3-23-07

This is going to have to be one of those `Look at the pictures, read the comments` entry cause honestly I can`t remember all the things that I did in Nagasaki. I`ll have to recount my experience through photos.

First off I arrived in Nagasaki a little later in the after noon so I didn`t have too much time to walk around after finding a hostel to stay at. I`m finding that youth hostels in Japan are more restrictive than I would like, imposing curfews, allowing only one shower a day (very strange in Japan) and charging for everything from fresh sheets to using the kitchen facilities. But nothing a little beer can`t help right? Or maybe a lot of beer, perhaps 2 liters of Asahi out of a vending machine? Unfortunately vending machines in Japan require you to insert a Japanese drivers license before making your purchase, damn.


I had a map of Nagasaki but I`ve found that if I just start walking around interesting things will make themselves known to me. Lo and behold, a giant Buddha on a turtle appeared on a hill! I think in some cultures a turtle is supposed to support the universe on his back like Atlas and the globe. But it`s been a long time since I studied mythology so I`m probably wrong. Either way, the inside of the turtle is a shrine that isn`t all that impressive and is kind of a let down considering there`s a Buddha on the turtles back. Sometimes I like to imagine what would happen if the Buddha came to life and started attacking the city.




This is the hypo center of where the atomic bomb struck Nagasaki at 11:02 am. It was detonated high above the city with a fatality rate of 100% within a km radius of the blast. The black monolith was the first structure erected after the blast. Around this area are many bomb-related exhibits like the Peace Statue, Peace Park, Victims Memorial and the Atomic Bomb Museum. I found that all the bomb sites are extremely peaceful and are great places to just sit and think for a while. I thought it was nice that these kids were taking a picture.





This is the Peace Statue in the Peace park near the hypo center. One arm points upwards to warn against nuclear weapons and the other points out symbolizing eternal peace. I met a nice Australian woman here but her two daughters were really going at it with each other. I thought `Oh how nice, a relaxing family vacation.`










Here is a likeness of the Peace Statue rendered in paper cranes strung together. This was inside the Atomic Bomb museum and I walked past it not really noticing it. I did a double take and had to walk back to understand what it was. Paper cranes are supposed to represent prayers for the deceased and for the cease of nuclear arms.






My family has always thought that we had family members who died in the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the Atomic Bomb Museum there are internet terminals with databases of the victims and audio and video testimony. I searched for `Okamura` and found quite a lot of individuals.








This table is in the middle of the Victims Memorial center and is a place where visitors can put paper cranes in memory of the victims. I took a page from my journal and made a crane for the table. Mine is the small tiny one next to the pink cranes on the right.









There is also the Sanno Shrine that was blown in half by the atomic bomb farther away from the hypo center in what is now an apartment complex. It is still standing on its one leg. I love this shrine, the symbolism is unmistakable.

3-20-07

I caught a train to a city called Dazaifu on Dave`s recommendation. Dazaifu is known for it`s culturally significant sites, huge shrines, Zen gardens and little sweet cakes made of bean paste. Little did I know, however, that the day I arrived was also the Plum Blossom Festival Ceremony Day (not really sure what you call it) where large groups of kids danced together in groups. I guess nothing says "Plum Blossoms" like costumed dance numbers? The whole day people were walking around in full makeup, walking around waiting for their group to be called. The music the groups danced to was a mix of traditional Japanese music with hip hop thrown in. This made things very interesting and allowed the dancers to really have fun, I could tell that these kids were having a blast, as I know I would be if I were still doing choreographed dance numbers. Ah, competitive dance.


After watching some of the dances I decided to try some of the street food. But I soon became distracted by a monkey. Wait, a monkey? It`s in a kimono? And jumping through hoops? What the hell is this? Apparently the Plum Blossom festival also means monkey shows. The funniest thing about the whole show is that the monkey actually bowed on command to the adoring crowd.



Eventually I found my street food and had another food day. The bean paste cakes were hot and so good, Dazaifu is known for their cakes (called umegae-mochi) and there were long lines of people eager to get their hands on these hot little things. And look, is that a flower imprinted on it? Less well know but equally as good were these kinds of pancake s covered in condiments (ketchup, mayonnaise, fried onion?) and served on un-snapped chopsticks on a rice cracker. I have no idea what it was called but it tasted great. Right, after eating lots of food I went to the Kyushu National Museum which looks like a huge wave from the outside. It focuses on Japanese culture from the perspective of other Asian civilizations, dealing with trade, religion and technology. Going to this museum really brought all of Asia together in comparison and made me glad that I had been to all the countries in South East Asia that I had gone to as I recognized most of them in the exhibits. Unfortunately I couldn`t take any photos inside which sucked as the displays were amazing. I knew katanas were beautiful swords but had no idea just how beautiful.


