Chasing Tigers

"When will you make an end?... When I am finished!!"-- The Agony and the Ecstacy

2007-10-24T12:36:00.000-04:00

That is right ladies and gentlement boys and girls... the blog is complete... I know you are all impressed, and i've broken it down here for you:

I've added things to these posts:

5/26
6/5

These posts are new:
7/14
7/15
7/16
7/16
7/29
7/30
8/3
8/6
8/9
8/14
8/17
8/18
8/18

So I hope you have all enjoyed following my misadventures in SE Asia! Feel free to shoot me any questions you have, or if you'd like a copy of a calander i'm putting together.

Cheers,
-robs

"Cambodia is like you're always tripping."-- Off the Rails in Phnom Penh

2007-08-18T12:34:00.000-04:00

While things have definately gotten better(?) since this quote was published in one of the most infamous underground books ever written, and read by every traveler to Phnom Penh in the last 10 years... there is still an air of truth to it... its a city like no where else... and if i had had more battery in my camera, you would have seen a lot more of it... but alas... these pics will have to do....

And here now we get at quick glimpse of the city where I lived... the most fabulous Phnom Penh...

This here is independence monument... a major landmark to know if you want to get around the city.

This is a really awesome Fench style abandoned place... i think it was the embassy back in the day... but really don't know for sure.

This here is the national museum... which i unfortunately never actually got to go in... guess i was jut saving it for next time

And here we have the infamous row of "happy" pizza shops along the waterfront... if you don't get what they are, i'm not really sure if i should tell you.

This first video is of the resturants that I ate lunch at every day... how awesome are they! Shame we have nothing like that here.

And this is the main strip down at the waterfront... lots of resturants, bars, cafes, shops, hotels, etc. and the video ends at the FCC... the basic hub of expat life... with a very traditional french expat feel to it.

"This house is circus, berserk as fuck, we tend to see that as a perk though."-- "This house is a Circus", Arctic Monkeys

2007-08-18T11:12:00.000-04:00

So here it is... my grand palace... I've written about it before... so no real need to get into details... its awesome....

First we have my Squat Pot, in my second bathroom... never used... by me at least

This here is the my balcony/patio thing... and the view from it... plus my next door neighbor's house.

Here is the view from my door.

And this is the cat that was living in my 2nd bedroom and caused me to shut all my windows b/c he ran out of it one day and through my living room and had peed all over the bed... he ran when i tried to give him cheese this day... poor kitty cat...

And below are actual video's of the apartment... now, my batteries were dying, so i couldn't do it all at once... so you'll just have to bare with me... some of them are only a couple of seconds long....

My Kitchen, 2nd bathroom, and living room.

My bedroom

My bathroom

2nd bedroom

My patio and the view from it.

"All work and no play..." Ha!

2007-08-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

So I've mentioned bits and pieces about where I work and what I've been doing here... so now I'll just give you the run down w/ some pics...

This here is my desk

This is the no bribary sign... which i actually had some lawyers complain to me about, though i won't name anyone

Here are some political signs... also about bribing judges

And this is a fabulously translated sign that actually required the use of white out and they still got it wrong

This here is the most incredible view from a work location... What you're looking at is Wat Lanka...

And this... This is an epson printer sitting the bathtub... along with tons of files and things.... there were even filing cabinets in the bathroom....

Insert witty title her cause i'm just about spent

2007-08-14T00:08:00.000-04:00

Sigh... the last week. This week me and my boss, Jeff, headed all the way up Tongle Sap to Battambang.

First we stopped off at the Battambang office...

We went to a temple, Phnom Banan, and i was attacked by little children who made me a flower child and held my hand... especially the little girl, who was the only girl and group of boys... i can only imagine how this will impact her life later...

And then in black and white...

Then on the way back from the temple the car was stopped... b/c they had cut down a coconut tree the kids all ran up and grabbed coconuts, and then they had to chop it all up to let us through.... awesome...

Just a side note here... this particular trip was pretty awesome... and i got to hear a lot of stories especially from our lawyer in battambang who talked about his life during the Khmer Rouge... it was... well... unexpected...

Then there are the scenes from the from the rooftop of our hotel and around the city...

And this here is a picture of a lot of my most popular beers and most often drank...

"They call him Flipper, Flipper, Flipper..."

2007-08-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Kratie (pronounced Krachae), one of the number one places on my things to do while in Cambodia. I had one goal and one goal only.... see the Irawaddy dolphins, and not even my translator could stop me. Of course i also did some work... interviews and what not. then the first time we tried to go we had all three of us (see first pic below) on a moto for about 45 minutes-hour... it rained... actually poored... and then we got there, and they were like, its too late... and the other two didn't know it involved getting on a boat... all completely rediculous ness so we were there for a couple of minutes... then left, and then i made them go back the next morning... well not really made them, i told them i would go on my own, but they wouldn't let me... In fact spock couldn't handle the idea of me doing things on my own... you can only imagine how this made me feel.

Here we have spock and the Kratie CDP lawyer... sheltered from the rain.

Here's a great view from our shelter...

Next day was dolphin time:

The dolphins... these are irawaddy dolphins... the only freshwater dolphins in the world. And there are only about 14 of them left. Now these bad boys are pretty ugly... no nose. And the spit... In otherwords... awesome. The videos aren't too bad... but are pretty good if you pay attention... Just remember i was out there for a couple hours... and went for like 20 minutes at a time without seeing a thing. So just imagine how many videos i deleted.

From there we stopped off at a womans temple. Sad to say women can never become monks. But when the are old they come here to retire... shave their heads, dress in white... no physical beauty allowed. And they help out the monks by cooking and things.

After seeing the dolphins, I wandered around the town hoping to see another red sunset and grab pictures of it... unfortunately, no such luck... but I got other great pictures as a storm was rolling in...

"Y'all act like you've never seen a white person before..." Eminem

2007-08-06T11:14:00.000-04:00

Granted… that might just be b/c they haven’t… actually, where I’m at right now… even I can’t help but to stare when I see another westerner wandering around… I’m currently in Kompong Cham… Cham is the name of the Muslims who settled here and in Vietnam… very small minority… I’m actually out here on assignment.

I’m checking out a land rights case where the first time they tried to have a trial, our client (the defendant) showed up with 85 witnesses… the trial was postponed b/c the authorities had a few safety fears… He is now only allowed to have 4 witnesses (can we say violation of an individuals right to defense, and to call and question witnesses)… I guess I should start over a bit… at least for those of you interested in this kind of thing… or interested in the kinds of corruption issues going on… basically a bunch of people have been living on land since 1982… they were poor… so they didn’t apply for a title… but they built on the land and began cultivating it (cashews, rubber plants, aloe trees, etc)… in 1996, someone moved in, then filed for title in 1997. *the law says something like to claim ownership of occupied land you must occupy the land for 5 years… so the title is super shady… basically illegal… and our clients… the occupants have been on the land since 1982 w/out incident until 2003… but the guy w/ the “title” is rich… and rulings fall in favor of the money. So I opted to come out and see this trial… and our defendant called this morning and said he was boycotting… So it’ll be interesting to see what exactly happens tomorrow.

The trip here was just a continuation of the excitement of the weekend… I’m traveling with Ravute, our translator… who I like to call spock… hopefully I’ll grab a picture of him at some point and you will all know why… now Spock is a bit of a pain in the ass… he treats me as if I’m about 5 and have never left the house on my own before… he also presumes I have absolutely no knowledge or background on Cambodia… which kind of promotes the whole being treated like I’m 5… but I’m dealing. So he told me he would take care of the bus tickets and lodging and things… today rolls around, he’s 20 minutes late… we get to the first bus station too late… same with the next one… and finally get seats on the third…

I’ve had 2 uber sketch meals today… I can’t even identify the meat I ate at dinner.

Meeting w/ the other lawyers was interesting… they explained their civil law criminal system… I gave them my bastardized version of the common law criminal system… which I then think Spock may have translated it to being even more off then what I said… maybe someone else out there can answer this question better…. At what point does the trial judge get the case to review before trial?

Now before I had left, I had asked Jeff if I should book reservations at the hotel he recommended… and he was like… no no no… it should be empty… If it isn’t empty, I’ll pay for your room… Yeah… apparently this week is examination week for secondary school and all the teachers come into town to proctor exams…. EVERYWHERE is out of vacancies in Kompong Cham… Except this one little guest house… which is now full btw… now it doesn’t seem too sketchy to start off with…. Seems nice and clean… no a/c… but there’s a fan…

that I go to move closer to my bed, and it came apart when I picked it up… the windows don’t close… they are like blinds… and there is no screen… but plastic weavings to keep out mossies…

with big holes where people stuck their fingers through…. And then theres the sink…

that has no drain pipe… there used to be a pipe… but now its just a hole that splashes to the floor… where there isn’t a drain… but rather a hole in the side…

I had to buy toilet paper… and they sprayed the room for mossies about half an hour ago. But hey, its $3 a night… can’t really beat that.

I have a new theory as to why Buddhists hold all life sacred… even that of bugs… actually this pertains mostly to just bugs… its b/c there are soooo friggen many of them here… that it’s a futile waste of time to try to kill any of them… the only way not to go insane is to just embrace their existence and go with it… except mossies… mossies are just evil dengue in the day, malaria in the night carrying bastards that should just be wiped off the planet.

But in all seriousness, its pretty awesome here… despite my bitching… The architecture is beautiful, the people are friendly… everyone hangs out down by the river in the evening… its nice… they say that the invention of the air conditioner has resulted in the downfall of western culture, society, and community… and I have to say that I agree… everyone here just sits outside, or the whole block eats dinner together on the corner… And no, it isn’t tv… they all have tvs… but they still prefer to congregate together outside in the heat b/c its cooler than inside… with air conditioning we keep ourselves inside, windows shut… closed off from interaction with everyone else.

Rather than ending the post there, I opted to keep all of Kompong Cham together as one post....

First let me sum up what happend with the trial for those of you interested in that sort of thing...

The common practice in Kompong Cham is to schedule a trial for 8am and then not actually show up or begun until 8:30am. In this case, the judge scheduled a meeting at the time that our trial was to take place. At first we were told the trial would last until 10am, but it ended up running until 11:45am; being so close to lunch, the judge postponed the trial until the afternoon. Present at the trial was the judge, plaintiff’s lawyer, and a prosecutor representing the state there to determine if the state had any interest in the case, or wished to file criminal charges against our client. Our client did not show up out of fear of being detained. Then our lawyer decided not to show up in protest of the proceedings. The trial moved forward. No witnesses were called; their statements were just read by the clerk, along with the statement made by defense. It really was one of the more bizarre situations I have been in… especially when the judge asked us if we had anything to say as representatives of the CDP.

This here is the court house... please note that the court house has a volleyball court.

This here is the court room... not exactly what we are used to at home.

"You can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather." -- "Miss Jackson", Outkast

2007-08-05T00:34:00.000-04:00

So... the entire time i've been in cambodia its rained every day... for about 10 minutes in the late afternoon or at night... except on saterdays... which it rains all morning... its been hot and sunny, and uncharacteristcly dry for the rainy season. until this week... until I work up the nerve to venture the 4 hours down to the beach in Sihanokville. And now i'm here, and its done nothing but pore for 2 days. Yesterday, i was fiercly determined to go down to the beach, which i did, and got soaked by rain.

Now I had a back up plan if it rained... i would go shopping.

