How to quit your job and travel around the world

Um, this is most defintely a "what not to do." However, what amazed me is that you can scramble and climb on almost everything at the temples. Very little is roped off so I can't imagine giving the big stone gatekeeper a hug was any worse than the rest of it.


All the temples photographed beautifully with the sepia setting - this is an outer building at Angkor Wat on the eastern side that had fantastic morning light. Sunrise is one the best times to go to the temples.



This is a Tonle Sap eel, a rare specimen, nearly about to rot to bits as seen at a floating aquarium off the shores of the lake.


Its about a million degrees outside and Ive had two Beerlaos to barely any effect. I like to think of them as Asian Gatorade. Rebecca left for her trip home this morning so I am back on my own. I have checked back into an urban guest house for 9 bucks a night. I am planning on spending three more days here in Siem Reap, maybe going to spend afternoons practicing English at a nearby orphanage, where they all but begged us to come and practice English with the children. Then on to Laos on Wednesday. So now that we had three full days of temple tours, it is good to let the old history liver take a rest and recover. One word of advice for potential travelers here ... it is not cheap! Cambodia has been hard in this way. You are always on the haggle and it gets problematic because everyone wants a piece of the pie. You could easily shell out like 60 bucks a day on this and that with fees here and rides there, because each time you pay, that money seems to get divided among another five people. In the end no one wins. You feel a bit ripped off, no one on the Cambodian end is really making anything after everyone has gotten their money. Anyway, we did tip our driver Ton nicely as he was so kind and laid back. I mentioned in an earlier blog that he was an old guy. I almost choked when I found out he was only 38. He looked 50 to me. Tough life.

Yesterday we had a slight detour from the temples to visit floating villages on Tonle Sap lake, a massive fresh water lake smack dab in the middle of Cambodia with more than 800 types of fish, etc... Anyway, we got sort of a scam because before you know it we each had to shell out 15 each, and then we were rushed onto this really crap boat and told to sit in pink plastic chairs. Our guide and his two motorboat men then promptly took off down the estuary with us before we could say a word. First, a fishing village in Cambodian heat smells like hell. We arrived out in open water into a floating village and while I tried to remain positive about authentic life here, let me tell you there was some serious ecological devestation going on. There is a floating a village, yes, and it is a sight to behold. It is complete with a floating school and merry go round. We motored out to this restaurant and souvenir shop where I imagine you are supposed to buy things and eat fish, which has come from water that you have just seen sewage pumped into, and enjoy yourself. In the restaurant-shop there was an aquarium. If third world zoos are creepy, imagine a third world aquarium floating around in the middle of a lake. It was bizarre. The water was so murky in the tanks I couldnt tell if there were fish in them, though they had dead floaters in them, and there was a disturbing collection of barely preserved mammoth eels. Ew. Creepy. And then everyone wanted to be tipped on top of the 15 each. Anyway, if you come here to Siem Reap, dont get suckered into the scenic Tonle Sap excusion. You will just get upset.


One of the biggest things to do here, besides stand in awe of the temples, is to people watch. I think there is a national edict in Korea that every single Korean MUST come to Angkor Wat. I imagine their government officials saying BOY IT WAS HARD, BUT WE MANAGED TO GET EVERY ONE OF OUR PEOPLE THERE SO THEY CAN HAVE A COLLECTIVE NATIONAL EXPERIENCE ABOUT IT. To make it quick - there are four billion Koreans here, and man are they eager to do everything. I am pretty sure they nearly killed Rebecca and me in their effort to get the PERFECT PHOTO .... AGAIN! I am also enjoying the Japanese tourists. One in particular who managed to slam down a couple of cans of Asahi while chugging up a mountainside, whereupon he got to the top and heckled the rest of us while we climbed up. Or the young ones with their AMAZING Nike hightops, hip hop t-shirts and killer hair cuts. They also have these razor thin cameras and wear towels on their heads. Tennis towels. Speaking of Japanese, I finished another novel, Kafka at the Shore by Murakami. Not the best one Ive read by him, but quite good. Now I am back on English lit with some books Rebecca brought me and just found a copy of the Autobiography of Gandhi.

