Travels in Southeast Asia

Picture Slideshow

2007-01-05T02:23:31Z

Picture Slideshow remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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1000 riels=16000 dong=10000 kip=35 baht

2006-12-19T01:05:20Z

I find it a bit surreal sitting here in a Bangkok guest house, at a coin-operated computer, on my last day of traveling. I've always thought of this day as so far in the future- and now I’m actually here, about to go home!
Bangkok...where to start... After coming from Cambodia, and then Vietnam and Laos, Bangkok is quite the place to be dropped at 10 o'clock at night! I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed! I suppose I've been to a couple cities (in Vietnam) since I've left Cambodia, but even Hanoi, the bustling capital of Vietnam is like "city-light" compared to Bangkok -I'm talking Miller Light to Guinness, seriously...
After wandering around for quite some time, I ended up in a crappy guesthouse with bugs and cold water. I was also tired from my travels and, overall, couldn't be bothered with navigating the city for a day- I even thought about seeing if I could move my flights up.
Well, I woke up this morning and decided I was being a wuss and ended up actually having a pretty good day! I started out wandering all over the city, visiting various Wats and some other random sights. I ended up getting a really cheap tuk tuk fare- except that every so often, I had to stop and look at gems at various stores so the driver could get gas coupons. I ended up (not quite sure how) at a giant shopping mall -actually more like 4 shopping malls connected by giant walkways across various streets. It was like nothing I've seen in a LONG time! I found myself walking around with my eyes wide open like I was from some remote tribe and this was my first time in the "big" city! I did get a bit lost for a while but then I realized- how lost can you get in a city that actually has Starbucks! I ended up getting a ride in a van with a bunch of school kids heading home (still not quite sure how that worked out.) I've also broken my record for the most time waited to cross a street, EVER.
Later, I walked over to the Grand Palace and temple of the Emerald Buddha. By chance, I managed to slide right into the temple just as it was closing and a huge celebration for Buddha day was starting, which was quite cool. After that it was back to Khao San road for some exploring...
I'm excited to be going home -if not a bit exhausted from my travels as well. It's going to be weird coming back to the "real world." What do I say to people when they ask the inevitable: "how was Cambodia?" How do I explain the things I've seen? What's the best way to explain the feeling you get when a mother in the slums offers to give you her son because she knows anything you could offer would be a better life? Actually, there's a better question: how do you fix the things that I've seen?
On a lighter note, I feel like I've definitely come a long way, literally AND figuratively. It's been one hell of a ride...

1000 riels=16000 dong=10000 kip=35 baht remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Laos

2006-12-13T13:57:11Z

Laos is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! It is much more similar to Cambodia than Vietnam. I spent Saturday exploring the capital, Vientiane, which is a small but cute city (if you can call it that). It reminded me a lot of Cambodia- except with a lot less motos and these weird things called jumbos, which look a bit like tuk tuks but have the front part of a moto built in...hard to explain! I had a long walk around town to see most of the sights including several really beautiful Wats. I also went to see the national monument of Laos, Pha That Luang, which is the symbol of the Buddhist religion in Laos. It is a giant stupa, covered in gold, which, on a clear sunny day like the day I was there, look very impressive!

On Sunday, I took a bus to Veng Vieng, a small town north of Vientiane, about 1/3 of the way to Luang Prabang. This was arguably one of the most beautiful places I've been in my travels. The town runs along a river and is surrounded by giant limestone karsts (like a mountain). I rented a bike and rode across the river and through dried up rice field to the base of one of the karsts and then hiked up to a couple caves that weren't too hard to reach. The caves were really cool- and there was an amazing view from up there! I would've liked to stay longer and do some trekking, etc... but I had to move on to Luang Prabang the next day, which is where I a now!
The bus ride from Vang Vieng was the most amazing bus ride I've ever taken. It goes way up into the mountains along a narrow road and around very sharp corners! It was a bit unnerving to come around a sharp corner with a sheer drop on one side, but on the other hand, the view was absolutely amazing the whole time! We drove by small villages that reminded me a lot of the Cambodian countryside (except with mountains!)
Luang Prabang, a designated UNESCO world heritage site (as they won't soon let you forget!), deserves its reputation. It has a very prevalent French influence -so much that, walking down some of the side streets to the river, you feel as if you could really be in France! -then you pass a Wat or a monk! As I sit here writing this, I can here the heavy drum beat from the Wat across the street, where a group of monks are calling for prayer.
Yesterday, I climbed up the slopes of Phu Si the temples at the top and the ancient footprint of the Buddha (and not to mention the stunning view of the city from the top).
Today, after spending most of the day walking all over town, I went out of town to a huge waterfall, which was really cool (literally). All in all, Laos has been amazing- but I have to admit, that might be in part because it reminds me a bit of Cambodia! Tomorrow I've got most of the day to explore Luang Prabang some more before I head off to Bangkok (my final stop!!)