Tired from walking around the museum I found a shrine with some Zen gardens at the Komyozenji temple which was very peaceful. There was almost no one there and I was free to wander around and hang out on the rice straw mats.








Then it was off to find my guesthouse but not before passing by an ox cart that was handing out free sake, which I mistook for water. Imagine my surprise when I swallowed a big mouthful of sweet rice wine when I expected water. But it was good sake, probably the best sake I`ve ever had which isn`t saying much because my sake consumption is about a thimble-full just to celebrate the New Year. I noticed a couple men in the crowd who had obviously been drinking from the dark shade of red covering their faces.

Luckily I was able to get a spot at a local bed and breakfast and met up with Alex, a teacher from New York. He`s been teaching overseas but English and not mathematics, as became painfully obvious when he asked me for 1000 yen since he was broke. Of course I gave it to him (because he caught me off guard) but I though man, you come to Japan and run out of money? Hello! It`s expensive here! He tried to get a work Visa here but for some reason it didn`t work out. He also applied for the Peace Corps but was rejected for some reason. After all the fun people I`ve met in the Peace Corps, I really have to wonder why he was rejected.

Anyway, after Dazaifu I went to Kumamoto via Fukuoka. I literally had zero information on Kumamoto other than my grandma`s family is from there as well as Toyoda-san. I also heard there was a castle. So I came in on the bus, got a nice room for a couple nights and started walking around. Well the castle is impossible to miss, it`s huge and majestic and considered one of the best castles in all of Japan. The following morning (today) I was able to go inside and see just how majestic it really is. Let me tell you something, whatever you are doing you need to drop it and come to Japan and see this thing. It is HUGE! Huge and beautiful and clean and tall and a stunning example of Japanese architecture and lots of other things as well. I can`t remember everything that I read about it so I`ll just put up some pictures.
Castle very big, me very small!

And this is on the inside, there are walls outside of this leading in. Man, I wish I could express the scale of this this. Sure it`s not as big as Angkor Wat but it`s still huge. And it was able to hold off an army during Japan`s last civil war, pretty impressive. There`s lot so turrets, loop holes for shooting enemy troops, storage facilities,




and flower gardens. Even during war they had to tend to their flowers. The flowers on the inside of the castle are pure strains and have never been cross-pollinated before. Unfortunately, this Higo Camelia was the only species in bloom. There are 4 different flowers on the castle grounds, each one with a different way of planting and cultivating it.






There were other flowers outside the castle, but I don`t know what they were called. Here`s one anyway, that`s the castle in the background.





After the castle I wasn`t finished with the area so I went to the art museum and the Traditional Craft Center which is so Awesome. They make bamboo baskets, traditional wood furniture, porcelain, hand-made paper, knives and all sorts of really cool things, some of which I tried to make in Vanuatu. I really wanted to buy everything they were selling (especially the gold inlaid iron work) but it was all way to expensive. In the end I bought some hand-made paper and little things to give out as gifts.



Afterwards I went to the local park and found some girls eating lunch under a tree.











Thanks for sticking with me so far (assuming you`ve read it all). Last (but funniest of all) I found a woman selling cabbage in broad daylight. Long wan klia ples ia! Ating ol man i wantem pem kagaj blong hem.

Right, I`m exhausted. Tomorrow it`s back to Fukuoka, then Nagasaki.

3-17-07

Tired, since coming to Fukuoka I`ve already seen so much. I got in yesterday and managed to find the capsule hotel quite easily. In case you didn`t know, capsule hotels are these places (mostly for business men) that offer capsules (or sleep coffins) cheapy to sleep at night http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_coffin. It`s ok, but not my first choice of place to spend the night. Thankfully I got to use the bath house and sauna in the sleep capsule hotel so that was nice. I`ve since grown to love bath houses, say what you will about the gross amount of male nudity.



Anyway, I dropped off my stuff and went to a small shrine around the corner, taking pictures of what I believe is my family crest carved into the rock. My family`s is on the far left. I seem to run across it almost everywhere in Japan, which leads me to believe our family either stole it off a feudal lord way back in the day or that we`re famous over here and everyone should be giving me free stuff. I should just have to wave our flower symbol and be given free room and board.


Going through the shrine to the other side I found myself at Canal City, which is a HUGE famous mall in Fukuoka that has a movie theater and lots and lots of shops. I made it to the second floor and after looking down noticed a large group of people standing around what looked like a fountain. Sure enough, it was a fountain and started shooting up water synchronized to the Peter Gun theme.



