Panda Bear and Royal Mutt, Chapter Four: Importance

drawing by LONG

Panda Bear sat munching his veggie burger at an In-N-Out off the I-5. A kid that was sitting at a nearby table was drinking soda very methodically. He was sipping through a straw and then immediately covering the straw with his index finger. Then after positioning the straw above his mouth he would let go of his index finger and let the soda flow down. Each time he did so, a smile of contentment warmed over his face.

Panda Bear (smiling to himself): Kids take joy in the simplest things.

Panda Bear and Royal Mutt were having a lunch break at an In-N-Out in the center of the the San Fernando Valley. Royal Mutt chewed his double-double as he looked out the window over the valley. The I-5 cut through it like a multicolor metallic snake, the cars scales on its back reflecting the relentless glare of the midday sun. It was terribly sunny and it was getting hotter by the minute.

Royal Mutt (thinking out loud): The Sunshine State.

Panda: What's that?

Royal: Nothing.

Royal Mutt took a big bite of his burger and continued to look out as if in a trance over the I-5. As he finished chewing his burger he spoke.

Royal (motioning to the freeway with his nose): Ever wonder where everyone is going?

Panda: I assume most of them are going to work.

Royal: Right.

Panda (motioning behind Royal): Man, the kid behind us is really funny. He's drinking his entire drink like this.

Panda Bear mimicked the boy's drinking procedure for Royal Mutt. Royal inconspicuously looked over his right shoulder at the kid. The kid's mother was sitting next to the kid and chided the child to stop and to just drink the drink directly. Royal Mutt looked back at Panda Bear and smirked.

Royal: What a scientist.

Panda: Oh, look.

The kid's mom took the straw away from the child not knowing that the straw had soda in it, thus spilling it out on her lap. She put the straw back in the drink and told the kid angrily to drink the drink straight and left for the restroom. The child drank his drink quietly.

Royal: Shame, the kid stopped. 

Panda: Well, the mom probably thought it wasn't good having her son playing around with food like that. Personally I thought it was entertaining.

Royal: Why wasn't it "good"?

Panda: The way the kid was drinking wasn't getting the soda to his mouth that well, which is important. 

Royal: Nothing is important.

Panda: Ok Mr. I want to live forever.

Royal: Importance is a creation, something we impose on reality. 

Panda: Then why do you impose so much importance on life?

Royal: Cuz I want to.

Panda: Hmm, well then that doesn't make you so different from the mom. The way you're defining importance, anyone can make anything important, for the mom it's to make the kid not fool around.

Royal: You're right, but what about the kid? When you realize nothing is important, you can see how no one's idea of importance overshadows another. Importance is an illusion.

Panda: So you're saying a kid's idea of importance is just as important as his mom's?

Before Royal Mutt could respond a pubescent, pimply In-N-Out clerk came to their table.

In-N-Out Clerk: Excuse me. Sorry, no animals inside.

Panda Bear and Royal Mutt got up out of their seats. They were done with their meals anyways. Royal made sure to mean mug the In-N-Out guy as he turned and walked away. The kid that was sitting at the other table pointed at them and laughed.

As they were leaving,

Royal (to Panda): That mom should teach that kid some manners.

Previously on Royal Mutt and Panda Bear:

Chapter 1: Time

Chapter 2: God

Chapter 3: Death

Royal Mutt and Panda Bear Are Back! Chapter Three: Death

drawing by APO

Royal Mutt drove listening to the quiet hum of the morning radio program as Panda Bear slept in the passenger seat. The morning rays were now fully stretching their arms and the highway was a sea of shining cars. They were approaching the bottleneck that is known as LA traffic. The freshness of the morning air was beginning to lose to the exhaust of cars. They passed a shopping center on the right that had interesting architecture, it was made to look like an ancient ruin on the outside. However, Royal Mutt could see all too clearly the name brand stores that lurked within, stores that could be found in any non-ancient ruin shopping center. “Funny,” thought Royal. The time was 830am.

Royal Mutt was signaling to turn left and just as he was making the turn, a red GT mustang came from behind and roared into the space that Royal Mutt was turning into.

Royal Mutt: Fuck.

Royal Mutt beeped his horn, but the other driver paid no heed and made no gesture of acknowledgment.

Panda Bear woke up.

Panda Bear: What happened?

Royal: A car nearly hit us, we almost died.

Panda: Dang, that would’ve sucked.

Panda Bear then tried to make several unsuccessful attempts to fall back asleep, but couldn’t. Noticing the sun’s ascent, he brought out his bamboo plant and held it outside the window to catch some healthy rays. Royal Mutt noticed Panda Bear’s relaxed manner.

