Into the City

Today I took the trains into the city, to my favorite premier department store, Siam Paragon, for the first time since this Plague Era began so long ago.  I desperately need to acquire a new tablet computer since my ancient faithful Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact has died – after many, many years of service as a lightweight, waterproof Internet connection (at an 8-inch display) midway between a phone and a laptop.  It was a phenomenally great device that served me so well, and I’m struggling to find a replacement.  But no luck yet with that. 

The great shock at Siam Paragon was how empty it was.  Spooky.  I saw immediately that there were no “farang” around, no foreign tourists.  Everybody was Thai except for me.  And all of us wore a face mask, without exception. 

Face masks are mandatory on public transit and in public market interfaces.  Although we haven’t had a domestic infection in over a month, we still follow the guidelines.  Because of my face mask, my eyeglasses fog up continually in the a/c environment on the trains, in the malls and in each individual store.  Frustrating. 

I just got word today that the pubs are conditionally re-opening, with strict guidelines.  I have sent in my reservations for the limited seating in the first two nights of The Rock Pub’s re-opening this week.  Hope to once again hear great live Rock n Roll!  “It’s been a long time -- a long lonely, lonely, lonely time!” 

-Zenwind. 

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Recent Outings & Observations

Last week I went to my first libertarian meet-up in months, and had a great time talking with a few old friends.  My voice was hoarse the next day – ain’t used to it!  The restaurant followed all the re-opening sanitation rules (e.g., check in and out with the easy “ThaiChana” track and trace system, hand sanitizer, masks, etc.) and it was not crowded.  Nor were the sidewalks during my walk there, which are usually full of people. 

I had earlier seen a couple of movies in the theater for the first time in ages.  (I do love the big screen, and as a senior I get half-price.)  The same registering and distancing rules were also strictly followed there.  The trains going into the city and then out were not crowded, but of course I always avoid rush hours, coming in at midday and out before midnight. 

Yesterday, I went to the closest mall – actually a five-floor venue they call a “department store” – for their Tops Market, some DVDs, and also a movie.  Every single person there wore a face-mask, even the toddlers.  ThaiChana registration via QR code was mandatory for entering the mall and again for each individual store.  It is easy to forget to register your exit, but next time you look at your phone you can finish that. 

On my renewed neighborhood walks/marches, I don’t see much difference from days gone by, except that almost everyone today wears a face-mask, even outside.  A few don’t, but that’s rare.  Marching with a mask is hot and horrible, so when I’m walking a stretch with no people around, I pull the mask down to my chin to get air.  When coming to places with people, I slip the mask back up over my nose and mouth again – it is to be polite to my neighbors.  Since the most horrendous death tolls have been in Europe and the USA, many Thais consider Westerners to be “dirty farangs”, too stupid, unhygienic, careless, or disrespectful to wear masks.  I live here, so I try to show neighborliness by my mask, but also by registering via ThaiChana going into every neighborhood store – even if many local Thais are already starting to skip that.  

-Zenwind. 

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Marching Again, like Sisyphus up the Mountain

Finally, today I started marching again, stepping out briskly on my “long loop” neighborhood walking route by the river.  (Of course, I still wear a facemask, a more comfortable surgical one now, out of politeness for my neighbors.)  There is another more direct walking route – which I always take when despicably lazy – straight down the street a klick-and-a-half to my pharmacy, to Yanhee Hospital, and my English-speaking Thai friend who makes key copies on the sidewalk nearby.  The long river loop adds about two kilometers to the walk, but it is more scenic and is much more conducive to exercise. 

It’s been weeks and weeks – months actually – since I last strode these long-loop sidewalks.  First off, in January and February the winter toxic smog (which I’ve written of earlier) made it necessary to wear N95 facemasks to filter out the PM-2.5 particles, and it is extremely hard to breathe through those when exercising rigorously.  Exhausting and hot, discouraging activity of any kind.  Then the Covid-19 lockdown started, coinciding with the intense Hot Season.  I even stopped my weight training routine with dumbbells two months ago (until re-starting it again just three days ago), and it’s long been far too hot to use my home treadmill. 

In the early stretches of my long river loop march today, I saw old neighbors I hadn’t seen in so long, and we happily waved and smiled as I cruised on by.  Good folks.  Arriving at the Chao Phraya River, I had forgotten how cool it is under the broad Rama 7 Bridge with the shade and constant breeze.  (Blessed coolness, Zen delight!)  The river is quite low at the end of the long dry season, but it will fill up in coming months. 

