Dance of the Dragon
This movie is great. For a drinking game.
Every time Korean heart-throb Jang Hyuk looks bewildered or MediaCorp actress Fann Wong looks pained, take a swig and you’ll be happily oblivious in no time.
The plot, for want of a better word, has Jang playing a poor Korean factory worker, Tae, who has always dreamed of dancing. One day, out of the blue, he receives a letter for a last-chance audition at a Singapore dance school.
Come again? This is such a random development that no one even attempts to give an explanation for it.
His transition from rural Korea to ostensibly modern-day Singapore is also made as jarring as possible as the language of the movie suddenly lurches from Korean to English.
The school that accepts international students is a rinky-dink set-up which is located, along with much of the action, in a time-warp section of Chinatown. Any moment now a rickshaw could trundle by and you would not be surprised.
The audition is a joke. Jang looks bewildered and Fann, as dance teacher Emi,looks pained. Glug glug.
To add to the fun, Emi has a psycho creep of a boyfriend, which partly accounts for her constant state of anguish.
Boyfriend Cheng (Jason Scott Lee) challenges Tae to a duel as he does not like the fact that Tae is dancing with his girl.
Tae points out, not unreasonably, that he’s a dancer, not a fighter. But he gamely picks up some form of Shaolin martial arts from a DVD, and then proceeds to what can only be described as a pose-off with Cheng.
And then there’s the finale, a dance competition which Tae and Emi take part in, even though they don’t ever seem to practise together.
Where would Tae find the time given that he’s busy washing cars to make ends meet and otherwise preoccupied with the letdown of a showdown?
If this film, co-directed by Australians John Radel and Max Mannix, were a turkey served at Christmas, the leftovers would last till Easter.
All right, maybe that’s quite a stretch, but hey, you’re already drunk.
(ST)

Mayday [Down To Earth] Singapore Concert 2008
Singapore Indoor Stadium



Being brought back down to earth has never been more uplifting.
Less than a year after their last concert here, Taiwanese rock band Mayday once again proved why they are one of the top live acts around.
They thrilled the full-house crowd of almost 10,000 with unflagging energy and enthusiasm over a three-hour plus show which surged from highlight to highlight.
The drama began with a music video that came alive as stuntmen rappelled into the crowd and then the lads appeared, all dressed in white, in a literal deus ex machina as they were slowly lowered onto the stage.
And then they were off, guitars blazing, with Going Crazy, Perfume, Call Me No. 1 and Born To Love, pumping up the crowd with a series of rock-out numbers.
Such was the momentum that lead vocalist Ashin greeted the crowd only eight songs into the concert. He then took the spotlight as he sang There Is An Absolute In Life backed by keyboards, his earnest delivery at once expansive and intimate.
The much-touted 360-degree stage design was a great idea because it placed the band right in the middle of their adoring fans. The sky bridge, when lowered from the ceiling, along with the extended catwalks off the two ends of the main stage, formed the outline of a rectangle.
Cheers rang out as Ashin, guitarists Stone and Monster, bassist Masa and drummer Guan You ran along the catwalks to the sky bridge stage, brushing palms with besotted audience members along the way.
Fans also got the chance to sing Happy Birthday to Masa, who turned 31 on Friday. The band members clowned about, asking Guan You to lie down and raise the candle, drawing howls of laughter from the crowd.
Stone later provided a tender interlude as he sang Ya Ya, a song about a father’s love for his son.
Singapore was the first stop in the band’s regional tour and they worked the crowd effortlessly, getting the entire hall to bop up and down and sing along fervently.
On One Thousand Centuries, Ashin belted out: “I want to journey with you for one thousand centuries.” Backed by a 10,000 strong chorus, hyperbole turned into a simple declaration of fact.
(ST)

Fancy a helping of Steamed Buns with Onion? It’s not the latest in haute fusion cuisine but the titles of two Chinese pop songs currently simmering on the charts.
Steamed Buns is by Hong Kong indie singer-songwriter Chet Lam and is taken off his Three Kinds Of Happiness EP (2008). The retro-sounding piano ballad is paired with a music video filmed in black-and-white in an homage to silent slapstick movies.
Onion is sung by Aska Yang, the white-hot Taiwanese singer, from his album Dove (2008). In the music video, Yang is shown wrapped up in layers of white cloth like a mummy.
The title of the song, Yang Cong, is also a pun on his Chinese name Yang Zongwei and also because he’s been said to make listeners cry with his emotive singing.
Food and song though are no strangers to each other. Back in 1957, Zhang Zhongwen was singing about Char Siew Buns, from the film Sisters Three.
More recently, Lam has crooned about instant noodles, Faye Wong has rhapsodised about red beans and David Tao has waxed lyrical over kungpao chicken.
Rich pickings indeed for a thesis on food imagery in Chinese pop culture. Just hold the MSG.

