Listening: Drown me in the crimson sky and Utopian disease. The chaos of heavens die and will fall into the seas.
What's my problem? I could have left well enough alone.
Today was my first foray into Macau and into the world of gambling. I set my alarm for half six, so that I could catch the first ferry and really spend my time checking out the town. My alarm went off at the right time, but I decided to keep sleeping. I ended up getting up around half seven, being out the door at eight, and it was half eight by the time i got to the ferry docks.
I knew that being a public holiday, it would be crowded. Candy warned me. When I got to the ferry, the next economy class ticket would put me on the ferry at a quarter past eleven, putting me in Macau at a quarter past noon. Hmm. A little later than I would have liked, seeing as the last ferry back to Kowloon was at ten thirty. I could buy a deluxe class ticket on the nine o'clock for about a hundred Hong Kong dollars more ($14.28), so I opted for that. It came with a free drink and a big bowl of crappy ramen.
It was a nice easy ride that was over before I realized that it started and I was in the ferry terminal in Macau at ten on the dot. The first thing I did there was go to visitor information. I found a couple of really crappy maps that were way too big for Macau being a seemingly small place. I asked about John Legend tickets too. He was playing at the Venetian tonight, and if I planned on staying overnight there or if I had won tons of money, I would have gone to see him.
I tried to get my return ticket to Kowloon, which I should have bought in the first place in Kowloon, but I was a moron. Their computer was down so they couldn't ticket me, which kind of worried me, but I pushed on.
At that point, I had no clue how far distances in Macau really were. As I walked out the doors, there were people handing out special offers from casinos, and there were free shuttles to the casinos. I looked at a bunch of the offers and looked at the locales of the casinos, and decided that the Wynn had the best location and the best offer. They were offering 100HKD ($14.28) in free player's credit on your player's card. The catch was that you could only access it unless you put up your own actual stake as well.
So, I walk into the Wynn. In the lobby of the casino, there is a rotunda. In the ceiling of this pretty sizable rotunda, there's a big brass relief sculpture of all of the different Chinese zodiac animals. And as I'm getting my player's card from the desk, all of a sudden the lights in the rotunda dim, music plays loudly, and then there's smoke. The brass dome on the floor directly below the brass relief sculpture in the rotunda starts to open and a giant brass dragon rises and breathes smoke everywhere. This happens every half hour. I was totally caught off guard.
I figured that since I was already in the Wynn, I would check out the casino. I put up a stake of twenty HKD (just under $3) so I could access the hundred HKD that I had on my player's card and played some slots. Let me just say that the slot machines today confuse the fuck out of me. There are too many buttons and spinny things. There are WAY too many variables. I lost a bunch of my stake and my bonus money before I found a single set of machines that only had three spinny things (which were video like every other one) and actually had an arm to pull on to spin them. It was a one HKD slot machine, which was the second most expensive ones that I had seen there. But I kept playing and playing until all of my free bonus credit was gone, but my original stake of twenty HKD turned into forty HKD. I thought it was a good time to cash out of my slots money, so I did.
From there, I looked around and checked out the poker room and some of the high stakes tables. Most of the games being played were Baccarat, Bai So (a dice game), and Carribean Stud. I found two roulette tables, two craps tables and a little bit of blackjack here and there.
On the boat, I decided that I could afford to bet and lose 500HKD ($71.43). So I strolled up to the blackjack table with a cool five hundie HKD in my hot little fist. I have never, ever wished that my brother was with me this much in my life. It was my first time in a casino and I was intimidated.
I was lucky to have sat down at the table that I sat down at. There were two Japanese guys, a Cantonese guy, a Cantonese woman and me. Once we got rolling, we were all having a good time. The reason I sat down there was because the table was almost full, and it was the lowest minimum bet, being a hundred HKD. I knew that the more cards I saw, the better chance I would have as far as being able to guess whether the upcoming card would more likely be a higher card or a lower card. I tried to do the things that my brother talked about when he talked about counting cards, but I couldn't keep the count in my head. All I did was generally guess how many high cards and how many low cards I had seen in the recent past.
I fully expected to be standing up in five hands, off to see the rest of Macau guilt free and unabashed. I sat down at around eleven. I didn't get up until four. I was only playing the minimum bet, but I kept winning for the most part. Or, at least I wasn't losing. My five hundie became a cool thou. Once that happened, the original five hundie went in my pocket so I was only playing with my winnings. I just kept playing and playing with my winnings. When that five hundie became another cool thou, again, five hundie went in my pocket. I put and extra hundred in my pocket so that I could bring the chip to my brother. At half three, I told everyone at the table that I would play until the five hundie I had on the table was gone, but when four rolled around and I was at five fifty, I decided that I needed to see some of the town. So, I bounced and cashed out the sixteen hundred and fifty Hong Kong Dollars minus a hundred dollar and a twenty five dollar chip.
So, with it being four o'clock, it limited where I could go. I ended up going to see the Museum of Wine and the Grand Prix Museum, which were conveniently located in the same building. The Museum of Wine was interesting. It was mainly focused on Portuguese wines and the history of winemaking in general. I got a taste of a Portuguese red that wasn't half bad. It would be a nice table wine.
The Grand Prix Museum was pretty cool too. There were a number of vintage cars and motorcycles that had all raced in the Macau Grand Prix. It told the stories of some legendary racers and some racing pioneers. I had no clue that Filipinos were such good racers.
From there, I kicked it over to Fisherman's Wharf. It's not like the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. It's like a ghetto, cheesy version of EPCOT without all of the great educational information. It was actually quite amusing. Part of it looked like Tang Dynasty China, then right next to it was a big mountain of some sort, then Egyptian pyramids and an Aladdin themed area, a place that looked like the Roman Colluseum, something that looked turn of the century Europe, and I think there may have been a couple of other themes. It was funny though. There were a couple of amusement attractions, some shopping and some restaurants.
