On being gently and repeatedly murdered

Every day I spend in Siem Reap I am killed by cuteness.

My hostel has balconies overlooking a busy street. Yesterday I was heading down for breakfast and I stood for a moment to watch the traffic go past. Motorcycles (motos) with girls in long skirts riding sidesaddle. Motos carrying three Cambodians and a ( Read more... )

I haven't written about Siem Reap yet because I've been waiting for some sort of tidy conclusion to present itself. I've tried. Usually I start things with no conclusions in mind and the conclusions just draw themselves at the end, but there are no conclusions to be had here. So I'm very pleased to present this wonderful and incomplete series of ( Read more... )

I spent this morning sitting in a packed pick-up truck with a dying chicken wrapped around my ankles. A small Lao girl rested her head against my shoulder whilst her mother chain-smoked, shouted things at the other passengers and shoved things down behind my back. Storage space was limited, see. Forty people plus livestock, belongings, clothes in ( Read more... )

30 December

Since I've only recently penned an open letter to my motivation, I can't very well use this device again in penning an open letter to my internal organs and/or digestional tract and/or whatever foreign organisms may be living in either of the above. If I did, however, it would go like this:

Dear internal organs and/or digestional tract ( Read more... )

December 25th (Christmas Day!)

I'm sitting in a cafe with my laptop. I have a cinnamon bun, a bowl full of fruit, yoghurt and cereal, a coffee with some sort of caramel thing going on. I'm surrounded by people you might alternately call farang, falang, or "whitefullas". There are waiters and waitresses wearing santa hats ( Read more... )

17 DecemberI first read about the Panya Project on Wikipedia. As you do. Some of you might remember I was talking about how pleasing I thought it would be to keep chickens. My chicken research led to my permaculture research which led to Panya. They accept volunteers, and emails confirmed that now is an excellent time to be visiting and ( Read more... )

People who sit in internet cafes and cough all over their keyboards and screens and fellow patrons without covering their mouths, EVEN THOUGH they've been given a FREE bottle of water to soothe their throats, should die ( Read more... )

December 9th

Oh, sweet motivation! How could you abandon me so soon? We're barely out the door and already you have me lounging around the floor of my hostel in the middle of the day. You only return when it's time to eat. Or when you want a new book to read. These are the only things that I can get you out the door for. For anything else I need ( Read more... )

November 30thIt's my fourth night of my three day Ting Rai Bay sojourn, and you'll be pleased to know that I'm no longer Captain Picarding in the bored and listless sense. I'm now Captain Picard in the exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilisations sense. Also in the sense that I've acquired a nemesis ( Read more... )

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