the porous city

Hustling
In the journal I kept during my long trip through Asia, there's a hand-drawn map on the back page. The map shows some local roads, a lake, a couple waterfalls, and other local features. It was drawn by a man I met in Ratanakiri province, a remote area of north-east Cambodia mostly populated by minority tribes, not visited by many foreigners. He used to lead tourists on treks through Ratanakiri's national parks. He showed me an album of photos from past trips: young Brits swimming under waterfalls, walking under forest canopy, clowning with him for the camera, smiling, laughing. He offered to arrange for a guide for me, offered to help me rent a motorbike, smiling in a hyper-forced way, as if nothing could be less natural for him than to smile, but also as if nothing could be more important. He used to lead treks but no longer did, and he demonstrated why as he stood up and walked, painfully. He was lame in one leg, had broken it, not received proper care, and it had never really healed. He walked away from the table, poling along on one stiff leg, quickly.


last modified: 14:45:03 25-Aug-2010
in categories:Travel/Vagabond'08

Comment

name*

email

homepage

No html.

what's the second letter of your name?

This is Lukas Bergstrom's weblog. You can also find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tech
Security, a11y, Audio, MacOS, Visual, Crowdsourcing, Shopping, Collaboration, Mobile, Medical, Web, s60, barcamp, WRX, Javascript, RSS, Social, Hardware, Net, OS, PIM, Open, Wearables, Web analytics, Storage, Product Management, Data, Business, Automobile, Energy, Development, Android, AI

Other
California, Sports, Travel, San Francisco, Podcasts, Politik, L.A., NYC, Life hacks, Geography, Law, Bicycling, Activism, Quizzes, Games, Statistics, Agriculture, Clothes, Toys, Feminism, Berlin, Food & Drink, Minnesota, CrowdFlower, Housing, History, Video, Boston, Surfing, Friday, Transportation, Personal care

Music
Mailing lists, Good tracks, Business, Lyrics, Making, Musicians, L.A., Events, Reviews, Videos, House, Mixes, Shopping, Labels, History, Mp3s, Boston, Booking, Hip-hop, Streams

People
Health, Me, Working with, MOTAS, Friends, Vocations, Weblogs, Exercise, Subcultures, Languages, Life hacks, Family, Stories, Meditation, Gossip, Enemies, Buddhism, ADD, Heroes

Commerce
Management consulting, Microfinance, Web, Investing, Shopping, Macroeconomics, Real Estate, Personal finance, International Development, Personal services, Non-profit, Insurance, Marketing and CRM, IP Law, Taxes

Arts
iPad bait, Movies, Spoken Word, Events, Poetry, Sculpture, Outlets, Visual, Rhetoric, Literature, Burning Man, Comix, Animation, Humor, Desktop wallpaper bait

Design
Architecture, IA, Furniture, Type, Algorithmic, Process, Cool, User experience, Tools, Web, Presentations, Data visualization

Science
Environment, Statistics and Data, Zoology, Psychology, Cognition, Networks, Physics

Travel
Vagabond '08, Kenya, Uganda, Kingdom of Siam

Photos
Moblog, Friends, Photos I Wish I'd Taken

Philosophy
Mind

Internet classic

Mathematics

One Acre Fund

Subscribe to this site's rss feed