Verona Euritta Henry Smith

Verona Euritta Henry Smith, 6/23/1939 to 11/07/2009, known to many as Miss Smith, the tough math teacher. Known to me simply as Mammy.

My mother loved flowers. For many years, she was exclusively a rose person. I remember when I was in high school, at one point she had around 100 rose bushes. Then she started rooting new ones by the dozen.

Over the years, her focus shifted from roses to carnations to orchids. I decided to give her a surprise. I told her that I would take her somewhere but would not tell her where. After a 4-hour drive, she found out that I had taken her to an orchid farm. Acres and acres of orchids. She was like a child in a toy store.

It was interesting to watch her pack the orchids in her suitcase. But then she was no stranger to packing unusual objects in her suitcase. One year, there was the marble table top. Another year, there was the chain saw.

I last saw my mother in September 2007 before I set off on my travels. She was the first person to know of my plans to go traveling. And she said that if she were younger, she would have gone with me. I had hoped that next year she could join me for a couple weeks to experience some of the adventure.

I knew when I left, that there was the possibility that someone in the family, maybe me, that someone could pass away before I return. But when I spoke with my mother last Wednesday, just three days before...

Many of her orchids had died. And she talked about going back to the orchid farm to buy replacements. She had just fixed the leaking tank that had caused the cistern to run dry...

We didn't know we were having our last conversation. I wish I had told her I love her. I wish I had said the words “I love you” many more times in the last 37 years.

Last Saturday night, I was at a friend's home in Istanbul, Turkey. At the time, I was unaware of the news. My friend wanted to hear me play my flute. Of all the songs I could have played, I played:

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long way from home
A long way from home

The next day, I discovered how true that was. I miss her already.

My mother was a strong woman. In 1989, just a few weeks after we lost my father, my mother and I survived Hurricane Hugo, huddled under a table while the roof of the house was blown off. But she didn't just survive. She prospered – for 20 more years!

She often quoted Psalm 90:10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. She was 70.

Today I had a Turkish Bath

After dilly dallying in India for almost a year, I finally moved on. Today I flew from Delhi to Istanbul, Turkey. I had hoped to travel overland through Pakistan and Iran to Turkey. However, the Iranian embassy in Delhi told me flat out, that they would not issue me a visa. And the US embassy was strongly warning against traveling to Pakistan. So I figured I may as well just fly to Turkey.

Istanbul is expensive! I think. Or maybe I just got used to paying $5 for a nice private room with bath and cable TV in India. Here, the cheapest I could find is a 12-bed dorm room for $13. At least breakfast is included, and they have free wifi.

In India, I almost never had to pay more than $3 for a big filling meal – including a soft drink. Here, the restaurants seem to charge at least $10, plus another $3 for a soft drink. I had to start cooking again. Back to my standby bland chicken, pasta and vegetable. I will, one day, splurge and go to a restaurant, because Turkish cuisine is supposed to be very good.

I planned that my first day in Turkey, I would have a Turkish bath. But then I had a bad case of sticker shock. A bath could cost up to $65. I found one that charged $23, TARİHİ ŞİFA HAMAMI, which was built in 1777. I was the only person there, and after lying on a hot marble table for a while thinking they had forgotten me, a guy came in and gave me a Kese. Kese literally means “bath glove”. It was a good scrubbing with a rough mitt.. The kese was followed up with a Köpük Masaj. Köpük means foam or suds. Fifteen minutes, and it was over. This is the great Turkish bath? Later, I was speaking with some local guys, who go to that same hamam. They would spend 3 hours at a time there. They go with friends. It is a social activity.

I have not done any sightseeing as yet, but I am staying in the area where the two biggest attractions are. The famous Hagia Sofia doesn't look so impressive in person, but I need to see the inside before passing judgment. $13 is the entrance fee. Just across the street, the Blue Mosque looks really impressive. Entrance is free.

I Look to You

Today, I did what some Whitney fans said they'd do when they finally receive this highly anticipated album. I shut myself in my room, turned off the lights, and listened, again and again, each time trying to determine the order of my favorites. Since the critics are mentioning it, I'll say it: This is not the same voice we heard singing I Will Always Love You in 1992. Now that that is out of the way...

For me the best song on the album is Nothin' But Love. I love the 80's sound, maybe because I started listening to popular music in the 80's. For the first 37 seconds, it sounds like something she could have done on one of the earlier albums. But then in the 38th second, Whitney does urban like she's never done it before. “For my family that raised me...” And the fiery “for myself for sticking with me” at 2:31.... This song is on fire. Throw some water on me!

