I’m the guy that never came back. I’ve heard that story a few times now and I still find it surreal to hear people tell it. I’m the guy that went halfway around the world to drive a tuk-tuk across India into Nepal and somehow, found himself trekking through Southeast Asia. Then just decided to stay.
One year ago, travel weary after 5 months of avoiding police shake-downs in India (not to mention oncoming traffic), wandering around the jungles of Southeast Asia (concrete or otherwise), from overnight bus to overstuffed cabs, traveling under leaky air conditioning vents or in the midst of ritual mass vomiting, from having my tuk-tuk hijacked to heading into a typhoon rather than away from it, all while lugging about a ginormous backpack, I decided to take a break from the madness and set up shop in the City of Krung Thep. Bangkok.
One year later, I finally know how to get around the city and where to get the best Pad See Ewe in town. The best Thai iced-tea. I have favorite Indian restaurant and a favorite live music joint. I’m still perplexed about some of the cultural differences I encounter and I’m still trying to figure out what the deal is with all the different colored cabs. And every now and then, I’ll tug along my XTi and keep beating the crap out of it.
Last night, while wandering about the streets of Georgetown (on the island of Penang at the NW corner of peninsular Malaysia), somewhere in the vicinity of Little India, a smiling, scraggly bearded dude stops me mid-step and says: “You are a lucky man!”
“Really?!” I replied.
“You are a lucky man,” he repeated. “Do you know why?”
(Oh shit! This is exactly the way it went down with Christine on Khao San when she ran into that random Sikh guy who turned out to be a “fortune teller” asking for large sums of money. Except this guy is not wearing a turban and my name is not Christine.)
“Yes! I know.” I said as I smiled back.
Confused with my response, the scraggly bearded dude blankly stared in my direction. And had nothing else to say.
During one of the “red shirt” riot scenes in Bangkok on 13th April 2009, when a gas truck was hi-jacked and reportedly threatened to release the flammable contents near Din Daeng Area, an unknown individual emerges as Batman. The super hero was able to divert the attention of the protesters, opening an opportunity for the rescue team to retrieve the gas truck.
On another note: I was riding a cab some nights ago and caught a real life Batman walking the streets. This Batman was not like the one in the video but more like the one in the movie. The one starring Christian Bale. Dude’s outfit was legit. Also, he was diesel and looked all kinds of serious walking in the middle of an empty road around midnight. And I have 3 other witnesses who can corroborate my story.
One of the things that caught me by surprise here in Southeast Asia is the popularity of this song. And it’s not simply a farang thing-Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand-Pitbull’s getting love from all over.
This is one of the coolest videos I’ve seen in a while. It’s called Moments and it was directed by Will Hoffman.
It’s four minutes full of random moments that make up life. It’s a good flick all on its own but it’s even better in the context of RadioLab’s After Life series, which begins with an hour long show filled with stories dealing with the space and time beyond the point of no return and is followed up by a handful of equally excellent shorts (12,13,14,15,16,after birth) to close it up. This is the second-to-last short in the set.
Pretty eerie stuff coming from RadioLab but not that surprising.
This is a song that was supposed to be part of The Roots’ last album, Rising Down. If I remember correctly, the story is that it was not included because they failed to clear a sample that was used in the track. Also, considering that this was one of The Roots’ grittier sounding albums, something has to be said about it not fitting within its continuity. (Although it was included in the European release.)
I’m the guy that never came back. I’ve heard that story a few times now and I still find it surreal to hear people tell it. I’m the guy that went halfway around the world to drive a tuk-tuk across India into Nepal and somehow, found himself trekking through Southeast Asia. Then just decided to stay.
Posted by R. 
