Website up!

The new website is finally up. Thanks to Guy for putting together a great new design. I'm not sure that I'll be able to keep the jungle-bar.com domain once Scott's subscription is up, so I still may have to transfer the site to jungle-bar.net. We'll see come the end of the month. Anyway, it's a relief to finally have the new site up and running.

One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

It is with a touch of sadness, but mostly relief, that I announce the departure of the big monkey hanging from the Jungle ceiling, destination not yet determined. Generally, I don't like big monkeys hanging over my head, and in this case I felt the dangling creature contributed to making a small place feel even smaller. There's also a bit of pruning of the vines going on at Jungle in an attempt to clean up the interior a bit, which vines I feel also created a cluttered feel without adding much.

Shanghai'd and more

It's been a trying week. My time in Bangkok wasn't as productive as I had hoped, as I had some difficulty finding stuff for Jungle I hoped to stock up on. So in the spirit of Barry's list at DV8, here's mine: refried beans, quality wash cloths, Masca cologne. Not too much to ask for is it? On the other hand I did have a good time. The bowling alley at MBK is quite a contrast to the old Hollywood lanes or Shatto in L.A., perhaps a bit too pristine but fun anyway. Perhaps Thais don't fancy 16 lb. balls because I shure couldn't find a ball of decent weight. I figure a 153 score with a 12 pound ball isn't too bad. And my billiard skills are improving -- I knew I'd learn a useful skill living in the third world. I made it back from Bangkok in time for one of the all you can eat meat-athons at Shanghai on Saturday, which, in and of itself was probably sufficient to do considerable damage to my digestive system for a while. But that wasn't good enough for me, so I followed that up by indulging my staff at Jungle with an evening of cocktail experiments. A couple of Long Island Ice Teas, B52's, Black Russians -- you see where this is going and it's not good. Not surprisingly my stomach has been a disaster the last couple days and put me in a rather foul mood. As it happens I will probably go back to Bangkok on Wednesday to represent the ROAC (Restaurant and Pub Owners Assn. of Cambodia) at a tourist expo so I'll get another chance to find my goodies for the Jungle. Hoping the stomach gets better before then, call me Mr. Fruit Salad from hereon. Good news though, is that the new website design looks very good. Should be up in a week or so.

Midget-Lions saga

The Phnom Penh Post reports the origin of the Cambodian Midget Fighting League (CMFL) vs. lions story to be one Sam Davies, a former intern. The exciting news is that Mr. Davies is offering a line of CMFL t-shirts and other goodies. Available at http://www.cafepress.com/lvmpremium . And background to the story is posted on Mr. Davies'site at http://lionvs40midgets.uk-directory.com/

We're ONLINE and Cool

After not a little bit of frustration Jungle Bar is now officially ONLINE. 7 networked ports, free with $4+ purchase, $1/hr otherwise. Tested speed is comparable to the faster internet shops (i.e. Sunny). Now we''ll have to see how City Link performs once they start up as their pricing is substantially cheaper than ONLINE. If City Link performs as advertised and ONLINE keeps their pricing constant they'll lose quite a few customers. New menu is out too and looks far better than the old one. The air-con is also up and running so the Jungle is quite a comfortable place these days. Off to Bangkok Monday, but Sunday I should have the first look at some ideas for the new website.