Day 52: Ubud, Bali (February 28, 2011)

Today I realized I must be a little bit lonely, but it resulted in me aquiring two groups of single-serving friends (well, hopefully multi-serving friends!).

While I was at the hotel's desk, extending my stay because I like it here, a woman next to me was arranging a driving tour of the island.  I had been looking at a brochure of driving tours over breakfast, and it's something I wanted to do myself.  So I finished my business real quick, then I followed the woman to her room.  I caught her and her friend on their balcony, and I yelled up "Hi!  I overheard you arranging a driving tour!  Would you like some company?  I'd understand if you don't!  Why don't you ask your friend and get back to me!"  Then a huge grin.  She paused for a moment (probably in shock at my brazeness), then looked at her friend and they both said "Why not?"  So I joined them and the one lady's husband for a while, and the conversation was very fun and easy.  So tomorrow the four of us are taking a driving tour together.  Or else I'll get stood up, but then I can write about what rage and disappointment feel like, right?  ;-)

I am never this forward about inviting myself places, and certainly not with complete strangers, so I chalk it up to not having enough social interaction lately.  I can go a long time with only my own company, but apparently even I break down once in a while and want to talk to other people.  Please don't think I'm crying myself to sleep with homesickness or anything, because I'm definitely not.  But I haven't had a substantive conversation with a person in the same place as me since Sri Lanka.  I felt like I was babbling, and maybe I was, but I hope it came across as enthusiasm and not loudmouth.

In the early afternoon, I went to a nearby spa for a treatment.  I opted for a facial ($9 with tip!) because while my skin is doing alright, I've been covering it with either sunscreen or bugscreen or both and I thought it could use a good scrub.  The spa is not on the main tourist drag (yay) but is instead in the middle of some rice paddies.  Apparently, there are little paved pathways through a lot of the paddies around here, you just have to know where they and where they go.  The spa was nice; the treatment room had 3 walls and a ceiling, but was open to the air so it was very fresh and pretty.  I'll probably return for a massage later this week.

Walking back, I decided to explore more of the rice paddies, and decided to follow the pathway until it either hit a dead end or dumped me somewhere.  It wound up dumping me into someone's living room.  Well, not quite... it took me to a swimming pool, which I thought belonged to a hotel, so I walked past the pool and through an archway and into what I assumed was the hotel's reception area.  Nope, it was some guy's living room and he was napping on the couch.  It's one of those rooms that's partially open to the world, so I snuck out into the yard without waking him, then I snuck around the side of the house and hightailed it back the way I came.  Oooops!

You can just see him, sleeping on the couch.  Sorry, Mister!  /chagrin/

As always, it was hot today so I went for a dip in the pool, leaving my towel and shoes at a nearby table.  This couple, a little older than me, came along and planted their stuff and their bodies at the same table, even though there were other tables.  I was like "WTF?" (inside my own head, that is) and was wondering what if anything I'd say when I went for my shoes.  And I wondered if I even had claim to the whole table just because I put my towel there.  I considered just sitting down and putting my feet on the table.  But then the fellow started talking to me; turns out he's Canandian and American, and he apologized for barging in on my table.  He was so nice and easy to talk to that my initial irritation evaporated.  I wound up talking to the couple -- Ricardo and Karen -- for several minutes, then joined them later at a nearby cafe for desert dessert (dangit, I have to look that up every time).  They've both traveled a lot, especially Ricardo, and I had fun swapping stories with them.  They've been in Indonesia for a while now and tomorrow start a two month stay at a rental house nearby.  They invited me to join them for an evening later this week.  I hope they do, they were very interesting.  And I don't think that's my loneliness talking.

I have an early start tomorrow, so I'm off to bed now.  Which means I'll putz around for an hour, answer email and read the news for two, then read my book for another one, which means I'll go to bed at 12:30.