I thought "Wow, this is pretty cool" and stayed on after the music and water stopped. Then some kind of strange kind of cosplay
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay) fashion show. I knew it was going to be weird when the first person out was wearing a gas mask and ripped clothes. I stayed, but everything after that wasn`t as interesting.



Hungry and looking for an internet connection I went upstairs to the Sega arcade where lo and behold, I found Guitar Hero in Taiko Drum form. I watched Taiko Hero for a while and the women playing was incredibly embarrassed after realizing that I had been watching her play. However, as entertaining as taiko drum video games are, they are not food.



Moving on I went up another escalator and found myself in the most amazing place ever . . . the Raumen Stadium, where Ramen from around Japan compete to achieve the title of Ramen Champion! Ok, not really but it`s still a place to try ramen from all around Japan. Now I know that in the U.S. ramen noodles are what poor college students and starving artists eat, but real ramen is amazing, fresh noodles thrown with whatever is available in a pork broth. The ramen places require you to buy a meal ticket before coming inside in what I think is another example of Japan flaunting technology like the automatic opening car doors and moving toilet seats. Anywya, after buying my first ticket to get Hokaido ramen I sat down and wondered if my meal would be worth it, luckily it was. Dear lord in heaven was it ever, simply amazing. After the first bowl I was amazed, shocked even at how tasty it was. Not only did I get my bowl of noodles but there was even fresh garlic to press into it! Delicious! Undeterred and still hungry I moved on to the next noodle place and got another bowl, then moved to the next shop for another. I was on some kind of ramen binge that I could not control, not that I even wanted to. I`m not going to say how much I spent on my meals up there but let`s just say that if in the past anyone had said that they spent $30 on ramen noodles I probably would have pushed them down a flight of stairs. Somehow I managed to cram an entire Food Day into about an hour of deliciousness.





Later on my way back I found a little cafe full of killer hippos. Don`t be fooled, sure they look cute but that`s how they trick you into being complacent. I figure this woman has about 5 seconds before being eaten alive. Imagine, a real life version of Hungry Hungry Hippos . . . everybody panic!




Today I met Dave, and his friends Aaron and Dave at Hakata station to go to Costco so they could stock up on food for Tsushima and get Costco pizza. However first we needed to stop by a manga shop so Dave could get a comic he needed for another teacher on Tsushima. But before even leaving the station I saw a woman with a ferret and had to stop to play with it. I`d never seen an actual ferret but it was cute and the owner (also cute) spoke great English and informed us the ferret`s name was Thomas. It must have been as hungry as I was because it started to bite me on my finger, you can even tell in the photo if you look closely. I thought it was great though, having never been attacked by a ferret before. It sounds like something out of a bad Monty Python sketch " . . . and we were attacked by a killer ferret!"


Dave also got to hold it but it must have known he was a gaijin and went for his eye, maybe it was some kind of attack ferret. Luckily none of us left with less vision than we started and off we went to the comic store. I already knew that the Japanese take their comics a liiiiiiiitle more seriously than their American counterparts but I was not prepared for the comic store. Jesus Christ, these people are serious comic book readers, 5 floors and book shelves with all different kinds, glass cases of collectible action figures and prints, and costumes that people probably live out strange fantasies with.


Don`t ask me why we got to the guy-on-guy section, but I blame Dave. Or Aaron, the one looking suspicious on the cell phone. For some reason they didn`t want anyone to take photos inside the store. Then again there are things in here that probably should`t be shown to the normal public.






After the manga shop we hit up a 100 yen store and then made our way to the train station to get to Costco. We had already walked what seemed like half of Fukuoka and were starving. After arriving at our destination by train and getting a taxi to Costco we go to the door and are informed . . . we can only go in with 3 people for 1 Costco card. Shit. We`ve come all this way and the only way we can get in is to leave someone at the door? Hells no! We start to formulate plans on how to sneak in, fabricate familial relations or rush the entrance when the checker in front informs us that since we came all the way just for Costco we can all come in. Sweet! We immediately go inside, get our hot dogs and combination pizza complete with free refils on soda. I break my soda policy and drink a lot of it. After paying through the nose for everything in Japan, free refils is just about the best thing ever, almost as good as the ramen. Buzzed out of my mind on sugar and caffeine, we start shopping for the guys and I walk around admiring all the Kirkland brand things I haven`t seen in years. Kilos of pork belly, pounds of spices and pallettes of Dr. Pepper, its all here just like in the States. In fact, apart from the Japanese writing (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji) it looks exactly like the Costco in America right down to the long lines at the checkout counter.

