From nagging students to nagging vendors...Life traveling around S.E. Asia.

---

Ok, on to the good stuff:

Other than taking a mini trip to Kanchanaburi to see the famous River Kwai Bridge, I was fortunate to take a week-long vacation with my sister and two cousins. This included a floating market, Kho Chang Island, and zip-lining through the jungle. As with any family vacation, we had a few let downs and moments when we all wanted to kill each other. The first was our initial trip to the floating market. The vans were cramped and we all had to pay for extra seats for our luggage. We had to take two vans and a pick-up truck to get where we were going. After arriving and realizing that finding a place to stay wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought, we finally got put in a home-stay which turned out to be pretty neat. The next travel catastrophe was getting to the island. We attempted to leave early but of course the van was later than expected and already almost full causing us to ride over an hour with our heavy luggage resting on our laps. When we get Bangkok, I try to find the van to take us to the ferry but fail and we end up having to take the bus (which we figured would be more comfortable anyway). We make it to the bus station to find that the next bus doesn’t leave until 10pm…it was 10am when we arrived. After holding back a huge fit of rage and lots of tears of frustration, I find that we were pointed in the wrong direction and that the real bus to the ferry leaves only in an hour. To add to the moment, it turns out that the bus is really just a van. All the frustration went away when we boarded the ferry and were able to relax surrounded by a beautiful sunset, scattered islands, and the wind in our hair. As with the floating market, finding a hotel on the beach was much harder than originally anticipated. We looked at three different hotels before being told about one that’s nice and right on the beach. The ‘on the beach’ part was true, but the ‘nice’ part included ants and cockroaches in the bathroom, one of which found its way under my scream and dancing feet. We moved to a much nicer resort the following day and were able to relax by the pool and eat our hearts out for the next few days. Other than a some scattered storms, it was warm and the waves were huge and fun!

Of everything we did, I have to say that the zip-lining through the forest was the most fun. There were 24 platforms total and we swung from platform to platform. The longest was 300m. The guides were really great about letting us take photos and videos. The organization was located inside of a zoo and after we were finished eating our free lunch, the driver offered to drive us around the zoo to take a look at all the animals. The entire thing was amazing and totally worth the money.

What am I doing right now, you ask? Well, I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a recruitment representative for Carroll University where I attended. Before I left for Thailand, my boss, Kathy, mentioned something about me maybe meeting them in Vietnam. A few months later, we spoke and it turned out that she wanted me to represent Carroll at recruitment fairs for international students in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand! Before I started, I traveled with two friends to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat in Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is one of the coolest cities I’ve been to. The city center is filled with lavish, French-style hotels that look out of place in such a poor country. There are more markets than one has time for filled with vendors constantly grabbing your arm saying “lady, you want something? What do you want? Come inside please.” If I hadn’t lived in Thailand and been exposed to this before, I would have lost my mind. The insanely cheap silk and cotton scarves and other knickknacks along with the AMAZING assortment of western restaurants and BAKERYS! makes up for the nagging vendors and tuk tuk drivers. One thing I was not prepared for was the amount of children that were begging on the streets. Anywhere you went you had little kids (often holding babies) asking you for money or saying “lady I don’t want money, I want food” and proceed to drag you to the mini mart. On a side-note, I was very much impressed with their English skills, not just in Siem Reap but all over Cambodia. Taking a tuk tuk ride through the country side allows you to really get a taste of Cambodia and really see what drew Angelina Jolie to this country. The majority of the country is still living like they did 800 years ago in wood huts sitting inches above the flooding waters. The feeling you get driving through the dirt roads in an open tuk tuk seeing little raggedy children running around in bare feet with their parents (and sometimes even young kids) doing the fishing for the day in the river or just hanging out waiting for the water to recede is a feeling that I’ve never experienced before. You really feel connected and it makes you wish that you had enough money to give 100 bags of rice for every dirty child you see.

The following day, our awesome tuk tuk driver took us to an orphange that was entirely under water. We had to park the tuk tuk down the flooded drive-way, take off our shoes, and walk to the school in water up to our knees. The entire school was flooded with only one main room that wasn't. We spent some time reading to the kids, watching them dance or us, and simply just hanging out and talking. I really wish we would have brought something to give them other than a small donation...they were all soooooo cute!

After reluctantly leaving the completely flooded city of Siem Reap, I took a bus ride from hell to Phnom Penh. Why was it a bus ride from hell? Well, the bus I took was somewhat of a local bus that stopped and picked up passengers the entire 6hrs. It did not have a toilet or breakfast like I was promised and paid extra for. I hadn’t eaten since I thought I’d get food so by the time we stopped for lunch you can imagine how hungry I was. Lo-and-behold, when I went to pay, it turns out that I had all my money stolen and couldn’t buy any food. I think this happened on the initial bus that picked me up from my hotel. Not to mention that I left Siem Reap early before my friends so that I could go to the Vietnam embassy which it turns out I didn’t have to do because my guest house was able to get it in a day. A little self-loathing and an entire day spent in my hotel watching movies was enough to get me out of my stupor.

When my friends arrived, we took a trip to the S-21 prison and the Killing Fields. For those who don’t know, the prison was where thousands of people were interrogated, tortured, and killed during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979. It included the pictures to prove it. Pulling up to the high-school-turned prison made my stomach drop. The Killing Fields is where they buried everyone. It was very interesting, disturbing, but definitely eye opening.

From Phnom Penh, I went to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam and spent the one day I had there at the War Remnants Museum. This, too, was eye opening. It included a vast array of pictures (very graphic, mind you) of the Vietnam War. I won’t get into it, but much of the stuff I saw and read was stuff that they don’t really teach you in America.
I finally made it up to Da Nang, Vietnam for my first fair which turned out to be pretty fun! From here, I am headed to Jakarta, Indonesia for another fair. I will be there for about a week and then finally headed back to Bangkok for the final fair and a reunion at a lavish hotel with some of my friends. After all of that is complete on the 10th of Oct. I will be heading up to live with a hill tribe in Northern Thailand for 3 months teaching English. So there you have it! That was definitely a lot to remember, and I know I left lots out, but that’s the gist of my life the last few months. I have been very fortunate to be able to travel and most importantly get the job with Carroll as it is precisely the job I wish to have and it still allows me to teach. I will probably write again once I get settled in the hill tribe and will hopefully have many more fun stories!

Sawasdee kha!

---