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Dear Travelogue,
I'm a young lady from Seattle who likes to go traveling around anywhere and everywhere.
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How to update a blog, part 3: Bali continued
The next morning we left for Kuta Beach, the tourist party booze hole we originally weren't going to visit. Steve decided, after five quiet nights in Ubud, that it would be fun to go out to a club. We arrived and found a place to stay in the backpacker area (somewhere between the streets Poppies I and II). We went swimming at the beach, which is really more for surfing considering the huge waves, but it was fun. You wouldn't think a bikini would be able to hold a pound of sand, but it can. That night we ended up at a club where girls got free drinks for half an hour and danced the night away! Or jumped in my case, as I'm completely hopeless at that dancing the kids these days are doing.
One night in Kuta was enough, so we left for Amed the next day. Amed is a ten kilometer area of beaches and fishing villages on Bali's east coast, which is much less touristy than the south, where Kuta is located. It's a nice, quiet place, but it also means prices are inflated for the tourists who make it there since there's not a lot of competition. Accommodation was reasonable--we stayed at three different places ranging from $8-$13 a night--but restaurants charged at least twice what you would pay in Kuta at a similar place and transportation was a nightmare. When we were trying to leave, we asked quite a few people about where we could get a bemo (a minibus sort of thing), but everyone told us it was impossible and they could book us a taxi. But I'd read online that there were bemos, so we kept asking around, and finally a nice lady told us they come by often in the morning and we could easily get to one of the larger towns.
We spent most of our time in Amed snorkeling, as there's loads of coral and tropical fish. There was one type of fish that was long and skinny with a long nose that I liked to call "Steve Fish." On our last day we spotted a Steve Fish hassling a pretty purple fish; he was following her around and trying to swim right next to her. Real Steve swam down and chased Steve Fish, but it just went right back to the purple fish. Everyone loves a fish story, right? Just like everyone loves a story of what your gerbil did today?
There's a Japanese shipwreck at one beach in Amed and we attempted to swim out to it, but I tend to have problems with water that gets too deep and ended up panicking and immediately swimming back to shore. I felt pretty stupid, but someone else who swam out to the wreck said visibility wasn't good anyway so I didn't miss anything. There was a longboat wreck in a shallow area off one of the other beaches (Lipah), so I got to see a coral-covered boat somewhere.
After four days in Amed, we had to leave since there are no ATMs there and we were almost out of money (we'd stayed longer than anticipated). We hitched a ride in the back of a truck for a few kilometers to the main town where lots of bemos go through and eventually got out of Amed and to Amlapura, the nearest town with an ATM. As it turned out, Amlapura didn't have much else, unless you're a big fan of cell phone shops and knock-off sneakers. We wandered around for quite a long time, looking for some way to get to Kintamani, our next destination, without hiring an entire bemo to take us there. There wasn't another way.
Kintamani is a town on Lake Batur, surrounding which are a couple of mountains, including Mount Batur. Steve and I decided to go on an early morning hike up Mount Batur, which requires going on an outrageously priced guided trek due to the guide association in town. We reluctantly shelled out $30 each for the "long" sunrise trek and dragged ourselves out of bed at 3:45 am.
Getting up at 3:45 am is hard enough when you're used to sleeping in until 3:45 pm (slight exaggeration), but it's even harder when you've just come down with a cold. Since Steve and I tend to share everything, especially colds, we were both sick for the trek up Mount Batur. My nose in particular seemed to be running nonstop (less room for snot?) and made breathing a shade more difficult. I was ill on Mother's Day when I went out riding bikes with my mom and suddenly had some sort of breathing issue. Basically I couldn't breathe and thought I was dying, and my mom thought I was dying, but she told me to breathe slowly and deeply and it went away. My point is, that started happening a couple times on the way up Mount Batur. It felt like my throat was closing up, but if I sat down and breathed deeply it went away. So I was the biggest loser on Mount Batur, being slow and unable to breathe and mostly behaving like an obese person.
We finally made it to the top, somehow in time for sunrise, where it was windy and freezing cold and we were out of tissues. Luckily there were banana sandwiches made from bananas cooked in a steamy volcano hole, yum? There were also supposed to be steamy volcano hole eggs, but Steve and I managed to get the only ones that were runny. Like, too runny to eat, which is sad, because we seem to need to eat at least four eggs a day. I refuse to believe that eggs are not a healthy a wonder food so keep your opinions and "statistics" and "scientifically-proven facts" to yourself.
