Aspiring Tomb Raider

yesterday i went to see the temples of Angkor, with my new friend Arthur from London, who was sleeping in the "dorm bed" (still a bed outside with a mosquito net) next to me. what a strange way to meet someone.we were both lying in our mosquito nets in the darkness, in beds facing away from each other, and i decided to just start asking him questions. where are you from? what's your name? etc. but the entire time we talked neither of us could see each other, and we had no idea what the other person looked like! he said he was going to the temples in the morning, and that it would be preposterous for me to come to Siem Reap and not go. we woke up in the morning, agreed it was weird to talk to and sleep next to someone and not know what they look like, and that we looked different than we imagined, and off we went to Angkor in our tuk tuk. quite random, but we ended up enjoying each other's company quite a bit and having an awesome day!
first we went to Angkor Wat, which we later referred to as Sweaty Sweaty, supposedly the largest religious building in the world. for some reason i wasn't all that impressed, maybe it was just all the Japanese tourists with cameras everywhere combined with the heat...next we went to Bayon...or as we called it Crumbly Crumbly. though it appeared to be a giant pile of crumbling rocks, it was in fact a very fun and exciting giant pile of crumbling rocks! i would say this was my favorite temple. it had the feel of a ridiculously old magical temple i'd been hoping to experience, and it was fun to climb around through all the rocks and passageways and tunnels. next we went to....some other temple....we called Rooty Rooty. here tons of huge banyan trees were growing all over the temple and the roots were breaking it apart, looking like something out of Tomb Raider, which was filmed around all these temples! (i only wish i had more of a resemblance to Angelina Jolie, as i think the idea of dressing up as Laura Croft and posing for pictures with tourists for tips is a genius idea) we played tomb raider and ran around for a bit, and after sweating profusely for a few hours now, we were quite tired, and decided we would see one last temple. at this one we heard some loud music coming from somewhere in the jungle. it was inevitable that we followed it. it got louder and louder, and eventually we stumbled upon some sort of Cambodian family celebration, which we eventually figured out what grandmother's birthday party! this is certainly not something you see everyday. little huts in the jungle, and somehow outrageously massive speakers that are perhaps louder than anything i've ever heard, it seemed very out of place. they were playing things like Usher, and JLo, but mixed with a Cambodian beat, reminding me of Reggaeton or something. there are kids dancing around in the dirt, and adults sitting over on the ground eating and drinking. we watch awkwardly for a few moments, feeling very out of place and not sure if we are welcomed or not, until i can't resist going to dance with the kids. they laugh at me as i try to imitate their dancing. soon a woman comes over to me and gestures for us to come sit with them. none of them speak any english at all, except the one who vaguely communicated to me that it was her grandmother's birthday. the woman who got us to come sit takes on a motherly sort of role to me, giving me a glass of ice and beer (actually quite refreshing!) putting unidentifiable yet delicious foods in my mouth, getting us to cheers all the men, as though i was her new white person friend to take care of and show the others. she takes me to dance again with the children and shows me off to the other women, who either also act as a sort of mother or look at me timidly and smiling. i find in my purse my smiley face stickers and give them all out to the kids, who were very excited about this. the grandparents around smiled with approval at me. next more people start joining in the dancing. there's a small table in the middle, and we all dance around it in a counter clockwise direction. at the table a guy continues to fill up cups of beer and bring bowls of food, and each time we dance around the circle a cucumber dipped in some sort of yummy spicy goo is shoveled in my mouth and my beer tipped up. its amazing how giving these people are! they have barely anything, living in this little pile of dirt, with chickens dogs and children of unknown origin running around in the middle of the jungle, and yet they are so happy to have us a guests and celebrate with them. eventually we must go catch our tuk tuk back to town and we say goodbye and thank you (aw kohn!) we ride back to town reflecting on our unbelievable adventures of the day, enjoy some delicious pumpkin curry for dinner, and lounge in hammocks talking to neighbors at our place for the rest of the day.
its inspiring to see how much you can share with people you don't know at all at the beginning of the day, and people who you can't  even verbally communicate with. human connection never fails to amaze me. 

