Poem: "Ovation"

Ovation

as if in celebration of this day
the sun has prepared
a grand exit

clouds, sky, red, sand, breeze

reflection in calm waters
somehow coordinated in perfect unison
lucky fools overlook this grand pleasure daily
unlucky fools, like this kind observer,
gawk at such a spectacle

clouds, sky, red, sand, breeze

a lotus blossom drawn in the sand
by a lazy toe
the waves will claim it
as will the wind and inevitable rotation of sun from view
with this performance
relaxed, quiet, calm
I am
clouds, sky, red, sand, breeze
in Koh Tao

Southbound

My posts may not be very plentiful for the next two weeks as Sharon and I travel south together to enjoy some good hammock time on the beach as well as snorkeling and jungle exploring. I return to Chiang Mai on the 3rd of January to begin my longer bike journey. I'm working on details right now and think it will be pretty exciting.

For the time being, a few snapshots from my time in Chiang Mai and the north:


a teak canopy
over the road between rice
and banana fields


----

Chiang Mai, Morning

I can't believe
I'm putting on a sweater
in Thailand!


Until then,

Khap kun krop for reading my blog,

:)
Jamie

On Cycling

On Cycling
For Asher ben Aaron ben Moshe Yosha

I.

My father instilled in me the joy of cycling,
the freedom to move under my own volition
in whichever direction I chose
at whatever pace I could manage.

The quiet hours spent together
pedaling along the Santa Ana River,
a safe straight flat path from our home
to the beach four miles South.

Throughout my childhood and teenage years,
we both found peace and respite
silently seated in our saddles--spinning,
watching people, birds, clouds, surfers, waves
__--the asphalt slowly passing.

We'd take a day and make the sixteen mile round trip
(many weekends we rode it twice)
to Balboa Island and back
where we'd play video games, eat Penguin's and walk the pier together.

I appreciated that time spent
with the wind curling through our hair,
the sweet smell of salt in the South breeze
as we'd watch dowitchers, stilts and egrets
in the wetlands along the river path.

For him, this was an escape from miles of twisted freeways
he daily found himself negotiating
as he peddled scissor jacks, tilt ups and floating forms
for Aluma Systems, Burke, Simons--thieves of his time,
our family's primary means of survival

How different the pushing of crank arms
the pulling of break levers and balance
From the pushing of accelerator and brake pedals,
the pull of slow moving traffic

___late for a deal
___get out of the way
___the client's waiting
___forty five minutes, an hour or two
___down the 5
___the 405
___the 10
___the 210
___to Compton, to Rialto, to Ventura, to San Diego

How different the sights and sounds along the river
the steady pace of the ride
the wind in the hair
the miles and minutes slipping away easy


II.

For me, just a boy,
I'd often not appreciate the long hauls against the wind,
I'd beg him (or force him rather) to pull me a ways,
I'd grab on to his seat post and hold on, let him pull my weight.

His calves bulged--
___I always admired those calves
___as big as my legs at their widest girth
___bigger, in my childhood imagination
___so powerful
___so freeing
His pace slowed slightly.

He'd complain a little,
laugh at me
then teach me to "draft" him-
to ride real close behind him and let him cut the wind.
It worked sometimes,
other times, I'd complain,
force him to stop for more breaks.

In time, this too became my solace
as I'd head out alone on my weekends
to ride the river path and the board walk down
through Bolsa Chica Wetlands, past the Huntington Pier-

Sometimes I'd go out just to put miles on the bike,
to get some space, make room for thoughts
through Newport, the backbay, PCH
___tucked tight
___alone and quiet
___free
___joyful

I dreamt of riding to the distant San Gabrial Mountains,
visible through the haze only on rare days
when the Santa Ana winds blew from the North
or after an infrequent rain.

Dreams have a way of building like that;
once simple goals are attained,
mountainous ones lie in wait just behind--
they unfold as does our life's potential.

For these things and many more
I owe my father much gratitude.
I think of him and thank him
with every push and pull
___of these crank arms
___of these bulging legs
___of my heart's steady rhythm
for this freedom.

