Like a Roling Stone...How does it feel...

How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?

That has always been on of my all time favorite songs not to mention my favorite Dylan song. Yet I have never really understood the meaning until now. To be on my own, a complete unknown, with no direction home, how does it feel? It feels right, so right for this time in my life.

Sit back my friends because I have a lot to share. Today is the first day of the New Year. The decade is closing in on us and the New Year has begun. Let me tell you how I wrung the New Year in. First, I must set the stage for you. Two days ago I began my day by taking a private meditation class. The class was in this art studio where this woman's father, husband, daughter, and herself all paint. Everything they paint has a deep blue background because everything is about the universe. Inside the pictures are a panorama of color, planets and Hindu Gods. The studio is old and run down so do not think of any gallery you have ever seen. She tells me to focus on her guru on the wall; of the hundreds of paintings it is the only one that is not blue. She teaches me the chant (it wasn't easy) and it is shaker meditation and we begin to shake our bodies eventually like people speaking in tongues. I came down with a bad cold when I arrived in Bali (too much wild play and staying up all night in Umalis my last Bali city) and I have no energy. I have been connected to the Gospel world so the shaking thing doesn't feel that odd. Well we go at it and I tell you when we are done with me lying on the pearl-white tile floor I get up and feel like I have energy to burn, my nose has stopped running and my head was clear. I am still not sure what I think of the whole shaker mediation thing but I'll be dammed if it didn't cure my cold.

I went right from the class to meet a driver at my Villa who was picking up for a class to learn how to make my own Batik. These two men in their early forties greet me. They have terrible teeth; look really disheveled and a bit scary. I jump in the jeep and they tell me the studio is in the Village. I have heard that Village life is really interesting and I think oh cool I will get to experience the Village. My next thought is holy shit these guys could rob me, sake me down or God know what and the fear begins to creep in as we tilt up the mountain road. My friend/boss Darrell told me over and over you are a hundred times safer in Asian and Indonesia because you will be in Buddhist and Hindu countries. O.K. the other part of my begins to take over. They ask me if I love Obama and I say yes. They begin to clap and cheer and start to chat Obama, Obama and tell me how much it means that America elected a man who has the same color skin they do. One of the men tears up. The other man laughs and says Iran loves to say that George Bush hates Muslims...what will they say now, gotcha, and we all laugh. I suddenly understand that these are beautiful gentle spirits and I am fine.

Every single House in the Village is attached to a temple and that makes their life sacred and protected. Attached to the temple is a small compound of dirt floors, roster, chickens, and ducks are at my feet, not to mention numerous dogs and two pigs sleep in a pen near by. I suddenly get how poor these people are. The Batik studio is all open and there are some amazing Batiks all over the place. He is almost done with one of Obama and asks me if I can help him get it to the White House. I said I would do my best. They bring me water and tea and sit me down and look me square in the eye and say this is our home and we want you to be happy and most comfortable. I am. I first learned about Batiks through my Brazilian friends, Roberta and my friend Carol has one that moves me every time I see it. My first step is to pick out my design and pattern. I start to fret about what I want and Widya, the teacher says “Let your story tell itself." I began to trace my images and patterns, and then with a hot wax tool the hard part begins the etching. I did some of it but the really hard parts Widya helped me with, then I painted and mix colors. It all had to dry and Widya and his friend, Atik said they were feeling lazy and asked me if I wanted a tour of the Village and the massive rice fields. We would continue tomorrow for no extra charge. Widya has talked a lot about a community art school he runs with some friends so children can learn art for free, he boasts they have 10 students. I will not go on about the rice fields again but it is a green like I have never seen and the sight of massive fields took my breath away. I have been searching for Batik for one friend and a piece of art for another but nothing seemed right or too expensive. We drive down this dirt road in the pouring rain and enter this dirt little community with a few brick walls with art on them and a wooden table. Because of the rain there is on boy 17-he looks all of 12 working on a painting. They bring me the best ginger-tea I have ever tasted and we sit and laugh and just act silly. At one point we wade through the mud and lay down on the only piece of concrete in the compound. Old woman who look 120 come out to see me and children run up and run away. I know they would like me to buy a piece of art but that is not the reason I am hear. They are so proud of this little art school. I then see what I hope will be the perfect picture for my friend. I offer them $20 and the teacher is thrilled.

