Now I am in Thailand, still trying to find my footing. I need to get on the right schedule, figure out what I’m really going to do here, and I am finding it taking awhile. But that’s OK. One of the things you learn is to let the things that cost more than you want go. To try to make everything work, whether it’s every expenditure truly pay its value, or every hour be filled with perfect moments, fuck that. Too much pressure. You bring something you don’t need. That’s OK. Give it away. Send it home. You get stuck in the wrong town for a couple days. Enjoy it. Read. Write. Nature makes too much for a reason. I lot has to get wasted. Let it go. It’s sort of the Buddhist / Lou Reed thing of pleasure and pain being the same.

I went straight up to Udon Thani and have been hanging out with an old buddy of mine that came to Thailand, married a Thai lady, and is now making an Internet business of helping people get their immigration applications in order. He’s one of the smartest people I know, and his views on Thailand and life in general continue to be the most interesting and challenging I will likely encounter in this lifetime. He is at once a crafty businessman, a cultural anthropologist, a hedonist, a very reserved fellow, an adventurer, and one of the most talented artists I know. I met him by seeing one of his paintings about 20 years ago at this girl’s house that I really liked, and she said I had to meet the guy, and the guy ended up being this guy that I become good friends with. And then he got into programming and started kicking ass during the Internet boom. And then he just upped and moved to Thailand. He reincarnates every 7-10 years or so.

I explained to him that I am here for four things: 1) deepening my Buddhist practice, including knowledge, experience and meditation, 2) floating in very warm water that moves, 3) scoping and scouting and seeing what might be possible for future living / life here or around here, 4) doing research and possibly even a little development on my new business venture / idea, which, in a nutshell, focuses on allowing people in the developing world to text ideas rather than people, and come together in new ways to get their needs met. He really got it, and had so much to share about his own view of what is really going on in this place, what each of my stances toward each of these four endeavors might be, and how it all mixes with his views of the world, and this world, and the world we share. He said a lot of things, but one that resonated with me is that there is simply more freedom here, that the so called freedoms we have in the US are in many cases sort of false, more like choices vs. being really free to have a life. Here you really can go where you want, do where you want, even park where you want.

It really does feel like there is more time here. That things are more open. There is a warmth and loveliness that nourishes me in ways I cannot really explain. I just like soaking in this soup. It is also a deeply messed up place, especially business wise, and he provided plenty of warnings of how hard it would be to get things done and have any kind of trusting relationship here if and when starting a business. And when the King, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyade, dies, the shit is really going to hit the fan. The dude has reigned since June 9, 1946, making him the world’s longest reigning monarch, except of course for the butterfly. What most people don’t know is that there is a special relationship between Thailand and the US because our king was actually born there, in Cambridge, back in 1927 (he’s 84; just had his birthday.).  Americans have special preferences for visas, a bunch of other stuff, and it’s a shame our current government doesn’t shine a positive light on that, especially given what’s at stake here.

So the King apparently really is a great guy, and one of the reasons is he brought organic agriculture to Thailand years before anywhere else, and it worked, and now Thailand grows and exports way more of it than anybody else. The people really, really love him. Worship him, and so it’s good to see that he kind of deserves it. The son not so much. A bit of a playboy and sort of the classic King / no good playboy son of King situation. My friend explained that the way the country is responding to the floods is tragic, that the PM is actually doing next to nothing, that the floods have really ruined a tremendous amount, so many ancient temples and heritage sites ruined, so much land is still flooded, the army could do something, push the water back, but for political reasons nothing or very little is being done, that the people are furious, and there is a great deal of simmering resentment. It goes a lot deeper, but that’s the gloss. Lots of photo ops handing a couple sand bags, but efforts to undo the damage are mired. And so it turns out it was smart to avoid Bangkok!

But now, what am I doing in Udon Thani? I don’t really want to be here, yet this will be my third night. A bit of a pit. The cold at night does nothing to the dark clouds of mosquitoes that refuse to dissipate. Do I head north into Laos, where it’s even colder, or bomb back down south where there are crowds and lots of white people, many with European and even Australian accents. Assuming south, I am trying to determine if I want to go to Vietnam or Indonesia. I had thought the Nam or Burma originally, but now am feeling called to Sumatra. I will put that together likely today and head out tomorrow. Until then, I am still grounding out here in Udon Thani.