Saturday Morning in Siem Reap

Saturday morning and I'm at the Blue Pumpkin at the Old Market area. Breakfast is a croissant, toast, marmalade with HUGE chunks orange peel, a small cup of coffee.

There's wireless, and upstairs is white, modern, minimalist. People with laptops, people with backpacks (expensive ones), people caffeinating. There's a N American couple next to me with a Lonely Planet Vietnam guidebook. next stop Saigon? Taiwanese couples on the table behind, with their guide. In front of me a Western guy, my age, hops on a motorbike with a takeaway cup of coffee and a bag of Blue Pumpkin pastries. Their breads and pastries are as good as any I've had in NY and better than many places at home.

Last night I took a tuk tuk back after dinner and there was this old couple getting off the tuk tuk behind me. The guy was trying to pay the driver 1USD instead of 2. It's like DUDE! If you can afford to stay at the Grand Angkor - you can afford the extra buck.

Next door at the high-end craft store Kokoon there's handmade soap for three bucks a pop, place-mat sets for 12, silk handbags and scarves for a lot more; across the street the storekeeper's sweeping. In the front of the dark, narrow store, is a dusty glass cabinet with detergent, anti-perspirant, and stacks and stacks of film. Who uses film anymore?

A guy with no legs is on a "bike" he's peddling with his hands. He goes to the table next to mine and holds out a card to ask for money. I stare, more intently, at the Gish Jen novel I've been carrying around. He leaves, and goes to the next restaurant.

Indochina ... with a difference

We're in Cambodia for a regional meeting. After our meeting this morning we all went to do volunteer work at a village school as a team building event.

Cuz of my broken foot, I went to the reading room to read to the kids while my colleagues built a fence with concrete poles and barbed wire.

The kids were like - shoving at each other to get to me and they kept bringing books to read to them. The books were seriously-old, English language kiddie books. Many of the kids didn't understand anything beyond "Hi" and 1-10 and maybe the first third of the alphabet.

But they totally wanted to just hang out and repeat what I was reading to them. One of the boys ... he was, maybe 7...was trying to hand gesture "hot" and started fanning me with a book. Broke my heart. I almost started crying. A kid in a developed country would be too busy watching TV or playing X Box to want to do anything like that.

Life as a Klutz

Three broken metatarsals, Christmas Eve, DEFINITELY no alcohol involved. Although I do remember there was lots of sugar. Christmas cake from all over and macaroons from Paris.

Anyway, it was 2 30 in the morning and I slipped on a wet sidewalk going to my car. Carrie comes and picks me up, takes me to A&E at East Shore Hospital where I expect to see a bunch of drunk people but no, I'm the only idiot there.

I'm in a backslab for 10 days - that's like half a cast and lots of bandages; the doc removes it, which makes me really happy and hopeful even though I'm still on crutches, and when I see him a week later, he says the bones aren't healing and puts me back on them again. Lemme tell ya - hobbling on crutches, showering with a plastic Kinokuniya bag up to your knee, and depending on everyone else except yourself for transport and everything else is no walk in the park. In fact, there's no walking involved at all. it's mostly hobbling.

Anyway, six weeks later and the backslab's been off for like...two weeks now. I'm still on crutches although less and less. I can drive. My foot is slowly starting to look normal again. Until recently it looked like I had elephantisis. Last weekend I was able to buy a pair of closed toe shoes - OF THE SAME SIZE! Now THAT is a major milestone. This weekend I was able to hobble around DKNY. Except the shoes cost like $400 Sing and up so that's out. Next week Ferragamo? Looking only...no buying.

So...since the gym and the running track have been pretty much off limits for me, I decided to take an online writing class from UCLA Extension. It's a TON of fun. Been reading a bunch of short stories for the class - Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, Eudora Welty, and I mean really, really reading - and discussing plot and character and all.

I figured taking a class would beat Mike's suggestion of taking up competitive eating. Less damage to my wardrobe that way.

And yes Gene, I did travel. Was in Tokyo for work. Try hobbling around Ropponggi and Chiyoda on crutches. I dare you.

More Running Around

Did a Half Marathon last Sunday. YAY!! Was slower than when I did one in NY...but ...uh...I'll blame the humidity...

Got back from Vietnam on Friday and the run was on Sunday. So had to do a few runs in Hue and Hoi An.

NO ONE runs in Hue and Hoi An, I swear. People were totally staring - wondering who that crazy, sweaty tourist was.

