Security in Amsterdam

This story I dont understand - when I flew from Amsterdam to England on December 20th I went through exactly this kind of scanner - and it caught the fact that I had forgotten to remove my wallet from my jeans pocket - I guess the story means that they will now use it for everyone - not just tall white guys who look just like a terrorist - as if.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/12/30/airline.terror.schiphol/index.html

Ah - this story elaborates - two of the new scanners were being used experimentally - and no the picture doesnt show your actual body just a generic body with red highlighted areas where they recommend you be groped.

I should know better than to expect any kind of actual reporting from CNN - silly me.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010628819_apusairlinerattack.html

Bangkok railway station - Hua Lamphong

Bangkok's main railway station - a brief look the day after I arrived from Cambodia

Aranyaprathet to bangkok by train - part 4

Final part of the trip from the Cambodian border to Bangkok

Llamas and Deer Oh My.

Sitting in my former bedroom watching the Llamas and the Deer frolicking in the snow - damn them they have taken over the space where we used to play football.

Videos

To see better quality versions of the video clips you can go to the davidpgraves channel at YouTube

Part 4 to follow

Along with some other out of sequence video clips as I sort out my stuff.

Aranyaprathet to Bangkok by train - Part 3

Aranyaprathet to Bangkok by train - Part 2

Aranyaprathet to Bangkok by train - Part 1

Video of the first part of my railway trip across eastern Thailand when I left Cambodia and headed to Bangkok - parts 2,3 and 4 to follow for anyone interested.

Phnom Penh moto trip

Catching up on video uploading now that I have a more reliable upload speed - this was a trip back from lunch by the lake, me on the back of Da's motorbike ridden by her brother, she on the back of her other brother's bike. She was aware of being filmed explaining her attempts to distract me with her behavior. And yes we were indeed on the wrong side of the road going against oncoming traffic on one occasion.

BKK people watching

Sitting in the hotel lobby at midnight watching the wildlife - my evening started early and is over now - in recovery and sobering up - fun times - I could break into some kind of Seussian rhapsody about the Places You'll see and the Things You'll do but not here - details (expurgated) available on individual application (some are just not capable of handling the truth - says Jack).  Sawatdee Khrap.

Goddamn Indians stink

Okay so that is a wide generalization - I have good friends from the subcontinent who do not stink (well I used to have good friends) but goddamn it.  Even the poorest homeless Cambodian peasant shitting washing and pissing in the river manages to be fresh and inoffensive but get stuck behind a well-dressed Indian guy and you are invariably retching and wishing you could bury your nose in your own asshole - what is it with these people?  Ask yourself - when was the last time someone's body odor made you physically repulsed? chances are if you work in an office in the US it was an Indian coworker.  Okay like I said this is a generalization but it is no way racist - it is based upon years of observation in Thailand, Cambodia, China, England and the US - almost nobody has a BO issue any longer except Indian males - if they are indeed to be one of the superpowers of the future we are in for a malodorous existence.

Uploading to YouTube sucks

I have a bunch of videos to upload and share but broadband lack precludes me from doing so - damn it will have to wait until I am back in the snowy UK.

The adventure is slowing down...

So here I am now in Bangkok (with all that that entails/offers).  The last 2 days were hard work travelling - up at 6am on Wednesday to vacate the apartment in Phnom Penh (Da is moving into a cheaper one - she doesnt need airconditioning and the new one gives her parking for her and her brother's motorcycles).  Then it was a 7 hour bus ride to Poipet - with some gastric distress along the way - I had to make a run at one rest-stop and make the bus wait for me.  A peaceful night at a nice clean hotel was followed by crossing the border into Thailand - I still find it surreal walking across aborder expecially between two countries whos governments are increasingly hostile to each other - meanwhile the people cross fairly freely - the Khmers have a market in Thailand and with a border pass and a payment of a thousand riel (25 cents) they can cross as long as they remain within the 1km border zone.  Khmers were being searched by Thai soldiers - I wasnt touched at all - neither was Da as she was with me.  Then I had to leave Da as the train station is 5Km from the border - an 80baht ($2.25) Tuk-tuk ride took me to the station where I then had a 2 hour wait for the train - why am I always so paranoid about being early for trains and planes?  The third class train to Bangkok departed at 13:55 - the 6 hour ride cost a grand total of 48baht - yes that is $1.50 for a 6 hour train ride - I had a 4 seat area to myself so it ws very comfortable - I even found soft seats unlike the wooden seats I had 5 years ago when I made the same trip in reverse.  Periodic checks by very serious looking heavily armed (automatic weapons) soldiers occurres during the first houir or so as we left the Cambodian border - again I wasnt questioned or searched but anyone with a Cambodian passport was intensively questioned and their bags searched - illegal immigration and drugs from Cambodia being an ongoing issue - plus it gave the Thai goons the cnace to intimidate their poorer weaker neighbors - a favorite sport. Spectacular views of the Thai farming countryside in the hot sunshine were the order of most of the day - the train being cool (out of the direct sunlight) due to the windows dropping completely down to chest level.  It was of course dark by the time we reached Bangkok - (19:55) and the trip became a kaleidoscopic rush through an amazing light show (think the StarGate from 2001) - as we approached Hualumpong Station the slums along the tracks encroached ever closer - I guess the land isnt owned or used by anyone but the SRT so the illegal squatters use every meter - literally peoples washing and homes were within touching distance from the windows - I even saw one impromptu bar where the pool table was set up such that one would have to stand on the railroad tracks to play a shot along one side of the table. The voyeurism of looking into peoples homes is really weird especially when the train would pause for a few minutes on the approach and people would go on with their evening routines - washing, eating bathing the kids etc. I shot a hell of a lot of video which tells the whole journey from Aranyaprathet to Bangkok - I will need to split it up into 3 or 4 videos to conform to YouTube's 10 minute limit but I believe the effort will be worthwhile as some people may be interested - I know that outside of my friends/family people have watched some of my videos - my Soi Cowboy video from 2 months ago currently has a view count of 450 and I know train videos are popular worldwide.  So I guess my day today in Bangkok is to be devoted to video editing - I have done all the tourist things - dont need to shop and it is awfully warm - this is the cool season now - but Bangkok deserves its title as the worlds hottest city - it is 33 degrees today (91F) - while it is true that other cities get hotter - Bangkok overall year round has the highest average temperature - and when it is hot in BKK it is REALLY hot - the humidity and the traffic and concrete ensure that - Phnom Penh was equally hot but it has breezes - BKK is just stifling.  So I think I will lay low in the rom with TV and aircon and wait for the wild life to come out after dark.  Videos later.

