Thursday, December 1, 2022

Sleepless In Bangkok


My second trip to Thailand before heading home to Los Angeles from my Asia trip of this year.  The reason was that during the last full day of my first trip here, I passed by the Four Face Buddha at the Erawan Shrine.  I found talking to myself in that if my private affairs in Singapore went smoothly, I would return to give thanks.  What I had in mind was to swing by next year on my way to Japan and Taiwan after they had opened their borders to international travel.  Needless to say,  my wish was granted and am ready to head back home as soon as possible.  Japan only allows transit flights from Narita to Los Angeles and the only available flight was from Saigon to Narita.  It was no longer available when I made my decision.  The only other option was through Bangkok.  To my thinking, the Four Face Buddha was telling me that that he could not wait until next year!

After I had completed my vow by having eight classical Thai dancers performing the dance of thanks, I was bored with Bangkok as I had done all the touristy things in the first trip.  To kill boredom, I spent most of the remaining time in Bangkok at the hotel pools, trying to get inspirations to write and I began to think of Li Shang Yin’s 相見時難別亦難…

1 寒夜漁火流星淡
Pale against the fisherman’s lights are shooting stars of the cold night,
2 船影微動醉眠難 And shadows of gentle bobbing boats made sleep of the inebriated difficult.
3 問天不應半壺空 Heaven answers me not to my half empty wine jug,
4 春水月色照心煩 Springtime moonlight upon the waters kept vexing my heart to no end.

Monday, September 19, 2022



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