Rio de Janeiro, the River of January.  This city is the star of Brazil, the home of the largest party on earth: Carnival, and the birthplace of Bossa Nova.  It is certainly one of the most picturesque places I've been, but that isn't to say most well maintained.  In many ways it reminds me of a lot of the Asian cities I've been in, with huge fancy malls just minutes from run down slums (called favelas here).  But it is a beautiful city in its way. 

The picture to the left is the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado mountain.  From the site you can see almost all the city stretched out around you.  The day I went there I was lucky, as just a few minutes after I left the rain started.  The rain didn't stop for eight days.  Even the locals thought this was unusual.  On the upside to that, it made the Lindy workshop that I taught here a good deal cooler than it would have been in the air-conditionerless studio space that we had for the classes.

This is my workshop gang to the right.  The swing dancers in Rio are not a huge group, but they are wonderful warm people and getting to be quite good dancers.  I managed to get a lot of good things in in the class, working with technique and really sinking into my specialty - Musicality.  I think a lot of the dancers came away with something.  It seemed like it from their dancing afterwards.  I hope it keeps up.  Unfortunately, there are not a lot of chances to do social dance in Rio and this will be a big hindrance towards their improvement here, certainly not lack of drive and passion, or lack of talent, just lack of opportunity.

Something else I've been able to do a lot of here is music.  Music is everywhere in Brazil, most of it Samba or Carioca Funk or some other local flavor music, but Santi (my host) managed to track down some really interesting opportunities.  Pictured to the left is a night at a place called the Maze, which is a Jazz bar/hostel nestled deep in one of the favelas.  On this night it was supposed to be a big jazz jam but the rain had knocked out the power, this made it hard for the electric piano and electric guitar to work, but fortunately saxophones don't need electricity so we kept on playing.  This photo was taken quite late in the night so most of the people are already gone, but despite the rain and lack of power there had been quite a lot of people there before.  The guitarist, Wolf, is from Germany but has lived here in Rio for something like nine years and put together the band there.

This one is a blues/rock band that plays in an Irish pub called Shenanigans in Ipanema.  A bit more of an upscale venue than the Maze, but fun in its own way.  I played with these guys on a few tunes, but their set seemed to be more pop rock than Rhythm and Blues, so I didn't play that much.  It was still fun, and different.  More importantly was the party that we had at the place as a lot of the local Lindy Hoppers showed up to drink and socialize. Oh yeah, and Chris Dalby too, who I met in Beijing but lives in Rio (for now).

So after more than a week of nonstop rain, the sun came out.  I finally made it to the beach, so here is a picture of the famous Ipanema beach.  As you can see, the clouds are still quite ominous, but there was sun coming from the other direction...trust me.

In Brazil they do this thing which they call "Grabbing the Crocodile" which is to stand in the surf and when a wave comes, dive into the face of the wave.  This is quite fun as the waves here have a quite turbulent break and if they catch you you get tossed around like a ragdoll for a while until the water calms.  I did this a bunch.  It was a blast. 

On Saturday the 12th I had an opportunity to accomplish one of the objectives I had for coming to Rio, and that was to visit one of the youth orchestras here.  These projects I can't call famous because it was actually really hard to track them down, but what essentially happens here is they collect and teach music to underprivileged children.  I went to one such project called Projeto Acorde and met some of the teachers and children there.  They are really fantastic people.  The kid immediately to my left is named Nathan, and he is one of the better Violin players I have met, child or adult, and he has just been playing for four years.  I hope that in the future I can come back here and spend more time with these projects as they are something that I really want to do myself in the States post-education and after I've settled back down for a while.

Now, to talk about food.  Brazilian food is terrible.  Not disgusting terrible, fried terrible.  Almost everything here is deep fried (even bananas).  I do not understand how Brazilians are not the most overweight people on the planet.  Not only is everything fried, but the portions are huge.  Santi and I order a meal for one person, and can't finish the thing between the two of us!  I never thought I'd be saying this, but can a guy get some vegetables for once?  There is a conspicuous lack of green on every plate.  I think I ate more vegetables in one day of staying with my parents in California than I have in the entire two weeks I've been in Rio.  That said, the terribly fatty over fried meat platters are fabulously tasty.  That and fruit is in abundance.  It isn't quite the "almost free" that it is in Vietnam, but it isn't too expensive (everything else is because of the terrible exchange rate) and there is a produce store on every block so it is easy to get fresh fruit, including some of my favorites: papaya, guava, and passionfruit.

