Canada

I Am So Excited

/ betstravelsabout / 4 Comments

“What was the last thing that got me excited?” I must admit there hasn’t been much to get me excited lately. Nevertheless, as soon as I read today’s prompt, my first thought went to Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech and the joyous reception it got from all those who were there to be a part of what could become one of this century’s most historic events.

I actually felt my adrenalin rising causing chills throughout my body and my heart to flutter. Mind you it was all in a good way. Most of the time when I hear the latest political news about my country, Canada, and that of so many other countries around the world, I am left with a sense of despair.

Kamala, as we have come to call her, has to be one of the bravest people on the planet to take on the job of winning over the confidence of her fellow Americans especially those who support her opponent. Somehow, she must gain the confidence of all of those who feel left out, such as those of colour, new immigrants, the poor and disadvantaged, the youth who are now able to vote, and those who have been so discouraged they have given up voting.

She faces huge challenges more crucial than anything her predecessors have. Never has there been a woman President of the US one of the most influential countries in the world. She will somehow have to address much of the mess that she has inherited from those before her. Let’s face it! Never have there been so many wars going on all over the world at the same time. Never has the world had to face a rapidly changing climate and how to deal with it. Never has our world been faced with having to change almost everything we have ever known, such as our past beliefs, old traumatic experiences, and outdated customs to name a few. We are being forced to make changes to our thinking and old habits so quickly. We can’t do it on our own so we need strong and open-minded leaders to help take us on this journey. It truely is boiling down to a matter of survival. I am feeling confident that Kamilla is the kind of leader we need: a beacon of light we will need to begin the process of making our world a better place to live in.

Daily writing prompt
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
View all responses

Taking A Risk

/ betstravelsabout / 5 Comments

What constitutes a risk you might ask? For me it’s about doing something that could be done on the spur of the moment when suddenly I get a notion that this seems right. I guess you would call it a knowing that comes from inside you and not from the outside as on a dare or because someone has said you should do this or that. For some people taking a risk could be carried out after thinking about what they must do to attain it. That would be called a calculated risk. However, most people tend to risk doing anything because they overthink it. I have discovered that the more I think about doing something that could be risky, the less successful it has turned out.

A risk to my mind is doing something new which you haven’t done before. There is usually some fear attached to it. It could be something like jumping off a diving board into the water for the first time or climbing a mountain. Or how about crossing a street in Viet Nam where the rules around traffic and giving way to pedestrians are non-existant. I have been to this country and will never forget the first time there in Hanoi when I had to go outside my cozy hotel room and face the main round about in the centre of the city to get to the nearest coffee shop. As I waited with a couple from Britain on the curb hoping the onslaught of motorbikes would slow up and give us a chance to cross, it finally dawned on me that I had been warned about Viet Nam’s chaotic traffic but never did I think it would be like what I saw. Finally, I looked at the English couple and said, “Shall we go”? They looked at me in agreement. We stepped out into the traffic and just kept walking but keeping our eyes looking forward to the curb ahead. To our amazement, the traffic seemed to gracefully manoeuver their way around us allowing us to reach the other side safe and sound.

This was a risk to my phyical body and one I won’t forget. When I think about what risk is all about, I realise I’ve taken many in my life. In fact, doing anything new could be called a risk. My most recent risk was one I took last August when I volunteered to take on the responsibility of managing the community garden where I live. This garden was founded about fifteen years ago by a woman who saw a vacant piece of land which she wanted to make into a community garden for the residents and a nearby elementary school. Last year she decided to retire after suffering various health problems forcing her to neglect the garden. Unfortunatly, no one responded to her reaching out for someone to take it over for her. Since I was renting a plot there, I took the risk of saying that I would try to fill her shoes. I have to admit I gave it about a week’s thought before I made the committment. I had no idea what lay before me which is probably a good thing. If I had known how much of my time it would take to get the garden back into shape, I probably wouldn’t have taken on the responsibility. Now as I look back over the last eight months, I am happy to say that it’s been successful for me. I have learned how wonderful it is to work with a team of gardeners which has given me a useful purpose for being here on this planet. I feel like I am helping this community to pull together. Four of us who have formed a committee are working hard as a team which is more than enough to say in all honesty that taking the risk when no others would has paid off in spades for me. I have learned more about myself and others than I ever could have by taking the risk of reviving a dying community garden.

