In my most recent Gridskipper post, I examine Bangkok’s Pickle Factory. (It’s a pizza joint — get your minds outta the gutter.)
By the way, big congrats to my former editor at Gridskipper, Chris Mohney, who was recently promoted to managing editor of another Nick Denton property, the famed Manhattan media gossip blog Gawker. A hearty welcome to new Gridskipper editor Joshua David Stein.
Economist: “Come to sunny Colombia: Seriously, it’s almost safe.”
I never made it there during my year in Ecuador, though I really wanted to go. Everyone I’ve ever talked to who’s visited says it’s great. (Just stay away from the FARC-held regions.)
I arrived in SC late last night. Thanks to those of you who’ve emailed me welcome back notes. Initial reactions upon re-entry into the American imperium: everyone is big, loud, and friendly.
In other news, my family got a new dog today. (Arne, the long-serving and beloved familial canine, passed away at an advanced age a few months back.) Here’re some pics of the new pooch.
Say hi to Sammy, a seven-month-old Golden Retriever. In addition to his abundant good looks, he’s incredibly even-tempered and generally low-maintenance (for a puppy). Although on the downside he slobbers a lot when he drinks and he seems to be afraid of stairs. Pics are below.
And finally: Have you been watching the World Cup, which commenced today? I have some things to say on the subject. Which I shall do in my next post.
I’m writing this from 30,000 feet in the air. Halfway between Seoul and Washington, DC. Perhaps somewhere over Alaska? Not sure. But here’s what I saw when I looked out of my window just a minute ago. Had to snap a pic of it. There’s wifi on my Korean Air flight; the connection speed is fast but it’s pricey ($10 per hour). But it’s way too cool to pass up.
I leave Bangkok late tonight for a two-week trip home to the US. I’ll be in Beaufort, SC as of late Thursday night; then it’s on to Boston/Cape Cod for a wedding. I plan to swing through DC on my way back to SC. Then it’s back here to Bangkok on June 23rd.
I still don’t have a precise itinerary, but I’m looking forward to seeing as many friends as possible on this quite brief sojourn.
For you long-haul flight junkies, here’re the dirty details: I’m flying Korean Air*** from BKK to Seoul to Dulles, where I connect to Savannah on Delta. On the way back it’s SAV to Atlanta to Seoul to BKK. The ATl to ICN leg is the longest of the bunch, lasting 14 hours and 25 minutes. Don’t worry ’bout little ole me, as in addition to a multitude of media to devour (mp3s; magazines; newspapers; both fiction and nonfiction books; an instructional Thai language book) I’ve got window seats, which are crucial for sacking out as I can lean up against the fuselage. Aisle seats, which you might think would be a logical choice for a 6’3″ guy like myself, is problematic as my size 12 1/2 U-boats are always meandering out from under the seat in front of me and getting smashed by the drink carts.
On an administrative note, newley.com has been buried under an avalanche of comment spam; I’ve disabled commenting while I try to find a solution. (Any of your gearheads out there have an suggestions for the best way to do this on WordPress?) I enjoy feedback from you, my dear readers; in the meantime, hit me up on email.
* No, I’m not flying Kazakstan Airlines, as much as I would love to support Borat‘s homeland.
** Korean Air: bring on the bibimbap, baby.
My buddy Matt Gross just began what is quite possibly the coolest travel writing gig imaginable: He’s traveling around the world in 90 days and blogging about his adventures for the New York Times. He’s on a budget, but luckily it’s not too restrictive. Here’s his first post, from Lisbon.
A few snips:
Every week, as I make my way eastward, I will be sharing travel tips, discussing the limits of ultra-discount airlines, exploring the concept of Slow Travel and, if I’m lucky, discovering a microscopic town or burgeoning metropolis with untapped vacation potential. I’ll seek stylish shoes in Barcelona and fine wines in Georgia, and delve into the logistics of yurt camping in Mongolia.
And:
Some guidelines first. Circling the globe presents an seemingly infinite number of travel options, and narrowing them down requires one to be patient, open-minded and occasionally arbitrary. I am beginning in the Mediterranean because it’s summer and I want to go to the beach. Odessa is also on my list, precisely because I had heard little about it except that it’s a hot party zone. And while I went to Shanghai last year, that city struck me as so fast-moving that I couldn’t wait to see how it’s changed in the intervening months.
Matt’s itinerary has him hitting “Lisbon, Istanbul, Tashkent, Beijing, Shanghai, Ulaan Baatar and San Francisco.”
Sweet.
Be sure to share your suggestions and travel tips by posting a comment.
It just so happens that one of Bangkok’s most famous mango with sticky rice (Khao Niaow Ma Muang in Thai) stands is less than 100 meters from where I’m staying. I am a lucky man. Here’re some pics. You get your order to go and then mix up the ingredients — in addition to the mango, you’ve got your cream and some peanuts, all packaged up dainty-like. A dessert — nay, meal — like this will set you back about 80 Baht (roughly US $2), which is expensive for BKK street food. But oh it’s worth it. Take my word: it is worth it.
UPDATE: I sampled this fine dish yet again yesterday, and the price is actually 60 Baht (about $1.50). In addition, Bangkok expert John E. writes in pointing out that you don’t actually get peanuts to sprinkle on top. Instead, I looked closely at what comes in the package (see the far left of the second image below) and they appear to be — wait for it — Rice Crispies. Seriously. Some mango with sticky rice recipes make reference to topping the dish off with sesame seeds, but I like the idea of Rice Crispies much better.