Akon and Whitnay: Like I Never Left. Now, I don't particularly care for Akon's electronic voice, and when I heard this song, way back when it leaked, I thought it was crap. At that time, I listened to it only once. So I was quite surprised to find that after listening to the stream on http://www.whitneyhouston.com/, I could not get the chorus out of my head on the 11 hour train ride from Shimla to Delhi. Now after listening to the album several times, I consider this to be the second best song.

I have trouble placing the next four songs. Each time I listen, I put them in a different order. Million Dollar Bill, Worth It, For the Lovers, & Call You Tonight. If they dropped the first 16 seconds of Million Dollar Bill, it would be solidly in third place. Worth It, which is really For the Lovers Part 1, sounds like an R&B song from the 90's, but it is well done. I like the beat of For the Lovers. I could see myself dancing to it, and I can't dance. When she sings “throw your hands up”, I throw my hands up, then feel a little embarrassed. I like the overall sound of Call You Tonight, but the verse and build meanders a little too much on the way to the chorus.

Seventh & eighth places go to Salute & I Look to You. I like the raw sound of Salute and would have placed it higher, but “shit” should not be allowed in a song. I Look to You is the last of the listenable songs. While it is commendable that it lets us hear Whitney's voice as it is, without trying to cover it up, R. Kelly could have done a better production.

The worst song is I Didn't Know My Own Strength. The way Clive Davis was hyping this song, I think he has a different song playing in his 8-track. This is just a bad song. It can't be helped. The second worst is I Got You. It didn't get me at all. Lyrically, it is not bad, but I had to speed it up to 1.5 times to get it moving. I'm not too familiar with previous versions of A Song for You, but I'm sure others will enjoy this one. Me, not really.

How do I rate the album? To me it is better than her Christmas album One Wish, better than Just Whitney, better than the new songs on the Greatest Hits, better than My Love is Your Love, and better than The Preacher's Wife soundtrack. You'd have to go back to Waiting to Exhale to get better than this. That's my opinion. Yours may differ.

Update: October 25, 2009
I finally get I Got You. I really like it now. Although the line "I'll make you fly when you think that you can" might raise a few eyebrows.

I edited I Didn't Know My Own Strength to remove that parts I didn't like. Now the length is 3:11 instead of 3:42, and it flows much better. It is a great song.

Angkor Wat

I wrote this a year ago when I was in Cambodia and never got around to posting it until now.

My visit to Angkor Wat, you can say, began with my visits to Borobudur and Prambanan, in Indonesia. My guide book said that Borobudur ranks with Angkor Wat as one of the great Southeast Asian monuments. My impression of Borobudur was that it was big, no huge, and had lots of carvings on the walls, but I didn't really find it to be that interesting. Prambanan, “the grandest and most evocative Hindu temple complex in Java,” was to me lots of piles of rocks. Truth is, I'm not really into temples. Big temples, small temples, new temples, old temples...ho hum... But no one visits Cambodia without visiting Angkor Wat. It is one of those things you must do.

While in Vientiane, Laos, I visited the Cambodian Embassy to apply for a visa. I had walked 45 minutes in the heat, only to arrive during their 3-hour lunch break. I sat outside for two hours, until they re-opened. But then I was told that they accept applications in the morning. I would have to return the next morning. Then it started to rain, the heavy downpour that is common in this area. So I sat in the embassy for an hour waiting for the rain to stop. Not the best way to spend one's birthday!

In the embassy, there is a large aerial photo of Angkor Wat hanging on the wall. One look at this photo and I was thinking that this will be Borobudur all over again. I started to consider not going to Cambodia, going back to Thailand or staying longer in Laos. But the next morning I rented a bicycle and headed for the embassy early in the morning.

After spending one week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I got on a bus to Siem Reap, the city closest to Angkor Wat, armed with a plan: to visit Angkor Wat every day for a week, until I understand what was so special about it. That plan was quickly thrown out as I learned a few things. First, the passes cost more than I expected. A one-day pass is $20. A 3-day pass is $40. A 6-day pass is $60. Also, there is far more than just Angkor Wat. It is the Angkor Archaeological Park, with more than 45 temples. I needed a real plan of attack.

A week passed, and I still didn't have a plan. Finally, one morning, I jumped on the bike and rode out to the park, not knowing which pass I would get. I bought the 3-day pass. I looked at the park map and quickly decided to do a loop that covered most of the major temples - except Angkor Wat & Bayon, the two “must see” temples in the park. I would do Bayon on day 2 and Angkor Wat on day 3.

In a very full day, I visited 9 temples and 2 sites of interest. By midday, while at Preah Khan, a huge monastic complex with carvings on the walls, I began to appreciate these temples. I imagined what it must have been like for the European explorers who re-discovered these temples deep inside the jungles. Here is evidence that back in the 10th - 13th centuries, there was a great civilization here. And they had a thing for building large stone temples.

