freakseeker67

North Carolina….is home! Well, actually, I haven’t lived there in over 20 years…but I get back as often as I can, most all my family lives there, and even if I never return to live there, it will always be HOME!

Hmmmm…I rarely say places I’ve visited are not worth visiting, but Brunei is one of those places that if I never go there again, I won’t really care or miss it. It was unbelievably hot and humid when I was there…but it’s not so much the weather that I didn’t like. I’ve been to many hot and humid locales…it’s par for the course in that region of the world, so near the equator. But in a region that is home to Buddhism, and generally a very care-free, happy outlook on the world…Brunei is a repressed, hardcore Muslim state that would be better suited being located in the Persian Gulf vice the Pacific. The strongest drink you can obtain here is a cup of coffee, and as is typical in most Muslim nations, the women are covered up and treated like second class citizens. I’m not a fan of the way Muslim women are treated nor trained from birth that they are not a man’s equal. And as is typical of a Muslim nation fueled by oil like the nations in the Persian Gulf, the vast majority of that oil wealth is controlled by the royal family (Sultan of Brunei), and very little of it goes to the good of the nation. There wasn’t much to see other than many very ornate Muslim temples…they roll up the streets at about 2100, and not much to do but drink overpriced coffee and buy pirated DVDs and computer software. Yeah, pass on this place if you can.

I had the pleasure of living in Sicily from 1991 to 1994. It was without a doubt one of the happiest times in my life. I absolutely loved it. The Sicilian people are great, the beaches are great, the food…is out of this world! I couldn’t eat in an Italian restaraunt for years after leaving Sicily, because once you’ve had the real thing…these pale imitations they attempt to pass off as “Italian” in the states just cannot compare. The Italian people are helpful and friendly, especially if you at least make an attempt at speaking some Italian, my Italian sucked but I always tried, and between my half-ass Italian and their English (most Italians, especially in the younger generations, know at least some English, but many won’t use it until you first try and speak Italian), I always managed to get directions, etc. The Greek ruins found on Sicily are in better shape and are more impressive than the Greek ruins you find in Greece. The amount of history that you can explore here just blows you away, I think every conquering army since ancient times has owned Sicily at one time or another, and they all left traces of their civilizations behind. Fontana Bianca, a small beach near Syracusa, was always my favorite, but Taormina was beautiful as well. Palermo, Catania, countless other smaller villages in between, there is much to see and do here…and as for the Italian women…very beautiful and very sexy…they have a certain way about them…an attitude…that makes them some of the sexiest women in the world.

Got to visit Iceland once for only a couple days. It was in September…and although it was probably nothing to them, I thought it was COLD…and windy. Of course, I had just come from Ponta Delgada in the Azores, but it was still cold if you ask me. I remember my first impression while landing, was it seemed like we were landing on the moon or something…there were no trees, and the land seemed so desolate. As it turns out, there aren’t many trees in Iceland…something about the force of the winds don’t allow many to take root. Three other things always stood out about about my short trip there…from what we were told, violent crime is almost non-existent there, that it wasn’t uncommon for women to leave their small children outside on the curb while popping into a store to buy grocercies, that it is just unheard of there for anything sinister to happen to them. It’s also very expensive from what I remember…a cheeseburger, fries and a “large” coke was over $14 US dollars…and this was in 1989. Lastly…it was home to some of the absolutely nicest people I met anywhere in Europe. They were very friendly. And the girls were quite attractive, alot of blue-eyed blondes…the air was crisp and clean…it seemed like a wonderful place, only wish I would have had more time to explore.

I spent a month here last summer, working while in town, but had the chance to get out and see some of the sites. There are some GREAT restaurants of all cuisines here (one of the best is an Argentinian steak house-sorry, can’t remember the name, and Seoul Garden, a Korean buffett that is just OUTSTANDING!120), and the night life is not bad at all. Absolutely beautiful women from all over the world are here in great abundance. Orchard Road is a great place for shopping, people watching, and to find a good cold beer. They also have an excellent mass transit system…trains run throughout Singapore and you can easily and cheaply get wherever you wish to go. They’re clean, efficient, and very inexpensive.