A Day In Busan

Being in Korea is so different from being in many of the other Asian countries. For example, and most importantly, there is toilet paper in the public restrooms. And there ARE public restrooms! Wow! In fact, I know I talk a lot about toilets but Korea has had THE BEST toilets in all of my travels so far. They have things to wash you, front and back, heated toilet seats, rear end dryers AND automatic toilet seat lifters (for both up and down, one seat or two. This would make a great present for many of our male significant others, I think!)

Super Fun Toilet

Also, everything is more expensive. Aside from Singapore, Korea is the most expensive Asian country we have been in so far. However, having said that, things ARE run very efficiently here! The bus is fast and comfortable and there are no goats or chickens on board with me!

The third and most difficult thing is that they really don’t speak English. As always, hand gestures and facial cues really can get  you far, but sometimes you feel like you are missing out or doing things the hard way since you can’t always ask directions.

Yesterday we traveled by aforementioned bus from Seoul to Busan. Busan is in the very south of the country, and Seoul is in the very north. However, South Korea is not so big, and the ride only took about 4 hours. Busan is a very heavily trafficked fishing port, and I have to admit, I heard it was a fishing village and I pictured a tiny town with stone houses, cobblestone streets, little boats and wrinkled old Korean fishermen wearing cute hats. I was wrong. It is a HUGE port, with big harbor full of freighters. Also, apparently many Russian and Filipino sailors, as we found out last night when we took a walk and found both Russian Karaoke Bar and a Filipino Karaoke Bar.

Today we went to the fish market. There were all kinds of fish, octopus, squid, crabs and more! It was packed with stalls full of frozen, dried, fresh and LIVE animals and was a sight to behold. I saw an octopus escape it’s bucket and get away and when I pointed it out to the lady, she just laughed.

Octopus!

Another great highlight of the day was that we found a new shellfish. I don’t know the name but it is the strangest looking thing. It is red with little bumps -- it almost looks like a tuber. I can’t explain it. We were sitting near a vendor, watching him shuck them, and he let us try one, straight from the shell, raw and salty. And it was good! Then he gave us a shot each of Souju (Korean spirit) and even let us take a photo with him. We offered him some money but he just laughed at us and sent us on our way.

strange new shellfish

So, all in all, a great day in Busan! Hopefully tomorrow we will find even more new things to see and meet many different people who we can’t talk to but with who we still can find a common ground!

Have you ever had to use finger pointing and grunting to get what you wanted in a foreign country (or maybe even your own?)

NOTE: Today kicks off the first day of the A - Z Blogfest. You can read more about it in the link, but the basics are that we have to blog every day in April except Sundays, which will make 26 days. This is the same amount as letters in the alphabet and so each blog (in order) will have a letter theme.

Today is Day 1. A is for A Day.

Korea on Korea

As you may or may not know, some people call me "Korea". So, here I am -- Korea in Korea.

How is it, you are wondering? Well, it's great. The weather is a little bit colder than it was in Bali. Here is a photo of me last week vs. me this week.

Today we went to the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) which is a 2 km (average) section between North and South Korea. After the war, when each side released their prisoners, they sent them over the Freedom bridge. Also, afterward, the North Koreans tried to dig tunnels under the zone in order to attack the south. The Southerners have found several tunnels and we got to go inside one of them. We were not allowed to take photos of the tunnels, but here is one of the Freedom Bridge. 

Freedom Bridge

There is a lot of interesting history to be found. I am sure you probably know this already, but Korea was occupied by the Japanese up until 1945. After this, they were struggling with their identity. Some people, who were backed by the Soviet Union, were in favor of communism. Others wanted Democracy. The two sides split and war broke out in 1950.

So today we went to see where a lot of the fighting took place. It was a barren landscape. There were soldiers everywhere. We even saw some US Army and UN folks. It was a little bit weird, being so non-nonchalant in a place where there had been such strife in the past. I felt a little strange about it.

Our guide, who was obviously from S. Korea, kept talking about how the N. Koreans are cannibals, as well as horrible people and terrorists. I wonder what the story is from the other side.

Have you ever been to a previous war zone? How did you feel about it? Did you relate more to one side than the other?

Top Tens and Beer

First, here are a few Top Ten Lists that I have written that you may enjoy. These are all travel related.

You can also find these and other info on my Travel Tips page.

