Bangkok, Babaji, and Bob Dylan

Well, I wasn't going to write anymore before I left, but I'm back in the internet cafe listening to Bob Dylan on youtube.

I guess my beard must be getting LONG because random people around town are calling me Babaji. It's so funny how the tourist crowd of Khao San Road, Thailand is so different from Rishikesh, India. In Rishikesh, I think I was a little bit clean cut for the hippie crowd there. And, now I feel like a weird hippie surrounded with all these college kids and their 75 cent beers.

The Red Shirt protests have apparently settled a little bit after 38 people have died. But, it should be safe to get out of here tomorrow. One thing seems sure (from talking with the locals) no one seems to like fighting. Yet, we humans seem to do it anyway! Oh, what silly monkeys we are.

Here are some Bob Dylan lyrics:

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son ?
And what'll you do now my darling young one ?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'

- Bob Dylan, Hard Rain

Travel Update: Bangkok Burning!

I'm in Bangkok for two days, and wouldn't you know it, but there is civil unrest in the city! I didn't even know until I saw many of the Thai people glued to the TV watching the most recent developments. Luckily, flights are still coming in and out of the town, although schools and government offices have been closed down today.

Doing a little research, apparently the "Red Shirts" are a political group claiming that the Thai democracy is not a democracy at all, but suffers from interference from the military and the royalty. So, they have shut down the city.

Also, on the Thai news front, I've spoken with a couple of shopkeepers here who say that business has not been good lately - not many tourists! Perhaps it's the global economy, or I suspect perhaps they may have also overdeveloped their Bangkok tourist area. In the seven years since I was last here, they have built up a lot of the Khao San Rd. area.

The guy next to me in the internet cafe is speaking on Skype in Italian - now that's a beautiful language!

So, this is life in Thailand... and so so chill! What a nice relaxing break from India. I've already eaten a young coconut, jackfruit, Pad Thai, and Khao San Banana Pancakes! Yum!

I do want to take a second to share my love of India before I close that chapter. What an insane and adventurous ride that was - sometimes literally - My trip ended with a race to the airport in an auto rickshaw going 50 mph down the highway with no seat-belt, and not even a door between me and the asphalt! India definitely didn't fail to challenge me, and kept me on my toes. I learned new lessons about what is really necessary in terms of comfort in life, and what can be done without. And, I got great joy really appreciating that all of us... Americans, Hindus, Sikhs, Tibetans, Nepali, etc. - we're all cut from the same cloth so to speak. It's one human impulse moving through us all. Be well, India.

Soon, I'll be back in California. If you are a Californian reading this and you want to meet up before my next adventure, let me know, as I really don't know how long I'll be around.

May these people here in Bangkok come to some peace and some progress in service of the Thai people.