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jay. the boy behind the blog. most recent zygote of estelita and florencio. has been around the sun 26 times. likes hip hop, funk & jazz, lonely planet guidebooks, orwell novels, spike lee films, steamed jasmine rice, backpacking, mom's porkchops, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, independent film and music, sunshine and lime jello. has an affinity for jet-black haired asian girls with brown almond eyes and gleaming smiles, german dogs and old skool sneakers. rocks hard and fresh - day and night 'till kingdom come.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

backpacking: unesco's world heritage sites

[1st night - they cooked dinner for me. L-R: mr. pousong (hmong tribe), mr. jay (filipino tribe), mr. chay (hmong tribe), mr. parn (laotian tribe)]

[dec. 7th/06: day 26 - 19:25]
yesterday i forgot to mention...i had a story telling session with the staff - really, my family away from my home, here at pakam (guesthouse). i showed them photos from thailand as well as from back home. for some, really, most, they will never get the chance to leave laos. some will never come up with enough money to even visit their neighbouring country of thailand. this irks me. it's disheartening.

i guess i felt that it was my obligation to show them other places and see other lifestyles & cultures; my culture. after all, i was doing the same thing myself.

all the while, i've been humbled by everyone i've met who live their lives in this part of the world - day in and day out.

chay goes to school in the morning; a college where he studies english. he comes back to take his role as pakam guesthouse clerk and then heads to university at around 15:00 where he's working towards his degree in agriculture. eventually, chay gets back around 20:00 or so to continue his role as clerk.

the woman down the street by the river's edge sells oranges. 2000 kip for 1kg. with her baby she sits by her citrus mountain waiting for her handful of customers to buy from her stall and not from the neighbouring women who sell the exact same product. day in and day out she does this. i don't even know where she gets her produce from! all i know is that when i wake up, she's there and when i retire late at night, i can still see her little candles flickering - creating a distant shadow down the street from where i stay.

i tell the lives of these people because they have lives worth telling. if i could capture your eyes...just one set of eyes for even 5 minutes, then i, myself, have just lived a life worth being told. i will truly miss luang prabang, laos and all of the cities colin and myself have discovered along the way.

the people we've met...these are not just strangers, but friends. friends who i've come to know and who have embraced me as family. i will be back. i promise.

unesco world heritage sites
i watch a whole slew..and i'm talking SLEW of travel shows. whether it be on PBS or OLN (outdoor life) or national geographic, i'm all up in it. i'm geeked out and i'm hooked. im a junkie now and i need a fix. several more fixes, actually.

there might even be another big trip this summer. i figure mom is off and wants to go somewhere, i'm pretty much free and open so what the hell - travel with mom dukes for a couple, if not solo.

anyhow, i heard this term come up several times in my reading and across various shows on the stations mentioned above -- it's the whole "unesco world heritage site" moniker. the cream of the crop; the best of the best. not for squares, these sites consist of God's untouched outdoor glory and also, "old world" sites that are still around today in our modern world; our very new and overly-forward thinking world (if it ain't broke, don't fix it -- unless there's big bucks behind it, right?...ha.).

philippines the motherland makes the cut several times, as does the good ol' red and white home and native land of maple leaves. i can't say that i've been to world heritage sites in either place but i have been to luang prabang, laos (what! what! where my hmong boys at, i see you!) and it definitely is worth visiting (how did we not check out ayutthaya and sukhothai? colin and i are fools.)

hopefully, very soon, i'll have the honor of checking out the sites in both the motherland and my homeland. beyond that, there are so many other sites all over the world. i won't make the unesco w.h.s. list my checklist because i just don't have the money for that, at least now anyways, but i'll be a realist and cut unesco's list to 25%. yep, that's reasonable.

what you need to do right now is check out the list on screen and make them your destinations in reality, fam!!!

[unesco world heritage centre: the list]
[unesco world heritage centre: the criteria]

Labels: backpacking

jay d [ 7:27 PM ]

4 Comments:

thanks for sharing that beautiful entry, jay!

By smiling abs, at 11:02 AM
any time.
you read all of that?????? wow.

By jay d, at 5:58 PM
yes, i did.

i keep meaning to tell you: you look so lean dude! good work with what you're doing to get where you are. (which i'm sure is the healthy way)

By smiling abs, at 10:48 PM
thanks abs. i acredit the initial weight loss to the hot thai sun and walking with a big ass backpack attached to your spine...not to mention the last three glorious days of diarrhea while i was there.

since coming back, however, i've decided to train hard and sculpt this body into a lean, mean sex machine from mars. it's the latest craze.

all of the above and also....i'm just not as attracted to alcohol, late night eating binges and white-man food as i used to be. yea, i guess you could say i've really changed. it's all healthy though. believe me...i ain't no anoretic or bulimic boy. just a goregeous handsome boy.

By jay d, at 8:54 AM