End of the road 05/16/2011
 
Picture
.I went into this “year of travel” saying that I had no expectations. Fourteen months later, I still think that was true but I think I was hoping for some “life changing” event to occur that would answer the big question of “what do I want to do with my life?” The truth is, now that it’s over I feel pretty much the same as I did when I left, albeit a bit more tired. I do know that the core ideas that led to my travels are still there and have only been reinforced by seeing the parts of the world that I did. The shitty thing is that this doesn’t make dealing with life and my purpose in it any easier to figure out. I thought I’d have a whole year to figure everything out while at the same time see the world. The truth is you don’t really feel like taking on such ambitious tasks when you’re seeing the world – you tell yourself you’ll have it figured out when it’s finally over. Well, for me now it’s “over” and I feel that by seeing the world I’ve probably gone the opposite direction of “figuring it out” in that I now see how many more options and places are really out there.

I honestly feel that I haven’t changed much in the past year. Maybe it’s because I had the chance to come back to the US for a few weeks in between each continent but I honestly think it’s just the nature of who I am. I admit that my skepticism and ego continuously prevented me from ever letting myself get to sucked into the backpacker subculture or get to far out of my comfort zone. I’m probably just being too critical of myself, which is crazy because that assumes that travel is something that can be graded. But that’s one of the phenomena that I continuously felt, the sense that I wasn’t seeing a certain place properly or was missing out on some “must-sees.” This sense of urgency probably led (or forced) me to see some things I wouldn’t have, but it also made something that should be relaxing and liberating quite stressful. I like to think that I eventually grew out of such an absurd notion, but even still there are feelings of missed opportunity.

Being essentially alone for over a year is an interesting experience, but honestly with technology it was pretty tough to ever truly feel alone. With the exception of being with Matt and Alan for a week in Europe and Nicole in Argentina for 5 days, I didn’t have anybody join me on my journey. Through work exchanges, visiting family and friends, volunteering and couch surfing though, I would estimate less than half of my nights were spent in traditional hotel/hostel scenarios. While I wouldn’t change how anything went, I would like to hopefully get the chance to travel (not vacation!  - I’ll discuss the distinction later) with a friend, or possibly a wife/girlfriend.  I just know that with a friend there for comfort and support I would have been more adventurous and had more interesting stories. It’s tough getting out of your comfort zone in a foreign country while at the same time maintaining concern for your health and safety.

I’ve seen so many things and experienced so many feelings in the past year that it’s tough to put my head around all of them. I felt excited landing in London last March, nervous at the train station in Toulouse upon realizing English is not very prevalent in France, comfort at Krista and Antoine’s in Nice, sadness when visiting Auschwitz in Poland and the Killing Fields in Cambodia, awe at the first sight of the Machu Picchu ruins, fear when getting a gun pulled on us when crossing the border of Ecuador and Peru, (I omitted that part of the story, mostly for my mom’s benefit. The paragraph is in italics at the bottom of this post) confusion in Thailand at not being able to even attempt to pronounce the calligraphy letters, anger in Hanoi while walking in the rain after being scammed by a taxi driver, anger again at realizing I had lost $500 in cash somewhere between Laos and Vietnam, despair when dealing with food poisoning in Mui Ne, and finally apprehension at returning home for good. It’s silly to think or treat this as something of a “final journey.” I can guarantee I will travel internationally again (possibly/hopefully even as soon as August to Spain) but most likely no journey will be as ambitious or have the duration as this. Most I will put into the category of “vacation” since to me a vacation is something to do for a couple weeks, as a break or escape from your everyday life. Travel, in turn is something that you make your life.

I’d like to be able to end with something about how this experience will affect the rest of my life or what I’ve learned from it – but to both I have no answer. I view this year as an education and if you had asked me on my university graduation day “what did you learn?” I also don’t think I would have had an answer. In both college and in my year of travel I learned a lot of things, but they are not the type of things that you can pin point or measure. I hope that I’ve learned to be more independent, more resourceful, and more outgoing but I think that only in time will I really find what I learned between March 18, 2010 and May 11, 2011.

Some facts
Countries visited: 26 - England, France, Italy, Vatican, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong (yes, I admit that the Vatican is a stretch)

Approximate cost: somewhere around $15,000 including flight, insurance and everything

Miles traveled: approx. 51,456 (according to the Google Map tracking my path that’s on my blog)

Sunglasses lost/broke: 13 (Europe - 6, South America – 4, Asia – 3)

Headphones lost/broke: 11 (Europe – 2, South America – 4, Asia- 5)

Flights: 30 (including 12 within Europe alone)

Trains (longer than 2 hours and only with all luggage): 8 (including 2 overnight; all in Europe)

Buses (longer than 2 hours and only with all luggage): 35 (4 – Europe, 15 – SA, 16 Asia) (6 overnight in SA, 5 overnight in Asia)

Taxis, ride share and other car rides: 3

Ferries: 2 in Asia, 1 in Europe

Different beds: 34(Europe) 38 (South America) 40 (SE Asia)

Originally omitted for Mom's sake:
I guess I should also point out that our Peruvian cab chauffeurs were not in marked cars – a big travel no-no in any city. So, upon getting to the hotel and eventually deciding on a price, we started to carry our bags towards the lobby. The cab driver was carrying Rebecca’s big kite-surf bag for her when I heard her scream. I turned around to see one teen boy trying to grab her backpack from her and then to see his associate pointing a very small, very old but very real gun at us. Being the only one to see the gun, I began running backwards while everyone else started running to help her. Whether it was the sudden crowd of guys outnumbering the teens or the alarm set off by the hotel worker, I don’t know but luckily they hopped onto the motorbike of their 3rd associate and drove off into the night. No one was hurt and nothing was stolen but it definitely shook all of us up and was pretty symbolic for the shitty day.
 
Hong Kong 05/12/2011
 
Picture
5/11/11

I got into Hong Kong with no problems and immigration was a breeze. Being a very modern city, finding the train into the city was pretty easy. I followed Doug’s directions on how to get to their place on the east part of Hong Kong Island and by 8pm I was in a taxi to their flat. Doug and Sasha are both teachers at an international school and their apartment is at the school. The campus was very nice and from their balcony you could see Tai Tam Bay. I didn’t do too much on Friday besides have a few beers and just talk with the Bakers. Staying with a couple originally from Indiana may have not been the most “authentic” experience but they had lived in Hong Kong for over 20 years and I could handle some “American comforts” in my last stop before heading home.

The next morning after breakfast we went on a hike since over 70% of Hong Kong is covered by country parks. The weather was beautiful and we followed a reservoir for awhile before climbing Violet Hill to get a pretty nice view of the city, or at least Central since there are very high buildings almost everywhere. After descending we took a bus back to the flat to take a shower. I had told Doug that one of the things I had read about doing was to take a tram ride, basically a bus/cable car that is used as public transport but also a good cheap way to see much of the city. Doug and I took a bus to get on the tram and then took the hour plus ride through the older more traditional Chinese neighborhoods to the modern high rise banks and shopping malls. Hong Kong and Singapore are probably two of the most modern and English friendly cities in Asia, but it seems to me that Hong Kong has a bit more culture and layers. Singapore is much more expensive (even though HK can also be pretty expensive) and can come across as a bit sterile. To me. Hong Kong has more dimensions to it – but that may also be just because I was able to see some other parts of the city.

After our tram ride, Doug and I met Sasha for dinner back in Stanley, something of a village on a peninsula near where they live. It has the feel of a little beach side town but I suppose in reality is more like a suburb. I think a large portion of the ex-pat population lives in that part of Hong Kong, but you seem to see a mix of non-Asian people wherever you go. Dinner was at a very established restaurant that the Baker’s had been going to for years and everything was very good. Hong Kong’s food is Cantonese (like the Chinese they speak) but I really can’t articulate the how Cantonese food differentiates from other mainland Chinese food. Two of the “foods to try” in Hong Kong – a city known for its food, are congee and dim sum, although I wouldn’t try either until my breakfast at the airport this morning. Saturday night wasn’t very late either as another hike was planned for Sunday.