Lyrical Food For Thought
Choice picks: Yang Cong (Onion)
“The onions at the bottom of the plate are like me
Forever a seasoning”
“If you are willing, layer by layer by layer, to peel apart my heart
Your nose will crinkle, you will tear”

Taste test: Songwriter Ashin from Mayday uses the metaphor of an onion to express feelings of inadequacy and inferiority as the humble vegetable is often ignored or taken for granted - always the garnish, never the main dish.
He takes it one step further by conflating the physical reaction one gets from peeling an onion to the tearful emotional response of getting to the core of the truth when the layers of defence have been peeled away.


Choice picks: Man Tou (Steamed Buns)
“I am your steamed bun, often by your side
The most considerate romanticism, the most earnest gentleness”
“The purest steamed buns have always agreed with you
They have tasted the sour, sweet, bitter and spicy times with you
And won’t let you grow thin”

Taste test: The plain steamed bun represents simple, fulfilling happiness to Chet Lam. It may not be the most exotic or exciting dish, but it is reliable comfort food.
The steamed bun can also be read as a metaphor for Lam himself. He may be a modest looker but his earnest, endearing charms as a singer-songwriter will outlast the flash and sizzle of here-today gone-tomorrow boybands.
(ST)

David Tao 2008
Singapore Indoor Stadium

It was a fitting concert to cap a 14-year detour, which was how Taiwan-based David Tao described his foray into music.
The singer, and aspiring director, entertained the 7,000-strong crowd over three hours with a well-thought-out show packed with little surprises throughout.
The boyish-looking 38-year-old emerged on stage in a burst of burgundy. He was decked out in a spiffy ensemble of vest and slacks paired with a polka-dotted shirt and tie.
An early highlight was Close To You (Tian Tian) as Tao strummed the acoustic guitar and caressed the lyrics with a lightly slurred delivery.
He also made good on his promise to feature new arrangements for most of his songs.
This was a gamble since the crowd could not always rely on familiar aural cues to get pumped up but the assured showman had a few tricks up his sleeve.
A thumping bassline anchored the slinky and sexy Let's Fall In Love (Tao Yan Hong Lou Meng) while a laser show complemented the aggro-rock of Ghost.
The crowd was even entertained by a Chinese pipa solo which segued into Susan Said, while Indian tabla drums and a belly dancer served as the introduction for Marry Me Today.
While his reinterpretations of old favourites can be a hit-or-miss affair, his sassy, show-stopping version of Moon Over My Heart saw him scatting and swooping all over the keyboard accompaniment.
But Tao also knew when to leave well enough alone. Regular Friends was backed by a pair of acoustic guitars and the crowd gave a roar of approval when the first few notes were plucked.
The entertainer bantered in a teasing manner with his fans in English and Mandarin and struck up an easy rapport with them.
He cheekily noted that Singapore was a fine city, but since 'they can't fine you all', he had the hall cheerfully yelling out Wang Ba Dan (Bastard) for his track of the same name.
The crooner had previously said that the applause he received here was the shortest of all the cities he performed in, but 'I feel something is different in the air tonight'.
And he later added, in all earnestness: 'I'm seriously considering moving to Singapore.'
Now that's a detour that fans here definitely approve of.
(ST)

My Life As A Traitor
By Zarah Ghahramani with Robert Hillman
Bloomsbury/Paperback/250 pages/$33.95 without GST/Major bookstores

The title is provocative but it is not a gimmick. As far as the ruling Islamic clerics in Iran were concerned, Zarah Ghahramani was a traitor.
The Tehran University student made a speech on reform in school, attended political meetings and took part in protests.
As a result, in 2001, she was grabbed on the street and taken to Evin prison, which is notorious for its political prisoners’ wing.
Ghahramani, who was 20 when that happened, gives an unflinching account of the interrogations and beatings which followed and concludes that pain will break everyone.
This is not a tale of unwavering strength and resistance to torture. Yet it is a tale of courage. The courage it takes to lay bare one’s fears and frailties in the face of physical and mental punishment.
Interspersed with these harrowing episodes are her memories of growing up in a privileged household against the changing political backdrop, her passion for the Farsi language and falling in love.
“Young women in vestments that reach from the crown of their heads to their toes fall in love in the same way, by the same process, roused by the same emotions, as young women all over the world,” she writes.
If the Iran on television and in newspaper reports seems foreign and unknowable, books such as Persepolis, Reading Lolita In Tehran and My Life As A Traitor illuminate the country and her people, one story at a time.

