CHRISTMAS SUCKS!



well it's official. vancouver's first snowfall, and i think it's a bit early. started about five minutes ago, it's wet and won't stick...hopefully...


the 'holiday season' is my least favourite time of year and thinking back on it, two years ago, i spent christmas night at 's bar' with dave and emily a few blocks from my apartment in korea having a few beers and watching the bartenders flip flaming bottles around, not a christmas light or christmas tree or christmas anything in sight...that was it...that was enough...


i liked the fact that in korea 'christmas' is a western holiday and it's not really celebrated at all...in seoul there were a few decorations, but nothing was really expected of me, people went to work as usual, shops and restaurants were open, everything went on...just how it should be...


last year i spent my christmas on koh samui island, hanging out on hat bang rak 'big buddha' beach with a few friends. of course, they brought a little christmas tree because they're all fans of the 25th, but nothing much was expected of me and i was able to just go along as if it was another day, yes much to their dismay...


we went for dinner at a cool restaurant on bo phut beach, just at the water's edge, watched the sun set, had a few cocktails and got ready for the full moon party the following night...


people always ask me "how can you hate CHRISTMAS?"


"how can you LIKE christmas!!?"


nobody can seem to understand why i think christmas sucks. first of all, snow sucks, especially in vancouver, it's wet and gets dirty and slippery and generally makes everything miserable and it gets way too dark, way too early.


everybody runs out and spends money shopping buying crappy gifts for their friends and you most of the time you end up with a bunch of stuff you really could do without and a big hole in your wallet...the mall is a fricken zoo, with crowds of people running around sweating and worrying about what to buy and if they can afford it and if they have everything for everyone on their list? who cares? does something not seem wrong with that?


sure, giving presents to people you care about is good i guess, but why do you need christmas to make you do that?


stupid music, stupid commercials, stupid decorations, stupid olden days christmas movies on tv...bah humbug!




and the whole 'getting together' thing...and the music and then there's the religious aspect of it all...don't even get me started...


it's fake and dumb and i plain just don't like it...


grrr!

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to those along the way


to emily, after it all, what happened?


to dave, after it all, what happened? i'll never forget your attempt at liverpool's dance contest, your undying love of 'mash' and 'the pixies' and stories of working on toronto transit...


to christa, we had a great time together, of course, there's so much more to say, i won't forget you ever, and i apologize, i haven't meant to be such an ass lately...


to soutthida, sometimes i didn't get you, but kimchichiggae, a few bottles of soju and a pitcher of hite always seemed to fix that...


to raswan, hmmm a few hundred corona, an ajummah selling nasty beach burgers and a lighter = good times in korea...


to that little bald headed guy, carlos, smashing your cellphone in the alleys of gangneung while little old koreans watched in horror, thanks for the razor mate...


to dan, you scared the shit out of me...


to dom, good times reminscing about vancouver...we'll have to meet up back here one day...


to glyn, "last night was kind of confusing, i woke up with white stains on my pants..." "yeah me too, but I woke up with white stains on my shirt..." oh the dongdongju, neeearghing in the restaurant with one million dead bugs eating nasty fish soup, 30% off everything!!! "she's named after a teenage mutant ninja turtle! guess which one?"..."she's got women's issues" i'll cook you some warm corn and mayonnaise...locking you out of your apartment, breaking your key in the lock and all the other crap i pulled...and chillin' in the mountains, north of bangkok...almost losing our lives to a group of cracked up little indians in varanasi, getting way too tanked at an illegal bar in the same city and suddenly realzing that when you're drunk, no one hassles you...i still have to get those no hassle passes printed...hell ya! my canadian friend...your beard does grow faster than mine.


to kate, for having to put up with glyn and my crap...and the ridiculous jokes, getting to know you on buses back and forth to seoul, peeing unsuccessfully in bottles and playing 'titanic' with taekwondo instructors...in vienna, getting drunk on cherry and blackberry beers and yelling 'aufwiedersehen' the whole way home...my canadian friend...good times ahead in the wide world...


