Your photographs of children are always enjoyable, and sometimes very moving. The little girl doing her homework is priceless. Thank you especially for that one.
Hope and inspiration, yes, you have shown them well.
Please stay safe and well during your travels. Your missives are blessings to your readers.
Sitting here in the cool of evening drinking a white wine while my children are preparing dinner in the house nearby - I take the chance to reread your column and see the beautiful photos on my laptop instead of the cramped phone screen - they are so beautiful again, especially the young girls -the angle of the shot, the purity of their eyes. I hope Laos works for you, I imagine you are there by now. Fall is approaching in the southern hemisphere - I saw the first red leaves on the tippy top of a maple tree I planted down by the creek. A week of calm, moderate weather ahead. Sometimes I read people writing about Australia as being a shithole and I am frankly astonished. What are they talking about? The past, the future? Surely not right now. This is heaven.
I know! what a disaster that is. But Australia is in a difficult position as it could not easily make the switch to being aligned with some other group considering its strong historical loyalties. Great Britain is still very much a part of Australian life and the US is like a big bullying brother who would crush Australia if it went out on its own. Don't forget they have a semi-secret base right in the centre of Australia at Pine Gap. I recently made a trip into Melbourne and was reflecting on 'who are Australians' on my way home. First, a visit to a swimming lesson with my grandson in the green leafy suburbs, traditionally the home of the wealthier members of this society. Lots of beautiful slim Chinese women, not quite so slim but gymn-toned other ethnic groups, all obviously well to do, Caucasians as well. Lovely clothes. Then on to the train and travelling from the heart of Melbourne to the outskirts. Many Indians/Sri Lankans among the Caucasians and many east Asians who I would presume to be Chinese but could of course be Korean, Vietnamese, and many others. I changed trains at Box Hill which in the last 20 years has moved from being a mixed community to now mostly Chinese etc. The food court above the station has only Asian food and sometimes the signs are not even in English. Back on public transport to my destination where I change for a bus. The bus is quite a different matter - no Asian faces, only the poor and those unable to own a car or people like me who prefer to travel this way as my fare for a 2 hr trip is about $3 USD. So a couple across the aisle who are very much depleted by either drugs or alcohol, but I think drugs. An old lady, a mother covered in tatts with three unruly children, a young builders apprentice covered in dust on his way home from work, school kids who are allowed to leave school early for some reason. This is still within shouting distance of Melbourne but if you went further into the country you would see almost all whites, the kind of people who provided fodder for the wars of the Northern Hemisphere in the past. They are not the dominant factor in Australia any more. I wonder how all the Asians who came here to build a better, more prosperous life than they could achieve in their own country feel about Australia threatening China with its three nuclear subs! In the past the Australian soldiers were tough and unyielding. One Australian author has pointed out that the first time both the German and the Japanese invasions were stopped was by Australian forces (at Tobruk and the Kokoda trail). But if they had a draft now I think it would be a very mixed bag - certainly not the hardened young toughies who came off farms, building sites, and rugby fields in the past. So what do I think? Bloody awful. My favourite ex-prime minister Paul Keating has spoken out against it recently.
Nice poem. Reminds me of the Paul Thorn song Everythings gonna be alright. The first line is Eating fried chicken and mama's corn bread....got a v8 ford that's cherry red, heard a little voice inside my head everything's gonna be alright.
"Wrote it in Certaldo, Italy in 2003." Is fried chicken popular in Italy too? I know it is in Japan and most of Asia, but Italians used to have their own traditional chicken dishes. But I've read now that since 2014 they opened more restaurants and now have a total 49 KFC fast food places in all of Italy. Maybe not in Certaldo. Yet. Globalization marches on.
I lived in Certaldo from 2002 to 2004, and was often in Florence and Siena. I didn't see any KFC then. There was no fastfood of any kind in Certaldo. The town of roughly 20,000 did have an American themed bar, with pennants of American sport teams on its walls. Once I saw at least two dozen Italian bikers converging on this bar. Can't remember if they were Hell's Angels.