The next day I have Tibetan singing bowl mediation where they but several bowls on your body for an hour as you mediate and the bowls sing and vibrate through your body. My friend Carol lovingly bought me a singing bowl the year I turned fifty. Wow, the year I turned fifty it sounds so old. I learned a lot about how to use the bowls properly. Free healing for all when I return.

I am ready to finish my batik vibrating and humming down the street to meet my friends. We get to the studio and I have bought breads, cheeses, olives, fruit and chocolates for heir families for the New Year and they are so appreciative. We now have to finish the stamping patters, dye the fabric, bowl it to get the wax out and then watch it dry. A Dutch man who lives in the compound is making 300 traditional Dutch treats for the village. When he offers me one it is an Italian Zeppita, fried dough with powdered sugar. It is the exact recipe and I am instantly in my Grandmothers kitchen. While my masterpiece is drying I want to go into town a shop that is selling more of Widya's batiks.

My name means Delicious in Ball and when I tell them it also means toilet in America they think that is hilarious. I am now called either Mr. Funny Jon (yes I have killed in Bali as well) or Delicious toilet. It is Odd because I had a fling (yes another one) with a man in Seim Reip, Cambodia and his name was so hard to pronounce that I just started calling him Delicious. I have thought about him a lot and it is odd to now be called delicious. We go to his shop and I find what I hope is the prefect gift for my friend. I then tell him what I am looking for and can't find for Sophia and Jay Linn and he says let me make them for you. I leave tomorrow for an Island in Lombok, think of me as Gilligan. These two men also act as drivers and trekkers for money. I have hired them to pick me up when I get off the boat and need to drive back to the airport for Thailand, my final destination (boo hoo) on this journey.

O.K. kids here are where it really gets good. They invite me to come back later for their New Years Eve Party. I have a few other invitations but they are all big events with bands playing American pop music. I think I have done that and when can I have this experience with these villagers again. After another rain storm it is around 9:00PM and I get a driver to take me to the village. When I arrive their is no one there. The mud is bad because of the rain and in the darker than dark. The dogs, chickens and roosters don't seem as friendly. Widya's wife comes out (she speaks no English) I finally get that everyone is at the Temple. I can't go because I’m not wearing a saronong but she will text him. The party is just six men sitting on mats drinking vodka and jungle juice out of one glass that we pass around. All spirits must be passed and shared you can't get your own glass. They say we must sit and talk about sprits, the Gods and life for the New Year. We proceed to have these deep conversations about "it all." When the New Year approaches we take our vodka, glass and Pringles potato chips and go to say high to the sprits of the rice fields. We sit on the wet road and start to sing American songs. This is how they have all learned English. I tell them I have all the music they love and I will send them mixes. My friend turns to me and says. Can my first song be an old song that I love so much, I have studied all the words, a song about Leaving on a Jet Plane. If you are following the blog I tell you I just fell on the road, shouting to the midnight green of the field this can't be possible. When I tell them the story of the song that my lover Jim new Mary Travis of Peter, Paul and Mary and that she wrote the song and I have hung out with her. They howl with laughter and tell me the Gods love me because they play with me. Indeed they do I say. More fiends come and we are singing American Pie, Like a Virgin, Hotel California and other American songs. Because I know them the keep asking me to sing and think I have a nice voice. I told them I have an entire cabaret act in my head that I have been doing for decades and to sit back. Knowing all to well it would be the last time a group of people would ask me to sing. We then see a hug snake slithering up the center of the wet road. This is good luck they say and we follow it until it goes back in the river. I have to tell you the sight of this snake was awe inspiring.

