Under the banyan tree

Our friends took us to a local noodle shop today. Good thing they did, because we could have never found it. There was no sign, no phone number, definitely no reservations. The restaurant is an old hut under a big banyan tree. Appropriately, locals refer this popular joint as "under the banyan tree"......

Food is awesome, and fast. Despite the whole place being packed with about a hundred people, our food began arriving piping hot just 5 minutes after we ordered. The whole family works here. Current owner is the third generation, passed on from his grandpa who started this restaurant as a canteen for the local workers nearby. The factories and workers are long gone, but the eatery remains and it is a gold mine. The kids are now learning the trade and they will become the fourth generation to run this place in a few years.

The open kitchen is at the front of the restaurant, similar to the "da pai dang" of the old days. It is amazing how this tiny little kitchen could produce such a large volume of food everyday.

This place is opened for breakfast and lunch only, as they close down the place and the entire family goes home in the afternoon. These folks work hard, but manage to have a life at the same time. Imagine how much more money they can make if they open for dinner? But it is probably this "laissez faire" attitude which keeps four generations together in one happy place.

After lunch, we stopped at downtown so Frankie can visit an arcade. I love standing at a street corner and just watch the web of traffic flow. It is absolutely amazing to observe. As you can see in the video, so often someone either on a bike or scooter is within a millisecond of being hit by a car. Everything happens so fast, and yet it seems like slow motion. Just when you think the taxicab is going to cream that lady on the scooter, he pauses just long enough so that she speeds away, in such precision that it appears to have been rehearsed hundreds of times. What appears to be total chaos to the unfamiliar is actually synchonicity of a well lubed system which has no beginning and no ending. It just is.

How can something so physically intensed and yet so spiritual at the same time?

PS, have you noticed what is missing in this traffic video? Honking. Unlike mainland China, drivers here do not lean on their horns. They don't honk at all. No one gets upset when he is cut off, and no one goes berserk if someone runs a red light. They simply watch others at all time, and take decisive action to stay in control. Nobody plays traffic cops here, not even the traffic cops. I've made illegal U turns with the cops watching, but unless you hit someone, they don't bother you.