Local Insanity

Day two in Angkor got off to a slow start because of things I had to arrange back home. I took the bike and, since it was light out, I discovered that from some places you can actually see Angkor Wat from a few kilometers away. I took the roundabout way in, but it was nice because I got to see more. Angkor is beautiful and Angkor Wat certainly deserves its place as showpiece. Many of the other temples here are in much worse shape than the nearly-restored Angkor Wat. One of the worst in this way is Ta Som, but this quality makes it cool to see as it is very much broken down and serves as a reminder of what most temples here looked like before restoration started. It’s gloomy, covered in lichen, rubble strewn everywhere, with trees growing throughout and roots doing the job of breaking things apart. Tourists surely help this process along as they are allowed to touch, sit, stand, etc in the areas that aren’t off limits.

Yesterday I was at Angkor Wat for sunrise and sunset. For today’s sunset I’ll probably go to Phnom Bakheng with the rest of the tourists. Is there anyone who actually likes being labeled a tourist? Tomorrow I may try for the Rolous group to the east, the oldest group.

hours later

Legs… so… tired. One day of walking was one thing - I’m used to walking - but a full day of bike riding is hard when you’re not used to it. It was worth it though, as I covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of the smaller temples. It was a fairly slow and relaxed day, which was nice. Now let’s see if I can get my full deposit back for the bike.

after a shower

I like this place. If I could live in SE Asia for a while and still pull down an American salary, I’d be quite happy. It might take a while for the people in my area to figure out I’m not a tourist, but I’d still have to pay foreigner prices no matter how long I was here, which vary but I think are around three to four times the local prices. Despite that, foreigner prices are still amazingly small on an American salary. I’ve eaten at the same restaurant the last three nights (no, I haven’t lost my sense of adventure) and have eaten very well: two main dishes, rice, and tea for US$2.50.

I’m on the minibus I paid US$13 for with lots of people who certainly didn’t pay that much. As Nicole said, it’s the relative amounts we can pay, but that won’t help my legs stretch out any. Well I didn’t ask for comfort when traveling abroad, otherwise I would have stayed home.

hours later

Yikes, the nice pen I got today turned out to be terrible for writing. Good thing I bought two crappy-looking ones too. So Siem Reap. It sure did take a while to get here. The guy at the guesthouse in Kratie said it’d take about 5-6 hours to get here, but in reality it took 8.5 - 9 if you count the fact that it left 30 minutes late. I’ll just count this as yet another lesson to take claims made here with a grain, or maybe even a kilo, of salt.

Siem Reap is fairly nice. It’s the most modern of all the cities in Cambodia I’ve been to so far. Too bad I had to skip Phnom Panh. My three days on Angkor start tomorrow! I wonder if I’ll see anyone I know. Nicole should still be in the area. I promise to take lots of pictures.

What a crazy day. I thought I wouldn’t be able to get to Siem Reap in time because I was told I’d have to spend the night en route to Phnom Penh, which turned out to be true, but I can go more or less directly from here to Siem Reap, only taking about 5-6 hours to do it. Hopefully it’s all legit and they aren’t just ripping me off. The day was mostly composed of two negotiations: the boat to Stung Treng and the taxi to Kratie. Each one took aobut two hours plus whatever time the services rendered were. Sometimes fixed prices for everyone - local and foreigner alike - are just fine.

So I’m trying to decide what to do now. Do I stay here and do a tour or do I get on the road to Cambodia? I’m sitting eating breakfast and I’m thinking about schedules. If I stay, I may not be able to go to Cambodia until tomorrow morning. I’d probably arrive in Phnom Penh at around 1800, giving me that night and the morning to look around. Siem Reap would find me on the night of the 9th, giving me the 10th, 11th and 12th in Angkor. The 13th would be spent going from Siem Reap to Bangkok. So it’s either here or Phnom Penh. I think I’ll stay here.

Wow I haven’t written since leaving Chiang Mai. Laos has happened since then. Laos is much more relaxed than Thailand. The night market at Luang Prabang was much calmer than the one in Chiang Mai. Instead of booths lining the sidewalks they were on large mats on the sidewalk and street, which was closed to traffic. The stuff they sold was all cloth and clothing and figurines - none of the watches and lighters of Chiang Mai and Bangkok. This made it nicer but also didn’t interest me as much. The food was excellent.