In the second of four photos at the end of your essay, that is a gigantic baby the smiling or perhaps laughing boy is holding. If there is one thing everyone loves it is a fat baby.
that fried chicken poem of yours was thought-provoking - [and speaking of chicken, i ate a chicken salad sandwich for lunch today - presumably the chicken in question lived and died without ever seeing the sky, a prisoner serving hard time all its life] - i read part of the discussion of that poem at the poetry foundation website also - it was hypothesized that your mention of apples and meat brought in religious issues: "apples being the christian problem and the jewish problem, and meat being the hindu problem that has caused wars"
i read about stung treng [river of reeds] and have found khmer music by sinn sisamouth on youtube - truly we live in a world of wonders
a world of wonders, and also horrors, of course - but love lures life on, and the body wants to breathe and eat - there is a saying that a self-reflective sentient being inevitably faces four existential questions
1/where did i come from
2/why am i here
3/where am i going
4/what's for lunch
i see from the wikivoyage entry about stung treng that if you are crossing to laos there is a visa fee which depends on your passport - do you have more than 1? i have two, but haven't used the second one yet - i got it from a country that my father emigrated from, and i am by virtue of his birth there a citizen - i got it last year but haven't crossed a national border since and don't know if i will again
I never read the discussion of the poem, but it's interesting what you're telling me.
Here's a top secret confession, though. The apples causing riots bit was suggested by the Italian for apples, mele! Sounds exactly like the English melee.
A US citizen can get a Laos visa on arrival. I've done it once. There's also the option of getting an evisa, which I'll probably do, to save time at the crossing.
FYI, 5 star chicken is a chain from India and we have a lot of them in Thailand. Better usually than KFC but not near as loved by Thai youth and falangs.
I just checked to find that 5 Star is actually owned by C.S.G. Company Limited of Bangkok, so a Thai chain? In any case, I got it wrong to think it was Cambodian.
It is cheaper and at the better sites better than KFC. They aren't consistent in what they sell but some have a very good rotisserie chicken and others good fried chicken
"Street level violence is allowed to happen to distract the masses from what’s done to all of them from above" the most brilliant and wildly successful tactic ever employed.
In Canada, it is first by cars, then by skateboards!
In Nelson, BC we had an off-duty cop from a Vanvouver jurisdiction, while drunk, tried to harrass and "citizen arrest" someone being obnoxious to a peer of the attacker, was killed by the attacker with a skateboard. It was a deck edge blow that cracked his skull.
Your photographs of children are always enjoyable, and sometimes very moving. The little girl doing her homework is priceless. Thank you especially for that one.
Hope and inspiration, yes, you have shown them well.
Please stay safe and well during your travels. Your missives are blessings to your readers.
Sitting here in the cool of evening drinking a white wine while my children are preparing dinner in the house nearby - I take the chance to reread your column and see the beautiful photos on my laptop instead of the cramped phone screen - they are so beautiful again, especially the young girls -the angle of the shot, the purity of their eyes. I hope Laos works for you, I imagine you are there by now. Fall is approaching in the southern hemisphere - I saw the first red leaves on the tippy top of a maple tree I planted down by the creek. A week of calm, moderate weather ahead. Sometimes I read people writing about Australia as being a shithole and I am frankly astonished. What are they talking about? The past, the future? Surely not right now. This is heaven.
Hi Isha,
I'm in Stung Treng (pop. 30,000) and won't cross into Laos for two more weeks. Goofy little town, Stung Treng:
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/search/label/Stung%20Treng
Linh
Your thoughts on Australia going nuclear?
Aus has joined the AUKUS, a vassal sinecure amongst the vipers, U$ and UK.
I know! what a disaster that is. But Australia is in a difficult position as it could not easily make the switch to being aligned with some other group considering its strong historical loyalties. Great Britain is still very much a part of Australian life and the US is like a big bullying brother who would crush Australia if it went out on its own. Don't forget they have a semi-secret base right in the centre of Australia at Pine Gap. I recently made a trip into Melbourne and was reflecting on 'who are Australians' on my way home. First, a visit to a swimming lesson with my grandson in the green leafy suburbs, traditionally the home of the wealthier members of this society. Lots of beautiful slim Chinese women, not quite so slim but gymn-toned other ethnic groups, all obviously well to do, Caucasians as well. Lovely clothes. Then on to the train and travelling from the heart of Melbourne to the outskirts. Many Indians/Sri Lankans among the Caucasians and many east Asians who I would presume to be Chinese but could of course be Korean, Vietnamese, and many others. I changed trains at Box Hill which in the last 20 years has moved from being a mixed community to now mostly Chinese etc. The food court above the station has only Asian food and sometimes the signs are not even in English. Back on public transport to my destination where I change for a bus. The bus is quite a different matter - no Asian faces, only the poor and those unable to own a car or people like me who prefer to travel this way as my fare for a 2 hr trip is about $3 USD. So a couple across the aisle who are very much depleted by either drugs or alcohol, but I think drugs. An old lady, a mother covered in tatts with three unruly children, a young builders apprentice covered in dust on his way home from work, school kids who are allowed to leave school early for some reason. This is still within shouting distance of Melbourne but if you went further into the country you would see almost all whites, the kind of people who provided fodder for the wars of the Northern Hemisphere in the past. They are not the dominant factor in Australia any more. I wonder how all the Asians who came here to build a better, more prosperous life than they could achieve in their own country feel about Australia threatening China with its three nuclear subs! In the past the Australian soldiers were tough and unyielding. One Australian author has pointed out that the first time both the German and the Japanese invasions were stopped was by Australian forces (at Tobruk and the Kokoda trail). But if they had a draft now I think it would be a very mixed bag - certainly not the hardened young toughies who came off farms, building sites, and rugby fields in the past. So what do I think? Bloody awful. My favourite ex-prime minister Paul Keating has spoken out against it recently.