I'll soon head off to Iguacu falls at the Argentinian border.  More from there...

South of the Equator

I am now south of the equator for the first time in my life.  I was up watching my plane pass the invisible line with some excitement.  I landed in Rio after being in an airport or an airplane for 31 hours, and I was very glad to get out.  My first experience with Brazil was some of the famous Brazilian kindness.  I had bought a SIM card for my phone to try and give a call to my host Santi, and find out which neighborhood his home was.  There was a message in Portuguese which I didn't understand, so I asked a woman from my flight who I knew spoke English to help me sort it out.  Apparently the credit that came with the phone was only good for phones on the same network, so I needed to get some credit to call other networks.  The woman (her name is Barbara) asked where I was going, and I told her the address, and it turned out that it was on her way and that her parents were picking her up in a few minutes and that they could give me a ride to where I was staying.  It was totally unnecessary for her to make this offer to a total stranger, but it was a stroke of good fortune for me.  So, I got a ride with Barbara and her American friend Erin, and safely arrived at Santi's house (which turns out to be in Laranjeiras neighborhood).  Santi is super welcoming and had lots of delicious fresh fruit available for my arrival.  I love fruit.  I have showered, and slept, and it is 6:30am here and I'm ready to go!

Big Update!

This will be a sort of condensed update, as it is a lot of things and a long time since I've posted.  I took the train from Kiev to Budapest.  The ride is more than 24 hours.  Fortunately there was a singular power outlet on the train, out in the hall, but no one else seemed to be interested in using it, so I had plenty of time to charge my computer to watch movies and such, so the time passed quickly.  One interesting thing about this ride is that they change the wheels of the train at the border, because the old Soviet countries used a different width track so they couldn't be invaded by train.  This is a process that takes quite some time (perhaps 6 hours) and involves them lifting the train with you still in it, and then dropping (literally) the car on the new set of wheels, which is a bit jarring at 3am.  Passport control is pretty evil too, because the only thing they do is come in at 2:30am and say one word "Passport" and hold out their hand.  You hand over your passport, and hope that you get it back after a few hours.  At least Ukraine isn't Russia.  They are a bit more understanding about people not really understanding what is going on.

 

This is Budapest. It is an old regal city.  It also is quite run down in many places.  Pictured here is the Parliament building, which is not run down, but well restored.  Not everything is so carefully managed.

Hungarian food is good.  It is "spicy" for Europe, which means that you can taste that the spice.  It still isn't spicy, no matter what they say.

Went to the dance there, it was nice.  More boogie-woogie dancers than Lindy Hop, but a few decent Lindy Hoppers. 

After the dance, I went up to the castle and stopped to hear some Balkan music on the way.  Balkan music is really cool, and one band featured these sax players that had amazing tonguing skills. 

After Budapest I went to Ljubljana in Slovenia.  This was a 9 hour train ride, with 3 transfers and not a lot of instruction from the conductors, which made it a bit chaotic as everyone was trying to figure out what to do every time the train stopped.  Fortunately, the Slovenians speak English, including the train conductors, so it really just meant stopping one and asking what the heck was going on.

I arrived at 9:45 at night and went straight to the dance they hold there Tuesday nights.  It was an outdoor dance, and the weather was perfect.  I arrived, changed out of my traveling clothes, and got to dancing, until about 2am.  It was great.  Lots of great Lindy Hoppers there in Ljubljana.

I stayed in a little apartment there provided by Suzana, a dancer, and it was fantastic.  Just perfect for me traveling in and staying a week or so.  Little kitchen, nice clean bathroom, and great markets nearby.  I ended up buying a lot of peaches from a guy from Kosovo, who didn't speak any English at all, but we got by with sign language and the fact that apparently people from Kosovo love Americans.

The dancers of Ljubljana like to visit a small bar called the Green Rabbit where they have absinthe parties.  Absinthe was a new experience for me, but it really just made my tongue numb more than anything else.  No little green fairies floating around for me.  Still, it was nice to sit and hang out with the people there.

Of course, I did the mandatory sightseeing, but Ljubljana is so small that I jokingly referred to it as the "Slovenian Capital Village."  You can walk through the whole think in about half an hour.  That being said, it is a gorgeous town, reminding me a lot of a small version of Stockholm.  Pictured here is the famous Dragon bridge, which I have to admit is one of the coolest bridges I've seen on my adventures.