If you like this, read: Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler (2006, $25.51 with GST, Books Kinokuniya).
This novel offers a glimpse of another repressive regime as it is set in 1938 in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist purges.
(ST)

Wu Bai & China Blue Asia Tour 2008
Suntec City Convention Hall 6

Rocker Wu Bai showed little sign of giving up his crown as King of Live Music during his three-hour concert.
The 40-year-old Taiwanese singer now sports well-coiffed hair and is fuller in the face but he could still pull out the stops on his hard-luck tales of life and love such as Wanderer’s Love Song and The End Of Love from a repertoire that spans more than 10 albums.
Having last performed here in September 2006 when he shared billing with Taiwanese singer Chang Chen-yueh, this time he thrilled the crowd of over 4,000 with his rapturous guitar-playing and intense delivery.
Emerging on stage with a black jacket thrown over a white graphic T-shirt and black pants – his dramatic eye make-up obviously inspired by glam rockers Kiss – he got right down to business with Innocent Years from his last studio album.
He then reclaimed Yellow Moon, which he wrote for popster Tarcy Su, for himself.
It wasn’t till a couple more numbers into his show that he greeted the audience. Clearly, he preferred to let his songs do the talking.
Still, beneath the cool, taciturn exterior was someone who could be playful as well and fans got to see this side of him in the dance segment.
Backed by four female dancers in cropped tops and hot pants, he showed off his moves on four tracks, including Flower.
During the second encore, he had everyone in the hall on their feet as they took part in a mass dance led by him and his game band China Blue.
Fans also got to see their idol’s artistic side as his photographic works, comprising poetic and almost abstract images, were flashed on stage to the accompaniment of keyboards and violin.
But the familiar Wu Bai was the one they loved best and Hokkien tracks such as Lonely Tree, Lonely Bird, No. 1 In The World and One Half proved to be crowd-pleasers.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of Wu Bai & China Blue and their long experience in performing together showed in the tight-knit playing.
The set ended on a high note as Wu and the gang gave a spirited rendition of the aptly titled Again, Meet Again in an impressive shower of confetti.
Carried along by the energy, Wu asked for the lights to come on, and stay on, so that he could see the crowd.
After the Flower mass dance, he quipped: “It’s ended, why are you still here? I’ve sung for such a long time, go home, go home.”
Then, for good measure, he sent his fans reeling into the night with the propulsive You’re Drunk, My Dear, high from the invigorating blast of rock ’n’ roll.
(ST)

Jeff Chang & Symphony Orchestra 2008
Singapore Expo’s Max Pavilion/Last Saturday


It began like any other classical music concert. The members of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Orchestra tuned their instruments and then the conductor strode onto the stage.
But this was Taiwanese crooner Jeff Chang’s show and he soon emerged in a black suit over a black ruffled shirt with bling added for effect.
He also sported an anachronistic asymmetrical haircut that harked back to Boy George in the early 1980s – wavy strands which cascaded down one side of his face.
Then there was the stage itself – awash in dark red drapes, with chandeliers hanging in the centre, and three screens made to look like framed pictures in a museum.
What followed was not your typical Chinese pop concert.
As Chang delivered his love ballads, masterpieces from canonical Western art were shown, from Botticelli’s The Birth Of Venus down to Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
Still, all of the staging and production would have been for nought if Chang had not delivered as a singer.
And deliver he did as the prince of love ballads dug into his big bag of hits and pulled out one familiar favourite after another, including Don’t Worry About My Sadness and Love Tide.
Apart from a moment or two of strain, he showed excellent control over his pristine tenor pipes over the 21/2-hour show.
His heyday might have been in the 1990s but he still has his fans. The 7,000 capacity crowd comprised those in their 20s and 30s.
He walked up and down the length of the stage and waved to the audience from time to time, but otherwise, he was not much of a mover and shaker.
But he had a cheeky side which occasionally emerged in his banter.
When some fans shouted: “Ah Zhe, you’re so handsome,” he responded immediately: “What took you guys so long? I’ve been waiting all this time for a compliment.”
When the crowd finally got fired up during the call for an encore, a bemused Chang quipped: “Why is everyone so high after the concert has ended?”
He might not have the most electrifying stage presence and he might not have the slick dance moves, but he nevertheless fashioned an entertaining show from the unlikely combination of Chinese pop and high art.
There was even a snatch of Chinese opera incorporated into his new song Peony Care.
You could also read the presentation as Chang making a case for his songs as art. Before each number, the title was displayed and the composer and lyricist duly credited.
You might not agree, but there’s no denying that the crooner has accumulated an impressive body of well-loved classics over two decades. And that’s no small achievement.
(ST)

