It's time for some sports madness. The FIFA World Cup starts in less than two weeks, which is very important if you happen to live in the world. Unless you live in the US or Canada, of course.
If you're Canadian, even more important is the fact that there's A CANADIAN TEAM (the Edmonton Oilers) in the Stanley Cup Finals! The last time a Canadian team made it this far was 1994. And the last time a Canadian team actually won The Cup was the montreal canadiens in 1992.
All this excitement should help me ease back into life in nepal. After a month in thailand (ahh, wonderful thailand), all the things that i took as minor inconveniences have now, upon return, become Major Obstacles. simple things, really, like air conditioning, paved roads, the rule of law, running water (did i really think it was ok to hike down to a well every morning??), decent food, milk shakes, ultimate, disc golf, liberal culture, blah de blah moan moan.
at least i've got really cool shoes. and i know the x-men would wear them because they have special properties.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
one night in bangkok
ance back in Kathmandu, for better or for worse. i think i might spend the weekend assimilating the events from my and Claire's last night out in Bangkok:
even the afternoon started out strange enough: we went to the Museum of Forensic Science followed by the Museum of Anatomy (if you don't like gruesome, skip the next three paragraphs.) I was equally fascinated and appalled by the things they have on display there. For instance the slowly mummifying remains of a serial killer, who apparently ate the livers of his victims. There was a pan under his feet because he was still, uh, drying up. Also saw formadahyde displays of brains with bullet wounds, various pictures of ways to die (grenade, severing of left wrist, bullet, etc), fetuses and a gruesome display of the tsunami disaster.
Further down, a the Museum of Anatomy I kept thinking that my brother and dad (both doctors) would love it. First though, Claire and I took a wrong turn and ended up in the morgue. Wonderful. In the museum itself were lots of full bodies stored in formadahyde, stripped to reveal muscle groups, the nervous system, the blood vessels, etc. There was also a series of cross-sections of a human body, starting from the scalp down to the pelvis.
This being Thailand (home of the original Siamese twins), there was a large display on conjoined twins including many, many fetuses in bottles. The model depictions were enough (really), thank you. There were also many famous thai generals in glass closets... at least their skeletons were.
ok so! then we went out for drinks. tried to get into a really posh bar first but failed because a bright yellow t-shirt, capri pants and my new totally wicked X-men shoe/sandals didn't pass the dress code.
found an irish pub that featured a thai kereoke duo. of course. had a guiness (on draught). as the smiley, bouncey kereoke girl and the joy of 80s synth wore off, we went down the street, took a right and found ourselves in the gay district. we watched a scantily-clad caberet dance and giggle, mostly thai numbers but it did include 'welcome to thailand, the land of fun'. there was an astonishing number of gorgeous thai thansexuals parading up and down the narrow street.
some tequila and many drinks later, we were at our third club on the strip. ran into a bloke who used to work for VSO fundraising and he was absolutely appalled that we had to find our own accomodations at VSON. I'm sure he would've stuck around to chat, but he had just taken half a viagra and, since he was going commando, he happened to be feeling a little twitchy.
this was a monday night, so i guess the bars were closing a little early. as we finished our drinks, wondering where to go next, all the cute boys wearing neon green shirts that announced their names in bold letters - NU, OLAY, EK, BOBBY- chimed in and cheerily wished us a good night.
then things started to get wierd. the next street over and we were suddenly in part of bangkok's infamous red light district. through every door your could see tables of thai women dancing around poles. a man approached us with a laminated list of sights to see and oh, i wish i had taken a picture or could remember even a fraction of what was on that list. we chose the ping pong show.
we were led to some seedy, blue-lit bar with men crouched behind tables, all watching the center pole-dancing table. we never did end up seeing the ping pong show, but let's just say i will never be able to hear a bike horn (the squeezable kind) without flashbacks. or light a sparkler for that matter. there were three people around our table, demanding money for fees and other made up stuff, so Claire led the charge and we left.
back on street that, for some reason, was littered with metal crates and forklifts darting around, through and between prostitutes and drunken tourists. i decided they were full of mail order brides. we sat down at the end of the street and a taxi driver came up with the usual wish-list. Claire decided to see just how much you could get. as she bartered i watched some bloke walk off with not one, not two, but three thai girls.
i was getting a little freaked out. claire had the man down to two girls for a week, plus a snake, plus a monkey for something like 20,000 bhaat (about $500 CDN). the man wasn't sure about the snake but he guaranteed the monkey. at this point i grabbed Claire's hand, pointed at the man and shouted out angrily "no monkey! bad! no monkey!"
we went into one of the pole-dancing places just as it was closing. i guess there was no dressing room, because suddenly the girls just got down off the table, started chatting, smoking and putting their clothes on. i was getting really wierded out. everywhere i looked girls were making eyes with me- even when they were deeply engaged in conversation with some john, they'd be raising eyebrows and nodding whenever they caught my eye.
spent the end of the night dancing in some other bar.
anyway, not many pictures from the night but here's one of me imitating the cabaret dancers. if your monitor is good, you can see metal crates and prostitutes behind me.
even the afternoon started out strange enough: we went to the Museum of Forensic Science followed by the Museum of Anatomy (if you don't like gruesome, skip the next three paragraphs.) I was equally fascinated and appalled by the things they have on display there. For instance the slowly mummifying remains of a serial killer, who apparently ate the livers of his victims. There was a pan under his feet because he was still, uh, drying up. Also saw formadahyde displays of brains with bullet wounds, various pictures of ways to die (grenade, severing of left wrist, bullet, etc), fetuses and a gruesome display of the tsunami disaster.
