Wednesday, July 30, 2008

River of 1000 Dicks (no, seriously)

The past two days have been very temple heavy, I've failed to blog the last two nights from plain and simple exhaustion. Today the old man and I have elected to take a day of respite and planning before we embark out to Bangkok tomorrow morning on a 9 hour bus.
So, Ankgor! What an incredible time. For our first day we hired a tuk tuk driver for the day as well as a guide to tell us about what we were about to see. We set out at 8 to make our first stop at Angkor Thom, the largest of the temples built. We entered the grounds by a bridge that spanned the 50 meter or so moat that had 54 statues on either side. The statues on the left represented good with evil on the right. Both rows of statues were carrying a long snake (Naga! Naga!) whose symbol is intertwined with the story of the Churning of the Sea of Milk; giants and gods playing tug of war with snakes and the prize in the middle being the fountain of youth created from the churning of the sea of milk (as best I can explain it in one sentence). At the end of the bridge we passed through a gate flanked by 8 meter walls that surrounded the complex. The main temple contained 54 stone spires (54 representing the 54 Khmer states) each with 4 massive faces pointing in the cardinal directions. The stone work of the ancients is impressive to say the least. The temples rise in a tiered fashion that give them such a mass that they are referred to as mountain temples. Words won't do these places to much justice, so I'll keep it brief until I find a way to post some pictures. We continued on our way to Ta Prohm but stopped along the way when I saw a sign that read TA KEO (Takeo being our incredible host on our recent visit to Kyoto. Much love to you Takeo, Chie, Ellia, Maika and Mike!). Keo means crystal so Ta Keo refers to the crystal temple, so named for the fine quality of stone used there. Unfortunately the temple was never finished because in a storm it was struck by lightning, so they decided to make it into a prison haha. We continued on to the "jungle temple", Ta Prohm. This temple has preserved its beautiful overtake by the indiginous trees. These particular trees pour out branches and roots that envelope everything in their path including the temple. This makes for an incredible symbiotic relationship between the wood and stone. Roots have grown into and around the blocks and even slowly knocked over sections. Ta Prohm is not a "mountain" temple so it stays relatively low to the ground with spires that reach around 20 feet. One particular spire is famous for its acoustic characteristics. If you lean against one wall on the inside and pound your chest, the bass reverberates off the walls as if you had just beat a 20 foot drum. In old times people would come from all around the country to do this and release the demons that caused illness of the respiratory tract. We continued on and our driver took us to a restaurant at the side of a massive man made lake outside Angkor Wat. They brought us menus that were written in english only (bad news) with really high prices (4-6 dollars, which is a fortune out here). We ordered some noodles which turned out to be basically instant noodles with vegtables and meat. Tourist trap. It seems to be a fairly common practice that the tuk tuk drivers strike deals with local tourist traps to take a cut of the bill. When we returned to the tuk tuk, I began to channel my friend Sammy in my mind. I was thinking in his voice, "Come on bro, don't do that to us. That's garbage man. You know it, you know better than that. We'll pay for good food and we'll tip well, but don't pull that stuff on us bro" (love you Sammy, coulda used you out here man). Alas, we just told him how bad the food was and decided that we wouldn't be hiring him again. We continued on to the magnificent Angkor Wat. A 15 foot wide stone bridge led us across a 200 meter moat to get to the outer wall. Kodak moments everywhere. Ankor wat is the largest religious monument in the world, and they used enough stone from Phnom Kulen (50 km away) to build one of the great pyramids. Inside the outer wall we had another 300 or so meters to walk up to the inner wall that houses 5 great spires. The inner wall has a covered walkway around the perimeter that is lined in bas relief carvings the entire way around with the story of the hindu based religion that they had at the time of building. As Cambodia (Cambuchia here) is between India and East Asia, they have gone through different periods of religious blends and beliefs. In some temples that were built during times of Buddhist beliefs, all of the Buddhas have been chisled away from the walls long ago. We finally made our way in to the innermost tier and saw the 5 spires from the inside. The space holds a lot of energy, you could go on forever trying to imagine just what a real ceremony on the grounds would be like in ancient times, pretty special I'd say. What wasn't so special though, was when we continued our tour along four pools that were built inside the main entrance among several tourists, an old sweaty man lugging camera equipment let out one of the most comically long drawn out farts that was loud enough for everyone within 30 yards to hear. I was between this guy and my dad, who turned thinking it was me, and said just as audibly "Daaaaang man!" As he looked over after some confusion, he and everyone around realized he had just reprimanded some stranger. We had nothing to do but continue on in silence. Hahaha, classic. After Angkor Wat we made our way back to the hotel and wandered out to find some food. We settled on another Khmer restaurant in a little bit of a touristy alley which displayed a menu with some tantalizing pictures of spicy beef and also some eggplant with pork. It was at this restaurant that I had my first notable drink. I had originally ordered another Angkor beer, but as I started flipping through the drink menu, something caught my eye: Khmer Whiskey. I rushed up to the bar to cancel my beer order and place one for the whiskey neat. I got a chance to peek at the bottle while I was up there. A very plain looking bottle adorned with a slightly filigreed red label. The words on the label could have been produced by typewriter, or just printed in plain 16 font Times New Roman:
Mekong
31%