The Bird and the Bee
Esplanade Theatre Studio
Wednesday

The pairing of the bird and the bee suggests a flight of fancy and whimsy, and at their best, Southern Californian popsters Inara George and Greg Kurstin put together playful music with an appealing pop sensibility lightly dusted with the sophistication of jazz.
The cosy theatre studio was the intimate setting for their highly anticipated show, the first Mosaic event to sell out when ticket sales were launched.
It attracted a full house standing crowd of about 300, comprising hipsters and young working professionals.
George’s slightly husky pipes were shown off to good effect on the opening track Spark. And live, her breathy vocals on the higher registers sounded more substantial.
While her light-as-air stylings worked on tracks like Again & Again and Polite Dance Song, it can seem like mere pretty posturing on something like I’m A Broken Heart.
Also, most of the numbers were rather straightforward renditions of the versions committed to disc.
F***ing Boyfriend, the first single from The Bird And The Bee album, was one of the tracks which had a chance to breathe a little more on stage.
It would have been nice to see them have some fun with their songs. After all, that would be perfectly in keeping with the spirit of much of their material.
The duo were backed by two singers, a drummer and a guitarist. The women wore headbands, white gloves and candy-coloured shift dresses, giving off a 1960s Hairspray-era vibe which fitted in comfortably with the music.
There was not too much patter between songs though George showed off some Singlish phrases she had picked up, “Wah lau eh” and “Why you so like that”, to the appreciative crowd.
Still, the connection with the audience was only intermittent and she was content to stand in the centre of the stage for most of the show.
An unexpected highlight turned out to be the cover of the Bee Gees’ How Deep Is Your Love late in the performance. George and Kurstin managed to imbue it with a fragile beauty that was 100 per cent cheese-free.
With one full-length album and two EPs under their rather slim belt, the set ended in a little over an hour.
You could say it was a pleasant enough evening with The Bird And The Bee, but it was nothing to crow about really.
(ST)

The Believers
What one believes in is strongly tied to one’s sense of identity.
In her latest novel, Zoe Heller explores the aftermath when these core beliefs are undermined.
After her husband, a radical New York lawyer, suffers a stroke, Audrey finds out about his other life. It makes her question her own worth after having supported his work and causes over their 40-year marriage.
Her daughter Rosa, a disillusioned socialist, finds unexpected solace in Orthodox Judaism but has difficulty accepting some of the religion’s rules and rituals.
It would appear to be a Heller speciality to create flawed, even unpleasant, characters who nevertheless engage you.
Audrey is angry, potty-mouthed and prickly, while Rosa is uncompromising and combative.
But in the rigid certainty of their convictions, they have been blinkered to the larger truths in their lives and that makes them all too human.
In her previous novel, the Man Booker prize-nominated Notes On A Scandal, Heller dealt with the more incendiary topic of sexual obsession.
The subject matter might be tamer here but the heat remains – in the writing and in the fiery characters who wrestle with the big questions thrown up about religion, identity and love.

If you like this, read: Three Junes by Julia Glass
A portrait of family dynamics pieced together from events that take place over the course of three summers.
(ST)

Jay Chou World Tour 2008
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Last Friday


So this is star power.
Excitement for and expectations of Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou’s concert had reached a fever pitch. Tickets for the two sold-out shows, his first here since 2004, were going for several times their value on the Internet.
The audience was keyed up and ready. Just the sight of the red-hot entertainer on the huge screens was enough to launch waves of cheering.
Chou delivered by owning the stage that night. He was in his element and he knew it, drawing Mexican-wave-like roars from the full-house crowd of almost10,000 as he strode from one end of the stage to the other.
He brimmed with the confidence that comes with knowing that the audience would know the lyrics to his songs, even without the help of karaoke-style prompting on the screens. And they did.
It did not hurt that this was a production with a capital P. Thought had gone into every element of the show, from the costume changes to the back-up dancing.
Chou emerged for the opening number, Golden Armour, sporting a fat ponytail and dressed in a dramatic mauve, warrior-like trench coat complete with long feathers at the back.
Over the nearly three-hour-long show, he had a costume change every two to three songs. These potentially momentum-breaking pauses were smoothly handled,with arresting dance interludes or smart musical transitions.
The singer fed off the crowd’s enthusiasm and kept the energy level high throughout.
He also served up hits from his eight albums with little visual and aural twists, giving familiar favourites a fresh spin.
Thousand Miles Away, a duet with evergreen crooner Fei Yu-ching, was performed solo to the accompaniment of a coterie of male dancers in white, wielding large feathered fans.
The multi-talented showman kept the surprises coming and showed off his chops in playing the piano, the drums, the Chinese zither and even displayed his acrobatic skills.
An early highlight was the infectious song-and-dance rendition of the fast-paced The Cowboy Is Busy from his latest album, On The Run.
At the end of the number, Chou quipped: “Why get so knackered on my birthday?” His fans responded with delighted laughter.
The singer, who turned 29 on Friday, kept the banter light and humorous, asking at one point: “Today’s my birthday, will you give me a song? Not Landy Wen’s lonely version I hope.”
The entire hall answered with a bracing delivery of the traditional Happy Birthday song in Mandarin, then English, and he soaked it all up on stage.
Chou might have had to work on his birthday, but he had a ball of a time, and so did the audience.
(ST)

