Around the world in 6 months

Written on April 29...
Ok, first of all, a clarification to a previous entry, about beggars and my saying no to them. That's not entirely true, as starting..well, very long ago, as far back as Vancouver, but more in Hong Kong and Thailand, I have given food (I never give money because you don't know what theydo with it, but food is, hopefully, eaten.) to people passively begging on the sidewalk. Instead of throwing away a left over, I'll always give it away. Same with if I have fruit or peanuts or other snacks in my bag, I'll give them happily to someone who clearly needs it more than me. I have done this countless times and a few people I have travelled with have noticed and remarked on it (I thought everyone did this too, but apparently not...).
The problem with here in Cambodia is that 1. They are very pro-active (I would say agressive, but not in a violent way) in their begging, which I find difficult to cope with, and more importantly 2. there aren't nearly as many little snack stands here, meaning that I don't snack as much, and am much hungrier when we finally find a place to eat, and eat everything on my plate. As a result, no snacks in my bags, no left-overs and a $12US/day budget make it very difficult to give anything away. (The original $17/day had to be brought down after buying the visas)
It's really not as if I just want to keep it and splurge on myself! We are currently staying in a $1/night dormitory, and my meals cost about $2each, +Internet fees (up to $.75/hour, $.40 where I currently am) so that leaves me with about $3/day for entrance fees to visit sites (I.e national Museum today was $3 to ge in, so technically, anything other than dinner tonight will make me go over budget). Tomorrow is looking worst, as we will visit 2 sites (killing field and genocide museum) which each charge $2 entrance fee + a tuk-tuk ride will be required (we just walked today) for as much as $4each, so I'm pretty much certain to be over budget then too. On top of it all, Lonely Planet made me feel even worst by noting that it's Buddist tradition to give to people who have less than you....technically, that encompasses almost every Camdbodian!!!

Anyway, all of that to say that I feel very bad about seeming so greedy (which I know I am, but not to that extent!!!) to locals, but it's not exactly as if I'm floating in cash either. I think I would feel a lot better if I could give as I want to, but I'll have to leave that to the people who are here on shorter vacations, or who are at least going back home to work (=make $) as opposed to study (=no earning potential, and massive costs). I think the main killer for me is the fact that everything here is in $US. In Thailand, I had 600B daily budget. It's much more pleasant to manage than 12$!!! For that reason, I deal in riels as much as possible ($1US=aprox 4000 riels, a meal from a street vendor will be approx 3000riels).
Anyway, enough ranting about money, but it's definitely something that's on my mind a lot more these days than for the past couple of months.
Last note to this topic: Cost of living here, as you can see from the numbers above, is crazy cheap!!! If I was here with decent (aka normal) amounts of money for a normal vacation, I could live like a freaking queen!!!

Quicknote on the begging kids at Angkor Wat. They are quite good at what they do. They generally engage coversation by asking where you're from, and many of them are able to recite facts about Canada (i.e population 32M, capital Ottawa, very cold) !!!!! Impressive!!!! I didn;t expect that and it took me a second to realize what the first kid who did this was saying!
Off topic but related to Angkor Wat: Today we visited the National Museum and got to see many many pieces that were originally taken from Angkor what. They really should be returned,as they are clearly missed there. Seeing them in the museum

Back to Phnom Penh. It's no where near as nice as Thailand. I desperatly miss the fruit stands (in Thailand, there are fruits stands almost everywhere, where they sell good portions of cut mangos, pineapple and melons for 10-20B) and the general goodness of the food. Traffic here is comparable to Bangkok (aka completely out of this world crazy and seemingly orderless) except that there are a lot more motorbikes than cars. For example, to turn left, whereas we put our signal (most of us) and wait for an opening, here they don't signal at all and simply start driving in the oncoming lane, honk their horn several times and cut people to turn onto the street or wherever they want to go!!!!! (Note: they drive "on the same side" as us, which is weird after over 2 months of "the other side"). They also use their horns for everything (aka telling others that they are there). On the 5hrs bus ride from Siem Reap to here, the driver was on it almost all the time! Whether to get a cow or dog to move out of the street, warn a car from the oncoming direction that it was in it's lane, passing a motorbike and/or any slower vehicle and/or any little town we passed. I wondered what he would do if the horn died! hehehe

Final note on Cambodia for now: Every afternoon around 4pm, there's a dust strom (it's probably only a dry season thing - we're at the end of the dry season = the dryest possible time - everything is dusty and you get covered in it no matter what). We actually came to this internet place to escape the storm! The first one occured approx 10 minutes from walking through the border, we were like "OMG!!!"
Well, that's that for now! Tomorrow is looking like a pretty grim day.

Moving on to the visit of the Big Buddha and it's 1237 steps. This temple had a shite load of monkeys. Here are a few pics:

This one passed us going down by sliding on the ramp. Clever little monkey!

This, in Thai, apparently says: "Congradualtions, you are a winner, you've climbed 1237 steps and are close to enlightment". The young monks climb it every day (can you cay cardio anyone!, specially considering the weather -approx 32-34 and humid- and the fact that approx half of these steps are equivalent to 2 regular steps (super high and steep!).
This pic was taken about halfway.