As we walk back they tell me Dolly Parton is their number one. I proceed to tell them every funny Dolly story I know, I glide into Sophie Tucker jokes, into Tallulah Bankhead jokes, just the sound of their raucous laughter fills my heart. When they take me back to my hotel in the wee hours they thank me for my company and say “Mr. Delicious, you worry too much” and start to sing Don't Worry be Happy and drive away, laughing and shouting friend for life. When I reach the desk to get my key the clerk asks me how I am. “I am…I am...delicious” I say and go off to bed.

Happy New Year one and all, let's not worry, let's be happy. xoxo

Move Over Bill Mahr...I have a few New Rules of my Own

As the New Year is upon us I have a few New Rules of my own:

NEW RULE: Euro Trash Stop Trashing.
Honestly, if I have to listen to one more European go on & on about the environment and what hideous job the Bush Administration has done on environmental issues, as they sit in a cloud of smoke I will kill someone. No one uses an ashtray the earth is there ashtray. They will grind a cigarette butt in front of a scared temple. So my new rule is to shut the Butt Up!

NEW RULE: Dreading Your Dreads.
White Boys & Girls from Iowa, Kansas and Florida stop wearing Rastafarian dread locks it doesn't make you a Rastafarian it make you a Rasta Fakeiin.

NEW RULE: Yes MEANS yes and no MEANS no.
O.K. People stop saying yes for no & no for yes. I don't mean to be mean and I have really fallen in love with these people and their gentle spirits but...the yes no thing is out of control. You would think a restaurant would be the one place that they would have to have some English skills. Do you know how many times I have asked if the fish has bones and I am told no over and over. "No bones for you Sir." Then they bring me an entire fish with the head and that one eye looking right at me. It looks Like Sammy Davis Jr. about to burst into Up a Lazy River. I am the guy who can't eat a chicken leg because the bones freak me out. But I hunker down and go at it. When in Rome Eh? I feel like Russel Crow in Gladiator...O.K. more like Fred Flagstone at heir annual Fish Fry one of my favorite episodes.

NEW RULE:A Pagoda is a Pagoda is a Pagoda.
I have been to more of my share of sacred temples in five countries so far. A filed with a bunch of Pagoda's should not be listed as a sacred temple. After a while they all look the same and not one, not one Pagoda is related to Abe...trust me I have asked.

NEW RULE: Who Knew...Elvis Was Right.
O.K. We must begin to shot every TV in the world. What can I say they have been the destruction of civilization. Don't get me wrong I am not a TV snob and I watch more than my share. I lived for Lucy (I did not see Lucy in prime time as some of my friends who shall remain nameless say, Cindy & Lorraine) I come from a Jeopardy family, I am addicted to Seinfeld reruns and I could go on and on. Don't get me started on my passion for design shows. But people I am here to tell you it is out of control. There are TVs on everywhere and it has numbed us all. We should wear T Shirts with a big X across a TV set and barret's (I Know Patty Hearts couldn't even pull off a barret and she had money and a rifle) and just start shooting the dam things. I have already read eight books and would never have read that much if I had a TV near by. Here is an odd piece of news, Asia is obsessed with The Nanny it is on constantly. You haven't lived until you have heard Fran Dresser's voice in Balinese.

Happy New Year to one and all. xoxo

And so it is Christmas, and this is what I have done

And so it is Christmas...and my love to all.

I met a lovley Austlaian Peter at a beach cafe and he invited me to a brunch he was hosting for 25 people at a luxury resport. So there I was with a Rockefeller, a new freind from Nigera, people from Korea, India, Canada, Singapor, New Deli, London & me the American. Peter runs the other gay villa in town and he also invoted his entire staff to this holiday brunch. We aere sitting in an outdoor patio facing a rice patti filed ( a truely beautiful site, give me a new appreciation for rice) and a cliff toward the ocean. The tables were done in red, white & gold and it was all very elegant. We had one fo those food buffets that you see on a cruise ship and I broke down and eat a pice of meat for the first time. Come people it was roast beef what was i tp do. It turns out the Rockeffeler his name is Scott was teh first opebly gay person in an administration...Nixon of all people. Anyway he has written a ton of books and apparently has an amaziing Villa in the jungle. I am going there for a Boxing Day luncheon tomorrow. I already have three invitaions for New Years Eve, one of them being a no clothing pool party.