Ok, I am fully recovered from my little freak out in Sinhoukville about street urchins and annoying Euros. We did manage to find a beach (called Hawaii Beach) that was hawker-free and quite fabulous with all of it's remnants of faded glory, such as 1960s statues of bathing beauties and semi-abandoned bars with Johnnie Walker paraphanalia all around.

Rebecca and I managed to survive the epic 11 hour bus ride on local transport to Siem Reap yesterday, which is where the famous temples are. [Two thoughts on the bus ride: the Mexican xanax worked wonders and why would Cambodian karoke, played blaringly loud, be enjoyable to ANYONE under any circumstances. To the latter, the bus driver quite clearly considered it a priviledge for his riders.] We deftly avoided spending any more time than needed in Phnom Penh, which I have to say is just a bit depressing and aggravating.

The temples of Angkor are as amazing as you could imagine. We are treating ourselves to yet another place with a tropical setting around the swimming pool so we can relax after a hard day of temple touring. We have a sweet old tuk tuk driver named Ton who is driving us around and it's just kind of great. There are a lot of older and richer travelers here than anywhere else I have been and it's amusing to me to see them look at my backpack and worn clothes (which compared to other backpackers are spotless) with disdain. Oh, and I found all the Americans in SE Asia. They are here! Not too adventurous.

Rebecca and I have found that there's a very specific script that you run through when conversing with Cambodians in an interaction - leave the script, and all is thrown into mass confusion. Sometimes, part of the script is mimicry of YOU, usually by young people. It's maddening, but altogether funny too.

Ok, after having a rather complicated hand sign argument with a woman here at the Internet cafe, whereupon she wants to charge me $2 to plug into the USB oulet, but can't understand that in fact I am not taking anything that would cost her anything at all, we have another photo-less day. Today has been a little frustrating - sort of all the cultural gaps have surfaced. Basically after 30 years of war there is no educated class in the country, and the trickle down effect is that simple tasks can get ridiculously convoluted. Also, the poverty is aching - I have had to just tune it out all together. Say nothing, keep my eyes focused on some mid range imaginary object and let it float right off me. The beach can be a hastle too - they might try and sell you your next breath of air if you would pay. Sigh. That sigh will cost you $1, madame. You pay now. Ok, later. You find me! Promise! You buy air from me! Insert smile, then scowl, then smile again. And expect to have the same conversation 20 minutes later. Your resolve has to be steely here.

They have this phrase in Asia: "same same."It's so widely used that it's something of a joke. There is "Same same but different" cafe or "Same same but much better" restaurant. You might use it when you point on the menu to two indecipherable words and ask "same same?" Yes! Even if you don't know what the first same is, at least it's the same thing as the second item.

Last night Rebecca and I went to investigate local nightlife, and we were 7-10 years older than everyone (with the exception of a handful of burn outs who have been wandering Asia for years). There are also no Americans to speak of, a handful of Canadians and loads of thick British girls and packs of attractive Danes. Some Dutch hanging around too. As Americans we are so aware of the Ügly American Syndrome, but I can tell you that Europeans have the exact same. You might even say same same and point to America and Europe on the map. They all sort of have formed their own Euro cliques that involves drinking "buckets" - a bucket filled with nearly every liquor in the bar, ice, a coke and a splah of beer for good measure. Then each person in the group has a straw and they get to work on the task of getting completely obliterated. I am getting old I think. I think it's because I preferred to nurse my buzz out of glass filled with vodka and tonic. And with just one straw. No backwash for me, thank you very much.

Well, off to enjoy the sunset, fend off 10-year-old hustlers and nurse a vodka tonic. Same same.