Exciting. It came out with a light golden color and looked a bit syrupy after a good swirl. I took a whiff, light and slightly floral, and took a swig. It went down like butter, incredibly smooth with a strong hazelnut up front and a slow burn to finish. Pretty dang good, though I questioned if it even made 31%. I topped it off with some bottled water and enjoyed the rest with my meal. We had arranged a mountain tour the next day that we had to be ready for by 6:30, and after a long day of temple tromping on top of that, I hit the hay pretty hard.
Groggily we managed a small breakfast of eggs and bread before jumping into a mini van that would be our ride for the day. We started out about 60 clicks north at Kbal Spean. A really nice 1 mile light hike up a mountain gave us some good views of the lush rolling hillsides around us that were dashed with white boulders protruding from the trees and grass. At the end of our hike, we found ourselves and the River of 1000 Lingas (phallus'). About 1200 years ago at the beginning of the mighty Khmer civilization, a bunch of monks made their way up this mountain to get some privacy and carve some dicks in the rocks under water, and now it's a national monument. Well, I guess there is some more to it. These guys were paying homage to Shiva the Destroyer (and to his powerful wang) by carving symbolic units in the flowing waters that would bless and "fertilize" the waters that would eventually flow down to their rice farms below. They also carved other deities and such in impossible places. We continued on (after my camera's battery ran out! I'll have to steal that day from my pops) to Phnom Kulen where we walked a ways into an impoverished mountain community to a temple which housed a huge ~40 foot carving of a buddha at the top of a tall rock outcrop at the mountains pinnacle. As we came down, the sky opened up and dumped torrential rains on us so we scrambled into a nearby hut that was barbequeing chicken. Now these were real chickens. Small and scrawny, you could find then wondering through the dirt streets which had just transformed to rivers of mud. The chicked was splayed out and held between two bamboo pieces that were strapped together. Though the meat was a bit scarce, the flavor was abundant and it turned out to be one of our best meals. After the rain subsided we continued on to see some more linga in another river which led to a waterfall that is a local place to swim. Maybe it was the time of week and time of day that we got there, but as we arrived to the bottom of this 70 foot waterfall which ended in a shallow sandy lagoon surrounded by lush green forest, we were the only people there; save two maybe 8 year old local girls chatting on a large rock overlooking the pool. The scene was a picture perfect postcard for Cambodia. Fortunately I came prepared with some shorts, so a got in for a swim. The water couldn't have been more than a few degrees cooler than the 85 degree air. I felt like I was in a strange and magical dream as I floated in serenity and climbed on the rocks below the cascading waterfall. Incredible. Eventually we had to leave, though the mild euphoria lingered with me. We made our way down the mountain to Bantay Sray, a small temple by comparison to the rest, but the artistry was unsurpassed. The main temple was about 40x40 meters reaching about 20 feet into the air, but quite literally every single inch of the rich pink sandstone was covered in carvings and filigree. Again the rains came and hastened our return home. Though we were finished with seeing temples we decided to take the next day to relax and catch up on travel planning and blogging (me: fail). After sleeping a good 11 hours, we got up and moved nextdoor to a hotel with a swimming pool and decided that a lazy trip to the museum would be a good days activity, which it turned out to be. Afterwords I got a little time in on the internet, before we went to dinner with some friends we had made on the bus over from HCMC. Yohan and Dolina are a couple who have spent the last year travelling the world and it was great to hear their stories and get great advice (liberals from Texas too! What a rare breed) and we spent most the evening over some Khmer and Amok food that included duck, mushrooms, fish, and pumpkin. The next day we booked a bus trip to bangkok (tickets that go for 10$) that we were informed was a 9 hour shot. The first 7 hours of the trip to reach the Thai border was hellish. I say that with hesitation, having seen the travel accomidations of the locals, but this trip took some endurance. First, to road was all dirt the entire way that was plagued by massive potholes keeping our top speed below 40 and very ofter forcing a crawl at 5 or less. Second, the bus was in really bad shape. We were crammed into seats where I couldn't even put my feet flat on the floor without the seat in front of me digging into my shins. The pleather seats almost seamed heated as they caused the sweat to pour off you at any point of contact. The only form of circulating air was the front door of the bus remaining open throughout the trek, which made for a steady stream of dust from the road to fall upon us all. I turned my music up and tried to go to another place. When we finally crossed into thailand, the change of scenery was immediate. The bus we climbed into was a plush double decker with a disney themed paint job, a/c, reclinings seats and movies to watch for the ride. Every road in Thailand is well paved with major highways in all directions. We cruised along at great speed, though our journey took about 13 hours when it was all said and done. We rushed to the train station to try and catch the overnight train to our take off point to Ko Samui, but it was sold out. So we grabbed a tuk tuk (which in Thailand have full size engines and zoom around at motorcycle speeds), and after a bit of a back alley scare, eventually made it to a good hotel where we crashed from exhaustion. Now we are booking hotels in Ko Samui and catching up on e-mails and such before we do some light tourism and then we jump onto a 6:30 train heading south.
Phew.
So, sorry to get this blog out a bit late and a bit hurried, but there it is. I'll catch you in Ko Samui for a little more cultural insight and more adventures. Thanks for tuning in and for the comments, it's great to hear from you all =)
Much love,
-Jon


