i'm the chump for loving an authors first book soo much that i fall
into every literary hook he flings out at you.  it is when you start
reading that 2nd book where you see every darn annoying flaw in his
verbose catty and ultimately "pussy" ways...the 3rd book would be even
worse because his already dry mojo’s been sucked up and regurgitated into the gelatin mold of the previous 2 books.  The end result may look the same but butter-free is ultimately bland...wasted neurons on much of some flights....

3 and a half days after Vietnam, I headed to korea…I was only half expecting frigid temperatures and well, rather than lucking out with colder autumn weather, the gods decided to shag some dandruff down at the kimchee lovers…so I spent much of my 3 days in seoul doing nothing but shopping for winter clothes (not that I wouldn’t be shopping anyways) and my nightlife was limited to one night of soju and beer in sinchon.  I’ve been advised by veteran backpacking peers to find the time to rest up and spend certain days doing nothing but recuperating travel energy, maybe I decided to take a rest a few days late because btwn the cold and my fatigue…nightlife was far on the list of priorities.  When one bottle of soju gets 2 people significantly buzzed or even drunk…maybe its time to go home and rest up.  Somehow, any effort to describe the 3 days does no justice without posting pictures of me eating, which is really all I did…kimbop….kimbop…kimbop…*burp* 

 

thanks to honeybunny81 for housing me.

 

alright...taking another few days to rest up here in taipei...and i've got a few options for the next destination...i'll let a xanga poll decide my fate...(i'm a lil wary of both china and japan trips...b/c i'm just not well equipped to face the frigid temperatures....)

 

1. hk-beijing-shenzen-shanghai

2. australia (6-10 day tour group) - free trip, i'll end up going back there anyways

3. tokyo-osaka

4. singapore-kuala lumpur-thailand

 

**who's address do i not have to send a postcard??**

4:39 AM

I BOUGHT IT

n Dinh Quan painting spread endless nights, exciting dreams and poetic thoughts. This world is not real but atlers its ecological life in the blazing, fabulous light of gold and silver emulsion as well as in the deep night of black lacquer?/EM>

Thai Ba Van - 1997

kommie propaganda

i spent a lot of time going around the city looking at property, factories and checking out the food industry and along with a cousin completely raped the driver's left brain for the loopholes and workings of the corrupt power scheming viet government....a country built on the principles of equal wealth distribution makes sense to be run by a round table of men...in this case...it's more like a gang, with the prime ministers and presidents power obscurred into a financial stronghold over the poverty of the nation...although the viet economy hasn't taken a big hit throughout the asian market tumble, and although its gdp has increased about 10% the past year...although this government is starting to take china's lead in opening up its markets to increase financial security...the nation is still gridlocked in old fashioned impoverished wantan ways....

the oxymoron lies thick not because of the class disparities like much of indonesia i've seen...it's more because of the french architecture left behind is so rich and city planning and engineering seems soo cultured...yet saigon has little culture to offer other than WAR WAR and WAR....these hochiminh posters are everywhere....

mekong

muddy and in the middle of the jungle...don't tell me you don't want to pull a childish rambo on your fellow tourists...poor woman rowing the boat...she was the one who got my group of 5...and no extra paddle to help her row...

i'm a slave for you - quite a friendly snake i must say...

embryonic quail egg/suckling pig/slaughtered iguana (THIS IS SICK)

fyi: the iguana is alive while the guy is cutting through him....

cu chi tunnel and the cao dao temple

tunnel network is absolutely indredulous to believe that people spent days/months down there...and the survival and war tactics the VC used were less ingenious and more sadistic...you can look up the history and information of the tunnels online but from first hand experience...i'll tell you that the holes are almost impossible to find...completely camoflauged in leaves and dirt...and they are desigend to be small so the americans couldn't fit...(i the fat arse...barely got in...and only by the method of stretching my arms way up in the air hence slimming my lats....) 

we went in the tunnel for 3 sections of 100m 10m and 10m respectively...the first section being the longest was intense...sweat drenched face and heavy breath (nervous and pitch black)...crouched down to where my back was against the ceiling..(there was even a point where i had to go down feet first cuz i wouldn't fit)....after a certain number of turns..you just wanted to race out of there as soon as possible...small air vents every few feet...but the air was still very thin.... 

look closely at the temple...cao daism is a mixture of eastern and western cultures...it was founded sometime in the early 20th century...and it seems to be a dying religion...all the members seemed quite old...and i guess its one of those cult religions....but because of its mixed faith....the architecture of the church is unique...but ODD....the colors are almost buddism-esque and the columns have the asian dragon, but the top is corinthian? the robes and praying sessions not to mention the dome resemble the islam tradition....

