Poolside Reading

Today's been a pretty lazy day so far.

I had a Thai massage for about 30 minutes. There is no oil used and it involves a lot of pushing and manipulating joints. I was relaxed by the end and sat down to writing a few post cards and finishing a book that I had been reading, called "Year Zero." Year Zero is a detailed account of the first few years of the Khmer Rouge government and the last few of the republican government topples in the revolution. It gives similar accounts to "The Killing Fields" of the insanity of the Khmer Rouge regime. It described how the KR took simple socialist principles to "the fullest extent of their internal logic." For example, the idea that capitalism is bad led to the regime blowing up the national bank and abolishing money altogether. This stretching of logic also led to the emptying of all cities, as I mentioned before, to return the citizens to an agregarian way of life. While these ideas could sound good on paper... evicting 4 million people who don't know how to farm and rendering their money valueless is cruel at best.

Newly in need of reading material, I went to a book store and bough a murder mystery/detective book called "Andorra" and Rushdie's "Midnight's Children," the latter in preparation for my India trip. This is my second attempt at Midnight's Children, the first being in a class (which I should have finished it for). I've been reading it poolside all afternoon. I love the writing and this time the story is much more engaging (I'm not being forced to read it). That being said, the prose is dense with metaphor and digression and I find myself re-reading certain pages over and over again to make sure I know what really happened and who did what.

Other than reading, I bought some bed sheets and a waterproof backpack cover for India. At another point in the day, I had a great moment lost somewhere in the city in the back of a cab . My cabbie had no idea where we were going and had to ask others for directions a few times. Having no set schedule, I just sat in the back listening to the happy Thai music blasting form the radio.

Only two more days left to relax before the madness I expect in Delhi.