Top 10 Essentials For Your Pack
10 Things You Will Be Glad You Lugged Around
10 Things You Want to Do Before Kicking The Bucket
10 Weird Things We Saw Abroad
10 Reasons Nepal Is Better Than India: A Guest Post

Also, althought Kim hasn't posted her linky already, she is the host of: Grab a Beer and Look What I Did Last Week. So, pull up a chair, grab a beer and tell me: How was your week? (PS even if I don't get a chance to formally link up with Kim, I am here! I have a beer in hand and am waiting to hear what you did this weekend!)

- My week, as I think I also mentioned here, was very relaxing. I spent the week in Bali, scuba diving, getting ripped off, snorkling and relaxing.

I have a couple of things to say about that.

(1) I love diving. I am going to write a whole post about where you should go if you do want to dive, because there are cheap places, expensive ones, ones with clear water, ones where you are basically swimming in dirt. Okay, well -- enough. I will save it for a future post. However, Bali is an A-OK in my book. Even the snorkling was great!

(2) It was HOT. I mean HOT. 90+ degrees the entire time with no wind and a humidity of, oh, I don't know, maybe 97%. So, if you do go, maybe don't go when it is summer time. Or spring time. Or Fall. I don't know. Or just be ready to sweat your ass off, becuase there is no AC and it is hot!

- Other than that, we had a long ass (sorry about all the A words, g-ma!!!) flight from Bali to Seoul. Actually the flight itself was not long but the entire journey was a pain in the -- (here I go again). We were supposed to take a shuttle at 4:30 (the last one to the airport) which didn't leave until 6:30, so we sat in the car (in the aformentioned heat) waiting to leave for two hours. Then we got to the airport around 8 and our flight was not until...get this...

3:30 am.

So we couldn't check in until midnight, so we sat OUTSIDE the airport waiting for check in. Finally we checked in, then sat INSIDE the airport waiting for the flight to board. So. Finally we got to Korea and then it is Immigration and another bus into the city, which was an additional hour and a half. So from city to city with all the buses, it was 20 hours. Not the worst ever, and LUCKILY only a one hour time difference, but I am pretty cracky today, let me tell you!

One good thing (I know, you guys are going to laugh) is that it is 40 degrees in Korea (as opposed to a bajillion degrees in Bali). I put on pants. I never thought I would be happy about that. Also, we are back (still?) in the land of items on sticks. Hurrah!!! Today I had four sausages and a weird rolled up rice ball of fried fish tasting stuff on a stick! Sweet!

So, I hope you all had a great week and weekend! I know my family got snow at their house in Northern California! Is March going out like a lamb for you?

Random Shmandom

- AubrieAnne over at Who's Your Editor featured me on her Weekend Wonder series! Go over to her site and check it out if you get a chance!

- I got an email from a coworker the other day saying:

Kyria,
 
You guys still in Asia?  From your blog, you must be near a library somewhere. 
 
ST

Geez, is it THAT bad!?? I guess I HAVE been talking a lot about books lately. The reason is this -- we have been mostly in places where we have been doing some relaxing and reading and not as much sightseeing. I know, it's boring. So I haven't really had anything "interesting" to say. So I apologize! Gosh, ST always keeps me on point! Thanks ST!

- And YES, we are still in Asia. In fact, we are in the airport flying from Bali to Seoul as we speak. I decided to put a new widget on my sidebar telling where I am, so even if I am talking about books, you (ST) can figure out where I am when I am not saying it! Actually to be honest,  I must not be communicating very well at all, because I sent my Mom an email today saying, "we are heading to Seoul" and she said, "Seoul? Korea?" I mean, oops, did I not tell her I was going there? I guess not. Huh. 

- This kid I went to school with, who was um, maybe 4 years younger than me, is getting married this weekend. Man it really makes you feel old when the "kids" you went to school with are getting married. He's just a boy! How did this happen? They are really getting married young these days, I guess. 

- In Bali they put each of their chickens and roosters in a separate wicker cage each night. 

- Yesterday I saw three chicks. One was dyed yellow; one was pink and one was green. What is that all about? 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Dollars and Sense

source

Have you ever felt like you were being hosed? Cheated? Duped?

I have.

In fact, when traveling, you often feel ripped off, especially in poorer countries. But usually, no offense to any particular sort, but it is the locals who rip you off. Well, the day before yesterday we went diving. It was great! Beforehand we had spoken with an English lady who ran the shop and she assured us that the dive would be a certain price (in US dollars) minus ten percent, since we were two people.

