Namaste Nepal

Just had a great time in Nepal (Kathmandu, Patan, Pokhara, Bakhtapur). Will update with more articles in the next few weeks but I wanted to share some photos taken from my lomo camera. Hope you will enjoy and Namaste !

Trang

We were supposed to go to Trang (south of Thailand) for just one day, on our way to some beautiful island. This city was just a stop-over. Finally, we did stay just one day to Trang but we didn't go any further. The weather was so bad that we couldn't hop on the boat and risk to stay in our island resort all day without anything to do and worst stay in an island with no possible escape to the shore. So even though Trang isn't on most (any?) tourist travel plan, here are some of the highlights of our only day in this city which we made the most of it, despite the odds...

A sign ...

Belugas

More belugas...

Pork with Taro

Beautiful lights

Traditionnal tuk-tuk

Clock Tower

A park with a statue (and thirsty horses)

And street art !

Summer is over ... memories are forever !

Summer is already over ...  here are some memorable moments from this summer 2012 : 

Relaxing time in Samui

Grey weather in Bangkok

Cocktail time with friends 

Beautiful views

 Friendly cows

Birthday boy

 Some love

Smiley face

 Ice cream smiley face 

  More love and asian cuteness

What were your memories of this summer 2012 ?

My son is a vampire!

I didn’t know that being a father would take so much of my energy! I really suspect my 2 year-old boy to be a vampire, because he is literally sucking the life out of me! Waking up crying in the middle of the night to drink milk, rising up as the sun the next early morning when you are still barely able to differentiate dream from reality, monitoring any of your movement and inevitably asking you "what are you doing?", jumping on you, hitting you (for fun!?!), asking you to carry him around in your arms everywhere…. few examples of the joy of parenthood. I've already cancelled my gym membership, my new trainer is a tough one! Any little moment of peace I have, only one idea sticks to my mind: SLEEP! … or shower ? … no, it can wait… my bruised and exhausted body needs some rest. Pronto!

But something doesn't quite ring true with this bat a-like monster theory. If he is the reason why I can't seem to find the energy to open my eyes, how come when I'm away from him, I feel so empty and lifeless? I guess missing him takes a lot more energy than I thought. Must be another evil trick… Note to self: eat more garlic, avoid fangs.

Is it a proof enough ?

Even though I'm pretty sure my son is a vampire, with Twilight, True Blood and others Being Human, don't we all love our little blood sucking creatures? Don't know for you, but I surely love mine.   

Papa

"Papa" … isn't it the sweetest sound when you hear it for the first time? For some people (especially within the gay community) it might be the start of a nightmare or an unwanted recognition, for me, it was more of a scream from the heart setting me free from a long journey.

Let me break it to you: I love children! As far as I can remember, I have always wanted to have one, two or a bunch of them (please … pretty please!). Sadly, I wasn't born in a baby-filled family. I'm the only child, the only grand-child and I had to live in a world surrounded by adults. It has probably helped me being more mature than most kids my age but I was lacking the play-times with youngsters and the falling-over-heels for the cute laugh of a related toddler.

 I was expecting, it would take years before I would meet the right guy and start a family. I thought I would go through the very slow and complicated process of adopting a child with him, through an agency or else, our own Pitt-Jolie version of happiness. But fate has its ways and sometimes its happy endings. My perfectly imperfect boyfriend, as I mentioned in this post, has several younger brothers and one of them, 19 years of age, has a 2 year old baby boy and a 8 months girl. As he is too young to financially take care of them (and not mature enough I guess), my boyfriend is helping out a lot so much so that he is considering his nephew as his own son. So when I was introduced to the whole family, his big concern was: "will I hit it off with this little boy?" I've always heard those stories where barren couples were visiting an orphanage in another country and among hundreds of children had an instant connection with one particular child. That’s somehow what happened to me. And soon enough that little boy called me "Papa". A magic word I knew how to say but never heard.