Sunday’s hike was not as steep or taxing as Saturday’s. The trail we took was called Dragon’s Back as the hills we walked over sort of resemble a dragon’s back. Dragons seem to have quite the influence on HK as one seaside condo was built with a huge gap right in the middle of it just so the dragon that lives in the mountain has a way to the water. Also, every morning drums could be heard from the dragon boats practicing for competition – something like rowing albeit in special teak boats. The hike also provided pretty nice views of some of the outer islands and I was told visibility was quite good – sometimes pollution from China to the north can make things hazy as well as dangerous to exercise in. At school sometimes kids have to be kept in at recess because the pollution levels are so high. Our hike ended in the “town” of Shek O, another little beach town similar to Stanley. There we had lunch at Lulu’s, the Baker’s favorite noodle shop in all of Hong Kong. I could see why – the noodles were perfectly cooked, the barbecue pork was sweet and tender, and the broth was simply amazing. After lunch we fought the many, many couples taking wedding photos out on the rocks to explore a bit before crossing the jam packed beach to catch a bus back home.

Since the next day was Monday and Doug and Sasha both had school, I planned on spending the day in the city. I managed to find the right bus to take me into Central and then found the ferry terminal to take the Star Ferry across Kowloon Bay to Kowloon, the district to the north of Hong Kong Island that is attached to mainland China. Being a British Colony until 1997 when it was handed back to China, Hong Kong definitely has its colonial influences, especially on the island. Kowloon does as well but the further you get away from central, the more foreign feeling it gets. For lunch, I wanted to try to find a place that had dim sum, which may have been pointless since I had read dim sum is mostly for breakfast and dinner. I eventually popped my head into some sort of a food center with walls made from tarp and plastic dividers. There were photos of the dishes with the names in English but once I stepped in and sat down all bets were off. A man was brought over who I don’t even think worked there. While he may have been the best English speaker there, he didn’t really speak English but eventually we figured out that I would have the noodles with beef, mostly because that’s what he seemed to be pushing and I didn’t really care. It turned out to be really tasty – I don’t think I could have been disappointed with anything they brought me actually.

Afterwards I wandered around Kowloon a bit, while I probably should have taken the MTR further and closer to the border with China, I mostly walked around the Mong Kok market area. I was too early for the night market to get set up so just browsed in the more permanent shops and stopped to watch the old men drinking beer and playing mah jong. While it was interesting enough, I think that markets and such have joined the league of churches, temples and museums as things that are interesting the first few times you see them but eventually become one in the same. Heading back towards Kowloon Bay, I was able to take some photos of the skyline of Central from across the bay – which is basically impossible unless you have a super panoramic camera. That night, I met a couchsurfer who had stayed with Kyo in Singapore. Kyo had already emailed the guy to say that I would be contacting him, which was a bit presumptuous on Kyo’s part but then again I didn’t really know that Doug and Sasha were going to be so accommodating. Paul from England and I met for a beer in Causeway Bay, near where he worked and lived as a teacher. He was a nice enough guy and seemed pretty interesting but he was coming down with a cold or something and you could tell that neither of us was really that into the meet up. After our one beer, I said goodbye and headed to the Peak Tram, another old-style tram that takes passengers up to the peak overlooking the city. It was touristy and a bit expensive but the view of the city at night was worth it. I avoided the touristy and expensive observation deck and opted to take a walk on one of the country trails to another lookout that gave a much better perspective. The vastness of the city and skyline is simply amazing. At that point it was already nearing 10pm so I made my journey back to Tai Tam and the Baker’s flat. I discovered that knowing where to get off was much easier in the light of day and thus had to walk a bit as a result of my error.

Tuesday was a holiday for Doug and Sasha because it was Buddha’s birthday and a national holiday. Being the odd mid-week day off, neither of them had any plans. I was feeling a bit wore-out and had a sore throat –either as a result of the hiking, allergies, or the pollution. I didn’ feel like doing anything too ambitious so I walked to nearby Turtle Bay Cove, the nearest beach to the Baker’s and just hung out most of the day. Hong Konger’s vanity shows through at the beach with most of the guys wearing speedo style swimsuits and a few doing pushups while they sunbathed. I did manage to swim out to the raft at the end of the bay, mostly to feel like I did something productive for the day. While I suppose I could have tried to fit something more “cultural” or “hong kong-esque” into my day, it seemed that going to the beach was a pretty normal thing for the locals to do. For dinner Sasha made hamburgers, which seemed like a pretty fitting meal on the last night of my world journey.

I tried to stay up late last night and get up early today in the effort to get my body to start getting used to CST again. Hopefully I can fall asleep for a bit on the flight when it’s sleeping time in the US but midday in Asia. It might help but I’m guessing (and I’ve read and been told) that I’ll be fucked by the jet lag either way. The flight from Hong Kong to Detroit is something like 15 and a half hours and then another 2 hours after a 90 minute layover. So far, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of not thinking about my re-entry into normal American life. It’s not like I haven’t been back in a year – it’s just that both times I came home I always knew that I was leaving again. This time is different and to be completely honest I have no idea what I’m going to do next. Summer’s right around the corner I can see myself trying to enjoy being unhindered by a job. But sooner or later sitting around being unproductive will catch up to me and I’ll need to figure something out. If anybody has any ideas – by all means send them my way!

I’ll probably have one more post before this blog goes into hibernation –something like a summary or closing statements. I’ll also try to get all my photos up somewhere to look at. As of right now I’ll be back in MN in about 16 hours!
1 Comment
 
Singapore 05/06/2011
 
Picture
I didn’t get much sleep on the bus to Singapore. We didn’t stop as much but the AC was far too cold to be comfortable for any of the passengers. At about 7 am we pulled over to the side of the road in Johor Bharu so I could get on another bus going across the border to Singapore. We stopped at Malaysian emigration to get stamped out then proceeded to Singapore’s immigration, where I waited in line for about an hour – I’m guessing people still coming back from the Labor Day holiday. I eventually made it to the bus station, where I called my host Kyo from a payphone. I wasn’t very near an MRT station (train) so I just took a taxi to his place. Most Singaporeans live in high rise buildings built by the government – sort of like projects. Kyo told me that his development used to be a bit dodgy but these days were very safe. I honestly can’t imagine anywhere in Singapore being that dangerous since most of their laws are pretty strict and involve the death penalty and caning in some cases. Kyo’s place was small and he shared it with his dad, but I wasn’t expecting much since property in Singapore is some of the most expensive in the world.

Kyo was a pretty interesting guy who seems to have his hand in many little businesses which allows him a pretty open schedule with lots of free time. Some of his current ventures are salsa instructor, foreign currency day trader, and online coupon sales. He is also very into self help books and speakers. Needless to say, he was a very interesting guy to spend a few days with and very outgoing. After dropping my stuff off, we headed towards Sentosa Island since that’s where Kyo had taken his last CS guest. The island was a super developed tourist attraction that had a Universal Studios, artificial surfing, expensive restaurants and a few artificial feeling beaches. I suppose it would be a nice place to go if you had a ton of money and were on vacation, but I wasn’t about to pay hundreds of dollars to go “mock sky-diving” in a wind tunnel. After that we looked around at a mall a bit before Kyo headed back home to trade from 3-4pm (his designated daily trading time) and I went to the China Town area of the city.

While it was a bit more “traditional” feeling than the rest of the city, pretty much all of Singapore is sterile and modern feeling – so the Chinatown doesn’t really have the same flavor as the Chinatown’s anywhere else in SE Asia. In Singapore there is basically a shopping mall on every block so after wandering from the Chinatown I happened on to a few of them before finding a museum about the challenges of managing a city-state with limited resources like Singapore, one of the most densely populated nations in the world. It was fairly interesting but I mostly checked it out to avoid the heat, and subsequent rain. Due to its geographic location, it seems to go from crazy hot bright sun to sudden downpour within minutes at least once a day. I wandered around a bit more before heading back to Kyo’s place to get ready for dinner.