Jenkins: Yea I suppose I should have clarified that a bit. What I meant to say is that the pace of life is just a bit slower and that everything being 5 minutes late is not a surprise. The big clock at Wat Phnom was 5 mins behind the clocks everywhere else in Phnom Penh, but no one really bothered to correct it. Hence the custom seems to be to not worry about time so much, as opposed to everyone putting their clocks back. I usually try to read over my writings but It always seems to be late when I'm doing it and my writing suffers from that. Thanks, for reading, it's good to hear from you! Hope all is well

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Drop Nets, Not Bombs

2 Days in Siem Reap...
We hopped a bus from Phnom Penh at around 9 in the morning on our way to Siem Reap, the city closest to Angkor Wat. I mostly slept to some sweet jams provided to me by my dearest friend Coco prior to my departure. (Thanks and love!) We stopped for lunch at a small market pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There were several buses and vans stopped here as a midway point and some modes of transportation made us feel very thankful for our air conditioned bus. There were a bunch of normal size minivans that probably had seats for 8 tops that were crammed with more like 15 inside with the rear hatches burgeoning out with luggage and what looked like bags of rice. Not only that, but the tops of the vans were rigged with 6 inch rails that lined the perimeter that precariously seated another 8-10 passengers on top. We grabbed some garlic and ginger marinated beef over rice for 1 usd and I gave in to a young girl's pouty face and bought a bag of fresh cut pineapple slices for another dollar (I did get a smile out of her though). We arrived in SR at around 4 pm which was too late to make it to any temples so were arranged a ride on a boat down a small river to the rising lake Tonle Sap. We really had no idea what to expect, but what we found was a whole community of people who lived in impoverished floating houses. Our boat guides (3 18 year old boys who were from the community) pushed us out in a long and skinny government subsidized tour boat that had 6 comfortable chairs and space on the bow for them to sit. What we saw was amazing, the people were forced to live on the river as they could not afford any land, and their only means of living is provided by the water. We drove to the end of the river where it met the great lake. Endless brown water as far as they eye could see. we pulled into a floating tourist stop to see their alligator farm, catfish farm, and freshwater fish exhibit that was all built into the deck. We climbed some stairs to the roof and watched the river for a while as the sun was dropping behind some cloud cover. One thing that stood out to us was how your the children had to start work. We watched a father on the bow of a 15 foot canoe like boat throwing his net into the river as his maybe 6 year old daughter sat on the stern with an oar twice her length and guided them out and around. The maybe 4 year old son sat in the middle watching and learning and holding the bucket which caught the small 6 inch fish that were getting snagged in the net. We bought 2 beers and a can of pringles for 9 dollars, which is an exorbitant price by this areas standards, but we felt ok with it judging by the quality of life we had witnessed (the community was also dependent on the crude motors that powered their boats, and gasoline is not any cheaper for them than it is for you or I). On our way back into the city we stopped at a Khmer soup restaurant, I'll try to omit the word amazing, but it'll be difficult. We knew this restaurant was going to be good when we saw that there was no english on the menu. As the waiter tried to explain what each menu item was, we took a peak behind us to see what the locals were eating, and were happy to copy. They brought out a small burner and placed on it a dome shaped grill with slits that opened from convex bumps in the metal. the perimeter of the grill was raised up so that a trough rounded the edge to catch the drippings of the meat. Out came a plate of raw beef cut thin and marinated in a sesame based sauce with an egg cracked on top. Then came a basket of fresh vegetables and a cube of fat. Our waiter turned the burner on and put the fat on the top center of the grill so that it's drippings covered the rest of the surface, and from a tea kettle he poured a soup broth into the trough. He then explained that we were to place the vegetables into the soup broth to cook and to grill the meat in the center where the drippings would enrich the soup. Hells. Yes. We devoured that thing like it was our job. Topped it off with a pitcher of cold beer, heavenly. As we were nearing the end, our waiter said that their restaurant was famous for something like Cambodian country soup and that we could order a small bowl. We weren't even really hungry, but that guy could have sold us anything at that point. Off went the grill and on came a clay pot filled with a new broth and new vegetables that we brought to a boil. Then came the meat that we were to put in to cook in the stew. More beef cuts, and a plate of whitish gray gelatinous curls that we were informed was cow brain. Done and done. Pops shied away mumbling "mad cow" and I hesitantly dipped in. Once we were sure everything was cooked through I went for it. Not bad at all, mostly flavorless really with the texture of soft tofu (chew softly, for you chew on my dreams). We finally get back to the hotel where I fell face first into the pillow and didn't move until morning.