By the time I got through there, I was famished, so I headed to the Sands to get some food. The Sands wasn't nearly as nice as the Wynn. They did have a stage with girls doing a kind of hip hop show though. I got a player's card there, so I could get ten percent off of dinner. I ended up eating some Shanghai soup dumplings, rice in soup with duck leg, and a milk tea all while reading my new book, Slumdog Millionaire.
By the time dinner was over, it was half seven. I decided that I didn't actually want to play at all at the Sands. I just couldn't be bothered to learn where everything was at that point. I had my ferry at ten, and I figured that I should give myself at least a half hour to get onto the ferry. So, I went back to the Wynn and bought five hundie more of chips.
Those chips were gone in a hurry. I sat down around eight, and by a quarter past, I was down to fifty HKD. Minimum bet was a hundred, so I couldn't really play. I could have played Roulette, Craps, or Bai So, but I didn't really just want to throw the money away. Instead I walked around the casino for an hour watching other people play. I tended to watch the hot chicks play. I also had kind of a crush on one of the pit bosses. She just had something about her. When I got tired of oogling the gamers, I stepped outside onto the entrance steps of the casino and watched the ridiculously hot hookers trying to pick up their Johns across the street. It was fifteen minutes of quality entertainment seeing the reactions of the men and seeing if they would even stop to chat. These girls were hot though. One was, as I call it, burning magnesium. So hot that you can't look directly at it without burning your retnas.
I got on the shuttle bus from the Wynn to the ferry docks at a quarter past nine and was through customs and on the boat by ten to ten. An hour of sleepily listening to my iPod, and now I'm back in Kowloon. I'm gonna try to sleep early tonight (oops... it's twenty to one). Tomorrow, I'm supposed to meet up with Candy and Simon. I'm psyched. Oh... One quick thing... Here's a breakdown of my finances for today.
Expenditures
$254 - First class ferry to Macau
$20 - Admission to two museums
$88 - Dinner after 10% discount
$450 - Gambling
$155 - Economy seat on ferry to Kowloon
----------------------------------------
$957 total
Gains
$20 - Slots
$1050 - Blackjack
-----------------
$1070 total
Non-Monetary Gains
1 Coke
1 Beer
3 Waters
The Net
$1070
-$957
-----
$113 + 1 Coke, 1 Beer & 3 Waters.
I think that's a pretty good net expenditure for a day on vacation. I think that my brother would be proud of me for winning like I did, and my dad would be proud of me for stopping when I stopped. It was good day today. I wish I got to see more of Macau though... and maybe John Legend too.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Day 70: One Red Paperclip
Listening: Got no deeds to do, no promises to keep. I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep. Let the morning time drop all its petals on me. Life, I love you. All is groovy.
What's my problem? Queen's Pier has been demolished.
It's seven in the evening here in Hong Kong. I've been in the same place for the past three and a half hours, curled into an easy chair at Pacific Coffee Company in The Peak Tower at Victoria Peak staring out the window over the skyline of Hong Kong reading Kyle Macdonald's One Red Paperclip.
The rest of the day, I wandered around Hong Kong Island, not really finding what I wanted to find. I yearned to just sort of chill out, but I felt like I had to keep on moving.
I heard of a junk ship that I could get on for free from my Fodor's which kind of struck my fancy. It took off from Queen's Pier at three and five o'clock according to my Fodor's, and would take me back to Kowloon which is where my room is. When I read this, I was in a Shanghaiese restaurant in Times Square eating soup dumplings and "hot pockets" as my pal Jon calls them. Originally, I was looking for the best dim sum in Hong Kong Island, but I found out that it was too far from the subway to walk to, so I scrapped it.
Anyhow, I was psyched to go on this junk ship until I got to Queen's Pier. Well, until I got to what was Queen's Pier, an endless construction site. I ended up going to the Star Ferry ticketing place, because that's where you could catch the junk on the other side. They hadn't even heard of this junk ship. By teh way, this junk ship is called "Duk Ling." I laughed.
So, I decided to head to the closest Tourist Information Center, which happened to be at The Peak Piazza, between The Peak Tower and The Peak Gallery on Victoria Peak. I didn't know that the said Peak stuff was actually on the Peak itself. I thought that it was at the base where the funicular brought you up to the peak. I was wrong.
I figure that since I was there anyways, I'd go up and check it out. And when I got here, I found out that the Duk Ling was now sailing out of Pier 9 and you needed advanced reservations. BASTARDS! Oh well. So I went back into the tower and briefly entertained the idea of going to the top where you had to pay twenty HKD ($3) to get there. I opted out. Instead, I felt like I needed to have a coffee fix, which was when I permanently affixed my ass to the bright red velvet armchair and read One Red Paperclip.
I started the book two days ago, but didn't read it one of those days (yesterday, obviously). Now, I'm a mere twenty pages from the end and I am absolutely loving it. The book makes me so happy. When I get home, I'm going to give this book to my best friend, Carlos, because I think he needs to read it. I'm not only going to give him this book, but I'm going to give him this copy of this book.
I have found that I like giving and receiving read books. The books are loved. I think I really realized that I liked reading and giving read books when I got Chloe's copy of Eat, Pray, Love. It really tuned me into it. And it also made it important that I didn't just leave it on a hostel bookshelf. I needed to pass it onto someone, so that they would read it, and maybe pass it on. That's why I handed it off to Clover before she left Bangkok for Australia.
I realized that for a collector such as myself, it's hard to let go of objects. I figure if I like the book enough, I'll buy myself another copy and I'll read it again. I'll probably do that with both of the two afore-mentioned books.
