Flower Clown

Flower Clown Cleveland Ohio Flower Entertainment balloon twister

Trip 2002

I will fly to Kathmandu Nepal on 2/7/02. On April Fools day I will fly out of Kathmandu and fly to Amsterdam. While in Nepal I will take a side trip to??? Somewhere in South East Asia. Please check back for updated info and photos.

Ron aka Flower Clown

February 10,2002

Hello everyone
After spending about 36 hours in and out of airports I made it to Kathmandu.
Pradeepman picked me up at the airport. It has been a long fight and then add in
the time change. I am doing just fine.
I will send more later, just wanted to let everyone know I'm here.
Ronnie

February 14,2002

Hello
Not much to report but I wanted to wish everyone a happy V-day. I am staying at my friend Pradeepman's house. With no water in the house and eating off of the floor. It's not home but I have come to learn there way. I have been working on new costume orders for my tailor. I will return this year with many new costumes for myself as well as for others. This month is one of the wedding seasons for the Nepali people. I have been invited to many wedding parties. This will be helpful because I can make many balloons for the children.
I will be in Nepal till April 1st but sometime between now and then I hope to travel outside of Nepal. Tomorrow I will go to Kathmandu and look for a ticket. I hope to start out in Thailand and go from there.
My address in Nepal is
Ronald Fowler
c/o Pradeepman Bijukchhe
c/o Bhim Stationary Store
Shukuldhoka 8
Bhaktapur Nepal
Take care,
Ron Fowler

Photos from Bhaktapur & Kathmandu

Feb 25 2002
Well Flower Clown (Ron) has made his way to Thailand. The past few weeks in Nepal went well. I have started working on many new costumes and shoes. The past few days however I didn't get much done. The maoists had called for a nation wide strike. Everything was shut down. There were no shops, buses, motorbikes or any business of any kind. Well the government was still running and there was police in the streets just to make sure there were no problems. The night before last Pradeep's family had to sacrifice a goat to the God Brim which there store is named after. Brim is the God of business. In Hindu there is a God for everything. This took place around 2am. Pradeep knocked on my door but I was fast asleep. The next morning the whole family came to Bhaktapur to have goat and beaten rice. Both of which are not on my menu so I went out. It is nice to go out and eat something different. At the house its 3 meals a day of the same rice, greens, dhal and curd if I'm lucky. My flight was at 8am and I need to be at the airport a few hours early. We were going to go by motorbike but it was raining. A taxi just passed bye as we started off. We ended up taking the taxi. I am feeling better and I didn't want to get sick all over again. Bangkok has not changed much over the past 5 years since I was last here. It is HOT. I will spend just a few days here in Bangkok and then head south to the islands. I have talked with a few people and they have given me some ideas of things to do and see. I will be in Thailand for 2 weeks then I will return to Nepal to finish up my business there and say good bye to all my friends. I hope to find some magic shops while I am in Bangkok. I have a magic show set up at a school in Bhaktapur on my return.
Hope everything in your part of the World is good.
Ron

Feb 28,2002

Sawasdee from Thailand.

Today was spent walking the royal palace and getting lost. I did however walk into China town which I wanted to see anyway. While I was in China town I did some shopping. I found a cute little outfit for Alison my little friend from China. Tomorrow I will get on a bus and head a little south east. There is a small island near Cambodia. I is a national parks and most of the island is a rain forest. I thought about going to the more popular islands but I hear its just one big party. The party peaks on the full moon but I think that has already past. I will be away from Bangkok for a week then I will return before the weekend. I did find a balloon shop yesterday and picked up 5 bags. One of the sizes was about a 1X45 (the kind I make all the animals with) and the others had a asian print on them. Something different for the kids. I did look on the internet for some magic shops but I had little luck. I did however get a few phone numbers off line. I made so calls and with the help of a Thai I was able to make some contacts. A man that I called said he would call me back but I never heard from him. I will try again when I come back to Bangkok. I don't have a choice because I have set up a magic show in Nepal on my return. I sure hope I can pull this off. This year I have a new digital camera so I am taking a lot more photos. In Nepal I wasn't able to find an on-line computer that had a floppy. I do see one here on the computer so I hope to look through all my
photos and pick a few good ones. When I get home I will be able to add them to my web page so you all can see all these wonderful places.

Till next time...... On the road again.......

Ron (Flower) Fowler

March 2 2002

Hi its me again

Well today I went to the bus station to book my ticket to Trat but there is only bus service to Bangkok. Now what do I do? I may end up in Cambodia. That is ok I would rather see history than beaches. Ankor Wat it is one of the 7 wonders of the
World. I also talked with another backpacker and he said it was safe so...........I'll keep you all posted.

