The adventures of CJ and her cow and monkey friends

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It seems like eons since I've been in New Zealand, and worlds apart in terms of lifestyle. Ok so starting from the beginning of my Southeast Asia jaunt:

After a quick morning in Bangkok, hopping on the back of a motorbike to hit Khao San Road in search of a few needed items, I rushed off to the airport, having what I'm now finding to be typically educational and enjoyable taxi ride. I arrived at the airport able to say "I'm a vegetarian," "goodbye," "how much?," and for some reason also "forget me not." Although it took me a while to ensure I wasn't waving goodbye to someone like an idiot saying "how much!"

After a long day I finally found Abby on the island of Koh Phangan, at a bamboo beach bungalow equipped with only an incredibly hard mattress, fan, mosquito net (which makes me feel like I'm in a princess bed), and a bathroom with a hand-held spigot of cold water as a shower. Completely standard conditions here, and not much to complain about. We spent a few days doing the beach thing, and hanging out in the nearby village, which had a couple awesome open-air restaurants run by the friendliest Thai ladies. Oh and there are dogs absolutely everywhere, and they're pretty friendly too.

So Koh Phangan is known for its full moon party, which started long ago as some people hanging out playing music on the beach, and has turned into a massive all night drinking extravaganza, where you're advised to bring nothing but what you're wearing and some cash tucked away. Even flip flops are risky as they may get lost or stolen (as mine did). We had to take an hour long water taxi to the location, pulled up to the beach with fire-dancers and DJs, teaming with people. Buckets are sold left and right, for as little as $4, and filled with mixed drinks. I was pretty hesitant about going at first, but it turned out to be actually pretty fun, so fun that I guess both Abby and I missed our 6am water-taxi home.

After a day of recoup, we headed to Koh Tao, another beautiful island, where we stayed at yet another beachy-bungalow, where we had several cool neighbors and a rooster with a very skewed internal body clock. I did an intro skuba dive and had a really cool instructor who took me down deeper than I was technically allowed. And we swam around with a sea turtle! During the evenings we spent our time watching the jaw-droppingly amazing fire-spinners who performed at the beach-side bars.

Leaving Koh Tao we took an overnight boat, which was actually more comfortable than expected, however I was part of a gigantic human sandwich. Fortunately I felt pretty comfortable with the girls on both sides of me. I'm not the type to get sea sick, but this boat rocked so hard, I swear at times I was vertical, even though I was laying down. Early in the morning we arrived at Khao Sok National park, and soon embarked on a hike through the jungle, taking a break to splash around in a swimming hole. We didn't see any monkeys, but we sure heard them, and we did see some leeches.

That night Abby didn't feel well, so I had to fend for myself. I hung out at our guesthouse's restaurant and noticed a guy who was also sitting alone, and eventually got up the courage to utter the standard traveler's into line "where are you from?" He came an joined me and I found out he's Dutch, and works for KPMG in Amsterdam (a rival of my company)! We talked about work, and made me so jealous of Dutch work standards, and his job in general. Plenty of time off, plus gets to travel to awesome placed like Dubai, New York, and Tokyo for work. Anyway, he (Frank) had befriended one of the staff (Dang) from our family-run place, who joined us, followed by a couple other Thai pals. Soon we were there with 4 Thai guys playing card games and laughing for hours.

The next day we convinced Dang and his friend to take us to the lake, an hour away, and only having to pay for gas. We stopped by a rather nontourist-frequented market, trying all kinds of strange goods, most of which involving coconutty goodness. The lake was immense and gorgeous, and we spent the afternoon lazing about, trying to keep cool and hanging out at the small floating village. That night back Dang let me go in the restaurant kitchen and help cook with his sister! She and I mainly communicated in gestures, and I semi-learned how to make a couple curries and fried rice, all the while having my skin moisturized(?) by some paint-looking concoction many Thai women wear on their faces. I'm still not sure what it is or what it does, but it's supposed to be good.

Next, on to Koh Phi Phi, which is the famous location of the filming of The Beach, which I in fact had never seen, until we bought a bootlegged copy and convinced a dive-shop employee to let us use the DVD player. I was a little over doing the whole beach bum thing, but Phi Phi turned out to be very stunning and different from the others I'd been to. After a couple days there, soaking up the sun and snorkeling, we began our long journey to Cambodia.