After brunch I went to tyhe beach and had an amazing massage for $5 American Dollars. The message is right on the beach you face the ocean. My freind from North Korea met me for a sunset dinner. We want back to trhe hotel for a swim and to sit in the steamroom for an endless amount of time. Anyway this was my totaly odd and unexpected Christmas.

It is amazing to partake in political conversations here becasue there is such a different perspective and it gets very heated. The funny thing is as heated as it gets they all laugh at teh end. There is really anger in these intense political ping pomg matches that happen.
I have alot to report about the differnece between the 5 counties I ahev been to. That report will come later.

I move yo to Ubd tomorrow the dense jungle green of Bali and the art community that I hope to embrace fully. My friend Mags from New Zeland who I met in Cambodia will be meeting me and we will laso celebrate teh New Year. Of all the new freinds I have made Mags is by far the most interesting.

And so it is Christmas...around the globe in this amazing, crowded, complicated, beautiful world. xoxo

It's Comin on Christmas their cutting down trees...

their putting up raindeer and singing songs of joy and peace, oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on, oh i wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly, oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on."

As many of you know I worship Joni Mitchell for a multitude of reasons but that song in particular is a major one.

I don't have a river I can skate away on but I do have one I can float away on. It is the Mekon River. It is long, wide, brown and muddy but I can escape away on.

You see I have Christmas in my soul. I always have, since I could first form a memory. Don't get me wrong I had some rough holidays growing up. My father hated Christmas becasue it always reminded him oh how poor his family was and he and his brothers and sisters never had any presents. But my mother loved Christmas, she usually got her way and did her best to go all out. I will always love her for that. But it goes deeper than that. I never had to fight for holiday joy it was as if it summoned me. "Come on Jon, tis the season, Tis your job, go ahead catch the spirit then spread it around." I always felt that I was summoned by the holiday spirit,

I am the guy who had to play holiday music in July just to get a fix of the music I loved. My freinds and neighbors Jay & Tina can atest to that. I am the guy who for years made holiday mixes on cassettes then CD's when I became Jon 2010. I have fed the homeless, I would buy my homelss freind Viven 10 gifts for years and warp the hell out of them. My freind Andy and I would cook a five course meal for homelss youth. Their we were to Italian Queens going way over the top serving...smoked salmon tartlets to kids from Compton. I have done all the things that are what the true spirit of christams should be about.

Yet I haven't had that feeling for several years now. Even my trips to New York feel empty. The joy that I use to get from seeing the window designs on 5th Avenue that would delight me to no end no seem garish and unnessasary. I read that the Fifth Avenue stoors spend over 200 million dollars on their designs....really I mean really...it seems so wrong. I did some window design in New York on a very small scale and I know it is an art form I get that...I am just not getting Christrams.

As I write this from a tacky hotel in Hanoi or as I like to call it HanNoise, the looby I am in is playing some bizzaer verison of the holiday music I love so much. I will say the decorations are identical to America but then someone ponited out they are all made here in Vietnam.

So as I float/skate through this holiday in Indo-Asia I will not light a candle for my Mother at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, I shall light a candle at a Buddist temple. I will miss the joy of seeing Sophia, Will, Luca, Tallulah & Jaylyn catch the holiday spirit. Instead I will shop and try and find them something speical. I have yet to find a lot of good kids stuff but I have faith in Bali.
So maybe, just maybe, being away from the holiday I hold so dear & yet have lost its grasp, maybe just maybe, it will come back to me when it comes around next year.

And don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till its gone.

All is Calm, All is Bright,

Jon

When did quiet go out of style....

