to be young

okay, i know it has been a while since my last post but i had to share this one.

my nephew is currently doing one year of study in France. he uses the local bike rental system (25 euros for a year) and this is what he and some friends did one day...

KL

the third city in our southeast asian tour and as unique as any other. whereas HK was tight and crowded, KL is spread out and crowded. a city that has grown way to fast to make any sense. for example, our first hotel was attached to a mall (ugh) and you literally had to circle it two times to get in or out of the parking lot, it was like a traffic circle inside a traffic circle. there is a subway/train system, but it is divided between three or four different private companies so you need to purchase separate tickets everytime you change a train.

a full report of the tour, with pictures, will be put up once i get back.

hong kong

hong kong island

last thursday mrs. dr. and i left bangkok and made our way to hong kong for 4 days. hk is a crazy city with an interesting mix of eastern and and western cultures. my very good friend from library school lives and works in hong kong and visiting with her was the main purpose of the trip - so seeing her has been a blast. today we'll wander around a bit more before heading back to bangkok and then kuala lumpur

bangkok II

having the damndest time trying to get pictures on the blog. any ways, bangkok is great and would recommend it as a destination for any one. more will be posted later but a few qucik observations:

• the friendliest people and verypolite, and at the same time there are those who will hustle you in the blink of an eye - depends where you hang out.
• hot, humid, rains every afternoon
• the food is out of the world everything from inscets to deep fried breads, to the most amazing fruit - hot, sour, salty, sweet and spicey
• caucasian men walking around with thai women and boys are creepy
• luxury to poverty in twelve steps or less
• thai massage is fantastic - and no, i did not get the massage with the "happy ending"
• with my certificate from cooking school i am ready to venture forth in new cusines, now if i can only find some great markets
• traffic lines on the road are only mere suggestions, a free for all that seems to work(those in the lead have the right of way)
• ferrys and boat rides are way to get around

more later....

hmmm - street food

after the first day we are starting to get a little more adventurous with where one can go to eat. hawkers are everywhere and everything they have looks interesting, did not try the variety of insects that went by on the one cart - maybe today though. if you jettison north american concepts of food handling and storage from your consciousness there are great tastes everywhere.

chinatown

a little more crowded than a winnipeg street. probably only 2 meters wide, 30+ degrees and some very very new smells - love it, but maybe not all the time. i think all of the crap that ends up being midway prizes are sold here.

more later.

Bangkok

Arrived after 24 hours of travel time. Will try and find a place where I can download pictures. More later.

Mrs. Dr's ride

The parts finally came in last week and it was time to put Mrs. Dr's bike together. Funny how building bikes always takes longer than expected. Started putting it together on Thursday at the shop and finished on Friday at 9:30 (they kicked me out on Thursday otherwise I would have been there till midnight working on it). Too bad it took so long cause it looks like I missed a great race on Friday night, but I really wanted to her bike done before she gets home today (Laura has been gone for 5 weeks and this is her welcome home present).

Pretty excited about the bike and I believe Laura will be as well. It comes in at 22lbs the way you see it here, which is not bad for a city/utility bike. Many thanks to Tomek for building the wheels and the gifting me some brakes, the guys in the shop for advice and not laughing (too much) at my silly mistakes, and Matt for the handlebars.