to misty, you were great to hang out with, from drinking hite and eating sweet bread under cherry blossoms in kyeongju and dealing with 'women's issues' in seoul, hiking through seoraksan..."wow! he really can speak korean really good, can you hear that? wow! he's a foreigner but he sounds korean, how's he doing that?"...i'd love to see you in the daehanmingook again one day...and then laugh at you for actually wanting to go back...


to rory...you taught me what not to do in korea...and i didn't do it...


to judy, my korean friend on 'the slow boat to china' and forcing me to learn chinese late into the night when i was exhausted, i still can't distinguish between ma, ma, ma, ma and ma....


to marty, you cynical tall guy, glad i met you...popping our heads out in tianamen square, a giant mao starting us down, "why DO they make you shut all the blinds on the train?" and going out to buy a razor and ending up with a fat bottle of tsingtao on the steps in an alley in beijing, too many hours of drinking games in the basement bar and teaching me that little chinamen with bamboo hats sometimes need to be put in their place...


to jason and michel, yeah you can stop calling me pargass now...i know i was the asshole fifty million times in a row...you guys made me laugh, too bad there wasn't more time...


to heath and kris, shaolin warriors, pissing off the great wall was the coolest idea ever...


to ara the columbian gymnast, ran into you at the floating market in bangkok, and beers on the khaosan and why'd you never write me?


to anton, the french dude from nong khai who let me share his tv equipped double room for only 120 baht a night, and speeding around bangkok at night with crazy tuktuk drivers...we should've hung out in bordeaux...but i never made it there...


to lori, the beautiful aussie i met drinking one night in bangkok, who kept on asking me what i was running away from when i went to korea, and i told her "nothing"...but really there was something and you could tell...


to anna, my beautiful kenyan friend in pai...i will never forget the times we had there, speeding through the mountains in the north of thailand, and late nights in the hot springs in the jungle, drinking at the bebop, floating down the pai river in innertubes, and sharing your headphones with old school jazz on a hammock...smashing bottles where little kiddies could cut there feet in the rice fields and listening to jack johnson sing 'holes to heaven' around a campfire...you are and will forever will be sorely missed...


to the other anna, anna from dublin, i can't believe your going back...you loved it there! it wouldn't have been the same without you and thanks for giving us our space...i'm sorry we couldn't meet up in dublin...but i'll be up to see you in chiang mai if you're still there in a year or so...


to anna and hanna, my german friends, who i ran into in luang prabang...wandering around the city late at night, my drinking buddies in the strange city and discovering fruit shakes on the bank of the mekong...and anna, thank you for putting me up in berlin, and cheap wine and a bust of lenin on the tv set...you're more than welcome to crash on my couch if you ever make it to vancouver...


to nong, my moto driver in siem reap, you were the coolest cambodian i ever met...for almost wiping out three times ripping down some sandy roads, when i thought i'd have to spend some time in a cambodian hospital, and lunch at a roadside shack in some out of the way village, sorry i didn't come to meet your family for dinner...i wish you good fortune and good luck and if i make it back to angkor, i'll look you up...


to phil, in kolkata, we were forced to share a table in some seedy indian basement bar, and drank kingfisher and smoked beedees and wandered the streets at night looking for more booze...


to the kids from 'semester at sea' in chennai and our unforgettable trip to the bollywood theatre and ripping around the city at night on a hunt for more beer, and you stood me up for dinner that day....what was the deal with that?


to the couple who worked for emirates on vacation in pondicherry, thanks for paying for my drinks, scott and jen, and renting me a scooter while we rode to the backwater, and scott for your noam chomsky book, a great read by the way, i promised i'd hand it back to you if i ever made it to dubai and i DID and i could'nt find you at the airport...wish i had your email address!!!!


to the dude i met when sitting alone in mangalore, and discussions on ghandiji and india in general, you headed to hamphi and we said we'd meet up in goa, and it never happened?


to sebastian and his girl, the german couple hanging out next door on palolem beach in goa, thanks for 'reading those books with me', sorry, but i did feel like the third wheel...


to anita, i saw you every day for a week, smoking on the balcony across from me in goa, but was too shy to say a word, and then i ran into you on the shores of the ganges in varanasi...you stayed with me in istanbul, late night searcing taksim for a funky bar, we found it and drunk down the raki and travelling through turkey on too many overnigt buses where neither of us slept, take your vegemite and eat it!!!


