Good morn from Korea! 'Tis my first full day. All of the SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) teachers are gathered at the Hyundai Learning Center for a week of orientation. They're going light on the scheduled events for the next couple of days to let us adjust to the time difference (we're 17 hours ahead of San Diego) and meet each other. I lost no time in recruiting a group to throw around the frisbee after breakfast; ultimate is my wingman.
It didn't really hit me that I was actually moving to another country until I was getting in line for security at the airport. I checked 115.5 lbs of luggage with no penalty, which I owe to the clerk finding my mom cute, and my cute mom hugged me goodbye, and the realization hit. All of the packing and goodbye parties (yes, there were definitely more than one... how I love a good party) had failed to make real what a goodbye hug from Oma did. I'm living in Korea now! Weeeee
My last night in San Diego was particularly great, though. It was the night of my flash mob and the after-party at Tiny's bar. Thank you to everyone for making me feel so very loved; it was difficult to say goodbye to all of you (and I was doing an excellent job of not crying until Lauren broke the seal :0P). Here was the email that was sent out, and yes, the result was exactly as amazing as the email promises:
Picture this:
You're browsing the antipasto at the end stall of the Ocean Beach farmer's market. You're feeling good because you're wearing your lucky Wednesday underwear. You hear a few sung verses of a familiar Journey rock ballad, and you think hey, it's just some street musician, a little off-key, but you forgive her because hells yes what a great song. The first guitar solo hits, and your foot starts a-tappin, and "it goes on and on and ooon..." and then, suddenly and all together, as if possessed by drunk 1980s karaoke singers, the crowd joins in and belts out "STRANGERS, WAiting... Up and down the boulevard..." and you're like wtf how is everyone being this awesome at the same time?! The crowd is amped and rocking out, and at the end of the chorus, they start sweeping down through the farmer's market: grooving up the middle of the street and both sidewalks, and surprised onlookers like yourself gawk and smile and look at each other to try and figure out what's going on. The energy's contagious, and you start believin' and put down your antipasto and join in the happy parade. We're walking down toward the bars at the end of Newport when a new song comes on over our rolling speaker: "...hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching yoooou... so good SO good SO GOOD!" The caroling party continues with "Cecelia" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" as we walk and belt out our passionate renditions of the classics. It's a beautiful thing really. In this fashion we make our merry way to Tiny's, where we have the patio reserved to embrace with beer our collective awesomeness. We play our freshly-created video footage of our jolly shenanigan on the patio TVs, and we toast to Gina because, finally, to end the streak of goodbye parties, this is her last night in town.
JOIN US Wednesday at the intersection of Newport Ave and Cable St by 6:20pm!! Browse the stalls/read a newspaper/blend in with the scene and wait to join in the chorus of "Don't Stop Believin'" after you hear me sing "it goes on and on and on" around 6:30pm. Walk and sing with us to Tiny's! The lineup is as follows; see the attached document for lyrics. Forward this to your friends! We want as many people as possible, for EPIC tastes sweeter when shared.
On a different note, here's the link to the Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball photo booth pics from Friday night! Y'all looked ravishing.
Many thanks and much love,
Gina
1. Don't Stop Believin- Journey
2. Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond
3. Cecelia- Simon & Garfunkel
4. Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen
5. You've Lost that Lovin Feeling- Righteous Brothers
6. Baby Got Back- Sir Mix-a-lot
7. Build Me Up Buttercup- The Foundations
8. Leaving on a Jet Plane- John Denver
Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Knock Knock
It's here! The next step.
After backpacking in Thailand and Cambodia (the catalyst for this here blog and the trip that, despite my fanciful intentions, mostly did not yield the life answers I was looking for), I came back to San Diego to dig in and look for a job. Eventually (I will let this word gently represent the nature of my job search process), I found a job with St. Vincent de Paul Village, a member organization of Father Joe's Villages and San Diego's largest rehabilitation center for the homeless. They centralize all sorts of resources for residents and the public (a medical clinic, recovery and mental health services, career and education classes, etc.) in an effort to help individuals and families achieve self-sufficiency. They really help people out (like midwives! hah I love that bumper sticker), and I'm happy to have put in some time here. I took my GRE and am considering a masters in social work, so maybe I'll be back in the non-profit sector, but for now, I'm choosing a different path-- one that takes me across the Pacific to a little peninsula called Korea.
