enjoying my paid and voluntary classes. I was blown away when I went to one of my free classes last and they had remembered so much. They’re like little sponges!!
I spent Chinese New Year with my Vietnamese family which was really interesting. It was a bit of a gamble as I was passing up the chance to spend that week in the Philippines. It turned out to be a good party. They just drank and drank and drank!! And on top of that, the street outside our house turned into an illegal gambling den. Everyone was gambling, everywhere I looked there were cards and money. It was incessant. Everyone was involved eighty year old grandma passing down notes to her 13 year old granddaughter, heckling and shouting advice. I fluttered 50,000 dong which is a small amount. It lasted five minutes much to the hilarity of the raucously drunk men eating, drinking and chatting inside the house. I honestly thought that one of the fathers of the house was going to fall off of his chair laughing when his wife entered with a massive handful of notes, and I exclaimed in Vietnamese “oh my god, my 50,000”
So from that experience I headed off to join my buddy Rob for the second week of his holiday in the Philippines. It’s been absolutely ace. This is a beautiful country; we’ve been staying in a wicker cabin just next to the sand with the sound of the waves never too far away. Good fun too, working our way through the locally brewed rum.
And finally, last night... We were on an overnight ferry, that when we got on, already pretty drunk, felt more like a bar. Sharing drinks with locals and chatting with the people around us I ventured into the café and found to my amazement a Karaoke machine that you could put money into… I sang ‘Lady, lady, lay’ with intense drunken emotion to a beautiful girl traveling with her father… I think I might have been on my knees at one point.
So now I have to go because our ferry is here… Speak soon.
James.
Right now I’m in a dead poor and dusty port on the Island of Cebu in the Philippines. I’m on holiday away from Vietnam for the longest time so far and I’m having a great time. To be honest I’m feeling bit flat right now. I’m really tired, but I’ll explain why in a mo.
The rest of Christmas day was a really odd day. Maybe the strangest since I’ve been in Vietnam. I just was really missing home to be honest. It started off great with the ‘Happy, happy happy, Go Vap’ experience briefly wrote about. I just started to feel a little self-conscious and after a trip to the pool, found myself wondering around town not knowing what to do with myself… It picked up though as my friend Trevor came to my rescue and invited me round. I ended up dancing like a crazy fool.
It was pretty much the same story for New Years eve too. Though I missed everyone loads, I did have a lot of fun.
It’s been a good year so far. After the partying of the festive week was over, things went back to normal. I found myself really happy to be back in my routine. Something from that time stuck though. It felt like the Christmas period was just a shaky time for me because in some ways I’m trying new things here and meeting people that are making me think about my life philosophy how I think of myself and act in certain situations. He feeling I’ve felt since this time, has been a kind of carefree-ness or the begins of an adventurous spirit. I’ve felt much more of an urge to get out there meet people and take life head on.
Is tough to explain, but its exciting and interesting too. There are ups and downs, but I definitely feel I was just working something out over Christmas, and I feel a little freer. Maybe I let some ideas I had about myself go, maybe a sense of being overly worried about other people’s feelings and fearful of situations has been lifted.
It’s just meant that I’ve been happier. I’m still enjoying my paid and voluntary classes. I was blown away when I went to one of my free classes last and they had remembered so much. They’re like little sponges!!
I spent Chinese New Year with my Vietnamese family which was really interesting. It was a bit of a gamble as I was passing up the chance to spend that week in the Philippines. It turned out to be a good party. They just drank and drank and drank!! And on top of that, the street outside our house turned into an illegal gambling den. Everyone was gambling, everywhere I looked there were cards and money. It was incessant. Everyone was involved eighty year old grandma passing down notes to her 13 year old granddaughter, heckling and shouting advice. I fluttered 50,000 dong which is a small amount. It lasted five minutes much to the hilarity of the raucously drunk men eating, drinking and chatting inside the house. I honestly thought that one of the fathers of the house was going to fall off of his chair laughing when his wife entered with a massive handful of notes, and I exclaimed in Vietnamese “oh my god, my 50,000”
So from that experience I headed off to join my buddy Rob for the second week of his holiday in the Philippines. It’s been absolutely ace. This is a beautiful country; we’ve been staying in a wicker cabin just next to the sand with the sound of the waves never too far away. Good fun too, working our way through the locally brewed rum.
And finally, last night... We were on an overnight ferry, that when we got on, already pretty drunk, felt more like a bar. Sharing drinks with locals and chatting with the people around us I ventured into the café and found to my amazement a Karaoke machine that you could put money into… I sang ‘Lady, lady, lay’ with intense drunken emotion to a beautiful girl traveling with her father… I think I might have been on my knees at one point.