So we dive, we get done and then I go up to pay. Well, first of all, let me tell you a little background. Right now, the Indonesian Rupiah is 8500 to 1 USD. So, our day of diving was supposed to be 85 dollars, which would be 722,500 rupiah. Well, I give her my credit card and not only were we charged an extra 3 percent to use the card, but we were charged at an exchange rate of 9200 rupiah which equals 782,000, which is ACTUALLY (in bank terms) 92 dollars. So, I KNOW this is only a difference of SEVEN dollars. You say, why bother with 7 dollars, but she knowingly duped me! And I trusted her. That bitch.

So later in the day, I went to get money out of the ATM. There is only one in the town we are in. My ATM card is a Visa/Cirrus card. We get in line for the ATM and the guard comes up to us and says, "what kind of card do you have?" and I said, "don't worry about it!". He insisted on knowing. I told him, "it's a visa". He said, "this machine doesn't take visa, only MasterCard." I said, "okay thanks, but I am going to try it anyway" (as there was a cirrus logo right on the ATM machine).

So I go into the little box. It's one of those personal ATMs where there is an airconditioned box to go into to use the ATM and only one person can go at a time. I am in the middle of using my card and he opens the door and says, "is it working?" I said, "can you please close the door?" He leaves, then comes back as my money is coming out of the machine. He says, "did it work?" I say, "yes". He says, and I am serious about this -- "How much money did you get out?"

Are you serious? Get out of my face! First of all, he tells me it won't work, and it DOES! Second he gets all up in my grill, third he has the balls to ask me how much money I got out! I couldn't believe it. I said, "get out, PLEASE."

He finally did and I left the ATM, the whole time looking over my shoulder to make sure he was not following me!

So yesterday was a strange day for monetary transactions.

What I Love About Thailand

Thailand has so many things going for it! Here are a few: 

T-shirts like these (it says "horror movie")

Cheap clothes like these (5 dollars)

Coconut shakes - naturally!

Beaches like these!

Sweet chili sauce (and hearts!)

Pad Thai -- of course!

An alternative to Tabasco -- THAIbasco!

So much street food! Yummmmmmy!

One of Those Days

When I was in High School and I had had a bad day (probably something like so-and-so didn't reply to my note that I passed across the room, or my brother picked up the other phone line when I was on it with my friend and said something stupid) I would go to my room and put on my favorite CD, probably Pearl Jam or Guns 'n' Roses, and turn it up as loud as it would go and just rock out.

It made me feel better somehow. To just let the music be loud. To clear my mind with other people's words. I would just sit there, sometimes singing along, sometimes nodding my head to the music, sometimes doing nothing. It was my therapy.

And it still is.  These days I normally take it out on some cookie batter or something -- you know, two birds and all that. I end up happy and I have a batch of chocolate chip cookies to show for it.

Yesterday was one of those days. When you feel like you have no control. When you wonder where your life is going. When you miss your friends and family. When you miss routine. And I couldn't even go to my room and blast my music. And I definitely couldn't make cookies. I couldn't be alone. I don't have a room or a kitchen or any space to myself. Maybe I should crawl into my backpack and hide.

It really got to me. How am I supposed to vent? The only person around was Mr. Lovely and not only has he probably heard enough already, but what I need is to be alone with my thoughts (and Eddie Vedder) in order to purge the bad ones.

So I did the only thing I could. My only option, since we were on an 8 hour bus ride, was to rock out with my iPod while staring out the window and PRETENDING that I was alone. It kind of worked. Not as good as the dancing around the room to loud music while baking cookies method, but it's better than nothing.

So now I feel better.

In case you are wondering, I put my iPod on random and here are a few that came out of it.

- The Sweetest Thing - Gwen Stefani (not my favorite song but VERY upbeat!)
- Let Me Sleep - Pearl Jam (flashback!)
- Natural Blues - Moby
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndie Lauper (don't they though!?)
- Thunderstruck - ACDC (okay I guess my iPod is playing all the older music first?)
and....last but definitely NOT least...

Misery Loves Company - Metallica

All I can say is. AIN'T IT THE TRUTH!!! Does anybody want to hang out?

Street Food Love

pad thai man a photo by kyria! on Flickr.

