Auckland-Bangkok-Toronto-RioJaneiro-Belgrade-Kinshasa
I’m in Auckland, presently getting out of the AKL airport, in
Māngere, and at the same time, I’m in Toronto, I’m in Bangkok,
I’m in Belgrade,I’m in Rio de Janeiro, and I’m in Kinshasa, at
Port Huilier, by the Congo river. And then, I’m Auckland again, now
going through the Epsom neighborhood, a middle/upper class area in
the central Auckland isthmus, primarily a valley enclosed by four
volcanoes of the Auckland volcanic field: the Maungawhau
/ Mount Eden
to the northwest, the Tītīkōpuke
/ Mount Saint John to
the northeast, the Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill to the southeast and
the Te Tātua a Riukiuta / Three Kings to the southwest. And then
it’s night, and I’m back in Bangkok, more precisely, going
through the Khao-San road, in Banglamphu, an area with full of
Farangs, or foreigners, this is, here at the Khao-San road, local
merchants would pull out your arm and impose their products on you,
stuff like: roasted centipedes, discounts to get in massages parlors
and local clubs, traveling packs to places like Pattaya, Phuket,
Chiang Mai, etc. And then, I’m in Toronto, at the Harbourfront,
this is, I’m here speaking with some guy from Mohawk ethnicity, he
says that the word “Toronto”
or “Toraton”,
“ refers to 'The Narrows', a channel of water through which Lake
Simcoe discharges into Lake Couchiching where the Huron, this is,
ancient Iroquoian speaking people, had planted tree saplings in order
to corral fish, and so, “this narrows were called tkaronto
by the Mohawk” he says. And then I’m in Rio again, already going
through Copacabana beach, and so, as I go through it, there at the
top of some cliffs, I already can see that big statue of a man with
his arms wide open, a scene from the City
of God movie.
And at the same time I’m in Belgrade, more precisely at the
Beogradska Autobuska Stanica, this is, the Belgrade bus station,
actually inside some kind of quaint coffee situated at the entrance
of the station, the only establishment open at this time of the
night. And then, I’m in Kinshasa again, now passing in front of the
Gare centrale, where I meet some guys that wanna sell me some golden
teeth with caries, “french gold, not African”.they say. And then
I’m in Auckland again, now going along the Mount Eden Road, a
neighborhood with many parks and jogging trails leading to views over
the Hauraki Gulf, and also, a hub for vintage clothes stores, mainly
when you get to the north section of the road, like this
SuperTrash store,
just off the junction with the Symonds Street and the New N road. And
I’m in Bangkok again, still going through the Khao-San road, a
street with many clubs aligned one after the other (clubs blasting
some kind of hip hop beats mixed with some sort of luk
thung
or mor
lam
melodies), and as it goes, a small group of Thai boys armed with
giant water pistols, are already coming in my direction, actually
shooting some sort of green liquid at the American tourists (girls)
around, and in the meanwhile, there will be a big mess, this is,
people running to the sides, ladies screaming, some shouting, and
then, outraged by these event, some of the american guys are even
showing off their fists to these homies standing in front of the the
travel agencies and other shops along this streets, laughing at all
this. And so, as I go by, I’m also being pushed by all these guys,
but, I quickly manage to escape through a narrow lane on my right,
which turns out to be an alley with many tattooists working on the
sidewalk, just in front of the massage parlors. And so, as I advance
along this lane, I’m in effect staring at the graffitied showcases
on both sides, I mean, looking at the figures depicted on it, that
can actually be described as, gray humanoids with green brains and
pink guts spilling out, one muscular guy passing as a DJ, many kinds
of colorful worms jumping from his hands around the turntable, and,
there is also a big octopus with a woman's head, their multiple
hands(tentacles) doing massages on the body of the many tourists
around, northern european flags on their head, and then, an image of
Buddha looking at all this, his mouth full of dollars notes. And as
it goes, I’m in Toronto again, now going through the Skywalk
tunnel-bridge, a walking bridge connecting the CN Tower square, one
of the bigger towers in the world, they say, with the Union Railway
Station, a main station located on Front Street West. And then, I’m
in Rio de Janeiro again, at the
8
its name to the world famous song named “the girl from Ipanema”.
