VAREKAI - My trip to wheresoever: August 2012

Dating, love and circumstances

“Your eyes red like tomato.

Your lips purple like grape.

And your face white like dead jellyfish."

Have you ever done a Visa-run during your stay in Thailand? If so, it is a good chance to meet interesting people along the way.

When I did my first Visa-run to the border of Cambodia this year, I met such an interesting person. He is a writer from Canada. His name is RJ Silver.

This is not his real name. It´s his pseudonym for writing and publishing funny and amusing stories.

"I love writing stories that cheer people up

and add something positive to the world."

"I love to laugh" is one of the answer when asking RJ Silver why he is writing this kind of stories.

RJ Silver is the creator of this surreal sounding conversation I quoted at the beginning. The most funniest story I read for a long time.

I haven't heard about him and his published E-books yet, even he is very successfull in this genre. So I was happy to meet him. I like his sort of humor and I am conviced, you will like his humor too.

(I haven´t read any of his stories at the time of doing this interview with him. That´s why we are talking more common things about this books and the technique of writing.)

This interview is part of my cliB project, so let me introduce RJ Silver to you:

Actually I became clairaudient when he told me one of the titles: "My Third-World Girlfriend".

I mean, I am traveling in South-East-Asia for more than one year already and I am used to see plenty of foreigners with their Asian girlfriend.

A South-East-Asian girlfriend

want to take care of her boyfriend.

Mostly you see them happy, but sometimes hanging clouds above such relationships, detached by hailing and storming. ;)

Ups, that can happen.....

Though I never called them "Third-World girlfriend". That was a new term for me.

"My Third-World Girlfriend"

RJ Silver

RJ Silver is writing about himself "...I love writing stories that cheer people up and add something positive to the world...."

Yes, indeed he is looking as he wants to cheer up the world. Every new sentence can end in a witty way. It seems that he want us to cheer up permanently. The smile in his face is almost infective.

RJ Silver, a 48 year young guy with a remarkable outfit, wearing a blue t-shirt, blue shorts and flip-flops. His grey-black colored beard remind me at mine, although I just shaved my beard this morning.

RJ is normally working as an IT-specalist for a few big American companies. He was already twice divorced, that's why he decided to change his life a couple of years ago.

As he is working online enables him to do this everwhere. The only thing he need is a proper working Internet connection and so he took a worldmap and choosed with closed eyes his first new centre of interest. "That's how I started traveling around the globe."

RJ's finger pointed on a two million city in the South of China. He is an adventures guy and so he went there and tried to live a different way of life. A city where are no english signs and nearly nobody was speaking English.

His communication skills are very miscellaneous and so he got in touch with plenty of people....and he met many chinese people.

"I remember a meet up in a park. I went there for practising my Chinese. There were only Chinese who wanted to practise their English skills. It ended up that I talked more English and helped this guys practising English than forcing my progress learning Chinese."

"Every time I said something in Chinese, this guys looked at me as I am an alien. As soon as I showed them the written word, they started full-throated laughing and repeating the word as it is so obviously."

This reminds me in my attempts speaking Thai sometimes. It seems we have a big problem with the correct pronounciation.

I asked RJ: "When did you start writing?"

"I dreamed since my childhood to be a writer. After a few early novels, I started working together with a well known agent for the duration of four years. I worked hard for publishing a crime thriller and finally they offered me a contract. To me, the unknown writer."

"But they asked me to change some things and restricted things in the book. Because of that I decided not to sign the contract. At this point I changed my mind and started writing a different kind of content. And I realized that I want to be independent from a publisher."

"My new stories should be not anymore serious like the writings before." For a better separating I choosed the pseudonym "RJ Silver". I want to write about funny things to keep the readers smiling and enjoying."

And apparantly it seems like it is working. I read some of the reviews in the online shops and they have one thing in common. The readers enjoyed reading his stories and they had plenty to laugh.

"I offered the first published E-book for free. It was a bestseller as messured by the downloads."

Kingdom of Shlongdia

The location where the story of
"The Princess and the Penis"
plays.

"Every book contains a few sketches of a small green alien in tricky situations." "Aliens?" I asked suprised.

"Actually the stories don't tell anything about aliens. It is only a substitute for the protagonist of the story."

"My readers love a blue sky, that's why you can see it on every cover of my books. I like making people laughing and to see them happy."

