All posts by gregwhiteshark

Greg is a freelance photographer based in Seattle Washington.
Southeast Asia, Vietnam

Dalat

1 Comment





Hello family and friends.

I am sitting in a restaurant in central Viet Nam. I’ve been on the road for just over a month now. I’ve had some great times, and I’ve had times like these, when it’s been days since I’ve really talked to someone who doesn’t want me to buy something. Here in Dalat, it seems like every moto driver wants to take you on a tour of central Vietnam on their motorbike. It actually sounds pretty good. You go to waterfalls and lakes and villages and see a silk factory and longhouses and rice paper making, and so on and so forth. The trouble is that they want about 50 bucks per day, and the trips are from 3 to 5 to 20 days long. My budget for asia is “supposed” to be 15 bucks a day, in reality, it’s been over 30. The trip would be cheaper if I was sharing the cost of my room, but not much. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll do it. I’ll see plenty of indigenous people in Laos and Myanmar. Besides, Vietnam is really most interesting when you are meeting the Vietnamese, not visiting toursty waterfalls, and semi-“authentic” minority people’s villages. In case I haven’t mentioned it to everyone, I bought a cell phone in Saigon, and it was surprisingly expensive. But now I have a cell phone in case anyone wants to call or better yet, TEXT message me, because I don’t have voicemail on it. You can text me and tell me when to call you or vice versa…I have an internet phone I can call from when I am online and it’s very cheap for me. However, right now I am having problems with it. My account has been blocked for some reason. I am trying to figure out why. However, I think you can still leave me voicemail at my skype number, which is a Seattle number: 1-425-296-2591.

My Vietnam cell phone number is: 084 (vietnam country code, might only need to dial 84, not sure) + 090-836-3560

I’m also not sure text messaging service is international, but it seems to work from local Vietnamese I’ve met who message me nearly everyday! Just text message me and we will find out!

By the way, Saigon was absolutely great! I met some great local Saigonese, we went out for dinners, bowling, ice cream… really fun. The city has a great energy and made me a little bit crazy…but in a good way. I will definitely go back to Saigon. It’s my favorite city in Asia so far. I will post a blog about my time there later, because I’m STILL processing the experience.

Cambodia, Southeast Asia

Phnom Penh






After sadly leaving Sihanoukville, I headed up to Phnom Penh for what I’d been told was a totally crazy place. It didn’t disappoint. Stepping off the bus, you are surrounded by touts wanting to take you to their hotel. Be sure to have a place in mind before you step off the bus, and stick to it. They will tell you all kinds of lies so that you’ll go to their hotel. Oh that place is closed, it’s flooded, it’s very dirty, very expensive, very far away, etc. I paid a buck to be taken about a mile down the road to the lakeside where there are several super cheap places to stay. I was told that they were all flooded because the lake was flooding from all the rain. I was actually surprised to find that they weren’t entirely lying. My guesthouse had piles of bricks and wood planks set up on the flooded areas, but you still ended up stepping in water. Shoes are left at the waterline. Several rooms were flooded, but mine was a few steps up, so it was fine. I actually saw a few fish and lake snails attached to some of the doors. The lake is beautiful and it’s hard to believe that you are in the middle of the capital of Cambodia. It had a nice laid back feel. Several Cambodian men just hang out there all day, hoping to make a little money from tourists by giving them rides, selling them pot, whatever you want. However, they are very blasé about it. If you want something, just ask, but they don’t hassle you. It’s actually very refreshing. The traffic at first glance looks completely insane. People are driving the wrong way down the street, there are people pushing carts and towing huge stacks of baskets plus 2 passengers on a single motorbike. Traffic signals are merely “suggestions” to stop or go. I really don’t like getting hassled from drivers whenever I step outside, so I decided to get my own wheels, I also decided to do it because I thought it would be a little crazy. It was a great time! The rules of the road are easy: Don’t hit anything, and anything bigger than you has right of way. To turn left on a two-way street, you actually head over into the oncoming traffic well before your turn and get to the side of the road, then you just hug the left turn corner and maneuver your way back into the proper flow of traffic. It’s surprisingly efficient and easy to learn. However, seeing hundreds of scooters coming straight at you can be a little unnerving at first. I drove around Phnom Penh for two days and never had even a close call. One of the places that really affected me was visiting the former Khmer Rouge torture site, To lung Sleng. It was a former school before the KR converted it into a horrific prison. Reading about Pol Pot and the KR, I have been staggered by the brutality and sheer numbers of people killed. Nearly half of all people living in the cities were killed. Every single Vietnamese person who didn’t escape was killed. Something like a quarter of the population was killed. Insanity. The photos of the prisoners at the site are very moving. The fear and sadness in their eyes. Some of them show signs of brutal beatings. There are also relics of the torture devices, and the leg irons that were used to chain the prisoners to a long iron bar where they slept side by side on the concrete floor. Death was preferable to staying alive there. The KR took measures to prevent people from killing themselves, like barb-wiring the balconies so nobody would jump over. On the lighter side of Phnom Penh, I met a local guy who rode with me to a disco where we danced and drank expensive beers. When we left the bar later, the streets were completely flooded from a downpour. I drove home in what seems more like a river than a street. Several times I was certain that my scooter was going to stall out in the deep water, but I found my way home – completely soaked and exhilarated by the insanity of it. I’d definitely go back to Phnom Penh and Cambodia. I found the people very warm, fun, and genuinely kind. Leaving the laid-back feel of Cambodia for the crazy hustle and bustle of Vietnam was actually culture-shock. The two countries are VERY different.