I took a job with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education as part of the government's initiative to bring a native English speaker to every school in Korea. The SMOE will place me in a public school in Seoul and provide me with housing, and the contract is for a year with the option to renew. My sweet visa (it's like the Hey You Can be an Honorary Korean Cuz Your Parent Used to Be One of visas) is good for two years and is easily renewable, so who knows: Korea may be my 'the next step' for a good chunk of time.
My Goals
--I think it'd be easy to go over there and seek out an American bubble-- to surround myself with American friends and to speak English all the time, etc.-- but I want to immerse myself in the culture and become fluent in the language. A big impetus for this move, or at least the move to Korea in particular, is a responsibility to my heritage and the desire to have a conversation with my halmuni (grandmother) past 'I love you.' I realize that 1) I have the same responsibility to my Jewish side (oo maybe Israel's next!) and 2) if you're going to have a limited conversation with someone, 'I love you' is a pretty stellar way to go, but I'd like to be able to speak directly with Halmuni about some of her amazing experiences during the Korean War. I did my best to capture some of her story as part of my undergraduate thesis research, but I'm sure more than a little was lost in translation. I want to take this chance truly to live in another country and not just visit. Also, this is my plan to be Official Favorite Grandchild.
--This is a move of independence for me. I've learned some valuable lessons in my post-graduate year, the gateway year to the real world, but I still have a lot of growing up to do. I want to learn more about what I want and who I want to be, and I want to be comfortable with myself and being by myself.
--I will play frisbee. Korea has an active pickup, league, and tournament scene, and I already have a taste for international frisbee after picking up with the Soidawgz in Bangkok. Maybe I can find a way on to the Korean Worlds team! w00t.
--I will cook. Give Gina a Korean meal and she will eat for a day. Teach Gina a Korean meal and she will host dinner parties. This is my plan to be Official Favorite Friend.
--I will blog and photograph and share my experiences with you. Blogging encourages me to be a thoughtful experiencer and provides a record of where and how I've been, so I'd like to keep it up. I love comments!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Itinerary
I've been back stateside for a good bit now, but it's my plan to blog retroactively about my trip, picking up where I left off in the cave. Thank you to those of you who have complained about my laziness. It shows you care.
To orient us, here's my final itinerary:
April 14: Arrived in Bangkok on EVA Air. Instead of daring the craziness of the capitol (the one warranting the travel advisory), I flew north to Chiang Mai on Thai Air. Here I took a cooking class, experienced my first Thai massage, cuddled a tiger at the Tiger Kingdom, went bowling and wandering about with other Spicy Thai hostel guests, and participated in the water festival Songkran.
April 17: Took a 3.5 hour minibus to the mountain town of Pai. Rented motorbikes and toured the countryside's hot springs, waterfalls, and caves, and in the evenings we patronized the outdoor bars and fire juggling shows.
April 19: Rode a local bus to Maehongson. Stayed at Jongkham Guesthouse near the lake-- the most inexpensive lodging of my trip at 175B a night ($5). Via motorbike again, visited the NaSoi Long Neck Village, a waterfall, and the Fish Cave (the site of my Burn), plus some random exploring and getting lost. Here too I rode an elephant and bamboo rafted down the river.
April 22: Flew back to Chiang Mai on Thai Air. Spent another night at Spicy Thai. Gorged myself at a ridiculous buffet, motorbiked up to the Doi Suthep Temple and a waterfall, went to Baan Kingkaew Orphanage, took a tour of a printmaking shop.
April 24: Took overnight sleeper train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.
April 25: Arrived in Bangkok 7am. Found our way to Khao San Road. Failed to meet up with Taew, a family friend. Wandered through a Red Shirt Rally, past the Grand Palace, about a day market, onto the National Museum grounds for a youth musical show. Met friends from Chiang Mai for a night on the town. Played frisbee with the local frisbee team, the Soidawgz; afterward they took me out for a big seafood dinner.
April 27: Flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Bangkok Airways. Quarreled with a taxi driver, watched the sunset from a temple top, mis-attended the Angkor Night Festival, toured the temples by tuk-tuk, visited the Landmine Museum, shopped the night market, experienced fish massage and Khmer massage, went horse-back riding.