This seems like a great idea... everyone says not to go to Sihanokville b/c its touristy and things, and I figured... well that will give me things to do... right? No, wrong... This place is empty... nothing... over crowded by locals... no shoping no clubs, nothing within walking distance except the beach. I'm sure when it isn't dark grey and miserable out its probably beautiful... but when its like it is... it becomes dirty and unpleasant... Locals are dirty... there's a lot of trash... they just kinda throw it where ever... which is a tad bit frustrating... and sad...

In some ways the beach reminded me of the main strip of virginia beach... at least as far as the over crowding of people and the houses that are built up around it.

Sigh... oh well...

The weather has also thwarted my plans to go up and see preah vihear next weekend... turns out, during the rainy season the only way to get to the top of the mountain is to be an expert dirtbiker... which I am not. I have grabbed a couple of pictures here and there... Theres a good possibility that nothing else will be uploaded till i get home and get a hold of some high speed internet, as I will be out in the provinces for the next week and half... probably w/out internet.

On the upside however... here come the pictures... yeah!

And last but not least... check out this internet shack...

Preah Kho Botr

2007-08-03T12:09:00.000-04:00

So, tonight we went and saw some traditional shadow puppets in a play called Preah Kho Botr... Yeah, there are some videos in there...

First they have the Sampeah Kru, or master invocation, where they offer prayers to the god's first...

Then Sva So and Sva Khmao, the monkeys fight

Then its the actual story, which was about the son of the Sun and his Wife who they entrasted to humans... etc. etc.

Young Preah kho Botr (the baby) and the ancestral master Maha Eysei and a young man who serves him

This was the monkey Hemebien

The Apsara Queens/Goddesses

The Cast

Awesoem battle scene...

"The itsy bitsy spider..."

2007-07-30T17:53:00.000-04:00

... went into robins mouth....

The King and I

2007-07-29T14:23:00.000-04:00

Here we are at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh... biked it here, which triggered a lot of biking around the city...

This is the entrance walkway and throne hall

Here's the back of Chan Chhaya Pavillion

Now when i walked out of the thrown room all these people were gathering around... and i was like... "what are we lookin at??"... then out of no where... its the King... H'es the little guy in white w/his hands in the air... that more or less rocked my socks.

Another view of the thrown room and pavillion

This here is the royal dining hall donated by Napoleaon III , and a gate

Stupas

Wall paintings

Silver Pagoda and statue of King Norodom

More stupa spires

A monk sitting and thinking, along with a buddha

Some arts and crafts

Outside the palace... the main square

Classic music inside the palace

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes"-- "Changes", David Bowie

2007-07-27T03:23:00.000-04:00

So one of the coolest things about Phnom Penh is how in the past few months its been going through rapid changes... Its been growing, developing, booming at a pace I've never seen before. First there's little things, like before I left there were supposedly only 2 ATMs in Phnom Penh... now there is one in almost every store. There are buildings and things up now, that weren't there when I got here in may. Heck, since I've been in my apartment, the skyline view has changed... everything is under construction, except the roads, which are the one thing that need it. Huge buildings go up in about 2 weeks... if we had these builders in va beach, we'd of finished "down town" about 5 years ago. While this is all very exciting... its also very distressing when you get around using land marks...
On a similar note... and actually what prompted this e-mail would be the changes to wat langka... as i said before its right across the street from where I work... And its really pretty so i look at it a lot... then yesterday there were these flags outside of it... looked like maybe different provinces. Now today they've run different colored flags up some poles... so I wanna know... what on earth is going on? Oh, and there was a flip flop on top of the gate... which I can't figure at all, b/c there really isn't a way to climb up there... and the only reason I saw it, was b/c i was looking down from my building.
Oh and they've also started finishing construction on what I believe are monk quarters... nothing is wierder than looking over at a 3 story building that wasn't there the day before.

Black Sheep II

2007-07-20T03:03:00.001-04:00

I saw the black sheep again today… he really is becoming one of my favorite people… just as long as he doesn’t feel the need to talk to me again… so I guess I should rephrase that a bit… he’s one of my favorite people to observe. Today I saw him riding a push bike. Now I ride a push bike too… but only to and from work… in the morning and afternoon…. He’s riding at like 12:30… its hotter than hell outside. But there he is biking along. Now you have to imagine a decent looking guy around 6’4”ish… athletic etc. Shaved head, goatee… on an oldschool granny push bike… we’re talking women’s bike, no gears, basket in the front. Now he also is doing this shirtless… which is really just unheard of hear… I mean, I’m wearing dress pants, and a three quarter length shirt w/ a tank top underneath… it’s a modest place… even the men here… the most they do is lift their shirts above their bellies… never off altogether. But that really wasn’t the funny part… he was wearing bright girly pink pajama pants. It made my day.

On another note… there is something to be said about developing a routine… My lunch routine involves going and eating at the herb café. I know there are other places to eat… I just never get to them. It’s a quick walk, fairly cheap… all the main meals are between 3-4 dollars. And they have all sorts of sandwiches and good lunch stuff. As long as they aren’t playing Christmas carols, it has great atmosphere… perfect for people watching. And I can just sit back w/ my book, dining outside, and just chill. And now they know me. They know that I don’t order the same thing everyday. They know to shoo off people trying to sell me things. They know not to make me wait a long time. They throw in an extra side salad. Today they even gave me a free glass of water. Of course I tip well (meaning that I actually leave a tip… somewhere around .50… which is a huge deal here).

Its also come to my attention that it may be costing me more to go grocery shopping than it is to eat out every night. Which is really a completely foreign concept. But it costs me about $40 a week just to pick up bread, cream cheese, milk, yogurt, peanut butter, cereal, apples, and gram crackers… plus a few other odds and ends… like frozen veggies, and easy things I can cook up. The cheapest way to go food wise is to hit up vendors and stalls… but there are some draw backs to this… first… they aren’t really around where I live… so it means I need to travel somewhere… 2nd… according to last years health report put out by the Cambodian government… 75% of all food stalls had significant levels of bacteria… so yeah… that’s a bummer… and its not like you ever know what your eating… except fruit stalls…. I love fruit stalls. And most exotic fruit has to be peeled… which works well… I love passion fruit, mango, magosteins, lychee, and rhambutan. I do no like dragon fruit or papaya.
What keeps me from eating out tends to be 1) there’s only one place really close to where I live… 2) it gets dark really super early here… like around 6:30 ish… So what I’ve done is I like to eat lunch out, making it a decent sized lunch, then make like a cheese sandwhich for dinner… unless my people call me to go out… then I go out

Black Sheep

2007-07-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

I met the most bizarre guy today… The worst part is I was intending to write about him even before I met him. I’m having lunch in my usual spot, the Herb Café… I’m on my own, but by this point I don’t really mind… it gives me time to just chill outside and people watch… read a book… whatever… so this guy pulls up in this big fairly nice car… it’s a greenish turquoise color… but rather than looking for a place to park, he makes the tuk tuk drivers move… which I thought was a little odd… but whatever, people do whatever their gonna do. So he comes and sits down at the table next to mine… Now he isn’t bad looking… older… maybe mid-late 30’s. He’s wearing all grey… grey pants with a different colored grey shirt, redish sunglasses and black commando boots. He had tattoos up and down both arms, the one arm had a beautiful Buddha picture on it. So anywho… he starts talking on his phone… fairly loud… and he’s angry about something… everything, whatever. And he’s like… “I’m the black sheep, I don’t care what the white sheep do… I’m the black sheep… I like to be on my own, not that white sheep can’t survive on their own, but they herd with other white sheep… and your born that way, you can’t change that you’re a black sheep”… so at this point I’m amused… but eating a crunchy sandwich so not hearing everything. Next he starts talking about the law… and how he’s had to read the law, and there is law in Cambodia, you just don’t know about it. Then there was stuff about how some guy owed him $3,000 and then I just kinda zoned out. So he gets off the phone and starts talking to the tuk tuk and moto drivers that are hangin around… telling them how he needs to learn some khmer before he dies, and he has a teacher, but he never shows up. And I’m finishing up my meal, and he turns to me, and he starts talking to me… Normal stuff… hey where you from, how long you been here, what are you doing… actually scratched that, he asked me if I was here to save the world like everyone else… normal small talk more or less… and I reciprocate…. He’s from Alabama… which you would never be able to tell cause he had a bit more of a English accent… grew up in Hawaii. He’s been coming back and forth to Cambodia for 4 years, but just decided to “reside” here about 3 months ago… after living in Thailand and the Philippines. He asked me if I got to choose Cambodia… and I said yes… and he was like, “For the past right? Why wouldn’t you go to somewhere like Africa where the action is going on right now?” and he asked me what kinds of human rights issues there really were right now… and wasn’t it a thing of the past… which just kind of made me stare at him blankly… then he told me about his Korean students bringing in a news article about marriage rates and how they’ve doubled in the past year… and that set him on a tangent about how its promoting women in the system… and if women get more power, then the laws will change, and will have to be enforced… Then he moved on to corruption… about how the higher ups looked down on corruption and were frustrated that cops aren’t enforcing the law… b/c they only make $50 a month, so they use corruption as a way to make up for it… etc. etc. etc. About at this point I decide to ask him what he’s doing here… and his reply… I’m the black sheep. My response…. “in Cambodia can you really be the black sheep when everyone here is as well?” His response… the problem is when there’s too many black sheep, someone wants to be the leader…. Lucky for me at this point some kids came to shine his shoes…. And he’s like, yeah I taught them this new method… and showed them how to use a lighter to help burn the wax… and I feel good for teaching them a new skill a better skill, and I’m think about making them nice little boxes to keep their stuff it… While he was distracted I got my bill, said g’d by and split…. Seriously, this place is a trip.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull-- Post Production

2007-07-16T11:03:00.000-04:00

And then we go artsy w/ some black and white pictures. Guidebooks tell you to take pictures in black and white to see more detail because the grey of the buildings on the green backgrounds tends to get washed out... They also look incredibly awesome and old school...

Angkor Wat...

Bayon...

Ta Keo...

Bantaey Srei...

Koh Ker...

"You have chosen.... wisely"-- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

2007-07-16T02:48:00.000-04:00

The next day we got up at the ass crack of dawn for day number 3 in a row to haul it way out to Koh Ker... where we were the only tourists. Now Koh Ker is about 3-4 hours from where we were, so we were really in the middle of no where.

Before I really get into this adventure, let me give you some background. Koh Ker was once a capital city, and then the Khmer Rouge used it as a strong hold. The whole area was at one point a mine field. Now it is slowly but surely being cleared. Below are some pictures of the deminers, a cleared mine sign, and some land mine markers.

We began at Prasat 5....

Prasat Kamou (Black Temple)...

Random Temples....

Sacred Well...

Prasat Thom....

Funny story here... the shot right before this one i had to be at the top of this mud pile... and when i turned to walk down I slid in classic robin fashion slamming my camera on the wall... so i was like, "rocky, smile to make sure my camera still works"... luckily it did...

City of Lingas...

Another unknown Temple...

Jungle Temple/Siva Temple...

And yet other jungle temples...

The Elephant Temple...

And then the best was saved for last... no, literally... not that i was saving these pictures, but that this was the last place on our big adventure... and it was the most incredible... Its called Beng Mealea. Back in the day Beng Mealea served as the model for all other temples... it was built on a smaller scale and not particularly fancy or made of permanent material b/c it was just a large scale model... this means when it fell apart, it fell apart something awesome... but i'm babbling... picture time... Oh yeah, there was a terrential down poor right before hand... and during... making all that much better...

I climbed up those rocks there to get up top...

This was supposed to be showing me still climbing up rocs, steps and the roof... but somehow it came out creepy.

