On how Asia reminds me of my childhood: Excitement

Cycling around Asia is a great way to see the real life. You can go on an organized tour or you can go by yourself, most of the places are very safe and people are extremly curious about you.

When you cycle in small towns kids get extremely excited. Here's some of the situations:

• Moms with babies waiving at you, starting to teach the kid to say "Hello"
• Kids so little they don't even know what to do, they just stare at you with their mouth wide open.
• If you look at the front yard of the house, you might see little kids going to get their big brother because they want to go by the road and say hello to you.
• Kids screaming "Hello", "What is your name?", "Wellcome to Malaysia!".
• Kids picking up their old rusty bikes and racing you.
• Shy girls smilling at you and waiving from their bikes.
• Teenagers getting out of school and trying to block your way or do stupid things.
• And the most painfull but also the best, High fives! Yes, high fives are back.

When I was little every summer there was a race going on and they would go through my grandparent's house. We would be waiting for them for hourss, to see the cyclist, to cheer at them and to get the beach balls and other merchandising that they were giving away.

Going through the little villages and hearing the kids with their "hello, hello" made me think of what I looked like when I was little.


The picture that ilustrates this post was taken by somebody I don't remember with Max's camera during our trip from Saigon to Hanoi in Vietnam.

Here's other reasons why Asia reminds me of my childhood:
Everything is under construction and there are lots of flowers
Sun drying food and stone tables 
Poorly paved roads and reusing stuff

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood - Reusing and pavement

Recycling or reusing: in the photo we see the kind of the rice crackers :-D It seems that before the crisis we were buying everything new and not thinking about second or third uses that things could have. Reusing old buckets seems to be the norm here.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Poorly paved roads: I love poorly paved road sides, they are so much more fun to walk on than perfectly paved ones! I love them!

Tuk-tuk on poorly paved road

Everything is under construction and lots of flowers
Sun drying food and stone tables

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood - Stone tables and sun drying food

Sun drying food: My grandfather used to have a garden and he would take the beans out of their husk (is that the right word) and dry them on the sun. Here they do that with all kinds of things:

Chillies getting some the sun in Thailand

Stone tables: are we still building them? The plate on top of the table has rice on it. When you cook a lot of rice there is always some that stuck in the bottom of the pan, they take that rice and dry it out in the sun. 

Luang Prabang, Laos

Reusing and poorly paved roads
Everything is under construction and full of flowers

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On how Asia reminds me of my childhood - Construction and flowers

Since I have been in Asia I feel like I am back to the summer days when I would go to my grandparent's home as a child. Here's some of the things that remind me of those days:

• Everything is under construction. Look at the back of the photo of me as a child. It is the same here, everybody is building homes, shops,... and like in Spain, some remain empty after being built.

• People have flowers everywhere. Check out my grandma's geranium pots behind me, Asia is full of flowers and people take care of them.

Outside a temple in Luang Prabang, Laos. The house you see is where the monks live.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Beautiful Luang Prabang, Laos

I have taken so many photos to illustrate this topic that I will try to post them all in individual pages. I hope you enjoy time travelling with me!

Reusing, recycling and poorly paved roads 
Stone tables and sun drying food

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Homesick

How can I feel homesick when I have the Barcelona team all day around me? Here's a list of some places where I find them:

• I wake up, go to 7Eleven to buy a water, I open the fridge and they are on the water bottle that I will buy (the cheapest).
• I go pay and they are behind the counter in a poster.
• I turn the corner and a huge sticker with their faces is on the bus.
• I go to the swimming pool, on thet way there I go by a pub, their rough faces are everywhere. The Real Madrid clean faces are next to them.
• Go for a bike ride on the country side, the houses may not have doors but they sure have a huge Chang-Barcelona canvas hanging from the balconies.
• I am in Bangkok and I get in the subway right next to Messi's eye. 
• Robert gets a mineral water and they they are again!

Home sweet home!

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Un ésser perfecte

Igual que TOTS els ciutadans de Tailandia, estic en fase d'enamorament d'aquest personatge tot poderós que és el rei. Ell ho sap fer tot, fa fotos, toca la guitarra, el saxo, el piano, dissenya obres de gran infrastructura, salva al seu poble de la pobresa, coneix al nostre estimat generalísimo, parla amb Elvis, passa una temporada d'introspecció quan es fa monjo... què més es pot demanar?

El rei del rock i el rei de Tailandia

El rei tocant la guitarra

El rei budista

El rei toca amb músics de renom

El rei compositor

El rei suant

El rei i la seva inseperable càmera

D'aquí a unes setmanes us explicaré més coses, no m'agraden els grisos.
Llarga vida al rei!

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Glass noodles salad (Yum Woon Sen) / Amanida de fideus transparents

Perfect summer salad! This is the salad that people here eat when they want to lose weight because the noodles are made of soy and have almost no calories. It is delicious!