Unlike in Hanoi, where I could do a few laps around the lake across from the Zephyr Hotel (and across from Bobby Chinn's from those who would find it easier to have a BAR as a landmark), I pretty much had to run along the main roads this time around. So, in Hoi An, I ran from the old quarter...past 18th century houses, padi fields, rickety shophouses, uniformed schoolkids on bikes...towards a bunch of newly-built resorts beside a beach.

Hue was very, VERY cool. I ran across a bridge to the ancient Citadel and Imperial Palace and ran around the palace. Something about running around a really, really old pile of stones.

So this year, I've run under the Sydney Harbour bridge, across from the Opera House in Sydney; I've run along the designer stores on Via Nationale to the Roman Forum and a lap around Circus Maximus; and around the Imperial Palace in Hue. Way cool.

And oh - Vietnam photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/geri.wanjun/HoiAnAndHueVietnam

Goooood Morning Vietnam

Went back to Vietnam again for a vacation with my NY friends Adam and Lauree. This time I went to Hue and Hoi An, in central Vietnam.We were walking by the river in Hue one night and saw this girl, reading, by herself, under a bridge. She looked like an Edward Hopper painting.

Hue's the old capital of Vietnam. The main draw's a citadel and a huge palace that's survived a number of wars. Walking into the palace was like walking into the set of a Chinese Kung Fu movie.

I was half expecting mandarins and swordfighters. Didn't see them, but did visit a temple in the palace that was a memorial to the emporers - thirteen of them including a couple who were exiled to French colonies in Africa by the French after Vietnam was colonised.

One Year On...

This time last year I'd just landed in Singapore. Spent my birthday in a plane in between timezones.

It's been a year. Wow.

Had a really good birthday party last night. Really good caterer, two great birthday cakes. yep - TWO cakes. One chocolate and one mille crepe.



Cool new things in the past 12 months:

• I'm working with some really cool, really, really smart people. It's crazy, hectic and sometimes scarey - everything's kinda new. But it's never, ever, dull. Plus we have a pool table at work.
• Asia's totally buzzing. I don't feel like I've moved to another country as much as I've moved continents. Everything's so intertwined. I work with colleagues from 5 or 6 countries at any one time. Walk down my aisle at work and you'll hear English, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Behasa.
  
• Plus Singapore's so centrally located - fly a couple of hours in any direction and it's a whole different world..
• The Esplanade in Singapore: a really, really terrific concert venue. The Arts Fest and Dance Fest brought in some really good arts groups. I keep telling my friend Carolyn who used to be the program director there that the Esplanade's saved my life. OK - slight hyperbole - but it's a great place.
  
• People! New people...people I used to know before I left... This place has become a lot more mixed in the past five years. It's never been a big deal to hear say...French or German being spoken here. But I've started to hear a bunch of Eastern European languages too - which is kinda cool and new.
  

So, yeah - it's been a pretty terrific year. And yes, I still miss Manhattan. And I miss people.

Oh - and here's a nerdy post-script. The photo on the post is Tsutaya - a bookstore in Tokyo that's open till like, 3am. Lots of coffee and cake and art books, mags and CDs. My favourite last night spot in the city. Yeah yeah...I'm such the party animal.

Cool Running

Have been running quite a bit in the past few weeks, starting with Italy in August.

Air France had lost my luggage for an ENTIRE week - running gear and all - and finally delivered it the day before I was about to leave Rome. Scott, who had been running every morning in Rome, mapped out a path for me that went from our hotel, to Via Nationale, to the Forum and Colisseum, and finally Circus Maximus where the chariot races used to be.

It was the COOLEST run - going past the Fendi and Stefanel and the other designer stores, past the art museums and to ancient, ancient Rome. The best part was doing a lap around the Circus Maximus. Felt great to run after all that eating, and eating, and eating - tried to do some healthy shopping so one morning I went to Campo Di Fiori (photo) and bought some fruit back for breakfast with Terry, Scott and Hedy. The figs there were sooooo gooooood.

Back in Singapore, I did a 10k at the Sheares Bridge run with 65000 of my closest friends. It was the longest distance I had run in this humidity. And I was actually glad when it started drizzling halfway through. It was probably good practice - cuz when I did the 9k Terry Fox run it was drizzling the ENTIRE way.

In Tokyo now. Been doing my running on the treadmill in the gym before work. Amazing. At 7 am when I get there, it's already crowded with other business travellers.

The food here is pretty incredible too. Went to Gonpachi earlier in the week - George Bush had gone there when he was in Tokyo. Went to Cafe Bape in Aoyama (it was in a book on Design) and I swear my friend Cynthia and I brought up the average age by a good ten years. Then we walked around Harajuku.