Observations From SouthEast Asia

January 8, 2009. What a year and it is just beginning! All the media is abuzz with gloom and doom. Several people I know have been laid off or fired. I am sensitive to this issue. For the sake of sanity, I would like to disengage and write about something of a more positive nature.

I will begin here with a sumptuous trip I just took for 3 weeks to SouthEast Asia. I visited Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. If you think we are doing bad/lively poorly in this country, try living a day in a life over there...especially Malaysia or Thailand. For those of you who have travelled there..you know well what I am about to say. For those of you who have never been..read on.

For starters..I have done a fair amount of travel but have never travelled to Asia..a place I had on my list to visit years ago. I studied Public Health at UCLA in the late 80's and had an opportunity to travel to many poor areas of the world and research/see how other people live.

I have not travelled too far as of late. Many reasons prevented me from going..the usual issues of money or time or then 9/11 and fear of travel. Let's see - terrorists operate in cells in the countries I wanted to visit. What else could I think of as good reasons to eschew travel abroad?

I visited Asia for about 18 days. I saw many places and visited personal homes of people along with seeing how people live day to day. Many people lived in garage sized units which were completely packed with personal belongings. Trash everywhere. If you are a neatnik like me...you would go wild with how to organize or throw away stuff. I was getting frustrated just being there with all the pack rat items here and there.

There is no sense of personal space, privacy, or even security in Malaysia or Thailand with the common working folks. There is a thickness to the air there..what with the humidity at this time of year, the pollution, the fuel and just the density of people occupying a square mile. I saw many vendors operating similar stands right next to each other..like 10 chicken stands or 8 noodle stands. It is interesting to me how they all make it...somehow.

Most people do not have cars and ride with motorbikes. I saw entire families riding scarily on a motorbike, sometimes mom, dad and babies. Girls riding sideways with their boyfriends...very dangerous.

People were constantly eating. It did not seem that there was a lack of food, clothing or shelter. I would not say this is a third world country by any means like areas of India or Africa. In the areas I went to no concerns with major outbreak of diseases. People eating food from the street that has been out for hours in the sun, flies all over it and possibly being handled by dirty fingers. It would be a public health nightmare out here!

These countries are under the British system so folks drive on the left side of the road. That took getting used to. I was always worried I'd get run over. Traffic with no traffic rules, signs, reprimands. Pollution and sewage smells everywhere..the intelligent folks wearing a cotton mask. The fumes are really bad and overwheming. It was very nauseating at times.

Hardworking people working in restaurants, pharmacies, car repair shops, other craft shops, clothing stores. Most of the items were unbelievably inexpensive. I don't like to use the word "cheap"....it denigrates the time they spent making a work of art...that needs to be honored. I am told to bargain with the vendors...like I said, I have done a fair bit of travel and yet I feel I am getting already a really good deal so let that be that.

I am shopping at their weekend markets and stands and thinking about life in LA. All the times I complain about this or that. Then I see the squalor in how these folks live and I say to myself "Move On". Again, folks living in absolute shacks with dirty concrete floors and a piece of plankwood to separate a room for a family of 8, 10,12. There was a sincere interest in the elderly and keeping the family unit together. A far cry from how we treat seniors over here.

Singapore was not representative of this but Malaysia and Thailand are good reminders to know just how good we have it here in the US of A no matter how poor we feel individually or as a nation. Most poor folks in the US at least have a cell phone, a car, and live (relative to the folks I saw) decently. Really cannot say the same thing with the Malaysian and Thai population I was exposed to.

I am happy to return home to my comforts and conveniences...my computer being one of them. I sit back and look at the pictures of the local folks I met. How happy and content they were , probably wondering about my life too. They seemed sincerely settled and in their life with what they do day to day. Of course..I could not be priivy to their innermost thoughts but a distinct difference in stress from LA - the environs I am used to.

We exchanged smiles, curious looks, hugs, recipes. We exchanged valuables...my money to them for their goods. They were happy, I was happy, all was well with the world. They complained there was less tourism. I was happy to be putting money in their society.

This trip was a year in the planning. Who would have known the economy would have tanked like it did. I have had some major losses this year like others. I was almost thinking of cancelling this trip. Then I remembered why I wanted to take this trip in the first place. To learn, explore, grow, meet new folks. See this part of the world. Heck - did I ever. What a reality check.

PS - no chiropractors anywhere from what I could see. Glad we have them accessibly in the US of A. Another reason to be happy to live in a country of choices especially the most important - our healthcare.

Happy New Year and I am going to think about what I have to be grateful for. Unfortunately there is always someone else worse off than we are. That is not a reason to feel better. It is a reason to be empathetic to them and to ourselves.