Phnom Penh is in two words, fucking crazy. It's the SE Asia that your mother warned you about.
The heart of darkness as they say.

The seige of the airports in Bangkok officially ended the day before the kings birthday with relatively little bloodshed.
Just a few bombs and a grenade launched into the airport.

I later learned that the governments reluctance to inflict any harm on the protestors was due to the Kings insistance that the Thai are one people and should not be killing each other regardless the differences.  Like I said before, the Thai King is immensely beloved by the populace. In part because they are trained to from youth, in part because the king actually shows some signs of wisdom and love for his people.

Despite the airport seige ending, flights back to Ho Chi Minh city would not resume until sometime  late in the following week. I decided to go through Cambodia and do a whirlwind tour of the hotspots on the way. 

After two blissfully relaxing weeks in the small mountain valley town of Pai I headed back to Chang Mai, the unofficial capitol of Northern Thailand. The night I arrived I went to check out a Muay Thai card at Thae Pae stadium. 8 official fights and one "special fight" with a free cabaret show afterwards. 

Thae Pae stadium is more like a large bar with a ring in the middle, unlike the crowded bleachers of lumpinee stadium in Bangkok. The first few fights included a bout between a 13 and 14 year old and a couple of 12 year olds going at it. Kids at this age have alot heart, believe me, though they have to fight shorter rounds because of their age. The "special fight" was basically halftime entertainment. 4 thai fighters got in the ring and the ref put blind folds on them and the hilarity ensued. Looked like they were wearing 16 oz gloves but weren't pulling any punches and even the ref got hammered a couple of times. All in good fun though. 
The main event was between a couple of fast rising up and comers including the locally trained favorite Chelsea May. Who despite the name is actually a native Thai. The guest announcer, some Dutch K1 fighter gave the advantage to May before the bell sounded. Sure enough, 2 minutes into the first round Chelsea May displayed spectacular speed and accuracy with a jab, cross, hook combo that floored his opponent and it was over. I didn't stay for the Cabaret show.  Behind me some drunken brutish brit was begging one of the Muay Thai fighters to kick him full force in the arm while his son filmed it.

The next day 

Waiting for the bus to bangkok back at the smile house inn.  I wanted to sit on the comfy couch next to the pool and read some of the new book I just picked up The White Tiger, only to find some girl sprawled out fast asleep on it, a book rested next to her head. I sat down on a chair next  beside the couch and began to read, it's basically a story based in india and is presented as a letter to the prime minister of china  from a man that consideres himself and entrepeneur and philosopher but also happens to be a thief and a murderer. Really quite hilarious actually.
As I sat there reading the resident black cat came up meowing but refused to come to me when I stuck out my hand and beckoned, preferring to curl up to the warm sleeping body of the blond girl on the couch.
A few minutes passed and the resident mutt did the same thing, choosing to curl up next to the cat and the girl on the couch.
Hmm, I thought to myself. A few more minutes and she woke asking for a coffee and lighting up a cigarette when it arrived.
Coffee and cigarettes I thought to myself. A better never marriage was never made.
I asked to bum a smoke off her and explained how I had actually quit smoking earlier in the day and threw my pack away when a young monk passed me and coughed when I lit up a cigarette.
"Yeah I've thrown many packs away, it's always the last time, I actually only started smoking out here, I don't smoke back home. " she said.
I noticed a rasta bracelet on her arm with marijuana leaves encircling it.
" I guess its because I smoke so much weed when I'm back at home, maybe I'm just compensating for some oral fixation."
I told her about Pai and how she could easily get weed there, along with potent mushrooms.
Karen, was her name. She was from Michigan but had lived a few places attending different universities. Psych major. Loves to snowboard, and loves her family. She had the kind of warm friendly smile that told you how genuine she was being. Small town kinda girl with a wordly personality. Probably the coolest American I've met my entire trip.
But our meeting was shortlived. The bus was waiting and I was being hearded onto a Soi Taxi to be taken to it.
Met a couple of bleeding heart americans on the taxi. They were traveling to New Zealand next to volunteer on some organic farms, in return they get two hots and a cot for free. The program is called something like WOOF.
I asked where the farm was in NZ that they were going and the male of the couple told me that "you can WOOF all over the world". I said I that I certainly could and the taxi erupted with laughter.

