Hunt For George Is Over.
Update on the hunt for long lost friend Jarnail Singh in Perth. Thoughtful Serene Ong sent him a message and he responded on Linkin! He confirmed that it was him and he remembers me. A pretty face such as Serene’s helps, I guess.
Cloverfield.
I like this road in an old part of the city. It is chaotic, cars go against traffic in the one-way street, and the twisty buildings are dizzying. It has character.
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f4.5, 1/200 sec.
#cloverfield #monstermovie #fantasy #scifi #landscape #cityscape #urbanscape #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss
Another helping friend booked a Myanmar hotel through me. The friend is a fairly experienced traveler to Myanmar and he picked the The RGN City Lodge, Downtown Yangon this time.
The hotel is conveniently located in the heart of Yangon, close to a major thoroughfare but fronts a much quieter street in a commercial district. Although there is old school rattan furniture in the room, the bathrooms have modern rain showers! I like rain showers.
What do you think of the location Myanmar friend Hsu Wai Phyo and Malaysian expatriate living in Yangon, Joachim Rajaram?
Rooms in Myanmar have been getting relatively expensive because of shortages and a surge in business visitors after Myanmar opened up. I am surprised the room is sub RM 200, given its location. Maybe there was a flash sale or promotional price at the time of booking.
We forget a similar hotel in the heart of KL city could probably cost more.
To book this hotel or to check rates at any hotel in any part of the world, go to http://www.mycen.my/agoda/
The best way to enjoy Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City is by motorcycle but it comes with a caveat. There were like 7.43 million motorcycles in the city in 2016. You just get pushed along helplessly in an endless sea of two wheelers.
A couple of hours ago, I had just jumped off an inter country/cross border bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
It was crazy, even edging to the side of the road to do photography or to check the GPS and that can be be impossible. I had a Garmin handheld GPS but navigation was impossible and dangerous.
I wouldn’t recommend riding a bike unless you know the roads or consider yourself a very experienced rider. The only time I could take pics was when the flow stopped momentarily and I was sandwiched in the middle, like as in this pic. Don’t take selfies as I was told, as it can attract phone snatchers. It is a recent phenomenon though.
I am happy to note that motorcyclists in Saigon were mostly ethical. They always make way for a stranded pedestrian and, unlike here, there is no crazy honking or cursing when another vehicle stalls.
Eventually I gave up and parked the bike by the roadside and called the hiring company. They agreed to pick it up. I took a motorcycle taxi (Xe Om) back to the hotel. The bike hirers seemed more worried about the return of their crash helmets. Same experience I had with hirers in Pangkor Island. Haha.
If you are planning to go to Saigon, remember to book a room from my Agoda affiliate page at http://www.mycen.my/agoda/
Search for Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC or Saigon where Agoda will list over 1000 hotels in the city alone, many with low flash rates. There are also over 100 hotels listed for Pangkor, Lumut and Sitiawan..
I took a random tricycle bike tour of Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City at one time. At one street, I saw the strangest sight. I asked my cyclo (trishaw) driver who are all these people sitting by the roadside, all with a single, shiny VCD disc at their feet?
Selling “Human Reproduction Videos”, he explained, perhaps embarrassed.
I told him we buy human reproduction videos at night markets back home. They have catalogs. Also we are more practical, we just call them blue or sum kap, I mumbled to myself, not sure if he can hear me through the traffic din.
Boss, can we pull over and see if they have classic human reproduction titles like Debbie Does Dallas, Deep Throat, Devil In Miss Jones, Buttman’s European Vacation and those movie parodies like Saving Ryan’s Privates, Pulp Friction, Good Will Humping and Tiger’s Wood? They were all VHS titles and are collector’s items now. Cyclo man: VHS?! Your country not very advance(d).
Technology allows newer discs to leapfrogged old technology such as VHS and Betamax tapes from an era when women will claim the “story” in adult titles is essential. The practical guys just want to fast forward to the action.
Similarly, many developing countries such as some in Indo China never experienced land lines as mobile or wireless networks leap frogged connectivity without the massive cost and time needed to wire a nation.
My budget hotel in Saigon had a desk with a PC and LCD monitor setup in ever room. They were more advanced. So much trouble just to get free wi-fi in any hotel those days.
If you are planning to go to Saigon, remember to book a room from my Agoda affiliate page at http://www.mycen.my/agoda/
Search for Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC or Saigon where Agoda will list over 1000 hotels in the city alone, many with low flash rates.
