(no subject)
Well, now i'm in cambodia, i spent three days in siem reap, a huge tourist city built just for the temples (angkor wat and others, one of which was the setting for tomb raider, to give you an idea of what they look like... though most have been cleared of vegetation and semi-restored) now i'm in battambang, which is much less touristy and a little bit less chaotic, but it's still full of guilt. or maybe that's just me. I've come to the conclusion that tourism is a very bad thing. I can't escape the dynamic of rich tourist and needy cambodian; for obvious reasons. There's so much poverty, i don't see how people can just "vacation" in this sort of place. it's like laying on the beach relaxing while someone is screaming with pain just a few meters away. it's fucked up. I think i'm going to go back to new zealand to live on a farm.
Though traveling hasn't been meritless, i've learnt a lot already, and it's only been a week. It's definitely been quite an experience so far.
I've been pretty lax about being vegan here, it's hard enough to explain vegetarian, people here don't think no meat extends to fish sauce. That's fine, but i'll be happy when i can have a bit more strict diet. So far i've accidentally bought meat twice, and once i unknowingly bit into it. I spit it out and felt sooooo guilty about wasting food i felt terrible for the next few hours. The first one i gave to a beggar, but the second one there weren't any beggars around and so just left the bag of fried meat (it looked like tofu) on a counter somewhere after trying to feed it to some adorable kittens. The animals are decidedly the best part of the alleyways. So many kittens that are so friendly. Most of them seem very well taken care of too, you see little dishes of cat food all over. Today i even saw an office of animal health, but it looked more like a primary school to me with all the kids playing soccer in the back. I stop often to pet the adorable animals, always saying to myself, fuck it, who cares about worms? and then the rabies.... well.... if i get bitten i'll go to the hospital (some tourists i ran into gave me a set of sterile needles just in case, nice, huh?).
Today I walked through some food markets a bit out of town and some little kids saw me and ran up to there parents and pointed and said something that i interpreted to be, "hey look, a white tourist person!" and they all laughed and smiled. I'm in battambang right now and there aren't too many tourists, you just see them in the hotels and a few of the western restaurants, so when you step off the main road I'm the only white or western person around. It's funny, because i didn't expect there to be so few tourists around. It's a little intimidating because i feel like i'm intruding on someone ealses life. I feel funny going into many of the restaurants because the people don't know what to do with me, and i don't know what to do with me either. As soon as you get away from the tuk tuk drivers and the hotels no one speaks english, so explaining that i'm vegetarian is a bit tricky. Once i tried to mime out "no chicken, no cow" but all i got was an embarrassed and confused waitress. Pointing at the veggies is good, but then i try to point to the meat and shake my head and they get confused. Meat is a big part of khmer food, even the buddhists eat it (which i was shocked at, i thought the buddhists were cool!). I'm still eating well enough, but the khmer fare isn't as good as i thought it would be, it's very simple and there aren't many spices. A typical meal is noodles with a green veggie, sometimes in a clear broth (i don't ask what kind of broth it is). You can add chili, sugar, and sometimes soy sauce in it, but it's still very simple.
The markets have tons of different veggies and fruits, and i wish i had my own kitchen so i could experiment with them. Today i bought some tamarinds which i always thought was a kind of bean but it's actually a sweet citrus fruit. I like carrying lychee's with me so i can give them to kids. I don't know about the whole giving food to begging children thing, sometimes i hear it's not good to encourage begging, but then again, what other options do some of these kids have? Isn't it good to help a little?
On the bus from Siem Reap (a terrible terrible place) to battambang there was an older lady with two young children (i think they were her grandchildren) that had to sit in the aisle, the older lady got incredibly sick and i gave her my seat. One of the little kids was insanely cute and when I gave him a lychee he would suck on it for a while and throw the shell and the seed on the floor, which was seen as just fine; most people just throw garbage on the floor, road, whatever.
Sitting on the floor wasn't as uncomfortable as i thought it would be, and the lady seemed to improve a lot after a while. I was quite afraid for her health because she was so insanely pale, and so thin that whenever she puked i just thought about how much she needed that food. Close to the end of the trip, some people got off the bus, so i could sit in a seat, with my muddy bum.
