Days like these makin me happee.

I learnt a lot today. Nothing prophetic, no life lessons, just some interesting things about lots of different things. I went to the museum! I'm telling you, man, if you wanna learn things about things just go to the museum. It's full of interesting... things.

Now, I'm not going to indulge you with a complete step-by-step tour of The Hong Kong Museum of History, so I've rifled through my warren of a memory and (just like a pensieve) pulled out the strangest file from todays escapades.

Cheung Chau Bun Snatching Festival

Yeah you read correctly - its a festival where people snatch buns.
   'But why, Bri? Why do they snatch buns?'
Hahaha, well well well, I'm glad you asked. Lets start from the beginning, shall we?

What we are talking about is an ancient Chinese festival celebrated annually in early May in the small seaside town of Cheung Chau where people pray to a bunch of different deities in order to stay safe from pirates. For three days of the festival the whole seaside town goes vegetarian - including McDonalds who make mushroom burgers - although I have no idea why. I can't seem to find out what not-eating-meat has to do with pirates or buns.

Moving on. In addition to lion and dragon dances, it is a parents' greatest honour to have their children (who are dressed as heroes- naturally) suspended above the crowds on the tips of swords and fans. Apparently they are supported on specially-made steel frames, but appear to be gliding. Again, what this has to do with pirates and buns I haven't a clue - but I heard it has something to do with the deite Pak Tai who competes with Tin Hau for the affection of the fisherfolk.

Now, about the bun snatching...
At the Pak Thai temple, the people erect three 60-foot bamboo towers and then cover them in buns. Buns! Historically, young men (only men were allowed) would race up the tower and grab buns. The higher the bun the better the luck. However, on one, fateful, bun-snatching day in 1978, a hundred people were injured when one such bun tower collapsed. (So many bun puns to make, but I shant because people were actually hurt.) The races were banned after that bun bungle (AGH) until 2005 when they were brought back with additional health and safety requirements, such as steel replacing bamboo frames, proper climbing tools, and prepatory tutorials from bun-snatching veterans. The government, bless their souls, also granted permission for girls to compete. Sadly just two years later it was further decided that the buns would in fact be made of plastic...

Now there are no actual buns at the bun snatching festival.
And all because of pirates.
Talkabout digression.
Lol.

So that was a wonderful day at the museum!!! What will I do tomorrow? I will imagine at leat six impossible things before breakfast, and make myself even more sick than I did today by eating even more cheesecake.

Life and Irony

HK in Pictures

Of course every apartment has to have the same lamp - what city are you thinking of?

There is a hawk between me and the ferry. Look hard to spot it. The birds of prey are pushed to outer areas where there are still trees and greenery, but fishing in the bay is obviously a necessity.

A glimpse at the waste a city like HK creates.

I NEED MORE ANTENNAS!!!!!!!

MTR = Mass Transit Rail. Apt name indeed.

Advice

Dont have cauliflower & cheese soup, then go for a ride in Hong Kong harbour on a
traditional junk ship.

The Ladies' Market

The name of this market gives you a bit of a clue about what to expect...

Your challenge today, is to imagine what scenarios you could make from the following three stalls:

Every dress made entirely of sequins. Ginger Spice anyone?

The hair tuffs of one thousand show ponies...

Mouse pads with gigantic boob wrist-wrests...
Dude...

If I hear any truly great ideas, I might just go out and do it. Get thinking!

Not Moving On

The first excellent decision (of three) that I made today, was to turn off my alarm clock and sleep in until 11:00.

The second excellent decision I made today was to have second helpings of homemade lemon tart.

The third excellent decision I made today, was to stop fooling around and stick to the game plan.

You've gotta have a little of everything I suppose. 

And so the day really began.

It was much much colder than it has been over the past few days, and as I rounded the corner to Queens Street Central (most of the street names are leftover from the colonial days) I spotted what I was looking for - a very large, u-shaped establishment, with predominantly male staff wearing white coats, standing behind counters piled with expensive equipment, and in front of a highly organised ceiling-to-floor filing and drawers system. What is such an establishment? Let us guess, simply by acknowledging the contents of their precious boxes;

     Dried leaves and twigs

     Roots from various plants

     Assorted funghi

     All manner of dried sea creatures

     Shrivelled caterpillars

     Deer antlers

     The nests of small birds

Now, you can see, that I am at a Chinese "Medicine" Shop. (The inverted commas implying sarcasm obviously do not appear on their neon sign.) I had signed up with the Hong Kong Tourism Board for a class on Traditional Medicine. Why? 