O.K. People allow me to moan for a second. I decided to treat myself to an amazing resort/spa in the lush hills of Laos. So after a 4 hour delay on my flight into Laungprahang the van picks me up and takes me to this lovley hotel. But where is the amazing pool I ask "At the resort, we will shuttel you over" O.K. I say. There is of all things a community center next door playing really loud music, kareokee versions of American Pop. Then my room is next to a schol playground with eaily 50 kids screaming and kicking a plastic water bottle around. You know me, the kids I could tolerate but...Like a Virgin in Laos. When I go down to complain with a "Cool Heart" mind you, after airing my issues one by one there is dead silence. It must be the fact that peopel in Laos do not speak English. Then they say "would you like to be moved to the resor?." I reply with glee..."There are rooms at the resort, yes please".

I get to the resort and this is the place that I saw on line and it is amazing. I go to sit by the pool and the pool bar is blarring Lionel Richie's Hello, is it me your looking for. No, I yell it is a career you are looking for. I explain to the bar-boy that I would love some SILENCE. Whe he shuts off the raidio there is an amzing sound of a waterfall in the mountains, roostes crowing far away and birds. I sit and suddenly I get how throught Asia American music is played or TV or worse Asian Video's.

When I took what looked to be a lovley ride up the river for 5 hours to Siem Riep. I get in this boat {that looked nothing like the brochure at all} and this ricketty ass boat that was out of the African Queen was such a relic I had no idea how we would make it 5 hours up the river. Once this boat starts and that is a story I have no time to share, suddenly a TV in the middle of the front of the boat starts to play MTV the Asian version. The fact that they could hardly get the seats together but yet they managed to hook up a TV is beyond me. I don't want to hear American music, I really like their muisic, it is why I didn't bring an I Pod. Everything is geered to America. They even had a McDonalds in Thailand with a Ronald McDonald statue outside in a Buddist prayer position. How wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrong is that, let me count the ways.

So my friends I don't think I have Kevitched too much on this blog. All the boy wants is quite and for America to fad away. But I can not control what I can not control. For real, as my nice Sophia would say. Yet my heart is cool, I can still laugh at it all becasue after all, I have the money and time to sit in a lush spa and be irked by the music of Lionel.

More later and much love, I leave for Hanoi on Monday.

Chariots of Fire and "The Imparatio" is riding high.

Picture it if you will: It is 5 am and I am praying my Tuk-Tuk driver Sabon, will be waiting for me as I quietly leave my hotel into the Cambodian darkness. Low & behold he is there, I am not sure why I doubted him. He has been my driver for the last three days as I explored the Temples of Angkor Watt, Angkor Tom and some of the smaller temples. It is cold and I have no jacket because a friend, who must remain namelss (Darrell Cummings) yet again gave me the wrong advice. He said just pack T Shirts and shorts that us all you will ever need.

We are off to see the spectacular sight of the sun rising over Angkor Wat. I have taken a sarong I got in Maui and have warpped it around myself. This would be O.K. but there are a ton of Tuk-Tuk's headed for the Temples. These are little chariots that are open on the sides. You ride so close you can shake hands with your neighbor in the next Tuk-Tuk. I looked like Keanu Reeves in the Buddist movie he was so bad in...O.K. I looked more like Maggie Smith in Godsford Park...O.K. It was truely embarrasing so tragic.

My driver has been racing other drivers and this is dangerous to say the least. With the road filled at 5 AM with only Tuk-Chariots he starts to race everyone. The night is pitch black, Iam wrapped in this sarong, the wind is blowing and we are laughing our fool heads off. We get to the entrance and we have won. I am not sure why the victory felt so good but it was a wild ride and I was so Ben Hur....O.K. more like Ben Vereen...O.K. Ben Stiller.

Anyway, we pull up and hundreds of people start walking into the temple grounds in the dark. We are sitting on the stone steps and the sun begins to rise. It was the most amazing site I have ever seen. There was a huge Lily Pond and all of these purple Lilies open at sunrise. As everyone ran to take pictures I realised the temple was open and approached the entrance. There I was at dusk, just a breath of morning light peeking in and I was in the grand temple by myself...picture it if you will.

