run for the border-pure joy, what is it?
So, I don't have a thai VISA. They are quite difficult to obtain, and a job here doesn't even guarantee getting a VISA, but there are numerous travel agents throughout town that offer a mini-bus to the Mynmar (Burma) border. It's about 4 hours each way, and then it takes over an hour at the border, so it ends up being about a 10 hour day! So i'll be doing this every 30 days!!
Rachel, a friend from my thai class had to go as well, so we took the same mini-van that seats about 10 people.
The driver went around to all the guest houses to pick people up, most of them are travelers that just wanted a little more time in Thailand. The first excitement of the day started off with this 5'4" guy getting in the bus while talking on his cell phone. He was obviously suffering from little man's syndrome among other problems that I can intuitively pick-up on, but he proceeded to tell his friend, "Dude, man, I fuckin' hooked up with this chick the other night who looks exactly like Angelina Jolie, I want to marry this girl, she's so fuckin' hot!"
And I was thinking, "I seriously doubt that!" Anyway, it was complete silence in the bus, and the conversation lasted no joke, 45 minutes. We got to hear about him touching a transvestites breast among other likely fabrications... good times : ) Someone even said something to him, and he replied with, "ohh I'm almost out of minutes." WHO DOES THAT?
The trip up there was really pretty, there were winding roads through the mountains, and I find it so funny that they bother painting the lines on the road because no one seems to follow them. For example, if the road curves a bunch, the driver will just keep going straight, consistently going into oncoming traffic's lane. They seem to all be conscious of what they're doing though, so i just relaxed.
The driver dropped us off at the border, and I had to pay a small fine because I exited the country one day late, and then you go in this small room and pay the thai/mynamar officials the exit fee, and then they keep your passport, and give you this little pink piece of paper. It was a little sketchy, but Rachel was with me and had been through it all once before, so she assured me that it was normal. I guess that they hang onto your passport so that you will not stay in Mynamar, I am not sure how one would go about doing that.
Anyway, we went to the market, and it was definitely a lot poorer than Thailand. We were bombarded by numerous people to buy different things. It was a little overwhelming, but not too bad. I bunch of people were trying to sell us cigarettes, $2.50 for a carton, but I don't smoke!!
I guess before I would get so sad seeing that, but I am sort of releasing the burdens of the world from my back, and boy is that a heavy load that I've carried around. I gave a little boy a little money, but I realize that I cannot save the whole world, but I like doing little things like that, and to a certain degree things are where they are meant to be. There will be suffering in this world, but it is not my job to feel everyone else's pain. The whole system of life and death is much to vast for me to understand and maybe these people are playing out there own karma to a certain degree. My definition of karma is a way for people to learn lessons; there is a lot of compassion involved, not so black and white that you did bad so know you are paying for it. At the market, I had this total image of Paris Hillton in her next life as a beggar, not in a mean way, just more like she may be able to learn from that. It was wierd how that popped into my head. Anyway, I think this Vipassana Meditation is really purifying my mind, my emotions. I like to send people silent blessings but not get emeshed in their pain either. Maybe I am just toughening up!
Again, that is a problem that I find with the US is that we have everything, yet I still feel like few people are truly happy. It really does come from the inside. Not that I am idealizing poverty or suffereing or saying that money is the root of all evil, because it is not. Money gives one the power to do a lot of good in the world. No one who is hungry is happy. At the same time, money does not equal happiness, and we are really trained to believe that it does.
Pure joy: this morning I danced crazy in front of the mirror, able to feel my body, and the rhythms of life in a really healthy way: that is pure joy! I am just starting to get in touch with my body, (thanks Esalen). Do you want to see people who are really out of touch with their body? Go to any mid-western $4.95 buffet, and I'll show you some people who are out of touch with their bodies. It's like we suffer in the US from the same things, only that they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I think of these Africans and Brazilians who are brought up with that culture of dance, soul, rhythm, how great that is! Our American culture is consumerism. Anyway, I realize that there are problems everywhere. Again, that is why I really like Vipassana meditation: it brings out one's true happiness...
Back to my trip, speaking of consumerism, I bought a couple of CD's for about a dollar a piece at the market, good deal! Isn't music joy though too? I think so, especially live music.
