Long walk

Greetings,

I continue wandering and exploring all the nuances of Ha Noi.

It's delightful to explore distant alleys where people gather on sidewalks to eat white noodles, spring rolls, fresh greens and drink green tea.

Life on the street is filled with 1,001 motorcycles, hawkers of red star hats, t-shirts, bags, paintings, silk, traditional medicines, shoes, bamboo baskets, silver and twisted lanes filled with aroma and mystery. Designs of family realities, relationship blues.

Wear and tear, shed a travel tear, your heart all this shimmering noddle passion, a broth of conversation's hunger.

A street hawker said. "If you don't buy my cheap cotton hat with a red star, or a cheap wooden bracelet made by a stranger, then the next time I see you while I am walking hot Ha Noi streets trying to make a living, then I won't know you. My eyes will be dark and lost in their future. I won't remember you. Ever.

"I will continue to walk. All day. In the heat. No water. No rest. To walk, to meet tourists. No pity. This is my social and economic reality."

Metta.

Balloon people

Greetings,

You'll be pleased to know the sound of jackhammers, chisels and motorcycle beep-beep music fills the air.

The poetics of balloon men and women walking world streets hawking air filled color. One old grizzled man in Turkey existing in a boarded up concrete cave below a domed hammam did his daily work to get to one of life's little intersections where he would stand and wait.

A young balloon boy in Indonesia did the same, following his plantation dirt trail through fields of discarded plastic bags, garbage, chicken bones, burning refuse, and broken dreams under construction by teams of hammering no-name boys stranded in a gated community to stand and wait nearby air-conditioned malls and choking vehicular streets.

Here, a woman and girl stand and wait and converse late on a humid night at a roundabout, their purple, green, orange shimmering air toys playing above their muted voices as cycles, cars and people traverse their destinations. Beep-beep.

A man pushes his balloon bike cargo down a narrow street. Excited kids run out to see all the colors, shapes and floating dreams.

The poetics of balloon love.

Do what you love and love what you do.

Metta.