to the punk rock girl i met in varanasi, you asked me to wake you up at five for the boat trip and then yelled "LET ME SLEEP!!!" you were a weird one...


to severine, the dutch girl, and lior whom i met at the golden temple...i'm amazed you can spend so much time there, but i realy admire it, sorry i never looked you guys up in amsterdam...


to sinem, my neighbour in istanbul, thanks for taking me out and scamming me a turkish national ticket at the tower and dinner and lunch with your friends...


to merve, from the internet cafe up the street in istanbul, sorry i hardly ever write back...i promise i'll come visit if i ever go back to turkey...


to tony, my australian buddy, and your friend on your knee (hopefully he's gone now!), remember choking dog and lion dog and hiking hours through sand dunes to the beach to save $2...hope you enjoyed doing some motorcycle maintenance...i'm hoping to meet up again in seoul sometime soon...you! you take your vegemite and eat it, too!!


to anna, the australian, met you and tony in gallipoli and we made all the way through turkey to the greek island of rhodes, where suddenly i departed our cool little group...maybe we'll see eachother somewhere else in the world!!!


to nev and anny and the cool ol' dude anthropologist in turkey, running around goreme, smoking nargile at night on the shores of the mediterranean for my birthday...i miss those times...


to matty, c'mon buddy from ealing broadway, london!!! you made me start smoking again!!! first time i met you, you foreced me to chug down a glass boot of beer and then a few more as we ran for the ferry, five finger discount bananas and nights making sure i didn't get my ass kicked on mykonos and out in london at the wheat sheaf with way too much to drink...another pint, sure will...


to karen and helen, australian girls on the lam with matty and me, sorry you had to put up with our shite, but of course, that's what happens, karen and her ridiculous hiccups and driving around santorini stopping at the beaches and getting free shots of ouzo at every taverna because "hey it's greece!!"


to john, the australian newscaster in mykonos, thanks for being cool and actually writing back...


to rachel, from murphy's bar, did we have some sort of connection?, you had the guts to come talk to me and shots of absinthe that erased the whole night, you're off in japan now and i'll come visit when i'm back on that side of the world...


to molly and the crazy girls from the pink palace...ran into you there, and late in the hottub, sorry i was such an asshole, i blame it on george!!! molly, saw you again by surprise in bucharest and then again in transylvania...and late late in the basement smoky bar of the hostel...ahh yes, transylvania!!!


to michael, my cool vancouver roommate at the pink palace, my wing man, you inspired me, from corporate lawyer to backpacker and having a beer in paris...i'll give you a shout now that we're both back in vancity...


to the albanian military dude from tirana and your smelly feet...thanks for the beers and the smokes and the pack of gum (yes, we have gum in canada!)...we couldn't really talk because of the language barrier but i'm sure you would've had some stories to tell...


to ersan, on the bus i hitchhiked on in macedonia, you were the only one who spoke english out of the whole group of students, but thank god, i had someone to talk to...it was quite the ride...


to roy, i met you in sofia and we hung out and went for beers a the buddha bar, looked you up in the netherlands and you let me stay at your house for a week paying for everything, tennis games, excellent dinners, hanging out with your family and of course, i'll never forget that bar out in the country side...thanks for everything, and don't forget, my couch is your couch when you make it to vancouver...


to nathan and jessica...the coolest couple this side of tennesse...we had great times in transylvania and prague and then again by surprise in copenhagen, staying at the same giant hostel...we'll keep in touch...and when i make it down south i'll look you guys up...can you say "road trip to new orleans?"


to elias, my greek friend from sarajevo, still out there travelling the world, i'll keep reading if you do...


to mirsada the bosnian i met in sarajevo, sorry i kind of ditched you, i loved hearing your stories, i can't imagine what you've been through...


to jenika and maria, we had an great time in bosnia partying and more partying in croatia and even more partying in finland...thanks for introducing me to...you know who...


