TRIPMASTER'S LOST BOOKS: GI Joe Gets Ambushed By Malaysian Supermodels

(Editor's Note): This is the first in a series of new entries where I will be going back and filling in bits and pieces of the trip narrative that I either did not have the time to write before...or for some reason or another felt was too juicy to share at that particular point in time (cue dramatic foreshadowing music)

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2005 June 1, Kuala Lumpur

(this entry is under construction...check back soon for further fleshing out of this particular episode)



I stopped for a cup of tea in the Westin and there I am just minding my own business when these folks come in and then invite me over to their table. Turns out the ladies are among the top fashion models of Malaysia. I, of course, was clueless, and for some reason got freaked out when one of them told me. However, for the rest of my travels through Malaysia, it was oddly comforting to spot one of them smiling out at me from the cover of a magazine or a billboard advertisement.


If you're interested, try googling these names (the results surprised the heck out of me when I did):
Wong Sze Zen (left front)
Tan Suwei (left back)
Carmen Soo (left middle)
moi (right center)
Jimmy Liu(right center, pink shirt)
Amber Chia (right)

I genuinely enjoyed my conversation with Tan Suwei and I actually consider this night to be the point where I first started making friends on the road. In retrospect, it was really quite stunning how friendly and down to earth they were with me, a random, raggedy backpacker who had stumbled into their world --- although, as I found out later, this "friendliness" may have had something to do with one of them probably wanting to get in my pants...and no, it wasn't Amber. Nor was it Carmen.
"Zen?"
Nope.
"...Suwei?"
Married.
"...but that only leaves..."
You betcha.
As it turned out, my metro-aura attracted several more admirers during my travels...and speculation by more than a few as to which team I bat for. I suppose this is what 7 years in Japan has done to the image I project.

Still, I guess you really can't ask for a more auspicious start to things.

And it was also partly to thanks to a suggestion from Carmen that I ended up going scuba diving in Borneo...and meeting my fiancee in the process.

...

Say what, Willis?!

Children, Poverty, and Guilt

My first encounter with child beggars came during my travels through Cambodia. At first, I wanted to help and would give money. This would of course inevitably bring the swarm of other children and it wasn't too long before I also noticed that many of the children had a well-fed and well dressed adults standing in the shadows waiting for them to report back. According to our Guide Books, these adults were most likely "handlers" who exploit the children by getting them to beg and then take away whatever money the children managed to get.

The begging was relentless. Everywhere we went, there were children, asking for money, saying they were hungry, trying to get us to buy this trinket or that trinket. And it wasn't as if they were lying. These kids were visibly thin and hungry. They didn't have shoes. Their clothes were raggedy. They were small and underweight. Yet, after a while, the sound of children's voices actually caused me to cringe and I was almost afraid of them and it took me some time to figure out why.

I was disgusted with myself if I refused to give money and disgusted with myself if I gave in and handed the kids money (which in many cases would go ultimately to their adult handlers). I think many people around me were experiencing the same thing. There was an inner conflict that would get directed outwards - in my case, that inner turmoil manifested itself as fear. Others, I observed, would vent their feelings on the children, angrily pushing the children away and shouting at them. And then others would just ignore the children completely. I was comfortable with none of these options.

I would assuage my own guilty conscience somewhat by telling myself that I would give money to NGOs that I knew would put the money to good use in alleviating poverty. But that didn't quite address the immediate problem of what to do when I had a child who was obviously hungry and in need of help standing right in front of me asking for help.

What can you do? Obviously, widespread poverty cannot be fully remedied by one person nor even one hundred. The scope of need was so massive it left me feeling like anything I might do would be futile. It shut me down for awhile and I ended up doing things to avoid the children's pleas that bring tears of shame to me when I recall them now.

It wasn't until Nikki and I reached Phnom Penh that I figured out how I personally needed to deal with it. I decided that doing something was better than nothing. I would not give money, but if a child was hungry and it seemed I could do so without getting the child in trouble or attracting a horde, I would take her or him or them to eat with me, buy some food for them or offer to share whatever food or water I had on me. And I reconciled myself with the fact that I did not have to/could not help everyone.

Most of the time, the children would happily accept the water and food. And there were other times when they did not/could not.

I forget where I heard this story, and it's corny, I know, but I would recall it often during these times...

It was morning and I was standing on a beach. The receding tide had left behind a beach strewn with hundreds of starfish, all dying in the morning air. Surveying this scene, I noticed an old man slowly making his way towards me. As he drew nearer, I could see that every few steps, he would bend down, pick up a starfish and toss it out into the sea. I watched him do this for some time until finally, he was upon me.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Without pausing from his work, the old man replied, "These starfish will die if they aren't returned to the sea."
I looked at the old man and then again at the starfish covered beach stretching endlessly in both directions.
"There must be hundreds -- thousands of starfish out here. You can't possibly help them all,"
The old man bent down again, picked up a starfish, and threw it out to the sea.
"I helped that one."

Japan (Kobe): Post India Thoughts - Cheap Update

It has been a few weeks now since my journeys came to an official end (according to my travel insurance provider). After leaving India, I stopped off briefly in Kuala Lumpur, visited my BFAM (Brutha From Anutha Mutha) Hiro and his family and then continued on to Japan.