Pics!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jonimparato/NewAlbum6122008302?pli=1#

A "Cool Heart" once cool removed all the way to The Killing Fields.

Hello All,

First bit of news I found out why you couldn't post a response on my blog site and that has been fixed so feel free to comment away.

Second bit of good news. To see my pictures you will see the URL address just cut and past the address and you will get them. It was way to difficult to get the pictures right on to my blog. My freind thinks it is to stop people from putting up ads. Anyway it was much harder to post pictures then anyone thought. I will take of a year off my title and become Jon 2011 for this faux pas.

In Thailand they have an expression called a Cool Heart. This means that you never loose your cool because then you loose your heart, you loose what really matters. Anger they believe is stupid and an emotion that takes you nowhere. This principle is also tied to letting things go.If you live with a Cool Heart when things make you angry or frustrated (Trust me it happens all day in a third world country) you let them go right away. You don't stay mad at those you love and like & you don't give power to a situation that has no power. The only power it has is the power you give it. The concept that "That person has just ruined my day" makes no sense to them. Only you can ruin your day by not having a Cool Heart. I share this with all of you because although I have a big heart, I also have an Italian Heart and I can get angry and frustrated easily. I have had to confront this dead on since my journey began.

I was out with a group friends in Cambodia last night after seeing this beautiful musical called When Elephants Weep. It was a production with New York actors and a full blown Broadway production. After the show, Mags (short for Margaret) this Australian teacher explained why Cambodian people have a hard time figuring out basic things. The country could run a million times better by just lets say, putting plexi-glass in front of the motor drivers so the dirt doesn't hit him or you in the face. Trust me there are and endless stream of things like that. Even buying a bar of soap could be so annoying. Mags said that "There is a thing called deductive thinking and that in thrid world countries their brains are not trained to think that way. As a teacher who teaches English she has to also teach deductive thinking." The convesation was fascinating and brought me to a new level of patience and understanding.

My first night in a 5 star hotel in Bangkok they wrere jack hammering for renovations on the 17th floor. I was on the 14th floor. When the hotel manager came up to hear my loud complaint.
He kept shouting at me that ""the drilling Sir, is way up on the 17th floor" well I lost it and was shouting back "You have to yell at me to communicate & I don't care what floor it is on, the Goddam mirrior is shaking." Well he moved me to the Penthouse and gave me a VIP pass to the Penthouse bar with unlimted drinks and food. I was on the verge of tears yelling at this guy (I just traveld for 24 hours and was exhausted) but I felt really bad becasue I could tell he was shocked at how upset I was. Thus he was experiencing my Un-Cool Heart. I write all of this to say that my Amercian approach (right as I was) didn't really serve me and I see the situation and a way out of it in a very differnt light.

On to The Killing Fields. I cried like a baby. The grounds are horrific enough but then you have children by the fence begging you to take their piture and give them money. I was giving bills away as fast as I could. Mans inhumanity to man will NEVER seize to amaze me and horrify me. I understand the Buddist principle that life is suffering. Sure your parent dies, your best friend, a child is ill, etc. I get pain and suffering as part of the human condition. But the suffering of a Killing Fields or Nazi Germany...Really we need to endure that kind of suffering. Oh it is all too much especially being in this poor poor country.

I take a 6 hour boat ride to Siem Reap tomorrow to finally see Angkor Watt and Angkor Tom and I am so excited.

I have now added Loas to my journey becasue all of my fellow travelers say it is a must. I have the time and it feels right. Then on to Vietnam, Bali, and a new set of Thai Islands but really who knows.

I move on so greatful for my ability for deductive thinking and a Cool Heart.

xo J

The Revolution will not be Televised

Hi,

The keyboard here sticks on every other letter so this will not be long. Not everything works well here in Thailand and every one just accepts it. Ahhhhh acceptance such a lesson I am learning. Honestly, this trip is teaching me so much about who I am and who I think I am.

