"all hell is going to break loose on friday"

the weather here is awesome!!!....barring the mini typhoon midday yesterday...but that could have just been god prefacing bobby's arrival.  "bring da raucous" but seriously, the weather is cool with the occasional zephyr sweeping the eyelash off ur face.  pollution seems to be minimal and allows u to fully concentrate on the boisterous bustle of vietnam.  honking, spitting, yelling, the seemingly loud obnoxious nature of the language.....and this effing loud construction banging on the floor above me.  moving on....

sorry guys, no pictures.  just stories. just anecdotes. just folklore.  from last night.

instead of being overwhelmed by the hype of bobby, i found myself enamoured by singaporean machismo.  during my MAY07 travels to dongguan, china, i posted on taiwanese machismo.  and all local chinese habits are nuances of each other but nonetheless idiosyncratically awesomely different.  i've only touched on the singaporean "ah beng" description, but u readers have all been lucky enough to see actual footage of the local of all locals, mr jae "confuse-us" lee.  where do you think i'm learning all my singaporean slang? "talk cock sing song play mah jong ahhhh" and the new one that's going to get me killed "diao simi diao, diao simi lan jiao" hahahah.....and where do you think i learn my hokkien songs from? "NASIWAWOOJIPABAN!"....

anyways, last night, we were out with the korean and a mr simon.  the true essence of this singaporean trader was hyped to me for months on end, and i didn't really get the full picture until last night.  the complete inverse of an adonis.  wrinkled "what used to white" sweat stained shirt (he was actually wearing a yellow polo but the image of tattered off white is stuck in my head).  flow-bee haircut with the physique of an "iduncarewutilooklike" person.  squinty eyed and slouching as service pours drinks.  veteran of the shoddy and gets straight to the point.  i will hang out with him more, most definitely, next time hopefully a joint venture with a malay trader in kallang.  yee haW!  ended up at the club on the 1st floor of our hotel.

someone, somewhere up there must have realized the importance of foreign investment and given a decree to protect expats...and it's blatant.  locals think i look viet, so i don't get the expat treatment, but that doesn't stop them from giving me the viet hospitality "oh u're young and handsome and ...and and and and and treatment".  it's annoying.  however, if u've got a white face, and u lie to the security guys that u're tom hanks, ur table at the club will be encapsulated by 4 security guards and a constant flow of ever changing women in the middle of a bustling club.  it's interesting to see the club split in 2 sections.  an upper level secretly devoted to the "working" and the lower level open to all, foreign and domestic. 

as long as u got this. u're a king. right chomo?



i tried looking for hoan


this is what i call a kamikaze culture.  front door of factory.



some touristy shots sans the petronas building...but check out the architecture.






i wanted to buy viet propaganda posters but wouldn't really want to hang it up.  but the HCM tshirt i bought last time wasn't a big hit in taiwan to say the least, esp with my grandpa.






floodgates of motorbike hell....