Time is also pure joy: i've really been soaking up this current free time that I've had lately, knowing that it is not going to last forever. I chose to go to school in Santa Barbara and got to live in Paradise, but then I also got to work numerous Christmas and Thanksgivings, Spring Breaks, and my few vacations were usually spent in a car driving to see my dad and then my mom. Anyway, and then I graduate college and think that my 40 hour a week job will allow me more free time, only to learn that it is all consuming, I have time for nothing, and two weeks off a year?? What is that? I've met so many Europeans here who are on month-long holiday, or doing year-long trips around the world. It's just a different economy, I guess. We just work so hard in the US to get all this stuff that we have no time to enjoy it. Anyway, I am not preaching, or saying that socialism is better than capitalism. I am sure that it is much more compicated than I am really understand, and I am just speaking from my own experiences. I just think that we invest too much in stuff and not enough in leisure time.
Anyway, so then, we got our passports and headed back to the bus. Everyone was there on time except for the little man. We had to wait about 30 minutes for him, and circle around a couple times. There was this old, hippie man also on the bus who had this strong smokers voice and he was so angry at the little man, "Let's just leave him! That guy has no sense of respect!"
He then took it upon himself to start chatting with me, "You know lady, you're generation really scares me! You guys go around talking on your cell phones, no respect!! You know when I was your age, I was getting my ass kicked every day by the police protesting Vietnam. Where's your generation with this war?"
I guess to a certain degree, he has a point, but I don't like people who talk to me like that. I assuaged him by telling him that that was why I left the country, and then I politely turned around so he couldn't speak to me any longer.
Anyway, little man comes about 30 minutes later, and old hippie guy says, "Did you buy a watch? You know that's real cheap, real cheap!" ( I love it when people say "real" instead of "really." It makes me smile)
Little man responded with a weak, "ohh sorry man!"
About six months ago, one of my roommates in Santa Barbara told me that he had a dream that I was supposed to read Carlos Cadenada. Anyway, I bought the book right away and never had time to read it, and finally started reading it on the way back from the border. I was at the part where he first took peyote and is seeing a dog who he is playing with who is supposed to be some master, when I hear these screaching breaks, look up, but I can't really see anything, and I feel the car slightly hit this dog, but it seems as if, he just pegged the back part of the dog, and the dog stumbled and then kept running. i am so glad the dog was o.k. and I found it all kind of ironic. Perhaps a sign..
The following day, I was lounging in the park continuing my read, when there was a small earth quake! Interesting, ehh?
So that was my run for the border....
Rachel, a friend from my thai class had to go as well, so we took the same mini-van that seats about 10 people.
The driver went around to all the guest houses to pick people up, most of them are travelers that just wanted a little more time in Thailand. The first excitement of the day started off with this 5'4" guy getting in the bus while talking on his cell phone. He was obviously suffering from little man's syndrome among other problems that I can intuitively pick-up on, but he proceeded to tell his friend, "Dude, man, I fuckin' hooked up with this chick the other night who looks exactly like Angelina Jolie, I want to marry this girl, she's so fuckin' hot!"
And I was thinking, "I seriously doubt that!" Anyway, it was complete silence in the bus, and the conversation lasted no joke, 45 minutes. We got to hear about him touching a transvestites breast among other likely fabrications... good times : ) Someone even said something to him, and he replied with, "ohh I'm almost out of minutes." WHO DOES THAT?
The trip up there was really pretty, there were winding roads through the mountains, and I find it so funny that they bother painting the lines on the road because no one seems to follow them. For example, if the road curves a bunch, the driver will just keep going straight, consistently going into oncoming traffic's lane. They seem to all be conscious of what they're doing though, so i just relaxed.
The driver dropped us off at the border, and I had to pay a small fine because I exited the country one day late, and then you go in this small room and pay the thai/mynamar officials the exit fee, and then they keep your passport, and give you this little pink piece of paper. It was a little sketchy, but Rachel was with me and had been through it all once before, so she assured me that it was normal. I guess that they hang onto your passport so that you will not stay in Mynamar, I am not sure how one would go about doing that.
Anyway, we went to the market, and it was definitely a lot poorer than Thailand. We were bombarded by numerous people to buy different things. It was a little overwhelming, but not too bad. I bunch of people were trying to sell us cigarettes, $2.50 for a carton, but I don't smoke!!