I love street food. From this guy, you can get an order of street Pad Thai for about One Dollar. He also has spring rolls and best of all, meats on sticks (50 cents each).

Thank goodness for the Pad Thai Guy.

Make Way For Buffalo

make way for buffalo
Originally uploaded by kyria!

I love this picture with the water buffalo and the lady herding them on her bike. It's too bad it was overcast pretty much the entire time we were there so this photo is a little grainy and dark, but I still like it!

Ninh Binh, Vietnam -- near the Mua Caves -- Feb 2011

Two Pees in a Pod: Part II

Disclaimer: If you do not like potty talk, you should avert your eyes.

On my travels I have used the toilet in a lot of strange places. Each place has it’s own toilet system, flush system and wiping system. I am here to let you know, because I am sure you have been wondering: How do these systems work?

Let’s start with a basic one, the western toilet with a flush. If you are lucky, you may get one of these. However, in most countries, I would say pretty much all, you are not supposed to flush the toilet paper in the toilet. So, that is the most simple toilet system that is different from ours. However, you may not be able to find the flush, as sometimes it is a push down, sometimes it is a pull up, sometimes on top of the tank, sometimes on the side, sometimes a chain you have to pull down, and sometimes a pedal you push with your foot. These can be found throughout the world in nicer establishments.

Let the fun continue.

Thailand/Laos/Cambodia:

bucket and sprayer set up

- Mostly these are western but sometimes they are squat toilets. Generally there is no toilet paper given and if you wonder why, it’s because they don’t always use it. Next to the toilet you will usually find a sprayer, like the kind you have on your kitchen sink to wash it down with. You use that to spray whatever parts you may need to spray. To be honest, after a “number 1”, this is not a bad way to go if you don’t mind being a tad damp afterwards. I am not sure I am ready to use this system for anything more serious than a number 1 though.

- Many toilets in these countries do not have a typical flush system. Instead they have a bucket. One is big and full of water. The other is small and sometimes has a little handle. You use the little bucket to scoop water out of the big bucket and then you throw the pail-full of water into the toilet. This works fine for numero uno, but sometimes with it‘s big bad cousin you have to keep pouring bucket after bucket after bucket…

India:

Generally in India, they have squat toilets. Sometimes they have flushes, but usually they have a bucket system like Thailand. What I learned in India was how to wipe using this system. Basically after doing your business, you use the small bucket. You fill it up and splash your nether regions with water, using your hand (the left one -- always!) to wipe yourself. Yup. Your hand. Then you use the bucket to “wash” your hand. And this folks is why Indians (and Arabs) only eat (and shake hands) with their right hand.

By the way, I always carry toilet paper. And I probably freaked out many Indians by eating with both hands!!

China:

China varies…a lot. In one case, the toilets were just 4 holes in the ground next to each other. I also experienced a trough system, where all the stalls have a connecting trough where you leave your contributions. This would not be too bad except that it doesn’t have a slant, so whatever you contribute just stays where it is.

The funniest is the western toilets that have been stood upon. Used to squat toilets, some people actually climb up on the western toilet and squat on the lid in order to use the bathroom. You can tell by the footprints on the toilet lid.

The best toilet EVER was a massaging, heated toilet that squirts air, water or deodorant right in your rear. Its like a toy. It has all these buttons; you just can’t help but push them. I mean…HEATED SEAT?!!!

I am sure there will be many more strange toilets in my future. I have to talk about it because it is just such a main part of everyday life. Every day a new toilet to investigate. A new way to flush. A new way to wipe.

Have you ever seen a toilet with an oscillating rear jet stream of water? What is the strangest toilet system you have encountered?

China "fun" toilet

China trough toilet

Non Sleeper

- Have you ever taken an overnight bus? They call it a "sleeper" and it does have seats that recline, but I sure do not do a lot of sleeping on that bus! Last night we came from Hue to Ninh Binh and it was a 12 hour overnight bus. We arrived at about 6 am in the pitch dark and fog on the side of the road. Luckily there was a guy who had a hotel and took us straight to a room and we went straight to bed. Phew! It was a long night.

- Why is it that they ride bikes a lot all over Asia and all over Africa and all over Europe, but we don't really ride bikes that much in the US? Today we rode about 12 - 15 km through the rice paddies. Everyone was busy planting rice and they all waved and smiled (and gave us necessary directions) as we passed them by. It was a really nice ride. Why don't we do this more often?