yes, linda, i'm glad we met, you know that, through bosnia and croatia and slovenia and finland and sweden...there's so much i could say here...i miss you lots!! can't wait until you get here!


to the dudes in cesky krumlov...what an awesome town...we had a great time, thanks for stealing my keys and forcing me to spend the night freezing and sleeping on a bench...and for finding us some girls to drink with...


to the guy training to be a priest i met in croatia and then again in switzerland when you didn't even recognize me because of my hair cut, sorry i kept swearing...


to the belgian highschool girls who saved my life in marseille...thanks for the chocolate croissants and showing me the way to the hostel, i don't know what i would've done without you...


to romeo and friends in paris, for drinking red wine out of boxes and laser light pictures under the shadow of the eiffel tower and tasty doner kebabs and way too much beer downstairs while movies played away...


to ashley from amsterdam...good times at the cafes, i swear it WAS 'swollen members'...and hanging out in vancouver at the royal, and now you're off somewhere tropical again!!!


to the girls from dublin for taking me out for guiness at the pubs and the temple bar and now you're off in galway, what happened to spain?


and to everyone here and those i've forgotten, thanks, you made my trip what it was...

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what a busy week. honestly, i've worked about 10 hours a day since last thursday...


this thursday night was randal's and kristin's going away party. they're spending the next two months or so galvanting around south east asia: china, cambodia, vietnam etc. the party was at this cool restaurant/lounge/bar called lucy mae brown. i pulled it up on www.mapquest.com and the bastards gave me directions to the wrong place, with my quick witedness, though, i managed to find it just around the corner from my building...




lucy mae brown was a widow who lived in vancouver 50 years ago and ran a brothel and opium den in this very building. it's now been converted to a funky french mediterranean dining restaurant, paired downstairs with a cool (though small) lounge bar. it's here in the basement where opium smoke once filled the air...


lucy mae brown...

on the way there, an old friend, that i haven't really heard from in almost three years, gave me a call. so i took a quick detour, met her on granville and had a couple of drinks at the el furniture warehouse, this funky mexican tropical style pub where you can throw peanut shells on the ground.


we used to work together, so i brought her along to the earls party, hoping there'd be some other people she knew. there were a few 'old-schoolers' and we laughed and talked about the good ol' days.


and then kanye west was showing up...


unfortunately i had to work the next morning (who would've thunk it?) and home by midnight.


shaba!

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cambodia-khmerbuddha
Originally uploaded by the second layer.

a khmer style buddha in a garden on the grounds of the grand palace of phnom penh,cambodia.

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france-marseillefishman
Originally uploaded by the second layer.

a fisherman sells his catch near the harbour along the mediterranean in the south of france, marseille...

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greece-acropolis
Originally uploaded by the second layer.

the acropolis, athens greece. i stood here and waited 40 minutes for the sun to peek over the edge...

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swiss2
Originally uploaded by the second layer.

a glacier in the swiss alps, taken from the glacier express train between the towns of bern and zermatt high in the mountains at the base of the matterhorn...

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thailand-chiangmaitribewoman
Originally uploaded by the second layer.

a hmong tribeswoman in chiang mai, thailand...

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thailand-reclbuddha
Originally uploaded by the second layer.

the enormous golden reclining buddha of bangkok's grand palace...

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i've been promoted...from a regular old bartender/server to the bar manager, now responsible for tens of thousands of dollars of liquor and beer and wine and the ordering and inventory and organization of the bar area...yeah, and giving shit to the bartenders who don't do their jobs propoerly...


is it a lot of work? yep...

do i get more money? oh yeah...


today was my first day doing the numbers...i was in at 6am and walked out the door at 4pm...10 hours of non stop work...and i am exhausted, and i'm going to bed...


and i'm going to have a drink...research...

goodnight

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happy pepero day everyone!




i don't know why it's 'pepero' when it really should be 'bbaebbaero'...


lest we forget!

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stari most (old bridge) in the little town of mostar, bosnia-hercegovina...the bridge was destroyed in the war and only recently repaired, it connects the majority catholic and msulim sides of the city...

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amsterdam, netherlands...i don't think i could've found a more quintessential shot of amsterdam, the bikes, the canals...if only there were a few stoners running around in the background, in fact, there probably are...

