Bang!

Somewhere in Phnom Penh, something just got scorched.



I'm glad it wasn't me...

Meanwhile, back in Bangkok. Indra, Thor, and Zeus - gods of thunder, lightning, and all things that go boom in the night, unleashed 1,000 bolts of lightning onto the City of Angels, one for each of Thailand's military coups.



...but not all at once of course, I just made a really long exposure. The picture was taken out my hotel window. I contemplated standing on the roof to get a better view, but thought better of it...

"If you can read this, the family fell off."

Poor bike... Auckland cars are spoilt rotten!

This is a daily spectacle in Thailand, but just when you think you've seen it all... I was in Siem Reap and encountered the most comical scene: Middle-aged father (presumably) on bike holding toddler in arms while older kid (maybe 6 or 7 years) steers. The kid is standing on the step-through platform, and can just see over the handlebars. They're not wearing helmets, let alone holding onto anything solid!

OK la!

On my last night in Singapore I left the air-conditioned comfort of my hotel and wandered out onto Orchard Rd to see what was going on.

Orchard Rd is an enclave of diversion. By day it's brimming with shoppers who like to try on designer clothing, apparently by night with those more concerned with removing it.

I wandered into Harry's bar. It was full of expats, plus this soul wailin' some blues (equivocal gender, but unquestionable determination!). It was a bit crowded so I ventured back out into the night and found a quieter spot across the street.

A Texan fellow sitting next to me at the bar recommended a Singapore Sling, pointing out where I was after all. I went along despite a lingering recollection of the toxic crimson red syrup I once tried in Thailand, after all such things are usually better in their country of origin (except pizza, which is now best left to the Japanese). It was good - although still too sweet for my tastes. I prefer the tongue-twisting astringence of a good G&T (it fends off malaria, as well as the blues!). Had I tried one from Raffles bar (where it was invented early last century) it might have been great, I can't be certain. Either way, if wikipedia has any clue I would have been $24.70 poorer.

A comedy act came on stage, and I had another uneasy moment thinking something was a bit off. The pretty lady on stage kicked off with some jokes about Malaysians - in a deep husky voice - and suddenly it all made sense. The Texan chap downed his drink and split, mumbling something about stomach pains.



There were a few good gags to start with, but it all made less and less sense with each language introduced to the mix. I can handle English with a sprinkling of Singlish and Mandarin, but once they start chopping into Malay, Hakka, and Cantonese I'm lost.

I was ready to hit the sack for my 6am start back to Chiang Mai so went on my way, doing my best to walk with purpose and avoid eye contact with anyone who looked like they might try to proposition me with a commercial transaction.

I walked back toward my hotel through the overbearing heat, sweating profusely in the thick evening air. A shiny lambourghini glided past, and I thought how painful it must be to own a magnificent toy like that in a country with an 80km/h speed limit you can drive across in half an hour.

Singapore is an interesting place, don't be fooled by it's diminutive size.

The Wrong Hotel, Giant Crustaceans, etc

Asked by a friend if I had a busy day, I replied: Yes.

I woke at 5am, deposited my less frequently used posessions at the hotel storage room, checked out (including some time wasted arguing the unusually excessive room rate - yeah the company pays, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? Besides, a bit of early morning argument is good for the soul), flight to Bangkok, breakfast, flight to Singapore, contend with grumpy airport types, taxi, factory, set up machine, out to dinner at "Singapore's largest seafood restaurant"* with industry people, go to hotel, find it's the wrong hotel (Sorry Sir, you need the Other Holiday Inn), wait 10 minutes for taxi during Singapore's taxi happy hour, taxi to correct hotel, check in, then out to catch up with boss who's also here by chance).
Somewhere in there I also realised I lost an hour going forward one time zone, d'oh.

*The Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant. Their live catch section was impressive, they even had New Zealand lobster ($179/kilo, anyone?) and huge mutant crabs.

I asked my boss earlier if he was going to join us for dinner - he replied with this text message, which I found amusing: "I hate going to seafood places here, they love feeding you poisonous shite and you can't escape". I liked it anyway, particularly the aquarium bit.

Lest There Be Any Confusion

I encountered a rather inexplicable sight the other day. A great lumbering beast, of epic proportions - like none I'd ever seen before (or so I thought!) - plodding down the highway as cars and trucks flew by. As I drew nearer, my imagination struggling to identify it, running through all the possible creatures it could be, I spotted a small red sign posted to its rear. It was....

An elephant!



Thanks for the heads up, guys... Pure legend.

Chiang Mai

Home away from home again... The hotel breakfast got boring several months ago, but I still like the view from my room on the 22nd floor:



Over to the right you can see the base of Doi Suthep, and the airport is somewhere in the middle of the picture a few clicks away. At night I can see planes coming in to land.

I took this shot from the top of the building (I snuck out the fire escape) at dusk. The small light on the side of the mountain is the Wat - a large, and locally famous, Buddhist temple.



Look up 18°47'1.58"N, 98°59'56.63"E in Google Earth/maps to see where I'm writing this from.

China Haze-O-Meter, Thursday July 24

Today's Haze-O-Meter report is from a special guest location! I overnighted at Shanghai Pudong airport - that way I only had to get up at 5am for my 8am flight back to Thailand.




I took this shot from my hotel window at 5.43 this morning looking west toward terminal 2, about 1km away, just visible in the top left corner.

China Haze-O-Meter, Wednesday July 23

Well well, what's this then? Skyscrapers in the distance? Should be a good day!

China Haze-O-Meter, Tuesday, July 22

A small town in the indistrial backwaters of the east-coast mainland China megalopolis, about an hour south of Shanghai.

High: 32C
Low: 27C
Humidity: 84%
Dewpoint: 24C
Windspeed: 3km/h, SE

And so on.

The best way I've found to determine whether to stay inside or not is to gauge how far I can see into the distance from my apartment balcony in the morning.



I can't see the skyscrapers behind the white apartment blocks in the distance, so I think I'll stay inside today.

Shopping Shenannigans

Our little town's western culinary delights are are limited to KFC (kendegi) and Macca's (maidanglau - can I get a hanbaobao?), both of which are getting dull.



Flatmates and I headed for RT-Mart, the local supermarket, in search of western produce (hah! How naive). We'd just come from work and had our bags with, so held them low and went in with a crowd so the pesky security girls at the door wouldn't force us to leave them at the information counter for the staff to rummage through.

Made it, whew. Shopping trolley. Traffic jam up ahead, quick - swing it 180. Too late, gridlock. Wait for the old lady up ahead to finish picking out suitable chicken feet. Ok, moving again - slowly - RT Mart is THE place to be on a Monday night.

Live turtles in the fish section caught my eye - only 40RMB per kg! I'm pretty sure they were meant for eating (along with the bullfrogs) but I'm never quite certain.

Sometimes I make the mistake of engaging the staff for help with only my limited mandarin - where to find niche products like milk and cornflakes, for example. The problem is I know just enough to ask, but too little to understand the response (this is the fundamental flaw behind the concept of travel phrasebooks too - don't get suckered!). Invariably there's a word or five I don't understand in the answer. Now here's the thing. When it emerges I don't understand? The kindly soul jots it all down in Chinese for me, neglecting to consider that if I can't speak the language, I probably have little hope of reading it.

I dropped into the convenciance store on the way home to pick up some Red Bull (it doesn't taste like Red Bull, and comes in a strange can, but hey). Next to the cashier was a stand dedicated entirely to prophylactics - some 49 varieties - quite a few for a convenience store in conservative lands.



A combo pack of Trojans will set you back a meagre 38 RMB (about $9). Hehe, Trojan...