The super moon

Such a beautiful moon image - but while monsoon skies can be clear, they still have a lot of clouds in the sky. Could not see the moon as it was rising, but only brief glasses as it played hide and seek with the clouds

 My contribution to Skywatch Friday, a different view of the sky every week. I hope to see more and clearer photos of the supermoon! 

Since it was the full moon, I bought flowers for my Buddha altar and for the spirit house in my yard. I do this for each phase of the moon while I am in Vientiane. Most of the Buddha images I bought in Cambodia, made from Pursat marble. A few images are from Thailand. The white Buddha in the back belongs to my housemate. He is Vietnamese and had received it from a Vietnamese temple in Vientiane. When I place the flowers, I meditate in the early morning, when it is still dark and quiet. 

Sunset after heavy monsoon rain today, Vientiane Lao PDR

 The last bits of sunset light behind the monsoon clouds. This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday

Dawn Vientiane Lao PDR

 View from my window in Vientiane Lao PDR. After so much rain and flooding, there are clear skies. This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday

Monsoon sky

 I haven't been online with Blogger since about 2016, then just remembered that today is Friday and I used to contribute to Skywatch Friday. Click on the link and see the skies from other parts of the world. Let's see if this still works.

I live in Lao PDR and usually am at my house in Vientiane, the capital. There has been heavy rain, every day and all day, during the past two weeks of the monsoon season.  I live near the Mekong river so I've been watching the rising water, hoping it doesn't go over the embankment. But for many people, especially this small fishing village, their shacks have been washed away - but they are still fishing, to get their lives going today. 

The sky looks nice right at the moment, but it has been a solid gray since the start of the rainy season, except for a short time period 2 days ago, when I saw the moon and stars when I woke up at 3 am.

 Sabaidee - is anyone out there? It's 2023 and I haven't posted anything for almost ten years. I want to see whether this works any more. If anyone is out there, leave a comment to say 'hello' and I'll try to say 'hello' back. For those who know me - I'm still living in Lao PDR and doing very well.

A for April

April is a special time for Lao PDR (well, every month is special but April is even more special).

April is the hottest month of the year. It's the end of the dry season, and the days get hotter and hotter because there are no rain clouds to block the sun and provide cooling rain.

The Ton Khun trees flower - also known as Golden Shower trees, their cascade of yellow flowers are so beautiful. Whenever I see the flowers, I feel very spacey and sleepy because their appearance comes with the hot weather, where everything just has to slow down.

And it's the month of the traditional Lao New Year. Although the international new year is celebrated on 31 Dec/ 1 January in Lao, the 'true' new year in everyone's hearts takes place from 13 - 15 April. For people who are working in other locations around the country, they all return to their homes for the occasion, as they meet up with families and friends who also return at this time. There are Buddhist ceremonies but often, after the blessing of elders with scented water, there are water fights and contests. It can be dangerous to ride a motorcycle or bicycle because children love to splash the riders with water.

The first day of the holiday is to send off the old year. On this day, people prepare flowers and water. Buddha images are placed outside the temples, in special small buildings to as replicas of the temples buildings themselves. People pour the water over the figures to bless the figures, then collect the water draining from the figures, so they can further the blessings by sprinkling water on friends and family. People will often go in groups of friends, and visit quite a few Buddhist temples (called Wats). The past few years, I've gone with friends, trying to visit as many Wats as possible.

The second day is neither the old year nor the new year. It's supposed to be a day of blessing elders and cleaning the house. and the third day is new year. In fact, the parties continue. Usually, there is a baci - a blessing ceremony were a 'mor phone' (an elder or often a former monk) chants over the group. Then everyone ties strings on each others' wrists to tie the good wishes to the person.

The third day is the first day of the new year. Everyone goes to visit relatives. Again, more baci ceremonies.

While the new year officially on these three days, in fact, most people take the full week off, to have enough time to visit family and friends.

For April, I'm doing the A to Z challenge (look at the badge on the side). I'll be doing a little travel and culture-log around Lao PDR - a bit of fact and a bit of fiction. These are some are the topics, but they may change.

A for April
B for the Bang Fai festival
C for Champasak Province
D for Development
H for Haw Khao Padap Din
I for International Women's Day
J for Jakata Tales
K for Khao Phansaa
L for Louang Prabang
M for Malnutrition
N for Non-profit Associations
O for Owk Phansaa
P for Pii Mai Festival
S for Stunting
T for That Luang Festival
U for
V for Vessantara Jataka
W for Wan Heng Saadt
X for Xaisomboun
Y for
Z for

I've had this blog for a while but just realized today that I haven't posted anything for two years. I've had a bit of a dry spell in my writing but decided this year that I have more free time than previously, so back to thinking, and writing, creatively.

I decided to do the A to Z Challenge and see what inspiration comes from that for longer writing works. I think I might try a theme related to Lao culture - history, holidays, folk tales - as the month of April includes the Lao New Year holiday.

Skywatch Friday: Early morning walk during the monsoon season

I enjoy waking up early enough to drink some coffee, then walk along the river. The Mekong is high now, full of the rain; the sky has been full of rain.

When I set out, there was no rain but I watched the clouds gather over Sri Chiangmai on the Thai side. It seems to be good weather for the fishermen.

I turned around at Wat Sibounheuang, where the village has been building a new community hall; the construction has turned the yard around the main temple building into a moat, but good for reflections of the Buddha images.

Must be amateur meteorologists, watching the sky and the height of the river. There are many places along the river bank where people have placed arm chairs and benches for perfect viewing of the water going by.

I had nearly returned to my house when the sky opened up and I ran the last half mile. During the rainy season, always expect rain.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday. Click on the link and see the skies from other parts of the world.

So it's been a while since I've posted, almost two years. But I'm still around and still living in Laos. Just returned from two months in the US, which turned out being more incredible than I could have imagined. And now I'm back 'home', ready to see it with fresh eyes. So here are the views of my local supermarket, and a monk waiting for the afternoon thunderstorm.

I should be around to continue posting in the future.

Most people look forward to Buddhist Lent because of the boat racing festivals, which start about a month before the full moon of the 11th lunar calendar, and end with the boat racing in Vientiane, the day after the full moon. When I first saw 'boun suun heua', boat racing, I was still working in Thailand in the 80's. I had visited friends in Nong Khai and saw the first boat racing between Lao and Thai since 1975. It was a very laid back affair, and I sat at a river side restaurant with the few other spectators. Now, the affair is much bigger and companies sponsor the boat racing teams.

I took a walk down by the riverside for a while, but it was too crowded. Today was the women's events; tomorrow is the main event, the men's teams. I know a lot of people who will be having parties at their houses along the levee, so I decided to return home.



Buddhist Lent is the three month rainy season retreat, where monks and civilians alike stay at home, work in their rice fields, think inwardly to gain wisdom. No alcohol or violating any of the 9 main precepts - no sexual fooling around, no killing, no gambling, no intoxicants, no lying; for the truly religious, no sexual relations at all, no eating meat, no sleeping on a 'high bed' and another one. Oh well, the additional four are for the real hard core.

The evening starts off with offerings to the monks and listening to a sermon. Then there is the vong vieng, circling the temple building, holding incense and flowers, while the monks chant.





Then comes the time to release the fire boats - little circular floating boats, looking like a lotus pond, made of a road cut from a banana tree trunk with petals made of banana leaves with flowers arranged inside, with candles and incense.



Then the people go to the river, and release boats containing offering to the spirits of the water, the naga spirits living under the Mekong river and in all places where water lives, like the rice fields and the lakes too.



People also make images of boats in homage for the life along the river. As the full moon rises, they light the candles in these boats.






People leave offerings in front of the Buddha images. This is the image under the Boddhi tree at Wat Meaung Wa, the village where I live.

Reading for the remainder of February

I've read a total of 11 books this year. At the moment, I'm moving through the River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh. While I enjoy the historical detail about the time leading up to the Opium Wars, his narrative often bogs down the action. But then, who needs action? The lush descriptions of the wild of Hong Kong in the 1800's, the riot of Canton street life, the politics of the commercial organizations are drawn very precisely. So I enjoy that.

The other books I've read:
9. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes - I guess this would be an urban fantasy, a near future parallel universe where criminals magically become paired with animals which reveal something of their personality. The main character, Zinzi December, is a petty criminal but when she becomes 'animalled' with a sloth during her prison sentence, she develops the ability to find lost things. She can look at a person and know what they have lost, which is still connected through a network in unseen reality. She is hired to find a lost pop star, and moves through a world of shifting alliances. I gave it five stars.

10. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo. A remarkable work of creative non-fiction. I'm not sure how she was able to get so close to the undercurrent of Mumbai marginal life, but it's an amazing accomplishment. She follows the lives of people who live in the Annawadi slum, within sight of the International Airport and bounded by a lake full of trash. The book follows their petty jealousies, their kindnesses to each other, living day by day through seeking and selling recyclable trash, their hopes for the future. Then a misunderstanding, starting from a minor quarrel, leads to the death/ suicide of one of the people in the slum and the false accusations of one of their neighbors. More than five stars, great book.

11. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - A fantasy set in Africa set far in the future, where the Nuru are waging a war against the Okeke. The main character, Onyesonwu, has to come to term with her violent origins and stop a genocide by re-writing the book of rules. It's an intriguing book, especially that the characters and culture are African. I'd give it four stars - it was a bit long in terms of action, but the narrative and descriptions of life in this desert world were wonderful.

Books report

TBR progress:

So far, I've read 8 books this year. Unfortunately, I went to a bookshop this past week, got new books and started on those.
Up till now, I've read 8 books:
1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Fantasy about a magical bet between two master magicians to answer the question - does one become a stronger magician by developing skills or is this a natural power? I liked this book a lot - when I was reading it, I fell into the text and the beautiful descriptions.

2. Finally finished Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer - a masterpiece about Jews who survived the Holocaust, living in New York City in the late 1940's. There is so much about daily life, both profound and trivial; questions about God, the nature of good and evil; the sense of a destiny - but what is it. I was born in the City (don't need to ask which one) and I remember some of the relatives on my father's side. I remember the smell of the apartment buildings and the hot overstuffed apartments. This book conjured up a lot of those memories.

3. The Long Song by Andrea Levy - Plantation life in Jamaica, just before and after emancipation. When we think of slavery, we think of the American South, but Levy's book opens up an entire different historical fact. Well-researched, some great characters - people both to love and hate.

4. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller - This book is quite a wild ride - the author's childhood, following her parents' migrations through several troubled African countries, on the edge of civil war, landmines, and poisonous animals. And always, the dogs, more loyal than the kids.

5. Microcosm by Carl Zimmer - all I ever wanted to know about E. coli, and so many things I didn't even think to ask. An epic sweep through the scientists researching the organism and its uses. Zimmer writes with a clear hand and detail - just enough and not too much.

6. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon - I read this when I was a child, so pieces came back to me as I was reading it. Story of the new type of superhuman, the fusion of psychic powers across several new people - and the danger posed by the new species towards the old.

7. Room by Emma Donoghue - This book scared me when I started to read it, as it is about the recent cases of kidnapping and imprisonment of young women by strangers. However, the book, narrated by the five year old child, is not that scary. Room is what he knows, there's stability in it, even when his mother is dealing with adult problems. The second half was the most interesting to me, but I won't give that away.

8. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama - in my own writing, I try to present the hearts and souls of people I live with now, the people who had been on the other side. Tsukiyama starts with a section of Tokyo before the work, with two orphaned children growing up with their grandparents. One is drawn towards the internal journey of art, the other towards the nationalist sport of Sumo wrestling. The book explores the life during the war - informers, food shortages, the air raids and the fire-bombing of Toykyo. Then, the aftermath of the war; people who had moved to Hiroshima for safety and never returned while the survivors pull their lives together. Again, I love the richness of description and the plot line which showed me another side of the Japanese culture in wartime and in transition.

So, I had to come back to this list to remind myself what I really have wanted to read, long-term:

1. Post-War Laos by Vatthana Pholsena
2. To What End by War Just
3. A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook
4. The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
5. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
6. Invisible Nation by Quil Lawrence
7. A War of Nerves by Ben Shephard
8. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (slow reading but good for the soul)
9. Vision by Michio Kaku
10.The Long Song by Andrea Levy
11. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
12. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann

Alternate List
1. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
2. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
3. I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
4. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
5. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
6. Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital
7. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
8. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
9. Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy
10. The Concert by Ismail Kadare
11. Nine Lives by William Dalrymple
12. A Problem from Hell by Samatha Power

Audio / Kindle Books:
1. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - started, still working on it
2. The World without Us by Alan Weisman - started and above half way through
3. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
4. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
5. Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shanga, Ifa Bayez
6. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
7. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
8. Microcosm by Carl Zimmer
9. The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger - read a selection for a class and wanted to read the rest.
10. Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse
11. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
12. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

My favorite books for 2011

Altogether I read 63 books this year. My favorite books were:
1. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
2. Among Others by Jo Walton
3. IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
4. The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes
5. Old Filth by Jane Gardam
6. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
7. How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
8. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
9. Buddha by Karen Armstrong
10. The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son by Ian Brown

TBR for 2012

My TBR List for 2012
Well, bringing some books forward, which I didn't get around to reading in 2011 and adding some new books, I come up with this list. This is linked 2012 TBR Reading Pile. May all 300+ of us get through our books this year!

