Terence

ArizonaWildcat

Terence

I love to travel and am constantly thinking about it. Even more than something else.

If you are actually foolish enough to read my blog and you notice the voice seems personal, it is because all of my entries are virtually verbatim copies of my emails to friends at the time. In essence, they are stream-of-conscience, freestyling, spontaneous, and unedited (for the most part, I did correct mistakes and cleaned up -censor- some inappropriate stuff) writings/musings intended for those whom I am close to. I never had any notion whatsoever of publishing this crap publicly.

Until now.

About my portrait: I'm the one on the left. The one with the really soft skin that can tear easily and that's a shade over 100 pounds. The one on the right is a tiger. The one with the pointy fangs, sharp claws, and that's well over 200 pounds. Well, I think you know where I'm getting at. All I have to say is that the only thing we have in common is that we're both wild animals. Okay, so this photo was taken at a animal sanctuary run by Buddhist monks somewhere in Thailand in 2005, which was my virgin voyage overseas. The funny thing about how this photo happened is that as my tour guide and I approached this group of people standing around a napping tiger, he says "Hey, go sit down with the tiger, and I'll take a picture." Now rather than contemplate the potential consequences of chilling out with a wild animal, I go sit down with the tiger to have my picture taken without missing a beat. What the hell, I'm on vacation. No one else was taking any photos with the tiger. In fact if you notice in the picture, everyone else is standing at a pretty healthy distance away from me. You may also notice that I've dropped a load. Seriously, you can tell in my face that I was scared crapless. Good thing I was wearing brown shorts. And that's the moral of this stupid story: always wear brown shorts when posing with wild animals.



Asia » Hong Kong July 24th 2008

I'm so tired now that I feel real woozy and hazy. In fact I keep on making tying mistakes. Right now I'm in Hong Kong Airport. A funny thing happened to me a little while ago. When I travel I pretty much wear nothing but U of A gear: hats, t-shirts, sweaters, and even a beanie. Now, don't get me wrong, when I go out on nights on the town, I do doll myself up and put my face on. Anyway, today I'm wearing a U of A alumni shirt loud and proud. I was wandering around the food court looking for a bite when I notice this kind of stocky dude wearing a backwards cap look me up and down as he passed me. A few steps past him, I hear "ASU." It wasn't very ... read more
A street market in Kowloon
The bar of the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon
Urinals in the bar of the Peninsula Hotel

Asia » Hong Kong July 22nd 2008

After 3 weeks in Asia surrounded by my fellow yellow people, I'm pretty surprised to find myself longing for white folks. Okay, what I really miss is having an actual conversation with someone in person. During the past two days, I've met some pretty cool people from all over. Yesterday I was waiting for the bus to take me to the Victoria Peak here in Hong Kong, and this dude asked me if I was going to the Peak. I said yes, and we just started talking. It always starts with the "where you're from?" When I told him I was from the States, he told me that he lived there for a year and traveled for awhile when he was younger. The guy was an a half-Moroccan Israeli. He had a really interesting life story. ... read more
View of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon
A taste of home from Hong Kong
View of Hong Kong skyline at night

Asia » Cambodia July 20th 2008

And it only cost me $5. Yep, I went metro today as I was leaving Cambodia. So today before leaving, I stopped by a salon for a little trim around the sides and back. As I was paying the $2 for the cut and tipping her another 2, she tried to upsell more services by handing me this flier in English. I noticed a facial steam and mask. So I said, what the hell, I have a couple of hours to spare, and it was only $5. So some Cambodian lady gave me a facial today. Now, despite what many of you may think, I have actually never received a facial. I had no idea it hurt so freakin much. There was this one part where the chick grabbed this metal instrument with a tiny circle ... read more
Pagoda honoring the victims at the Killing Fields
Kids hanging out along the fence of the Killing Fields
A mass grave site at the Killing Fields

Asia » Cambodia July 17th 2008

Do you remember the movie, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" with John Candy and Steve Martin? They had to take all these different modes of transportation just to reach one destination. Well, I just got back a couple of hours ago on a trip exactly like that, except I took a tuk-tuk, moto (on a road and up a river), my two feet, and finally a boat. I have actually spent three incredible days at the temple ruins of Angkor Wat. The place where Tomb Raider was shot was pretty damn cool. By the way, Angelina fell in love with Cambodia when shooting that movie, and that's when she adopted Maddox. Lucky little Cambodian kid. Anyway, I read in my Lonely Planet guidebook about a village where all of the homes are built on stilts to help ... read more
Inside Angkor Wat
A so-called road in the middle of Cambodia
Ten pounds of mud on my shoes