Cambodia, Personal, Travel

Irene

I met my neighbor next to my bungalow in Sihanoukville and she is terrific.
Her name is Irene, and she is 24, Italian, and beautiful. I know what your thinking, but nothing happened, so don’t get excited. She was at the end of her trip, and I am at the beginning, but we got to be friends and enjoyed several days of beach time, waterfalls, markets, dancing, dinners, and getting stoned. She had only been in town a few days longer than me, but she had friends all over town. She makes friends very easily because she has such an open and social spirit. It was very good being with her, because I learned a lot about how to really engage life and share that with the people I meet, live each day to the fullest, and how keeping a smile on your face can really open the doors wherever you go. She told everyone that she had a boyfriend and she wore a wedding ring, but that was all forshow. If you saw her, you would understand. She didn’t want to be hassled by every guy who met her. Ididn’t hassle her, and I think she really appreciated that. Instead, I got to just spend lots of time with her and it was fantastic. I really needed a good traveling companion and I found the perfect one in Irene. My only worry is that I am now spoiled by her. She was such a good time, everyone else I meet won’t live up to the fun I had so early in my trip with her. I’m sure I will met more wonderful people, but there’s always something unforgettable about those first great memories of a trip. The first time I came to SE Asia, when I went to Indonesia over 11 years ago, it was such an unforgettable first impression. I still remember very clearly every person I met those first few weeks on the road. That first time buzz never really comes back when you return to Asia again, but I definitely still feel a strong buzz from meeting Irene and being able to have all of this experience crammed into such a short time…I’m feeling so alive! And maybe that’s the best part of traveling, you leave a bit of yourself with others, and you take a bit of them with you. I have finally gotten a decent night’s sleep. I was up until 3 am talking and laughing with 2 Tazmanian mechanics who just got into town after touring Viet Nam for 3 months. They were really great totalk to last night, and we sat down by the lake and watched these big clumps of floating plants move around the lake like they had brains. It was very “invasion of the body snatchers”. They plants will come and crowd around the water-level veranda where we were sitting and you got the feeling that they were coming to grab us with their root-tenticles and pull us into the water to eat us before moving on. The ever abundant local smoke always helps with such imaginings. Ok, time to get out of my room and join the living. I’m going out to eat breakfast and take a look at this city with it’s “wild west” reputation.

Greg



10/27/05

Personal, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Travel

Koh Chang

I am on the island of Koh Chang off the Eastern coast of Thailand. This island is the second largest in Thailand and holds some of the last untouched jungle in all of SE Asia. The beaches on the Western side of the island are slowly being built up. The old hippy bungalows are being razed and are being replaced by enormous 50+ room hotels. This backpacker’s getaway is slowly disappearing. So if you want to see it, see it soon. I am staying at a lovely little set of bungalows here on the beach and have met a nice couple from Chiang Mai who have befriended me and taken me out on the “town” for the last two nights. The “town” consists of a single packed bar and several dozen completely empty ones. Let me just say that every single western man who arrived here without a girlfriend and perhaps several who did, has a Thai girlfriend here on Koh Chang. Everyone except me that is. Let me give the example of my bungalow neighbors: To my right is the 50-something man with his 40-something Thai woman, her 4 kids are staying across from me in a separate bungalow. Next to them is the short balding fat racist white guy, a real charmer, with the entourage of at least 4 Thai women he has brought along with him. Then there is Ross, the 38 year old Scottish man and has his lovely girlfriend Jum. They are staying just to the left of my place. They are the nice couple I have befriended. Ross lives and works as English school teacher in Chiang Mai, up in Northern Thailand, and so his having a Thai girlfriend is completely understandable. They are on a short holiday before heading back. He’s a great guy and I’ve had a good time getting to know him. Ross has explained the situation happening here on Koh Chang. Middle-aged male Farangs (westerners) come to Thailand looking for a good time. The good times last as long as the money does. It’s a sort of rent-a-girlfriend deal.