And I almost forgot!  A lot of people have told me they like reading about what I eat.  So, here's today's lunch at a japanese restaurant (yeah, I know, wrong country, but japanese food is one of my favorites and I've been without for 2 months now).  It's radish in soy and sesame sauce, eggplant in ginger, and tofu in miso.  The radish was my favorite, which I didn't expect.  My drinks are sweet tea, and a balinese rice wine, which tasted a little like saki, only sweet and a tad lemony.  It was really good, especially on a hot day.

Thoughts on Cambodia

I really liked Cambodia, but it was really different from what I expected to find. Before I left, I predicted Cambodia would be a place I liked a lot, because it has a lot of what I like to see (old things) and would be sort of unexplored territory, as I know almost no one who's been there.

Turns out, Cambodia had even more of what I wanted to see than I expected (old things), but was probably the most touristed place I've been to thus far on my trip. Especially Siem Reap, near Angkor. (So apparently, none of my friends have been there, but everyone else has been.)  Had I known ahead of time just how many tourists would be around, I might not have put Cambodia on my list. So I'm glad I was ignorant about that. And it turned it, it wasn't a downside that the country is so touristed. It meant I had a lot of choices about things to do, and felt safe being out alone after dark and having a beer. And I could travel alone, knowing there were reliable buses and clean hotel rooms, etc.

And Phnom Penh was quite different than Siem Reap. Yes, there were a few other tourists, but the town clearly doesn't cater to them, so I got a much more authentic experience there. And it felt like a fun town, easy to walk around in, and easy to catch a motodup (moped taxi). I guess it felt like a community with everyone out and visible on their little scooters and bicycles. Much friendlier than roads full of cars, where you never see the people inside. I'd never thought about how much cars separate people, while bikes and moped reveal them.

In both places, I loved how inexpensive everything was. Hotels were $16-20 (U.S. dollars) each night. Meals averaged around $6, and less when I ate at strictly khmer places. Even the night I accidently bought 4 dinners, I paid only $14. So an airplane ticket from the U.S. to Cambodia isn't cheap, but once you're there, your money goes a long way.

The people weren't overly friendly (at least compared to the people of Ghana, who set a very high standard in that regard), but everyone was hospitable, and they were patient when I didn't understand the language. I would have liked to see more of the (current) culture, like some shows or maybe more of the countryside, but I was quite happy with what I did see.  And there was very little I didn't like.  Oh wait, the mosquitos.  They're nasty little buggers in Cambodia (no pun intended, I just wanted a synonym for the F word).  They bite through your clothes and your mosquito repellant and everything.

Day 51: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia (February 27, 2011)

I've been in Bali (an island of Indonesia) for less than 24 hours but my initial impression is that most people come here to do one of three things:  surf, snorkle, and loaf around resorts.  Well, the number goes up if you separately count going shopping for inexpensive (but not necessarily "cheap") stuff, dining, and drinking.  This isn't a criticism (so far), but I definitely feel like I am in a vacation destination, in the sense that people come here to relax and enjoy recreation, rather than explore or learn.

Some leaf.

I walked to the center of town today, which has a couple of sites but is mostly devoted to markets and shops (lots of them, most of which are very cute), restaurants, and inns.  I'm glad for all the places to eat because indonesian food is one of my favorites, and I've had to go without ever since Sabang in Wheaton closed down a couple of years ago.  :(  Tonight's dinner of fish and veggies in peanut sauce reminded me of that place... how I miss it!

These flower offerings are all over the place, frequently smooshed by a foot or a monkey.

The two sites I visited today are both in the center of Ubud, the Ubud Palace and the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.  I'm not sure what the Palace is all about.  There is no charge, you can just wander in.  But it seems little more than a small series of courtyards and pavillions.  They are pretty, but there isn't a whole lot there, including any explanation of what it is or when it was built.  Even Ubudpalace.com (which I looked up after I went there) doesn't say anything about it lol.  But here it is:

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary was a lot more fun.  It's home to three hindu temples and to a few hundred monkeys.  I didn't think I'd be all that impressed with the Sanctuary's monkeys.  After all, I've seen hundreds of them already.  But these monkeys were really playful and funny, and there were a lot of babies around.

The females have beards.