While his years in China, he wrote the book "The Ballerina The Gymnast And The Yoga Master".

On my questions about an including autobiographic part in his stories, he replied: "There is always a connection to my own life, or situations in my life, stories, whatever.... this time I was in a relationship with a yoga teacher. So I envolved this in my story."

"The Ballerina The Gymnast And The Yoga Master"

RJ Silver

How much research are you doing during developing and writing a story? "The Ballerina The Gymnast And The Yoga Master" is a good example.

I read plenty of yoga books to get background informations and hints for my story. It is very important that everything is logical, otherwise you will not be reliable. "

"Look at a movie. You can be very creative, having a brilliant idea, but if it is not reliable, or if it is implemented worse, the whole idea is nothing more worth it."

"When I have an idea, I figure out, how it can work. For example, sometimes I write several processes, based on the same idea. I choose one and dump the others. Onetime, I wrote three stories and threw them all away."

"How important is the title and what role is it playing?"

"More important is the topic than the title. But of course it is neccessary to have an interesting title for selling the story, to wake up the interest of the reader. Mostly it works hand in hand."

"The Princess & the Penis"

RJ Silver

"Your books aren't that long. Mostly they are short stories with a maximum of 30 pages. How important is it to give the readers a break while reading a book? Time to think about written words and to think about the whole story. You said, your stories aren't anymore like your previous writings. Is it light lecture?"

"This is correct. It is a light lecture, anyway you have to offer a break in form of some asteriks or a new chapter from time to time."

"How many pages does your chapters have in average?"

"One chapter has between three and eight pages."

"I didn't read your books yet, because I heard this morning first time of you. So, do you like timejumps and are you working with them?"

"Yes, sometimes I work with timejumps, for example at "My Third World girlfriend. Sometimes you can´t work with timejumps, because it doesn´t match for the story. Then it is better to write along a timeline."

"Do you know exactly your target group?"

"I am writing light fun stories for light-hearted happy people with a positive thinking and yes, I know. I get a lot of feedback for my writings, not only in reviews, also in e-mails and comments on my blog."

http://rjsilver.com/blog

"I can see what kind of customers are buying at the online stores. 90-95% of the readers are so called "romance readers". 99% are women between 18 and 50 years. Most of my readers are from USA, UK, Australia and Canada."

"It seems you are very popular for female readers. Ok, then I will do my best to make your work more popular for male readers and to push their amount." :)

"Surprisingly for me that Canada is only on fourth place."

"Yeah, not so many people know that I am a Canadian." told me RJ with a smile in his face.
"Are you doing some PR-work for publishing your books?"

"No, I don't do PR. I have only my blog. I offered my first E-book as free download and after that big success I decided to sell my E-books online for a few bugs. I offer them at i-tunes,Amazon and Barnes&Noble.""Right now, you are working on your fourth book. How long do you need to write a whole book?"

´"That depends on the story and my time. Sometimes I can only spend two hours writing per day. Normally I can finish a book, including a new idea, research and working out different ways of the idea in about six to eight month. But it can also take a year."

"Do you need to be in a special mood to be creative? How and where do you create your stories?"

"I start in the morning and writing two hours every day. Sometimes I have some notes, sometimes I let it flow. I have always a good mood and can write anytime. My topics are not anymore that complex that I need plenty of memos or a special mood. I can keep my ideas in my mind. I am writing directly on my Mac, no hand writings, only a notice from time to time."

"How do you create a story or the characters?"

"What I am doing is, I create a complete charakter and write a documentary for each one. I learned this while writing this crime thriller. The reader has to read between the lines, because he will only see the roof of a building, but under the roof are plenty of informations, why something is, like it is. Personality, clothes, environment, knowledge, mimik art and gestures.....everything what constitutes a real person. "

"Do you have an lector? Is your girlfriend reading your stories first?"

"Over the years I have many international friends and editors, which are my lectors and volunteers. They are into the writings and helped me a lot. My girlfriend likes my stories, but she is more like one of my readers than a lector."

"Your first E-book was very successfull. Did you feel a big pressure launching your second E-book?"

"Yes and no. My first two books werde sold really good and positioned under the top ten in the online-stores, so they were bestsellers. From this view I had a kind of pressure, but I took my time."

"The third book took longer than expected. But I wouln't say it is a negative kind of pressure. I will always give my best. The story need to be logical and the reader should have fun reading a book."

"When I finish a book, then it is complete in my eyes and completed. Then it is the readers issue to like it or not. I feel fine with my finished works."

"Are there any thoughts about translation your stories into other languages, or other projects?"

"Well, after my successfull sales at the online stores I got a few offers from other countries for translation and animation works. I didn't decide anything yet."

"I am working with the caricaturist Scott Fiander together and he realized really good sketches. That's how I like it and I am thinking to do more in this direction."

"Another thing is, that my first book is played live for a dinner theater in Los Angeles first time in July. It seems to be very successfull and is very interesting and may be there is a chance to realize more in this vein."

"And a totally different thing is another project. It is the creation of a foundation to help underprivileged children in South-East-Asia get out of bad situations and into good homes that provide love, care, and a proper education. You can read more about this cause at:"

http://www.rjsilver.com/foundation/

Thank you RJ for giving us the opportunity and insight in your life and work.

http://www.rjsilver.com

...

In the meanwhile I read all three E-Books and I had cramps from laughing. My favorite is "My Third-World girlfriend" with so many seen and well known situations here in SE-Asia, neither that I had such a relationship ;)

I am not interested in ballet and so I decided to read "The Ballerina And The Yoga-Master" at last but it was much more fascinating than expected and my secret favorite now.

I am looking forward to the newest, the fourth E-book of RJ Silver. ;)

And if you are still looking for a last-minute gift for christmas. Here is your chance!

Take a look at RJ Silver E-books. They are funny written and you can get them for a reasonable price. Right now there is a special offer for all three E-books:

If you prefer to buy the E-books one by one:

The books can be downloaded in different formats (Kindle, Ipad, PDF, .....). Have a look at the online-stores:

Amazon i Tunes Barnes&Noble Smashwords

Smashwords offers the most formats for different devices.

Take your time and read it and you will laugh and smile till the end of the year....

Leave - or run for a Visa

I answered everybody who asked about my longer stays in Thailand, I will never do such a stupid thing like a Visa-run. If Thailand don't want us foreigners to stay longer, I will travel the next country. There are plenty of countries like Thailand in SE-Asia with similar great locations.

I told this everybody who wants to know - until last week.

What happend?

Well, you know such a situation, you are not well motivated, but you have to do something, or you have to go to an event/a party and you aren't enthusiastic, may be you're not in the best mood. But then you meet there somebody special and your mind changed completely. You had this feeling before? You're already wallowing in memories?

Well guys, sorry for bringing you down to earth again. In case you expect a romantic story, sorry for disappointing you at this point. This story will not end up in a love story.

Back to the beginning and how it started......

I entered Thailand by plane at the end of July and got a Visa on arrival for 30 days.
Unfortunately my apartment search took advantage of nearly six days and I signed a contract for 30 days. So I was embarrassed this time.

The available options have been:

Doing a visa-run (takes one day, 2000THB)
Traveling further to the next country and resign one week of my contract.
Extend at the Immigration Office in the outskired area of BKK for 7 days. (takes 4-7 hours, 1900THB)
Staying longer without Visa and pay overstay at the departure. (takes time at the Immigration at the airport (plenty of bureaucracy, I know this already), 500THB/day=3000THB)

I ended up for the first alternative, doing a Visa-run to Cambodia, the closest border (four hours by big bus). There is another possibility going there by Mini-Van, but the observing reader of this blog knows already, I don't like Mini-Vans. Sometimes they are in very bad condition, the road could be bumpy, so it is very uncomfortable. And if you are lucky, you can get a suicidial driver. ;)

I prefer traveling by a big bus with more space and sometimes they are showing a good movie.

My choice was a company located at Ekkamai BTS-Station. Easy to reach in the morning, when Bangkok's streets are crowded by traffic-jam.

Most of the companies bringing their customers for a new Visa-stamp to Aranyaprathet.

Poi-Pet, border of Cambodia, on Thai side Aranyaprathet.

I knew this checkpoint from my first travel to Cambodia in 2010. This checkpoint is the most popular gate to Siem Reap, more precisely where Angkor Wat is located. So it is a very busy checkpoint and sometimes you have to queue up in a long line.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat.

