Photos XX: Hairy Pothead and the Half-Cut Mince

Which is precisely what I was/did last night
I'm immensely proud of this title and just hope I haven't used it already; I went out clubbing in Siem Reap last night - woah boy, Cambodian nightclubs (where the locals go, not the tourists) are a liiiitle bit behind the times. Still, all quite proper in style if not substance, and I had a few voddy/redbulls and am still good for something this morning, despite getting back at 4am and THEN watching Big Trouble In Little China for the sake of nostalgia and for something to occupy my caffeinated mind for two hours until I could lose consciousness.

I drank considerably more straight redbulls than those with any booze in, but forgot to reign myself in on volume and quantity through sheer habit of years of clubbing, so I probably got through about a gallon of sugary, Taurine-rich over-stimulating wrongness. Once was a time I would sneer at feeling anything other than saturation from such things (and nip off to the city for something in a small paper wrapper), but this is what they call `progress` or some such thing...

I danced, I boogied, the best tune they played was that godawful `Hey Macarena` song that was popular with children and idiots 7 years ago. Yes, I did say the best tune, most of the rest of the time it was ancient Cambodia folk songs with a kettle drum overlay - in the middle of what looked like a full-on regular club with lasers and a big-ass P.A. and a little podiums and balconies crowded with young folk.
They seem to still be in that stage where couple can slow-dance in a massive huddle on the dance floor; I'm sorry, how godawfully 1962 can you get?

Needless to say I was something of a spectacle, despite the pressing bodies and lack of adequate breathing space. As anyone who knows me from clubbing and dancing, I was a danger unto myself and others, as is my exact intention
Oh and this Aussie guy we were hangin out with for the night punched the only other Westerner bloke in the club right in the face, in an argument over his (the other guy's) girlfriend.
Way to go dude

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Okay these photos are toast, as it were. I went to Angkor Wat this week, the largest religious building on Earth, and saw another dozen or so incredible temples and places. It is getting silly playing catchup with photos from the 23rd-to-last place I visited, It's kinda taking the piss, so I'm gonna skip a lot out.... leaving you lovely people with only the very finest in vicarious travel coming right up

A shtload of them need rotating, but I'm trying to just get through them so most are not labelled as such, sorry.

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Nothing strikes you more quickly and unexpectedly in India than the roads and vehicles - if only because the first that happens is probably the taxi scam, swiftly taking you on alien roads amid exotic and bizarre craft In Mumbai the latter (vehicles) are immensely colourful and act as if they are invunerable, the former (roads) incomprehensibly unfinished, with open sewers even in well-to-do suburbs and major shopping districts.
Out in the coutryside they are often strangely wonderful; this is where the great `Hinglish` slogans are seen on long-haul transport vehicles (as on the BharatGas tankers which righteously tell you to "Cook Food - Serve Love") and the sheer willful casting to the winds of all caution visible when 30 passengers crawl into/onto a tractor cab or 4X4 for a trip to the shops.

Regrettably I have none of these to show you (youve already seen the gas one) and have to cop out with the only lame shot I got of anything slightly related. I'm sorry, I will make whole families pile onto tiny scooters and ride into oncoming traffic just for you soon enough. For now there is just this, slightly overloaded lorry. I really am most terribly sorry (they do get better - no wait, come back!) :

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Woohoo Madikeri!
Right, some bits of a sort-of museum/government building complex, including old fort walls/gatehouses and replica elephants (yay!) :

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Kannur, sometime between the public beheadings and me climbing out of hotel balconies

The fact that this sign exists, in the stairwell of a posh shopping mall, says it all really:

This is just a sign in a bus station - I took it because I rather love a) the Malayalam script, which this is written in, and b) the mindset where a public bus station has a seating area fitted out with seats taken from public buses instead of crappy hard plastic chairs :

This photo from out of my hotel window in downtown Kannur at midnight is, if I say so myself, rather sweet:

This is a quiet street for any Indian City - look, autorickshaws, just like in James Bond!!! :

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Cats and birds living in harmony, would you believe:

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Mangalore

Beaches, city streets and great museums and churches (well, they look pretty) and some eagles too if I recall correctly. Let's see what we got...

This where babies pineapples come from. Cool huh?
Did you know that a pineapple bush/tree only produces one pineapple per stem in its entire life cycle? The plants usually only become bushes, produce the first pineapple on the first stalk and as soon as its harvested the whole thing is cut down.
If they are left to become trees then they grow about 5 times faster too, I believe I was told.

Actually wait, these aren't pineapples at all. They're not red enough for one thing (yes, red) and I don't even know what these are. But all that stuff about pineapples still stands:

The beach! mangalore beach was utterly deserted, one of the reasons I may ahve loved that city so much. Even though it is near a big city (11km) and a string of towns and villages abut it from the land (about half a km most of the way) it is almost totally devois of human life for several miles. Simply wonderful:

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Back in Mangalaore city, there are some photos which, despite needing rotating, hopefully still look kinda good.
Indian wiring is often impressive/terrifying:

Palm trees near another hotel seen from the roof (I have a bit of a thing about hotel rooves); I thought at the time this was framed nicely, let's see... :

Coconuts in the palm fronds:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%202/inde4143.jpg

'nother 'otel. Might look somehow nicely shot, might not:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%202/inde4142.jpg

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire nicely painted, this being one of the several cathedrals in the city and the easiet one in which to sneak photos behind the back of the guard-dog nun militia.
Slightly wishy-washy colours and the usual assortment (and some unusual, too) of Christian holy-holy depictions. The overall effect was pretty grand, and nicely different from the beaches and city streets. It seemed thoroughly tranquil as all the best cathedrals ought to, and not a single inquisitor in sight :

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Not a great shot of an eagle on a floodlight mast:

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Not a great shot of an eagle in flight:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%202/inde4133.jpg

Hopefully better shot of another cathedral and college combination complex.
c c c c c, yeah it gets cleverer every time, obviously :

A building with an interesting lack of roof, as it were:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/evilhippy/Worldwide%202/inde4130.jpg

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Another cathedral, with genuine Indian (probably Kannada not Hindi) script, just to prove I was really there :

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Another big church thing:

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You may have noticed from these 3 or 4 places that they rather do love their grey paint when it comes to Christian buildings. I can't explain it either, but it does seem slightly unimaginative. Hey-ho.

I just about got this bugger of an eagle as he was taking off. A quarter of a second later would have made a brilliant shot:

The newspapers offer some great little titbits too - this cartoon caught my eye one sunny Mangalorean morning in my posh hotel where fresh newspaper are slipped, straight from the oven, under the door each morning. It made me giggle, and highlights not only the directness of thought but also most Indian's perception (not just this newspaper's ) of the `great man`:

Hahaha! Bloody gotcha ya bastard - an eagle coming straight for me on the roof of the Poonja International Hotel, how often do you get a photo at eye level eh? :

Another bunch of skyline shots from on high:

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And that's enough for just now.

Mangalore will continue, after the break