Quiz night number two was a lot of fun. We didn't come in last place this time (which we did last time... ugh.. so embarassing). We made a few more friends and basiaclly booked up our social calander for the next week! yeeehawww
things are looking up.
minus my dentist incident OMG. so annoying. I lost my retainer. (I didn't want to admit this, but in type it isn't quite as embarassing...) basically I flushed it down the toilet DOH. so anyways, Iwent to get one remade before my teeth shift YIKES last friday and they took impressions, and then they said it would be ready in one week. I went to get them today and they made me a MOUTH GAURD and it was only for the top (which, I stil have the top, I only lost the bottom to the toilet..) UGH problem NOT SOLVED but further complicated. so annoying. I threw a hissy fit and went home. Not sure what I'mg onna do next. I'll keep you posted.
teaching is fun,
but generally being employed by this school is SO FRUSTRATING and confusing as hell. ugh.
Might get a new kitten tomorrow.
xoxox
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
back to school!
Back to school is what all the posters read at every shop in town. School took back in on May14th and, this my friends, is why Reffa and I have been extremely bad posters lately.
It was pretty hectic ! We had a meeting before school even started to solidify everything (which, if you've been paying attention really means -in thailand- that it's about to be further complicated...) . At this meeting there were 5 teachers, when we were distictly told that there were only 4 positions to be held by us four (scott, reffa, myself and an australian named Adam). So the spare man there, who was Gary was confused and embarassed when they FIRED reffa ON THE SPOT in front of everyone in a really awkward way- the assistant directer said "so there are 5 teachers and only 4 positions.. maybe one will have to go (giggle giggle) i think maybe reffa (bent over double laughing)"
we thought this was a joke. but it wasn't. Gary, an Englishman stood up and said if you'll excuse me, I'm embarassed that you've put me in this scenario. I Was under the impression that there was an opening, not a firing. and he left. Right after he left the assistant directer looked sheepishly at Reffa and said "... welcome back " with a big smile. This was the first 5 minutes of the meeting at 8:30am. OMG Thailand is hilarious.
The most ironic thing about it, is that they hired this Gary guy as a science teacher, when they had already told both Reffa and Adam (experienced teacher with a BSc) that they would be the science teacher?!!!!! ahhahahahahaaha. Now Reffa (the least experienced teacher with the least amount of education- ie. no degree....) is the official English Science Program Teacher for all of the school. HAHAHA I love it. (She really is the best of us 4 for the job though).
okay so , now it is back to the four of us teaching at Tuongwit patana private language school. it's a school only for pratom (meaning elementary school) . Boy oh boy is there drama. It's insane what we go through every day.
We were under strict orders not to speak even a word of Thai in our English classes (makes sense, right?) but this new guy, Adam can speak beautiful and fluent Thai (which I am so jealous about by the way... he's lived here 15 years mind you..) . He managed to take all of Scott's classes (which were the EP classes.. meaning English Program.) basically EP is the richer kids whose parents pay extra for them to have twice as much English training, Air conditioned classrooms (blissful), and proper testing. Scott now works on the third floor with younger kids who are non-EP with no Air conditioning... ugh. Adam is a cool guy, but Scott really wanted his same classes from last year. Adam is the only one of the 4 of us who does not get checked up upon and critisized . We suspect this is becuase he does not have the same language barrier as us.
Also,
Starting this week we will be working with our friend Kingsley, who quit the school where we're working, fucked over Orapin (The disorganized lady who left our important papers in the tree.... and other similar rediculous stories....... which we haven't yet told you half of. ). .. anyways .. he fucked her over by opening a brand new language school behind her back!!!!!!! He's employing us!!!!!! So now we're awkwardly working for both, whom are fighting with one another. (the three of us are helplessly stuck in the middle of our business-agressive high tempered english friend and our disorganized, confusing, broken english thai employer.... figure that one out..) .
Right now we are making 375 baht an hour. The school pays 500 baht. Orapin gets the extra 125 baht per hour for being our employer and she's supposed to take care of us, help us with paperwork etc etc. but she really does nothing of the sort. the only thing she does is cause a greater headache for any issues we already have on our plate by making it more erroneous, more ambiguous, and more confusing with extra elements. Starting next semester (if we make it that long ..) we will be working direct for the school and upping our wage by about 25% YAY. much better. AND we won't have to deal with Orapin.
We are also about to purchase a new motorbike. We are currently renting (from orapin of all people...) but have no idea about insurence or anything. we want to buy our own so that any problems are our own. We don't neccessarily trust her to take care of us in case of an accident or something. YIKES. We just drive extra super duper safe.
Our crazy neighbor is at it again.
I was laying in my underwear watching a movie (common for Saturday mornings) when a strange smoking man showed up at my door. he spoke thai asking if he could "do fai nai hong nohn" which means, can i look at your lighting in the second bedroom. I said.... umm... no.! who are you? (in thai) and then my crazy neighbor said (in half enlgish half thai) "Jesse! he come to look at light, broken light in house!" and so I let him in (cigarette and all..) to look at the light (after putting clothes on, of course). I'm hopelessly wanrdering around trying to figure out what's going on while he "fixes" our lightbulb. All in all, his strange and unexpected visit costed me 400 baht (about 12 dollars) just because our neighbor somehow knew that our lightbulb was going to burn out soon. !?!!!!!!!! (and it was, but I don't care- we don't even use that room!!!) she will NOT leave us alone. AND for the past week, we daily have strangers coming to our garden and planting weird plants. I don't know why, or how it's being paid for, but I think Par (neighbor's name) has something to do with it........ crazy crazy lady. I hear her beating her autistic child everyday. what a sin. we can't report her, because you're allowed to do whatever you want with your children.
what else is new....
congratulations to all my friends who graduated this year from university!! I'm super super proud of you. :):) HUGS.