The males have mustaches (and I had to look up how to spell that word).

This monkey kept licking this statue.  Go figure.

There's a graveyard in the Sanctuary, which i assume is for monkeys, but maybe it's for people.  Not clear.

I spent the late afternoon in the pool and then the bathtub (which feels like such a luxury!).  Indonesia is, like almost everyplace I've visited, a coutry where you sweat just standing around in the shade.  I've been longing for a pool for weeks now, and after hours of walking today it felt so good.

Day 50, continued: In Bali, safe and sound

I think I'm getting tired, and it's muddling my brain.  I could swear when I booked this hotel it was $37/night, yet I see on my email receipt that I paid $42/night.  Now, $5/night is not a big deal, and from what I've seen so far, the hotel will be worth $42/night.  But I'm worried about myself that I made a mistake like that, and hope it was a one-time oversight and I don't keep making silly errors because I'm tired.  Like, maybe my first choice hotel was $37 but it full (and it was full) so I went with my second chice and confused the prices.  I don't feel tired, but maybe the constant moving around and learning different exchange rates and stuff is meddling with my head...  Hmm.

The most notable thing about my hotel room in Bali, in an inland town called Ubud, is its bathroom, which is covered and walled in, but is outside.  Even though no one could possibly see inside it, except Spiderman, I wonder if I'll be paranoid while bathing.  I'll let you know.  I can't see much more of the hotel because it's 11pm and dark, but it looks very nice, the kind of place people will come to for a week and never leave the grounds because it's so nice.  I'll know more tomorrow.

I'm going to bed a little bit hungry tonight.  The airline I took from Singapore to Bali is a budget airline that doesn't serve anything unless you pay for it, and I wasn't about to pay $8 for a piece of unidentifiable meat on soggy bread.  That a big difference from eveything else I've flown, which has treated its customers to some decent meals.  So I have my peanut cracker snack that I bought in Singapore and will wake up early for breakfast.  Frankly, I'm surprised this is the first time I won't have a full belly when I go to bed.  I've gone to bed hungry before while traveling, so I know to always keep a snack on hand.  I've been lucky (or diligent?) about finding food.  Also very lucky about planes being on time and having good internet access.  I'm writing this from my patio, in fact. 

Day 50: Singapore and heading to Bali (February 26, 2011)

I realized today, while exchanging a small amount of leftover Singapore Dollars for Indonesian Rupiahs, that I made a small tactical error regarding money early in my trip.  I didn't change my leftover Ghana Cedis, Tanzanian Shillings and Egyptian Pounds into something more useful while I was still in those respective countries.  I assumed that all money exchanges would sell me local currency, regardless of what currency I used to buy it (even if the exchange rate wasn't great).  But not all exchanges accept some of the more obscure currencies.  In fact, I'm not sure some of the exchanges I've stopped at have even heard of Ghana Cedis.  lol.  Well, I'll keep asking at each stop and the worst case scenario is I'll wait until a friend travels to those places, then sell them the currency.  I'm talking about more than spare chance but not hundreds of dollars, so it's more of an annoyance than a hardship.  And since Sri Lanka, I've been better at gauging my expenses and not withdrawing too much cash.

Today I was at my hotel until nearly noon (checkout time) chatting with a friend back home.  I might have missed an hour or two of sightseeing, but I kept him up past his bedtime.  Revenge!  Had I gone out earlier, I might have stopped at an overpriced museum, but since I had less time, I took a tour of the city on the metro.  The el cheapo tour, it cost about $1.50.  Much of Singapore' subway is above ground, so I was able to see a large swath of the country (city?).  It was more of what I'd already seen:  Very clean and organized, a lot of green space, a lot of high rise buildings.  I think I saw one small neighborhood of single family homes, and maybe there are more farther from the metro, but at least 99% of the housing I saw was high rise apartment buildings.  I had one last inexpensive meal in my tawdry neighborhood then went to the airport.