I was also lucky here, as the weekend that I was here was also the weekend of a street festival featuring music and dance and a bunch of other things (including a nude model in the middle of the street, no pictures though, this is a family blog).  I saw a jazz band of old timers that was quite good, a well as a modern style big band that I think was either the police band or military band, but I am not totally sure which one.  They were very good, but in that modern style that I'm not a huge fan of.  There was also a swing-salsa battle during the event, and I have to say that the swing people kicked the salsa people's little wiggling behinds.

Soon I was off to Prague.  This was an overnight train through Austria, and this train was really, really, really nice, like a 4 star hotel.  It cost about the same too.  Private berth, washbasin in the room, power outlets, everything one could want on a train.  I got to Prague, checked into my hotel, and went for a walk.  Prague is a very nice, very touristy city.  I only had one day there, so I tried to get as much in as possible.  Of course, the most famous thing about the Czech Republic is the beer, so I tried that.

The buildings are also quite impressive, from the Charles Bridge, to the Astronomical clock, to the Gothic Palace, and many more.

One thing I really liked about Prague is the music.  There is music everywhere.  Street music, classical concerts in churches, jazz bands on the bridge, everywhere.  I will definitely go back someday to explore this facet of the city in more depth.  Hopefully with one of my instruments in tow, but now that I've started to play harmonica, carrying an instrument around is a lot more simple.


After Prague I went back to Stockholm to get my stuff, then went to London.  I don't have any pictures from there, but I did do a lot of dancing and catching up with old friends.  I taught a few classes for Simon Selmon's groups and they seemed to be well received, and caught some live acts including the swing night at the famous 100 Club, and what seemed to be "musical theater night" at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.  The last I went to with a great dancer from Australia named Candy and the people their thought we had been dancing together for years, when actually we had just met about 3 hours earlier.

London done, I got on the plane to go back to the states for the first time in some 4 years.  Now I'm back...more to come on that soon.

Extreme Kiev

So my stay in Kiev can mostly be characterized by doing some "extreme" sports. I did ATVs one day and wakeboarding another day, with Anna and Natalie. A short video here of my most successful wakeboarding experience:


I also did the requisite sightseeing, including the Botanical garden, and the building with all the animals on it pictured here.





















I also saw some interesting scenes of Kiev. Something I prefer to do while traveling is to see parts of the places that I am that aren't really listed in the guidebook. Below is one of the native creatures of Kiev, the hedgehog. I had never seen one before, but they are apparently all over the place, this one seen after the outdoor dance on Tuesday night. Also featured here is a picture of one of the statues that adorn hidden backstreets in Kiev, this one is also a Hedgehog from a famous Soviet era cartoon called "Hedgehog in the Fog."




















One thing that I need to note about Kiev. It has the highest percentage of beautiful women of any place I've seen in the world. It seems like one in five ladies walking around is just stunningly gorgeous. Of course, the problem is they mostly have that ultra serious and dour look on their faces like the world hates them and they hate it back, which detracts quite a bit from their overall attractiveness. I really prefer a smile.

Also, the food here is great. Tasty and cheap (almost China cheap). I ate a lot of "Chicken Kiev" while I was there. Also, the staple of a budget European tour: Kebab. Less than one dollar for a big wrap of chicken and veggies.

I left Kiev on the train to Budapest. This trip was a full 25 hours long, including a 6 hour stop at the Hungarian border to change the wheels out and do passport control. Apparently, during Soviet times, the USSR used different train track width from other countries, so as to prevent invasion. What that means today is they have to change the wheels on these cross-border trips. They pick up the train with big cranes, and drop (literally, it is quite jarring) the train on the new wheel base. This takes quite a long time. Fortunately, there was a single working power outlet on the train that I was on, so I was able to recharge my laptop after it ran out, so the time went by pretty quickly with watching movies and such.

Now I'm in Budapest. Off to dance in a bit...see how things go.

Lithuania

I just finished my week in Lithuania. The first thing that has to be said about Lithuania is that it is one of the most beautiful countries I've seen in my life. The landscape is simply breathtaking - green and clean, and with beautiful architecture. It is also cheap. Not Vietnam cheap, but something around China cheap. Vilnius isn't the most well cared for city on earth, especially compared to some place like Stockholm, but in a way the aging city has an appeal. There is something nice about the occasional weed growing through a sidewalk crack. It actually reminds me of home (El Cerrito).



In addition to the beauty of the place, the food is quite good as well. I was so busy shoving it in my face that I didn't take the time to take any pictures of it. Anyway, its good. You should try some.

