Tag Archives: Mountains

สอง. Rubies and Rucksacks

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On to Pieria he stepped from the upper air,
and swooped down upon the sea,
and then sped over the wave like a bird, the cormorant,
which in quest of fish over the dread gulfs of the unresting sea
wets its thick plumage in the brine.
In such wise did Hermes ride upon the multitudinous waves. The Odyssey – Homer


A well-dressed man in a formal grey suit came up to me to ask where I was from. It was my third day in Bangkok and up until then, I had been alone. I was standing in Sanam Luang Park in front of the Grand Palace when he approached, and he had a generous smile, was fluent in English.

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Apat. Life in Paradise Part 1

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Karin skipped through the barriers and past a security guard. She took one final look back at me, over her shoulder and her eyes were green as the misty slopes of her Cambrian childhood, glistening despite the cold neon lights.

Nenem. The Moon Dance

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A pale moon, the color of muslin, lit the town with the soft touch of cat’s fur. It remained un-wavered by thin grey wisps of cloud that passed in front; the streets were dark with shadows that bulged and re-formed as the figures moved through them, slow stately figures gliding like statues on air, and the women treaded with the soft pat of thongs as girls who kicked puffs of dirt around them flitted this way and that behind serene mothers.

བཅུ་གསུམ་. No Limits

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It would be a long bus journey from Lijiang to get there and it was not clear where I would stay once I was there.

The guidebooks did not show anything, but it was not certain why it was off-limits. Perhaps it was a route, albeit circuitous to Tibet. Perhaps it was because the society who lived there was matriarchal.

Regardless, I had been spending more time with minority groups, both in Burma and Thailand, and this seemed like a new diversion from the Mao-fashioned Han Chinese to see some colour.

This time, with a Tibetan promise and the mother focus there was an added edge.

“So how can I get there?” I asked.

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