Dhobi Ghats, Mumbai, India
Mumbai is an unrelenting and persevering city.
It drives hard to catch up to the city’s honking horns, foot traffic and bustle. However, as much as it powers through on old railway cars, this international city never seems to catch up to the modern age (read my post here). In many ways, I’m glad it hasn’t caught up. It preserves the kind of (more…)
At Hawaii Five-0 studios in downtown Honolulu, I play my lines to the casting director in a bare room. It’s one scene. I’m an assistant to two bosses (a dead one and a murder suspect) and I’m being questioned by the Five-O team. The casting director has me perform it several times, adding different direction.
Now I have two thoughts burdening my mind:
- Will I get the Hawaii Five-O part?
- What’s my decision about the Korea job?
My favorite two-letter phrase silences all tensions and neurotic chattering.
… Fuck it.
My agent messages me. She is god! Good news, the director cast me. Now I need to wait and see if I clear network approval. Network could still say No.
Okay, some of you asked to see the competition…
Still wondering what some of those alternate plans for 2012 were, twerking with that university job in Korea? Here’s my hinted confession to one of those alternate things…
Travelers all make “bucket lists”, but we don’t always know if we’ll accomplish the things on our list. They’re goals and some of them may seem like shooting for the moon. To see a ping pong sex show in Thailand, stay at an ashram in India, hike Macchu Picchu, see Cappadocia, go diving in Bora Bora,… For me it’s gone as far as moving to Korea, embracing solo travel or even traveling continuously for an extended time.
Well last year, somewhere traveling between India to Korea, nailing a role to act on the TV show, Hawaii Five-O fell into my travel bucket list.
What does Bangkok inspire for you?
For me, it’s generally floating markets, monstrously serene Buddhas, assorted hawker food carts of delectable cuisine and throngs of smiling Thai. I don’t exactly think of two-headed babies, the charred corpse of a serial murderer and a display of unusually, large human testicles!
But Bangkok surprised me yet again.
As much as I love Bangkok, I was afraid I might be getting into a traveler’s rut – when a place is no longer shiny and new. My first visit was all about sightseeing: temples, floating markets, the golden palace and elephant rides. My second and third visits, were all about medical tourism and getting amazingly cheap discounts off of dental crowns and travel shots! By my fourth time around, I was scraping the inspiration barrel. I wanted excitement of fall off-the-grid into the local, the seedy, the morbid and well,… creepy.
How far could Bangkok take me?
200 baht, 200 baht! I give you deal. Buy one drink and you see all the acts! You not get this kind price from anyone else.
This is what the skinny Thai man quoted, as he whipped out a laminated menu:
1. Pussy shoots ping-pong balls
2. Pussy blows balloons
3. Pussy writes letter
4. Pussy blows out candles
We all have this idea that Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have very stoic , temperate and reserved personalities. Afterall, walking Buddha’s Middle Path (of compassion), doesn’t exactly lend itself to the appearance of being excitable, emotional or argumentative. Yet, monks have their moments and in their monk clan, they reveal themselves to be absolutely human when it comes to “the art of debate”!
Full Story »Who are we seeing? I asked
The Karmapa.
My party of yogi friends chimed in.
Who?
The name didn’t stir recognition for me.
His gaze was intense for such a young-looking face.
Piercing. Penetrating, as if he could see right into you…
Full Story »
Travel Bucket List 2012: Booking a role on Hawaii Five-O (Part II)
8 ways I stay warm during winter in Korea
My narrow escape from Bangkok's Ping-pong sex show scams
Getting my hair done at the Korean beauty salon
10 funny quirks you didn't know about Koreans
Cambodia: Which of these Fear Factor foods would you eat?
8 Places to Make you Fall in Love with Seoul
Long-term solo travel and three mistakes I wish I avoided
Are you a street-smart traveler or just travel-jaded?
Atrocities of Tourism: 6 annoying habits of tourists
Surviving a university job interview in Korea
