Innspire and Coincidences

And on the 8th day I was released from captivity...and after a couple nights in the Sukhumvit area, I made the move westward on Saturday toward the Chao Phraya river and the oldest part of Bangkok where my friends Iven and Kashmira (and their six delightful children) live, in a very typical old town neighborhood in Phra Nakhon. Iven and Kashmira are friends who I met here 12 years ago (pre-children) and who also call Seattle one of their home bases, though I have never seen them there - only here in Bangkok! They are very intentional, genuine followers of Jesus who I really like. They have walked with me this past year from Thailand and I am grateful for their input into my life. You might recall that they came to visit me two years ago when I was doing the rice growing season up in Maehongson - which certainly cultivated my connections with them and their kids. I have stayed in their neighborhood before which though just minutes to the Grand Palace and other major tourist sites in BKK is a very Thai non touristy part of Bangkok. 

Though many in their neighborhood barely hold on to life at times, it is a place that draws me and where I feel a measure of peace. It is a place that is very different from the 23rd floor of the Double Tree quarantine hotel. Perhaps it is a liminal space. I don't think it is a coincidence that I am here. I also don't think it is a coincidence that I have ended up staying at a guest house called Innspire. AND I am their first guest in a year. The realities of Covid and its effects on shutting tourism down are very very stark throughout Bangkok. While I take no pleasure in any of the suffering that so many are facing, it is a very unique time to be here.

And I am the ONLY one staying in this 9 room guest house that once was a house that palace employed actors and artisans stayed many decades ago. Did I say I am the only one here?! Literally. The manager met me, walked me around, gave me the key and said the place is yours. He shows up to make breakfast for me - which will soon end, because that's just silly - I can take care of myself! On the other side of the wall is khlong/canal that runs into the Chao Phraya river, it also connects with the Saen Saeb canal (for those familiar with Bangkok.) There's a temple on on the other side of the khlong, lots of cats, lots of all kinds of community hanging out, big fish and monitor lizards in the khlong (not quite as large as the recent 7-11 star on social media if you happened to see that video) And Iven and Kashmira's place is a 5 minute walk away past people selling amulets and random found and repurposed items that are spread out on mats on the sidewalk, women sitting on plastic chairs selling themselves, and of course many many food carts...as I said, it is a liminal space.

I know I am a visitor here at the moment and I'm not engaged in anyone's story - though I have heard many stories over the years from I and K - other than mine. But it is to this place that I have felt drawn though it is far from the peaceful forests and rice fields up north. And so I will try to be present to the gifts and the needs around me and to attend to my spirit and soul and listen and be present to the movement of the Spirit that leads and guides and gives life - even in a place where many only would see death and much much pain.

Breakfast fruit at Innspire

Duncan

Wondering...

 You might be wondering how long will I be here in Bangkok and what I will be doing? Two very good questions and the answers to both are unknown at this point. Initially I was planning on getting a longer term visa (up to 9 months) but logistics and the situation on the ground and in my heart changed  since leaving Bermuda, so my visa is for two months with the option of extending a month...we'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.

As to what I'll be doing...for sure continuing to work on my Thai, I've (re)taught myself to read and write again over the past few months - just finished working through this page here - but at times it's laborious at times and my brain feels like mud...so many rules to remember!! Maybe this is age, maybe jetlag...

I originally planned to spend most of my time up north where I did the fields two years ago and will probably get up there for a few days but most of my time will be spent in Bangkok and hopefully getting to the beach and visiting places I've never been, but some of this will be determined by Covid and individual province regulations and quarantines. Despite my wandering status this year, I really do want and need to have some semblance of community around me and I am hopeful for that here in Bangkok and being able to reconnect with friends and make new ones.

Part Two of the answer to what will I be doing...is perhaps a little deeper...

I woke up at 2:30 in the morning of my second night here (thank you again jet lag) to a terrific thunderstorm and lightning show and suddenly realized that I am on the second leg of my 'eat pray love' tour. Though my story and journey is not the same as Elizabeth Gilbert's, I appreciate the categories to play and work with.

Bermuda was less about literal eating, but it was about paying attention to and nourishing my body and my senses. I needed to be surrounded by water and sky. I needed to be able to plunge under the water and disappear. I needed the crashing waves that could end my life if I wasn't careful. I needed the challenge of currents, of the cold and the deep. I needed to encounter 'the other' in the form of underwater beauty, creatures, colorful, watchful, usually not but sometimes dangerous... I also needed to be surrounded by asparagus ferns and spice tree forests, sea grapes, hibiscus and so many other plants that covered the hillsides. I needed the wind and the salty air. I needed to run up and down hills and fill my lungs with Atlantic air, I needed to watch the blue sky and hear the rain. I needed to hear the little frogs singing at night. All of this calmed my body, strengthening it and I hope providing some healing.

Thailand is about attending to my spirit and my soul. As soon as I arrive in Thailand I am calm and content and at peace. I don't understand this but it's always been that way. I won't be hanging out in an ashram ala Elizabeth Gilbert but I will be with community that challenges and encourages my faith even through language and cultural differences and often an inability to understand.

