SaigonNezumi.com

(Russian Tortoise – Image Source: Wikipedia)

The other day I was surfing online which somehow brought me to the Wikipedia article on Russian Tortoises.  It brought back memories of the 1990s in Seattle.  As a student at the UDub, I actually owned 3 Russian Tortoises.  I think I bought my first two in 1993 if I remember right.  I had a UV lamp and made a small pen for my two tortoises I named Gorby and Tatiana.  An older Russian tortoise, Katya, joined the duo later.

Russian tortoises are quite easy to take care of.  I just fed them bok choy and romaine lettuce everyday.  During long weekend trips, I could leave them in my pen with a head of romaine lettuce.  For longer trips, my gymastic’s coach and his girlfriend would take care of them.

These guys are fun.  I let them roam my room when I am home.  You will be amazed at how much water their bladder can hold.  If they are scared, they can soak an entire pant leg which has happened to me on one occasion.  Most of the day they just soak under the UV lamp.  At nights, I would turn the UV lamp off at which point my tortoises would start to burrow underneath my wood chip bedding.  Since they were in my room, it would be annoying to hear their feet scraping on the wood floor of their pen but I think I got used to it.

Sadly in 1996, I had to sell them back to the pet store owner who sold them to me 3 years earlier.  I moved into an apartment complex that did not allow pets of any kind including fish.  I lost contact of my gymnastic’s coach so I had to let Gorby, Tatiana and Katya go.  Yeah, I do miss them.

Ironically, in the summer of 1998 which I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Karatau, Kazakhstan, some Kazakh students brought a couple Russian tortoises to me.  It turns out that in the Karatau area, there are many wild Russian tortoises.

In Vietnam, though, I have not seen any.  They are not as popular as the turtle.

Watch some funny YouTube videos on Russian Tortoises.

As many of you are aware, I lived in the Former Soviet Union for over two and a half years visiting the countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan.  Thanks to Facebook, I still can keep in touch with my former students and friends from the region.  I was offered a job in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that would have started next month.  I decided against it so I can focus on my new company instead.  It was a tough decision but at least I can still keep up with the region through the various blogs and news sites.

English Russia is by far one of the best blogs for the Former Soviet Union.  The posts are just interesting, I wish I could be as good as the site owner in finding similarly really interesting photos.  Today’s post makes me glad that I live in a brick house that, in theory, is more protected from fire.  “In Theory” in quotes actually

Fires seem to always happen in Russia such as the one below:

(Source: English Russia)

See more Fire Photos here -> http://englishrussia.com/?p=3982

From NewEurasia.Net, there was an interview of an Expat on living in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.  Read it, if Expats in Vietnam heed to his advice, their experience could just be as enjoyable as the Canadian interviewed.

By the way, Osh is one of my favorite cities in the world.  I spent nearly two weeks there back in 1999.  A really nice city with some of the best Central Asian cuisine in the world.  Cafe Osh, I miss you…

(Source: NewEurasia.net)

Read the entire interview here -> http://www.neweurasia.net/culture-and-history/interview-when-in-kyrgyzstan-do-as-kyrgyz-do/

I decided to make some changes to SaigonNezumi.com.  I changed the theme to Grid Focus by 5ThirtyONE.  I really enjoy this theme since it can be easily customized.   As you will notice, there is less clutter in the right two columns.  I removed the Blogger’s Link and added them to their own page within this blog at:

http://www.saigonnezumi.com/bloggers/

The Vietnam Links were also moved to their own page as well:

http://www.saigonnezumi.com/vietnam-links/

I also decided to change the name of the blog as well.  SaigonNezumi.com will now be known as SaigonNezumi’s Expat Pragmatist.  Expat Pragmatist was my other blog focusing on things such as the New World Order, the Japanese Samurai, Global Warming, etc.  I decided to combine these blogs since I did not have the time to maintain both of them. This will be the third time I changed the name of this blog.  The first name, if some of you can remember, was AmerasianWorld.com.

You can reach this blog at the following three URLs:

• http://www.amerasianworld.com
• http://www.saigonnezumi.com
• http://www.expatpragmatist.com

One of my goals is to better monetize this blog.  I will allow more advertisements, besides Google Adsense, to my blog now.

I hope you enjoy this new theme.  Please send me your feedback and comments.

I have been a fan of Transformers since my trip to Japan in 1982 where I bought one of the original Transformers.  I watched all the cartoons as a kid and saw the last Transformer film.  The sequeal is about to be released.  The movie trailers for Transformers 2 – Revenge of the Fallen are awesome!

Very impressive video by a Swedish Expat residing in Thailand.  Vivian posted a video responding to the insults by Western Expats in regards to the Thai King.  Her best advise, “I think you should go back to study something about other cultures before you post anymore of those stupid videos.”

Makes you think about the Expat community in Vietnam, doesn’t it?

Below are some Thai responses as well: