Playing Ketchup

Ja halo... so it's been 3 months and I'll be home soon so I'll just make this quick and get some picks up to confirm that I am still enjoying myself.

Actually, I'll start with the events that occurred prior to my attending my sister's wedding.

I got to enjoy a few days in Thailand touring the Chaopraya river and take in some sun and seafood on the icing sugar like sands of Koh Samed before getting on the plane back to Canada.

An assortment of dried seafood products, I wish I could record smell.


My buddy Tuesday Sleeping Buddha.. a huge one, about 80 metres long or so.


A rickety pier that by the beach bungalow,
Ko Samed (about 4 hours from BKK)

The island had some wild rock formations in addition to the soft sand and warm clear turquoise waters.

So my last post was from the Hong Kong airport where I was casually enjoying a brew while taking advantage of their free Wi-Fi service. Figuring I had at least an hour to go to catch my connection to Toronto via Anchorage, Alaska I decided one more icy Carlsberg would do just right as I waited for a few more pics to get posted. Well.. my old pal Murphy was in full effect as I forgot to change my clock on the laptop. Once I realized what I bozo I was I ran to the gate only to see the doors of the Airbus being sealed along with any chance of getting on the plane.

No worries, with a boarding pass for the next day in hand I used the last ten minutes of juice on the lappy to get the numbers for hosteling international and headed downtown to check out Hong Kong for 24 hrs. Being in HKK made me realize what a quaint and humble little town Vientiane actually is as I succumbed to a late night meal of a Chinese Big Mac. Yup same s*#$. Definitely a cool city and a beacon of modernization. Coming from Vientiane and then hoping to the megalopolises of BKK and HKK was pretty much like going from Tatooine to Coruscant (links provided for those that are wondering what the funk).

The Hong Kong skyline from the hostel atop Mt. Davis

Took a ferry ride across to Kowloon

Electronics Bazaar - absolutely incredible, you could find any piece to any gadget and just about any gadget you could want. I drooled alot and got a bought some batteries, and 5 dollar Siwss Army watch, no that isn't a typo

So I made the plane next day to notice the orange peel
quality of the atmosphere as 20 hours becomes 12.

Save Alaska!

Weird thing in Anchorage, we stopped there for 1.5 hrs and got off the plane. Me and a big German fella that worked for MAN Roland, who I got to talk about printing presses with, and another few hundred Chinese. I had almost forgot about terrorist paranoia but being processed in Anchorage really hit it home. Everybody but me with my Canadian Passport was fingerprinted and photographed and entered into big brother's memory. I must already be in there.

Wow that place looks familiar, and totally surreal that I was here 3 months ago. It's like it never happened, but it did and was a great time and great day that I came back for. Julia got married on a perfect winter day.