ak-47 - really not as much recoil as i originally though...feels kind of cool to shoot the gun....the guy next to me shot a machine gun....it was just awesome to hear an actual machine gun being fired....

read endless nights, exciting dreams and poetic thoughts. This world is not real but atlers its ecological life in the blazing, fabulous light of gold and silver emulsion as well as in the deep night of black lacquer??XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

Thai Ba Van - 1997

5:27 AM

AK-47

yes...i shot an AK-47 today...in fact..much of the time here...i've been trying to cut down on my diet of "poses with tanks"...unfortunately...most of the museums here are quite a joke...other than war memorabilia, everything else consists of pictures hanging on the walls...'cept today's visit to the chu chi tunnels...i took the role of fat homer almost getting stuck in the VC tunnels...it's ridiculous to imagine people crawling around in there for months at a time....soo intricately designed to disguise steam from cooking, flood defense systems, sick booby traps etc...the size of the bomb craters in the once dead zone....is HUGE....its nuts~....but all this traveling just makes you want to visit the warring neighbor cambodia...so one of the following posts will be TOMB RAIDER rather than rambo...

i'd have to say that much culture lacks from this war-torn country...reading up on all the wars the vietnamese have gone through has made me quite nauseous on those bumpy rides into the wilderness....ironically, i think im about to make my first art purchase...im deciding on either a painting or 2 statues...gonna go back and have a look tomorrow...

how come they don't soak the rice paper in water here?...just wrap it while its still starchy and hard...then dump it into the nuoc mam?....is that how you spell it?...bahn xeo today was awesome!  there's something to be said about vietnamese taste in beer....i've spent the past 3 days at dinner drinking 333, saigon beer and heineken...and it must be noted that all 3 of them have this similar aquired bitter taste....this bitter flavor tends to be better when its hot...ur ass is sweating and ur thighs are sticking to your jeans....u know..the warm beer taste that gets real bitter...but since the beer is naturally bitter..you just savor it warm or cold.....

heading to the beach tomorrow...mui nei....but heading to trang nguyen now for some coffee...

4:49 AM

rambo re-incarnate

i'm finally cleaned up and showered, sweaty ass could possible be on the top ten lists of the worst feelings in the world, but you just can't help it when under the vietnam sun (i hope reader "homo" catches the pun).  First full day in Ho Chi Minh City was spent up and down the Me Kong river.  2 hour bus ride from saigon to the mekong where we hopped on the creaky, woodchipped raggedy boats at ben tre only to be once again tricked into visiting senseless tourist based villages...but how could you come all this way and NOT GO?  as the american, i felt part apocalpyse now and part rambo in me which kind of made me want to hop into the muddy water and re-enact the scene where rambo comes out of the water with two machine guns and mows down 100 people.  all stories of the country are truer than you can imagine.  we passed fishing villages and markets (the stench was ridiculous), every commercial fishing boat had 2 red eyes on the front and a vietnamese flag on the top, viets wearing the rice hats, love to squat and row the boats...switched big boat to little boat to manual boat going up creeks and canals into the depths of the jungle...amazing actually...got to be quasi britney...huge boa constrictor on shoulders..im losing my train of thought...

if you've been up to date with the posts....my fda-approved stomach almost seems as though it's trying to model itself after the dow....and entering into a country that turned ekhym into a vegetarian...being wary would be quite an understatement when i entered kommie zone...unfortunately...since i also just bought cook's tour...it was that book that first clawed away at the intestinal lining even before i did any physical damage to it myself....my first meal was PHO....to be honest...msg was wayy to much...and the soup wasn't hot enough....weird thing here is that they don't use cilantro all that much...i'm assuming cilantro is a substitue for this other green they have here but not in the states....meal 2 was where things got interesting....NAM BO....uhh....i ate the embryonic quail egg (no duck eggs around BIRD FLU has been ramapnt)  i would have tried that fried suckling pig but just was too full...wild BOAR....doens't taste all that great...kind of tough.....highlight of the night ...they killed a live iguana at the neighboring table...because its some sort of delicacy.....even though i'm trying to be adventourous with my palatte...it really takes some serious will power to continue eating after seeing such a horrid act...i took pictures...i doubt its a good idea to post those here...some of you might puke at ur cubicle...........bahn mi's tomorrow....hahaha...rose...i feel like im trying to "one up you" for the 'who loves tran the most' award....HAHAA...pho in every city ehh?...

alright...i can't effing sign into ameritrade...and its pissing the fucking shit out of me....ugh...heading out now...leaving out big chunks of the scene....will have to update more later...pictures will have to wait till next week...off to search for NOSTRILS....(i wonder if splinter reads this...)