Royal: You seem quite happy, considering we almost died.

Panda Bear thought for a second.

Panda: Well, I’m sure that regardless of dying or not, there was nothing we could’ve done about it. These things happen, has nothing to do with me.

Royal: You’re not afraid of death?

Panda: No, not at all.

Royal: Why’d you say it would’ve sucked?

Panda: Hmm, well I just said that off the top of my head, again I was kinda sleepy when you asked me. It was just a social reflex, you say “we could’ve died” I say “that would’ve sucked”, you say “what’s up” and instead of saying “the sky” I would say “not much.” But honestly death doesn’t scare me.

Royal Mutt made a quick glance over at Panda Bear to check if Panda’s face matched his voice with the same sincerity. Panda Bear was calm and poised, with his right hand outside the window firmly gripping the base of his bamboo plant.


Royal (concentrating on the road): I want to live forever.

Panda (chuckling): Good luck with that.

Royal: You don’t want to?

Panda: If you mean living in this body forever, I’ll pass. I don’t think it’s natural, if there’s life there must be death.

Royal: Why?

Panda: Well, life needs death as much as death needs life. In this reality, everything is in flux, things change. For change to happen, the old has to make way for the new, thus: death. Everything has a time limit, thus living in accordance with everything else we must have a time limit as well.

The sun was getting stronger and the reflection off the other cars in traffic caught Royal Mutt in the eyes. He moved the sun visor to the front.

Royal: Regardless of if it’s natural or not, do you have the desire to live forever?

Panda: Nope. If life had no time limit, time here would be less worthwhile.

Royal was about to say something when Priscilla Ahn’s song “Dream” starting playing off the radio. They were both fans of the song.

Panda: This song reminds me of butterflies.

Royal: Yeah.

Royal Mutt had no idea why he agreed, but somehow it made sense to him. Royal checked his blind spot and carefully moved into the left lane.

The two of them were inching up I-5 as they made their way across the LA sprawl.

Martial Art Videos - Cambodia

For those of you who don't know, I love martial arts. Thus I do weird things like practicing martial art forms in public places. One style that I practice is BaGuaZhang (八卦掌), a traditional internal Chinese martial art. See below:

BaGua at Angkor Wat

BaGua at the Bayon

This is just cool:

Thunderstorm over Angkor Wat

Day 30 Phuket

Days 25-30 (6 days, 6 nights)

Phuket is a very famous island in southern Thailand. The whole island seems to cater towards tourists. This has it's drawbacks, but we still had good fun. We didn't plan out where we were going to stay at Phuket which led to a lot of beach hopping. This was a bit of a pain, but it led to some interesting experiences. Prior to flying south, Trish had read online that Patong Beach was a hotspot and we decided to stay there the first night.

Patong Beach

As you can tell from the picture, this place is really touristy. I mean REALLY. I couldn't find a local food stall anywhere, all the places to eat were sit down restaurants and expensive. There was some entertainment though:

Here's a street magician having fun with his foreigner volunteer.

Here's some clams Trish and I had, they were pretty good. ($3USD)

A fruit salad dish we had at a more low key restaurant. (approx $2USD)

Well, after that night in Patong, we decided we wanted to try a place that was less touristy and had more of a local feel. We took a sawngthaew (which is a red truck with a covered compartment) just a few kilometers south to Karon Beach.

Karon Beach

Sunset at Karon Beach


A dog that accompanied us in our sunset watching (he kept watch looking the other way).

Karon is a really nice beach. There weren't nearly as many tourists as in Patong and there was also a better selection of cheap food:

Tom Yung Seafood Soup ($1.50 USD). It was excellent.

Beef over rice ($1.50USD), very good.

Once we got settled in at Karon, we rented a motorbike to go traveling around the island.

Here's a vanilla ice cream desert with green pearls, black jelly, and some taro chunks on the bottom that we had next to Wat Chalong, Phuket.

Here is a picture of a side door to a small temple on the grounds of Wat Chalong. One cool thing about the temples in Thailand is that cats and dogs love to hang out on temple grounds. They're also very well behaved like these pair of feline friends.

Phuket Town

This is the main town on Phuket island where most of the locals live. When we were there, they were having their annual Vegetarian Festival. The locals during the duration of the festival eat only vegetarian foods for one week in order to purify their bodies and they wear white to represent a purification of the soul. The festival was imported by Chinese merchants and has a direct connection to ancient Chinese religious practices.

