Truth, lies and dementia

I've been told that in Mandarin, there is no word for Sex. The closest would be' making love'

I'm not sure if its true. But its bad enough that humans dont know know to tell the difference between love and sex. How do you deal with it if the damn language doesnt allow you to express that difference?

I know this is coming in months too late, but I only watched Closer 2 days ago and I think its one of the most unique movie I have watched

At the end of the movie, I was not sure if it was the usual happy ending or not. In fact, Jude Law was so convincing as bastard-turned-insecure nutcase that I am not sure who he himself wanted to end up with. Julia Roberts? Natalie Portman? At the start of the movie, you think he's the fuckwit who uses people and doesnt deserve any happiness. but at the end when he loses Alice/Jane and realizes she used a fake name with him all along, you kinda feel his pain at having lived a lie for 4 years

I maybe stating the obvious but its a great movie about relationships, emotions and insecurity and curiosity. Like that scene where Jude Law screams at Julia Roberts for sleeping with her ex husband out of pity: That's not cowardice! You're just not big enough to let him hate you.
Or when Portman states: There is always a moment, a time, where you make a choice to give in to temptation.

However, I think the best line in Closer is Natalie Portman's answer to the annoying question, 'Was he better than me'
Answer: Yes he was, and I came, but I prefer you.

I think I read too much fiction.
Rusdie, Orwell, Dahl, Wilde, Wodehouse and the works.

The only time I read non-fiction is if there is a purpose and reason to do so and not out of sheer pleasure.

If you know of any good non fiction books , please suggest them here. Tech- related and geek-books are not entirely welcome, though. There are something I still cannot stomach

The trick is to keep breathing

I think that damn Elizabeth Wurtzel made it seem like it only natural for average , normal people to fall into massive depression and hurt everyone and everything around them.

You know, if you take away the usual tough childhood-absent father-absent mother-repressed-childhood trauma-chased by dogs-got bitten by a snake-bullied in school routine, all you get is an asshole who just mean and cruel.
And really, there is no excuse for that

I have a sneaky feeling that there are 2 ways to explore Indochina. You can pay an unearthly amount of money to be escorted by a tour guide from Saigon to Hanoi, stay in clean places, eat sterile food and buy t-shirts that say "Good morning Saigon!" Or, you can buy a copy of Lonely Planet, travel on the local busses to save some pitiful amount, eat beef noodles by the road side, claim you're getting 'the real deal' but still end up in the same locations as the tourist who took package deals from Happy Happy Tours or Sinh Cafe.
Travel in Vietnam/Laos/Thailand is so commercialized that no matter where you turn there is a fellow backpacker who is doing the same route as suggestion by Lonely Planet. And the moment a location that used to be rustic or secluded gets publized by Lonely Planet, you can count on that location getting the 'backpacker ruin' treatment. That means every place starts looking identical: rows of internet cafe, laundry shops, travel agents, cheap booze, cheap accomodation and people who wont stop harressing you to buy items you have no use for.

I suppose that why I am so glad I did the 5 day trip on a motorbike, covering 800km of central Vietnam. For 5 days it was an understanding of how they live, the small industries that they operate, the food they eat, the way the minorities adapt to a new environment, the rampant slash and burn, the valleys, forest, waterfalls, the Ho Chi Minh trail, the sheer remote-ness of the country was practically ruined in a war
I think the experience was completed by the fact we had first rate, anti-communist, anti-government,rebel-like, environmentalist guides who never grew tired of telling stories about themselves and people of Vietnam. Travelling 5 days with complete strangers can be daunting, but I think they are examples of how there is still some old-fashioned goodness in the world.
Maybe its a freaky coincidence that this trip was taken right after i read Zen and the Art of motocycle maintaince. Although I did not finish the book, one line stands out (not verbatim): When you're on a motorbike, your vision increases and you notice vastness that would be impossible to notice if you were looking from a bus window
It's true. Its all true

There was more that I did, bought and saw but they are no different from what you read in a travel mag.

Home!
Land of ample masala tea and post cereal and dimsum! Broadband! Cable TV! Reality shows! My own comforter and bed!
It's so good to be back. I think when you realize you want to be home and you want to wake up in the same place everyday, that mark the end of the travel bug

Out of sheer blogging tradition, here's John Denver 's Leaving on a Jetplane. Although i suspect the journey will involve mostly trains, buses, boats and tuk-tuks. And walking. Lotsa walking

You wanna hear about my new obsession. I'm riding high upon a deep depression. Im only happy when it rains- Garbage

I feel like I'm streched in all direction, with so many loose ends to tie before I go off. Finals to settle, leave to confirm, Masters proposal to hand in, things to buy, money to change. I have a dreadful feel I am going to get calls from the office asking me about the most mundane paperwork that I have yet to give in

Either that or I am going to be 'somewhere in Saigon' before I slap my forehead and realize that I forgot to pack clean underwear. Or worse still, realize that that I have a pocket full of Ringgit which I forgot to change. Or something equally Annie-like. Thank god now I have travel insurance! And slighly more intelligence! And a credit card! Spending tomorrow's money today!

On a nicer note, do tell me if there are any myths about IndoChina that you always wondered about, and we will try to investigate it for you. Like, do Vietnamese really eat dog meat? Is electricity really rationed in Laos? Is Bangkok really a sex-trade hub?
Oh you get the idea