April 11th, 2008- I think I just stepped back in time.  I arrived in Cambodia this morning.   That is just wierd to say, I’m in Cambodia! Who would have thought. The Siem Reap airport is brand spanking new, cut out of the Cambodian Jungle but as soon as you get off the main “highway” its back in time you go.

My chariot, literally a moped pulling a cart, picked me up from the airport curtsey of my guesthouse.  I think he said his name was “Long-D” so that’s what I’ve been calling him.  He made small talk in broken English and is very nice.  He’s also a decent driver from what I can tell.  Long-D drops me off at my $12 a night guesthouse. I check in and he shows me to my room.  My guesthouse is more like a hotel, for $12 / night its amazing.  It would easily pull $100 plus back in NC.

I talked to Long-D about driving me around Angkor tomorrow which is the norm. You have to have a driver otherwise it would takes forever to go b/t temples b/c of the size of the area.   Long story short, he’s picking me up at 5am tomorrow morning and driving me around for the whole day for $10.

While I’m checking in the Guesthouse explains to me the bar, free internet, free coffee, tea and fruit and 20min free massage.  More on that later :).  My room is a Khmer (Cambodian) decorated beauty.  Bright colors, authentic decorations, large bathroom and wicked cool light fixtures, I’m impressed.   So much that I want to add this style to my room at home, especially the 4-post platform bed and the tube shaped lights.

*Just a sidenote, Khmer is the Cambodian culture.  Its pronounced Ka-Mer when you are talking about people and culture but ka-my in other circumstances.  Its hard to figure out.

I’m about to head downstairs for my 20 min free massage when there is a knock on my door.  One other perk is ice cold lemon tea drink daily.  It was tasty and very refreshing. I walked out to the communal balcony and try to take it all in.

I head downstairs to find out more about the massage when I see this large sign “Khmer Massage $3/hr.”   Yes that says 3$ per hour!  I’ve never had a massage before but figured I couldn’t go wrong for $3 for the whole hour.  The guy at the front desk informs me that I dont get an hour for 3$, I get an hour plus 20 minutes, it just gets better and better. 

He brings me to this dimly lit room where there are 3 mats on the floor 2 already occupied by a German couple (sounded like German).   The young lady hands me some funky looking and stretchy PJs and shows me to the changing room.  When she first handed them to me, she didnt say anything soI was about to start changing there on the spot.   She saw this and laughed and then pointed me towards the bathroom where I slipped on my new checkered outfit.  They were actually extremely comfortable.  She and I stumbled a bit before I figured out what she wanted me to do.  We settled on “sleep” meaning lie down on my back, “turn” meaning to flip over and lie on my stomach, along with a few other commands she whispered kindly as to not make me feel like one of the mangy mutts roaming the streets.

Lying on my back she went to the mini fridge and go some fruit peels or leafs of some sort.  Smelled good whatever they were, but being as she started putting them on my face they kept falling off b/c of my pseudo-beard (which just means funky red facial hair after going10 days w/o shaving.

*I was going to get a shave in BKK but the shop closed before I got there yesterday and I haven’t found a bic yet.

She started giggling and rubbing my beard which made me smile and the rest of the peels fall off.  She’d start laughing again, and demand “No Smile!” soon followed by a giggle which made the whole process go in circles for 5 minutes until we both could keep a straight face.

The rest of the massage went off without incident.   She grabbed, pulled, and kneaded whatever she wanted and she was surprisingly strong for 110lb Cambodian girl.  I left feeling fantastic, loose and energetic. I want to get a massage everyday.  * Editor Note*  I heard some crazy horror stories from some others who got “massages” in Cambodia, so I feel lucky.

I walked into town that evening and went to the Temple bar for dinner, seemed like a decent place in the middle of town and it had a good balcony to see the area from.  As I was eating dinner I watched the kids perform a New Years Dance ritual in the street since it was the Khmer New Year.  It was pretty awesome to see but I couldn’t get my new camera out fast enough to take a video, and frankly I just wanted to watch it anyway.

While I was sitting on the balcony having a beer, I noticed a girl walking to and from each place looking at the menus. She looked lonely.  I kept thinking about talking to her but she turned the corner and I still had to pay.