So now I have to go because our ferry is here… Speak soon.
James.
Merry Christmas
Hello everyone,
Merry Christmas. I hope this finds you well and happy.
I’m just sat in my living room right now. I’ve come to realize by now (twelve o’clock) that Christmas day, despite the fact that my family are catholic, and there are Christmas trees and suspiciously Asian looking Santas everywhere, is a none event. Not much of a surprise, so many of the occasions in Asian, it seems to me, just involve a lot of sitting round and erm, not a lot else.
I had also been under the impression I was attending midnight mass with them. When I returned at nine thirty last night it turned out that they had “dee royee” – gone already. So I jumped on the chance to get an early night!! Is it sad, that the prospect of going to bed at ten thirty was a genuinely pleasant prospect, even on Christmas eve. I was awaked early though by one of the mothers of the house. One arrangement I did manage to make, without any miscommunication, was to go and get a free massage with her.
It was a bizarre experience but kind of touching. It involved a twenty minute walk through the winding streets near our house, past gawping men and women sleepily sucking on noodles in various street kitchens. When we finally arrived to the ‘happy dream’ centre, that’s not a translation its actually called ‘happy dream’, she pointed to her ears and mimed approval, suggesting we were going to hear something pleasing. We stepped in to the centre which was essentially a large hall and my ideas of an at least semi tranquil massage were shattered instantly. It closely resembled a hospital waiting room, with rows of numbered chairs in the middle of the hall and what seemed like quite a crowed of shuffling elderly people in white pajamas. Surrounding them was, again, row upon row of massage tables, the ones with the moving parts in them. The ‘pleasing sounds’ turned out to be a women, in fact a string of women, constantly talking for the whole hour and a half we had to wait. Just before we were ushered on to the tables the lady roused the dosing, chatting, audience to participate in the disturbingly unenthusiastic and in English - “happy, happy, happy, Go Vap”
I was nice actually once we were lying down with the young female staff innocently fluttering around us plucking up the courage to ask if I have a girlfriend and tell me I am “dep chai” or handsome. Some spoke English quiet well and touchingly after one of them spoke to the woman from my house who I was with they said: “your mother says you are a good son”…
So now I’m back home and feeling wholly thankful for a day off. A chance to rest my body which feels physically drained. I’m heading to the pool for a sunbathe, a sleep, food, drink and a generally laid back Christmas day with my friends.
Much love from me,
James.
Merry Christmas. I hope this finds you well and happy.
I’m just sat in my living room right now. I’ve come to realize by now (twelve o’clock) that Christmas day, despite the fact that my family are catholic, and there are Christmas trees and suspiciously Asian looking Santas everywhere, is a none event. Not much of a surprise, so many of the occasions in Asian, it seems to me, just involve a lot of sitting round and erm, not a lot else.
I had also been under the impression I was attending midnight mass with them. When I returned at nine thirty last night it turned out that they had “dee royee” – gone already. So I jumped on the chance to get an early night!! Is it sad, that the prospect of going to bed at ten thirty was a genuinely pleasant prospect, even on Christmas eve. I was awaked early though by one of the mothers of the house. One arrangement I did manage to make, without any miscommunication, was to go and get a free massage with her.
It was a bizarre experience but kind of touching. It involved a twenty minute walk through the winding streets near our house, past gawping men and women sleepily sucking on noodles in various street kitchens. When we finally arrived to the ‘happy dream’ centre, that’s not a translation its actually called ‘happy dream’, she pointed to her ears and mimed approval, suggesting we were going to hear something pleasing. We stepped in to the centre which was essentially a large hall and my ideas of an at least semi tranquil massage were shattered instantly. It closely resembled a hospital waiting room, with rows of numbered chairs in the middle of the hall and what seemed like quite a crowed of shuffling elderly people in white pajamas. Surrounding them was, again, row upon row of massage tables, the ones with the moving parts in them. The ‘pleasing sounds’ turned out to be a women, in fact a string of women, constantly talking for the whole hour and a half we had to wait. Just before we were ushered on to the tables the lady roused the dosing, chatting, audience to participate in the disturbingly unenthusiastic and in English - “happy, happy, happy, Go Vap”
I was nice actually once we were lying down with the young female staff innocently fluttering around us plucking up the courage to ask if I have a girlfriend and tell me I am “dep chai” or handsome. Some spoke English quiet well and touchingly after one of them spoke to the woman from my house who I was with they said: “your mother says you are a good son”…
So now I’m back home and feeling wholly thankful for a day off. A chance to rest my body which feels physically drained. I’m heading to the pool for a sunbathe, a sleep, food, drink and a generally laid back Christmas day with my friends.
Much love from me,
James.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)