Singapore's airport is really big.  Not surprisingly, it's clean and well-signed.  It has free wifi, but you have to stop at an information counter to get a log-in ID and a password.  After showing them your passport.  What's up with that?  Some time when I'm bored, I plan to read more about Singapore.  The stereotype is it is very law-and-order, but I want to know exactly how much of a police state this might be (if it is).

I'm glad I stopped in Singapore, but I don't feel like I'm missing much by leaving after only two days.  There are other things I could have seen with more:  more walking tours of the city, some museums.  And if I was rich it might be fun to shop here.  But overall, it's just another big city.  A very nice one, but without a whole lot of personality.  It could be a very comfortable place to live, if you had a decent income.  I wouldn't recommend anyone visit Singapore as their main vacation destination, but if you find yourself here for some reason, it's likeable and comfortable.

Time to head to my gate.  My next stop is Bali.  Bali's an island.  I'll head inland for 4 days and if I really like it, I'll stay inland, but if not, I'll head south and to the beaches.  As always, I may or may not have good internet reception, so I'll post when i can.

Day (??) Singapore (February 25, 2011)

I've lost track of what day of my trip I'm on.  I usually remember to look at my blog's last entry to remind me, but today I forgot.

So I didn't actually walk the entire width of Singapore, but my legs feel like they did.  This is such a walkable city, though, and very pretty, that it was a pleasure to walk everywhere, even though the sweat was pouring down my body.

Ever been to Walt Disney World?  Specifically, Epcot?  Know how Epcot is one half this "world of the future" and the other half has all those mini and idealized "countries" that are very clean and pretty and sterile and overpriced?  Now imagine Epcot is a real place and you're got Singapore.  In all seriousness, it is really nice here, even in a "seedy" part of town like mine; I have no qualms at all wandering outside at nighttime.  But I wonder how the city manages to stay so nice.  It must be very rich, with a large clean-up crew, and enforce all of its laws about littering, etc. quite vigorously.  (Speaking of those littering laws, did you know the fine for chewing gum in Singapore is $1000, while the fine for urinating in an elevator is only $500?  Personally, I'd reverse those numbers.)

Some photos of town.  Most buildings are very new and modern, but I included some older ones too, because there is a fair amount of variety:

The former Supreme Court.

Sir Stamford Raffles, who founded the city of Singapore in 1819.

The most fun thing I did today was ride the Singapore Flyer, the giant ferris wheel like the London Eye.  I rode the Eye a few years ago and really liked it, so I knew I'd like this too.  The day was slightly overcast, so my photos aren't quite as crisp as I'd like, but it was a great overview of the city.  Plus I was able to scope out places to walk that I might not have discovered if I only had a ground-level view.  The Flyer provides little audio guides if you want them, talking about how the ferris wheel was brought in compliance with feng shui principles, such as by rotating towards the financial district, so it would steer good fortune and well, fortune towards to the city.  I don't really buy into that stuff, but I liked that the audio guide was more than just a description of what I was looking at, or how the wheel was built, but actually got into some local philosophy.

The view at the top.

Singapore is about 70% ethnic chinese, and has a colorful Chinatown.  And it's a real Chinatown, not like that one block in DC that says it's Chinatown, but really isn't.  The place had a number of narrow streets, packed with vendors selling pretty nice things (to my surprise) and some cheap souvenirs (of course).  It also had several restaurants that I'm glad I passed up because they were too expensive.  Because once I was just about one block away from all the vendors and restaurants, I found this open-air food court that served nothing but chinese food, and was populated entirely by chinese patrons, and was about 1/6 the price of all the places I'd passed up.  Once again, yay for cheap food!  I might actually be able to remain within my trip's budget and still eat well if I keep finding great and cheap food like this.  Oh, and I discovered I like pig liver.  I tried it after a little coaxing, then went back for seconds.  Here's Chinatown:

New Year's decorations.  It's the Year of the Rabbit.

