2-21-07

Hey I'm in Saigon! After what seemed like an eternity waiting for Chinese New Year to end so I could get my Visa for Vietnam, I finally caved in and paid off the guard at the embassy to get my Visa for me. It cost me $60 and is only a 15 day Visa but whatever, I'm just going to be making my way through Vietnam anyway and into China and eventually Japan.

First impressions are that's it's noisy, with lots of crazy traffic. It reminds me a little of Ko Sahn road in Thailand but not nearly as many white people walking around getting their hair braided. If there's one sight I can't stand it's fat white people getting their hair braided, yech. Maybe it's from seeing so many getting it done in Vila or how utterly ridiculous they look afterwards for something they paid for.

Tomorrow I hope to visit the Viet Cong tunnels, find some rambutin and make bus reservations to get me out of this city. Unfortunately I haven't seen any rambutin at the food stalls. Could it be that Vietnam doesn't have any?

2-28-07

Hey I'm in Hanoi! Been here a few days after a 33 hour train ride from Saigon. I'm happy to report that they do indeed have rambutin here, not to mention a number of other interesting street foods. Probably the strangest one so far has been snails, and while I understand that France has had an influence on the cuisine here these are not escargot by any means of the word. I don't have pictures to post yet but these things are interesting to say the least. They're sold in the market by the kilo, and vendors steam bowls of them and serve them with a pepper vinegar sauce along with free rice wine. Unfortunately the rice wine doesn't really compliment the snails so much as give a way to distract from what can be an somewhat sandy meat. The snails are pried out of their shells with triangular pieces of metal and then dunked in the sauce. The result is a somewhat spicy morsel of meat similar to octopus. It's something to try but I think I would have to be drinking to try it again. Other than the snails there's the usual rice noodle soup, fried rice and baguettes that can be bought on many corners. No dog yet.

The reason I'm still in Hanoi is because I'm waiting on my Chinese Visa. For some reason Americans get charged $30 more for their Visas than people from other places, anyone know why this is? I know Americans are rich cocky bastards but don't we have a bazillion trade agreements with the Chinese? Hell, even the Governator was treated like a dignitary when he visited there a couple years ago. Why I gotta pay more?

After I get into China I'm going to jump on a ferry to South Korea to hang with Christina who's been teaching English over there for a little while. I'm looking forward to lots of soju, korean barbeque and kimchee, preferably in that order. However if I get really sick and tired of traveling I'll just hop a jet out of Beijing. I seem to have come down with a case of travelers fatigue but I don't think it's anything a night out drinking can't handle. Luckily I've been hanging out with some Lebanese-Australians who're pretty keen on going out, Film at 11.

2-16-07
Monkeys!
Food!
More Monkeys!
More food!

After two days of sight seeing with the Royal Cambodian palace, the S-21 genocide museum and the Killing Fields I decided to have a wandering day, a day where I don't follow any map and just start walking. My sense of direction has gotten better over the months so I can normally find my way back and there are always tuk tuk or motorbike drivers ready to take you anywhere you want or sell you pot. Anyway, the killing fields were cool if graphic, S-21 is even more graphic but neither of which were very fun, nor did they have monkeys.

Today . . . there were monkeys.
Lots and lots of monkeys.

This morning I started walking around braving wild drivers and wilder cross walks and eventually found Wat Phnom, a large Wat in the middle of Phenom Penh that has lots and lots of monkeys. And these monkeys aren't in cages or anything, there are no people looking out for them, they just exist in the middle of the city. Sweet. I went to the top of the Wat and started to weave a new coconut bracelet/anklet from the coconut I still have in my bag from Ko Tao when a Japanese tourist started feeding some monkeys. I thought cool, these monkeys seem pretty used to people so I reached out and touched one on the back, big mistake! He got all up in my face, bared his teeth (sign of aggresion) and then jumped up on the bench I was sitting on (another sign of aggression). I remembered my friend Ben saying that monkeys are 8 times more powerful than people pound for pound and I thought of the horrible headline that may appear in the paper the next day "RPCV horribly disfigured by monkey in Buddhist temple" Luckily he went away and I got to keep my nose and eyes.