OH my school from February FINALLY paid me the last of what they owed me so that problem has been solved!!
OH YEAH!! and, something very very exciting happened last week. We met a WHITE PERSON!!!!!!! this white person invited us to "quiz night" last thursday. We went and it was a lot of fun and it turns out there are a lot of people our age, who SPEAK english in Surat Thani. We have friends now!! (and one of the boys is really cute.. from California!). We are going again this week and they have like parties on the weekends and stuff and there are apparently certain bars you can go to where the Thai's are used to white faces and so you aren't stared at (I'm not sure if we've mentioned this lately... but they stare at us and gossip about us as if we're celebrities... everyone knws where we went and for how long on our vacation.. everyone knows where we work and what we wore yesterday... etc etc.. ) .
Anyways.. we can feel normal with friends that we can actually communicate with. this is a big deal. HURRAAAHHHH!!!!!
things are going well here,
although it's almost unbearably hot. we drip in sweat and shower 3 times , every day. it must be over 40 degrees? dunno. sometimes we're immobile for the afternoons we can't do anything but sweat and try to sleep away the heat. same as the Thais. it's defiantely hot season. hot/rainy season actually. *panting* it's 9:30pm and I'm still sweating today.
oh one more thing,
we went for our second round of laser hair removal in the arm pits. FUCKKKKKKING hell it hurts so bad. (excuse my french.) but honest... it hurts wayyy more than my tattoo did!!! I have red blisters and marks and swelling on my armpits (reffa fared better than I did- less sensitive skin) but you should see us getting lasered on the table... we like writhe in pain... cry etc. the works. yikes!!! It's ALMOST not worth it, but it is... to never have to shave again. Amazing though, hahaha it's only about 90$ per treatment and you only need 3, so just under 300$ to be hairless in one area. much more expensive back west. and the joules they use in Canada and America are between 13-18 (according to a website that I read up on). I want you to guess.. just GUESS before reading how many she used on me...
...
...
...
SIXTY EIGHT JOULES. wowza. no wonder it hurts.
okay, that's all the news I have for today! So sorry that it took a while to get another post up.
Rishard: safe travels my friend.
Charlotte: send me some wedding info
Maggie: OH BABY
Ally: xoxoxoxox miss you!
Mama: you're my favourite
Dad : congratulations
Erin : call me tomorrow
Grammie: If I could take all your pain away I would- and thank you so much for taking care of Lilly and replacing me!!! I can never thank you enough. :)
Grampie: Thanks for reading! I miss your hugs
Everyone: I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
It was pretty hectic ! We had a meeting before school even started to solidify everything (which, if you've been paying attention really means -in thailand- that it's about to be further complicated...) . At this meeting there were 5 teachers, when we were distictly told that there were only 4 positions to be held by us four (scott, reffa, myself and an australian named Adam). So the spare man there, who was Gary was confused and embarassed when they FIRED reffa ON THE SPOT in front of everyone in a really awkward way- the assistant directer said "so there are 5 teachers and only 4 positions.. maybe one will have to go (giggle giggle) i think maybe reffa (bent over double laughing)"
we thought this was a joke. but it wasn't. Gary, an Englishman stood up and said if you'll excuse me, I'm embarassed that you've put me in this scenario. I Was under the impression that there was an opening, not a firing. and he left. Right after he left the assistant directer looked sheepishly at Reffa and said "... welcome back " with a big smile. This was the first 5 minutes of the meeting at 8:30am. OMG Thailand is hilarious.
The most ironic thing about it, is that they hired this Gary guy as a science teacher, when they had already told both Reffa and Adam (experienced teacher with a BSc) that they would be the science teacher?!!!!! ahhahahahahaaha. Now Reffa (the least experienced teacher with the least amount of education- ie. no degree....) is the official English Science Program Teacher for all of the school. HAHAHA I love it. (She really is the best of us 4 for the job though).
okay so , now it is back to the four of us teaching at Tuongwit patana private language school. it's a school only for pratom (meaning elementary school) . Boy oh boy is there drama. It's insane what we go through every day.
We were under strict orders not to speak even a word of Thai in our English classes (makes sense, right?) but this new guy, Adam can speak beautiful and fluent Thai (which I am so jealous about by the way... he's lived here 15 years mind you..) . He managed to take all of Scott's classes (which were the EP classes.. meaning English Program.) basically EP is the richer kids whose parents pay extra for them to have twice as much English training, Air conditioned classrooms (blissful), and proper testing. Scott now works on the third floor with younger kids who are non-EP with no Air conditioning... ugh. Adam is a cool guy, but Scott really wanted his same classes from last year. Adam is the only one of the 4 of us who does not get checked up upon and critisized . We suspect this is becuase he does not have the same language barrier as us.