Thats another view of how i got up... (Yes there was a guide leading us)

And then we went down this way... and into this long dark tunnel... which was terrifying... please not the reflection at the end... its a big thing of water that we all stepped in. On the other side we had to climb down and the guide would be like "step here" "step there" "ah don't step there"....

"You're gonna get killed chasing after your damn fortune and glory!"... "Maybe. But not today."--- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

2007-07-15T12:11:00.000-04:00

So today... today i did something crazy and exciting... I hired a cab/guide and went on an adventure... But of course before i actually got on my way i dropped off the atm to get some money... and the machine ate my card... totally freaking me out... especially b/c it was a sunday, and nothing was open, etc. (eventually i did get it back at the end of the day... but it took a lot of rediculous effort on my part) but anywho... I took off on my own as there really were way too many of us trying to coordinate....

So I was off to Phnom Kulen.... in a Toyota Corolla... as all cars are in Cambodia... up a road that was only open one way in the morning then at 12:30 changed directions... up a steep muddy hill... not paved... actually terrifying. But anywho... Phnom Kulen is said to be the originating point of the Khmer civilization... which is why I wanted to go... Little did I know that it was really soooo much more. Every Sunday, Cambodian families gather together, and have picnics... with what little food they actually have... It was... well... incredible... I was one of the only people that wasn't khmer there... meaning the people that were there... weren't tourists... they're travelers... the people willing to go off the beaten track a ways....

My first view was of the waterfall...

Then I headed down the path... if you look close... those things that appear to be fairies are in fact a swarm of butterflies

So I get all the way down and wham... theres these rocks in the way from seeing the waterfalls.... so i of course see the youngins climbing on the rocks, and i decide.... what the hell, climb on up and got the better view... and earned the admiration of some youngins...

After the fall I wandered up a really really tall hill to see another reclining buddha... there is lots of money around the buddha that are donations... oh and just to prove how high in the air/in the middle of nowhere i really was... i took shots of the surrounding jungle.

This is the falls of a thousand lingas... Lingas are a square with a circle in the middle representative of male and female genitalia. Running water over the linga is considered sacred. I've acutally had a few pictures with them... But this is even cooler b/c in the first picture you can see a face, and there's scenes from stories... and the water from this is collected and used in religious and royal ceremonies.

We then went back to the falls... I crossed over the bridge and found some pretty awesome ruins...

More shots of the falls...

And then all the kids piled on the bridge... Seriously the whole time i got to hang out and have lunch with a family... it was a rare chance to really get into the culture...

The next place I went was Banteay Srei... This is the crown jewel of the Khmer civilization... while it is very small... it is incredibly beautiful. Every inch of the place is carved in intircate designs... but enough from me, I'll let you see for yourself.

This last picture here are individuals who have been affected by land mines that have formed a band playing traditional music.

So its around this point that i got back to town and got my atm card back etc. And then it started to rain... and stopped just in time for me to last minute decide to go catch the sunset back at the temple complexes on top of Bakheng.

Unfortunately it started off as being a bit of a wash out. So I just took mainly some view pictures... and generally got clips of what I thought was the sunset... Then they told us it was closed and we needed to leave... so i waited a while... then decided that since the steps were about 3 inches wide and came up past my knees, and were wet, i should start climbing down before it got too dark. And thats when the real sunset came....

Trust me... i really kicked myself for climbing down before seeing that part... and i was standing on my tippy toes near the edge of the path reaching through the trees to get these pics... but at the same time... i'm the only one of the group that got to see the sunset... soooo worthwhile... and i stopped kicking myself when i then had to wander down the rest of the hill in almost complete darkness...

Do dedo doo do dedooo do dedo doo do dedo do do--- Indiana Jones theme song

2007-07-14T23:41:00.000-04:00

This is the first post of my 3 part Indiana Jones Trilogy with a special directors cut 4th installation (in other words, this is the first of 3 posts, with a fourth post of black and white pictures). These posts are going to be predominately just pictures… not a whole lot of captions… because I took a lot of pictures over 3 days.

A few of the Singapore kids came in this weekend, so we went up to Siem Reap with them, and some of Rocky’s coworkers from DCCam (Document center of Cambodia). The car ride was interesting… as we hired cabs…

There was an awesome sunset, and we got to see millions of what appeared to be black lights throughout the countryside (we left on Friday after work, so it was night time for most of the trip)… apparently they are bug zappers to help collect the grasshoppers… a big delicacy here. We had to do a bit of juggling looking for a place to stay that night b/c we had not booked ahead of time… but things worked out. Siem Reap is the main city you stay in when you are running around Angkor. Literally translated, it means the place where the Siamese were stopped. (Siam being Thailand).

Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world… Angkor means capital… its big… its beautiful, its old… we first went out at the ass crack of dawn… literally, b/c we were trying to catch sunrise.

So yes…. Lots of pictures of a not so great sunrise… oh well

Here’s me being goofy due to lack of sleep… This happens a few times, especially today.

These are some of the Apsaras that Angkor is known for. The are part of the incredible bas-reliefs that run along the walls. Apsaras are said to be teptresses born during the churning of the Sea of milk… and they are an Khmer creation… they supposedly represent the ideal of feminine beauty living in heaven competing w/ each other to please Khmer heroes and holy men.

These pictures here are from inside the complex… please note the people at the top of the towers… I’m not one of those people… in fact you may notice the picture of me where I’m about halfway up the steps… in the close up of that picture you will notice that I’m basically hugging the wall behind me… its not that I don’t like heights… which is quite obvious later on… its that I get stuck once I get up things b/c I don’t handle getting down well… and this was 90 degree angles with steps that go up to my knees.

That there is the Singapore group again… Yvanna, Me, Arie, Marie, Rocky, and Matt.

And then more pics of Angkor Wat

The Angkor complex is built on the story of the

Now Angkor Thom is pretty big, with lots of cool stuff inside it….

The first thing you are looking at is the Bayon... yes those are giant smiling faces staring at you.

Lots and lots of smiling faces… some eyes open, some eyes shut… all facing the cardinal directions… look parents, I even got that picture you wanted me to take… though it’s a tad bit blurry.

And that’s my first view of a Cambodian dressed like an Apsara.

Followed by some stone ones...

The rest of Angkor Thom

First you have a big Buddha...

Then the Bapuon

Then some awesome ruins... this is what i consider my first little adventure cause i was more or less on my own climbing around a bunch of downed rocks... it was a good babystep for later...

This is the Phimeanbakas Staircase... Unfortunetly, the top didn't even have a decent view... which was sad...

After being completely lost for a while, I came to this gateway which led back to the main road...

When you walk out you see the North Kleang,

followed by the elephant Terrace

There were all these scenes of deamons and naked women... the French felt prudish about this so the built walls so no one could see them.

This here is not a buddha, but rather the Lepar King... a good king, who had leparacy

The South Kleang

Lion and Big Buddha.... also to the side, what i didn't take a picture of was a woman being washed by the monks by having water dumped over her.... it was pretty cool........

And these are the Garudas.... winged creatures holding up the terrace....

And so we leave Ankor Thom---

Ta Keo

Chillin in the tuk tuk's

Ok... so next we have Ta Prohm.... I can't even begin to express to you the initial awesomeness of this experience.... This is where Tomb Raider was filmed.... it was just.... rediculouls....

Then we stopped for lunch... then back tracked which royally pissed off our drivers.... but hey, we had a mission... to see everything in the temple complexes as possible.... And so after some hard core bargaining... it was off to Preah Khan...

This place we were speeding through... and it totally freaked me out b/c it still had a roof... after seeing tons and tons of stuff caved in... a place with a roof becomes scary.... But as you can see, it also made for a good place for some fun pictures.

So we halled it through there b/c we wanted to see the sunset... but as we left... we saw this here storm rolling in...

And we got absolutely drenched...

And this here was our very rained out unfortunate sunset

A History Lesson

2007-07-07T03:55:00.000-04:00

This post is not going to be funny or witty; in fact it is going to be quite the opposite. The pictures below along with the stories are sad and gut wrenching, so if you are the type that is sensitive to these types of things I ask that you do not continue with today’s post. However, if you do choose to continue my warning is that I am not an outright authority on the history of Cambodia. What I relay to you are stories told to me combined with the various things I have read and seen. I think that the story is important to know, especially as it is not one that is told in the U.S.

Towards the end of the Viet Nam War, the U.S. began bombing Cambodia, which created all sorts of instability. An extreme communist group known as the Khmer Rouge (KR) came to power on April 17, 1975. They were lead by a former history teacher, Pol Pot. Pol Pot looked to the Chinese example of Communism, and felt the need to send everyone back to the country to become agricultural workers. So he evacuated the cities, killing anyone who was a threat to his regime and anyone who was educated… including people who wore glasses b/c it implied they were literate. Once in the fields, the government seized most of the food, leaving very little for the workers, causing mass starvation. Pol Pots closed schools, hospitals and factories, abolished currency, outlawed religion, ad confiscated private Property. In 1979, the KR started attacking Vietnam at its border. The provocation was all Viet Nam needed to invade and overthrow the KR government.

Under Pol Pot, about 2 million people died… whether it be of starvation or from the genocide… these next few pictures and stories tell a little about what happened to a few thousand of them.

Trying to even begin to describe the feeling you are in when you go to these places is more or less futile. The closest I’ve ever felt to this is when I went to a concentration camp… but even that somehow was a bit different. The first place we visited was Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. Toul Sleng, also known as S. 21, was originally a high school, converted into the main detention center of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. It was run by the only man who is currently in prison, Duch. Out of all the people who were sent here, 7 survived. The kinds of people who were sent here were teachers, lawyers, professors… the educated… the wealthy, the doctors and engineers… along with their families. Anyone who could be considered a threat. Rather than give full captions for each of the pictures, I tried to take pictures with the signs in them for you to read. This is a place where people were kept and tortured before being sent to the Killing Fields to die.

Here are the graves of the 14 bodies found at the prison.

These are the torture chambers… What I didn’t take pictures of was that some rooms still had their chalk boards up.

The Faces of the Dead

Cell Blocks

Honoring the Dead

Barbed wire to keep prisoners from committing suicide

Graffiti of love

After being tortured, prisoners and their families were driven 15km away to what are now known as the Killing Fields. (If you haven’t seen the movie, you should). While it looks lovely and peaceful, its history is anything but. They have uncovered 29 out of 86 mass graves. There were 8,985 people killed here. At one point, there were so many executions a day, that they fell behind schedule and had to build a holding room for people awaiting execution to stay overnight (normally they would just be at Toul Sleng). Just to make sure this is clear, the Killing Fields were NOT a prison or a concentration camp. There were only a few buildings, all of which are gone now, which held prisoners, provided a room for the guards, and a place to keep tools. Many skulls have been found still blindfolded. Most people were killed by being beaten over the heads with bamboo sticks in order to save money on bullets. Ex KR soldiers who tried to defect were decapitated using the sharp edges of palm leaves. I touched one… they’re sharp like a saw… but dull enough to cause immense pain and torture.

When you first walk in you see the stupa with close to 9,000 skulls in side of it.

Then you start walking on the trail….

Which is where you start stumbling over clothing still stuck in the mud, you see teeth scattered around, and there are bone fragments everywhere you step. Each year during the rainy season more clothing, more bones, more teeth, are revealed every year.

Many people were just buried alive after just being hit with the bamboo stick. The largest grave, seen in the middle contained 466 bodies. Under that is a picture of where babies were killed and the grave for the children.