On the bus

I sat next to an asian looking girl. I found out though that she was actually from france. Krista was her name and she was a french born child of Chinese immigrants. The combination of her french accent when speaking english and chinese vocal chords was incredibly sonorous to my ears. She could have been talking about the details of  her engineering degree and how she wanted to be a waste management specialist and it would have and did sound like some fairy god mother reading me a bed time story.  She had the kind of voice that made me want to be a boy again and have her talk me to sleep every night. It was like some fairy tale movie narration every time she spoke.

The moon was smiling.

In SE Asia the moon waxes and wanes horizontally to your field of vision. Both mars and venus were bright in the early evening and when the crecsent moon was below them it looked as if there was a smiling face in the night sky, with one white and one red eye.

Last night in Bangkok.

After catching some shut eye after the 12 hour trip from Chang Mai I grabbed some food and took a taxi to Pat Pong. The infamous red light district. I was resolved to see one of the ping pong freak shows in person and left all moral judgements at the hotel room.
As soon as I got there a young man approached me and asked if I wanted to see ping pong. Wow, I thought, that was effing fast. He led me through a maze of bars and stalls loaded with fake designer wares sold for uber cheap. The place is crowded with package tourist, especially female, loading their bags with best fakes money can buy.
He then led me down an alley just off the main street of Pat Pong and up some dirty stairs lit buy an old flourescent tube. The doorman didn't even budge when we passed.
Inside looked like your standard strip/go go bar. Lit stage with multiple poles surrounded by pleather benches and bar tables. Apparently the show is continuous and the routines are repeated throughout the night.
I got there just as the short chubby thai woman was loading a ping pong ball into her vagina. She spreads her legs, the music stops and Fwoop!, an orange ping pong ball is launched at an unsuspecting patron. She repeats this across the room. Then there was the birthday cake act, candles get blown out, you can imagine how that goes. I had a few beers by the time they reached the dart act and was feeling really gregarious, I was clapping and hollering at the performers and would give them a 20 baht tip if they did something interesting. Course they surrounded me like hyena's after the kill but it's easy to tell them no, besides it was an effing hilarious scene in my eyes. A katoey (Transgender, Thailand is full of them) sidled up to me and we started chatting it up. I asked her about her, uh, situation and decision to become a woman. She said she had the operation, that's right, snipped and tucked, and that she's only had the silicone tits for a couple of years and is still getting used to them.
At which point she undid her bra and told me I could touch them, having never felt a pair of fake tits, I did just that, reached out with both hands and gave them a couple of examinatory squeezes.
Then someone suprised me from the other side and shoved a baloon (or was it a condom, not sure) into my hand. I looked over to the stage and there was a petite woman spread wide in my direction with a metal tube inserted.
"Higher!" all the bar girls yelled.
I held it up as high as I could. The music stopped and whoosh, a dart flew by just missing. The next one hit and startled me with a lound pop. I laughed and gave the girl 20 baht, which is roughly 65 cents if you were wondering. On stage another girl had insterted a blue magic marker and was writing something on a blank white sheet of paper. She bounced and swerved her hips with tremendous skill, it looked as if she had invented some strange cross breed of a dance. When she was done she held up the paper and in perfect english script, no accidental lines or marks, it said
WELCOME TO THAILAND!
The club erupted with laughter and she had a huge shit eating grin on her face.
The paper was given to a german couple sitting next to me. They hadn't laughed or smiled, or even moved, that I noticed, the entire show. Just there to feel a bit naughty eh?
"Fwop", the table shakes and I look down to see a small peeled banana rolling across the floor just below. The ping pong artist had just done a drive by while I wasn't looking. Thank buddha it hit the table post instead of me. I caught pong girls eye, grimaced and smiled. She yipped with joy and bounced off laughing like some self satisfied gremlin.

I spent the entirety of the next day hung over on a bus to cambodia.

Cambodia looks like the SE Asia you see in the movies. Dirt poor, palm trees and rice paddies, dirt roads, it's easy to imagine it as a once worn torn country seen in so many american movies.