Honestly, I did it because I haven't had the opportunity to be really angry at anything for the past few weeks, and I was getting itchy. I like to think I have a constructive temper. I am motivated when I feel strongly about things. I like to think of it as passion rather than anger - actually that’s a lie. Let’s just say I make them synonyms... Work with me here. I digress.

It was time for Bri to get off the couch and back into indignant action! I was armed with a couple of hours of background reading, a healthy and naturally developed sense of cynicism, and a belly full of tart. Also, a great deal of sympathy for animals on endangered species lists. I’m sure you can see where this is headed.

The ingredients used in Traditional Chinese Medicine vary vastly. In the class we were introduced to many of the fundamental ingredients used in the teas and tonics which patients buy to cure or prevent ailments. Some of these are absolutely reasonable and believable. For instance – the ginseng root is boiled with tea, and “improves digestion, calms the mind, sustains alertness, and restores strength and energy levels after illness.” I get that. I understand that. They even put ginseng in energy drinks these days. I believe it. I have no problems with it. It’s great. Happy happy. Second example – Deer Antlers, when eaten, “improve a persons tolerance for the cold, treat impotence, and strengthen the heart.” Ok…

NOW IS WHEN I START TO HAVE A SMALL PROBLEM

The rationale is that a stag with massive horns and a massive cock is obviously very manly, and so killing the animal and sawing its horns off and then eating bits of them, is going to make the consumer more manly, and thus not impotent! Yes! Of course! And the fact that a deer can survive in the cold, means that if we eat the stag horns, we will also be less affected by the cold! Yes! How did every other modern-day culture survive without these amazing kinds of revelations?!?!?!??! ITS JUST SO BRILLIANT!

AND THE LOGIC – JUST INFALLIBLE!!!!

Holy SHIT I am so angry. Next on the menu – birds’ nest soup! This is commonly referred to as the ‘ladies’ choice’ because the soup “maintains youth and enhances a smooth and wrinkle-free complexion.” Jesus Christ, this stuff is amazing! Why hasn’t the rest of the world caught on and realised that the secret to eternal beauty simply lies in stealing the nest of a small bird, and boiling it and drinking it!?!?!? The unimportant details are that the specific birds which make these completely-saliva nests are endangered. Also unimportant to older ladies is that the birds now only inhabit small sections of cliffs in Vietnam and Malaysia, and so every year people die climbing these cliffs to get more nests. What is in these nests? They are “almost pure protein” according to (as all quotations are) my powerpoint printout from the class. So… the nest has no special chemical ingredient… the secret is just protein? So why do you need the nests? Why not just get more protein in your diet? Why isn’t there protein in the rest of the world’s anti-ageing cosmetics? Sorry, I’m just a little confused. I’m also just a little PISSED OFF.

The thing that makes it worse, is that this was the official class with only the mildly cruel ingredients listed. I won’t repeat my previously posted rant about shark finning, nor go into the list of types of animal penis, or snake venoms, or bear bile, that are also used in this kind of thing. Often, the more strange (read: rare, cruel and expensive) ingredients have less to do with health improvement and more to do with status. It is an area of social theory I will never be able to truly understand, nor do I care to.

Now I am calmer, though, let me say this:

I do not believe that all traditional Chinese medicine is bullshit. As I said before, the teas made from herbs and natural ingredients are often very effective as tonics and can absolutely increase a person’s level of health.

British hospitals used to think that blood-letting and leeches where foolproof methods to get the devil out of a person’s body, and that it was the devils work if the patient remained ill despite the doctors wise work.

It is the current belief of many extreme-natured churches that modern medication for mental illness is falsehood and brainwashing.

I have seen tribes in Africa that still believe that an uncircumcised girl will be at higher risk of disease because she is both morally and physically ‘unclean’.

There are lots of things that don’t make sense in the world. Who are we to presume that current science is infallible. Perhaps in another century we will look back and disgust ourselves with primitivism. I cannot hedge my bets in a field I know very little about.

What I do know is that even if bear bile, deer antlers, sharks fin and birds’ nests DID work, there would be technology to identify the medical benefits within such resources and find another, less environmentally-harmful method of curing people. Many things about traditional Chinese medicine seem to have very little to do with medicine.

