The Kindness of Strangers

I know I've missed a few weeks in there, but something happened to me today that spurred me to take up the pen again, as it were.

I'm in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  It was my first full day today.  I started by walking around looking for a temple.  I chose a smallish sidestreet with some market stalls along it as a shortcut.  While walking down the street, an Asian man approached me and said, "Hey cool shirt, where did you get it?" I figured he was just a tuktuk or motobike driver trying to get a fare.  I told him I got it in Thailand and was a tad cold to him until he mentioned that he was from Malaysia just here visiting family for his brother's wedding.  I told him I had been to Kuala Lumpur a few weeks prior and we talked for a bit about what I had been doing traveling and about his cousin who was going to go work in the US for a few years.  We talked about Kuala Lumpur and he said he worked in the Petronas Towers and if I was going back I could visit their house and he would take me up the towers.  After awhile he invited me to come meet his family.  Why not?  I was a bit suspicious but everything he said seemed to make sense and their questions for me weren't that strange.  What was I doing in Korea, how long was I traveling, what did I study, etc.  All normal questions to ask travelers.  His name was Mel and his uncle ("Call me Papa," he said) was shopping at the stalls and after he was done we hopped on a motorbike and headed to the uncle's house.  He said he was a retired electrical engineer and had been in Cambodia for almost 20 years.  The house was quite nice.  Spacious with intricately-carved wooden furniture.  I met a few women who said how handsome I was and everyone was kind and spoke English well.  We sat down to eat some lunch and chat.  It was all quite gracious and I was having a nice time.  One of Mel's older brothers came while we were eating and he ate with me and Mel went to do something else.  We just chatted introductory stuff.  I asked him about himself and his family and his work, which he told me was in a casino as a table manager for blackjack.  Then we talked about some other random things and went into the living room to hang out and wait for the cousin who was going to work in the US as a physical therapist and they were hoping I could give her some advice about it all.  The TV was on playing some Kevin Costner movie I had never heard of which I was half-watching during short lulls in the conversation.  At some point a small, yet huge, child came into the room.  He was less than two years old but quite big and funny.  He walked around on stubby legs before leaving and coming back on a small motorbike making vrooom sounds and I messed around with him a bit, putting my sunglasses on him which he found amazing.  Somehow we got back on the topic of the casino that the older brother worked at and I was curious about it.  He mentioned he knew how to count cards because of the training they received and I was curious about that as well.  He then asked if I wanted to see it in action and I said sure.  So he went to another room and set up a table and got some cards.  So we went in there and pretended it was a blackjack table with six seats and said, "Ok, pick a seat and I'll give you exactly the cards I want."  So I picked one and he dealt out the hand face down to all the absent players and the house.  "Ok, you have a blackjack."  I looked and, sure enough, there was an ace and a king.  Wow, pretty cool.  We did it again and I kept the same seat.  Again, he told me the exact cards I had and the cards that the dealer all, all while they were face down.  I switched to another seat and he did it again, and again, without fail.  Watching him before the deal, you would never know he was counting cards.  It truly was an astonishing trick.  I'd never seen card counting in real life before.  At this point the uncle was in the room too and acting just as amazed as I was.  Then he started talking about how he could give signals and such to me if I were playing to help me win.  Out of nowhere, it hits me like a ton of bricks:  This was all a setup to this moment.  They found a traveler wandering around alone who presumably looked like he could use some money.  Talked and chatted and made nice.  Made up some thing about a cousin going to the US after I had told him I was from there.  Rode to the house, made me feel so welcome, gave me lunch, we chatted.  I had been having a great time and I was honestly amazed by his ability but, all of a sudden, I realized he was actually offering to give me a few hundred dollars and help me cheat his own casino into winning a few thousand and then splitting it with him.  Woah.