I guess before I would get so sad seeing that, but I am sort of releasing the burdens of the world from my back, and boy is that a heavy load that I've carried around. I gave a little boy a little money, but I realize that I cannot save the whole world, but I like doing little things like that, and to a certain degree things are where they are meant to be. There will be suffering in this world, but it is not my job to feel everyone else's pain. The whole system of life and death is much to vast for me to understand and maybe these people are playing out there own karma to a certain degree. My definition of karma is a way for people to learn lessons; there is a lot of compassion involved, not so black and white that you did bad so know you are paying for it. At the market, I had this total image of Paris Hillton in her next life as a beggar, not in a mean way, just more like she may be able to learn from that. It was wierd how that popped into my head. Anyway, I think this Vipassana Meditation is really purifying my mind, my emotions. I like to send people silent blessings but not get emeshed in their pain either. Maybe I am just toughening up!
Again, that is a problem that I find with the US is that we have everything, yet I still feel like few people are truly happy. It really does come from the inside. Not that I am idealizing poverty or suffereing or saying that money is the root of all evil, because it is not. Money gives one the power to do a lot of good in the world. No one who is hungry is happy. At the same time, money does not equal happiness, and we are really trained to believe that it does.
Pure joy: this morning I danced crazy in front of the mirror, able to feel my body, and the rhythms of life in a really healthy way: that is pure joy! I am just starting to get in touch with my body, (thanks Esalen). Do you want to see people who are really out of touch with their body? Go to any mid-western $4.95 buffet, and I'll show you some people who are out of touch with their bodies. It's like we suffer in the US from the same things, only that they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I think of these Africans and Brazilians who are brought up with that culture of dance, soul, rhythm, how great that is! Our American culture is consumerism. Anyway, I realize that there are problems everywhere. Again, that is why I really like Vipassana meditation: it brings out one's true happiness...
Back to my trip, speaking of consumerism, I bought a couple of CD's for about a dollar a piece at the market, good deal! Isn't music joy though too? I think so, especially live music.
Time is also pure joy: i've really been soaking up this current free time that I've had lately, knowing that it is not going to last forever. I chose to go to school in Santa Barbara and got to live in Paradise, but then I also got to work numerous Christmas and Thanksgivings, Spring Breaks, and my few vacations were usually spent in a car driving to see my dad and then my mom. Anyway, and then I graduate college and think that my 40 hour a week job will allow me more free time, only to learn that it is all consuming, I have time for nothing, and two weeks off a year?? What is that? I've met so many Europeans here who are on month-long holiday, or doing year-long trips around the world. It's just a different economy, I guess. We just work so hard in the US to get all this stuff that we have no time to enjoy it. Anyway, I am not preaching, or saying that socialism is better than capitalism. I am sure that it is much more compicated than I am really understand, and I am just speaking from my own experiences. I just think that we invest too much in stuff and not enough in leisure time.
Anyway, so then, we got our passports and headed back to the bus. Everyone was there on time except for the little man. We had to wait about 30 minutes for him, and circle around a couple times. There was this old, hippie man also on the bus who had this strong smokers voice and he was so angry at the little man, "Let's just leave him! That guy has no sense of respect!"
He then took it upon himself to start chatting with me, "You know lady, you're generation really scares me! You guys go around talking on your cell phones, no respect!! You know when I was your age, I was getting my ass kicked every day by the police protesting Vietnam. Where's your generation with this war?"
I guess to a certain degree, he has a point, but I don't like people who talk to me like that. I assuaged him by telling him that that was why I left the country, and then I politely turned around so he couldn't speak to me any longer.
Anyway, little man comes about 30 minutes later, and old hippie guy says, "Did you buy a watch? You know that's real cheap, real cheap!" ( I love it when people say "real" instead of "really." It makes me smile)
Little man responded with a weak, "ohh sorry man!"
About six months ago, one of my roommates in Santa Barbara told me that he had a dream that I was supposed to read Carlos Cadenada. Anyway, I bought the book right away and never had time to read it, and finally started reading it on the way back from the border. I was at the part where he first took peyote and is seeing a dog who he is playing with who is supposed to be some master, when I hear these screaching breaks, look up, but I can't really see anything, and I feel the car slightly hit this dog, but it seems as if, he just pegged the back part of the dog, and the dog stumbled and then kept running. i am so glad the dog was o.k. and I found it all kind of ironic. Perhaps a sign..
The following day, I was lounging in the park continuing my read, when there was a small earth quake! Interesting, ehh?
So that was my run for the border....
posted by meagan at 11:21 PM
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