Here's a delicious vegetarian noodle dish we had. ($1USD)

Phi-Phi Islands (Let the Puking Commence!)

Here's a pic on the cruise boat we took to the Phi-Phi Islands. This cruise was not fun. On the way to the islands I was already feeling a bit sick from eating the crackers with this gooey sweet center that they provided on board. The waves were a bit rough since it was rainy season in Thailand, so it got worse as the cruise went on. Anyways, on the cruise they let the passengers do 1 hour snorkeling off the beach of Phi-Phi Don. As the other passengers were getting ready to snorkel, I was barfing my brains out in a trash can next to the concession stand. The Thai female attendants that were behind me at the stand must have found it hilarious and disgusting as I hacked out all of my bodily fluids (I didn't have much to eat that morning, so most of the stuff I was barfing was liquid).

After I barfed, I went snorkeling. When I got back on the boat, I barfed again, this time off the side of the ship. My range was pretty good (I projected my barf a good 3 to 4 feet), however what really surprised me was that I had any stuff left in my system to barf. Oh, the snorkeling was cool, I got to see small shiny fish swim past me.

Phi-Phi Don beach

This was cool. Trish made friends with a cat on Phi-Phi island. I gave the cat some spare bread that I had in my bag. As I was doing so, a Thai guy walked by and said, "Monkey." I looked to where he pointed and sure enough there was a monkey in a nearby tree. I went to take out my camera to get a shot of the monkey in the tree and was very much surprised to see the monkey quickly make his way right in front of me as shown in the picture. Right after taking that shot, the monkey made a grab for the bread bag, but I quickly stood up and threw a piece of bread behind the monkey to get it further away from me. Don't get me wrong, I like monkeys, but it's kinda creepy when they're grabbing at you with their human-like hands.

Kata Beach

The above two pictures are from Kata Beach. After staying in Karon Beach for two nights, we decided to move to a guesthouse in Kata because 1) it was cheaper (600Baht/night) and 2)Lonely Planet calls Kata Beach the best beach in Phuket, though I would have to say I found Kata and Karon equally enjoyable. Kata is a nice quaint area with some local treats:

This is a banana raisin roti with condensed milk on top. Roti is fried bread, so this isn't for those of you who're watching your cholesterol.



This was weird. Trish saw this ad on the window of an eyeglass shop and said, "Doesn't that girl look like me?" I responded, "Holy crap, totally."

This frog thought so too. "Spot on if I do say so myself," Frog.

Flying Back to Taipei

And so that ends my Cambodia-Thailand trip. Yay! Please note that I've also added photos to the previous Asia-Trip posts. All in all in it was a great experience. Prior to this trip I had very little knowledge of the countries I've visited. Now that I've been to those countries, I feel that I've learned a lot about their cultures and had fun doing so.

I plan to have many more travels in the future, till then, bon voyage!

Day 24 Bustling Bangkok

Yes, hate me if you must, but I'm back later than never.

First things first, some important updates: 1) I'm alive, 2) I'm back in California, 3) I saw "The Incredible Hulk" on the plane ride over and I liked it a lot.

Sitting at home in my old room makes it seem as if Cambodia and Thailand are lifetimes away. However, I shall recall the trip for I think there are some interesting things to talk about and I have pictures now to show = ).

Bangkok

Being an international metropolitan city, Bangkok has many of the comforts of home as well as much of the local flair.

Here's a big mall called MBK that Trish and I explored (but didn't buy anything since everything was so expensive):

MBK Shopping Center

Bangkok also has some really beautiful temples:


The Grand Palace. Pictured here is a golden chedi (the golden cone shape building that is said to house a Buddha relic) and some other buildings located on the grounds of the Grand Palace. Prior to entry, they made me wear cotton pants because I was wearing shorts (it's considered disrespectful to wear shorts and other revealing clothing on royal grounds). I remember the ticket price to get inside was really steep, approx. 300-350 Baht which amounts to 10 USD. Other tourist areas did not cost nearly as much to enter. Also, the ticket price is only for foreigners, Thai people can get in for free. My girlfriend made the remark, "James you should try to pass as a Thai, you're dark enough." I thought about it, but then I also thought about Thailand prisons and decided against it.



46 meter long. Golden Buddha Reclining as he slips into Nirvana. I don't know if that's the official title, but it's a description of what Buddha's doing. If you look towards his feet, you can make out very small images of people. This Buddha is extremely big and exquisite. It is mind boggling to imagine the amount of work and craftsmanship it would take just to carve the head of this Buddha not to mention the body and mother in pearl inlaid feet.

