RKS 2025 Travel: Destination Southeast Asia (Short Attention Span Version):19October2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Treated Like a Criminal

19October2025: Siem Reap, Cambodia: Treated Like a Criminal

Siem Reap here we come! My main reason for travelling with ABC International was to discover the ancient civilization of Angkor Wat.

Brutal timing awaits as up at 05:45 to finish off packing and leave bags outside room at 06:45 before heading down to breakfast. Not having much of an appetite for breakfast at this ungodly hour which is almost a crime because it is excellent although what breakfast could compare to that served at the Shangri-La Singapore! A slice of mango and papaya, croissant with scrambled eggs and a cup of jasmine tea.

On the bus at 07:45 to the secondary Bangkok airport much quieter than the main airport. ABC International, with a “fine eye for details” booked our flights failing to have seats assigned to match our preferences. Luckily managed to snag an aisle seat. At 6’3 don’t cram me into a window or aisle seat please.

A quick 45-minute flight. Facial recognition, thumb prints and electronic passport scan makes one feel like an inmate as opposed to a tourist. Our profiles must be now accessible throughout the globe. Privacy?

My plane food was forgotten (would not have eaten it anyways) but all the tour group forfeited their chow which was given to our tour director who dropped it off at a children’s hospital en route to our hotel.

Siem Reap has a newly constructed airport. It is so new you can smell its newness. Our flight was the only game in town so the airport was deserted.

Off we head in this poverty-stricken country to Sofitel Angkor Phokeetra Golf Resort and Spa. A bit incongruous with poverty is a lush beautifully maintained golf course. A beacon of luxury in a sea of poverty. The awkwardness continued with the Ozempic Crowd from Kansas.

RKS Poetry Anthology: COSTCOLYPSE NOW!

COSTCOLYPSE NOW!

Surreal moment

8February2026 08:23 Saturday morning

Where are those Super Bowl drums?

Flats will not suffice

Minus 23

Fifty-six people in line waiting for the doors to open and bask in some warmth

Attacking the aisles as if on a Bell-UH-1 attack!

If Lieutenant Colonel “Bill” Kilgore were by my side he would proclaim

“I LOVE THE SMELL OF COSTCO HOT DOGS IN THE MORNING!”

Robert K. Stephen

RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Choose Your Friends (Baltasar Graciáno)

Choose Your Friends  

….they should become so after being examined by discretion, tested by fortune and certified not simply by your will but your understanding. Although the most important thing in life, it’s usually the one over which least care is taken: some are forced upon us, most are the result of pure chance. A person is defined by the friends they have, and the wise never make friends with fools.

Baltasar Graciáno, How to Use Your Enemies,1647.

RKS Travel: Destination Southeast Asia (Short Attention Span Version):18October2025: Bangkok: Beware of a Killer Salad!

18October2025: Bangkok: Beware of a Killer Salad!

Last night in Bangkok prior to flying off to Cambodia. We were to meet three other couples for a shuttle across the river to eat at a Thai-Italian fusion restaurant called Mazzaro. D and his wife arrived at our meeting point at the Peninsula Bangkok pier all flustered and out of breath having gone shopping and badly stuck in Bangkok traffic as bad as Bangkok traffic is as a matter of regularity. They bowed out so wishing us happy eating. A five-minute ride on the shuttle and a five- minute walk to the restaurant. So many tailors, massage parlors and a cannabis lounge.

I saw little evidence of any Italian influence as the menu was Thai more than anything else. I had a simple non risky meal of spring rolls, grilled pork chops and rice with two draft beers. Spouse had a shrimp dish which was mediocre. My pork chops were excellent and three of them! A large bottle of San Pellegrino all coming to $80CDN with service and tax.

I looked with alarm at what K had ordered. A gigantic lettuce and tomato-based salad. Was she on a suicide mission? We had seen a travel physician before we departed on the tour for advice and jabs. If you can’t peel it or it hasn’t been boiled you are asking for trouble in Thailand. K paid a severe price overnight, on the flight to Cambodia and the first day in Cambodia. Liquified innards!

I once had Montezumas in Mexico laying me flat for 48 hours and queasy for two more days…bloody jungle tomatoes thinking that was my 4th trip to Mexico and I was invincible!

RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Know How to Deflect Trouble to Someone Else (Baltasar Graciáno)

Know How to Deflect Trouble to Someone Else

Having a shield against ill will is a great trick of rulers. To have someone else who can be criticized for mistakes and chastised by gossipmongers is a sign of superior skill, not lack of competence as malice thinks. Have a fall guy, therefore, someone who, at the expense of their own ambition, can be a target for your misfortunes.

Baltasar Graciáno, How to Use Your Enemies,1647.

RKS Poetry Anthology: Did Someone Allegedly and Regrettably Get Horny With Stormy?

Did Someone Allegedly and Regrettably Get Horny With Stormy?

Someone I once knew well said all men think with their dick

What a sexist prick!

