Nursing a mediocre cappuccino in a café
in Chiang Mai, the intrepid blogger ponders how he is to revive his prosaic
outlet amidst a year-long departure from the dear lands of its subject. He
considers a stubborn forge ahead into his encounters with the Nepali community
abroad, presuming expertise in a dark and tragically understudied world of human
trafficking and indentured servitude. Equally enticing is a merge into the
online masses – yet another white male wandering across Asia and sharing his sweeping
judgement of the homelands of several billion people with only a month’s
experience in each country contained therein. In either case, he is, truly, a
hero of the modern world…
Just
kidding. That was me parodying some actual people who I actually met who are
actually like that – like the guy who missed his flight out of Bangkok because
he had spent the entirety of his forty-eight hour visit to Thailand partying in
our hostel, wrote a blog post about Thailand, and told everyone there, many of whom
also have travel blogs, that we should follow his blog. Or like the so-called
expats found across Southeast Asia who never bothered to learn a local language
and only eat western food (don’t even get me started on the ‘expat’ vs ‘immigrant’debate).
Even pretending to talk like them leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Or maybe
that was the coffee.
Anyway,
I really have decided to shift the focus of this blog. I began with the idea of
focusing narrowly but deeply on the little world that I have devoted much of my
life to for the past few years, but I didn’t account for the extended periods
away from Nepal that I will inevitably continue to face. After the better part
of year away, a bit of denial, and minimal literary output, I’ve decided that
my desire to write overrides my original goal. So, moving ahead, this will be a
Blog About Nothing, full of stories, poetry, rants, philosophical ponderances, and
meaningless meanderings. This will probably alienate any readers who don’t know
me personally, which is fine since I’m mostly writing for myself.
Misty old
temples
Abound with
ancient wisdom
And Chang
Beer tank-tops
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