 

5:03 AM

KOPITIAM

oh my....arafat just died....i kind of thought he was dead for a few days already and the palestinians were just holding out...but now that it's confirmed...OH MY...with a wanna-be number 2 guy in the wings...there's still no definite as there's bound to be a struggle for the Palestinian leadership over time, with a younger generation of militants and reformers pressing for a larger voice in Palestinian affairs, and hard choices coming about whether to try to absorb militants like Hamas or to confront them and try to make peace with Israel.

mother effing bextra....i couldn't sleep all night last night...even though i was exhausted....

they need to air an episode of celebrity deathmatch on cnbc...ellison (oracle) v. duffield (peoplesoft)...that would be so fitting.....

they're celebrating deepavali here in singapore...national holiday as indians living peacefully amongst the chinese (yup you heard it sunil) take up 7% and 77% of the population respectively...everytime i use the word respectively it reminds me of the SAT - which column is greater section...anyways... visited Sri Mariamman Temple today...packed like craazyy...hari raya comes next monday and tuesdsay...will miss out on those festivities....its interested to witness a country celebrate a holiday outside of western realms...the streets are covered with lights and little india i must say...a bit ragged compared to the mall infested orchard road...looks quite festively lit up....

 

disturbing cannes festival winner...saw it 2 nights ago...and just thinking about it makes me cringe....gawd i'm getting bored here...shiite~

 

11:22 PM

bali-ed out!

2 days 4 dives....a stingray and a shark...and SEVERE MOTION SICKNESS....i'm now padi certified~

so i got an email from a friend rhetorically asking how i did not shit in my pants after seeing the shark...the only thing that will make you shit your pants is the food~..."no fish on mondays?" -- obviously the only way to travel is to disregard all local dining convictions and take the plunge into oral euphoria...of course u're rolling the dice to a game of craps...literally....

anaphoric (not even sure if thats a word) "fuck!" -- got the damn shizzles again!...i think this time its only for one night...couldn't even go out last night....beer shits would have been received much warmer than the painful grab your stomach and wince on the ivory squat.....

back to jakarta in a few hours...back to singapore in a few days...then vietnam by next weekend....i can't wait to try one of those fetus egg thingy's....everyone tells me they're super tasty....

 

pictures:

1. atv'ed through rice paddy's....white water rafted down the ayung river...

2. doing stuff like slingshot alone takes some of the fun out of it...also harder to bargain for a cheaper price...dangggit!

3. ground zero in bali....i gotta remind myself to take pictures of the australian embassy in jakarta

4.  barong dancers.....all these dance shows are pretty bS...specifically made to suck tourists' money...10 minutes in...my ass was numb and bored as hell....the dancers are advertised as the main attraction but they take up 5 minutes in the beginning of the show and their roles are servants....the rest of the show is like a wanna be chinese opera of monkeys, bears and birds....

5. kecak dance...its kind of amazing to be on top of a mountain and see people doing tribal ritual dancings...fire hyms and stuff...but again...show was for tourists...annoying with the constant "kecha kecha kecha woong kecha kecha kecha woong"....i almost felt like busta rhymes was gonna come out and rap over the beat.......

oh yea...the view was incredible...i think they raise monkey's there too..friggin jumped on my backpack...scared the living shizzles out of me...

6.  lastly - durian on the street....

 

6:12 PM

**holy shit i saw a shark**

 

i've got sedaris and bourdain in my bag...and i spend much of my time in the air reading the 2 of them...probably the only time i actually get to listen to the ipod too...(no sense in lugging around native music when perusing the western wannabe streets blasting cover after cover) oh yea...so...as far as i'm trying to stray from looking at the world in the eyes of the generic westerner (not only because i'm ethnically asian) the closer i get to wanting to be one of them...it's this weird push pull that i have when trying to write the days events down either here or in the journal...crass,crude,sarcastic,real and above all...pretentiously eloquent...i like it...no...i love it...probably makes sense for you to be reading me writing this...."fitting"

so...i spent yesterday ATV-ing through rice paddy's and going through the countryside...ATV's btw are absolutely amazingly wonderfully SCHWEEET!  drove through small mountainous villages where the people constantly wave to you while you pass...."selamat pagi" (i yelled to them -good morning)...got to splish splash the buggy into a small river...got ridiculously dirty...only to follow up the afternoon with white water rafting through the mountains...the landscape is like...picture stallone going to south america in a lil blow up raft....and there you have it...villagers left and right..children swimming in the green water....our tour guide knew only to purposely drive us into the waterfalls....

today...i signed up for SCUBA!....full day of a solo lessons...i've got 2 dives under my belt...CAN'T believe i'm breathing underwater....shit!....and tomorrow...im completing 2 more dives to get my open water certificate..booya!....

going to see some native dance tomorrow....and volcano on saturday before i leave....no elephant riding--elephants aren't even native to bali...!...oh yea...i did the slingshot thing..alone...f'ing awesome...

i bought wayy too many postcards....if you want one...email me your address....im trying to constantly send them out as i go...