So I went on my way and eventualy found a small side restaurant with no AC or fan and no one really spoke English, my kind of place. Through a series of hand motions and signals I got some tea which was served hot in the pot but I was also given a glass full of ice . . . curious. Normaly my tea arrives hot and stays hot. Like some kind of village idiot I sat there looking at it, wondering if I was really supposed to pour the hot tea into the cold glass full of ice. Eventually it became obvious that that's exactly what I was supposed to do. So with the entire serving staff watching me I poured myself the strangest iced tea I'd ever had. And it was good! Surprisingly good, the best tea I've had so far. I think it was Jasmine. Traveling as farang normally I get crappy "yellow label" black lipton tea when all I want is some real tea. But whatever, it was good and I was able to drink all that I wanted to for 500 riel (even though tea is free if you order food). After getting my tea craving taken care of I hit the local market and after navigating streets smaller than in Thailand I sat down for some real street food, something I hadn't been able to get for the past week or so. I take back any bad things I've said about the food here in Cambodia, this soup was very good, full of noodles and fish and there were all kinds of things to put in, including a chili paste and some fermented beans that tasted suspiciously like natto but without the slime (the beans are on the right side of the photo); total cost: 2500 riel ($.62).

Encouraged that I had found some decent food I went and bought a kilo of rambutin because they're that good. Please God, tell me I can get rambutin back in the States, they are like crack cocaine. Seriously, if I had a choice between a kilo of hard rock and a kilo of rambutin there would be a very displeased drug dealer after I left. I'm basically the cookie monster of these things. Today I learned that there is a difference in rambutins, one kind costs 4000 riel a kilo ($1) and the other kind costs 5000 riel a kilo ($1.25), but I was able to get the 5000 riel ones for 4000 riel, ha! Behold my sick bargaining skills as I talk a woman down $.25 on a purchase! Pwn3d! I took my fruit and sat down by the river, sharing some with a couple local boys who were pulling wagons of green coconuts to sell. Btw, I realize that most of the time I'm getting a little ripped off like paying 500 riel for the tea, and if my name was Adam Kane I'd probably be able to get it for half that much, I'm just not that big a fan of bargaining. I mean I'll do it sure but getting all into it, making a show of leaving, it's not for me. If I'm leaving I'm really leaving, not waiting for them to call me back. I'll just walk down the street and find it for a cheaper price whatever I'm looking at.


Not completely filled by the rambutins I started walking down some side streets, eager to find the next thing to munch on. I'd read about some fermented fish paste called Pahok that's served on rice but hadn't been able to find any. But I did happen to see a woman who was making sugar cane juice, something I've only seen in Cambodia. It's pure genius, you squeeze all the water out of sugar cane with a heavy duty press and mix with some orange juice and serve over ice. Awe, mama blong Jesus, it was good! Even bett juice I'd had in Indonesia years agoer than the mango and I had stacked that as the top juice ever. But this, this was cold, crisp, sweet and a little sour, throw in a little savory and you have a Thai smoothie. Sure it looks like fermented horse urine but it tastes so much better! And the ice was chipped, not cubed. What is it about chipped ice that makes drinks taste so much better? I drank the cane juice in about 4 seconds and considered buying more, but I knew I couldn't over do it, there would be more later I was sure. It would also probably serve as the perfect mixer, so as soon as I find a sugar cane supplier back in the States . . .

On my way back to the Wat I passed a large group of men who were in the process of making some kind of fried dumpling. I'd seen them earlier in the day making the dough, rolling it out and making the filling and now they were frying them. I talked to one of the fryers and accepted when he offered me one. They were "pots of gold" that I'd had at some Chinese restaurant back in the States but never like this. I mean these were fresh out of the fryer and still steaming when I bit into them. I bought a kilo for 15,000 riel ($3.75). Back in the States I would probably get 4 for what, $2.50? But I was getting a whole kilo! I felt a elated, hungry, and a little guilty I was getting such a great deal. But Chinese New Year was the next day and he said they would be all sold out by 9 am the following day. These things are great beer food, and as I write I still have half a kilo left in my bag, these things aren't leaving my sight they're that good.


