Things I see from inside a train (or two) in 21 hours.

It is interesting to experience the continuous newness of each moment yet blissful monotony that occurs while staring for hours outside a dirty train car window.....

Oh the lotuses! Literally thousands. Many thousands. They grow along the train tracks like weeds. Huge white and pink flowers that you can almost smell from inside the speeding metal tube.  Imagine! a self sustaining "ditch" along the side of the tracks nearly across the length of a country filled with lotuses! Oh my, what a gift. 

Rice paddies.  In neat rectangles.  Squares.  Snaking along in river like formation. The freshly planted stalks in endless rows, patiently standing at attention.  And green! Green that only exists in real life. It is almost neon. Contrasting with the brown water they are standing in. 

And the Corn. I have recently come from the land of giant corn ("choklo" is grown all over Peru) to the states where corn has always been to me, "normal" sized, which I now  realize was only my perception of "normal", because now I am in the land of tiny corn. Anyone who eats Asian food will understand tiny corn, which of course here, is ....uh...normal. I can only imagine what native tiny corn eaters must think of Peruvian choklo. However, I digress...

...Bananas. And coconuts. Yummmm. Surely a blissful meal or two in the making. My mouth waters thinking of all the delicious Thai dishes made with all this rice, corn, bananas, and coconut I see!  Mmmm. Yellow food. Mmmm.

But that is not what's on the menu today... Train food: not for the persnickety. 

 Interesting weirdness served in pre-packaged shelf stable containers: "Spice egg stew" anyone? "Mackerels in chili sauce"? "Clams of curry"? Not a vegetarians dream lunch. Did I eat these tasty tidbits? Lets just say I did my fair share of open-minded sampling.  Thankfully there is no shortage of yummy green veggies around these here parts. The food has been scrumptious.

Elephants, monkeys, egrets.. and the trees. Beautiful, amazing trees like I have only seen in photographs! It's a jungle out there. I love it. 

Oh and the temples, my goodness...they are everywhere. Like, in every neighborhood. You will think you are in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden a thirty foot golden Buddha appears in front of you. And the sparkly, ornate temples are the fanciest thing going on around here... They are truly a site to see. And most of them have a huge gong. Wow...Talk about powerful vibrations. Those gongs will send you someplace else for sure. 

And somewhere else I finally arrived indeed. 

Of course this was after another bus ride, a 3 1/2 hour ferry ride (with two stops at other islands), and an interesting taxi ride... another case of the taxi driver acts like they know where you want to go,  but after driving back and forth a few times, they admit they don't know and either A. Want to dump you somewhere you really don't want to be or  B. Good ones will stop and ask someone or will make a call.  Thankfully today I got the latter because the last time a taxi driver tried to dump me in the middle nowhere it wasn't pretty. 

Alas, I am here!  I am on a beautiful island off the coast of Thailand and this is the magical view I have... at least for an evening or two.  Aaaahhhhh...thank you Universe... I love my life!

Mantra of the day: I am so happy and grateful I am completely held and supported by Divine Love and Light.