Day 48: On to Singapore (February 24, 2011)

I took a late morning flight from Phnom Penh to Singapore today.  So far, it is the cleanest city I've ever seen, and I suspect I'm in the dingy part of town (I'll tell you why in a minute).  I'd heard that was the case, and that the laws enforcing cleanliness (and everything else) are very strict, but I guess the reports are true.  The airport is large and pristine, and like something out of science fiction.  Star Trek science fiction, not that dirty Fifth Element/Blade Runner stuff.  The metro is the same way, and it was an easy ride from the airport to my hotel.

Since it started to pour as soon as I finished my lunch, I ditched my idea of riding downtown to walk around.  I did get to explore my neighborhood, though, and discovered it's full of cheap (and tasty!) eateries and sidewalk vendors for snacks.  So I'll be able to eat at reasonable prices, even though this is a very expensive city generally.  A couple of shots from my neighborhood:



I mentioned Singapore is expensive.  This is true of the hotels, too, so there weren't many choices below $50.  The place I'm at is about $43/night and while it's clean and the bed is comfy, it's pretty spartan, like a dorm room.  That's fine, though, as I'm only here two nights and I don't need luxury.  When I checked in, I asked about an unusual feature in the lobby:  a series of wall boxes that looked like small lockers (specifically, they looked like the lockers at Spa World, where people leave their shoes before going to the changing rooms).  The clerk chuckled and told me I didn't want to know what they were.  I told him of course I did, especially after that answer!  So he admitted the hotel was, until recently, a brothel, and customers would store their things there.  The hotel's undergone a renovation since then, including new beds (and yes I peaked at the mattress lol).  But they still haven't gotten around to taking the condom vending machine out of the lobby.  I told the clerk I thought it was fine; even non-hookers need them sometimes.  I passed a number of gentlemen's clubs on my walkabout too.  High class clubs, from the looks of it, but clearly clubs.  Funny, I expected this maybe in Bangkok, but not here.  I suppose every town has its seedier parts.  Oh, and it doesn't feel uncomfortable at all.  I went out around 9pm to get dinner and it's a totally normal neighborhood.

I'll be out tomorrow, rain or shine, and should have more to report.

Day 47: Sad places, Cambodia (February 23, 2011)

Warning:  This post is going to contain some depressing stories and disturbing photos.  Don't read the second half if you don't want to be sad.

To make up for being such a laze-about yesterday (I slept for another three hours after I made my post!) I got out and did a lot today.  I'll start with the fun things, then will depress you by recounting my visits to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (aka the S-21 prison) and the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (aka the Killing Fields).

Today I graduated from riding in the back of a tuk-tuk and rode on the back of a moped to get around town.  It's a little cheaper that way and everyone rides a moped here.  I insisted on wearing a helmet, but most of the locals do not, even when they are squished 3 or 4 to bike.  After my initial nervousness, it was fun, and I'm looking forward to someday being a passenger on a real bike. 

"Classic" Phnom Penh from the turn of the (last) century.

More classic P.P.

From a temple near my hotel.

The way traffic flows in Cambodia is a lot different than in the States.  The roads are all like the video game Frogger, except the traffic goes in all four directions and somehow no one gets squashed.  I think they manage it because everyone drives slower, the vehicles are a lot smaller and can maneuver better, and people don't seem to treat their vehicles as an extension of their personal space, so there's not much jostling for position.  I hope Cambodia (and other places where mopeds are popular) don't all switch to a car society; their roads can handle all the little bikes, but won't be able to handle as many cars.

Lunch break at an outdoor food vendor's cart.

The middle of my day was spent at the National Museum, which houses more art from the greater Angkor region, plus some more modern pieces.  While both this museum and the one in Siem Reap contain tons of statues and other carvings, neither had any painted works.  I wonder if the ancient Khmers did not paint, or if there's another reason no paintings now exist, like they disintegrated in the climate, or they were all destroyed by invaders.  I'll look it up whenever I'm in possession of my Art Through the Ages book again.

On either side of the museum and lunch were the S-21 prison and the Killing Fields.  I actually went to the Killing Fields first (because it's cooler in the morning) but I'll talk about it second.

