"You're calling from Bangkok!!??!!"
The topic of what favorite food we miss came up the other day in Bali.
Fast Food? Nope.
Burgers? Nope.
Pizza? Nope.
Italian? Had some spaghetti bolognese and it was lame, but nope.
Mexican? Nope.
An hour went by and as I was replaying the conversation in my mind I thought, "Wow, I really don't miss that stuff..." Then I suddenly realized - "CHIPOTLE!!!!" and couldn't stop thinking about a nice Barbacoa Burrito fixed just the way I like it. More than ten days later, I'm still thinking about it... Shit.
Ok, so I found something I really miss.
People in Indonesia react and reflect on the Bali Bombings there in 2002 & 2005 the same way we look at 9/11. It's a kind of defining moment in both cultures and everyone knows where they were and what they were doing the moment it happened. The difference is they want to talk about it (while I don't like talking about it,) and make sure we realize a horrible thing happened to them, too.
In the airport at Ujung Pandar the other day, I saw three women in chadors, (full-length black veils with only their eyes showing,) huddled together playing a PSP, making noises and fighting for their turn at the game. It made me feel good to know that even though we seem very different, we are all still very similar. I wonder if they like Halo2...
I love spicy food. The hotter the better. I like it like the locals like it and I have been in heaven here in SE Asia, trying all kinds of new tastes, ingredients and spices. But I have met my match in Indonesia and it's called (phonetically,) "Booga Booga." Don't laugh, that's the name. This Bunaken home-made condiment looks like a cross between salsa and the regular pepper sauce, but it really packs a wallop... The sweat popped out on my forehead, my nose ran like crazy and I was drinking glass after glass of water as it wrecked my mouth for a day!
I ran around Bangkok, setting up my next journey to Cambodia and Viet Nam. To make room for all the extensions I did, (Koh Tao, Phuket, Perhentian, Sulawesi,) I had to cut 'Nam back to just Ho Chi Minh City and drop Chiang Mai altogether. But no worries, I know I'll be back.
My camera semi-died in Gili T. and has been limping along ever since, but it was definitely on its last legs. Having lived in Bangkok for a while, Theresa sent me to the five floor electronics-only mall where she bought her awesome camera and housing and I decided to splurge and wound up getting a new Canon G9 with its own underwater housing! Much cheaper than in the US, but still a lot, though I feel better remembering that I found my first camera on the bottom of Lake Rawlings and am ahead of the game in the Grand Scheme Of Things.
I arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia today and caught the sunset over the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. Wow, just - wow.
The book count is now at 27 and I just started on Milan Kundera's "Book Of Laughter And Forgetting." Just a little lighthearted story about the Prague Spring of '68.
And with that, I am now caught up with my posts! Hooray!!
Now I just need to figure out the new camera and get my pics updated...
Stay Wet And Stay Warm - I know it's autumn,
Clement