Before I had felt so comfortable, but quickly I felt used and quite uncomfortable and everything that had happened flashed before me again and I noticed other details that didn't quite add up.  After we had gotten on the motorbike, Mel had made a phone call.  Not that strange but I'm sure he was just calling his brother to tell him to head home because they "found one."  Also, looking back, some of the lengths of time they mentioned didn't add up.  Also, relations seemed to switch around from uncle or brother or brother-in-law, or sister to cousin.  Most of the people being talked about weren't there so I couldn't keep track anyway.  At this point, I just said I don't think I could do something like that.  They asked why and I said well it seems dangerous and it's cheating.  He replied it was fine because he had just proven how good he was at it (true) and that he was a manager at the casino and he wouldn't even be the one dealing.  It all sounded good in principal, but when you're in the most corrupt country in the world (truly, a ranking system placed Cambodia on the top of the list), it sounded more than a bit risky.  And I'm not exactly hurting for cash.  I replied again that I just couldn't do it and I was sorry.  He told me not to be sorry and it was fine.  "You have good morals, because you are a teacher!" they said with a kind laugh.  They didn't pressure me any more, which I was grateful for, but almost immediately they pulled out a brochure for some orphanage that the uncle "supported" and said something about giving whatever my heart could manage.  I'm not sure what actually happened to the money, but I put $5 in an envelope for them.  A little bit out of fear, a little bit because I didn't want to offend them, and I also figured they had given me lunch (which had been worth $5).  So with not much further talk, the uncle offered to drive me to my next destination, the genocide museum, if I paid $2 for gas.  I gladly accepted and we headed off.  I thanked the rest of them for their hospitality and we exchanged email addresses.  Who knows, if I come back to Cambodia some day, I'll bring a suit and think about trying to cheat a casino out of thousands of dollars.

I'd like to say that the rest of the day was uneventful, but the genocide museum detailing some of the acts by the Khmer Rouge was anything but.

Reflecting on this experience, I'm not entirely disappointed.  On the one hand, I had decided to trust a stranger in the hopes that their generosity and inquisitions were genuine.  After all, isn't that the best way to meet and get to know the locals (never mind they were actually from Malaysia)?  One the other hand, although I had a somewhat sketchy experience, it still turned out to be an interesting (and safe) experience.

Ohhhh traveling!

Kuala Lumpur and Bali

After the tourist trap that is Phuket, Kodi and I headed further South to Kuala Lumpur.  Taking the train into the city from the airport, we were treated to sights of skyscrapers and real city life for the first time in what felt like months.  It was a nice change of pace to see some decent architecture in a big city. 

The hotel room we stayed in didn't have windows so we ended up sleeping in a bit on our first morning.  We headed out to explore on foot.  The first thing I noticed was the diversity among the people.  From what I gathered, there are four main ethnic groups in Malaysia: Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Indigenous.  It was really interesting to hear people speaking their mother tongues, but also able to converse in English with other people who don't share that language.  I saw many people of different ethnic backgrounds speaking fluent, if not accented, English with each other.  Another thing I noticed quite frequently was the use of code-switching.  Two people talking and switching back and forth between Chinese and English, for example.  Very fascinating.  Another nice thing about Malaysia is their excellent public transportation.  It was nice to have access to a good monorail and subway system.  During our time in Kuala Lumpur, we did a lot of walking.  We went to the Petronas Towers on our first day.  It was my second time to Kuala Lumpur and to the towers (the first trip was during a limited eight-hour layover in 2003).  We thought about going up to the bridge connecting the two towers, but the tickets were expensive and limited; they only give out a certain number of tickets everyday and they are first come, first served.  Oh well, third time's the charm.  The rest of the day was spent exploring the many fancy shopping malls and wearing out our feet.

Next day we headed over to the aquarium.  It had some good presentations but overall a bit small and disappointing.  The highlight was a 90m tunnel through the largest tank with sea turtles, sharks and huge manta rays.

Another reason we decided to stop in KL was to meet up with one of our friends from our time in Australia.  Woosung and his girlfriend were in the city for a few days so we were able to meet up with them for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and walk around for a couple hours afterward.  Unfortunately, they were leaving for Singapore the next day, so our reunion was short-lived.

The next day was going to be spent exploring some of the cultural attractions the city has to offer.  First we headed to the National Museum which was well done.  Malaysia has a pretty interesting history, being colonized by so many different European powers and used mainly for its prime location for trading ports.  Our plan was to head next to the National Mosque and some fancy gardens but somebody turned on a thunderstorm and we were forced to dash for a cab and head to another mall.  After we ate some lunch it had cleared up but we kind of felt like the day was ruined.

Our time in Malaysia was largely uneventful and unfortunately involved very little in the way of authentic Malaysian culture.  I would have liked to explore the peninsula more and even head over to Borneo to see some jungles and orangutans.

We left Malaysia behind and headed to Bali to meet with a Canadian friend we met in Korea.  Bali instantly felt more like the kind of place I wanted to explore.  While still grossly overdeveloped for tourism, it still manages to maintain its traditional architecture and lifestyle.  Going through immigration in the airport, the officer asked if I had ever met Bruce Willis.  I replied I had not, and inquired if he had been so lucky.  "Oh yes, he comes here all the time."  Spoiler alert: I didn't catch any glimpses of John McClane, but we were later informed that Paris Hilton had been on the island only a month ago.