20 minutes later I hit the streets to hopefully run into her on my way home. I really was just looking for someone to talk with and she looked like she needed the same.  Being alone in Cambodia is a strange feeling so I kinda know what she was feeling.  I found her down some small alley of restaurants just about to sit down and eat at Klick.  I walked past.  Not sure if I should disturb her or approach her, I just kept going.   After about 100yards I said to myself, what is the harm in saying hello, so I turned around and said Hi.  I told her I saw her walking from upstairs and thought she could use someone to chat with so I introduced myself and to my surprise, another American!  She invited me to sit down and I obliged.  I drank while she ate.  She shared her spring rolls with me and they were damn good.

Her name was Meredith and American who lives in a small town (Mae Sot) in Thailand on the Burmese/Thai border.  She works in public health in the area at a local hospital.  She’s from Memphis but has been in Thailand for 3 years and living abroad for the last 8.   She talked about her job, her town and told me a lot about Burma, some of which is very hard to believe that a Gov. could do those things to its people.

We left  Klick and headed to another bar with a balcony and chatted some more.  We had a good time and she taught me some Thai:

Poot Thai Mai Dai = I don’t speak Thai
Poot Thai dai Mai = Do you Speak Thai
Poot Ang-Grit dai Mai? = do you speak English?

And a few other sayings that I probably won’t remember.  We walked back to her place which was a few blocks past mine and my dumbass didnt ask her if she wanted to hang out tomorrow night.  Maybe I’ll run into her again tomorrow.

I am really glad I went to talk to her.  I didn’t want to seem like I was hitting on her or any of that, but I guess thats different when you are traveling, you can talk to people and not have another motive.  Its little things like this which really make you learn about yourself and what you are capable of.

April 10th, 2008 - Well today was the best day so far. I did a ton and only had 6 near death experiences!

Got up, had a traditional Thai breakfast of rice, cantaloupe, and OJ.  Ok its not traditional Thai or traditional anything for that matter but its soo good.

After breakfast I hit the internet @ 10 for an hour or so.  I spent the time finding a place to stay in Cambodia.  Most of the places are booked for some reason, but they still have some higher end hotels for $20-40 per night.  I was going to treat myself to one of those but most of them were not near the “main strip” part of town, (as main as you can be between Jungle and rice paddies!)

I emailed a few places and within minutes I had a room for $12/night w/ac, window, double bed, breakfast and airport transfer! Sold! He confirmed my confirmation and I went to find a way to get there.  This ticket is probably the most expensive one of my trip at $250 but its totally worth it in my opinion. Angkor Wat is one of the places I’ve wanted to go the most so the price is not a problem, plus I have a 12$ room!   I’ll be in Cambodia from the 11th-16th.

I also booked my ticket to Chiang Mai, so I come back to BKK and immediately head to Chiang Mai.  That was only $60.  I’ll be there for 3 or 4 days and then heading down to Koh Samui and the other beaches. 

After I booked all my trip stuff for the next week, I sat down at one of the street carts for lunch. I ate some chicken, noodles and vegetables.  Damn good as usual and only 90cents with a liter of bottled water.  You really could eat for a month and spend no more than $25 and its almost always good.

Funny Story
I went to a food cart on some random street and he was cooking some meats over charcoal with some noodles and fruit.  He had chicken, pork and some dark meat.  I asked him what the dark meat was and he paused, looked me up and down and then said “Beef” with a huge smile on his face.  He was totally lying and I promptly ordered the chicken.

While I was sitting at lunch and starting to take a picture of my food, I hear this laughing and looked up and this guy says “showing your mates at home what your eating?”  I laughed and responded and invited him to my table.  His name was Bobby.  He’s a big guy from Liberia (or Libya I forget).  He grew up mostly in Georgia (USA) and went back to work in his dad’s country after school.  He’s a gemologist and was very nice.  We chatted about Thailand, Travels, and on cue just like any other foreigner he asked my opinion on US politics.  I gave him my typical response which I’ve already said so many times I could probably say it in my sleep:

I don’t follow US politics too much. I think the whole system is screwed up  and all politicians have their own agendas.  Sadly we are in need of some major reformation that is bigger than one person and is going to take longer than 4 years.