I took a short trip outside Vilnius to a town nearby called Trakai, which is noted for its lakes and Gothic castle. Here is an example of the beautiful Lithuanian "Architecture." We took a pedal boat out on the lake surrounding this castle. The water was cool but not cold, so it was quite nice to put your feet in, and the water was quite clean too.

Afterwards, we had some meat pies that are traditional for the area and some local beer, which was "quite not bad."

Other days were much the same, relaxing and enjoying the city and the company. Did some dancing on Sunday and Monday, but the dances were always on hard cement and my knees did not like that so much.


Now I'm in Kiev, Ukraine. Check back in a few days more more info on that.

It has been about a month since I sat down and made any further record of my travels. I'm currently on a bus from Riga in Latvia to Vilnius in Lithuania. It's a 5 hour ride, and amazingly, there is internet on the bus. Technology just keeps on advancing...

First thing to update on, Herrang:

Herrang went well for the most part. I was one of the Week 3 party organizers, and it was a big job that took a lot of time and energy but it was worth it in the end. The theme was Superheroes, and I was working with Robert Klingval who is a crazy Swede, and a great guy to work with. People had been telling us for weeks that the party was going to be the best party ever, and so we had a lot to live up to, but I think that we did a great job in living up to the expectations. We had a comic book storyline going on, here is a basic summary.

Supervillians interupted a Superhero conference and captured the great Dawn Hampton, and they were using her energy to fuel a device that would put and end to good dancing forever. Superheroes had to disable the device by overloading it by dancing near it. At the end there was a showdown between the heroes and the villains featuring the one man dance with Superman (Lennart Westerlund), Invisible man (empty space), and Batman (Daniel Heedman); then little Oswald and Emi from Barcelona dancing poorly until Oswald got angry and ran offstage where Pep came in in green body paint as the Hulk and finished the dance; finally Kevin St. Laurent as Captain Swing and the rest of the Killer Dillers as the villains doing a fantastic "Aerials Battle" fight choreography; followed by the rescue of Dawn Hampton who did her Bhangra number and destroyed the device and saved dancing.

It was indeed the best party ever...

Some bad things happened though in Herrang, Isabelle and I had a falling out that is probably not recoverable from. It's a pity, but these things happen in Herrang. I'm not going to go into details, but needless to say there are multiple sides to every story.

Week 4 was Comp and Show classes with Johanna, which were a lot of fun, but hard work. Not quite as much work as 5 years ago when I did C&S the first time, but still good. One class was nothing but swingouts, and that night at the social dance I couldn't do anything but swingouts, which was kind of funny. My muscles just wanted to keep going with them.

After Herrang was over, I spent almost a week in Stockholm, then went down to Gothenburg in southwestern Sweden for the Gothenburg Lindy Exchange. It was a good event with a lot of live music. I played with the local band on the Saturday late night event, and many people said it was the best part of the event, so I'm glad to have been a part of that. I also did some DJing at the Sunday Lindy in the Park, at least until it was cut short by rain.

I returned to Stockholm, and the next day I got on the boat to Riga. It is a nice cruise ship that takes a leisurely 16 hours to cross the Baltic sea. I ran into Helena and Manuel, who are dancers who also happened to be going to Vilnius, so that was nice to have some people I know to hang out with. I also met a crazy Russian guy named Vanya who was my roommate. I should have known better than to say yes to his question, which was, of course "Do you want to drink with me?" The rest of the night is a drunken haze which involves some crazy lindy hopping to pop music with Manuel, and trying to play clarinet at 2am on the deck of the ship. Morning wasn't too bad though, except for a general lack of sleep, and that brings us up to where we are now...on the bus to Vilnius.

Jam with the Carling Band

Last night I had the pleasure of jamming with the Carling Family band, which was a great treat since they are some of the best musicians I've ever seen. It's quite tough to sit in on the early dixie style jazz that they play without some prior practice, but I think I held my own pulling down bass lines on my Bari. It's also hard to take solos when juxtaposed against such great musicians, so I felt my playing was rather pedestrian, but people have had generally good comments so I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Hope to do more while I'm here...

Herrang Week 2 (My first week)

I'm all settled in in Herrang, Sweden for the biggest dance camp in the world. I'm doing Balboa classes this week, and they are going well, and also I've been recruited for the usual crazy and random projects that go on in Herrang. The first one this year was to arrange the song L-O-V-E in 3 part harmony for the teachers to sing at the daily meetings. Did this project with a crazy dude named Chris Wells. We've got rehearsals coming up soon, we'll see how it goes.

Tonights agenda: Hot Dog eating contest!

Vietnamese Root Canal

I had a root canal done in Vietnam a few days ago.  It started as some pain in a tooth that had a root canal done about 10 years ago, and turns out to have become infected and gone bad.  So, out with the old filling, and in with the antibiotics.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to do the whole process before I left for Sweden so I have a temporary filling and a series of antibiotics to take for the next few weeks, and I need to find a dentist here to finish the job.  More to come soon.

P.S.  I'm in Herrang now.  More on that soon.

Last weekend I took a trip to Hoi An in Central Vietnam. Hoi An is a lovely old town with a lot of Chinese influence from several hundred years ago. It is also a nice beach town.

We arrived late Friday night in Danang airport and got in a Taxi and asked the driver to take us to the hotel we had reserved and paid for, Hoi An Pacific Hotel. The driver says no problem and that he knows it when we ask if he was familiar with it. Great, lets go! 45 minutes later on arrival in Hoi An, turns out he has no idea where it is. Typical asian taxi driver behavior. Anyway, a few calls later and we get the address and arrive at the hotel, which is quite nice.

Next morning, not too early, we make our way to the old town for some lunch, and then to the beach for a full day of doing absolutely nothing at all. After a trip back to the hotel for a shower and change of clothes its back to the old town for dinner. Isabelle got some shoes ordered while we waited for the food to arrive. The food, I thought, was good but Isa wasn't so impressed. In any case, here is a picture of the fare.




After dinner, we rode our borrowed bicycles around the old town to see what was about. Hoi An is filled with tailor shops and shoemakers, as it seems to be the traditional businesses for the area, specifically the old town. We also saw some sort of street show which seemed very Chinese in style to me, but was obviously being performed in Vietnamese.





The next day was back to old town for lunch, and then a stop at a traditional barber shop (I was getting pretty shaggy). This was interesting, got the full treatment including a shave with a straight razor (disposable blades though). Still, the haircut and shave wasn't the best I ever had. Isa is much better at the shaving thing than this so called professional.




After the shave it started to rain cats and dogs, so we hightailed it back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. I don't have any pictures of the hotel pool, but it was quite nice, and the water was quite warm, especially in the rain, but thunder and lightning made us decided to get out of the pool and instead take advantage of the free sauna.

At night we went for a nice dinner back in the old town, Italian food and Rose wine, and more ordered shoes.

Monday we picked up the orders then headed back to Danang for the flight back to Saigon, punctuated with a trip to visit Isabelle's aunt in Danang. Fantastic trip.

Dirty Dirty Boy

Last weekend I took a trip outside of Saigon to Binh Chau hot springs. Isabelle, Catherine, Kirsty, Daniel and I took the hydrofoil boat from Saigon early(ish) Saturday morning to Vung Tau. The boat was a rather unpleasant affair, dirty and crowded, with overbooked seats and cockroaches as fellow passengers, but we made the best of it with a game of Monopoly (on my phone). Even getting off was a chore, as they turned off the air conditioning (and therefore the fresh air source) before we were off the boat, and it was quite stifling.

Once off the boat however, the trip definitely took a turn for the better. We rented a trio of motorbikes and took off along the coast road towards our final destination. The roads here are claimed to be the "best in Vietnam" and without a lot of experiences to compare them, I'm still going to say that that is a pretty supportable claim, as the roads really were quite nice and a pleasure to ride on.


Several hours of driving later we arrived at Binh Chau hot springs, our objective for the day. First step is to soak in hot spring water for a while, but it is pumped into a bathtub/jacuzzi like thing. Next step is to smear handfuls of thick dark mud all over your body:












This you let dry, but not without taking loads of silly pictures:

After everything is dry, you jump back in the hot spring bath to "wash it all off" but it just doesn't come off and you end up finding bits of mud on you for days to come.

After this, we got back on the road to Vung Tau, but stopped in a little inn about 30 minutes back from the hot springs. We had a good meal at a restaurant on the seaside, and then back to the hotel room for a great night of drinking games and generally good times before passing out. Some of the fun here was the neighbor coming by at 9:30pm on a Saturday night telling us to be quiet because he was trying to sleep. Of course we "tried" to be quiet, but 15 beers definition of quiet is different from Vietnamese dude's definition. To be fair, he got his revenge when he was up partying with his own mates at 4am. Different strokes for different folks.

Next morning we had some breakfast then headed back to Vung Tau to return the bikes and take the boat back to Saigon. On arrival however, we discovered there were no tickets left for that day. We negotiated a taxi to take us back to Saigon instead, and it only cost a few more dollars than the boat would have. Twice as long too, but in general comfortable enough, and everyone pretty much slept the whole trip back.

All in all it was a great experience, with some wonderful friends to share it with.

Conservatory Visit

Yesterday I went to the Central Conservatory of Music in Saigon to help my friend Megan out with her music classes. She was conducting a workshop on instruments for the students at the Australian International School, and I brought some of my instruments down to show the kids, and to help explain some of the instruments. It was a really fun experience, and further evidence to me that I really like teaching about music. I got to demonstrate several of the instruments that I can play, and some (like trumpet) that I can't really play, but I can at least get a sound out of. I also helped explain things about the instruments that the local players couldn't express in English.

They also had a big grand piano there that I got to play on for a while, the bass end on a grand is so much more satisfying than on an upright.

At night, and tonight as well, I have been conducting small workshops on aerials, which is good because it gives me the opportunity to express just how important safety is when doing aerials. So many people think that they can just toss the girl around and everyone will be ok, but as I know from taking River and Robyn to the hospital in times past because some idiot guy thought they knew what they were doing, it just doesn't work that way. The classes are quite small and manageable, so only minor injuries (the usual kind for practicing aerials, bruises and bumps and the like) are happening. It is fun and a real workout, for myself included.

Dance weekend in Saigon

This weekend was a pretty full one. Saturday morning I went rock-climbing with Jerry (a swing dancer living here in HCMC). The place is a lot nicer than the places in Beijing. The equipment was actually in good condition and they actually followed through with some basic safety procedures. I haven't climbed in a long time, but I did alright with some fairly difficult climbs. At the end of the day, my climbing shoe, that I've had for 14 years, fell apart and I had to call it a day, but it was still fun.

Sinclair from Singapore was in town for the weekend, and he conducted some workshops over the weekend. I didn't attend the Saturday classes (on account of aforementioned climbing) but there was a party in the evening. It was a vintage theme party, which is right up my alley. Don't get to dress up much in this heat, but I pulled out the ole tie and suspenders for the party. I also sat in with the band at the party venue and played a few tunes on Tenor sax.

Sunday I did attend Sinclair's workshops. He taught a series of moves/techniques in tribute to Frankie Manning, including Frankie's Tranky Doo. Sinclair is a good teacher and it was good to see him teach and see his style of introducing movements. As a teacher myself, the best things I can get out of attending classes is to see other teachers methods, and see what might work for my students. I was also standing in the class as a leader (there are never enough) but also occasionally helping Sinclair demonstrate something as a follower, which is a real brain twister.

Sunday (after a nap) there was also another dance party. Danced until the very end as usual. I guess thats why I got the nickname "dancing machine" here.

Vietnamese Food

I haven't done anything really noteworthy the past few days, so in the interest of keeping in the habit of updating this, I thought I take a moment to talk about Vietnamese Food. The food here is...interesting. It mostly consists of a lot of noodles in soup and raw veggies. Most of the food sits out in the heat all day and yet I've yet to be sick from eating anything here. Perhaps our paranoia about food spoilage is just that, paranoia. Although I have been sick from eating pork in Beijing more than a few times, so I'm still going to avoid that where I can.

The food that I do eat here is quite tasty, but as my friend here Abbie put it, it is "ethereal." What this means to me is that although I can eat a giant bowl of Pho (soup noodles) and be quite full, 2 hours later I'm starving again. It actually seems to be a bit of a challenge to get a meal that lasts me the usual 6 hours between meals. Perhaps I just don't know how to ask for more hearty foods...hopefully I'll get better at the eating thing over the next 3 weeks.

On the other side of the coin, fruit juices are readily available, cheap and easy to come by, and taste absolutely delicious, so if not for my protein cravings, I could live on the fruit juices alone quite happily.

A few days back I went to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are a series of underground labyrinthine tunnels dug by the Cu Chi area communist forces in the Vietnam war (called the American war here, for somewhat obvious reasons). This is one of the reasons that the USA lost the Vietnam war, which was a bit surprising considering our own history. The VC used pretty much the same tactics to kick us out of Vietnam that we did to kick the British out of the colonies.