S0 Bangkok is great place to see not only great Thai art and sculpture, but also, if you're interested, the sights and sounds of a huge city. However, like all foreigners do, I have to complain about the traffic. It's terrible, there's traffic jams everywhere especially during rush hour. Also, I felt that the hecticness of the city was getting to be a bit tiring.

Speaking of tiring, I took a two hour class at a Muay Thai boxing gym near my hostel. That was really fun and it cost 500 Baht http://www.jittigym.com/

On hostels in Bangkok: We stayed at New Siam, this hostel is one of three of the same name, this one is next to Rambrutti road and is just ok. The location is good but don't stay in the room next to the kitchen, which we did, there's a cockroach problem. Bella Bella is a cheaper hostel that we stayed at when we missed our Phuket flight. Bella Bella I found nicer, but much noisier. They don't take reservations, you just walk in.

Chiang Mai for me was much more relaxing and less commercial than Bangkok. The customer service in Bangkok when it came to boarding or meals was much more impersonal than in Chiang Mai which is understandable because Bangkok gets so many foreigner customers that the workers can't help but be jaded.

Anyways, my final verdict for Bangkok is that it's a must see, however, I wouldn't want to spend more than a week here (we spent 6 days here, 9/18-9/24).

Royal Mutt and Panda Bear on Vacation

Royal Mutt and Panda Bear will be on a short break until I get back from my travels in Southeast Asia.

FYI: Royal Mutt and Panda Bear will be an 8 part series.

Day 19 Thailand - Chiang Mai and Bangkok

As of this writing I'm now in the big city of Bangkok. I spent the last week in the north Thailand city of Chiang Mai.



Chiang Mai



Some notable things that I did here:



1) Eco-Trekking: This was a tour set up by a local tour agency near our hostel. We did some hiking in the jungles north of the city, elephant back riding, and ended the day with bamboo rafting.

In the jungles north of Chiang Mai.

The elephant back ride was fun but also a bit nauseating. At first it was cool being there on the back of this huge animal, but then after a while I started getting car/elephant sick. It was a very bumpy ride, we sat in these two person seats on the back of the elephant and you could feel every movement the elephant was making. At one point the elephant started rubbing its butt against a tree which was pretty funny.

Here's a picture of our elephant (a male and quite rebellious) getting his greens. As you can see, our mahout (elephant caretaker and driver) is getting his greens too, through a blunt (I urge you, if you ever happen to go elephant riding, to stay away from mahouts that smoke cuz this guy's blunt kept wafting back at us which exacerbated my nausea.)

Elephant crossing.

View from my elephant of another couple on their's.

As for the bamboo rafting, that was real fun. Four people from our group got on a small raft made of bamboo and we had a guide in front who would use a bamboo pole to guide the way. I was in the rear with another bamboo pole and I would take directions from the guy up front. This was a pretty good balance exercise since I was standing the whole way (I almost fell once). We rafted down a semi-fast river through the jungle, taking in some really nice sights.

(No photos for bamboo rafting, I couldn't bring my camera)

There was one downer though. After we finished rafting, 4-5 people from another tour group were rafting below and their raft got overturned. One of the girls was underwater for a good 10 seconds before resurfacing because the raft was above her head while she was underwater. The guide and other locals managing the activity went down to help the group and managed to get two girls out of the water. Since the current was too strong, the others just got on an unmanned raft that the locals floated their way and floated down the river to another stopping area. I was glad no one got seriously injured.

2) Thai Cooking Course

This was real fun and tasty. In this one day course, I got to learn how to make 1) Tom Kaa Chicken Coconut Soup 2) Red Curry w/Chicken 3) Chicken Cashew Nut Stir Fry 4) Pad Thai 5)Pumpkin Coconut Soup, and of course I got to eat everything I made which if I may so, wasn't half bad.

Lower left: Red Curry w/ Chicken, Upper Middle: Tom Kaa, Lower Right: Chicken Cashew. My favorite would have to be the Chicken Cashew.

3) Thai Massage and Foot Massage

I got my first Thai massage in Chiang Mai and it was brutally relaxing. They laid me down on a mat and for 30 mins (you can also do a 1 hr session) they destroyed me. Basically Thai massage is like having someone force you do yoga while pressing your muscles at key pressure points. The foot massage was also very nice, though it made me want to laugh/cry at times. According to my masseuse (?) each section of the foot correlates to different organs and places in the body which I found interesting.