In Defence Of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating
Michael Pollan
How did something as fundamental as the food we eat turn into such a hopelessly muddled issue? And what we can do about it?
Professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, Michael Pollan cuts through the jargon and balderdash in this lucid and sensible tract on eating healthily.
The book is divided into three parts.
The first deals with how reductionist science has pervaded and perverted our thinking about food. We look at foods as the sum of their nutritional components and ignore the long-standing cultural relationships we have had with food.
Pollan points out that before we listened to the scientists, we used to listen to Mum, who, according to him, is the repository of our cultural knowledge of what to eat and how to eat.
In the second section, he tackles the Western diet of “lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything except fruits, vegetables and whole grains”.
The relevance here is that societies who have adopted the Western diet display “higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity” compared to those who have kept to traditional diets.
He also points his finger at the industrialisation of food. While this has brought about easy access to greater amounts of food, the trade-off was a fall in the quality of what we consume.
For example, refined flour is “nutritionally worthless, or nearly so” as the germ of the grain, which contains oils rich in nutrients, is removed to produce a “gorgeous white powder” that is both durable and portable.
In the third part, Pollan dispenses advice on how to eat healthily. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
He goes on to unpack these three statements and offers rules such as “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food” in order for one to avoid health-claim inflated, processed pseudo-foods.
While the message of the book is empowering and might persuade you to change the way you eat, perhaps the equally important lessons to be digested here are the fact that science is very much fallible and that a healthy dose of scepticism towards the prevailing orthodoxy, culinary or otherwise, never hurts.


If you like this, read: My Year Of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
A novel that digs up the dirty secrets of the American meat industry. More evidence, if needed, on why we should go green and eat more veggies.
(ST)

for D

it's not a course you take at penn
there were weightier matters there at hand
economics and finance and whatnot
spring breaks and cool gigs and foxtrot
ok fine, so there was no dance
i'm breaking away from the tyranny of the stan-za

in those halcyon days
romance teased but didn't linger
in the intervening years
there was a dim sum dalliance
still, true love took its time
and the heart yearned and hungered

but here it is
under the light
sure and certain and right
this might sound premeditated
but "the hardest to learn was the least complicated"

(from the indigo girls' least complicated)

K was well enough to head out. First stop talat sao (morning market), s sprawling ramshackle local market with rubbish strewn everywhere and vendors selling meat, vegetables, cooked food, provisions, vcds/dvds, electronics, fabric, everything but tamarind paste sweets.
Found the LP-type pouches here but the designs were not as nice and it was more expensive.
K headed off to the national museum and I took off for wat si muang to check out the city phallus (lak meuang). Still in active use, there were people presenting offerings, using divination sticks and still others sought protective strings tied around the wrist by a monk.
Then on to haw phakaew, former royal temple, 5K kip. There’s 2-tier pricing here, locals pay 2K kip. Not much in the sim beyond a collection of buddha statues with no explanatory notes.
Hide-from-heat stop at scandinavian bakery. Chocolate donut (7K kip) and mixed fruit shake (8K kip).
Went to samsenthai fried noodles for lunch. Had the special yellow fried noodles (14K kip) and ice coffee (6K kip). The noodles came with beef and veggies, tasty but oily. The coffee was ridiculously sweet. 15K kip tuk-tuk ride back to hotel.
US$5 for airport transfer and US$10 for international departure airport tax.