Like Adam and Eve private parts must be covered up

Or best said “settled” to supress the muck

Politicians must be careful with the dalliances they pick

As getting horny with Stormy they might be burning candles at both ends of the wick

It’s bad enough the 6Jan insurrection

But an alleged fling and improper papering is bad for the political complexion

And an indiscrete erection is a grand danger for re-election

Unless of course it is a Vermonters plot

Fuelled by CNN rot

Robert K. Stephen

RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Don’t Expose Your Sore Finger (Baltasar Graciáno)

Don’t Expose Your Sore Finger

….or everything will knock against it. Don’t complain about your sore points, for malice always attacks where our weaknesses hurt the most. Getting annoyed will only serve to spur on someone else’s enjoyment. The ill intentioned are always searching for a pretext to get your back up. Their dart like insinuations aim to discover where you hurt, and they’ll try a thousand different ways until they hit upon your most sensitive point.

Baltasar Graciáno, How to Use Your Enemies,1647.

RKS 2026 British Columbia Wine: Another Tempranillo Requiring Your Attention

Tempranillo and Canada are obviously bad bedfellows? You are mistaken. An increasing amount is being found in bottles of red wine from the Canadian province of British Columbia. Three cheers for that!

The Trumpster has referred to Canada as the land of the igloo people. Well for “Eskimos”  Trump may have read in his geography classes (if he went to school at all) Canada makes some great grape juice!

The last British Columbian Tempranillo I scored was an Inniskillin Discovery Series 2020 Tempranillo and it limped in at a 73/100.

How does the Maison Smith Montpetit 2022 Tempranillo fare?

A scant 100 cases were produced from 6 barrels. Aged in neutral French oak for 12 months.

Maison Smith Montpetit is located in the heart of the Similkameen Valley of British Columbia an organic epicentre.

Aroma: Density is perhaps the word that comes to mind. Thick and ponderous blueberry and blackberry with a tweak of Vermont black licorice and Serbian hazelnut wafer cookies.

Palate: Adjectives of bold and powerful in the glass because of carefully built structure and not the 14.5% alcohol. Broad based tannins with gentle acidity. Loads of blackberry. Long finish with slow fade.

Personality: I am a typical Maison Smith Montpetit wine which will impress with its purity and power. As with so many great Euro wines from Tempranillo grapes in Portugal and Spain consume me with food. This makes me more Old World than New World whatever that may mean!

Food: Douro duck casserole or grilled baby lamb.

Cellarbility: Slight improvement into 2027 but will hold stable until 2029.

Price: $40 CDN.

RKS 2026 British Columbia Wine Rating: 92/100. Gismondi 91.

(Maison Smith Montpetit Bottega & Vineyards 2022 Tempranillo, British Columbia VQA, Cawston, British Columbia, 750 mL, 14.5%).

RKS Literature: How to Use Your Enemies: Live According to the Common Practice (Baltasar Gracián)

Live According to the Common Practice

You shouldn’t reason and debate in an old-fashioned way and your taste should be up-to-the-minute.

Telling the truth and keeping your word are unknown today and seem like things from the past. Good men, although always loved, seem relics of better times, and so even if there happen to be any, they’re not emulated because they’re not in fashion. The misfortune of your century, virtue is taken as unusual and malice as the norm.

Baltasar Gracián, How to Use Your Enemies, 1647.

Destination Southeast Asia (Short Attention Span Version): Disapproval of the Body Pierced and Scantily Attired

18October2025: Bangkok: Hooky

Given the day’s afternoon activity consisted of yet another cruise and meal along the Chao Phraya River and commenced with a 08:00 departure one might say a long breakfast with other tour hooky people and two pots of jasmine tea overlooking the river was preferable. What a breakfast…as usual with papaya, mango, dumpling soup and Pad Thai on my buffet plate. Breakfasts so far at the Peninsula Bangkok and Singapore Shangri-La have been something to write home about.

Horror of horrors with my watch battery dying so instead of walking to the Icon Siam Mall to buy a battery I rode the Peninsula Bangkok water shuttle a beautifully restored ship with a captain that looked like a captain with his naval outfit.

A three-minute trip and a huge Diwali celebration at the Icon Siam pier. Cheap souvenirs, textiles, food and music. Finally found a jeweller hidden away to be and for $10 CDN a new watch battery.

Being a seafaring man, I took the return shuttle to what I thought to be the Peninsula but a return to the wrong hotel as we sailed on past the Peninsula Bangkok. Twenty minutes upriver past glitz and poverty. Dilapidated corrugated steel dwellings, rusty boats, clubs and restaurants. The crew were rough n ready types and the captain looked like a boat operator and not a captain. A slight smell of diesel fumes. The arrival hotel was where we had launched our welcome cruise two days ago so a quick trip to the WC. Jasmine tea is my favourite however the two pots caused immediacy on the bladder if you know what I mean. The return ferry which I had to wait for a few minutes dropped me back at Icon Siam Mall, so I walked home in nasty heat and humidity. I dropped into the 7-11 for a cold beer but no beer can be sold until after 17:00 and as it was just 16:00 I settled for a large mango juice and returned to the hotel. A sense of public morality with a city known for its decadence of which I witnessed none of. The Thai I encountered are polite, modest and welcoming if you behave and dress appropriately. There is a certain discrete disapproving look the Thai give to scantily dressed tourists which speaks forcefully about the Thai national character.