For that reason, the company I choosed is using a more quiet checkpoint, south of Poi-Pet, it's called Ban Laem on the Thai side and Pailin is the next bigger city on the Cambodian side.

The ride lasts at least as long as to Aranyaprathet (four hours, 250km) but no need to queue a long time.

Pailin was a mysterious place in the past. It was the fallback area of the Khmer Rouge after losing the power when Vietnam's army liberated Cambodia of their tartars. The high officials Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea lived there a good life and faught with guerilla units from Pailin against the new government in Phnom Penh till 1996.
In this time the Khmer Rouge signed under Ieng Sary a contract with prime minister Hun Sen. They gave off their armed resistance against the government. As compensation they got amnesty and are allowed exclusively to mine the rich existemce of gemstones and precious timber.

Meeting point is a cafe/restaurant at the corner in front of Ekkamai BTS-Station. I arrived there in time around 8.30am. The woman provided me after a warm welcome, all documents I need. Initially I did all formalities (filled out Departure card Thailand, Arrival card Cambodia, Departure card Cambodia, Arrival card Thailand). I was just presenting a picture for the Cambodian Visa, when I suddenly found myself in an interesting conversation with a guy from the table next to me. He is a Canadian who resides in Bangkok and did this trip already many times and was therefore familiar.

He is working online as an IT-expert, that allows him to live wherever he wants and this is the reason why he is living in Bangkok this time. However, we talked about his interesting "hobby", he likes to write short stories and publishes them as E-Book. But this will be an additional posting and I can promise today, he is such a brilliant interlocutor and writer.

One citation::

"“You okay, Mr. Gerry?".....“Wonderful. Never been better. Why? Don’t I look okay?”

“Your eyes red like tomato. Your lips purple like grape. And your face white like dead
jellyfish.”

I had a ripping good time reading his books.

It was almost 9.30am and all the Visa-run-candidates went out of the cafe for entering the bus nearby. The first hint from my new companion was about the seats in the bus. "Try to get seats in the front of the bus, because of the bumpy roads." That doesn't sound better than a Mini-Van-ride and so I tried to catch one of the double seats in the front, but I failed. Small tip on the edge, try to be first in the queue if you think about doing this trip as well.

Apparently are Visa-runners generally loner. At least, it seems that the white colored participants are not interested in companions on their marginal marathon. They are more introverted and talking nearly nothing in compare to the other Asian border crossers

These guys showing a very clear rudel behavior, because they sit side by side with other Asians in the bus, not like the pale which claim a double-seat for themself. If you like to take the seat beside them you will probably not get the friendliest mimic-art and a warm welcome.

This is the real life - in Asia you are welcome with a smile and in the western world you will be checked first.

Unfortunatelly were all this double-seats in the front already occupied by long noses, at least with one of this lonely rangers and so we used two seats in opposite of the corridor. This was the only way to continue our interesting conversation without feeling the whole time like in a rollercoaster when sitting in the back of the bus.

First task in hand was to choose one of ten meals from a menu for my lunch. After this exhausting work we had two and a half hours for ouselves.

Despite of the very pleasant and informative conversation seemed the trip endless. We could take a nap, listen undisturbed to music, or exercise our eyes and brain by reading a book on this bumpy roads.

After a short break for toilette and shopping, we got our preselected lunch. However, you shouldn't expect too much. Of course, the quantity was enough, but quantity is not the same like quality.
Obviously I was with my opinion not allone, because nearly all of this styrofoam packages returned half full.

You should better buy something at the shop during the stop before, or bring something with you.
The showed Eddie Murphy movie "A thousand words" ended just in time, when we arrived at the border at 2pm.

Here is a big market and uncountable shops along the street till the checkpoint. I wonder why there is such a big market, if it is not high frequented? The checkpoint seemed indeed very quiet, no queue at the counters.

We got our passports back and had to be active again. The humidity is not as high as in Bangkok, although there are enough mosquitos in this Malaria-infected-area and even the raindrops during the drive showed that we have monsoon season in South-East-Asia.

So we walked to the Thai Immigration for stamp out. Even the Immigration opened two more counters. Very unusual, but they will definitely participate in person from us Visa-runners. We passed the Thai border quickly and handed out our passports to the stuff again. They will do the formalities on the Cambodian side for us.

Important for a Buddhist.