About one klick into my long-loop march, I started to feel stresses and soreness in various leg muscles.  I realized that walking this loop uses different muscles in different ways, and I’m not used to that.  All my walking in the last couple of months has been just short saunters to stores in my immediate area, and it involves stopping frequently to wait for traffic to clear and slowly weaving through crowded sidewalks with vendors set up, and at no time have I been able to really step out in full uninterrupted stride.  But today, I was again on terrain where I am psychologically accustomed to full-out marching – Ooh Rah! – long rapid strides at as fast a pace as possible – no traffic crossings or obstacles to slow my progress. 

I stretched my legs; I ain’t used to it; and I’m going to be terribly sore for days and days.  As one gets older (and I’m 70), it is harder to recover from inactivity, and it seems like an ever-steeper uphill climb to win back that fitness.  Sisyphus would understand, as he shoulders his rock up the mountain in his eternal task.  Another ancient said in another context, “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.”  The Buddha said that life is Dukkha, recommended that it’s best we embrace that fact while letting go of negative reactions to it, but that joy is possible.  More modern sages, The Rolling Stones, sang, “What a drag it is getting old...”.  Others, “What a long strange trip it’s been!” 

Although the tendency of ageing’s physical weakening and deterioration goes inexorably in one downward direction, the opportunities for intellectual, emotional, and spiritual ripening and fulfillment can go in another direction altogether.  The pinnacles of a lifetime of learning and of drawing on rich deep experience can coalesce into a profound joy – much like the portrayal of Sisyphus (that Camus gives us), at the moment when he turns around on the summit to walk back down the mountain to retrieve his rock again in his never-ending agonizing task.  Sisyphus, momentarily relieved of his upward struggle yet knowing that he will have to continue it soon, can look at the world below him at this moment and take in the complete view (which is also, perhaps coincidently, the first step on the Eightfold Path). 

I’ve read a bit – yet never as much as I’d like – and there are a few distinct pinnacles I’ve glimpsed, many of them being perennial stuff from my youth.  Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance, said, “Trust thyself.  Every heart vibrates to that iron string.”  When hitchhiking in 1968 after liberation from that grueling 12-year-sentence of public schooling, I carried a small copy of this essay in my pocket everywhere I roamed that entire summer. 

But one quote from an immigrant refugee from totalitarianism who found the promise of a better life in America sums it all up better than others for me:

“To hold an unchanging youth is to reach, at the end, the vision with which one started.” 

I first read that over half a century ago, and I was awed at the time by the notion of steadfast idealism and personal achievement it expressed.  It rings truer as I age. 

I always find it hard to believe that I am an “old man”, even if my body is no longer strong.  The spirit of youth has never left me, and my unchanging vision – Personal Freedom – is right here now.  At this stage, it is doubtful if I’ll ever “grow up”.  What’s the point? 

-Zenwind. 

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The Rains

At last we are getting some fairly regular rain.  It blocks the sun and cools the air a bit, although the steamy damp is always with us.  Our high temperatures look to be in the mid-90s rather than 100*F (for now), and the lows in the lower-80s.  I’ve had to change my night sleep-time routines, by covering my bare legs with a blanket – although leaving my feet exposed lest that be too hot. 

We always have fans blowing on us at night, all year, mostly to keep mosquitoes from preying upon us.  Even in the hottest times of year, I cover my neck and throat because Tuk often turns on a powerful fan unexpectedly during the night.  I often wear a very light-weight wicking turtleneck and shorts at these times.  Tonight, I will break out my long pajama pants once again instead of the blanket.  I haven’t worn socks in years.  I have started turning off our (weak) a/c after midnight. 

Mosquitoes in this Rainy season pose the most danger of Dengue Fever, which regularly kills more Thais every year than has the Covid-19 virus so far.  The mosquitoes carrying this disease prey upon you mostly at twilight, throughout the night, at dawn and early morning, but even throughout the daytime.  We burn mosquito coils at doorways most nights of the year. 

(Hint:  the best way to burn mosquito coils is in steel bowls that have lids; this safely contains the burning coils, and you can put the lid on to extinguish the coil and save it for another time; get a lidded steel bowl about six or seven inches in diameter.) 

Malaria is no longer a problem in most of Thailand, only up in Kanchanaburi province on the Burmese border near Three Pagoda Pass where the WW2 Death Railway was – the Bridge over the River Kwai.  But Dengue is the malady to watch out for elsewhere here.  

-Zenwind. 

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