That night, we met one of Kyo’s friends for dinner at a hawker center – sort of like a food court where you can get any number of dishes. It’s a relatively cheap way to eat out in the city and seems to be the one place in this very wealthy city that all of its citizens (and visitors as something like 40% of the people living in the city are not Singaporean) patronize. The tables are basic and usually you sit on stools, but you see all kinds of people eating there from guys in business suits to kids in school uniforms. On Tuesday night we had chicken rice, one of the staple foods of Singapore (and Malaysia as the food is basically the same in the 2 countries.) It’s pretty basic with everyone getting a personal plate of rice and sharing a plate of roasted chicken, but the flavor of both the meat and the rice is very good and you can see why the dish is so popular. After dinner, we headed to a salsa club so Kyo could dance, and I think even more important network. I agreed to go but made it pretty clear that I would not be dancing, which was good because most of the people there were quite good. Instead I tried to drink my beers as slowly as possible as a pint of Heineken cost an astounding $12 a pint. Still, it was interesting to watch the dancers and the interaction between them.

The next day, Kyo and I woke up late and went to the Kopitommun (sp?) (coffee shop that also sells different kinds of food) in his complex for breakfast. Luckily, the dish he brought me to have was the roti that I had come to enjoy so much in Malaysia. While it cost about 3 times more in Singapore than it did in Malaysia, it was still as tasty. Kyo had some vague responsibilities he needed to take care of in his home office (the couch he sleeps on) so I headed off on my own to Orchard Road, the retail center of Singapore and after visiting I would say maybe the world. It’s basically just a long road with malls lining both sides for a few miles. My plan was to check a few of them out as I walked up Orchard, eventually making my way to the Botanical Gardens. The plan was going good until I went outside after lunch (I had a fish burger at a Japanese fast food chain called Mos Burger and the “bun” was made from 2 grilled rice paddies) and discovered it was raining extremely hard. Realizing that I wasn’t going anywhere for a few hours I explored the malls I had access to and ended up buying some clothes, mostly out of boredom.

Eventually the rain ceased and I could walk to the gardens. Much like the city in general, they were very well kept with everything in order and labeled. Still, its nice that the city does appreciate its park space, unlike many other cities in SE Asia – namely Bangkok. After a walk through the park and its tiny patch of preserved rainforest (which is what the whole island would be had it not been for the British settlement) I headed to meet Kyo after he was finished with his pole dancing class (yeah, you read that right – he takes pole dancing classes. I couldn’t tell if it was to meet girls or what. He said it had about 30 girls and 4 guys – 2 of which were gay.) We had a dinner of kwap chay, which was a noodle soup with a dark broth served with pork meat and innards – really tasty. Then it was onto another place where it was a salsa night, although Kyo would not be dancing - both because it was mostly beginners and also because he was sore from his class. Instead, he was meeting with the bar owner to hopefully sign them up for his online coupon venture. I mostly surfed the internet on my ipod while he gave his pitch but it was interesting to listen to the 2 speak in their “singlish” which is most English but with some mandarin Chinese words thrown in – most noticeably the word “la” thrown in at the end of sentences for emphasis – sort of like Canadians and “ay.” Again, we caught the night bus back to Kyo’s place since the MRT stops running at midnight and I fell asleep immediately, whereas Kyo told me his stayed up until 3:30.

The next morning we went back to the same spot for breakfast but instead of roti I asked about kaya toast, which I had read is what most Singaporeans eat for breakfast. It’s basically white toast spread with kaya – a coconut and egg based spread smeared on it. Then you eat the toast sandwiches with half-boiled eggs, so even less cooked than soft boiled eggs. Normally they come in their shell and you crack them into a bowl and mix them up to dip your toast in. It was good enough and I’m glad I tried it, but it was nowhere near as good as the roti. Kyo had another CS guest that he had already confirmed to stay with him before I sent him my resquest, so Thursday night I stayed in a hostel. Since he was busy again on Thursday, he figured I could wait until she showed up and maybe we could go sightseeing together. I told him I’d meet her and decide upon my impression. Kyo’s said she was from South Africa when she was actually from Turkey and had just been living in South Africa working as an architect for the past 3 years. She seemed pretty cool so we agreed to spend the day together. After dropping my bags off at the hostel, we headed toward the central business district to see some of the skyscrapers and the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which is 3 towers with a boat shaped infinity pool on the top. Neither of us wanted to pay $20 to go the top so we just took photos and continued walking. Honestly, nothing in Singapore is really all that interesting to see and it seems more like a nice place to live (although expensive) rather than visit. The building are all pretty nice and modern but they just seem to lack a depth of culture, which probably results from a mix of the government’s strict and sterile laws as well as how young the city-nation is. With that said, it was interesting to see the durian shaped Esplanade theatre, Little India and it’s 24-hour Mustafa Center shopping complex, as well as the historic Raffles Hotel, named after the “founder” of the city.

That night, Melamet (I think that’s how you might spell her name) walked to Clarke Quay, where it was also possible to spend $12 on a beer in search of some live music, since she really didn’t want to go and watch salsa – which is what Kyo was doing on Thursday night. We found a public concert but soon got bored with it and instead bought some slightly cheaper beers at the 7-11 and found a spot on the bridge to talk and enjoy the lights of the city. It’s always interesting to hear other’s opinions of America and the US. One interesting topic was whether only those from the US could or should be called Americans, since in her opinion anyone from North or South America could call themselves an American. I technically agreed but told her I didn’t think anyone from North or South America not from the US would ever seriously introduce themselves as America simply because the English vernacular for American means someone from the US. At around 11pm, we got on the MRT while it was still running. I got off and went to my hostel while she headed on to Kyo’s. Its funny how right as my travels are about to end I seem to be getting better, or at least more comfortable with people I meet. As we said goodbye, I wanted almost wanted to say “well, if this had been a blind date, I probably ask you out again” but I didn’t because that would be just weird.

So, now I’m on a Tiger Airways flight from Singapore to Hong Kong. I’ll be staying, at least for the first few nights with my cousin Krista’s husband’s uncle and aunt, who have been teachers in Hong Kong for a number of years. I’m excited to see Hong Kong but I know that the proximity to my return to Minnesota will cause my mind to be partly elsewhere. I’ll be in HK for 5 nights before my long flight back to the US on May 11th.
 