But that's how I've chosen to spend my afternoon in Hong Kong, I realize that it's like my little airlock before I hit the States, just like L.A. will be an airlock before I reach home. I love being on vacation and traveling, because I can do what the fuck I want, when I want. Even read a book in a cafe for three and a half hours.
What's my problem? Queen's Pier has been demolished.
It's seven in the evening here in Hong Kong. I've been in the same place for the past three and a half hours, curled into an easy chair at Pacific Coffee Company in The Peak Tower at Victoria Peak staring out the window over the skyline of Hong Kong reading Kyle Macdonald's One Red Paperclip.
The rest of the day, I wandered around Hong Kong Island, not really finding what I wanted to find. I yearned to just sort of chill out, but I felt like I had to keep on moving.
I heard of a junk ship that I could get on for free from my Fodor's which kind of struck my fancy. It took off from Queen's Pier at three and five o'clock according to my Fodor's, and would take me back to Kowloon which is where my room is. When I read this, I was in a Shanghaiese restaurant in Times Square eating soup dumplings and "hot pockets" as my pal Jon calls them. Originally, I was looking for the best dim sum in Hong Kong Island, but I found out that it was too far from the subway to walk to, so I scrapped it.
Anyhow, I was psyched to go on this junk ship until I got to Queen's Pier. Well, until I got to what was Queen's Pier, an endless construction site. I ended up going to the Star Ferry ticketing place, because that's where you could catch the junk on the other side. They hadn't even heard of this junk ship. By teh way, this junk ship is called "Duk Ling." I laughed.
So, I decided to head to the closest Tourist Information Center, which happened to be at The Peak Piazza, between The Peak Tower and The Peak Gallery on Victoria Peak. I didn't know that the said Peak stuff was actually on the Peak itself. I thought that it was at the base where the funicular brought you up to the peak. I was wrong.
I figure that since I was there anyways, I'd go up and check it out. And when I got here, I found out that the Duk Ling was now sailing out of Pier 9 and you needed advanced reservations. BASTARDS! Oh well. So I went back into the tower and briefly entertained the idea of going to the top where you had to pay twenty HKD ($3) to get there. I opted out. Instead, I felt like I needed to have a coffee fix, which was when I permanently affixed my ass to the bright red velvet armchair and read One Red Paperclip.
I started the book two days ago, but didn't read it one of those days (yesterday, obviously). Now, I'm a mere twenty pages from the end and I am absolutely loving it. The book makes me so happy. When I get home, I'm going to give this book to my best friend, Carlos, because I think he needs to read it. I'm not only going to give him this book, but I'm going to give him this copy of this book.
I have found that I like giving and receiving read books. The books are loved. I think I really realized that I liked reading and giving read books when I got Chloe's copy of Eat, Pray, Love. It really tuned me into it. And it also made it important that I didn't just leave it on a hostel bookshelf. I needed to pass it onto someone, so that they would read it, and maybe pass it on. That's why I handed it off to Clover before she left Bangkok for Australia.
I realized that for a collector such as myself, it's hard to let go of objects. I figure if I like the book enough, I'll buy myself another copy and I'll read it again. I'll probably do that with both of the two afore-mentioned books.
But that's how I've chosen to spend my afternoon in Hong Kong, I realize that it's like my little airlock before I hit the States, just like L.A. will be an airlock before I reach home. I love being on vacation and traveling, because I can do what the fuck I want, when I want. Even read a book in a cafe for three and a half hours.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Day 70: You Wan Massa? You Wan Boom-Boom?
Listening: You're way too beautiful girl. That's why it will never work. You had me suicidal, suicidal when you say it's over.
What's my problem? I really WOULD like a massage, but I don't think they're REALLY offering.
It's like stepping out of the airport into a Wong Kar Wai film. The streets are crowded by faceless people rushing or meandering. There is a persistent flickering glow of neon everywhere, and it makes the city a character in and of itself. You can feel the metropolitan-ness of Hong Kong after five seconds of waiting to cross the streets, and can feel the seediness after walking a few blocks off of the main drags. In a lot of ways it's very different from all of the cities that I have been in throughout southeast Asia, however in some ways it's very much the same. As they say, it's "same-same, but different."
Maybe it's an Asian thing. Prior to last night I had chalked it up to being a southeast Asian thing. In every country, on every day at least once, I would hear in a hushed voice from a tuk-tuk driver or a guy on the street, "You wan massa? You wan boom-boom? Lady! You wan nice lady? Very pretty lady for massa!" In Laos, it was also followed with, "You wan opium?" And in Vietnam and Cambodia it was followed by, "You wan smoke? You wan skunk? Mara-juana?" But generally it was just the "massa," the "boom-boom" and the "lady" that was on offer.
I expected it to stop once I got to Hong Kong. It's not a third or second world country. It's not even a developing nation or an emerging market. The nation is already developed and the market emerged a long time ago. I'm just thoroughly surprised that the touts are just as frequent and just as obvious as they were in Bangkok. The only difference is that they don't grab your arm. Well, the guys hawking the tailors do, but those aren't the hawkers I'm talking about. Somehow I expected it to be different. Not so much.
Anyhow, last night, I went to the Avenue of Stars, where they honor all of the big Hong Kong movie people. There's a really kick ass statue of Bruce Lee. It's life size. If I had a statue garden, and if I could afford it, it would be the centerpiece.
Every night at eight o'clock, on Hong Kong Island, there is the Symphony of Lights. You can see and hear it from the Avenue of Stars, as it's actually the best place to see the show. It's a laser and light show set to music, where the buildings will light up in different patterns and it's pretty entertaining. It's got nothing on EPCOT's Illuminations, but it's entertaining.
