Tomorrow

​In the wee hours of the early morning a flight from Rochester to JFK then onto Bangkok. Another journey into the unknown that I sense will be familiar in enough ways to find the treasures I seek. 

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Amazing Graces

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Off to the most amazing start, finding this guesthouse and, today, meeting with Topsi, the Servas host here. She’s amazing and well-connected throughout Thailand. Was the action coordinator for Greenpeace in the early 2000s, flying a hot air balloon and unfurling banners over a coal plant that was a major polluter in Northern Thailand, and leading a flotilla to confront the first Argentinian ship bringing GMO soya into Thailand. Then coordinator for “Ecoversify” in Thailand, and now a director of “Pilgrimage Asia.” Tomorrow she’s introducing me to a monk-friend at the famed Wat Saker (Golden Mount Temple) here, and connecting me with her Chiang Mai friends, in particular the founders of Pun Pun Organic. Not bad for my first 48 hours. We lunched long with a Japanese woman-friend on the banks of the Chao Phraya river — a place a tourist would never discover on their own, called Chaopraya Antique Cafe . Amazingly, you walk a plank since the lower floor (kitchen and living room) has a foot...
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Shokhothai - A Diamond Island in Town Square

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I’m moving north from Bangkok with several stops along the way. Perhaps no surprise, but Buddha and Buddhism is everywhere! Oh, the temples! By my reckoning, much more visible than in India and Nepal. Arriving in Sukhothai at orange-dusk last night, I was later washed-over by the brilliantly lit sight of the moated Wat/Stupa in town. You can approach it over four lantern-lit bridges coming from the four directions. It was stunning at night and, after the magic and adventure of morning and checking out tomorrow’s cute little guesthouse (with the weed store next door); and a fine latte with an oat-coca biscuit - and definitely the heat if the day - my trusty shoes walked me over the north bridge to the Stupa where I found a shaded stone bench awaiting me.. It’s a wholly holy peaceful scene. Not a soul about. I wish I had brought my inflatable meditation cushion. Around the far side, there is hubbub. It’s all quietly done, but they’re setting up for an event, rolling out tons of gold ca...
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