It is truly my opinion, and almost 9 out of 10 people seem to agree.  they usually give their two cents and the conversation moves on.  
We talked for 30 more minutes about everything else and when he left he called me “Evan my American Brother.”

I hit the boats after lunch and made my way to Chinatown.

Chinatown, Bangkok is truly like no other place I’ve ever seen.  It was an orgy of smells, sounds, colors, people and eventually tastes.  Wall to wall people, stalls and shops it puts any other Chinatown to shame.  I had a random thought as I was walking through this other world, “I wonder if there is an American Town in China.”

I snaked my way down the alley ways which caught the small Asians off guard.  I barely fit through the small aisles as it is, but throw in a zillion small people and the occasional scooter, I felt likea bowling ball knocking the pins out of the way.  They stood no chance.

When I got to the food area of Chinatown several older ladies would see me and smile while sticking out their hands offering me a sample of whatever they were selling.  I didn’t see them do this to anyone else so I’m pretty sure they just wanted to see if I would eat it and my reaction if so.  What the hell, I’m in Thailand!  Most of the time it was a sour looking face as if I just took a bite out of a lemon.  By far the nastiest thing I had was a Durian fruit.  I’ve seen countless Food Network shows with a traveling host who eats the spiky looking fruit and pretends its not too bad.   They are full of shit.  To give you a clue what it tastes like, imagine being able to take a bite out of my sock after walking miles and miles in 95o heat.  Mmm delicious!

The old woman roared with laughter and I soon followed after I chugged half of my water bottle to rinse my mouth out.  I’ve personally blacklisted Durian fruit.

Tired of torturing my tongue for one day, I snagged some stir friend chicken and moved on.  A few crowded blocks later I got to the mythical electronics market, Wow! 

Air soft guns, ninja stars, nun-chuks, DVDs, Games, Cameras, R/C cars lined the walls.  It was like NewEgg.com and Hobbytron.com exploded into one huge big-kid toy store, I was in heaven.  I felt odd taking pictures of it all so I didn’t get too many.  It just felt wrong.  I did come away with some Wii games for Ross for about $2 each and an Olympus waterproof digi-cam for myself :).  It was $150 and I almost bought it in the states before I left for $400, just for the trip.  I probably could have come to Thailand with nothing and bought it all here for about 1/5 of the cost.

Lonely Planet books - $5
Digi-cams - dirt cheap
Clothes - $1-4
NorthFace bags - $15 etc etc etc.  Its just nutty.  You do have to be aware of the quality you are getting but the good stuff is there somewhere.

After Chinatown I headed to Little India which is the huge cloth and fabric area. I was hoping to find a bathing suit for my island time, which I eventually got for $3.   Not many Thai’s have a 34inch waist so it was a bit of a gamble, luckily it fit.  I should have gotten 2 now that I think about it.  I was also looking for some silk wraps for @@#$ and @#$@ but I couldn’t find anything.  I’ll try another market.

While I was trying to find a pier to catch a boat back, I stumbled upon the flower market which was amazing.  Much like Pike’s Market in Seattle but blocks bigger and it was all flowers.  I didn’t walk all the way through it, I was all marketed out, so I just hit the road and found my dock..eventually!

Sitting on the dock I ended up talking to a pier worker and he happened to be from Cambodia.  He too was nice and we chatted a few minutes about Thai, US and Cambodia before my boat pulled up.  Very nice guy, like all Thais I’ve met that are not Tuk-Tuk drivers.

Back to the hostel, picked up my tickets and cooling off at the open-air bar before I hit Khao San Rd to see the night scene.  I’ve gotta say, it was a good day.

I almost forgot, Akon is everywhere.  He must be a hit over here b/c Tuk-Tuk drivers, taxi drivers, and everywhere else seems to have his music playing.   Speaking of, I haven’t listened to my ipod at all yet, its more interesting to hear the soundtrack of Thailand.

Debating whether or not to get a shave from the barber-esque shop next door or just grow a dirty hippie beard.

Also noticed all the open-air drivers, ie tuk-tuks and motos, all wear surgical masks b/c the air is so terribly polluted.

April 9th, 2008 - I really have no idea what day it is and my body has no idea what time it is.  I got up wicked early this morning and walked around Khao San Road and other areas before they got packed with vendors, touts and tourists.