 
I’m on an overnight bus and tomorrow morning I’ll be in Singapore (by the time I’m able to post this I will be in Singapore.) While in general, the quality of buses and roads in Malaysia are better than most countries I’ve taken overnight buses, I’ve only been on the road for an hour and we’ve already stopped to pick people up about 6 times. As soon as I learned that this was a busy weekend on Friday, I went and rented a scooter to drive into Kuah, the biggest town on the island and apparently the only place you can actually buy bus tickets, to make sure I got a bus to Singapore. There was only one booth selling bus ticket so it’s not like I had any other options or choices in terms of what bus I took. Whatever, at this point there is no point in getting worked up about things like this. Whereas at beginning of my trip, even after buying something, I would continue to ask around for prices. I’ve learned to knock shit like that off as its not like you can get a refund anywhere and the knowledge that you overpaid only pisses you off.
So after the chaos of my Friday morning and the realization that I wasn’t going anywhere I had some lunch and rented the scooter. It was good to at least be able to know what day and time I would get to Singapore. I had grown so used to being able to just book things like buses mere minutes before leaving that things being full never occurred to me. I didn’t do much else besides get some dinner, have a few beers and plan out what I would do the next couple days.
Not that my Saturday and Sunday really require much planning as both days all I did was rent a scooter and then drive to some other beach on the island. Saturday morning I woke up fairly early to go have a breakfast of roti canai – an Indian dish that’s basically a crepe folded up with things like bananas or eggs inside – I discovered them by mere chance on my walk to the ferry in Georgetown. Not only are they really good but super cheap at around 50 cents each. Two of those with a cup of the very sweet coffee they serve make for a pretty filling breakfast for less than $2. Sadlly, despite my plan to eat them for breakfast everyday, I didn’t wake up early enough to get there in time on Sunday or today. After breakfast on Saturday I cut across the island, something like 30 km to Tanjung Rhu, a protected beach on the northeast side of the island. After a short walk, I had an entire beach to myself with nobody else within view and along with the tree I could side under for shade I would say it was a pretty perfect spot to spend the day.
On the scooter ride back to Pantai Tengah (the beach my guesthouse was near) I stopped at a couple other beaches I saw on the map, including a “black sand” beach – but they were pretty lame and I had made the right choice where to spend my day. That night, I wanted to try to catch the sunset so I had dinner at a restaurant on the beach and while I did take it in, the number of vacationers on the beach sort of ruined it. It was pretty clear it was a holiday weekend. Since I hadn’t planned on staying longer, I had to change rooms at the guesthouse and spend Saturday and Sunday nights sharing a triple with 2 other Swedish guys. They were nice but a little weird, but it saved me a couple bucks and the room had AC, which was a nice treat. I planned on turning in early and repeating my same agenda on Sunday, although on a different beach. Except when I went to put some fruit in the fridge, I ran into a couple I had met a few nights early who were drinking with the owners. They invited me to have a beer with them and I obliged. Before I knew it, it was 4:30 in the morning and I needed to sleep. Needless to say I didn’t wake up very early.
While I’m sure all the beer I drank the night before played a large role, I think the fried anchovy appetizer I had for dinner made me a little sick and I wasn’t really up and moving until well after noon. After getting up and having something to eat, I felt better and headed off to find another beach, this time on the northwest side of the island, While the beaches are pretty nice, just getting out of the main beach area where I was staying and riding through the hills of the jungle (on nice paved roads I should add) was pretty fun and a good way to cool down since just standing causes you to sweat. This beach, Pasir Tengorak wasn’t empty and I shared the small little cove with numerous Malay family enjoying their Sunday, I also witnessed a team of monkeys descend on a young couples picnic bag, stealing damn near everything while the 2 went for a swim. Trying to help when one of the monkeys came back, I tried to scare it off by waving my shirt. The damn thing just looked at me like I was stupid and went about going over the food. It wasn’t until the teens playing soccer nearby came and threw rocks and sand did the pack of monkeys finally scatter into the jungle. With that, I decided to pack up and make the 30 minute drive back to attempt to catch a better sunset. I found a spot back on Tengah Beach and luckily it was under a tree, because it finally started to rain after threatening all day. I had a late dinner of fried soft shell crab and squid while it rained outside and went back to my room to watch some TV on my laptop before going to bed.
Today I enjoyed having the large room to myself for a few hours since the Swedes had left at 8 to catch a boat to Thailand. I had planned on heading to another beach for a few hours but got a late start and the combination of cloudy skies and an AC room changed my plans. I instead checked out at noon, went to get lunch (and again get told that the roti canai was finished) and buy a gift for my couchsurf host in Singapore. At 2 I took a taxi to the ferry terminal, but not before seeing on CNN that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Again taking notice that it was a holiday weekend, I found the departure hall absolutely packed with families waiting to get back to the mainland, I don’t know what the fuck they were all doing but I just walked on to the ferry right away while it seemed to take them a good 20 minutes to figure out how to get on the boat and find their seats. I then had a couple hours to kill in Kuala Perlis before my bus left, so I got some food at KFC – not because its good, but because they have AC and free wi-fi.
Tomorrow will be 8 days until I come home and I don’t really know how to feel. I’m going to try to just stay in the moment and enjoy both Singapore and Hong Kong, but the knowledge that you’re going to have to “start your life again” in a little over a week is kind of intense.
 
 
Picture
My bus got to Butterworth and I had no trouble finding the ferry terminal to get across to Georgetown. Almost as soon as I stepped off the ferry though it start to rain hard, not good since I didn’t have anything booked and had planned on just walking around to find accommodation. I made it into an Indian restaurant and just pointed at something on the menu, mee goring since I at least knew that mee meant noodles. It turned out to be really good with egg, tofu and spicy onions and garlic. Even better it only cost about a dollar. After waiting out the rain, I walked a bit and found a suitable room. Still being a bit rainy, I chilled out in my room a bit and decided to drink some of the vodka from Cambodia so I could transfer it from the glass bottle to a plastic one.  At night I walked around the old colonial city and enjoyed some satay at something like a food night market.

The next day I planned to take a self-guided walking tour around the old town, as that’s basically the only recommended thing to do in Georgetown. The mix of European, Malay, Indian and Chinese influences is definitely apparent in not only the food, bu the buildings and streets as well. For lunch I had duck rice -crispy roasted duck with a nice sauce and rice and for dinner I had laksa – a fish broth with noodles and cendal – shaved ice topped with corn, beans and colored noodles and coconut milk. The soup was pretty good but the dessert was pretty damn gross. It’s really hot in Malaysia and walking around all day had taken a lot out of me. I had to get up early the next morning anyway to catch a ferry to Pulau Langkawi, an island near the Thailand border, so I tried to go to bed early and get some sleep.

The ferry was a smooth ride and I arrived on the fairly large island around 12. As soon as I arrived at my guesthouse I met a Moroccan girl, Hind who asked to use my computer to transfer some photos. We got to talking and got along well, so I agreed to go on the scooter she had rented to a different beach to meet a couple other girls from Poland and Italy (although they both live in London.) After some time at the beach, Hind and I went on her scooter to see moe of the island and found a really nice, less crowded beach to explore on the north side. While I had done my best to keep up with the sunblock, I could feel the burn setting in and knew that I would need to avoid the sun for the next few days. That night, the 4 of us met for dinner but didn’t make it too late of a night since getting up early and so much sun had drained me.

Thursday morning, we went on a “island hopping” tour which involved taking a boat to 3 of the other 99 islands that make up Langkawi. The first island had a bunch of aggressive monkeys that attacked at the first sign of a plastic bag, since they associate plastic with food, as well as a fresh water lake that you could swim in. The second island we didn’t even get off, but tossed some chicken parts in the water to feed the many eagles that lived nearby. Lastly, we stopped at an island with a pretty nice beach where all of us laid out in the shade. It was nothing special but for $10 it wasn’t a bad way to see some of the other islands nearby. We were back by 1:00pm and while the 2 Europeans went to the beach, since it was the last day of their vacation, Hind and I took the scooter to find a nearby waterfall. It was pretty easy to find as the island is quite touristy and well marked. The waterfall was pretty good, more like water flowing over a really big rock than actually falling, but pretty nonetheless. After that we went to Pentai Tengah, the beach near our GH to take a swim and cool off.

I had planned for Thursday to be my last night in Langkawi and I was to go to the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula to go to a different island for a few days. I had 2 options, either in the north or the south. The lady at reception was to call the bus company when I checked out today at 12 to see how full the bus was and how early I needed to take the ferry back to the mainland to catch the bus. So I packed up all my stuff, ready to spend the next day in transit but it turns out that its Labor Day weekend here and there are no buses to either of the places I wanted to go until Monday. I’m flying out of Singapore next Friday and have already lined up a couchsurf for Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so I really don’t have the time to make it to either of the islands I wanted to see. It sucks but I luckily haven’t had too many problems like this so far in my travels –which are now almost over.

At first I accepted staying here for a few more days, but Hind invited me to join her in going to Koh Lipe, an island in Thailand only about an hour away by ferry. I was about to go with her to the harbor until my rational self kicked in. It would have been no problem (except $40 each way) to get to Koh Lipe, but I really need to book a bus to Singapore and they don’t take reservations – so I would have needed to go to the bus company on the other side of the island. I also needed to get cash, as there is really nothing on Koh Lipe for convenience. I was literally about to get in the cab to go to the harbor with Hind but better judgment prevailed and I returned to the GH I had just checked out from. It’s probably for the best after spending the last couple days with her, I was looking to maybe have some time only on the beach, maybe a little reflection since my journey is almost done. Plus, while Hind was pretty cool and pretty, she also had a boyfriend which sadly killed any notions of possible romance with her.

