From a blabbering Indian guy?

I learned about Abraham Lincoln and was taken to a super sweet three story pet shop in Penang, Malaysia by some old homeless looking Indian guy I met on the bus. Some of the best subjects for conversational Ive had in awhile.

You never never never... ...never know...

Cambo

Cambo usta be the strongest SEAsian country by a long shot. But after spending exuberant amounts on creating the Ankor Temples it left the empire vulnerable to be taken over.

The most famous incident in recent history was the Khmer Rouge genocide.

Pol Pot was the evil "mastermind", he got his communist views while going to school in France. It was a twisted mix of French Marxism and Chinese peasant commie. He forced everybody out of Pennom Pen "a wasteful and consuming city", and the 2 million inhabitants where marched into the countryside to work as farmers, he destroyed the city. Doctors, teachers and engineers where executed. Private property was nationalized, Buddhism banned, money abolished, education downgraded, western medicine rejected. 1975 became 'year zero' and Pol Pot became 'brother number one'. In Pennom Pen they established S21. Formerly a school, converted into a detention center for torture and imprisonment of people who failed the hand test (smooth hands show a life of excess). Khmer Rouge was responsible for about a million lives from 1975-79.
They are mostly remembered for their policy of social engineering, which resulted in genocide. Attempts at agricultural reform led to widespread famine, while its insistence on absolute self-sufficiency, even in the supply of medicine, led to the deaths of thousands from treatable diseases (malaria). The brutality and arbitrary executions and torture are considered to have constituted a genocide. The Khmer Rouge wanted to eliminate anyone suspected of "involvement in free-market activities". Suspected capitalists encompassed professionals and almost everyone with an education, many urban dwellers, and people with connections to foreign governments.










Soo very NOT equal in an attemptingly equal society.




The capital, Penom Penn, is very interesting, there are broken down tuk-tuks pulling up at an intersection right next to a GM Hummer or brand new Benz, with well worn motorbikes filling in any excess space in between till the light changes. Begging young, disabled and the few elders who suffered through the genocide. Old broken down buildings right next to newly built modern sky rises, very unusual but understandable after learning more about the Khmer Rouge and the havoc reeked. There are broken down tuk-tuks pulling up at an intersection right next to a GM Hummer or brand new Benz, with well worn motorbikes filling in any excess space in between till the light changes. The most poverty stricken country Ive seen.


Met some really cool people in Cambo. One German guy in particular that I initially met in Ho Chi Min city, then randomly met up with as soon as I got to Penom Penn. We ended up hanging out most of my time here. He goes by the name of "Freedom", I think what drew us together was our common love of funky fly facial hair/inability to grow a proper beard:

This place is crazy, my first night walkin around P.P. a local asked me "You like to shoot guns man? For about 300bucks you can shoot a grenade launcher up in the mntns, and we let one guy shoot a cow with an ak47 and then he hauled it back to the hostel on a tuk tuk and we all eatem for diner!" crazy shit... A lot of women and kids walk around in pajamas all day, men sometimes just wear a sari or large scarf around their waist with no shirt. The streets have priority,the ranking:
-Gov limos
-Big class A buses
-Big trucks
-Lexus SUVs
-Other SUVs
-Autos-Motos/tuk tuks
-Pedestrians
So you better watch your ass when your lowest on the totem pole...


And you have to pay for alot of stuff with US dollars! they use some reils (name of currency) but they prefer US dolla bills. Its been awhile since ive seen some green backs :)

KamPOT
Stayed at a groovy little hostel just outside of town called Bodhi Villa where we were welcomed with a smoke~~~~~ The owner was a crazy high strung Aussy who showed us vids of him heading down river in a boat and getting yanked out and into the air about 15meters by a kite surfing kite. He also has a sweet recording studio on the property where we jammed a bit. Surrounded by all sorts of drug paraphernalia he reminisced on the good old days touring with his band.

Friday nights he sets up a stage and plays a couple tunes. The night we where there we listened to some 17year old french guy traveling with his parents who took over the stage, he was JAMMIN on the guitar, DAMN good, damn damn good...

In Siem Reap we slept in a hostel with beds located in an outdoor major thoroughfare of peds, yea, but heres the best part: one buck/night!!! Met up with some Spaniards to go to Ankor Wat and we gelled like family :) O, and we had a kid, some Khemr kid I picked up on the way the first morning at about 5am(our first (failed) attempt at seeing the sun rise over A-wat). His english, slim to none, my Khmer, heh.