April 30: Flew back to Bangkok. Spent the night back on Khao San Road at the D&D where the staff was horrible to us. Took a minibus at the crack of dawn to Chumphon and took the ferry to Koh Phagnan.
May 1: Arrived on Koh Phagnan. Went to Half Moon Party in the jungle (the island is famous for its Full Moon Party on the beach). Snorkeled with sea cucumbers (aaah/blech), learned about Irish things from my new friends.
May 4: Took the ferry to Koh Tao. Investigated diving outfits and chose Seashell Resort for my SCUBA certification course. Swam with a whale shark!!
May 9: Eventually made it to Ton Sai via overnight barge/minibus/boat/crazy hike. Explored with new friends: hiking, going to the beach, playing volleyball, watching monkeys, rock climbing.
May 12: Left Ton Sai to catch a flight from nearby Krabi. Arrived in Bangkok. With assistance from bilingual friend, met up with Taew (!), who played tour guide for the night.
May 13: Left Bangkok for Los Angeles. Yay trip!!!
To orient us, here's my final itinerary:
April 14: Arrived in Bangkok on EVA Air. Instead of daring the craziness of the capitol (the one warranting the travel advisory), I flew north to Chiang Mai on Thai Air. Here I took a cooking class, experienced my first Thai massage, cuddled a tiger at the Tiger Kingdom, went bowling and wandering about with other Spicy Thai hostel guests, and participated in the water festival Songkran.
April 17: Took a 3.5 hour minibus to the mountain town of Pai. Rented motorbikes and toured the countryside's hot springs, waterfalls, and caves, and in the evenings we patronized the outdoor bars and fire juggling shows.
April 19: Rode a local bus to Maehongson. Stayed at Jongkham Guesthouse near the lake-- the most inexpensive lodging of my trip at 175B a night ($5). Via motorbike again, visited the NaSoi Long Neck Village, a waterfall, and the Fish Cave (the site of my Burn), plus some random exploring and getting lost. Here too I rode an elephant and bamboo rafted down the river.
April 22: Flew back to Chiang Mai on Thai Air. Spent another night at Spicy Thai. Gorged myself at a ridiculous buffet, motorbiked up to the Doi Suthep Temple and a waterfall, went to Baan Kingkaew Orphanage, took a tour of a printmaking shop.
April 24: Took overnight sleeper train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.
April 25: Arrived in Bangkok 7am. Found our way to Khao San Road. Failed to meet up with Taew, a family friend. Wandered through a Red Shirt Rally, past the Grand Palace, about a day market, onto the National Museum grounds for a youth musical show. Met friends from Chiang Mai for a night on the town. Played frisbee with the local frisbee team, the Soidawgz; afterward they took me out for a big seafood dinner.
April 27: Flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Bangkok Airways. Quarreled with a taxi driver, watched the sunset from a temple top, mis-attended the Angkor Night Festival, toured the temples by tuk-tuk, visited the Landmine Museum, shopped the night market, experienced fish massage and Khmer massage, went horse-back riding.
April 30: Flew back to Bangkok. Spent the night back on Khao San Road at the D&D where the staff was horrible to us. Took a minibus at the crack of dawn to Chumphon and took the ferry to Koh Phagnan.
May 1: Arrived on Koh Phagnan. Went to Half Moon Party in the jungle (the island is famous for its Full Moon Party on the beach). Snorkeled with sea cucumbers (aaah/blech), learned about Irish things from my new friends.
May 4: Took the ferry to Koh Tao. Investigated diving outfits and chose Seashell Resort for my SCUBA certification course. Swam with a whale shark!!
May 9: Eventually made it to Ton Sai via overnight barge/minibus/boat/crazy hike. Explored with new friends: hiking, going to the beach, playing volleyball, watching monkeys, rock climbing.
May 12: Left Ton Sai to catch a flight from nearby Krabi. Arrived in Bangkok. With assistance from bilingual friend, met up with Taew (!), who played tour guide for the night.