Thai women out-number Thai men by nearly two to one. The women do all the work while their husbands are usually at a bar getting loaded. However, the Thai women are certainly the ones in charge here. They make all of the decisions and run most of the businesses behind closed doors. There are apparently many lazy, good-for-nothing husbands who are either off having affairs or they just simply disappear one day after a few kids have come along (perhaps to the relief of the wives). So, many children in Thailand end up being raised by their grandparents while mom works all day trying to support them. Just about any farang on holiday here is clearly much richer than the average Thai. Given the kind of somewhat seedy culture that we farangs are building here, simply by coming here and spending most of our money on booze and women, it’s hard for me to not believe that most Thais either dislike us or, at best, simply tolerate our rude and tasteless ways because of our tourist dollars. But somehow Thai people remain always kinds, warm, welcoming and good-hearted.

Not to make you jealous, but I’m going to go sailing/snorkling on a catamaran all day tomorrow for 20 bucks. Then my new plan is to go to Shanikville Cambodia (another beach town) and then to Phnom Penh, which I’ve been told I CAN’T MISS if only to be astounded by the sheer insanity of it. Then I’m off to Saigon (Ho Chi Min City), Viet Nam, and then mosey on up to Hanoi before heading over to Laos… I’m seem to be doing a lovely tour of shameful US military bombing campaigns! I’ll try not to step on any landmines. That remindes me:
Please write to your senators and tell them to STOP BUSH from lifting the INTERNATIONAL BAN on landmines. Yes that’s right. Every other country in the world considers landmines barbaric and there has been an international ban to stop production of them for some time now. They kill and maim absolutely indiscriminately and there are far too many accounts of when a child or farmer gets completely blown up from a 20 year old land mine, or (on the front page of Bangkok’s paper yesterday), a young elephant and his brother get their legs maimed while helping to move timber for a logging operation near the Burmese-Thai border; landmines from WWII! Somehow, however, our lovely government sees nothing wrong with starting development on new landmines (called Spiders), even though the rest of the world has has banned them. That’s our tax money being used to make internationally banned landmines. Is it any wonder the rest of the world hates us? Thanks for giving me one more reason to apologize for my country Mr. Bush.

Sorry for the rant there.

As always, my plans are subject to changes due to whims of fancy, weather patterns, and flips of the coin.

Greg

Personal, Southeast Asia, Thailand

One Night In Bangkok


I started my big year-long trip around the world by missing my flight. Yep. I thought I was to leave at 2 in the afternoon, when actually I was supposed to leave 12 hours earlier, at 2 AM. I was put on a wait list for Wednesday. So there I was, all ready and no where to go. I had already said goobye to everyone, and so I just wanted to hide until I got on the next flight. Catherine and I had a nice “free day” of walking around downtown while she shopped for clothes for her own excursion. It was nice…. I really miss her. I am slowly adjusting to the hot humid stickiness that is Bangkok. The food is cheap and so damn good. So many great things to eat and buy and do…. So much that my brain has broken. Every thing I try to decide to do becomes this huge deal. By chosing, we deny the other choices…so it’s best not to choose. This logic allows you to do nothing…until you are forced to choose. Then the choice is usually not the best, but the only. Not a good way to live really. So, when my brain starts working again, I’ll probably choose to leave Bangkok and head down to Ko Chang…hopefully before my 38th birthday in a few days. I’m just not going to rush myself. I need time to adjust to my new life.

Personal, Travel

One Month

September 2nd,

One month and counting…

The pieces are falling into place. With Catherine’s help, I have started
packing my things up. The bookshelves are empty, my shrine is boxed up, my
various chachkis are packed away. The house is becoming zen-like in
simplicity. I love it. Ahsha is coming over in an hour to look over things
again, decide what furniture she wants out. I just cancelled my health
insurance in exchange for some different traveller’s insurance I am using,
which is remarkably cheaper.

