Phnom Pen and onwards.

Siam Reap was pretty bleak, despite the amazing temples of Angkor Wat. Although perhaps it was less Siam Reap and more the traveling three weeks straight that did me in. Nevertheless, I was glad to get out of there and head to Phnom Pen.

As most of you know Cambodia has a rather interesting history. (Civil war to depose the monachy resulting in a socialist lead genocide to restore the country into an agrarian state...brutally torturing and killing nearly three million out of the seven million who lived here, specifically the professionals, students and anyone who displayed knowledge or intelligence that was not about farming. Oh, and this took place between 1975-1979, so basically within all of our lifetimes.) Phnom Pen has been an excercise in understanding this history. There was the visit to the detention/torture prison S-21 and the Killing Fields to explain the history, and then there is everything else that you encounter that expands on how a country deals with such atrocity.

Today, I got a massage from a blind person. Heaps of stores sell products made by cripples and restaurants donate portions of their proceeds to local communities in need. There has been an influx in humanitarian care and sentiment since the 1980s, but it visibly competes with an aggression that to me, is still palpable. Just in the ways that the boys will play fight with each other, or the beggars confront, the way that they carry and treat their animals, or how the children who are hawking their goods will yell at you and chase you down the street because you bought something from someone else.

I'm trying to approach the situation and the people that I meet and this whole country with compassion. But it is hard, and my guest house is comfortable and it is easy to hide behind the constantly playing tv-dvd and pretend like the world with its problems has stopped for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, or paused so that the 40 Year Old Virgen can take care of that problem...

It's hard to understand the ways in which we are all so capable of what happened here. That it has happened over and over, in so many parts of the world. I'd love to think that there are men and that there are monsters. I'd love to, but I can't.

We're off tomorrow, back to Thailand. We're not sure we will be able to see the elephants, apparently they are very popular and might not be able to pencil us in. If thats the case, then to the crystal clear beaches we go, to make some more room for some more compassion for what will inevitably be a more confrontational journey to India.

much love and blind back rubs,
maya

A little bit out of order...but don det nonetheless.

I know that the bitching about Cambodia overwhelmed my last entry, but I've had some time to think-and by that I mean I have eaten, slept, taken time to be alone and stolen a hot shower from this nice american fellow, a UPenn alum to boot, that I met at the butterfly garden bar. I think that may have been the first real win of my ivy league education, "You went to Penn? No way. You say you have a hot shower back at your hotel? Can I buy you a drink?" So the shower helped with the thinking and I figured that you all might like to hear about some of the more pleasant parts of my journey that I have left out due to frustration and the like.

Before we left for our arduous journey to Cambodia we were staying in southern Laos, amongst the 4,000 islands on a specific island called Don Det. A much more relaxed version of an already relaxed country, Don Det was pleasant to say the least. Palm trees, bungalows, hammocks and sand bars off the Mekong River. Waitresses that couldn't be bothered to stand and take your order, would just pull up a chair and chat awhile.

We pulled into Mr. B's Sunset Bungalows with, believe it or not, an amazing view of the sunset each night. Mr. B was famous for his "Happy" shakes, which were filled with a tranquilizing green substance that most of you can devise without further incrimination. We stayed away from the "Happy" menu, but were glad to see that Mr. B had not, making the accomodations an even funnier place to be.

The first night there we met Carl (Brit), Charlotte (French) and Sourie (Japanese). Carl made fun of my American accent and commiserated with Caitlin over a beer, Charlotte intoxicated us all with her french accent and the way that she would make the most lovely farting noises with her mouth, the french really can make anything attractive. And Sourie, well she enlightened us in the ways of Japanese culture, where "the customer is not always right," but rather "the customer is god."

The next morning we woke up to go on a trip to see the famous dolphins and waterfalls of the Mekong. Upon arrival I met my Canadian match. A retort for every sarcastic comment, a comment for every retort. Michael and I bantered for about 5 hours straight and it was brilliant. He said I reminded him of his friends from Jew York City, I was happy to spend time with someone who knew to refer to it as such.

The dolphins were a wash. They dropped us off on a small rock in the middle of the Mekong where we squashed between an empty bottle of booze and what could have only been human feces. We saw some dark specs in the distance decided they were fins and oo'd and aaa'd like morons. Happy to leave dump island we went off to the waterfalls, which were lined with vendors of dead things: fish, frogs, etc. I was busy rubbernecking, when I walked head first into a birdcage, which of course poured all of its lovely fluids over my head. Now, you can't do THAT on television, can you Alister... (how much did that reference date me...sorry to my younger people, it had to be made.)