So now I need to figure out what to do for the next few days. I’ll probably rent a scooter myself and go book a bus to get down to Singapore but it looks like rain and there aren’t any scooters available at the moment. I may also try to go to some other city in southern Malaysia since I’m already sunburned and feel like I’ve seen quite a bit of Langkawi already. Plus, it’s pretty touristy with nice resorts and stuff. I was hoping to find something similar to the deserted beaches that I saw in Cambodia, but now it seems there won’t be time to do so. All I know is that I’m getting tired of having to plan shit like where to go, where to sleep, where to eat and how to get there. Only 12 days left until I come back home.
 
 
Picture
My flight was short (made even shorter by a time change that I was unaware of) and soon my flight landed in KL. After waiting for over an hour in line for immigration, I walked out to the main terminal and immediately noticed how modern Malaysia was. I found my bus into the city and marveled at how smooth the roads were, allowing traffic to actually flow. They even seem to have something similar to an actual interstate which will make bus travel here much more efficient. I arrived at KL Sentral, the main transit hub in the city and called my host August from a payphone to come pick me up. She picked me up and went to lunch at a Pizza Hut since she wanted pizza and apparently this was the only place around that had pizza. I was pretty hungry so didn’t really care. From there we drove to her apartment just before a thunderstorm developed. I laid down to take a 30 minute nap but ended up sleeping for an extra hour. Not a big deal as she had fallen asleep also.

After waking, we got back in the car and went for a dinner of traditional Malay food. The place we went had a bunch of ingredients laid out and I think you basically just pick what you want fried with your rice – I just told her to order for me. It was very good but nothing life changing as it was really just fried rice with some vegetables, meat and spices. I have to admit, in many cases I can’t distinguish between the food in these Asian countries – some dishes, yes; but the standard of rice with a meat and sauce, no. From there, we drove a bit more and parked near the KL Towers – 2 amazing looking twin building that up until a few years ago were the tallest in the world. Luckily there were light up this night and I was able to get some pretty good photos. Sadly, trips to the top observation deck were closed. Not sure if I would have been able to anyway since August told me that you needed to buy tickets a few days in advance. Inside, there was a  really fancy mall with shops like Gucci, LV and Hermes – but it was 10pm so all of them were closed. The last thing we did on Saturday night was to go to Chinatown for the night market. Again, being late things were closing down but I was able to do some (unsuccessful) bargaining with a shoe vendor. It’s probably for the best as I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to find similar markets in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Sunday morning we both woke up pretty late. After breakfast, she drove me to the Batu Caves. This big granite mountain is near hear house and inside the caves are some Hindu shrines, so many of the cities Indian population come here to pray and get their foreheads marked by some holy man. The most interesting (and exhausting) thing was the 200+ step staircase you climb to get to the caves. Along the way are a bunch of monkeys that just sit on the steps eating fruit like they are tourists as well. Taking the suggestions of August, next we drove outside of the city to a reservoir and river where families were picnicking on the Sunday afternoon. It sort of looked like Minnesota except for the slightly more mountainous surrounds and the thick jungle surroundings. At the river, a bunch of people were in the water in their clothes – a common, albeit goofy sight in Asia. Back in the car, it started to rain again and we barely got to the food court for lunch. Ordering on my own while August held down the table, I basically just pointed at something but it turned out to be pretty good – really fine glass noodles in a dark sauce with chicken, squid and green onions.

Honestly, it seemed like there isn’t really a whole lot of stuff to see or do in KL. It’s a modern but still hectic city. After lunch, August took me to the National Mosque but as we were pulling up you could hear the call for prayer being broadcast from the minaret so unless we wanted to wait, going inside was closed for non-Muslim tourists. August either really didn’t like to walk or really loved her car because again we drove to Merdeka Square, where Malaysia became independent from the UK in the 50’s. It still has a very British feel and the large green lawn in front of the flagpole was clearly used as a cricket field. August was going to make some Malay food so we then went to the grocery store. The least I could do was pay for the groceries since she had basically been driving me around all day. She made 2 dishes, both served alongside white rice. One was a chicken curry with a coconut base and the other was chicken with a dark sweet sauce made from onions, oyster sauce, ketchup, garlic and I’m sure some other stuff. Both were super good, I just don’t think had I been served them without somebody knowing I could have said that they were Malay.

After dinner, August asked if I wanted to go out anywhere. She doesn’t drink and doesn’t like bars so I had to ask what exactly that meant. She suggested either a movie or karaoke, but since for her, since she loves karaoke so much it means staying out until 4am, movie it was. The selection was pretty dim, even with 2 US movies and 3 from Hong Kong (that I was told are all subtitled in English.) We chose Red Riding Hood, which was pretty bad but at least in its original English (and subtitled in both Malay and Mandarin.) I felt really bad about forgetting to pick up a gift in Cambodia to bring my host, which I usually try to do when staying with someone so I paid for the movie as well. Despite my attempts to make things even, it still felt a bit weird. The combination of her cooking meals for me, insisting on washing and folding my clothes and driving me around all day made it feel not so much like a blind date (which is how I have felt a few times in the past) but more like an escort of sorts. It felt that she was just looking for companionship, and maybe a bit of attention since it seems to be very rare (and almost taboo) for a Malay (muslim) girl to be with a white, western guy. Along with some awkward (at least for me) arm touches, I felt that 2 nights were probably enough in KL and decided I would move on on Monday.

August seems to come from quite a strict Muslim family, of which she seems to completely reject most of their ideals. Unlike her sisters and mother, she doesn’t wear a headscarf and has never prayed. From what she told me, her father basically rejects her because of the headscarf thing and she wasn’t allowed to visit him in the hospital recently in the far that friends might see her without. A couple years ago, she was at some male classmate’s house working on a project on was reported by some neighbors for breaking Shariah Law. While this isn’t a criminal offense, there are 2 courts and she was tried and convicted by the one and fined 3,000 ringgit (about $1000.) Had she not been able to pay, she would have gone to jail for 3 months. So it seems that even though on the surface this country seems very modern and progressive, it still is a very different place from home. I can sort of see why the expats sort of separate themselves in their own little communities/neighborhoods.

Right now I’m on a 4 hour bus ride to the city of Georgetown on Pulau (Island) Penang in the north. It’s a very nice bus and I’m pretty sure it has a toilet on it, but we’ve already stopped twice. I’m not complaining because they are actually rest stops we are at, rather than the shitty restaurants you stop at in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. I think the real reason we are stopping (at least one of the times) is so the passengers can pray. Malaysia is a very Muslim country (the crescent moon is on the national flag) but so far it doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all – at least for me. As I said the roads are good, they actually have mostly cars on them instead of motorbikes (and most of the cars are Malay brands of Proton and Prododua,) people seem to follow traffic laws, and like are just much more modern. So it seems my reclamation to the modern, developed world and coming back to the US has begun – only 17 days left.
 
 
My overnight bus trip from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville was not ideal. It was about 5 and a half hours to Phnom Penh on a sitting bus. There we got out and waiting on at the bus office for 90 minutes before getting on a sleeping bus at about 2am. Four hours later we pulled into Sihanoukville and I got a mototaxi to the GH the British guy I had met in PP had recommended. Luckily, the security guard was able to check me in a give me a key to the cabana so I could get some sleep. For $8 there was no AC, but there was a fan and I was really fucking tired so it worked. I woke up around 10 to get something to eat and found that Lee (the British guy) was still there with his 2 friends. They had been partying pretty hard for the past few days so hadn’t gotten around to making it to any of the islands that are possible to get to from Sihanoukville. I spent the rest of the day walking on the beach, which was decent enough but not too clean with a fair amount of garbage washed ashore. I think that’s what makes the islands and their pristine beaches more alluring. I eventually just parked myself at a bar for a couple hours until heading back to the GH for another nap.

