I headed down to Sihoukaville last week for a few days in the fun and sun. Unforutnately, it being the rainy season and all, the roads were very flooded and it took quite awhile to get down there and at one point I had to get my bag from the bottom of the bus because the water was so high it would have seeped in and soaked it. We finally made it and the guy I was sitting next to owned a guest house so I stayed with him at the "Same Same...but Different" guesthouse. Now, if you have ever been to SE Asia you will know that this is the most annoying thing you can name your business. That is because these shirts that say "Same Same" on the front and "But Different" are fucking EVERYWHERE. Of course, I'd like to have a shirt that says "Same Same" then on the back "Same" but I may be the only one. Anyway, I stayed there and it was right on the beach which would have been a lot better if it hadn't stormed for most of the time I was there. I didn't do much except one night I went walking around town, which was pretty dark by the way, and saw a karaoke place. A guy in there motioned me in and got me a beer and, I swear to god, he was the Cambodian Samuel L. Jackson. I mean, it was totally unreal. Anyway, I sang Unchained Melody which has a middle part I can never remember at all but thankfully everyone else in the place did. There was a nice Sihoukaville policeman in there who kept cheers-ing me and after I had drunk more beer than was probably wise he decided to give me a ride back to my guesthouse on his motorbike. He was drunk drunk drunk. Mind you, this is with no helmets or anything either. So we set off and he's going in the wrong direction and he speaks NO English. I yell and point in the opposite direction but to no avail. Finally, I just point to a hotel on the side of the road and he lets me off there. I get off, shake his hand, and he sets off to do more karaoke I guess. I decide that one more wasn't a bad idea. (Sidenote here: There is Angkor beer and there is Anchor beer. Anchor is pronounced An-chor with the "ch" like the "ch" in channel. Very weird especially since there is a picture of an anchor on the can. How this all came to be is a mystery. I mean, I understand that this is a confusing name thing but why would you name your beer with a homonym?) I meat two Australian guys there, and god knows how this came up,one of them brought up that he owned "The Golden Spike" that was used in the ceremony when they finished the transcontinental railroad. He had gotten it from someone in a casino for 1000 dollars. I was convinced last night that this artifact was, in fact, lost and that he had it was an enormous find for the historical community. So much so that I told him that he was a fool not to get straight down to the US embassy and tell them. My whole understanding of this piece of history is,unsurprisingly, totally wrong.

Phnom Penh. Ok, I can't be sure that the five year olds I saw were sniffing glue or not. I shot an AK-47 and a .45 at the shooting range that the army runs and, as I expected, it was really fun. I had not expected the crazy "there is something in my hand that is exploding" feeling but I don't know what I did expect. Contrary to the guide book which said that shooting animals was a myth, within about 3 minutes of me being there the guy said "Shoot chicken?" but I declined.

I also went and checked out Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields. There really isn't anything I can add.

On a happier note: I met a really great guy named Antonio in line at the airport and then again by chance at a bar. We talked for awhile and then he said, "Hey do yo watch TV?" and I told him I did. And then he asked if I wateched "Project Runway"and I told him that I had. So then he says, "I'm Santino's brother". We talked about that for awhile and then I went with him and his friends to eat a "happy pizza" which caused me to be stoned out of my motherfucking mind way past getting up the next morning.

Liveblogging the Udon Thani airport from an internet kiosk. For some reason they just turned off all the power to 1/2 the airport including the escalators and the check in counters. TV and Internet kiosk unaffected. Very odd.

Two things I've discovered about myself this week: I enjoy guided meditation and also chanting.

Each of the Chakras has it's own mantra one of which is "Rom" and I couldn't stop thinking about

The very first picture I took on my trip was a fat cat in Beijing.

I've really been bad with the posting here. Ok, first things first: I got offered a job at the guesthouse here in Nong Khai. I decided not to take it for various reasons including the fact that I still have so much travelling to do, but it sure was nice to be asked. I think the job will probably go to Justin, the Irish guy, who is better suited for it since he's been on the road for fifteen months and had actually told me he was interested. It kind of sucked because right after I said no I had that feeling that you get where you think to yourself, "Shit, should I have said yes?", but ultimately I think it was the right decision. Of course, as usual, I felt bad saying no since obviously I want to please everyone and the owner Julian seemed disappointed and right after he asked the conversation was very, very, stilted which sort of made me feel weird. Of course, I often feel weird so it's probably not to be taken seriously.

Anyway, on to yoga: We had a guided meditation the other day where we spent about an hour doing this almost hypnotic breathe and move some and follow the voice thing. Then at one point we are supposed to leave our bodies and jump in the ocean and swim around in our mind. Well, I didn't go to an ocean. I went to a big white room that only had a black telephone and the cord was strangling me. So, that was kind of heavy.

Julian later told me that it reminded him of the scene in the Doors movie where Andy Warhol gives Jim Morrison a black phone as a present so he "can call God.".

Someone else told me that they had the telephone as well and it was ringing but he picked it up an hung it up again immediately.

Do not play with landmines.



So, here's the reason that I haven't really been posting anything. I haven't really been doing anything. I was on my way from Laos back down to Bangkok and decided to spend one day at the bordertown of Nong Khai. Well, one day turned into twelve. The thing is I'm not the only person who's gotten stuck here. The first day I was here I met Aleta and Justin who'd both been here five days, and also Nick who had been there one day and was recovering from dengue fever. Aleta had a legit reason in that she had lost her passport but Justin was just hanging out and Justin was also getting over being sick. So, the first day I was here Aleta and Justin filled Nick and I in on all the freaks in Nong Khai and, yes indeed, they infest this place. Not the people staying in the guesthouse or the Thai locals but the ex-pats are pretty much off the hook. Pretty much every bar here is a bar with working girls and the dudes that hang out there...man. One guy, who was enormously fat and bald, seemed nice at first until another guy came in and they started having a long conversation about ladyboys and included that fat guy talking about how he'd gone down to the coast with two girls and two ladyboys and some speed and had a four day orgy. You get the idea.

Anyway, Aleta left the day after I'd been exposed to this but Justin and Nick stayed on and I kept thinking about leaving but just never did. It was the first time on the trip that I really looked forward to talking to the other travelers around. The owner of the guesthouse, Julian, is very smart and there are just interesting people always lurking around including one guy who is helping to decipher the honeybee genome. Anyway, after five days of pretty much sitting around and shooting the shit, Justin is still here (11 days), Nick is still here (got offered a job and now works at the guesthouse) and I have decided to take a seven day intensive yoga course. Today is day two and it's going alright I suppose. I sure don't have any balance.

So, that's the update.

And also going straight down memory lane.

I'll be heading to Phenom Penh on Aug 10th and I can't imagine that there won't be some insanity to report from there.