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!
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!
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