ThisIsVlad

my month and a half long trip to SE asia was a crazy adventure filled w/ all sorts of risky moments. riding scooters through impossible terrain, going out to a cambodian shooting range, etc etc. like i wrote previously in my journal, pretty soon you start really feeling invincible over there. always in my head, whenever i’d go some place or try something new, i’d think “what’s the worst that could happen?”. well, apparently, sometimes the worst can and does happen.

today my friend forwarded me an email from someone currently traveling in Laos. 3 days ago a group of anti-government rebels shot up a bus that was traveling near vang vieng. about 10 people were killed, including 2 frenchmen who happened to just be biking by at the moment. how scary is that??? i was *just there*. only like 10 days ago. this attack could have happened just a little earlier and i could have been the one caught in the crossfire. it’s so freaky to think about.

all these unstable countries out there…. and sure it seems like this big fun adventure to go out and explore them…. like you can just go out there and be “roughing it” without any reprecussions… and then come back and think to yourself “wow, i just survived going to Laos, isnt that wild!”… but every once in a while, someone slips though the cracks, and it becomes very evident that these countries are *not* disneyland funparks… and there are people out there that mean serious business.

*sigh*

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/02/06/laos.attack.reut/index.html

-vlad

this has been the worst weekend ever. i’ve been insanely sick for the last 2 days. friday afternoon i was taking a nap and woke up suddenly because i was basically shivering uncontrollably. i was *so* cold. so i ask my roommates and they tell me that it isnt cold in the house at all, in fact if anything, it’s hot. so i pile on tons of layers and hellza blankets, but i’m still freezing and shuddering.

hours later, all of a sudden, i’m burning up. everything is so *hot*. i have to shed blankets and layers just to be able to breathe. and that’s how i spent the next two days. sleeping the whole way through, except to wake up once an hour to either shed or pile on layers and blankets depending on whether i was freezing cold or burning hot.

what a fucking nightmare.

-v

here is the last (4th) set of photos from my trip.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290706277

-v

… cause the ride is a bit too insane now.

adjusting has been weird. i can’t quite put my finger on it… but something is definitely just not right. it feels strange to be home. and not just in a “awwww man, it sucks to be at work again” way… but more in a listless, lethargic, and unhappy way. you know the feeling you sometimes get after E, where the world just doesnt seem right anymore, and there’s nothing in particular bothering you, but at the same time nothing is good?

i guess that’s kind of what i’ve been feeling like for the last few days. then, today, i was talking to someone who i’ve been really close to for hellza years and found out some totally insane news that shocked me beyond belief. i wont post about it here, but let’s just say, that the rest of my day has been spent in a weird haze. i just dont know how to react, think, or feel about it. coming back has been surreal enough and now all of a sudden something fully unpredictable has occurred and everything seems even more unbelievable and unreal.

life is so…. confusing.

-v

here’s the 3rd set of photos from my trip. there’s one or two more sets left after this.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290718355

-vlad

here are more photos:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290724985

-v

in SE asia they have a saying “same same but different”. in fact one of the guesthouses in cambodia even was named that. i think that pretty much summarized today. i got up and all of a sudden was thrown into the same routine that i had faced day in and day out before i left. everything was falling back in it’s place. ugh. no more daily fun for me.

but then in certain ways things were just a bit off. a bit different and because of that everything seemed kinda weird to me. see, my company moved while i was gone to a new shiny 20 story office building. i drove to work as i always do *but* got off two exits earlier. i saw all the same people at work *but* some people had quit and were missing from the picture. i went to mexican food for lunch *but* it was baja fresh instead of unamas. all of these changes were slight and totally tiny yet for some reason they all made me feel a little on edge. i hated the daily routine, but it was even weirder that the routine was still there but not the same i guess.

back before i left, when i still worked in redwood city, i would eat lunch at unamas all the time and the cashier was this chick connie who was always really nice. now i’m working in foster city and drove to baja fresh to get food since it’s closer. on the way there, the jetlag hit me really hard and i walked into the restaurant feeling super sleepy and dazed and walked up… and gave connie my order. huh??! all of a sudden i felt totally confused. where the hell was i? did i come to the right place? was this even happening? am i dreaming? why does nothing make sense? it’s really hard for me to put it into words just what i felt right there. like something was terribly wrong. like i must be totally mistaken. like my sanity wasn’t right, or there was a glitch in the matrix. i dont know why, all of this flooded over me.

of course, the explanation was super mundane. connie used to work in redwood city, and now she works here. nothing bizarre about it. *sigh*. i need more sleep.

so i’m finally posting photos from the trip. i’ve got tons. about 500 or so i think and they’re all at a fairly high resolution so it may take me a while to upload them all. so i’ll probly do like a hundred at a time.

i decided to use sony imagestation for the photos, because not only can you view the small preview version of each photo, but if you click on it, you can also see the full high-res version. also it’s cool cause people can comment on the photos as well. of course, like most photo services, you have to sign up (for free). the link to the first batch of photos is:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290734057

-vlad

i got back yesterday morning and it was so very weird to be back. everything here in SF looks familiar and yet so unfamiliar at the same time. i feel like i’ve been away for years, yet not really much has changed around here. it was definitely really good to see everyone again. the first thing i had to do when i got back was to get a burrito from pancho villa. i had been craving burritos for sooo long and it was great to finally have one… especially one that was so good.

erica organized a party to celebrate my return and also to celebrate sharon’s b-day and it was a blast. it was so much fun to be able to party w/ everyone again. as the night went on, and people got more and more drunk, i put on some cd’s of music i brought from thailand. the 2 cds’s i had were las ketchup (the ketchup song) and a thai cd that had 2 tracks on it that i had heard about a million times in thailand. it was only 3 tracks altogether, but i just played them over and over in my room and soon everyone was in my room dancing and rocking out. it was so funny! i had totally expected people to think the music was too cheezy or lame or whatever, but people were psyched. also, i guess the ketchup song goes along w/ some kind of funny dance and tom knew it, so soon enough he had taught a bunch of people to do the dance and was just hilarious to see my room full of people doing it.
there’s a link to a video of the dance on this page: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/18/earlyshow/leisure/music/main526093.shtml
it was great… the songs for me totally brought back the excitement of thailand and it was cool to be able to share that w/ others. people ended up staying pretty late and i didnt go to bed till about 5:30am… and by then somehow out of the 12 bottles of rum i brought back from thailand, only 4 were left.

today i spent the day hanging out w/ joey, sharon, chearon, and jordie. got some indian food, checked out joey’s new place, and watched some movies. such a small world. i cant believe that joey, rob, and catherine all live just 3 blocks from me now. how cool.

right now i’m feeling really tired. not looking forward to work tomorrow. but… it’s been a really nice, fun, and relaxing weekend. honestly i thought my first weekend back would have been a lot worse and harder to deal w/, but i ended up really enjoying it. i guess i’m just lucky to have the friends that i have…

-v