- The traffic here is crazy. That is going to be a future post all to itself.

- Now that we are in the North, the sun is gone (boooo). No more sunny, hot days. It has been cloudy, foggy and about 50 degrees. Well, I guess it IS winter, isn't it?

- Tomorrow we head out by motorbike to a few old ruins and towns. I am looking forward to it, except for the fact that the last time I rode a motorbike, I burned myself on the exhaust pipe. Really badly. Luckily we were getting gas and the gas-lady smeared some weird orange honey-looking stuff on it. It is still healing, but it is going to leave a scar.

- This is TOTALLY random. Have you ever heard of the Moron Test? It is an app on iPhone etc and it is totally addicting. You should try it. I think it costs 99 cents and it is the only app I have ever paid for. It makes you feel totally stupid. But you like it and you want more. I can't explain it.

Endless Possibilities

In Southeast Asia they carry EVERYTHING on tiny motorcycles. Here are a few examples. 

They carry Tuk-Tuks full of people

They carry rice etc

 

They carry people (sometimes up to 4!!)

They carry blocks of ice

This is the mail carrier

What will they carry next?!! I've seen them carry dogs, bicycles, televisions, rebar, gallons of water, empty water jugs, chickens. There are ice cream motorcycles, pad thai motorcycle carts and even fried insect motorcycle carts. Anything you never thought would be associated with a motorcycle....IS!! Oh and half the time the driver is on the phone at the same time. 


Have you seen any weird motorcycle passengers?

Sights and Sounds

Vietnam in one word: Clean. You can’t always say this for many countries. You may have a nice beach but there is a lot of trash on it. You may get a hostel where the blankets haven’t been washed in a long time. You may have rats or cockroaches in your room (or even better, in the kitchen). In Vietnam, the laundry smells good, the streets are clean, things are on time and things are pretty organized in general.

Here are a few more things we have seen, heard, smelled, experienced and tasted while in Vietnam.

-4 people on a motorbike, sometimes with a TV, a bag of rice or a block of ice.
-A bus, 2 cars, 3 motorcycles and a bicycle sharing a lane meant for 2
-A pig knuckle soaking in a bowl of water on the ground right outside the toilet (okay maybe that is not so clean!)
-Honking, always honking
-Water buffaloes in the rice paddies
-The Mekong river, wide and brown
-People doing their laundry, washing their dishes and washing themselves in the Mekong (okay, maybe also not so clean)
- Pho bo (beef noodle soup)
- Dragon fruit (pink leafy looking outside, white inside with black seeds; tastes like a watery kiwi)
- Durians (supposedly smell REALLY bad. I have never noticed that)
- Café Sua Da (Iced coffee)
- Bootlegged copied books for sale
- Beaches
- Kite surfing
- Coconut shakes (my favorite)
- Scuba diving
- Ladies covered in clothing from head to toe. They don’t want to get tan.
- I was told I was an “old maid” because I wasn’t married with children at my advanced age.

Have you ever experienced any of these things? What are your favorite sights and sounds from around YOU? What's the weirdest thing your ever encountered?

What I Love About Vietnam

Bags like these!

Fruit markets

Pho Bo for breakfast!

Beaches

Dragon Fruit (tastes like a kiwi)

Vietnamese Coffee!

Riding around on a tiny bike

Spicy food!

There are a lot of other things but I didn't get photos of them all! A non photo list to follow!

Chinglish

In China, they sometimes put English on signs. The funny thing is they don't always get the spacing or wording right. Here are a few funny signs we saw while we were there.

Forbidden

I am not sure what this dish is!

Needs no words. Really.

One word only. Saves money on spaces.

Do you turn it off when you start?

Whatever it is, it is fast.

Ruined!

A few notes: firstly, I started this blog about 5 years ago from Cambodia to try to find out what was going on at home and share what I was doing abroad. HERE is my first post. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought you wrote the blog in the comments. I was clueless really. I guess what I thought was that I would ask a question and people would answer in the comments. Or we would have a dialogue in the comments. I am not really sure what I was thinking. Anyway, I just wanted to say that it seems I have come "full circle". I am back where I started from and this blog has become more (obviously) that I thought it would.

