En Route

Well well well, lookee here, a free internet place at the airport in Bangkok, sweet! Uneventful flight out of Chiang Mai, an uneventful pass through the line at Korean Air, got some aisle seats for the flight across the Pacific. Took about an hour to make it through the huge line for passport control, one of the negatives of being in a place with huge tourism, but hey, that was uneventful too. I clearly have nothing to say, so I should sign off..... but I won't haha. (By the way, the number 5 is pronounced 'ha' in Thailand, so their shorthand for hahaha is 555. For reals).

It was just a great farewell to Chiang Mai, and part of that is the fact that I left in the evening, meaning there was no lack of sleep, no bleary eyed trip to the airport. Instead it was a very relaxed day, slept in, had my usual quality time with M, had the farewell coffee with Noi and company, a farewell sandwich at CU Corner, and an easy $3 tuktuk ride to the airport. Now the sucky part will likely begin, a 36 hour airport slog back home, but that's just the price of traveling across the Pacific. It's freakin' far.... (and that's the point, I suppose, and why I love it so much)

Sorry to leave the food, damn! This morning, for example, breakfast was noodle soup with pork balls, vegetables, roast pork, delicious broth, served by a woman with a mobile 'soupmobile', basically a side-car kitchen that she takes around town and stops at various places along the way, including the Noi's cafe. So I'll be nursing my $1 delicious cappuccino and here comes the $1 soup lady, and sure, give me two, one for M who's up in the room and one for me. Late nights are often a similar story in that two of M's friends have a mobile kitchen and their route takes them by CU Corner around midnight usually. Delicious food, healthy, varied and about a buck as well. Sometimes up to a buck and a quarter for some of the dishes. Hey big spender....

And in a not too surprising development (at least to me), I decided to leave my Spanish guitar at the CU Corner. I've had it for 12 years, bought it in Seville for $200 after walking the Camino de Santiago. I've had it in Central America twice, in Spain, Portugal, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, it's been a great companion, and she's showing her age. The neck is a little out of whack, action is too high above the 5th or 6th fret, and according to my snob of a guitar repair guy, it would cost more to fix than the guitar is worth. It plays OK in open position and I've written many many songs on that guitar, but I just have some kind of sense that it's time to let it go, let someone else play it, not hang on. It can sit on the wall at CU Corner, be played by anyone who wants, just become part of the decor even, doesn't matter to me. I couldn't exactly describe why I know it's time to say goodbye to it, it's something in my soul that tells me so, more a feeling than a formed idea, and I tend to trust those impulses. And how great that the last thing I played on that axe was that recording of Talent Show which is now on Youtube... and it makes me smile every time I see that track. We nailed it, right to the very end, and it's good to be able to see it and smile. Gracias, guitarra, you have been a true friend of my spirit... so many great moments, oh heck, why not recall some...

I loved the buying of that guitar... spent parts of two days going between three guitar shops in Seville, trying out a bunch of classical guitars and then I picked this one, just felt right. And then the next day, I grabbed a bus for Tarifa, a beach town in the far south of Spain, looking across to Morocco. On the bus, this Spanish dude asked to see my guitar, so I pulled it out of the case. If an American dude was checking out a guitar, chances are he'd strum an E chord or a G chord to hear the sound. The Spanish guy hit an A7b9 heavy duty flamenco dissonant chord and he did the fingernails and that flamenco strum. I thought, 'fuckin' A yeah, thanks for putting that energy into the guitar, I did have that feeling.

A few weeks later I was in Lisbon and I met this Polish woman Agnieska, who was having dinner alone. I just went up and asked if she spoke English, and could I join her? She was like, OK, ya sure. We ate, took a walk up the hill in Lisbon, under a beautiful full moon, had a beer, that was it. Made plans to meet the next morning at some museum where she was leading a group of German tourists before heading back south where the trip originated from. I went back to the pension and wrote a really tasty little song, kinda classical sounding, about meeting a Polish woman, taking a walk up the hill, full moon etc. Nice composition, nice guitar, I wanted to sing it for her at the museum. I got there at the appointed time and she apologized and said they were leaving right away, and the Germans were all on the bus, ready to take off. I said, 'Wait. I want to sing you something, I wrote a song about you', so under the delighted gaze of the tourists looking out the windows, I sang this song to my new friend. What's that word where the guy sings the song to the lady? Can't think of it now, but it's kinda romantic and was a classic moment. (and yeah, I could still sing that tune)

I remember sitting under a flowering tree in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, composing a song similar to Dos Gardenias Para Ti, a pretty melody, nice guitar part, perfect for those nylon strings. Yeah, I could play you that song too. I could play you dozens of songs I wrote with that guitar, they're in my soul...

I took it last year up on the hilltribe trek, because I wanted to be able to make some music with the indigenous kids and people I'd meet up there. That was the trip where I had too much gear, not enough sun protection and I ended up being 'that guy', who one who just about faints and holds up the whole group. They had to fan me, the guide grabbed my pack, I hung on to the guitar and eventually made it, but it was rough. But once I recovered, there I was making incredibly fun music with the kids, getting them dancing and jamming and laughing and it was worth it. And that night, our host was playing some music on a beat up guitar, and I helped him out, taught him some stuff the next day, had a great musical connection as we played Country Roads, which for some reason is a really popular song here. I know it backwards and forwards at this point, I play it with Apple every time we jam at the CU.

And now it will sit up on the wall and be one of Jeff's guitars, available for anyone who wants to use it, not a bad retirement, actually, hanging out in a great vibe atmosphere, surrounded by friends and music. It's a much better fate than to be sitting in a corner in Eugene, feeling neglected by an owner who wants to play a better axe. Yup, it's the right choice and the right time. Que te vaya bien. (that it goes well for you...)