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Please Don't Stop the Music
Entry 5 of 29 | show all | print this entry |
I spent a LONG day of travel from Mabul via KL to Bangkok to position for Bhutan. The car service for the hour route to the airport broke down on its way to get me and there were no taxis in the village where I was dropped off. What the hell was I going to do? Public bus of course. I boarded a small van (think transportation for a high school tennis team) and it was filled to the gills with locals. Here we go. Well, there were about ten minutes of silence as I imagined they were sizing up why I was smashed in this small bus and the lack of chatter of any sorts was more than a little awkward. Then a sixty or so odd man to my left shouted something up to the driver. What happened next was unimaginable. The driver pulled on a plastic box in the cieling and a small flat screen popped down. As if it were happening in slow motion I watched him press the power button. The screen energized and to reveal a placid scene of a modern apartment block and two clean cut Asians looking lovingly at one another as they playfully cut vegetables I knew this could only mean one thing.... KARAOKE!!!!!!! The words popped up, the music kicked in and people on the bus started to just go for it. I was ecstatic. Why on Earth would anone choose another form of transportation when the public vans were cheap and brimming with Malaysian Idols. Borneo is called the Kland beneath the wind" but the moniker should read "the land of the answer is blowing in the wind". Huge for my life.
I met a Dutch guy named Marco at the airport who was traveling the same route from Borneo to Bangkok. He was a fishing fanatic and had been travelling between remote fishing villages in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand over the last 18 months to live with the villagers and fish. Not a bad way to spend some time. We chatted for a while and ended up geting seats next to one another, asking about our travels and trying to see what new spots should be popping up on my radar. After hearing his stories about the cities he visited between villages and his "activities" there I realised he was not only trolling for barracuda but also had a lure out for young women of the region. Yup he was a sex tourist. Plain and simple. Things got awkward from that point of enlightenment and I feigned sleep for the entire second flight to avoid any other over-shares.
This blog is going to need to go silent for the next two weeks as I leave the modern world and embark on a 16 day trek through the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. "Basic" would be an understatement when it comes to describe this hidden country. With television not being introduced until the 1990s, internet just arriving in a limited capacity, daily power blackouts (that is in the"big cities with the capital having a whooping 15000 people...yup many universities are larger) and the national past-time being archery this is going to get intense....almost as intense of my love for run on sentences.
I'll catch you all on the other end!
Latest Comments (3)
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Karaoke=universal language. Translation: AWESOME. (reply) May 5, 2008 20:18 EST by lbharris
I can't believe we didn't have a karaoke set-up on our Bishop Feehan tennis van! You failed to mention... was there a flat screen involved? MUST BE NICE! Keep the stories coming! I hope it's not too hot and expensive over there.
Lurve,
Laur
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wtf (reply) May 1, 2008 10:17 EST by brita.harris
Did mom really just sign her comment as Tbag?! Classic...
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No when to fold and walk away (reply) Apr 30, 2008 16:57 EST by tbag
Matt glad you are having a fav trip and using a little common sense. The diving pictures are incredible. I think the sharks could of made me walk on water! Tbag
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| 5. | Please Don't Stop the Music - Paro, Bhutan Apr 26, 2008 ( 3 ) |
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