Tradition, history, and status are all very important – but at what cost?

Fresh New Things

 The account of today's festivities is to be enriched by the first of today's new discoveries, so forgive me if the prose appears reckless or the grammar ghastly. Woodpecker Cider grinned at me from it's humble home (read: supermarket shelf) and, being the ornithologist I am, I simply could not resist. I thought I might take one, just to try, but there were two on the shelf and the last thirst-quencher just looked so lonely without his friend, so I did the only polite thing possible and took them together. They sat side by side in the door of the fridge patiently chilling themselves for a couple of hours, and when the time came, twas a sweet cider song I heard playing in my heart. Apparently these birds are born of Bulmers, so if you can find them wherever you are - tuck in. The flavour is subtle, and even as a beer kid, I did not find them too sweet. The artwork is simple, but endearing, and the drink itself is not too heavy, but (warning you now) nor is it light. Hence the apology.

The next new thing was a store that I absolutely just stumbled upon when I was in the middle of one of the three 'lost' phases of today. Lomography is the name of this store, and you can only guess what it specialises in. Currently plagued by hipsters, however, Lomography (lomo, as it is affectionately known) has garnered itself a reputation amongst dickheads see right. As an avid analogue film fan and user, it pains me to see that 8/10 people using these beautiful instruments are tools, and that 9/10 people posing in front of them are also tools.

If you can shove this horrendous stigma aside, the creative possibilities of lomo are actually endless. I like to think of it as an art form where the technology really does rule the artist. Until you become really familiar with your camera (because each one is a little different) the results are based on luck. The camera has features which just give you cool looking pictures no matter what the subject, but a true lomo expert knows how to truly bend the rules of analogue film and that is when the work is not simply 'different' as all lomography appears, but more importantly the work will be 'original'. That (I believe) is the trick with lomo.

A fisheye camera, for example, gives you a really cool looking image every single time and you don't have to do a lot for it, but the images are instantly recognisable as fisheye because the camera is so distinct in style and set in its ways. This means that people using fisheye cameras focus on the subject of the image, not the technicalities of the art of photography itself, but when I see a fisheye exhibit and it does not look completely like a fisheye camera - then I am truly impressed. I hope this makes sense - and I hope (if you haven't already) get into lomo.

Together, we can be the revolution that takes the lomo turf back from the hipsters.


The last fresh new thing I found today was perspective. The aforementioned "lost" phases took me to places I would not have normally seen and I found it - for want of a better expression - educational. I will now try and serve you a small slice of my perspective pie.

Trees like this remind you of what was on Hong Kong island before taxis and people were. It is so old, and so resilient to be growing in such a way. The old brick wall underneath it is original too, but there are few of these beautiful sights left.

This is where this man works, and to the back and upwards, is where he lives,
and on the right hand side (out of frame) is where he eats.

All the white shapes on that back wall are shark fins. A shark died an incredibly slow and painful, agonising death for each single one of those fins. They are cooked into Shark Fin Soup - a status symbol to the Chinese.

 Constantly, I find it incredible how humans can be so similar, and yet so different.

Now I'm going to eat two chocolate bars and go to bed. Goodnight!
Also, it has been less than a month and there have been a thousand views! Thanks everyone. xoxo

Braveheart

I did a brave thing today. It was to be my first big day exploring and I had it planned to a tee. I knew how to get everywhere, I had it all marked out on my map, I had lunch and dinner planned, I had my boots and my guide and I had my breakfast and walked out the door. I was feeling empowered, I was feeling excited, the potential for awesomeness was 10 on the Richter scale. Stepping outside into the cold – my veins constrict – blood rushes to my brain – adrenalin kicks way into my heart – and now I get a little crazy. I decide to do a crazy thing, but it’s a brave thing. It’s courageous, it’s challenging, and it could end badly.

I put my iPod on shuffle.

HOLY SHIT YEAH I DID! I KNOW NOBODY DOES IT. I KNOW YOU DON’T DO IT! 


EVER. 

And for good reason. An 80 gigabyte iPod on shuffle confronts you with the horrors of your own choosing. It unleashes an assault on your ears which is incomparably bitter because you know, deep down, that you have brought this shame upon yourself. Each decade reminds you of the fads you got sucked into. Classic milestone albums of the alternative scene (you downloaded them out of fear of someone discovering you didn’t have them) start playing, and you realise you never even listened to them.  The end of a song finds you cringing, shoulders tight, scowl on your face, wondering what horrors might come next. 