To this day, what happened in Cambodia in legal terms is not considered genocide because it was politically motivated. In legal terms the international community still criticizes the Vietnamese for their intervention. No member of the Khmer Rouge has ever been brought to trial (though they are working on that now). Even if they are, they will only be charged with crimes against humanity, and not genocide. Pol Pot died under house arrest in 1998. There are some former KR’s in the government today. Most however, were a part of the movement to bring down Pol Pot; including the current Prime Minister, Hun Sen, who was placed into power by the Vietnamese after they invaded. The turbulent history of Cambodia does not end here. There was an attempted coupe in 1994, and another more successful one in 1997. The KR have been officially under control and no longer a threat since 1999.

"Everywhere I go, damn there I am."-- "Fired"--Ben Folds

2007-07-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

But I guess that’s to be expected… I mean… what kind of person does it take to take off and go work in Cambodia at some Human Rights NGO… basically travel junkie lawyers. And somehow we always seem to migrate towards each other at functions… you just meet a bunch of people, get to talking and drinking, about an hour or so later you find out that their another bunch of lawyers. Seriously… their everywhere… but the real kicker is how lawless this place is for having so many lawyers.

Before I get into that though… I should take care of Robin update type of things… as I don’t think I’ve done that at all on this thing. I’m doing pretty well and more or less seem to have found my nitch here. I’ve joined a gym. I’m taking khmer lessons. And I’m borrowing a bike… which is the most absolutely terrifying thing I think I’ve done yet… but I can’t keep paying moto drivers to get places… they like to rip off westerners… especially girls. I’ve realized that biking in the morning isn’t just something to jumpstart my metabolism… it jumpstarts a full on adrenalin rush. Walking isn’t an option here. Sidewalks are used as parking lots for motos and hawker stalls. There isn’t anything as far as McDonalds or 7-11’s are concerned… but we do have “Lucky Market”. Which has fabulous things such as skippy peanut butter, Philadelphia cream cheese, post blueberry morning cereal, and Crispex. Meaning I’m the only westerner who doesn’t eat all three of my meals out every day.

My apartment is fricken awesome. As usual, I’m living on the third floor… this time of what I can only describe as a mansion. Its French style, with huge rooms and ceilings. I have a decent kitchen… no oven, just two burners that have for settings… huge flame, and oh sweet jebus its going to burn the house down flames. And then there’s a little grey refrigerator that I’m taller than. One thing I haven’t gotten used to is the idea of taking my shoes off every time I come in… I mean… I have all marble floors, (which I’ve almost killed myself on more than once when wet), so any dirt comes up easy. But I’m learning… expect me to enforce shoelessness when I return. The next room you come to is kinda a bathroom… I mean it has a sink… and a shower… or rather a European shower head… and a drain in the middle of the floor… and there’s a washer (no dryer… but its not really necessary here)… and… now here’s the kicker… a squat pot!!! Moving on from here we get to my living room… which is even bigger than my Pittsburgh one… we could so have a 4 person wii tournament in here. There are 6 light switches… for about a bazillion different lights in my ceiling. The next room is my bedroom… It’s the only room in the house with air conditioning…. Which I don’t really use except for sleeping… and then there’s the private (as in you have to go through my bedroom to get to it) bathroom… which could be comparable to the size of dan’s bathroom. It has an actual bathtub…and a regular toilet… and a ridiculously beautiful door. I also have a spare bedroom (should anyone decide they have a compulsive need to come out to Cambodia). Then there’s my balcony/terrace… it has two couches and a couple of chairs, and a hammock… basically its ridiculous. And its all for… get ready for this… $230 a month…. Yeah… be jealous…

Oh, and then to top it all off… I have a maid. She even does dishes (not laundry though… which is good, I hate people touching my laundry)… only thing is she keeps doing weird things…. Actually she’s been making my life kinda frustrating. There’s small things like… she moves all the furniture to one side… and then doesn’t move it back (oh yeah, its fully furnished b/c I’m subletting from my internship coordinator’s friend) or she likes to put all my stuff in with all the owners stuff, (necklaces, hair ties, watches and other little things) but I could deal with that. But then she keeps throwing away my contact cases… which you only bring so many of those along with you… I’m now borrowing a case from my friend Rocky. And she broke my shower head… which really is bad… I don’t know if I can fix it… so I’ve basically been showering using a hose… and then she took the shoe rack and all the shoes and put them outside on the terrace… of course it rained… killing not just some of my shoes… but also the shoes of the girl that lives there. I’m never there when she comes, and she doesn’t speak any English… so I’m getting my khmer teacher to write me a note addressing everything.

You might be asking why I even need a maid… well that’s b/c its really really really dirty here. For instance here are some pictures of the sunset…

Some are taken without flash… and they look nice… but then I took some with the flash… from outside… same spot… the flash actually reflected off of the dust dirt, grime and pollution… How ridiculously crazy is that?

I don’t exactly live in the most happening place in town… but the place is really just too good and cheap to leave. But I do live down the street from Toul Sleng (you’ll read a lot more about it in my next post). Basically a lot of people died there, and no one hangs around my area at night b/c they think its haunted. I haven’t actually had any issues concerning hauntedness or ghosts… But there is something of an odor that’s throughout phnom penh that I would classify as the smell of death… its hard to explain… but if you ever smelled it you would know what I’m talking about.

My work is interesting… not much that I’ll post about, but it is interesting… My office is kinda dark, not a lot of people speak English… but my boss is American and seems pretty chill. And I work across the street from Wat Langka… which is pretty incredible looking… It kinda takes your breath away every time you climb the steps… oh yeah, I’ve got used to building kinda being outside…. Like the steps are outside, or you’ll be walking through the hall and suddenly there’s no wall or ceiling on one side… it takes some getting used to… but works.

They use a civil law system here which is a bit of a pain in the butt… things like they don’t use precedent kind of blows my mind… and you have to be careful if you are a defense lawyer filing a motion against a judge or prosecutor b/c they may bring criminal charges against you for defamation…

So I think that’s a decent update for now…
Cheers,
-robs

I'll throw up pics a little later

"A picture says a thousand words..."

2007-07-01T22:28:00.001-04:00

And I've finally got some up and posted. So go back to my May posts and start checking out the pictures. Its a long and time consuming process so don't expect everything to be up at once! Especially b/c I'm uploading during my downtime and lunch break. Hope you all enjoy!
-Robs

"The Devil wears Prada."

2007-06-27T02:56:00.000-04:00

This is how a public interest lawyer loses their soul. Send them to Singapore for a week.

Ok, it takes a little more than that. Send them to Singapore for a week of classes with other lawyers, listening to stories about how women are chosen at firms based solely on looks. Also have them travel around w/ british lawyers, who have about 2 cents worth of brains, and I would love to meet in a courtroom, but have already worked for Reed Smith and DLA Piper. That alone was really just enough to bash your head in.

But here, in Singapore you are surrounded by the concept of what perfection and professionals should be. Its like LA for Lawyers. To really make it you need your Gucci shoes, Prada Jacket, and Louie Vitton Bag. Its beyond intimidating to see everyone in their designer suits w/ perfect hair and make-up all the time. Big shot corporate lawyers driving around in their Ferraris... yes... Ferraris, and lots of them.

And then there's you... the one that can't really afford to shop in the big name stores, but just sits and whatches them walking by. And it was fine all week, until you get to the Singapore airport where they throw in every high end shop on the planet plus jewlary shops galore... and basically it comes down to greed. I think i'm going to take a corporate law class next year. Thank goodness the internet was free.

"I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign."-- "The Sign", Ace of Base

2007-06-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

Signs in Singapore are a riot… The best one is the first one I saw, but I missed the opportunity to take a picture… it was a sign in the metro that talked about how old people should not use escalators… they should use elevators… there were even pictures of people holding on to the elderly while riding escalators… It was friggen hysterical But so are some of these other signs…

I guess I should explain about the durians…. Durians are a fruit… they are considered a delicacy here in SE Asia… However… the Smell of rotting meat… and from what I hear, tastes pretty fowl as well… In general, westerners just don’t like it. But the smell gets into everything… and lingers more or less permanently… so they are unwelcome in most indoor places.

"This is screaming, this is screaming photo-op!" -- "Time to Dance", Panic! At the Disco

2007-06-26T15:17:00.000-04:00

One of the more peculiar things about Singapore is how fake it is… Now I mean this in the most admirable way. It’s a lot like an urban planning major’s project. Everything is just a little too well put together… and this culminates in a truly tourist resort, Sentosa Island. Going here is like going to Disney world without the rides. Unfortunately I did not get to take as much advantage of this place as I had wanted to, but we did go out here for some great burgers and drinks one night.

First, there are some great views of the city that I took while riding the monorail to the island… (yes, it really is so much like Disney land that it has a monorail… it also has a sky lift too, just like Bush Gardens).

This here is my law student crew, Yvanna, Rocky, Marie, Matt, and Arie.

We wandered along the picturesque Central Beach

But the scenery is ruined by the millions of cargo ships.

They had some crazy little night clubs set up all along the beach that were perfectly set up and designed… much like everything else here.

I think lit up palm trees are fun.

Yvanna eating ice cream.

Arie serving drinks.

All the cargo boats lit up at night.

A little later that night we moved on to Little India. This here is Andy’s friend Kevin who was working in Indonesia, but needed to make a visa run, so he met up with us on Sentosa… I have no idea what he was doing a this point… but it sure makes a funny picture.

Here we have Kevin and Arie trying to do the Asian squat… basically Asians sit like this all the time… I don’t understand how it doesn’t kill their knees… oh and Yvanna’s posing in the background.

"Its fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A"-- "The YMCA", Village People

2007-06-25T08:59:00.000-04:00

Well since I have some extra time on my hands, I figured I might as well do an actual posting for the first time in a while, instead of just some randomness.I am currently in Singapore, staying at... the YMCA. Oh and unlike what the song says, this is not the place to stay if you are, "short on your dough." But its the nicest place I've been in over a month. It has A/C, no bed bugs, in fact no bugs of any kind, decent food, and the most exciting thing on the planet, a shower w/ a shower door. I've gotten all too acustomed to bathrooms where there's just a drain on the floor in the corner and the shower head usually pointing whereever you think you should put your towel and clothes.

Though being surrounded by motivational christian phrases/pictures, the constant christian rock music, and the mass gatherings everyother day is a little bit on the bizarre side... reminds me a bit of the few times i went to Young Life.

This here is the View from my room…

And this is the building next door… had trouble getting a great picture here…

Singapore is like a giant mall with roads running through it. Even the Supreme Court building has shops and "mall stuff" inside it... in fact even the hospital is set up like a mall and has a full chain-store drug store in it. Its kinda bizarre. And its more or less the same shops in each building... with just slightly different styles of stuff. And its all name brand shops... Gucci, Louie Vitton, etc. Lucky for my wallet very few things fit me as they are all made for little Asian women. Though I have been very tempted to go accessorizing, especially because its mid-year, meaning the great Singapore Sale is on. I don't really see whats so great about it, everything still seems pretty pricey.There are also tons of spa and massage places around. Especially reflexology places. I think that people here get things like that done the way they get hair cuts. Its just something you do once a month to keep happy and balanced or whatever.

I took advantage of the abundance of cheap fancy hairstylists, and yes, I got a really cute manicure.

It has tons of sky scrapers and lots of fun night clubs and bars that have crazy themes, like “the clinic” where they serve drinks from iv bags, or they show dirty jokes on tv screens.

And then there was this pretty cool street full of fans.

There’s also a lot of cool cultural centers… Little India was awesome, and definitely promotes me wanting to visit India, and there was also the muslim district with awesome architecture and surprisingly chill bars and places to hang out.

