The Good: I HAVE A JOB!! I HAVE A JOB!!!! Last week I took a moto all over town and dropped off resumes at many different schools. I still haven't heard back from a lot of them, but PUC (Panasatra University of Cambodia) called me back today and offered me 22.5 hours per week (which is pretty much full time in Cambodia). I'm psyched because it is probably the best school I could've gotten a job at... It's a language school, and pretty professional. Most of the LanguageCorps instructors also teach a few classes at this school. The students are mostly adults, and are pretty motivated to learn since they pay their own money to come to class. I'll find out tomorrow more specific information - like what level, what times of the day, stuff like that. But for now, I'm just content knowing that I'll be getting a paycheck every week!
Other good: I bought a bicylce, so I can cruise around town. Also, our apartment is pretty sweet... a great location for us to visit with all of our friends, and Val and Shiloh are fantastic roommates.
The Bad: My bike is already broken... That's Cambodia for you. The first day I got it, I rode it out to see Shiloh and her school (about a 30 minute trip), and on the way back the seat broke off. Well, more like bent. It appears the seat is made out of springs... very weak springs. Luckily the kindness of Khmer people showed itself, and a few old guys working in a car parts shop came out and fixed it for me free of charge. Well, not exactly fixed it, but made it possible to ride home. It's still not fixed, and actually is quite uncomfortable to ride, so hopefully tomorrow I'll get that taken care of.
More bad... our house has been invaded by ants. No matter what we do, they return. We even put all of our food in the fride, take our trash our every night, and they find a way. We like to joke that our hygene standards have been significantly lowered since moving to Cambodia.
The Ugly: I got sick this weekend. Utterly and horribly ill... the worst type of sickness you could imagine. On saturday I could barely open my eyes, and today (monday) I still feel quite fatigued. That 3rd world food isn't so wonderful sometimes. Luckily, I brought plenty of antibiotics with me, and 5 day dosage should make me new.
The Interesting: Friday night, Val, Shiloh and I spent the night on the town, and met some friends at a bar around the corner from our house. The occasion? A drag show. The most elaborate costumes i've ever seen on a man (or a woman). Glitzy dresses, fancy makeup, big wigs. They danced on the bar and sang songs like whitney houston and mariah carey. There were solos, duets, role plays... needless to say, it was quite an experience.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
the coastal island of Phi Phi
Koh Phi Phi is an island of the Andaman Coast (the western side) of southern Thailand.
Traveling to Koh Phi Phi was quite an adventure in itself. Minibus-train-bus-anotherbus-taxi-ferry-longboat, and voila, 27 hours later I'm on an island in paradise. No one said it would be easy...
The island has beaches spread throughout, but most are only accessible by boat. There are no roads, and the town is a maze of paths littered with clothing shops, souvenir stands, restaurants, 7/11 stores, bars and more. It is not your traditional thailand scene, that is for sure. We stayed at a resort on one of the more secluded beaches, called Long Beach. It was a much nicer beach, mostly filled with families, couples, and older people, and it was nice to escape the craziness that is the main part of the island. It was a 45 minute hike (purposefully I avoid the word walk, here) to the main part of town. Literally it was a truudge along the beach, a treacherous climb up a slope equipped with ropes, more paths through the jungle, more beach walking, and then navigating through the chaos that is town. It was a fun trip though so we made it every day to socialize a bit (mostly with australians and europeans... there were surprisingly few americans on this island).
The island itself was unreal. Sheer cliffs of jungle, interrupted by white sand and green and blue waters. The water was warm, and the sand so clean and bright. When I went swimming, fish swam everywhere about me... schools of colorful fish of all different sizes. We took a snorkeling trip to the smaller islands around us and there was plenty to look at under the sea... plants and fish everywhere. To see the other islands we went on a tour in a long boat (a long fishing boat with a long rutter that is manouvered in and out of the water). One island is famous from the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. It was shockingly beautiful, but it's unfortunate that it has been discovered by tourists... There were so many of them (literally thousands) that you couldn't even see the sand. We went to some smaller beaches and islands... one rightly named Monkey Island because it was filled with monkeys hanging from the trees and snatching food offered to them by tourists. That beach was my favorite... not as touristy and a nice atmosphere. Unfortunately for me, this day I decided I would forgo sunscreen on my back, and as punishment suffered the next day. I'm sporting a nice tan now, though, so don't feel too bad for me.