When I got back I took a dip in the Mekong river, to wash off the bird. I don't know how much logic there was to this choice. Really, could the Mekong be that much cleaner than a birdcage? It felt good nonetheless. Caitlin and I got hit on by some bizarre German men, who I think that Don Det was on the set of MTV Spring Break. They were mostly trite and annoying, but I was only intrigued by one of them who had an anenglish accent that kept flipping between low class British (coughney??sp??) and American midwest. It was mezmerizing, like a freak show. He also had hands the size of boxing gloves, which have lent themselves to endless hours of cartoon imagnings of walking aroumd, living life as a normal size guy with boxing gloves for hand. That might not translate outside of my head, but inside it sure is funny.

Anyways, Caitlin decided that we were to have a farewell Laos party, because it was our last night and we invited all of our new friends, minus the Germans and plus some others I have not mentioned. We decided the best way to celebrate was with some Pina CoLAoLao's, which was a pina colada with Lao Lao as the alcohol. (lao lao is a rice wine, that I believe is 50% alcohol, or some insane percentage that is supposed to make you go blind....mmmm....yummy)

We played many games and got rather roughty. I'm pretty sure we were well hated by all other patrons by the end of the night. I stumbled over to Michael''s bungalow to see the pictures he had promised me of his adventures with a Buddhist family in Thailand. They had promised to take him to a place to see the "blind"people cooking. Michael had realized that something had been lost in the translation when they took him to the back of a restaurant and opened a door to unveil heaps of dead human bodies hung from hoooks, and laid out under glass cases. Michael, clearly in shock, was screaming "this is what you do with your blind people? I thought you were Buddhists??" was even more in shock when one of them walked over to the skin of a face, pulled off a bit and ate it. apparently, it was all bread. an artist, whose medium is bread and whose interest is...sick. blind people, bread people. an easy confusion I guess.

The pictures were gruesome, and if I wasn't nauseaus enough from the many shots of lao lao, those certainly did the deed. We woke up a couple hours later, Caitlin wildly hung over and lumbered on to Cambodia. Many times over the next 24 hours of traveling, and yelling and vomiting, I thought: maybe we should've stayed in Don Det...sarcastic jews, hammocks and lao lao...it just doesnt get better than that.

Cambodia is doing my head in.

Just when I thought we had had the worst journey, the hits just keep on coming. a boat to a tuk tuk to a van to a three hour delay where all of our visa money was lost, to a van, to a boat to a van which broke down to another van after an hour long wait to an unexpected stop with loads of fighting to sleeping in the stopped van cause the driver didnt feel like driving anymore to a bus. did I mention that I got a little bit too much of the mekong in my kong. Yeah I was vomiting the whole way.

I can't say I've fully recovered. Although Angor Wat is beautiful and this sure is an interesting country with a heartbreaking and inspiring history, I just don't feel up to dealing with a tourist scene that is less than ten years old.

We spent this morning in the landmine museum and it put my emotional and physical aching in check.

I'll write more later, I promise. For now I just needed to vent.

Much love and Cambodian humidity,
Maya

why is it that the capital feels the most third world?

(Picture: I was loopy even before the night bus...)

We took a night bus from Luang Prabang to the capital of Laos, Vientienne. I knew when they started to pass out plastic vomit bags to everyone that I was in trouble. The ride was long, slow, freezing and filled with, you guess it: vomit. I've never been closer to homicidal. When we finally arrived at 5 in the morning, our tuk tuk driver tried to switch our previously agreed upon price and I was glad that many english insults did not translate, because I was not a happy camper. Sarah had been sick on the bus and the sickness stayed with her all day long, so we decided to spend the day and night in Vientienne instead of taking another night bus (which I think was a huge blessing in disguise).

We met an Australian girl named Georgie first thing in the morning and quickly decided to be good friends and come visit each other in our respective countries in the semi near future...semi near meaning any time in the future.

We walked around all day, avoiding open sewer holes, and all the parts in the street where the street should've been, but simply just wasn't...I'll avoid the complaints but this has not been the nicest place to visit. The company was excellent and we actually ran into Stu and Lu our friends from Nong Khio, but otherwise its hard to believe but I will be happy to get on another night bus tonight and journey onwards to Si Phon Don to see the pink dolphins and swing in hammocks and bicycle from sand bar to sand bar.

timing really is everything...