Mount Batur looks over Lake Batur and, as it was a clear day, we had a lovely view. There were plenty of other tourists up there, most of them French, and all of them faster climbers than me.
The top of the mountain was not the end of trek, since, as you may recall, we signed up for the "long" tour. This is where the guide came in handy, as without him practically carrying me I might have died. We ended up on a narrow path with the steaming crater of the volcano on one side and a drop off the side of the mountain on the other. There was another part with a (very) narrow path along the side of the mountain where I broke down crying a couple times, clinging to rocks that were apparently quite warm, but I was too terrified to register the temperature.
Once that part was over, things got easier, but still kind of miserable, considering we were sick and clambering around a volcano on not much sleep. Getting back and taking a shower was great, and I thought we might have a little snoozle, but instead we ended up getting a car to Lovina with some Swiss guys.
Lovina is a town on the north coast of Bali. Although hotel touts trying to charge prime rates insisted it was high season and most everything was booked, it was actually pretty dead. We ended up staying in a bungalow on the beach with a swimming pool as well. The night we arrived, Steve and I had a bit of trouble trying to get to sleep despite being exhausted, as every time we started drifting off we'd dream of slipping on the volcano and jerk awake.
In the morning we had breakfast and went for a swim in the pool before heading off to Bedugul to see one of Bali's nine directional temples, Pula Ulun Danu Bratan. I'd been wanting to see some temples ever since we arrived and finally, on what would be our last full day on Bali, we did. It's located on Lake Bratan--really on the lake, a few meters from the shore. On the shore is the immaculately kept grounds with a few ponds full of lily pads.
Afterwards we visited a couple waterfalls in a forest, but as I was still sick, the short hike wore me out and we headed back to Lovina. It was important to get rested up, as the following day we would have a long journey to Java, Indonesia's most populous island located to the west of Bali.
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How to update a blog, part 2: Koh Phi Phi to Bali
Another update so soon? Calm down everyone, the world is not ending! I've simple managed to do something to my computer to make it sort of work. It's basically the equivalent of fixing your 30 year old TV by fashioning an antenna out of a wire hanger, taping the screen back together, and hitting it to make it turn on. Anyway, today I flew from Solo, Indonesia, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before I can talk about that, I must get everyone updated! You wouldn't read Harry Potter out of order, would you? No! So you won't read about my wizarding adventures aimless wanderings out of order, either. Continuing on from the last post:
Unfortunately, I was not feeling especially well while we were at Phi Phi (pee pee). I was having a hard time eating anything without feeling like puking. When I was feeling well, we met up with Steve's friend from England and just hung around playing pool and whatnot. We also went on a boat tour to Maya Bay, which is where the movie The Beach was filmed. I haven't seen it because it sounds crap. As it did every day on Phi Phi, it rained, which meant less tourists braving the weather but also more misery. It was fun swimming and snorkeling in the rain because the water was warm, but the return boat ride was cold and a bit terrifying.
The day we left Phi Phi, we went for a little swim before getting on the ferry back to Phuket for our flight to Bali the next day. It was a long day of traveling, especially since the 17:30 bus to the airport was cancelled, which of course was the time we got to the bus station. While we waited for the next bus, we got some dinner at a little restaurant with lots of interesting things on the menu, like frog and pig entrails. I got stir-fried kale and salt fish, which wasn't bad, while Steve stuck with the tried and true fried rice. When we finally got to the airport, we had to find a place to stay for the night. A security guard offered to call a nearby hotel to pick us up and promised the price was 800 baht for the room and taxi service, but when we got there they wanted to charge 1800! We finally settled on 900 ($30).
Our flight to Bali left at 6:45 am and took four hours. I thought arriving at the Denpasar Bali airport would be a pain since in addition to immigration we had to get a visa-on-arrival, but the lines were quick and I was able to pay for the visas with my debit card (luckily a Mastercard, since that's all they take if you don't have the cash). Visa joke. What was painful was waiting for Steve to come out of the bathroom. He took a long, long time. Airplane food joke.
Bali is probably Indonesia's most-visited island. It's famous for its beaches, diving, and unique culture. While most of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali is Balinese Hindu. There are many beautiful Hindu temples throughout the island and everywhere on the sidewalks are small offerings to the gods/spirits of flowers and rice.