Well, right now it is about 10:30pm over here and tomorrow morning we have to be ready at 6am t head up to see three temples outside the city in the mountains: pink sandstone carvings, carvings that were made underwater in a shallow flowing river, and waterfalls where the Khmer kingdom was born. Next blog I'll add those to the temples that we saw today including Angkor Wat and Ankgor Thom, but for now, I've gotta pass out.
Love and peace,
-Jon


M,S,Lolo: Yea, the perspective is astonishing, I've truly redefined what it means to conserve resources and gained insight into the relationship we have with our government. Stuff that is easy to take for granted in such a wonderful city like Seattle.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Khmer and check this

And the hits keep comin. Today was another incredible day I have to say. In order to give you some context as you read the rest of this blog, here's where I am right now: about 3 beers deep after a great meal at 10:30pm after a solid day of exploring since 7am. In other words, I'm happy and sleepy =)

So Phnom Penh, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
This morning we were torn between jumping a bus to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat or staying another day. We left it up to the travel agency gods as we headed out into the town to see what was available. The gods treated us well methinks, the first bus available out of town was tomorrow morning at 9:30; Phnom Penh, round 2, here we come. After making arrangments to get out of town tomorrow, the old man and I hired a tuk tuk driver to give us a tour of the city for the day (for those of you that are unfamiliar, at tuk tuk is a little 50-100cc scooter with a double benched improve carriage in tow). Today was a special day in Cambodia however, it was election day. Everywhere we went people were sporting dark blue right pointer fingers signifying that they had had their rint taken in order to vote. It also meant that a significant portion of stores and historical sights were closed for the day. It was surprisingly really nice, albeit somewhat inconvenient. Even though we weren't able to make it into the city's biggest tourist attractions (the Silver Pagoda, National Museum, the Russian market, etc.), the holiday made for a unique experience of the city. The pace was much slower, most people were indoors watching the news for the results of the election or just taking a day off. We started by going to the main city market. While the main domed buildng was closed for the day, a select few vendors stayed open around the perimeter in a series of wooden stalls that created narrow alleyways roofed with tarps. I was recruited several times by my pops to do his haggling for him. Even though he wanted me to do the negotiating to save him money, it seemed as though he were working against me. Several times I would be taking a defensive stance and making low offers on goods that would be going incredibly (sp? again I am lacking red squigely line technology, bear with me) cheap to locals, and dad would say something like "well, you know this is a really good deal" and then after the deals were done say something like "Man, I thought you were going to save me some more money!" On the day I talked down 35 usd off 130 which I thought was a decent percentage considering that I was working against tourist hardened bargainers and my dad. Anyway, after the market we made our way up to Wat Phnom, a tall shrine-like structure atop a hill in the middle of the city. On the side of the hill was a massive clock, maybe 60 feet across that even had a second hand that spun at a good speed out at the radius. As it seems to be the custom in Cambodia, the clock was 5 minutes slow. Afterwards we sat down to lunch at a Khmer restaurant on the Sap river. I had this incredible shrimp dish whose name escaped me shortly ofter leaving the restaurant, but the descriptor on the menu went something like "simmered in brown sauce". A small pile of shrimp waded in a rich brown sauce laden with finely chopped garlic and green onions, which was bordered with scalloped cucumbers, that rolled of the back of the tongue with a nice balance of salt and pepper that reminded me of home. As a pick-me-up I also ordered a 3000 riel Red Bull that had nothing to do with what we get in the states. Flat syrup in a short and stubby can. As we looked out onto the river scene before us, there laid a simple four post structure that had collapsed on one side and come to rest with half of the roof submerged. A few men were working around the structure as we sat down, and before we knew it, one of them had gotten into the water wielding a tube connected to a gas powered pump that was steadily and rapidly supplying air. The man, with no shoes, flippers or goggles, dove under the water to go to work on god knows what in the murky brown waters. We could see the stream of bubbles surfacing from where he was under the surface, but even after we finished our lunch, he remained submerged; 20 minutes at least before we left the restaurant with him still under. Our tour continued