I left the lovely but empty Island of Latana this morning. The boat has no seats you just lay on the upper deck on your backpack...wild and wonderful. I am at a sleeeeezy gay hotel for one night getting up at 5AM to head to the Airport to Cambodia and bypassing Bangkok thank God. So many people are stuck here or they can't get to their next destination. I spent a lot of time on the Island hanging out with the travel agents in their offices on the open-beach strip. They are the ONLY people on the island who speak English and they wanted to debate the political situation. There were so many different opinions but the convesations had so much humor and grace. Even with an extreme loss of money no one is mad. They explained that they have family and freinds with farms and other ways to make money. They will never starve and they live by a rule "We can not control, what we can not control" after a Sunami this is bad but they will go on. They rebuilt all of the destroyed areas in 3 years. New Orleans looks exactly the same after 3 years what does that tell us.

I besmirched the Swedish people on my blog and need to make amends. A Swed heard me talking about how I was able to get a ticket out of Thiland and wanted my advice. I then asked her why everyone was so unfriendly. She explained that Swedish people come to Thailand to spend the holiday with family they don't get to see and they are not interested in meeting other people plus there English is limited. Fair enough....eh? Then they asked "THE QUESTION" did I vote for Bush and once I said no we were off and running. I have a friend to call if I ever get to Sweden. I have such bombastic Amercian ways and I am learning to navigate all cultures not just Asian.

All is good and I have only been gone 2 weeks and it feesl like a lifetime. I spent so much time working and it was so much of my identity and I swear I haven't thought of it once, not for a second. Work comes out in my over-active dream life. Only I would be on a deserted Island and be dreaming of Lainie Kazan & Carol Channing.

I am off for a work-out in the gym....I said it was gay hotel and then a much needed nap.

Next stop Phoom Penn. Love to all,

International Jon 2012.

The Empty Island and it's people.

Well, a travel agent named Pie, pulled off a miracle. I will arrive in Phom Penn on Wed. the 3rd at 1600 4PM Cambodia time. I am arriving from Kula Lumpur. Trust me no one is getting out of Thailand they said I should expect to be here for another week. I was anxious to leave for two reasons. 1-My Friend in Cambodia is on holiday and he will show me the city and it would be a very differnt experience if he were working. 2- This Island is deserted there is no one here. 5 people at my hotel with 50 bungalows, all Swedish familes. I went to the bar village last night (a story when I see you all) and this bar Village with 8 bars, dance floor, hammocks, and lounging booths right on the water was empty. I counted 11 people. I talked to the bartender and everyone is freaked out by their deserted high season. It is very lonley so I am writing and being very intrespective. On Monday a big Raggae band is coming from Malasia & I love Raggae so that might at least bring out the local people.

O.K. The Swedish people are as cold as ice. When you say hello they look at you like they just smelled something bad. Strange and odd people they seem scared all the time. Enough about them they are just a bore and I am off to go walk an amazing beach for a 2 mile stretch. The fact that I can get out of Thiland and avoid Bangkok all together is such a relief, as I go Ahhhhh.

Much Love, J

I am the next Anderson Cooper

Hi All,

O.K. Here is the Political Update:

I am not sure how much of this information you are getting on the takeover of the Bangkock Airport but here goes. I am safe and yet somehow caught up in it.

I will hopefully be traveling to Cambodia tomorrow to see my friend Eriq. There is no way that I can get out of Bangkock Airport. We also think that the military could open fire on the protesters and that could get ugly. I am going to see if Air Asia will honor my ticket and fly me out of Pukett airport to Singapore on to Cambodia. The hotel satff seems to think this can work. If not I stay in Pukett until I can get out. Honestly, this is a wonderful palce to be stuck in, I have time on my side and this is not a big problem. Trust me there are worse problems to have.

The Island is beautiful and the people are lovely. When you travel to third world countries this is just part of the experience.

So far the trip has been amazing, hard, beautiful and full of wonderful suprises and it has only just begun.

