Some days walking
I figure Siem Reap is made for walking. There are beautiful sidewalks, shady side streets, a river that runs through the town. It is also the hotter season so I try to get out in the mornings. I also like to take photos of the walk even if all the stuff is stuff I’ve seen before. I don’t think anything just remains the same. So soon I will go. Lace up the shoes for walking, lock the apartment, find my movement.
Alin went off shopping for food for me. I get to eat really well all the days with her cooking. It is a matter of pride to her to cook for me but the food comes later in the day. There is the Now part of things so I wanted to talk a little about the walking because it is one of the three things I do which bring joy, sorrow, happiness, grief to my life. I was not out yesterday but I did go day before so I found things which enamored me, made me question, got me laughing. Other things seemed very mysterious.
This gate always amazes me and it seems so somber and dark with intricate designs that always seemed more fit for black and white. I feel both attracted and repelled when I walk by it. I don’t know why.
I also love the older buildings along the river walk area so I stop and admire them often.
This is our water authority building I think.
Finally in the interests of being able to buy a variety of things from one shop, I offer you the petro and shoe shop. Happily covering your feet and filling your Moto as you need.
An added bonus will also be added to my little random photos page in a bit. What I like about the tagged page is being able to focus down on some photo and just let it tell its own story and let me elaborate. Often I think the words are just dressing.
Then there’s the walking
Now that I got all that out of my system, there’s the walking to be done. It is the step to step or as Alin calls it “the walking and walking”. She became used to my desire early on to walk home or go some other direction and now expects me to be gone most days. Walking though is more to me than just the doing of it. It becomes this wonderful lifting where often the steps are just the transport but I can soar or plummet. Find my way or not. I stopped counting steps because they don’t matter any more. Whether I do 9180 or 11125 steps I am happy. The real thing has been the last years the doing of it. Not the finishing. I find this sense of joy in sweating in the Siem Reap hot season. Find the warm breeze to carry me or deflect me and I just go. Take the slow path and let the time go by. I never walk with another person because it does not work for me. Their walking and mine are different. Sometimes they want goals or results. I want neither. Life to me is not about goals and plans and results. Life is about doing the things which bring me happiness and joy, which let me feel alive on good and bad days, and finally lets me express this inner being when the sun touches down or the rain wets the pavement.
Walking became an exercise in mindfulness for me some time ago but I don’t focus on steps or breaths. Much like I do meditation each day on the just being, walking is a tangent and direction of the being. I don’t expect to solve problems because I don’t leave with any. I don’t want enlightenment or solidarity or expression or even to come up with the perfect blog post out walking.
What I do want is the doing of it. The slow move to streets and river and old buildings. Small side streets I am enamored with. Reminding me often of walking Tokyo or Hanoi. I love finding some side street or alley wherever I am going. They are branches to my being. Offerings and alternatives. Ways to go or not. And I take or leave them.
Just like now I will take this blog post and leave it on Dropbox. They’re for you to gloss over in your hunt for the perfect travel blog. If you don’t want that and want the real sense of going, I’d invite you to go visit Mikka’s blog here. I’ve always found his words and stories and photos to reflect the going and not arriving. Especially now. His is a real story not some glossed over influencer hype about 10 days in some tourist haunt. He talks the going.
That’s about all I’m good for besides some steps. Those coming now.