I've finished up my whole one week of class here, Comparative Legal Systems of South East Asia. Which for many of you out there would probably make you want to poke your eye out, but its really right up my ally... except that it repeated a lot of stuff that I learned in Comparative Governments of SE Asia, way back when I was Sophmore. The law kids are really great, and I get on w/ them really well, kinda sad we had a week together. But two of them will be in Cambodia w/ me which should be good. Its nice to be back around a bunch of Americans again... or maybe its nice to be back around people my own age.We got to check out the district attorneys office and the Supreme Court.

This here are a few of our boys looking sharp… Ari, Dave, Matt, and Rocky.

Unfortunately the past few days haven't been particularly great. I managed to get some sort of bacterial infection, and have basically been in bed since friday. So rather than heading out to Cambodia yesterday, I opted to stay in a place w/one of the best healthcare systems in the world, rather than go to one with one of the worst systems. So on Wed. I'll be heading out to Cambodia, and starting my internship on Thursday. Oh, and i'm doing better now; fever finally broke and I'm more or less eating solid food again... and lots of anti-biotics... Yay!

The running joke with my friends is my reaction to being ill… we were about to have lunch at the Supreme Court and I just decide that I need to leave… And for whatever reason I turn to Matt and go, “so hey, if you guys go out drinking tonight let me know”… This made my exit seem exceedingly shady… In my defense, I had figured that I just had a migraine and I would be fine in a few hours… few hours later, wasn’t really better, had started running a fever and things… but was definitely way out of it enough to claim I was feeling better… next day I ended up worse, headed to the clinic… had about a 104 degree fever… didn’t move for next few days.So hopefully next time I post, I will be in Cambodia, and it should be with pictures!Hope you all are well,Feel free to drop me some e-mails or comments or whatever, I'd love to hear from ya's!

"You should know you're his favorite worst nightmare." -- "D is for Dangerous", Arctic Monkeys

2007-06-16T22:21:00.000-04:00

I’m not going to get into too much detail about why I was more or less at the end of my rope with the kids I was hanging out with, but lets just say, differences in personality were becoming obvious at this point. But it was the last night and I really wanted to go out, so we all got spruced up and headed out to the famous Raffles hotel, home of the original Singapore Sling. When we pulled up to the hotel there were tons of people going in dressed in full ball gowns and we were feeling particularly out of place… we had to wander around until we found the right bar… I think it was the long bar… it was covered in peanut shells and really had a colonial feel to it.

Here’s me posing with my own Singapore sling… man are they good, though wicked expensive

Then there’s the girls

And Matt and Holly

After we got back to the hotel, we played some drinking games, as usual, and then headed out to some local bars. Some locals found us incredibly amusing and took us around to bars after hours. Appropriately, there were once again lots of shenanigans, and an early morning trip to McDonalds… which very disappointingly was only serving breakfast, and not the desired cheeseburgers… And that was it…

I stayed in a smoke filled windowless room that night… it’s the night I was attacked by bed bugs… Don’t ever stay at the Royal Peacock of Singapore.

"In the eye of the tiger."-- "Eye of the Tiger", Survivor

2007-06-15T22:20:00.000-04:00

Malacca is calm, laid back and beautiful… it’s a completely chill place, very clean, and reflects its colonial roots. It is a place that takes pride in its history… so much in fact it has about a bazillion museums. Malaysia was originally inhabited by the Portuguese… after 40 years, they had completely botched everything… so the English took over, like they do. The legacy of the Portuguese is that the Malaysians put an egg on everything… often a raw egg…

They also wanted all of the houses to be white… so they kept repainting them white… but the dirt and sea water and everything kept changing the white houses a reddish color… so, desiring conformity, they painted everything red…. This here area is Portuguese Square

In the middle of the square is a road sign w/ distances to various locations around the world

“Whats your favorite dish. I’m not going to make it for you but we can order it from ZANZIBARS”… yes that’s exactly what motivated me to take this photo

Here is A Famosa, which has a church on the top and I think was a fort… it wasn’t exciting… I did not climb this hill.

Now some of the individuals on the tour were really frustrated w/ our guide… and the grand breaking point was that he said there was no China Town in Malacca… Please see pictures above and make your own decision on that.

Please note the incredibly creepy eyed children on this decorative thing in the street.

OOOO… I don’t have pics of this… put feel a need to jot it down… there were big ass lizards in the rivers…. We aren’t talking gekos, we’re talking lizards in the family of the kimono dragon… they are mean looking things… and then there were things swimming in the river that were terrifying.

Cool old guy statute

Cool Malacca flag

This is the Cultural museum, Muzium Budaya, replica palace of Sultan Mansur Syah… it is entirely made of wood

Inside there were all sorts of cool wax figures… here they replicate people coming and meeting the Sultan

Malacca also represents a strong mix of religions… in this one area there is a beautiful Mosque and down the road a Chinese temple.

Inside the Chinese temple they were having a religious ceremony, and there was this cool dragon window.

Ok… this takes some explanation… these stone dogs have balls in their mouths… but there is a trick… the sculptors carve the ball in the mouth, so its impossible to take out… so it provides some entertainment to try and take it out even though it is impossible

Finally, to close out Malaysia, Malacca’s symbol is the tiger… and there were all sorts of tigers around as you can see from above.

Hey Hey we're the monkeys

2007-06-13T22:19:00.000-04:00

Here we are now in Kuala Lumpur… We were staying in China Town… and got in a bit late.

Once again we had drinks at another reggae bar… This night I managed to talk Kim into going out w/ us… holy difference a drink makes in that girl… anywho… it was all pretty fun… as you can see from the few pics I managed to take.

The next morning, everyone was feeling a little rough… so we had breakfast at Pizza Hut. Actually… rewind a few hours… first we rolled out of bed super early in the morning to stand in line to get tickets for the petronas towers. For those of you who don’t know, the PT’s were, a few years ago, the tallest buildings in the world (now second to a building in Dubai). So you wait in line for hours… and the tickets are free, but there is a limited number… so you get there around 8:30 and your ticket is for 1:30… so you have to kill time… there’s a mall like structure… you wander around it… and end up at Pizza Hut at 10:03, it opened at 10… This picture creeps me out b/c I look a lot like mom.

Now that I’ve told you all about the Petronas Towers, here they are from the bottom… On a sad note, I always presumed I would get a chance to get a better picture… but that opportunity never really came up… I was also pretty sick by this point… I had developed a nasty cough in Krabie, which was full blown sinus thing by this point… so I wasn’t particularly happy/pleasant/observant of photo ops.

So then after hours and hours of wandering around the mall aimlessly, we finally got to go up. We got to watch a corny little movie… not so much about the towers, as it was an add for Petronas… an oil company… that basically owns and controls all of Malaysia… they set up schools, the run everything…

We didn’t get to go to the top of the Towers… which is sad… you only get to go halfway up to the glass walkway… which I’m thinking is about as high as the Eifel tower… it was still about 40 some odd stories, and as you can see above, it’s a great view.

Our next stop was the Batu Caves a bit outside of town, where we got seriously ripped off by the taxi drivers…

As usual, there are lots and lots of steps, and a big gold statute in front

Inside, the caves are really super huge

But the real entertainment are the monkeys… lots and lots of super cheeky monkeys. These monkeys supposedly growled at Holly causing her to throw her bag at them and then they proceeded to eat the entire contents of the bag… which had no food in it… just random things like face wipes… they really liked the face wipes.

"Flicka flicka flicka, here you are, cata cata cata, caterpillar girl"-- "Caterpillar Girl", The Cure

2007-06-12T22:17:00.000-04:00

I continued with my communing with nature in the Cameroon Highlands, where we went and visited a Butterfly Farm.

Here’s Matt w/ a big beetle

Then there’s the guy with all the scorpions… which he then put on Matt… apparently scorpions only sting you if you poke them in their back… good to know.

Here’s a leaf insect

And a giant moth…. Check out Holly’s face

And then there were the butterflies… that just let you hold them… and wouldn’t get off your hands.

On the way back we stopped at a strawberry farm.

The sunset was gorgeous…

That night we headed out and had some drinks… well Holly and Laura had a lot of drinks… and the creepy guy… had even more… oh yeah, he was really really really creepy.

The next morning we got up bright and early to check out the tea fields….

They are pretty amazing…

This here is something that crushes the tea leaves… tea factories smell heavenly.

Now here is one of beefs w/ SE Asia… they only serve Lipton tea… or other tea in teabags… no fresh tea… its sad really… in asia, and all I can get is liptons…

"Who gives a damn about the prophets of Tesco?"-- "The Fallen", Franz Ferdinand

2007-06-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don’t know, Tesco is a British grocery store… and once we rolled into Malaysia, that’s exactly what I saw… a giant Tesco.

In general, Malaysia just kind of blew my mind… as most things in SE Asia have. Malaysia is a Muslim nation that has managed to integrate western lifestyle… not something you would ever hear about on the news at home… and it would really make an incredible place to base a research paper on the subject. When we got there I was kinda shocked… it looked a lot like being somewhere in the states… scratch that… it looked like Florida… or what I imagine California to look like… Palm trees, well planned, clean, modern… not really anything like the rest of SE Asia. It wasn’t catered to western tourists… in fact we went a couple days without seeing any other westerners… which was a little odd. But there didn’t seem to be any conflict between religion and development that we hear about all the time in other Islamic countries.

One of my favorite parts about being here is reminiscent to the time I spent in Egypt. Several times a day, the loud speakers go on throughout every city and call people to prayer… It is incredibly beautiful… and sets a certain atmosphere.

The first stop was the island of Penang. Penang reminds me of Pittsburgh… it even had the golden glow that Pitt had the first time I came to visit.

We checked out a museum, a fort, and up above is Selat Utara

The Chinese families here live in clans… that own whole streets. Or in this case… they owned whole piers.

We then headed to the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. As you can see, its pretty big, beautiful… and has a fantastic view.

This here is the giant Goddess of Mercy statue

And I don’t know who this guy is supposed to be… but I think he’s awesome.

We then headed to the snake temple on the other side of the island. The story has it that the monks built the temple and the snakes came down from the mountain and made it their home… which the monks took to be a good sign… so they just let them stay… and then started a snake farm in the back…

First up we have an albino boa

Then there was this lizard, which the guy thought would just be great to put on my head

And then there was the giant python… so cool

And lastly we have a nice view from my room…

"Chang Chang Changity Chang Shoo Bop"-- "We go Together", Grease

2007-06-08T04:55:00.000-04:00

So today, I went diving… after 2 years it was ridiculously awesome. Thomas and I just did some local dives… nothing too fancy; and it was just me and him, plus our guide. We saw a sea snake, sting ray, some lion fish (my personal favorite) and some sea horses. We also swam through some tunnels under small islands. This was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had. The visibility wasn’t excellent so our dive master turned into just a black silhouette surrounded by this green glow. I am still kicking myself for leaving my under water camera on the boat.

Afterwards we all went out to dinner and the boys all got Chang wife beaters. Now Chang is pure evil. Its Thai beer that is something like 8% alcohol… so its really more like a malt liquor. Chang also promotes fighting… and ridiculousness.