The hardest thing to swallow when visiting these sites is the propaganda. Sure, I know that the USA did horrible things in Vietnam, but I still can't get over the idea of people being heroes for killing other people. The Vietnamese propaganda says things like "[so and so] was a hero for killing seventy five American enemy." I always thought people were heroes for saving people, not for killing them.

I also saw the central Cao Dai temple. This is a somewhat strange modern religion that is a mix of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and a bit of Saint Worship. The religion seems to be about 80% people over the age of 80 however, so I suspect that it will either have to make a lot of changes in the next few decades to survive, or it will die out. Still, the temple was attractive (if a bit suffering from multiple personality disorder), and the music played in the service was interesting to me.

Yesterday I saw an animated movie about an Iranian woman growing up during the revolution and subsequent Iran-Iraq war. I think it was called Persepolis or something like this. It was a French film (subtitled in English thankfully). It was a nice film with an interesting perspective. I still don't really understand what is going on in Iran, as the messages coming out of there are so mixed, from ones of total barbarism (mostly against women) to what appears to be a totally modern and somewhat free society (from some of the people I have talked to, including Iranians). The news would have me believe that it is a horrible place, but most Iranians I have known have all intended to return in the near future.

Tonight...dancing I hope.

Saigon

I'm in Saigon, officially known as Ho Chi Minh City. It is the biggest city in Vietnam, and was the capital of South Vietnam back in "the day." This is the city of motorbikes. The place is just teeming with them and you use them to go everywhere. It creates a sort of low level pollution with the exhaust everywhere down low and at street level, but its not too bad away from the roadways, different from Beijing where it just gets everywhere.

Went dancing on Wednesday to the usual social dance event. Saigon Swings is a really great dance community, everyone has a lot of energy and there are a lot of really good dancers for such a young scene. People are really nice here too and I enjoy spending time with them outside of dancing as well.

Off to do some of the touristy stuff I didn't make it to last time...

Workshops & Jam Session

Saturday was a day of workshops. Turnout wasn't great, but I think that the classes went well and everyone seemed to learn something, and there were actually more leaders than followers in the classes. It meant that I had to be a follower for my own workshop, which was a bit strange, but also meant that I learned something from myself.

Saw the new Star Trek movie. It was real good. Lots of little things that made me laugh, homages to the original cast and stories, and a pretty solid cast. A last little bit of ironic humor for this Star Wars fan, is that the special effects for Star Trek were done by Lucasarts.

Sunday went out to Lunch with Sing and Chan Meng and their extended family to a vegetarian restaurant called Naive (with the little dots over the i). It was good. Hearty mushroom based fare, and I do quite like mushrooms.

Sunday was also another workshop, on musicality, this time with mostly ladies, but it seemed to go well and I think people learned from it. (Also did a private blues class that went really well, a lot of progress from beginning to end.)

Dinner was Indonesian Smashed Chicken (as recommended to me by Anna). It was good. Tasted like chicken. Not really on my list of best foods in the world though.

Sunday night I went to Harry's bar for their jazz jam session, played a few tunes with the local crowd. I was the only horn player though, so it was a bit awkward, as Baritone sax isn't really the best of melody instruments, but really is awesome as a harmony/support horn. Still, I felt pretty good about my performance, although I still prefer swing standards to more "jazzy" stuff, but bossa nova is pretty fun to play too.

Blu Jazz Big Band Bash

Last night was the launch party for Jitterbugs Swingapore's new social event at the Blu Jazz club. There was a big band there called the Jazz Nuts (I think that's what they're being called now). This is a new band made up of mostly college kids from the NTU. The band is clearly new and not really polished but has some real potential. The bandleader, Dale, is also a swing dancer.

The good: The band is young and enthusiastic. Many of the players are willing and able to improvise. It's a nearly full big band with all local players.

The bad: Intonation is a wreck, they really need to work on tuning and listening to the rest of the band. Rhythm section needs to learn how to swing, most of the grooves came out way to chunky, more like a rock feel than a swing feel. Sammy Nestico arrangements are to be avoided at all costs for dance bands.

I sat in with them in the second set, did a solo in Splanky, had a bit of trouble playing Sing, Sing, Sing in a different key than my fingers are used to, then afterwards just jammed out with most of the T-bone section to the recorded music and the dancers for another hour or two.