on to the city's Genocide Museum (the details of which I'll leave out), and on to a nice drive over the Japanese bridge and back to the hotel. Now, all trip long, I've been talking about how freaking cool the scooters everyone drives around here and about how bad I really want one back in Seattle. Well, I knew of a place (from pre-trip research) which rented them out for 4 usd per day which turned out to be one block from our hotel. I really had no intention of driving any of them in this part of the world, mainly on account of how really fucking scary the drivers are around here, but when the old man suggested we rent a couple, there was no turning back. (cush: you would be in heaven here) So we grabbed a couple ~50-100 cc manual shift, automatic clutch scooters and cruised around town for an hour and a half. (mi amo, mi amo mi nuevo bicicleta) Pure joy. Cruising through 75 degree streets with the breeze through your hair with nowhere to be but exactly where you are: amazing. I took the lead cruising through the city wherever the streets took us. Before long I had gotten myself disoriented with about 10 minutes to return the bikes before the shop closed. Leisurely cruising turned into 2-semi-fast, 2 furious racing through the streets to find our destination. It was a perfect amount of adrenaline and speeding for the evening as we snuck into the shop with no time to spare. We came down from excitement by returning to a site that we had stumbled upon earlier while cruising, a strip of street in which the locals had set up several half-steel drum barbeques where they grilled the day's market meats on the curb. I know! It was amazing! We started off with some incredible sausages that had the locals piling up in line for. Mmmm, light meat with complimentary spices, cooked to perfection with a nice even char that was only interupted by the meat snapping through right before being served to us piping hot. That was only the beginning. We crossed the street to the next barrel of coals releasing smoke that carried a smell that could only be made by dripping fat. We grabbed a strip of meat that dad hypothesized was pork belly. Oh. my. gato. The thick strip was about 12" by 2" and was divided longwise with an inch of tender juicy white meat on one side and a solid sizzling inch strip of fat on the other. When on the street, eat as the grillers do. We finished up the meal with some the wings of some chicken that definitley did chickens everywhere justice. Heading out of the street we grabbed a tuk tuk home and ducked into the restaurant next door to the hotel for a couple tall (640 ml) Angkor beers. So far the beers of Vietnam and Cambodia have been somewhat forgettable, dry lagers that carry a coppery finish, but it was a great way to round off our day. We drank and went over pictures and talked of travels. I'm really really appreciative that I am on this leg of my trip with my dad. I have learned a ton about the practicalities and necessities of traveling from him, but even greater than that, from the standpoint of getting mentally prepared for wandering off into the rest of the world solo, what better day to lose your training wheels than to have your dad give you a push start on your first two wheel ride. So now it's 11:37, and again I have blogged past my bedtime. See you in Angkor Wat!
Much love,
-Jon

Chris: sorry about bringin the hunger pains again in tonights blog, remember, it's all in your head
Erik: Thanks, it's better than good and the best is yet to come, stay tuned
Jenni: Haha, yea this is also doubling as my diary so the mo the betta for keepsake... sake
Trav: Thanks for looking out for my butt, luckily last night's alley chicken and sugar can(e) adventure ended safely.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Todays Phnom pen

What an incredible day, I am so honored to have such incredible experiences all packed together in this trip. Everything I've encountered has been new and challenging and amazing and I can honestly say I will cherish it forever. Today we had our first experiences of Cambodia. Cambodia. And I love it. Love it forever.

I'll get to that in a moment, first I wanted to jot down a few things that I remembered after having posted my Vietnam segment, so here they are in no particular logical fashion to save time on transitions:

-We had the most hilarious cab driver on our way to a pagoda just outside the city the other day. He spoke english well and was quirky and energetic. He played his favorite cd's for us, Pink Floyd, Santana, and Dire Straights haha. While we were in the cab, he began to set up a joke by saying, "what religion are you?" To which I replied "Christian". This actually derailed him from his joke for a minute, and he said "what's that? you mean no god?". It struck me that someone in a major metropolis could have never heard of Christianity, I tried to say "kind of like Catholic, you know, protestant?" Nothing. Right then it was cool to feel a moment in which a small door in my mind opened to new perspectives. He continued, "well I've been thinking about joining Islam, you know why? 4 wives."