But the big news is this: At some point today, I will supposedly have
deposited into my E-trade account, 492 shares of Eddie Bauer Holdings stock!
I’m not sure what that’s worth exactly, but you can look up the value of
EBHC online and figure it out. Right now I think it’s worth about 10,000
smackers. At long last, I will finally be repaid for the money they’ve
owed me for nearly three years. I have to say, it may have been a
blessing in disguise, for if I had simply received that money when it was
due, I probably wouldn’t have saved it to go on this trip. Many people
have asked how I am financing my trip. Well this is it. With this deposit
of 492 shares I will also receive the funds I need to travel for a year.
I had be acting on faith that I would see this money before I left on my
trip, and fortunately, it’s worked out. Perhaps it’s a lesson to be learned
about how some misfortunes can become just what we need.

Personal, Travel

Countdown 4 weeks

1 Comment

Shit shit shit. Why am I going on this trip anyway? Everyone I talk to is “so jealous” about my trip. So now I feel this obligation to have the “trip of a lifetime” just so I don’t dissapoint them. But, I don’t even know the real reasons for doing this. Sure, I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but in a very vague, general way. Now that it’s actually going to happen, I really feel like I should have more concrete reasons for picking up and leaving for a year. Ok, so let me try to figure it out:
1. Travelling educates, broadens the mind, frees one from prejudices, helps one to discover oneself, bla bla bla. Still very vague, simplistic, and perhaps naive reasons really. Some other reasons I’ve said to people, for lack of a real answer; 2. To see if I want to be a travel photographer. 3. To shoot stock images. 4. To perhaps have a show/book of my photographs when I return. What I haven’t said is that I just don’t know my real reasons. One of the unspoken reasons for going is to try to get over Robin, my girlfriend of 5 years, who dumped me last January. Is that reason enough? The other unspoken reason is that I just feel a little lost right now. I need to shake things up. My “career” as a photographer has always been a bit lackluster, to be honest. I feel a little directionless. Perhaps I need to push myself into taking better photos by going out into the world with nothing to hide behind but my camera. The other reason is that I feel like it’s now or never. I’m coming up on 38 now. I don’t have a house or kids. I haven’t had a “real job” in over a decade. If I want to take off for a year, and not have those troublesome responsibilites of mortgage, children, or job, I better do it now before I acquire any of them. Perhaps these are all just excuses. Perhaps I’ll find the real reason once I am out there. In any case, right now all I am thinking about is what I am giving up. My place, my cat, and perhaps mostly, Catherine. I miss her already and she’s not even gone yet. Why did I fall in love? It was supposed to be a simple summer romance. The only reconciliation is that she would be leaving whether I went on this trip or not. She is going off to work on a cruise ship for 6 months, perhaps longer. I would only be miserable if I stayed here. So off I go. I need to stop trying to find reasons to regret it and just GO GO GO.

Photography, Photography Lessons, Portrait

Last Photo Test


I shot a test with two models yesterday. Shari Noble did the styling and Katie Maco did the hair & make up. We shot at Jive Time Records on Pine St. It was great fun! Everyone; the models, the parents, the people at Jive Time, everyone, was so nice. God that helps. I still haven’t looked at all the photos. But here’s one…. (Click on the photo to see it bigger.)

Personal, Travel

5 Weeks and counting


The anxiety is racheting up now that the weeks until liftoff can be counted on one hand. I don’t feel so freaked out, but I’m not sleeping so well, my stomach burns when I eat, and my dentist says I’m grinding my teeth. Great. My biggest worry on this trip has nothing to do with the trip at all. I worry that something might happen to my buddy Grover. I love that cat too much. He’s 14 now, and I just wouldn’t be able to deal if he, gulp, died while I was on my trip. I hope the new subletter treats him like the little spoiled prince that he is. I should perhaps mention the subletter. Her name is Ahsha. I found her via craigslist and decided she was the one after talking to her for about 30 minutes when she came over. She seems very responsible, smart, and good with Grover. I’ll be seeing her again on the 2nd of Sept to go over more stuff. So much to do. I’ve just got to keep it together.

Personal

THE BLOG BEGINS!

I just announced to most of my friends that I am going to go on a year-long trip around the world. Now I guess I really have to do it or look like I’m chicken.

So Greg Jerrett says, “You should set up a blog, that would be cool.” And I though, yeah, that could be cool. My trip is “supposed” to start in October sometime. Anyway, I’m thinking of trying to get out of here on the first or soon thereafter. I still need to decide where I’m going a little more clearly, find an agent, get my ticket, find someone completely awesome to sub-let my place and take care of Grover, and get my shit together. Right now, with just over 2 months to go before my hopeful departure, I am still in denial that I have so much to do. I DID take the first step: I got vaccinated. Hep A, Typhoid, Tetnious, Menengitus, Malaria pills…. Cat’s made a list of Chinese herbs to take along too. So the ball is finally rolling….