After buying everything they needed at Costco (I didn`t get anything because I would have to carry it with me) we left for Fukuoka, balancing 2 pizzas they guys had bought for the ferry ride back. They all left and I went to find an internet cafe. Did you know in Japan the internet cafes have free drinks? Some even have free soft serve ice cream and showers. I even know people who have spent the night in private booths there. The Japanese are serious about their internet, almost as serious as the South Koreans, except their internet is $1 an hour while Japans is $4 an hour. But free ice cream counts for a lot in my book.

Japan! The ancestral homeland!

I'd been thinking about Japan every since I started planning my trip. I knew I had to come here since Japan is part of my heritage and no one in my family has ever been here before. I've been here less than a week but already I've done so much.


It's been a blast so far. I've been staying with Dave, the University friend I bumped into in Ayutthaya, Thailand. I was able to find his house easily from the international ferry to Izuhara. It was his birthday when I arrived so we went out with some of his friends and had an amazing meal, complete with raw horse sashimi, fried rice balls, deep fried cheese wantons, eel, and of course, edamame. It wasn`t the first meal I`d had in Japan (the first being rice balls bought at the supermarket) but it was definitely the best first real meal.


The next day I visited Dave's school and with the help of a translator talked about Vanuatu, showed them some vatu and some photos of my house and land diving. Talking about my situation in an environment like a Japanese class room made it seem more ludicrous than it really was. While the students and teacher were gasping as I described how I had to draw water from a rain-water well I found myself thinking "Did that really happen so recently? Did I really live through a category 5 cyclone in a house made of wild cane?". Luckily I had the photos to prove it. Everyone said "Ooooh" and "Ahhhhh" as I described the living conditions, the food I ate and how we made kava.


The following day I went to Evelyne's school to help her teach her elementary kids their ABC's. Everyone was so surprised when I told them I was American but my last name was "Okamura". I went through the story of how Dad is Japanese and Mom is American, I can get through most of it in Japanese so that's always fun to see the kids understand me. It was fun to be in front of a class again, especially since I was singing a different ABC's song and calling out letters for a children's game. Part of During lunch I sat at a table with the other kids on seat about 6 inches off the ground and tried to answer their questions in Japanese as best I could. Most of the started with "What's your favorite . . ." and Evelyn was able to help a bit. After lunch the kids completely lost any inhibition or reservations they had towards me. They were telling me their names, hanging on me and having a great time with a Japanese to English electronic dictionary Evelyn had brought. They kept typing in their names and then pointing to themselves. One little girl typed in her name, showed it to me in the dictionary and then pointed to herself. But she had put her name in incorrectly and the dictionary showed the translation as "pillow talk" instead. It took us a while to figure out what had happened, but I thought the whole thing was hilarious. I suppose it would make for a funnier story if the little girl rally had wanted me to say sweet nothings to her. With the full schedules the JET teachers have over here I can tell in my short time that the kids make it all worth it. And none of them ran screaming away because they thought I was going to stick them with needles. And the rest of the day people called me Okamura-sensei which I thought was really cool.








When I haven't been at a school a motherly woman named Toyota-san has been driving me around Tsushima and showing me all the interesting things here. This woman is amazing, something of a local saint here. I swear if she doesn't get into heaven there is no God. We've seen the Tsushima horses (only found on Tsushima), the Tsushima deer (only found on Tsushima) and the Tsushima leopard cat (also only found on Tsushima). She also pointed out the cherry blossom trees (Sakura) which are only juuuuuuust starting to bloom in certain places. I hear that April is the time when cherry blossoms really come out. From what I've seen to far it must be simply amazing. My last night in Tsushima she took Dave and I out to dinner where we got some amazing soup and an entire fried eel filet (!) , and after dropping me off at his place Toyota-san gave me money to eat lunch the following day and made me promise to come back to Tsushima sometime. I haven't come across this kind of hospitality in a long time and makes leaving this island that much harder.

My plans for the next part of Japan are simple: get to Fukuoka and meet Dave and his friends so we can hit up the Costco there. Simple plans are good, because there are lesst things to go wrong.

3-9-07

My last day in Vietnam was great, definitely the best one I'd had that week. It started with a visit Ho Chi Minh's maoseleum which is sobering at best and downright depressing at worst. First of all there are no cameras and I mean NO cameras. You have to check them in at the front and even then soldiers will randomly go through peoples bags. Being the smart-ass that I am I offered my bag to every one, knowing that they would be less likely to search a bag some foreigner is pushing in their face. So no one checked my bag and I felt smarter for beating the system. Of course I'd already given them my camera in the beginning so it was kind of futile thing to do.
When you get inside the crypt it's very cold and everything is marble and ominous. Everyone walks in single file and then turn a corner into a large room with a the body of Ho Chi Minh in the middle except he's on this island and there's a dry moat surrounding him. In the room there are no less than 9 armed guards, to keep you from taking pictures or defiling the body of their great leaders. These people take ancestor worship to the next level, let me tell you. So that was kind of fun.