After 24 hrs on a boat, 2 buses, and a tuk-tuk (motorized rickshaw) we arrived at the Cambodian border, immediately greeted by begging children. In line for immigration we ran into a couple I had gone diving with and joined up to split a cab to Siem Reap. Even though it was 4 hours of an extremely bumpy, gut-churning cab ride, the time flew by getting used to the new scenery and acquainted with Justine, Canadian, and Will, English, who met while teaching English in Japan, who would become our new travel buddies for most of Cambodia.

The next day we rose before dawn to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, meaning organization of temples, which is a vast complex of ancient temples, also the filming location for Tomb Raider. After sunrise we explored the biggest and most famous temple, trying to follow the legends carved in friezes. As we walked, I saw something meandering down the hall, "kitty!" I exclaimed. No wait, not kitty, monkey! So we followed the monkey outside to the courtyard, where he just chilled completely nonchalantly. We didn't want to scare him off so we all just kind of stood and stared at his coolness. I sat down on the stone steps, and moments later, he saunters over and chooses me as a cuddly buddy! So there I sat stunned, with a monkey nuzzling my leg, as people wandered past taking photos (I am now world famous), until finally we had to practically pry him off.

We had the entire day to kill because we wanted to stay for sunset, and only a few temples on our list, so we just spent the day strolling through the stone ruins, periodically finding a hidden room to perch and hang out in. It was a very peaceful and unstressful way to sightsee. However what was stressful, and would continue for the rest of my time in Cambodia, is the begging children, usually trying to sell goods like books or scarves. So Ok, I can buy a few scarves, but when there's 12 kids swarming, how do you choose???

Siem Reap is a really cool city, and although it's maybe Cambodia's most touristy, it still has mainly dirt roads, and people who stare with intrigue as Abby and I pass by. Our second day there she and I decided to donate blood to their children's hospital, which was a very rewarding experience, in that we walked by many sick children, whom we could be potentially helping. After that, the four of us decided to get our ears cleaned. Random? yes. Intriguing? yes. Necessary? absolutely not. I have no idea what they were doing in there, but it was a humorous endeavor to say the least, and only cost $2.

Next on our itinerary was the capitol city of Phnom Penh, to which we had to take an 8hr bus. Now normally the length of the ride alone would make a person cringe, but add a child playing a toy keyboard with electronic tunes for each key, now that's fun. Not only that, but Cambodian roads are essentially lawless -- there is almost no rhyme or reason to their driving habits, and thus they use what I call the "horn method." This method merely means that when a vehicle is in motion, and the driver sees another vehicle, it honks to say "hey watch out, I'm coming!" So essentially they are constantly honking. If you are lucky enough to have a subdued horn on your bus, this is not so bad. However most buses have a jarringly high-pitched horn, making the ride all the more fun. Not only is the "horn method" annoying, it is also at times ineffective, for example when slow cattle are crossing the road, and do not care about your horn. Which is exactly what happened. As a result, we hit a cow. The bus pulled over, and for some reason, everyone piled out, surrounding the maimed animal, and after quite some time passed, began to pull him onto the bus! The bus has 2 levels, the upper one for seating, and the lower for luggage, so after several failed attempts, the cow was finally hauled into the luggage storage, and we were on our way. What ever came of him, we will never know.

Phnom Penh is dirty, smelly and congested, however with several sights to see. Cambodia has had a very recent violent history, with several key and tragic events taking place in Phnom Penh. So we spent a day at the Killing Fields, where we saw the grave-site for thousands of people, who had been tortured and buried in piles. There is still clothing pieces compacted into the dirt, and teeth and bones on the ground. Following that, we visited Toul Sleung which is another grim place, as it is a school-turned-concentration camp, which is filled with photographs, stories, prisoner cells, and authentic torture devices. All and all it was a very heavy day.

The next day was more uplifting, as we visited the Grand Palace, where the 3 girls had to purchase oversized T-shirts to cover our shoulders, and pranced through the palace grounds in the rain. We hit up the markets, and enjoyed some of the best Indian food I've ever had from a family's restaurant slash family kitchen.

Cambodia has definitely been an interesting and educational place thus far, giving me much to appreciate about my life at home. Including the lack of mosquitoes and overall level of cleanliness.

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Photos

dawn
...'twas a long journey

Ladyboys - Slave 4 U
Does anyone find this extremely un-PC?