FOUR DAYS TILL LEAVING SE ASIA

NARRATIVE

Still hanging around Cambodia eating Mexican food.  In about four days unless everything goes to hell a plane should be winging me rapidly toward Istanbul.   Since enough of this town has been seen to  be ignored, books have been read and a pretty awful free MMORPG called 'Crystal Saga' have been my only indulgences.

It will be nice to return to the Republic of Georgia.



SHOE STORY

Since making the extremely minimal effort at health known as 'walking around', shoes have begun to be demolished as rapidly as cheesecakes in times past.  Not only have my Czech walking shoes moved into the irreparable category but yet another pair of sandals has been lost.

Only the left shoe of the sandals seems to get destroyed.  Apparently left handed is indeed left footed as forensics has taught and the strain upon the primary foot greater.  This has ruined yet another left sandal.   Should it have been the right, perhaps mismatched sandals could have been added to patched and sewn shorts and - regrettably - tee-shirts.

Asia has become synonymous with a vast over abundance of shoe stores.   Should all shoe stores be forced to close and give their stock without charge to the inhabitants of the country, every person would be ten pair of shoes to the better.

Sadly the fashion of these shoes is regrettably Asian.  Shoes made by the same culture that thinks multicolored lights within a mouse which twinkle incessantly does not make the sort of unobtrusive goods I prefer.  Not being a teenage girl nor redneck, these sorts of overenthusiastic products are made to attract attention.

Better if my shoes made no sort of statement than quiet and competent.  Gaudiness pulls attention from where I'd prefer it - my face and my words just as the  overenthusiastic mouse draws attention from the computer screen with it's needless incessant carnival light show.

Knowing that any pair of sandals I purchased with the shoddy workmanship endemic to Asia will perish within a couple months, I went for low price and managed to ruthlessly bargain a poor lady down to $10.  Given that I may have been her only customer for the day it eludes me how she and others are able to keep their stalls open.




BOOK REVIEWS

John Keegan, "Winston Churchill - A Life".

Long have I had an abiding interest in Winston Churchill.  Arguably the greatest Englishman ever and certainly one of the most determined people to have lived.  Long conversations chiding my friend Matt Lunn that he wasn't nearly as cool as Winston Churchill come to mind.  His retort that I wasn't all that cool fell of deaf ears as I wasn't even English.

Reading this book helped dispel some of the illusions about W.S.  He was a great man - but a deeply flawed.  He was extremely smart but prone to many poor choices.

Overall, an excellent book.  It was detailed without becoming dull.  Unlike some of the other biographies of W.S. I've read this one kept things moving along at a fast enough clip you could listen to it without either nodding off or slitting your wrists.



Stephen Fry "Moab is My Washpot"

Prior to listening to this, I only had three thoughts on Stephen Fry:

1.  He is a 'treasure of England'.  This is the guy whose sonorous voice did the wildly money generating 'Harry Potter' audio books.  And, he just seems to be a 'treasure of England' though I'm sure that many people - including Stephen Fry - may disagree with that.

2.  He is a very smart person.  I've seen him on QI - 'Quite Interesting'.  I know that they feed him a lot of the answers and such via an ear piece, but this guy strikes me as very smart indeed.

3.  He is funny and has been in several comedy TV shows and movies.

After listening to the first twenty years of his life in autobiographical terms, my opinion of him is the same as of Winston Churchill after listening to a biography of him.  Both men are deeply flawed individuals, very human and it would be very nice to know them personally.  They are interesting people.

As to the book itself, Mr. Fry is very easy to listen to.  Much of what he says is interesting though he goes off onto huge tangents and a bit of rambling.  Since it is his autobiography, I feel he is allowed to do so.  Glad I heard it though it won't become something like the Discworld  series that I like to listen to again after a period of time has passed.


The Fry Chronicles - an Autobiography

This book picks up where 'Moab' leaves off and covers the next decade.

Although it is an interesting look into the rapid catapulting into fame, it wasn't as endearing as Moab.  Also, he makes  quick reference to many names, businesses, products and such that - not being English - I've never heard of.  For his countrymen, these probably bring a quick whiff of memory.  For foreigners, they become tedious lists of no consequence to the overall narrative.

Interesting but not as poignant as Moab.


Stuff White People Like


Currently listening to the book "Stuff White People Like".  As the philosopher Homer Simpson once said "It's funny because it's true."

They even covered an experience I've noted earlier in my blog about how upset other white people get when they are traveling abroad, in an obscure place and spot a fat white guy lounging around.  Since this destroys both their 'unique experience' as well as the 'authenticity' and they no longer feel like some sort of explorer, they become sad and upset.

Wack jobs.

The book itself is ironic and humorous.  Reading it immediately brings to mind many people who are white and middle class I know.  Disturbingly, I myself have done many of the things listed there.

More disturbingly, various directors and such listed are completely unfamiliar.

I don't feel like I am being a good white person.  I didn't even get a liberal arts degree.