An iPod is the perfect metaphor for your wardrobe – you only wear 20% of it, 80% of the time. The rest? You can’t bring yourself to get rid of it. You’ll “fit back into it”. It’ll come back around… 

And so it was, that the experience of Hong Kong was garnished with absolutely random selections from my two decades of audio collection. Each destination had a radically different feel. I would walk differently, interpret things differently, see everything in front of me or nothing. The soundtrack was inseparable from the visual information. They grew together. As if I was watching a “choose your own adventure” movie. It was bloody brilliant.

The bravest thing of all? I’m sharing the results with you.

1.    Victoria Garden – "Any Way You Want It" by Journey

There are gigantor walls that go around most of Victoria park. It hides it from the rest of the city, and I have no idea why because it’s bloody brilliant! If people could see this place from the road it would be so wicked! It’s like the whole community comes here. All for different purposes, but kind of the same reason you know what I mean? There are old dudes doing tai chi all together with crazy swords! Then all the young girls set up picnic rugs and put food out –  but they kind of don’t eat it cos they’re all so busy talking and gossiping and laughing. And then you have these designated paths where people can ONLY jog, like the fast lane of a public pool – and these pairs of horrendously dressed women with full faces of makeup do that hilarious power walking where your ass shakes side to side and your shoulders go up and down. LOL. There are different chunks of the park with different kinds of plants, its pretty cool. But then there is a big square of grass and they ALL JUST SIT DOWN AND ENJOY THE SUN AND FRESH AIR. Everyone is all together getting along, chilling the fuck out from the big city. SUNDAY IS THE SICKEST DAY OF THE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

Tin Hau Temple - "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes

You could almost walk past it, the entrance is around the corner of an alleyway. The doorway is small and it’s so dark you can’t see inside until you’re inside. Before anything else, the incense hits you and fills your head - your eyes can’t even adjust. You trip on the cobbled floor and you start to sweat because it’s damn hot in here. Glancing up at the ceiling reveals coils and coils of the source of the smell. Their burning tips reach down at you like rattlesnakes with gleaming red eyes.  People shuffle around. They are silent and they pretend you aren’t there. Pulling their wallets out, they pay for handful after handful of incense sticks which they light and then gaze at the flame as if enchanted. Then they blow out the flame, and the flickering light is replaced by a plume of pungent smoke enveloping their heads. With watering eyes they stick the sticks in the pots of sand and say their prayers. When it’s all over they just walk calmly out, but if you wait and watch you see the keepers of the temple come in behind them after mere minutes. With thick gloves they pull the incense from the pot, drop it into a bucket of water just long enough to hear the sizzle, and then it’s destined for the bin. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place, but the irony is just too goddamn sweet and strong to miss. 
  

Hong Kong Central Library - "Ride Wit Me" by Nelly featuring City Spud

First things first, this is how a quality library should be. You cruise up a sweet set of marble steps, and then you get a faceful of fountain. It’s some seriously royal shit. Big dudes guard the big glass doors and then you get inside and it’s one word – respect. People are quiet and actually reading like you’re supposed to in a library. Eight stories high with natural light and clean carpet makes me really dig this place. A whole floor is dedicated to magazines and periodicals with a massive area of comfy chairs so that your average working Hong Kong woman doesn’t have to buy her own Cosmo, and your average working Hong Kong gentleman doesn’t have to buy his own newspaper. Top level is reference and it’s pimpin. You got really old books hangin up there alongside crazy ass cartography stuff. Get me some of that.

Super Fancy Cake Store - "Stir It Up" by Bob Marley and The Wailers

Honestly I was having such a chilled day, I was walking so slowly down that street I was seeing everything I could have seen. My feet just took me into this cake shop, like I didn’t have to even think about it. Maybe I just smelt my way there. It did smell really good. I saw the brownie section and I was pretty keen, and then I actually read the different names and one was called “Yoda Brownie” hahahaha so I just bought it. It looks like the answer to every question in the universe. Actually it kind of looks like a planet. A planet on a brownie. Kind of like that image of Earth on a turtle, but this is Mars on a block of chocolately goodness. Yeah

Noonday Gun - "Path of Least Resistance" by Modest Mouse

I’ve never heard this song before, and I’m only seeing this gun because it’s in the book. I also only just realised that it is now twenty past twelve, and this is a noonday gun so I missed the actual ceremony thing. I stare at it from across the road (it’s much smaller than I anticipated), and as I wonder whether it’s worth the walk up the pedestrian overpass, the song finishes. It was like, 20 seconds and it wasn’t even a song. This isn’t even a gun, it’s got a black tarp on it. Not worth it. Moving on.

