Mom with Ian, because all the ones I have of her have been posted!
Happy Mother's Day to my Momma.
A little story about my Mom's reaction when I told her that I was thinking of doing this trip.
Well, she cried and barely talked to me for the rest of the night.
The next morning she woke me up. And over my grumbling protests for more sleep, she told me that "I needed to do this for her and that I needed to do it for me".
Well, here I am, starting the 8th month of this journey. And, while I may not be done quite yet. I've done it.
Thank you for helping not only this dream come true, but so many others as well.
While I cannot be there, I hope you can take some time today to savor a job well done.
And last, but certainly not least, I'd like to celebrate all of the Mothers in my life, from the about to be and to the seasoned.
Thank you for raising awesome kids and being amazing examples of strength and light to them. Most of all, thank you for being Mothers to me. Especially for the love, support, and kicks in the ass.
It's an amazing job you have and do. And, while today is the day we celebrate that job, I look up to you the rest of 'em just as much.
Evan and I want to wish you all a very Happy Monday, now that ours is coming to a close!
And this me telling the story about the size of the Bumphead Parrotfish I saw diving today, and the size of the smallest of the 5 Loggerhead Turtles. So cool to swim with those guys!
Real posts coming at some point, but without an underwater camera that will take a decent shot, it makes it hard to show you what we're up to. We'll be venturing into the mountains the day after tomorrow though, so those should be cool.
In keeping with the tradition of celebrating cultural holidays turned into drinking holidays here at JCiR. I toast you, the readers, on this Cinco De Mayo.
Arriba! Abajo! Al centro! Adentro!
SALUD!
Hom and I will have a few Bintangs for you all! (I'm going diving again tomorrow AM, so not too many. You'll have to take care of that yourself!)
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)
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