Sob Sob

Getting ready to leave Phnom Penh in a couple of days - Da has been gradually transferring everything to "home new" - she and her brothers will be living in a different (cheaper) ground floor apartment when I leave - as well as being cheaper they will then be able to store their motos inside rather than paying $20 per month for secure parking. Just returned from lunch by the lake - me on the back of her moto with her brother driving - have some good video of the trip through traffic but cannot upload until I have a better (faster) internet connection - upload bandwidth here is apalling.

Early morning Wednesday will be on the bus to Poipet on the Thai border - will spend a night there (Da's home town) doubtless losing money playing cards with her sister and brother-in-law.  Then Thursday walk across the border - 30 minute Tuk-tuk ride to the train station in Aranyprathet then a 12:55 train to Bangkok - a 6 hour third class ride - wood seats - open sided cars - all for about $8.

This Christmas thing is out of control

As I sit here in the lobby bar of the Flamingos Hotel here in Phnom Penh next to a fully decorated (albeit fake) Christmas tree.  There are Christmas decorations everywhere - not just in the tourist areas - (klitmat as they say it) - the dreaded word "cadeau" is on many lips - the French apparently left behind an excuse for consumer excess - there are actual Christmas carols (no lyrics) on the radio.  Somehow I think that betting on a white Christmas here would be a losing proposition.

Phew...

My Mother is finally having central heating installed just in time for my return to UK - I may be able to survive the temperature drop after all.

Missionary Position? My Ass

How do you explain the presence of Mormon missionaries in a country which is 98% Buddhist? Perhaps give my contempt and absolute hatred of anyone who tries to evangelize and impose their own interpretation of a moral code upon others I was not the ideal person to respond when Da asked me “why they here in Cambodia?”. So I told her - they think your 2500+ year old religion and the code of values that stresses peaceful existence and tolerance is wrong - they think your Buddha is a false idol and that you are damned if you don’t convert to their 300 year old tax-exempt cult of misogyny and racism. They want you to convert and start tithing your income so they can build larger churches and send more kids to recruit to their pyramid scheme - oh wait - you are a woman so work is out - you need to be home birthing babies to perpetuate the cult. It’s all very well to be here in Cambodia as a member of an NGO, whether faith-based or not, doing good works to help people but to see these brainwashed specimens riding around on their nice new mountain bikes (the city is flat) wearing their standard issue Joseph Smith bicycle helmets and sporting their shiny name tags (Elder This and Elder That) attempting to convert people to their cult is sickening to me. I hope their magic underwear chafes in the heat and they go home with a bad case of Tropical Ball Rot back to their lily-white existence - back to good old Salt Lake City where their chaste girlfriends have probably been pulling trains with the BYU basketball team.


Why didn’t the ATF ever have a go at Salt Lake or Provo?

Great export USA - Way To Go Team.

If this offends anyone - tough shit - my views are as valid as yours - the difference is - I won’t presume to try to convert you.

10 books down and many miles to go

A trip/existence like this was just made for reading - definite rehearsal for eventual retirement.


Just finished re-reading The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux as a prelude to reading the sequel Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. The original which I read 32 years ago was an account of the author’s train journey from London through Asia via India, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries to Japan returning via the Trans-Siberian Express. In the sequel he retraces the journey 33 years later. This book may have been the single most influential factor in my desire to travel (and as such formative of my life thus far) - very highly recommend it to anyone for whom travel holds an attraction.