Usually the first stop for tourists off the plane is Kuta Beach, but I thought it sounded like another Patong, so we took a taxi straight to Ubud. Ubud is a town in the middle of Bali and is considered Bali's cultural center. It's filled with arts and crafts shops, yoga and meditation courses, and organic restaurants. The architecture is really beautiful and there are shrines and temples everywhere. Our first day, we arrived via taxi outside the supermarket and went with a guy hanging around there to look at some rooms. We ended up staying there for five nights. The breakfast was included and really good--tea, a big bowl of fruit, and our choice of a pancake, vegetable omelette, or banana jaffle (kind of like a toastie). One day the lady who made the breakfasts even gave me some gado gado, which is a dish of various boiled vegetables and tofu and/or egg with spicy peanut sauce on top.
Our second day in Ubud we went to the market, which consists of two storeys of vendors selling an assortment of art and crafted goods, like silver jewelery, wood carvings, and paintings, plus the usual clothing and fake designer sunglasses. After that, we took a walk around some nearby rice fields, where we were greeted by a farmer selling coconuts. Steve and I shared a coconut while the farmer told us about life on Bali and growing rice and organic vegetables.
On our third day in Ubud, we visited the Monkey Forest. It's pretty much what it sounds like--a forest full of monkeys. Some people were feeding the monkeys bananas and having them climb up on their shoulders and junk, but not us, because Steve is scared of getting rabies. Also monkeys like to play with poop probably. After that, it started getting dark (we had a problem with sleeping in late and taking a long time to go anywhere) so we stopped by a bar with a happy hour on and had our first taste of arak, an Indonesian spirit. It has a strange kind of savory taste to it and it's actually pretty good. The bar had a pool--the type of pool where the water comes up to the very edge--and Steve became infatuated with it.
Our fourth day in Ubud was spent walking to the Elephant Cave in the rain. Towards the very end of our journey, the road became too wet and congested to continue any further, so we hailed a taxi and had the driver take us the last stretch and also wait there to take us back to Ubud proper. There are no elephants at the Elephant Cave; it's a small ancient cave with the mouth carved to look like some kind of demon. There's a forest with a lot of hiking trails as well, but we didn't get very far due to the weather. That night we had a fancy (expensive) meal at one of Ubud's many organic/vegetarian/nutrition-conscious/hippie restaurants. I had a macrobiotic plate (I still don't know what that means) and Steve had eggplant enchiladas.
Our fifth and final day in Ubud we didn't do much of anything except go to the aforementioned bar with a pool and swim. We meant to go to a yoga class, but we didn't get up early enough for the morning classes and we ended up taking too long at dinner to go to the evening class. It was a nice dinner though, and at a really cheap restaurant. I had tempeh with tomato sauce, some greens, and rice, plus ginger tea. There was an Australian guy there telling us about how he came to Bali and went to some kind of Mayan calendar-reading fortune teller and everything suddenly fell into place for him. By which he meant he decided to stay in Ubud until his money runs out. Ubud does seem to attract the dreadlock and aspiring spiritual advisor types.
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How to update a blog, part 1: Bangkok and Phuket
I've been writing my blog, I swear I have, I just haven't been able to post it, okay? It's just as frustrating for me as it is for you, dear reader. My computer is possibly just a brick with a picture of a computer glued to it and as a result only connects to the Internet a fortnight into Ramadan when a plane is flying overhead and someone in the room lays down and balances a bottle of water on their stomach. Surprisingly, those things don't all happen at once very often.
I left off a long time ago in Bangkok, the last time my computer managed a connection to the scary world of Internet. I'll just post a portion of update at a time so as not to overwhelm anyone and just hope that the fix I made to my computer isn't temporary.
We went out to watch the England v. Italy game at a bar near Khao San Road. England lost and Steve was not happy with life. The next day we snoozled around, and the day after that we managed to go to a temple, Wat Pho. It's said like "wat po" but looks like "wat fo", so Steve kept making jokes for which the punchline was "What For?" Oh Steve, you clever horse. Anyway, Wat Pho is famous for housing an enormous statue of the reclining Buddha. It truly is HUGE!
Also in Bangkok we took the boat to Chinatown, which consists mostly of an enormous market, gold shops, and a Tesco Lotus (the Asian branch of Tesco, Steve's favorite supermarket). Bangkok is a strange place in that there seem to be blocks and blocks of one kind of shop without even restaurants or mini markets to break things up. In Chinatown, there were loads of gold shops. In Silom, another area, it seemed to all be jewelry shops. It's very strange and resulted in Steve and I walking for a very long time in search of anything but jewelry/silver/gem stores.
We didn't do a whole lot in Bangkok because we kept waking up late and taking naps and generally doing nothing to get over jet lag. But nothing helps you get over jet lag like an overnight bus ride to a place that encourages laziness, right? Well, maybe not....