 

4:27 AM

last minute american campaigning has flooded much of the world news
the past few days especially with this election amidst global wars
linked directly with oil issues, a shaky economy, and of course
radical terrorists that disrupt the security of people all over the
world...so here i am also trying to add in my two cents spearheading
into this fury....

it is no secret that wall street heavily roots for a bush victory and
it also is no secret that the media is completely for bush
bashing...with this being said, it is easy to be at gripes with the
one who has shown flaws and has arguably led our country into this
downward spiral...with the phrase "downward spiral" already being
used...i'll move forward by not supporting this elections alternative
counterpart

as the republicans remade themselves after the events of 9/11, bush
recast himself as the accidental protagonist of a new and dramatic
national narrative...he set about elbowing his way into the small
pantheon of modern presidents - FDR after pearl harbor, kennedy during
the cuban missile crisis - who led the nation in profound moments of
peril.  bush stamped his war on terror with great adamant resolve...an
almost stubborn suicidal arrogance especially without the help of
other global powers...al queada and its allies constituted a new kind
of menace, stealthier and less predictable but were the equivalent of
the hitlers and stalins before them and defeating them would require
the same conviction that guided america's previous campaigns.

"america is the world's great force for freedom, unsparing in its use
of pre-emptive might and unstinting in it determination to stamp out
tyranny and terrorism...kerry seemed to offer no grand thematic
equivalent."

in the liberal view, this non-state enemy more closely resembling a
drug cartel than any large threatening regime calls to be cured by
expanding diplomacy abroad in winning the ideological struggle so that

<!--
D(["mb","people stop turning themselves into suicide bombers...while this
resolve seems more humane and almost more correct, it is soo
idealogical that it would take an eternity to acheive close to
nothing, when your own country is being bombed, the quick monstrous
retaliation almost seems like the right thing to do...blame 7th inning
god bless america songs for that one....

this liberal view to work cooperatively with special forces and
foreign governments and restoring an american reputation as a
sensitive seeker of peace is not necessarily the right way to handle a
country in fear...with a country already in the midst of war, the
commander in chief needs to lead the world's greatest army of
patriotic soldiers with worldly conviction, simply ignorant and simply
confident.  kerry does have a realistic apocalyptic view on terrorism
saying that they are a constant nuisance that can never be ended, you
just have to fight it until its not threatening the fabric of your
life.

honestly, these two candidates stand for almost the same end results
in many areas...its just that they take different roles in leadership,
methods, and policy to want to acheive them...in a time where our
country is already at war and kerry's new wave liberal philosophies
are not convincing enough to sway to another alternative so quickly,
i'd have to put him aside for the time being...

it is obvious that a presidents accomplishments are never seen during
their time in office, it is always the results of the previous 4 years
so in this case, bush's first term will most evidently be reflected
now....
",1]
);

//-->
people stop turning themselves into suicide bombers...while this
resolve seems more humane and almost more correct, it is soo
idealogical that it would take an eternity to acheive close to
nothing, when your own country is being bombed, the quick monstrous
retaliation almost seems like the right thing to do...blame 7th inning
god bless america songs for that one....

this liberal view to work cooperatively with special forces and
foreign governments and restoring an american reputation as a
sensitive seeker of peace is not necessarily the right way to handle a
country in fear...with a country already in the midst of war, the
commander in chief needs to lead the world's greatest army of
patriotic soldiers with worldly conviction, simply ignorant and simply
confident.  kerry does have a realistic apocalyptic view on terrorism
saying that they are a constant nuisance that can never be ended, you
just have to fight it until its not threatening the fabric of your
life.

honestly, these two candidates stand for almost the same end results
in many areas...its just that they take different roles in leadership,
methods, and policy to want to acheive them...in a time where our
country is already at war and kerry's new wave liberal philosophies
are not convincing enough to sway to another alternative so quickly,
i'd have to put him aside for the time being...

it is obvious that a presidents accomplishments are never seen during
their time in office, it is always the results of the previous 4 years
so in this case, bush's first term will most evidently be reflected
now....

ok...really no time to finish this...im heading to BALI tonight!

 

Dear Derek:

As for me spreading my butter on the toast of the land…fyi: Indonesia inhabits most of the world’s muslims and its fasting month here….so all nightlife is currently suspended…Singapore has one club…that supposedly everyone who’s 27 has been to since they were 12…..zouk one night….velvet the next….with the amount of flaming lamborghini’s I took that night…I don’t think I want to go back….

 

 

4:45 PM