so i have this horrible infection in my leg and i had to go to a doctor today. because i went to a pharmacy before, which is kind of like a doctor, because EVERYTHING is over the counter here. ("valium? how much you need?") like, i was at the pharmacy and i said, "i burn my leg on a motorbike, and then i go to muay thai training, and somebody kick me, and now, infected." (i have learned to speak always in the present tense to clear up any confusion, especially with people in charge of my health.) and the pharmacist [View Full Entry]

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so i find myself once again in this island of phuket, part way through my month of muay thai training. and to be honest, the novelty has worn off, and i don't plan to pursue muay thai in the future. it is still enjoyable, but it is not a passion, and there are other things at this point that i'd rather be doing. that said, it has been easier to get into it this time around. i was sore again for 3 days, trouble walking down stairs, all that jazz, and clinching still makes my neck ache every time we do [View Full Entry]

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and then there was one. greg left a few days ago, back for SA, leaving me in bangkok with a plan of another month in phuket doing muay thai, and a gallon of back entries to write about our travels. fortunately, phuket should allow me some more down time to write, since actual travelling is not particularly conducive to that. khao san road is the kind of place that is kind of overwhelming and fascinating the first time you see it, and after that is just a pain. it offers little real interaction between people, since travellers are there to buy [View Full Entry]

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and then there were two. so tamsyn flew out successfully. no missed flights this time. greg and i were left in hanoi in a BEAUTIFUL guest house room which i think is someone's house, complete with a tv, A/C, and a rack of CDs (including britney spears, and rosie o'donnel's "a rosie christmas"). we inquired about a bus to laos and were told that we would have to wait 3 or 4 days to get a laos visa. trapped in hanoi, our least favorite city, for 4 days! we asked another travel agent, and they told us we had to wait [View Full Entry]

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hoi an our next stop after nha trang was hoi an, as our plan was to work our way up the coast of viet nam. while in saigon, just after meeting tamsyn at the airport, we also got in contact with another ex-korea english teacher now living in saigon, quinn. the four of us got together and had a drink in a little booth on the side of the road, sitting in plastic chairs intended for kindergarteners. it is amazing that we english teachers seem to just sprout up everywhere. we had the opportunity to meet a bunch of the kids [View Full Entry]

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it is unfortunate that my blogs happen so infrequently, since i know i forget a lot of things that i'd like to post here. i'll have to make more of an effort to get to internet more often. so we made it to nha trang on a day bus, about 10 hours. i forgot to mention that our friend, tamsyn, has joined us for this vietnam leg of our journey, since she is on vacation from her job in korea. nha trang was meant to be this beautiful beach area, a bit touristy, but well worth the journey. i was surprised, [View Full Entry]

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so we have been in ho chi minh city for several days now. immediately, after being in cambodia, we noticed how much more like korea it is. neon lights, deliberately created parks in the city with manicured trees and grass, and people doing calisthenics in the park, or playing badminton or hackey sack. we were saying that you know a country is on its way up when its citizens start making an effort to put time aside for "exercise." it is so odd that a city that slightly resembles korea would seem so homely and inviting for the exact characteristics that [View Full Entry]

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we finally left the cool ocean breeze and relaxing atmosphere of sihanoukville, and arrived back in phnom penh, in the same backpackers area alongside the lake. that area is so strange, because rather than isolating travellers away from the local people, the locals actually live alongside the guesthouses. in order to get to a guesthouse, you often have to walk down a long narrow alley with puddles from the rainwater that never quite drains, lined with little houses and rooms with the doors wide open to get as much ventillation as possible. inside these rooms, you can see local people reclining [View Full Entry]

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today greg and i rented a motorbike and decided to drive around. the beach area here is clustered with guesthouses and beach-front bars and restaurants. it is not really developed: there are no large high-rise hotels, most things are one story or less, but even so, it is clearly constructed as a tourist area, and we wanted to get out more to where the real cambodians dwell. given that kids are seeming to just effortlessly pick up english from travellers and from study in school, and given the cheap prices, and the allure of ancient and modern sites of interest [View Full Entry]

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frustratingly, i made a long blog entry, only to have it deleted as i was posting it. this is a second and shorter attempt. overland travel from thailand to cambodia is as bad as they say. on the thailand side, the roads are paved, the van is cool, and it is generally a pretty safe feeling. once at the border, however, much like the thai/burma border, it was generally much poorer. children held umbrellas over people's heads and then asked for money. pickpocketing children swarmed around extra bags. we had paid a bit extra to get our visa taken care of [View Full Entry]

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