9 Days Left

One of the last weekends for me here. After the 1st of June there still might be some words in me to write under "lost" & "found", however none of it is going to be taking place in Thailand. Back to the place I came from. I wonder what to do about this blog. Change to title to "Lost & Found In Thailand/continued in Denmark"? :) Somehow I have become attached to this silent way of getting rid of thoughts. 

Almost done!

Ehh, what time is it? 3am? Nice. Lovely hour to be awake. Well, everything is silent except few barking dogs and rather noisy bugs. What are they called... cicadas. The "cicada song" is overrated, trust me. More like a high frequency buzzzzz buzzzz.

Anyways, just sitting here, writing and writing my main project - about to get seriously tired of the whole thing :) The more I look at it, the larger the conviction that it all is useless and worthless. Whatever the outcome, Im looking forward to the moment when I call TNT and say - take it away, please :)

Ketchup?!

Those who know me well might find this slightly hilarious... I'm a food person, if such a "term" exists. I love to cook (when I have the time for it) and generally I make sure that there is something in the fridge to eat besides a piece of cheese from the previous century (no offense to the French! :P). Also, I know what a "food for emergencies" stock means. But as I found out yesterday evening, this time I had outdone myself! I came to a sorrowful conclusion that I had nothing to eat except Heinz ketchup. Even the (nowadays) hated MAMA noodle cup-soups were missing. Oh, thats a lie. I also 'discovered' 4 small tomatoes, but all of them suffered from an unknown disease called "too old". 

So, why don't I go and get some groceries, you might ask?

The bright side is that I no longer get lost in Seacon Square mall. The downside is that with every visit I seem to find less and less stuff I feel like eating :) Call me spoiled and call me pathetic, but I do wander around in Tesco looking and looking... what's nice.. what could resemble European food... no sour-cream?!... hmm... milk is good. Canned pork by Tulip - no way! Some funny looking sausages...maybe another time. Cereal for emergencies. Dried squid!? That green stuff.. do I eat it raw?... hmm...No stove, no food. Ready-made? YACK! Overpriced low quality cheese! That will do, if only I could get my hands on decent dark bread. No more rice, please... Frozen pizza, yes! Oh... no oven. And it goes on and on :)

However, the ridiculousness of the whole situation only makes it worse... think Myanmar and me here acting as a 5-year old. And I keep telling myself - c'mon, grow up! 

This morning (as on every Sunday) bunch of the small street-carts grilling chicken show up next to the RamaIX park. Got a small chicken breast. Lets hope for no salmonella, but at least I have utilized my ketchup :)

Going Royal

Not a bad seat to dwell in while enjoying a movie...plus a blanket. I also wonder if Mojito comes with it :) Unfortunately there wasn't any movie I felt like watching, but hopefully something in my taste comes along before I leave.

Seafood!

My work-mate's Ooy's niece's 13th birthday dinner. The biggest prawns I have ever seen... scary long legs :) And oysters... now, what you do with them is: place one in your spoon, put some dried/fried onions on top, ad that green paste (ground chillies with what?) and place "grass" on top!

The Bus

I've been mentioning the awesome busses before, but now I finally managed to take a very shaky image - sorry about that, but the vehicle is rattling even at standstill :)

Wood floor and I believe that the white plastic tanks in the left front corner of the bus is The Aid Kit. For the bus,  that is :) And what's that "box" in the middle? Gear support unit?! :)

Oh yeah, the ticket's worth 7 THB (1.05 DKK).

Durians

It had to happen, you know - I have just tried the feared durian-fruit courtesy to my work colleague The Fruit Man. For those who don't know - this fruit stinks. It really does. Most hotels have a sign saying "No Go" (I think I have posted a picture of such from Singapore). Cannot really describe the smell... hmm... something sickeningly sweet...

Anyways, I should be talking about the taste. I got the chance to try two different types of durian. The 'fruit meat' is very sweet (however it's possible to get another type that is less sweet) and has extremely soft & 'creamy' consistence - seriously, it feels like eating large mouthfuls of Philadelphia cream-cheese. The look of it is misleading. 

Also, I could almost feel the sugar buzz from super-high levels of carbon-hydrates :) 

The taste.. I came up with a theory it reminded me of very sweet pineapple but without the acid-like sharpness to it. However, my suggestion was rejected, so now I'm left without a comparison.

A few pointers: don't eat it right after mealtime. My tummy feels like I've been crunching on stones. Have a chewing-gum or a toothbrush handy. You'll need it, trust me :P

Brown Sugar Jazz club

Homesick

It's been a while since my last post. Should I say that I've been extremely busy? Well, partially; but I also haven't been in the mood to write. Have been floating somewhere in between reality and dreamworld. Less than four weeks to go until I leave. Somehow that's the only thing I can think about. Sure, I have a few fun days planned ahead, but that doesn't stop me from gazing upon all the planes flying above my "home" here (living not far from the airport, you see) and wondering why the heck I'm not on one of them :)

Heh, this post is 'crying out' for a title 'Homesick'! Let's just do that then.

I want that PADI

Inspired by Pat, I have been looking for a place where I could get a PADI Open Water divers license. Approximately 350$ and a whole new world should be opened up for me. I'm already excited! It seems like a perfect plan for my last week here... a 4 day instruction course in Ko Samui - what ya saying, folks? :) 

Blown Away by Orange Juice...

This qualifies as the silliest post of all times - it doesn't take much to leave me gaping. Orange juice... can't me simpler, can it? Except the fact that, on top of choosing between different producers, I was put through another "tough" decision... from what area (also type.. I found out that Si Thong oranges are called "the golden oranges" - because of climate differences the oranges grown here become sweeter and juicier) should the oranges the juice is made out of come from. It has never occurred to me there could ever be a choice like that. The best tasting orange juice. 