May 13: Left Bangkok for Los Angeles. Yay trip!!!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Lod Cave = Cloud Museum
The day after the Hot Springs in Pai, our motorbiker gang took to the road again, this time going to a waterfall (unimpressive- but to be fair it's dry season) and Lod Cave (hugely impressive) some 40 or 50 kilometers away in Soppong. The park authorities strongly recommend visitors hire a guide and lantern to explore the cave, but, partly due to how expensive it was (relative to a Thailand budget) and our spirit of independent adventure, we wanted to see how far we could get on our own. Just inside the mouth of the cave, however, I misjudged the solidity of a step and fell into a big mud pit. And when I say "mud," that's wishful thinking. The roof of the cave is home to thousands of bats. This, plus the idea that Gollum-like creatures would adore dark, damp real estate like this, plus a stubbed toe or two, made me call game over. I went back and hired a guide.
She was worth it for her powers of illumination and the guidance to the remote corners and crannies of the cave, but her narrative was limited to pointing at different rock formations and saying, "looks like popcorn," "looks like alligator," or "looks like Buddha." What a script. It seemed like fun though-- like imagine if you got to walk people through a museum of clouds pointing out what you thought the formations looked like: "this one's a pony... and this one over here is Oprah."
In one part of the cave we climbed up multiple steep staircases so littered with bat droppings you dared not touch the railings. If this cave were a tourist attraction in the US, you can bet it would be run differently. There would be warnings: wear suitable shoes, not recommended for the elderly or pregnant, beware of Gollum, etc. And there would be disclaimers: the park is not responsible if you're too cheap to buy a lantern; the park is not responsible if the bats choose to poo on the provided safety structures. Seriously though- the place was kind of hazardous. In the cavern we had to climb up to, there were four coffins. "Looks like coffin." No, they didn't belong to tourists who wore unsuitable shoes-- they were thousands of years old. I can't imagine how people succeeded in getting them up there pre-stairs, pre-lantern. What a job for the pallbearers. I can just picture some ancient loin-clothed man stubbing his toe and muttering "why couldn't we just cremate the guy..."
She was worth it for her powers of illumination and the guidance to the remote corners and crannies of the cave, but her narrative was limited to pointing at different rock formations and saying, "looks like popcorn," "looks like alligator," or "looks like Buddha." What a script. It seemed like fun though-- like imagine if you got to walk people through a museum of clouds pointing out what you thought the formations looked like: "this one's a pony... and this one over here is Oprah."
In one part of the cave we climbed up multiple steep staircases so littered with bat droppings you dared not touch the railings. If this cave were a tourist attraction in the US, you can bet it would be run differently. There would be warnings: wear suitable shoes, not recommended for the elderly or pregnant, beware of Gollum, etc. And there would be disclaimers: the park is not responsible if you're too cheap to buy a lantern; the park is not responsible if the bats choose to poo on the provided safety structures. Seriously though- the place was kind of hazardous. In the cavern we had to climb up to, there were four coffins. "Looks like coffin." No, they didn't belong to tourists who wore unsuitable shoes-- they were thousands of years old. I can't imagine how people succeeded in getting them up there pre-stairs, pre-lantern. What a job for the pallbearers. I can just picture some ancient loin-clothed man stubbing his toe and muttering "why couldn't we just cremate the guy..."
Monday, April 27, 2009
Caution: venting ahead
Newsflash: Cambodia uses U.S. dollars. They charge everything in dollars, and only if they need to give you change will they give you Cambodian bills (Riels I think). There are 4000 of them to 1 USD. PS I have found Cambodia to be markedly more expensive than Thailand but still cheap by US standards.
From the airport, I hired a motorcycle taxi to take me to the top-rated hostel I had read about on Hostelword.com. My driver was nice and chatty and insisted that it would be a better idea to stay in a hostel closer to the city center; he said it would be more convenient and safer and that that's where most of the tourists stay. I had a sneaking suspicion he would get a commission if he delivered me to a hostel on some commission-granting list somewhere, but I humored him once and checked out another hostel to price shop. When I lied and said I had made a reservation at the Siem Reap Hostel and needed to stay there because I had put down a deposit, he grudgingly delivered me and then volunteered to come pick me up again at 4:30pm (I needed to get to the temple park entrance just before 5pm because if I bought a one-day pass to the temples for tomorrow, I would be admitted free after 5pm tonight, in time to watch the sunset. The complicating part was that they stop selling passes at 5pm).