I ended up meeting a British girl, Emily, while watching the show. She's been on the go for the past week, and will head to southeast Asia tomorrow. She's really only planning to be in each country for a week, so I had to drop some knowledge on her. She's either going to feel like she hasn't seen anything on her travels, or she'll be traveling so much that half of her weeks will be spent in transit. She was nice. I might have dinner with her if she e-mails me tonight.
Today, I think I'm going to explore Hong Kong Island after getting some dim sum. Tomorrow, I'm off to Macau for the day. I figure I'll play a hand or two of blackjack, just to say that I did it. Man,I'm hungry. I guess that means it's time for dumplin's.
What's my problem? I really WOULD like a massage, but I don't think they're REALLY offering.
It's like stepping out of the airport into a Wong Kar Wai film. The streets are crowded by faceless people rushing or meandering. There is a persistent flickering glow of neon everywhere, and it makes the city a character in and of itself. You can feel the metropolitan-ness of Hong Kong after five seconds of waiting to cross the streets, and can feel the seediness after walking a few blocks off of the main drags. In a lot of ways it's very different from all of the cities that I have been in throughout southeast Asia, however in some ways it's very much the same. As they say, it's "same-same, but different."
Maybe it's an Asian thing. Prior to last night I had chalked it up to being a southeast Asian thing. In every country, on every day at least once, I would hear in a hushed voice from a tuk-tuk driver or a guy on the street, "You wan massa? You wan boom-boom? Lady! You wan nice lady? Very pretty lady for massa!" In Laos, it was also followed with, "You wan opium?" And in Vietnam and Cambodia it was followed by, "You wan smoke? You wan skunk? Mara-juana?" But generally it was just the "massa," the "boom-boom" and the "lady" that was on offer.
I expected it to stop once I got to Hong Kong. It's not a third or second world country. It's not even a developing nation or an emerging market. The nation is already developed and the market emerged a long time ago. I'm just thoroughly surprised that the touts are just as frequent and just as obvious as they were in Bangkok. The only difference is that they don't grab your arm. Well, the guys hawking the tailors do, but those aren't the hawkers I'm talking about. Somehow I expected it to be different. Not so much.
Anyhow, last night, I went to the Avenue of Stars, where they honor all of the big Hong Kong movie people. There's a really kick ass statue of Bruce Lee. It's life size. If I had a statue garden, and if I could afford it, it would be the centerpiece.
Every night at eight o'clock, on Hong Kong Island, there is the Symphony of Lights. You can see and hear it from the Avenue of Stars, as it's actually the best place to see the show. It's a laser and light show set to music, where the buildings will light up in different patterns and it's pretty entertaining. It's got nothing on EPCOT's Illuminations, but it's entertaining.
I ended up meeting a British girl, Emily, while watching the show. She's been on the go for the past week, and will head to southeast Asia tomorrow. She's really only planning to be in each country for a week, so I had to drop some knowledge on her. She's either going to feel like she hasn't seen anything on her travels, or she'll be traveling so much that half of her weeks will be spent in transit. She was nice. I might have dinner with her if she e-mails me tonight.
Today, I think I'm going to explore Hong Kong Island after getting some dim sum. Tomorrow, I'm off to Macau for the day. I figure I'll play a hand or two of blackjack, just to say that I did it. Man,I'm hungry. I guess that means it's time for dumplin's.
Day 69: Hong Kong Phooey
Listening: I never really gave up on breakin' out of this two-star town. I got the green light. I got a little fight. I'm gonna turn this thing around.
What's my problem? Paying double, but still sleeping single.
Well, I'm in Hong Kong now. I landed at half three and after spending an two and a half hours between immigration, customs, getting an Octopus Card (Hong Kong's Charlie Card), getting a SIM card, getting two char siu baos, catching the bus to Kowloon, and finding a guesthouse, I'm ready to get this party started.
So I'm paying 150HKD ($22) for my single room tonight. I could have picked the room with the window, which had a shared bathroom down the hall, or I could have picked the room with no window, but has an ensuite bathroom. Actually it's not much of a bathroom, more like a square meter (seriously) that houses a sink, a toilet, and a shower head. The room itself is tiny as well, but how much time do I really plan on spending in the room. They say if a dorm bed empties, I'll move over to a dorm bed for 60HKD (just under $10).
I have to say that I hate hawkers. I HATE them. I don't like being hassled or touched when I'm shopping or looking for a guest house. And that's exactly what happened when I tried to locate the place that I'm staying now. Luckily I took down the address before I left Bangkok, or else I would have been thrown to the wolves. When people I don't know touch me, I get violently angry. I gave a hawker a look of death when I was at the night market last night. I think he feared for his life for a second before he realized that he should let go of me.
Anyhow, I have to get settled. I need to call my friend Candy too. Time to get it going on.
What's my problem? Paying double, but still sleeping single.
Well, I'm in Hong Kong now. I landed at half three and after spending an two and a half hours between immigration, customs, getting an Octopus Card (Hong Kong's Charlie Card), getting a SIM card, getting two char siu baos, catching the bus to Kowloon, and finding a guesthouse, I'm ready to get this party started.
So I'm paying 150HKD ($22) for my single room tonight. I could have picked the room with the window, which had a shared bathroom down the hall, or I could have picked the room with no window, but has an ensuite bathroom. Actually it's not much of a bathroom, more like a square meter (seriously) that houses a sink, a toilet, and a shower head. The room itself is tiny as well, but how much time do I really plan on spending in the room. They say if a dorm bed empties, I'll move over to a dorm bed for 60HKD (just under $10).