 

Singapore In Photographs IV- Little India Bracelets

Singapore In Photographs III - Sentosa Island & The Underwater World

Don't ask me what that "thing" above was... some tiny tiny spineless creatures living in the Arctic waters or something. Freaky little buggers :)

Singapore In Photographs III - Sentosa Island

Singapore In Photographs II - India

One day I stumbled upon a small show promoting India and the tourism opportunities there. These dancers were amazing - their smiles and energy was contagious. 

Singapore In Photographs I - The City

Being in Singapore is like going back to the Western world ( and Western prices as well) or doing time traveling into the future and having a peak-preview of what other Asian countries might look like in years to come. Full of dynamics - I could almost hear the city hissing "expansion.." in my ears :)

I found it peculiar to hear people of different nations (think Chinatown and Little India) speak their own languages and then, all of a sudden, switch to English, since that's the official language of Singapore and no matter whom you run into, English should do it.  

The infamous Orchard Road - this is where the "shopaholics" (S. Kinsella's invention:P)  go loose. Who was I not to follow 'the rules' and leave some of my income scattered around da' road. 

Rain downpour released all kinds of related "activities" I have never seen anywhere else. I'm not sure if that is a common practice, but at least the shopping mall I happened to be in when the heavy rain (monsoon period) started, provided free umbrellas for people to cross the street with. No kidding! This guy comes out with his little umbrella stand and even tried to convince everyone not to open their own umbrellas bur use "his" instead :) Brilliant so I had to take a picture, hehe, the man even posed for me! :

Also, had never seen special plastic bags to put your wet umbrella in before walking inside a mall. "Magasin", "Bruuns Galleri" and "Salling" managers could learn something from that :)

Tribute to DonG

Dong, Dong - now that your bloggurs (blog 'bout other blogs) site is up and running, it "hit" me one more time how simple and brilliant that idea of yours really is. The "Next Blog" button sometimes makes me run out of patience... there is a limit how many "daily outfit shows" I bother looking at (no offense... oh well, maybe a microscopic one). But this is enjoyable - direct road to Tried, Tested & Interesting:) 

http://www.thebloggurs.blogspot.com/

Me & Busses & The Confusion

Yesterday and today I have used city busses for my daily trips to work and back when the "school-bus" (read: company car) is not en route. Me being a foreigner does confuse the bus-drivers, hehe, it seems that they simply cannot believe that yeah, I actually am trying to stop the bus! I'm sick of using taxis.. by now it seems like such a "fake" thing to do. Not for real, you know. I mean, who takes a cab to and back from a shopping mall?! Answer: many locals. Never been a taxi person and now, all of a sudden, in and out of green/yellow, blue and pink cabs more often than I can be bothered to count. 

Cabs are dirt cheap here and the money saved by using public transportation instead is really of an insignificant amount when converted in DKK, but taking a city bus is an experience in itself - the busses look like they're home made! The ultimate kitchen table technology! :) Like the one from this morning. Believe it or not, the floor was made out of wooden boards, had these huge nails in them - if you'd "remove" everything surrounding it, it would make the perfect pier! Or floor for a summer cottage. There's loads of diverse stuff hanging on the walls - small fans (how did they got attached?! :P), wires of all kinds, flowers etc. The bus never closes the doors & all windows are open. And in between all that - people and me. Wished I had my camera on me. Maybe tomorrow. 

Another thing - normally a bus can only be stopped at a designated bus-stop, right? Fair enough. So I wait at a bus-stop. Logically I also assumed that it will stop at one too. Pushed the "stop" button and waited for the vehicle to pull over at the upcoming stop. Oh well, the driver was in a good mood and just pushed on the brake right after the "beep". Taxi-Bus? Bus-Cab??:)

The Hike: Day 2

Tough morning... it could have been so coz' of sleeping very limited number of hours... :) The 2nd day's plan included passing by two small waterfalls and that meant - aaaahhhh shower! 1.5 hours of more or less downhill walk to the first waterfall/valley village. I recall everyone was exhausted from the heat and you could see "sleeping bodies" all over the place :) It took another 40 minutes to reach the second waterfall. I can't say that they were impressive or anything, but I assume that the reason the path goes by is to give the hikers a chance to have a dip... not the worst idea after all. 

On the second day the guide guy (geez, cannot remember the man's name... Joe?!) picked up a dog to come with us (all of a sudden there were 3 dogs instead... where the heck..??). I was told that there can be some water snakes in the stream we were walking by after the 2nd waterfall and that the dog's a master at scaring them away. Well, I only got to see a tiny one, so not much excitement involving wild life creatures. 

The night was spent at a Jungle Camp in a valley - identical bamboo huts to the ones from the first night. Beautiful location and the camp was run by one family, so the whole atmosphere was extremely 'homely if I can put it that way. Maybe I should clarify few things here - none of the mountain villages has electricity (I did see one solar panel in a place we passed through, but it seemed to be there for the sole purpose of powering up a huge satellite dish not a water pump :P). Regarding water: mountain stream, water pressure is built up somewhere above the village itself, bunch of plastic pipes  and there you go - a tap above you head in a small bamboo shack! Very spartan in a super cool way! :) Well, I guess you have to keep in mind that for the majority of these hill-tribe people accommodation of hikers must be the main source of income. 

We got to the camp sometime late afternoon, had dinner around 6pm and for some unknown reason (yeah right!) I decided to lay down and read for a while. Woke up around 2am with my contacts still on. Flashlight, hasty "eye removal" procedure and back to sleep :)