Lunchtime in Causeway Bay - "Breathless" by The Corrs

You know what? I’m gonna veer off the spaghetti road, I’m in a spontaneous mood, I’m feeling adventurous, positivity, new experiences, that’s what this whole trip is about. Ok!!! I am going to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. This place is traditional Cantonese, and it’s called ‘Delicious Kitchen’ -  I’m in! I get a window seat, wonderful! I get a hot cup of tea, great! Perusing the menu, people watching, it’s a beautiful sunny day. I get a little crazy and go with #32 Mock Chicken and #63 Mixed Vegetables with Special Soup. It’s cheap! The waitress is lovely! I’m feeling fine. Then the food arrives and I can’t help but laugh. Five minutes later I am not laughing. I have no idea what the fuck those rubbery tentacle things are and the chicken thing was NOTHING like chicken in any way whatsoever. I have four cups of tea and read an art brochure I picked up. It’s not so bad, I guess. Bri, the tea is great! You’re great! No worries! It was funny! You can say you tried! Ok, let’s get the bill and get going!!!

Wan Chai MTR Station - "Lovegame" by Lady Gaga

Bodies cram against each other to get to the escalator down to the station. Line up dutifully, swipe your card and move into the sea of chaos. Everyone is getting somewhere else. Urgently. We are all in heavy coats because it’s freezing outside, but down here is another story. Low ceilings trap the heat from the masses of bodies and you can feel the sweat on the nape of your neck. You can see the sweat on the neck of the young man in front of you. Very close in front of you. The bead of salty liquid runs down past his collar and as your eyes follow the train arrives. A push from behind moves you forward involuntarily, hundreds of humans with a collective conscience – get on the train. Insecurity plagues your mind, you hold your pockets but the cram is unbeatable. Don’t try and fight it. Red lights flash as the doors rush closed and the heat escalates again. The train lurches forward so everyone grips the poles and handles, but your front brushes a stranger’s back as the machines rockets forward. Hundreds of mouths, but there is silence until the announcement of the station sounds. You squeeze out onto the platform, following the mass to the exit. Three levels up this time – every escalator ride provides you with more actual oxygen. By the time you reach the real outside the world again, it’s like the whole thing never happened. Most people in Hong Kong do it twice a day.

Hong Kong Arts Centre Pao Gallery - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" by Radiohead

Expansive and serene, the wide gallery space is white and almost void, echoing the noise of heels on cement. Minimalism is utilised in order to accentuate the exhibit. The space is designed as though intended as a blank canvas, but the sheer emptiness in itself is enough to draw my attention from the art and to the architecture. Perhaps this is because the artwork is inherently underwhelming. I came from the busy, dirty city street into the gallery – and I am presented with poor quality images of busy, dirty streets. No wonder I am losing faith in the development of modern art, it seems so pathetic. The photo is printed onto watercolour paper, and is signed by the undoubtedly self-important artist as if this creation is somehow unrepeatable. I could find better images in the free newspaper, and this artist claims a heightened ability to interpret humanity. If his genius interpretation is general unimpressiveness, then I suppose he is in fact quite accurate. The artist statement is an essay, the first half of which is a self indulgent bibliography. The only reason I even read that much is because it was beside the elevator. I had pushed the button and longed to leave.

Wan Chai Street Markets - "Women's Realm" by Belle & Sebastian

The sun is lowering on the horizon giving everything a soft, pinky glow. Stalls of things you don’t need catch your fancy and people bustle through happily, doing business and doing things. It’s a normal afternoon and this is life and it is just pleasant. Dried fish hang next to socks which hang next to phone cases and make me laugh at the differences between this world and my world back home. A cool breeze says ‘adios’ to the day, and adjusting my scarf is a salutation to the rising moon. All of us together live by the same rules of time and space, but we do the small details so differently. Interesting things like food and shopping are so new that every second that my eyes and ears are open I learn something. Then I see a small child cry out to her father, arms outstretched towards his faraway face. He lifts her in the same way all fathers do, and she rests her tired head on her father’s shoulder as all young daughters too. It seems as though I am not so far from home at all.