“The best of travel seems to exist outside of time, as though the years of travel are not deducted from your life. Travel also holds the magical possibility of reinvention: that you might find a place you love, to begin a new life and never go home. In a distant place no one knows you - nearly always a plus. And you can pretend, in travel, to be different from the person you are, unattached, enigmatic, younger, richer or poorer, anyone you chose to be, the rebirth that many travelers experience if they go far enough.”.

This passage from the book I am currently reading really summarizes to a great extent what I feel regarding travel. It is all about being out of ones comfort zone the sheer foreignness is a great attraction - the National Geographic Adventure channel has a slogan which also is reflective “Let’s Get Lost”.

“Life is a book - those who do not travel only read one page”.

Fat dumb and happy in Phnom Penh

Just had a wonderful Half Monty English Breakfast at the Green Vespa British/Irish Pub on the riverfront - a true heart-attack on a plate - bacon, fried potatoes, 2 scrambled eggs, an imported English sausage and the piece de resistence - black pudding - ahhh - and with Colmans Mustard - and toast - heaven. I could not imagine the Full Monty Breakfast - that would add fried tomatos, kidney and kipper - that would have broken me. Now compensating with a fat-free double latte. And unbelievably I have lost a considerable amount of weight here despite no "formal" exercise regimen.

Special Herb Pizza for lunch

Is highly recommended but go easy on the "Happy".

PP update

I have conclusive proof of what I thought was the case but which I really did not want to believe.


Khmers (and presumably other Asians) do actually stand on the toilet seat and squat to use western style toilets. I woke up the other morning went to use the facilities and was greeted by a sharp pain in the sensitive regions - the toilet seat had a great big crack in it (in it not on it) - I survived the incident and later challenged Da on how the seat became cracked. She showed me by hopping up there squatting on her heels - the heel pressure of course being in just the spot where the seat had cracked - I just shook my head and left her to it. There has been complete apathy to my appeals for a new seat - and I just cant be bothered to go find out where to buy one- not to mention the uproar that would surely greet the sight of a big tall Westerner parading through the streets of downtown Phnom Penh clutching a toilet seat - I guarantee there would be a parade of people following me. Tip if you ever get into this situation - a piece of cardboard placed on the seat works wonders.



Yesterday Da and her brothers took a one hour motorcycle ride out of PP to visit “daughter wife Papa before” (the daughter of their Father’s previous wife) - apparently some other family member there makes a living catching fresh water crab - so they joined him and she returned with a bag of live crabs - these vicious little bastards were about 3 inches across and pinched like crazy when recaptured as they made their escape from a plastic bowl and made their run fro freedom - I was tempted to let one go and follow him - where was the smartass little shit going to go being about half a mile from the river? However I continued the crab rodeo until I pointed out to Da that if we used a deeper bowl they would not escape - it’s a personal triumph whenever I prove myself to be something other than a brain dead neophyte. So the crabs remained in their bowl for about 3 hours happily (?) splashing and rattling each other. I assumed we were having crab for dinner - but I have learned to my cost that making assumptions here is not a wise thing. Da returned with a large plastic screw-top jar. She added about 3 inches of really foul smelling fish sauce - not the usual edible sort some sugar and some salt - then in went the live crabs - the top was secured - the jar shaken and the crab left to die and rot. For 2 weeks she informed me. Now I always thought that Buddhism taught mercy and kindness to animals but these guys went through a long slow death process - they were expired by the time I woke this morning. Now I knew that Somtam (as it is called in Thailand - god help me if I use the Thai word here and I don’t know the Khmer word) contained fermented crab or fermented shrimp - but the reality of how it is produced was somewhat disquieting - often it is better to be blissfully unaware of the origin of the best most delicious foods. Now I don’t know whether the entire crab body will be used or just the legs and pinchers - that’s what seems to be served but the live pickling kind of messed with my head - I don’t know about crustaceans but I believe that mammals pretty much always soil themselves in their death throes - thankfully this devil’s concoction will not be ready until after I am safely in England - blissfully unaware of the origins of the sausages I will be eating.

Woke up this morning to a roach staring at me from the curtain with its beady little eyes - a quick squirt of the toxic can took care of him - I should have added him to the crab mixture.

Subsequent enquiries determined that the legs and claws are removed upon retrieval from the fermenting mess and the bodies discarded - but serious questions remain.

Weak Dong is big worry for Thais.

Headline in Thai newspaper - obviously they do not receive the same spam emails as I do else length and strength would not be a concern


Okay for the less enlightened - the Dong is actually the Vietnamese unit of currency but I really enjoyed the headline.

Torpor

Following my hectic two and a half weeks as tour guide and facilitator I have returned to my natural state - sleeping late and doing very little.  Reading, eating, eating, drinking and strolling - all in a nice 80+ degrees - all while sincerely sympathising with my less fortunate family and acquaintances in Seattle and Hull as they suffer typical winter weather- sympathy - yeah right. Limited to one goal, one activity per day - today it's a haircut - this is the kind of lazy lifestyle to which I wish to become accustomed - see, the grammar muscles have not yet atrophied. I fear the shock of returning to what others consider normality may be too much - I leave PP in two weeks bound overland to Bangkok and thence to UK - OMG.