personal and travels
The weather is still heavy and unpredictable at times, and the mornings freezing, but the sign of spring is here. These are just some snapshots I took around the house. Another season will soon come, afresh and anew. It is so good to see see trees come to life again, except the evergreens, with its beautiful budding. Every time is a blissful morning.
Wordless Wednesday – Safe in her mother’s bossom
Sanjay Gandhi National Park, India.
I am not comparing monkeys with people; I don’t believe in the theory that we come from there. But looking at that scene in that park I didn’t see the monkeys, but I saw the emotional bond between them and made me recall that when we were kids, five of us siblings (that’s a blessing!) then with a year or two age gap, it was not just our mother that held us tight, but our eldest sister too. She would always hold us together so we would not be run over on our long way home from church. The joy of childhood! I was holding tight. 🙂 In case you ask why it is a blessing..
The illusion of the long neck. the women of the Karen Padaung villages wear multiple brass spiral coils and rings around the neck ..
The illusion of the long neck
I came across a humor blog few weeks back and the humorist showed a photo or two of peoples, particularly of women having long necks. At first sight that seemed funny, but I knew it goes deeper than that.
By following Jewel in the palace community I read some phrases about “long-necked beauty”. So was it for that reason that those women have long necks, for beauty?
I have not traveled and met with them actually, I just found some interesting things. I believe there are also some small tribes in Africa (women of Ndebele), but the group of people some labeled as the “long-neck” or “giraffe” tribe, signifying the very old tradition and practice of adorning their women with rings around the neck, are called Karen Padaung, a tiny sub-group of the larger Karen people, natives of Burma who have long been caught up in a civil war against the government, and found refuge in artificial tourist villages in Thailand who were accepted by the Thai government for the tourist money they bring in, which also supports them. They sat on display at a Bangkok tourism fair, helping to create the buzz that would draw visitors from around the globe who will be paying a heavy entrance fee to gawk at them. They prefer to be exploited for tourism, (anyway they seem to enjoy being photographed), than going back to their land in civil war.
In the Mae Hong Sorn and Bann Thaton area in Thailand, the women of the Karen Padaung villages wear multiple brass spiral coils and rings around the neck, the arms and the legs, and use carved elephant tusk in the ears. This neck ring adornment is started when the girls are 5 or 6 years old and the neck grows longer as additional rings are added with each passing year. The rings on the neck reach from the clavicle up to beneath the chin, and these rings are always held very tightly by the bone structure from clavicle to chin. But the appearance of a longer neck is a visual illusion. The women’s necks are not actually stretched. The weight of the rings gradually pushed down the women’s collarbones, as well as the upper ribs, to such an angle that the collarbone actually appears to be a part of the neck, making an illusion of a long neck! For this tribe the rings are the most prominent sign of female beauty and status, and an extra-long neck is considered a sign of great beauty and wealth and that it will attract a better husband. But in this small tribe whose members marries within the group, adultery is low, 
well, since the punishment is removal of the brass neck ring, which over the years, weakened the neck muscles that women have to spend their life lying down for support. Each peoples, each cultures. There is always striking beauty and wonder in them that overwhelm our thoughts of fathoming them.
It would be a very long and exhausting days of traveling. But I am happy at least I am going back to hubby, though sad for leaving my family. My flight from Davao to Manila was good except that it was so early relative to my next flight to Guam. But it was okay to have layover for eight hours for I saved some with that and just spend some time in the airport. The advantage of being a Green Card holder is that a Filipino does not have to pay over a thousand peso travel tax, for if otherwise, I would have to change some currency to pay. I was so glad I was free. I was anxious a bit with security, because you see, I was bringing food items with me, boiled eggs, sandwich and spaghetti, that my sister and mother send with me so I could munch while waiting for departure. I was hailed and set aside for special inspection once in the three security level in Ninoy Aquino International airport in Manila. They have to tighten more, maybe because just recently an advisory was flagged against Philippine airlines’ safety. The food saved me though, but they were plenty that I still have them back to our house in the USA. Hubby checked me in through the internet and the elite airline access really helped me because of the baggage I was carrying.
Hafa Adai! Glad we made it safe to Guam. I enjoyed the experience when I went down to a wrong place, I was the first to go through immgration inspection and so I went out first. When I made it back, I was glad that security tolerated what I brought with me. Of course they were okay. It was a good trip, we just stopped there for few hours until Hawaii.
Aloha! The time we landed Hawii we have to pick our baggages up and check it through again with security and immigration. I will not lie, I had to declare what I was bringing with me so I was put into agricultural check. The thing with bringing my baggages was that, their heavier than me. It is really nice to have good people who care to assist. I made it through okay. Food is alright as long as there are no fresh meat, fruits, and other products. I was saved the eggs I carried in my bag were cooked.
Welcome to Houston. That time it felt so long a flight, and it really was, and I was hurrying up to catch an earlier flight to Alexandria, Louisiana. I did not make it in the 20 minute layover so I have to wait my own scheduled departure which was eight hours away! That was killing me! I was so sleepy during the time, poor me, I was so tired. Thank God my flight to Alexandria was on-time. I am back to the USA!
Hurray! Another check mark on the list! I got a new laptop! This is the second one I got this year. The first one was a gift to my sister, and now in preparation for my going back to school, hubby got me another one, and besides, two days from now is my birthday :-). It is a sexy looking Dell XPS M1530 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo 3070MB RAM laptop, pretty fast and powerful.
That is what I got out of my compensated blogging, a Christmas gift for my sister 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive compaq notebook. Hubby bought if for me. It is very nice little thing.
Of the fourteen hour layover, got online for a while, but I had not dozed off good, so I was exhausted, and again, can’t sleep in the plane, but I could and did bear it. Did not mind them all as long as I arrive home from what seemed to be a very very long flight from Singapore to Cebu. What an experience. Singaporean airport guards inspected our passports and boarding passes around three in the morning, and for the second time during the layover, someone said “Pinoy”, guessing we are Filipinos. Sikat talaga ang mga Pinoy, hehe. I met there two Indonesian women, one being so talkative, the other so peacefully sleeping on the chair, and some Filipinos. These are the photos we took around the airport. Just sharing our snapshots.
wordless wednesday