i would first like to post some of my good friend ellen's e-mails that come from southeast asia. she is visiting cambodia, vietnam and thailand. here's the first installment:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here I am in Saigon..It is an awe-inspiring city teeming with people..about half the size of Mumbai but Viet Nam is a teensy little country. I went out on the street to have this freaky drink...It is black beans, white beans , tamarind, mango shreds, pineapple chunks, fresh coconut, passionfruit juice, shaved ice and cream...It is served in a tall glass with a spoon and it is astonishly delicious and refreshing. I arrived here in Ho Chi Minh city by bus from Phnom Penh..An interesting but dodgy little city that could use a couple of coats of paint and some rain to wash away the urine..I went to the killing fields and toul seng which was a torture and detention center during the khmerrouge fiasco...I absolutely loved the Khmer people(native cambogias)...Very slight and beautifulwith full smiles, prominent cheek bones and eyes that are full of laughter...Cambodia is a sadly poor country and the sex trade there is one of the worst in the world...Alot of the garment factories are being shut down and women have no other way to make a living..It is a devastating cycle...Tourism is there only hope, but the temples of angkor can only provide so much for the economy... English is taught in all of the schools and the children in Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) are very well spoken and wildly enthusiastic about practicing what they have learned..In Viet Nam, not so much...I'll be staying here for the next 10 days traveling up the coast to hanoi and halong bay so I've been learning a little of the language...Fortunately they have the same alphabet as we do...Thank you France!! In Cambodia everything is in US dollars...It really enrages the Europeans and Aussies..But it is nice not to have to do the math...Here it is the dong...confusing...15,540 is a dollar..Egad...my mathematical skills seem to havetaken a nose dive... The temples were absolutely amazing!..I stayed 5 days instead of three...to see more. Today I was hit by a moto driver...he knocked me off my feet on the side of the street andI have a sprained ankle and a gash in my ring finger...the bastard didn't even stop but all of these lovely folks attended to me and a sidewalk vendor brought me a bag of iced coffee to refresh myself and pack my ankle...Most of the beverages inThailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam are served in a 2 handled little bag with a bent straw...I love it...Beats the crap out of disposable cups..I've got to fly...I am going to hobble over to the opera house to check out the symphony...20 bucks...not so bad..Viet Nam is much cheaper than Thailand or Cambodia...I understand it will be much cooler up north...It'll prepare me for the long journey home.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
back to india
so no matter what the men do here, digging ditches, selling coconuts, building a wall-no matter how rich or poor, they ALL have the most perfect hair ever. my favorite pastime is watching the menfolk pass by and i just swoon at their grooming abilities and attention to detail. we sloppy americans can learn much from the coiffed indian. it's a god thing. or a bollywood thing. whatever it is, it works.
i was roped into "mother theresa's internet"this morning by my friend salman. i've been coming here almost exclusivel for 2 years, until one day i discovered the high speed giant screen computers a few steps down. unfortuantely i have to walk fast past salman, cause you really feel like your cheating on them when you do that. so here i am using internet i really don't want to use! the fruit ladies on the beach are the same. once you buy fruit from one, they own you. i have seen MANY catfights on the beach over cunning fruit queens "stealing" other fruit queen's customers! and these ladies are HARDCORE. you are never allowed to NOT have fruit for a day, so you have to search for alternate routes to walk so you don't get accosted.
this morning i saw a desperate man selling drugs in broad daylight, desperate as all hell. even coming into restaurants to do so. i have never seen that before-they usually only do that at night. i have heard most of the creeps selling are merely trying to support their own habit. sad. BUT his hair looked REAL good!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------tit bits
*5 YEAR OLD SACRAFICED
a 5 yr. old was sacraficed by a man to gain spiritual power today. this is the third such incident in a month.
*ARMY JAWARS PUSH 7 OUT OF A TRAIN
5 were crushed to death by the sampurna kranti express which was passing by at that moment. the civilians were thrown out of the train cause the army said the seats they were sitting in were reserved for army personal.
*5.5 TONNES OF GARBAGE REMOVED
"keep kovalam clean" campaign-475 volunteers sporting t-shirts bearing the slogan "less waste, more future"
-i noticed most of the teens were simply milling about talking on their cell phones instead of working, just like the maid in my hotel who finds little patches of shade in corners and hides there all day. she can actually make herself the size of a cashew!! scares the crap out of me when i "think" i am alone.
*HORRORS ON V.C.D.
-new releases are ruling the black market video charts: compilations of grisley pictures and videos of the tsunami horror selling for 4 times the price of, "swades."
-great demand for them-running out of stock. it shows everything-how people died, how they were buried, people who were saved, bloated bodies, cremations, property destruction. they are of good quality and sound.
bindi will be publishing a couple more excerpts from ellen's journey. i just hate to keep her adventures to myself.
bindifry
No comments:
Post a Comment