START HERE, reads frame #0 of R4R-42. i like it!
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goodbye thailand!
there’s much more to write about thailand… but january is over and so i think we’ll keep those for the next time. time to wrap up the thai posts and fly to other places! :)
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a mailbox methaphor
there’s something fascinating about old mailboxes., their sturdiness and detail lending them a regal air that newer models seem to lack. you can tell that they were made with care, and to last a long time.
they’re almost like a metaphor: if only we could put this kind of effort and resources into all the things we do, to make sure they’re well done, perhaps they, too, would last longer.
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khao soi
khao soi is a northern thai dish that i had never heard about before but which was everywhere in chiang mai and super yummy:
it’s a mix of soupy egg noodles topped with crispy noodles, and meat or egg. double noodles sounds like a winner already, but the mixture of curry and coconut milk of the broth makes this dish. you can add stuff on top, but in the end we concluded it’s just complicating something that is perfect already. why bother?
it’s just sooooo good that i wonder how come pad thai gets all the fame outside of thailand, but not khao soi?
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the wild beaches of koh samui…
… are littered with trash. here’s a small collection of shoes photographed on a short beach stroll.
plastic bottles, fishing nets, styrofoam, toothbrushes… i could go on and on, with multiple series on different themes. the further away from a fancy resort, the more sprinkled the beaches become with plastic trash, to such an extreme where it feels pointless to even fill up a bag with the stuff, as it wouldn’t make the least bit of difference. it’s shocking and eye-opening: we humans did this, and it all ends up here.
the problem is well known. the island’s only incinerator hasn’t worked in years. it’s hard enough to find trash bins, let alone recycling containers, and it feels like the only recycling happening here is done by locals who go through the trash trying to find scrap materials to re-use or sell. the rest is buried or dumped, without much care.
truth be told, the way garbage is treated is only part of the problem here, and perhaps not even the main one — if anything, at least garbage isn’t hidden away. it’s just there, for all to see. the problem is that all of this is made in the first place.
and i mean, it’s one thing to not buy bottled water, or to always carry tote bags to the market… but these are such small things. i look around me and there’s plastic everywhere — from the keys in my keyboard, to the shutters in the windows. how do you live in a modern society without plastic or oil, things so common that they feel like extra elements of the periodic table? we need a bigger plan for this.