Are we sure about this?

So what’s it gonna be girl? Do we want to do it or not? If we don’t do it now, who knows if we’ll ever do it.

ALL WHITE BY BEN UMAYAM 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 120

So many Russians. Everywhere you go, you hear Russian, Russian, Russian. Either that or some other Eastern European language. Could be Portuguese. I remember in Rio thinking there was something Eastern European to the Portuguese. That and they always sound to me like they are speaking Spanish with marbles in their mouths. But what do I know about foreign languages? I am an American.

We hooked up with a couple of American girls in Old Chiang Mai night market and they highly recommended this temple tour. I had read the brochure wrong. I thought we were going on a tour of the little temples of the Old City. You find a temple on every block. They aren’t in the tour guides. So why not go on the tour?

But we are going up the mountain to the Golden Temple. This couple on the bus sitting in front of us, all you hear is nyet nyet nyet.

The Golden Temple is very cool. There was some miracle back then. A Buddha was zapped, got cut in half, only the two halves were not equal. The bigger half of the Buddha was considered a miracle. They put the bigger half on this elephant, a white one. This elephant went wandering around the old town and then up the mountain to this clearing near the top of the mountain. At this clearing it turned around three times, then genuflected, got down on one knee. And the people said, another miracle, let’s build a temple here. And so the Golden Temple, super shiny on a clearing near the top of the mountain, gleaming golden.

“So what’s it gonna be girl? Do we want to do it or not? If we don’t do it now, who knows if we’ll ever do it.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I just don’t know. Let’s talk later.”

“OK, later.”