And then, again, I’m in Belgrade, still inside this quaint coffee
house inside the Beogradska Autobuska Stanica, and so, as I said
before, it’s late night, thus, there aren’t many people here,
just a couple of middle aged guys seated at the front tables, smoking
big cigarettes, in silence, and here at the bottom, there are also
some other strangers, sleeping, or dozing over the tables on my side,
this is, they are all asians migrants, Afghan, Pakistani,
Tajikistani, Turkmen, etc, I get to know. And so, at some point, as
it goes, I start some kind of chat with this guy dressed as Elvis,
apparently, the only one awake, a guy named Zarak, now telling me
that “If you wanna come from Pakistan to Europe, first you have to
cross all Afghanistan, this because Iran have built a three feet for
ten feet wall between Pakistan and their country, a wall with
observation towers and fortress-style garrisons for troops, and so,
nowadays, if Iran police catch you on their land, they will beat you
and drive you back to Afghanistan” he says, and then, continuing,
“so, what we actually do nowadays is… we have to pay to taliban
merchants that take us inside their vans across all the country until
reaching the southern part of the caspian sea, and then, once there,
following on the beach, or through the forests by the sea, we would
go across all Iran, and, once we reach the border with Turkey, with
the help of some Kurd insurgents, we would go across that icy
mountains they call Ararat, and then, once in Istanbul, we would
follow the Bosphorus until the Black sea, I mean, this is how we have
entered in the European union domain…” he says. And then, I’m
in Kinshasa again, now following along the dusty sidewalks of
Boulevard du 30 Juin, and so, at this point, a handicapped girl with
a SonGoku t-shirt comes to me and try to sell me some plastic
flowers, “ils peuvent faire des miracles, il suffit de les sentir”,
she says. And quickly, moving back in Auckland, now going along the
Karangahape Road, currently stepping over a large larvae graffitied
on the sidewalk, and then passing in front of some comic-books
stores, some tattoo parlours, some drag queen cabaret-style
restaurants, some indie bars, and as it goes, as I look through the
showcase of one of this bars, I actually see a big postcard from an
old band I know, this is, The Scavengers, one of the first punk bands
from New Zealand, actually a band where Brendan Perry (Dead Can
Dance) played in the beginning of his career, and, being Dead Can
Dance one of my favorite band from my teenage years, I know that the
multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry despite have been born in UK,
have passed his teenage years in New Zealand and Australia. And then,
I’m back in Bangkok, again going through the Banglamphu area,
currently going along the Chakrabongse Road, and so, as it goes,
after passing a small group of ricksaws waiting for clients, I’m
actually surpassing places like, the Coffee Madness, the Oriental
Princess Cosmetics, the Konnichipan Bakery, the Mind Day hostel, and
then I come to a bridge over a chanel, the Norarat Sathan Bridge, and
at this point I stop, lookin down at the greenish waters of this
channel, its margins equipped with some kind of small gardens full of
junk of all sorts, this is, junk squeezed between the back of
buildings and the barriers of the channel itself, all very quiet and
perfect, it looks, and then, as I stare at it, I spot some kind of
pathway under all that mess, and so, as the devil rubs their eyes,
there I go, already entering this sort of tunnel, and then, advancing
in between some huge plants with fruits like bats, and there are also
some colourful lamps around, lamps blinking in the middle of all this
rubbish… and then, after having passed through some barriers, at
some point, it looks like I’m entering someone's house, but no, I
end up debouching at some other narrow path, this is, another path
also flanked with some more junky gardens on both sides, and just
then, I come up to the main street, the Soy Lamphu, and as I go
through it, down there, I see a lighted placard on the front of some
kind of venue, it says, “the Ordinary Bar”, and there I go,
aproaching its porch, where there are some last clients, drinking in
front of it. And as it goes, I get in touch with this tall guy
drinking and smoking alone,
and so, soon I get to know that he is a russian, and, as we smoke and
drink together, he is already telling me that he has come all the way
from his country riding some kind of motorcycle, and, after some
brief commentaries about all the countries he have just crossed
before arriving here, this is, kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, tajikistan,
kashmir-India, etc, and as it goes, he also reveals to me how he got
into a series of problems with the local police here because of some
brawl he was involved on a massage parlour nearby. And, after passing
me the big cane, he even reveals that “actually I’m stuck here
now, I mean, the police is actually holding my passport and the
documents from my motorcycle because, well… to give it back to me
they want no money, what they want is, it is ridiculous to say this,
but, what they want is actually the motor from my motorcycle,
actually a Ural
sidecar,
built for the Red
Army
during world war two…” he says. And then, as this happens, I’m
in Toronto again, now going along Bay street, following on the middle
of some skyscrapers, like this one on my right hand side, actually
the TD Canada Trust Tower, with the Chotto
Matte
on the ground floor, a Japanese-Peruvian Restaurant & Lounge,
where I see some bizness people eating while staring at their mobile
phones, and just in front, on the other side of the road, we have the