Laos remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Northern Vietnam

2006-12-11T11:22:13Z

I feel like i've been traveling FORVER!!! From Hoi An, I took an afternoon bus (nice change!) to Hue, the old intellectual capital of Vietnam. It's a cute city that runs along the perfume river. (note: river does NOT actualy smell like perfume- actually, quite far from it!) The weather hasn't been so great since we've headed north- it's rained almost every day. It's weird to think that Cambodia and Vietnam have such different weather (completely different monsoon seasons.)
The first day I was in Hue, I wasn't actually in Hue! I went up to see the DMZ (de-militarized zone, khe sahn, and a couple other war sites.) It was pretty eerie to wander around sites that had been such household names during the war (even though I wasn't around then!) I was also the only American (that I knew of) that went along w/ any of the tours, which felt a bit weird. I tried to imagine what it would be like to come back to those places as a veteran. Listening to 60's & 70's anti-war music as we drove around to all of these sites gave me an uncanny sense of nostalgia for something that I wasn't even alive for...
After a day exploring Hui itself, I was back on another night train to Hanoi! This train was a LOT more crowded than the last one and a bit more...well...disgusting. I'm not quite sure why people insist on spitting on the floor or can't ever pee without hitting the seat!
Anyway, I liked Hanoi a lot. I stayed in old town which has all these really neat winding streets (w/ more travel companies than you could ever imagine!) After spending a day cruising around Hanoi, I went to Halong Bay and stayed overnight on a boat. It was cool, except the weather wasn't ideal -it rained a lot and since it was misty, you couldn't see the karsts that well. It was still beautiful though...
Well, then it was back to Hanoi before heading off to Laos for 6 days! I'm pretty tired of doing the tourist "thing" so i'm looking forward to carving my own path in Laos!

Northern Vietnam remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Southern Vietnam

2006-12-09T11:47:54Z

After a slight delay in Saigon (waiting for Sonja and being sick), I've continued up the coast of Vietnam. I decided the basic itinerary early on, but in terms of a time frame, things have been a bit on the fly. I have to admit, I didn't love Saigon- but to be fair, I'm not sure if that's Saigon itself of the fact that I was (am) missing Cambodia and a bit sick for most of my time there.
I took a bus from Saigon to Mui Ne, which is a really awesome beach town with the most amazing sand dunes I have ever seen. They call it the Sahara of Vietnam- several km's of HUGE sand dunes, to the point where you could walk a bit and feel like you're in the middle of the desert! Mui Ne was also a nice stop because it's a beautiful beach w/out the hassels and crowds of Nha Trang.
After a couple nights in Mui Ne, I took another bus to Nha Trang and immediately got on the overnight train to Hoi An. It actually sounds a lot worse that it was. There was a bit of confusion when we walked out to where you wait for the train in the dark and there were 4 tracks and no signs about which was which (even the locals were confused!) Luckily, we worked it out and were pleased to find a fairly empty car so we could sleep on two seats!
Arriving in Hoi An at 5am was quite the experience. It was still dark and I was quite tired from the...well, lets just call it the "less than perfect sleeping accomodation" of the previous night. Anyway, with a bit of wandering and a lot of haggling, we actually ended up at a really nice hotel (for our standards!). The town of Hoi An is quite cute- a small vietnamese city mixed in with a quintessential french town!
I can't get over how different Vietnam is from Cambodia. I remember leaning out the window as we crossed the border, trying to get a first look at the country. Immediately, I laughed at myself, thinking: "jo, do you REALLY think it's going to be THAT different just across the border?!" But it WAS!! It was almost as if people traded in their Kramas for triangle hats as they crossed! There are also drastic differences in terms of the poverty and development...Cambodia has a long way to go. On the other hand, momentos of war are impossible to miss. I find myself constantly reminded as an American (through signs, museums, memorials, etc...) of the atrocities caused by the "American War" (a lot of countries refer to it as this- but the vietnamese do quite fervently.) The "American War", the "Vietnam War"- neither of us seem to want to claim it...