Asia » Cambodia July 13th 2008

It was my bed. Most of the beds here in Asia for some reason are solid. Actually the bed I have tonight isn't too bad, but it's still like on extra-firm mode. That doesn't help my already aching body. Oh, I have had about 5 foot massages. They are so nice. And cheap. I just got one earlier for 6 bucks. And no, there was no happy ending. That will come later tonight at my own hands. So there is one other thing I forgot to say in my last email. Some lady said that I have a "nice impression." Here's the whole scintillating story: I took this tour to the Floating Markets and on the way to there, some Korean lady started speaking to me in Korean. I had to reply to her that I ... read more
Inside temple at Wat Phnom
In front of temple at Wat Phnom
Monument at Wat Phnom

Asia » Thailand July 12th 2008

I love Thailand. You can get knockoffs of anything here and of really good quality. For example, I spend 60 bucks on 4 Ed Hardy tshirts and 2 hats. It would've been nearly 10 times that back at home, but it would be the real thing. Actually, they might be since it's made here in Thailand and I can't really tell the difference at all. I also bought Oakley's for 6, a Diesel watch for 7. And I spent way too much on freakin more clothes that I don't really need. I got a custom-made suit that fits like a glove. Or a condom, really, because the thing is a slim fit cut. Did I go overboard on the clothes-buying spree, you ask dear reader? Well do read on. Early this morning I went to the ... read more
Lady selling fruits and vegetables at the Floating Market
Yours truly mugging at the Floating Market
A boatload of rambutan at the Floating Market

Asia » Singapore July 7th 2008

I am in Changi Airport right now getting ready to board my flight to Bangkok. I did blow my wad last night. I went to the riverfront area had tapas there and mojito, and afterward went to a bar 70 stories high. I spent about 50 dollars on food and drinks, but it was worth it for the views. A good friend of mine has once explained to me that he doesn't accept this whole notion of nibbling of small foods. I, on the other hand, do enjoy on nibbling on things. I ordered a mojito, which was overly sweet but strong, chorizo, which was tasty and meaty, calamari, which was tender, and gambas de ajo, which was spicy. Funny those would be the same adjectives that would describe the women I like, too. The calamari ... read more
Silosa Beach on Sentosa Island
Lifts going up to ride the luges on Sentosa Island
Finish line at the luge race on Sentosa Island

Asia » Singapore July 6th 2008

And I do mean every single pore. Being outside here in Singapore is like walking into a sauna, only it's outside and not in a tiny room you can choose to avoid. Singapore is a truly beautiful city. Really it's a city planted in the middle of a geranium. Not only are there plants and trees everywhere, but it's all well manicured. They actually call Singapore the Garden City. Every year they observe a national planting day, similar to our Arbor Day, but the people there actually do something about it and plant something. Hell, I don't even know when Arbor Day is. Or what an arbor is. If I could to choose another city to live in, it probably would be Singapore. There's just an amazing amount of variety of things here, and as you ... read more
Inside a capsule of the Singapore Flyer
View of Singapore from the Singapore Flyer
View down Orchard Road from the top of a tour bus

Asia » Hong Kong July 2nd 2008

So I'm in the Hong Kong airport and it's freaking huge. I had to take this tram to connect to my next flight off to Singapore. The thing hauled ass. Anyway, I had to go through security at LAX last night and that took forever. At least no one asked me to take of my cap, though. Here I was asked twice to remove my cap. Do they actually think I can carry a bomb underneath a hat? They should be asking me to remove my pants because I'm really hiding a bomb there. And it's ready to explode. You knew the was coming. Ewwwww!!!! Well gotta make my connection to Singapore in a 45 minutes, so I'll write to you when I'm in Singapore and settled in there. By the way, this airport is build ... read more

South America » Peru » Lima July 24th 2007

Yes, I got kicked out of the hotel that I was staying in for the past few days. The same one with the porn in the rooms. No, it's not because of anything I did. Or was it? Apparently, they booked the place full and had no rooms left for friendly Asians like myself. Oh well, the place was a bit on the dumpy side. The first room I had a few blood stains in the sheets. Another one had some stains of an unknown variety. Altogether I had 3 different rooms in 4 nights there. Sadly, the last one was the cleanest. I actually sprung $7 for a clean bed sheet to use there. Oh well, the place I'm at now is actually really nice. The bathroom has an odd avocado green color, but at ... read more
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