Here at the floating markets of Can Tho, Vietnam, they have i’m sure the Biggest Grapefruit in the World. These things look like honey dew melons. They are big. And delicious.
Just spent 8 hours soaking in the magnificence of the Mekong Delta, with my own private boat captain. (My own company got a bit much, but the markets, the river and its ecology were all gorgeous.)
Occasionally the propellers get caught in plastic bags. So the drivers get the long paddle out of the water, peel off the plastic, and throw the bag back in the water.
The floating markets are so photogenic. i think the locals might get a bit sick of the tourists though. All taking photo but no buying the goods.
i’m trying to be unobtrusive with the mini-camera .. but there’s one guy with a seriously big lens. One of those tourists who doesn’t smile back when you smile at him. You’re only real if you make a good picture .. and even then you’re real in a fully objectified sense.
Anyway, he was the Voracious Tourist for me .. on whom i projected my own “negative affect” as Jude might say.
(Voracious Photos to come .. later on)
photo credit: -RS-
Nearly finished Deadwood and Life on Mars, so i was definitely in need of a new DVD obsession. Fortunately the strange futuristic evolutionary tales of “Heroes” were filling the gap nicely.
Similar to the genetically-modified characters of Dark Angel, the mutants of X-men, and also the returned “altered” people in the world of the 4400. This one concerns people who are developing new skills and talents .. the next step in human evolution. In the future, everyone will be Superman, Spidergirl .. Catwoman; able to use their own special powers for good .. or evil.
If i could have a superpower, i would definitely be able to fly. Save so much hassle at airports, and cut down on carbon footprint too.
Or maybe radiate peace and love from my heart into the world around me, so that people around me experience balance and a deep sense of personal safety. That would be cool.
Give me comment please: What would your superhuman power be?
.
PS: when i came to Phnom Penh, all i really wanted to see was the rest of Season One. Fortunately Katie discovered the series and shared my fascination. We got through the whole 23 episodes in 3 days!! How outrageously self-indulgent.
Just a few loose threads in the plot at the end of it all ..
photo credit: TCM Hitchhiker photo credit: Randy Son Of Robert
Shanny and Phil turn up in a tuk tuk, to take me to the Russian and Central Markets. Peter is their regular driver who takes them all around town from their base in the Lake District. He’s a friendly man and a good driver.
Along the way, his tuk tuk starts to make cranky noises but after a while it’s okay. Using bits of English and sign, he tells us it’s an oil problem, but he’ll fix it later. He waits at each market while we shop.
My favourite part of the market is the area where women sit cross legged on the counter chopping meat with giant cleavers. The meats hang raw and bloody in the muggy shade. No refrigeration.
oh, there’s the deep fried spiders too.
You always get the best noodle soup at the market, no doubt!!
What a fun day. i love it !!
Note to Self: next time i’m about to take a 3 hour sea journey .. do not eat pig trotter soup from a street stall in South Vietnam; just in case the journey is extremely rough.
i had to take a photo of myself halfway across, to find out exactly how green my face was .. but i’m not publishing the photo here. Oh no.
Landed on Phu Quoc Island, a large island which has been sometimes Cambodian, but mostly Vietnamese . (Known as Koh Tral to the Cambodians the island is much closer to Cambodia .. and rumour has it they are not too happy about losing the island either.)
After a 20 minute moto trip, met up with Zeena and Phat .. and did my best to be good company for the evening we had together, but unfortunately i was horrible sick. The smell of their dinner made me go and have a lie down on the beach.
Oh dear.
The pig trotter soup tasted great, too! Really nice soup, and i had fun ordering it, with a fellow traveller from Holland. One of those classic situations where neither party speaks any of the other language.
. PS: i’m on a tropical paradise. Shutup michael. Stop your moaning.
photo credit: JasonDGreat
Sometimes i notice that things go wrong in a funny way. My bike and my car always seem to break down at the same time. Or i hit my head on a cupboard door three times in the same day.
Lately i’ve had a bad time with technology:
All my own doing .. nobody to blame.
But .. i must remember to look on the bright side, put all this into perspective .. because i have sustained no physical injuries. i’m firmly attached to my limbs, my heart and my brain.