I recommend this audio book.



LUMSIE STORIES (NERO LARP)

Lumsie loved the undead. Being a necromancer was great. Story: I was up at a chapter in Canada. It was dark and foggy out and all of the PC's were hiding in their cabins. "What's up?" Oh, I was told, there are loads of undead out there. We're going to stay in here till the morning. "Bugger that." So Lumsie wanders out of the warded cabin. Immediately two death knights jump out of the shadows. "Take me to your leader, beotches!" One is into it, the other makes lots of threats. I am taken to the leader. He rants about how it is his town, everyone is his subjects and he will crush everyone. Including me. Then, he asks who I am. "Brother Lumsie!" The guy playing the NPC and the NPC himself were both of one mind at this point. "Oh my god!" He gushes. "I have always wanted to meet you!" Big hand shakes and back slapping all around. Lumsie points to one of the death knights. "He was mean to me." Glower and a growled "I will deal with him...later..." The death knight shifted uneasily. I was then taken on a tour of the town and given armed death knight escort back to my cabin when tired. Upon gaining entry "Were you OK?" "Yeah", I responded. "Pretty quiet out there..."

Lumsie was hanging out in the woods.  There were half dozen ogres wandering around throwing up.  Their blood had apparently been tainted.  Tempest (Seth Warfield) wandered up and screeched in the high pitched dragon voice "Lumsie!  What happened?"  Lumsie, looking panicked said "Plague!  Real sudden like!  Best I should go!" and scurried off.  Tempest glared after Lumsie grunting "Uh huh..."


Big I'm not sure but one that comes to mind:  Lumsie has undead for parents.  'Not consorting' is simply not able to be done as it would be 'rude'.  So, it is Lumsie's birthday, Oct 31.

There were only a few people in the tavern.  Lumsie's mother (played by Amy L) - a very nasty vampire - swoops into the tavern with several minions.  Everything stops.  The people who are there are either unwilling or unable to take on this level of Fa King undead.  Plus, to do so might start a really nasty interplanular war.  They just sit, riveted to their seats.

Amy had baked me a chocolate cake.

It got very 'upper class English' after that.  "Lumsie are you being good?"  "Yes mummy!" and so on.

She would alternatively threaten and speak at the other people in the tavern.  Whenever she had her back turned, I stuffed as much of the chocolate cake into my mouth as possible.  When she looked back, sit up straight and attentive - with huge chunks of chocolate cake falling out of my mouth.

She utterly failed to notice - by design is my guess since my face looked like I'd eaten out a chocolate golem.

"Yes mummy!" I'd say in stereotypical upper crust English to whatever question she had or statement she made then back to the face stuffing.

The thing I remember most about that whole scene was the frozen looks on the witnesses faces, halfway between humor and horror.  It was a nice birthday for Lumsie.

HALL OF BRIGHT CARVINGS

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM

Because I was bored, I went to visit the national museum. Admission charge with my camera (separate charge for that) came to 150 NRS.

They wanted me to leave the bag of stuff I always carry. That's not going to happen. I explained they could either allow me to take my bag in or refund my money and I would go away. They compromised by doing a quick visual search of my bag both coming in and going out. Pretty much anything under hand grenade size would be missed in the search they did.

I wandered around the museum. There were three buildings and most of it was taken at my normal fast walk reserved for dull stuff. There were a couple of nifty things but overall the most interesting thing at the museum was the smell.

The smell of ancient antiquities, dust, neglect and disinterest. It's the special kind of smell you can only get from museums with very low traffic and a lot of libraries in the USA where print died long ago.

Museums are depressing places. The photos of famous long dead people and artwork don't really depress but when you see something intimate - something that actually belonged and was used by someone... And most of the time the stories are lost. The stories which are more interesting than the artifacts.

When I was a child, one of the things I was forced to read included reference to a 'hall of Bright Carvings'. [Disclaimer, this may be part of the Titus Groan novels but I don't recall any of that stuff. Just a story about this 'hall of Bright Carvings' which I shall now relate. The whole story could be a figment of my deranged mind and nothing to do with Titus Groan. Not a clue here and I don't care enough about it to actually research it as the novels don't look very good.]

As I recall the story, it goes something like this:

Once upon a time was a village. Every year, they would have a wood carving competition. People would labor for an entire year upon their wood carvings and then enter them into the competition. The best one was selected by a panel of esteemed judges. All of the other pieces were then placed into a large pile and burned.

The winning piece was then taken to the Hall of Bright Carvings. There, it was ensconced with winners from all of the preceding years. Other than the caretaker who cared nothing about art, nobody else was allowed into the Hall. The winning wood carvings would then sit and gather dust for the rest of eternity.

I'm not sure why they had us read this story when I was in grade school nor why I remembered it. The message it conveyed seemed to be 'don't try that hard, it doesn't really matter and nobody really cares'. Not the kind of message I want conveyed to students in grade school.

But that image of the Hall of Bright Carvings has stayed with me these many years. Any time I enter a museum, I am reminded of it.