I have to say that I hate hawkers. I HATE them. I don't like being hassled or touched when I'm shopping or looking for a guest house. And that's exactly what happened when I tried to locate the place that I'm staying now. Luckily I took down the address before I left Bangkok, or else I would have been thrown to the wolves. When people I don't know touch me, I get violently angry. I gave a hawker a look of death when I was at the night market last night. I think he feared for his life for a second before he realized that he should let go of me.
Anyhow, I have to get settled. I need to call my friend Candy too. Time to get it going on.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Day 68: Behold the Power of British Twins
Listening: Born to run, baby. Run like a stream down a mountainside with the wind in my back. I don't ever even bat an eye. Just know it was you all along who had a hold of my heart, but the demon and me were the best of friends from the start.
What's my problem? I have less than 24 hours.
I'm not going to go to sleep after three in the morning for the fourth night in a row. I'm just putting that out there. I'm not going to do it. Setting it down for the record. I'm seriously not fucking around.
And besides, the twins are gone.
Furthermore, I have a flight at half eleven tomorrow, which means I have to be at the airport at half nine, which means that I have to leave the hostel at either half seven or half eight, because you never know how traffic is going to work out here in Asia.
Yesterday was a pretty chill day. I didn't do much besides hang out on the internet and walk around a bit until I met the twins for dinner. They were on a quest to find this one shirt that they saw. It said "Allow me to explain it to you in interpretive dance." It was a funny shirt, but we only saw it at one stand and they didn't have it in Clover's size. Sophie did pick up an I (heart) BKK shirt. I saw some of the poi sets that I had been looking for, but they were around five hundred baht before negotiation, so I figured I'd save it for today. I also found the Buddhist prayer beads that I have been looking for as well, and they were two hundred and fifty baht before negotiation.
We actually had dinner in Chinatown. We were searching for dumplings, but didn't really find too much. One restaurant was serving dim sum buffet, but when I went in and looked at the shu mai, it looked like complete crap. They were tiny, and the wrappers looked like they were sitting around, not in the steamer, for ages. I saw that and I told the twins, "We're not eating here. The dumplings look like ass and I wouldn't feed them to a dying dog to euthanize it." Yeah. They looked that bad.
We ended up getting some fried pot stickers, some spring rolls, and I ended up getting some turnip cake. It was all pretty good, but when the pot stickers are deep fried, you lose the beauty of the doughiness. I also wanted to get some Chinese soup that I haven't had in ages, but we had to get back to the Khao San area so that the twins could pick up their laundry before the place closed.
So, for the second night, we hung around Khao San Road. It started with one drink at Silk Bar, then we decided to check out Chart, because they had good music for the past few nights bumping out of their front door, bu when we got there the music wasn't very good. The plan was to stay for one drink. "Lucky" for us, they were doing a two for one drink promotion and we had no clue. So when we each got two drinks, we were quite surprised. From there, we went back to Shamrock, where we were the night before.
Shamrock has a cover band every night, and they're a lot of fun. They play everything from Guns 'n' Roses to Kings of Leon to Eminem to Jason Mraz. It's just a lot of fun. People are all singing along. I almost lost my voice singing along. It was crazy fun.
We got there at around eleven o'clock, and we didn't come out of there until around half past three. Clover was... enthralled with one of the guitarists. Sophie and I had been shooting pool. For some reason, a bunch of Australians felt the need to whip out their cocks in the middle of the bar. It was a generally rawkus night.
Sadly, I had to say goodbye to another set of travel buddies that I had met along the way. I feel like I've known them forever, since I really met them about halfway through my mainland leg of the journey. They were there for my birthday in Halong Bay. I was there when they pulled up in Sapa covered in road dust. I ran into them in Hoi An on the day I left as they were riding their bikes to the beach. And finally I saw them in Siem Reap and traveled with them back here to Bangkok so we could all fly away.
Sophie and Clover are good kids. They had me pegged from the start. They knew what kind of dirty old man I am, and how my sense of humor works. They figured out early that I don't like hanging out with knuckleheads, and that I dig just chilling out and enjoying my drinks instead of skulling them. Smart kids. Very smart kids. I wish them the best of luck in Australia where they're going to try to find work for three months or so. I wish I could join them.
Anyhow, by the time I got back to Sukhumvit, it was, again, four in the morning. Amusingly enough, I saw the same British guy out front smoking a cigarette as I did the night before. He was staying at Soi 1 as well. Today he was off to Koh Phangan.
Now, again, like in Phnom Penh, I am alone. Which is fine. I'm trying to upload some pictures, but again, it's slow going. I miss my Mac and Linh's wireless network. Today I'm planning on going to Pantip, where supposedly, all of the night market and street vendors get their stuff to sell. I might stop by MBK to maybe purchase a new phone since my knock off iPhone Mini won't charge... I'll have to see if I can fix it once I get back to the States. Aside from that, there's not much more on my agenda.
I do have to book at least one night's hostel in Hong Kong though. I'm thoroughly scared though. The price of a bed jumps from ten dollars a night to about twenty five, and even then you're not guaranteed comfort, cleanliness or safety. I'm only booking one night though. I'm gonna stay somewhere crappy on the first night and then that first day I'm going to find somewhere good for the following day. I can't express to you how apprehensive I am about making this booking. I think in order to get a decent place to stay, you're going to be looking at around fifty dollars a night. Over five days, that kills me. For the same amount of money, I think I paid for at least the last three weeks of accommodation. That's just fucked up.
Okay... that's it. I'm not even going to make a booking. I'm just gonna drop into the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Kowloon and try to find a place. I know that if push comes to shove, I can walk into the Chungking Mansion or Mirador Mansion and find hostel with a crappy, bug-infested bed there for forty dollars if need be. I'll try my best not to though.
Wish me luck.
What's my problem? I have less than 24 hours.
I'm not going to go to sleep after three in the morning for the fourth night in a row. I'm just putting that out there. I'm not going to do it. Setting it down for the record. I'm seriously not fucking around.