Daily writing prompt
When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?
View all responses

A Shopping Spree?

/ betstravelsabout / 1 Comment

These days the last thing I could ever see myself doing would be to go on a shopping spree at least for myself. I have always had difficulty in shopping by myself and for myself especially with clothes. I am most successful when I have someone like my daughter or a close friend who knows me well and is honest and not afraid to say that something I might be interested in wouldn’t look good on me.

However, I seem to have no trouble shopping for others. I was once a buyer for a retail store that sold kitchen and gift ware. I loved doing that type of buying, displaying what I bought, and having our customers buy the merchandise I had chosen. I am still doing this today in my retirement years. For the last ten years and more, I visit Chiang Mai, Thailand which has markets galore. One day I suddenly realised that I should buy some of the great clothing and other accessories I was seeing at these markets and take it home to sell. I didn’t have a clue how or where I could sell it, but somehow knew I would. I was right and it did. I am still doing it. I have no trouble shopping for this little business and seem to make good choices because just about everything sells. Somehow it’s easier for me to buy this way whereas when I have to shop for myself, it’s much more stressful. Why? Probably because I am looking at the price tag and finding it’s too expensive. Besides most of the stuff I see these days I don’t really need. I am a retired senior so I don’t need a fancy wardrobe. When shopping for my business and for others, I don’t have to worry as much about the price tag. I know my customers well enough now that I can pretty much target the price range that will work. The other big bonus is that I can make enough money buying for others to help pay for another shopping spree in Thailand.

Daily writing prompt
Where would you go on a shopping spree?
View all responses

The Bangkok News

/ betstravelsabout / 3 Comments

“Where your mind goes your intention goes”  – Craig Hamilton

Ever since November, when I first returned to Chiang Mai, my mind has been focussed on obtaining a copy of the Bangkok Post. For the past few years, it hasn’t been readily available in the restaurants, hotels and tourist information sites where I used to find it. I was beginning to think that it had gone the way of many newspapers in these times… extinct like the proverbial dodo.  I eventually found one copy in a small cafe which was nowhere near where I am staying. Since the odds seemed to be stacked against me for getting my hands on that one available copy in that distant cafe, I was about to give up my search. I told myself that having a break from news back home in Canada wasn’t such a bad thing. I could live with that for awhile. However, I did regret not knowing what was happening here inThailand. Continue reading →

A Resurgence for Tourism in Thailand?

/ betstravelsabout / 4 Comments

Despite the strife and discord throughout our world these days, Thailand is either ignoring it or is coping with it better than most western countries such as Canada or the US. At least that is my impression since I’ve been back to the “The land of smiles”. The two weeks I have been in Chiang Mai, for what is now my fifteenth time, have given me the time I needed to see if those impressions are true or not. 

As some of you may already know, Thailand was once two separate Kingdom’s….Lanna in the north and Siam to the south. Lanna is actually an older dynasty than Siam dating back to its founding in 1296. Over the years amid many wars with their Burmese neighbours, Siam gradually incorporated Lanna into their kingdom which they called the Northern Provinces. In 1949 Lanna officially became a part of Siam which was then named Thailand. Although united physically by land, the Lanna culture still thrives in the north especially in Chiang Mai. One more interesting little tidbit is the meaning of the word Lanna: “Land of a million paddy fields”. After all Thailand is one of the world’s largest suppliers of rice so this translation is aptly named.

The north and the south remain quite different in many ways because of their past history. Bangkok has always been the capitol of what is today Thailand. The Royal dynasty makes their home there, the seat of their government too, and it has a much larger population. It is the centre of Thailand’s  manufacturing and big business, thus, attracting more people who want to work and live there from all parts of Southeast Asia. Add to that, it is nearer to all those gorgeous beaches and islands that have made Thailand such an attraction for tourism.  

With this smattering of history and culture for those of you who have never visited Thailand and would like to, I hope you have gained a bit more valuable knowledge about what makes this country so special. Now back to my story about my fifeteenth arrival to Chiang Mai over two weeks ago which is indicative of the kindness of the Thai. First of all,  there were staff planted in various strategic places to meet me when I got off my plane to direct me in the direction I needed to go to fetch my luggage. I suspect it did have something to do with a sticker saying I was a senior. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful welcoming touch. When I reached the carousel, there was my bag just waiting for me. What a relief since the thought of not finding it there is always on my mind. My first task before looking for a taxi or shuttle is to always buy a  plan for my cell phone which this time took all of ten minutes if not less. I also had enough baht with me so I didn’t have to go to the ATM for money. However, the icing on the cake for this tired traveller was to have the owner of the hotel where I am staying there to greet me. As soon as I settled into her car, I could feel the fatigue and anxiety which had built up after two nights of flying over here just melt away. I definitely felt like I was coming home. In case anyone reading this is looking for a wonderful place to stay where you will be treated like family take a look at it on http://booking.com. Look for Ban PongPhan and discover what this family offer for an enviable  9.5 rating.

Yes, I am happy and so thankful to be back and settled into the  welcoming Thai culture. Their smiling faces and their courteous ‘weis’ {hands together at the heart with a head bow} along with a friendly greeting of ‘sawadeeka’ is a great start which we ‘farangs’ {foreigners} learn the first time we visit. I should, however, mention that theThai really are masters at putting on a brave front or saving face as they call it. It’s the Asian way but it’s also important to them because so many depend on our tourist dollars. However, the truth is that behind those smiles that I keep referring to, not just in this post but others I have written, the reality is that it’s often a cover up for much emotional turmoil within them which has built up over the centuries. Men today are showing the worst of this by resorting to violent acts of all kinds. The truth is coming out as reported recently in the newspapers of the increase in acts of violence and murder which are becoming every day news items moreso in the south than in the north. Unfortunately, women are the target of the men who might be a father or a husband who drinks too much so are speaking out and saying to them, they’ve had enough. I wrote a post last year about Thai women entitled Impressive Thai Women which addresses this change occurring with Thai  women.

Tourism has morphed into one of Thailand’s important money makers over the years and all the signs are there that they are counting heavily on its future.  However, there is another dark side to this silver lining which is, I am sorry to say, showing its ugly head as evidenced in the latest news. The Chinese recently uncovered one of those dark spots which resulted in an order from their government not to travel to Thailand this year. Apparently the story is that many young Chinese men wanting to have the freedom that Thailand can offer them along with a good salary decided to apply for those good paying jobs being offered here, only to find out when they arrived that it was all a scam. They found themselves being forced into menial jobs instead. Naturally this has left a bad taste with them so the government has discouraged them from coming to Thailand as a tourist.

Enough of what is hidden behind the smiles and kindness of the Thai people which is what they are famous for and has attracted so many of us over the years. Sure they have their faults, but no one that I know can honestly say that they’ve been mistreated by a Thai person. More than likely, it’s been some tourists whom I have seen mistreating them, especially the tuk tuk drivers. I have learned to smile to all the Thai I meet and once that is done, chances are I won’t be bothered by them. Of course, there are always some very cunning and brave Thai who will try to lure you into going on a shopping spree instead of taking you to your destination. This is an old ploy long used in the big cities like Bangkok. I have personally never experienced this in Chiang Mai. In fact, when I return it’s always a surprise to me when they seem to recognize and even remember where it was they first met me going back to several years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

l