The traditional architecture of temples in Bali has probably been my favorite so far.  Lots of twisting lines and curves.  The stones are always covered in lichens and mosses to give it that extra-authentic feel.  To experience this you have to get away from the main touristy areas.  The first half of our trip was spent at Kuta Beach, a place almost as seedy as Phuket, with equally as many touting cab drivers and vendors.

The first morning I went surfing with my friend Sterling and a Korean girl from our hostel.  The beach was the dirtiest filthiest mess I have ever seen.  Trash lying on the beach and it seemed even worse in the water where the pounding waves would throw trash over you and leave it sticking to an appendage, forcing you to pluck it off and, having no place else, chuck it back into the water.  Apparently, the water currents bring over huge amounts of trash from mainland Indonesia and during the wet season the rains only make it worse.  Luckily Bali has some pretty good surfing and cheap prices.  We found a guy on the beach renting boards and got an hour for a few dollars.  The waves were good for our level of surf skill so we had a good time.  We headed back to the hostel and got ready for a tour we had booked the previous night.  The four of us hired a driver to tour us around the island for a look at some temples and other nice sights.  Here might be a good place to briefly mention the terrible traffic in Bali.  The island is severely inundated with tourists and the small, windy two-lane roads are not adequate enough.  Even so, everyone feels they have to pass each other at high speeds while approaching blind corners.  Very fun.  Anyway, the weather was great as we set off and stopped at our first temple which was surrounded by a man-made moat.  Very cool.  Also had a run-in with a praying mantis.  Next we went to a coffee plantation where we learned about the world-famous kopi luwak  It's incredibly rare because this type of coffee bean is eaten and pooped out by a small animal called a civet.  The woman working at the plantation told us all about the "poo coffee" and we were able to sample a small cup for four dollars.  I should also mention it is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for as much as $500 per kilogram.  After that we headed higher up into the hills and saw some amazing views of rice terraces and rolling green hills.  We also stopped at the side of the road where some monkeys were hanging out and fed them some bananas and peanuts.  Probably the best part of the day was when we went to the water temple, which was a temple on a lake.  Another rain storm hit as we arrived and it was really coming down, forcing all the visitors to take shelter.  We left all our stuff in the car and wandered around the temple.  Below the chest we got almost completely soaked but it was well worth it.  Unfortunately, it was raining so hard I didn't want to risk bringing my camera.  For the last part of the tour we headed down to another temple built on a small outcrop in the sea.  We sat as the sun set and were treated to an amazing view before driving back in the dark.

The next day it was pouring rain again in the morning but it stopped after awhile and we headed out to get massages with some other people from the hostel.  It was an hour-long full-body massage for about $5.  Excellent.  Tried some shopping along the touristy streets but didn't come across much.  The next day I went surfing again and did much better.  Curiously, there was absolutely no garbage in the water this time and the beach was relatively clean.  More relaxing.

The following morning our friend Sterling headed back to Korea and we headed to another part of the island to stay in a nice villa.  It turned out to be pretty far away from anything substantial so we had to rent a scooter and drive around.  Found a surf beach I was keen to try but the waves were massive and populated by long-haired surf bums who would have cut me in half with their boards if the waves didn't end my life first.  The next morning we got up at 6am because I was going to go scuba diving at a shipwreck.  I was really excited but the car never showed up and when I called they thought I had wanted to go the next day.  They apologized and offered a discount for the next day and Kodi could come along for free without diving.  With the day suddenly open, we hired a driver to take us to the small artsy town of Ubud.  Everyone had been recommending we go there and I was excited to check it out.  It took a long time to get there because of the traffic, and once we got there, we didn't have much time to explore.  We ate at a nice cafe and explored a market.  There were so many cool little stores that we would have loved to explore, but we didn't have enough time.  We went back to the villa and took a dip in the pool, which turned Kodi's hair green.  We got up early again the next day to get ready for the dive.  I checked my email and saw that I got an email from them late the night before asking to clarify the address because they didn't know where the villa was.  I quickly tried to call them but none of the phone numbers were connecting.  I finally got through to their main office at 7 when the bus was supposed to pick us up, but the guy said it was too late and the bus had already left.  I was pretty damn angry because we had to leave the next day and there was no way to reschedule.  I received an email a couple days later apologizing again because the part of the island where the company was had been hit by a blackout that knocked out phone and internet, so it wasn't really their fault.  Events just conspired to stop me from diving there!  I'm determined to dive somewhere amazing before I head home. 