Ron

March3 2002

Well I am back on Khao San Road in Bangkok. I booked a bus ticket to Angkor Wat which is in Cambodia. It is some where that I have wanted to go but didn't think it was safe. Well after talking to some other backpackers I went ahead and got my ticket. The bus ticket was 250 Baht which is around $5. The visa which I get when I cross over is around $20. So much for the beach and sand. I plan on spending a few days there. I would like to go to Phnom Penh but from looking at the map there may not be a good road. If I can get a ticket from Angkor Wat to Phnom Penh I might do it. There is a train that goes from Phnom Penh to Bangkok so getting back maybe done via an overnight sleeper. I would like to get back to Bangkok by thursday or friday because I have to find a magic shop and ship a box at the post office. I don't want to carry all this stuff to Nepal because I know shipping from Nepal is a problem. If I ship over land from here it gets put on a boat but from Nepal it goes to India and who know where it ends up.
Tomorrow my bus departs at 6:30am. They told me the road isn't very good and the AC may not work so well. That sounds a lot like India, so I don't see a problem. I'll let you all know how Cambodia is in a few days. I am sure there is some where to send e-mail.

Ron

MARCH 6, 2002

Hello everyone

Well after a 13 hour bus trip I made it to Siem Reap. The town just outside of Angkor Wat. I checked into a hotel and then got up again early again. This time it was a 5am.Three other backpackers all of them from England went into Angkor Wat to see the sun rise from a small hill just inside the grounds. It cost us each $20 for the ticket and we also rented a taxi and driver which was an extra $5 each. Things are cheep here but they are chepper in Thailand. The town is set up for the tourists so we pay a little more. Angkor Wat was wonderful and I am very happy that I came. I took over 200 photos, not hard to do with a digital camera. Today I went to the market and found a few little things. I picked up some t-shirts and two walking sticks, one for Mary Beth and one for myself. I'll let her pick which is which. Tomorrow I think I will start heading back towards Bangkok. I might spend the night at the border and take a look around the large market they h! ave there. In Cambodia most of the things are priced in US dollar. They do have there own money but it is only used for things that are under one dollar or for giving change, also under one dollar. I did get some of the money just to have so I can bring it home. There is a disk drive in this computer so I am going to try and upload some photos to go along with this e-mail. I will start a new e-mail just in case there is a problem. When I get back to Bangkok I will try and find a magic shop and send off some mail. I don't know if I can trust the mail system here so I will wait till
Thailand to send off a box and my postcards.

I'll e-mail from Bangkok, till then take care.

Ron

Photos are from Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat	Angkor Wat

March 9

Hello again

Last night I was up till about 3:30am making balloons on KoSan Rd. In the after noon I hooked up with a magic dealer named Mr.Piolet. Most of his magic is imported from the USA, Japan and other counrtys. The cost was on the high side (around 300-400 u.s. dollar) but I am going to see him again on sunday. I hope he can sell me some magic that is more in my price range. At the end of the day he
had a friend of his named Jay who was going to guide me back to KoSan RD via the bus system. Well it never happened, we ended up sitting at a small food stand making balloons and then when his friend got off of work he drove us back to KoSan where I met three more of Jays friends. His friends sell t-shirts and other
things to the tourists on the street. We ended up just making balloons all night. Jay tought me many new balloons and I did the same for him. Today we are going to hook up again and go to the night market but that will not be till 1:30am.... So it is going to be another late night and then to top it all off on Sunday we are both going
to dress up and work at a street fair. Yes, Flower Clown will be in Thailand in full dress, make-up and making balloons for all the kids. I can't wait.

A little something different about Thailand. In a family when they get to about the 3ed or 4th child they raise there son to me a girl. Many times I see what are called Lady Boys. It is very common thing here in Thailand which is strange because most places look down on transvestites.

Today I am off to buy some more balloons. Some to send home and others because I am almost out of my travelling supply. I will then hit the weekend market to finish up my shopping and fill the big box I got from the post office. I will send it off on monday because there is no way I could carry it to Nepal.

Enjoy the photos as much as I did.

Ron (Flower Clown) Flower

Today I will fly back to Kathmandu. I had so much fun here in the past 3 days I am sad to go. Here are some photos from last night when Jay and I were working on Patpong Rd.
Sawasdee

Photos from Thailand and around Bangkok

March 11
Good Bye

Photos from London and Amsterdam

All Other Trips

Came back home on April 10

5/2/02