And besides, the twins are gone.
Furthermore, I have a flight at half eleven tomorrow, which means I have to be at the airport at half nine, which means that I have to leave the hostel at either half seven or half eight, because you never know how traffic is going to work out here in Asia.
Yesterday was a pretty chill day. I didn't do much besides hang out on the internet and walk around a bit until I met the twins for dinner. They were on a quest to find this one shirt that they saw. It said "Allow me to explain it to you in interpretive dance." It was a funny shirt, but we only saw it at one stand and they didn't have it in Clover's size. Sophie did pick up an I (heart) BKK shirt. I saw some of the poi sets that I had been looking for, but they were around five hundred baht before negotiation, so I figured I'd save it for today. I also found the Buddhist prayer beads that I have been looking for as well, and they were two hundred and fifty baht before negotiation.
We actually had dinner in Chinatown. We were searching for dumplings, but didn't really find too much. One restaurant was serving dim sum buffet, but when I went in and looked at the shu mai, it looked like complete crap. They were tiny, and the wrappers looked like they were sitting around, not in the steamer, for ages. I saw that and I told the twins, "We're not eating here. The dumplings look like ass and I wouldn't feed them to a dying dog to euthanize it." Yeah. They looked that bad.
We ended up getting some fried pot stickers, some spring rolls, and I ended up getting some turnip cake. It was all pretty good, but when the pot stickers are deep fried, you lose the beauty of the doughiness. I also wanted to get some Chinese soup that I haven't had in ages, but we had to get back to the Khao San area so that the twins could pick up their laundry before the place closed.
So, for the second night, we hung around Khao San Road. It started with one drink at Silk Bar, then we decided to check out Chart, because they had good music for the past few nights bumping out of their front door, bu when we got there the music wasn't very good. The plan was to stay for one drink. "Lucky" for us, they were doing a two for one drink promotion and we had no clue. So when we each got two drinks, we were quite surprised. From there, we went back to Shamrock, where we were the night before.
Shamrock has a cover band every night, and they're a lot of fun. They play everything from Guns 'n' Roses to Kings of Leon to Eminem to Jason Mraz. It's just a lot of fun. People are all singing along. I almost lost my voice singing along. It was crazy fun.
We got there at around eleven o'clock, and we didn't come out of there until around half past three. Clover was... enthralled with one of the guitarists. Sophie and I had been shooting pool. For some reason, a bunch of Australians felt the need to whip out their cocks in the middle of the bar. It was a generally rawkus night.
Sadly, I had to say goodbye to another set of travel buddies that I had met along the way. I feel like I've known them forever, since I really met them about halfway through my mainland leg of the journey. They were there for my birthday in Halong Bay. I was there when they pulled up in Sapa covered in road dust. I ran into them in Hoi An on the day I left as they were riding their bikes to the beach. And finally I saw them in Siem Reap and traveled with them back here to Bangkok so we could all fly away.
Sophie and Clover are good kids. They had me pegged from the start. They knew what kind of dirty old man I am, and how my sense of humor works. They figured out early that I don't like hanging out with knuckleheads, and that I dig just chilling out and enjoying my drinks instead of skulling them. Smart kids. Very smart kids. I wish them the best of luck in Australia where they're going to try to find work for three months or so. I wish I could join them.
Anyhow, by the time I got back to Sukhumvit, it was, again, four in the morning. Amusingly enough, I saw the same British guy out front smoking a cigarette as I did the night before. He was staying at Soi 1 as well. Today he was off to Koh Phangan.
Now, again, like in Phnom Penh, I am alone. Which is fine. I'm trying to upload some pictures, but again, it's slow going. I miss my Mac and Linh's wireless network. Today I'm planning on going to Pantip, where supposedly, all of the night market and street vendors get their stuff to sell. I might stop by MBK to maybe purchase a new phone since my knock off iPhone Mini won't charge... I'll have to see if I can fix it once I get back to the States. Aside from that, there's not much more on my agenda.
I do have to book at least one night's hostel in Hong Kong though. I'm thoroughly scared though. The price of a bed jumps from ten dollars a night to about twenty five, and even then you're not guaranteed comfort, cleanliness or safety. I'm only booking one night though. I'm gonna stay somewhere crappy on the first night and then that first day I'm going to find somewhere good for the following day. I can't express to you how apprehensive I am about making this booking. I think in order to get a decent place to stay, you're going to be looking at around fifty dollars a night. Over five days, that kills me. For the same amount of money, I think I paid for at least the last three weeks of accommodation. That's just fucked up.
Okay... that's it. I'm not even going to make a booking. I'm just gonna drop into the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Kowloon and try to find a place. I know that if push comes to shove, I can walk into the Chungking Mansion or Mirador Mansion and find hostel with a crappy, bug-infested bed there for forty dollars if need be. I'll try my best not to though.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Day 67: The Crap Wagon I and the Crap Wagon II
Listening: I won't hesitate no more. No more. It cannot wait. I'm sure. There's no need to complicate. Our time is short. This is our fate. I'm yours.
What's my problem? I can feel my travels coming to a close. And for the first time I'm regretting not bringing rain gear.
After spending almost three full days of seeing ancient ruins and temples (a feat that all of my friends agreed was insane) in the scorching heat, it was time to take my leave of Siem Reap.
The night that I left, as I walked down the aptly named Pub Street, I saw two girls sitting in a restaurant. They looked very much like each other. They looked like they could be from England. And they were. They were the twins, Sophie and Clover, that I had first met on the boat in Halong Bay, had seen again in Hanoi, Sapa, Hoi An, and now Siem Reap. They expected to not see me again for the rest of their trip, and I had expected the same.