Also,
Starting this week we will be working with our friend Kingsley, who quit the school where we're working, fucked over Orapin (The disorganized lady who left our important papers in the tree.... and other similar rediculous stories....... which we haven't yet told you half of. ). .. anyways .. he fucked her over by opening a brand new language school behind her back!!!!!!! He's employing us!!!!!! So now we're awkwardly working for both, whom are fighting with one another. (the three of us are helplessly stuck in the middle of our business-agressive high tempered english friend and our disorganized, confusing, broken english thai employer.... figure that one out..) .
Right now we are making 375 baht an hour. The school pays 500 baht. Orapin gets the extra 125 baht per hour for being our employer and she's supposed to take care of us, help us with paperwork etc etc. but she really does nothing of the sort. the only thing she does is cause a greater headache for any issues we already have on our plate by making it more erroneous, more ambiguous, and more confusing with extra elements. Starting next semester (if we make it that long ..) we will be working direct for the school and upping our wage by about 25% YAY. much better. AND we won't have to deal with Orapin.
We are also about to purchase a new motorbike. We are currently renting (from orapin of all people...) but have no idea about insurence or anything. we want to buy our own so that any problems are our own. We don't neccessarily trust her to take care of us in case of an accident or something. YIKES. We just drive extra super duper safe.
Our crazy neighbor is at it again.
I was laying in my underwear watching a movie (common for Saturday mornings) when a strange smoking man showed up at my door. he spoke thai asking if he could "do fai nai hong nohn" which means, can i look at your lighting in the second bedroom. I said.... umm... no.! who are you? (in thai) and then my crazy neighbor said (in half enlgish half thai) "Jesse! he come to look at light, broken light in house!" and so I let him in (cigarette and all..) to look at the light (after putting clothes on, of course). I'm hopelessly wanrdering around trying to figure out what's going on while he "fixes" our lightbulb. All in all, his strange and unexpected visit costed me 400 baht (about 12 dollars) just because our neighbor somehow knew that our lightbulb was going to burn out soon. !?!!!!!!!! (and it was, but I don't care- we don't even use that room!!!) she will NOT leave us alone. AND for the past week, we daily have strangers coming to our garden and planting weird plants. I don't know why, or how it's being paid for, but I think Par (neighbor's name) has something to do with it........ crazy crazy lady. I hear her beating her autistic child everyday. what a sin. we can't report her, because you're allowed to do whatever you want with your children.
what else is new....
congratulations to all my friends who graduated this year from university!! I'm super super proud of you. :):) HUGS.
OH my school from February FINALLY paid me the last of what they owed me so that problem has been solved!!
OH YEAH!! and, something very very exciting happened last week. We met a WHITE PERSON!!!!!!! this white person invited us to "quiz night" last thursday. We went and it was a lot of fun and it turns out there are a lot of people our age, who SPEAK english in Surat Thani. We have friends now!! (and one of the boys is really cute.. from California!). We are going again this week and they have like parties on the weekends and stuff and there are apparently certain bars you can go to where the Thai's are used to white faces and so you aren't stared at (I'm not sure if we've mentioned this lately... but they stare at us and gossip about us as if we're celebrities... everyone knws where we went and for how long on our vacation.. everyone knows where we work and what we wore yesterday... etc etc.. ) .
Anyways.. we can feel normal with friends that we can actually communicate with. this is a big deal. HURRAAAHHHH!!!!!
things are going well here,
although it's almost unbearably hot. we drip in sweat and shower 3 times , every day. it must be over 40 degrees? dunno. sometimes we're immobile for the afternoons we can't do anything but sweat and try to sleep away the heat. same as the Thais. it's defiantely hot season. hot/rainy season actually. *panting* it's 9:30pm and I'm still sweating today.
oh one more thing,
we went for our second round of laser hair removal in the arm pits. FUCKKKKKKING hell it hurts so bad. (excuse my french.) but honest... it hurts wayyy more than my tattoo did!!! I have red blisters and marks and swelling on my armpits (reffa fared better than I did- less sensitive skin) but you should see us getting lasered on the table... we like writhe in pain... cry etc. the works. yikes!!! It's ALMOST not worth it, but it is... to never have to shave again. Amazing though, hahaha it's only about 90$ per treatment and you only need 3, so just under 300$ to be hairless in one area. much more expensive back west. and the joules they use in Canada and America are between 13-18 (according to a website that I read up on). I want you to guess.. just GUESS before reading how many she used on me...
...
...
...
SIXTY EIGHT JOULES. wowza. no wonder it hurts.
okay, that's all the news I have for today! So sorry that it took a while to get another post up.
Rishard: safe travels my friend.
Charlotte: send me some wedding info
Maggie: OH BABY
Ally: xoxoxoxox miss you!
Mama: you're my favourite
Dad : congratulations
Erin : call me tomorrow
Grammie: If I could take all your pain away I would- and thank you so much for taking care of Lilly and replacing me!!! I can never thank you enough. :)
Grampie: Thanks for reading! I miss your hugs
Everyone: I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
cambodia
great post reffa!!
I believe it's "disorganized" though, rather than0 "un-organized-ly" LOL .
We head back home (home being Thailand) tomorrow, on a 10 hour bus. We were going to fly, but we're so used to buses now and it's much cheaper!!! 10 hours will bring us to Bangkok where we'll stop on Koh Sanh road and do some last minute shopping (I desperately need black tights lol) and then catch yet another 10 hour bus down south to Surat Thani.