The top is very worth it through, with a superb 360 view, a Big Buddha and other Buddhist artifacts. Very nice. We were there to see the sunset as well, which was quite nice!

Moving on to the day kayaking and elephant trekking. Although it cost each of us the equivalent of 2.5 days of budget money, it was very much worth it! We saw a ton of monkeys (and they were so close!, often coming on the kayaks - for bananas). We saw old ones, mothers with their babies, and as usual for most species, the young ones were the cutest.

The scenery was also breathtaking, as we paddled through mangrove trees (grow in water), beside limestone cliffs and through canyons and lagoons.

Moving on to the afternoon part, we had a blast riding elephants.
Let's begin withthe following pics, titled "Elephant rumpous", aka the proof that a 1 ton butt can be cute!

Our guide sat directly on the elephant head, but he let each one of us sit there fore a while. I though it was sooo scary (being on the head of an animal who could crush me " by accident", but Aliya loved it.

Well, I'm rushed for time, so I'll go!
Cheers!

Written on April 12...
Alright, since the internet is only 30B/hour here, I decided to soldier on and get the pics thing going, so here we go....

Let's start with a pic of Rafale and Aliya

and Rafale blowing her BDay candles...

I had "promised" pic of fruit trees, which is something I quite enjoy here, so let's begin with a mango tree


To my great surprise, they normally don't let fruit ripen on the trees here. With mangos, they sometimes do a little, by wrapping each individual fruit (a few at a time per tree) in either a plastic bag or newspaper, but they mostly harvest the fruit greena nd let it ripen some other way... I think it might be because bugs get to it rightaway if the fruits are riper...

Banana tree

Papaya tree

These three types of trees are everywhere around Ko Paghan (where I took the pics)

Alright, as usual, this gets very slow with too many pics. Let's do a "part 2"

Written on March 14…
Today was both great and shitty.
It started on a low note when I found out that I wasn’t accepted at McGill because my grades weren’t high enough (it’s true that I only have a B+ average…). Oh well, I really only wanted to go there for the name and to potentially eventually transfer into their law program. That won’t happen anymore! As I say, they really don’t want me there, so F them! A (normally very classy) friend said "F the F'in F'ers", I like it! hehehe
I’ll give my money to another institution. I just have to decide between Concordia and SFU now….I’m leaning toward Concordia, mostly for financial reasons (because I’m from Qc, tuition is half than in BC, not to mention cost of living in MTL vs Vancouver…) but if you have any comments or input, please feel free. I always like to hear different perspectives on things. My mom's BF suggested to do a degree in law in Qc, then either in english canada or they have a master's at a U in Mtl in common law....arrgghh, so many options. I'm thorn between business (which I know) and law (of which I want the lifestyle)....

Anyway

So I moved on with my day and went to visit a temple/monastery and met this great monk who “spoke English”. It all started when I saw 3 guys walking out of a building adjacent to the structure on this picture
One guy told me they had just prayed with a monk, looked at pictures, and received, and I quote, “some memobirilia”. He looked kinda stunned and amused. Right then, this monk came out and told them that he’d take their picture in front of that same structure. He told me to go in the building they had all came out of, and he went to take the guys pic. So I waited and looked at them, then I followed him into the monastery. He made me sit with him in front of the Buddha and pray while he prayed and use what liked like sort of a broom to spray some water on me (similar to how the priest does it with the holy water – but with A LOT more water! hehehe). After that he suggested to take a pic of my “praying” and them of him. The one of me just looks silly, so here is the one of him.
He then brought me to another part of the building (it’s a small building), which was clearly his living space (bed, TV, desk…) He offered me coffee or tea, had some coffee and a cigarette (didn’t expect that!) and handed me several picture albums of different people that had come to the temple, some got married there, others, most, were just visiting like me. Other albums were of him and random people in different places in Europe, where he had visited people he had met at the temple. hehehe, it was funny and totally unexpected of a monk (or at least of my idea of a monk) . He then opened a drawer and took some bright string and measured my wrist and proceeded to cut the string, cut it in his hands, bring them in prayer position and pray for at least a good minute, mostly in silence, then with words, then with the English version (!). He prayed for luck, no accidents, happiness, money, joy, and a good life. Nice! We talked a little more and he pulled out of another drawer 2 pendants or Buddha and asked me which one I wanted, I chose one and he prayed on it too then put it around me neck. The pendant itself is super cool, but the string is the same brightly coloured as the bracelet (not exactly fancy! Hehehe). Anyway, he makes those and gives them to people like me who visit. He then asked me for a donation (I totally didn’t see it coming but should of). I only had 45Bath on me (30 = 1$), so I felt bad, and his face didn’t seem too impressed, but I hadn’t brought any real money with me as I was just coming back from a beach… So anyway, he asked me to send him a picture of me, either just like that or the one he had taken in the temple (for his album I assume) and took our A BUSINESS CARD!!!! Hehehe! Something else I wasn’t expecting!!! Anyway, he’s been at this monastery for 20 years and to answer my question of what had made him become a monk, he said because it was easy! Hehehe That was an overall quite good experience and great memory.
Here are a few pics of this temple:


This Buddha is actually 300yrs old.