Since I was on the hunt for dinner anyways, I just joined them as they sipped coffee and I chowed on some Khmer style white noodles... which were okay, I guess. We chatted for quite some time before I brought them to the best green lemon and kaifir lime sorbet in the world. Clover had the strawberry sorbet, and Sophie had the rum alcohol and raisin ice cream. It was all really good. If any of you end up in Siem Reap, go to the Blue Pumpkin bakery and get yourself an icy treat.
I told Paolo, another guy that I had met in Halong Bay, that I would meet him at the Ankor What? bar that night, as that's where I had been hanging out every night that I was in Siem Reap. The night before, I was playing wingman for him with this pretty chute bird from Rochester. Unfortunately, when Sophie, Clover and I showed up, he was nowhere to be found, and the Racha girl hadn't seen him either. By the time Paolo did show up, the girl was long gone. Too bad. We just had to work the room a little more then.
All in all, it was a good night. We didn't leave the bar until several buckets were consumed and, for me, a number of beers. It was three in the morning. I had to be ready for the bus at seven in the morning. This meant that I had to be up at six in the morning to finish packing. In reality, I didn't get back to my room until half past three, then I spent a half hour puttering around trying to pack as much as I could then... still a little buzzed. It was kind of a mess, but not nearly as amusing as it could have been given more imbibing.
Two hours of sleep.
Two.
Crappy bus.
Ouch.
Luckily Sophie and Clover were on my bus as well. Unfortunately for them, they each paid sixteen bucks. I paid twelve. It was a craptastic bus that was almost like a yellow schoolbus, but a little smaller. Not quite the short bus, though. The windows opened wide, which was a good thing, because the aircon wasn't working and it was a bazillion degrees out. We stopped two times on the four hour trip to the border. They didn't let us know how long the stop would be or anything like that. They barely spoke two words to us. The information exchanged between the bus people and the travelers was that of a deaf man signing to a blind man three blocks away. It kind of pissed me off. I mean, I was already cranky from lack of sleep and the heat.
What made me say, "If I don't get some information soon, I'm gonna start kickin' people in the balls!" was when we got to the border. They brought us to the departure part of the Cambodian border, and we exited alright, but we weren't told what to do then. Eventually we found out that we had to walk about a kilometer to the Thai arrivals place, where we got our visas.
Once we were through that, we expected a bus to be there for us. No such luck. We had to sit waiting in the scorching sun for at least an hour. Nothing was said to us other than, "You wait here."
We were all hungry. At that point, I had no Thai Baht, no Cambodian Reil, only some US Dollars, which was also the case for Sophie and Clover. I hadn't had breakfast, because, really, who can eat breakfast a mere three hours after you stopped drinking. At the stops, we didn't know how long we had, so we couldn't order food. Now we were in the sun, I had just run out of water, and there wasn't any ATM or any food besides a single cart to be seen.
After a good long waiting period, they told us to follow them, where we walked another kilometer to some songthaews (pickup trucks with benches in the bed and a hood over the top). We rode them ten more minutes to another kind of a restaurant/stop. Again, we didn't know how long we had to eat, but it didn't solve the problem of not having money. They wanted thirty baht for each dollar, when I should be getting about thirty four or thirty five. I had a little bit of baht though, some change that I dug up from the top compartment of my pack where I keep little bits and bobs. I had enough to buy some water. SCORE!
We waited there for quite some time. We saw a bus in the parking lot that looked all shiny and friendly. Mickey Mouse and a bunch of his pals were decaled on the side. It was a big bus too. We knew that the busses were better in Thailand than they were in Cambodia, so we assumed, shiny, new-looking bus... that's what we were gonna get.
After a while, another bus pulled up. This one had the Little Mermaid on the side of it. For some reason, the Buddha was shooting hearts at her too, but that's of no consequence. There was Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian. Nice. Once we got into the bus, we realized that the bus was nice on the outside, but almost as craptastic as the first one on the inside. There were high back chairs, but Sophie, Clover and I didn't get them since we were the last few on the bus. Instead, we were in the back, where there was a semicircular couch/bench that we shared with two other people. Sophie got dripped on by the aircon or rain dripping in from the roof (yeah it started raining). The back of the couch/bench was so low that you couldn't rest your head back unless you scooted your ass almost all of the way off the bench, and then the bottom part of the bench would tilt and slide off. Some of the people in the high back chairs also had issues. Bottom cushions sliding off or were completely detatched. Armrests were rusty, exposed metal. It was awful. I could see it being worse, but it was pretty bad.
We got to Khao San Road at around eight in the evening. Sophie and Clover decided to stay on Ratchaburi near Khao San, but I was booked back in Sukhumvit. We ended up meeting for a late dinner and then hanging out on Khao San until half three. We spent the majority of the night drinking and smoking shisha from a hooka with a pretty cool Thai girl. Never had shisha before. It was crazy smooth, and tasted nice too.
That brings me to today. After two nights of being out until half three, I slept in. I got out of bed at noon and now I'm just chillin'. I'm gonna get a massage (finally), and maybe do a little bit of shopping before I meet Sophie and Clover for dinner.
I have two more days on the mainland before I head to Hong Kong. It kinda makes me sad. I wish I had more time and money, but that's how it goes as a traveler, whether you're traveling for a week, a month or a year. Next time, if I have no time constraints, I'm going to pick up jobs along the way, the way that AJ got a job at Hanoi Backpackers and Julia got a job at the Red Apple Bar. It'll make it easier for me to travel longer and really see places more in depth. But that's it for now. Dunno if the next post is going to be from there or if it'll be from Hong Kong. Either way, in a little more than two weeks, I'll be in my own bed... if only for one night.
What's my problem? I can feel my travels coming to a close. And for the first time I'm regretting not bringing rain gear.
