Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Feb 28 2010

Back again

It seems as if we’ve been getting up early nearly every day of this trip; maybe some day I should try one of those lay-on-the-beach-and-do-nothing vacations. I’ve tried to lone-traveler thing and the group travel thing; both have advantages, but I think I need to have both kinds of trips to stay happy. I wonder how many girlfriends Paul Theroux went through until he found one who was happy to see him leave and willing to wait for his return. According to the last book I read, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, he was having troubles with his then-wife when he took his first Railway Bazaar book in 1973.

I shot almost no video this trip, and the pictures I took were quick shots grabbed while passing various scenes and falling behind from the group. I was never really alone, and these accounts have as a result been shorter and more desultory than on my previous trips. Still, I never would have gotten to go to the places I went if it hadn’t been for Chenble and our Malaysian friends: Gimzui, Ah-lin, Ouyang, Tianshun and Ah-wing, Stuart, Steve and Ah-dan and many others. In Laos, Prince Roy and Spicygirl were excellent hosts as well, and I’m grateful to have so many generous friends in interesting places.

Tianshun and Ah-wing drove us to the airport this morning, the sun rising from behind misty banana tree orchards. We had breakfast at the same airport Starbucks, this time sans wifi for some reason, before grabbing a last-minute Dunkin Donut before boarding the Air Asia, which was slightly delayed for some reason the crew didn’t feel it appropriate to tell us. The flight was smooth, though, and we were back in sunny Taipei ahead of schedule, and I was back in Bitan as the sun set. My place is a mess after the flurry of leaving, and I have thousands of photos to transfer to my hard drive. Tomorrow it’s back to work and my regular schedule, but I think it will take me a few days to retrieve my head and heart from vacationland.

posted by Poagao at 10:30 pm  

6 Comments »

  1. I always enjoy reading your travel accounts. Just wish I’d had more free time while you were here.

    Reading this almost makes me want to blog again. Note I said ‘almost’. If I were, I’d surely have written a post congratulating you for visiting somewhere other than Japan.

    For some reason today I got to thinking about that Canadian guy in Taiwan who wrote a travel book about Asia a few years back. Is he still in Taiwan?

    Comment by Prince Roy — March 1, 2010 @ 12:37 am

  2. I don’t know, I assume he is. His book read like a blog…maybe I should paste all of these travel journals together and publish a book!

    Comment by Poagao — March 1, 2010 @ 8:23 am

  3. I think you gave me your copy to read. It was painful. He tried to sound clever and witty, but came off as another obnoxious farang in Asia. I remember he dismissed Taiwan as an unattractive destination scenery-wise, then later admitted he had not traveled extensively around Taiwan before he published the book. Anyone who cannot find outstanding scenery in Taiwan has no business writing travelogues.

    I honestly think you would make a great writer of this genre, especially if your photos accompanied the text. Or better yet, mine!

    Comment by Prince Roy — March 1, 2010 @ 11:25 am

  4. Well, with all of the self-publishing opportunities on the Internet, it shouldn’t be too hard to do.

    Comment by Poagao — March 1, 2010 @ 11:33 am

  5. I would pre-order your book(s). Your writings especially travelogues are always an excellent read 🙂

    Comment by Ashish — March 1, 2010 @ 1:40 pm

  6. you indeed extract more from your miles.

    Comment by Zhara — March 1, 2010 @ 8:57 pm

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