Brooks Brothers, a clothes store that sells luxury clothing for men,
women & kids, smokings, polo & rugby shirts, sport coats &
blazers, casual pants, and even, turkish cotton bath towels, etc. And
then, still on my left hand side, another tower, actually the
headquarters of the RBC Royal Bank, and in front of it, the
Brookfield Place, home to offices of various companies including
Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets, Nomura Group, American Express,
Bank of New York Mellon, Time Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management,
among others. And then, after crossing the Wellington street, on my
right hand side, we have the Walrus Pub & Beer Hall, just in
front of the Arthritis Society Canada, and the Dominion Centre, an
office complex of six skyscrapers, the headquarters of the Toronto
based Dominion Bank. And then, on the right hand of the road, another
huge building, its ground floor covered with giant coloured
butterflies, actually the Commerce Court West, and then, after the
tramway, on the left side of the road, we have the BMO Financial
Group, just in front of the Bank of the Nova Scotia where some guy
dressed as clown, with a gazunder on with hand, offering candy to the
passersby. And then I’m back in Rio de Janeiro, now going through
the
Leblon neighborhood, a pretty posh neighborhood that, apparently, has
the most expensive price per residential square meter in Latin
America, they say. And then I’m in Belgrade again, now getting out
of the Beogradska Autobuska Stanica, accompanied by Zarak, my afghan
friend, and so, it’s late night, thus, there aren’t many people
on the streets, only ghosts, even so, as we try to ask around how to
go to the city centre, we make a new friend, actually a dwarf holding
some kind of goblet drum tied on his waist, and thus, as it goes, “my
name is Davud” he says, “and you can follow me, I will teach you
a shortcut to the uptown,,,”, and there we go, first across some
kind of park in front of some massive building with a germanoid
style, Z serie, and then, up some narrow street with some skewed
buildings on both sides, and so, “this is the Kamenička”,
he says “and there on the top is the Zeleni
Vena,
also called the Turkish Market” he adds, “and then, after
crossing the Terazijski Tunel, we will be at the Knez Mihailova
Street, a main pedestrian street already on the city centre itself…”
And now, I’m in Africa again, coming back to Kinshasa, presently
going along avenue
du marais,
passing just on the side of the Botanique Gardens, where I see like
ten diferent religious troupes congregating inside the park, each
troupe with a leader holding a megaphone, praying loudly, as if in
competition, each one of them trying to be more loud and dramatic
than his neighbor, and as it goes, those who are watching, at every
moment wanting to touch the leader's megaphone. And then, I’m in
Auckland again, at the Aotea Square, now going through the Waharoa
gate,
a fancy gate/sculpture incorporated with representations of the
spirits of the Māori, like the Tāne
Mahuta,
this is, the god of all forest creatures, the
Tāwhirimātea,
the god of wind and storms, the
Haumia-tiketike,
god of uncultivated food and fern-root, the Rongo-mā-Tāne,
the god of Agriculture and Peace, the Tangaroa,
the god of the sea, the Tūmatauenga,
the god of the wars, the Rūaumoko,
the god of earthquakes, and the Whiro-te-tipua,
that is the god of darkness, evil, and death. And then, as I go
through the Albert
Street,
I’m actually passing on the side of the Auckland District Court,
and it happens that there is a lot of scaffoldings in front of it,
and then, I see judges, lawyers, defendants, criminals and police
officers passing under all this apparatus, and on the other side of
the road, I see the road improvement workers, giggling, while staring
at this scene, and then, after passing the crossroad with the Wyndham
Street, I’m actually passing in front of the Shakespeare
Hotel,
a victorian style restaurant & bar & pub & hotel, and the
Ellice Road Social Lounge, a pizza place with some billiards tables,
and the Sumo
Sushi,
a japanese restaurant, and then, after some more road constructions,
we have the Albert
Leather Factory,
where you can get your sheepskin boots or your shearling coat made
from lambskin, and then, the Sĩ
Lashes and Nails, a
beauty clinic where you can do your eyelash extensions, and then,
after the Galata Kebabs & Grill, a turkish/greek restaurant, it’s
the New Zealand Trade Centre and the JW Marriott, a five stars hotel
with a glazed facade, and then, after the crossroad with the Mills
lane, it’s the CityMed,
a clinic where you can make your IUD implant insertion, and the
Up Cafe,
after the crossroad with the Customs Street, I continue through the
Lower Albert Street that will debouche at some kind of Ferry
Terminal, from where I can take a boat to the Rangitoto, the
Motutapu, or the Rakino islands. And then, it’s late night, and I’m
back in Bangkok, this is, after been walking through the labyrinth of
roads and alleys between the so called chinatown and the Chao Phraya
River, I have just reached this kind of triangular hexagonal
building/shrine installed on the middle of some kind of park by the
river. And so, as I’m getting closer to this kind of building, to
my surprise, now, I see someone jumping out from the first varanda of
it, and landing right here on my side, just like that, and then, we
also can hear some kind of whispered voices coming from inside thais
pyramidal building, some sort of hoarse yells... And as it goes, the
guy that just landed here, is already asking me something I can't
really understand, and so, “What, do you need something?” I say;
and he, in some kind of broken english, “Yes, I need something!”