Walking home through Soho - "Take Five" by Quincy Jones

The sun is gone, and the sylish have arrived. Soho is the place to be after dark, and I’m seeing the chic people stream into the narrow streets. Red wine glasses arrive simultaneously, music plays, and tapas flow as quickly and tastefully as the conversation. The women are incredibly beautiful and the men are more than handsome – fine pairs walk the street as if waltzing on the night air. I am here and gone quickly, just passing through, an observer. Perhaps tomorrow evening. Perhaps indeed...

I got terribly lost multiple times so when I got home I decided to figure out where I had gone... Haha.

It's on like Hong Kong

Tonight was my first real evening in the wonderous metropolis that is Hong Kong. I can honestly say that I came to this city with a clean palate. Like ginger after sushi, a few days refreshment in Singapore after the Cambodian chaos really meant that I was prepared for anything HK could throw at me.

The first impression of a new city is always the taxi ride from the airport. HK gives you a panorama of the city towering up over you, buildings have inched foward until the streets are one way and the sidewalk is a one-person affair. Each structure has a different feeling, a different purpose. It would be easy to pin this as your typical overpopulated business city, but if you hold your breath even just a moment to look beyond that facade, Hong Kong has the potential to present you with so so so much more.

On the travelator you can look past the "MANICURE" signs to see a traditional English pub crammed with pale Poms. In the fanciest inner Soho area, crammed with chic bars and chic people, all it takes is a peek around the corner to see horrendously daggy underwear hanging outside of someones kitchen-slash-laundry. Business doers stride self importantly in suits past small children rugged up tight who run past beggars. Every street is a diamond with thousands of facets of life to discover. Only a fool would describe this vibe I can feel as a 'daily grind'. It's stimulating in a way that invigorates the senses. International magazine stands greet me in the morning, and when combined with the sharp chill of woolen-coat-worthy-winter, I feel fresh.

I am so happy I have a month here. I can't wait to see the kind of best this place might bring out in me.

On a different note, don't bother with the daily 8pm light show. It's shit. The normal city lights are beautiful enough.

Me and my cousin.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Latest Discovery

If you're fresh to this blog, you may not have noticed my list of links on the right-hand side bar.

The point is, I have a swashbucklingly new addition which I am excited to bring to you. I am writing from Hong Kong, more specifically, Des Voeux Road where I stumbled across an international magazine stand that made me SO excited (read: jizz). I spent all my current currency on the following magazines which I believe have enriched my life to the point of no return:

• Monocle
• The Gentlewoman
• McSweeney's

I am aware that some of you cool cats already know about one of these, but I think perhaps the three of these publications combined will create, within each of us, a force akin to Captain Planet of style, intelligence, class, and (most importantly) wit.

Not each of these will appeal to you, they have incredibly varying vaults of content.
Not all of you (read: me either) will be able to afford all of these. But be pleased that they are not all released monthly. Also be pleased we live in the new media world where links rule.
Not all newsagents stock these. Hence my excitement at finding them all in one place. On the other side of the world.

Every hero faces setbacks, but if you can brave the challenge of opening your mind to something new, being poor for a couple of weeks, and the thrill of the search, I can personally guarantee you will (upon completion of the materials) instantly morph into a butterfly of awesomeness (read: yes, right now you are an ugly, ugly caterpillar of ignorance).

From this moment on, all three of these links appear on the side tab marked "injecting awesomeness into you". I encourage myself everyday to enter the humbling world that is the "cool pages" of the internet. I am baffled by the lengths people go to in order to enhance the level of cool of the general populace. And they do it for free. Shazam, bitchezzz.

Quilt

I have had many enquiries as to how my quilt turned out, and all I can say is that I could not be happier.
I think you will agree.

Portraits in Phnom Penh

We found ourselves some portrait artists at the markets around the corner one night and decided to get a "family album"-meets-"wise old men cosidering things"-meets-"we have matching scarves" portrait.
You know the one.
It was cheaper than it should of been, I think perhaps we got the trainee....

 

The croud we drew. Drew. Lol.

After we drew such a crowd, we had a brilliant idea... We decided to go back in our matching butterfly outfits. Remember the ones we wore to the arcade when I got frozen yoghurt? Yes, those.

We also brought back the 5 pairs (each) of fake hipster RayBans we bought over our time in Cambodia.