We left the next morning on what we were told was a VIP bus but was really a public bus. The aisle was stacked with bags of rice weighing 50kg each. I got the center seat in the back, which means that I could put my feet up as if sitting in a reclining chair. The problem was that our guard (the man with an AK-47 who, presumably, was there to protect the bus from robbers - route 13 is a dangerous place sometimes) sat in front of me and kept scooting back until I couldn’t extend my legs. This lasted for about seven hours. The scenery was beautiful though. Everywhere there were green hills and striking rock formations, the occasional village dotting the road as we passed.

Vang Vieng was a cheaper place to stay, but not to eat. We had dinner along the Mekong, a river we’ve followed throughout Laos which ends near the Cambodia-Vietnam border. Unlike Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng itself is not the attraction. There are caves, waterfalls, and tubing. We decided to kill two birds with one stone and take a kayak trip down to Vientienne. It only took a few hours more and was quite fun, plus we got breakfast and lucnh out of it.

We were in Vientienne a total of about two hours: one hour walking around, another waiting for the bus at the station. The bus to Pakse was pretty nice and went at night, allowing us to forego a guesthouse. Pakse saw us for about an hour before we left for Ban Nakasang. Nicole and I were already feeling not so well, and sitting near the back of the minibus delivered a good amount of exhaust, making it worse. Thus we wasted a whole day lounging and sleeping on Don Det. Lora couldn’t get her visa for Cambodia en route, so Nicole and Lora decided to fly from Pakse to Siem Reap, probably going to Phnom Penh after and then train or boat to bangkok. They just left for Pakse, so for the last week, I’m on my own.

a few hours later

I called Sarah today but we only got to talk for about six minutes - such is the Lao phone system. I’m not as distracted without Nicole and Lora here, so I find myself thinking about her a bit more now, and that makes me homesick. I haven’t been in the States, or even a western country, for five months (one might consider Singapore as half western, but it’s different enough that I never mistook it for home). It’s a long time, but I think I could go longer with some company (hint hint Sarah). I’ve been thinking about starting a travel wiki as a place for travelers to share information in the LP style. Imaging having all the LP books on your PDA. As long as you’ve got an internet connection every few weeks you could travel on very up-to-date information, not some 1998 edition LP.

I am currently on the shadiest airplane I’ve ever been on, and we’re going toward Luang Prabang in Laos. We decided to fly because it’d take two days to get to Luang Prabang by land, with nothign terribly interesting in between. This should give us more than enough time to be in Angkor Wat, but we’re still not sure about the border from Laos to Cambodia, hopefully it’s open.

The night market in Chiang Mai is really neat, but it still suffers the everyone-has-the-same-wares problem. We all bought stuff, mostly clothes, though we kept our expenses fairly low.

The other big thing we did was a tour that took us up to the long-neck Karen tribe near the Myannmar border. We stopped along the way to see some things like a cave and temple. It was sort of anti-climactic. When we arrived, it seemed to be set up not like a vilage but like a shop. It was something of a human zoo, ad was kind of sad. I didn’t buy anything, but Lora bought a scarf, which were probably one of the only things there that was handmade. I still looked, to be polite and at one of the huts I picked up and looked at a small wooden box. The girl came over, baby on her back, and told me it was 100B. I told her I didn’t really want it and she didn’t say anything. When I started to walk away she said 80B, but I just shook my head and left. After reaching the minibus again I decided I wanted a picture of her, since, of the people there, she seemed to be the prettiest (partly because of her youth, partly because she didn’t chew the Betel nut that so many of them did, which would eventually turn their teeth black). I went back and asked if I could take a picture (miming more than speaking), and she helf out the box and indicated my camera, then said 70B. I said I didn’t want the box but could I take a picture anyway?60B. I don’t want the box, I just want a picture, okay? Nod. I took the picture, then gave her 10B, nodded and smiled, then left. The whole tour lasted from 0700 to 1730 or so.

So I’m in Chiang Mai, and I can update my website. Cool. We just got in today and are spending two nights here. After that we fly to Luang Prabang in Laos for a number of reasons (as opposed to overland). I’ve been writing stuff in my little paper journal, which I’ll get around to posting tomorrow maybe. It’s nice to keep you all (5?) in suspense and make you come back for more. MORE!! Hahahaha.

Oh and Chiang Mai is much cooler than Bangkok in every sense of the word. Unless you’re into sin and big cities, come here instead.