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Friday
Apr022010
He puts up with a lot.
April 2, 2010
So I did get the permit after all, and I very nearly told the man who had been helping me that he was my new best friend. We flew through immigration as much as any six tired people can fly through an airport which too many musical instruments on their backs in the middle of the night.
Oof. Red eye flights with four young children. Not for the faint-hearted. But we are sculpted by India. I do have to say that taking the train in India is a cinch with kids, compared to multiple flights and going through security and trying to keep young people off the luggage belts.
Chinua has written some about our experiences so far in Thailand here. He is not exaggerating. I feel as though we have been propelled forward twenty years or so. It is not that there are not modern places or things in India, just that we never seem to be there. We live in small fishing villages where people use hundred year old mango tree boats. Or in Himalayan villages with goatherds on vertical hills.
So the people mover in the Thai airport was like a shot into the future. It was a like an escalator, but flat, and it curved up and down like a roller coaster. We were stunned and slightly frightened.
I love Thailand! I love the food and the smells, the people. I love this part of Asia. I would love to get to know it all better, to speak some Thai, to understand. I am halfway between delighted and terrified right now, not able to make myself understood. I am doing the Indian head wobble to Thai people, who look at me blankly. I am translating all the prices on the menu into rupees, rather than into dollars, since I think in rupees now. I don't know how many dollars we should spend. I do know how many rupees we should spend.
Leafy very carefully takes his shoes off before entering any shop, something that is not required here.
The kids are intrepid travelers, running down the grassy curbsides, leaping over hedges, pretending to fly, pretending to be anything and everything. As long as they can climb or jump over something, they are happy. Kid A likes the food, although sometimes he says it is not spicy enough. YaYa loves the Bangkok cats, although she is a little freaked out by all the smells. She was used to the Indian smells. Solo is capturing the hearts of Thai women everywhere.
I had a minor breakdown in a Thai night market. Crying, I told my Superstar Husband, "Nothing is familiar. I don't understand anything." He wisely suggested that we leave the market and go back to the guest house. There are too many things to buy. I don't know where to look, nowhere seems safe. In the taxi I was disturbed because someone almost cut into our lane and the driver didn't honk at him. "I don't understand how people can drive without honking!" I said to Chinua, in tears again.
I am deeply affected by cultural changes. And I'm finding that this is a particularly deep one, coming from India after twenty two months there, coming away from my home there while planning to see my family and friends and then return to my home in India, which is not really my home after all. Oh boy. Time to take a deep breath and just enjoy the jasmine on the side of the roads here, drink the iced coffee where they don't skimp on the ice at all.
We love taro root, coconut, pineapple. We love basil and kafir lime leaves and we love small southeast Asian alleys with cooking pots and pointy nosed cats and the steamy humid heat of a Bangkok April.
Oof. Red eye flights with four young children. Not for the faint-hearted. But we are sculpted by India. I do have to say that taking the train in India is a cinch with kids, compared to multiple flights and going through security and trying to keep young people off the luggage belts.
Chinua has written some about our experiences so far in Thailand here. He is not exaggerating. I feel as though we have been propelled forward twenty years or so. It is not that there are not modern places or things in India, just that we never seem to be there. We live in small fishing villages where people use hundred year old mango tree boats. Or in Himalayan villages with goatherds on vertical hills.
So the people mover in the Thai airport was like a shot into the future. It was a like an escalator, but flat, and it curved up and down like a roller coaster. We were stunned and slightly frightened.
I love Thailand! I love the food and the smells, the people. I love this part of Asia. I would love to get to know it all better, to speak some Thai, to understand. I am halfway between delighted and terrified right now, not able to make myself understood. I am doing the Indian head wobble to Thai people, who look at me blankly. I am translating all the prices on the menu into rupees, rather than into dollars, since I think in rupees now. I don't know how many dollars we should spend. I do know how many rupees we should spend.
Leafy very carefully takes his shoes off before entering any shop, something that is not required here.
The kids are intrepid travelers, running down the grassy curbsides, leaping over hedges, pretending to fly, pretending to be anything and everything. As long as they can climb or jump over something, they are happy. Kid A likes the food, although sometimes he says it is not spicy enough. YaYa loves the Bangkok cats, although she is a little freaked out by all the smells. She was used to the Indian smells. Solo is capturing the hearts of Thai women everywhere.
I had a minor breakdown in a Thai night market. Crying, I told my Superstar Husband, "Nothing is familiar. I don't understand anything." He wisely suggested that we leave the market and go back to the guest house. There are too many things to buy. I don't know where to look, nowhere seems safe. In the taxi I was disturbed because someone almost cut into our lane and the driver didn't honk at him. "I don't understand how people can drive without honking!" I said to Chinua, in tears again.
