A Travel Blog?

I am actually really self-conscious about keeping a travel blog. I feel like it'll end up like other travel blogs--a documentation of bourgeois tourism and exotification of places/people/culture.

I don't want to be like that and I fear coming off like that. I don't know what I am trying to truly accomplish here. I am not sure what pushes me to lead a nomadic life. I don't know what I'm searching for. And I'm not really sure what the purpose of this blog is.

In the end, I think I just want to be honest. Honest about my feelings and perceptions. Honest about what I anticipate. Honest about my disappointments. Honest about what I fear. Honest about what I learn.

I think this blog is mostly to remember. It'll be funny to read it over later on. Or as Everything is Illuminated concludes, you leave marks like these just "in case" -- in case someone comes looking for it (I hope you found what you are looking for).

As for Bangkok, I booked my hotel while drowning in school work and I didn't realize it was so close to Nana. Well, I didn't even realize what Nana was.. I have never been to a red light district before and to be honest, I was really upset that I had booked a hotel there instead of a classy area like Thong Lo. I was so distressed (especially about just not knowing much about Bangkok) that I spent a few hours rummaging through google trying to find out all about Sukhumvit. And I stumbled upon this "morally diminished" blog (warning: that link is not safe for work) and although this may sound bizarre to some, this blog helped me feel safer (he makes a point about how most touristy men who hang around Nana are just lonely people. And he gives much more agency to working Thai girls and presents them as intelligent, independent women. But then again, he uses derogatory terms to describe them most of the time. He's not much of a role model, I guess. I don't have a strong opinion on the sex industry yet but I met sex workers at the SWAS and it really humanized the workers in the industry for me. We'll see. I'll probably encounter more sex tourism/sex trafficking than in my life spent in the suburbs of DC. I'm sure I'll write about it later.). Anyway, my point is: I doubt the working girls will waste time hassling me and the creepy tourists will be busy at the go-go bars.

But anyway, I think my hostel is really cool. I'm pretty excited about delicious street food stalls, cheap/diverse restaurants (thanks to silly tourism), and hopefully conversations with local Thais. Also, the good thing about my hostel is that I'm right near places like the Q Bar and Bed Supperclub as well as a bunch of Indian restaurants. And a 7-Eleven. And probably a McDonalds and Starbucks nearby. Sometimes I feel like globalization is just a friendly term for cultural imperialism.

Well, I'm only in Bangkok for a couple days and I arrive on Sunday so I'm making some plans! I'm definitely going to go to JJ Market after I get situated. I'm also going to see Fugu for free because I found out there is a sweet music festival featuring local bands from Indonesia/Thailand/etc. I really want to meet people who live in Bangkok but CS is disappointing me. We'll see how that goes.

In conclusion, thank god for the internet. A special thanks to Bootsnall, Couch Surfers, and my dearest Taurin for introducing me to them. Also, thanks Google, G-chat, and Wikipedia. Oh yeah and blogspot! Thank you fans. Thank you God (it's necessary in the U.S. since we're all puritans) and Buddha (since I'll probably see lots of Buddhist temples this summer) and friends and family. I love you all.

(Did you really read all of my ramblings?)

boomp3.com

It began in a foyer of evenings
The evenings left traces of glass in the trees
A book and a footpath we followed
Under throat-pipes of birds

We moved through a room of leaves
Thin streams of silver buried under our eyes
A field of white clover buried under our eyes
Or a river we stopped at to watch
The wind cross it, recross it

Room into room you paused
Where once on a stoop we leaned back
Talking late into daylight
The morning trees shook of twilight
Opening and closing our eyes auroras

Beyond groves and flora we followed a road
Dotted with polished brown bottles,
Scoured furrows, a wood emptied of trees

It was enough to hollow us out
The evenings left grasses half-wild at our feet
Branches with spaces for winds

The earth changes
The way way speak to each other has changed
As for a long while we stood in a hall full of exits
Listening for a landscape beyond us.

--Auroras by Joanna Klink