So this is my first post. To start off I would like to thank you, my reader, in advance for expressing interest in my adventures overseas and the nonsense I get into. My epic South East Asia and Australia adventure began on the night of January 26th, and since then I have experienced and learned so much about the countries of Cambodia and Thailand.
Siem Reap was nothing short of a complete blast. After a surprisingly alright 18-hour flight, I arrived early on the 28th and set out to explore as soon as I met my roommate, Danny, at the airport lost baggage office. Because my 1-hour layover became a 20-minute layover, I nearly I nearly missed my flight and my baggage completely missed my flight. Even in this typically annoying situation, Danny and I eagerly set out to see the ruins of Siem Reap. We met our tour guide, Chun, in front of our awesome hotel called The Tara Angkor and began first at Angkor Thom. This awesome temple was inhabited by orange frock-wearing monks and also many defaced Buddha busts as a result of the country changing religion from Buddhist to Hindu-- what's king of awkward is that the country has since switched back to Buddhism. After that we checked out Ta Prohm, which was covered by crazy impressive trees that grew around the ruins and which also served as the setting for Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider. Nonetheless, Danny and I took some pretty tourist-y pictures pretending to inflitrate the ruins as Jolie did. After that we set continued on our Tuk Tuk to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was crazy big and enjoyed climbing the many steps of the temple and taking ridiculous photos. Our catchphrase of the day: ANGKOR WHAT!?! Haha
The next day we met again with Chun and set off to see the floating village of Cambodia. It was insane! The houses were built upon super high stilts to adapt to the river's constantly changing water levels. We then were invited by our tour guide to meet his family and eat lunch at his friend's house. There we were presented with huge reality shocks. First off, we witnessed a our chicken lunch be ruthlessly killed and cooked. We were very impressed by our chef's maneuvers and we were also veryt much admired for our pale skin, long noses and hairy chests. What is funny is that Americans pretty much strive to be the exact opposite... I guess everyone what they can't have. We enjoyed a few beers with the group of people and ended the day early at our hotel. I truly believe this experience was one-of-a-kind and way invaluable. I earned the nickname, "Aloy" (which translates to "handsome man" or "gangster" in Camboaidan), and even leaqrned to count to fivein Cambodian (Muy, Bi, By, Bun, Prom... thank you). It was such a blast to mingle with the locals and to discover the real Cambodia!
Day three started pretty quickly as I was jet-lagged and energetic by 5:30 am. Danny and I caught a bus to the border and got an even broader sense of the country's culture- we saw an illegal immigrant womna being chased by a man with a machete down the road and witnessed even children slipping under the dividing fences. It was so crazy and no one even really reacted on our bus! We finally got across the border and continued to trek to Bangkok. Some quick experiences of this commute: I peed in a floor toilet and got eat my first authentic Pad Thai, which is a typical noodle dish of Thailand. I bought the Pad Thai right outside my hotel on Kaosan Road or "Backbackers Street." That night, Danny and I bartered for some new clothes and later shared some drinks with these hilarious Australian girls, who told me that my first week at the University of Melbnourne will mostly consist of learning to drink like an Aussie, whether I remember it or not. Oh boy! Haha
Today, Danny and I got a late start, but managed to have a super busy day. For breakfast we couldn't resist and ended up eating McDonalds breakfast sandwiches which gave us strength for our jam-packed day in Bangkok. We hailed a Tuk Tuk and drove all over seeing the Big Buddha, a custom suit shop, Lucky Buddha, another custom suit shop, The Golden Mount Thailand, and surprisingly another custom suit shop. We first laughed at about how our driver insisted we check out the numerous suit shops, but later learned that there is an unwritten deal between Tuk Tuk drivers and the owners of these shops, where the drivers bring business in exchange for gasoline from the shop owners. It's the weirdest thing, but we later learned from our travel representative that the governement and the Thai Mafia have a similar relationship, when she had to call the Maffia to see if we could get seats to a Muay Thai match because the Mafia had bought them all. We joked about it with her, but the reality of it is crazy!! Sadly we couldn't fit in a Muay Thai match, but we did manage to book a night train and Trekking excursion for our next stop Chiang Mai. Later our driver ditched us, so we hailed a cab to see the largest reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. This was the coolest thing I have ever seen! It was enormous! And it was awesome to see the Thai locals worshiping it. We had a blast playing along by removing our shoes and pretending to pray. Later we took a ferry across the river to see Wat Arong, which was a super steep temple. We again took touristy pictures, but this time goofed around wearing the elaborate, metallic typical ceremonial Thai headdresses. We were exhausted after a busy day, but still rallied to chekc out Moon Bar, which is in downtown Thailand. Being ignorant college students, we did not realize that Moon Bar was located at a ritzy hotel and were asked to wear slacks given to us at the front desk. I squeezed into some freakishly tight size 28's and Danny was dying of laughter as he was safety-pinned into some casual size 40's. It was hilarious! And we at dinner, we enjoyed some ridiculously expensive drinks with the wealthy travelers in Thailand. It was a trip to be surrounded by familiar civilized lifestyles after staying in cheap hotels and bargaining.
The day is just winding down and I am prepping for my 3 day trip to Chiang Mai which will consist of riding elephants in the jungle, white water rafting, and hiking to beautiful waterfalls. Can't wait!
*****Check out my photos from Cambodia here*****
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043758&id=1049610199&l=703db9eba7
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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