Monkeyrockworld

My connection with Daniele started randomly over the internet when a few weeks before embarking on my Chinese teaching adventure, I was googling and researching about Punk in China. His blog “Secondo Me” was the first search result, and he was the first to tell me a few random things about life in Beijing and North east China.

Almost three years passed, me and Daniele had the chance to meet several times over different kinds of mouthwatering bei cang, discuss several topics, and sample several kinds of lung melting Chinese alcohol. Since the first time, I was really captured by the mental intensity of this out of the ordinary character, currently a Phd researcher in the prestigious People’s University in Beijing, writer and academic publisher disguised for a cheap ass punk with holes in his shirt and shoes and a taste for cheap, oily street food. In three words, my kind of guy.

Since then I’ve been an avid consumer of his excellent blogs and have tried to keep in touch as much as I could over the years… and finally decided to show you how much you can learn from this man sending him a few intense questions. For the sake of internet communication brevity, we didn’t engage in writing an encyclopedia, but what follows deserves to be tattooed on your brains with psychedelic ink. Enjoy. (more…)

Malaysia has a different ethnic background constituted of Malays, Indians and Chinese. Each one of these groups have their own celebrations, calendars, holidays, parties and religious activities. It’s easy to understand that, for the random traveler or the long term expatriate, the country has always something on offer almost every week. Especially in Penang, where I currently live, things are even taken to the next level. (more…)

Un aggiornamento per chi aveva seguito le avventure di Matteo Tricarico, che da poco ha attraversato la Birmania via terra (si esatto, nessun aereo preso, complimenti) e mi ha contattato da Calcutta, in India:

Il progetto sportivo-umanitario “Dal Vietnam all’Italia in bicicletta per i  diversabili”, partito il 9 ottobre 2009  da Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city) in Vietnam, sta portando Matteo Tricarico a percorrere in bicicletta in solitaria la distanza di 20.000 chilometri dal Vietnam all’Italia snodandosi attraverso Cambogia (ott. 2009), Laos (nov. 2009), Thailandia (dic. 2009), Myanmar (gen. 2010), Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Iran, Turchia e Grecia. Negli scorsi quattro mesi, sono stati percorsi circa 6000 chilometri sino alla città indiana di Calcutta e l’itinerario procederà attraverso il Bangladesh e l’India del nord. (more…)

It’s good sometimes to discover that somewhere people are still doing good horror movies. And it’s not America!! This time is Thailand.
In a time when the Star Striped movie industry is dying on its last legs and “borrowing” (to say the least offensive) here and there, especially from the Asian markets, it’s quite inspiring to find that the source of if not original, at least brilliant thrills, is now centered in the East. (more…)

“You see, my government is crazy”

“Why?” I hope finally this time around, in the peaceful setting of the middle of a lake, without anybody hearing us, I’ll be enlightened by the conversation I’ve been waiting for three weeks to happen. (more…)

It’s like magic to be able to float on a boat at sunset, surrounded by these dark faces, smiley, with red beetle nut encrusted teeth. We are floating on the waters, and the sun is dying and bleeding purple yellow all around us, gushing molten light falling from the slopes of the mountains on the two sides.

Like a jewel encrusted in a rugged metal shape, Inlay Lake’s waters shine opulent with mystic colors and gentle waves, while skinny dark faced people run on it. (more…)

It’s not rare to see a horse cart on the right, a woman carrying a huge basket full of goods over her head and a tractor alike machine transporting as many as 10 people on the same stretch of unpaved road, while women with dark faces smeared in golden thanhaka fry samosas and chapatis as if there was no tomorrow. The strength of this place lies in its unique captivating mixture of Southeast Asia and mountainous South China, the background of an untamed mountain valley  filled with humanity and machinery out of a science fiction movie set in 1845. It’s really quiet, and welcoming, and beautiful, because the sky here is so blue that you would wonder what’s wrong in your country’s sky, when compared to this. Pollution is something that here is still largely unknown, and my lungs almost suffer as I inhale some fresh air. (more…)