look!!! there's a spider in my grapes...

ok, if you didn't like the last video clip, you'll love this one.



to understand this clip to its fullest you have to be a really old person. young people will find the crack spidah most humourous.

i had lunch with my friend sal today. last time i saw him, we were bombing (not literally) around the south african outback. not often do i come home to someone i've traveled with. nice to be alive to see him.

i saw part of his photo collection from that segment of the trip. very nice (hard to believe we were on the same trip, eh). but then he had a hammerin' lens on his camera. oh, it's not about the camera is it? ha!

hopefully, i'll post some of his pix as well.

planning, planning...

i did it my way...

i know some loyal readers will be disappointed.

i don't know how to say this other than to say i'm home.

good things must come to an end. well at least for now.

it was a crazy final couple of days in asia. it was fun though (in a logistical kind of way). it was the closest i could come to "trains, planes, automobiles". there was the flight from BKK to Macau, the boat ride to HK, the HK subway/train system to my friend's, wasta, place in the New Territory, the bus to HKG for the flight to YVR, then finally the flight home to YYC.

i was ready to bust out of the airplane cabin on the trip from HKG to YVR.

at least, i got to see wasta (see below). we, his bud steve and gf candy, went out that night and reminisced about the good ol' days in pakistan, india and nepal over dinner at a thai restaurant. he picked up the tab (for brunch, as well)!! if you find yourself in HK, make sure i give you instructions on finding his house. ha!! anyways, it was 7 years since we last saw each other. so, it was really good to see him still really wasted. ha!


would you believe thai people actually talk like this? (l to r: wasta, bubba)




if he's out there reading this, wasta thanx again for your hospitality. like i said, i think we'll meet up again sometime. hope it's not another 7 years between visits.

as for me, it feels very weird to be home. even weirder than previous trips.

observations, so far:

damn it's quiet here. i'm not scared of silence but calgary's a city with a million people, eh? c'mon peoples and make some noise. look alive. man alive.

there aren't not many afro-canadian people in calgary.

damn it's cold here. people are complaining about the oppressive summer heat here. i've lived in 30 plus temps since leaving ethiopia in early may.

since i came home, calgarians have been killing each other left and right on the news. 4 were murdered with guns, 1 homeless bum was beaten senseless by a gang of thugs, 1 woman was murdered despite people hearing her cries for help, 2 calgarian men were killed in a hit and run incident, and last but not least a kid was deliberately pushed into the path of an on coming LRT (train)... i find it ironic that people worry about my personal safety when i'm traveling in places like africa. africa's tame compared to calgary in terms of violent crime, eh.

i renewed my library card immediately.

i've begun running again. man, i'm outta shape.

i've resumed a north american diet. man, we eat alot of meat/protein. i don't think my stomach knows how to process it all. it's going right through me.

i weighed myself. after a month of continuous eating, i'm only at 160 lbs (72.64 kg or 13 1/3 stone). i swear i packed on at least 5 to 10 lbs. since egypt. i was 200 lbs. at the beginning of the trip.

ed. note:

1) apologies to friends in calgary. it takes me awhile to acclimatize to being home again. we should go for beer soon.

2) i will publish more photos soon.

3) anyone know of any job openings in cowtown?

more bangkok fun.

#1. i wish i could insert the video but this kid i shall call mr. xylophone wiz. i contributed to his college fund.

#2. before... (ed. note: sorry for fuzziness. my glasses suck.)

#3. after...

#4. putting on the moves...

#5. a nice day for a walk for what seemed to be 1 million people.

my bad. walk this day was actually a pro-democracy rally.

ed. notes.

1. some people really hate bangkok. i love it. people are really friendly (unlike cairo, where everyone's kind of stoic). there's stuff to do. there's alot of stuff to eat. it's alive. it's vibrant. not dead, i'm sorry to say, like cowtown.

