This is a strange new world

Last week I ran to the border to renew my entry permit.  Just cross the border out, and then come in again.  But it left me so tired that I didn't have the energy to write about that until now.

I saw so many things that would be illegal in my own country... man!

First when I arrived to my final bus stop, I still needed to ride on a mototaxi to get to the border.  The guys who came offering me wanted to charge me about USD1.50 for this, which I thought was a rip off.  But then when I finally accepted, I saw why:  it's a 10 minute ride along the highway (did I mention it's on a mototaxi?), and although we're going at around 60 mph on a road with patches of dirt and some liquid, I'm given no helmet!!!

When I cross the border I'm surrounded by so many touts offering totally useless things, like shade from the umbrella they want to carry above my head, like 'help' with the immigration paperwork when this is perfectly done by yourself, a bus ride to the neighboring town, getting my passport stamped real quick without me having to walk the extra 100 yards, etc.  Well, this is not the first time I go to that border crossing so this time I don't fall for any of that shit whatsoever.

My plan was to cross the border, have lunch at one of the buffets inside the casinos right across the border, and come back.  But since I arrived way too early for lunch, I decided to walk further inside that horrid town, and look around.

At first I was followed by more and more touts trying to sell me bus tickets for the neighboring town.  Really annoying guys as they were cutting my way in a rather dangerous way in the middle of me trying to cross a road.  When I was about 150 yards inside, I started to smell the garbage, and it became clear they probably don't know about garbage disposal in that country.

Some 200 yards further inside, I found a fresh produce market.  Really odd.  Those guys where selling their stuff right next to the piles of trash!  I also noticed that the people selling meat weren't using any kind of refrigeration whatsoever.  The meat was just hung from some large hooks right in front of your nose, with not even a glass protecting them from dust or flies.  I saw some lady using the meat chopping board as her dinning table.  She was eating a bowl of noodle soup on top of that chopping board.  I also thought it was very odd that the sales counter was not really just a counter, it was a platform that went all the way to the back of the kiosk, so the salespersons weren't standing on the floor at the same level like me, they were on top of the counter.  Ah, and by the way, many of them were taking naps on their hammocks they had hung up right next to the meat!

Another strange thing I noticed is that perhaps more than half of the motor vehicles I saw there didn't have a number plate.  Does that mean they're stolen cars?  I don't know.  They're just too many to be all of them stolen.  But then how come some cars do have number plates?  Is it optional?

When I started to feel hungry, I walked back to the border looking for the casinos and came inside three or four of them looking for the buffet lunches, but unfortunatelly they didn't have that anymore.  I didn't feel like eating there anyway.  Oh, but on my final way back, I found from the distance one more casino with a big sign saying "Japanese Buffet Restaurant", so I took the trouble of going take a look, but once inside, it was like a small cafeteria, devoid of customers with two bored servers.  I didn't see the plates of Japanese food anywhere, so I left disappointed back into this land of the free.

I arrived back into my apartment so tired and thirsty, and in some sort of state of zombieness... I didn't get much done this weekend.