The event itself was a tribute to Frankie Manning, and there were a few speeches given by some of the local dancers about what Frankie meant to them. I know that he always loved to come to Singapore, that it was one of his favorite places to come in the world, because he said as much to me one year at SEA Jam as we sat outside of the dance hall on a bench talking about stuff. For me, one of the best memories of Frankie was exactly that. I like to talk to him about STUFF. Not dancing, or the Savoy, or the Big Bands, but just stuff. The weather, girls, food, etc. It was those moments that made Frankie not just a dance icon and historical figure, but a friend. I'll miss him for that even beyond the dancing. All in all it was a great tribute to a great man, and Sing did a real good job in putting it together.

After the event, a group of us went to get some food, and I was able to get one of my favorite foods to eat in Singapore: BBQ Stingray. I've never had this fish/shark/frisbee anywhere other than Singapore, but it is really tasty. Firm meat that sort of shreds itself naturally, with a nice spicy sauce. That and more lime juice. The picture isn't the stingray that I ate, but rather a picture I found on the internet, but it gives you the idea.

Singapore

I've arrived in Singapore and it is hot. Hot and humid. Not that I was expecting anything different but that is just how it is. I'm staying with Sing Lim and her family, her three kids are extremely cute and the little ones just talk non-stop. The next few days will be lots of dancing, which I'm looking forward to. It will also be eating...Singapore is perhaps even better than HK in terms of delicious foods to eat, and fresh lime juice, which is in the top 5 best drinks in the world...more on that to come later.

Nominee for Best Food in the World #1: Won Ton Mien

I'd like to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite foods in the entire world. This is something that you can only really get in Hong Kong. It isn't expensive or particularly fancy, but it is a special treat for me. The food I'm speaking of is Won Ton Noodle soup. Nowhere but Hong Kong can you get this dish with the right juiciness in the dumplings and the right texture of the noodles: a little undercooked and a bit kinky. Not only is this dish delicious, but it is also one of the most affordable meals in Hong Kong. It pretty much goes on my list of top 5 perfect foods. Not to mention that these little shops that sell Won Ton Mien also have Coca-Cola in a glass bottle, which is the 2nd best way to have Coca-Cola (the best is a soda fountain) that really completes the treat.

Evil Shrimp

Last night featured a trip to a Seafood restaurant near Temple Street in Jordon (an area in Kowloon, the part of Hong Kong attached to mainland China). Although the meal featured a vast array of seafoods, the most interesting critter on the menu is the Mantis Shrimp. This creature looks like a cross breed between a shrimp, a lobster, a praying mantis, and a demon.


Despite this somewhat horrific appearance, they taste pretty much just like lobster.

After the dinner some of the crew migrated to a place called Ned Kelly's for some Jazz and drinks. We ended up getting a few pitchers of Blackthorne cider, which is a quite dry cider, but still palatable. There was a small jazz group playing there, and the sax player was decent but the singer not so much. Still, we danced in the extremely small aisles, to the seeming delight of the band and the other patrons.

I guess that this blog is probably also going to become a food blog, as food is also one of my great loves in this world: music, dance, food.

Played a few tunes with the Stray Kats big band in HK last night ("Sunny Side of the Street", "Fever", "Alright, Ok, You Win.") as well as did some dancing. There was another guest with that band that night, a singer named Hetty from Melbourne who joined in the same three tunes that I did. She's got a nice vintage voice. Check her out at www.hettykate.com.

Today just had a good "lie in" messing with the new computer and doing some work on my Berklee assignments. Tomorrow I gotta find a place to rent a piano for a while, but there are a lot of places around the place that I'm staying that look like they have pianos for rent so I'll check them out then. Yesterday I was going to do it for a while, but they were all closed for the holidays. Hope that isn't the case tomorrow.

First stop: Hong Kong

I just got the new computer that is going to be the base for this blog about my travels around the world. Fortunately, my first stop is Hong Kong, the best place in the world to purchase electronics. So I got myself a nice little 14" laptop that still has a bit of juice, but mostly is portable (2.4kg).

Yesterday was the first full day of my adventure, and the 3rd anniversary of the Hong Kong Swing community, of which I have been a satelite part of since very early on. I taught some dance workshops in the afternoon, then after a bit of a cleanup went to the LanKwaiFang Lindy pub crawl. Free beer and dancing in the street with the HKSwings! crew. Then we moved to a restaurant/bar in Wanchai for dinner and more dancing, as well as performances scattered throughout the evening (including myself jamming on sax with the recorded music for a while).

Tonight is the Stray Kats big band performing at Grappa's. I'm going to bring my horn along and see if I can sit in.