On a Slow Boat

Saigon Traffic

Pedestrian is the lowest form of life in the streets of Saigon. One is never really safe from the tyranny of traffic anywhere. Not on the sidewalks, not on the street corner, not on the crosswalk and definitely not while crossing the street.

At any given moment, some sort of moving vehicle – could be a car driving against traffic because the driver is too lazy to go around the block, or a minibus blindly backing out of the parking lot – could endanger one’s life. Scooters pose the most peril, for they can appear out of nowhere coming right at you in any direction. At least you’ll know when they’re about to hit you. When they see pedestrian on their path, they honk. A loud and fast “beep-beep-beep”. I suppose it’s nice to know that Death’s arrival is announced with the toot of a horn.

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The Pathway Finally Opened

by Mahsati Ganjavi

When my heart came to rule
in the world of love,
it was freed
from both belief
and from disbelief.

On this journey,
I found the problem
to be myself.

When I went beyond myself,
the pathway finally opened.

Original Language Persian/Farsi
English version by David and Sabrineh Fideler

Quarterly Review

“Have you ever regretted coming on this trip?” I asked Gabriel recently.

He shook his head. “No.” A pause. “Definitely not.”

“Same.” I agreed. Since we left four months ago, I haven’t regretted our decision to live on the road. Worries I still have. But regrets? None whatsoever.

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South Korea

We had planned to go to South Korea from Japan via ferry but the added cost and time of traveling from Osaka to Fukuoka, plus a two-day layover in Fukuoka until there were seats on the ferry made that option less appealing. Jeju Air meanwhile offered a direct flight from Osaka to Busan for less than $50. So we flew to Busan, a busy port town at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula and the second largest city in South Korea, spent a few days there then took the train to Seoul before flying off to Taipei.

In short, South Korea is busy, bustling, modern and polluted. So polluted, in fact, that some days we felt short of breath and unable to do much. By the end of each day I could feel a thin layer of smog blanketing my skin; my fingers felt cruddy from all the fine dust. It really made being outside for more than an hour really unpleasant. They’re blaming China for the pollution, but really, the frenetic pace of industrialization of the country (and the resulting energy consumption from the domestic coal power plants) probably bears a good proportion of the blame. 

But besides the pollution here are a few memorable things about our time in South Korea:

“Better BBQ than Texas…”

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Treat others as if

… she is our friend who was born to grow old, become ill, and eventually die – together with us.

… he is our friend swimming around in the changing cycles of this life with us.

… she is under the power of defilement*, hence she sometimes errs. Just like us.

… he also has lust, hatred and delusion – no less than we do.

… she neither knows why she was born, nor knows what nirvana is; same as all of us.

… he is stupid in something like we often are.

… she does something accordingly to her own likes, the same as we often do.

… he also wants to be good, and has aspiration to be better, outstanding and famous. So do we.

… she often takes more from others when she has the chance, just like we sometimes do whether consciously or unconsciously.

… he feels the duty to be responsible to his own family, his friends, his “tribe”. Don’t we all?

… she has the right to her own tastes and preferences. The same goes for us.

… he has the right to be neurotic or mad, just as much as we do.

… she has the right to ask for help and sympathy from us, the same way we would ask for the same from others.

… he has the right to be forgiven according to the circumstance, as we do too.

… she has the right to be selfish before thinking about others as we would want the same right.

… he has the right to choose his religion, beliefs, political identity, etc. in accordance to his own disposition.

… and they have human rights to be in this world, like we all do.

Adapted from the note I copied from the notice board at Suan Mokkh (the Buddhist monastery in Thailand)

(*) defilement in Buddhist concept is often defined as mental states that cloud our mind/judgment and cause us to produce unwholesome actions; generally categorized into three: attachment, ignorance and aversion.