I spent the day yesterday on a private island called Raya and it was like something out of a dream. Amazing snorkelling all day, I met some wonerful people and swam for hours.

Much Love to All.

PS I am going to marry Anderson and travel the glove with him. Ummmm

America the not so Beautiful

It is a rainy day here in Pukett. The place is beautiful and insane. Talk about sensory overload. It seems that as soon as the Sunami hit America swooped in to make their money. Building various Hard Rock Cafe's etc. and why is it I can't seem to get away from 7/11's there is one next to my hotel and they are everywhere.

I have met so many people from all over the world and boy are they angry at America and Americans...lets put it this way we are not well liked at all. They loath Bush more than we do if that is possible. They really want to see him and Chenny brought to justice. The world market collapse has also fuled their disdane for all things American. They are baffeld by how we could have elected him twice. I have to explain that we never did that they stole both elections. Of course they all know that better than we do becasue they get real news, not our sensored news. Anyway, it is all very interesting. They do have great hopes for Obama but they are weary of the mess he has inherited and aren't we all. Alright that is my rant for the day.

My sister Donna, I will try and call on Thanksgiving. Will you be a Dad's? Did you go on Holiday with Wayne? Post me or write me at my gmail account just my full name at gmail. I am reading Wally Lambs new book, you will love it. A character has a nickname of "little Bit" and that of course makes me think of you.

The Wanderer is wandering off to a rainy beach...xoxox

The Grand Palace, Peter Paul & Mary, & a Happy Ending

I will be leaving this 5 star hotel with free internet so I thought I would send you a quick update.
I went to the Grand Palace today and it is unlike anything I have ever seen. There are no words and I could spend my life searching for suberlatives. How ANYONE (talking to you DC) can see the Palace and not see and feel God is beyond me. I forgot to charge the camera so I have no pics. I did tour the Palace with these two elderly sisters from Whales and they were just like Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. I swear...they were such a treat. The said they were sisters but I think that was their cover story. They took some pics and will mail them to me. On my way back to LA (many moons from now) I will go back to the Palace and take some photographs.

This city is so beautiful and yet it cries out for mercy at evey turn, It is so hard to shake the poverty and sorrow as all of thye opulence stares you in the face. I leave for Pukett tomorrow and this man is ready for the ocean...the old gal is calling me.

O.K. I have already had a handful of odd spiritual things happen. So I am packing the night before I leave and I can't get Leaving on a Jet Plane out of my head by Peter, Paul & Mary. When I was a boy I loved the 45 and would play it ober & over and sit in front of my bedroom room and dream of traveling and being on a plane. I would count all of the countries I wanted to see.

So, I am getting my first Tai message and in the middle of it in the lobby they start to blare Leaving on a Jet Plane. O.K. Kids what is the odds of that...Really. When the Happy Ending came I was laughing to myself.

It is all so strange, wild, wierd and fascinating. There is a "not so chessy" piano player singing Every Breath You Take in the lobby below me. If he breaks into Leaving On a Jet Plane then the Gods must be really happy becasue they are playing with me. Who know what movie that line is from????

Love & Light, J

3 Nights in Bangkok

Hello All,

I arrived safetly in Bankkok and the flight over was really pretty painless. Bangkok is beutuful and so similar to New York and at the same time totaly different. There is great beauty here.

"So how does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unkown, like a rolling stone." It feels amazing.

Thank you Dareell for recomending this 5 star hotel after the long journey. I am thrilled to be in the lap of luxury. I will be roughing it soon enough.

To my book buddies I am half way through the new Wally Lamb book and looooooving it. The book was such a wonderful companion through the airport maze...Do you get the metaphore.

My love to all. I am off to explore. I am the Gay Indiana Jones...and I look a lot better than that old giezer. xoxooxoox

PS Photos later.

getting ready to leave

I just bought my first digital camera and I am learning how to upload pictures. For those of you who don't know you download music and upload pictures. My vey first Upload...you should all be scared.

As Jon International 2012, it is my job to keep you all current.