Bangkok

I don't have too much to say about Bangkok since I've only been here on two previous stop overs and this is only the 2nd day of my longstay here. It is definitely a lot more busy then Chiang Mai and there are certain aspects of the city that turn me off (various guys at the night market asked my girlfriend and I if we wanted to see a ping-pong show, which we turned down [the show seems to involve a ping-pong and the female anatomy]).

I will probably have more to say in the coming days.

Till then.

Day 8 Kompong Phhluk

Yesterday Trish and I saw the floating village of Kompong Phhluk. It's pretty crazy, basically it's an entire village with houses that are on 6-7m tall stilts. When we went (this is the rainy season) the houses were only maybe 1-2m above the water, but the great thing about going now is that you can take a small boat and paddle through a nearby submerged forest next to Tonle Sap lake.

Today was a good break from temple exploring (though we went to a temple of Bakong to see the sunset) and we got to see an entirely different lifestyle. In order to go to your neighbor's house, you got to swim or take a boat. There were kids that were probably only a few years old, swimming and paddling like pros.

Tonle Sap lake.

Til my next update.

Day 6 Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

Yesterday and today, Trish and I have been busy with temple visiting. We got a one week pass to the Angkor Temples for $60 USD.

We rented bicycles ($1/day each) yesterday and made a 6-7km bike ride to the Angkor Wat temple from our guesthouse, Jasmine Lodge, in Siem Reap.

It was actually a very nice ride going there (going back was another story) and we stayed the early afternoon there. Angkor Wat is a beautiful temple, but to be honest, it wasn't as awe-inspiring as my imagination had conceived. A part of this is due to the fact that the central towers were closed off for restoration, so we weren't able to climb up and check out the view.




To catch the sunset, we rode our bikes to Phnom Bakheng, a temple situated ontop of a hill. There were so many people there, but we tried not to let that get in the way of enjoying the view.

We rode back in the dark, and I had this very cheap handheld flashlight to lead the way (luckily the street lamps were turned on halfway down the road). On the way back, there was a faraway thunderstorm that gave a beautiful lightshow as it lit up the sky behind Angkor Wat. Video to be posted.

Today was a bit crazy. Trish and I headed out to the temples today at 5:15 am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Today we decided to take a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle-drawn hooded carriage) to the temples given that we were very tired.

The sunrise and the clean it-just-rained air gave a whole new appeal to Angkor Wat and this time around I found myself more in awe of the world's largest religious structure. I also felt inspired to do some Bagua martial art forms among the ruins, videos to be posted.

The highlight of today was probably the Bayon, a huge structure with many many enigmatic smiling faces, four to each tower. It lies in the direct center of the ancient city of Angkor Thom (Great City).




Afterwards we visited the ancient temple, of Tomb Raider fame, Ta Prohm, a temple that has merged with it's jungle surroundings, creating a very unique atmosphere. After visiting some other smaller temples, we headed home. We got back to our guesthouse around 4pm, a long 11 hour day of temple exploring.




I know, I write a lot, but where are the pics? I'm in search of an SD USB converter here in Siem Reap, but they only sell those universal converters for 15USD and up. All I need is a SD to USB converter (3USD and up in Taipei), and I haven't found one yet. If I don't find one, I'll probably just get when in Thailand, and if worst comes to worse, or when I get back to Taipei.

Tomorrow we'll be sleeping in.

Day 4 Siem Reap, Cambodia

Flat Tires and Cows

So I'm here in Siem Reap, Cambodia along with my girlfriend Trish. We got here after a 6 1/2 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh.

Prior to getting on the bus, Trish overheard a Chinese businessman talking to the bus company owner (an Overseas Chinese) in Mandarin: "Didn't this bus pop it's tires before?" The owner said, "Yeah, three times."

Being the unlucky fools that we were, we had already bought tix and just got on the bus. Lo and behold, while on the Angkor Express, we got a flat tire while on the rode. During that time, the passengers (some foreigners and some Cambodians) got out of the bus to walk around and some took a piss off the side of the road (those who did were Cambodians with the exception of myself = P).

We were in the middle of country land and there were some strawhuts near our bus. There were also two cows that were tied next to where we were (one brown and one white) and a water buffulo further down the road. Pictures to be posted once I find an USB adapter for my SD card. A group of children from one straw hut said "bye bye!" to me as I was walking away and I waved back.







After the driver changed tires, we were back on the road and got to Siem Reap at 420pm (we started from Phnom Penh around 950am).

Trish and I just had dinner at a Khmer Restaurant which served us a curry-like dish of chicken, egg, vegetables, and coconut milk. Now, we're making plans how we should go about seeing the famous Angkor Wat temples tomorrow (one was featured in "Tomb Raider" the movie).

More updates later on