So my books for 2012 will (hopefully) be:
1. Post-War Laos by Vatthana Pholsena
2. To What End by War Just
3. A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook
4. The Worst Thing I've Done by Ursula Hegi
5. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
6. Invisible Nation by Quil Lawrence
7. A War of Nerves by Ben Shephard
8. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (slow reading but good for the soul)
9. Vision by Michio Kaku
10.The Long Song by Andrea Levy
11. Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry
12. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann

Alternate List
1. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
2. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
3. I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
4. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
5. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
6. Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital
7. In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
8. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
9. Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy
10. The Concert by Ismail Kadare
11. Nine Lives by William Dalrymple
12. A Problem from Hell by Samatha Power

Audio / Kindle Books:
1. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - started, still working on it
2. The World without Us by Alan Weisman
3. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
4. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
5. Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shanga, Ifa Bayez
6. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
7. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
8. Microcosm by Carl Zimmer
9. The Perfect Story by Sebastian Junger - read a selection for a class and wanted to read the rest.
10. Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse
11. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
12. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Other resolutions for the year? Have more fun, work less. Finish the online courses that I sign up for. Travel more. Exercise every day and write every day.

End of Year TBR progress

Here's my final list for the year. I would probably read more books if I went for the shorter and lighter books. But what's the value of that? The books I did read this year were great, and gave me a lot of food for thought. Somehow, I've read more books on my alternate and audio lists than I have on my primary list.

I'm going from Left to Right for my Primary List:
1. Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
2. Post-War Laos by Vatthana Pholsena
3. To What End by War Just
4. Buddha by Karen Armstrong
5. A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook
6. To Live Again by Robert Silverberg
7. The Granta Book of India
8. Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer
9. Spook Country by William Gibson
10. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan
11. Hotel of the Saints by Ursula Hegi
I'll skip the Thai-English dictionary which is next along the line 12. Invisible Nation by Quil Lawrence My Alternative List (continued from 2010) 1. A War of Nerves by Ben Shephard
2. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (slow reading but good for the soul)
3. What I talk about When I talk about running by Murakami
4. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - started, still working on it
5. The World without Us by Alan Weisman
6. 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano
7. A Grand Delusion by Robert Mann
8. BuddhaDa by Anne Donovan
9. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
10. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
11. I am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
12. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
Audiobooks:
1. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
2. Await your Reply by Dan Chaon
3. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
4. Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee - started but I just couldn't finish
5. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
6. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
7. Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
8. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
9. Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shanga, Ifa Bayeza
10. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
11. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
12. The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee

It's good to have this list available, to remind myself that I really wanted to dust off these books and move them from the piles on my floor to my hands. Thanks to the TBR challenge! Here's the link!
As for my other resolutions this year?
Try to enjoy working part time and not take on extra work (even though what I do for my consulting is only what interests me) - that hasn't worked out too well so far. Took on several consulting jobs this year, but even though I saw some interesting work for June &July, I decided not to send my CV in

Try to get back into my writing habit - wrote 7 out of a possible 31 stories for FW Story a Day Challenge. Unfortunately, I had some road trips and meetings which drained my creative mind. However, in the past two months, I've been on vacation and have been able to do quite a lot of writing. My mind feels more relaxed; however, I'm not sure if, with the demands of work, whether I'll be able to keep it up.

Exercise every day and take care of my health - I've been taking my fold-up bike when I got out to the field. That has been fun - I've been able to do more exploring, which I couldn't do if I was only limited to my feet. Some other days, when we get in late or set off early, have not been too successful. We're in rainy season now, and it seems to start raining around 4 a.m. and not stop until mid-morning and then it picks up again in the afternoon. At least when I'm in Vte, I have access to a gym. Now that it's the cold season and has stopped raining, I've been able to bicycle and plan to try bicycling to work when I'm in Vientiane.

Don't procrastinate (ha! see how long that lasts...) - I've been getting a bit better, particularly at writing up field notes on the days that things happen.