My first stop was Siem Reap, home of the legendary Angkor Wat. Coming into the city is like passing through some portal from the third world to a developed city. Tourism to the temples there has had a dramatic impact.
I paid a Tuk Tuk driver to take me to Angkor at 5 am the next morning and I watched the sun rise over the temple.
The place was packed by 6 with tourist from literally all over the world. I have pictures and will post when I can.
Soon after leaving Angkor Wat I was on a bus to Phnom Penh.

Let me just say this about cambodia at this time. Despite being the poorest country I have ever been to the people are generally very friendly. It's true that they won't miss an opportunity to price gouge a tourist, which can make it at times twice as expensive as thailand, it is also easy to find out where they won't gouge you and then it's unbelievably cheap, for the most part they are full of smiles and curiosity, but make no mistake, crooks rule the roost.

Phnom Penh

I arrived in the evening and took a tuk tuk to the lakeside area. I had read this was where all the backpackers go.
I got a room at the No Problem guest house. 8 dollars got me a room with a hot shower and only smelled slightly bad, tolerable, and I was tired. I walked out through the dark alley that led to my guest house around the corner towards the bars. Passed the magic sponge bar and some brit kid hands me a flier. free beer with 4$ traditional khmer food and the evenings entertainment being traditional dances by a group of orphans at the No. 10 bar.
ok, sounds good, on the way a tuk tuk driver asked me if I wanted any smoke.
"Sure, just a joint, you know one cigarette".
So I scored a handfull of cambodian weed for five bucks and walked into the No. 10 bar.
I found out later that you can buy pre rolled spliffs for a buck from the magic sponge right at the bar. They even sell Happy Pizza around here with weed as a topping. You can roll it and smoke it right in public without worrying. The cops turn a blind eye for a measly fee of 2.50 cents a month from each of the bar owners. You can get pretty much any thing else around here as well I found out from a suprisingly literate brit ex cocaine dealer here to find work as an english instructor. 

to be cont....

So it's freezing cold at night now in Pai. The mist settles over the town as soon as the sun drops behind the mountains and gives us an unexpected wet blanket of chill.  My hammock broke while I was on it, a hilarious scene indeed, but I have a spare in better condition, and shorts and a tank top are only a distant memory while this chill is upon me.
Cold nights have more than once found me drinking around the bonfire at the Don't Cry bar until 5 am, swearing I wouldn't do it again only to repeat it the next night.  (more on Don't Cry later)

The airports in Bangkok have been besieged by anti-government protesters known as the PAD (Peoples Alliance for Democracy). They are known as yellow shirts locally because they wear yellow which is the color of the king. (FYI, the King is exceedingly beloved by all Thais, his birthday is a national holiday, everyone stands in tribute to him during his song which plays before every movie in a Thai theater and pictures of him are hung everywhere across the country and is on every denomination of paper money.)
There have been no flights in or out of Bangkok for six days. The situation is growing more tense and fears of violence between the yellow and reds (the pro govt group) is growing. There are over 100 thousand tourists stranded in Thailand of which I am one.
My flight was scheduled to leave Bangkok for Saigon on Tuesday but it has been canceled by Air France for obvious reasons. When flights will resume is a mystery to most.
I have decided I have 2 choices.
1. Wait out the political unrest on an island in the south of Thailand, refueling on the warmth of the sun and the steady rhythmic calm of the ocean tides before returning to a gray American winter.
2. Strike out on an overland adventure through Cambodia to Saigon and leaving Thailand behind (something I am reluctant to do as I love thailand)

I'll meditate on it as I am traveling back to Chang Mai tomorrow.
Hopefully I'll gather the strength of will to avoid the bonfire and beer tonight and get some sleep.

So it's been awhile since I've visited this page. I suppose I can use the excuse that I have been too busy travelling, living, to come to an internet cafe and update this so called travelogue.
I am in Thailand now. A little town in the north called Pai, famous among the backpacker community for it's laid back atmosphere and it's sublime scenery.
Everybody raise a toast to the resident muse Jennaxcide for prodding me to write this evening. Korp di Krup! Here's a large bottle of Leo beer to ya!
Before I forget I want to wish everyone a warm and happy Thanksgiving. I'll be thinking of you as swing in my hammock under a bamboo hut with my shorts and tank top on (smirk).

I don't feel a particular need this evening to fill everybody in on the wheres, whats  and whos that I have been to, seen and met.

