So how was the trip? It was hot but not so much in the mountains.  ¶ 12:48 a.m. 0 comments

 
Swimming helped too.  ¶ 12:48 a.m. 0 comments

 
The food was good.  ¶ 12:47 a.m. 0 comments

 
We stayed in lots of loveshacks.  ¶ 12:47 a.m. 0 comments

 
People and beasts were very nice to us.  ¶ 12:46 a.m. 0 comments

  Current events Right now, I'm in a Narita (Japan) hotel room watching over-enthusiastic Japanese chefs making western food on TV.  ¶ 12:15 p.m. 0 comments

  In the boondocks again... After a hectic week of bike-purchasing and partying in Singapore and KL, I'm finally in the boondocks again. I took off for Singapore on the 5th and stuck around there to eat, relax and buy a bike (very stressful for a cheapskate like me). Singapore's like a big clean Ottawa but with great food. I was extremely strung out even though I was relaxing and on vacation; I think it had something to do with the anti-malarial medication I was taking. Eventually I met my friend Chad and we headed off for KL, crossing the strait of Johore by bike. Then we took an overnight bus up to KL, where we stayed in a sketchy hostel and managed to make it to the top of the Petronas towers (those really snazzy gothic twin towers). We're biking up to Laos now.  ¶ 11:52 a.m. 2 comments

  Dreaming Upcoming post-internship plans: I'll be leaving Roxas for Manila on the 4th, then flying on to Singapore on the 5th. The plan is to meet some friends there, find me's a bike then bike/bus up through Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia to Vietnam. I've started taking mefloquine - an anti-malarial know for one specific side-effect: crazy dreams! I wake up feeling less rested than when I fell asleep (I feel like I travel 1000 miles every night!) That's it for tonight.  ¶ 7:00 p.m. 2 comments

 
Mills-on-wheels  ¶ 9:11 a.m. 0 comments

  Mills-on-wheels I stopped by the side of the road to check out some guys milling rice yesterday. They had a travelling rice mill which they call "mills-on-wheels" here. Its kinda neat: they pour the dry whole grain rice into a big funnel on the roof of the truck, then start up a big car engine and the mill dehulls the rice (the hull is often used for sod) and further removes the bran (which is used for hog feed), leaving you with the white rice. The rice here is quite starchy and very different from Jasmine or Basmati rice I'm used to eating back home. Further, folks here associate brown rice to the poverty of war-time so it's very difficult to get your hands on some, unless you're living in rural areas or in the big city. Check out the pictures! Oh, I forgot to include one of the Philippino rice belly!  ¶ 8:52 a.m. 1 comments