School starts in a short 2 weeks and we are completely unprepared!! YIKES! wish us luck!
xoxox missing you all.
I believe it's "disorganized" though, rather than0 "un-organized-ly" LOL .
We head back home (home being Thailand) tomorrow, on a 10 hour bus. We were going to fly, but we're so used to buses now and it's much cheaper!!! 10 hours will bring us to Bangkok where we'll stop on Koh Sanh road and do some last minute shopping (I desperately need black tights lol) and then catch yet another 10 hour bus down south to Surat Thani.
School starts in a short 2 weeks and we are completely unprepared!! YIKES! wish us luck!
xoxox missing you all.
clothesline
HAHA i just noticed that Jessica put up a picture of our "clothesline" a few posts down.
Camb
Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful place!! We just love it here. it feels just like Thailand.
This is gonna be a big one!
Entering Cambodia: We get to the border, the guy on the bus goes around and collects everyones passport and $20 american dollars to pay for your Tourist Visa (one thing i didnt like about Vietnam, was everyone took your passport like Hotels and Guesthouses, and you got it back when you check out ...i guess to guarantee payment)
He tells us to get off the bus and put our bags through customs and wait for our names to be called.
2 more busses show up at the border doing the same thing.
So theres men running around with handfuls of passports walking around and then they go up to the front and then the customs officers just start putting Visa stamps in everyones passport and calling out their names un-organized-ly. ??
People are smoking inside the area, and its just total chaos. People from the back of the crowd are pushing their way through when they hear their name and people's bags are getting bumped over and everyone that doesn't speak Khmer is wondering where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to do.... but it worked. everyone made it through in less then half an hour. hehe
We continue on and then 3 mins later the bus pulls over near a river and drives onto a flat boat with a dump truck full of sandbags or saltbags and theres a little boy following the bus looking up at us begging for money. He just keeps putting his hands out and putting his hands in the praying position and then putting his hands out for money and follows the bus ONTO the boat. Theres about 4 feet in between the bus and the boat's wall and I look down to see how close we are and the little boy is in between the bus and the boat's wall still looking up into the windows. I I go get jess to come look but by the time she gets there he's already gone.
The boat drives across the river (total time: approx 30 seconds) ...so they could've just built a small bridge but thats ok, and then we drive off onto the road. We drive for about 5 mins and then the bus pulls off on the side of the road for us to eat. Jess and I run over to the bank because both of us have about the eqivalent to $1 in Vietnamese money and no American or Cambodian money. We come back and are starving so grab a baguette and then the bus guy comes running into the place where we are buying our bread and urges us to follow him, because the bus is backing out of the parking lot slowly. he opens the door, we get in and then he starts to drive off.
We arrive in Phnom Penh (The Capitol City) which is really nice. They have neat feilds that look as though they are flooded. We still aren't sure if they are flooded fields or if the farmers harvest some sort of plant in the water, because the greenery was evenly rowed and a woman on a small boat was rowing in between the rows of greens.
As we drive through the city we see many parks, where women are doing aerobics in groups and guys are sitting on their motorbikes, checking their hair in the mirror and cellphone in hand (very Thai-like) and every child under the age of 6 is running around naked. Running by the busy roads, chasing chickens, playing in the dirt, riding bikes, playing in water together...etc.
Same as Thailand. Nobody wears helmets....5 people to a motorbike, etc...etc.. and the intersections are just people swirving around each other and coming to complete stops in the middle of the intersection to wait to go around bigger vehicles.
Along the sides of the city streets there are fenced in housing or hotels. On the fence every so often you can find a small square mirror nailed to the fence with a chair sitting in front of it and a man sitting in the chair getting a shave or his hair cut. They are the local barbershops, we are to assume, and unfortunartely neither of us got a picture. [which i'm very dissapointed about! ;( ]
We arrive at a place called "Okay Guesthouse".....it was alright I guess :P
We paid $4 a night and had 2 beds and a private bathroom and a fan. No airconditioning for us!! Gives us stuffy noses and sore throats which ALWAYS end up in colds!!
We drop off our stuff (but take our important stuff with us, not to worry!) and grab a tuktuk to take us to the Killing fields. We asked him how much to get there and he said $15 american each.
PFTTT no way were we paying that. Thats how much it's going to cost us to get back to Thailand! So we talked him down to $2 each, there and back, and he also stopped at the Khmer Rouge Genocide Prison (which is now a museum with all the original beds and cells still inside) and he waited for us while we explored both attractions. Not Bad eh?