That's about it for KL and Bali.  We went to Singapore next but hopefully I'll do that in the next few days.  Here are some pictures and remember to check the picasa album for way more pictures than I put on here.

Laos and Phuket

Two weeks to fill in!

After our time in Chiang Mai, we boarded a bus to the border town of Chiang Khong.  It's  right on the Mekong River, across from Laos.  We had a short evening in the town and then started our cross into Laos the next morning.  Border crossing was a bit strange.  It was my first time entering a different country by crossing a river only a hundred meters wide.  After going through immigration we were taken to the pier and waited for about two hours.  The boats were very long and narrow.  We were thinking we would be sitting on hard wooden seats for the next few days.  They were actually what I can only assume were just bench seats taken out of vans and placed on the boat.  They were all very close together.  We had assigned seats and we got on to find our seats taken.  So we just sat somewhere else.  People kept getting on and wanting to sit in "their" seats.  We had to explain again and again that everyone was in the wrong seats so if one person wanted someone to get out of their seat, it was going to mean that everyone had to move.  I'd guess there were about 80 people on there.  Everyone was agitated.  Not a good way to start the ride.  Finally the boat sputtered to life and we started chugging down the river.

The ride was about five hours.  It was some of the most amazing scenery I can remember.  Beautiful mountain ranges covered with foliage and sandy banks up both sides.  We passed many local villages, stopping at many to pick up commuters (this is how they get around!).  Some stops brought children with drinks and snacks.  They boarded and walked up and down the aisle.  The quickest beverages to go were the beers.  Now, the views were great, but some of the people we shared the boat with were nothing short of annoying.  I made do by shoving my ear phones in and burying myself in The Girl Who Played With Fire (don't worry, I looked up often to enjoy the view).  Finally we arrived in our stopover town for the night.  It happened to be New Year's Eve and we found ourselves in a tiny town where the electricity purportedly shuts off when it gets dark.  This town basically functions only as a stopover for people moving from the border of Thailand and Laos down to Luang Prabang, so there were only hotels and restaurants up and down this one dirt road.  Kodi and I went to eat and we were in bed by 10 at the latest.  We awoke in the night long enough to hear fireworks and shouts.  Not the most memorable New Year's Eve.

The next morning we boarded the boat and set out for an even longer day.  About seven hours total.  The views were just as good.  The people were more annoying.  Kodi was about to crack some skulls.  We arrived in Luang Prabang just before sunset.  We had already booked our hotel so we found a tuktuk to take us there.  We went out that night to properly celebrate our New Year's Eve.

The next morning Kodi was beset with a bit of sickness.  Simply from the previous night's adventures?  No.  Turns out it was food poisoning, most likely from a tuna sandwich she ate during the boat ride.  I'd like to say it was a short episode, but it wasn't.  Kodi was pretty much in bed sleeping for a full 24 hours, and then another few days of eating very little amounts of mild food and very little activity.  We didn't get up to much in our first few days in Luang Prabang.  Towards the end of our stay we explored some temples and local sights.  The town itself was really nice.  Laos has a lot of French influence leftover from their colonial forays in SE Asia.  This was immediately evident in the architecture of the buildings.  The names of some streets and establishments were also French.  My favorite were the bakeries and, specifically, baguettes everywhere.  Our last two days in Luang Prabang, I booked a few tours with a local "fair trek" tour company.  Supposedly, they give a lot back to the communities.  Kodi still wasn't feeling up to anything strenuous so she took it easy in town.  

The first day was a few-hour trek through a jungle to a magnificent waterfall.  We drove about an hour outside of town to a traditional Hmong village.  We were supposed to get some time to walk around and interact with the locals and see how they lived, but we just kind of walked right through the town and started into the jungle.  It was a good hike and saw some great jungle scenery.  Wildlife was suspiciously lacking but perhaps they were just good at evading us.  Finally, we came upon the waterfall.  It was a pretty amazing waterfall.  The water was a bit chilly but it was very refreshing.  There was also a rope swing which was good fun and provided enjoyment for onlookers.