Anywho, we went to go see some Thai Boxing…It was me, Rhys, Matt, Thomas, and Alex… none of the other girls wanted to go. Got incredible seats, on big leather chairs. We started betting on who would win and things. Then we discovered we got there late, so we only got to see a couple of fights. Thai boxing is incredibly brutal. We saw one fight where the guy was knocked out on the first punch… which was a little scary. And then they had kids fighting in the last fight… little kids… like maybe 9 years old. We didn’t bet on that one. But overall, it was pretty incredible. To promote it there is a truck that drives around making announcements on loud speakers… and there is a free bus that comes and picks everyone up. Before we went, we loaded up with all the Chang the hotel had. It all fit in this tote bag I had… and we borrowed a bottle opener from the hotel which I also held on to. Being in complete control of the beer… I became… the Chang Master.

This here picture is of a dog that lived around the hotel that the night before had been following us around, and chasing off other dogs. The boys decided to call the dog Nut Job.

We then decided to take our Chang and mix it with some power drinks called M-150 and play our favorite game… fuck the dealer…

Thomas opted to just go for the wife beater b/c it was hot.

And Matt and Rhys were going at it again…

Which then resulted in Matt’s nakedness...

So they then thought it was a great idea to roll down the concrete hill… which it actually wasn’t

After that didn’t work, they decided to have a worm race down the hill… which resulted in Rhys crushing one of his balls and being in severe pain for the rest of the trip.

Then there was the rest of the night running around and hanging out on the beach... but again no pictures... so no need to tell those stories.

"Welcome to Paradise."-- Green Day

2007-06-06T04:52:00.000-04:00

Krabie is a tiny slice of paradise… clear waters, clean beaches, surrounded by millions of little islands. We stayed in Ao Nang….

As you can see here… it really is beautiful... The water is incredibly flat... and rediculously warm... almost to the point of not refreshing.

We did a snorkeling trip around the islands… the boat had I high front that we were all sitting in…. every wave sent us flying… then we realized, you can stand on the seats, actually see the view and up coming waves and balance a lot better.

This here is where people come to steal the nests of some birds that live in the caves… worth lots and lots of money.

We even pulled into Koh Phi Phi, where the movie, “the beach” was filmed…. Actually on the opposite coast from where the island from the beach is supposed to be.. There’s a bit of controversy over the use of the island… the Thai government said the film crew could do whatever they wanted to … so the blew up some rocks, took out some trees, and planted a bunch of palm trees. On the other hand… they cleaned up the island completely as it was totally polluted and full of trash… and the crew cleaned it up… so, good or bad, its all still up for debate.

This is just a glimpse of where we went diving.

And on a closing note, I think you should all read the beach… its actually a really great book, and everything is pretty true… in fact it was weird reading it b/c there were parts in it that I had already written about… which is strange…. So yeah… especially those of you who have similar tastes in books as me… you know who you are…, you should read this one.

"Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games."-- Guns and Roses

2007-06-05T04:50:00.000-04:00

Khao Sok… rainforest in Thailand… has the biggest flowers in the world… that smell like rotting meat… Thank goodness they weren’t blooming while we were there… Now the jungle was the coolest place ever… it was full of monkeys and we were in cabins…. Mine was a little freaky b/c I was rooming alone… jungle noises at night… terrifying… especially when you’ve been playing drinking games all night… but as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself…

When we first got here, we were gonna go tubing… but then the rain came… wicked storm… so we decided to play some cards… and what do you know… I still had that bottle of rum from my b-day… and to get beer… you just had to pull a rope… and it was only about 2 in the afternoon when the mayhem began.

The Games: Shithead and Fuck the Dealer

Kim, Rhys, and Erst

Matt, Holy, and Thomas, never ever to be called Tom… his co-workers call him Nut Job…. For good reason, oh and Holy is a lawyer my age… who I would just love to meet on opposite sides of the courtroom.

Tara, Laura, and Alex… Tara is also an up and coming British Lawyer.

Aww, a group picture

Now this kind of stuff between Rhys and Matt tends to happen quite often…

Here’s Kim and Hannah

And then the staff found a toad… that poor toad…

Rhys said something about holly that led to matt trying to throw him over the edge of the hut….

Then there was lots of tomfoolery… and then it was the next day, and I awoke to find all sorts of things left in my room... camera, phone, mp3 player, cards, and juggling balls... none of which were mine.

The next morning we headed out on an elephant trek… This is much harder/scarier than you would think… especially when you’re a little bit on the hung over side.

Kim and I were buddies on the trek…. Into the jungle.

We stopped at this here waterfall… small but gorgeous…heehee, and a few of us went for a swim… its actually surprisingly deep… I couldn’t touch the bottom.

Great view of the rainforest on the way back… there was this cool plant… that when you touched it, the leaves would curl up… and a horrible bug that actually screamed in a really high pitched tone.

Later on we did finally go tubing… this time it was just the basic floating down the river… still a good bit of fun though (again those pictures are not digital, but will be posted eventually)

After the tubing, we hit up a monkey temple... full of monkeys... which we got to feed, and the climbed all over everything, and there were baby monkies... yes, i like monkeys... especially if they are freaking out the girly girls.

That night we went to a reggae bar… the only other thing really in the jungle…
This kid was doing cool tricks involving lighting some balls on fire at the end of string and winging them around.

Then the locals showed us this trick where you have to pick up a bottle with your mouth, while holding one leg behind you with both arms… all the boys had a go…. Which was rather amusing

Then Rhys started balancing things on his nose… He has a thing for balancing things and juggling and what not… would have done well w/ the campus fools.

There was more playing of drunken card games that night… did manage to lose my key, and ended up staying in Matt and Holly’s room…. All highly amusing

"Dude looks like a lady."-- Aerosmith

2007-06-03T04:42:00.000-04:00

I guess I should start with a brief introduction to the new group. Dan, our leader, was a Kiwi, Hannah, the leader in training, was a Brit. There were two other Americans from New York, Sharene and Sharu (sisters). Matt and Holly are brother and sister, british/Scottish/Singaporean depending on the occasion. Laura and Tara are another pair of sisters who were traveling with their friend Alex, also all British. Rhys is the last of the Brits. There was also Angie and Thomas who were friends traveling together, from Northern Ireland. Kim is from Scottland. Erst… was …well there really just aren’t words… but he was older Swiss… And finally, Abby and Colin are a couple from Australia. Yes, this was a huge group

The new group was pretty cool to start out with… like I said before we went out to dinner in Bangkok… had some drinks watched some soccer, blah blah blah…

Next morning… did some shopping… then it was off to the train station for yet another all night train….

While we were waiting in the station… we hit up a dairy queen and I got these pictures of a monk just chillin out reading the newspaper…

Riding the train…Again a great way to start to get to know people… Unfortunately the party carriage was not nearly what it was last time due to the music being down… nor did I really sleep that much…

But I got a great sunset picture.

The most amusing part of the train ride was our first taste of all the lady boys. All throughout Thailand are the lady boys… Most often they are our waitresses… Nicest people on earth, banter back and forth w/ Dan b/c he knows them all… and then for whatever reason they loved Rhys… which was incredibly funny… particularly b/c Rhys is a character in and of himself…

For instance… he had these bbq peanuts… which he opened on the train… and the can just exploded everywhere… so we got them all cleaned up… but he kept the can of them… so we’re riding to the jungle, he reaches in his bag… and its just full of these peanuts b/c the can exploded again… so… we just started chucking them out the back… hence the picture.

"One Night in Bangkok"-- Chess, Murray Head

2007-06-02T04:05:00.000-04:00

So yeah, I decided that the last post was getting long, so I’ve split it up. Because of course, Bangkok by night is a totally different story. Basically… all the stories you heard, are most likely true… or so I hear. As with everything else in this place Bangkok really is just something out of movie. Especially Khoa San Road

Its at about this point that I met up w/ my next group. Another bunch of young ones. Two New Yorkers, a couple of Aussies, and a lot of Brits… Its actually a pretty big bunch. 17 of us including our leader. But I’ll get into details later. We just had dinner and some drinks before I split to meet back up for one last swing with the old group.

So here it is Khoa San Road….

The group of us went to an Irish Bar called Shamrock. Seen here is what is left of us post Chiang Mai. Jenni, Richard, Anna, Sam, Monica, Justine and Eliza.

Here we have Jenni and Eliza hanging out with Mr. Bangkok. This guy actually had a poster and thing outside advertising that her was Mr. Bangkok.

Me and Eliza and our bucket of whiskey coke and rebull… yes, I Drink whiskey now… or more specifically lao lao whiskey.

We then headed over to the Hookah bar… which the Thai and the Brits don’t call hookas, they call it something else… which I believe starts with an S…shisha i think... anywho. So for those of you asking... Uh... whats a Hookah?... I'll give you a blib... its a smoking pipe that originated in Iran. Usually you use fruit and tobacco. I remember the first couple of times I ran into hookas... the first time was in Turkey... and all these people had them and offered me some... at the time I thought it was a bong... and respectfully declined... only to learn later that that may have been a bit of an insult and it was really a nice gesture on their part. The second time it was me and Dana in Slovenia... and they had them at our hostel... we just kinda sat in aw... as neither of us was willing to find out whether or not it was a bong... but now that they've grown in popularity in the states, more or less everyone knows what they are.

Pass the Hooka

Anna and the Hooka

Our “serious” picture

Some fine examples of serious British Dancing

Jenni and Me

Justine and the Hooka

Monica and Me

After the hooka bar, we decided to go clubbing… at a place called… The Club. Let me tell ya… techno bars go as well in Bangkok as they do in the U.S. in other words, a huge flop. But still fun just to hang out one last time with everyone. And that closes this chapter of my grand adventures with my Tap into Laos crew.

"We are Siamese if you please..."-- Lady and the Tramp

2007-06-02T04:00:00.000-04:00

Ah Bangkok. Capital of Thailand, formerly Siam. The overnight train rolled into Bangkok somewhere around 8 am, I think. It was literally the best sleep I’ve ever had on an overnight train. After checking into the New World Lodge Hotel, I set out on my own around Bangkok. First stop, the Grand Palace. Now when you come upon the palace there is a wall and you walk in and you are bombarded by people who want to give you a tour… which I just kinda refused *this is a mistake, you should definitely take the tour, especially if you don’t have a good background on Thai history… or else you walk into the Grand Palace and you are absolutely floored by how incredible it really is. I would have to say this complex ranks up there with the pyramids and the Parthenon in my books. There is so much to see and sooooo much going on, that the pictures don’t really do it justice, but I’ll give it a try anyways.

Of course the first thing I see when I walk in is the big gold shiny building. This building is a part of the upper terrace of the palace.

I think these guys are awesome. They’re standing guard to the exit from this part of the Palace.

The Mondop is a repository for Buddhist sacred Scriptures on palm leaves.

Yeah, that’s me, taking a picture of myself w/ a sweet gold statue guy behind me.

This Buddha statute is absolutely beautiful, especially b/c of how plain and simple it is in contrast to the ornate background of the colorful glass tiles.

The upper terrace is surrounded by different statutes of mythical beings.

In the middle there is a miniature version of Angkor Wat.

So on all the walls there are scenes from various legends and myths… here is what I think is a god protecting the city using his tongue… I think that’s pretty cool.

Just a cool view.

Now when I walked up to this part I thought, “cool food,” then realized it’s a massive alter, and these are all donations… most likely to the jade Buddha… who I couldn’t take pictures of… at least not clear ones.

This is inside the Royal Pantheon, and I’m pretty sure that this is probably my favorite picture… b/c its awesome.

Everything before now has been stuff around the palace in the area known as the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha. Just a side note… the actual Monastery was under construction… as are most things in Thailand right now. They are preparing for the King’s 80th b-day, and boy do they love their king. Here is outside of that area, and this is the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall.