13 near death-by-moto/tuk-tuk experiences, 8 bottles of water, 6 temples, 45,000 touts trying to scame me and many blocks walked in the hot sun.

This is def. one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The city is confusing and annoying at the same time.  It probably has something to do with my body being tired and the NC like heat so I wont totally discount Bangkok yet but I’m ready to move on  I’ll give it a few days more but I hope Chiang Mai et al are not this typical.  It also maybe b/c I look like your typical “farang” which is Thai for foreigner but I really think it means dumb white kid with a backpack that hasn’t shaved in a week and is sweating buckets.  Whatever it is, I’m really tired of it.

It wasn’t all bad today, I did see some amazing things today and did learn to navigate the river boats, which is somewhat of an accomplishment for me.  One of the coolest things that happened to me today was when I was walking through the National Museum.  The museum itself is ok, lots of history and artifacts but poorly labeled, but as I was walking around a group of Thai grade-schoolers passed by.   When they saw me, they all wanted to practice their English and kept saying “Hello-Goodbye” and I even heard a “What’s up?” from one of them.  It was quite entertaining and a great distraction from all of the touts.   The Thais aren’t all bad.

It’s totally a party city and its pretty easy to see why it attracts a lot of morrally loose people.  Lots of dirty hippies, cheap booze, cheaper women, and people from all over the world. 

Lots of Europeans and haven’t met any Americans yet.  Kind of surprising, but I guess its the off season and college kids are still in school.  Everyone speaks English and its pretty amazing to see hear Japanese (or any other nationality for that matter) and Thais communicating in English.  We are very lucky.

I’m not sure I’m going to be able to go to all the places i was hoping to, travel is just so slow and it takes forever to get from one place to another.  Its not often you find a place where bus travel is faster and more reliable than the trains but that’s the word here.  You can fly anywhere for fairly cheap but that takes away some of the fun.  Not that 19.5 hours on a bus to get to Chiang Mai sounds fun but at least I get to see the country.

Met Killian tonight. An Irish guy, that I kept seeing around town, and it happened to be that he was at the hostel bar when I got back so we started chatting.   He confirmed my suspicion as to why I hadn’t met anyone, there just aren’t that many Americans.  Tons of Chinese and Scandanavians and everyone seems to have paired up or come with friends.

We drank too many Tiger beers and chatted while American Gangster was playing on the big screen.   He has only been here a few days like me but had talked to a hippie who had been here for 10years and he helpd him out.  Told him about the hand signals when ordering food, Full moon party on the 20th, the 150Baht airport taxi and some other useful stuff he wrote down in my journal.

Hopefully I’ll run into him again @ Koh Tao, where he is going to learn to dive as am I. 

Plans may have changed, debating about going to the Full Moon Party on the 20th, but I have my hesitations.

Koh Samui to Koh Phangan on the 19th, stay through the 21st then head to Koh Tao. Dive for 5 days then back to BKK and then Home.  Figuring out what to do b/t now and then is an issue.  I figured I can either do Burma or Cambodia but not both.  The debate rages on.

 I forgot to mention I did do all of the tourist things today.  National Musuem, Grand Palace, Temple of Dawn, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Reclining Buddha, Wat Po, 30 other temples and Wats, which I’ll post more about when I get my pictures up.   I walked forever and in all of these places you have to wear long pants… my poor ankles were dying.

I think its April 8th, but is almost midnight so it may be the 9th.

This leg of the flight was decidely less comfortable.  Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo to Bangkok is on an older 747 that is comparably more cramped than the AA 777 I was just on, but at least I have the whole row to myself.  There was a wicked storm in Tokyo so most flights were delayed.   This one wasn’t but we had to wait in line for takeoff for 45 minutes.  I slept a few hours but nothing substantial.  I’m going to pass out tonight.

Going to and from Tokyo was someof the worst turbulence I’ve ever felt.

Its wierd hearing this long dialogue in Japanese over the PA and thenthe English translation is something short and sweet like “Thank You.”  I feel like I’m missing something.  7 out of 10 Japan Air flight attendents are babes!

