5.2.2004
SHOPPING FOR TAMPONS IN KOTA BARU
I walked into a drug store with Erik, looking for astringent (it's at least 90 degrees and 90%humidity), mascara, and tampons. We're in the capital city of the most conservative Muslim state in Malaysia, Kelantan. We are the only westerners in the store, and I am certainly the only woman not wearing a head scarf.
I'm looking at the astringent, and it's impossible to find one without skin lightening agents. As I give up, and turn to find tampons, I'm approached by two female clerks. "I'm looking for tampons?" Blank looks. "Feminine hygiene?" Blank looks. "For period?" Pointing down.
They look at me, then Erik, then point me in the right direction. Behind us, they giggle, and I'm wondering if they've ever seen a man and a woman shopping for tampons together, here in a place where a boyfriend and girlfriend can get fined by the police for holding hands unmarried.
As I search the aisles, I can only find pads -- all sizes, with or without wings -- but no tampons (this is the second store I've tried). Just then 3 (!) female clerks approach, and now that they understand what I'm looking for, inform me that they are not available here, or anywhere else in Kota Baru. I'll get my tampons tomorrow in Thailand.
+ + + + + + +
KECIL :: PULAU (ISLAND) PERHENTIAN :: MALAYSIA
Sitting in my sarong at table #6, the turquoise lagoon at my left a gentle roar. Waiting for breakfast: "Set D" -- eggs, toast, tea, fruit -- for 5 ringit ($1.50). Memories of last night's storm in the wet cobblestones.
We were awakened in the middle of the night by immense metallic splitting wood. Sparks fly, electricity out. I was convinced we wouldn't survive the night -- be one of those couples you read about struck by lightening in their bed.
Earlier in the evening, we'd abruptly stopped our game of chunka (a traditional game of marbles) when the owner ran in, sweaty and out of breath. A rare sea turtle sighting on Adam and Eve beach, on the opposite side of the island. She was looking for a spot to lay her eggs -- we were lucky.
A group of us westerners took of on the 20-minute hike through the jungle -- clambering roots, humid canopy, umbilicus vines -- which opened out onto a palm-lined cove, perfect white-sand beach gently lapping up and sparkling in the half moonlight.
We spotted what we thought was the turtle, then realized we were practically standing on her -- the other a pile leaves. We moved away and sat for hours, watching her in the moonlight, digging with her hind legs, her massive shell weighing her down. Grunting through the work, with sounds of primeval ripeness.
Earlier that day, we arrived to "D'Lagoon" via speedboat, checked in, and headed straight for the beach at Turtle Bay. Along the way we say 2 5-foot monitor lizards. Like seeing living dinosaurs. The water was bath temperature, and the bottom was filled with coral. We looked forward to snorkeling the next day.
As we swam, a blonde woman approached, and said she'd seen a man crawling up on his belly, about to grab my backpack. When he saw her he slithered away. This time we learned the easy way.
+ + + + + + +
Underwater world weightless aquanaut.
Sounds of Darth Vader breathing and faroff shore crashing,
pebbles clicking or is it fish coral biting?
Intricate flat webbed mauve mushrooms,
ribbed yellow brains, fingers of lace, fields of antlers.
Fish swim in schools and alone:
small silver slivers travel in unison.
Two yellow oblong with purple mouths,
large neon rainbows like a tacky t-shirt.
Half white/half black tiger stripes with red mouths.
Yellow with blue stripes, blue with yellow stripes.
Spotted, striped, patterned, plain.
The subtle feeling of fear, out of my element,
unknown.
A shark in the shadows, stingray below,
invisible sea lice prick like acupuncture all over.
Light streams through in ribbons,
layers of warm and cool currents push and pull.
+ + + + + + +
HOMEMADE SCRABBLE :: GAME TWO :: 4.20.04
AMY: 260
ERIK: 247
SCRABBLE HAIKU:
evil axis pay gaily
fifth azure gruel
quark tumor
legal maw
coons ditches
rove sir
+ + + + + + +
THAILAND :: TRAIN TO SURAT THANI FROM THE MALAY BORDER
White temple with red roof, curled gold unfurl at peaks. Palm trees, thatched huts. Makeshift corrugated steel houses. Rail-thin cows. Clothes lines full of color. Woven walled huts with tin roofs. An empty large clay pot in a wide yard. A hut made out of billboards and plastic sheeting. A line of bird cages, a line of concrete pig pens. Filfth. Squalor. Heaps of woven baskets in disrepair. A whole village now of corrugated steel on stilts above floating garbage. Another temple rises above, pure white, ornate red and blue and gold. Another train -- we watch each other pass by. We slow, the stop: Hat Yai Junction. Stands selling cokes and chips, toilet paper, candy. Dozens of men in uniform with machine guns. 2 sit right behind us. A few days earlier 90 Muslim extremists were killed here in the South. A few weeks before they had bombed public buildings. More people get on. This chubby Thai kid in front of me leans out of the window chowing on a chicken leg. We're moving again. Granite chips in a train car. Rusted lengths of steel. A blue and red jungle gym. We accelerate. More steel villages. Chickens. In the distance, one modern glass and steel high-rise. Teens washing their blue moped. A deafening clatter when we cross bridges. The smell of humid dirt. A woman walks down the aisle peddling apples, another with banana chips. A bamboo fence, an old tree. The boy drops his chicken bone from the window. The man with a blue buckets re-stocks with icy drinks walks by. Man with machine gun walks by. Rice paddies -- just after harvest. Algae floats on top of water. Tidy rows of rubber trees. A rusted road sign -- illegible. Blind man walks by, singing in Thai for spare change.
I walked into a drug store with Erik, looking for astringent (it's at least 90 degrees and 90%humidity), mascara, and tampons. We're in the capital city of the most conservative Muslim state in Malaysia, Kelantan. We are the only westerners in the store, and I am certainly the only woman not wearing a head scarf.
I'm looking at the astringent, and it's impossible to find one without skin lightening agents. As I give up, and turn to find tampons, I'm approached by two female clerks. "I'm looking for tampons?" Blank looks. "Feminine hygiene?" Blank looks. "For period?" Pointing down.
They look at me, then Erik, then point me in the right direction. Behind us, they giggle, and I'm wondering if they've ever seen a man and a woman shopping for tampons together, here in a place where a boyfriend and girlfriend can get fined by the police for holding hands unmarried.
As I search the aisles, I can only find pads -- all sizes, with or without wings -- but no tampons (this is the second store I've tried). Just then 3 (!) female clerks approach, and now that they understand what I'm looking for, inform me that they are not available here, or anywhere else in Kota Baru. I'll get my tampons tomorrow in Thailand.
+ + + + + + +
KECIL :: PULAU (ISLAND) PERHENTIAN :: MALAYSIA
Sitting in my sarong at table #6, the turquoise lagoon at my left a gentle roar. Waiting for breakfast: "Set D" -- eggs, toast, tea, fruit -- for 5 ringit ($1.50). Memories of last night's storm in the wet cobblestones.
We were awakened in the middle of the night by immense metallic splitting wood. Sparks fly, electricity out. I was convinced we wouldn't survive the night -- be one of those couples you read about struck by lightening in their bed.
Earlier in the evening, we'd abruptly stopped our game of chunka (a traditional game of marbles) when the owner ran in, sweaty and out of breath. A rare sea turtle sighting on Adam and Eve beach, on the opposite side of the island. She was looking for a spot to lay her eggs -- we were lucky.
A group of us westerners took of on the 20-minute hike through the jungle -- clambering roots, humid canopy, umbilicus vines -- which opened out onto a palm-lined cove, perfect white-sand beach gently lapping up and sparkling in the half moonlight.
We spotted what we thought was the turtle, then realized we were practically standing on her -- the other a pile leaves. We moved away and sat for hours, watching her in the moonlight, digging with her hind legs, her massive shell weighing her down. Grunting through the work, with sounds of primeval ripeness.
Earlier that day, we arrived to "D'Lagoon" via speedboat, checked in, and headed straight for the beach at Turtle Bay. Along the way we say 2 5-foot monitor lizards. Like seeing living dinosaurs. The water was bath temperature, and the bottom was filled with coral. We looked forward to snorkeling the next day.
As we swam, a blonde woman approached, and said she'd seen a man crawling up on his belly, about to grab my backpack. When he saw her he slithered away. This time we learned the easy way.
+ + + + + + +
Underwater world weightless aquanaut.
Sounds of Darth Vader breathing and faroff shore crashing,
pebbles clicking or is it fish coral biting?
Intricate flat webbed mauve mushrooms,
ribbed yellow brains, fingers of lace, fields of antlers.
Fish swim in schools and alone:
small silver slivers travel in unison.
Two yellow oblong with purple mouths,
large neon rainbows like a tacky t-shirt.
Half white/half black tiger stripes with red mouths.
Yellow with blue stripes, blue with yellow stripes.
Spotted, striped, patterned, plain.
The subtle feeling of fear, out of my element,
unknown.
A shark in the shadows, stingray below,
invisible sea lice prick like acupuncture all over.
Light streams through in ribbons,
layers of warm and cool currents push and pull.
+ + + + + + +
HOMEMADE SCRABBLE :: GAME TWO :: 4.20.04
AMY: 260
ERIK: 247
SCRABBLE HAIKU:
evil axis pay gaily
fifth azure gruel
quark tumor
legal maw
coons ditches
rove sir
+ + + + + + +
THAILAND :: TRAIN TO SURAT THANI FROM THE MALAY BORDER
White temple with red roof, curled gold unfurl at peaks. Palm trees, thatched huts. Makeshift corrugated steel houses. Rail-thin cows. Clothes lines full of color. Woven walled huts with tin roofs. An empty large clay pot in a wide yard. A hut made out of billboards and plastic sheeting. A line of bird cages, a line of concrete pig pens. Filfth. Squalor. Heaps of woven baskets in disrepair. A whole village now of corrugated steel on stilts above floating garbage. Another temple rises above, pure white, ornate red and blue and gold. Another train -- we watch each other pass by. We slow, the stop: Hat Yai Junction. Stands selling cokes and chips, toilet paper, candy. Dozens of men in uniform with machine guns. 2 sit right behind us. A few days earlier 90 Muslim extremists were killed here in the South. A few weeks before they had bombed public buildings. More people get on. This chubby Thai kid in front of me leans out of the window chowing on a chicken leg. We're moving again. Granite chips in a train car. Rusted lengths of steel. A blue and red jungle gym. We accelerate. More steel villages. Chickens. In the distance, one modern glass and steel high-rise. Teens washing their blue moped. A deafening clatter when we cross bridges. The smell of humid dirt. A woman walks down the aisle peddling apples, another with banana chips. A bamboo fence, an old tree. The boy drops his chicken bone from the window. The man with a blue buckets re-stocks with icy drinks walks by. Man with machine gun walks by. Rice paddies -- just after harvest. Algae floats on top of water. Tidy rows of rubber trees. A rusted road sign -- illegible. Blind man walks by, singing in Thai for spare change.