We spent 4 nights and 5 days on the island, and it was a paradise, but I was definitely ready to leave. There's only so much sunbathing and reading one can do before it gets a little old. (As a side note, with the amount of traveling and vacationing I've been doing, I've finished 10 books since I've arrived...). The trip back from Koh Phi Phi to Phnom Penh was even worse. It goes like this: long boat-ferry-taxi-overnight bus-taxi-airplane-tuktuk. The worst was that the overnight bus was packed full of people (designed for tiny asian people). I spent a sleepless night shoving off an old American traveler who kept resting his head on my shoulder, and kicking the seat in front of me because the guy reclined his seat right onto my lap. By the time we reached Bangkok at 5:30 AM, I was less than thrilled. My flight wasn't scheduled until 1:30 pm, but luckily I arrived to the airport early enough to catch the 7:30 AM flight.
While I was off touring around Thailand, Val was busy here in Phnom Penh making friends, interviewing and finding us a place to live. She found us a BEAUTIFUL apartment in a good part of the city... We have a nice balcony, 3 large bedrooms (we live with our friend Shiloh as well), a large living room, wireless internet, air conditioning, cable TV, a nice kitchen... it's perfect. and the price? 350/month. split 3 ways. Currently we have 2 friends of ours staying here for a few weeks, so things are even cheaper than that. Tomorrow I will explore the neighborhood a little more, and hopefully set up some interviews for some jobs. It seems not too difficult... most schools are looking for young white American girls to interview, so it sounds like I fit the bill.
I'm glad I had a chance to see Thailand... it's a beautiful country with a lot to offer, good food, and an interesting culture. However, I feel like it's already been discovered by the tourists of the world. Cambodia seems much more untouched by western culture. It was strange to feel like I was coming home again as I drove back from the airport... but the city is inviting, in its own dirty underdeveloped way. The people are friendly, things are way cheaper even than Thailand, and it's retained some of its culture that hasn't been commercialized for the effect of tourists. It's good to be back.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Kanchanaburi
Well, I've been traveling for one month now, but I finally feel like I'm on vacation. Kanchanaburi is a town (and province) two hours west of Bangkok. I decided to spend a few days here visiting my friend Molly, and seeing some of the ecotourist side of Thailand.
Kanchanaburi's claim to fame is the bridge over river Kwai... there are a lot of museums here that talk about the area during world war 2. I visited the JEATH Museum, which showed pictures and gave info about the several thousand POWs (mostly Australian) who died here, and the thousands of Thais as well. Most died from diseases and inadequate medical supplies. It has an interesting story for those of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie. The POWs were being driven by the japonese to work 18 hours per day, but living in terror of being bombed by the Americans.
Kanchanaburi also has quite a selection of ecotourist excursions. I signed up for one, and left on a day trip with a small group made up of swiss, german, french, and british travelers... It was a good group and I made some new friends. We spent the morning at a waterfall called Erawan waterfall. I've been to a few waterfalls in my traveling, and this is by far the best. At times I thought it was fake. I hiked to the top, which took about an hour, then on the way down I stopped to swim in a few of the pools. The waterfalls had some natural rock slides, so we had some fun climbing up and sliding down. There are fish in the pools, both big and small, that swarm to you when you swim, and eat your dead skin off. It feels like theyre nibbling at your skin, and while it only just tickles, the occasional big fish takes a bite that stings.
After lunch, we went to an elephant camp, where I rode on the back of an elephant named, boombay. I got to sit on her head, while the tourguide walked ahead. At first it was a little frightening, but she walked so slow and had such a sturdy step that I wasn't worried about falling off any longer. I think elephants are fascinating, and it was fun to see them up close.
We had a few other stops on the tour, including a bamboo raft, and a train ride on the "death railway" (the one built by POWs during WW2).
Back in town, I met up with Molly, and the Thai "mother" she lives with, Peoria. They took me out to dinner, and showed me some new thai dishes that are delicious (som dtam plaad grobe, moo yan, ptom yon goon..... translated this is spicy papaya salad with crispy fish, fried pork slices with sticky rice, and a mushroom and shrimp soup). It's nice to have people around who know what to order... and for cheap too! After dinner we met up with some other teachers that work with Molly. A guy from scotland, a guy from Turkey, and a girl from Germany. They were all interesting and had positive teaching experiences to share with me.