Nice poem. Reminds me of the Paul Thorn song Everythings gonna be alright. The first line is Eating fried chicken and mama's corn bread....got a v8 ford that's cherry red, heard a little voice inside my head everything's gonna be alright.
"Wrote it in Certaldo, Italy in 2003." Is fried chicken popular in Italy too? I know it is in Japan and most of Asia, but Italians used to have their own traditional chicken dishes. But I've read now that since 2014 they opened more restaurants and now have a total 49 KFC fast food places in all of Italy. Maybe not in Certaldo. Yet. Globalization marches on.
Hi Tom,
I lived in Certaldo from 2002 to 2004, and was often in Florence and Siena. I didn't see any KFC then. There was no fastfood of any kind in Certaldo. The town of roughly 20,000 did have an American themed bar, with pennants of American sport teams on its walls. Once I saw at least two dozen Italian bikers converging on this bar. Can't remember if they were Hell's Angels.
Linh
In the second of four photos at the end of your essay, that is a gigantic baby the smiling or perhaps laughing boy is holding. If there is one thing everyone loves it is a fat baby.
Hi Charles,
He's huge, but dressed only in diaper, so his mother is poor. I've seen women stopping by a shop to buy just one diaper for their baby.
He's nourished and around his family all day long.
Linh
that fried chicken poem of yours was thought-provoking - [and speaking of chicken, i ate a chicken salad sandwich for lunch today - presumably the chicken in question lived and died without ever seeing the sky, a prisoner serving hard time all its life] - i read part of the discussion of that poem at the poetry foundation website also - it was hypothesized that your mention of apples and meat brought in religious issues: "apples being the christian problem and the jewish problem, and meat being the hindu problem that has caused wars"
i read about stung treng [river of reeds] and have found khmer music by sinn sisamouth on youtube - truly we live in a world of wonders
a world of wonders, and also horrors, of course - but love lures life on, and the body wants to breathe and eat - there is a saying that a self-reflective sentient being inevitably faces four existential questions
1/where did i come from
2/why am i here
3/where am i going
4/what's for lunch
i see from the wikivoyage entry about stung treng that if you are crossing to laos there is a visa fee which depends on your passport - do you have more than 1? i have two, but haven't used the second one yet - i got it from a country that my father emigrated from, and i am by virtue of his birth there a citizen - i got it last year but haven't crossed a national border since and don't know if i will again
Hi mistah charley,
I never read the discussion of the poem, but it's interesting what you're telling me.
Here's a top secret confession, though. The apples causing riots bit was suggested by the Italian for apples, mele! Sounds exactly like the English melee.
A US citizen can get a Laos visa on arrival. I've done it once. There's also the option of getting an evisa, which I'll probably do, to save time at the crossing.
Linh
FYI, 5 star chicken is a chain from India and we have a lot of them in Thailand. Better usually than KFC but not near as loved by Thai youth and falangs.
Hi Al,
I just checked to find that 5 Star is actually owned by C.S.G. Company Limited of Bangkok, so a Thai chain? In any case, I got it wrong to think it was Cambodian.
Linh
I assumed it was Thai but their website states started in India. Their careers section also states India. (Maybe Thailand is better for marketing)
#841/1,Binnamangala 1st stage 100 feet road, Indiranagar, Bangalore -560038
080-66746300
Hi Al,
Is it much cheaper than KFC? Is that why there are so many of them in Cambodia and Thailand?
Linh
It is cheaper and at the better sites better than KFC. They aren't consistent in what they sell but some have a very good rotisserie chicken and others good fried chicken
"Street level violence is allowed to happen to distract the masses from what’s done to all of them from above" the most brilliant and wildly successful tactic ever employed.
In Canada, it is first by cars, then by skateboards!
In Nelson, BC we had an off-duty cop from a Vanvouver jurisdiction, while drunk, tried to harrass and "citizen arrest" someone being obnoxious to a peer of the attacker, was killed by the attacker with a skateboard. It was a deck edge blow that cracked his skull.
Then the Jew Jabs kicked in...