The killing fields was very sad. It's all outdoors and we walked through a gate and apprached what looked like a tall narrow temple. Inside the temple were thousands and thousands of human skulls that were remains of the Khmer Rouge and they were piled on shelves that went so high that we could'nt see after about 5 or 6 rows. They had signs beside some of them saying the age of the skull and wether it was a male or a female. Surprised to see how many 10-16 year old female skulls there were compared to the rest. We were told that the higher up the tower you go, you can see skulls of babies. There was no way to go up and look, not that we would have wanted to see that, but it was something that I guess neither of us had ever thought we would even come close to seeing in our lives. It made us realize how lucky we are to grow up in a country like Canada. Also in the Killing fields it showed us where the bodies were piled and sprayed with DDT (the pesticide) We learned that the bodies were sprayed with DDT to 1. Remove the smell of decaying bodies so that locals wouldn't become suspicious and 2. to kill any of the bodies that happened to still be alive. [i feel really weird typing this by the way...it so sickening to me]
Near the back of the killing fields there was a small river, that was atleast something plesent to look at. We walked back towards it and there were 5 small children on the other side of the fence. They call us over saying "this way lady, this way!" in English. We walk over thinking that theres a whole new piece of the fields that we haven't seen. The kids reach through the fence to shake our hands. talking in (very good) English saying things like "where do you come from? what is your name? etc..." We answer their questions and they see the camera in my hand and ask if I can take a picture of them. The huddle up and smile for a picture and then immediately press themselves to the fence to see how the picture turned out. Something about 5 kids with no shoes standing in the killing fields behind a fence made both of us think that maybe i should strap my camera to my wrist (i know that sounds really bad....but we have to always be careful in foreign countries) and the oldest kid grabs the camera to get a closer look. When i try to take it away he holds onto it really tight and then looks up and me and lets go of the camera and says "can you please give me one dollar?" Then the other kids pitch in saying "not just for one person, we will share" and then go on to tell us that they need to to buy pencils and books for school. They are all saying it in unicen, which lead us to believe that they were all taught this. Because we know how the Thai kids are with learning English and if theres any english that they know its getting to know you conversation and "am/is/are grammer". They knew too much English for their age. So we concluded that it was their job.
We started to walk away and they followed us around the fence saying the chant over and over "Please give me money, i go to school, i need to buy books, buy pencil, buy uniform, i don't have money"
we started to feel bad for them, but knew that this was going to happen a lot, seeing as Cambodia is a poor country and that we can't give our money away to everyone who asks. We walked for a while and two bare-footed children followed us along the fence for a good 15 mins saying the same things over and over again. Then the little girl started asking for my bottle of water because she was thirsty.... it got to be too much so we ended up not seeing that side of the fields because we didn't want to see the children begging anymore.
**this doesn't sound like positive feedback about Cambodia, but it happened, so I will write them in here**
We went to the Genocide Prison after that where it showed what life was like for the Khmer people who were put through interrogation. Yet again, not the greatest thing, but its something that both of us needed to see. I had a headache so i skipped the last building and went outside for some fresh air. I was talking with some tuktuk drivers and they were practicing their English and Thai with me. Jess came out and we went back to the "okay guesthouse" we wanted to watch the sunset at the river but then we decided we were too hungry so we went and found a little local restaurant where they had home-made ice cream for really cheap. They didn't have anything vegetarian but we had already sat down and poured a glass of water so we settled for an icecream. Jess got chocolate (which tasted like coffee) and I got coconut (which tasted like coconut milk) they were awesome!!!
Then we made our way back to Okay and found a Korean restuarant. Neither of us had eaten Korean food and wanted to try it so we ordered fried mixed vegetables. The waiter brings over complimenty Kimchi spicy vegetables compliments of the chef. We (naturally) thought DOH cause that ususally means expensive.... but the bill only came to $2 and I got a pot of tea instead of a cup of tea!
We booked our bus ticket for Sihanouk ville (beachy area of Cambodia) which left at 6am. Both overslept but somehow (Jess always manages to do this....but...) woke up at 5:50. We rushed to get ready and rushed out, grabbed a baguette at the front desk to scarf down as we were loading our bags onto the bus. We arrived in Sihanouk ville about 5 hours later and it was really pretty. Small town....not a lot going on....just a lot of beaches. We find a place on the beach for $5 a night. Same kinda place like the one we stayed in in Phnom Penh. We go to check out the beaches... we're walking along the big one [starts with an "o", can't rememeber the name] and we are walking down the beach and a little boy , about 7 years old, walks over to us asking if he can make us a friendship bracelet. Jess says no and I say nothing. He follows us down the beach. Asks where we are from. We say Canada. He starts saying the Capitol City, Prime Minister, Population, etc... Very impressive I must say. He didn't learn it in school because it was 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon....meaning he doesn't go to school.
He follows us for a while and all the while is making a red and white friendship bracelet (Canadian colors...this kids GOOD!)
We keep telling him we don't want one , because we know we will have to buy it, and he doesn't give up. We find a place to park and sit on the beach and he sits down and opens up his fanny pack and pulls out some plain thread. Then he wraps it around his fingers, asking us if we want a pedicure because our nail polish is not beautiful anymore. Watching his fingers twirl the thread we realize what hes doing. he's preparing to do "threading" on us....which is (i believe) an Indian tradition for hair removal. He rests the thread on Jessica's shin and starts ripping hairs out with the thread thats woven between his fingers. Jessica reacts in pain by pulling her leg away and he moves closer and starts taking more and more hairs out. Jessica tells him she doesn't want it but he persists, saying that she will have no hair on her legs for 3 months and it's better than shaving.
All the while he keeps telling me to be careful of my bag because there are many thieves on the beach.
We decide we might as well be nice to the kid, and tell him we don't want to buy anything but we will play in the water with him. And he doesn't have to make us a friendship bracelet if he wants to be our friend. He packs up his stuff , i think because he realized we werent going to budge anymore, and then he walks away saying goodbye. He was nice about everything and then he runs over to me and grabs my bug repellent from the side watter bottle section of my bag and runs off with it. I tell him to come back and he runs back laughing saying "i told you, watch your bag" and hands me my bug repellent. grrrrr hehehe
It started to rain so we went back to the guesthouse and watched a movie about a book club. It was really good.