Meanwhile, pre-4:30pm, I met a bubbly California girl at my hostel and agreed to share a tuk-tuk taxi with her for the day tomorrow (the temples are too spread out to walk between them), so we had the front desk arrange that for us. When my driver showed up at 4:30, he asked what time he should pick me up tomorrow. When I said I had already made other arrangements, he got agitated and started to ask me all these questions, like "you just met this girl?" and "how do you think I feel?" He approached the front desk to cancel the arrangements, and when he was refused, he got angry. I was pretty darn sure I didn't want to go anywhere with this guy, so I hopped into another tuk-tuk with the Californian girl who was just arriving on scene. I was trying to explain to the driver that we had made no arrangements past today, and I had been planning on going with him to the sunset until he started to get angry and make me uncomfortable, so this was the end of our time. He then proceeded to get on his bike and follow alongside us, cussing me out, calling me a "fucking cheat," etc.
I know this is the kind of thing that happens a lot, and you just need to roll with it and then forget about it, but since I have this blog, I thought I would complain about it to you all. Keeping with that theme, I will tell you that later that night I paid for a "Night Festival at Angkor Wat" which ended up, because of some unfortunate miscommunications, being more like "Angkor Wat in the Dark." And, the late dinner I had, which was long overdue since an early lunch, was served to me pristine but then was immediately infiltrated by the hordes of bugs that were in close camp around me. They were tunneling into my rice and committing suicide in my sauce.
From the airport, I hired a motorcycle taxi to take me to the top-rated hostel I had read about on Hostelword.com. My driver was nice and chatty and insisted that it would be a better idea to stay in a hostel closer to the city center; he said it would be more convenient and safer and that that's where most of the tourists stay. I had a sneaking suspicion he would get a commission if he delivered me to a hostel on some commission-granting list somewhere, but I humored him once and checked out another hostel to price shop. When I lied and said I had made a reservation at the Siem Reap Hostel and needed to stay there because I had put down a deposit, he grudgingly delivered me and then volunteered to come pick me up again at 4:30pm (I needed to get to the temple park entrance just before 5pm because if I bought a one-day pass to the temples for tomorrow, I would be admitted free after 5pm tonight, in time to watch the sunset. The complicating part was that they stop selling passes at 5pm).
Meanwhile, pre-4:30pm, I met a bubbly California girl at my hostel and agreed to share a tuk-tuk taxi with her for the day tomorrow (the temples are too spread out to walk between them), so we had the front desk arrange that for us. When my driver showed up at 4:30, he asked what time he should pick me up tomorrow. When I said I had already made other arrangements, he got agitated and started to ask me all these questions, like "you just met this girl?" and "how do you think I feel?" He approached the front desk to cancel the arrangements, and when he was refused, he got angry. I was pretty darn sure I didn't want to go anywhere with this guy, so I hopped into another tuk-tuk with the Californian girl who was just arriving on scene. I was trying to explain to the driver that we had made no arrangements past today, and I had been planning on going with him to the sunset until he started to get angry and make me uncomfortable, so this was the end of our time. He then proceeded to get on his bike and follow alongside us, cussing me out, calling me a "fucking cheat," etc.
I know this is the kind of thing that happens a lot, and you just need to roll with it and then forget about it, but since I have this blog, I thought I would complain about it to you all. Keeping with that theme, I will tell you that later that night I paid for a "Night Festival at Angkor Wat" which ended up, because of some unfortunate miscommunications, being more like "Angkor Wat in the Dark." And, the late dinner I had, which was long overdue since an early lunch, was served to me pristine but then was immediately infiltrated by the hordes of bugs that were in close camp around me. They were tunneling into my rice and committing suicide in my sauce.
Khao San... Siem Reap
Welcome to Khao San Road-- where outdoor bars advertise "very strong cocktails... we no check IDs," and tattoo parlors boast: "new needle everytime." The list of rules in the guest house I checked into on Soi Rumbuttri (parallel to Khao San and much calmer) gave me a clue as to what kinds of things I could expect: somewhere between "do not leave valuables in your room" and "check out is at noon" was the warning "do not bring prostitutes into the guest house."