Cool kid though, he helped make the day into more play. We fed him a couple times but when we tryed to hang out after we got back to the hostel they wouldnt let him in without a parent. The management explained that there were strict laws with the intention of preventing child prostitution. He just stood there puppy dogged, lookin at us. We became friends but we got to sleep in a bed and he had to head back out to the streets.
What else could we do? How could we solve this problem? How could we help? How can we be sure what he will spend the money on? Are we being selfish with our time? Should we reroute our travels to devote ourselves to fixing this problem? Is this a real problem? Are his parents waiting around the corner for the money we give him? What would Buddha do?????

We ended up giving him some money and a couple hugs and the manager helped us send him on his way. We all had a great day, but it was really hard to see it end for him. We met up with him while he was begging a couple nights later, we where on our way to take him to eat diner with us again but some cop sped up on a motorbike, yelled at him, yanked him on the bike and took off...



Ankor Temples:

AAAAMMMAAAAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Had an unbelievable couple of days playing around and staring in awe @ these incredible temples. The second night we climbed up the Bayon temple to catch the sunset and talk about all the sweet shit we had seen and done.

But then all a sudden a ninja came outta the temple!

Its
CLOSING time
BIYYYTCHES

Had a kick ASS time in Cambo (aside from the ass kick)


all with a little help from my friends...

@@ tha movies

There are ripped movies for sale everywhere through SEAsia, and alot of guesthouses show movies or have them on hand to look through.

Crazy subtitles, which I have found a whole new appreciation (now that I dont havem), I get so much more out of it when i can get ALL the dialog. Every word (in a good movie) has been contemplated for its effects on the audience. Its a whole other depth of investigation and appreciation/classical quality. Subtitles are missing or badly translated or terribly translated or hilariously translated. The loud action scenes cause all sound, of course dialog being the most important, to be muffled. The loud action scenes are too loud so you turn the volume down then dialog cannot be heard. All the American phrases are wrong,
ie "come on, lets go, jump in the car"
subtitle: Come, jump with me
And this example is being lenient, it could actually be deciphered, most of the time it's not even close. Sometime its a translation of what the script-er understands it to be, sometimes completely missing.

I rerererewatched the Wolverene movie at a hostel in northern Laos and it was a copy of the movie before all the computer generated imaging was completed. There where grey box men flying all over during the action scenes and some of the time it switched between two different views of the action and one would have wolverene w/blades and one w/o.

Some movies ive seen:
-Twilight(it was worth 2bucks for the aircon, its a teen soap saga held at the movie theater)
-Inglorious Bastards (V.V. good)
-Alice in Wonderland (Good special FX and costumes but not as scary as I hoped)
-Bruno (obscene (surprise) and not very funny)
-Up in the air (good take home for the western "15$ theater ticket" world)
-Legion (capital Crap)
-Kick Ass (good action scenes and nice story but not very funny, its like a ultra violent family film)
-Clash of the Titans 2D (Good movie for the theater, good story, good FX, ok acting)
-Robin hood (pretty good, tells the precursor to the popular story, im sure to, in part, leave room for squeals :)
-Date night (Pretty good but unless your in se asia with 2dollar premiers then wait for the vid)
-Ironman II (its ok if you really like fight scenes and don't mind typical characters)
-Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (walked out)
-Piranha (They spent the entire budget on gore, amazingly decent)
-New York, I love you (v.v.v. gooooood, check it uut)

Herbie's Hello tour through SEAsia

Sin Chaow...Sue-iss Duh-ay...Sue-asty kop...Salam...Sabadii

I practice on little kids first, their the easiest, they respond positively to anything a funny looking white guy with long hairs growin outta his face says. After I work up my confidence I try it out with older people, if they smile then it really doesnt tell me much about my pronunciation, when they reply (with something i understand) then its stellar, usually with a bright surprised smile on their face, people are so easily turned to giggle around here.

After a while let loose and I am saying it to damn near everybody, teens, women, cops, food workers, westerners, security guards(they welcome anything new to cut the boredom), etc.

Driving, sitting, eating, walking, if anybody makes eye contact then it is ON, if they dont make eye contact then it is still on, then they make eye contact, then its really ON!

Sometimes they stop, and im pretty sure they are askin me if I speak the language. To which I respond with "pokito" (spanish) or "lek lek" (Thai) along with the hand gesture using my index and thumb to show a little.