The next day we go to another beach, we tell the tuktuk driver we want to go to a beach that doesn't have a lot of people. We wanted to just enjoy the day and not have to deal with people selling things. After agreeing on a price he drops us off on a very quiet beach. As we are getting out he tells us that its very dangerous on this beach and that we should go to "Victory Beach" which is 10km away. Not so cool. But we stayed because we could see that there were many people if we walked along the beach for a bit.
A few kids found us, threw mud at us, we played with them in the water for a bit.We found a good place to relax and we stayed there for a few hours then walked back to the guesthouse.
Last stop: Siem Reap
We paid for a direct bus to Siem Reap, but apparantly direct means that you have to drive all the way back to Phnom Penh (first place we were) and then drive to the other side of the country to Siem Reap. Oh well, we both had a book and it wasn't an expensive bus.
We stopped along the way and I took a picture of the sunset, and this family asked me to take a picture of their little boy...who was REALLY cute. He'll be in my pictures on facebook when we put them up. And then we arrived late last night. I think it was about 9 or 10 or so....which we were a little uncomfortable about because we don't like to arrive places at night because we don't know what to expect. But it was ok, a tuktuk driver named "Rak" was waiting outside the bus. He drove us to a guesthouse called "Number10 Guesthouse" (love that they try to make their places sound good eh??? Okay, Number 10....hehehe) and thats where we are now. We asked Rak how we can go about seeing the Angkor Wat temples at sunrise and he said that we can hire him to take us. So we arranged for him to come to the gueshouse at 5:15am and take us there for the day, drive us around and bring us back. Unfortunately we could only get him to settle for 10$. But it was worth it. We made it just in time for sunrise and got to see one of the most beautiful sights so far!! Angkor Wat is a series of many many ancient temples and it is one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world. I think we took over 200 pictures today! They will be up within the next week or so.
We were going to go to the floating village but decided we will save it for next time. Didn't quite get to do all the things on the itinerary, but we are so happy with all that we saw and had so much fun that it doesn't matter!
Tonight we went to the night market and we bought our friend Scott a bottle of some sort of liquor with a snake inside, which he obviously wont drink, it will be for decoration, and jessica bought some cool sweatpant shorts. We also got our feet "massaged" by tiny fish that looked like minnows. Basically they eat the dead skin off your feet but it tickles so much it feels like they are massaging you. They are called "Dr. Fish" and it was a lot of fun!We walked back but then got lost, but then found our way. I think we will stay in cambodia a few more days before heading back to Thailand. maybe just walk around and see the way of life, more so than the tourist attractions. Thats what always amazes us the most. I would like to get some more pictures and the people are so friendly and welcoming that we will have fun just doing that.
Ok mosquitoes are getting me.
I hope I didn't make Cambodia seem like a dreadful place, its actually so amazing to see how the people can live off so little and how they make the most of everything and day-to-day are constantly smiling and waving and having fun. Making the most of life. and helping each other and helping visitors as well.
cambodia is awesome. we would come back for sure.
This is gonna be a big one!
Entering Cambodia: We get to the border, the guy on the bus goes around and collects everyones passport and $20 american dollars to pay for your Tourist Visa (one thing i didnt like about Vietnam, was everyone took your passport like Hotels and Guesthouses, and you got it back when you check out ...i guess to guarantee payment)
He tells us to get off the bus and put our bags through customs and wait for our names to be called.
2 more busses show up at the border doing the same thing.
So theres men running around with handfuls of passports walking around and then they go up to the front and then the customs officers just start putting Visa stamps in everyones passport and calling out their names un-organized-ly. ??
People are smoking inside the area, and its just total chaos. People from the back of the crowd are pushing their way through when they hear their name and people's bags are getting bumped over and everyone that doesn't speak Khmer is wondering where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to do.... but it worked. everyone made it through in less then half an hour. hehe
We continue on and then 3 mins later the bus pulls over near a river and drives onto a flat boat with a dump truck full of sandbags or saltbags and theres a little boy following the bus looking up at us begging for money. He just keeps putting his hands out and putting his hands in the praying position and then putting his hands out for money and follows the bus ONTO the boat. Theres about 4 feet in between the bus and the boat's wall and I look down to see how close we are and the little boy is in between the bus and the boat's wall still looking up into the windows. I I go get jess to come look but by the time she gets there he's already gone.
The boat drives across the river (total time: approx 30 seconds) ...so they could've just built a small bridge but thats ok, and then we drive off onto the road. We drive for about 5 mins and then the bus pulls off on the side of the road for us to eat. Jess and I run over to the bank because both of us have about the eqivalent to $1 in Vietnamese money and no American or Cambodian money. We come back and are starving so grab a baguette and then the bus guy comes running into the place where we are buying our bread and urges us to follow him, because the bus is backing out of the parking lot slowly. he opens the door, we get in and then he starts to drive off.
We arrive in Phnom Penh (The Capitol City) which is really nice. They have neat feilds that look as though they are flooded. We still aren't sure if they are flooded fields or if the farmers harvest some sort of plant in the water, because the greenery was evenly rowed and a woman on a small boat was rowing in between the rows of greens.