Me looking silly in Jakarta
So. Jakarta. My notes from that portion of the trip are long overdue. Here’s what I’ve got:
Why I went
People have asked me why I decided to visit Jakarta — since Indonesia, apart from Bali, is not a typical Southeast Asian tourist destination. Well, first of all, I was close. I was in Kuala Lumpur at the time, and it was only a quick flight to Jakarta. Second, it was cheap – the round-trip flight, on the low-cost carrier Air Asia, was only about US $100. And third, I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to visit the world’s most populous Muslim nation. (In fact, Indonesia is not only home to more Muslims than any other state, but it’s got the world’s fourth largest population after China, India, and the US.) As war continues in Iraq and conflict — figurative if not always physical — between the West and the Islamic world rages, I wanted to see, first-hand, what an enormous, dynamic Muslim nation was really like.
And what was it like?
It’s easier to say what it wasn’t like, actually. There were no anti-Western riots in the streets. I perceived no hostility when I told Indonesians I was from America. (It was the same case in Malaysia, another majority-Muslim nation — indeed, the world over, my experience has been that while people tend to dislike American foreign policy, they usually like American citizens.) Given the manner in which the Islamic world figures in news stories that appear in the Western media today, it can be tempting to assume that many Muslims harbor a deep-seated hatred of the West, and that militant Islamic fanaticism is much more common than it is.
Seeing Muslims go about their daily lives — the simple act of eating with Indonesians, of chatting with them, of seeing women in headscarves consumed with laughter and men drinking coffee together and telling jokes — served as a counterpoint to my image of life in the Islamic world, as hard as that is for me to admit. People go about their lives in Indonesia, of course, just like they do everywhere else in the world. Indonesia is a nation of over 220 million people; while extremists no doubt exist there, my feeling was that that the vast, vast majority of citizens were apolitical.
While I was in Jakarta, I met up with a friend of a friend who’s an American Foreign Service Officer there. Part of her job is to interview Indonesians who’re applying for visas to study in the US. One of her questions, she said, is what these applicants would like Americans to know about Indonesians. Nine of ten respond along the same lines: “I want them to know we’re not terrorists.”
How not to be a sucker in a drug-smuggling scheme
Anyone who’s familiar with the Schapelle Corby case – or the dreadful movie “Brokedown Palace,” for that matter – will recognize the potential peril I faced in checking in for my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta. As I was waiting in line, a young woman – perhaps 25, clean-cut, and attractive – tapped me on the shoulder. Her friend, she said, was 15 kilograms over the limit for checked bags. Would I mind taking a bag for them, the woman asked, since I had only a small backpack and no luggage to check?
I politely declined.
The woman walked away. They didn’t look like drug dealers’ girlfriends, and that was one reason I was suspicious. I consider myself to be a good Samaritan, but carrying a bag into a Indonesia for two complete strangers is not something with which I feel even relatively comfortable.
People doing nothing
I observed something in Jakarta that I’d yet to see on this sojourn – and that, in fact, I hadn’t seen since my days in South America’s developing nations: people doing nothing. Men and women on the side of the street. Simply sitting there. In the middle of the day. All day long. Perhaps it was due to Indonesia’s high unemployment rate?
Tourists as novelties
It’d also been a while since I’d been in a place where people routinely approach me and ask to take photos with me. Part of it, no matter where I travel, is due to the fact that I’m tall and conspicuous. But there also seemed to be very few tourists in Jakarta, so seeing someone like me walking down the street was a rarity. In addition to the image at the top of this post, here’s another one — I was at the top of the Monumen Nacional when a father asked to take a photo of me with his child. Unfortunately the pic didn’t come out very well (but don’t miss the kid’s jaunty red sunglasses):
Stray Cats
There were stray cats everywhere in Jakarta. One evening I returned to my hotel room at midnight and found one feasting on a fellow guest’s room service leftovers. The cat didn’t live in the hotel. And my room was on the fourth floor. An enterprising feline, indeed:
Cartoon wars
Okay. Now this is bizarre. I didn’t know much about Indonesia’s ongoing conflict with separatists in the province of Papua. So when the Australian government accepted a boatload of Papuan asylum seekers during my time in Jakarta, I was surprised at the Indonesian government ‘s resultant anger. One local paper, in fact, ran a cartoon depicting Aussie Prime Minister John Howard and his Foreign Affairs Minister as copulating dingos. Not to be outdone, an Australian paper struck back with a canine version of a similar cartoon. It shows Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono mounting a Papuan. Wow.
More pics
Here’re the rest of my photos from Jakarta, though I regret that they’re neither numerous nor particularly exciting.
In two recent Gridskipper posts, I drool over the new-to-me LUXE City Guides and point out the supremely cool map/data mashup called Woldmapper (sample image above). Thanks to Matt G. for showing me his LUXE: Hong Kong book.
I had the pleasure of meeting Lee and Sachi Lefever two nights ago. I’d corresponded with Lee for a while but I’d never had a chance to meet him or Sachi in person.
As luck would have it, we were all arriving in Bangkok at the same time (I was coming from Jakarta and they were coming from India). So we met up and had a few drinks at Saxophone Pub. They’re both enthusiastic and interesting people, and I’m delighted to have had a chance to hang out with them.
Lee and Sachi quit their jobs in Seattle in December and are currently traveling around the world. And they’re chronicling their experiences on their excellent blog, The World is Not Flat (otherwise known as TWINF). In addition to making good use of moblogging technology, their site is radical in that they’re soliciting travel advice from the public. They’ve got about eight months to go, so be sure to check out their site and contribute your own recommendations.
Below’s a pic Lee took of us on a Bangkok Skytrain platform using his Treo Smartphone (a gadget of which I am highly envious), and here’s his account of our night.
