Seattle Summer - Fall/Autumn - And a taste of Winter...

 A few reminders but mainly the colors of the seasons...

For many of the nine months in Seattle I kept my eye on these two as they sat on, hatched and cared for their one eaglet this year. They've roosted in this tree for many years. They are good parents even when their kid is learning how to fly - whew there were some parental moments and lessons as he swooped and fluttered and sometimes missed, falling and clawing his way back onto a branch. 

Most every day I would do a 2-2 1/2 mile loop down the hill and around Alki. In nine months of doing this loop, I only ran into someone I knew (the same person) twice! But the sky and the sea were always there - never the same...always changing. Always beautiful. 

Lilies taller than she is...

Homegrown...

And one day all the phaleonopsis got it together and coordinated. 

And the Dahlia's were large and in charge and always spectacular.

So I said I never ran into anyone I knew on my two mile loop - but, there was one friend that I made who was there many many days (maybe 50% of the time) waiting to say hi to me and to all the other walkers that would go past his house and down the steps to the beach. Meet Mochi - beloved neighbor cat who would walk with his many friends up and down the stairs and loved to chase any stick or string or leaf you might have. 

Phuket (back to Thailand!)

I arrived back in Thailand two weeks ago. I know I'm so far behind on blog posts...only a couple entries got posted from my three months in Bangkok last year and nothing from my two months in the UK...maybe one day I'll catch up. Maybe not. But I can at least try to share what is going on currently. If I only tweeted maybe it would be easier...here's the short update from the past six months. 

Two amazing months in the UK (captured on fb...maybe one day here also!)...arrived back in Seattle in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas with the fam...but the goal was never to be in my parents basement all winter, so when I found a good price back to Bangkok, I jumped on it. I was all set to leave and had jumped through all the changing hoops to return (visa etc) and was about to complete the last step and apply for my Thailand Pass on December 21 (-with all the same information that is required for the visa!!?) when Thailand cancelled the Test and Go program (that had been in place just over a month which allowed vaccinated visitors to enter with a pre-departure negative covid test and one night in a hotel while waiting for negative arrival covid test results) literally because of one omicron case, reinstating the full quarantine again for all vaccinated arrivals. This I was not going to do again - but there was another option and that was to take advantage of the Phuket 'Sandbox', another scheme allowing visitors to fly directly into Phuket, be tested on arrival and on day 5 while being free to go anywhere on the island for the week of quarantine. A beach quarantine sounded much better than being locked in a hotel room for a week so I was grateful to be able to find and quickly book a decent fare on Qatar Airways leaving on the same day that I had intended to depart Seattle.

Moon over a foggy late afternoon Seattle departure

If this was my last sunset, I'd be ok with that...

I wasn't sure it would happen to be honest and I wrestled with the decision to travel during the days of Omicron given the increased contagiousness. Though I have travelled throughout covid, I have travelled cautiously and followed all the rules and guidelines everywhere I have been. But with Omicron raging, the logistical risks were greater because if someone tests positive in Thailand either on arrival day or five days later you are sent to Thai hospital purgatory for an unknown amount of days - SYMPTOMS OR NOT - which you or your insurance will need to pay for and insurance usually doesn't want to pay for anything if you don't have any symptoms. So you can see why I was a little more anxious - but knowing I was leaving from Seattle and everyone else would have been vaccinated and tested on the plane and being armed with an N-95 mask, I took my chances. And thankfully (very thankfully) I received negative results on both my tests this past week. This report by journalist Jonathan Miller reveals what I might have faced if I had tested positive. This article got the attention of Phuket's leadership!

Appropriate greeting!

And so ironically, the change in plans and accompanying frustration and anxiety allowed me to explore and enjoy Phuket for my first time ever and have some other first time experiences including the following highlights...

Moon upon arrival at 6:40AM in Phuket

The moon upon landing! That's not the sun at the end of the wing but the moon lit up in a fiery sunrise coming into land at Phuket's airport.

Speaking of Phuket's airport, it's been a longtime bucket list wish of mine to visit one of the handful of places around the world where you can stand on the beach and have big planes come screaming in over your head or knock you over with their powerful jet blasts upon takeoff. This box has now been checked! 

Wind and sand blowing courtesy of Finnair

Jet blast can push the water back from the sand!

The beach around the airport is really quite nice with few tourists other than the plane spotters. 

There's a small national park right next to the airport which adds to the charm and quietness of the area (because most tourists don't want to pay the 200 Baht entry fee).  After watching planes in the heat of the day, I took a quick dip and snorkel over some shallow coral right off the shore. There were only small fish (beautiful nonetheless) but surprisingly perhaps to both of us, I ran into a large honeycomb/leopard eel which was really cool to see though I kept my distance! Photo not mine.

Honestly, if I was returning to Phuket for a few days, I might just find a small guest house/hotel around the airport and enjoy the solitude of this beach/national park and plane watch. That would be just fine with me.

As this whole area of Thailand is famous for it's islands, snorkeling and diving, most snorkel/dive trips will take you off of Phuket to other smaller islands but I found plenty of fish to entertain me at the rocky points at the ends of the long beaches that I stayed. And at Freedom beach - another first - seeing a pair of large cuttlefish playing in the sand together! I was happy to be reunited with parrot fish since I now have quite an affinity for them after my months swimming with them in Bermuda. 

View from my room

I stayed at two Hilton properties (because points...see full Tripadvisor reviews here)The Phuket Hilton is a sprawling property on 75 acres with beautiful views everywhere you look, but I  never get tired of views like this looking over the trees to the ocean. 

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

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