After the pots of gold I went and bought another kilo of rambutin. Hey I don't have a problem, I can stop any time I want! And went to go back and feed the monkeys. Unfortunately I forgot how smart monkeys are and after giving one rambutin to the first monkey he reached up and grabbed the plastic bag that was holding the rest of them. Luckily I was able to get it back but then I thought "Aw screw it, they're monkeys!" and gave them out to all the other ones that were close. Apparently monkeys love the rambutin as much as I do, fighting over them and eating them like the delicious pieces of heaven they are. I kept my fried dumplings safely out of sight, there was NO way I was letting them go. I watched the monkeys play and fight and pick lice out of each other's orifices and then went back to the guest house to crash for a little while and ponder what I'd accomplished during the day.

As it is right now I've spent a little over $6 today on food which means that with my $3 a night room I haven't even broken the $10 mark yet. And I probably won't get much to eat tonight as I still have a pound of pots of gold in my bag. Of course I'll have to eat them pretty soon so I don't repeat a mistake I made in Vanuatu and save my food for the afternoon by which time enough bacteria has grown to give me a lovely case of food poisoning. But even with the food poisoning it would be worth it. After all my culinary experimentation I have dubbed today "Food Day" and will try to have more in the future, preferably every time I enter a new country so I can get acquainted with the local "slop" as Doug puts it. I'm actually surprised I waited this long to do a food post, considering I freaking love food and everything food-related. It's times like this when I'm thankful for the poor sanitary conditions of Vanuatu. Just think, if I hadn't been eating food by sneezing, scabies-infested-baby-carrying women who never washed their hands, I might not be able to eat all the food over here without getting amoebic dysentery! Bird flu? Water-borne pathogens? Pssh, whatever!

And for all my island tawis please enjoy the following.

Pig pig pig!

See Em. See Em Riep. Riep Em Riep!

2-13-07

Jesus Christ on a crutch, I had a great post written up and then the computer here decided to crap out on me, losing the entire thing. So instead of a witty, sarcastic update you're getting a cynical, self-depricating update instead. Happy? Well you should be. You're all in air-conditioned facilites while I'm on the street sweating balls trying to keep from getting dehydrated, only if I keep hydrated I keep sweating so the only way to stop sweating is to rid my body of water. I'm caught in this viscious cycle because Siem Riep is hot.
Hot and dusty.
Hot and dusty and . . . well, dusty. How did I get to this hot and dusty place? Well I'll tell you! It all starts back when I was in first grade, damn I remember it like it was yesterday . . .

Just kidding. My trip to Cambodia started when I left Bangkok for the bus station to take me to the Thai/Cambodia border. The 5 hour bus ride to the border was fine, good roads and we even got a little cake and some water. But after we got to the border, passed into Cambodia and climbed aboard a bus and started making our way to Siem Riep, things quickly changed. First off the bus was completely packed, my backpack squashed underneath a fold out seat and back packs piled up behind me, threatening to come down after each and every bump on the non-maintained road. And oh were there bumps, the road is more rock and dust than asphalt, a fact I was reminded of evey time I took in a breath and got dust since we had to keep the windows open for the fresh air. What was supposed to be a bumpy 4 1/2 hour ride to Siem Riep took a semi-hellish 7 1/2 hours that was extended from having to replace a flat tire and stop at a tourist restaurant for some tasteless food. When we finally got off the bus we were so dusty that slapping my chest caused my t-shirt to cough up a large collection of the dust it had accumulated from the road.

After arriving at the guesthouse at 10:30 at night I crashed, still dusty and exhausted. Come to think of it, I've crashed every night dusty and exhausted. The heat here drains energy and it's hot for most of the day. Luckily it's a dry heat and not the swelting Vanuatu oh-my-god-kill-me-now heat I'd grown accustomed to. Being used to the conditions of Vanuatu is probably one of the reasons I haven't dropped in the middle of the day. Anyway, after arriving at the guest house I noticed a bottle of rice wine that was half filled with some dark pieces of something. Upon closer inspection I saw lots of legs and apendages from a scorpion, centipede and tarantula. So with all these dead poisonous animals floating at the bottom of 3 year old rice wine of course I tried some, spooning it off the top so I didn't get any crunchies. Strangely it was much smoother and tastier than the rice wine I'd tasted in Laos where they make their own from scratch. The staff at the guest house informed me the rice wine w/critters would make me strong and act as viagra, sweet. So when I get old I'll be hitting up reptile and liquor stores instead of pharmacies. Who's with me?