Arrived in Bangkok

The airport in Bangkok is brand new and super nice, but even at 2am or whatever time it is, it is chaotic.  Had my first Thai beer (Singha)  at the hostel bar while the local cops watched a bad version of Die Hard 4.  For some reason the movies are in English with English subtitles but they subtitles are no where near what is really being said. 

My room has no Air-Con, b/c I checked in so late, but thats no big deal really. Its hot but I can take it.  They’ll switch me to Air-con tomorrow if I want it.  Tons of dogs, all over the city, during the day they just wander around, at night they go back to their yard, and just scare the piss out of you when you walk by at night.

Bangkok is overwhelming to the senses. My first impression is mixed, but its mostly exciting.  Hard to tell this late at night.

I just realized I have no idea who won the NCAA tourney.  Tv only has 4 soccer matches and the BBC.

Finally getting sleepy, still not sure what time or day it is….

The day is blending together.  9.5 hrs on the plane and I’m still 2 hrs from Tokyo.  I havent slept a wink.  The Peruvian guys next to me has gotten up 9 times to pee already.  I don’t think he gets the bladder concept @ all.  The more you drink the more you pee.  Whatever!  Its really been a comfortable flight for the most part.  TI thought it would be way worse.  I planned on learning Thai on this flight but havent had the motivation.  I have finally gotten a rough itinerary together after watching the “Great Debaters” and “National Treasure 2.” (both good).

As of now I am going to Yangon (Burma), to Bagan (Burma) to Mandalay (Burma) to Chang Mai (Thai), to Phuket to Koh Tao, to Bangkok to Siem Reap to BKK to Morrisville!!

We’ll see how closely I stick to that plan.  I have sort of an Alexander Supertramp-esque attitude on this trip.  Just going and figuring out whats next after that.

I do know I’m planning on taking a 4-day dive certification in Koh Tao so i can learn to Scuba.

I also know my hand writing is terrible!!!

Spent some great time in LA with JP and Emily. Stayed longer then I orginally planned and it was not on purpose (read: I’m a Moron) but it was totally worth it. Got to watch them shoot the pilot TV show “Big Chef Little Kitchen” with Mario Perez. I really liked Mario so I hope his thick accent isn’t too much for the networks.

The whole production was really cool and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I was able to take some good pictures for them, so maybe I’ll even get my name in the credits or even a new career! haha. I do hope that the show catches on and sells, Emily and JP worked really hard on it and I’d love to see them succeed. They are good people.

It was also fun hanging out with the crew afterwards. They are all good friends mainly JP, Justin, and Chris. They all have a good time at the expense of one another and its hilarious. Pretty much like my friends or any other group of guys. I was only there for a few days but they totally made me feel like part of the crew.

My trip has only just begun and I already have some good stories:

Shooting the Tv Show
Eating the food!
&#@$##@$# @#$#@ @#$# @#$#@
757’s doing loops
The Realist, Sug-knight, 2-pac
Jay Leno’s wardrobe
Big Mario
Missing Plane
Baxter and Phatty
JP’s Shrimp, totally need that recipe.

All in all it was time well spent in LA. I’m totally coming back to go to a Dodger game with them at some point.

*Note, fly to Burbank Airport next time as its closer for JP and Emily

Sitting in LAX writing this. Next stop Tokyo!

I’m transcribing (for the most part) what I wrote in my journal. I don’t mind sharing and hopefully its somewhat interesting to others. As I don’t have much free time to kill on a computer, I’m writing these as I go, so they will be about 2 weeks behind. I’ll try to include pictures when I get home.

Don’t worry, I’m only typing these while I have downtown b/t trips and letting Wordpress post them for me automatically.

Day 1: April 2nd, 2008

Holy Crap!! I’m actually doing this!

Thats pretty much the first thing I thought of this morning and as I’m sitting in RDU its sinking in for the first time…

more later….

Just finished 4.5 pretty damn fun days in Cambodia.  I’m killing an hour or so today before all my planes, trains, Tuk Tuks, and Motos today.  Hopefully, I’ll end up in Chang Mai which is Northern Thailand today but there is no telling.   I’ve had to switch around some of my flights and my last leg, I can’t change until I get back into Thailand, so hopefully I’ll be able to make my final destination at some point tonight.