Southern Vietnam remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Knyom nuk niat, kampuchea!

2006-12-31T08:02:39Z

It's been a while since my last post but I've been VERY busy! I had a good week w/ mom who randomly decided to visit for a week! It was nice to show her the sites around PP and then we were off to Siem Reap for a long weekend to see the Angkorian temples, which were absolutely amazing. I'll be posting pictures of them when I get a chance. The the following week I was busy getting ready to say goodbye to Cambodia! I can't believe time passed so quickly! I spent most of this week buying goodbye presents for people, setting up a party for the kids at the center, and cramming all my belongings into my 50 litre backpack! It was quite surreal on thursday morning to be sitting on a bus leaving Cambodia! Thursday was overall a pretty stressful day- first, as I was packing, a scorpion crawls out of a box I had on my shelf. I just picked the box up and it fell out and crawled under my backpack. So then I'm like "great, WHAT am I supposed to do now?" Did I mention that it was about 15 min before I had to leave for the bus? Luckily donnai came home a few min later and I went up to her and was like "donnai, in my room, BUG- SCARY BUG"- I finally drew her a picture and shes like "ohhhhh baaaad". So there we are standing on the bed in my room with a tiny can of buy spray and a 6 foot metal duster handle prodding at the backpack! Shes about to poke the backpack when she turns to me and asks "how big"? I demonstrate about 2 inches with my fingers and she heads back upstairs and comes back 2 minutes later w/ a 10 foot metal duster handle (much more suitable!)
donnai and jo: 1, scorpion: 0
So after that whole event was over, I realize that the text message in which jacqui sent the name of the hotel where i'm to meet her in Ho Chi Minh City, has been automatically deleted from our apt phone. Excellent! So an hour later I find myself alone on a bus to Ho Chi Minh City with a dead cell phone, a week-expired cambodian visa and not a clue where I'm supposed to be going when I arrive! I even used my best Khmer to borrow someones phone before we crossed the border but realized jacqui's phone doesn't work now that shes left cambodia (and she also hasn't had working email). Needless to say the day was quite and experience! I came up w/ a plan to go to the main backpacker area in the city where I figured I was likely to find an internet cafe, where I hoped I could check facebook and find a message from her w/ the hotel name. Thank god for luck, facebook, and globalization! I was able to throw on my backpack, find an internet cafe, get the name of the hotel from facebook, and ask directions to it in english! So here I am in Vietnam! More vietnam adventures to come...

Knyom nuk niat, kampuchea! remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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"Knoym jung om tuk?"

2006-11-11T04:53:20Z

So I've had a pretty action-packed week. Last weekend was Bon Om Tuk, which is the giant water festival in Phnom Penh to celebrate the flow of the Tonle Sap changing directions. Over three days (sat-mon) teams from the provinces come with their boats to race. Thousands of people flock to the riverside in PP (Cambodians and foreigners) and watch the races. Despite what I'd heard about problems w/ crowd control, pickpockets, etc... I had a really awesome time! We followed the locals and sat over the wall that lines the riverside and had an excellent view. The boats are crazy! They are all decorated really beautifully and usually have about 50 rowers (although on some big ones I counted 80!) When I joked about wanting to go in one of the boats, I found myself being hoisted into one of the boats by donnai and some boatmen! It was crazy!! All of a sudden i'm standing in this boat with an oar in my hand and all these Cambodians cheering/laughing! It was hilarious! Well at least I now know how to say I want to row in the boat (knoym jung om tuk)!
Last Saturday, Nary (one of the CCASVA street workers) took me to her home outside of PP. It was really sweet. It's amazing how you can travel just 30 min outside PP and be in the middle of nowhere in rural Cambodia. I did, as I had feared, have to choke down a "lovely" home cooked meal at her house. Lucky for me I got to see the chicken we ate when it was bought from the local market with flies swarming all over it! yum! We've developed a saying around here: TGFR (thank god for rice!) Aside from the meal, the day was really cool. I went to a beautiful pagoda with nary's niece and got to see some really beautiful scenery!
On Thursday I was back out for another adventure w/ nary- this time with her husband and Mr. songheng (another street worker.) Now when I was invited to this one the language barrier proved a bit difficult and all I understood was "on Thursday we take you far outside PP to walk by river."- well, it sounded fun and besides, not knowing where you're going is quite the adventure! We ended up in Takiev province, about 30 km outside PP. Despite the constant uncertainty of where we were going, the day was actually really, really fun. We went to Nary's sister's house and had lunch (TGFR again!) and then went to this beautiful river where we went for a boat ride and had a swim. Then we went to see this ancient temple that predates the Angkor wat temples- I got a little taste of what I’ll see next weekend when I go to Siem Reap. I'm really grateful to Nary and Mr. Songheng for taking me out on these excursions and it makes me really glad that I did not just come to Cambodia as a tourist- I wouldn't have gotten to do any of these crazy trips!