We are spending as much time as we can together and try to get ready to welcome him in our home in a few months, figuring out plans for the future including him and probably later on his little sister. Of course his real father will always be his father but I guess there is a room for a "Papa" in his life and I'm more than ready to enjoy this role.

"I don't date smart people" or the era of idiocracy

I was channeling through television when I heard this sentence on "The Millionaire's Matchmaker" (silly reality TV program … I know!): "I don’t usually date smart women". I was so flabbergasted by this quote that I had to write about it.

What is it with the society now that value looks over smarts, and packaging over personality. I'm not hypocrite enough to say that only inner beauty matters but when looking for a partner for life one must scan through the perfect smile and body to see what will stick until the end. What do these shallow people expect from their life together? Hot sex for a few weeks and then a whole life of boredom (probably punctuated by affairs with even dumber good-looking people)? What happened to the society if now saying "I don't date smart people" or "I have never read a book" doesn't shock anyone anymore?

Few years back, I watched a movie entitled Idiocracy (see trailer above), where a regular man woke up in the future and realized he was the smarter man alive as all the planet became more and more stupid over the years and decades. Is it what is going to happen to us? It wouldn't surprise me. After all, movies have already replaced books, auto-correcting avoids you the burden that is learning how to spell words, envy prevails on curiosity and football players are paid much more than world leaders and a thousand thinkers of all kind together.

What are we teaching our children? To try to look better because that's what they will really need to succeed or they will be bullied being named "dork", "nerd", "geek"?  It's never too late to realize what is important: a good heart, a nice personality, and a well-rounded brain. American people have already invented a singing contest called the Voice where the judges aren't able to see the candidates and can only judge of their singing performance and not their looks. If American people can do it, EVERYTHING is possible! (just kidding … ^^")

So please people: read books, develop your imagination and intellect, think (!), and find someone who gets your joke and makes you laugh, cause even the hardship of time will not make THAT fade away.  

 

My weekend in the country

It had been a while that I hadn't visited the countryside. Over three years ago, I was living a more traditional lifestyle in Laos: no shower (just a basin filled up with water), no internet (had to walk 3 kilometers to use a cybercafé), no taxi to bring you anywhere on demand (just a bike or its motorized version) and laughs and chilled out moments with friends and their relatives to fill up the blanks.

After a few years living in Bangkok, energetic and luxurious capital of the Kingdom of Thailand, I guess you get a little "bourgeois". Life is so easy: countless restaurants, taxis circulating everywhere, at any time, internet at a cheap price at home or on my smartphone, refreshing air conditioning and hot showers at leisure, and no spare time.  

Last week-end was different. My loved one asked me if I wanted to go with him to visit his family in a remote and rural thai village. Only two hours separated the departure from our condo to his birth-home but it seemed we were already in another world. An unknown universe filled with memories from my own past: the basin with cold water ready to get you wet and clean, the food we all share sitting on the ground, the spartian but warm habitat … The "simple life", as Paris Hilton would say on her reality-TV show. But unlike her, I didn’t feel like a stranger placed in an un-friendly environment. To the contrary, I felt at ease, peaceful, sitting here on the wooden porch, gazing at rice fields surrounding me.

Life in the countryside takes a slower track: you wake up early with the sun, and finish your day as luminous star ends its course on your side of the world. You eat, talk, vacate to your chores and ritual activities. You have time for yourself, time to pause and reflect on the day and the future. What a shock when you are used to the fast and hectic pace of urban life. I didn't need to look at my watch. I have time! Time, I can waste with the unnecessary and use for the essential. And so I did. I was able to get rid of the bad thoughts, the burden of doubts and replace them with a deep breath of fresh air and a sigh of relief. And right now, as I prepare myself to go back to my routine and grow bigger the crowd of busy and impatient city people, I'm under the impression that I will join them feeling a little bit lighter. 

It had been a while, as I said, since I had come to the countryside. But it felt great to be back.