random collection of stories

here's just a random collection of stories that I for whatever reason forgot to mention or include in my previous postings (excluding stuff from Banjarmasin).

When I was in Angkor Wat, I met two ladies from Fayetteville, Arkansas who work for.......not U. Ark., not Pilgrim's Pride, but that other giant--Wal Mart. When they asked me what I did, and I told them that I would be going to law school in the fall, they said, yeah, you looked like a lawyer. I have no idea whatever that means, but its good to know that if I ever decide to go into acting, I could easily find a role.

Another angkor wat story--I met two mid-30s flight attendants (one still working, one retired) from MAS, Malaysian Airlines, a couple--the still working one is a male, the retired one is a female--who were incredibly nice, and we ended up running into each other at the same temples. Met them for a drink later, and they confirmed what I previously heard from several different sources regarding Malaysia. The wife now works as an english teacher--she is fluent--and the place she works for is now in association with the U.S. Embassy in an effort to promote learning english in Malaysia. The funny part of the story is that since Obama has been in power, the embassy told these english teachers that they need to teach these people about global warming and climate change. It would be one thing if the people that were being taught were fluent in english, but the vast majority don't even have basic competency. Meaning that before they learn the basic phrases that would help get them around (like where is the grocery store, etc.) they will learn about the polar ice caps melting.

Singapore may have a ban on pornography, but they evidently don't impose a firewall. At one of the computer terminals I was using in little india, the home page was a porn site, and a whole bunch of pop ups took over the screen. I quickly changed computers.

I remember reading an article several years ago about the coming growth in chinese tourism. Well, they were everywhere in cambodia, and easily outnumbered the japanese by 10:1. Just to be a pest, I asked one of the tour guides what tourists they hate the most, and they said the Chinese--an opinion shared by many people, including other travellers, mainly because they tend to be rather loud, rude, and sometimes disrespectful by western standards. As much as people make fun of the insensitive and rude western tourist, the chinese tend to be far worse.

The Japanese, on the other hand, are extremely nice. They might be easily charicatured for clustering in groups, wearing bucket hats, and having giant cameras around their neck, but they are nothing but polite and friendly, if a little reserved (in the interest of fairness, western backpacking tourists are easily charicatured as well--long hair, bushy beards, wearing beer tshirts from the country they are in, etc). I ran into a group of Japanese tourists in Beng Mealea, and it was definitely a bizarre moment on my end when after telling them that I was from the US, that they were from Hiroshima--I'm pretty sure my face turned as red as the rising sun on the japanese flag out of a sense of awkwardness on my part. There wasn't any on their end, though, and some even wanted their picture taken with me.

A sign that I drank too much one night? When I ask for a cigarette. I never ever smoke, but I was hanging out with the german nurse at my favorite bar, and kept buying the next round for each other--being the southern gentleman that my mother raised me to be, I would never let her pay for the last round. Well, you know you've managed an accomplishment when a german, female or male, proclaims that they are "pissed" as in drunk, before you admit to the same. Of course, she is trying to quit smoking, but tends to smoke when she drinks, so that's where the cigarettes came from. I had one--that's it--and one was enough to remind me why I never smoke to begin with.