Got to 5 (at least)

Stumpy shows us his 'wholeself.'

The 4thnight I believe

1) I immediately think she's a vampire with that pose

2) Natural hail colors always look better.

Stumpy at sunset.

A really good Mee Goreng.

Roti Telur, at a new joint. Very good.

Well,... if I need it, it's there.

A great Dhosi

5th night

Stumpy has a good view when he's got his head above water.

The croc stuff is just something that makes me happy. Last night I got there and a there was a big crowd. They've been growing nightly. I mentioned to somebody that I'd seen a croc four nights running. She said she'd come because she saw it on Facebook. People are coming to see 'em/it.

Nothing. Sun gone, light fading, and then 10 feet away there it was. 6-7 feet long, fully visible floating. I should have taken a picture. I turned to point it out to the others. By the time I turned back, it was just showing nostrils and eyes. I tried for a while, but could just not get the right shot.

Yeah, I'll do it again tonight. And, I'll turn my back again to share. Why? SHARING. It still matters. By pointing it out to others who post widely, I'm partly responsible for more people wanting to share the experience. Man, that's a powerful good feeling.

Life really has become routine. So most posts going forward will be this style of little photo dump with comments.

I'm trying to get a sense of place that is broader by the day. If something pops up that is neat, I'll share it. Otherwise, my days are peaceful, calm, relaxed, and generally happy. Some blahs, some peaks. The way life always is.

Of course, I'll take requests. Got a dish you want me try? Holler. Want me to show something else? Holler.

There will be lots of street scenes to share. I want people to get a feel for the heat, humidity, pace of life, the way things actually are when you're not a tourist. If you judge the lifestyle of others that I'm showing, you're going the wrong direction. This is how the world looks here. I want people to accept it. Not to impose extremely external values to it.

The scales fell from my eyes in 1992 when I saw happiness and poverty coexist in Bolivia. It's a profound moment in my life. I cannot recreate that for anyone else. But I want to leave a trail of pebbles for others to find an equivalent moment. My maturity in '92 just knew I'd seen something radically different. It took lots of travel and thought to understand the little of it I do.

I contemplate it daily here.

This was outside the Vietnames restaurant where I ate lunch yesterday. It's just something that caught my eye. The graphic was nice. But the lives behind those walls are the ones working hard everyday to cook and serve me food, to cut my hair (got a haircut yesterday), to do everything that makes my life possible and full here.

The tall building to the right is a 20 story European based hotel (The Mecure, I stayed there. It's nice.) The yellow building is a typical one. Battered, beaten, sun weathered, fading; first floor of commerce, upper floors for domiciles. Up well before dawn (0630 almost year 'round) to open a stall by 0600. Working late. And in this case living across from bars that play western music full blast until 0200. (So noisy I will not stay at the Mercure.)

And, as quotidian as it gets, this is Miri. My hometown.