Scambodia

whew! i came close to never escaping that vortex i think, good thing for my expiring visa! its amazing how quickly i can get in a routine and get so comfortable places. definitely was supposed to be there for  reason though. i got very wrapped up in the small subculture of Koh Tao Divers. what an interesting little tiny world. i think part of the magic of this place is just how small the island really is. i think its 21 miles or something like that? i could literally walk the short way across the island in 30 minutes, and i could stand on top of a hill and see the entire island. its pretty awesome to climb on top of a giant rock and see the bays on either side of you, and palm tree groves and what looks like dinosaur land in between. anyways, i got in with the diving crowd there, and of course got convinced to dive. its the cheapest place in the world! and the only other place that certifies more divers per year is in australia! not that im difficult to convince to do anything....so yes, i am now a certified open water diver woo! i feel so accomplished, like i graduated from something! except i would say i enjoyed this much much more than any other class i've been in (although it did include getting up at 6am sometimes....) breathing underwater is such a magical feeling! and floating around like you are in space, except there's schools of fish swimming all around you, wow! and doing the macarena on the bottom of the ocean? can't beat that! so, generally i would rate Koh Tao as a huge success in life, all around. i improved overall as a person i'd say. unfortunately though, i spent my entire time in thailand there...so i couldn't tell you much about the country or the people or culture. oh well. maybe next time. i'm still a little shocked by how trendy and tourist thailand is though, i really had no idea. i guess its like the mexico of the other side of the world, everyone goes there for vacation.
so, i somewhat sadly but readily left koh tao to go back to bangkok. i had a double sad moment when my Lisa and Oli left for the airport in the same hour. suddenly i was alone in a foreign country.....luckily i'm too awesome to be left alone for any extended amount of time, and it only took less than 5 minutes of pouting at my lonely table for someone to ask if i wanted to come sit with them. yay!
so then i was faced with the ultimate dilemma in life (for me personally) making a....decision. i know, its terrifying. and i haven't flipped any more coins since Fiama told me she didn't care what the coin said i had to stay in koh tao! i listened, and she was right....so anyways, my visa was expiring the next day, and i had been "planning" (impossible) to go to Chiang Mai and go on a visa run to the border of Laos or something to extend my visa. i was unsure about it for some reason though. i became more unsure when i went to buy my bus ticket and the next bus wasn't until 6pm  the next day. 24+ hours in bangkok?! and then i see that the bus to Cambodia is 8am! several people had recently said to me i should go to cambodia. SOLD. I'll take it! i bargain with a thai person for a Cambodia Lonely Planet book, and this is the first time i make a thai person laugh! aww, too bad i''m leaving the next day, i finally understood their humor. quite stoic these people seem to me...
so. next morning. the bus turns out to be a van. interesting. i befriend some ridiculously cute British girls name Camille, Gemma, and Bella. its a pretty uneventful ride. things i observed: 1. i would say 80% of taxis in bangkok are hot metallic pink. 2. the countryside of thailand in some places could be any farmland in america, plus palm trees. not that exciting overall. whilst riding, i read in my book that the border crossing from thailand to cambodia can be a little shifty, like they might try to overcharge you for your visa. hmm. thus begins the most ridiculous, unnecessarily complicated and time consuming, disorganized, unofficial, somewhat sheisty Crossing of the Border....
we are taken to a restaurant on the side of the road where they are very smiley and tell us this is where we buy our visas, for $40 (its supposed to be $20) i refuse to pay, and luckily so do the British girls, because then the rest of our van leaves without us....theres about 5 minutes of awkward what's going to happen now...? and then the woman tells us we can pay $30 and leave. we opt to pay, because the other options seems to be don't pay and don't leave....so now we are taken to the border, where cambodian guys in their best business attire are assigned it seems to groups of us foreigners to "help" us through this process. really, it seemed pretty easy, and i don't know why they needed to brief us on what was going to happen. simply put, we go through thai immigration where they take our departure card, then we go through cambodia immigration where they stamp our passport. next they put us on a bus to a bus that actually goes to Siem Reap, our final destination. now, this is no ordinary bus ride. this is as though you were in a sauna and a bus t the same time! i must have burned 1000 calories! cambodia is absolutely the hottest place i've ever been. ever. like i have been sweating more than i ever have in any sauna. it makes it impossible to do anything, and my clothes are constantly soaking wet and dripping. really. ok, so this is why its off season now.....ok, why was a guided here, intuition? this better be good...
so now i've been here in Siem Reap for 2 nights. i;ve made some friends, but really i am enjoying being alone. finally! i said it! actually, it starts to feel incredibly liberating to be traveling alone, or doing anything alone. i feel like i am a capable, independent, responsible human being. maybe i shouldn't go that far...i did lose several important papers within less than 24 hours of my initial traveling alone time. but it worked out ok! i am aware that i am unusually lucky. in fact today i told someone that fact, and an hour later i was sitting under a mango tree and mango fell right beside me. a cambodian person goes oh look! you are very lucky! so, in conclusion, i am going to be just fine!
Cambodia is an interesting country. as soon as i entered i determined that they are quite friendly, always smiling and saying hello (unlike my thailand experience where they seemed annoyed by my existence often) as well as that this is a very poor country. i don't think i've been anywhere quite like this. sometimes it reminds me of sri lanka, the lack of anything familiar like 7-11, the animals everywhere in the streets, the colors. the kids here are so awesome. they are not at all shy, and they are hustlers! selling their mom's jewelry in the streets, dancing outside of the bars at night, i see them hustling people for money for milk and such, they are quite smart. but its also strange for me to see kids working at such young ages. this country also has quite a history of struggle. genocide, war, problems with Vietnam and Thailand (they don't seem to get along too well), poverty, famine. it makes me very appreciative of the life i live. its a great learning experience to see these kind of things though. luckily the country seems to be in a much better state now, and they people are happy to be at peace for the most part.
today i walked around town with an irish guy staying at the same place as me. oh, that's another fun thing to describe. i am staying for $1 a night, where my bed is pretty much just outside with a mosquito net, amongst other beds, and there's a tin roof and a sort of shack like wall-less structure. but the restaurant is nice, with a free internet, good food, and a rooftop with  great view of the sunset. there's lots of other backpackers here, so i feel at home. anyways, this guy showed me to a Buddhist temple that i had wanted to visit that was on the map. there were monks sitting around, and people playing traditional Cambodian music, and families coming to the temple lighting incense and candles. it was quite nice. it definitely brought some peace to my restless indecisive soul. i realized i'm exactly where i need to be, and to just keep trusting the force that guides me to all these crazy places each day. i am on the right path, whatever it is, and i must continue to spread my light and joy with people everywhere.
i also found where the school is and perhaps can go there tomorrow and see if they need any english teachers. i also got some information about a school in Phnom Penh where they need teachers too. so i will see how things go here, and then perhaps mozy on down to "the pearl of Asia", the capital of Cambodia, and see if i can find some sort of work! and perhaps while i'm here i will go see Angkor Wat, supposedly the largest religious building in the world, and the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed!