TwoInchBrush - Forum

@Voy Kay#1002 I love to travel, but I hate getting there! I'm glad you find my prose interesting--I always aim to be an engaging and intelligent correspondent. I am one of the few people I know who still writes letters. Unfortunately my last regular correspondent is getting a bit dotty.

A few updates: I discovered NHK World on the TV, which the guide had erroneously tucked away in the Japanese language channel listings. And I found I could stream France24 from my laptop. I also found a way to block a light that blinks all night. Why everything needs an LED indicator is beyond me. Call me old-fashioned, but it's either plugged in or isn't, either works or doesn't.

Small victories, but invaluable for morale.

Ian_Adkins
Dear Ian,

Hope your morale will be kept nourished!
Myself, I like to write letters as well, although never handwritten due to an issue with my dominant hand (hampers me also for painting small details).
Had to think of those multiple hotel rooms where I had to stick some tape (never travel without some!) on the blinking smoke detectors in the room. Aaaah, those were the days!

Yours truly,

Voy Kay

@Voy Kay#1006 I like to use black electrical tape, which is light-proof. I should have brought a roll with me. I stick it over all the chargers and such in our bedroom, and even took apart the smoke detector to cover the light in there, too. I couldn't believe the amount of light that li'l sucker puts off. The room was awash in a green glow that even cast shadows. Me, if I could sleep in a sensory deprivation tank, I would.

Ian_Adkins
How a forum article is slowly becoming a chapter in an Orient based thriller!
Way to go Ian!!!

Ian_Adkins
Amazing, that must be the same boat yard where the Kkangpae is shipping and handling their snow inspired 'stairway to heaven' powders!
Quick Ian, gather your most valuables in your backpack and go to the balcony. Drop one floor to the other balcony with jade green curtains. The sliding doors are open, rush towards the door and enter the hallway. Seek for room 327. Special agent Koo-Bah from the 'The National Intelligence Service' will await you there.
Follow her guidelines to escape and please, make certain to wear a Phtalo blue mouthmask at all times!
Get in touch with home base as soon as you feel safe again and in the comfort of a warm hot tub!

Your scenario makes me smile. I had to look up Kkangpae, like a Korean Yakuza or Tong. Sadly no balcony, just a ledge, though in this weather I doubt a balcony would be of any comfort. I do know the rooms on the other wing have balconies. And are larger. And have an actual view. Luckier bastards lodge there. I shudder to think of what the staff would do to me. The literature suggests a 100K won fine, imprisonment up to a year, and summary deportation. Not sure in what order.

Ian_Adkins
By Jove, turn those into your favour Ian!
Suggest a 100K annual reward for you, Ross supplies for a whole year and a summer deportation to Bali, Tahiti, Hawaï and Aruba. Not sure in what order.

@Voy Kay#1012 So at the company my wife works for, it's pretty common after a long stay in Asia to come back via Hawaii or Tahiti. Except of course pandemic, blah blah blah. Of course, the irony is that intercontinental travel is the reason there's a pandemic on at all. This is probably my last long stay in Asia, without having taken the Polynesian route back. I wanted to drink out of coconuts...

Ian_Adkins
If you have painting equipment with you, would it help softening the mental pain, to paint some palm trees??

https://www.twoinchbrush.com/originals/Voy%20Kay/taiwan-by-hado-hagen

Ah, see, they've only given me disposable utensils and Dixie cups, you'd need a fingerprint dusting kit to turn up any unusual prints. And believe me, the exact arrangement of my bedding is induplicable by rational mind, and only by a diseas'd wit. Speaking of North Koreans, I went to Panmunjom in 2014, and saw a few for myself. A very surreal experience.

Yes, odd that no one else has joined the thread, but perhaps they're loath to break in upon our revelries and flights of fancy.

Ian_Adkins
Darn, they are smarter then we thought!
The smell of 'fear' can't be far out! The loneliness can play tricks as well. Panmunjom is only a few whiskars away .... never visited it while I was in Seoul in 2010.
Gosh, why is the late Charles Bronson's quote playing in my head now?
'I have fear for the fear'

nothing we could say would be as entertaining as your conversations!

Panmunjom is well worth a visit! Especially since they have an ATM at the gift store that doesn't charge fees for international cards

Felix I remember that shop, I came away with carved wooden marriage ducks, DPRK bank notes, and North Korean plum soju. Inexplicably there were also Transnistrian bank notes, and I now regret not buying any.

Ian_Adkins
Just out of bed, had a tough time reading about the bank notes.
First I read 'trans' ... but that's was too close related to 'Katoy'. Then I read 'train' .... but with one eye opened only, I must've read that dislectic. Then I noticed 'Istria' .... but that region in Croatia could not fit with 'Transnistria' very well.
So eventually, felt unhappy that I've been to Ukrania so many times, and to Rumania as well, yet never visited Moldavia nor Transnistria.
Anyway, in my land of morning calm (although the name of Belgium alone raises my neckhairs as well as my stomach acid!) .... coffee never dissapointed me and is my golden remedy and adage for 'happiness in a mug'!
Cheers to the world!

First things first upon waking: never let your Internet addiction get in the way of your caffeine addiction.

I gather Transnistria is a bit of seedy place, but since the 1990s, I've been following this plucky little holdout of the Soviet Union that nevertheless wouldn't exist but for Russian "peacekeeping." I'm amazed it survived the Yeltsin years, but that was probably due entirely to General Lebed's active interest.

@Voy Kay#1085 ah Bruges... Great city to take out your hitman partner!