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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Philosophy
Mind

One Acre Fund

Mathematics

Internet classic

Subscribe to this site's rss feed