so my question is-where is Asia? before my travels here i would say that it starts across the pacific ocean, but now i realize that Asia is a state of mind. it starts with the ticket agent at the china air counter at the San Francisco airport who calls me a late bird for showing up 30 minutes before my flight is scheduled to leave, but she is going to make me a lucky bird by finding me a good seat. i watch a young Chinese couple on the plane attach a bassinet to the bulkhead in front of them to hold their sleeping infant as they cover her with silk cloths for her flight across the ocean. the man across the aisle hands me his dinner roll smiling and saying "American food". on the other side a man singing a mysterious lullaby to his infant as she falls asleep in his rocking arms. i fall asleep to the sound only to be awakened by a soft voice. i look into a beautiful Asian face as the flight attendant says to me "sir-put on eye shade-hard to sleep with movie screen so bright". i wake up as we approach Taiwan to the man singing again that mysterious eastern melody waking his daughter gently up into another day of life. this is Asia to me. i sit in a cafe in Hanoi where i eat a 3 dollar lunch and give the young waitress 2 American dollar bills as a tip to the delight of the whole staff who line up and greet me as i leave. i look back to see her showing the bills to everyone smiling from ear to ear. i am in a national park in the mountains where the mists rise from the valleys and shroud the old french villas and newer hotels which are surrounded by cultivated gardens and patches of forest. hard to believe this country was bombed, shot up and chemically defoliated within my lifetime. the people beam at us,invite and pull us into their street dances and into the lenses of their cameras. i speak their language, flauntingly for sure and they laugh as they are so proud to talk to a Westerner especially an American-go figure that! the country is lush and beautiful as we walk through cultivated gardens and thick bamboo forests cataloging butterflies. I'm told that i now have a Vietnamese family and that i must return and bring my wife. i feel pure magic here and a drive to create and write and paint. Asia is its people and they are forever a part of me and my journey through this life.
so my question is-where is Asia? before my travels here i would say that it starts across the pacific ocean, but now i realize that Asia is a state of mind. it starts with the ticket agent at the china air counter at the San Francisco airport who calls me a late bird for showing up 30 minutes before my flight is scheduled to leave, but she is going to make me a lucky bird by finding me a good seat. i watch a young Chinese couple on the plane attach a bassinet to the bulkhead in front of them to hold their sleeping infant as they cover her with silk cloths for her flight across the ocean. the man across the aisle hands me his dinner roll smiling and saying "American food". on the other side a man singing a mysterious lullaby to his infant as she falls asleep in his rocking arms. i fall asleep to the sound only to be awakened by a soft voice. i look into a beautiful Asian face as the flight attendant says to me "sir-put on eye shade-hard to sleep with movie screen so bright". i wake up as we approach Taiwan to the man singing again that mysterious eastern melody waking his daughter gently up into another day of life. this is Asia to me. i sit in a cafe in Hanoi where i eat a 3 dollar lunch and give the young waitress 2 American dollar bills as a tip to the delight of the whole staff who line up and greet me as i leave. i look back to see her showing the bills to everyone smiling from ear to ear. i am in a national park in the mountains where the mists rise from the valleys and shroud the old french villas and newer hotels which are surrounded by cultivated gardens and patches of forest. hard to believe this country was bombed, shot up and chemically defoliated within my lifetime. the people beam at us,invite and pull us into their street dances and into the lenses of their cameras. i speak their language, flauntingly for sure and they laugh as they are so proud to talk to a Westerner especially an American-go figure that! the country is lush and beautiful as we walk through cultivated gardens and thick bamboo forests cataloging butterflies. I'm told that i now have a Vietnamese family and that i must return and bring my wife. i feel pure magic here and a drive to create and write and paint. Asia is its people and they are forever a part of me and my journey through this life.
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