On the Move

After receiving the second email asking if I am still alive, I decided that it's been too long since my last post. I spent over a week in Cambodia and I have yet to write a word about it. I'm in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam right now. In spite of my failure to maintain my online presence, these last couple weeks have felt rather insignificant. It's probably because I haven't given them any meaning by documenting them, that they feel lost in a way. Let's see if I can't change that. I'll do my best to recap without losing your interest.

Bangkok
I spent another two days in Bangkok after my last post. Since I still wasn't feeling 100%, I went back to the part of town that I had discovered in my hunt for a chiropractor the day before. I finally got adjusted, which made an enormous difference, but I stuck around the area because it too had a sort of heeling effect on me. I spent most of my time between a small pastry cafe and the Terminal 21 mall that I mentioned in my last post. The cafe felt like a quaint little European patisserie. Well, almost. It felt like a place trying to feel like a quaint European patisserie, but that was good enough. Especially after having spent so much time in underdeveloped corners of southeast Asia. The mall had a completely different feel of course, since it was all new and modern, but it had a similar effect on me. I can't describe the happy feeling I got wandering around that place. I felt like a kid at an amusement park. I even went to see the new James Bond movie. Popcorn never tasted so good! In hindsight though, I have mixed emotions over the excitement I felt from the comforts of life that I specifically wanted to get away from by leaving home.

At the end of those two days, I was eager to leave the big city. I booked a bus for Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Siem Reap
I chose Siem Reap because it's the closest town to Angkor Wat. I have a relatively new found appreciation for ancient cultures, partly because they seem to have had a much better understanding of what's happening on our planet right now than we do, so I was excited to walk a midst the ruins. I was not disappointed. I mostly wandered slowly, imaging what it would be like to live there during it's prime. There were several areas of the temples that were being restored. That made me cringe a bit. All of the projects that had already been completed were marked with signs with "before and after" pictures. To me, the rubble and authentic deteriorated structures and remains were much more wondrous and impressive than the recreations. And it's not like there are a shortage of temples in tact to visit. I don't understand. It was a great little day trip though. The only thing I would have done differently was sleep the night before.

It turns out that Siem Reap has quite the backpackers' nightlife scene going on. They even named a street Pub Street and labeled it with suspended neon lettering at both ends. Something about it was just too irresistible to stay away. There were other factors too though. I was finally feeling like myself again. And I was spending all my waking daylight hours reading. Come 11 o'clock every night, I was ready to socialize! So I did, and it seriously messed up my sleep schedule. I didn't go to bed before 5 every morning, and never sober. I didn't get out of bed til 5pm one day. I realized that I'm no more fond of wasting days here than I am at home. I had only planned on staying a couple days -- long enough to visit the temples -- and then leave. I ended up staying five because I was never in a condition to take the early bus out. I did meet some very cool people though, notably a bad-ass Irish guy. He was 6'7", 250 lbs, and the nicest dude ever. He was my partner in crime for a couple nights. He brought his tuk tuk driver with him everywhere just for fun. Aside from being hilarious in and of itself, that had it's own benefits. We bought him a few cheap drinks and joked around with him a bit, and he brought us wherever we wanted to go, free of charge. The coolest girls I met were a German and a Canadian, neither of which I exchanged information with or have any photo documentation of, unfortunately. Don't over-analyze that.

That was my Siem Reap experience. Aside from my day at the temples, it was sleep and read by day, party by night. I read two and a half books in those few days which is a record for me. I probably would have stayed longer if on my last day I didn't receive a message from the Dutch girl that I traveled with in Laos. She contacted me in a panic because her wallet and backpack had just been stolen. Coincidentally, she was still in Cambodia, only a twelve hour bus ride away. It was a perfect excuse to break free of the party life and backwards sleep schedule that I had fallen into, neither of which I was genuinely happy with. More importantly though, she had no cash and I was close enough to help out. So I booked the next bus to Sihanoukville where she was staying.