Thais have at their places for praying always animals.

In the meanwhile we had time to walk around and my canadian friend was showing me around.

The bridge after the border of Thailand. Built with money from Thailand, also the street till the border. Completely new for the Thai gamblers.

A popular motif for street lightning in Thailand.

We crossed the bridge to the no-man's-land and turned before entering Cambodia to the right, where the shops and the casino is located. The small town is called Daun Lem.

The small river is the border between Thailand and Cambodia.

Border, Cambodian gate, view from Thailand.

Cambodia is a Third World country, but this is a duty free zone and you can get here everything.....and cheaper than somewhere else.

Angkor beer, I remember Angkor Draft beer. The most popular beer in Siem Reap,

so refreshing and soooo cheap.

Plenty of alcohol, smokes, perfumes and magic cure for reinforcement of the virility (supposedly cheaper than in Pattaya). They accept Thai Baht and US-$.

Smokes, every brand available.

It is also one of the closest checkpoints from Pattaya. The other one is called Ban Pakard (around 20km south of Ban Laem).

We visited the nearby casino which is built with money from Thailand.

Casino

Naga

Naga with seven heads.

Entry of the casino.

Teng Bumma was the first Thai investor after the Khmer Rouge and is owner of a luxury hotel in Phnom Penh and of the wide spreadest newspaper in Cambodia. His son operates together with ex-Khmer Rouge official Ieng Sary, the casino in Pailin.

Taking pictures inside the casino is not allowed so I left my camera at the entrance during our visit. The playroom for adults conveys a very cool and sober atmosphere. Totally different to the casinos I know from the western world. No glance and glamour, nothing which awakes the impression of wealth. Thai men love to gamble and it looks like, the environment is hereby secondary.

I had rather the impression to be in a black and white tiled kitchen, where barely slot-machines, a few black jack and poker tables were ranked. There crowded an astonishing number of women in uniform around some Thai men. Obviously it was not the time for playing now.

Observing a croupier is not announced, otherwise one of the officials is immediately on our side, delving us into a conversation and animated us for gambling and others, like we divined because his inviting gesture pointing on the female croupier, which was supporting his inviting with a big smile on her face.

Suprisingly it was very quiet and well -mannered, although many mimik-art spokes a very different language.
There are two more rooms, one VIP-room with a very intense acting female, which made great efforts for her players at the table. The other room is ranked with computerised roulette tables with a slot for the notes, a touchpad for the entry and monitors.

Another visa-runner and my Canadian friend tried their luck in gambling at this tables and lost the whole stake. Strange to see roulette without a human croupier. I would prefer the human component, may be because of the attraction to catch the croupier while manipulating the game, than to be at the mercy of a computer. :D

Beside a lot of begging children on the Cambodian side and the Thai side I recognized also some women, which are earning their money in a different way. The demand regulates the supply. This is how our world works.

This is another Visa-run-company,but they don't go anymore to Ban Laem.

Elephant with a dick. Doesn't really fit.

Khmer Style

After this short trip to a no-man's-land between a Third-World-Country and an ambitious emerging market country, we returned to Thailand and faced up ourselves for the entry-procedure with an new and already used marked Visa of Cambodia.

Thai Gate

This Visa-sticker needs a complete side in my passport, Now I have only eight pages left. It's time to ask for a new pass.

Immigration Thailand

The entry-procedure runs smoothly and I got a new Visa-on-arrival-stamp till September, 11th.
Ups, that was not calculated to fly out on 9/11......
In case somebody wonders why I didn't get 30 days. This was an entry by land, so I get only a 15 days Visa.

Our bus at the border.

The ride back to Bangkok was very unspectacular, beside a good talk with my companion, I had time for a nap. After a short break at 5pm I had the chance to watch American Pie Reunion again. By the way, to sit in front of the bus is another advantage for watching the movies. In the back you will neither see it, nor can you listen to it in lack of a second TV in the back.

In time to the nightfall we arrived in Bangkok and those who want to leave before the final destination at Ekkamai BTS-Station can do this. May be not the worsest idea in case there is traffic-jam like at this day. We arrived after 45 minutes at 7.45pm at our final stop.

Finally it was a very rewarding and interesting day excursion. A second time I wouldn't repeat it, because of the 9 hours bus-ride.

VAREKAI - My trip to wheresoever

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