-At a small temple outside the city zoo a woman was guiding us around in an effort to build ethos and sell us some postcards and she pointed at my ever scruffier goatee and said "Ho Chi Minh! Ho Chi Minh chin!" That made me smile. She said I should grow it out long, your wish is my command Vietnam.

-After leaving the War reminants museum we were walking towards the post office through a park. Throughout the streets of the city there are older men and women carrying goods in baskets suspended from the ends of a wooden plank across their shoulder, mostly coconuts and bottled water and the like. At this particularmoment we notices that there were about 15 of them running scattered in every dirrection with their beachball size baskets swinging vigorously with each stride. Moments later, two policemen came screaming in on their moto's and one jumped off the back in persuit. It was just like a lion singling out and picking off a gazelle in the wild. Even as the officer got close, there was no quitting from the vendor, he squeezed between cars and cut left and right. We all know who win's that race though; I don't know the fate of the vendor, as much as I wanted to jump in and tell him to give the guy a break, fucking with the po in a communist country is a bad idea- so I hear.

-I mentioned the whole crossing the street aspect in my last post but there was a quick story I wanted to share. Crossing the street is a serious skill in the big city. It takes some getting used to, but I think in the end I got it figured out. It takes walking right into the middle of traffic with your chest up and chin high with confidence and making eye contact with the moto's about to run you down, and never missing a step. Once you establish that you are moving at a set pace, then you have made the decision, and all the drivers have to do is follow it; speeding in front or slipping behind. Getting used to this was a ball clenching task though. Early on the first day as i took a deep breath and hardened my brow just about to take my first step, I got upstaged by a woman who had to be at least 75 who just strolled on in. I fell into rank just beside and behind her and checked my ego at the curb. An old lady walked me across the street. And I was so thankful.

-At the travel agency when we were booking our bus tickets i was watching a woman at work on a computer putting together a spreadsheet on Excell. It took her about 15 minutes trying to format an equation in one cell before she gave up. We are blessed to have our educations... and if you are in Vietnam, double check the math.

Ok, now that that is out of the way I can get on to the good stuff, Cambodia! What an amazing day (sorry to say it again, but it is true!). We got down to the travel agency this morning at 8:30 to be crammed into a 10 seater van with 11 other people which proceeded to drive us literally a block and a half to the main bus that would take us across the border. Everyone inside was laughing as we had all walked farther to get there than it had drove us. The bus took about 3 hours to get to the border which came and went without incident. I did however get a chance to sharpen my haggling prowess. In line at the border, women were walking around offering their under the table money changing service. I had read in our guide bok that the conversion rate is about 4200 riel to the dollar, but practically it is about 4000. All the suckers in front of me paid about 10-20 percent overfor the charge, and a lot more if they didn't count the money that was handed to them in exchange. I traded 400,000 dong (24 dollars) for 92,000 riel (which I talked up from 88) and counted the money to catch the 10k short change she tried to pass. Small victories i know, but I felt great about it. Once into Cambodia, you immediately can see the difference from one to the other. The roads went from un-cared for asphalt to un-cared for asphalt underneath a layer of dirt and silt. Cambodia seems to be a much more poverty stricken area, yet it feels much more care free. We haven't gotten the feeling almost at all that anyone is trying to take advantage of us which has relieved a psychological burden that we had already become accustomed to. We stopped for lunch in a large garage-like space in which a couple was running a food cart. The wife was hilarious! if you have seen Kung Fu Hustle at all, she was exactly like the land lady in pig sty alley. She was screaming at her husband while dishing out some dope ass beef and vegtables in a red, light on grease, yet savory and satisfying sauce, over rice. 8000 riel (2 bucks). Our bus continued on to a stop where we waited to get onto a ferry. Just outside the bus a happy woman was selling whole unknown birds about the size of a folded out baseball from her grill-top cart. I took one whiff and jumped out of the bus to buy one; yup, amazing. Even with the charred head staring me down, it was finger licking good, and as a bonush, they prepared it with its feet tied to one of it's eggs, ate that; yup, amazing. We crossed the river and hit a solid wall of traffic trying to get on the ferry the other way, so our massive bus took a turn down a dirt road that began an adventure. We rolled past hand made houses on stilts with naked children waving and chasing after us, a crude "water tower" that consisted of big pots up un a platform suspended by trees, a local gathering place where a woman was selling fish from a hand held scale, and after barely squeeking through a 90 degree turn that almost didn't happen we continued on past a beautiful hand built stone monestary with young monks clad in maroon robes. Journey on. We arrived in Phnom Phen hungry and eager to explore. As I mentioned before, walking the streets was much more relaxing. It truly actually reminded me of the laid back feel of SoCal, everyone is outside enjoying the heat, cruising on the endless supply of scooters in this part of the world, with a nice breeze that rustled the leaves on the trees. The only difference is the trash in the street and stray dogs that bark at your heels and run down buildings that should be abandoned, but aren't. We passed so much good food on grill carts and eventually settled on one that was way off the beaten path. We got a lot of looks like "what the hell are you doing here" from the locals sitting and eating, but it was more curious than aggresive. We didn't even know what we had signed up for when the one english speaking host placed us in small plastic stools at a leantoo table in the sketch ass alley adjacent to the cart , but we had a feeling it would be good. Out came some food, marinated grilled chicken wing tips on skewers. Pretty bone heavy, but you guessed it: amazing. We followed the lead of the people around us and threw the available spices and kim chi-like garlic slices into a dish with some lime and dipped our wing tips before devouring them. I thought I had ordered a soda to come with it, but to my trepidation and surprise came the juice from fresh squeezed sugar can in a glass with ice. As a general rule, ice/water/uncooked vegitation is a no no in this region, but after tasting how good it was I downed it all with a smile. I hate to say it again, but it is what it is, amazing. As we got ready to go we were informed the bill was 6000 riel. Anywhere near the main city it would have been three times that, we left 10k overly satisfied. We finished the night off with a nice walk and found a spa in a hotel around the corner which gave 1 hour massage for 6 usd. Though it was in a lazy boy style chair, and the massage was a bit unconventional by standard western/sweedish standards, I can honestly say it was one of the top 5 I've ever gotten. So we returned to the hotel and here I am now in the lobby sending away another incredible chapter. Euphoria. And I've still got another 50+ days to go... hahahahaha, what did I do to deserve this? =)
Much love,
-Jon

