[Phnom Penh, 11/11/22] After death, you end up in a dusty, moldy but not overly stinky hell without air conditioning. Though not exactly thrilled, you can deal with this, even for eternity. At least I won’t have to worry about health insurance, you reflect. It is very annoying, though, to find no babes here, not even young methheads with Hunter Biden teeth.
Interesting thing about those swastikas—the ones commonly known in the West are actually the inverse of the Buddhist good luck symbol. The one used by the Nazis is two crossed “S” letters, the mirror image of the Buddhist original. Most Westerners never notice.
There are so many people with genuine smiles in your photos of these so-called “economically depressed” places. Your photo blog alone ought to be evidence enough that happiness is not dependent solely on wealth or material prosperity.
Some people have different styles on how to go about venturing around the planet. My wife and her family love tours - the ones that take you place to place(usually on a bus, but sometimes a boat) only to stay a few minutes to an hour, and move on(very popular with the Chinese in Bangkok). Personally, I hate that shit - I can’t think of anything more annoying. I like to get to a place and chill - anyplace must have some redeeming qualities or else I wouldn’t have gone there in the first place - even if the first impression sucks sometimes you need to give some time to see the forest thru the trees. Recently a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to do a motorcycle tour in/around the country of Laos; I said “sure” then he showed me the schedule - 16 days riding average 300 kms per day/12 hours for a total of around 4500kms. “No fucking thanks!” And he’s actually six years older than my fifty nine year old frame. I could physically do it, but I know I would just end up angry that I couldn’t just kick back and hang in a nice spot without being badgered to “move on”. Probably why I could never be a Rock Star(I was never really good at the woodblocks or the triangle anyway).
Interesting thing about those swastikas—the ones commonly known in the West are actually the inverse of the Buddhist good luck symbol. The one used by the Nazis is two crossed “S” letters, the mirror image of the Buddhist original. Most Westerners never notice.
There are so many people with genuine smiles in your photos of these so-called “economically depressed” places. Your photo blog alone ought to be evidence enough that happiness is not dependent solely on wealth or material prosperity.
Great essay Linh. After the last couple it's a pleasant change to see the old joie de vries return.
Hopeful optimism is humanity's natural state - otherwise our species would have died out tens of thousands of years ago.
Some people have different styles on how to go about venturing around the planet. My wife and her family love tours - the ones that take you place to place(usually on a bus, but sometimes a boat) only to stay a few minutes to an hour, and move on(very popular with the Chinese in Bangkok). Personally, I hate that shit - I can’t think of anything more annoying. I like to get to a place and chill - anyplace must have some redeeming qualities or else I wouldn’t have gone there in the first place - even if the first impression sucks sometimes you need to give some time to see the forest thru the trees. Recently a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to do a motorcycle tour in/around the country of Laos; I said “sure” then he showed me the schedule - 16 days riding average 300 kms per day/12 hours for a total of around 4500kms. “No fucking thanks!” And he’s actually six years older than my fifty nine year old frame. I could physically do it, but I know I would just end up angry that I couldn’t just kick back and hang in a nice spot without being badgered to “move on”. Probably why I could never be a Rock Star(I was never really good at the woodblocks or the triangle anyway).
I wanted to see the picture of the toddler in the diaper.....not news about Ukraine! Loved the essay though.