In this pic is a guard dog, and in the background is Dusit Maha Prasat Hall… if you check out the detail, the mythical thing in the corner of the building is actually leaping off… how cool is that.

At this point I moved on from the Grand Palace. Wandered along a road where all they sell is charms and things for luck, and headed towards Wat Po, the birthplace of massage therapy. Now just before I went in, there was a guy who actually tried to tell me the Wat was closed for foreigners at that moment and wouldn’t be open for a couple of hours, and it was just my luck that there was one Wat open near the market that was only open on the 2nd of every month. I played along for a few minutes till he tried to get me to hire a taxi to get to the market… man was he pissed when I said I would walk. It’s a common scam in Bangkok between taxi drivers and market people. They have a deal that taxis take people really cheap, but once there tourists are forced to spend near a hundred dollars just to leave…. I wanted to go to Wat Pho, no matter what… and that’s exactly what I did. And this time… I got a tour guide, b/c well, I should have gotten one at the palace, and I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

Here is Buddha.. or Vishnu... (Hindu God) it gets confusing when things overlap a lot... especially b/c in some places Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu... sitting on the Naga. Legend has it that one day while Buddha was finding enlightenment it started to storm, and the 7 headed Naga came out and gave Buddha shelter from the storm. This is one of the most popular Buddha stories and is a common theme for statutes. On a related note, Naga’s are also huge snakes in SE Asia. In fact in there’s a picture in Laos of one that U.S. forces caught during the Vietnam war… its big… and its scary.

So this here is an acupressure map inside Wat Po. It shows all the pressure points and methods for massage.

Here is me getting my horoscope done and palms read by Mr. Sawong Kontong, a former grade school teacher. Here’s what I learned: Starting in mid august, things are gonna perk up significantly. From ages 25-26 I’ll be taking care of money, job, house issues and I should buy property. 27, probably getting married… to a foreigner. 31-33, big move…34-45 I’ll be super happy. 46-55, gonna move somewhere else in the world and need to take care of my health. 56-71, really happy. 72-73, health issues, 74-81 happy… Then when I’ll die will depend on when I stop drinking. I should stay away from the color pink and Tuesdays. I also have two paths to choose from in life career wise… either way I’ll be happy, and I’ll probably end up doing both… go figure. Overall, it was highly amusing and a ton of fun.

This here is the reclining Buddha… Its really friggin big. And here is the legend: When Buddha was about to die, he laid down and propped his head up. He said that when his head fell, he would die.

Unfortunately, they build a room around the statute so that it becomes really hard to photograph the whole thing.

But these are his really big feet.

Here’s the best I could do getting the whole thing in at once.

And for luck, I put coins in all of these here pots.

And another Buddha shrine.

In this statute, the figures are practicing Yoga, meditation and Thai massage. Which is exactly what I did next, seeing Wat Po has the school for massage medicine in it. Thai massage hurts. Highly painful, hitting pressure points, etc. Not my cup of tea.

At this point I needed to haul back to the hotel to meet up with my next tour group. On the way I passed this cool elephant monument.

And just randomly… here is the SE Asian Ronald McDonald

"Go shorty. Its your birthday, gon' party like its your birthday..."-50 cent

2007-06-01T02:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, its true, I am yet again, another year older. Great thanks for all the well wishes and celebratory activities... it'll definitely be one to remember.

Now you might be going… how on earth did you get from Luang Prabang to Birthday (3 days) w/out any other posts… well… that’s b/c we took 2 days worth of boat rides… where I read 2 books… and had a very sore bum by the end thanks to the rather crappy seats… but I got a few good pics… despite an 8 hour trip followed by a 6 hour one.

This here is the little village we stayed in the first night… climbing up here was terrifying… we didn’t pull in until after dark… there was no dock… just rocks to climb up… w/ our bags… and some ropes…rocks, ropes, and a plank of wood. There were people trying to take your bags, and you were hounded by people trying to get you to go w/ them to their guest houses. This was the only point that I distinctly remember losing my temper at all… b/c they were blocking me from my group and I just snapped… “No, I’m with them get out of my way”… yeah then we had to treck all the way up the hill… Where we then had to wait over 2 hours for our dinner… making us all pretty miserable.

The next day was better as it was a shorter ride… above are some kids playing in the water… followed by a group of monks charging our boat as we sailed by…plus some pictures of rainbows.
The celebrations began at midnight... where I got to hear happy birthday in english, italian, and iranian. Then we all crashed b/c we had been in a boat for 8 hours.

Next morning we crossed the border into Thailand... (my 30th country on my 24th b-day... pretty cool)... we then drove for like 5 hours... stopped in Chiang Mai (sp?) for 2 hours... where i saw my first mcdonalds, starbucks, and subway since I've been here. That’s me and Monica in the picture… A few people stayed behind here, rather than moving on to Bangkok… which was pretty sad

But here's me and Monica in Chiang Mai.

We then hopped on an overnight train to Bangkok.. which is where I am now... and there's a huge Thunderstorm, so I'm at a free internet place. Anywhoo… above are some pics of jenni looking thrilled… my beautiful b-day dinner, and Monica and Sam…

I had a great surprise of a little mini birthday cake and candle… and everyone sang to me on the train…. These trains were different from the last one… Instead of cabins, the chairs pulled out into beds, and a cot pulled down from the side above… and there were curtains… and that was it… surprisingly enough however, the sleep was some of the best I had in a while.

Oh... and on the overnight train... there was a party car.... like an actual club w/ bar music and dimmed lights. It was filled w/ old frenchies that wouldn't let us out until we danced w/ them... I should rephrase that... the old lady in the first picture... wouldn't let us out until Jenni danced w/her. Overall, highly amusing.

"There is no place I know to compare with pure imagination, Living there you'll be free if you truly wish to be."-- "Pure Imagination", Willy Wonka

2007-05-29T04:57:00.000-04:00

Here we are now leaving Vang Vieng… yes, this is the only digi picture I have of this quiet little place. We then began our long journey northward towards Luang Prabang…

Along the way… our bus got a flat tire…

And let me tell you… there are worse places in the world to be broken down… friggen beautiful

Even had this little hut thing to keep out of the sun… here you can see Leela, Eliza, and our guide, Pauline.

We didn’t get in until pretty late, so it was just dinner… and an early night for me as I was in the trifecta of pain and agony… 1) blister that had taken over my entire little toe… convincing me I was going to get gangrene and lose my leg… I actually started splinting my toes apart using medical tape that I had brought for my foot… 2) the continuation of the earlier mentioned food poisoning 3) the sudden onset of severe allergies due to being surrounded by lots and lots of greenery…

The next day, however, I was up and out w/ Leela touring around. The first stop was the palace… which was a pretty incredible museum… lots of cool old stuff… pictures that told legends… and each room depicted a battle scene… often between men and mythical beasts… none of which I was allowed to take pictures of.

But just outside of it was nice little wat that had this cool dragon railing and this Buddha carving in the door.

We then hiked up Mount Phousi… yet another great view… and while we were up there… you could hear traditional music playing from bellow… making it an all too surreal moment… very much continuing the theme that being in laos is like being in a movie.

Climbing down the mountain there were buddha’s for each day of the week… these were the two best.

There was also this big fat Buddha, who I rather love.

Continuing down the steps… you see an Asian version of a unicorn w/ Buddha in the background.

The path then led into a mini cave, where a giant “foot print” is… said to be Buddha’s footprint.

After our little excursion up the mountain, we met up w/ the others and headed to the Tad Se Waterfalls.

If you look carefully, you can see a tiger in the cage. She was rescued from poachers and brought here to the falls… they also rescue bears… but those pictures didn’t come out.

And then there were the actual falls… which were absolutely incredible. I made it about halfway up, then realized two hills in one day is very very bad idea when you’re already under the weather…

So Jenni and I headed down to some of the pools and went swimming. And there was this 16 year old British kid that came over and started hanging out w/ us... Which was amusing... b/c he was kinda hitting on Jenni, but... well... he was 16... and with his mom... and his mom came over and started taking pictures... I can only imagine the poor kids embarrassment... SE Asian when your a young teenager is not the place you want to be w/ your parents.

And later that night… we went bowling…apparently bowling isn’t really big in the UK… which made for an amusing night… and the bowling here… was pretty interesting… as we were doing it barefoot.

The next day I headed out on my own… checkin out this quiet little town. This here is a picture of mount Phousi from behind.

I then found Wisunalat Visounarath… Now for some reason… as cheap as laos is… they kept charging at least $2 to get in to ever place. After a while you just start spending too much money each day. So when they told me $2 I was like, no, I don’t really need to see anything that bad right now… and the woman was like, $1, no ticket… and I was like… cool… I haggled w/out haggling. So I got in, it was painted with tons of cool stories, and had this huge alter. That also had that little demon guy… which I found brilliant.

As I was wandering out I saw that there was a red cross around the corner… where to raise money, they give $3 massages… which was actually pretty nice… so I typed well, and they were really excited about that… feels good to help out

We spent the night wandering around the night market… which had tons of beautiful things…scarves, jewelry, paintings.

The next morning we got up ridiculously early to see the monks collecting alms… This was an awing experience… to just see hundreds upon hundreds of monks lined up wandering down the road… oh, and i got yelled at for using my flash...

As a random filler… it was here that we found a bakery… and in this bakery was a newspaper… and its at this point I actually started looking at the job ads… and realized… I’m pretty qualified for just about everything listed…

"This is where the hungry come to feed. For mine is a generation that circles the globe and searches for something we haven't tried before...

2007-05-26T03:13:00.000-04:00

...So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience. And if it hurts, you know what? It's probably worth it." --The Beach

Hmm… trying to figure out how exactly to do this post is difficult… b/c I don’t have any pictures… at least not right now. The two days spent in Vang Vieng were some of the most fun that I’ve had the whole trip. However, I did not take my digital camera tubing w/me for obvious reasons… we were tubing. I did, however, bring a water proof camera… so when I get those pics developed, I’ll stick them on a disk and post them.

Vang Vieng is a little hole in the wall type of town. Its purpose is to cater to travelers… not tourists… the people who are looking for a little bit of adventure and freedom. I wouldn’t say that its lawless… but there really isn’t any enforcement.

Now I’ve been tubing before, in the states… so when our guide told us there would be tubing, you can only imagine my excitement… which I then passed on to the others… who had never been tubing before. Also due to the past experience, it promoted me and Leela picking up a box of wine for the ride. But this tubing was a little bit different… it wasn’t just floating down the river… as I briefly mentioned in an earlier post.

Basically there were a lot of bars and things that you hold onto and plummet into the water from. This was a ton of fun…

The first stop was a zip line which I did a couple of times. (the first pic is me, the second is my ever so graceful landing and the third is a Leela) The guys there were giving us shots of Lao Lao wiskey… this stuff is wicked strong… *oh yeah… I was sick as a dog at this point… major food poisoning right before we left so I had been chowing down on pepto and things… so I wasn’t all that keen on drinking anything… luckily by the time we got to the rafting spot, I was feeling much better* I stayed away from the lao lao for most of the rest of the trip.