As we drive through the city we see many parks, where women are doing aerobics in groups and guys are sitting on their motorbikes, checking their hair in the mirror and cellphone in hand (very Thai-like) and every child under the age of 6 is running around naked. Running by the busy roads, chasing chickens, playing in the dirt, riding bikes, playing in water together...etc.
Same as Thailand. Nobody wears helmets....5 people to a motorbike, etc...etc.. and the intersections are just people swirving around each other and coming to complete stops in the middle of the intersection to wait to go around bigger vehicles.
Along the sides of the city streets there are fenced in housing or hotels. On the fence every so often you can find a small square mirror nailed to the fence with a chair sitting in front of it and a man sitting in the chair getting a shave or his hair cut. They are the local barbershops, we are to assume, and unfortunartely neither of us got a picture. [which i'm very dissapointed about! ;( ]
We arrive at a place called "Okay Guesthouse".....it was alright I guess :P
We paid $4 a night and had 2 beds and a private bathroom and a fan. No airconditioning for us!! Gives us stuffy noses and sore throats which ALWAYS end up in colds!!
We drop off our stuff (but take our important stuff with us, not to worry!) and grab a tuktuk to take us to the Killing fields. We asked him how much to get there and he said $15 american each.
PFTTT no way were we paying that. Thats how much it's going to cost us to get back to Thailand! So we talked him down to $2 each, there and back, and he also stopped at the Khmer Rouge Genocide Prison (which is now a museum with all the original beds and cells still inside) and he waited for us while we explored both attractions. Not Bad eh?
The killing fields was very sad. It's all outdoors and we walked through a gate and apprached what looked like a tall narrow temple. Inside the temple were thousands and thousands of human skulls that were remains of the Khmer Rouge and they were piled on shelves that went so high that we could'nt see after about 5 or 6 rows. They had signs beside some of them saying the age of the skull and wether it was a male or a female. Surprised to see how many 10-16 year old female skulls there were compared to the rest. We were told that the higher up the tower you go, you can see skulls of babies. There was no way to go up and look, not that we would have wanted to see that, but it was something that I guess neither of us had ever thought we would even come close to seeing in our lives. It made us realize how lucky we are to grow up in a country like Canada. Also in the Killing fields it showed us where the bodies were piled and sprayed with DDT (the pesticide) We learned that the bodies were sprayed with DDT to 1. Remove the smell of decaying bodies so that locals wouldn't become suspicious and 2. to kill any of the bodies that happened to still be alive. [i feel really weird typing this by the way...it so sickening to me]
Near the back of the killing fields there was a small river, that was atleast something plesent to look at. We walked back towards it and there were 5 small children on the other side of the fence. They call us over saying "this way lady, this way!" in English. We walk over thinking that theres a whole new piece of the fields that we haven't seen. The kids reach through the fence to shake our hands. talking in (very good) English saying things like "where do you come from? what is your name? etc..." We answer their questions and they see the camera in my hand and ask if I can take a picture of them. The huddle up and smile for a picture and then immediately press themselves to the fence to see how the picture turned out. Something about 5 kids with no shoes standing in the killing fields behind a fence made both of us think that maybe i should strap my camera to my wrist (i know that sounds really bad....but we have to always be careful in foreign countries) and the oldest kid grabs the camera to get a closer look. When i try to take it away he holds onto it really tight and then looks up and me and lets go of the camera and says "can you please give me one dollar?" Then the other kids pitch in saying "not just for one person, we will share" and then go on to tell us that they need to to buy pencils and books for school. They are all saying it in unicen, which lead us to believe that they were all taught this. Because we know how the Thai kids are with learning English and if theres any english that they know its getting to know you conversation and "am/is/are grammer". They knew too much English for their age. So we concluded that it was their job.
We started to walk away and they followed us around the fence saying the chant over and over "Please give me money, i go to school, i need to buy books, buy pencil, buy uniform, i don't have money"
we started to feel bad for them, but knew that this was going to happen a lot, seeing as Cambodia is a poor country and that we can't give our money away to everyone who asks. We walked for a while and two bare-footed children followed us along the fence for a good 15 mins saying the same things over and over again. Then the little girl started asking for my bottle of water because she was thirsty.... it got to be too much so we ended up not seeing that side of the fields because we didn't want to see the children begging anymore.
**this doesn't sound like positive feedback about Cambodia, but it happened, so I will write them in here**
We went to the Genocide Prison after that where it showed what life was like for the Khmer people who were put through interrogation. Yet again, not the greatest thing, but its something that both of us needed to see. I had a headache so i skipped the last building and went outside for some fresh air. I was talking with some tuktuk drivers and they were practicing their English and Thai with me. Jess came out and we went back to the "okay guesthouse" we wanted to watch the sunset at the river but then we decided we were too hungry so we went and found a little local restaurant where they had home-made ice cream for really cheap. They didn't have anything vegetarian but we had already sat down and poured a glass of water so we settled for an icecream. Jess got chocolate (which tasted like coffee) and I got coconut (which tasted like coconut milk) they were awesome!!!
Then we made our way back to Okay and found a Korean restuarant. Neither of us had eaten Korean food and wanted to try it so we ordered fried mixed vegetables. The waiter brings over complimenty Kimchi spicy vegetables compliments of the chef. We (naturally) thought DOH cause that ususally means expensive.... but the bill only came to $2 and I got a pot of tea instead of a cup of tea!