"Knoym jung om tuk?" remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hell on Earth

2006-10-29T10:12:32Z

They call it "Smokey Mountain": over 100 acres of mountainous trash where roughly 2,000 people -600 of whom are children -spend the greater part of their lives. On Tuesday, I took a brief ride on a moto to the edge of the city, crossed rivers of shit and dump runoff and saw a glimpse of the most horrible place I have ever been to in my life.
CCASVA (the NGO I'm working for for those who haven't been following) doesn't work at the Steung Meanchey Dump, but after asking them about it at our last staff meeting, they decided they would take us there to show us. I had read about it, but I was completely unprepared for what I would see. Where the Killing Fields and S-21 prison are a chilling glimpse of tradgedies past, the Steung Meanchey dump is a harsh sense of reality.
The first thing you notice is the smell. I could barely make out the towering hills of trash in the distance when I noticed the rank smell that saturated the air or the surrounding blocks. The road leading up to the dumps main entrance was litterally a river of dump runoff -it seemed to actually have a current. The rain from monsoon season and the natural decay of years old trash created a deep thick, gray-brown mess and the dump trucks that passed through it sunk up to the top of their wheel wells. As we carefully navigated our way into the dump, we saw children walk past us, wading in sludge up to their knees. At times we had to back up, run and jump between dry pieces of land to get into the actual dump itself, knowing that if we missed, we would end up lying in liquid trash.
The full impact of the scene didn't hit me until I was standing on a giant heap of trash, looking out around me at an endless stretch of garbage, where men, women, and children were diligently collecting plastic and other recyclible materials. The dump itself is actually constantly burning since the waste creates methane as it rots (hence the name "Smokey Mountain." I've been told that on average, an adult makes no more than a few thousand riels a day (about 75 cents.) -And yet, its the stories of the children that strik me the most. Most of them walk through the heaps of trash (which includes glass, used condoms and needles) with only flimsy sandals or no shoes at all -but the risk of HIV is hardly the end of their worries. Every year, several children are killed when they are run over by garbage trucks and bulldozers. Most of the time no on notices -they simply don't show up to meet their parents at the end of the day and die alone in an endless heap of trash.
I appologize for the dark sincerity of this post but it is something that I couldn't leave out. I'll be posting pictures of the dump on an album on my dotphoto site (site at the top of the page.)

Hell on Earth remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Trip to Svey Reng province

2006-10-25T11:15:21Z

Last weekend we were invited for a day trip to the Svey Reng province, to the homeland of some of our staff, for the Katan festival. Svey Reng is a little over three hours SE of PP, near the Veitnamese border. We all got up at 6am Sunday morning and piled into a minibus, which was at least 15 yrs old, with Sophan (assistant director), Peseth, Sitar, Donnai (who cooks for us), and some more random Khmers. -a bit cramped, but I wasn't complaining (beats a cramped, broken pickup with spitting babies, a pee pot, etc...!)
The whole experience was really sweet. When our van pulled up to the pagoda, we were swamped by at least 50 kids, many of whom had never seen white people before. After warm welcomes from some of the villagers and relatives of Donnai and Sitar, we sat down and were served an interesting meal of fish (whole, with the works: eyes, bones, skin, etc...), fish paste (didn't even try this one- but it was apparantly so good a friend of mine almost spit it out on the table- shes so polite!). There were Khmer noodles (thank god for starch!) It was pretty amusing...also there was a crowd of people standing around our table watching us crazy caucasians eat!
After lunch, we watched the festivities inside the actual pagoda. There were about 5 monks chanting a prayer and every so often the people praying would join them in the chanting. It was pretty cool to watch. When they were finished, we joined then for a cerimonious walk around the new temple being built. Some nice lady gave me incense sticks to carry around like everyone else so I felt like I fit right in! More chanting and then it was off to Donnai's house for lunch. Wait, didn't we just eat lunch a couple hours ago? Nope, apparantly that was snack! Overall, the trip was really an awesome experience and definitely not something I could have done as a tourist!

