Korea

After 14 hours we layed over in Seoul arriving to a snowy misty world of white on the Korean peninsula. It still amazes me flying from such distant lands in such short periods of time. I am already half the Earth away. What then becomes of that time in between, the time we lose? Neither here nor there, this time zone or the next. Like a sort of time warp. Alice through the worm hole...

Flying West across North America and up over the Arctic we raced against the sunset suspended in a faint glow of orange hanging in the plane window. In fact, it is we who were suspended as the Earth rotated along it's axis while we struggled to keep up. For the airline meal they served beebimbop! They even gave me an instruction manual in English on how to prepare it. Too much fun!

We were delayed by ice on the runway in Seoul, but three hours later we finally took off to Bangkok. Like an omen tempting me forward I was seated beside a young monk dressed in yellow-orange saffron robes returning to Thailand from visiting his sick mother in Seoul. He showed that unique calm and quite grace I find so refreshing from Buddhist monks. We made friends and talked along the journey in between naps. When we bid one another adieu at customs I couldn't help thinking of him as a sort of messenger to guide me back here.

And so bleary and exhausted I arrived back in Bangkok. A warm wet wall of air greeted me, tropical smells, and the babble of an exotic unfamiliar tongue. This is my fourth time passing through Bangkok and by ths time it felt familiar and nostalgic to return, no longer so mind boggling and overwhelming. Taking a late night taxi through the deserted streets and boulevards to my old guesthouse was almost like returning home in some strange way. And so I fell asleep from that dream to dream another and didn't wake up again until late the next day to the sounds and smells of a new land.