After a grueling 14 hour overnight bus ride, during which Steve was constantly freaking out over the driver's road rage and forgetfulness regarding the door to the luggage compartment, we made it to Phuket. Phuket is a large island in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Southern Thailand and is connected to the mainland by bridge. It's Thailand's largest and most famous island. We got confused taking a local bus to our guesthouse in the Karon/Kata beach area, but luckily the bus driver helped us out by turning around and taking us back to the correct stop.
We spent four nights there and did pretty much nothing but go to the beach and swim. Apparently the Karon/Kata area is the second most developed area in Phuket, but it doesn't even approach the level of madness in Patong. Patong is the mosted touristed destination in Phuket--maybe even Thailand--and it was our next stop. It's an absolute craphole, full of strip bars, prostitutes, touts touting everything, drunk tourists, gross tourists, glitzy resorts and malls, and enough tacky crap to make a second Texas-sized island of plastic in the ocean. The beach is full of delightful rubbish like glass and condoms and a walk down the street means a constant barrage of offers for taxis and ping pong shows. It's an absurd place, but it was fine/depressing for a night out. Highlights: a nice little evening food market near where we were staying, which we ate at every night, and a DVD of the movie Skyline in our hotel room. Just kidding, Skyline was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Coming up in the next post: Koh Phi Phi! Torrential downpours! Constipation? And so much more!
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An update?
A lot has happened since my last update...well, sort of. I was in Nha Trang when I left off and I ended up working at a hotel for a couple weeks before I left and flew home to Seattle because I met ~*~A sUpEr HoTtiE bOyThInG~**~~~ before I left and I decided I wanted to be with him. We just arrived in Bangkok yesterday and the plan is to travel around SE Asia together.
On June 4th, Steve and I flew to England to see his family. They live in Hinckley, a town between Birmingham and Leicester. Our first day there we slept in until four in the afternoon because we're lazy jetlagged slobs. The next day Steve's parents took us to Stratford-upon-Avon and we visited Shakespeare's house. Well, probably most likely it was Shakespeare's house, and maybe some of the things in it were from the time period? There's a lot of conjecture. Another day we went to a town in the Cotswolds and ended up going through a maze. I met a load of Steve's extended family, we went to Birmingham, and planned to go to Manchester.
But then, on Tuesday, June 12th, I received news that my beloved grandmother had passed away. My aunt used her air miles to get me a flight home on Sunday for the funeral on the 19th. Before I left, I went to Castleton with Steve's family for two nights (Friday and Saturday) and we visited Chatsworth House.
So Sunday I flew back to Seattle from Heathrow with a transfer in Vancouver. Tuesday was the funeral, Wednesday I flew back to London and stayed at a hostel on Thursday night, then met Steve at Gatwick airport and flew to Kiev, Ukraine, where we stayed overnight before our flight to Bangkok. Whew! It would have been an exhausting week even without the flights.
But now we're in Bangkok, sweltering. Later I might give some exciting details on the flights or Kiev or something, but for now I'm just glad I got a summary out. Finally!
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Gosh, I'm so sorry! I only meant to express my own feelings regarding a place I visited, but I now see that I was wrong and HCMC is the best city in the world and also representative of all of Vietnam. Thanks, I've really learned to get over myself!
I didn’t like Ho Chi Minh City very much. It was loud and smelled like pee. I didn’t do much while I was there, although I did find a great bubble tea place. Pictured above is a layered iced coffee. Before getting on an overnight bus to Nha Trang, I spent the day sitting around at a park eating snacks, briefly visited a market, and then sat in a cold, cold movie theater watching a stupid movie for $3.
I ate some questionable pho and then got on the bus, slept for about two hours, and then got up and ran to the front of the bus, where I sat next to the driver puking for an hour. Hey, at least I didn’t have diarrhea! I was the only non-Vietnamese person on the bus, and I just had to get sick. Super.
When I finally arrived in Nha Trang, I went with an American guy on his motorbike to see his brand new hotel. I ended up staying there in a private room with air con, a TV, and hot water for $5 a night. Everyone has been really nice to me so far and even gave me free breakfast and dinner yesterday! (They want me to leave a good review online.)
I went for a little walk yesterday and had some walnut gelato, but mostly I slept all day and occasionally watched TV. Predators was on. You know, the one with Adrien Brody. The Bachelor was also on. I watched it for about ten minutes and it was excruciating. Who watches this stuff? “Oh I’m here looking for my wife! What, I have to eliminate girls? This is so hard! They’re all so well-endowed good-hearted! *tears up* Okay, all the blondes can stay, everyone else out.”