Trip to Svey Reng province remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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a month past

2006-10-18T10:53:30Z

It's hard to believe i've already been here for over a month!! On the other hand, I've gotten so used to the way of life here that home seems soooo far in the past... Last weekend was a really sweet time. We (about 8 of us) went to Sihanoukville for the long weekend. Sihanoukville is west of PP, on the coast (yep, the BEACH!) The bus ride was quite luxurious compared to our mondulkiri adventure- yes! we all had our very own seat! We left early Saturday morning and I slept most of the 5 hour ride there (well, as much as you can sleep with the driver constantly blaring the horn.) Drivers here insist on using the horn to warn slower cars, motos, naked children, cows, etc... that they're flying down the road behind them. Anyway, we stayed at a pretty nice guesthouse. There were no bed sheets and only cold water but it was right on the beach which was really nice. It had such a different feel than the dusty dirty streets that are PP. So we spent Sat, Sun, and Monday morning lounging on the beach soaking up the sun and avoiding "madame, madame you buy bracelet!"..."Oh you buy fruit from me...oo ok maybe massage yes you buy -ohhh why your friend buy and not you- you buy from me?"
But really though the beach was nice. It was nice to go back to work on Tuesday though. I missed the kids in the center. It's been a tough week working in the slums though. Yesterday I went to a slum that's predominantly Vietnamese and saw a couple shooting up while their newborn baby was being looked after by a neighbor kid. It rained a ton last night and so parts of the slum were completely flooded. Several houses (shacks really) had a foot of water in them. We got one boy into vocational training today though. He's 16 and is going to learn how to cut hair. He'll earn a decent wage and hopefully be able to open his own shop someday.
Still trying to decide what to do during my 3 weeks of travel time. So far the plan is to go to Vietnam for a bit under two weeks, then head to Laos, and then end in Bangkok for a couple days before flying home. Plan is still in the works though.
I'll be uploading some more pictures to dotphoto (address at top of page) in the next few days. Also, if any of you use skype, my username is jmalsch - call me, its free!- if i'm on its early in the morning your time or maybe at night on weekends.

a month past remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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CCASVA

2006-10-04T13:31:52Z

I've been here almost three weeks now and I figure its about time to write a bit about work. I work for an NGO (defined above) that works with street children in phnom penh. In the mornings, I go out with a field worker to various parts of the city to look after street kids and help some get vocational training/school. The problem is parents don't want their kids to go to school because if they do, they aren't on the streets making money for the family. To make matters worse public school in cambo isn't really free and the teachers demand money from the kids to pay their salary. Boils down to lack of gov support but we won't get into that...

Yesterday, I was in the most unbelievable slum area. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before in my life - even worse than some of the slums I've already been to in cambo. It was made up of alleys (narrow walkways really) lined with dirty shacks made from whatever materials people could find (usually tin, wood, and debris.) The ground, including that inside the houses, if a mix of mud, shit and trash. Some of the houses are on short stilts that actually sit on heaps of trash. As you walk through the alleys you pass by dirty naked children running around playing with scraps of plastic and trash. There are flies everywhere and you bat them away at first but then realize that it's not even worth it- there are too many. The people living there don't seem to even notice when they land on their faces- they just let them sit there. We stopped to talk to a girl who had stopped going to school. But how do you explain the importance of education to someone whose family relies on them to beg so they can eat. As the field worker spoke in khmer to the girls mother, I listened- but I could only make out that the mother had AIDS. I've since visited slum areas almost every day and you do get a bit hardened to the scene- but hardened isn't to say that you arent appalled or will ever forget it.

On a lighter note, I absolutely love it here. I've been here almost three weeks and I can already tell that it is the most unbelievable experience I've ever had. This crazy country, with all of its poverty- but also beauty, is really starting to grow on me.

