Cycling along the dirt road to observe the sunset.

Recently I was given a new bicycle by an old friend so that I could start keeping fit and learn to cycle long distance. In case the price of petrol became astronomical and out of my reach, I could go shopping at the local village stores on my bicycle. Hopefully the probability of a world war would be very, very low. But life kept reminding me of uncertainty and unexpected changes, so it’s nice to have alternative means for local transportation.

I used to be a very good cyclist as a kid and has frequent races among friends who lived in the sane neighbourhood. Those were the good old days of friendly competition and rivalry. I did wonder often where all my childhood friends had gone. My family moved to a new neighbourhood where there were no children playing along the side streets; life had changed a lot when we moved up the social ladder of being middle class. How I missed the working class neighbourhood and outdoor lifestyle of elderly Chinese people. We used to know everyone living on that side street.

The dirt road in front of my farmhouse remained quiet and undeveloped as there were only three big houses. Hopefully, landowners wouldn’t be able to sell their land for several years as a result of the economic downturn. So, trees and bamboo woods could remain a sanctuary for local and migratory birds. There were lots of squirrels around these wooded areas and some local snakes. I had seen some hunters coming out of the woods; they probably went to set up traps for some big birds and squirrels.

I would take a quick look at my neighbours’ new gardening project. They lived in America but planned to retire in Thailand; they were very wealthy so they could build a very nice big house. The lady of the house has always been a keen gardener so she had workers and machines to level the land and dig up waterways for drainage. I was quite curious about the kinds of fruit trees and hard wood trees she would be planting. If I had that amount of money, I could have transformed my dream garden into reality in less than a year.

I have got another old friend who has just begun building a safe house in the countryside. Finally she decided to follow my advice to implement some plans for worse case scenarios in the future. Last week, another old acquaintance told me that most of her journalist friends are now gathering into some kind of a village in the countryside. These well educated people thought that world war could happen in the near future. So, my premonition about some kind of upheavals or chaos many years ago might become reality one day.

Cycling along the dirt road, my thoughts floated in all directions, darting back to old pictures from old memories and shooting into outer space trying to catch some vision of the future. The air was always very fresh and the atmosphere very calm along the river. A slow ride of about five minutes took me to the riverfront where I could cycle towards the large yard in front of the old Nagas shrine. The big old tree behind the shrine seemed very powerful and defensive. So, I wouldn’t get too close to the Nagas shrine. I’d rather explore the new cycling path by the river. It was supposed to lead towards the evening market by the old temple. Perhaps I had to find some spare time to survey this path on a bright sunny day.

We have been so lucky that Maekhong river continues to flow despite having some thirty dams further up in the mountainous areas in Laos. The yearly monsoon downpours would force people to open the water-gates to allow water and fish to flow downstream so that the ecological systems would have a chance to get healed naturally. Several years ago, three newly built dams broke as the rain water flooded all the land along this river. We lost all the newly planted fruit trees and my investment, but luckily the house escaped the flood by a few inches. That was quite an experience which kept reminding me about the uncertainty of the future. That flood came through very fast with forces that frightened local villagers, all fishermen’s livelihood were affected while in town a road got inundated by the flood with all cars under the water.

I have been warning my gardener that I could feel another flood coming in the future as some dams would get broken again. This time the cause would be earthquakes in China or the southern border between three countries. So, I have been planting trees which were germinated from seeds so that they could stand the flooding better and longer period. The previous flood, all trees in lower areas stood in flood water for three weeks! Over a hundred of my fruit trees perished and we started the banana gloves to replace those trees.

Living with nature, we have to be observant and flexible as changing weather could affect our livelihood. Once I could feel the connection nature and Mother Nature, I had to spend the rest of my life on land and learn about gardening in order to survive. I had never dreamt that this would become my ideal lifestyle during difficult times. But I knew I was very lucky to have been drawn into this direction many years ago. So I had a good head start comparing with others who were already too late to have an alternative lifestyle or back to nature way of living. I am grateful to how things turned out in my life though it has been very tough and sometimes quite discouraging. My gut feelings told me that my destiny has to be going back to the past connection with the old land.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.