Yoga

I've been home a week and have commenced the new chapter of the lifetime that I was wanting to when I left for S.E Asia. Basically, and this is an overlap from my other blog, I had been having serious problems with being/self identifying as Theravada Buddhist. Too conservative and just not interested in things like combining meditation and lifestyle. Also my being an Aspergers and that aforementioned conservatism didn't really work that well.

Any way, the recitation of the soap opera over, I have added yoga, weights and Kegel exercises to my morning routine. I'm performing Sun Salutations for the moment. This week it has been one Salutation...which means I salute with both my left and right sides...so two complete sets of asana.

Next week I will perform two Salutations and the week after three until a maximum of five is reached.
I'm back watching my diet...essentially the same diet as I had before we left for overseas. I did manage to lose an extra 3 kg, which makes me 97 kg. I would have lost more weight if a tablespoon of sugar wasn't added to absolutely every drink. Didn't like Indonesian beer which was the happy combination of being bad & expensive.

The weights take three forms: the lighter 5 kg dumbells in the morning and the 10 kg & 20 kg sets in the evening. Just realised that I have a 20 kg weight with handles that I an lift as well...may as well use it.
The goal is being at 90 kg by my birthday in May. I went to my GP yesterday and he's increasingly happy with my progress. So's the wife.
Must go...I need to go to a farmers market to buy fruit.

Indonesia

I have actually returned home to Australia. Indonesia was such a head space.

Jakarta we simply hated, It is big, polluted, overcrowded and utterly bereft of both charm and urban planning. Jakarta, fortunately, is NOT Indonesia.

Indonesia is a place of dramatic landscapes and people. We visited Java and Bali and neither one of them is Indonesia. I had the view before my visit, that Indonesia is an idea rather than a nation. I still think this is true. Indonesia is such an incredibly diverse place that no single place or idea defines itself as "Indonesia". Even Bahasa Indonesia is a construct....there are enough words borrowed from elsewhere to keep anyone happy and the borrowing is ongoing. Indonesia is a collective agreement.

The landscapes are just breath taking. The train station at Banyuwangibaru has two volcanoes as a backdrop. Endless emerald rice paddies and then straight up out of the ground volcanoes. Mosques scattered like confetti through the landscape.

The people are amazing. The Javanese is very different from the Balinese. No dogs on Java due to Islam and on Bali, they're every where. The Javanese are quieter and more disciplined, the Balinese louder and more passionate. Both are deeply musical. Both seriously attractive.

Jet lagged at the moment. More time to reflect is needed.

Ha Noi

 

I've been in Ha Noi for almost a week now. It certainly isn't as friendly as Sai Gon. It sounds like a Vietnamese city, yet there are so many signs of China...which is hardly surprising since China is quite literally only 300 km away to the north and the east.

As the photo says, they eat dog here. I have no problems with this. I happen to think that it's incredibly rude to enter a country and tell them what to eat.

Ha Noi is different from the south. The people aren't as friendly for a start. Ha Noi has been cool to cold. The sites are interesting. Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum is frighteningly similar to a shrine. For a crowd that have so shit canned religion, the Communists have built themselves a holy place. We visited the Temple of Literature yesterday which is walking distance from our hotel. The locals use it. And yesterday it was full of 8 year olds receiving awards. I like a people who build temples to learning.

Today we visited the Ha Noi Military Museum...and it was worth the price of entry. 

Lunch cost $4.50...90 000d.

There is a very good reason why you never run across the road in Viet Nam...the traffic can smell fear.

Am tired and in need of genuine solitude. Ariel is charming some gorgeous locals.

Vietnam

Been here a week & a half. It is eerily familiar. I'm not sure whether this is because I've spent most of my adult life reading about the place or because there are genuine echoes from the previous life.

If I was here in 1964 I wasn't doing nice things. I think I was based in Vietnam, but operated in Cambodia and Laos. Feel more at home there. Could be that I was solely in Vietnam and because of  my dying here I don't feel as relaxed as I other wise might.

It is clearly a culture with Chinese finger prints. It is also an incredibly confident one. The future is here. The West has lost the edge and these people know it. Mind you, I am in a place that has beaten not one but two Superpowers...US & China. It is incredibly scenic. The mountains are close and the combination of them and paddy is very pretty.

Have imperial tombs to explore.

Saigon2

A week in Saigon!
It's incredibly noisy, busy and polluted.
It's also posessed of an energy that I liked.
Hoi An is nicer..damp and cool versus Saigons hot & sticky.

Saigon

Saigon is a genuine eye opener. It is noisy, polluted, crowded and wonderful. It has a range of extremes that will ring you like a bell. There is poverty in The Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese are wonderfully self assured, but then the current generations grandparents beat the Americans and that has to enhance your sense of "can do". I wouldn't like to be an American here...the Vietnamese aren't in the business of apologising for winning.

They adore children here. It is nice to be able to be nice to kids and not be treated like a paedophile.

It would be a mistake to judge all of Vietnam by Tay Ninh Province and Saigon. But, so long as I could find a place of quiet occasionally, I would live here. The Communist propaganda is quite interesting, there is a vigour to the statues in particular that I find very refreshing. The traffic obeys the laws of the oceans...all the scooters/mopeds are sardines and they flow around the bigger fish of buses and trucks. The other night I was watching a bus...a big one, turning at a round-a-bout and was amazed that no one was killed...the traffic just flowed around it.

The Vietnamese do not whisper and the streets are places for shouting. I/we am/are changing as a person/people and often wonder just how I/ we will fit in back home on our return.

Tuol Sleng, the Killing Fields & Pnom Penh

I've been in Pnom Penh for 5 days now. Been to the almost obligatory places...Tuol Sleng Execution Centre & Choung Ek Killing Fields. The former is tough because it looks like almost any other secondary school you would find in Pnom Penh. It's an ordinary place.
The seond is tough because they didn't spare anyone...the bones of children, the krama still in the pits. I thought it would be a great place for meditation. It's very quiet.
Pnom Penh itself is an odd place. Like many in the 3rd World there is a mixture of the super rich and the super poor. So beggars beside BMW's. Some of the beggars are very hard to deal with. One had a facial deformity that started above his right eye and hung down his face....nearly lost lunch over that one.
The Khmer are a beautiful people. There is such life here. I think I will find it very hard to return home. So many things here just cut to the heart of life.
It is the perfect place for me to close one chapter of this life and to begin another on my return.Many of you I will keep as friends. It has more to do with people I knew during my first marriage. More to do with exploring things mentioned in my other blog. I'm also tired and there is kack in my lungs.
Pnom Penh can be cheap. Street food is very good and cheap. The fruits are wonderful. The local donut which must use sticky rice flour is delicious...and at 25 cents a pop, is a steal.
Tickets to Saigon by bus $10 each. Ariel is free.
Vietnamese visas $45 each...we were expecting $30 and Ariel possibly free. So this weeks budget is blown.
Will go. Need coffee.