This is the result:

"We were posers before photography was even invented."

Rabbit Island

In all my gushing about Kampot, I forgot to post some pictures from (the amazing) Rabbit Island. I already spoke a bit about it in the Tiny Kampot Pillows post, but here are some pictures so you can form your own thousands of words.

PS: my mum is gonna love these.

The view on approach by boat.

One of the mere forty families that permanently inhabit the island. We met at least half of them.

It took us two hourse to completely circle the island.

We stumbled upon this incredibly rickety, dissolving, ad-hoc, thoroughly should-be-temporary jetty which led to an equally unreliable pontoon. But it was also all ours and beautiful and serene.

Swimming off of the afrementioned pontoon. Moments before three ugly, fat, incredibly French old white men decided that the space was not, in fact, taken and that swimming here rather than ANYWHERE else was a good idea. They squealed when seaweed brushed on their legs, all wore speedos and if you though I was pale? - I was blinded when I acidentally glanced their way and they stepped out of the shadows. Also they were perves. But not as bad as the actual Cambodian local who picked up his axe before taking a photo of me on his camera phone.

The local life.

Tiny Kampot Pillows

We left Kampot yesterday, and I really wish we could have had longer here. As weird as it is, it has such a charm to it, and it is just so unique that it has really grabbed a hold on my heart. I missed out seeing a couple of things I really wanted to just because we overestimated the speed and capabilities of Cambodia’s transport systems. I would love to come back and travel a little further out to the more rural areas, and also do a bit of trekking in Bokor National Park. The short trip out to Rabbit Island gave me the idea of going back one day to write a book or do some painting. It has that kind of solitary, explorative vibe to it.
Very Hunter S Thompson meets Frieda Kahlo mixed with Gilligan’s Island. 

The ever-so-radical Rabbit Isl.

Perhaps I am feeling so good because I just made one of the best purchases of my life. On our way back from a town tour in a tuktuk today, we stopped at a little shop called ‘Tiny Kampot Pillows’. It was a very small material slash textiles shop which sold scarves and dresses and pepper and postcards. They had a sign saying that they gave quotes for sets of sheets and pillowcases, so I asked her if she had any bed sheets for sale. She replied ‘no’, and said they were only made to order, but gestured to the back of the shop behind here counter, where there was a massive quilt hanging up, taking up the whole wall space. 

She did all her own sewing in the shop at this little counter!
With the assistance of good noodle sustenance.

It was patchworked with the crazy bright colours of all the material found in the shop and was absolutely beautiful. Travelling to China, though, I needed something warmer. I asked her how long it took her to make this bigger-than-2-metres-squared artwork and she replied just ‘four days’. Now I had an idea. I decided I was going to order a quilt and take it with me to China. 

You can see the quilt behind us.

After much discussion about how badly the Cambodian Post system fails at life, we came to the conclusion that she would have the quilt completed by the 17^th and take a taxi to drop it off to me in Phnom Penh. She was shocked that I would pay for such a service as well as a doubly thick quilt and an express fee. I asked her for the total price and she nervously pecked at the calculator. The total price?

$42

She peeked nervously over the counter to anticipate my reaction. I beamed. For a handmade quilt, completely created from Cambodian material, and personally delivered more than 160km to my hotel door. I was ecstatic! I passed her a fifty and she honestly couldn’t believe her eyes. I think it was then that it dawned on her that I was actually happy. I said ‘no change’ - and that’s when she got really happy too.

She was thanking me profusely and was swearing that she would deliver the quilt on time and was making a call to her friend so that she would have it finished on time and was double checking what colours I wanted.

She was so awesome.

My quilt arrives tomorrow, can’t wait to show you!

away from the sprawl

Kampot gave so much to me, I think it only fair to give it a little limelight.
She's a special little place, this Kampot o' mine.

yeah yeah yeah.

Lol at scaffolding

RAGH INFLATION

Seamstresses at the markets all have old Singer machines.

Abandoned railway station with scraggy dog. Cambodia no longer has a rail system at all.
Rail fail.

"Workers" at the railway station.
'Working on what?' you ask?
working on what indeed....

typical island vibes - headed this way

Volleyball is essentially the national sport. Always played by ripped (shirtless) young men.

The genocide means that the majority of the population arestill young. Children rule Cambodia. Kampot is no exception.

Pigs are everywhere. Snapped this mumma from a moving tuktuk.

It's been a hard days night.