Ingredients for 1 person/ Ingredients per a una persona

• 1-3 chilies - chopped, the small ones /Els catalanets podem fer sense
• 1/4 onion - sliced long way /ceba d'amanida tallades llargues
• 1/4 tomato - sliced long way /tomàquets tallats llargs
• 1 cup of boiled minced chicken, seafood or tofu
• spring onions, coriander - chopped / una tasseta de carn picada o tofu o gambetes
• Glass noodles - they are made of soy sprouts, you can find them in all the asian stores. /fideus transparents que venen als supers asiàtics. Estàn fets de soja i gairebé no tenen calories.

Seasoning/Amanit

• 1 tsp sugar /cullereta de sucre
• 2 tsp fish sauce / culleretes de salsa de peix (la podeu comprar al super asiàtic) com a Fish Sauce
• 1 tbsp lime / cullerada sopera de llima

Preparation:
Boil the glass noodles for a few minutes, then inmediately soak in cold water.
Mix all the ingredients and all the seasoning together. Easy!
 
Posar els fideus en aigua bullint durant un parell de minuts i inmediatament posar-los en aigua freda.
Barrejar tots els ingredients i a menjar!

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Dibuixos: Passeig en elefant

Aquí teniu el dibuix a on es veu el meu primer passeig en elefant que dissabte vam fer amb en Robert, ho vaig passar fatal, raons:

• No anavem lligats de cap manera, només assentats en un banc
• No hi havia conductor
• Plovia
• Passavem al costat de barrancs altíssims

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Animals guarding the temples

Statues in Wat Pha Singh, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Mainly, I have seen 2 animals guarding the temples:

• Nagas look like giant cobras and they are heavily decorated. Naga has a large symbology but mainly was the serpent who did protect Buddha when he was meditating
• Lions representing strength and the power of the mind. They usually have their mouth half open because they are roaring, this call awakens all sentient beings to the power of the Dharma. 

Elephant guarding the temple in Elephant Temple

Human guardian :-)

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On how buddhism humilliates women

Today I have felt really hurt twice in a place that had never hurt before:

• I went to visit some of the buddhist Temples in Chiang Mai, Thailand and in one of them I was denied access because I am a woman. A nice big sticker decorated the stairs “Women are not allowed”
• In the afternoon we went to what they call “Monk chat”, a talk with the monks about buddhism and culture. When we were leaving, we were saying goodbye to one of the monks and he gave Robert a handshake, when I offered my hand, we rapidly moved his hand to his back.  

Photo by Garycycles

Of course, it is my fault for now remembering that I am not supposed to touch a monk. Of course it is my fault for being a tempting and dirty woman, so nasty that I cannot enter their temples or touch them.

During the chat, I asked the monks if it was common not to let women enter their temples, the reply was clear “I have never been in that particular temple”. A british girl asked if in the eyes of Buddhism, man and women are equal, the reply was “Yes, because both of us can reach enlightment”. Hypocrisy, wanting to like, disrespect… this religion are really backwards!

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El budismo humilla a la mujer

Hoy me he sentido profundamente herida en dos ocasiones. Aquí van:

• He estado visitando templos en la ciudad de Chiang Mai, he ido a uno en el que nohe podido entrar por ser mujer, un gran cartel “Prohibida la entrada a mujeres”decoraba las escaleras.
• Heido a una comunidad budista a una charla que semalmente algunos monjes hacencon los turistas, al terminar, hemos ido a saludar a uno de los monjes. Él leha dado la mano a Robert y por supuesto yo también le he puesto la mano, alinstante él ha retirado la suya y se la ha puesto detrás de la espalda.

Foto de Garycycles

Claro, es culpamía por no recordar que los monjes no me pueden tocar. Claro, es culpa mía porser mujer, tentadora y sucia, por esto no puedo entrar en sus templos.

Les he preguntadoa los monjes si era normal no dejar entrar a las mujeres en algunos templos yla respuesta ha sido “Yo nunca he estado en ese templo”. Durante la charla, una chica ha preguntado sia ojos del budismo, mujeres y hombres son iguales, la respuesta ha sido “Síporqué todos pueden conseguir la iluminación”. Cuanta hipocresía! Cuantas ganas de gustar! Quésociedad tan retrasada!

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A theme park called Koh Samui

Going from the airport terminal to the plane

We spent 10 days in Koh Samui, an island in the south of Thailand. I felt like I was in a theme park, some reasons:

• Ha Bo Put on Friday night: targetting only to tourist.
• Drunk westerners.
• Amusement park price.
• We didn't visit Hat Mae Nam where it is supposed to be more real.
• Airport: see photo. :-)

If you want pristine beaches and white sand, go to Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. No beer there though!

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