he says, “can you give me something!?”; “Hum, yes, I can…”
I say, and as I say this, I’m actually passing him a lighter that I
had in my pocket, and he, instantly, with the lighter on his hand, he
is already going through the park, collecting some remains of dry
grass, and then, engaging in the process of lighting up a small fire
by the trunk of some fat tree… and then, as the fire starts to
burn, he begins to sing some kind of song, softly humming it. And so,
as it goes, the guys that were inside that fancy castle are now
coming to the top of the surrounding walls, still rubbing their eyes,
and then, one by one, they are actually jumping out from there, and
here they come, slowly approaching the place where we are, and as
they approach, they are actually verbalizing some small words in Thai
language and then, as they get closer and closer, some of them
actually shut up, now staring at me, at the fire, and at the one
that just lighted this small fire, interrelatedly. And then, one of
them come to me smiling and just asks my name, and I, well, “I just
forgot my name” I say, and he, still smiling, he says “I’m
Rattana… it means gem or jewel something like that…” he says.
And then, as I got aware of his english capabilities, “but what is
your friend doing, why is he singing a song to the fire, is this some
kind of exorcism?”; I ask, and “exorcism, what is that?” he
says. “Well, is he calling the spirits or sum?”, “hum, the
spirits…” he exclaims, “well, in Thailand we have no spirits,
here we have only goshes…”, “hum ok, so, what kind of gosh do
you think he is invoking?”, “hum, I’m not sure, we have many in
Thailand, and many of them have no name… for example, we have the
Phi Am, a ghosh that sits on a person's chest during the night, it is
believed that this ghosh may cause sleeping paralysis; and we have
the Phi Hua Khat, a kind of headless male ghost that carries his head
on his hands: and we have the Phi Ka, a kind of crazy ghost that can
do anything. And we have Phi Lang Kluang, a kind of ghost from
Southern Thailand with a very large wound on his back, a mutilated
one. And we have the Phi Ngu, also known as Phrai Ngu or Ngueak Ngu,
a kind of ghost related to snakes that may appear in snake form, in
human form or in a combination of both forms; and we have the Phi
Phong, a malevolent male ghost having an unpleasant smell, that lives
in dark places under the vegetation; and we have the Phi Phrai, the
ghost of a woman who died together with the child in her womb and
lives in the water; and we have the Phi Pop, a kind of ghost which
eats raw meat, this is, humans and animals can be possessed by this
Phi Pop which eats their internal organs without killing them; and we
have the Phi Pu Thao, a ghost appearing as a very old man… And we
have the Phi Song Nang, a female ghost that first lures and then
attacks and kills young men. And we have Phi Tabo, a blind ghost with
hollow eyes. And we have the Phi Tai Ha, that are ghosts of persons
that died in car accidents. And we have Phi Tai Hong, the ghost of
someone that suffered a sudden violent or cruel death. And we have
the Phi Thale, a ghost from the sea, whose name is also used as a
slang word for naughty men. And we have the Suea Saming, a male or
female transformed into a tiger as a result of black magic. And we
have the Phi Tai Thang Klom, that is the vengeful ghost of a pregnant
women who died during childbirth… and we have the Nang Kwak, that
is a ghost deemed to bring good fortune, prosperity, and attract
customers to a business, commonly dressed in red Thai style clothing,
this is, the Nang Kwak may be an incarnation of the Mae PoSop, the
Thai rice goddess”, he says finally, as all his friends surround us
and that guy around the fire. And then I’m in Toronto again, now at
the crossroad between Bay street and Queen street, actually passing
in front of the old Toronto City Hall, a Richardsonian Romanesque
building, this is, a style of architecture that combines Byzantine,
Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture, actually a building made of
sandstone, also called arenito,
a kind of stone with a reddish colour, and then, after passing in
front of the new Toronto City Hall, on the opposite side, I get to
the crossroad with the Dundas street, and then the Edward street, and
then the Elm street, and then the Walton street, and then the Gerrard