cause for K’s lack of appetite became apparent – food poisoning. Somehow I slept through it all and only woke up at 9 the next morning. Slept so much I even dreamt about work and landing a last-minute assignment. Ha!
Couldn’t figure out what it was that caused the upset stomach given that we’d been eating the same food. He thinks it was probably food that was not thoroughly cooked at malee lao.
The breakfast spread here is more limited. K couldn’t eat.
Set off for pha that luang, laos’ national symbol. 20K kip for the tuk-tuk, 5K kip for the entrance. K went back to the hotel after a while.
Decided to walk to patuxai, the lao version of the arc de triomphe. Passed by wat phonxai. No lonely planet entry but I liked the circle of buddha statues seated under the banyan tree.
Also came across newly-built brightly-painted ornate pavilions.
Cursing lack of shades and cap when I remembered that I was lugging around an umbrella. Ah, blessed shade!
It might be the dry cool season but the heat was scorching enough to burn one’s scalp. No wonder all the monks carry parasols.
Tickled by disdainful honesty of sign at patuxai, something about it being a monstrosity up close. Paid 3K kip to climb the structure.
The inside of the patuxai housed… souvenir shops. View from the top only showed how flat the skyline was. But I like the broad boulevards, lined mostly by 2-storey shophouses, and traffic has yet to reach the stage of a tangled snarl.
Walked to that dam (black stupa). It’s next to the US embassy so you can’t take pictures from certain angles.
Lunched at soukvimarn (http://www.laofoods.com/). Had lao-style dried wonton noodles (12K kip), complete with raw bean sprouts and lime wedges, and fish soup (20K kip), which was light and tangy and appetising. Had another mixed fruit shake (8K kip) as I hid from the fiercest of the heat.
Went to the lao national museum (10K kip). Unexpectedly informative, especially with the meeting of 2 cultures exhibit on the travels of dutch east india company trader gerard wusthof.
Timeline of the museum’s exhibits actually started with dinosaur fossils. Got interesting with prehistoric culture with helpful english translations. Section on laos under siamese rule left untranslated. Section on savage and barbaric french colonialists was.
Lost interest with the modern history and communism section.
Walked past wat mixai, bangkok-style sim with 2 nyak (guardian giants) flanking the gate.
Then wat ong teu mahawihan, I think. Namesake is a large 16th century bronze buddha at the back of the sim. A lao woman sought her fortune suing the divination sticks.
Ice coffee and éclair stop at café croissant d’or (17K kip). Pastry could be softer but the filling was quite generous.
Went back to hotel. K feeling better but still no appetite.
Went by T’s around 6.30. dropped by monument books and bought a copy of the dutch trader’s account of his visits published by white lotus (US$13) and a bracelet trinket (US$2).
After some to-ing and fro-ing between T and her friends, ended up at nang khambang for dinner. There was american Tr, taking photos of UXO victims and working with a prosthetics aid organization; american Sh, who’s been there the longest and is with UNICEF; aussie J, who’s headed back home after a year here; M and So, who works at the vientiane times covering education.
Dinner was good. Fish tom yum (less spicy compared to the thai version), chicken laap and fish laap, deep fried pork chop, deep fried quail (?), beef, sticky rice and raw veggies. Ate rice with right hand. Most excellent when dipped into condiment of freshly cut chillies and lime. Beer lao all round. Came to 40K kip a person.
Drinks after that at rooftop bar and restaurant. The dodgy one with hookers, T had previously proclaimed, and they were there all right.
Décor was cheesy, a rattan/bamboo weave covered the walls and ceiling. There were 2 pool tables and tables on which sat a 2-litre(?) container of beer.
The vodka lime came with actual lime juice, though the whole thing was watered down.
Conversation meandered into lao porn, which apparently exists.

leisurely breakfast at resort. The fried noodle with egg and peanuts was good.
Free transfer to airport at 9am. 40 min flight on lao airlines with its neon blue patterned seats. Served a bun with preserve and yummy tamarind paste sweets.
35K kip a person for taxi transfer to green park boutique hotel. Layout a little reminiscent of santi but bathroom much nicer. Free internet access a plus.
K decided to lounge by pool first so took off in search of lunch. Kua lao was closed so ended up at one of the fruit shake places across from asian pavilion hotel. Shake (6K kip) and satisfying toasted bread pockets filled with cheese, ham and pineapple (15K kip).
Oddly enough, prices here in the capital seem to be lower than in LP. Entrance to wat sisaket was merely 5K kip. Murals in the sim definitely in need of restoration though.
Bumped into K here and we went for a stroll along the river. he had a pancake with apple and honey but couldn’t eat much. Fruit shake no. 2 for me.
Met T, as arranged, at inter hotel and passed her her books and clothes.
Had drinks next to the river. The river bed was quite a sight as kids played soccer under the evening sun.
Fruit shake no. 3 and then on to dinner at french restaurant la terrasse. Shared carafe of red wine (65K kip) and had the onion soup (28K kip) which was not robust enough. The duck in cherry sauce (70K kip) was quite tasty but the meat was a little overdone.
T’s enjoying herself in laos and certainly taking the less travelled path by doing research on the mekong river commission.
She’s staying in a studio with a kitchenette (US$180/month) across from wat ong teu and is wary of novice monks and their amorous ways. Recounted her american friend’s experience with them, concluding that normal rules of behaviour with regard to monks (for women to keep a distance away etc) did not apply in that instance.