Further down, a the Museum of Anatomy I kept thinking that my brother and dad (both doctors) would love it. First though, Claire and I took a wrong turn and ended up in the morgue. Wonderful. In the museum itself were lots of full bodies stored in formadahyde, stripped to reveal muscle groups, the nervous system, the blood vessels, etc. There was also a series of cross-sections of a human body, starting from the scalp down to the pelvis.
This being Thailand (home of the original Siamese twins), there was a large display on conjoined twins including many, many fetuses in bottles. The model depictions were enough (really), thank you. There were also many famous thai generals in glass closets... at least their skeletons were.
ok so! then we went out for drinks. tried to get into a really posh bar first but failed because a bright yellow t-shirt, capri pants and my new totally wicked X-men shoe/sandals didn't pass the dress code.
found an irish pub that featured a thai kereoke duo. of course. had a guiness (on draught). as the smiley, bouncey kereoke girl and the joy of 80s synth wore off, we went down the street, took a right and found ourselves in the gay district. we watched a scantily-clad caberet dance and giggle, mostly thai numbers but it did include 'welcome to thailand, the land of fun'. there was an astonishing number of gorgeous thai thansexuals parading up and down the narrow street.
some tequila and many drinks later, we were at our third club on the strip. ran into a bloke who used to work for VSO fundraising and he was absolutely appalled that we had to find our own accomodations at VSON. I'm sure he would've stuck around to chat, but he had just taken half a viagra and, since he was going commando, he happened to be feeling a little twitchy.
this was a monday night, so i guess the bars were closing a little early. as we finished our drinks, wondering where to go next, all the cute boys wearing neon green shirts that announced their names in bold letters - NU, OLAY, EK, BOBBY- chimed in and cheerily wished us a good night.
then things started to get wierd. the next street over and we were suddenly in part of bangkok's infamous red light district. through every door your could see tables of thai women dancing around poles. a man approached us with a laminated list of sights to see and oh, i wish i had taken a picture or could remember even a fraction of what was on that list. we chose the ping pong show.
we were led to some seedy, blue-lit bar with men crouched behind tables, all watching the center pole-dancing table. we never did end up seeing the ping pong show, but let's just say i will never be able to hear a bike horn (the squeezable kind) without flashbacks. or light a sparkler for that matter. there were three people around our table, demanding money for fees and other made up stuff, so Claire led the charge and we left.
back on street that, for some reason, was littered with metal crates and forklifts darting around, through and between prostitutes and drunken tourists. i decided they were full of mail order brides. we sat down at the end of the street and a taxi driver came up with the usual wish-list. Claire decided to see just how much you could get. as she bartered i watched some bloke walk off with not one, not two, but three thai girls.
i was getting a little freaked out. claire had the man down to two girls for a week, plus a snake, plus a monkey for something like 20,000 bhaat (about $500 CDN). the man wasn't sure about the snake but he guaranteed the monkey. at this point i grabbed Claire's hand, pointed at the man and shouted out angrily "no monkey! bad! no monkey!"
we went into one of the pole-dancing places just as it was closing. i guess there was no dressing room, because suddenly the girls just got down off the table, started chatting, smoking and putting their clothes on. i was getting really wierded out. everywhere i looked girls were making eyes with me- even when they were deeply engaged in conversation with some john, they'd be raising eyebrows and nodding whenever they caught my eye.
spent the end of the night dancing in some other bar.
anyway, not many pictures from the night but here's one of me imitating the cabaret dancers. if your monitor is good, you can see metal crates and prostitutes behind me.
Monday, May 08, 2006
so... totally... awesome
it's the only disc golf course in South East Asia.
i spotted it entirely by accident while going through the map of Ko Samui. the course is high up in the hills: coconut trees, fire ants, lizards.
Apparently the German score took the guy six weeks of coming up and playing a round every day. The american is actually a player in the PDGA. he had the course dialed in after three days. i did all right! I got the canadian top score after only two days. i guess it's up to C. Lewis or Dane to trek down here and ruin my record, but I think I might be staying up on the board for a while yet...
Friday, May 05, 2006
photos
it's been a long time since i've posted anything up on webshots (mostly because the internet in nepal can't take the strain). but i've set up a new album here with pictures of thailand. sadly, all these photos are of temples and scenic things like that. the drunken fool photos are on everyone else's cameras.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
ahhh
Thailand is a wonderful place. Thai is a little harder to speak than Nepali, but I have no complaints. Flying into Bangkok with Claire & Ciara, I was the only one to go and check out various temples while they hit the hi-tech malls. I admit after the temples, though, I enjoyed the A/C, sushi bars, hi-speed internet (that's realyl hi-speed), had a starbucks banana mochachino, skytrain, real cinemas, etc. I basically gorged on all the things Kathmandu doesn't have. I'm sure I'll miss Kathmandu soon. I'm sure of it.
Right now, though, I'm on Ko Samui. The ocean for the first time in seven months! The ride down was a little grueling: 19 hrs or something of busses, waiting, busses, ferries, taxis, pickup trucks, etc. Now that I'm here it's wonderful. I was a little worried since I'm trying to print/fax/scan/send some contracts for a couple of pieces I wrote, but now that I'm here I can see there's no reason for panic.
I plan on walking down the beach into town to find out the schedule for scuba dives. That's my plan for the day, in fact.
Right now, though, I'm on Ko Samui. The ocean for the first time in seven months! The ride down was a little grueling: 19 hrs or something of busses, waiting, busses, ferries, taxis, pickup trucks, etc. Now that I'm here it's wonderful. I was a little worried since I'm trying to print/fax/scan/send some contracts for a couple of pieces I wrote, but now that I'm here I can see there's no reason for panic.
I plan on walking down the beach into town to find out the schedule for scuba dives. That's my plan for the day, in fact.
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