(no subject)
i wish i could write more in this journal but internet connections have been few and far between (or rather fast internet connections).
after bangkok i took the bus to cambodia. most people fly into siem riep to see ankor wat. you can have a completely 5star experience seeing the temples if you do it that way. i mean, if you shell out 190 bucks a night to stay in a 5star hotel in a country where the gdp is 400 usd.
but obviously we didn't do that. i would like to explain the conditions of the cambodian people as i saw it from my bus without sounding trite but i can't. but as soon as you cross from thailand to cambodia the people become much thinner ... and the roads go from paved to perhaps barely a road. the government is well CORRUPT of course and the road from the thai border has been under construction for years. supposedly the gov't is in cahoots with some higher ups from the bangkok airport. which seemed very believable.
i won't even attempt to describe visiting the killing fields, and the prison where the khmer rouge tortured and killed 1,000s of people, including little kids and infants. not on livejournal!
some more uplifting highlights from the trip were: obviously angkor wat; learning how to cross the street in siem reap (you just cross ... slowly ... walking into major traffic as motorkbikes swarm around you), eating a tarantula at a khmer restaurant; meeting jay's friend david, who works on a nonprofit here helping cambodian people retain land rights; taking a motorbike taxi and being sure i would die; having the lights go out a few times in siem reap, walking back to my hotel in the dark, alone, kind of lost, finding my way; and not to sound cheesy but honestly meeting and interacting with the cambodian people. they continue to deal with extreme poverty and corruption but still managed to be incredibly warm and hopeful seeeming ... now just how condescending does this livejournal seem??!?!
tonight i took a motobike (as a passenger) to the top of a mountain and watched the sunset on some hammocks. while i had a beer with some people on my tour i thought about how glad i was that i didn't try and do southeast asia entirely on my own. the travel alone part has been good but the tour has been so worth it for getting me into some really out of the way places. but i also thought i would die on that ride, an hour on a moped for 3 dollars. it was a great way to start to see the vietnamese countryside.
after bangkok i took the bus to cambodia. most people fly into siem riep to see ankor wat. you can have a completely 5star experience seeing the temples if you do it that way. i mean, if you shell out 190 bucks a night to stay in a 5star hotel in a country where the gdp is 400 usd.
but obviously we didn't do that. i would like to explain the conditions of the cambodian people as i saw it from my bus without sounding trite but i can't. but as soon as you cross from thailand to cambodia the people become much thinner ... and the roads go from paved to perhaps barely a road. the government is well CORRUPT of course and the road from the thai border has been under construction for years. supposedly the gov't is in cahoots with some higher ups from the bangkok airport. which seemed very believable.
i won't even attempt to describe visiting the killing fields, and the prison where the khmer rouge tortured and killed 1,000s of people, including little kids and infants. not on livejournal!
some more uplifting highlights from the trip were: obviously angkor wat; learning how to cross the street in siem reap (you just cross ... slowly ... walking into major traffic as motorkbikes swarm around you), eating a tarantula at a khmer restaurant; meeting jay's friend david, who works on a nonprofit here helping cambodian people retain land rights; taking a motorbike taxi and being sure i would die; having the lights go out a few times in siem reap, walking back to my hotel in the dark, alone, kind of lost, finding my way; and not to sound cheesy but honestly meeting and interacting with the cambodian people. they continue to deal with extreme poverty and corruption but still managed to be incredibly warm and hopeful seeeming ... now just how condescending does this livejournal seem??!?!
tonight i took a motobike (as a passenger) to the top of a mountain and watched the sunset on some hammocks. while i had a beer with some people on my tour i thought about how glad i was that i didn't try and do southeast asia entirely on my own. the travel alone part has been good but the tour has been so worth it for getting me into some really out of the way places. but i also thought i would die on that ride, an hour on a moped for 3 dollars. it was a great way to start to see the vietnamese countryside.