That night we went out for dinner and some drinks but I was tired from the bus trip and the rest seemed tired from the past few days. The next morning I decided to book a couple nights at Koh Rong, an island 2 hours away by boat with nice beaches and only power by generator from 6-10pm. Lee’s friends (a couple) were already going, but to a different resort about 5 minutes from the one I booked. Resort may not be the best term as its mostly just shacks on the beach with a restaurant. Lee was still on the fence about going but I convinced him to come and split my cabana since it had 2 beds and would only by $15 split 2 ways. At 1:30 pm we departed the port in Sihanoukville on  a boat packed to the gills with backpackers as well as ice and other supplies for the “resorts.” Pulling up to the island, it was hard not to smile as you could easily see there wasn’t much there – a good thing. Beside a tiny village with some shacks and the 3 “resorts” there wasn’t really anything to the place. Our place was the last of the 3 resorts and about a 10 minute walk up the white beach with sand so fine that it actually made a squeaking noise with each step. Also unique to this beach was the occasional water buffalo cooling off in the sea – which was cool until one of them took a dump, clouding the water temporarily.

With a couple hours of daylight left, I went for a swim in the crystal clear water and could see tiny stingrays in front of me as well as school of flying fish skipping across the water.  It was too bad I was flying to Malaysia from Phnom Penh on Saturday because I probably could have spent longer than 2 nights on the island, despite the lack of modern conveniences. The quality of the food was a bit of a surprise, especially since the chef was actually a guy from Italy who made pizzas from scratch with a proper wood burning stove. It was definitely the best pizza I’ve had in Asia and topped with fresh shrimp and squid right up there with any pizza spot at home. After the power got cut at 10pm, we watched a movie on my laptop and admired at how bright the stars and moon were, thus not even really needing the electricity to see. The clear skies didn’t last though and we were awoken by a very loud thunderstorm. The rain was so strong that we had to close all the shutters, making the cabin pretty damn hot considering there was no fan (no electricity.)

Luckily, as the sun got hotter the clouds disappeared and my fear of another potential beach day getting ruined by rain diminished. A short hike north of our place opened up to an even more deserted beach of white sand that went on for a few kilometers. The four of us enjoyed the empty beach and warm water until I knew I needed to get out of the sun, so Lee and I headed back to our place to get some lunch. We split another pizza and after joking with the staff about the egg that one of the resident chickens had laid on the lounge chair on our deck, we got it on top of our pizza – pretty good. I attempted to do some snorkeling but the combination of a rough sea and crappy equipment caused me to give up pretty quickly after only seeing a few fish and some pretty decent coral. That night we went for dinner at the friend’s resort and enjoyed some cocktails as the seemed to leave their power on a bit later. Again, we were woken in the middle of the night by rain, which seems to be quite common although when we asked about the storm in Sihanoukville, only 40km away – they claimed it only got windy and they didn’t even have any rain.

Lee and I took the boat back to Sihanoukville on Thursday and we were lucky enough to be able to get a bus back to Phnom Penh right away. While we could have stayed in Sihanoukville another night, there was no point since the beach isn’t as nice as the island and for the same price of a room, we could get AC in Phnom Penh. Plus, by getting to PP on Thursday I would have a day before flying to Kuala Lampur. We got back to our GH in PP around 7:30pm and went out for dinner and some beers. I slept in on Friday and got some stuff done like printing my boarding pass, getting my watch fixed and buying some stuff – including a bottle of vodka since alcohol is apparently quite expensive in Muslim Malaysia.

So now I’m at the surprisingly nice airport in Phnom Penh about to get on my flight. I’m pretty tired as I went to bed at about 1am and woke up at 6, but hopefully I can take a nap on the plane. I’ll take a shuttle to KL Sentral (I think it’s a metro station or something) where I will call my couchsurf host, August to come pick me up. I’m eager to get to Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong as they should be more modern countries – but I’ve also been warned that Malaysia and Singapore will be really really hot. I liked Cambodia much more than I thought I would and actually wouldn’t have minded staying a bit longer. Not that there was too much more to see in terms of tourism, but I liked the people I was with and found the people quite approachable. With that said, I honestly hope I don’t hear “motorbike sir” or “tuk tuk sir” again for the rest of my trip or have to witness the type of poverty that causes barefoot women to carry their babies around all night begging for money, tuk tuk drivers sleeping in their cart because that’s where they live, or child gangs forced into selling counterfeit books.
 
 
I went downstairs to have breakfast at my guesthouse at around 730am on Friday since KB said she would pick me up at 8 to go to the ruins. To my surprise, she ws already there and said we would go eat noodles for breakfast (no explanation as to being 30 minutes was given.) So I quickly ran upstairs to get my things for the day and off we went. Even though I know nothing about the Khmer New Year holiday and how its celebrated, you could still feel that it was a happy time for everyone around. The restaurant we went to was packed with all the tables full of large families. I’ve had quite a few noodles/soups thus far in SE Asia but I would have to give my vot to this place for the best actual noodles – the broth was good too but it was the noodles that made it. It probably helped that I could see the kid in the back rolling out the fresh dough and then cutting it into strips for our breakfast.

The entrance fee to the Angkor Archeological Park is $20/day or $40 for 3 days (free for Cambodians.) They even take your picture and print it on a little card that serves as your entrance ticket. Since there are many ruins in the park and “one day is not enough” I bought the 3 day pass. My first day with KB’s family we mostly just hit the big temples of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon and Ta Prohm. While they were impressive and vast, I think going there on the biggest Cambodian holiday of the year probably took a bit away from them. Not that they aren’t probably always busy, but its probably like going to New York during Christmas shopping – an always busy place during its busiest time. Plus, like almost everywhere in Cambodia you get absolutely hounded to buy crap from little kids and fruit or other food from their mothers. The ruins definitely deserve their place as one of the “new 7 wonders of the world” especially considering that around 1000 years ago it was likely the largest city in the world. But, I was expecting it to be on the level of Machu Picchu in Peru and for me it was not even close. Machu Picchu has the mountain setting on its side, but also it’s really difficult to get to – which adds to its allure and keeps the thousands of motorbikes away.
It was really fucking hot but at least the first day I was in KB’s car with AC to ride around. After about 4 hours I was pretty beat though (so were they) and they dropped me off at my GH. I got in a quick nap plus a dip in the pool before they picked me up again to go to the Cambodian Cultural Village and their festivities for the New Year. It was $5 for locals and $11 for tourist and I probably wouldn’t have gone if not invited by KB. Depicted were 11 mock villages of different cultures within Cambodia with actors and dancers acting out traditional customs and dances. It was sort of interesting but again, absolutely packed and we ended up leaving before the big final dance, mostly because there was nowhere to sit. After that, we went to dinner at a friend’s restaurant. Nobody said too much, both because we were all tired but also because we didn’t speak each other’s language. All in all, I had a really good time with KB and her family and was very glad for them to welcome me into their family for the holiday. They dropped me off at my hotel and we said goodbye. The next morning they were going on to another city about 4 hours away the next morning while I was staying for a few more days.

On Saturday, I was in no mood to get up early and spent the morning around the pool. At around noon, I hired a motorbike driver for the rest of the day (they don’t rent them to tourists in Siem Reap without drivers) to go see more ruins. My driver spoke very little English but he did manage to tell me that he was Cambodian and he had never seen some of the ruins he took me to – maybe because we were going to some of the more out of the way ruins further away from Angkor Wat. Because of this, he would walk around the ruins with me unlike the other drivers who you could see waiting on the road to the entrance. I didn’t mind because it was kind of fun to give the guy a chance to see them, plus I had someone to get some photos that actually have me in them. Much like any “touristy” thing such as churches or museums, by 4 I was done and had no intention of waiting around to watch the sunset over a temple. which along with sunrises is very popular to do. While I like sunsets, I didn’t really care at this point and figured I’d rather watch the sunset from the rooftop pool with a beer – which is what I did.

