(English version below)
Aquesta breu entrada i ara que comencem a endinsar-nos a Birmània és per ’informar’ que no tenim ni idea de quina serà la connectivitat, accés a internet, a electricitat per carregar el mòbil… de que disposarem, pel que consegüentment, no tenim ni idea de si podrem mantenir aquesta alta freqüència de publicacions a la web, i les xarxes socials.
The man with the big smile and kind eyes passes us his phone. He wants us to speak to his son.
“Hello again,” we say. We spoke to the young man a few minutes ago on speaker phone. His father called him when he saw we were having problems reading the menu of the restaurant we found ourselves in at the end of a 26-kilometer stretch. Thai letters are beautifully curvy, but we have no clue what they say. Both father and son wanted to make sure the cook understood that we requested our favorite, easy-on-the-stomach walking dish: fried rice with chicken and a fried egg.
“Hi. My father will take you to a homestay where you can sleep tonight, and tomorrow he will take you back to the intersection where you are now so you can continue walking. Ok?” The young man on the phone is in Bangkok, a few hundred kilometers from our finish line today, Ban Lan Sang, a speck of a town near Road 12 which will take us into the Thai hills and eventually into Myanmar. His English is very good, and our Thai is pathetically bad.
Continue reading Finding a Safe Place to Sleep: Ban Lan Sang
Aquestes senzilles construccions als costats de les carreteres han esdevingut per mi, o per nosaltres, uns meravellosos oasis. A hores d’ ara penso que tal i com anem voltant per aquest bonic país, viscudes les temperatures que hem tingut i tenim, un dels millors llocs per estar entre les 10 i les 15h, és a una parada de bus. Ja sé que pot sonar ximple o si més no exagerat, però aquests indrets ja han esdevingut els meus particulars temples.
Així doncs, aquesta senzilla entrada vol ser un petit homenatge a les parades d’ autobús.
Aquests últims dies des de l’última entrada hem seguit cap al nord-oest avançant xino-xano sense fer grans distàncies però sense aturar-nos. Després de molts dies seguint el gran riu Chao Phraya, passat Nakhon Sawan ens hem ‘canviat de camisa’, hem ‘fet el salt’ a l’anterior riu i hem anat a seguir el riu Ping al llarg del que jo anomenaria, la ruta del sucre (molt diferent a la mítica ruta de la seda).
We all want the same things in life, regardless of where we come from or where we’re going. We want comfort, security, good health and a better life than our parents had.
There are other universal things we collectively seek out. For example, we want to belong. We want to fit into a family or a community, or said more simply, we have a human sense of belonging to each other that we spend our lifetimes trying to satisfy. The flip side of that is more complex. In the same way we individually crave to fit in and belong, we also have this tendency to want to help others belong to whatever circles we move in. Despite what the headline news tells us about fearing “those people,” whoever “those outsiders” are in any given moment in history, there’s a part of us that cannot resist the urge to extend a kind hand and open heart to another person.
Thailand has given us a chance to reflect on this dynamic.
El saben aquell que diu… Jaume: Anem a jugar a golf? Pere: Anem! … Un cop allà en Pere fa com 5 o 6 forats a la gespa abans de tocar la primera bola. Jaume: Perdona Pere, però pensava que en sabies de jugar. Pere: I en sé. Fins i tot he escrit un llibre. Jaume: Sí??? I com es diu? Pere: El golf i la mare que el va parir!
Doncs el títol complet d’ aquesta entrada és:
Els gossos i la mare que els va parir !!!!
4 a.m. always seems to come too fast. It’s not a natural wake-up time, but it is becoming an automatic beginning to our morning routine.
My alarm goes off first. “Two more minutes,” I mumble, knowing that Lluís’ alarm will beep two minutes later. I’m not a morning person, and I’m definitely not a 4 a.m. morning person.
La festa ha començat! La realitat s’imposa.
Aquesta primera setmana de viatge ens ha ensenyat moltes coses i ens està fent veure la realitat tal com és i no tal com la pensàvem o imaginavem.
Instead of translating each other's posts, we're leaving these in our respective native languages, English (Jenn) and Catalan (Lluís), to capture the essence of what we each feel. There are, however, no words that could fully describe the illusion and hope we carry with us for this adventure.
Happy birthday to me! What a way to start my 44th year! Here we are, early morning on 1/16/16, across the way from Wat Arun, the temple of dawn, an appropriate place for starting a new day, a new trip and a new life.
Today, we begin our long walk home. Geographically, we call Barcelona home. But, home, as they say, is where the heart is, and that’s the home we’re looking for every day. We have maps to guide us through the physical distance, but we know we won’t be walking in a straight line. Life almost never takes us in a straight line, despite our best efforts to make it seem that way. Visa limitations, weather, safety and health issues will likely detour us, and we’ll have no choice but to take them all in stride.
We often talk about this walk as a way to find goodness in the world, which we believe is all around us just waiting to be discovered and appreciated. Perhaps, though, the goodness we’re out to find is already in us, and one of the gifts we’re meant to share with others. Maybe, this trip is about being brave enough to step forward and letting our hearts, smiles and goodness lead us home. We shall see.
On that note, let’s get this party started! Off we go, on our way to the big unknown.
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Aquí i avui comença la festa!
Ja ha arribat el dia. Després de tant de temps d’haver-ho decidit i d’estar esperant i preparant aquest projecte, avui 16/01/2016 comencem a caminar des del cor de Bangkok cap a la nostra estimada Barcelona. Avui comença ‘oficialment’ la nostra ruta, el viatge, l’aventura, la recerca de la bondat de la gent!
Confiem que serà un viatge molt enriquidor, un viatge molt especial en que pas a pas anirem explorant aquest fascinant món en que vivim, al mateix temps que coneixem la bondat de moltes persones de cultures totalment diferents amb les que ens encantarà relacionar-nos, mirant de comunicar-nos de la manera més bàsica.
Tenim una barreja de nervis, emoció, ganes, motivació… i seguim amb tants interrogants com quilòmetres tenim pel davant. Ja veiem a venir que degut a les durades i restriccions dels visats, monsons, hiverns, estius, salut, situacions geopolítiques i de seguretat, … sembla que no podrem fer un recorregut recte i continuat com ens agradaria. Tenim clar el ‘què’. No tenim ni idea del ‘com’. Però això entenem que forma part de la definició d’aventura.
Una cosa que sí tenim clara és el fet de viure la nostra vida de manera intensa i apassionant.
Esperem que la salut ens acompanyi i amb una justa dosi de bona sort podrem fer realitat aquest somni tan esbojarrat com apassionadament meravellós.
Bé doncs, que comenci la festa !!!!
To give our legs a good stretch, we did a 35-kilometer (22-mile), 10-hour training walk from Barcelona to Sitges. Here are few things we saw along the way.
Per començar a estirar les cames, varem caminar uns 35 km, 10 hores entre Barcelona i Sitges. Aquí tenim algunes de les coses que varem veure.