As I walking away, a funny man with horrible teeth started talking to me in English, asking where I was going, etc. Only this time he had a list of places he would take me for a cheap price. So I went to the Ethnology Museum in Vietnam where there are numerous exhibits on the indigeonous people of Vietnam and the surrounding areas. About half the things were in Vietnamese with a little English thrown in on the side. It was similar to the museum in Thailand in that some of the houses were similar as the clothing of the hill tribe people. This highlight is when you go outside around the back of the museum where they have all these local style houses. Some are raised meters off the ground and held together only with what looked like pandanas leaves, just like in Vanuatu. There was also a wedding about to take place so the bride was getting ready in one of the adobe houses.




After the museum we went to the silk "village" where I got to see the silk making process, buy some cheap silk scarves and drink rice wine infused with silk worms. Something about infusing rice wine always makes it better, whether it's the silk worm, snake, or various body parts of animals. Asians just love to put strange stuff in their rice wine, which brings us to where we went after the silk village.



As we were leaving I asked if there was a place I could eat dog, because it seemed like a crime to leave Vietnam and not tried (what I imagine) was the national dish. Ok, the national dish is Pho, but it should be dog! Anyway, we cruised around until we got to the dog restaurant, evident because there was roasted dog in the front. We sat down and Duong ordered for us. I'll spare the details but dog is really good, this being the second time I'd tried it. It's like very tender dark chicken, mixed with a little bit of pork. We ordered some different infused rice wine, but this infusion will have to remain a mystery for now, you'll figure it out from the video. The highlight of the meal was when we started eating what looked like a very large crispy rice cake and after I tried some, asked what it was made out of. He said "sticky rice" and then fumbled for the correct words. He took a napkin and wrote "Lard of Dog" on it. I couldn't stop laughing and still have the napkin in my journal, I think it's hilarious.



After Vietnam I landed in Korea and spent an absolutely freezing night is Seoul. It was cold! Cold cold cold! I got a bus to the "backpacker district" and planned on getting out and finding a hostel, essentially what I had done for all of my trip. What I didn't count on was that it would be snowing and there were no hostels in sight and I was wondering around in all my "cold weather" clothes. I ended up staying in a "Youth Hostel" that had freaking conference rooms! Hostels aren't supposed to have conference rooms! Luckily I was able to buy some warmer clothes at the local market in Seoul which is a great place to just hang out in, they love to sell ginseng in huge glass jars. I've been wearing no less than 3 layers every day and wearing a Vietnamese scarf I bought, something I've never done before.


I was also able to meet up with Christina, a friend since High School and she's been great, showing me around and making sure I have things to do during the day. I got to see the Catholic school she works at and meet a couple of the nuns who work there. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met, especially since I have this "Blues Brothers Movie" picture of nuns in my head, running around and indiscriminately hitting people with rulers. But there was no ruler hitting, in fact the first nun I met shook my hand and the first words out of her mouth (to Christina in Korean) were "Christina, he's handsome!" After laughing I pondered the irony of getting hit on by a nun. Before we left the same num gave me a couple sewn charms to keep. Well, I get to keep one of them but the nun said I have to give the other one to my girlfriend. The Blues Brothers can also be seen in Seoul, hanging outside a convenience store.




Thus far staying in Daejeong has been fun, it's kind of like the silicon valley of Korea so there are lots of museums to go to and a big zoo which I unfortunately didn't have the chance to see. Somehow I don't imagine African animals are very active in 32 degree F weather. But I did get to see some other museums which were nice, considering South Korea takes its science very seriously. And I got to go to a bath house for the first time, but that's a very long story that will have to wait.

*Update

My last night in Seoul was awesome. We all went out for drinks and dancing at a club in the city of Daegon which is a short train ride out of Daejeon. When we got to the club we were just about the only white people which was great. I hadn't really gone out dancing since Thailand and I was more than ready to stay as long as I could. People in our group started leaving around 2, 2:30 am but myself and a dedicated others closed out the club at 5 am. Operating on 4 hours of sleep I managed to get a bus to Pusan where I spent the night in a very dodgy hotel before catching the international ferry to Tsushima, a small island in Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan.

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!