It's funny, but i'm actually extremely timid here. I don't have much clothing so i really need to do laundry, but i feel weird about giving someone else my dirty clothing, but you can't do laundry yourself. In my bathroom there's no sink, just one of those movable shower heads. I'm thinking about buying a bowl and some detergent so i can do it myself, but that seems a little excessive. I don't know, but all my clothes are getting very dirty, and i've only got one or two days left. How funny, but this is one of my larger problems. I like the squat toilets, and i miss toilet paper a bit, i just don't understand how you can use the hose by the toilet to wash your bum without a towel to dry it off. But it's no big deal, i just try to poo in my own bathroom, where i have a towel.
Though traveling hasn't been meritless, i've learnt a lot already, and it's only been a week. It's definitely been quite an experience so far.
I've been pretty lax about being vegan here, it's hard enough to explain vegetarian, people here don't think no meat extends to fish sauce. That's fine, but i'll be happy when i can have a bit more strict diet. So far i've accidentally bought meat twice, and once i unknowingly bit into it. I spit it out and felt sooooo guilty about wasting food i felt terrible for the next few hours. The first one i gave to a beggar, but the second one there weren't any beggars around and so just left the bag of fried meat (it looked like tofu) on a counter somewhere after trying to feed it to some adorable kittens. The animals are decidedly the best part of the alleyways. So many kittens that are so friendly. Most of them seem very well taken care of too, you see little dishes of cat food all over. Today i even saw an office of animal health, but it looked more like a primary school to me with all the kids playing soccer in the back. I stop often to pet the adorable animals, always saying to myself, fuck it, who cares about worms? and then the rabies.... well.... if i get bitten i'll go to the hospital (some tourists i ran into gave me a set of sterile needles just in case, nice, huh?).
Today I walked through some food markets a bit out of town and some little kids saw me and ran up to there parents and pointed and said something that i interpreted to be, "hey look, a white tourist person!" and they all laughed and smiled. I'm in battambang right now and there aren't too many tourists, you just see them in the hotels and a few of the western restaurants, so when you step off the main road I'm the only white or western person around. It's funny, because i didn't expect there to be so few tourists around. It's a little intimidating because i feel like i'm intruding on someone ealses life. I feel funny going into many of the restaurants because the people don't know what to do with me, and i don't know what to do with me either. As soon as you get away from the tuk tuk drivers and the hotels no one speaks english, so explaining that i'm vegetarian is a bit tricky. Once i tried to mime out "no chicken, no cow" but all i got was an embarrassed and confused waitress. Pointing at the veggies is good, but then i try to point to the meat and shake my head and they get confused. Meat is a big part of khmer food, even the buddhists eat it (which i was shocked at, i thought the buddhists were cool!). I'm still eating well enough, but the khmer fare isn't as good as i thought it would be, it's very simple and there aren't many spices. A typical meal is noodles with a green veggie, sometimes in a clear broth (i don't ask what kind of broth it is). You can add chili, sugar, and sometimes soy sauce in it, but it's still very simple.
The markets have tons of different veggies and fruits, and i wish i had my own kitchen so i could experiment with them. Today i bought some tamarinds which i always thought was a kind of bean but it's actually a sweet citrus fruit. I like carrying lychee's with me so i can give them to kids. I don't know about the whole giving food to begging children thing, sometimes i hear it's not good to encourage begging, but then again, what other options do some of these kids have? Isn't it good to help a little?
On the bus from Siem Reap (a terrible terrible place) to battambang there was an older lady with two young children (i think they were her grandchildren) that had to sit in the aisle, the older lady got incredibly sick and i gave her my seat. One of the little kids was insanely cute and when I gave him a lychee he would suck on it for a while and throw the shell and the seed on the floor, which was seen as just fine; most people just throw garbage on the floor, road, whatever.
Sitting on the floor wasn't as uncomfortable as i thought it would be, and the lady seemed to improve a lot after a while. I was quite afraid for her health because she was so insanely pale, and so thin that whenever she puked i just thought about how much she needed that food. Close to the end of the trip, some people got off the bus, so i could sit in a seat, with my muddy bum.
It's funny, but i'm actually extremely timid here. I don't have much clothing so i really need to do laundry, but i feel weird about giving someone else my dirty clothing, but you can't do laundry yourself. In my bathroom there's no sink, just one of those movable shower heads. I'm thinking about buying a bowl and some detergent so i can do it myself, but that seems a little excessive. I don't know, but all my clothes are getting very dirty, and i've only got one or two days left. How funny, but this is one of my larger problems. I like the squat toilets, and i miss toilet paper a bit, i just don't understand how you can use the hose by the toilet to wash your bum without a towel to dry it off. But it's no big deal, i just try to poo in my own bathroom, where i have a towel.