I really enjoyed Cambodia, the people are really amazing.  I’ve had some unforgettable interactions with the locals and have also met some amazing backpackers as well.  I’ll write more about them later when i transcribe my journal.

Angkor Wat was amazing and disappointing at the same time.  That is sort of blasphemy here but I think its the general opinion among tourists.   Maybe it has something to do with the heat and the sheer amount of time it takes to go through the entire place but it is one long long hot day and the ruins just start to run together. One after another.   The temples themselves are amazing.  its hard to think that some little Cambodians could build these things over 1,500 years ago.  The size fills the horizon as you see them but the most breathtaking thing is the way nature has taken over them.  Huge redwood size trees just shoot up from the middle of the temples, with roots larger than me sprawling in any direction they so please.   I havent seen my pictures yet but I really hope they do it some justice but I’m just not sure.

Fill in more later, time to catch a Tuk Tuk to the airport and hopefully end up back in Thailand.

Oukuhn Sanah (Hello Darling in Cambodian, its all i know!!)

Thailand 08: Bangkok Update

Originally uploaded by evroccck

Sa Wat dee! (hello in Thai)

Sitting in the Bangkok airport on my way to Cambodia for the next 5
days and found some free wifi. Having a great time in Thailand but
its sure a crazy place. The sights sounds smells and tastes are truly
unique.

The picture above is pretty much my normal meal and its great, I
actually craved it yesterday. Noodles, soybeans, vegtables and
chicken, stir fried on a street cart. So delicious and the best part
is it was only .70 cents! I ate 3 meals yesterday and spent a total of
3 dollars and that included a liter of tiger beer. You have to love
that !
I’ve yet to meet another American which is strange but I met a cool
Irishman and a guy from Liberia. Lots of scandanavians and Europeans.

I’ve taken quite a few pictures but often find myself in such awe that
I know a picture won’t do it justice.

Boarding for Siem Reap now, I’ll check in again in a few days. Wish
you were here,

Ev

Oh yeah, I have a tenative plan that has changed 3 times already but
I’m headed to Cambodia now, northern thailand in 5 days then down to
the southern islands of koh Tao, koh samui and koh pha nagan for the
full moon party.

 

Thailand 08: I’m a Moron

Originally uploaded by evroccck

So, yea, its official. I’m an idiot. You’d think for someone who has traveled as much as I have that id be used to having all the details down, but nope! Somehow, even after double checking 4 times in the last day and a half I still missed a minor detail such as my FLIGHT TIME!
Without going into all the moronic details, it was your classic alarm clock mistake…the am/pm.  The confirmation i have from Orbitz says 11pm and my flight was actually 11am. AA.com had it right and I even looked at it several times but I got in my head 11pm and only realized it when I went to quadruple check my flight today.

After 3 hrs on the phone and several agents wanting me to pay 2k$ to leave tomorrow, the AA.com lady, Miriam saved my ass. After I seriously considered postponing the trip and heading back home, she was able to get me on a plane Monday morning to bkk and with a return flight for $30.  What a lifesaver she was. I’m still waiting for my email confirmation but I’m trying to be optimistic.

Ive been so fired up about this trip, coming home might have depressed me. I may have just stayed in my room for a month so no one was the wiser.

Although Emily and JPs, my gracious hosts in LA are welcoming me for as long as I need, their friends have determined this is an elaborate plan for me to stay in LA just so I can make it big. Maybe they are jealous bc I get to make my acting debut tomorrow!  JP, the producer of the show has cast me as the boyfriend of the girl who needs cooking help. I know what you are thinking and I’ll try not to let my dashing good looks steal the show! Haha.
I’ll also gladly be taking still photos of the show so even if my mug doesn’t make it on tv, maybe I’ll get in the credits.

All in all I’m an idiot and I hope to make it to bangkok even if I am a day late.

Ps: Emily and JPs dog is hysterical. He loves to watch tv and has lately become a youtube addict, thus the picture.

PPS: rock chalk jay-hawk!

**Update** Called Orbitz and they acknowledge the mistake and have reimbursed me for the flight change.  Its more the principle than anything but their customer service was much better than Expedia’s.  I think from now on, I’ll be booking direct with the airlines.