Khao San road is the backpacker hub of Bangkok-- an area that lives in a perpetual state of college spring break. Coming from Northern Thailand in the low tourist season, it's sort of a shock to see so many foreigners in one place. The only locals here are the ones trying to make a buck (selling pad thai, hair braiding services, buckets of vodka, etc.) or bring home a Western boyfriend (I thought that was a stereotype, but there's truth to the idea that Western boyfriends are highly prized here). Also, you may be able to see some "ladyboys"-- Thai men who appear as beautiful women, some even going to such extremes as to have ribs removed.
I would not recommend staying on Khao San Road or booking any tours from here. In researching the best ways to get to Siem Reap, I was told that some big scams are run from Khao San. An unsuspecting tourist may book a minibus to Cambodia and then encounter a staged border crossing and surprise visa fees. And, although this sad little tourist was told they would arrive at 7pm, they'll roll up past 11pm in front of a guest house... one that has tipped the drivers to stop there late.
Legit overground travel to Cambodia from Bangkok still has its troubles. You can get an air-conditioned bus to a town near the Cambodian border, but then you have to get a tuk-tuk to the place where you can buy a visa. If you don't have US dollars, they'll give you a terrible conversion rate. You also need an extra passport photo. Once you have your visa, you have to find a bus that will take you in to Siem Reap, but air-conditioned busses don't exist, and the roads are terrible. And they're kept that way on purpose. Bangkok Airways, which has a monopoly on the flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, pays the Cambodian government not to fix the roads, encouraging tourists to fly. All travel guides will tell you it's an absolute rip-off but definitely the way to go if you can afford it. So, wary of all that could go wrong overland, that's what I did.
When I arrived at the Siem Reap airport, I bought a visa and a scan of my passport photo for 22 dollars. Already having governmental corruption on my mind, I was really uneasy when two of the officers joked among themselves and took pictures of me with their cell phones (wtf!?). Once I paid, my passport was handed down a long line of uniformed guys (really-- like fifteen of them, no joke), and I had to wait for them to call my name. I was the last one called, so I was by myself (I'm not sure if I'm paranoid, but I think they did this on purpose). Finally they called my name and then put up a CLOSED sign in my face. They said it was break time and I needed to come back in an hour. I laughed it off, and joked with them, "nooo come on guys, I just saw you with my passport..." but inside I was kind of freaking out. These creepy guys have my passport and I'm alone in Cambodia! But it turned out fine-- they were ribbing me, studying my passport and asking me about Texas. One guy said he had some relatives that run a donut shop in Dallas.
Anyway, I'm here in Siem Reap at an awesome hostel, and I'm about to go watch the sunset at Angkor Wat.
Khao San road is the backpacker hub of Bangkok-- an area that lives in a perpetual state of college spring break. Coming from Northern Thailand in the low tourist season, it's sort of a shock to see so many foreigners in one place. The only locals here are the ones trying to make a buck (selling pad thai, hair braiding services, buckets of vodka, etc.) or bring home a Western boyfriend (I thought that was a stereotype, but there's truth to the idea that Western boyfriends are highly prized here). Also, you may be able to see some "ladyboys"-- Thai men who appear as beautiful women, some even going to such extremes as to have ribs removed.
I would not recommend staying on Khao San Road or booking any tours from here. In researching the best ways to get to Siem Reap, I was told that some big scams are run from Khao San. An unsuspecting tourist may book a minibus to Cambodia and then encounter a staged border crossing and surprise visa fees. And, although this sad little tourist was told they would arrive at 7pm, they'll roll up past 11pm in front of a guest house... one that has tipped the drivers to stop there late.
Legit overground travel to Cambodia from Bangkok still has its troubles. You can get an air-conditioned bus to a town near the Cambodian border, but then you have to get a tuk-tuk to the place where you can buy a visa. If you don't have US dollars, they'll give you a terrible conversion rate. You also need an extra passport photo. Once you have your visa, you have to find a bus that will take you in to Siem Reap, but air-conditioned busses don't exist, and the roads are terrible. And they're kept that way on purpose. Bangkok Airways, which has a monopoly on the flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, pays the Cambodian government not to fix the roads, encouraging tourists to fly. All travel guides will tell you it's an absolute rip-off but definitely the way to go if you can afford it. So, wary of all that could go wrong overland, that's what I did.