I've spent some time exploring the city here too... My first day I rented a bicycle and cruised around town. It was nice to be out of the crowded cities of Pattaya and Bangkok, and see the rural countryside of Thailand. Today, Molly and I rented motobikes and cruised up through the mountains and on some backroads. It was a lot of fun to see the people working in the rice fields, driving goats across the road, rural temples that are being overgrown with plants, roosters strutting around. Everything was picturesque. And then there's the motobike... Extremely fun and a bit frightening all at the same time. We rented the bikes for 3$ each... they weren't difficult to drive, but it was still interesting to navigate the roads. Driving on the left, passing others and being passed, trying to read signs written in thai. It was tons of fun. Molly and I stopped at a small restaurant on the side of the road for dinner... There was no one else around, we sat on the side of the road under grass canopies, and watched the sun go down behind the river. Unreal.
Tomorrow I'm taking a minibus to Bangkok, an overnight train to Surat Thani, a bus to Krabi, and a ferry to Koh Phi Phi (an island in southern thailand). It will be almost 24 hours of traveling... yikes. Wish me luck!
Kanchanaburi's claim to fame is the bridge over river Kwai... there are a lot of museums here that talk about the area during world war 2. I visited the JEATH Museum, which showed pictures and gave info about the several thousand POWs (mostly Australian) who died here, and the thousands of Thais as well. Most died from diseases and inadequate medical supplies. It has an interesting story for those of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie. The POWs were being driven by the japonese to work 18 hours per day, but living in terror of being bombed by the Americans.
Kanchanaburi also has quite a selection of ecotourist excursions. I signed up for one, and left on a day trip with a small group made up of swiss, german, french, and british travelers... It was a good group and I made some new friends. We spent the morning at a waterfall called Erawan waterfall. I've been to a few waterfalls in my traveling, and this is by far the best. At times I thought it was fake. I hiked to the top, which took about an hour, then on the way down I stopped to swim in a few of the pools. The waterfalls had some natural rock slides, so we had some fun climbing up and sliding down. There are fish in the pools, both big and small, that swarm to you when you swim, and eat your dead skin off. It feels like theyre nibbling at your skin, and while it only just tickles, the occasional big fish takes a bite that stings.
After lunch, we went to an elephant camp, where I rode on the back of an elephant named, boombay. I got to sit on her head, while the tourguide walked ahead. At first it was a little frightening, but she walked so slow and had such a sturdy step that I wasn't worried about falling off any longer. I think elephants are fascinating, and it was fun to see them up close.
We had a few other stops on the tour, including a bamboo raft, and a train ride on the "death railway" (the one built by POWs during WW2).
Back in town, I met up with Molly, and the Thai "mother" she lives with, Peoria. They took me out to dinner, and showed me some new thai dishes that are delicious (som dtam plaad grobe, moo yan, ptom yon goon..... translated this is spicy papaya salad with crispy fish, fried pork slices with sticky rice, and a mushroom and shrimp soup). It's nice to have people around who know what to order... and for cheap too! After dinner we met up with some other teachers that work with Molly. A guy from scotland, a guy from Turkey, and a girl from Germany. They were all interesting and had positive teaching experiences to share with me.
I've spent some time exploring the city here too... My first day I rented a bicycle and cruised around town. It was nice to be out of the crowded cities of Pattaya and Bangkok, and see the rural countryside of Thailand. Today, Molly and I rented motobikes and cruised up through the mountains and on some backroads. It was a lot of fun to see the people working in the rice fields, driving goats across the road, rural temples that are being overgrown with plants, roosters strutting around. Everything was picturesque. And then there's the motobike... Extremely fun and a bit frightening all at the same time. We rented the bikes for 3$ each... they weren't difficult to drive, but it was still interesting to navigate the roads. Driving on the left, passing others and being passed, trying to read signs written in thai. It was tons of fun. Molly and I stopped at a small restaurant on the side of the road for dinner... There was no one else around, we sat on the side of the road under grass canopies, and watched the sun go down behind the river. Unreal.
Tomorrow I'm taking a minibus to Bangkok, an overnight train to Surat Thani, a bus to Krabi, and a ferry to Koh Phi Phi (an island in southern thailand). It will be almost 24 hours of traveling... yikes. Wish me luck!
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