An update AND a great song from fantastic back in the day artist Raffi! If you've never listened to 'Bananaphone', you are missing out.
Where to begin..where to begin. I often find myself putting off my blog updates, procrastinating over and over until eventually I force myself to sit down and type up an update. It would probably make more sense for me to write snippets a few times a week, collect my thoughts, edit them, and then paste them to the blog, but that would be too easy.
A couple weeks ago, our friend Brian came to visit Cambodia after finishing his service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia. The first weekend he was in town, we took the five or six hour (I was passed out for most of it) bus ride down to Sihanoukville, a beautiful beach town and popular tourist destination, and spent a couple days enjoying the beach, a nice, cheap guesthouse, and some much needed time away from Phnom Penh. I'll get more into why time away from Phnom Penh has been much needed, a bit further down in the post. Anyways, it was a nice couple days away, the food was good, and spending some time near the coast is always nice. During the week we took Brian to some of our favorite restaurants, enjoyed a bit more beer and unhealthy food than usual, and spent a lot of time sitting in the apartment, doing nothing, because as Brian would say, "It's bloody hot." It HAS been pretty hot lately, even for Cambodia. April and May were supposed to be the hottest months and while they were pretty hot, the past few few weeks have had some days where the heat is almost unbearable. I've been in some hot weather (29 Palms, Iraq, Kuwait) but the heat and humidity here just suck all the life out of you some days. Taking a nap in the afternoon almost makes things worse as waking up becomes a sweaty, exhausted struggle.
The next weekend we spent two and a half days in Siem Reap, with the intention of taking Brian to see the beautiful temples of Angkor Wat and spending some relaxing time in Siem Reap, a much more relaxed, cool and fun town than Phnom Penh. Our plan was interrupted by a first night of drinking far too many delicious beverages at the Island Bar in one of Siem Reap's many night markets, preventing any of us from waking up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning. Resigned to spending the day in town and putting off Angkor Wat until Sunday, we set about doing some shopping. We managed to pick up a few souvenirs, trinkets, gifts and what not and then found ourselves standing in front of a Mexican restaurant advertising (if I can recall this correctly) "the best Mexican food in Siem Reap" along with 50 cent draft beers, dollar margaritas and dollar tacos. Seven hours and 48 dollars later, we pretty much had to call it an early night. Fun and delicious? No doubt. Smart? Debatable.
Once again, our inability to resist cheap drinks had thwarted us. Needless to say, the next day we were struggling again. Hanna, having been to Angkor Wat twice, decided to stay back and Brian and I decided to grab a tuk tuk and take the short tour of the temples, so that he could at least see it and make it seem like his trip to Siem Reap was productive. ;) To me, Angkor Wat was just as impressive the second time and I was able to take some great pictures and see a few things that I didn't see the first time(I'll put some pics up in my next post!). We came back on the night bus with some type of 'sleeper' compartments instead of chairs, which was a bit more comfortable than the usual buses. The weekend in Siem Reap was great and I wish I was able to spend more time there. If you plan a trip to Cambodia or stop in on part of a bigger trip, you should spend more time in Siem Reap and not bother too much with Phnom Penh. Everything that is worth doing in Phnom Penh can be done in two or three days, if that.
Speaking of which, I'd just like to say that the novelty of living in Phnom Penh wore off a long time ago. I have found myself becoming increasingly cynical, angry, bitter and frustrated with the city, the people, all the things that are 'wrong' with the city and it's not exactly doing wonders for my over all disposition. Some of these frustrations find their roots in the details that I posted in my blog post "Cambodia, two months later" on June 27th. It gets old having to make comments or stare back at the countless men who leer disgustingly at my girlfriend as we walk or run anywhere around the city. Men here have absolutely no shame and it's not limited to one particular group, it's pretty much every single guy in the city, poor, rich, young, old, well dressed overachieving businessmen, teenagers dressed like Japanimation characters, skeezy, dirty tuk tuk and moto drivers, etc. Even lams (Buddhist monks) have no self control and will shamelessly oggle (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oggle)Hanna (or any girl wearing shorts, a skirt, a tank top, etc.) until I give them the trademark Matt Becker look of death. Shit, it doesn't even matter if they are wearing something remotely revealing or not, men will stare anyways, it's pretty disturbing. If it was just me that was bothered, I'm sure it might be partially chalked up to some type of insecurity but it really bothers Hanna and makes her uncomfortable.
I also find myself straining not to scream at every other tuk tuk driver or moto driver who thinks that either A) if I ignore their repeated calls, I must not be hearing them and they should yell louder or B) my response of a firm 'No' or 'No, thanks' means they should continue to ask me if I want a tuk tuk or moto, if I want to buy marijuana, cocaine, or heroin, or if I want to go get a 'massage'. Annoying and aggravating most of the time, also a bit creepy.
Both Hanna and I have had enough of Phnom Penh so we recently made the decision to quit our jobs early and do a bit of traveling, outside of Cambodia, before we head back to the United States of Awesomerica. The tentative plan is to head to Vietnam around the 17th of August and spend a week or more there, depending on how much money is being burned, then to head to Laos, spend a few days there, and then back down into Cambodia for a few days before flying back to freedom land. I'm very excited to see Vietnam and Laos. Hanna has been to Vietnam once before but never to Laos. It will be fun and interesting to visit two new countries before coming back home.
In other news, we've reached almost 800 dollars to donate to Agii and Aiman, which I'm very excited about. I'm hoping to reach a thousand before I transfer the money next week but we'll see. :)
I am currently reading "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World" by Tracy Kidder and just finished up the 2006 book "Losing Our Democracy: How Bush, The Far Right, and Big Business Are Betraying Americans For Power and Profit' by Mark Green. I'm still running in the mornings, six days a week, working out with dumbbells and doing a lot of calisthenics in my free time and trying to catch up on news and movies. I just started watching the miniseries "Generation Kill" about Marines in Iraq and it's pretty good so far. I read the book it's based on a couple months back and really enjoyed it. If you haven't checked out either, I highly recommend them.
Hopefully this blog post wasn't too all over the place. I'll put up some pics from Siem Reap and a link to another photo album asap. My new main picture is from the Bayon temple at Angkor Wat.
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