street, and at some point I’m going through the Queens park, where
I meet someone that takes me to visit the statue of Queen Victoria,
and so, as we turn around the statue of the queen, this someone is
actually talking about Ilona Anna Staller, known as Cicciolina, a
Hungarian-Italian former porn star, politician, and singer. And then,
after leaving the Leblon neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, a
neighborhood that, apparently, has the most expensive price per
residential square meter in Latin America, I see myself in the
Rocinha neighborhood, one of the biggest Slum Towns in Brazil, now
going through some overpass, where bananas and papayas and spicy
mangoes are being sold side by side with some alarm guns, and then,
I’m actually passing in front of a “pet shop” that also repairs
televisions; a satellite dishes workshop that also sells branded
tennis; bakeries that also sell gas bottles and funky cases for your
cell phone, and afterwards, I’m passing in front of some shops
displaying worms with shiny colors, and then going along a narrow
street formed by a row of small restaurants with names of national
soap operas like “Tieta”; “As Cinco Panelas de Ouro”;
“Pic-nic Classe C”; “O Pátio das Donzelas”; “Dona Xepa”;
“Plumas e Paetês”; “Água Viva”; “Feijão Maravilha”; “A
Gata Comeu”; “Brega & Chique” etc… and so, as I go though
this street, I pass some flabbergasted tourists, all them coming with
personal security, and then, I’m actually going into a maze of
alleys with cans hanging from the electricity cables, and I see kids
throwing stones at it, and then, as I go deeper and deeper, I see
hawkers of various styles and shapes, I mean, I see pinocchios
selling home-made ice-creams, d’artagnans announcing lottery
tickets, haughty ladies quacking sweets with names of european and
american cities, mulattoes climbing roofs and releasing birds or
whatever, unfinished buildings converted into anonymous societies
converted, shacks on the side of the shrines, potter houses, copper
artisans, street vendors of strange costumes, storytellers of all
kinds, sportive butchers, sharpeners, bakers of astrological bread,
and then, as they make me enter through some kind of garage, there is
an old man with dreads until the butocks playing some kind of horn,
and a group of semi-naked kids playing some tambourines, and some
brunette girls tap dancing and singing, and then as I move up to the
rooftop all becomes dark. And then, it’s early morning, and here we
are in Belgrade again, more precisely, at the Knez Mihailova Street,
a main pedestrian street on the uptown, and so, here we are in front
of some closed down shop, this is, by we I mean, me, Zarak, the
afghan, and Davud, the bosnian dwarf, and so, we are actually
standing in front of the window of a closed down shop, and so, Davud
the dwarf is actually playing his small darbuka, Zarak is actually
singing some Afghan romantic song on the top of it, and me, well me,
I'm just hissing and doing some tap dancing. and as it goes, the
first passersby, they give us coins, they give us bagels, and some,
they even give us some second hand lottery tickets. And then, I’m
back in Kinshasa, now at the the Marché Central, colloquially
referred to as Zando
ya Monene, going
through a mesh of stalls selling fruits and vegetables like cocos
nucifera, mangostana, mangifera indica, cavendish banana, rambutan,
passiflora edulis, various
kinds of maize, rice, cassava (manioc), sweet potatoes, yam, taro,
plantain, tomatoes, pumpkins, different varieties of nuts, and in the
middle of all this fruit/vegetable stalls there are also some meat
stalls, this is, the dead animals hanging on big skewers, their dark
blood falling over the just said fruits and vegetables, some big
flies constantly landing on it… and then, on the halls around this
main central area, there are also other stalls selling coloured
fabrics, leather shoes, sandals and household goods like, many kind
of baskets, plastic containers, pots and pans, perfumes and
detergents made in china, and even some traditional medicine, this
is, some devilish teas, some powders made from the bones of certain
animals, some ointments to treat problems like, high blood pressure,
cholera, venereal diseases, ebola, epilepsy, asthma, anxiety,
depression, gout, gonorrhea, urinary infections, female infertility,
and other kinds sexual dysfunctions.