The next day I started visiting the Wats of Angkor including Angkor Wat, a huge spectable of Kmer architecture, art and sandstone. The thing is huge, amazing and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's also a major tourist attraction, something that I realized as I saw the throngs of pasty white people wandering through and the wide-eyed Japanese groups. I searched for some peace and quiet at the top of the third level of Angkor Wat, only to hear the bantering of an American family at the bottom, talking about absolutely nothing at all. It's hard to contemplate the grandiose scale of an ancient, 1000 year old temple with people rambling away below you. Hey, I just lost an hour of writing, I warned you. After Angkor Wat I went to Angkor Thom, another huge temple with gigantic faces carved into the brick walls. I could go on an on about these temples, they're that freaking sweet.

The day after it was wash, rinse, and repeat except this time it was different temples. You see, Angkor is a large area with well over 10 major temples. The next day I went to more temples, starting with Banteay Srei in the north and seeing so many Wats that and the end of the day I was Watted out, dead tired and dehydrated. But in between I managed to see Pre Rup and some other temples that looked straight out of the Indian Jones ride at Disney Land, huge carved faces and everything. It was crazy, as in Jesus-Christ-this-is-so-cool crazy. I hightly suggest Angkor to anyone who has half a brain stem and a pair of eyes. I think even my cats (when they were still alive) would have appreciated it. Most of the temples have concentric walls, rising up into the air. At the top are normally statues of Buddha or other deities which have probably been removed. At the top of Pre Rup there was a small Buddhist shrine complete with two headless Buddhas. I talked to the guard at the top and he said that they were beheaded by the Kmer Rouge back in the day. I tried to be as culturally appropriate as possible and keep my head lower than the Buddhas, even though they had no heads. I visited all the Wats I could an d still enjoy them. I got to a point where I was looking up at the Wats thinking "Hey that's pretty neat" instead of "Sweet jumping Jihad, would you look at that shit!" which is pretty much how I was at the beginning of the day. You know it's time to call it a day when even 1000 year old temples fail to get you excited and all you can manage to think of is "Neat". Strangely, buying fruit later that night got me more excited than when I was at a low energy point at Angkor.

One of the best Wats I went to was Ta Pro

hm, where they filmed parts of Tomb Raider. The temple is supposed to be left as it is with no renovation so there are trees growing everywhere and walls which have fallen over and everything is left as is. Surprisingly, the front of the temple was covered in scaffolding from restoration! So I guess some government is forking over the money to make it look pretty.

She doesn't know it, but this Japanese tourist is 2 fingers away from being the Hobgoblin. That, or she's trying to be Little Bunny Foo Foo.

Yesterday I decided to take a break from the temples and wander around Siem Riep, as I'll probably head out to Phenom Phen in the next day or so and check out the Killing Fields and whatever museums they have there. After that it's anyone's guess as to where I'm headed, I want to get up to China as quickly as possible so I may do the train route through Vietnam or bus it through Laos. Luckily I have plenty more pages in my passport (after getting it refilled at the U.S. embassy in Thailand) so I don't have to skip any countries.

Today I took a trip to the war museum a little outside Siem Riep where they have a land mine exhibit and all sorts of old howitzers, Thompson machine guns, AK-47's and this beauty right here.

We olgeta, traen luk mi! Mi mi stap holem semak masket wea Rambo i usem long namba tu film blong hem. Mi mi olsem Rambo wan taem! Spos yu kam long ples ia yu tu i save holem masket. Mo tu, spos yu gat fulap vatu yu save sutum masket mo kilim ded sam faol mo buluk. Onest!

2-3-07

Sometimes it's so difficult to remember everything that has gone on since I last posted. Luckily I have photos to job my memory and my journal to help out.