I also make a point to learn the "cheers" for each of the places (all in the name of research (bhhuuuurp):)

Mo Hi Bha, YO!

Jul kaew Moy

Chook-tee

Sin Chaow...Sue-iss Duh-ay...Sue-asty kop...Salam...Sabadii

Lemme tell ya a little sumpthin bout Nam

First stop, Sapa! (after Dien Bien Phu)

All the tribe women knew better English then any of the restaurant or hotel workers. They were of course hawking tours of their villages, had a interesting spin on it though, they would give you a cotton bracelet so they knew they spoke to you before, not sure if there is a whole system of territory with certain colors or patterns designated to a specific tribe or tribal lady, +10 for inventiveness! Great French feel to the architecture and fooooooood, pastries galooor-eous :) And the views where freaking amazing with all the rice fields on the mountains, B-A-U-TIFUL!

Hanoi didn't impress me much, although I didn't give it much of a chance. Only stayed one night because travel mates wanted to get going to Halong bay and the heat of the city kept me from disagreement.

Halong bay was freakin amazing, look at the pics, not much more can be said...

Except that it was crazy how even while in the water, those damn women still tried selling you stuff, more funny then bothersome, especially with the amazing pineapple and mangostein and dragon fruits they where touting.

The north is def more pushy in selling and ripping you off though, i talked to an old Swedish guy who has been through V-Nam for many years and he says its because of it being more strict in its Communist practice and thus not having any incentive to rip people off without getting a reward, just recently the rules have been laxed so it is of some profit to the individual. The south, on the other hand, has been ripping people off for ages, so he believes that they have settled into a balance between cost/benefit, where they still do it but it isn't as often or forceful. It might hit harder if we where talking about more then an extra dollar :) But its not so much about the money, more the feeling of getting taken advantage of, or not being treated as an equal, and it doesn't help when as soon as you fork over the cash they start to snicker with delight.

For whatever reason I have met more cool people, and just people in general, in Nam. Thinking it might be because fewer people speak english and, esp in the north, they are less friendly, so maybe people are looking for a reprieve. Nha Trang is a great place to party, drink Bia Hoi (about 1.50/pitcher of San Miguel), watch the world cup with people from all over the world, kite surf!!!, paragliding, sun bathe, swim, there is a sweet water/amusement park on an island close by connected by cable car, (moderately) cheap hostels, cheap sea food (but only certain times of day, you can only get certain things at specific times(?!)), scuba diving, snorkeling, etc etc etc...

The museums where a nice break from all the food, although very bias!

Went to the war remanence museum to find very graphic photos of the war. It was unabashedly showing how badly the north Vietnamese where treated with no indication of anyone but Americans doing the
deed. Picture after picture after graph after propaganda poster it told how the US was the opposition, with no mention about the south Vietnamese' struggle for democracy ever since the country was divided in 1948 after the French where defeated in Dien Bien Phu.

Charts and pictures describing the US with an emphases on how many women and children where killed. Then, later in the same museum, and more so in the women's museum, women and children where congratulated for their efforts in the war (whhhaaaa???????). They showed children holding guns along side their parents on propaganda posters and reprinted T-shirts. All for Uncle Ho and his catch-22.

Checked out a really fun foster home while heading up the Ho Chi Min Hwy.

Some little city in between, down a dirt road, we found a pile of scarred battered and bruised little tikes lookin for fun (and dry pants).
















They where cuuuuraaaaaazzzyyyyy, they where death defying, blater bathing, climbing cat curious, slap happy, hard-core real-deal juveniles with no time to waste. They had scrapes, scratches, marks, scars, fresh layed stitches, cicatrizing wounds and any other trama to the flesh you can find on dictionary.com.
If they find a stick everybody is gettin hit with it
If they get up off the ground somebodies comin crashing down

There is no ratio of worker-to-whippersnapper thats gonna keepem all corralled.
They are full fledged and full hearted, a killer combo which usually leaves them face down, but not for long. Moma aint come runnin for awhile now so they learnt a little quicker to walk it off and jump back in the action. No joke, one of the kids would clench his fists and teeth and start convulsing when he got really excited. They would run at me full steam, diving head first.

THEY DEFINE RECKLESS ABANDON

Anything to feel that soft resistance avoiding their self destruction.

Love you!!!