2. photos #1 to 4. went down to the weekend market today. glad i did. i was supposed to go shopping but i lost track of time. it was a circus down there (a good circus vs. khao san rd.). plenty of people watching.

3. photos #5 to 6. funny thing happened on the way to the weekend market. encountered a parade of 1 million people dressed in yellow shirts walking down the street. i thought, 'what a great way to honour the king' (yellow is the royal colour). just happened that it was a march protesting against the military junta running thailand. holy crap. i broke security rule #6: "stay out of political rallies to preserve life". how was i suppose to know? my bad.

4. went down to patpong a few nights ago with my brazilian girlfriend. patpong is bangkok's infamous redlight district. hasn't changed a bit. clean but still sleazy... we took up all offers of free "looky, lookies". in one joint a banana landed within a metre of our feet. should of saw expression on the face of my brazilian friend. i laughed my head off. avoided thee bevy of "ping pong" shows.

same, same...but different...really...i mean that...

the croaking frogs are killing me...

a 7-11 with no slurpees? can that be possible. that's like starbucks without carmel macchiatos...

girl or boy? do i have to ask?

dedicated to my friend sal. he loves satays...

top 10 things overheard on khao san road...

10. how many of them mango/sticky rice thingies have you had tonite?
9. the tom yam fried my brain last nite...
8. is that kenny rogers with that hot, young Thai girl?
7. erik estrada has left the building!!
6. i can't believe i got ripped off on khao san rd.
5. are you sure you're a guy...?
4. wow, i'm the biggest jackass on khao san road...
3. these croaking frogs are killin' me...
2. if the rest of thailand is like this, i'm going to have a swell time here.
1. where are all the thai people... ?

ed. notes.
1. for my loyal readers in calgary, khao san rd. to bangkok is 17th ave to calgary except in this case khao san rd. is 17th on 'roids, crack, and amphetamines. to my other loyal readers, khao san is the centre of the backpacker universe, a never never land for travelers (well for some of them).

2. i haven't been here on khao san in 7 years. nothing has changed except for the frog ladies and the presence of bar girls on the pavement.

3. i'm off to the thailand vs. australia asia cup game tomorrow. wahoo. i'm going with a brazilian girl and a guy from the land o' oz. hope to see some football hooligans, eh.

4. i wanna go home.

pad thai here i come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 9, 2007
Departure:
23:15
Cairo, Egypt - Cairo International, terminal 1
Arrival:
11:55 +1 day(s)
Bangkok, Thailand - Suvarnabhumi Intl Airport
Airline:
Egyptair MS960 e
Aircraft:
Boeing 777-200/300

ed. note.

1. happy bday mr. K.

back in paradise...

i'm staying at the venerable dahab hostel in downtown cairo. it's located on the rooftop of a seven story building. nice view, eh? your challenge is to tell me how many satellite dishes are in the above image. who says this blog is boring?

thanx for all the emails from loyal readers about my whereabouts.

after dahab, i came back to cairo. i've been on the internet for hours upon hours researching the next destination.

edit. notes.

1) to the bastard thief in dahab who stole my glasses: i replaced my eyeglasses yesterday. i can see clearly once again. next time trip an old lady while she is crossing a street and leave visually impaired people alone.

Happy Canada Day!!!!! Or, cya later Dahab...

dahab can be a very very very lonely place (that's saudi arabia way in the back).