We booked our bus ticket for Sihanouk ville (beachy area of Cambodia) which left at 6am. Both overslept but somehow (Jess always manages to do this....but...) woke up at 5:50. We rushed to get ready and rushed out, grabbed a baguette at the front desk to scarf down as we were loading our bags onto the bus. We arrived in Sihanouk ville about 5 hours later and it was really pretty. Small town....not a lot going on....just a lot of beaches. We find a place on the beach for $5 a night. Same kinda place like the one we stayed in in Phnom Penh. We go to check out the beaches... we're walking along the big one [starts with an "o", can't rememeber the name] and we are walking down the beach and a little boy , about 7 years old, walks over to us asking if he can make us a friendship bracelet. Jess says no and I say nothing. He follows us down the beach. Asks where we are from. We say Canada. He starts saying the Capitol City, Prime Minister, Population, etc... Very impressive I must say. He didn't learn it in school because it was 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon....meaning he doesn't go to school.
He follows us for a while and all the while is making a red and white friendship bracelet (Canadian colors...this kids GOOD!)
We keep telling him we don't want one , because we know we will have to buy it, and he doesn't give up. We find a place to park and sit on the beach and he sits down and opens up his fanny pack and pulls out some plain thread. Then he wraps it around his fingers, asking us if we want a pedicure because our nail polish is not beautiful anymore. Watching his fingers twirl the thread we realize what hes doing. he's preparing to do "threading" on us....which is (i believe) an Indian tradition for hair removal. He rests the thread on Jessica's shin and starts ripping hairs out with the thread thats woven between his fingers. Jessica reacts in pain by pulling her leg away and he moves closer and starts taking more and more hairs out. Jessica tells him she doesn't want it but he persists, saying that she will have no hair on her legs for 3 months and it's better than shaving.
All the while he keeps telling me to be careful of my bag because there are many thieves on the beach.
We decide we might as well be nice to the kid, and tell him we don't want to buy anything but we will play in the water with him. And he doesn't have to make us a friendship bracelet if he wants to be our friend. He packs up his stuff , i think because he realized we werent going to budge anymore, and then he walks away saying goodbye. He was nice about everything and then he runs over to me and grabs my bug repellent from the side watter bottle section of my bag and runs off with it. I tell him to come back and he runs back laughing saying "i told you, watch your bag" and hands me my bug repellent. grrrrr hehehe
It started to rain so we went back to the guesthouse and watched a movie about a book club. It was really good.
The next day we go to another beach, we tell the tuktuk driver we want to go to a beach that doesn't have a lot of people. We wanted to just enjoy the day and not have to deal with people selling things. After agreeing on a price he drops us off on a very quiet beach. As we are getting out he tells us that its very dangerous on this beach and that we should go to "Victory Beach" which is 10km away. Not so cool. But we stayed because we could see that there were many people if we walked along the beach for a bit.
A few kids found us, threw mud at us, we played with them in the water for a bit.We found a good place to relax and we stayed there for a few hours then walked back to the guesthouse.
Last stop: Siem Reap
We paid for a direct bus to Siem Reap, but apparantly direct means that you have to drive all the way back to Phnom Penh (first place we were) and then drive to the other side of the country to Siem Reap. Oh well, we both had a book and it wasn't an expensive bus.
We stopped along the way and I took a picture of the sunset, and this family asked me to take a picture of their little boy...who was REALLY cute. He'll be in my pictures on facebook when we put them up. And then we arrived late last night. I think it was about 9 or 10 or so....which we were a little uncomfortable about because we don't like to arrive places at night because we don't know what to expect. But it was ok, a tuktuk driver named "Rak" was waiting outside the bus. He drove us to a guesthouse called "Number10 Guesthouse" (love that they try to make their places sound good eh??? Okay, Number 10....hehehe) and thats where we are now. We asked Rak how we can go about seeing the Angkor Wat temples at sunrise and he said that we can hire him to take us. So we arranged for him to come to the gueshouse at 5:15am and take us there for the day, drive us around and bring us back. Unfortunately we could only get him to settle for 10$. But it was worth it. We made it just in time for sunrise and got to see one of the most beautiful sights so far!! Angkor Wat is a series of many many ancient temples and it is one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world. I think we took over 200 pictures today! They will be up within the next week or so.
We were going to go to the floating village but decided we will save it for next time. Didn't quite get to do all the things on the itinerary, but we are so happy with all that we saw and had so much fun that it doesn't matter!
Tonight we went to the night market and we bought our friend Scott a bottle of some sort of liquor with a snake inside, which he obviously wont drink, it will be for decoration, and jessica bought some cool sweatpant shorts. We also got our feet "massaged" by tiny fish that looked like minnows. Basically they eat the dead skin off your feet but it tickles so much it feels like they are massaging you. They are called "Dr. Fish" and it was a lot of fun!We walked back but then got lost, but then found our way. I think we will stay in cambodia a few more days before heading back to Thailand. maybe just walk around and see the way of life, more so than the tourist attractions. Thats what always amazes us the most. I would like to get some more pictures and the people are so friendly and welcoming that we will have fun just doing that.
Ok mosquitoes are getting me.
I hope I didn't make Cambodia seem like a dreadful place, its actually so amazing to see how the people can live off so little and how they make the most of everything and day-to-day are constantly smiling and waving and having fun. Making the most of life. and helping each other and helping visitors as well.
cambodia is awesome. we would come back for sure.
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