“Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!”

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a glorious book.

It is about humans, animals, life and spirituality. This is my favourite part:

"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy."

The Plot:

An Indian family decide to sell their magnificent zoo and move to Canada .They, and their menagerie, board the Tsimtsum, a Japanese cargo ship.

The ship sinks.

Piscine Molitor Patel is the last, and welcome addition to his family. At sixteen years old he is the sole survivor of the sunken cargo ship and has lost his brother, mother and father forever.

Well, I shouldn't say that Pi is the sole survivor.

The lifeboat bobbing on the surface of the blue Pacific also contains a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra and one 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger, Richard Parker.

Martel's novel is understated, ironic, and despite the dire circumstances of the main protagonist, completely hilarious.

Martel's surrealism carries hints of Marquez and Beckett.

The author claims that Life of Pi will make the reader believe in God.

I read this extraordinary book while travelling through Vietnam and Cambodia. Buddhism and the notion of spirituality are deeply embedded in each of these countries- in the landscape, ancient temples and of course the people. 

Life of Pi did not make me believe in God, or God in the Christian sense.

I don't understand why bad things happen. I don't understand suffering. But I have developed an understanding that there is an omnipotent entity. I don't know if this entity goes by the moniker of Jesus, Muhammad, Vishnu or Buddha.

Or I am maybe being fantastical, unrealistic and overly imaginative.

These are Diana F+ shots of Cambodia and Vietnam, taken from the lomography website.

I woke up early this morning, but I still ain't seen the sun.

Kelis - Millionaire

Where there is cheese there are rats, where ever there are rats there are cats, Where ever there are cats there are dogs. If you got the dogs you got bitches. Bitches always out to put their paws on your riches. If you got riches, you got glitches. If you got glitches in your life computer turn it off and then reboota. Now you back on. Can't just put the cap on the old bottle once you pop it that will spoil it, gone and drink it and enjoy it. Mama I'ma Millionaire.

Fifteen

Do you remember what it was like to be 15? Stashing bottles of Vodka Cruisers under your bed, and pinching Winfields from your creepy uncle? Running around in parks at night and riding bicycles on the beach?
Photographer Ilana Panich-Linsman has captured all this gooey nostalgia in his collection of images.

Bangkok Dangerous

I've had two nights in Bangkok, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm not keen to stay.
The bus from Sihanoukville took about 15 hours in total, and was a highly confusing and disorientating experience.
Although I like the area I am in on Rama 4 Road. It is heaven compared to Khao San Road, which is vortex of debauchery, neon lights and pure filth. 2,000 baht for a tattoo? Are you fuckin kidding me?
I can't really express how it feels to leave my adventure, so I'm not going to try. Cambodia and Vietnam was the best experience ever. All that is making me happy is knowing that I can do this again not one day in the distant future, but soon. I'm thinking India next time.
Here are some beautiful pictures by Jackson Eaton, an Australian self photographer.

Sihanoukville

This is Otress Beach. The quietest, most peaceful beach in Sihanoukville. I wanted to sit on this swing forever.

Life of Pi, really good book. Just about everyone I've met here has read it.

Hippie love.

Taken at Tuol Sleng prison, which was formerly a high school before being turned into a detention centre by the Khymer Rouge in 1975. The K.R. killed 1.5 million Cambodians in their aim to create an agrarian society. They rounded up people they perceived to be intellectuals or against the state and tortured them until they confessed to crimes they didn't commit. They then took them to the Killing Fields, which are not far from the prison. They were shot or clubbed to death.
Sihanoukville is a province in southern Cambodia. It was a military port for the Vietcong and after 1975, during the regime of General Lon Nol it was the service of the United States.

You don't think about what day it is or what time. You simply lie on the beach, cycle around or sit around with strangers who are now friends.

You can easily live off less than $10 a day. Everything becomes less important and you realise the things that you worried about back home don't really mean anything in the broad scheme of things. You also realise that essentially people are the same everywhere. The notion of nationality becomes irrelevant.

After travelling Vietnam and Cambodia for almost six weeks, a lot of the time alone, I have devised three salient rules for myself:

1. Never, ever make eye contact with a dog that looks like it is about to attack you. Same goes for tuk tuk drivers.

2. Smile when people stare at you instead of verbally abusing them, as you would do in Australia. If you smile, they will smile, then you talk to them and you have a new friend.

3. Under no circumstances let valuable possessions out of your sight in public places. Before I left people warned me my backpack would be cut open while I was walking down the street. This is total crap. Don't be scared of people just because they don't speak English. But NEVER leave your shit alone, even if you're the only person in 30 km radius on a deserted beach.
And another...
4. When getting off a motorbike, always get off the left hand side. If you're like me and don't know what an exhaust pipe is... you only need to know one thing, it burns like hell.

Come to Cambodia if you want to feel at peace.

Stand Up

I arrived in Phnom Penh today. My first impression was not good. Before I even got off the bus I had a swarm of tuk tuk drivers staring at me like a vulture stares at its prey. When I disembarked, I was overwhelmed by the number of men shouting at me and shoving signs in my face and trying to grab my bag. One ran up and touched my arm, yelling, "Lady, lady come with me!" A police officer hit him with a stick.

No one had come to pick me up and take me to my hostel, as promised. I told myself not to panic. I would just sit down and figure out what to do, all I needed was a few minutes to get my shit together. But they gathered around me, repeatedly shouting.

"Go away!" I yelled, "Just fuck off!" They laughed and mimicked me.

I was drowning in a swarm of leering men. I didn't have one dollar on me after paying my bill at the hostel in Siem Reap.

Holy mother of God, I thought. What the fuck am I going to do?

Then I heard a female voice behind me. I knew she was Filipino. The slight American accent. "You need help, miss?"

I looked at her and nodded.

"My friend is here. He is tuk tuk driver. We take you where you need to go. Come with me."

And I trusted her because she had a wide, honest face, and she didn't try and grab my bag.

"My name is Linny. I work with a humanitarian organisation here in Phnom Penh."

"Thankyou for helping me, I really appreciate it."

"No problem! No problem at all!"

She told me that her organisation worked with Khymer Rouge soldiers who had become social outcasts after the fall of Pol Pot.

I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for Linny. Actually I do. I would have stood up, told anyone in my way to get the fuck out of it, and made my way to hostel.

The Prodigy - Stand Up

Cambodia

When I arrived at Siem Reap International airport, it all hit home. I''m in Cambodia, alone.

But I don't think I ever want to leave this country, even though I've only been here for less than forty eight hours.

I went to Angkor Wat today and it left me speechless. I've never been that into historical ruins but this place makes you feel like you're touching history, something thousands of years in the past. It is a huge expanse of temples, which were originally all Hindu, then became Buddhist as well as the centuries went on. There are tall, stone temples that descend into the sky. Steps so steep their almost vertical. Intricate carvings of battles fought and women dancing.

One of the most beautiful places on earth.