Don't ask about the love  portion of the trip (how about we use the word friendship or community??) but the tickets are booked for that too - later on this year. Hopefully I will see a few of you on that third leg of the journey!

Duncan

Wandering... (but of course)

7 day room with a view

Hello from Bangkok. Today is day six of my 7 day quarantine in Bangkok. One more full day and then I'll be released on Wednesday. I'm thankful I arrived when I did as two days later and I would have had to do the full 14 days (even fully vaccinated) - Thailand's 'answer' to some Bangkok hi-so locals getting a little too wild at night clubs is of course to make the tourists pay (but I digress!) With this latest uptick in Covid cases (again it's all relative compared to India, the US...they're still at less than 400 deaths altogether in the past year) Bangkok has once again been mostly shut down. From my 23rd floor window, streets appear relatively empty of people, taxis...we'll see once I am released if it is as surreal as flying here...but how did I end up back in this country I love??

Room to stretch out

Airplane food...how I've missed you...

After 5 months in Bermuda, two months in Seattle and more hoops and paperwork than you can imagine,  (see this link from a blogger who captured it nicely so I don't have to recreate all that it entailed), I left Seattle last Monday, flying to Seoul on a Korean Air plane built to carry 300 passengers but having less than 50. After having been through US airports over the course of the last year and seeing life coming back to many of them in recent months, I was shocked to see how empty Seoul's Incheon was. A terminal that is usually teeming with thousands of excited/weary travelers looking like they are wandering through a high end glitzy mall - well you can see the photo  - there were so few people...nobody - but all the stores were still open. And the Korean lounge (that I am not a fan of) that is usually packed to the gills - at the most it had 15 people in it.

Everyone watching the same show? No, no passengers here. 

Empty Incheon terminal

Empty lounge

And then I arrived in Bangkok - along with another 50 or so passengers, just like my flight from Seattle and disembarked hoping and praying that all my paperwork was in order. Taxiing into the terminal, I could see rows of parked planes lined up with engines sealed (as was the case in Korea) waiting for the day that they might take to the sky again. As we exited the plane and began walking toward immigration, plastic chairs were lined up 3 in a row, (of course distanced from each other) and there we sat amid a flotilla/bevy of eager young Thai assistants who quickly lined up to check our paperwork and make sure it was in order...and then did it again 15 minutes later. We had to wait for our turn at the health counter where a nurse or doctor would check our paperwork, vaccine proof and ultimately decide how many days of quarantine to dispense.

Arrive and wait

Arrive and wait

So anyone that has been to Thailand knows that labor is cheap(er), thus the flotilla of helpful people to check our paperwork - probably a greater number than all the passenger passengers - but the health counter only had six medical personnel!  So in spite of good intentions and lots of personnel, a bottle neck was quickly revealed but we were only 50 people so it was ok. But the system clearly won't work when there is anything close to normal in passenger quantity. After the health counter we sat down in additional chairs before being escorted 10 at a time to immigration where (wait for it) there were so many immigration officials at each counter - more than I have ever seen in BKK - and BKK is notorious for sometimes having a 2-3 hour wait in line to get your passport stamped...I wish this many immigration officials would usually be on hand. (hint hint)...and all along the way are other officials directing us, this way and that - and EVERY ONE is masked and gowned, gloves, surgical hat - ok maybe not the immigration people but everyone else. So after a quick stop at immigration, it was a quicker stop to collect my bags and then through customs to be met by more gowned officials outside in the arrival area....which was DEAD quiet! 

Shock number 2 of the day: if you have arrived in BKK or any large Asian airport you know what the arrivals side of the terminal is like. You usually have to push your way through hordes of people and signs and taxi drivers trying to pick you up. This time, silence - no taxi drivers, no family members, just surgically encased officials - one of whom quickly approached me, found my name on a list and escorted me to my taxi that would take me to my quarantine hotel. I was asked to get in the car, take off my shoes which were placed in a red plastic bag and sprayed with something pungent (as were my bags), given a pair of slippers to wear and then it was off on the highways into town - highways that normally can still be super busy and fast even at 2am. Now silent. No traffic. It was really like I had been picked up at the airport to go to a funeral. Very surreal. My driver looked like a surgeon going to do a heart replacement.

And so we arrived at my hotel - a Hilton Doubletree (because...points) where I pad on into a back entrance in my slippers. The whole hotel is being used as a quarantine hotel and they were super organized. I was quickly checked in and finally after a shower and some work emails I slept at 3AM only to wake up at 6:30 or so....

So for the past week my routine has been - wake up early between 2:30 and 4:30 (because jetlag), spend several hours in prayer (just kidding on that one), wait for my meals to appear at whatever time I ordered them - the doorbell rings and a bag magically appears on a saran wrapped chair that sits outside my door. Everything is covered in plastic - even the carpet. I order my meals the day before - breakfast, lunch, dinner - from a rotating western, Asian or healthy menu. I get my KonTerra work done, have spoken with a few clients, do my Thai study, read, try to move a little so I can still squeeze out the door when I leave this room in a couple days...

Every meal arrived in a brown paper bag

Duncan