Let's Enjoy Looking At "ONLINE RAIBU JOURNARU"

...or, Homeland Security sure is ( a piece of work. )

And in gratitude for the above, ( I decided to do for my country. )

That will be all.

...I find myself in Seoul.

Say what you want about the evils of globalisation (which are indeed myriad); this aspect of it rocks.

I'm also kinda going through a weird process which may(?) be culture shock. I've spent almost my entire adult life (and 20% of my life for that matter) in Japan, so moving back this fall...was no different than moving into a new apartment. Seriously, I arrived at Kankuu, hopped on the shuttle to Kyoto and continued living my life. In fact, there might have been less adjustment involved than there was with moving back to the States. Moreover, I've been listening to Japanese as if it were English and reading it as if it were English.

Which is why Seoul is kinda freaking me out, because it's so close to Japan, but just slightly off. I also read sign Korean as if it were Japanese/English, which makes the moments when I run into something I just don't understand all the more jarring. As are the conversations overheard on the subway, which I tune out in the same manner I tune out languages I understand...until I don't understand something. In other words, my listening experience goes something like this:

"Made me wait for 30 minutes at Gwanghwamun xxxxxxxxxxx made it to Starbucks xxxxxx my sister said xxxxx and xxxxxx it xxxxxx it xxxxxx to xxxxxxx won't be until tomorrow.

Which is also actually pretty cool, considering how little time I actually spend listening to Korean.

That will be all.

I made my flight reservations for Korea last Friday. As cell phone usage is (thankfully) not permitted in the uni computer labs or research rooms, I was unable to check travel info while talking to the travel agent.

Anyway( Read more... )

That will be all.

Today's Picture(s) from Day Three of the Hong Kong leg are: ( Read more... )

That will be all.

Wow, that has to have been one of the worst trips I have ever been on, which was unfortunate because I quite like Hong Kong and Indonesia is a lovely country. The company, however, was rotten.

Luckily, demeter918 was waiting for me at the eki when I got back home, and we're going to hang out in the East Capital next week.

At any rate, I'm back home safely and will hopefully start posting photos and the like within the next day or two.

That will be all.

( This time from Vietnam. )

That will be all.

It's official, my love affair with this country is complete and everlasting.

( Good morning, Laos. )

Then to Vientaine. I arrived in time to snag a room at a the guesthouse I wanted while simultaneously avoiding a government airport scam (I'd learned my lesson in Luang Prabang). Serendipitously, the taxi driver I hailed is good friends with the guesthouse proprietor, so I snagged a discount ride back to the airport tomorrow.

I had enough time to visit two former Wats this afternoon. The first was the lovely Haw Pra Keuw, which houses more fascinating architecture and Butsuzou than I have time to recount. Lonely Planet says it sucks, once again proving that Lonely Planet often sucks.

( Afterwards I visited Wat Sisaket. )

( On the importance of proper dress and demeanour, 21st century style. )

I'm already planning my next visit.

That will be all.

Let me start by saying that a certain widely popular travel guide franchise desperately needs to update its Laos title. Given their description, I'd expected net connectivity here to consist of someone on a rotary telephone dictating zeros and ones to me, yet here I am on broadband connection that's faster than the ones I used in Thailand. For shame, Lonely Planet!

Yesterday was truly surreal. Went to sleep at about two o'clock to the sounds of the roosters crowing in the powerlines (yes, they can apparently get up there. Who knew?) after a futile attempt to figure out whether or not the airport would be open tomorrow.

Ironically, it was the foreign population of Bangkok who knew about the coup first, given the fact that we all tend to be up at midnight. My driver to the airport (who I'd hired the day before), was pretty stunned--he hadn't found out till he'd woken up and got out onto the streets.

Which were pretty much deserted--pretty unnerving when you're used to the insane round the clock bustle of Bangkok. Had a really charming conversation with him about how to say 'coup' in English, and the meaning of the word. (He thought, for instance, that d'etat was some sort of abbreviation of demonstration, and wanted to know what the "etat" meant.)

Of course, had to drive right past--or rather, around--all the avenues blocked off by soldiers and tanks. The soldiers actually looked quite festive (disregarding the automatic weapons), as they were decked out in jasmine garlands and yellow ribbons and carnations (the colors of the Thai royalty).

"Take pictures, take pictures!" gleeful Mr. Driver kept urging me; I however, felt that photographing tanks from the back of a taxi during the early stages of a coup might not be such a great idea. I did get a quick shot of a couple of grunts standing on a street corner, though.

Seeing that that tack had failed, Mr. Driver then rolled down the window so that I could shake hands with the soldiers. I chickend out and settled for waving.

Anyway, that was the fun bit. The not so fun bit was the part that every bank and business was (understandably) closed, which meant that I could neither eat breakfast nor exchange money.

Am a bit worried about the fact that the military dude apparently heading the coup says that democracy won't be established for a year, as I've got some more time in Bangkok before flying to Korea. Who knows? I may just end up stranded in Laos with it's vastly superior Internet connections.

That will be all.

That's French for ( HOLY FUCK! )

I attempted to call the U.S. Embassy and ask for advice, and was put on hold for so long that my money ran out. I then decided to head to ye olde Internet cafe to see what the Embassy website has to say about the situation. Which is...nothing, although they've got several useless links to the shit bush has spewn from his mouth recently. Way to lose at life, embassy.

Thus I find myself refreshing the NYTimes homepage and reading what the Japanese news media has to say about the situation over the shoulder of the woman next to me.

All I can say is, I better get out of here tomorrow, because I don't have enough money to buy another $1,100 ticket back home.

That will be all.

PS: I should have known something was up when I stopped into the Tourist Information Bureau this evening and found it full of police in full riot gear. Unfortunately, I've spent too much time in South Korea.

So here I am in Bangkok, which is like a playground for foreign tourists. I am so not joking, and I am so in love with this city. Alas, even the most state-of-the-art Internet cafes are incapable of handling USB 2.0, which means I cannot upload any of my fabulous Angkor Wat pictures. Seriously, I cannot wait to let you guys see them.

In other news, I have about 70% convinced myself to postpone my return to the states in order to travel to Laos for a week; Bangkok is one of about five airports with direct flights to the country, and it sounds relatively free of tourists and just an all-around wonderful place. We'll see how much money I can manage to cough up to fund the trip.

Anyway, I will be coming back at some point, at which time I'll have the time (and money) to go through and catch up on all the flist posts I've missed.

That will be all.