Oh happy days are here again!!!

you can't see this, but i'm dancin' a lil' jig, eh...

first, happy canada day!!!! to my loyal overseas friends, it's our national bday!!! to my fellow canadians, drink up and celebrate till the wee hours (even though that means till 9 pm for most of ya).

second, I'M LEAVING DAHAB!!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! i think that deserves repeat of the chorus:

Oh happy days are here again!!!

man, i think i just winded myself.

seriously, i've never been in a place as long as i've been in dahab. it's been definitely a love/hate relationship.

i'm going to miss the sea. i just finish 2 SCUBA dives. i thought i could pick up where i left off 7 years ago in thailand. unfortunately diving is nothing like riding a bike. you need practice to keep up the necessary skills. thus, i was pretty much floundering around in the deep blue sea. it was too bad. however, i did see some pretty cool stuff. the fish and coral are genuinely amazing. however, when it comes to SCUBA skills, i'll pick them up with a refresher elsewhere. perhaps, back in thailand?

i wish i traveled to dahab back in '95. back then (not long ago) i think it was a backwater. a true backpacker chillout spot where chill really meant chill. no hassle (even i have a hard time believing this one). but, i'll never know.

here's to the people of dahab...

to the touts and taxi drivers, everyone's got to make a living. let's just leave it at that.

as for the other people, it's about an ecclectic bunch as it gets. first, ricky, the greasy, flunk out from manchester. you're just 17 yrs. old and you're a wasta already... too bad. then there are friends from the dahab hostel in cairo who seem to have suffered the same fate as i. if he every reads this, Mo', my advice is to get the hell out of here. not tomorrow. i mean immediately. forget about western union. btw, you owe me 270 LE. jason, you got out in the prime of your trip. good on ya!! richard and sally... dunno how u did it but 2 months in dahab... how the hell did u do it? finally, to the blonde woman pushing the baby carriage back and forth, day after day, you are really really really hot.

to all my rushion friends, dost va donya!!! i luv u all!

finally, bob marley is the greatest human being to set foot on this planet.

Dahab...

thanks for the emails from my loyal readers with regards to my health and lack of postings.

i'm alive and well in dahab. i've been here for a long while now.

it's beautiful here. the scenary's pretty stark. the nearby desert mountains are jagged. they're butt up against the brilliant turquoise waters of the red sea. to the east are the seaside cliffs of saudi arabia.


dahab for the most part is a street and a half town. very touristy. the "strip", as i call it, rims the shoreline. there is a wall of chillout restaurants (and their annoying touts) on the seaward side of the walkway, while hotels, gawdy souvenir shops, internet cafes and ubiqutous scuba shops line the otherside. add to this, a caravan of gypsy-like beduoin girls, selling homemade bracelets.


not many tourists are here. the tourist trade is pretty much dead. those that are here are an ecclectic bunch. a plethora of vacationing russians, japanese/korean hippies, and a surprising number of canadians.


there's not much to do here unless you like to SCUBA dive or snorkel. otherwise, you work on your suntannin' and chillin' skills.

you'd think chillin' would be easy in a place like dahab but not really. the touts are relentless. actually, if you've been around awhile, the touts' remarks get quite personal. for example, on the way to dinner tonite, there is a bridge i cross. there's a troll, sorry that's tout, flogging a trip to a local attraction. i'm not interested and say "no thanx, i love dahab". the troll answers, "dahab doesn't love you." what's with that?

here, and in most of egypt, the traveler is nothing unless they fork out the cash. it's ironic that the very people who benefit from tourist spending actually talk trash to them as well. very strange sales techniqes...

i spend most of my time now avoiding "the strip". there isn't a local public beach in town. so, i've got to walk a half hour either north or south of town to get some peace and quiet.

i've got a few more days here. i've got to spend some of my hard earned cash to go scuba diving.

after that, i'm getting the hell out of here.

ed. notes:

1. not all egyptians are nasty sob's.

2. i still do not know where i'm going. i'll return to cairo and make some kind of decision quickly.