I am deeply affected by cultural changes. And I'm finding that this is a particularly deep one, coming from India after twenty two months there, coming away from my home there while planning to see my family and friends and then return to my home in India, which is not really my home after all. Oh boy. Time to take a deep breath and just enjoy the jasmine on the side of the roads here, drink the iced coffee where they don't skimp on the ice at all.
We love taro root, coconut, pineapple. We love basil and kafir lime leaves and we love small southeast Asian alleys with cooking pots and pointy nosed cats and the steamy humid heat of a Bangkok April.
in Traveling
Traveling 
Reader Comments (13)
I've found that Thailand is a fantastic stopping off point between India and the West - a great place to ease your way back into things. I'll pray for you guys. I know coming home can be a tough transition.
I just finished shopping in a Cairo bazaar where I was doing math gymnastics converting Chinese RMB to American dollars, then into Egyptian Pounds (because they would not exchange our chinese currency here!). My head hurts and I am pretty sure my bank account has suffered accordingly.
The things you speak of I know only too well... blessings on you and your trip with all those beautiful children. Sometimes you need a teary moment to release the tension!
I'm so glad you updated us-- thank you!
The comment above says it well--sometimes you need a teary moment. Thailand sounds like a great transition place overall. I remember being in the Paris airport after 2 1/2 years in the Sahara, and my children being thrilled to bits at the sight of an escalator. They played and played on it. They didn't remember seeing one before. We got some awfully odd looks, these backward Americans ;)
I personally have had breakdowns in Safeways and Wal-Marts (with my mother-in-law; I just needed hand lotion and they had an entire wall of choices. I could not deal) Jet lag and exhaustion don't help either, do they?
.-= edj´s last blog ..http://planetnomad.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/abels-desert-trip/" rel="nofollow">Abel’s Desert Trip =-.
Life is quite an experience! After feeling so settled here I really feel I will be going through something similar as I step out of the plane into Istanbul on the 9th. The near east holds a kind of portent for me that I am quite unsure of. India has become like a mother and suddenly I have to leave. I hope I can adjust and I hope you all have a wonderful time! All my love guys xx
Oh, Rae, be kind to and patient with yourself. I love this post and can relate. I sometimes feel overwhelmed in Austin and I live here!
"As long as they can climb or jump over something, they are happy." When we travel, this is how it is for our daughter, Willa. We could be in the crummiest guesthouse, with karaoke blaring through the walls and rattling our teeth, but all she sees is the delightful wonder of a shower head directly over the toilet.
Ok, I have to admit, I feel a little overwhelmed and uprooted reading your post. Disoriented and confused, lost and alone. But I feel that often. Haha. And I have a home and stay in the same place most of the time. I have to remind myself that it is because no home here is our forever home and my roots sink down deep elsewhere. Or I hope they do. Oh dear? There I go again. :-)
Yes I agree with TJ.....we all travel so easily now, certainly we'll feel disoriented or confused. It's like being in TO in the morning and then in Vancouver in the afternoon, not quite as harsh as what you're going through but you still feel confused inside for a day or so.
Enjoy your travels, be kind to yourself, and remember that you are not alone!
What an adventure Rae! And more great stuff to write in a book.
Put some sweetened condensed milk in your iced coffee for me...
.-= Rebeca´s last blog ..http://carriedonthewind.blogspot.com/2008/03/poppy-dresses.html" rel="nofollow">The Poppy Dresses =-.
You're continuing to post while travelling! Thank you so very much!!!
.-= Eleanor´s last blog ..http://eleanorfromthecommentbox.blogspot.com/2010/03/gentle.html" rel="nofollow">Gentle =-.
I was going to say with Eleanor said, so I am joining her in thankign you for keeping on posting in spite of your mixed feelings. Still remembering about us all scattered aroudn the world and travelling vicariously through you. I particualrly loed the fact that YaYa likes the smells. It's rare to focus on smells nowadays. Only few people do that.
wow on to thailand! i missed out on that after a two month absence, i was just in bali, a lot of people do the bali thailand trip together, my freinds tell me bangkock is kind of crazy politically right now, but super cheap, and very nice people and the foood... mmmm thai food.. i want to go there too one day,
you all amaze me! i can just see you now in the market pulling it together, like a real superstar of a family !
my friend's mom was just in thailand in bangkock a week or so ago, she has a freind who works in a hospital in bangkock, it sounds like very abject poverty in most places, i wonder if you are doing some mission work or is it like a little holiday from india?
hope you enjoy some yummy thai soup !
Sawatdeeka! I should have read this post first! Thailand is a good transition place and the people are so kind. I noticed they don't honk there as well and it scared me to death! Well, the sweet smelling jasmine and orchids will make up for it. Enjoy this amazing country!