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tuol sleng genocide museum, phnom penh, cambodia...thank you kate for providing me the inspiration for this shot...this former highschool, turned prison and torture chamber was haunting...the yellow and white, blood stained, checkerboard floors were creepy, like a hostpital or morgue. this is a shot of the doorways smashed through the walls of a former classroom...

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beijing, china, it's very chinese, i think, with the bicycles and the red banner...

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sachsenhausen concetration camp, outside berlin, germany...i don't think i couldn't have picked a better day for the sky, good thing i arrived early before the tourists would have ruined this scene...

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the greek island of santorini, in fira town...the island rises out of the sea, huge rocky cliffs with these amazing white washed towns perched at the top...

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the blue city of jodhpur, rajasthan, india. i love the girl looking away towards the old woman...and the painted door...jodhpur was full of scenes like this...

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the taj mahal, agra, india. glyn and i arrived around 6am for sunrise. i rushed in to catch this photo with seconds to spare and before any other tourists could arrive. you can see the shadow in the bottom left hand corner as the sun rises behind us...

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the famous temple bar, dublin, ireland

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i took this photo on the korean island of ulleungdo where many people still live traditionally...i love the vegetables and drying fish...ready for some sort of korean stew...

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i snapped this beautiful, peaceful buddha 'achieving nirvana' in the jungle around luang prabang, laos. i had been hiking through the bush when i came across it...

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i love this picture! it's of the british airways, london eye, a giant ferris wheel on the banks of the thames river, london england...can you see the jet in the distance...and i added the lens flare...

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la tour eiffel, paris, france

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the art deco entrances of paris' metro line, france

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newspapers for sale at a newstand in paris, france

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outside yeni camii (new mosque) looking towards the egyptian bazaar, istanbul, turkey...i made the photo black and white keeping the red of the turkish flag for effect...

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for the last month or so, i've been going through my 3000 or so photos from my trip and picking the best ones, my favourites. i fixed them up in photoshop, erasing any scratches, saturated some colours, made some of them black and white...

i narrowed it down to about 280 and had them printed for about $300...

i went to 'opus' which is a really cool art supply store down on granville island and purchased a bunch of black art scrapbooking paper and some photo mounting corners, mounted my photos and then spent two days hand binding the pages by sewing them with dental floss. i attached covers and am now in the process of adding leather to the front and back....the result will be a very professional looking album of my trip...i'll add captions later....

that's been taking up all my time these days...next project are my photos online for everyone to see. i've got everything from austria through until i got home to post. i'll also be revamping my site, new template for my blog and stuff and then i'll start working on putting all my travel stories down in written form...

so yeah, that's why i haven't been posting so much...

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for anyone who reads this blog regularly or did...i'm back on track with my posting now, i've been busy over the last few weeks but anyways, yeah, i'm back...


so i've been reading thenews and run into a story i'd like to call 'kimchi wars'
when i livede in south korea, i would always hear some story about the country disagreeing with the views of another country and they would bicker back and forth about it. i think this may only happen in asia.


one country "i do not smell like poo."

other country "yes, you do!"

"i do not!"

"ys, you do, i can smell you now"

"no"

"yes"

"no"

"yes"


ha! that's really what's it's like. so china's foreign minister loves gimchi! he made trips to both seoul and pyeongyong to sample the tasty korean dish. i love gimchi too! great! korea always wants to believe they are 'number 1' at everything, so they've been doing tests on chinese made gimchi to see if it stands up, or where they can attack its flaws. (note: chinese made low quality gimchi is cheaper than the korean stuff and is flooding the market)


korea has discovered FECAL COLIFORMS in some chinese gimchi, bacterial colonies that are typically found in human poo...so they banned all sales of chinese gimchi in korea, and than china slapped back by banning some south korean food imports, and then korea said "you smell!" and then china said "no, i don't you do!"


and it goes on...


ps: what is gimchi?


gimchi is a spicy korean concotion of ginger, cabbage and red hot spices, marinated and fermented and eaten with every meal...it's an acquired taste, one that i have acquired...gimchi mashissoyo

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