When I arrived at the Siem Reap airport, I bought a visa and a scan of my passport photo for 22 dollars. Already having governmental corruption on my mind, I was really uneasy when two of the officers joked among themselves and took pictures of me with their cell phones (wtf!?). Once I paid, my passport was handed down a long line of uniformed guys (really-- like fifteen of them, no joke), and I had to wait for them to call my name. I was the last one called, so I was by myself (I'm not sure if I'm paranoid, but I think they did this on purpose). Finally they called my name and then put up a CLOSED sign in my face. They said it was break time and I needed to come back in an hour. I laughed it off, and joked with them, "nooo come on guys, I just saw you with my passport..." but inside I was kind of freaking out. These creepy guys have my passport and I'm alone in Cambodia! But it turned out fine-- they were ribbing me, studying my passport and asking me about Texas. One guy said he had some relatives that run a donut shop in Dallas.
Anyway, I'm here in Siem Reap at an awesome hostel, and I'm about to go watch the sunset at Angkor Wat.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The real dangers of motorbiking
As my experience has proven, the real dangers of motorbiking are NOT
--The adjustment to driving on the left side of the road.
--The other tourists, despite the fact that these outfits will rent to anyone.
--The steep unpaved backroads littered with loose rocks, or the hairpin turns on the 1095 highway.
--The bugs. At 60 km an hour, certain unlucky exoskeletons smack into your face with a good amount of force. Also, around Lod Cave especially, there are these thick, meaty caterpillars hanging down from the trees like spiders... right at face height... making it necessary for a motorbiker to swerve or duck to dodge an unwelcome kiss.
No, the real danger is the motorbike itself. The exhaust pipe gets EXTREMELY hot. After I parked my bike next to the other bikes at Fish Cave outside of Maehongson, I unthinkingly stepped backward when I hooked my helmet on the handlebars. This action brought the flesh of my left Achilles against the scalding exhaust pipe of the next bike over. AAH ... I would rather have kissed a caterpillar. When I got back to my guest house, I showed my angry apricot-sized welt and exposed new skin to some of the Thai ladies in the garden, and one (essentially) said, "Oh, don't worry. We all have them- well, not my friend from Bangkok, but all we country people have scars from that exact thing."
So-- I, Gina Phillips, now bear the mark of Thai motorbiking country people. I have been branded as an insider. I'm quite certain that this scar will garner me deep discounts at the tourist markets and entrance into secret clubs where Thai motorbiking country people do Thai motorbiking country people secret things. Also, I have a mosquito bite in the middle of my forehead that I have been unable to avoid scratching, thereby making it red and slightly swollen, to the effect that it looks like I'm about to sprout a unicorn horn. Together, I'm sure that my Thai scar and unicorn horn will get me into some pretty exclusive circles.
--The adjustment to driving on the left side of the road.
--The other tourists, despite the fact that these outfits will rent to anyone.
--The steep unpaved backroads littered with loose rocks, or the hairpin turns on the 1095 highway.
--The bugs. At 60 km an hour, certain unlucky exoskeletons smack into your face with a good amount of force. Also, around Lod Cave especially, there are these thick, meaty caterpillars hanging down from the trees like spiders... right at face height... making it necessary for a motorbiker to swerve or duck to dodge an unwelcome kiss.
No, the real danger is the motorbike itself. The exhaust pipe gets EXTREMELY hot. After I parked my bike next to the other bikes at Fish Cave outside of Maehongson, I unthinkingly stepped backward when I hooked my helmet on the handlebars. This action brought the flesh of my left Achilles against the scalding exhaust pipe of the next bike over. AAH ... I would rather have kissed a caterpillar. When I got back to my guest house, I showed my angry apricot-sized welt and exposed new skin to some of the Thai ladies in the garden, and one (essentially) said, "Oh, don't worry. We all have them- well, not my friend from Bangkok, but all we country people have scars from that exact thing."
So-- I, Gina Phillips, now bear the mark of Thai motorbiking country people. I have been branded as an insider. I'm quite certain that this scar will garner me deep discounts at the tourist markets and entrance into secret clubs where Thai motorbiking country people do Thai motorbiking country people secret things. Also, I have a mosquito bite in the middle of my forehead that I have been unable to avoid scratching, thereby making it red and slightly swollen, to the effect that it looks like I'm about to sprout a unicorn horn. Together, I'm sure that my Thai scar and unicorn horn will get me into some pretty exclusive circles.
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