Written in a peaceful morning in Siem Reap Cambodia
Checked in with an old friend today to find he’s had a rough ride, so rough in fact that he found himself sleeping rough on the streets in Croatia. His situation had got so dire that he was even considering jumping from a roof.
I knew this guy pretty well for about a year, he was my neighbour back when I lived in Chaing Mai Thailand. He was interesting, fun to hang out with, great to talk to. A real good guy. You just don’t meet many like him.
Our paths diverged about a year and a half ago when he headed back home to the United States in order to settle some personal business and I stayed to live in Thailand for a while longer. Discovering his recent misfortune is obviously moving but also alarming because it just shows how quickly our lives can take a dramatic turn.
If you’re reading this old friend, I hope you’re well. I hope your life takes a turn for the better real soon
Something has compelled me to add audio voiceovers to each of my now page entries. I think this is party because I enjoy listening more than reading these days and I wonder if others will feel the same, but also I hope it will allow me to practice writing in a more fluent and conversational style.
The audio is being recorded onto my phone, cleaned up in Audacity, and stored on on an S3 compatible bucket provided by Digital Ocean. The fancy looking spectrum analyzer is by AudioMotion.
They eat bugs here in Cambodia. Crickets, grasshoppers, ants, tarantualas, all sorts. It’s not just a tourist novelty either, locals snack on them all the time. They have carts outside schools where the kids buy them like sweets.
Somehow I’ve avoided eating such things, that is until last night. The fact that they’re bugs actually concerns me less than the fact that they’re always deep fried and I don’t like deep fried food.
So anyway, last night me and the guys from the apartment are sitting out front chatting and the Khmer lady who lives in the block presents Wayne (he’s my neighbours son who is visiting from Canada) with a big bag of fried bugs. And when it’s a gift you can’t say no so Wayne and I eat silkworm pupae. They have gooey texture and taste like pumpkin seeds. Not bad but I don’t think they’ll make it onto my regular menu any time soon.