Later in the day I went to a herbal sauna at another monastery and that was great. It felt so healthy and serene, and it was a place actually frequented by Thais!!! (believe it or not, it’s not that easy to find here). When I was getting dressed back up (aka putting clothes over my bathing suit) a tall white guy asked me for the time. We ended up chatting very briefly and he’s from Alberta, living in Victoria, just finished University and sort of taking a break before “starting life”. Hmmmm! Sounds good to me. He’s heading up to Laos for a month, then back here in Thailand for another month, etc. Kinda like my plan (not exactly, but close enough). So stupid me, instead of trying to find out more about him (even though I’m interested!!!) I just sort of wish him luck and start taking off. He says that maybe we’ll meet again, I say “yeah” and I LEAVE!!!! Why you ask? I ask too!!! No freaking idea and now I’m beating myself up. This could easily have ended up as a travel buddy for a while (so far I’ve only hung out with people for a day or two), not to mention potential man!!!!!!!!!!!! Arrgghhhh! Stupid stupid stupid!!! Anyway, I guess “if it was meant to be” we’ll meet again….I'm not very convinced….I don’t even know his name!!! So, from the high fo the sauna to the low of the…letting the potential man of my life go (ok, I might be dramatizing a little here, but you get the point!)
So that’s that for now.

Aftet that I went to get some food at a local market and I had, for the first time, a curry as eaten by locals (they have these food stands with curries already made, people buy then and bring them home to eat or something.) I'm not kidding, I though my ears were going to start bleeding! hehehe, IT WAS SO FREAKING HOT (spicy) it's uneblievable. My mouth hurt, my head hurt, even my fingers hurt!!! I only had a few bites and had to admit defeat. hehehe, my mouth actually hurt for almost 1 hour after that (that is after having some bread and ice cream to try to make it go away!) hehehe

Final story, you remember Killer (the massive spider that was on the wall) , here's a pic of her:
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What you see at the bottom is the corner of the door. It was freaking big. So anyway, we lived with ehr for 2 full days (she really stayed still during the day, moving only at night). On the 3rd day, I walked in my room and there she was. That was it, Killer had to die! We ended up trapping her under a bowl and realeasing her outside (which is much better than trying to squish her under a show (eeeeww I'm just thingink of the juice that would have come out of her....) Anyway, all is good and peace is restored.

Sorry for the long blogs, but I won't really post again until I leave this town for another part of the island (can you say paaarrrttyy time!), so here you go, that should give you almost a week of peace and quiet from me!

To conclude, a couple pics from the beach again...just because!
Cheers!

Written on March 5....
Well, let's begin witha last one from HK: a pic of Bruce Lee's statue.

It had to be here!
Ok, now about Thailand. Bangkok is a big city (big in the sense of large and spread out, not in the sense of very developped!!) and I visited a little, but couldn't wait to come here to Ko Phagan (many spelling of this place are available, just like almost anything in Thai, I read somewhere that they spell by sound, so many spelling of same words are acceptable, as long as it sounds right! hehehe, I think it's funny!) Anyway, the island is pretty big and I'm staying with my cousin for a few weeks. Here 's her house:


And a view from her balcony. It's quite a nice house, with 2 bedrooms, and nice western toilet (I'll take a pic of the type of toilet we often get here, and believe me, western is good!).
And yes yes, the super powerful hot rod that you see underneath the house is mine for 2 weeks (rental) it's a 125cc standard motorbike (I rented it and learned to drive it a few hours ago). It's quite funa nd I can't keep myself from smiling when I'm driving it, which has already resulted in the swallowing a few dugs (one actually got caught in my front teeth, like in the movies!!! hehehe, yuk!)
So I plan on staying on this Island for approx 1 month, 2 weeks with Rafale and 2 weeks in other parts of the island, on resorts/hostels.
Here are a few pics of beach scenery:

Quite nice indeed. The water is super warm, but the beaches I've been to so far are quite shallow (like water to my kneew for several hundred meters).
The trip to get here was quite long, starting with a 10 hour bus ride, followed by a 4 hour boat ride. I took a few pics of other boats while on our boat


Other than that, life is pretty quiet here, and it seems that it's going to be that way while I'm at Rafale's. The rest of the island however is party central, populated mostly by young tourists who are here to party and roast/burn on the beaches. I'll join them at some point, but for now, I'm about to start the "tantric yoga" Rafale has been raving about (classes start tomorrow, 6 days a week, but I sing up on a day-to-day basis, so we'll see how it goes!). I look forward to it, as it's certain to be very different from anything I've ever done, and anything with the word "tantric" in it is bound to be interesting! hehehe
Ok, the site is getting very slow, so I'll start a 2nd entry for the rest of the pics...