After Ko Tao Marije and I caught the fast boat over to Ko Phangan, home of the full moon parties and really expensive song taew rides. Marije and I managed to find a great place called the Hansa Resort which was out of the way, close to a 7-11 and had a beautiful beach to lay on, although the water was filled with sharp rocks. Even my travel hardened feet got a few cuts on the bottom. We had the great idea to watch the sunset and drink some wine so we went to the 7-11 since it's the only place to buy Western food, and bought some crackers with cheese, chocolate, rambutans, and were looking for some wine but couldn't get any. So the wine plan was scrapped and we settled for some beer and for a sunset that was completely obscured by clouds, but it was still fun! I got to play with a short-legged dog on the beach and eat my fruit.

The next day we ventured to Haad Rin where the full-moon party takes place every month on a very small strip of beach. How they fit over 10,000 people there is a complete mystery to me. Haad Rin is SO touristy, white people everywhere and no decent restaurants. But we did stumble upon a bar that was showing South Park on DVD's so we stopped by for an episode since Marije had never seen one before. Then we wandered around for a bit and tried to get something to eat. We stopped in a (very touristy) restaurant and I decided to order something different, as I normally like to do. So I ordered a baked potato with fri because instead of posting signs toed eggplant (aubergine) thinking it would be some great baked potato dish. But it was just a dry, baked potato with a couple pieces of eggplant on top, exactly what I ordered. Sometimes I still violate my own rule or ordering non-Thai food in Thailand. I had to laugh at it however, of course the Western food isn't going to be as good in Thailand as the Thai food. We went to a "Jungle Experiance" party which was actually a km off the main road in what appeared to be the jungle. Of course we were the only people who actually walked to the party which was nice follow there were beer bottle lanterns on the side of the road to follow. The party was in a great location, with places to chill out, food and drink to buy and lots of psychadelic posters and glowing shrooms made of coconut shells. We danced a little bit but unfortunately the music was all trance and jungle and not that good either. But it was still fun walking back home at 2 am, dodging tuk tuks and song taews, knowing we had to wake up early to catch the boat.





A couple days ago we took the boat back over to Ko Samui. At the pier I found a cat and so I had to play with it, it reminded me of Joe's cat back in Vanuatu, Niko-san. I've been playing with just about every animal I find, monkeys included. The cats and dogs are so friendly over here for the most part. And they're always exciting when they get petted.




Anyway, after we landed on Ko Samui we went for a night at the Amazing Peace Resort that just opened back up the night before from months of remodeling. Marije said it was a 5 star hotel based on the bungalow sizes and the layout. We were both extremely impressed by the accomodations (cable TV, bathtub (!), mini bar, sweet bathroom) as well as by the pool, restaurant and the number of large white people wandering around in bathing suits. It reminded me that some people never go outside except for when they're on holiday, I think my retinas are permanently scarred from seeing some very large Germans. I still think that the number of stars for a hotel is contingent on the size of the tourists.

I also took Marije out for her birthday which really wasn't on that day but we needed an excuse to get dressed up. See how dressed up we are? I put some product in my hair and Marije wore some makeup. We went to a seafood place where I had shark steak and she had salmon steak. Since traveling my stomach has shrunk considerably, I felt like such a wuss when I stopped after eating half of my plate was gone and Marije asked "Are you full already?" It was because I didn't have anything to drink during dinner. If you don't know already, I can eat enormous amounts of food if I've been drinking, probably 3 times as much as I normally can. I turn into the cookie monster and everything I see turns into a cookie.

After our flight to Bangkok we cruised Kosan road for a little bit, it's Huge! So many lights at night, Burger King on one end and Starbucks at the other end. We ended up going to Starbucks because I was really craving decent coffee (there's not much here in Thailand that I've found). We ended up meeting up with Jacco, Marije's friend from Holland and going out for drinks and some street food. Apparently the police are strict on having licenses for street food and we found this out the hard way, as a pad thai vendor literally wheeled his stand into a small alley as we were trying to order from him. After dinner I took Marije to the airport which was difficult since we'ver been traveling for over 2 weeks now, seeing her go was so hard. But I'm going to visit her in Amsterdam when I go there so that makes it easier.

Today on Kosan I saw a guy completely passed out. Here he is, if you know him please shame him unmercifully.