3. i went snorkeling yesterday. the biodiversity of the surrounding reefs is incredible. the show just starts about 25 metres off shore. it's shallow at first then all of a sudden the ocean floor just drops off. breathtakingly deep blue sea. beautiful corals. billions of colourful fishes. i haven't seen a Nemo fish yet...

sometimes when we're out of touch...

alexandria's corniche on the Mediterranean sea. i guess this kind of marks the end of the trip...

wacky egyptians hamming it up at the market.

well, i'm back in cairo. there's a price to pay though. bright (well, as bright as it gets here with the smog), sunny and 40 C. since the last posting , i've been to alexandria and the extremely isolated oasis of siwa in the great sand sea close to the libyan border.

alexandria's sort of like a mini cairo; however, the people are much more relaxed. founded by the one, the only alexander the great, it was famous for the great liberry back in the day. until it was torched and razed to the ground. i went to see the new replacement liberry. i must say it didn't have much of a collection yet. it could fit 8 million books but currently held only a half million. lot's of empty, dusty shelves. alexandria was also famous for having one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. well, it was dismantled and the pieces were used to construct a fort.

perhaps what alexandria is most noted for (well, in my books) are it's people. really friendly folks. i think the lack of tourists or reduced numbers has to do with some of the friendliness.

next, i headed deep into the western desert to the oasis of siwa. i've never been to an oasis before. the landscape prior to arriving was horrifically bleak. i mean nothing. flat for as far as the eye could see. nary a soul. hot as hell. then the bus i was on dipped into a shallow depression, and voila, we were in a patch of a date palms, surrounded by pools of cool clear water! soon thereafter, we were inundated by donkey carts, the preferred mode of siwan transport, at the bus station. funny how things work out in the end.

not much to see in siwa. the chic thing to do is rent a bike and visit some of the exquisite springs in the outskirts of town. you can escape the oppressive heat of the day by taking a refreshing


this is my new bud, robbie, from amerika taking the plunge into "cleopatra" spring.

dip in the coolish waters. very nice. alternatively, you can do nothin' and sit on your butt all day reading a book or watching siwan life go by. ain't that fun, eh? plus, it's quiet as hell. Siwa's an anomaly in egypt that's for sure.


nice sunset, eh? if you have yo tv screens adjusted correctly, you can see a small sample of Siwa's 70 thousand date trees in the foreground.

siwa's pretty conservative in terms of adherence to tradition and islam. the women are covered from head to toe in public - even in the oppressive heat. as my friend, sal, would say, the full ninja suit. the whole nine yards. they can walk around, but they can't drive the donkey carts.

however, traditions are a changing, just as the shifting sands of the surrounding desert. i had this conversation with the hotel manager, mano:

bubba: so, mano are you married? (one of my favourite questions).
mano: no.
bubba: (feigning shock and dismay) why not!
mano: i'm just 24.
bubba: that's really old. (well, relatively old)...
mano: i need money to get married...
bubba: ha! how are you going to meet your wife?
mano: my folks are going to set me up.
bubba: then?
mano: then we are going to meet...
bubba: ...and go on a date?
mano: ha! no.
bubba: play cards?
mano: no. maybe watch tv (with her parents present of course). if the parties are interested, her family will talk it over (family meaning parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.). if they like me, we'll get engaged.
bubba: when would that happen?
mano: could be next day or maybe ten years... hopefully, not ten years.
bubba: why not 10 years?
mano: very expensive.
bubba: how do you know if she's the right one?
mano: if her family is good then everything is good...
bubba: what about the woman?
mano: she doesn't matter. just as long as the family is good.
bubba: when are finally going to get married?
mano: before i'm, say, 30.
bubba: that's quite advanced in age. hmmm...what about your friends?
mano: well, 99 percent of them are married. i don't get to see them much.
bubba: they just disappeared?
mano: yep. i like my freedom.

ed notes:

1) i've been sick for the past few days. that certainly put a wrench into my plans of chillin' in dahab (capital of western decadence by the red sea - i'm sure it drives the islamists crazy). it's been pretty rough. high grade fever, head eck, muscle and joint eck, and to top it off, you guessed it, explosive diarrhea. dunno what it is. any doctors out there? anywho, i'm resting for next couple of days.

2) while i was bedridden, the ducks won the cup. that kind of sucked...