On the way out, I was preceded by two Nepali gentlemen wearing backpacks. They weren't searched, I was. Baffling.



SHADY CHARACTER?

I was wandering the streets when I got stopped by a balding black haired Aussy. He did the double hand shake and identified himself as Paul. Something tripped my internal alarms.

Paul: "What's your name?"
Logan: "What's up?"
Paul: (Forcefully) "I asked what your name was - or don't you answer questions?"
Logan: "Not from people I meet on the streets."
Paul: (Gesturing for me to go on) "Walk your own line then."

I did.

I'm thinking he was either a beggar or a really bad con man. He would need to build his skill as a 'roper' before he can start getting things out of people. Yes, there are a lot of people who would encourage me to 'be nice' but I'd rather be wrong and follow my instincts. My instincts all told me 'this guy is going to try to get something out of you and it's not friendship'.

Don't get me wrong - I will often strike up conversations with people. Lots and lots of people. But my intent is a good conversation. I'm not trying to get anything out of them - I just want to be friendly. Given how often I am able to strike up conversations and even end up giving them my card or sometimes hanging out with them, I think people get that on some level.



PAYPAL

I've had a lot of folks tell me that I should have a paypal button on the site to be able to accept donations. I've bowed to the wisdom of this and, after a small battle with Paypal, gotten my paypal account active again and put the button up.

If you feel like donating, great, thanks.



NEPAL CUSTOMS

Nepal is extremely concervative with regards to women. If you take a Nepali girl to a hotel, there could be police involvement. Even if you are sharing a taxi! It is assumed that you are taking her to a hotel to have sex. It is automatically believed that she is a prostitute. Probably doesn't do well for her self esteem.

God help you if she is of a different caste.

These problems don't exist with foreigners. This is why a lot of Nepali gentlemen would rather date foreign women.

I have no idea at all what the women of Nepal do but I'm guessing it is not as free for them to date foreign men. Or if they will be assumed to be a prostitute if seen with a foreign man. My guess is yes.



PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

I've been doing some research on the temperature of different places. It seems that the temperature of Kathmandu as well as that of Goa is about the same during June and July.

My visa for Nepal expires on June 16th. My visa for India expires July 29th. Since the only thing I'm wanting to do in India yet is to check out Goa, I might take the difficult and exhausting overland route down there. It will be via first class train once I get out of Nepal. But first class in India is second or third class by European standards.

When I am in Goa, I can figure out if I want to weather the monsoon season that will be there (as it will in Nepal) or move on to deal with the monsoon in either the Philippines or Indonesia.

For all of those Georgians (Republic of Georgia, not the state in the USA) reading, yes I will be heading back to Georgia at some point but I still want to hit some more countries yet.

Note that this is all speculative. I may decide just to laze around more spots in Nepal, get a visa extension and all of that - but I'm thinking Nepal isn't what I need right now. It has nice parts but because it has been turned into more of an amusement park for trekkers, it is a bit pricey to get out of Kathmandu. I've literally seen everything in Kathmandu I care to - a week or two ago. By the time Matt's visit is complete, I will be very ready to move on from Kathmandu if I can find a good place to go.



TRAVEL QUOTE OF THE DAY

"When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home." - Sir Winston Churchill.



COSTS

Pirated movie, 30 NRS. [Yes, that's like .36 USD.] The fun part is that if you return the DVD without any scratches, you get 10-15 NRS backi.

Hookah, flavored, 250 NRS. The prices are very strange here. For a hookah and a beer, you could instead have a nice room for the night. Or 2-3 big meals. I suspect the evil hand of the government.

Taxi ride: I've been told that renting a taxi for an entire day would probably cost 4000-6000 NRS. That tells me that it is cheaper to just get one for a ride somewhere then pick up a new one later. You can go anywhere in the city for 250 NRS on down though some of the taxi drivers will start at outrageous prices like 600-800 NRS to see if you are stupid and rich.

Milk and cereal are amazingly expensive. Every now and then, I just get a strange urge to sit down with cold milk and eat an entire box of cereal. 500g of cereal is 300-500 NRS. 1 liter of milk is 240 NRS. That will set you back as much as a steak dinner. [I realize normal people don't eat an entire box of cereal in one go but there we are...] This cost is actually as much or more than you can purchase it for in the USA...

Simple (less touristy) restaurant, mains 50-250 NRS.

Cigarettes can be purchased singly even from restaurants though you'll have a 40% mark up in a restaurant if you don't go to a store to buy them.



VIDEOS

Well, I went to the national museum of Nepal in Kathmandu. I'd rate it as 'meh'. I got my 150 NRS worth but just. (For those who don't know the exchange rate, it's about $2).

Across the street - for the same price - they have a military museum. I will see if Matthew wants to go there when he is in town and sober. And not killing a hooker.

Here are some videos of it:

National Museum 1
National Museum 2
National Museum 3
National Museum 4
National Museum 5