At every temple, there were people aggressively selling food, drinks, t-shirts, bracelets, etc. To them, the word “no” has a completely different meaning. It means maybe he wants something else or maybe a lower price. And there were the kids. They try to guilt you into buying something. "If you don't buy, it means you don't like Cambodia," one girl told me. But I don't need a bracelet, much less 10 bracelets – even if they cost just $1. She forced me to take a bracelet by putting it in the bike's basket and refusing to take it back. When I left without buying anything, she put on her sad, nearly crying face. Later, after I had finished with the temples, I returned to buy a can of pop from her. But she pulled a fast one on me. She said didn't have enough money to make change, so I had to buy 2 cans at twice what they cost in town.

The next day, I was exhausted. I got up late and didn't get to the park until midday. On this day I would visit three temples, including the must see Bayon. Before I got to Bayon, I felt good about my approach to the temples. I had heard a few people grumbling because they had seen Angkor Wat & Bayon first, and everything after that was just piles of rocks. I had seen the other temples first, enjoyed them and was ready to be dazzled.

But first I had to eat. Before I could think where I would eat, a woman came running out of her restaurant, with a menu, to meet me in the road before anyone else could get me. "I give you good discount because you handsome." It didn't really matter. I was hungry and would eat at the first place I saw. She did give me a discount, and I gave her a tip, by paying the full amount.

The great feeling I had in anticipation of Bayon, soon vanished as I approached. It looked like a large pile of rocks. This was because of the color of the stones. As I got closer, the structure started to reveal itself. Then the huge stone faces, for which it is known, became visible. I decided to take my time and see every part of this temple.

What is amazing about Bayon, isn't the huge stone faces, but the bas relief found on the walls. This temple had far more than all the other temples I had visited. How many years did it take to do this? And how many people were working on it? And how did they keep the story straight? You could spend a lot of time here if you want to understand the significance of what's carved on the walls. That would be too much for me. I was amazed enough without understanding.

I had not planned to visit Angkor Wat on this day, but I had to pass by it on the way back to town. So why not? Besides the guide book said that because Angkor Wat faces west, it is best to have your first view in the afternoon. So I crossed the moat and went through the west gate. The first thing I saw was the scaffolding on the main tower that would ruin any photograph. I thought back to the time I had visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water and couldn't get any good photos because of scaffolding.

Never mind that... For several minutes, I stood on the walkway between the west gate and the temple, where I could see the full width of the temple unobstructed by the two libraries. What will I find inside this colossal structure - besides tourists? Far more tourists were here than at any of the other temples. So many that they were signs to guide the masses orderly through the temple.

I headed straight for the main tower, intent on climbing the steep stairs. I had become fond of climbing temple stairs. They were typically very steep and made for tiny feet. Usually, there was a “climb at your own risk” sign. But the stairs were closed. The stairs to all the towers were closed. The entire central portion of the temple was closed to visitors. I left with thoughts of “Angkor Wat the hell was that?” and “Angkor Wat a disappointment.”

But I was determined to appreciate this temple, so I'd be back the next day. Because the temple faces the west, the sun rises behind, and it makes a beautiful picture with a silhouette of the temple. When my alarm sounded at 3:30am, I really didn't want to get up. But suddenly, at 3:45, there were fireworks going off in town. So I got up. No one seemed to know why there were fireworks this early in the morning. I needed to leave by 4:30, since I was riding a bicycle, in the dark, with no lights.

I arrived and staked out a spot on the steps of the south library, where I could get a good shot. There were lots of people out for the sunrise. I eavesdropped on the tour guides to hear what good information others were getting. And I waited for this spectacular sunrise. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy morning. So instead of brilliant color, the sky just gradually went from black to light gray, and it was day.

But I pressed on. Angkor Wat was more than just a temple. It was a city surrounded by a wall and a moat. While the temple covers an area of some 40,000 square meters, the outer wall encloses an area of about 820,000 square meters. And the surrounding moat is 190 m wide. I jumped back on the bike, and rode clockwise along a path on the outer perimeter of the moat, then I walked around the outside of the wall, then the inside of the wall, stopping to look at each of the four gates. Then I circled the temple. I continued in this way, one layer at a time, like I was peeling an onion.

Apart from its size the bas relief was really amazing. The best part was being repaired, but what I could see was even better than that at Bayon. I still wished the central part of the temple was not closed, but it was worth taking the time to view it in the way I did. If you chose to visit, remember to leave Angkor Wat for last and peel it like an onion. Perhaps, if I returned to Borobudur now, I would appreciate it more. Prambanan, however, will still be piles of rocks.

I wore the bracelet everyday, until it disappeared a few months ago. Now that I have seen many Hindu temples in India, I may appreciate Prambanan as more than just piles of rocks.