Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Thanks Esther for the photo Rivers  "Mr Kissoon, you arite..." the boat captain asks me as I decide to be one with the river and not be afraid of it. I say yeah man.. I more concerned that he is arite because if the captain is not arite then we will not be arite no matter how much my soul and the river are intertwined. Leap year and after years of working from the comfort of home , where commuting is clicking on keys in house clothes.. Universe says get  off your flattened ... and get on the rivers to go to work. And so I have to say yes to the fear, and yes to the work and I go on the rivers in the first months of the leap year.  Dressed to protect from water spray but knowing really that  should the water embrace me fully there will be no protection except to swim.. which I can't do. But respecting the river seems to ease the discomfort of not being able to swim in the river. And to enjoy the river, the smooth and the rough, the bamboo and other plants on the banks...

Sun is hot, and my mind is fuzzy. I don't want to be on the road but I have to be on the road. Bus is speeding towards me, looking like a hot red but different colours. I cringe and think I have no choice, I am in a hurry, is not a far way to go , and if is loud music then the speed the driver moving at I will reach where I going in no time. Jump in the front seat , say morning without looking at driver, and driver turns in a cheerful voice says.. 'morning.. wait, I aint know you does tek bus?" I turn to him and laugh and say why man. Then I realise the man wearing a pink tee shirt. And as I look around inside the bus, the walls and so  looking pink. The man says, ' I aint see you a long time' and gives me a fist bump. Music is loudish. I say, yeah man in the way that I talk to people who know me, but who I can't remember. My head trying shift the fog to process the pink. Driver is relaxing in the front seat, nice vibe from him, not stressed and so o...

Image edited from http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/467642 "The Museum of Sex is supposed to be good, but I wouldn't pay the 17.50" the woman in the tapestry room us. "The sex shop has all kind of interesting things though... that might be interesting to visit if you don't want to waste money in the museum.. apparently they have the first porno picture from Thomas Alva Edison of a couple kissing closed mouth.." There are the beautiful tapestries hanging on the wall in the Cloisters museum with the medieval collection. Conversation had started with how people can watch through the stained glass windows and see the bad weather coming in. The woman explained the tapestries and then we ended up at sex... Big city and lots of people walking around. I keep hearing loud voices and I wonder if people are talking to me but when I look back , they are talking to themselves.. or rather their phones. I see a man sitting at the b...

Leo Sampai has a dream of bringing the Rainforest to the residents of Paramaribo - through the Maroon inspired wood furniture and juices available at his shop at SMS Pier. I had the Açaí  ("podosiri" ) juice for the first time - apparently the palm fruit is very nutritious and Leo would like it to become popular in the city. The shop is in SMS Pier, and Leo has designed and worked all the wooden furniture and the counters . At first you might think you can only look at them, but Leo says no .. sit on the chairs. There are not many places in the Caribbean where the man blending the smoothies is the man who worked the furniture, and the man who has dreams that it would be possible to make money out of bringing the fruits of the rainforest to the city. Bench at Tembe Bad angle of a chair at Tembe Bowl carved by Leo The son of the President of Suriname plead guilty to charges of aiding Terrorism but Suriname is generally cleaner...

The cashier at the roti shop said she thought I was from India. I wished I knew enough Dutch to say that  we both were from India a long time ago in a kind of a way. There was a strange feeling being in Surinam.. connected through some shared histories but also disconnected through separate histories of colonization. Ferry crossing Travelling by bus and boat is long, but you get to hear so much stories. I am fas' and  I listen to conversations. I watched the woman smoking and tried to listen in on the French Kweyol. There was a Brazillian man, a musician, who spoke to me in Portanol. He was coming from  'Batchica (Bartica)' where he played for miners  and was on his way to another mining camp in French Guiana. His wife was also playing different places and they were going to meet up in Surinam. (yes, I know enough portuguese and spanish to get this). Then there was 56 yr old Baba.. the seaman heading to a fishing boat in French Guiana.. cigarette in mouth, ...

[ In September 2003, I took a minibus to Paramaribo. I wrote this and I keep fantasising of taking a minibus to ... different parts of Guyana - trying to write about our own travel here ] Georgetown to Suriname - overland Bobby, the bus driver calls at 3am, they coming in 15 minutes or so, then they reach about 6am and we start off. people snoring in the bus, reach rosignol, one must have fish and bread. cross the river in the morning, have this book i am reading which i did not know was funny, so i was laughing and people watching me funny. one nice lady asked me to share the joke with her. so i stopped reading. we reached moleson creek, and wait two hours for the famous ferry, humidity high, and only flocks of birds moving. ferry eventually arrives. takes awhile for customs and immigration. soldier on the ferry says how stupid life is, we inherit these crazy border structures from english and dutch, and we descendants of colonised people fight over things which the original pe...

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Grazi puts on the music and asks me if I know what it is. I know the beat, girl from ipanema and then she reminds me bossa nova and she shows me the steps to dance to it. I cannot do the steps, but I dance anyway and the french guy Jerome, laughs. I had a choice, go back to Georgetown for Phagwah or head to Boa Vista. I decided for Boa Vista much to the dismay of many who know me. I cannot explain why I like running away from Phagwah.. in 2008 Phagwah day was in the mountains behind Ocho Rios in Jamaica, and this year it will be in Boa Vista.. something to do with the bad memories around Phagwah day.. of the tensions which are there. So I walk over the Takatu Bridge, hot sun, back pack, laptop, and in good old rubber slippers. A few people wave at me as they pass. The cars are speeding. I then realise that I have not changed money, and I get a feeling that I am being robbed by the taxi driver.. but I give it to the world, things have a way of balancing out. The Hotel is dusty, din...

The moon is above, and the moonlight lights up the savannah. I could see the trails. There is no need for a torch. I am walking the Rupununi in my rubber slippers, amazing rubber slippers (after the shoes were broken) which have been with me on TV and now in the Savannah. This is the last night. We come to the road and then civilisation hits us as vehicles speed on the road. It is crazy, this place. While I had hoped to have a peaceful walk in the moonlight, the conversation was about the savannah and its uses, and why large scale agriculture was not going to be good for it, with the rivers being full of fertiliser. So.. this is the dilemma, the tension. God's country .. moonlight savannah mountains , wide sky.. under threat, always under threat and it seems, dying. The rupununi is good for the soul, well maybe the space, and the sense of freedom. Escape really. I planned this trip to run away.. but there is work, and there is my laptop with me all the time. I saw a thundersto...

Day 1 The tongue of the boots said Made in China, and that should have been the warning.. as I walked i wondered why I was feeling the pebbles, but did not bother. The savannah and the mountains around me are too beautiful and I could not be bothered. I had taken out the boots from the cupboard, I had bought a few years ago for walking.. and now.. the chinese soles gave up, they came off and I left them on the brick road. the walk was good.. i had no clue where i was going and was scared to ask directions. I had to climb over a barbed wire fence, and the barbs in the exact position to cause most damage. So, I arrived at my consultancy client with shoes without soles..and it looks like I will have to do the board presentation in rubber slippers after all. Day 1, I wanted to do the 40 minute walk to Bina Hill from the airstrip.. savouring every moment of savannah. It is a blasted curse, that there is internet here, because outside is beautiful. But I am here on IT business My firs...