The tally of things.

When I left Torino, I took with me a lone suitcase stocked a little more than halfway full. By the time I left Dubai, I had two suitcases stuffed to the point of explosion as both were overweight by a kilo while my carry-on (bless that large leather bag from Korea) bulged from the addition of handmade Thai pottery and heavy Arabian trinkets. I carried a bamboo umbrella slung across my back and managed, with every leftover ounce of effort, to lug it all from the south of France to the north of Italy - three train rides and eight hours away. Regardless, it was a homecoming I was eager to experience. Suddenly I was surrounded with a foreign language that I could partially comprehend, signs I could read and a general culture I felt at ease in. For all intensive purposes, Italy was home.

I spent the following days catching up on sleep and designating homes to the numerous new additions of my apartment. In total, I have purchased seven new dresses, three Thai purses, (1 suitcase), four cotton blouses, six skirts, seven paperbacks, one apron, one coat and ten pairs of shoes. This does not include four handmade boxes, a Turkish candle holder, a silk fan, one pink umbrella, a pair of reading glasses, a pound of postcards, two Arabic pillowcases, a solid bronze camel lamp and those nine long decorative sticks from the wooden market in Chiang Mai (I don't know what they are, but aren't they decadent?!)



Well, it seems that if there is one thing I excel at, it would most definitely be in the art of accumulation. Granted, I won't start complaining until I have to bring it all back to Hawaii.

Of loathing a bad situation.

I am learning a lot in the UAE, though it mostly involves being invisible. I hate it here. I count the hours until my return flight home, and so far it is 5.5 days away. I have little spending money and being as I booked a hotel outside of Dubai, I can not afford to take a taxi back and forth. So, I have found an uncomfortable solice in book reading and bad television show watching. A little before noon, the electricity in the city went off and I spent the next three hours lying on the tile of my room, soaking up its chill and praying for the air condition to go back on.

I have developed a greater understanding of how blessed my life has been as I have never gone a day without people that love me and friends I can trust. I think this is a kind of fortune that not many can say they have had. I have been granted a plethora of opportunities to travel the world where I have developed families that would care for me instantly in the event that I ever sought help. I have seen things that I never imagined would exist and I have tasted food of such variety that my palette for world cuisine has become insatiable. I was born to a country of privledge where women are treated as equals and are allowed to walk the streets with bared shoulders or, heaven forbid, exposed knees. Every moment of my life has been a treasure. These things that I know and embrace are from the 36 hours that I have been here, without all the above.

I will not discredit Dubai for my bad experiences as they may have been due to the poor luck of the draw. I picked a bad hotel whos water runs tan and constantly hot, I mismanaged my funds and I exhausted myself in the prior weeks. Or, after traveling Italy, France and Thailand with friends and family, I may simply be extraordinarily lonely.

But I am not disheartened as toil brings personal growth if one seeks it.

New in town

I have arrived safely in Dubai. Things are fine though I just forked over a quarter of what is left of my spending money for a desert safari. I'm feeling quite downhearted at the moment as i have left a very secure place with family and friends and anything i could want (as the cost of living in Thailand is so cheap!) for a country where I am alone and wary and poor. Regardless, a camel ride should do me good and cure my homesickness for a moment at least. The following days will be spent appreciating the cheap and the free ways of life. Bread by the river, a swim in the Arabian Sea, a walk through a souq, an afternoon by a mosque. Still, the life blood of my travel bug is growing thin and now, more than ever, am I ready to return to the comforts of my Italian home. I can see it now, the train station, the skip across the street to my apartment, the marbel steps, the high ceilings, the soft sheets, the open window and the sound of the tram rattling by, this way and that.

But until then, I must make the most of my leftover time abroad and dune bashing sounds just about right.

15 minutes at a time

I seem to have developed an affinity for blogging in unconventional paces as I am currently hidden away in a sparsely populated area of Bangkok International Airport. My flight to Dubai has been delayed for 30 minutes and while seeking to find a bathroom, I have subsequently discovered a free Internet port. The keys stick and omit consonants while easily doubling up on vowels, but I will gladly put up with any keyboard quirks in exchange for free access to gmail. Of course, even that would be too good to be true, which is also maybe why i can only be logged in for 15 minutes at a time. There is a lot of toil involved in bringing this to you.


It pains me to leave Thailand and I have yet to place all the reasons why. I have paraded around this country with a personal car and driver and the loose equivalent of a bodyguard. I suppose this is a classic result of who-you-know, or rather, who-knows who-you-know. I got lucky and spent two weeks feeling like a princess.

Oh, but I digress. The things I've seen! Just this afternoon, I caught a rickety boat across a river to a pottery island. Thing is, and unbeknownst to us, the potters are located far between, requiring us to hire the local mode of transportaton: motorcycles. So then I suddenly found myself saddled up behind a Thai cross dresser on a speedy two wheeler, zig zagging through narrow walkways with 90 degree turns, honking horns to imply impending doom. On the way back, we got caught in a thunderstorm, and our daring escape from the downpour only caused my white dress to turn transparent and residual rooftop water to flow from my moppy head, through my eyelashes and into my mouth. Call me a hypochondriac, but I sure didn't have a sore throat yesterday.


That was because yesterday I was in the emergency room getting my pee tested for a bladder infection. My body finds ways to survive. I'm okay.


Anyway, I think it's about that time to wait patiently at my gate. Hopefully I do not nod off as I won't be boarding until a little after 1 in the morning. I'll arrive within the United Arab Emirates six hours from now, traveling back in time so that I can step off in Dubai at just after 5am - perhaps an Arabian sunrise is in order.

Movement.

I update from an internet cafe that is situated on the bridge of a mall that caters to expats, drinking hot coffee and staring at my complimentary strawberry cookie. Bangkok's alright, Thailand is great.

In between the moment I left you in Torino, I have circumnavigated my way through central Italy, hopped on a train to the South of France, dipped my tongue in the Mediterranean Sea and hitched a plane to Thailand where I have been for the past two weeks. Life has been immeasurably sweet, and I mean this quite literally as Thai's have a notorious affinity for their desserts. I'm turning a blind eye to the instant metamorphosis sticky rice and mango have had on my hips. Needless to say, this place caters to my palette.

A few days ago I returned from Chiang Mai, a city in the Northwest of the country. The trip was remarkable in countless ways, but it also signified the start of what I will consider a rude awakening. True poverty, widespread suffering and the illegal trafficking of exotic wildlife can leave a crude scar in an innocent heart.

Of course, more on that later. For now, a nice night out under the invisible stars of Bangkok. In a few days I will be hidden in cloth, traipsing around the United Arab Emirates.