Lost In La La Land

I sat downstairs for a while. The road was quiet and dark, lit only by the moon. Working girls, angels of the night, strolled past heading out to earn. Those I knew smiled and greeted me. Those who didn't simply smiled. It started to rain. It would stop in an hour.

I went up to my room and watched 'The Trip' on DVD. Coogan and Bryden. Moderately amusing.

The food looked good. The English (not British) countryside looked truly beautiful. I thought how much I loved it and the countryside in general. The Derbyshire Dales, the Yorkshire Moors, the rugged mountainous coast of Turkey, the mountains of Oman all have special parts of my soul. I love the smell of green and the 'taste' of the desert after rain. Big open deep star spangled skies that go on forever. Skies hidden by canopies of trees. Dark deadly silent roads lit only by fireflies dancing like so many fairies in a childhood tale.

So what is it then that I find so appealing about being lost in La La Land? I have pondered on this before. The countryside is beautiful? But La La Land is that too if you give it a chance but in a different sort of way. La La Land is happy! The countryside is not happy. Perhaps there comes a time in life when happiness matters more to ones soul than it does at others. The countryside offers quiet, peace and seclusion. I can find that even now here in Pattaya if I want it.

Sometimes though I lay in my room in total quiet. Then I listen. Thai music, cocks crowing, dogs barking, the clip clip clip of high heels along the landings, someone using a pestle and mortar (probably crushing chillis for Som tam), a distant loudspeaker selling fruit, the honk honk of the egg man, the tinkle bell says ice cream is here, and all around people are
laughing, talking, singing and arguing. I don't need the silence.

At times I am not alone. There is something almost poetic about lying on a disarrayed bed in a cheap Asian room. Geckos scurry across the walls. A fan stirs the warm air and a beautiful golden skinned girl lies next to me. A good time and a good place to die. I think I once even dreamed it happened this way. Or perhaps it was a 50's movie. I like being lost in La La Land. I am happy in La La Land.