PRC SAR HK

i've arrived in the people's republic of china special administrative region hong kong, and my god it's good to be back in asia!

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the circumstances surrounding my stay in hong kong put me in mind of a murakami novel (the good bits) so i won't go into it all in this entry (i need to think about things in retrospect). i'll just talk about bangkok.

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i've only been to bangkok once before, and again it was for a 24 hour transit, which, though is a very short time, encourages one to milk 60 seconds worth of juicy experiences out of every minute.

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it was chinese new year, so i headed straight to chinatown, the heart of old bangkok. despite the tasteless food in africa, i had stacked it on, and am now sporting a repulsive new pot belly. about half of it came away last week when i did a really big fart, but the rest simply won't shift. i wanted to start a starvation diet, but when i rocked up in chinatown, and saw delicious food stalls lining the streets as far as the eye could see, i started eating...and couldn't stop.

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in fact i would rate it up there as one of the top three out of control eating experiences i've had in my life (the worst occurring last year in yangshuo in what i call the 'sweet and sour pork incident' in which a plate of meat so enormous it could have fed the people's army

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was served with a rice in a wooden bucket you'd think they'd stolen from the community well, and for some reason i forced my self to devour every last grain. the agony and nausea that i experienced while crawling home that night...i wouldn't wish it on anybody.

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hand washing facilities in these stalls are non-existent, so i was hoping to be struck down and washed out by some virulent faeculent parasitic infestation, but i was thwarted yet again: it turns out that in my short 26 years, i've put so many different kinds of food and fomite in my mouth that it seems i'm now immune to everything :( (paging dr freud)

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rather than have a sleazy night (as the name of the city suggests), i spent it at a boxing stadium watching muay thai (thai boxing), in which two perfect specimens of male youth (and i mean perfect - 0% body fat, thin as rakes, but rippling with muscles) battle each other with fists, elbows, feet and knees in 3 minute rounds. if there were rules, i had no idea what they were, and though i abhor violence in all its forms, i found myself getting excited when things turned ugly, and thinking evil thoughts like 'kick him again' or 'hit him harder'. it was an interesting night.

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the great paradox of muay thai is this:

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whilst you wouldn't want to meet any one of those boys in a dark alley, you'd want to meet every single one of those boys in a dark alley.

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let's all assume lotus position and ponder that until next time.

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love live his majesty king bhumibol rama IX!

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pics (i took no pictures in thailand)

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1 - ondrej in front of the world's largest bronze statue of a seated mcbuddha, hong kong.

2 - shaolin monks perform kung fu at po lin monastery. more on that later.

3 - thought it couldn't get any more tacky? an enormous display of hello kitty weds dear daniel at central station, hong kong. alright - i loved it too.

5 - his majesty king bhumibol rama IX - a monarch you can't help but worship.