Tomorrow I’m going on a tour of 4 islands. Today I’m eating gelato and drinking cocktails on the beach?
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I didn't like Ho Chi Minh City very much. It was loud and smelled like pee. I didn't do much while I was there, although I did find a great bubble tea place. Pictured above is a layered iced coffee. Before getting on an overnight bus to Nha Trang, I spent the day sitting around at a park eating snacks, briefly visited a market, and then sat in a cold, cold movie theater watching a stupid movie for $3.
I ate some questionable pho and then got on the bus, slept for about two hours, and then got up and ran to the front of the bus, where I sat next to the driver puking for an hour. Hey, at least I didn't have diarrhea! I was the only non-Vietnamese person on the bus, and I just had to get sick. Super.
When I finally arrived in Nha Trang, I went with an American guy on his motorbike to see his brand new hotel. I ended up staying there in a private room with air con, a TV, and hot water for $5 a night. Everyone has been really nice to me so far and even gave me free breakfast and dinner yesterday! (They want me to leave a good review online.)
I went for a little walk yesterday and had some walnut gelato, but mostly I slept all day and occasionally watched TV. Predators was on. You know, the one with Adrien Brody. The Bachelor was also on. I watched it for about ten minutes and it was excruciating. Who watches this stuff? "Oh I'm here looking for my wife! What, I have to eliminate girls? This is so hard! They're all so well-endowed good-hearted! *tears up* Okay, all the blondes can stay, everyone else out."
Tomorrow I'm going on a tour of 4 islands. Today I'm eating gelato and drinking cocktails on the beach?
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Finally in Vietnam!
Yesterday morning I got on a bus in Phnom Penh and headed to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam. I arrived at around three in the afternoon and quickly found my hostel, which was thankfully located only about a block from the bus stop. HCMC is HUGE. Especially after Phnom Penh. It feels big and metropolitan and crazy. So far Vietnam is already way different from Cambodia. At least HCMC seems a lot wealthier than PP and a lot more of a proper city.
The day before yesterday I went to the Killing Fields, about 40 minutes out of Phnom Penh. I hired someone on a motorbike to take me out and the first person I asked wanted to charge me $15 for a round trip and laughed when I said I wasn't paying that much! So I said I would find someone else and I did and paid $6 and even thought I could have paid less.
Once I got there, I got an audio guide and walked around listening to it. It's a pretty depressing place. According to the audio guide, Pol Pot banned religion and education and had all the educated people and monks and such executed. He also had entire families executed, including children and babies so they wouldn't seek revenge later in life. Pleasant guy.
That evening I went to the riverfront where there were synchronized exercise classes going on. I noticed there were a few of those in Siem Reap, as well. They're always set to really loud, cheesy dance music and the instructor always wears at least one sweatband.
The bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City was uneventful. My evening was uneventful. I had a headache so I went to bed at 6:30 and slept for 12 hours. I awoke briefly to call a girl a bad name because I was dreaming someone was stealing my stuff, but that's about it. Now I'm at a cafe and I've been sitting here for about half the day pretending to get things done but really just talking to people on skype/facebook.
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Phnom Penh again!
I had to come back to Phnom Penh to get extra pages put in my passport at the US embassy. It took about an hour but I got 48 extra pages. Hoorah! That should last me for a bit. It did cost $82, though.
I took a sleeper bus from Siem Reap to get here, which had three rows of narrow bunk beds. I was on the top and there was only about a foot of railing. The ride was so bumpy I was in constant fear of falling off, at least while I was awake.
This morning I went to the Central Market and got some little coconut cakes that are SO GOOD. I passed by the stall where they were baking them in tiny little pans and got one and had to go back to get a pack of six. The vendor seemed very amused. I gave one to a French girl at my hostel and she said it reminds her of something they have at home.
I think this afternoon I'll go to the Killing Fields (mass grave where Pol Pot's regime executed 17,000 people in the 1970s) and tomorrow morning I'll get up early and take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. Finally, I'll be in Vietnam! I'm definitely ready to leave Cambodia. Tomorrow I'll be eating pho!
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On Saturday I cycled out to Angkor Archaeological Park near Siem Reap, Cambodia. First stop was Angkor Wat. Hordes of tourists, yes, but not as many as there would have been at sunrise or sunset, which apparently are overrated due to said hordes. Angkor Wat, a temple complex with a moat around it, is one of the most famous sites in SE Asia and the pride of Cambodia. It's not disappointing. It was really hot, though, and I was already sweating like crazy by 10 in the morning.
