Monks or Monkeys?

Whenever Chuck and I travel to far away destinations where English is not the first language, we end up with funny stories. Last month was no exception, as we traveled through the exotic Buddhist country of Myanmar (formerly Burma) with our 23 year old Burmese guide, Aung. With a university degree and guide experience, his English is more fluent than that of most Burmese. But he sometimes confuses similar nouns sounding alike, a common mistake.
When Aung prepared us for our next day's journey to the Buddhist temple of Mt. Popa, he warned us to wear long trousers and long sleeves. When I asked him why, he replied that many monks would likely scratch at my legs. I gasped in horror as I pictured several bald, saffron robed priests attacking my white legs with their fingernails! "What kind of country is this?" I thought in fright.
Then, I realized that Aung meant to say "monkeys" instead of "monks." Ah ha! An easy mistake. When I explained this to him, we all had a good laugh. To my great relief, we saw the temple with no interference, either by the well behaved monkeys or the monks. And I realized once again the power of each of our words to create an idea, either true or false.
We use language with a visual image in our minds, assuming that the listener hears our words with the same image. What a reality check! Just one misspoken syllable can create a totally different picture, just like "scratching monks" instead of "scratching monkeys!"

Stil Alive in SE Asia

We sit in an Internet cafe in Pai in the sky, Thailand. Nate has joined us from crowded, smelly, Taiwan for a few days and we have been power exploring the Land of Smiles. Chang Mai has drastically changed since we last visited 28 years ago. The Hill Tribe and Elephant experiences are more touristic, yet still fun.

We fed, bathed and hung out with Asian (obviously) elephants for a day at the Elephant Nature Park. This was a privilege and lots of fun, but they are domesticated animals and a little less thrilling than the giants that surrounded our little car in South Africa.

It is wonderful to spend time with Nate. He is having remarkable experiences and we enjoy his company.

We kinda lost contact while in Myanmar, because of limited Internet access, but will be blogging more now. Keep in touch.