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We’re a Point-to-Point Airline

June 22nd, 2008

Asia has some cheap airlines.  Cheap airlines in Asia and I am thinking about all the crashes in Indonesia.  But I could not resist the unbelievably cheap tickets using Air Asia.  Of course, once I got to the payment screen when booking my first flight I saw the price advertized triple due to taxes and “fees”.  Plus you pay for your luggage to take the trip.  And if it is over 15 kilos then you pay another $10.  They even charge for water onboard as well as any snack you may want.  But in the end, Air Asia is still a cheap flight (and the flight attendants are hot!).  As with everything cheap in this world, cheap may get you in the end.

 

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Going to Vietnam, Remembering Greg Wilkes

June 21st, 2008

In couple of hours I head to Kota Kinabalu’s airport and I fly through Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  At the beginning of my trip I would have told you this was one of my top destinations and it still is so I am quite excited.  I’m nervous, too.  Luckily, we have twenty years of Americans visiting and I know I will be very well received in Vietnam.  Tell me, how can that be so?  I just read that over 3.5 million Vietnamese were killed during the wars with France and mostly USA.  If the tables were turned, I don’t really think Americans would be receiving Vietnamese warmly.  The people of Thailand and Malaysia have been exceptionally friendly, warm and gracious – exactly for what Vietnam is so famous.  I think we can all learn a lot from these Asians and I know I am very grateful that they have become such an integral part of America during the past decades of immigration.  They like ALL of the waves of immigrants only make America stronger (and more friendly!).

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The Eyes Have It

June 21st, 2008

Technically, I was on a birding trip in Borneo although I was here for the primates and more.  Rod set up two trips – one for birding and the other for primates – but the primate trip was canceled and I moved into the birding trip since it followed the same basic itinerary and I knew I could find other things to do when the birding became monotonous and the primates were hiding.  Although I love birds and I do enjoy a day of birding, I now know full-well that I am not a birder and as far as I am concerned birding is for the birds 🙂

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Blood-Sucking Leeches

June 21st, 2008

I woke up one morning in Danum Valley in the heart of Malaysia’s Sabah on the island of Borneo and noticed blood all over my sheets. I quickly yanked back the covers expecting to find a horse’s head, but, of course, there was not. Yikes, I checked my parts to make sure they were OK and everything seemed fine until I found the source on the side of my torso. Two punctures were caked with blood and they looked like a snake bite. That led to a quick check for a snake, but then I realized that I had no pain, the blood was still having trouble coagulating and this could only have been caused by a BLOOD-SUCKING LEECH!

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Real-time Photography

June 21st, 2008

Finally!  I am presenting photos while still at the source.  I worked very hard on my photography skills the past two weeks here in Borneo and I was also able to process the thousands that I took to boil it down to 700+ which are now ready for your perusal at http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagabondrick/sets/72157605729770429/  .  This set features Borneo wildlife including butterflies, other insects, primates, birds, plants, fungi and flowers from Danum Valley, Kitabatangan River and Mt Kinabala.  This was a fantastic trip as far as wildlife goes and I hope you enjoy the photography especially the macro work.  It’s quite possible a lot of this won’t be liked because so much of it is just tiny stuff with no explanation.  What I can is that Borneo is the most biodiverse place I have visited as far as my experience goes and it is the most colorful rainforest I have seen.  Understand that a rainforest is overwhelmingly GREEN, but if you look carefully a whole other world of the most vivid colors can plainly be seen.  For me, this was the most rewarding work I have done on my trip probably because my camera opened up a whole new world to me that would not be so evident if I had not been taking the photos and looking for the oddities.  Now I just need to write some stories 🙂

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Short Skirts and High Heels

June 7th, 2008

I decided that I had to find what Bangkok is most famous for – sleaze – for my last night in the city.  I did some research and discovered that there are three areas, one being Patpong which I had visited earlier in the week and seemed more about vendors selling clothes than sex joints.  Apparently, Patpong was the place way back in the Vietnam War days.  So last night I went to Nana where they have a three story plaza of go-go bars (how 60’s is this “go-go” name!).  I also learned that the Bangkok police have changed things over the last few years and it seems the effect is that there is no nudity.  The go-go dancers wear bikinis – small bikinis albeit, but I suppose they would be somewhat legally dressed in public.  My couple of hours in Nana was interesting, but it appears Bangkok has rid itself of its bad reputation producer.

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Bangkok

June 6th, 2008

I’m starting to think this is my favorite city to be visited or at least the favorite of the big ones.  The Thai people are wonderful.  This is the only large city I have visited where the people are so easy-going and laid back.  They are genuinely friendly and it is unfortunate that so little English is spoken being a hindrance to really meeting anyone.  Tourists are here, but tourism is a minor part of what is this city.  It is vibrant, hard-working and active.  I find it to be much cleaner and quieter than I expected based on writings.  It’s another one of the many cases where I don’t find a place to be what it is said to be.  It’s quite possible that some of the notoriety for Bangkok is based on the past and things have changed.  It’s also probable that the notable things get exaggerated.  For instance, Bangkok is known for pollution.  While the canals are pretty gross, the air seems very clean for 10,000,000 people.  The government built a subway system and my favorite mass transportation system – skytrain.  They are so heavily used that it is quite possible that they have helped.  Many people also drive scooters.  The craze here is the modern scooters that look like full-blown motorcycles.  Being that they have four-stroke modern engines their noise and exhaust levels are very low.  Marrakesh could use these new bikes!

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Earth Photos

June 4th, 2008

Well I tried to find some restaurant tonight and with every adventure in Bangkok, I was unable to stick to the predetermined path and four hours later I settled for the late night place down the street having covered many city blocks by foot and then by sky train (the coolest mass transport system I have ever seen).  I went from quiet stalls on the sidewalks to Central World – another mall.  I was about to board the sky train when I saw a photo exhibit.  At least one hundred giant prints were being displayed outdoors (anything and everything is done outdoors in this tropical city).  I can’t even remember the name of the exhibit except for something like “Above the Earth”, but it was spectacular.  The photos were large and vivid and with amazing subject matter such as millions of flamingos in Lake Nakuru, Kenya, the Nasca Lines in Peru (speaking of which, I saw the new Indiana Jones today in a fantastic cinema for $4 – about $3 more than the stupid movie was worth 🙂 and rice paddies in Thailand.

I really had a plan for the night as far as food, but time was lost or used or something like that.  I settled for the local place… and it was good!  In fact, I have not put anything in my mouth here in Bangkok that has not been very good.  I have been working diligently with the very painful part of my own photography this week as promised.  I am fighting with bad software and a fickle internet (internet speeds overall in Bangkok are the best I have seen anywhere).  I foolishly thought I would load up the Latin America Best Of photos – all 2000+ of them.  Silly me.  And now I am paying the price with nothing going up at this point.  Fortunately, Cameroon and Central African Republic are complete so go enjoy seeing the gorillas, elephants, Ba’Aka pygmies, the chief with 50 wives and all the landscapes and other people of Cameroon.  And Pamela!  http://www.flickr.com/vagabondrick

Lastly, Pamela is really going to be spinning here in Bangkok.  Shop til she drops for one.  Other things to look forward to – first ride in a subway (this one is in the air rather than under the ground), 88 story buildings with a bar/restaurant on top – literally on top – outside!  I’m thinking now that Bangkok may have more gawking potential than NYC.  Hal… It just may be, hate to break this to you, that Manhattan is not the Center of the Universe!

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Speaking of Food…

June 4th, 2008

London, New York and Paris seem to claim King of Food City, but my it seems that this is more Euro-American talk than maybe the world representation.  I am finding Bangkok to be the ultimate food place I have visited.  Last night I had the greatest Thai food I have ever tasted.  OK, so you might already guess the best Thai food is in Thailand, but I would classify last night’s Red Curry and Chicken with Fresh Coconut Milk as one of the best dishes I have ever tasted right up there with the best I have had in France and Belgium.  I picked a place blindly called Mango Tree (I liked the name) while walking backstreets of Bangkok and it was fantastic on all levels – impeccable service, outdoor seating, cold beer (I am in the supposed hottEST city in the world so this is required), delicious mango juice, best satay ever).  I have has this dinner on my mind ever since. 

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Protect Your People

June 3rd, 2008

I’m all for global trade and anti-protectionism.  But over the past two years (yes, my trip is now that long) I have come to the opinion that countries should always produce their own food – more than enough for their own people.  In my mind, any country that cannot regularly provide for its people’s hunger is probably not a country anyone should want to live in.  It would seem to me that the two main reasons for a federal government is to protect its borders and feed everyone and I believe producing enough food is a major factor for both of these to be successful.  I used to be against agricultural subsidies and while I still have problems with some of them I am grateful that American farmers produce more than we can consume and we provide our abundance to the poorest countries around the world.  The loss of prime farm land in America (especially California) as well as what I see in many other countries is very disconcerting.  Worse is that many countries are failing their own people agriculture-wise, they have their priorities very mixed up and their mistakes seem to be aided by the food relief industry.

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