between the meetings

this morning i saw from my window a battle ship floating steadily on the sea. the thai gulf. i thought it was quite an unusual sight. because normally when i wake up just before sunrise, and sitting on my bed or on the chair - alone in the balcony, drinking cold milo, i might expect to find fishermen's boats on the waters or airplanes in the sky. but today it was a naval force. maybe it was a smaller frigate, a cruiser, floating slowly behind the lines of coconut trees that surround the swimming pools.

i realised then that perhaps the security measures have been intensified to protect this yearly gathering from unwanted surprises and uninvited guests. i know that good news may come and go as they please. we are but a transit place for them. we hardly know any new press release is to be published from the sky.

hmm... today i also sense a form of de déjà-vu.

i'm with the same good fellows with whom i worked a year ago in the city of lion. arranging similar occasions for different persons. high level, top level, both.

but i know now what i didn't then. that's why i feel somehow more prepared to expect things that are closer to reality now. i must make sure the time and the venue are available for the bilateral talks. and don't forget the material too.

from here, with warm thoughts of cha am, phetchaburi, and hua hin, prachuap khiri khan.

sovereign entrance

"please refrain from walking on the carpet,"

says a signboard in front of the hotel entrance.

so the red carpet was covered with a white sheet;

a sacred pathway prepared only for the sovereign.

i saw the signboard when i arrived there,

a hotel in cha am, thailand,

where we are assigned as the troupe from jakarta.

the rest of the work is done somewhere else,

another hotel located not very far away from the 'sovereign'.

this morning, before i entered the site,

my eyes fell upon a line of children sitting on the roadsides,

wearing their school uniform,

waving the flags of our nations: the southeast asians, and our friends'.

that sight reminded me of my days as a student in elementary school,

when i did the same.

look, there are more security officials than the town folks.

the emissaries are here now.

but the top leader is still about to arrive.

his excellency and his newly appointed minister.

so we are preparing for their arrivals and their schedules.

somewhere in this secluded location,

where the envoys meet.

in friendship

some collect the cards; some compile the stamps; some enjoy the stories; some appreciate the efforts to send; some share the news with others; some prefer to keep it for private; some smile upon receiving it; some shed tears; some do it for the sake of proving something; some do it for paying back; some write on it quickly; some think hard to arrange the words; some have the addresses in their heads; some have to memorize them with the aid of pencil and paper... and even though i might not be able to send them all, by post, still you need to know my friends, that they are all there for you. in friendship from me.

back to indochina

from this land-locked country in southeast asia, i greet you all my friends.

i have been here since last weekend.

within the past three weeks i visited three socialist countries in asia:
the people's republic;
the socialist republic;
and this last one is the people's democratic republic.

the mekong river was seen from the room where i had breakfast in the morning. on the other side of the river is another country. thailand. not a republic... but a kingdom.

i traveled by a local motorbike-taxi for 50 kilometers. the streets were full of dust. i went to the eastern part of this region in order to find the sleeping buddha. the motorbike had problem twice. but after an hour of traveling, i found it. the sleeping was there in a garden with many other statues.

tomorrow i will return home. and hopefully will see my beloved family members again.

see you soon java island.

good evening hanoi

this is good. they have fine quality coffee. i dug my pocket and spent some dongs, the vietnamese currency, to take home a few bunches of arabica as well as moca.

with some help of raihan, i've got what i was looking for as well, a cappucino maker.

why not try to use it tonight to make some cups of coffee? wanna join? come, maybe we can smoke some shisha too...

red flag at dusk

it's coming through a hole in the air, from those nights in tiananmen square. it's coming from the feel that this ain't exactly real, or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.

it's coming through a crack in the wall; on a visionary flood of alcohol; from the staggering account of the sermon on the mount which i don't pretend to understand at all...

it's coming from the sorrow in the street, the holy places where the races meet; it's coming to america first, the cradle of the best and of the worst...

it's there they got the range and the machinery for change and it's there they got the spiritual thirst. it's there the family's broken and it's there the lonely say that the heart has got to open in a fundamental way...

i'm sentimental, if you know what i mean; i love the country but i can't stand the scene. and i'm neither left or right i'm just staying home tonight, getting lost in that hopeless little screen. but i'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay, i'm junk but i'm still holding up this little wild bouquet...

where there's a great will...

...there's a great wall.