CCASVA remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Mondulkiri

2006-09-25T11:16:28Z

So this past weekend was the pchum ben festival where pretty much everyone leaves phnom penh thursday to visit their families in the provinces. 8 of us decided to take a trip to Mondulkiri (about 8 hours east of PP) for the long weekend. 5 people left wednesday but three of us still had to work wed so we left thursday- anyway, we bought tickets to take a truck, which is just about the only way to get there since more than half of the ride is on dirt roads which are made even worse by the fact that its monsoon season. So we show up for the truck and find that all 3 of us are squeezed in the back seat with another woman and a baby (yes that would be 4 people and a baby in the back seat of a pickup truck). Wow, where to begin... first there was the baby. I was wondering to myself what would happen if the baby had to pee (or worse) since no one here uses diapers. Well, my question was answered when the mother took out a small bucket and held the baby over it every so often! - and then put it back on the floor by my feet! Then there was the driver who must of had a chest cold or something because he kept making the most horrid snorting noise every few minutes and then he would spit whatever nasty stuff came up out the window. Absolutely disgusting. Then, the toddler sitting in the front seat turned around and spit at us!! Did I mention that the truck broke down and the ride ended up taking 11 hours!! On the other hand, the trip there was so horrible it was actually hilarious!

Mondulkiri itself was really amazing. We did a two day elephant trek through the jungle to this remote village that can only be reached by either elephant or walking. The village people killed a chicken with a slingshot for our dinner! It was pretty amazing to see these people whose lives had remained pretty much unchanged for years, even as other parts of Cambodia developed. We slept overnight in a thatch roof hut on a wooden plank with mosquito nets. It was pretty damn uncomfortable but a really interesting experience nonetheless. It was a great weekend but we all were happy to get back to PP and clean hot showers!

I'm still trying to upload all my pictures but its been taking a really long time, so bare with me! Hopefully I'll get them all up in the next few days. The site for those is at the top of the page!

Mondulkiri remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wat Phnom, Royal Palace, Russian Market

2006-09-19T10:52:25Z

I spent all of the weekend exploring Phom Penh with a flatmate. We started at Wat Phnom, which is a pretty important Wat. It sits on a hill (the only hill in Phom Penh). You can walk through the temples and around the grounds, which are really beautiful. From what I understand, people go to this temple specifically for good luck. There are hundreds of statues inside holding 100 riel notes (note: 4,000 riel = $1 US).

The Russian Market is a HUUUGE market with things like clothes, carvings, silver, dvds, etc... It also has a food section that smelled like dead fish and god knows what... You can even buy fried spiders and crickets from stands outside!

I spent most of Sunday exploring the Royal Palace grounds. The grounds themselves are huge and house the royal quarters, the Silver Pagoda, and various other ornate structures. (see pictures)

Wat Phnom, Royal Palace, Russian Market remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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My Cambodian Introduction

2006-09-19T10:42:05Z

So after 24 hours of traveling I'm finally here! I've never been a diary type of person so anyone who reads this will just have to bear with me a little...

So I arrived on Saturday morning (Friday night US time) and found that after I got my visa straightened out, my bag was still in San Francisco. Luckily I had most of my stuff in my backpack so I wasn't in too much trouble. Someone from the program met me at the airport and took me to the flat I'll be staying in for the next 2.5 months. It's in an area called Bueung Tom Pon, which isn't very developed (no land line phones yet). Most of the buildings on our road are just shacks that are open in the front and on stilts in back (there is a swamp/lake behind our house.)

After I dropped off my stuff I decided to go right out and see the city with one of my flatmates. We got on a moto (small motorcycle thats the most common from of transportation). It was pretty surreal to be on a plane one minute (actually many MANY minutes) and then riding around on a moto through this crazy city the next!

Phnom Penh is a really interesting city. There is so much diversity in the buildings. You could pass a nice store with glass doors and right next to it could be a row of dirty tin shacks (see photos of my street!) There are Wats (temples) all over the city, which makes for a really exotic landscape. At first I was terrified to go out on my own because I thought I'd never be able to find my way back but by Monday I'd pretty much worked out some main landmarks to direct moto drivers. There is a monument called Kbar Knarl right near our street which is a good tool for direction. All moto drivers know where that is, even though they might not recognize Boeung Tom Pon.

My Cambodian Introduction remains copyright of the author jmalsch, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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