Our last day in Luang Prabang and Caitlin, Sarah and I decided to go take a peek at some of their temples. Little did we know that the monks were having an exam in English the next day and wanted to practice with some `pretty` girls. I wish that I was creative enough to have predicted that I would be spending an entire morning in monk dormitory rooms inside of beuatuiful temples, translating crap euro trash music onto paper in English so that we could all sing love songs together. You just can't make this stuff up. Other than the good fun singing, and the many attempts they made to rub off all of my tattoos, we did learn quite a bit about their lifestyle, work and beliefs. Not a bad morning if you ask me.

A little bit of fear never killed anyone...

Day 9, we went exploring this wonderfully epic and yet sleepy town on Nong Khio. We went on a small self guided hike along the river and found a small beach to lounge and eat some lunch. After we met up with our new friends stu and lu to walk over to the caves that the Laotians used to hide out in during the bombings of the Vietnam war. Apparently, Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world, or some such outrageous figure. Thirty years later and this country is still quiet and friendly and soooo laid back that I keep returning to the thought of how American troops could have landed here and thought that bombing this place and killing these people made any sort of sense?
I geeked out in the caves for awhile and followed these ten year old boys down pitch black windy passages that kept going down and down and down. ignoring my fear of darkness, bats, and just the general uknown, i genuinely enjoyed it!

The next day (10), we went on another unguided hike, much much further this time all the way out to a village. Because we were told that if you just pass through these villages they may think you are a ghost we decided to stay for awhile. Our friend Golan had given us balloons for an occasion just like this and they were quite a hit. We blew up about 15 of them and handed them out to the children and played catch with them for about half an hour. After which we journeyed back down to the water and tried to walk back a new way...not the best idea. Well, I guess an okay idea if you were out for an adventure.
We figured if we just walked north we would hit the trail and then be able to follow it back east. Only, things dont always work out that way when you are lost in the laotian forest. After scaling 18 foot walls and sliding back down them on our bums, forging across streams, and bushwhacking through heaps of brambles we decided it best to just head back to the village and retrace our steps. Which would have been fine if the sun weren't on its way to bed. It was a mad dash I'll tell you. Thanks to adrenaline and again my friend fear, we made an hour and a half trek into a twenty minute sprint. Caitlin was covered in mud by the end and truly looked like a refugee. (Jason you would've been proud)

Day 11 was spent on a slow boat from Nong Khio to Luang Prabang. The scenery was beautiful but the company was a little less than par. I learned a phrase from my new Scottish friend Stu, "They were right up on my teets." I learned the meaning of this phrase while on this boat trip. Alas, you can't get along with everyone...The night market here is phenomenal and it is increasingly dificult to not by heaps of stuff...Otherwise, I've had a little bit of a cold and been laying relatively low.

Today (Day 12 ) we went to the Scandinavian bakery that our Israeli mate Chani recommended. The goods were delicious and all but I was mostly impressed by the bbc on tv and the flushing toilet, ahhh creature comforts...We met up with Rachel and Austin from Ireland and took a tuk tuk to the Kuang Si Waterfalls. They taught me all about Ireland and the origination and present state of the conlflict there and we hiked up to the top of the waterfalls which were beautiful and then got to watch as they fed this amazing tiger. We were so mesmerized by the tiger that we hung on after everyone else had left, which apparently was a good choice because the tiger's caretaker helped us to pet her!! I pet a freakin tiger! Again, I was terrified but I did it and it was awesome.
We then got to feed some really cute bears that looked oddly enough like mickey mouse that the whole thing became real surreal. And then Caitlin got stung by a wasp and I fixed it with reiki, my second official miracle. yeah for miracles. miracles and tigers!
thats all for now, trying to meet some elephants. really really want to meet some elephants.

Days 4-8

We spent the rest of day 3 swapping war stories with our new Australian friend Danny. We learned how to dance Laotian style and played some incredibly funny games of gin rummy.

(Day 4) we rode on the dirtiest, dustiest, bumpiest rode for 8 hours to Luang Nam Tha. I literally formed bruises on my bum, but it was worth it becuase it was the local villagers bus and we got to stop all along the way and experience Laos, as the Laotians do. Nevertheless, we were very relieved to get off and I went straight to bed at about 8pm (to Caitlin's great dismay).

(Day 5-6)
In the morning we ran into a stroke of serendipity and filled the last three spots on a 2 day trek through the mountains leaving that day. We met our co trekkers, 4 israelis and a chinese woman-who to our great joy, were HILARIOUS. The company and the scenery were the only things that made the grueling up hills and obstacle course of a hike endurable. We stayed at a number of villages and spent the night with the chief of one, asking loads of questrions about their way of life. The next day we hiked to the Lan tin village where I fell in love with their fashion and they fell in love with my money. Together we tried to squeeze me into about 3 different costumes of which my western build was none to accomodating. Finally we found the largest one in the village which i purchased for quite a penny (nothing compared to US prices, but out here it was quite a lot).