© Jamie Yosha, 2008, Pedaling down the road somewhere in Thailand

[Note: this is a work in progress. Blogger changes the formatting of the poem, the ___ represent spaces Blogger is unable to make]

RIDE DAY: Old Sukhothai to Sawankhalok to Uttaradit

12/18/08
Day: 125.73km
Cumulative: 323.1km
Avg Spd: 18.2
Max Spd: 32
Ride Time: 6h 54m
Highs: Si Satchanalai Historic Park, teak lined roads, mountains, finally met my first touring cyclists (a couple, Jay and Jenny), longest day of cycling in my life
Lows: Finding out there were no trains leaving Sawankhalok after a hard push in the morn, the last 10km, the uphill that started at 5h 30min and didn't end until the last 4 km, not staying to camp at Si Satchanalai, crack in rim noticeably worse




I ridethrough countless miles of rice fields
with thoughts and smiles

----


That was the beginning of the day, written within the first 50km. I was feeling really good. Wide shoulder, well paved roads, very few cars, cooler temperatures, lots of waves and hellos and smiles. I was pushing hard because it was going to be a short day to Sawankhalok to catch a train to Chiang Mai to get the rim fixed...or so I thought. I pushed hard in the morning with a 20.5 km/h or so average speed.

CYCLISTS TAKE NOTE: I arrived in Sawankhalok to find there's only one train a day and it goes to BKK. I could have waited around this town until 21:00, ridden the train one stop and then switched to a Chiang Mai train, but Iwould have had to hang out in this little town all day. I decided to head the advice of a street vender who emphatically encouraged me to travel north to see Si Satchanalai and I headed out of town toward Uttraradit where I could catch a direct train and on a road that passed right by Si Satchanalai. With the additional distance, a slight head wind and knowing that it would be a long day, I slowed my pace and I knew I'd have just enough time to get to Uttraradit before sunset.

I am so happy I listened to that vender. Si Satchanalai is one of the three major sites that are a part of Sukhothai National Historic Park. This site blew Ayyutaya and Sukhothai out of the water for various reasons, but specifically for the setting. This region is forested with large trees, totally silent, right along a

 huge river with the city wall running the length of the bank of the river. It's a breathtaking setting. THEN, the structures were absolutely unbelieveable and much much larger in scale

 than the other sites I had seen. There were preserved etchings on one section of wall which is now covered with a roof structure to slow the inevitable erosion that were simply exquisite. One of the chedas (round bell shaped structure) had an open entry leading into an enclosed cylinder which one could/would circumambulate. Magical! Incensce, candles, fetishes, a wide swath of gold fabric encircling the cylinder, the darkness of the back of the path...truly truly magical!

The remainder of the day was a little rough. Tired legs, slight uphill for the last 35-40km and a slight head wind that kept blowing. I made it to Uttraradit just as the sunset was finalizing and went to the train station to discover only third class overnight seats left. It was going to be a long night. 

RIDE DAY: Sukhothai Siteseeing

12/17/08

Day: 29.62km
Cumulative: 197.3
Ride Time: 2h 12m
Highs: Simply amazing. Rode into the park around 6:30 to avoid the heat, met some lovely travelers from Spain and Argentina and chatted a bit, feeling better, afternoon nap in the park
Lows: FashionTV the ONLY English language station on my TV box

I'm not really sure what to say about this day. I'm going to have to let the snap shots and photographs (to be posted soon on Flickr) speak for me. This day in its entirity was rather breathtaking. There is a reason UNESCO granted this site the status of World Heritage Site. On this day, I specifically visited the three sites right near old Sukhothai that make up part of the larger Sukhothai National Historic Park which has multiple sites over many square kilometers.

Sukhothai

ancient pillars
built to hold up the sky
house only pigeons now

----

these birds' ancestors
sang similar songs
when ours lived here

----

so much prayerful
hand work abandoned in the
Sukhothai forest

----

At first I thought that Ayyutaya caught my interest more, but Sukhothai really caught me later in the day when I stumbled upon an absolutely amazing ruin to the North next to 

which a nunery and monastery still thrive. The whole thing was surrounded by a huge moat, 

offering many excellent points of viewing reflections of structures and the forest in the water. I tried my best to photograph this place, but I believe its grandeur defies any sort of photographic technology.


A quick note on cuisine: I ate a dish called "Mad Fish" that really intrigued me. Battered and deep fried fish (no idea what kind) topped with some sort of pickled apple and carrot mixture with spices with a very complex flavor. Very tasty.


----


looking in the mirror behind the mirror
I see things as they are
myself looking in the mirror

RIDE DAY: Phitsanoluk to Old Sukhothai

12/16/08

Day: 86.38 km

Cumulative: 167.7 km
Avg Spd: 19.2Max Spd: 28.0
Ride Time: 4h28m

Highs: Really neat ride, quiet country roads, early start (7AM) to avoid afternoon heat

Lows: Fever returned, rear rim cracked!