Gadgets are just bits of metal and plastic aren’t they. Nothing compared to a beating heart, a thriving brain .. and a valiantly surviving liver. No point getting attached to material objects .. this is a Buddhist country after all. Got to remember to breathe in the joy of being alive. Yah. photo credit: lotje
This was meant to be an island paradise getaway. A heavenly new year, with friends on the beach. After the mild dramas of travelling by bus to Sihanoukville (Lauli and her buddies went the day before; Jem and her friends found their pre-booked tickets had been sold, i was worried about having to charter a boat on my own) .. we were all looking forward to a chilled-out party on the beach.
There was bbq action, dance music, stories and balancing on a swing over the sand.
Lovely.
Bang.
A loud silence, then some shouts and that awful feeling of not knowing what’s happened. Followed by the sickening feeling of discovering what has happened.
Someone’s let a very big firecracker off in his own face.
Shanny’s seen the whole thing close up and looks like she’s about to pass out. “He’s blown his face off! Have you seen Phil?”
i still feel a bit sick and shocked from the events of the evening. This was about 11pm local time. Celebrations were clearly off the agenda. People milled around wondering how to help. Several people did help, giving first aid, painkillers, calling the mainland, deciding whether to call for a boat or pray for an airlift direct to Bangkok.
16 hours later, Yuma made it to Bangkok. But the reports aren’t good.
Still on life support. Not yet stable.
Prayers welcome .. angelic support appreciated.
i’ve been very lucky with the bike lately.
The front gear thing was out of whack. (The derailleur.) So i took it along to Lygon Cycles, where they said .. “oh, you want a service? Well everything needs replacing, so it’ll cost you around $360.”
“But you can get a new bike for around $400.”
Ouch. Not so convenient. i start looking for new bikes, and the one i want is over $1000. Maybe i’ll budget for that.
..in the meantime.. i take the bike down to Ceres on a Saturday morning and have a go at fixing the derailleur myself. The great thing about Ceres is that if you try to mend it yourself, eventually an expert will swing by and give you advice .. or in my case, roll their eyes, take the tool and do it themselves.
But within a couple of weeks, the thing’s broken again in a different place, proving the Lygon people correct. i’m riding around in the lowest gear imaginable, my legs pumping 3 times faster than they should.
Then one day i’m riding along the Bicycle Highway (Canning St.) into the Edinburgh Gardens, and there’s a couple of people with a sign saying “Free Bike Maintenance”. What about that for good luck!
“Are you with Ceres?” i ask.
“No, just a couple of nutters,” the guy replies. “Speak for yourself,” his partner cuts in ..
Within a few moments, he’s done an emergency procedure, told me about the best bike shop in Melbourne (under the Richmond station .. lots of second hand parts he says), and given my pedal power back to me.
i feel so much better on the roads now. Thank you heavenly bike-mending angels !!
(So, now i’m looking for more bike stories. What about you post one on your blog, and link back here .. or leave me a comment? Where’s the worst place you’ve broken down? etc. Hello, x
More than i have been in a long time, i’m totally excited about family christmas.
woohoo!
Margot, katie and michael .. in Pnomh Penh, soaking up the magnificence of Cambodia.
i can’t wait
The skies were gloomy, but that didn’t stop one incredibly generous commuter giving away her ticket for free, in Melbourne today.
i was getting on the tram, in Elizabeth St, very near the whole Melbourne Central experience, when a woman thrust out her hand and gave me a ticket. “Want a ticket?” she said.
Woah! Hang on, where is the brainspace for this kind of activity? i’m not sure i can cope!! An Australian citizen freely handing out tickets? This Two-Hour Ticket had about 2 hours left on it too. And the tram was swarming with inspectors.
How generous, how lovely, how utterly delectably sweet. Thanks to that angelic lady.
photo credit: specialkrb
Public art is more popular in Tasmania than i realised. Here’s a whole town that devoted itself to supporting local artists by painting murals on every available surface (Sheffield, slightly East of Cradle Mountain).
And i caught a picture of this very strange dog. I thought it must have been an elaborate kind of poodle. “Look at this dog,” i said to Tim. “You idiot, that’s an Alpaca,” he replied. Oh, yes i see that now.
Plus, this little valley called Wilmot, on the way to Cradle Mountain, has an abundance of Gorgeous Quirky letterboxes; and even a mural, celebrating said boxes.
(image links to larger version)
You’ll see on the map, that Sheffield is right near a place called Promised Land.
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