After a long shower we all met up in town for one last group dinner before we all went off on our seperate ways. Maybe it was the fact that we had eaten so much village food, or that we had hiked such hard terrain-but that Indian food in Laos was some of the best eats I've ever had.

(Day 7)
In the morning, to my great surprise I was able to wake up at 6 am with Caitlin and Sarah and two of the Israeli fellows to watch them set up the market. Villagers travel from all over the moutains every day to sell their goods in these markets and it was quite a sight to see what their goods consisted of: fried rat, frogs, maggots, all animals, all fruits, all veggies, heaps of peppers. Every where I looked there weree brilliant colors and interesting smells. well except for the rats...

We took a tuk tuk with Chani and Raz (Israelis) to Muang Sing, which was a smaller town with a bigger market. Unfortunately we missed the market and were only able to walk around for a bit and get harassed by this tribe of women selling all sorts of goods as wellas opium. We decided to take a tuk tuk back early (and by tuk tuk I mean an open air truck that is supposed to sit 10 but almost always is squeezed in with 20!) We watched curoiusly as this family of villagers next to us in the tuk tuk fiddled with plastic bags and oranges that they kept smelling. We put it together as soon as the vomiting began. and boy oh boy did the vomiting continue, practically the whole 2 hour journey.

(Day 8)
We spent today again in transit, on a bus, for another 8 hours. But when we arrive in Nong Khio it was epic. They have a themse song here, it's Europes the final countdown. It's literally nesteled in the mountains right on this river with all of these beautiful villages and thatch huts and we simply don't want to leave.

In other news, I've decided to cut Vietnam and Nepal out of my travel plans. My instincts are screaming for India, so Im going to head there a month early and try and volunteer and live somewhere for a ltittle while. Agiain, if anyone is interested in meeting me...

A voodoo priest once told me...

That my journey wouldn't truly begin till the fourth day. That the first day would be spent saying "What have I just done?!" (now I"m paraphrasing here...) thinking of all the things to come, the second day would be lost to "What have I just left?," getting caught in homesickness, a lack of toilets and other such ameneties once seen as basic. The third day all that would be left to ask was, "really? really?" as I can begin to settle in to the choice that I have made to shed my skins and my old life in exchange for this crazy new one. The fourth day my journey could begin.

He was dead on. It's day three now and I have gone through my day of confusion, and then my day of homesickness and things are now beginning to settle in to a reality. A fantastical reality but a reality nonetheless.

We spent the first day and a half in bangkok which did not suit me terribly well. It's smoggy and dirty and smelly and none of it was in that charming kind of way. We broke free as quickly as we could, getting scammed all the live long way, on to what was supposed to be a 10 hour luxury bus ride-with a bathroom, which to me was a deal breaker. Clearly none of these things were true and we spent way too much time and money on a bus that was far from luxurious and definetly without a bathroom.

We made it to the Thailan-Laos border early this morning where we caught a ride on a boat across the small river border. As soon as we stepped off it was like a million cliches come to life. We could breathe easier, there was a giant load off our backs, we could smile again, we were happy to be alive, and many more cheesy things that makes Laos my new home!

We did however arrive to late to make it to a connecting bus out of this small border town and have spent the day lounging around, chatting with monks and australians, soaking in the sun and catching up on sleep. I certainly can't complain.

Tomorrow we are off again to Luang Nam Tha to do some eco-trekking in the mountains, which I am rather excited by.

I have pictures that I would love to download but this computer is way too slow, so they'll have to wait. I also want to write to all of you have written me, but again it will have to wait till there is more than one internet spot in th whole town!

Dad you were right, there are Israelis everywhere, and it does make me feel more at home...

I miss you all and will email as soon as I can, till then happy trails wherever you are.

I have arrived...

eyes bloodshot, teeth fuzzy and just a general stink accompanied me, but about 24 hours of travel later I have arrived in Bangkok. I found my single service flight club friend, so the plane ride was none too lonesome. And even here in South East Asia, I find myself surrounded by Israeli's so its like nothing much has changed.

There hasn't been much in the way of adventures yet, just wanted to let you all know that I made it. It wasn't all hype. Now let's see how long I last!

why must the journey begin with a 20 hour plane ride....

Happy New Year everone!

here's hoping I can sleep the whole way....although that would be more like a coma.