I have written about Angkor Wat before. But this is a place that not only can you visit again and again, and see new things when you do, but you can write about it several times with no problem. Every time I go to a place I learn something new that I didn't know before. For example Angkor Wat means "city temple" and was built in the early 12th century as the king's state temple and capital city.

It is huge. You could try to walk around the entire complex, but you would probably need many days to do so. We rented a tuk-tuk, which if you haven't heard of this, is an interesting way to get around. It is a guy driving a motorcycle with a people "trailer" (that fits 4) hitched to the back. No joke. I have a photo but have not downloaded them from my camera, so below is one I borrowed.

I got this photo HERE.

We rented a tuk-tuk for about 20 dollars for the day for four people and he took us around from temple to temple. The temples are all beautiful, although some of them are in worse disrepair than others. Actually, they are in the process of renovating many of them right now. We got to the main complex before sunrise, as the best views are during sunrise. There is a nice pool that reflects the temple in the water. I am sure you have seen photos of it. In fact, if you go to Wikipedia, you will see the very photo I am speaking of.

It was pretty hot, and soon we had seen enough ruins for the day. We headed back to Siem Reap for some 50 cent draft beers and some Khmer food (similar to Thai in many ways). The town of Siem Reap is quite bustling, with a range of hotels (they even have a Sheraton!) as well as many lower budget guesthouses (like where we stayed!) They have a range of food; we even had pizza one day. They have a lot of people begging, especially ones with no limbs. The Cambodians only recently ended civil warring, and there are still many unexploded mines in the countryside. Unfortunately, you are not supposed to walk off the beaten trail or you may have an accident.

So, second time around = still good. 

Cambodian Time

I am impatient. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who are late. People who have decided their time is more important than yours. People who say they are going to meet up with you and then don't come, don't call and obviously...don't care.

However, I have had to learn (a little bit) to be patient in Cambodia. The first day we arrived, we crossed over from Thailand with no problems, entered Cambodia fairly painlessly and then went to our bus which would take us to Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat). Unfortunately, when you take a bus between countries, oftentimes you can't stay on one bus; you have to transfer once you cross the border and you end up using two different bus companies. We were told that the ride from the border to Siem Reap would take about 3 hours and that we would arrive around 5 pm. This seems simple enough -- we need to leave by 2 pm to make it on schedule.

We arrived at the border at 12:30 pm. There were about 5 of us and we were the first ones to the bus. The guy said, "lucky you, you are the first ones on the bus, you can pick whatever seat you want." We thought that was great. Then he said, "we are waiting for another group of people who are crossing the border now. We will leave when they get here. It should be about a half an hour". A half an hour went by. A few more people got on the bus. Then another half an hour went by, and a few MORE people got on....etc. This lasted until about 4:30 pm. We finally left then. We didn't end up arriving in Siem Reap until about 8:30 pm (we also stopped for dinner along the way as well).

The thing is, I don't mind arriving at 8:30. What I mind is that I got up at 6 to take a bus at 7 in order to sit and wait for...4 hours...at the border. If I would have known, maybe I would have taken the later morning bus, or maybe went and had some lunch instead of sitting on the bus thinking that we would be leaving "any minute".

This was not the end. From Siem Reap we took a bus to a town called Sihanoukville. A guy was supposed to come and pick us up from our hostel at 6:30 to catch a 7:30 bus. He ended up not coming until almost 8. We were freaking out...we didn't know if we should try to go to the bus station, whether or not we had missed the bus..or what. When we arrived at the bus station around 8:30, the bus didn't even leave for another half and hour! It's the same thing. I could have slept, or eaten (we didn't) or called my mom!

Anyway, I won't go on and on, but this has happened several more times over the last week and it is hard for me to get "used to" it. I mean, if the bus isn't leaving until 9, why can't I just come at 8:45? Why do you tell me it leaves at 7 when you KNOW it is not going to leave at 7? Do you think it EVER leaves on time? Or is "on time" actually 9? I don't know what they are thinking.

Have you ever been someplace where they are on "island time" or the equivalent? Do you cope well with that? How do you feel about tardiness?

Wee Beasties

I have a lot to catch up on. I have been on an island with no power, and definitely no internet! We did some diving, which is probably going to be another post on it's own, and spent some time on the beach hanging out, meeting people, and trying to stay mostly in the shade.

We arrived in Cambodia and spent some time at Angkor Wat (this will be a future post). Then we came to the south, where we took a rickety fishing boat for two hours to get to the island of Koh Rong.