The next day  I went on a biking tour.  I had chosen the "serious" mountain biking tour which required participants to be fit and prior experience was strongly suggested.  I wasn't too worried about it because I've had my share of mountain biking and I'm in decent shape.  There were two other guys who went on the tour.   A Spanish fellow and an older German guy.  Both were definitely "serious" bikers.  The Spaniard was an ex-pro competitive mountain biker and the German has been biking everywhere.  They both spoke perfect English and talked mostly about great places around the world to bike.  But we also had great conversation about other things and we had a good time.  The biking was pretty tough, but manageable.  We rode on dirt roads that just went up and down through crazy mountain landscapes and valleys with rice paddies (now dry because the wet season is over).  I think we were all a little disappointed as it wasn't the kind of mountain biking we were expecting.  The other two guys easily distanced themselves between the guide, and even I was doing a bit better than him.  I felt a bit bad for him because I don't think they do this tour often, and he's only done it a couple of times.  He spoke English well, and when we stopped for lunch I was able to satisfy my anthropological curiosity and ask him a lot about Laos culture.  During the day we rode through many small villages that obviously didn't see many foreigners.  Calls of Sa-bai-dee! (hello!) rang out constantly.  Many of the kids closer to Luang Prabang had shouted, Pen! Pen!  I asked our guide what it meant in Lao and he said they just wanted pens, presumably to write or draw with.  As remote as these villages seem, they all have electricity and many of them have satellite dishes.  One town we passed through had some guys practicing their cockfighting.  They covered up the roosters' sharp spurs so they wouldn't actually hurt each other.  Towards the end of the scorching hot day, we stopped at a river and joined some of the local boys in going for a dip.  It was an exhausting day and I ran out of water just before the end, but it was some of the best few hours I've had on the whole trip.  Seeing places largely untouched by tourists and westernization was something special to me.  

After Luang Prabang we had been planning to go to Vietnam.  But we had some plans to meet friends in other places and going there would just not give us enough time.  In the end, we decided to skip Vietnam because we wouldn't be able to appreciate it in such a short time.  We headed down to Phuket, Thailand to get our beaching in.  It's a small island in the south of Thailand dominated by tourism.  We've been here about six days and I had had enough after just a few.  The beaches are nice enough, but so overcrowded.  The first day we walked around Patong, the area we are in, which is the most notoriously crowded and seedy.  The next day we went on a boat tour of some smaller islands about an hour away.  The places were amazing.  The water was a brilliant green which massive cliffs shooting straight out.  We went to a small bay called Maya Bay where parts of the film The Beach were shot.  The amount of tourists stuffed in this tiny place was enough to ruin it for me.  Half of the beach was covered by the tourist boats and the other half with fat people wearing swimsuits and they have absolutely no business wearing.  Now, I know that I'm part of the problem being one of the tourists, but I guess I had foolishly hoped it wouldn't be as bad as it was.  Finding more secluded areas is pretty difficult.  The next day we rented a motorbike in hopes of finding a better beach spot.  We followed the coast south and did manage to find a beach that was a little less populated.  We stayed for a pleasant few hours before heading off again to explore.  We didn't find much else.  Lots of resorts.  Lots of shopping.  I guess I can't really complain about being in mid-80 degree weather on a beach in the middle of January...

Tomorrow we leave for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  After that, down to Bali, Indonesia.  Then to Singapore.  From there, Kodi and I will part ways.  She heads back to the States on February 1 and I'll be heading to Cambodia to meet with a friend from Korea.  

Until next time, enjoy the pictures!  You might notice some of the pictures, taken with my DSLR, have a black spot in the upper right corner.  Or maybe you didn't, and now all you will be able to see is that spot.  Some speck caught under the lens.  Very aggravating.  Don't forget to check out the webalbum for even more pictures!  

Crazy white temple.

View of the Mekong River from Chiang Khong, Thailand.

Touching up the paint on a temple.

River boats!

View from our hotel in Pakbeng, the stopover town.

People watching a falang (foreigner) paint a view of the Nam Khan River in Luang Prabang.

Night market in Luang Prabang.

View from Phusi Hill.

Some young monks scrubbing the roof tiles of a temple as part of a restoration project.

Bamboo footbridge.  Taken down during the wet season because the river rises too high.

Traditional house in a Hmong village.  Requisite motorbike outside.

She had a rooster in her basket!

Cooking sweet sticky rice in bamboo.

Grooming the winner of the practice cockfight.

The loser goes into the cage for-- protection? punishment?

Respite from the heat.

Maya Bay.  I've never been in such a remote place with so many foreigners.  

Too many people.

Tiny Khai Island we relaxed on for a while.

Awkward picture after our super fancy dinner.