First, a tiny bit of background for those who don't know anything about the Khmer Rouge.  They were (in name at least) a communist group that had been around since I think the 1960s, and they gained a lot of followers in the early 1970s during Cambodia's civil war.  Somehow they gained enough followers -- armed followers, that is -- that they were able to take over a number of cities around the countryside, and in 1975, took over Phnom Penh and forced everyone in the city (over 1 million people) to leave town, leaving everything behind.  The city was completely deserted for nearly 4 years, except for a few small pockets, like S-21, which was originally a high school but became a prison, torture center, and execution center for about 10,000 Cambodians.  Of everyone who was sent there, only 7 men survived, found still alive when the prison was liberated.

S-21 is more or less in the same condition it was when it was liberated, although it's been cleaned up.  And by that, I mean the blood and everything that goes along with it has been scrubbed clean.  Some of the prison rooms have been converted to display rooms, some left as they were.  Here are some shots of the prison left as it was:

A schoolroom converted to prison cells.

Once a children's playground, then the prison gallows.

A prison room, where a dead prisoner was found upon S-21's liberation.

I've been to the Dachau Concentration Camp outside of Munich, Germany.  I had a really good tour guide, so I learned a lot there and it was very powerful and moving.  But one thing that was missing from that tour was a sense of who the people were who lived and died at that camp.  By comparison, S-21 does not have as much historical explanation during the tour, or as detailed descriptions of what every single room was for.  What it does have, though, are incredibly detailed records about everything that on at the site, including photos of everyone who passed through its doors, and photos of every dead body.  Really sad and disturbing photos incoming...

There were thousands of photos like these.  Men, women, children.  I only captured a small sample with my camera.  A few moments after I took the following shot, another woman touring S-21 stopped to look at the same photo, then started crying.

 

The S-21 museum has very few signs, but one of them is the most unnecessary sign EVER:

While many prisoners died at S-21 itself, every month, truckloads of people from there and elsewhere were sent about 10 miles southwest of Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek, one of the many Killing Fields that sprang up around Cambodia in the 1970s, where people were sent to be killed by the Khmer Rouge.  Dozens of mass graves at this site have turned up over 17,000 bodies, some of which are still in their graves and others of which have been moved to a memorial stupa built on the site.  The Killing Fields weren't as horrific to tour as the S-21, mostly because everything now looks like fields and woods, with a large temple in the center. 

Ugh!  :(

The temple where many of the deceased now rest.

Unlike, say, European concentration camps, there was no actual work or even the pretext of work done at these places.  As soon as they arrived, prisoners were herded off the trucks, blindfolded, then bashed in the back of the head next to an open mass grave.  Supposedly, the people running the sites took pains to keep their existence a secret from people living and working nearby, such as by playing loud sounds over loudspeakers to drown out the noise of groans and screams.  But I don't believe that.  You can't watch trucks of people constantly being sent to one spot, with no one ever leaving, and no food ever going in, or garbage coming out.  And given that every "free" person in Cambodia at that time was either in the Khmer Rouge army or was a starving and forced laborer in a rice paddy, it's not like anyone would have been able to protest the existence of the Killing Fields.  Not if they wanted to avoid them, that is.

So that was it.  That was today.  Very sobering, very sad.

Day 46: In bed, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (February 22, 2011)

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that after talking with a couple of friends online, I slept from noon until 5pm.  I had several nights in a row of not enough sleep, sleep that was interrupted by dozens of mosquito bites, or both.  So I guess I just crashed today.  But it means I can get an early start tomorrow; I already reserved a driver so I won't be tempted to dawdle.

Since today was super lame, I'll tell you about last night's dinner.  I think it was the first time when I felt like I really didn't know what I was doing, although in the end, it all worked out.  My hotel isn't near a lot of places that cater to tourists, so I had to try (well, got to try, because I'm happy to eat local food) a place whose menu was only in khmer.  One of the waitresses spoke a tiny bit of english and she helped me, as did the pictures in the menu.  But it was puzzling... just photos of plates of single ingredients, like lettuce or potatoes or meat.  Finally, with a lot of pointing and stuff, I figured out it's a make-your-own soup place.  The soup is heated on a pad on the table then you choose what you want to put in it, and keep adding ingredients throughout the meal.