Next I rode my bike to Angkor Thom, an ancient fortified city. Inside is the temple Bayon, which is famous for all the huge creepy stone faces. At this point my sweatiness factor was up to about a 9. After a stop at Ta Keo, I went on to Ta Prohm, which is famously overgrown with giant tree roots. I am using the word "famous" a lot. Anyway, I went to one more temple and, with a level of sweaty never before witnessed by mankind, decided I'd had enough temples and rode back to the guesthouse for a nice cold shower and not-so cold nap.
Sunday was gloriously unproductive and mostly consisted of me eating food and drinking beer and whiskey. I had a mango smoothie and then a coconut smoothie, and the coconut one was the greatest. I wandered around the market and pissed off 800 sellers by looking at stuff for 20 minutes and not buying anything. That night I went out with some people I met at the guesthouse and a couple Cambodian guys who took us to a Cambodian club. It was packed and every single guy was wearing a button-down shirt.
I went back early and in the morning got up for my last day of teaching. I was going to go in on Tuesday as well, but I have to get back to Phnom Penh for an appointment at the American embassy to get extra passport pages. It's a real hassle. Why are things like this so needlessly difficult? Not to mention expensive.
Tonight I ate dinner with the family of the guy who runs the school where I was teaching, along with two new volunteers, an English couple. We ate snake. SNAKE. It was pretty good. Like really meaty fish without a fishy taste.
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Siem Reap, continued.
For the last few days I've been volunteering at a school teaching English. I'm staying in Siem Reap and the school is about 7 kilometers away, so I ride a bike there and back. Navigating the traffic can be freaky, especially since it's unheard of to wear a helmet on a bike, but I'm pretty sure no one is going to hit me. I just have to make sure I don't run into anything. Yesterday I was pretty hungover so I was yelling at people to get out of the way as I was cruising along. Cambodians seem to ride bicycles ridiculously slowly. I can't go that slow without falling over. I also feel just a bit of rage every time I see a motorbike going down the wrong side of the road.
The classes are fine, but I feel pretty stupid because I don't know what I'm doing and it's hard to explain things considering I don't speak Cambodian. I end up drawing a lot of pictures. The book the adult class is using is from England and it assumes that everyone using the book is used to a certain standard of living. I was trying to explain the concept of retiring when you're old and they did not understand at all. The unit right now has a lot of stuff about expensive activities like traveling, skiing, and diving, plus the grammar lesson is on "going to", and I feel like an ass asking things like, "Where/when are you going to travel?" Of course they want to visit Italy and Japan and the USA and everywhere, but probably they aren't "going to" any time soon. I've also been told multiple times that Cambodians don't have free time for hobbies.
Yesterday one of the best students in the kids' class was trying to teach me to say things in Cambodian during the break. She's such a sweet little girl and I really hope she gets to continue her education, especially since she seems so excited to learn.
During my break between classes I sit in the library/computer room/office/break room and practice English with some of the guys in one of the other classes. One of them wants me to be his girlfriend and keeps trying to hold my hand, even though I told him I have a boyfriend. The other guys said I have to bring a picture or he isn't real. They can't seem to understand how I could have a boyfriend who would let me go out and travel alone, or even let me go to bars and hang out with other guys. They said it must be because he's seeing other girls at home. Apparently if a Cambodian man has a girlfriend then he doesn't let her out of his sight. I've also heard that if you see a Cambodian girl alone at a bar then it means she's a prostitute. Bit screwy.
Last night the power was out at my guesthouse when I got back. Well, the entire block was out. I thought it seemed awfully dark when I turned down the street, and if it hadn't been for a tuk tuk's headlights I might have accidentally run over a stupid dog standing in my way. There were candles everywhere and it was ridiculously hot without the fans going.
What would a Radey blog post be without at least a paragraph about food? My first day teaching I ate lunch at the school owner's house with his family. One of the dishes was a salad made from green mangoes, prepared like that hot and sour cucumber salad I make sometimes, and it was so good. Mostly I've been eating fried noodles and noodle soup. Interesting stuff.
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Still in Cambodia
So I haven't updated in a while, but no one has missed much. I was sick again in Kampot and spent an entire day laying around, then rented a bicycle the next day and rode around to villages in the area. I ended up getting a bit overheated and feeling even sicker, but I was mostly better the next day and headed off to Rabbit Island. There wasn't much going on there; just swimming and eating seafood. I liked the swimming because there wasn't any weird stuff in the water, just sand.
