Roses and Rangoon

The taste of rose is a a fundamentally non-linguistic concept, isn't it?

I was asked “What does rose taste like?” the other day, and as the person was drinking rose lassi, I told them that it tasted like (that minus (mango lassi minus mango) ) * 3, because it was rather dilute. But then another student got angry at me for always being referential in my descriptions! Which a) language is totally inherently referential and b) the phenomena of perception seems to be fundamentally incommunicable and c) I wasn't wrong, that was what it tasted like. But then she just made fun of me for using the word qualia. I guess you win some and you lose some.

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So but what I mean is that I am both not very good at conveying abstract sensations and also that abstract sensations seem to in their essence resist conveyance. Maybe if I was better at metaphor. So when I look at a pretty building and describe it as a pretty building I am aware that it is a pretty underwhelming thing to say about a building and I'm more trying to speak of my experience of the viewing of the building, which is a weird miasma of consciousness and unconscious and feeling and logical thought that I don't think I can ever hope to convey, and you've probably seen pretty things before and it is probably somewhat similar to what you felt when you saw those things, so.

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I saw several pretty buildings this week. The Qutb Minar during the day is even prettier than it was at night. Maybe pretty + awe-inspiring? Safdarjung's tomb, on the other hand: basically a weaker Humayun's tomb. But the Lodhi Gardens across the way were quite nice! But then I left my waterbottle there, which was rather disappointing. No more square bottle for me.

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I also ate spectacularly this week. We went on a food walk of Old Delhi, which caught us all of guard because it was scheduled for another day and also 8 hours long (surprise!). But it was quite good, as one could easily imagine. A handful of street snacks, a handful of restaurants, way too much ice cream, way too much food, also a Sikh temple and a Jain temple so that we weren't literallyjust walking from food to food for 8 hours.

I also made a ginger-molasses cake and an apricot-almond cake.

So, you know, life is good.

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Also: I'm in Myanmar now.

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Yesterday, we flew to Bangkok, where we hung out for a few hours and looked at the duty-free shop and totally failed to experience anything remotely Thai. Although Kendall did order a coconut at the Asian Corner restaurant, which came with a straw and was full of coconut water. And then we caught the plane to Yangon (formerly Rangoon, and while not the capital of Myanmar (that is now Naypyidaw, which was just constructed 10 years ago and now has a population of 1 million) it is the biggest city).

It is quiet here! There is no honking on the road. There are a lot fewer dogs in the streets. The sky is blue rather than perpetual haze, which is rather nice. I've been missing the blue sky. The buildings are also frequently pretty, although, as Ilan mentioned, the precious stone inlay work just does not reach the quality of the Taj. Things are shinier though; they really like their gold leaf here. So far we have only gone to one Stupa or Pagoda or Pointy many-roofed building housing relics of the Buddha, but it was quite pointy and shiny. Many of the statues of the Buddha were lit up with a little disc of LEDs pulsating in patterns behind their heads.

Having been here for less than 24 hours, and spending a fair chunk of that time in a hotel, I don't really have much else to say. It seems like an interesting country? I'll be here until Friday, or: I'll be in Yangon for a few more days, and then off to Bagan for a bit, and then Mandalay, and then Friday we'll fly to Kolkata (Calcutta) late late at night via Bangkok again, which seems rather roundabout. And then a few days in Kolkata, a few days in Bodhgaya (where the Buddha attained enlightenment), a few days in Varanasi (a really old city?), a day in Saranth (they have a garden here, where Buddha had his first sermony-things) and then: back to Delhi by the 14th. We don't have any days off, and it is a pretty packed schedule, but I'm sure it will be (like most things) quite nice. I will miss a lot of good badminton games though, which is rather unfortunate. Although: it will maybe be cooler by the time I get back? Which means that I might not just turn into a ball of sweat whenever I play (or, to a greater extent, if we play tag, which I did for the first time this week, and they are quick little guys and tag was quite exhausting and that was the last night before we left and they just wouldn't let us go inside and sleep was little).

Anyways, that is our trip, that is where I am right now.

I didn't expect to have wifi, but we are staying at a fancypants Best Western with shiny golden sheets and complimentary wifi for two more nights, so that is a thing. I probably maybe won't have wifi after that, though.

So: see you on the other side! (Maybe)