So we got up at 5am to catch the daily ritual of monks collecting alms. And you think, this is a place where rituals and traditions are still deeply rooted. It’s humbling to think you have to get up at 4 every morning just to get your sustenance for the day. And it’s a commitment on the part of the giver as well.
Is there a system of who gets to go where? Do the monks like the tourist stretch? Do they get more food now that it’s become a tourist attraction?
The procession of monks moves along at a surprisingly fast clip. Are they tired of the cameras popping flashes or are they just immune? After all, it’s the lot of a monk’s life in laos to be photographed.
Should I offer sticky rice even though I’m not a buddhist or do I intrude by taking pictures? Will go buy more souvenirs to expiate this nagging sense of guilt.
Had breakfast at santi hotel, a benefit of having the hotel and resort owned by the same person. Would be even nicer to get a day room.
It was cool enough at 6am for a zip-up and the mist lingered.
Walked down to the river front and took up deal to get to pak ou caves for 50K kip. All the way to there in a long shallow boat, clouds hung low on the landscape. Longest 1.5 hr journey cause bladder was bursting. Mercifully, a rest stop at ban xang hei (?) for local moonshine and hand-woven cloth.
Entrance to the caves cost 20K kip. The upper cave, tham phum, was dark, could hardly see anything even with a rented torch (5K kip). The lower caves tham ting were more promising but the undisputed highlight was the presence of a group of touring monks.
Lunch at saffron café – lao peanut chicken wrap (15K kip), cappuccino (17K kip) and banana bread to go (10K kip).
Went on trip to kuang si waterfalls (40K kip transport). Spent about half an hour on the minivan as it made more stops to pick up people until there were 10 in total. K had decided to go back to the resort to chill.
Reminiscent of hongxi waterfalls in guangxi. The surprise here was the colour of the water – a pale aquamarine, a lot more inviting than the mekong’s murky brown.
It may be the land of ten thousand elephants (万象) but have yet to spot any. Have glimpsed water buffalo, and at kuang si, moon bears and a tiger.
How do you improve a picture? Just add monk.
Took a pic for a group of monks, actually the same bunch from the caves in the morning, and started talking to one of them, phon. He’s becoming a monk for 7 days on the 1-year anniversary of his father’s death. He’s on holiday , showing the sights to a monk visiting from thailand(?). born in LP, he now lives and works in vientiane for the telco tigo. (the glossy hip young lifestyle telco ads seem miles away from the reality of people’s lives here.)
All men go through monkhood before marriage for at least 3-7 days.
See from the houses that quite a lot of folks still live very simply – wooden structures on stilts. Thatched with zinc roofs or dried leaves, the walls a cross hatch weave of dried leaves, with the occasional sighting of brick and concrete. As well as a rather incongruous huge-ass satellite dish outside one of these humble homes.
Between the high end option of l’elephant (french) and the low end option of street food (saw this alley offering skewers, roasted meats etc near the post office), we picked malee lao food on thanon phu vao.
Serves only bbq/steamboat combination and it made for a most satisfying meal. One order each of beef, chicken and fish. 30K kip a plate, includes egg, veg, vermicelli, black fungus, tomato. 1 bottle each of beer and water, total came to 106K kip. Most delicious broth, perhaps courtesy of msg. good whatever it was and the place was packed with locals and falang.
Took the tuk-tuk (20K kip) to the restaurant. Driver came back an hour later to take us back to the resort. Bargained to 40K kip but gave 50K kip because of the horribly bumpy last stretch of road to the resort.

K's alarm went off at 7.30 but no one stirred till past 9. quick breakfast at hotel in order to catch the 10am shuttle. santi's quote for 5.30 transport to observe monks collecting alms was US$3 a head.
went to LP or royal palace museum, 30K kip. thinking that the king and queen's bedrooms were awfully austere. more of the mosaics of japanese glass against the rich red background of the wall. including a depiction of what looked like a soldier capturing a horse spiderman-style by ejecting a net to nab the creature.
also took in wat souvanhnaphoumanom, notable for the gilded gold relief on the exteriors.
lunch at joma bakery cafe, a pleasant joint with unfinished concrete walls, green window frames and a red awning. melted sandwich on croissant (22K kip), cappuccino (13K kip), mango crumble (15K kip) with a scoop of chocolate ice-cream (6K kip). food's ok, perhaps a tad above average but a welcome change from local fare.
headed west of museum and away from mekong to the south, the so-called trading district. came across stretch of guest houses but lower end. almost walked past wat visoun with its watermelon stupa and wat aham with the 2 banyan trees.
K went off to get a red cross massage. went up phu si hill for views of LP and for that chomsi (stupa) on the summit.
had a crepe of pandan custard and banana (5K kip) and bottle of green tea with honey (5K kip). made on the spot, warm and lightly crisp.
crepe stand is at the front of a provision store which leads to the living/tv room of a home, with the kitchen and toilet beyond it.
met up with K at santi hotel. decided on pak huay mixai on ban choum khong pedestrian street for dinner. night market in the lane next to the restaurant proved to be most fruitful for souvenir shopping - richly-patterned brightly-coloured cloth, bags, pouches, cushion covers, paper umbrellas, lamp shades, coffee, tea, ethnic clothing, drawings. only 1 or 2 stalls selling fake watches and the like.
the lao people are not very confrontational so bargaining was not a pain. bought 6 pouches (the lady even threw in 2 coin pouches for free) and 2 bags of coffee powder (for the lovely bags they came in).
quite a few of the spots were manned by kids. also noticed that they would all sweep the money received from a sale around the other items still on display, for trading luck.
bumped into J and his friend R who had come up from Vientiane and Vang Vieng.
had dinner together. beer lao (light and easy to drink), LP salad (pleasant sweetish sauce), beef stew, deep fried fish with sweet sour peanut sauce (quite thai-like) and LP sausage (no big shakes). about 50K kip a person.

