bare feet and other curiosities

I have decided that walking barefoot is not a matter of whether you have money to buy shoes or not. It grounds you, keeps you in better touch with the earth, and quite frankly prevents you from spraining your ankle or breaking your leg whle, for instance, trying to climb up Angkor Wat, or the hill tribe village mud path to the "nature loo". You may think I have been doing too much Reiki, Yoga and chakra work. Well nothing like too much fo that, but this really stems from my continuous habit of removing my flip flops to climb through the countryside. It's just so much easier and my balance is so much better. Of course, it's so darned hot here (35 degrees and not even April yet!) that wearing anything other than open toed flip flops would be pure lunacy. I used to always walk around barefoot when I was a child. I have taken up that old habit again, particularly because in Asia, no shoes are ever allowed inside the house, the shop, and most commercial outlets that are not in a big city. Nice! You even get special flip flops to get into some public toilets

I also enjoy getting tamarind paste candy on my flights. It's certainly better than some stale cracker...or these days, nothing at all. It's the grace of Asia that has charmed me; the people bowing at each other with their hands in prayer, smiling from the heart, moving gracefully through their lives, dressing in their traditional garments, eating seasonal foods, coming to life on the street, mingling with each other in the evening night bazaars, welcoming the foreigner, talking to anybody on the street just to practise their newly learned language or to find out simply where you are from....I could go on and on.

For now, I will tell you about one of the many things I plan to export back to my country and install in my toilet. It's the "chorro", or in English, the water jet to clean your ass everytime you go to the toilet. This thing, my friends is a GOD-send! It is a hose attached to the water main that appears magically in every WC I have encountered, public or private, across most of the Asian countries (bar China) I have been to. It hangs inconspicuously beside the water cistern, with a switch on the end to activate the power jet of water that will clean away EV-ER-Y-THING! Forget about wet wipes, toilet paper (which in most parts of Asia is actually served on your dining table as a napkin!) or bad underwear days! The water jet is THE FUTURE! And this my friends is shared by every single male and female traveller I have encountered....well, with some people that is once they realise the thing isn't to clean their dirty feet. I tell you, these Asians are onto something. Pictures to follow.