I shared a bungalow with a Chinese woman from Shanghai so I got to practice Chinese a bit. I've forgotten loads and loads of stuff. Depressing. Anyway, after one night on Rabbit Island I got up in the morning and took a bus to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. I meant to go to the US Embassy to have extra pages put in my passport, but they were only open for that service Monday through Thursday. The website also had a list of things to do, like make an appointment and prepare to spend $82 for two extra pages, because any more would ruin the passport's binding. It seemed like a really American thing. I'll have to go back to Phnom Penh and do it later, but now I'm scared they'll decide my passport is too beat up and make me get a new one, which would take days and days and maybe even weeks. Dammit! Why do things have to be needlessly difficult?
Not much happened in Phnom Penh. It sure is a city. I think it wishes it was a major metropolis but...it's just not. Someday, perhaps.
At some point I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, which is near Angkor Wat. I've started volunteer teaching at an English school for disadvantaged people. I have two classes, one is kids and one is adults. I have no idea what I'm doing.
In case anyone was wondering, yes I've been eating a lot of food. I just walk by stuff and eat it. The other day I had a bun I picked up whilst wandering around and it was filled with cabbage, bacon, and a GD egg. An egg! Yay! I also ate rice cakes with spinach in them and a lot of the time I'm eating noodle soup, unless it's breakfast time, in which case I eat egg sandwiches or omelettes or fried eggs with beans.
When I got into Siem Reap I went to a guesthouse to see about accommodation and they only had one room left, a "single" room for $9 that actually had three beds in it. An Israeli girl came up right after me and asked about staying and they said they were full, so I offered to share with her. So hooray, I paid $4.50 instead. The next morning we moved to a $1 dorm, which consists of mattresses on platforms outside with mosquito nets. So, in case anyone was wondering what you get for $1...well, you get to sleep outside. It's pretty cool. If it goes well I'll stay for a while. The bad part is the wifi is terrible and I can't get a connection.
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I arrived in Kampot yesterday afternoon, had a look around, and went to bed early. This morning I rented a motorbike and drove up to Bokor National Park, where there are French colonial ruins. The ruins were disappointing because they're actually restoring a lot of them, and therefore there was loads of construction, but the park was lovely.
So there's a picture of my bike on the side of the road. Wait, back up a second--Radey rented a motorbike? And drove it? You mean the same Radey who tumbles off bunk beds and can't eat or drink without spilling on herself? Well, I didn't die...I was very careful! And Cambodians drive pretty slow and there also aren't a lot of cars here. I had to have the rental guy show me how to drive the bike since I've never ridden one before, but it was an automatic so it was pretty easy.
After Bokor I rode to a village where the roads were all dirt, and I knew I'd had enough riding when I almost drove into a ridiculous ditch in the middle of the road.
So that's that and I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow.
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Yesterday I went to the Vietnam consulate to get my visa, but it was much earlier than I thought it was so I had a bit over an hour to kill before the office opened. I went for a walk and came across a temple (pictured above) up on a hill; at first, I thought there was no one there, but it turns out I had just come up the back way and there were actually a couple tour groups there. I still don't know what it's called, but it was pretty neat.
I walked back to the consulate and was the first one there, so it only took about five minutes to get my visa and cost $45. If I had gotten my visa from a consulate at home, it would have cost me $80 and I'd have had to mail my passport away. I still need to get extra pages put in my passport, which I plan to do at the US embassy in Phnom Penh.
Anyway, after that I went to Ortres Beach, a couple miles down the coast from where I'm staying, and walked back along the beach. Ortres was very nice, but seemed like more of a place for couples and families than for lonely girls like me.
My legs are sunburned now. Sorry, Mom. I didn't put sunscreen on them. That night I went out walking around with a Swiss guy from my hostel and we collected free drink fliers and then went and redeemed them. One of the bars had a fire show going on, which means people were swinging around things that were on fire.
Right now I'm waiting for my bus to Kampot, which is near a national park with French colonial ruins. It's only about two hours away and costs $6 for the bus, which comes to pick me up from my hostel.
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Still in Sihanoukville
I managed to catch up on my sleep yesterday and didn't do a whole lot else. Today I need to go to the Vietnam consulate and get my visa and also do laundry. Last night I went down to the beach for a beer with a man from Glasgow, and I have to say the beach is much nicer at night--mainly because there are pretty lights and it's not so hot.
Another riveting update from Radey!
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Bangkok to Sihanoukville, Cambodia
It was just raining like crazy here on the coast of Cambodia in Sihanoukville. "But Radey," you are probably saying out loud to your computer right now, "you left off in Bangkok! How did you get all the way from Thailand to Cambodia?"