We stayed in a wood and palm thatch bungalow, which wasn't exactly what you would call airtight. However, it had a beautiful view of the ocean and a nice porch from which to sit and stare at said ocean.

The first night we heard a rustling sound in the middle of the night and were not sure what it was, since there is no power. We got out our headlights and searched around but didn't find anything. The next day in the middle of the day I found that the bag of peanuts in my backpack was chewed into and eaten. Also my bar of soap had what looked like teethmarks in it. I assumed it was a rat.

The next night we decided to trap the animal, whatever it was. We put the peanuts in the trash and the trash in a large bucket, thinking that the animal would get trapped in and not be able to climb out of the bucket. THe next morning, the peanuts had been eaten, but there was no animal in the bucket.

So I went about my business and was about to use the bathroom when I heard a scrabbling behind the door. I swung it open and there was a HUGE lizard behind the door eating a centipede. It was pretty cool actually. The lizard must have been about a foot long and the centipede was probably almost a foot as well. They were battling it out and when I opened the door the centipede got away! Oops!

Now we are back on the mainland, trying to stay away from large lizards. More about this later.

Motorcycle Survival Tips

I have always wanted to be a biker. However, I am a tad scared of the bike (motorcycle). What if I fall and scrape half my face off? What if I run into a wall or a truck or fall off a cliff? My parents have a lot of friends who ride Harleys and they have had some bad accidents, some resulting in death. I have that in the back of my mind every time I consider getting on a bike. When I lived in San Francisco, I heard a crash and a scream and I ran outside to see what had happened. A girl on a bike had been sideswiped and flew about 30 feet in the air before landing in a very weird position.

So, as you can see, I have some fears. However, when I was a kid my dad taught me to ride a Honda 70 and I loved it. But one time it fell over on me and I think my Mom wouldn't let me ride anymore after that.

So, since I was 15, I haven't ridden a motorcycle.

Today, I decided to buck up and try again. Luckily in Thailand, it only costs about 5 dollars to rent a bike for the day, so if I hated it, no harm, no foul and barely any money. Everyone here rides them. If a Thai lady and her three kids (and dog) can ride a scooter, so can I! And that's what these are. They are not "motorcycles"; they are "scooters". I think mine was 100cc. Tiny and not too fast. Perfect.

It's easy enough: gas on the right, back brake on the left, front brake on the right. Easy, right? Mostly it was, except one time when I was trying to park the bike and it almost fell over and so I grabbed the right handle and WHOOPS, gave it gas and it jumped a curb and almost went into a restaurant window. Other than that, it's no problem.

Also there were steep downhills and uphills with curves and that was a little hard to maneuver. Especially since at the same time two cars AND the Thai lady with her kids and dog are trying pass you while traffic is coming the other way. Other than that, it was simple.

So, it really wasn't that bad. But I don't think I am quite ready to get a Harley yet. 

In a Sunburned Body

I am white. Okay, I don't mean this in a "check your ethnicity in the box" kind of way. I mean it in a "you can almost see through my skin in the winter time" kind of way. A few days ago, we arrived on Thailand's Koh Chang island, which is about 7 hours from Bangkok by bus.

After being in Beijing, where the average temperature was about 10 degrees, it was a nice change to be on the beach in 85 degree weather, with the sun shining down upon my upturned face.

I KNOW that I am white; I KNOW I sunburn easily, especially on the first couple of days. So I did everything right. First, I strip down naked. Yes, this is the best way to put on sunscreen. Then you don't miss any parts where there are straps or watches or whatever. Then I apply a thick layer of sunscreen over my entire body, rubbing it in all the way, just like the directions state. I never buy sunscreen that is not waterproof. However, I reapply after going in the water, toweling etc. I KNOW the rules. However, somewhere, somehow there was a glitch. I don't know how, but I am so very red now! You can call me Rudolph.

I think I may have figured it out. While usually I would swear by Target's home brand, Up and Up, this time they fell flat. I always buy their Aveeno copy lotion, tissues, face-wipes and more. However, this sunscreen, which was supposed to be like Banana Boat's Sport line, does not work as well. I did everything right. It let me down.

So, I will be staying (mostly) out of the sun for the next couple of days, perfecting my reading instead of my tan! But a word to the wise, don't buy the Up and Up Banana Boat copy sunscreen unless you want to look like a lobster, like I do!