Sleep was hard to come by in Phitsanulok. Very busy town and I was pretty near the night

 bizzare. At some point in the middle of the night there were either simultaneous loud fireworks going off or drums being beaten around the area. There may have been a festival, but I

 wasn't interested because I was tired and staying in a pretty shaggy guest house. So I wrote:

traffic in the day
traffic and noise in the night
when do these Thais sleep?

I got up early and headed out of the door. I was feeling better and spinning a bit recharged me. Early morning in Phitsanulok was actually pretty nice. A very somber morning market was

 going on, I got some soup and other snacks, including oranges and bananas, but I passed on the live turtles, serpents, grubs and other unidentifiable LARGE basket of live insects (again).

I passed on Sukhothai where there were supposedly very cheap accomdations...just a string of large hotels and very busy main thoroughfaire...and went on another 10km 

to Old Sukhothai where I found a LOVELY room in a guest house right in town at the Old City Guest House. It was way in the back, far from the street, very quiet, extremely lovely terracotta tile and teak interior with windows on three walls and an in room bathroom and sink. Simply lovely (and $10 a night). I arrived late enough and tired enough (and it was HOT enough) that it wasn't worth it for me to embark on starting to site see the park. I decided on two nights, because I'd heard so much about Sukhothai from Thai friends in Berkeley.  So, I sat at the wat across the street, had a meal with many other farangs at a neat little cafe and turned in early. The hot shower was awesome!

Some time during the ride day, I finally paid attention to a noise that was not coming from my racks, not coming from my fenders, not coming from my panniers or my drive train. It started getting louder and sounded a lot like the noise that went away when I replaced my freewheel hub. I got off the bike, poked around and found a hairline crack in the rear rim which had begun to bulge. I poked at it a bit and decided that after 12 years and I'm not going to even try to guess how many miles of mountain biking, touring, trials riding, commuting and shopping on that rim, it had served me well. It didn't make me feel very good, because I was now 50 or 80 km to the nearest train station.

TRAIN: Ayuttaya to Phitsanulok

Considering my still not perfect health, the terrain and timing, I decided to hop a train north 7 hours to Phitsanulok, gateway to Sukothai. It couldn't have been easier (or cheaper!) to catch a third class local train north (for 150 baht, $5 US) with my bike. I didn't see any other farangs (Euro-white folks) on the train, just Thai and immediately made friends with a man who sat near me by making kind eyes and gestures. I decided to try to make run up to Chiang Mai by bike and wanted to catapult my ride so that I could arrive there on time to get back to BKK for Sharon's arrival next weekend. I'm glad I did. I avoided hundreds of miles of flat, hot terrain in exchange for cooler temperatures up north and much nicer roadside scenary. Late in the ride, a little boy about age four took interest in my journaling and started trying to interact with me by shouting at me in Thai. He and I eventually decided to draw together. I'll have to scan some of the pictures he and I came up with! When I got off the train, he ran over and gave me a shove in the way little boys do before running off with his mother.



My train trip ended in Phitsanulok:



Phitsanulok
Little Bangkok
in the country



That's what I thought last night, but this morning, when I went to the morning market, I saw a completely other side and found the people there to be very very kind. Night time was crazy, though, and loud with a WILD night bizar, tons of pubs and bars and lots of young people with loud music and such. I wasn't feeling well (still) so this was not to my liking at the time. I turned the TV on to the Bloomberg station to drown out all the other noise and get sleep (it worked). I had a neat experience watching Thai kick boxing while ill in Ayuttaya, very very interesting! Bloomberg was just depressing story after depressing story about the economy. I'm glad I fell asleep quick!



I loved the train ride up, though. I've only taken the train a few times in my life and this was very different. Food and drink venders walking up and down selling the sweetest and tastiest of foods for nearly nothing. People coming on, people getting off. Making eyes with young children and interested Thais who seemed to want to know what I was up to, but unable to communicate. That didn't stop the man in front of me, as we communicated with gestures and smiles. Very kind. Some views:



cell towers
the tallest perch
near these rice fields



----



white cranes
green rice patties
lunch time



----



smell of burnt fields
indelible hazy skies
rice basket of the world





Today, on to Sukothai by bike!!!