Well now, gentle reader, the answer is this: very carefully. Sort of. I took a bus from Bangkok to Trat, Thailand, and then a minibus to the border. That all took about six and a half hours. Once I got to the border, I walked up to the Thai departure booth and got my passport stamped--easy as an English girl in Phuket. Then came the hard part (hard as an English any guy in Phuket): getting my Cambodian visa for the actual price, which is $20. I went into the office with two French girls and the officials wanted to charge us 1200 Thai baht (about $40). We argued with them for about 5 minutes, stared them down, and then they finally agreed on $20. Phew! That's done; now what?
It's pretty much impossible to get to Sihanoukville from Bangkok in one day, so I planned to spend the night in Krong Koh Kong, the town just across the border. The French girls had actually booked their ordeal from Bangkok to Sihanoukville at a bus agency while they were in Bangkok, which included accommodation and all transport, so I bargained with the agency that was there to pick them up and got a bus ticket and accommodation for the night in Krong Koh Kong and, in total, ended up paying slightly less than the French girls. I was also put in a different (nicer, I think) guesthouse with a double room to myself.
A few of the guys from the agency and their family decided to party it up at the guesthouse restaurant and I was invited to join in for beer (funded by an Italian woman and a Swedish man who were also staying there). I didn't drink too much because I wanted to go to bed early, but one of the men was telling me that Cambodians can't handle their alcohol, and sure enough, another one of the guys started getting a little frisky with me. He wanted for us to get married and start our own guesthouse in Cambodia, but I put his dreams to an end by claiming to have a boyfriend back home.
In the morning I took the bus to Sihanoukville and now here I am, sitting in my hostel because it was raining, but it's stopped now so I'm going to go for a walk.
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Radey talks about boring stuff and Thai food
I made it! I'm in Thailand! Bangkok is nuts! Thai food is good! No diarrhea yet! Knock on wood! I have a cold and have completely lost my voice so I'm staying in Bangkok another day, even though it's probably caused by the poor air quality.
Oh...am I supposed to do a real update? Darn. I don't feel like thinking. Okay, so I arrived in Bangkok and took the train to my hostel, which I booked ahead of time because I didn't want to have to look for a place right after getting off the plane. It was one of those huge sterile type of hostels, which was kind of nice because it had things like air conditioning and toilet paper.
My first full day I got up early in the morning to take a river boat to the palace, but it was already full of tourists when i got there. I had to borrow a sarong because there's a dress code for entrance and leggings aren't actually trousers I suppose. The palace was really overwhelming; everything is so detailed and covered in tile work, a lot of it shiny and gold. There were some Chinese tour groups there and they were literally shoving people out of the way, so you see, Americans aren't the worst. I've actually been surprised by how few American tourists I've seen.
I met an English girl while we were both attempting to cross a busy road and we ended up hanging out on Khao San Road (the backpacker area) for the rest of the day. You know, until about 7:30 pm, which is my bedtime apparently. Although I did go out late last night. Sort of late. I'm not sure they do "late" in Thailand.
Yesterday I got up early again and went to Chatuchak Market, which is HUGE. Like, a square mile huge. They sell everything there, like clothes, furniture, flowers, fake flowers, pets, books, and knock-off everything. There were little fuzzy baby bunnies that were sooo cute...and no, they weren't for eating, because I know everyone is thinking that. There were pet supplies and everything! Maybe Thai people like pets too, okay?! Sheesh.
I met up with the English girl again in the afternoon and we went around to various bars and had various beers. Not really, only Chang beer. It's the cheapest. My voice was pretty gone by then and by the end of the night I could only whisper. Today I'm just giving it a rest and hanging out, then hopefully leaving tomorrow for Cambodia. Ahh! That's a scary prospect. It seems too soon to be changing countries! Maybe I won't yet...but I do need to get out of Bangkok and into some fresh air. And I do need to get to Cambodia if I'm going to have time for things before I come back to Thailand. I'm going to see about crossing the border at the coast, while initially I was thinking of going straight to Angkor Wat. That prospect is just a bit daunting right now. Sihanoukville is sounding like a much better option. It's all very interesting, I know.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention my favorite thing: FOOD! I've been eating street food mostly and drinking Thai iced tea. There are loads of people cooking things up at little stalls with plastic tables and chairs set up around them on the sidewalk. Last night I wandered off at some point and got a sizzly pan of chicken and vegetables. It was good, of course. I love me some Thai food.
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