Instead my mind is preoccupied with other subject matters. Destiny and Karma.

But first I suppose I will revisit an interesting occurrence relevant to my visit to Vietnam.

"Dream is Destiny"
quote from the movie Waking Life. (written in the paper flower game of a child)

Before going to Vietnam I had a vivid dream.

In my dream I was with my mother and grandmother visiting a museum in Vietnam. The ticket agent told me to wait while the matriarchs in my dream proceeded inside. I was to wait for an english speaking tour guide. A short, young vietnamese woman appeared dressed in official uniform. She was of a serious demeanor and spoke a broken but understandable english with a vietnamese accent ofcourse.
I spoke to her awhile trying to make her smile with lighthearted banter but she was very direct and refused to soften her tone. When she went to leave I felt a loneliness and asked her to stay. She said she would stay if I could name the god that rules her city. I stumbled in my dream and the only name I could come up with was Dionysus. When I spoke his name she smiled and said YES with an excited fervence.
We talked nonsense for a while and the dream was over.

Fast forward to Nha Trang Vietnam.

Nha Trang is a famous beach town on the south central coast of Vietnam. The Miss Universe pagaent was held there this year and many of the locals and travellers that I have spoken with describe it as a party town. This is the town wherein I was first accosted by a pimp to go boom-boom GI style with a pretty massage girl.  There are many foreigners, travelers and ex-pats in this town as well, lending to a western  bar and pub style atmosphere. A city of festivals, a dionysian city.
I traveled up to this town via express train from Saigon with my mother and aunt.
The first day was mostly uneventful. Just wide eyed curiosity while walking around and taking in the alien atmosphere.
I had chosen a separate hotel than my mother and aunt because I needed the space and wanted to be a little more on my own, as I had just spent the first week with them in Saigon.
The second day there, as we were going to board a boat to go visit some islands my mother suddenly turns to me and says matter of factly
"i have a date for you tonight with a vietnamese girl, she's a tour guide and speaks english".
"what?" I turn to her in surprise.
"yeah, the desk girl at my hotel saw you yesterday when you came to see me and told me you were so handsome so I asked her if she knew any nice, pretty, vietnamese girls to introduce to me and she said her cousin speaks english".
silence
"hmm"

"just to be friends you know, no big deal"

remembering the dream I had I agreed.

Her name was Cuc, and as I found out later she was not a tour guide but the manager of a tour agency. She studied english for 4 years at the university and spoke relatively good english but there were some barriers.
We went to her favorite bar and talked about her family (ofcourse), she comes from a farm not farm from nha trang, in the hills. Her love for her mother would bring her to near tears when she recounted to me how her father died and how her mother remains on the farm and how she would visit her by motorbike when she can. She of a serious nature. Life is hard for many of the people who grow up there and only a stern resilience will allow for survival. The "date" was relatively short lived, we finished it off with a true vietnamese night cap. Her cousin, the desk clerk was back at the hotel with some fermented duck eggs, so we went back and ate them with salt, pepper and lime.
Then I went back to my hotel. On the way ....."Hey you, you want massage, pretty girl, only hundred dong? You want girl, go boom-boom GI?"
Me laughing my ass off...."boom-boom GI?" I felt like I had stepped out of the set of scent of green papaya and into full metal jacket.

So I meditate, in this land of Buddha and ghosts. Has my belief in Karma changed? It is not the common reincarnation mantra so popular with those that need an explanation of death. Somehow destiny has snuck it's grubby little paw prints into this vague and foggy picture and left me seeking some wisdom on the matter.

Feel free to reply with any thoughts or stories, immediately relevant or not.
What seems random today may be a bullet through the heart of the matter tomorrow.

Love to all,

I'll leave you with the lyrics to a song that I consider to be one of the most inspired musical orchestrations of  our time. If you can, listen to it in it's entirety after reading this.

ALL I WANT IS YOU

U2

You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want your story to remain untold
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

You say you'll give me a highway with no one on it
Treasure, just to look upon it
All the riches in the night
You say you'll give me eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

You say you want your love to work out right
To last with me through the night
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
Your story to remain untold
Your love not to grow cold
All the promises we break
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

You
All I want is you
All I want is you
All I want is you



 

www.photobucket.com/explorerx for photos.