The next stop off was a good place to sit and have a drink… We were just going to chill here just a bit longer, but then they played the cure boys don’t cry, and we decided to stay until the song was over… this then turned out to be the whole album…it also had more of swing like jump…. As in your holding on w/ your hands above your head swinging back and forth… As we all know, I have real issues w/ the whole downward motion concept… so really jumping off of anything is the scariest thing ever for me… but after a while I got worn down and decided to give it a go… zip lines are fairly easy b/c its not a free fall… swinging ropes… a little harder… but sucked it up, did it, and actually did much better than I thought I would… just swinging back and forth, and back and forth… debating if you should let go at the highest point or lowest… I’m pretty sure I took the lowest… but on a sad note I lost my dollar store sunglasses… completely forgot to take them off, and they went flying through the air never to be seen again. The next stop off was the major place with a full restaurant and volleyball courts… and a wicked huge jump. After the awesome experience on the first jump… this didn’t seem that bad… but as your freefalling from a tree, and the angle of the jump is more of a straight drop than a swing, the rope suddenly snaps and… well… there’s a belly flop. I didn’t do anymore jumps after that one… but it was worth it.

As we continued down river it started to thunder and lightning… from the banks above use we could hear the welcomed call of “tuk-tuk?” so half of us took off, while the other half kept on down the river.

Still a little churny in the stomach I didn’t do much drinking that night, but rather just hung around with everyone else. This little town shuts down early for being such a hot spot for travelers… I ended up ducking out early… being too sober and ill to be amused by everything going on.

I have no pictures from the next day… but it was an excellent day.

"The Mysterious Cities of Gold"-- sweet 80's anime show I used to watch back in the UK... but was also on in the U.S. on Nick.

2007-05-24T03:55:00.000-04:00

One of the great ironies of my trip is that the place I absolutely loved the most, I have the least amount of pictures of… and that place is Laos. I’m thinking this is b/c I was actually doing “stuff” while I was in Laos, or maybe I do have a lot of pictures and don’t realize it, but will once I start loading them. There are also a day of pictures missing b/c they are on my disposable waterproof camera… so I’m going to try and get those on a disc here, but it might have to wait till I get home.

I love Laos… heck, I got sick for the first time in Laos, and I still loved Laos. I actually opened up a news paper and started looking at job ads. Everything about Laos is just kind of out of this world, something from a movie like. That’s the best way that I can describe it. Now if you’re like me, you know very little about Laos… So I guess I should start with the bit that I’ve learned…

Laos is one of the worlds poorest countries, with one of the lowest GDPs. It’s a communist country… but it doesn’t have the blatant commi propaganda like in Viet Nam. Its not in any big rush to modernize… nor does it seem to need to. The people are the nicest and friendliest of all of SE Asia. And the food is awesome. They are constantly threatened to be swallowed up by Viet Nam or Thailand… During the Viet Nam War, the U.S. dropped an average of one bomb every 2 minutes… making it the most bombed nation in history. There isn’t a whole lot of people here. Maybe about 2 million. Most are agricultural workers… but something like only 30% of the land is agrible. So they don’t have a particularly large work force, nor do they attract much foreign investment. Enforcement of laws is minimal. There are only about 30 lawyers in the country… and they aren’t paid particularly well. But everything here is fairly cheap… Living on the bare minimum isn’t that hard.

Crossing into Laos is a bit of pain in the butt. You can only crass at a border that is about in the middle near Vientiane, which is way south of Hanoi… *this is the only place between Laos and Viet Nam where non Laos/Vietnamese are allowed to cross. It involves a really long train ride... great for getting to know new people in your group... a late late late night stop at a sketchy hotel with bad food, followed by an early morning rise and back on the road... This road is incredibly windy as it twists and turns around the mountains… It basically makes you really really car sick. This means you then travel north to Vang Vien and Luang Prabang… then if your headed to Bangkok, have to spend 2 days going down river south again. So the amount of ground traveled is another reason I lack tons of pics from Laos.

Things start to look different as soon as you cross the border from Viet Nam into Laos. Things are greener, calmer. There are packs of butterflies everywhere. Maybe swarms would be a better word. I never got a picture of this b/c at the time, whenever you see them, hundreds of them at once… you just kinda get stuck in a state of awe… but you first start seeing them within 20 minutes of crossing the border…

The villages are still fairly clean and traditional… Thatched roof cottages and things… and this is all the villages.

One of the first places we stopped is known as “Rock Forest” if you look closely at the pictures you can understand why… The kids in the picture are Kim, Sam and Jenni.

The first place we stayed was in the capital Vientiane. Leela and I rented bikes and decided to see everything that way.

The first place we went to was Wat Si Saket—but we got kind of a late start, so we weren’t able to go inside b/c it was closed for lunch. So we went and got food, then hit up the museum… which basically had a lot of cultural stuff in it… nothing too thrilling.

So we kept on biking towards the main icon of Laos, Pha That Luang, which translates into something like “Worlds Precious Stupa”. Now Vientiane is flat, making this a pretty nice bike ride. Its really really hot and sunny. Probably one of the only really sunny days I had seen since I’ve been here. Then quite suddenly out of the middle of no where is this hill. Now we aren’t on particularly fancy bikes… no gears or anything like that. I definitely ripped up my knees trying to get up this hill (oh, and by the way… the traffic here, nothing like in Viet Nam, which was nice). Then, as your coming up over the hill you catch a glimpse of something shiny… something gold and shiny… then something big gold and shiny… and that would be Pha That Luang.

As you can see… it really is big gold and shiny, like I said in the last post…. And its like the supermodel of stupas. It must have its picture taken from every angle and each time it’s a little bit different and totally beautiful. Oh and that’s a picture of me and Leela thrown in there… but as you can see, its still in the background. (Oh and just a side note... these are the pictures i have left after I deleted a few).

While wandering around this awesomeness… we were stopped by a monk. Now all of your guidebooks talk about how monks aren’t supposed to talk to women, or touch them or anything like that. And despite curiosity, I’d been pretty good about respecting that stuff… But this kid actually stopped us and talked to us for about an hour. He told us about how his family lived about 8 hours away and he only saw them a couple times a year. How he was living at a monastery about an hour outside of town. How the way things work in Laos is that if your family is too poor to send you to school, you become a monk and get your education that way. He also told us about how his goal was to become a tour guide one day or maybe a history teacher; and how much he hoped he could travel someday. He was quite possibly one of the most interesting kids I’ve ever met… and by kid I mean I think he was like 16 or something like that… he was young… and I believe his name was Thom. The lesson here is that monks are awesome.

Our next stop was a photo op at the Patuxay Victory Monument… aka the vertical runway. As the story goes, after the war Laos was given money to rebuild a runway for the airport, but instead they used it to build the monument.

At this point we headed over to the closing morning market, where we ended up running into the others. Leela took them back to Pha That Luang, and I split to go get myself a massage. Quite possibly the best decision I have ever made, as it is still the greatest massage I have ever gotten… and the best tea ever… unfortunately when I asked what kind it was… the girl tried to describe some kind of fruit… but I was pretty clueless as to what it was. The weird part is it wasn’t a normal massage at all. They gave you some clothes to put on, no oils…but the best part is is that she stretched me… which I really needed.
After that we had dinner, then me, Richard, Eliza, Anna, Jenni, and Justine went out for drinks… when we got to the bar we realized it was full of old ex-pats and young Lao women… It was a bit disturbing and the first (but definitely not the last) time I got to experience it. Then it got weirder when some Lao guys came and joined us… and just blatantly lit a joint… in a restaurant/bar… I think that its at this point that marks the changeover in our movie… from here on out things became far more like a scene from some movie or one of many books about what all goes on in SE Asia. Reality just kinda gets tipped on its head at this point… and the best you can do is go along with it in a strange state of aw.

*Ok here comes the disclaimer* We all know that drugs have never been my thing, but its not something that’s ever really bothered me either. We all have our friends that have dabbled in something or another, and whether you do or don’t, I’m not really gonna judge. However I am fascinated by the culture that pops up around it… the music, the movies, the books, etc. Its just tends to be a concept so alien to my own little world that its fascinating to fall into as an outside observer… but here that culture actually becomes life… you aren’t just reading about charcters in a book, your watching them walk down the street…. Or hearing their stories right from them. And I’ve considered editing the blog to just kind of circumvent the prevalence of it… But the fact is that its so in your face and its genuinely a part of what makes SE Asia incredibly surreal that the stories still have to come out… so I’m not going to tip toe around stories and details too much… You’ve been warned*

So after drinks, we decided to head to the whole 1 night club in all of the city... which is on top of the roof on a motel... and seems super sketchy as you go up to it, and have to pull around back and up some back stair case. It was a lot of fun watching the brits dance. And accidentally stumbling down a hall that was full of "VIP" rooms in search of a bathroom. Overall it wasn't half bad... no Matrix... but considering where we were... it was fun.

A bit of amusement is how every single tuk tuk driver will try and sell you weed. They aren't sly about it or anything... Crazy weird place... We opted to walk home.

Of course since we were walking, we detoured to a park, and played on the swingsets by the river. It was a good end to a good day.

"Leave you feeling Hot Hot Hot"-- The Cure, "Hot, Hot, Hot"

2007-05-23T00:25:00.000-04:00

So, I'm skipping a lot that I'll go back to at another point in time to tell you all about Laos. Laos is like the Austria of my SE Asian adventure. A place I don't know a lot about, but absolutely love. Its clean. Its beatiful. And I got the greatest massage ever for $6. We went tubing last night... with a bag of boxed wine. There are little makeshift bars up and down the river w/ zip lines and other various types of bunjee like things to jump into the water with. Tons of fun! Unfortunately, its started storming/getting dark so we ended our trip early, but plan on going at it again in about an hour. Oh, and one of the bars... Only plays the Cure. Awesome! and there were some volleyball courts too. Its rediculously hot out... but for a change, I'm using SPF 30 sunscreen, so I'm not nearly as dark or burned as I normally would be at this point.

My new group is really young. there are about 5 19 year old british girls on their gap year. A dutch girl who is my age. Another American who I get on w/ real well. And 1 British guy and and one Kiwi, who are both in their late 20's. Totally different from the last group. There's lots of drinking, and late nights... and we even went to a night club in the capital. Brits don't dance like Americans... which is pretty funny.

Oh... and I saw a big shiny gold temple... lots of pictures (both Leela and I have a thing for shiny things--- Leela is the other American).

Anywho... I'm alive... only a few bug bites, and gourging myself on mango. But now, its near time to go tubing again!

"I think I'm freakin out man"... "You are feakin out... Man"-- Super Troopers

2007-05-22T04:39:00.000-04:00

Malaria Pills… They are indeed funny little things. What they neglect to really tell you about malaria pills is how they make you go kinda crazy. Yeah, we’re talking hallucinations and nightmares crazy. Especially if you are on the once a week pill, Mefloquine Hydrocloride. The good news is that symptoms tend to wear off after a couple of weeks. Except there is that first week. After the 27 hours of flight. Stuck in a room w/out any ac, and these absolutely fabulous statutes on the wall.

I actually woke up in the middle of the night talking to these things, thinking they were talking and moving around. It took me a few minutes to realize I was talking to nothing… but sure did weird me out a bit.

Other fabulous dreams include dad w/ 3 arms, one that only went down to his elbow. And lots of alternate reality stuff… yeah, totally weird… even for my dreams… oh and as for hallucinations… they usually include bugs, spiders, and lizards that like to crawl on me or around me while I try to sleep… but then again… those could still be real. Last time I had one of those I woke up w/ bed bug bites.

Then there’s the other night. I started watching Prison Break… which I never saw at home, but isn’t half bad when there’s nothing else to watch. Anywho, that night I had this dream that I needed to find something to break out inside of a pillow. And so I’m rummaging this pillow, and I find that its full of bread that’s all broken up like its going to be used for stuffing. Lucky for me I zoned out again before going to eat the bread b/c when I woke up, it all just seemed a little too real. So I felt inside my pillow, and sure enough there’s a hole in it so that you can reach in and feel the stuffing.