It didn't leave until the following morning so that night I went out once again. I met a French guy and a French girl at dinner. They were sitting at the table next to mine and after a I let a few smiles slip in obvious reaction to their conversation, the girl said to the guy, "il parle francais le bonhomme." She said it in such a way that it was clear that she intended me to hear. I smiled again, and before I knew it, I was joining them for dinner.

These two had an interesting dynamic. The guy was fifty and the girl was twenty-five. They had met on the road a few weeks prior and had spent a couple days together. They happened to run into each other again and were spending a couple more days together. It was strictly platonic. They kind of had a father/daughter relationship going on. Although, it became clear by the end of the night that they didn't share a mutual affection for one another. She was actually something a nuisance to him. Once when she went to the bathroom, he went off to me about how stupid she was. I found it all thoroughly entertaining. Especially since she really enjoyed his company. Anyway, after dinner we stumbled upon a Cambodian wedding that was taking place in the middle of a small street near the restaurant. This was quite the ordeal. Loud, live, terrible, Cambodian music. One big tent with tables and chairs blocking the entire street. Beer and food a plenty. And the best part, every foreigner that stopped to watch or take a picture was invited onto the dance floor and given a drink. Basically, the wedding crashed us. Needless to say, I ended up drunk again. I got in around 3:30, fell asleep around 4:45, got up at 5:15, and as instructed, I was waiting for my bus to come at 5:30. It showed up around 7.

Sihanoukville
I arrived in Sihanoukville after 9pm and took a scooter taxi to the guesthouse where I was greeted with a smile and a hug. She filled me in on exactly what had happened to her. Simple case of neglect really. She was riding a bike and had put her backpack in the front basket. Two guys on a scooter came by, and yoink! Luckily, she had given her passport as a deposit for the bike rental. Still, camera, phone, and wallet gone.

This only solidified her existing contempt for Cambodia. Apparently, she hadn't felt safe anywhere in the country. I assured her that it was no worse than any other country that she had visited on this trip. Despite my better judgement, I also told her that it was only because she let her guard down that she got robbed. The first rule in every guidebook and travel site is to keep your valuables as inaccessible to strangers as possible.

Anyway, we spent three days in Sihanoukville. It's a pretty neat beach town but there isn't a whole lot going on aside from the typical island day trips and "party cruises." It was nice to get in the ocean though and just relax on the beach. We didn't venture very far from the guesthouse because she was too scared, even though she was no longer alone. That didn't bother me though because the place we were staying was just a stone's throw away from most things worth seeing. On the last day, I decided to go for an evening fishing trip that I was given a flyer for. I was feeling like I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary in Cambodia so I went, on the grounds that it was something different. The miss decided not to join for reasons still unknown to me. I suspect for fear of something.

The flyer had advertised: $9 per person, music on the boat, a free beer or soda, BBQ your fish on the boat, 3 hours of fun, and more. The whole enchilada. However, when I got to the dock I was the only one there for Mr. Theap's fishing adventure! He explained to me that I could still go but since I was alone, it would cost more to "cover his costs." I thought about it for a while and decided to go for it anyway. What he failed to mention was that he was putting me on a smaller boat, with a random Cambodian guy, no music, no fishing poles, no BBQ and no beer. Luckily I had come prepared with my own six-pack. I had done the math in my head: 3 hours + supposed food + supposed company - one free beer = not enough beers.

I ended up having the time of my life. Not in the holy-shit-that-was-crazy-fun kinda way, but in the calm, reflective, grateful, I-love-this-for-what-it-is kind of way. I couldn't help but appreciate the unexpectedness of the whole thing. I can't really do it justice right here so check out the photos and captions in my Sihanoukville album. We only ended up staying out on the boat for two hours but the sun had set and I was perfectly happy to head in. Mr. Theap greeted me at the dock, at which point I realized that he had really only planned for us to be out for two hours, even though he kept repeating "tree owa" before I left. I found his whole scam rather entertaining. As far as I was concerned, the joke was on him. He led me to a restaurant on the beach and threw all my live fish on a ready grill that was out on the sand. I ordered some fries and a beer and had myself a wonderful dinner.