I'm out of the Mansions and off to a swank spot on to Hong Kong
Island for a couple nights.
Upgrading because my buddy Evan is coming back for his
second tour on the Just Cuz It’s Round rollercoaster. And when I can split a room fee, I don't have to stay in a prison cell.
Anyway, you remember Evan. Right?
Well, he made me promise I wouldn’t make him drive 2000 kilometers
before he decided to come back.
I told
him we could go to Bali and not drive at all.
He agreed. I'm psyched.
Let’s just hope he can stay awake, otherwise you’ll be
getting more shots of him sleeping.
It really is a spectacular city to see. And, there are a million options of places to stay here in this
city.
So, I decided to stay in a
Mansion.
Chungking Mansion, that is.
(it is estimated that about 20% of the mobile phones in use in Africa today have passed through this building at some point or another.)
It may not look like the types of places that Robin Leach used to celebrate. Because, well, it isn't. I'm neither rich, nor really famous after all (even if I have 10K hits on my weblog!)
But it’s home. For
now. So, let’s take a virtual tour.
Here is the bedroom.
And now, you might be asking yourselves, "what is that wall jutting out from the right corner?"
Well, folks, that's the bathroom.
Measuring in at a generous 4'x2.5', the only place for the shower nozzle is, of course, directly over the toilet.
I still can’t figure out if I know the people following from
Russia. Germany and South Korea though. You seem to be enjoying it, so I’ll try to keep it up. And if you get a second, and you do know me, drop me an email.
So, I was a little tired after getting into Hong Kong super late last night.
I stumbled through the Hong Kong Museum of Art (By the way, "Bravo!" on the great retrospective of the History of Chinese Ceramics. Those pieces from the Yuan Dynasty really changed my thinking on the application methods for glazes in the 13th Century, guys!) and Kowloon for a few hours trying to shake the cobwebs loose. But was still a bit out of sorts from the lack of sleep.
Finally, I decided to take it easy for the day and go see a movie.
I saw Iron Man 3.
It was awesome.
But the only reason I'm sharing this with you all is because I was the only American in the audience.
You might be asking: "How do you know this, Parker?"
Well, I'll tell you.
In the role that Robert Downey Jr. was born to play, Tony Stark, the character is known for his carefree, playboy attitude. As such, there are several jokes written into the dialogue that play up this image. And, while most of them are delivered in a way that is pretty universal, there was one about 30 mins into the movie that was apparently a bit too American in nature to translate.
And, well, my reaction was a guffaw.
Everyone else's was NOTHING.
To which I guffawed again.
Then people looked at me...
With the final reaction of my audience mates, I was able to come to the conclusion that I was the only person who got the joke. And therefore the only American. Because no good American wouldn't get a good "A Christmas Story" joke.*
Quod erat demonstrandum.
God I wished there was a few more Ralphie fans in the audience at that moment.**
* For those who you saying to yourselves, "Well, I'm an American and I'm not sure I would get that joke". No hard feelings and fear not, Thanksgiving is right around the corner and TBS will be playing it for 24hrs straight.
** Not really, it was like having my own little private joke-time with Iron Man. Which was nice.
Last, but not least, another question to consider. Could it be that they got the joke, but hate the movie because of the negative way that the Chinese characters are portrayed in it and therefore wouldn't laugh on principle?
Sub question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out than fade away?
For those of you who have made it to the end, clearly I had a little too relaxing of a day if I'm this punchy at 11pm.
One of these things is not like the other. One of these things doesn't belong!
Mom flew home this morning and I leave tonight for Hong Kong. Putting and end to the latest chapter in this tale.
We had a great couple weeks in Viet Nam and Cambodia, and there were a few highlights that I missed in our travels that I thought were worth sharing. Some were silly, others were sad; but I've found that's the way things go on this trip.
It was a helluva adventure, Mother. Thanks for going so far out of your comfort zone. Now, you'll have to buy your own fresh juices though. (She was bleedin' me dry, folks!)
The things I missed along the way....
Well, there was synchronized back-flipping in Ha Long Bay:
Ty and Me trying to start a new career! We met some great people on the boat in Ha Long Bay and mom even started getting called Mom Judy by the folks we spent out time with.
There was the Geology Rocks! segment of our trip, when we paid a visit to Marble Mountain in Da Nang to see the Giant Buddhas carved into the rocks inside the caves there.
This one wasn't carved into the mountain, we don't think, but wanted to give an idea of scale!
And still more Caves in Ha Long Bay. I never knew that my Mother had never been inside a cave before, well we certainly crossed that off her bucket list!
While in Cambodia, we paid a visit to two very somber sites. The Killing Fields Memorial and the Landmine Museum. What a cruel history this country has suffered in the last 50 years. It is a reminder that the world will always have it's devils, but that we can always use those unfortunate circumstances to move forward with purpose and hope.
