Spin Your Wheels

I have a spaceship here in SR.

It’s disguised as an old reliable small black Japanese made folding bike with 20” wheels and five gears.

It cost 50 bones a year ago at the used bike market across town or, if space travel is your lingo, across the universe. It’s fun to spin the wheels.

Considering many Khmer vehicle operators have a death wish, riding the bike is more akin to playing Russian roulette in traffic. Slow is the mantra.

While walking is the preferred way to travel especially for street photography the bike is fun.

Every kid needs a bike.

Like Laos, it’s a motorcycle culture here with many young immature zombies talking on phones while driving at high speeds.

Caution is advised. Traffic laws are nonexistent.

You do see the occasional partial roadblock by police when they stop drivers w/o helmets.

The tender gravity of kindness says howdy hi howdy ho.

Buddhist Khmer are soft and gentle. They live in the now. The advantage is being present.

The challenge for them is to focus on more than one thing at a time. This unpleasant fact is illuminated by their dopamine addiction to phones + everyone talking at once w/o comprehension. Embrace chaos.

Gadgets make great babysitters.

For the majority it’s about entertainment distractions not information.

Relationships here are like adopting a child.

All the adults need childlike supervision.

Bike it

 The first real grip I ever got on things
Was when I learned the art of pedaling
- Seamus Heaney

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.
Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.
Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
- Iris Murdoch

I feel that I am entitled to my share of lightheartedness and there is
nothing wrong with enjoying one’s self simply, like a boy.
- Leo Tolstoy, Responding to criticism for learning to ride a bicycle at age 67

Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.
- Albert Einstein

 

Check out Steve McCurry's excellent bike images. Here.

Firefly

Greetings,

Culture is what you are. Nature is what you can be. 

I faced a challenging ethical decision at the Chinese steamed bun and iced java joint. I pulled up on my little simple blue bike. There were three HUGE extraterrestrial vehicles parked on the sidewalk. A group of men were having a morning snack and discussion at round tables. They were the economic Knights of the Round Table. 

All the men wore buttoned down long sleeve shirts except for the leader. How did you know he was the leader? When he spoke all the men at his table listened. He wore a striped short sleeve shirt. He wore a gold watch and a big radiant red ruby stone set in a gold ring. He looked well fed and rested. 

His driver held the keys to a big black Caddy. It looked like a tank. I showed him my bike. Want to trade your bike for the Esplanade? he asked me. No thanks, my simple bike meets my needs. It's really efficient. Ok, he said, just asking.

The leader shifted in his plastic chair. He got up. Everyone got up. He walked out. Everyone followed him. The driver opened the back door. He got in. Let's go for a drive through luminous green country, he said. The driver gunned the engine making powerful noise. His friends followed him down the broken rutted dirt road.

There are no stop signs or traffic lights here. Everyone operating a moving vehicle trusts everyone else. This is fair. 

Cambodian children, like children everywhere love to play. They have a game called Kick The Sandal. They use their sandals. They take turns kicking a sandal on uneven cement pavement to see who can reach the goal. It''s exciting and fun. The cement comes from Siam.

A firefly named July zoomed around my dark room one night. The yellow flickering light was illuminating, mesmerizing and hypnotic. A multi-facted dancing yellow white gemstone. It was looking for a way out. I opened the door so it could live in nature.

Metta.

My girlfriend is smart. She wears a helmet. We are happy. We are going nowhere fast. Passengers wearing a helmet here is almost as rare as clean drinking water. 

Posture

Greetings,

Ramblings: The Chinese owner has great serene and erect posture. His family runs a busy breakfast place along the river. Great steamed buns, iced java. He walks with his shoulders firmly back. A solid reminder for slouching humans. Stand up straight. Breathe deep. Alignment. Calm way.

A second hand blue bike ran 38 bones. Bell, basket and chain guard for those hard to reach places on Earth. It's a delightful feeling moving slow. A gentle rhythm.

The previous bike was gifted to a young SIGNING girl in Kampot at Epic Arts. She needed it to get from home to work.

I sit writing at the new space. It faces a wild green garden with birds and butterflies. The family is kind and generous; Khmer meals, peace and quiet. Pagodas across the river echo with ceremonies as monks chant, and pray offering their devotions in the community. Voices and music float with gratitude.

Metta.

Bike S.E. asia

Greetings,

The girl and her boyfriend from northern California arrived in Siem Reap by bike. No petroleum consumption.

Since December they've covered 2,500 miles through Thailand, Laos - spectacular, mountains, valleys, great roads. Central and southern Vietnam - terrible roads and heavy traffic. Southern Cambodia, delightful.

Advice? Get a good seat. Get a larger tire pump. Carry extra tire valves. 

Spin them wheels. Go.

Metta.

One day in China after escaping the tyranny of school systems.