Quick: Name a Thai dish that almost everyone is familiar with. Got one? You probably were thinking of Pad Thai (of course, it’s the name of this post, so that was an easy guess.) Pad Thai is officially known as the national dish of Thailand. But it’s history is much more recent than you’d think.
Aftermath of the Cambodian Genocide
After the end of the Cambodian Genocide in 1979, life returned to ‘normal’. Or as normal as it could get after such an experience. But there are some interesting stories that came out of the aftermath of the genocide.
S-21 and The Killing Fields
** This one’s not funny or entertaining, but it needed to be written. This is not for the faint of heart. ** 2 million people. That’s more than the populations of Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami, and San Diego combined. It’s 1/4 of the total population of Cambodia in 1975. It’s also the number of people that were imprisoned, tortured, and killed during the Cambodian Genocide under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
Know Your Prices pt 2
After my taxi incident, you would think that I would have learned. And I did, but not thoroughly enough. I blame exchange rates. I think that every country should use the US Dollar*. That would make things easy.
Know Your Prices
I got hustled within 60 seconds of being in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, aka Saigon). Rule #1 of traveling is to pay attention to your money. That’s both in terms of watching out for pickpockets and in terms of getting hustled. I forgot rule #1. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that it may have happened and another 10 hours to confirm it, but yeah, it happened.
Austin is a food town
Over the past several years, I have heard from several friends and from countless articles that “Austin is a food town.” I didn’t pay much attention to that statement, since I lived in DC and DC is a really good town for food. With it’s huge metropolitan footprint and international population, you can find whatever cuisine you’re looking for with ease, and new fusion restaurants are popping up constantly to add new variety to the mix. But Austin takes food to a whole different level.
Segways- They’re not as bad as you think
When you’re thinking of touring a city on two wheels, you probably expect the wheels to be one in front of the other like those on a bicycle or maybe a motorcycle if you’re daring. A pair of wheels strapped next to each other on a short board with a steering column is probably not your first thought when it comes to traversing a city’s streets, but you may want to reconsider. The Segway has been called “a revolution in transportation,” “the future of urban commuting,” and “the goofiest thing I’ve ever seen.” And all of these are true, and it’s a lot of fun to boot.
Talking To Locals
Before my trip to Italy, I spent a few months learning the basics of Italian. I wasn’t trying to get fluent, but I wanted to be able to say a few basic phrases and muddle my way through a conversation if I wanted to go to a restaurant or bar that wasn’t frequented by tourists. So I tried to learn the phrases that I thought I’d need most often. “Can I have a beer, please?” “Where is the bathroom?” “I’m sorry.” “Can I talk to a lawyer?” Stuff like that.
Kung Fu Retreat- Continued
Despite the issues on my first day at the kung fu retreat at the Qi Alchemy Loft, I decided to soldier on. Mainly because I was optimistic about what the rest of the week would bring, despite evidence to the contrary. All in all, I can’t really say the kung fu retreat was a bad experience, nor was it a good one. It was somewhere in between, with both high and low points.
Kung Fu Retreat- Day 1
After my disastrous performance at the meditation retreat (details here and here), I thought that I should give it another shot, but with less ‘meditation’ and more ‘doing stuff that’s not meditation.’ So I dug around on the internet and I found a week-long kung fu retreat in Ft Lauderdale, Florida (which is where all true kung fu is taught, of course).