And considering there are more Portuguese speakers in Brazil than Portugal, why not show the Brazil flag for Portuguese (if you’re being consistent with the use of the US flag).

Or… just don’t use flags to illustrate language. Ever.

Manually entering dates is also frustrating as some part of the Javascript intermittently clears the field when changing focus between the fields. Initially I honestly couldn’t get a date in. I’ve since tried again and it worked (barely). Just as well there’s a fairly obvious Reservations link in the top bar.

By the way, anyone know of any good hotels in Calgary?

If you’re paying £50 for a football top (or $130 back home — for some bizarre reason Socceroo shirts are actually cheaper to buy in London than they are back home), surely the least you could ask for is an embroided coat of arms? Buying and wearing such a shirt is a very patriotic act; but a lot of World Cup shirts (and many Premier League shirts) now have transfer-style print outs of various club symbolism.

Are they that expensive to produce? Were they dumped to give the player less wind-resistance or some similarly baffling motive? Luckily England and Brazil fans can still enjoy nice chunky, embroided national symbols on their tops. It gives a real sense of pride and (some) craftsmanship, which for £50, is what you’d expect. Of course, England tops are going for around £25-£30, so you England fans really are getting a good deal.

But I guess many of us Australian, Korean and Portuguese fans (to name a few other countries with similar printing-styles) will just have to make do with our flat, dull shirts with our little transfers. Luckily there’s a place like Toffs around, who make great old-style football tops, the type that were around when Johnny Warren played. No speccie stealth mesh trademarked rubbish, just pure cotton, and a coat of arms bigger than a steak with no damn corporate sponsor in sight.

Just how it should be.

Whaam!, Roy Lichtenstein, 1963 (from Wikipedia)

There’s a few reasons I’ve wanted to see this painting for so long. One of them is that of all modern art, this is the first one I can really remember while growing up. The fact that it was reproduced inside a toilet at my high school probably reinforced this. The toilets next to the drama room were all decorated with student recreations of art classics, yet this is the only one I remember.

Apart from the quintessential pop art palette Lichtenstein used, the inherent motion of the diptych is quite amazing: I can’t think of any other art work gets close. The distorted perspective of the fighter really adds to this. And yet there’s the political message hidden in there as well, as Lichtenstein created this based on a page from the 60s comic book

Another reason I think I became so intent on seeing this painting is that when I first visited the Tate Modern in 2000 I was shocked to discover this iconic

Going back to the topic of photographing kids in Asia, I always felt very uncomfortable doing this, especially as a white male. There are some amazing kids around Asia with so much personality that you can’t help but photograph many of them. I found another set on Flickr with pictures from Laos, and some far more provocative photos of kids playing in the river. By provocative I mean close detail of the kids — the photographer was merely documenting the kids the same way I was. But the photographer here was female, and this is another interesting thing I picked up on while travelling — and that is that for women to take photos of kids is rarely noticed, yet with men its very different. Often I would be with other female travellers taking photos of cute kids playing or trying to sell things, and while they would snap some terrific photos, I always felt very cautious about doing so, in case someone misjudged my intentions.

Unfortunately I don’t think things here will really change. Of course men aren’t the only ones who are sexual predators, but the vast majority are, and everyone knows the appalling situation with child exploitation in Asia. So next time I’m on holiday and we see a bunch of kids splashing water or jumping off water buffalo, I might just pass the camera to my girlfriend — and make sure that ‘naked kids’ don’t appear in the title on Flickr.

I was very slack updating this site along the way; Angela was handling the journal writing more than adequately for both of us (rather spectacularly, actually). However, I did managed to upload a fair few photos to Flickr along the way (with surprising ease in even backwaters of South East Asia) – I’ll upload plenty more when I get the chance.

The backpacker area in Pham Ngu Lao is surprisingly laidback. Sure there are a few hawkers selling books, cigarettes and fruit, but they take no for an answer very quickly and generally leave you be. We had some beer and some local whiskey (sorry I should’ve written methylated spirits) outside by the main corner and had a great time just soaking up the atmosphere and cool, wet, humid air.

So that’s the myth dispersion out of the way. Today we went to the Ben Thanh markets, which had basically anything you could want from chopsticks to calculators to fake Manchester United tops (not that I would want one of them). We got half a kilo of dried mango for about $5, which is delicious, and will hopefully last until past tomorrow.

After that we headed to the Reunification Palace, which at first looked a bit dull, but inside was a different story. Opulent meeting rooms, lavish 60s go-go style gambling dens and war rooms covered with maps of Vietnam made up the insides of the Palace, once populated by the South Vietnamese President until the commies crashed through the gates on April 30 1975 and ended his little party. The tanks remain inside the gates, although unfortunately only copies.

Just up the road is the infamous War Remnants Museum. The courtyard is full of old American war relics – tanks, Huey helicopters and fighter planes. Inside there are hundreds of amazing photos showing the horror of the war in its uncensored brutality. The most powerful part of the museum is undoubtedly the three babies sitting deformed inside formaldehyde-filled jars: two jars, three babies – two were Siamese twins.

So tomorrow we’re off to see the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai temple outside the city – not sure what Friday will hold, but on Saturday we’ll be off to Dalat in the mountains for some cooler weather.