Dreaming in Bangkok: An Inside Job!

I’m on an Air Asia flight from Manila to Boracay, where I’ll participate in my first Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, and Brazilian Zouk Dance festival. During the flight, I reflected on my seven-week experience in Bangkok and the three days I spent in Manila.

Regarding Bangkok, there was an overall sense of disenchantment. I’m sure I missed a lot, and in no way claim to be an authority on such a large city after only seven weeks, but my impression is that Bangkok can be neatly summarized into the following categories: 1) Prostitution; 2) Massage parlors- both legitimate and erotic ones; and 3) Visiting temples. I distinctly remember the “temple fatigue” I experienced during my previous trip to Thailand three years ago. I couldn't bear the idea of visiting one on this trip, or ever again.

In all my travels, I’ve discovered that cities require a purpose. At the very least, cities need a point of contact —an activity, a job, an obligation, or a local friend to show you the city through their eyes. Otherwise, there is just artifice, like any ancient ruins that require a story and imagination to give them shape and meaning.

What I love about traveling is the inner exploration, which I believe is the most worthwhile journey of all. Journeys in the world are delightful, but are just the tools, the vehicles that allow us to go deeper into ourselves. Ultimately, it’s about building bridges and getting over oneself. As the great Shaman Don Diego used to say: "It's not the most important thing, and it's not the least important. It's the ONLY thing!"

Frankly, I get a little bored listening to that same playlist of thoughts and ideas in my head. Most of our ideas are antiquated, unoriginal, and cultural and familial hand-me-downs. It has always surprised me that people adhere to and propound these ideas so vociferously, as though their very lives depended on them. I find it much more interesting to hear someone else’s thoughts and rationale and consider their implications on my thinking. 

Travel offers such opportunities to examine and explore oneself in a different context. Sure, you can do the same old thing, practice the same habits, or adopt new ones. In this context, I prefer the definition of “habit” as something you wear, which, therefore, provides the opportunity for transformation and transcendence. Taking this idea even further, it’s not choosing the character I wish to play, or the “habit” I prefer to wear in this new context, but instead allowing the circumstances to dictate the response. An example of this is the jazz musician who has likely played a song a million times, but the interaction with their colleagues on stage, the mood of the audience, or even extraneous sounds, may take the improvisation and creativity in an altogether different direction.

Another example relevant to my current environment is noticing that in Southeast Asia's scorching heat and humidity, the locals move in an altogether different manner than tourists. They move slowly and deliberately, with minimal extraneous movements that are not called for by the circumstances. In the same way, I strive as much as possible to leave myself and my war-torn ideas behind, allowing the circumstances to dictate who will emerge in this new context. Extrapolating this idea even further, since there are no compelling markers during travel to indicate who you were in your previous life, you are free to be, allowing yourself to flow in the Divine current and discover other facets of your avatar.

Fortunately, thanks to the Divine Current, I found my purpose here: to embrace embodiment and fully explore myself as a sensualist, through almost daily massages, exercising, experiencing the heat and wind from the back of a motorbike, and learning Brazilian Zouk, Kizomba, and Bachata. In this regard, Bangkok fulfilled its purpose! However, I don’t think I’ll return there for more than one week. Many windmills in the world are waiting to be conquered!

So, upon arrival at the hotel in Boracay, the very first thing I did was jump into the ocean. What a delight! I again realized that I was born into the lineage of Yacu Mama, the “Water Mother,” more so than Pachamama, the goddess of the land, fertility, crops, mountains, and time. It would be easy to say that it was because I was born on the island of Haiti, but I left Haiti when I was six years old and have very few memories there. Perhaps it was because my mother was born on Grand Turks, Turks and Caicos Islands (she is 96-years-old and the very last survivor of 42 siblings [same father!]), and, as soon as my uncles were old enough to forge papers, they became sailors as TCI was on a significant trade route. Consequently, I was regaled with stories of living on the ocean. Yet, I doubt this as the reason for my strong bond with Yacu Mama. Maybe it was the fire hydrants! (See https://www.richardlanoix.com/post/dreaming-in-bangkok-nostalgia)

Regardless, the ocean profoundly affects me - it transforms and rejuvenates me. It reminds me that Voltaire’s proposition in “Candide”- “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”- was indeed, although unwitting, correct. Voltaire wrote “Candide” as a satire and critique of utopian societies. I believe that his critique is accurate if you limit yourself to the apparent and quotidian reality, the “outer journey.” On a deeper level (the “inner journey”), you are bitch-slapped with the realization that, in fact, “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds,” and in this “Consciousness Soup” of existence, everything is perfectly orchestrated. All that is required to live the experience that “life is so simple, all you have to do is breathe,” is to let go of the tiller, inshallah, and let the force guide you. I can hear you say, especially in light of everything that’s going on the United States and the world: “What bullshit!!!” 

I recognize that, from our ingrained human perspective, this may seem an absurd notion even to consider, let alone accept, and impossible to accomplish. And guess what? If you continue to focus your attention outward, then yes, you are 100% correct. However, as every wisdom tradition and sage from time immemorial have offered, the inner journey provides a portal that very few have crossed, providing a different lens to experience the world: 

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour." 

~ William Blake 

You ask: “And how exactly can I accomplish this?” The answer lies in your curiosity, willingness to explore, and embarking on the inner journey. First, acknowledge that your experience, similar to the spectrum of light or the bandwidth of sound we can appreciate, is limited. Or, as it was better said by the Christian mystic Anthony De Mello (paraphrase): “The first step before you can learn anything is to admit that you are full of shit!” The journey begins by acknowledging that there might be something beyond your knowledge and experience. Then, take steps in that direction, and voilà, the universe will delight you! 

“A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step!” - Lao Tzu.