Today, I opted to explore some of the smaller temples closer to Angkor Wat that KB had skipped the first day. Since these were closer to Siem Reap (about 10 km away) I decided to save $10 and get some exercise by renting a bike. I drank a bunch of water and put on sunblock before heading out, but tonight I feel completely wiped out. I knew it was really hot, but some lady at the GH told me it was 42 degrees Celsius today – which is well over 100 Fahrenheit. At least I won’t have to worry about needing to pee on this overnight bus I’m on! Besides the heat though, it wa a nice way to see the ruins although my bike was definitely not big enough for me. There also seemed to be fewer visitors today as I’m guessing everyone has to work tomorrow and is heading back their hometowns. Some of the temples I basically had to myself. With that said, 3 days in a row of ruins is more than enough for me.  

On my last night, walking home from dinner I decided to get a haircut. My last haircut was in Hue, Vietnam and while at the time I thought the girl did a decent job, I soon realized after looking in the mirror that she had faded my hair into sort of a bowl cut. It was only 2.50 but I was also talked into a straight razor shave, which was fucking painful to say the least. It probably didn't help that I had about a 7 day beard going. It also probably didn't help that when I walked into the place, all the workers had to wake up from the naps they were taking. The barber shop I went to in Siem Reap was only $2 and I saw that the guy had electric clippers, so he should be able to handle a simple fade/buzz (its so hot that I want shorter hair now.) After telling him what I wanted, he got to work - only instead of using the electric clippers he was using the hand clippers. They do the same job but instead of letting electricity do the work, it was the barber's hand. He did an alright job and finished it off with a little back massage. The only time I had ever seen these type of clippers were on the display case at my barber shop at home - as antiques on display!

I checked out of my GH before heading out on my bike ride and just left my bags in the lobby. Luckily, upon coming back I could still use the pool and take a shower – since I was absolutely drenched with sweat. I hung out on the roof until my overnight bus picked me up at 7pm. Tomorrow morning I’ll arrive in Sihanoukville on the southern coast of Cambodia. NY Times called it “the next hot beach town in SE Asia” but I’m sort of skeptical because I have a feeling it was be dirty. I hope not though because I’ll be there for 4 nights before heading back to Phnom Penh on Friday so I can fly to Kuala Lampur on Saturday morning. I already have a couchsurf lined up in KL so that’s nice.
 
 
I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised by the capital of Cambodia. I had heard and read that Cambodia was pretty rough and can be a difficult place to travel. While yes, there is poverty, I don’t know if I can say it’s blatantly more so than any of the other countries I’ve been to so far. Either maybe I’m just getting used to it or just not looking in the right places for the poor in one of the poorest countries in the world, but sticks out more to me is the clear rising middle class. I’m not saying this is a clear sign of a middle class, but Cambodia has by far the most SUVs I’ve seen in SE Asia. Also, considering the genocide that occurred here just 35 years ago, killing somewhere between 1 – 3 million people, one sort of expect some poverty to linger. That’s not to say that Cambodia is a modern, clean country – because it definitely is not. It just has a lot more modern, clean places than I was expecting. There are still really dirty kids selling things on the street and entire families living on sidewalks.

On Monday, I visited the Killing Fields where around 20,000 people were killed and mass buried by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Most of it had been cleaned up with all of the bones incased in a glass monument at the entrance, but the burial pits were still there and pieces of bone and clothes work up through the soil each year during the rainy season. Despite being more recent than the Holocaust, for some reason visiting here wasn’t quite as depressing (for lack of a better term) as Auschwitz. I think it probably has to do with being American and just much more conscious of WW2 and what the Nazi’s did than the Khmer Rouge, even though its just as despicable. After the killing fields, I visited Tuol Sleng Prision, or S21, which was a school in Phnom Penh before being converted into a prison and place for torture by the Khmer Rouge.While the former cells were pretty bad, I think the worse part was the exhibit about some of the former Khmer leaders, who were only arrested for their crimes in 2007. To cap the day off, I downloaded the Academy Award winning film, The Killing Fields (which I had seen years ago) to further remind myself of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge.

The next day I went to the Russian Market with the British guy and bought what is probably my 10th pair of headphones in the last year. At 2pm, I met the friend of my cousin’s wife (who is from Phnom Penh) KB, and we made plans to have dinner later that night. We went to a Khmer BBQ place that was absolutely packed due to the upcoming Khmer New Year holiday. The grilled beef and squid were really good, but made even better by the Kampot pepper mixed with fresh lime juice.  KB’s English was okay, but I was glad when her friend got there who was married to a British guy and had lived in the UK for 4 years. After getting dropped off back at the guesthouse, I went out with Lee the British guy and a couple girls. It was pretty evident that the city was starting to empty out for the holiday because there wasn’t a whole lot going on. At one club, we met an American guy whose occupation was “online poker player.” We followed him to a much nicer club (I’m guessing probably the nicest place in the country) where he had purchased a bottle the prior night. It was nice to taste good vodka after a couple months of shit. The others were a little sketched out by the guy though so we took off after the bottle was finished.

Another thing - when riding to the restaurant with KB, she asked what things I had seen thus far in PP. I told her that I had done the Killing Fields and Tuol Seng. I made a comment about how horrible it was, especially since it was so recent. She agreed so I asked if she was affected by Khmer Rouge since she must have been a little girl in teh 70's. She sort of nonchalantly said that, yes, her father was killed by them. I can't say I was shocked because he would have been the sort of prime target for the KR. But the way she sort of said it with no evident sadness really got to me. Maybe it was because she said it in English or because she has gotten over it.  I think it may be more of the latter, which seems to be the attitude of the entire country. It

The next day Lee and I checked out a couple malls and enjoyed the AC after sweating profusely getting to them. They were pretty worthless, especially since a lot of the stores were closed for the holiday, and almost seemed like what going to a mall in the 1980’s probably was like. I sort of felt like shit from the night before so after a dinner of chicken amok (a coconut based curry type dish that’s a specialty here) I just watched some TV in my room and went to bed early. The next day I was invited to go to Siem Reap with Kb and some of her family. I was planning on going to Siem Reap anyway so it worked out nicely to be able to skip out on a bus ride.

KB picked me up at 2:30pm on Thursday and besides going to a restaurant for a fish-ravioli version of amok, I didn’t do anything in the morning. In the Honda CRV was me and KB in front, and her sister, her mom, her friend and what she called her “brother in law.” I’m not sure if that’s what she meant though because he looked pretty young and didn’t seem to be married to the sister. Not sure if the car was better than a bus in terms of comfort, but I did get a better view of the little towns we passed. We also stopped and had a picnic dinner at dusk, which seemed to be the thing to do since the “highway” (really just a somewhat decent 2 lane road, which I’m sure is an improvement over what it used to be) was lined with many families doing the same. KB and her friend could speak any English so the car ride was pretty quiet.

I had grabbed a card from my guest house in Phnom Penh for their sister GH in Siem Reap before I left since I was not clear how our arrival would go. KB asked where I was staying so I gave her the card. She called to ask directions and when we pulled up I could see that this GH was much nicer than the one in PP. After conversing in Khmer for a while, I was told that rooms here were $15 a night (it was $8 in PP) but I went to take a look anyway. The room was a proper hotel room and on the roof was a very nice pool and deck. Since I would mostly be looking at ruins and relaxing here, I figured having a pool would be a nice feature so agreed to stay. Unknown to me, KB and her family were also planning on staying at a guest house, but $15 was more than they wanted to spend. So I stayed at the GH and they would pick me up this morning to go see the ruins. I felt sort of bad since I wasn’t sure if it was rude of me to stay at a different, more expensive place than them. Even now, I don’t really understand because this morning when they picked me up, she said that the GH was full and they had to stay at a friends. Either way, after checking in I went for a swim in the pool and was able to watch fireworks over the city. Pretty awesome for a $13/night hotel room (KB was able to knock $2 off for me.)