Friday, July 25, 2008

Phostache

Wow, the past three days have been an incredible blur of awe. I have so much to tell and unfortunately not too much brain power to tell it at this juncture, we have been going non stop by foot for two long days straight after a longer day of travel and currently it is 10:51 pm here. Tomorrow morning we also have to gather our things and check out to catch a bus to Phnom Phen at 8:30. That being said, you'll have to excuse my inability to wield the English language; I guess we'll see how I do...

Getting to Saigon was a feat of endurance. I left my front door at 5 am in Issaquah and after 27 hours and 3 layovers, we arrived at our hotel in Vietnam which was about 10pm local time. We decided to rest well and save exploring for when we could keep our eyes open. The next morning we arose around 6 to a very alive Ho Chi Minh City. It is truly an incredible town, bustling with almost every extreme of life. When we stepped out of our hotel, it took about 10 seconds to learn several lessons. As we opened our guide book to get our bearings, one by one people started to come to us for various stated reasons, but ultimitely for money. One man wanted to bike us to wherever we wanted to go on his modified rickshaw, a woman wanted to sell us some maps, and a little girl just came with her hands cupped in front of her with a look of sadness that could only have been sincere... or finely crafted. Nearly every interaction we have had in this city has been driven by the desire for our money in one way or another, and these people are great at it. Some people guilt you, some bully, some beg, and some just nice it out of you. Whatever the tactic, you definitely get the impression that they know what they are doing and they know exactly how much they can get. I want to make it clear though, that I don't hold this against anyone at all, it's just the way of life here which is new and challenging and fun. And it's not only just the citizens, it's the museums and restaurants and everything in between. We stopped at one museum which sold is tickets for 15,000 dong (17000 dong = 1 usd) which was stated clearly on the ticket, and right behind us came in a couple locals who chatted with the clerk and slid across 1000 each for theirs. In one restaurant we stepped into the waiter must have mistaken us for locals when he brought us menus because the door man who had spoken into us in english rushed in and reprimanded him. Then as we were looking through the menus the staff came and switched them out for basically the same menus with higher prices! =) there's not much you can do about it but laugh it off. In the end our meal for two, at a sit down joint with beers, was about 10 dollars. You can find food cheap here though, in fact we just finished a big bowl of Pho from a street vendor for 20,000 dong a piece; and it was amazing! Now those of you who have eaten with me before know how sometimes I can be a bit particular with eating cleanly (2 fingers, not 4 Travis) which, with my newly sprouted mustache, has had to go out the window. There is just no possible way not to wolf down these massive bowls of Pho at a blistering pace. Of the many times we've eaten pho in the short time we've been here, two were very notable. The First was Pho 2000 which is proudly commemorated with plenty of photos as the Pho restaurant which was visited by Bill Clinton 8 years ago. Another is Pho Hoa on Pasteur street which is listed in the book "1000 places to see before you die" as possibly the best Pho on the planet, and I am not arguing one bit. So getting used to a Phostache has been one of a few things that I have been dealing with. There are some other things that I have learned about myself in the short time that I have been here. First, I am pretty self concious about being invasive, and when I start snapping pictures of people during their daily lives, I feel like I am making a spectacle of them. At the same time, I am a tourist here (and being a tourist bugs me also) and in the end I'll really want to have captured this trip. I am also not very big on doing touristy activities. One shocking fact about this city is that there are 9 million people here and 5 million scooters/motorcycles. Watching the traffic here is almost identicle to schools of fish swarming the streets. They are everywhere. There are also friendly citizens selling rides on them (our cabby from the airport told us that in Ho Chi Minh City there are 40 deaths a day in traffic accidents), so when I heard my dad negotiating with someone for a ride, I was nervous and excited at the same time; I was ready for an awesome HCMC experience. To my dismay, he was