Walking up the stairs to watch the city from atop the rock, I am now standing under a few trees in which dozens of bats are resting and fighting for space. They are so preoccupied with each other, I might be able to reach out and touch them as they glide past less than a meter away from me
Spontaneously took a trip to cockatoo island to shake out the brain after work, and saw dozens of sailboats criss-cross each other. Four boats drove basically a hashpund pattern with a maximum of 3-5 meters distance, at speed.
Currently 1932 local, and I am watching hundreds or maybe thousands of humongous #bat fly East towards the ocean. It's like a Hitchcock movie, just with bats
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
He might be encouraging us to throw the empty coconut into the river and telling us how long it takes to get to the sea, we will never know. He takes and gives back the coconut several times, making throwing motions. At the end, he takes my coconut and throws it triumphantly into the trash. The second drunk looks very unhappy. Gerry offers him his empty coconut and both fall over themselves with thanks, breaking it open to eat the coconut flesh...
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
We buy some coconuts to drink from and walk to a geocaching location. It's a nice bridge, with wide berths for sleeping in the breeze. Three local drunks/drug users are chilling in the breeze. One talks to me for 10+ minutes (no exaggeration, I timed this from photos taken before and after), explaining something in slurred Thai, seemingly unable to comprehend I don't understand Thai..
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
* Once we walk again, less than five meters away, a rat surfaces and scuttles away from one of the ~100 liter barrels filled with meat refuse, fat, and water
* Maybe six meters after that, a man is sitting there, taking chicken feet from a tub, clipping off the claws with gardening shears, and tossing the finished feet into another bucket. If you don't know, deep fried chicken feet are a delicacy in China (I don't love them. Too fatty)
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
* Motorbikes driving through the smallest footsways all the time
* Deep in the bowels of the wet market's meat choppers, a tiny bar. Sit down for coconut water with cane sugar juice (and maybe some pandang?). After some time,. realize a man, an adolescent, and a child are rolling blunts for sale. Once the work is done, the adolescent scoops up the leftovers for a hit or two with his bong
* Spare space along the railway is just filled up with banana plants and the occasional mango tree
* Train doors just open while rolling into the stop, and close some time after starting again. No warning or anything; everyone just stays away
* Those black plastic gravel/concrete tubs? They use the same plastic for low and wide fruit market stacking undercarriers and for actual rowboats. Makes sense, just never thought of it as food safe or sturdy enough to be a boat.
* Gerry (#FOSDEM staff friend) and myself are rocking this without guide; seeing guides is both reassuring and annoying
* #Train ticket for one hour ride is 10 Baht or 0.27€
* There is no train bridge. We will get out, see about catching a ferry, and board a different train
* End stop is going to be Mae Klong. So we will see the railway market fold up and spread again every time a train passes. For the first run, we see it from the train
#traveltales from #thailand
* The cab driver almost got offended when asked if all the construction workers are Thai. They are from Cambodia and Myanmar, and he made certain that was understood
* I can feel the gears shift on the diesel #train to Maha Chai and eventually Mae Kong
* The windows open fully! But you need to be careful as the trees are growing right to where the train shaves them off
* Seems to be the right train, as there are two guided groups (three tourists total)
#traveltales from #kualalumpur and #bangkok
* KL: Bad public transport and almost zero electric vehicles. Might be because a liter of gas is 0.42 € over there
* KL: Pretend-racing cars with exhausts so loud that you wake up on the 29th floor seem to be tolerated
* BKK: Having ridden #BYD cars a few times now, even their lowest models have better materials and production finish than #tesla s, to say nothing of the 3. And more buttons.
#traveltales from #kualalumpur and #bangkok
* Grab, the Uber of Asia, has so. many. papercuts. and it makes me wonder about their complete lack of UX QA, and by extension the global readiness to replace traditionally US-centric tech
* Petronas towers are absolutely *packed* with Korean influencers trying to get a photo in. It seems to be en vogue to spread your arms in all directions at once to show how much space you can take up/other photos you can ruin
#traveltales from #kualalumpur and #bangkok
* Motorbike police escorts for VIP cars do not give any fucks, they will whip in front of traffic driving one-handedly, trusting in all other cars to emergency brake
* Under-armour, a clothing brand many desperately masculinity-signalling men seem to wear, make sneakers with easily 5cm lift. I can't help but notice the similarities to SUVs and lifted pick-up trucks...
#traveltales from #kualalumpur :
* Street cleaners stop and wait to warn tourists about a snake that's on the side of a path; they stayed there for easily 30 minutes, just waiting and warning
* A street vendor sharpening his knife on a street lamp post
* Cleaner carrying and lighting _massive_ firecrackers to scare away the monkeys
* Street vendors selling bananas to feed the monkeys with (it was fun)
Back from FOSDEM in Brussels, and what an adventure it was! Tried to catch a train from Brussels-Luxembourg station to Brussels-Midi, but it was running 30 minutes late. No bother—opted for a rental bike instead. One of the perks of travelling with a backpack over a wheelie bag: you can cycle your way out of trouble! 
Then, my Eurostar got cancelled. They bumped me onto the next one, two hours later. The departure lounge was packed with FOSDEM folk, and the train itself felt like a moving afterparty—nerdy conversations galore! 
Finally made it back to the UK: Underground to Paddington, GWR to Bristol Temple Meads, and a quick bike ride home to wrap it all up. Proper FOSDEM fringe experience, really.