The Museum, run by Aki Ra, was a scary reminder that war can be just as cruel to innocent people as much as it can be to the soldiers fighting. Especially after the fighting is done. And a reminder that the US should really sign the Landmine Treaty already.
The memorial at Choeung Ek, one of over 300 known "Killing Fields", and the site where over 10K people lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime.
Apologies for the graphic nature of this photo. There have been few, if any, things more powerful that I have seen on this trip.
We also visited the "Hanoi Hilton" and were subjected to a fair amount of propaganda pieces about the "fair and honest" treatment of the American Soldiers held here.
John McCain's Flight Suit
I'm willing to grant a lot of latitude in the stories of American Bombings and the uses of Napalm and Agent Orange, but this piece was a bit over done considering the conflicting memories of the American Soliders who were held here - John McCain's in particular.
The something "Quirk-y" department:
We met up with my friend Kathleen, who has been in Asia for the last 6 weeks - but never in the same places at the same times, in Ha Noi for a huge meal of Bun Cha and to catch up. It was delicious and we had a good time!
Oddly, the hotel called our room in the morning looking for Kathleen. Odd because, she was not staying at the hotel (she has just booked a tour through them), nor was there seemingly any other connection other than we were all Americans. I mean, we know each other, but the hotel didn't know THAT!
And we wrapped up Mom's time with a trip the Mekong Delta. It was cool to see a real floating market (vs. one they set up for tourists) and the differences between what the Mekong looks like way up north in Laos to the flat delta version here in Viet Nam.
We went to the "wholesale" produce market. Huge boats stacked with melons, squash, pineapples, lychees and more were all over the water ways.
Anyway, that's the run down. I'm sure there's some things I've left out (The insanity of traffic in Ha Noi and Phnom Penh for instance - but that can really only be experienced. So you'll just have to come see for yourselves!). But lastly, a big thanks to my friend George and his wife, Aki, for the warm welcome that they showed my mother and me. Really got the trip started off on the right foot!
The next month should be a good one. From Hong Kong, I head to Bali for a week or so and then out of Asia to Australia. By the end of the month of May I'll be in Chile and onto my 6th Continent of this adventure and likely the home stretch (BOO!).
And, I'm starting it off with a fresh hair cut. The first one in almost 7 months. It is about exactly what I would expect a $1 hair cut from a guy who didn't speak English to be. But, it'll doo. (Pun intended)
Your Grandma and I cannot be there to celebrate with you in person, but we hope you're having a great second birthday. Full of hayrides, junk food and clowns!
Most importantly, I hope you're a little less surprised by cake this year, Ian.
And that this year, Mommy and Daddy let you have some dignity and allow you eat with your shirt on, Conor.
You're two now. Stand up for yourself.
For your Birthday, I was going to get you each one of these:
Then I heard his new song and said Psy is no role model for young boys.
We wouldn't want this happening by the time your 7, after all.
Happy Birthday, Dudes. Can't wait to see you again, even if you usually ignore me and bang on pots and pans instead.
We've wanted to come to Angkor Wat ever since we saw Laura Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001.
As such, first we were all like:
Then, we were all like:
I've seen a lot of ruins on this trip, but these have to been some of the most spectacular I've ever seen for sure.
Mom with our Guide outside of the walls to Angkor Thom...
We spent the day walking around Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom and several other temples in the Angkor complex. It was hot, they are massive, but they are really fantastic.
There are hundreds of pictures, but here's a taste of what we found here.
The joke the guide made was that the reason the restoration tent is green is that because everyone has to ask "what's happening under the green tent". And the answer they guides have to give is "the Germans are fixing it"...
I've also updated the Tumblr Page with a bunch of photos from the trip. Both current and old ones that I saw when editing down albums to open up space on my laptop (plus they allow for better picture resolution on that site than Blogger does - though I do post totally different shots for the most part). Check it out: http://justcuzitsround.tumblr.com/ My apologies to Christopher David Davies, who won't be able to view these pictures because his school has blocked Tumblr as result of his students still going through puberty and using Tumblr for the viewing of pornography. Kids these days. I'll tell ya....
By now you've all heard about these fish that give Pedicures...
Well, we found them here in Siem Reap today. And, while I hate to post things out of order, I just had to show you my mother's reaction as she took the plunge:
It looks like the feeling she's conveying is pain... but she was laughing as the savage beasts attacked her cuticles. I swear.
And, well, it was her reaction combined with two other things:
1. They asked me to "Please feed our fish with your dead skin"
- and -
2. George Clooney, Jessica Alba and two random stock models are endorsing it.
... That signed me up!
This looks like a mall, but it was on the side of the road...