I selected the big dishes, and the little dishes are standard.

I have no idea if I did it right, but I worked out a system that allowed me to eat without too much embarrassment.  My feeling of not knowing what I was doing was exacerbated by having all 8 waitresses hovering around me, watching me cook and eat.  (I was the only patron at first; I realized as more people came in that they all hover around everyone's table, to adjust the soup and help out.)  Thank god I'm good at using chopsticks, or I would have made a complete mess in addition to probably cooking everything wrong.  ha.  When I was almost done, I looked at the menu again and figured out the soups are designed for (and priced for!) 4-6 people, so I wound up paying $14 for about 2 gallons of soup, that normally would be split several ways.  When I first arrived, the waitressses all looked at me funny when I said "one" and held up one finger.  I thought it was because they don't get many foreigners or didn't understand me.  But it was probably because I was willing to spend, by their standards, a really large amount of money on soup.  Oh, it was really good and I'd go back, now that I know what to do, but probably won't because it's silly to pay for 4 meals when I don't have to.

Change of subject:  If I catch malaria, it's going to be in Cambodia.  The mosquitos here are awful.  I am covered in mosquito repellant and I moved one of those citronelle coils from the hallway into my room, and I am still being eaten.  They've interrupted my sleep several nights here and I wake up every morning with new bites.  :(  /whine over/

Day 45: Travel day to Phnom Penh, Cambodia

This will be a short entry because today is mostly a travel day.  I took the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, where I will be for three nights.  Before arriving in Cambodia, I'd planned to take a river ferry between the two cities.  But when I discovered that the ferry was slower, more dangerous, and three times as expensive as the bus, I opted for the bus instead.  I'll take slow and dangerous if it's cheap, not if it's expensive.  The ride was comfortable, except for the overly friendly young man sitting next to me who really wanted to talk.  To anyone who would talk back.  I pretended to sleep, and eventually I really did sleep.

My guest house in Phnom Penh seems nice.  And at $16/night, it's especially nice.  I'm not sure what the difference is between hotel and guest house, because this looks like a hotel to me.  My room is small and simple, but it's very clean, has a TV and wifi, and is (for the most part) tastefully decorated.  But the "art" in the shower (yes, the shower) seems a little out of place:

Since my only plans for tonight are to catch up on business (ie, pay my bills) and find a meal, this might be my only post today.

Day 44: Temples, museums and movies, near Angkor, Cambodia (February 20, 2011)

Again, lots of photos because I saw lots of beautiful things today.  It was my third and final day of touring temples arround Angkor and Siem Reap.  We had to go much further away today, so I got a glimpse of the rural areas of Cambodia, too.

These names probably won't mean anything to you, but they'll be helpful to me when I read this in the future:  Banteay Srey, Banteay Samre, Roulous Group.

This is a Naga.  I'm not sure if they are good or bad.  One supposedly served as an umbrella for the Buddha when he was on his way towards enlightenment, so they can't be all bad.

You have no idea how patient I had to be to capture this shot.

In between temples I stopped at the Cambodian Landmine Museum, which was established by a man who used to be a boy soldier in the Khmer Rouge army, then later undertook to start disarming landmines all over Cambodia.  (There's still something like 3 million unexploded landmines and bombs in the country, and they occassionally hurt or kill people.)  It was kind of a sad place, but very interesting, as it contained narratives of the founder's time in the army and his later work in disarming mines. 

A typical home in rural Cambodia.

All the mines at the Landmine Museum have been disarmed, but signs like this can be spotted around the country.

I learned more about this part of Cambodia's history this evening, when I went to see a documentary film about Pol Pot.  Until this week, everything I knew about Cambodia I learned from the movie The Killing Fields.  If you haven't seen this movie, go rent it.  Then after you've watched it, watch it again with the director's commentary.  So much of what I saw today tied in with what I already knew, and added to it.

Tomorrow morning I head to Phnom Penh.