In Japan, I spent a couple of weeks visiting classes at various universities to talk about my travels. It was good to see folks and eat good food and be clean again. However, I was somewhat surprised and delighted to find that I was actually anxious to leave Japan. Couldn't wait to get back here to the good ole US of A.

For some reason, I find it really difficult to sit down to writing about what happened during that time I was off at LAFTI. I don't think that I have fully processed the experience and as I sit here typing, I realize that part of me doesn't particularly care to revisit the experience for some reason. Also mixed in there is a little of my patented slothy lazy no good procrastinator juice. Okay...maybe more than just a little.

At some point, though, I'm gonna need to do this.

India (Chennai): In the Airport

Well folks, it's time for Monkey Man to say goodbye to Mother India. It's been great, but it is time indeed to leave.

So it's off to Kuala Lumpur from here where I need to line up a ticket to get me back to Nippon for the wrap up before my grand and much anticipated return to the US. At some point, when I get some time to sit down with a decent connection to the net, I'll share some interesting stories with y'all of my (mis)adventures over these past few weeks.

Interestingly enough, I managed to get through most of my trip here without really getting seriously ripped off...that is until these past few days when I actually started shopping for souvenirs to bring back to the kiddies back home (don't get those expectations up too high, you little squirts). Pretty much every purchase I made, I got charged double to triple what I should have. Moto drivers all delighted in quoting me fares that were also double to triple what I had been told they would be. The kicker was getting ripped off even here in the airport. You've gotta know your prices and know how to bargain even in the frickin' international terminal of the Chennai Airport. A sweets shop owner took me for a nice little ride on a purchase for a friend...but hey, I'm outtie, the trip has been overall good, the sums I've been cheated of are nothing in US or Japanese currency, and it's Diwali Eve everyone!!! Happy Diwali to all (and I'm betting it's gonna be especially happy for all those wily merchants who duped this poor, tired, dopey traveler out of his Gandhi bills)!!!

One love, peeps. Happy Halloween.

India (Tamil Nadu) - Sink or Swim at LAFTI

(The following is the text I entered into the LAFTI site shortly after arriving at LAFTI)

Two nights ago, I arrived at the LAFTI headquarters here in Kuthur. After a night’s rest, I accompanied Amma (Krishnamal) and some of the staff out to a village where LAFTI had erected new homes for people and is helping with the acquisition and distribution of fertilizer.

We then traveled to another village in which many people had lost their homes to the tsunami. Amma is bringing the home building program there with the ambition of providing people with solid homes made of brick to replace the thatch and mud huts they lost in the disaster.

We then made a whirlwind tour of the area that I assume was for my benefit. I was shown homes that LAFTI has erected and many more that are still in mid construction; vast expanses of rich green fertile lands Appa (Jagannathan) freed up through a titanic struggle that he won only after a climactic fast that lasted for 13 days; the area where the terrible massacre of dalit women and children occurred that prompted Amma and Appa to move here; the hostel which LAFTI maintains for roughly 80 girls who would otherwise be unable to attend school because of the remote locations of their homes; the huge tracts of land that continue to be used illegally as prawn farms despite an order from the supreme court for their dismantlement; and the 5 kilometer long wall LAFTI mobilized people to build in order to protect farming land from the devastating floods caused by the presence of the prawn farms.

Before I continue any further, I should introduce myself. My name is Tatsu. I am originally from Japan, but from the age of four, I was raised in the United States (Seattle and Oakland/San Francisco). I returned to Japan immediately after graduating from college and worked for the past seven years as a teacher and administrator in the public school system. At the end of this past school year in March, I left my job to see some of the world. My travels have thus far taken me through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Singapore. I arrived in India for the first time in my life two weeks ago.

I was introduced to LAFTI through David (Willis) and it was his encouragement that prompted me to come here. David (Albert) and Aliyah have entrusted maintenance of the blog to me for the duration of my stay here. To my surprise though, it looks as if this will be my only entry.

Shortly before leaving the ashram for the tour, Amma told me that she had plans for me. The next morning (today), I was to be dropped off in a small village called Porkkalakudi. There, it would be my task to work with a LAFTI worker already posted there to set up (1) a nursery school program, (2) a baby chick(en) inoculation and distribution program and (3) a drumstick plant cultivation program.

This morning, I got up and hopped on the back of a motorcycle with Veerasami who took me out to Porkkulakudi. I was introduced to the woman who is to be my partner in this project, Kanakhi, who has been posted in Porkkulakudi since early September. Veerasami explained that I was to be her new partner. She explained that someone in the village had passed away the previous evening so she was postponing the launch of the nursery school program for a couple of days and thus my presence was not yet needed. Inside, I breathed a guilty sigh of relief.

Up until today, my entire vocabulary in the Tamil language has been only nunri (‘Thank you’), vanakam (basic word of greeting) and the names of several basic food items (idly, dosa, sambar). As I understand it, pretty much nobody in the village speaks either English or Japanese, the only two languages in which I have proficiency. As for plant cultivation, I am renowned far and wide only for my ability to inadvertently bring an early and painful death to any plant placed under my care.

I am hoping that my saving grace will be the extensive experience I’ve had with working with children of all ages in Japan. It’s hard, however, to not feel like I’m being asked to jump out of a fast moving vehicle on the highway; gotta hit the ground running or else fall flat on my face.