Today I did the ruins of Angkor Wat, which is far and away Cambodia’s biggest attraction, but I’ve got 2 more days of them so I’ll write about them and Siem Reap all in one post.
 
 
Yesterday was my last day in Vietnam and I took a boat up the Mekong into Cambodia. At 8am I left Chau Doc, Vietnam and after touring a fish farm (really just floating houses that have a big net of fish underneath in the river) and a Cham (muslim-vietnamese people) village. We got the border around 11am, waited around on a little facility on a sort of dock that had a restaurant for lunch, Then, we switched boats and headed towards Phnom Penh. It cost a little more and took more time than just taking the bus from Saigon to PP, but it was a nice chance being in the open air of a boat. The landscapes and little houses on stilts we passed were fun to watch pass by, as well as the many, many children waving at the boat, boats fishing, and what looked to be one guy trying to breed his water buffalos in the water. So, I got into the Cambodian capital around 5pm last night and got a room with AC, because its hot.

Thank god, the Imodium I took before leaving Mui Ne on Wednesday worked and I didn’t shit myself on the bus ride to Saigon. I did manage to really piss of the bus worker after taking “his” seat/bed. He spoke zero English and just yelled and pointed towards the back of the bus. I thought it was funny and just stood my ground, telling him to take one of the seats in the back if he needed a nap so fucking bad. I had a few hotels written down but no reservation. The first place I went was full, but the owner quickly dragged me down the street to her “sisters” hotel. I was shown a nice new room with AC, although it didn’t have any windows. I was in no mood to walk around so for $12/night I took it. Still not wanting to test my stomach, I just had some pho bo (beef noodle soup) for dinner and walked around a bit. My first impression of Saigon was that the streets were much wider than Hanoi and there were many more modern looking skyrises. The moto-bike traffic was just as crazy though.

Thursday I walked to the War Remnants Museum, which used to be called something like the Museum for Evidence of American Crimes Against Vietnam or something propagandist like that. The museum is still extremely biased on their portrayal of the war and only deals with America’s involvement/atrocities in the war. They conveniently skip any of the acts of the Viet Cong during the war or their actions toward the south after the fall of Saigon. It was very interesting to visit though, especially some of the photography of foreign journalists, many who died during the war. Another entire exhibit was dedicated to the use of Agent Orange and dioxin in the war and how it is still affecting the offspring of the Vietnamese through birth defects in children. Those photos (and some fetuses in formaldehyde) were particularly difficult to look at. On the outside of the building were many American planes, tanks and weapons used during the war. Tucked in the back and very easy to miss were the “tiger cages” used by the French during their rule to hold prisoners on islands off of the southern coast.

The rest of the day I spent walking around the city and exploring different markets. Much like everything, the Vietnamese are quite pushy and don’t seem to understand that standing directly next to the customer makes Westerners pretty uncomfortable, and usually results in me getting out of there. This doesn’t just happen in stores but also in restaurants, when looking at the menu. I know they think they are being helpful but man is it annoying to have to literally tell them to back away. The weather in Saigon was nice and sunny, quite a change from pretty much everywhere else I had gone in Vietnam, so I was complaining too much about the heat. Still cautious, all of my meals on Thursday also consisted of pho, which was fine since the most popular dish in Vietnam is pretty tasty.

Friday, I booked a half day tour to visit the Cu Chi tunnels, about 60km outside of the city. The tunnels were used by the communist Viet Cong to hide from the US/South Vietnamese army and spread over a huge area. The people there spent most of their days doing everything underground and were quite creative with setting up booby traps and reconfiguring spent US bombs back into weapons for themselves. They also made all of their sandals from used tires, with the footprint facing backwards to throw anyone off in pursuit. On the way back the bus stopped for “refreshments” which was fucking retarded since we were litereally about 20 blocks from the office. At least I had a map and figured out where we were and just walked back to my hotel. Some of the practices of the Vietnamese are so obviously manipulative, but in some cases just stupid – most notably how they wait until after getting everyone on the bus to fill up with gas and again just before reaching the destination.

Saturday I decided to leave Saigon and take a 2 day, 1 night tour of the Mekong River Delta south of the city and then going onto Cambodia the 2nd day. Many of the people were just on a day tour and went back to Saigon at the end of the day, while I got put on a van to head to Chau Doc near the border. The tour was a good way to get where I wanted to go and at the same time getting to see some candy being made from coconut juice, holding a python, drinking cobra wine, having a very meager lunch, eating tropical fruit (dragonfruit is awesome,) drinking honey tea and banana wine (gross and strong.) At about 3pm, the guide told me I would take a local bus (with a little laugh) on to Chau Doc, where I would get dropped off at a hotel and a new guide would get me on the boat to Cambodia the next day. He then wrote down the name of the hotel and the address, with his phone number if there were any problems.

The shared van I got put on was plumb full and my getting in forced one young guy to have to give up his seat, which seemed to create quite a bit of animosity towards me from the other passengers. The cooled off eventually and I told the kid I was sorry, which he understood with a smile and then asked where I was from. The family next to me even shared some of their fruit with me – I’m pretty sure lychee and something llke a small, sweet green pepper. We eventually arrived into Chau Doc around 7pm, where it was pouring rain – very odd for this part of the country but quite normal for my trip in this country. Of course I didn’t get dropped off at the hotel the driver was told to drop me off at. I wasn’t surprised and had to hire a moto-taxi to take me to the hotel, where I was told there were no rooms. After showing them my receipt, I was taken to their “sister” hotel and told to come back at 6:30am for breakfast before going to the boat at 7am.

The sister hotel didn’t really seem like a hotel, but more like a flophouse that people lived at. I didn’t really care too much as I was tired and would only be there ofr about 8 hours total. I was hungry though and had to go walk around in the rain to find something to eat. Most of the places were closing down do to the rain, but one place was open and had a few other American-looking people eating there so I sat down. The meal was mediocre but I shared my table with a nice girl from NY who had been working at a newspaper in Phnom Penh for the last few months, so at least I had someone to talk to. The next morning came quick and before leaving the hotel I pounded the rest of my water bottle since it was going to be a long day outside. As I sat down to breakfast, I immediately felt sick and vomited my first few bites in the toilet. This was not good, especially since I was going to be spending the next 6 or so hours on a damn boat. Luckily, I think I had just drank the water too quick or something, because I felt fine the rest of the day.

Last night was my first in Cambodia and so far it feels a lot like anywhere in the developing world and if you took away the writing on signs and blurred the faces of the people, it could be anywhere in SE Asia or South America. Either that or everything is just starting to feel the same after a year. I met a pretty cool British guy and we went out for some beers and watching a soccer match that he had bet money on (he lost his 5 pounds.) The few bars we went to, along with the sings in the hotel lead me to believe that almost every girl here is a potential prostitute. I know that’s a horrible view to have, but it would be false to ignore the fact. Today I will go to the Killing Fields at Cheung Ek and also to Tuol Seng Prison, where many were held and eventually killed by the Khmer Rouge. I expect it to have a similar vibe to Auschwitz in Poland.

I’m pretty glad to be out of Vietnam. While I’m sure Cambodia will be quite similar, it already feels closer to Thailand or Laos than Vietnam. I’m not going to reiterate all of the reasons I didn’t really like Vietnam, but it honestly feels like a weight off my shoulders leaving the country.

 I’ll only spend 2 weeks here in Cambodia before flying to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on the 23rd. I’ll spend around 10 days there before going to Singapore to catch a flight to Hong Kong on May 6. I’ll do HK for 5 nights before coming home on the 11th. While I know these countries will be more expensive than my first 4 countries (especially Singapore and HK) I’m looking forward to some modernity before heading back. In a way it’s similar to ending SA in Chile.