talking to a couple of the dillapidated rickshaw guys whose only clientel are fat whiteys who probably whistle that stupid tune in their head the whole way (dee-dee-dee-dee dee-dee dee-dee dee). This was exactly one of the stupid touristy things that I hate doing, but in the end, it turned out to be a pretty cool thing. Not for the fact that sitting in a seat while a guy behind you pedals at a snails pace while you sit like a gomer for all to see (because that definitely happened), but because these rickshaw deals turned out to be even more dangerous than the motorcycles. These guys peddled us at 8mph, tops, right into the middle of death traffic central! Motorcycles and cars where whizzing by and honking while we cut through them all to meander in the general direction we were headed. We even made a wrong turn and the guys jumped off and pulled the rickshaws backwards into one way traffic to the correct the mistake. I think I got some good pictures and tested my quick drying underwear. Our destination was the HCMC Vietnam War Reminents museum, which was an stunning, moving, and shocking display of awful humanity. The presentation was made further incredible in that the presentation of events was from an entirely different political bias. It really was poignant to have heard both sides of the political picture, yet the pictures don't change. The war was still an absolute disregard for human life no matter what spin was put on it. When I get a chance, I'll post some of the pictures I took, but beware as some are not for the feint of heart. Right now we are at the end of our full second day dedicated to exploring this city. We have seen so much and become so familiar that we have started to feel like part of the neighborhood. When we got here, crossing the street was absolutely literally risking our lives, and now we step into the middle of a fleet of motorcycles with the confidence and fluidity you have to have to survive. We've started to get the hang of bargaining, which you can and should do with nearly everyone and everything. Dad is still pretty horrible, but we've got a sort of good cop, bad cop thing going on =) I ventured solo and bought a pho (faux) Diesel messanger bag as a day pack. I talked the vendor down from 250,000 dong to 190,000 and 10,000 for a pack of gum from her daughter who was tugging at my shirt. Not a huge victory, but a ego boost at least (I still got robbed at only around 12$). So one thing outside of our control has been the weather, and we got the whole gammit. The first day it hit about 90 with almost no clouds, then about 4 hours ago the lightning cracked open a flood from the sky. I've never seen so much water falling through the air at one time in my life. We were driven back to the hotel and nearly drown on our way in the door. You could easily fill a cup with rain in as much time as it would take to do something that didn't take very long. Yea, I guess that means it's time for me to go to bed. I apologize if this post has lacked structure and is riddled with spelling errors, this particular computer hasn't hit the red squiggly line technology era yet. Anyhoo, I promise these'll get better =) Goodnight America, I'll see you in Cambodia
Much love,
-Jon

Monday, July 21, 2008

Conversation Piece

Hello Everyone! This is the first post of many in which I will attempt to chronicle and capture the ridiculousness of my upcoming adventure. Tomorrow morning I will step on to a series of planes which will take me from Seattle to San Francisco to Hong Kong, and finally to Ho Chi Minh City (yay cheap tickets with crazy layovers!). Today I got up and made my final additions to my backpack and made some last minute arrangements before gathering my things and heading to my parents' house in Issaquah. It was only when I had my back pack on after I locked the front door (mantown: count it!) and began to walk to my car that the reality of this whole situation really hit me. For the next two months, I won't be returning to my house and all I will have to survive with are my wits (cush: as I chuckle to myself) and the junk in my bag. "It's interesting because" for the past couple months my mental associations with this trip have mostly been to it's functionality as a conversation piece. I have talked about it so much, for so long, to so many people, that the trip had become just that to me: talk. In that moment though it became real. It will probably be hitting me several more times in bigger and awesomer ways as I go along; but for now, this adventure has now effectively removed its glove and daintily slapped me across the face in a challenge to a duel. Oh, it's on now.

More to come, stay posted...