Hello Everybody!
When I left off, I was about about to see a soccer game in Bangkok… I’ll continue from there! The soccer game was a blast! It rained the whole time and I left the stadium drenched to the bone, but my seat was fantastic! Australia beat Thailand 4-0 which was a little sad for all the Thailanders around me, but I was close to Thailands goal in the second half and got to see 3 of the 4 goals in great closeup detail. What a rush!
The next morning I left for Cambodia, on what would turn out to be the ride from hell. The companies working the transportation did everything in their power to take the passengers money, often outright lieing about various things. I’m sad I fell for some of it, but its hard not to when you don’t know anything about the country you are entering! The trip lasted about 5 hours longer than it was supposed to as well, making it difficult to not stay at the hotel they tried to force on us. All in all, I left my hotel at 7:30am and arrived in Siem Riep, Cambodia, at 11:40 PM… ouch. The road between Poipet, the Cambodian border town, and Siem Riep, the Ankor town is literally the worst major road in the world. The pictures I took hardly did it justice. I think I’ll do better describing it in person. So anyways, lessons learned here: Get yourself to Cambodia. Don’t charter with a travel company.
Cambodia itself was fantastic! The ruins are countless, and all amazing. I watched every sunset, and forced myself awake for 2 of my 3 sunrises because they were just tooo good to miss! The hard thing to see was the effect of all this tourism on the people. Outside of every temple is an army of children trying t sell you the same stack of things you don’t want, and everytime you say no it almost seems like they take it personally. I learned that the kids only go to school 4 hours a day, in shifts, so there are always children to sell things at the ruins. The older merchants aren’t any better. The drivers everywhere harass you nonstop about rides, the women yell and fight over the right to sell you a bottle of water, and it all adds u to one big headache. The only way to overcome it really is to block it all out. Its a shame, but the ruins made it worth it. One thing I really enjoyed was hiring a driver for the day. At about 8 dollars for a whole day, my driver zipped me about on the back of his motorcycle to anywhere my heart desired. He knew all the ruins and planned out oy itinerary perfectly. Afer the second day though, I ended up sharing a motorcyle dranw carriage (seriously) with 2 people I had met at the border and continued to meet throughout the first and second day, until we decided to join forces. In summary, the detail of the ruins was spectacular, the scale immense, and the heat harsh. My pictures will do the place a lot more justice I assure you.
A few other activities caught my eye as well: The floating village of Tonle Sap was quite interesting… Everything you can imagine, floating on the water. Fish farms, schools, houses, bars, churches, stores, resteraunts, and even a pool hall were to be found floating in that river town. It was fascinating to see that, even out on a river with no electricity, every house had a TV (run on a car battery). In Siem Riep proper, I joined my two companions in giving blood at a children’s hospital. They were very happy about foreigners coming in to donate, and it was perfectly sanitary and acceptable (so don’t worry)!
I left Saturday morning, and annoyed my hotel to pieces by refusing the return bus trip (they were one of the organizers of it). Instead, I booked a car with a friend of the motorcycle carriage driver belonging to my two companions. For $25, he drove me to the Cambodian border in 3 hours. Compare that to the 9.5 hours it took the bus from the Cambodian border (that cost about $15-18ish), and you can see how I learned that sometimes spending a little bit more goes quite a long way. In Thailand, I booked a bus to Bangkok hoping to make the Vietnam vs Iraq soccer game (Not a game you’d see held in the U.S.A. I suspect), but the bus I booked had a few problems. It wasn’t an express bus, and somehow my backpack got placed on the wrong bus. Uh-oh. I ended up waiting at the busstation for another 2 hours until my bag showed up, and I had missed the soccer game. Considering my situation, I made a quick decision, and hopped on a VIP bus to Chiang Mai. VIP busses are great, they are hugely comfortable, include pillows an blankets and seats that recline extensively. So rather than staying in Bangkok for a few days, I found myself arriving in one of Thailand’s northernmost towns at 5am. Phew. I think I’m going to settle down for a few days…
In fact, I have a mighty plan. There’s an Elephant sanctuary about 2 hours away. Not only do they harbour and care for abused elephants, they offer free veterinary care to all Elephants, give tours and educate tourists, enrich the elephants with things like music and painting (I may have mentioned my desire to see this place in person before), among other activities. Well, I learned a bit more about them and I think I’m going to spend the rest of my time and money there. They offer a ‘mahout training program,’ which is in essence a sampling of what it is like to be an elephant mahout, or trainer. He is the guy who lives with and cares for the elephant from birth. So, for as many days as you like, they will teach you how to talk with elephants, ride them bareback, lead them around, bathe them, play with them, and everything else involved in the captive elephant life. I’m thinking of going and experiencing this for 9 or 10 days. Its expensive, enough so that it will burn through the rest of my money, but I’ve thought a while about it, and I don’t mind trading a few weeks travel for this experience. It’s going to be worth it!
So I may be coming back rather soon, in less than 3 weeks probably, but I don’t mind one bit. I’ve done so much and seen so much in the past 2 months, it’s been incredible! I’m very excited about this intimate elephant experience, perhaps it will be the inspiration I need for the future? We’ll see!