Thai Massage Circus 2/11/16

The door fell off my bungalow but, David fixed it.  The morning course was rather difficult with spinal twists and hip movements.  All of the hip work is pretty intense.  When we were working on the QL someone missed and pushed down hard on my floating rib that had been broken several years back – I cried after that and promised a swap back that probably won’t happen but, that’s ok.

Mali worked with me in the afternoon and we were playing around in Gecko pose.  I have not yet worked with the same person twice in massage. There are about 30 people in the class so its possible to work with everyone a couple of times.

All of the meals were delicious again.  The kitchen is a giant bungalow open air.  I have no idea how they make the food so awesome.  There are two refrigerators and they store all our drinking water in barrels under the kitchen.

The locals take the laundry into town two days a week but it takes too long to come back and I didn’t bring enough to use the service so I am still washing in the river.

I have started to read the manual for the circus and its very entertaining so far.

Today the german phrase was : What is for breakfast = was gibt es zum fruschtück. (probably not spelled correctly–edited in 2019). OISHI is the Japanese word of the day.

Fire spinning is definitely happening tomorrow.  I worked it out with David and it will be at 7pm.  It is the same day as the sauna and I’m excited to do that again.  David and I talked about the logistics of how to set it up and it will come together quite nicely.

Whatever was bothering me after lunch (broken rib irritation) has passed but the feeling o being on a boat remains.

Chatted at length with Marty tonight.

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Additional notes:

David is the general handy man at the circus.  He is usually walking around through the circus with a hatchet in hand and a bounce in his step.  When I first arrived he was working on the constructing a drain pipe for the sauna.  He is the go to guy for fixing things at the land.  I should note also that he is always wearing the baggy Thai style pants and is allergic to shoes.

Luang Prabang, Lao 2/7/16

Journal:

The first thing that stands out in Luang Prabang, after its epic beauty, is the motorbikes.  Seems everyone has one.  There is a minimal amount of street signs – I have yet to see one that indicates a road name.  The vehicles pass each other and ride close without signaling.  There are no cross-walks.  I love it because it is so different.  I’ve always felt that people back home don’t pay attention anymore because we are so coddled by all the street signs.

The place is dirty – garbage and dirt, construction and general disorder – not at all like home.

The thing I love the most about this city is the people are TOGETHER.  They’re out in the street walking, talking, working TOGETHER.

There are no skyscrapers and the gigantic river roars past just off the city center.  This feels so much more real than being at home ever has.  The only thing that comes close is living at the trailer park when I was young.

This morning I’m awoken by sounds of people showering and venture down to write and have tea.  Breakfast is included as well as coffee and tea all day long.  I have most certainly thrown caution to the wind and dover right in.  Last night I took a shower in what felt like unclean water, ate food from the open market and paid less mind to sanitation.  It feels so liberating to be out of the sterile environment in the US.  I’m just grateful that my home near Brady Street is basically the American version of this (if you add police and a lot more people).

Roosters are crowing all night.

This place makes me wonder what we gained in civilizing ourselves.  I am also very curious about the Vietnam side of the Vietnam war – the people here are so kind and generous.

A dog from the street has come up into our hostel’s outside dining area and begun to quietly beg for food.  A very cute dog, if a little banged up.

Luang Prabang smells like a firecracker.  A mix of motorbike exhaust, campfire and strange food smells invade the sense.

I had completely forgotten about the biopsy until the shower – it brought a wave of sadness and remembrance of the last day in the States.  I feel somber about it – stuck somewhere between a statistic and my own head.  (Had a biopsy done the day before leaving and it was a bit rushed but came back benign).

I am in love with this place but, being here and living here would be two very different things.  Sitting and enjoying the sun play on my face has me thinking again about the life I really want to live.

In this moment everything seems so perfectly set in place.

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Additional Notes:

There were two journal entries with the same date but a different location-Not sure what happened there but they’re both being posted regardless.

The trailer park where I grew up was in Lake Geneva and it had rolling hills infant of a pine forest and a secret hidden gravel pit complete with old broken tractors.  It was what I’d call an Idyllic outdoorsy childhood.  All the neighbors knew each other and we would have our own community holiday parties in the summer.