from the plane clouds in a lightly hazy sky hang over gridded fields of undulating green.
first time taking a budget flight and leaving from the budget terminal, which feels like a giant hangar. despite transiting through bangkok, had to go through the hassle of clearing inbound and outbound customs.
managed to get seats on the 0950 flight to luang prabang instead of the 1150 one we were on.
just enough time to wolf down pork porridge before rushing for the flight - which was delayed for an hour due to low visibility in LP.
US$5 a person to get to Villa Santi Resort, which was 5km away south of the town centre and serviced by a final stretch of unpaved bumpy road.
greeted with a refreshing lemon grass drink and happy with the traditionally, cleanly furnished room.
being away from town meant having to rely on the resort's shuttle service schedule.
lunch at goongkhum restaurant. 88K kip for two. (US$1 abt 10K kip.) tried the rice noodle soup with coconut milk with chicken. like a very mild laksa.
headed to national museum after that but it closed at 4 so will have to return. gold, gold, an abundance of gold glinting in the strong light.
definitely a laidback town. more bustling than siem reap circa 2003 with quite a few new hotels and guest houses, but bustling is probably the wrong word to associate with it.
walked along mekong river, an uninviting muddy brown. not one of more picturesque waterways around but a lifeline for landlocked laos.
came across what looked like a mobile disco with young and old grooving to the musical offerings of a young chap.
loo break at a hostel offering internet access at 100kip/min. made 2 moves on scrabulous.
made it to wat xieng thong with some gorgeous mosaic work and a rare reclining buddha that took some effort to locate.
lots of young monks around and at evening time, heard them chanting rather musically in the temples.
dinner at 3 nagas, top end for lao cuisine. 120K kip each. tried the khao kham, a local sweet red wine made from sticky rice.
had the river weed, freshly toasted and warm, jaew bawng (paste of chilli and dried buffalo skin). definitely has a kick while the skin tastes tendon-y.
stew of venison and vegetables (forgettable) and fish and pork wrapped in banana leaf and grilled. like satay, proclaims K. a more refined, tasty version i guess. and sticky rice, which was harder and less sticky than glutinous rice. still can't quite get a grip on lao cuisine.
took 9pm shuttle back to resort from villa santi hotel, which was located in the town centre itself. so ready to crash. lack of sleep and the constant travelling has led to sniffing and blocked airways.

Le Bal
By Irene Nemirovsky
The two novellas here, Le Bal and Snow In Autumn, were first published in French in 1930 and 1931 respectively, and they bear testament to the versatility and elegance of Nemirovsky’s craft.
She was a Russian-born Jew and a best-selling author in her time. When the Germans occupied France in 1940, she was prevented from publishing.
Nemirovsky was only 39 when she died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942.
There has been renewed interest in her works after the posthumous publication, more than 60 years after it was written, of Suite Francaise in 2005 to widespread acclaim.
Le Bal is a keenly observed tale of teenage frustration and vengeance, thrown into sharp relief by the prickly relations between a woman and her daughter.
It is both a chronicle of social manners in 1930s Parisian high society and a clear-eyed look at the point at which a child begins to supersede the parent.
Snow In Autumn, on the other hand, has the feel of an epic novel condensed into 50 pages.
It richly evokes Moscow in revolutionary turmoil circa the late 1910s and Paris as seen through the eyes of a well-to-do Russian family forced to flee the comforts of home.
Taken together, the two stories serve as a most promising introduction to Nemirovsky’s writing.

If you like this, read: The Essential Tales Of Chekhov
Snow In Autumn has been described as an homage to the Russian master of the short story form.
(ST)

Hot Fuzz (M18)
Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Jim Broadbent/120 minutes
This flick reunites the team behind Shaun Of The Dead (2004), the cheekily entertaining zom-romcom, or zombie romantic comedy.
Edgar Wright directs and splits writing duties with Pegg, who stars as top cop Nicholas Angel. Frost plays Danny Butterman, the bumbling sidekick.
Angel is reassigned to the quiet town of Sandford after showing up the rest of his city colleagues with his ridiculously superior police work.
But there’s more to Sandford than meets the eye and townsfolk are dropping like flies in what everyone else insists are mere accidents.
Hot Fuzz is both a loving send-up of, and homage to, macho cop flicks such as Bad Boys II (2003) and Point Break (1991).
It starts promisingly enough, but the overlong and wildly uneven film inexplicably veers into video-game shoot-’em-up territory in its final 30 minutes.
The disc comes with a number of bonus features, though most are short throwaways. There is also a commentary by Pegg and Wright, which helpfully points out Cate Blanchett in an uncredited cameo.
Someone once asked why was it that English villages in the movies were always full of quaint and quirky charm while American small towns were always seething with intrigue and conspiracies.
Well, Hot Fuzz should even the score a bit.
(ST)