After spending almost three full days of seeing ancient ruins and temples (a feat that all of my friends agreed was insane) in the scorching heat, it was time to take my leave of Siem Reap.
The night that I left, as I walked down the aptly named Pub Street, I saw two girls sitting in a restaurant. They looked very much like each other. They looked like they could be from England. And they were. They were the twins, Sophie and Clover, that I had first met on the boat in Halong Bay, had seen again in Hanoi, Sapa, Hoi An, and now Siem Reap. They expected to not see me again for the rest of their trip, and I had expected the same.
Since I was on the hunt for dinner anyways, I just joined them as they sipped coffee and I chowed on some Khmer style white noodles... which were okay, I guess. We chatted for quite some time before I brought them to the best green lemon and kaifir lime sorbet in the world. Clover had the strawberry sorbet, and Sophie had the rum alcohol and raisin ice cream. It was all really good. If any of you end up in Siem Reap, go to the Blue Pumpkin bakery and get yourself an icy treat.
I told Paolo, another guy that I had met in Halong Bay, that I would meet him at the Ankor What? bar that night, as that's where I had been hanging out every night that I was in Siem Reap. The night before, I was playing wingman for him with this pretty chute bird from Rochester. Unfortunately, when Sophie, Clover and I showed up, he was nowhere to be found, and the Racha girl hadn't seen him either. By the time Paolo did show up, the girl was long gone. Too bad. We just had to work the room a little more then.
All in all, it was a good night. We didn't leave the bar until several buckets were consumed and, for me, a number of beers. It was three in the morning. I had to be ready for the bus at seven in the morning. This meant that I had to be up at six in the morning to finish packing. In reality, I didn't get back to my room until half past three, then I spent a half hour puttering around trying to pack as much as I could then... still a little buzzed. It was kind of a mess, but not nearly as amusing as it could have been given more imbibing.
Two hours of sleep.
Two.
Crappy bus.
Ouch.
Luckily Sophie and Clover were on my bus as well. Unfortunately for them, they each paid sixteen bucks. I paid twelve. It was a craptastic bus that was almost like a yellow schoolbus, but a little smaller. Not quite the short bus, though. The windows opened wide, which was a good thing, because the aircon wasn't working and it was a bazillion degrees out. We stopped two times on the four hour trip to the border. They didn't let us know how long the stop would be or anything like that. They barely spoke two words to us. The information exchanged between the bus people and the travelers was that of a deaf man signing to a blind man three blocks away. It kind of pissed me off. I mean, I was already cranky from lack of sleep and the heat.
What made me say, "If I don't get some information soon, I'm gonna start kickin' people in the balls!" was when we got to the border. They brought us to the departure part of the Cambodian border, and we exited alright, but we weren't told what to do then. Eventually we found out that we had to walk about a kilometer to the Thai arrivals place, where we got our visas.
Once we were through that, we expected a bus to be there for us. No such luck. We had to sit waiting in the scorching sun for at least an hour. Nothing was said to us other than, "You wait here."
We were all hungry. At that point, I had no Thai Baht, no Cambodian Reil, only some US Dollars, which was also the case for Sophie and Clover. I hadn't had breakfast, because, really, who can eat breakfast a mere three hours after you stopped drinking. At the stops, we didn't know how long we had, so we couldn't order food. Now we were in the sun, I had just run out of water, and there wasn't any ATM or any food besides a single cart to be seen.
After a good long waiting period, they told us to follow them, where we walked another kilometer to some songthaews (pickup trucks with benches in the bed and a hood over the top). We rode them ten more minutes to another kind of a restaurant/stop. Again, we didn't know how long we had to eat, but it didn't solve the problem of not having money. They wanted thirty baht for each dollar, when I should be getting about thirty four or thirty five. I had a little bit of baht though, some change that I dug up from the top compartment of my pack where I keep little bits and bobs. I had enough to buy some water. SCORE!
We waited there for quite some time. We saw a bus in the parking lot that looked all shiny and friendly. Mickey Mouse and a bunch of his pals were decaled on the side. It was a big bus too. We knew that the busses were better in Thailand than they were in Cambodia, so we assumed, shiny, new-looking bus... that's what we were gonna get.
After a while, another bus pulled up. This one had the Little Mermaid on the side of it. For some reason, the Buddha was shooting hearts at her too, but that's of no consequence. There was Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian. Nice. Once we got into the bus, we realized that the bus was nice on the outside, but almost as craptastic as the first one on the inside. There were high back chairs, but Sophie, Clover and I didn't get them since we were the last few on the bus. Instead, we were in the back, where there was a semicircular couch/bench that we shared with two other people. Sophie got dripped on by the aircon or rain dripping in from the roof (yeah it started raining). The back of the couch/bench was so low that you couldn't rest your head back unless you scooted your ass almost all of the way off the bench, and then the bottom part of the bench would tilt and slide off. Some of the people in the high back chairs also had issues. Bottom cushions sliding off or were completely detatched. Armrests were rusty, exposed metal. It was awful. I could see it being worse, but it was pretty bad.
We got to Khao San Road at around eight in the evening. Sophie and Clover decided to stay on Ratchaburi near Khao San, but I was booked back in Sukhumvit. We ended up meeting for a late dinner and then hanging out on Khao San until half three. We spent the majority of the night drinking and smoking shisha from a hooka with a pretty cool Thai girl. Never had shisha before. It was crazy smooth, and tasted nice too.
That brings me to today. After two nights of being out until half three, I slept in. I got out of bed at noon and now I'm just chillin'. I'm gonna get a massage (finally), and maybe do a little bit of shopping before I meet Sophie and Clover for dinner.
I have two more days on the mainland before I head to Hong Kong. It kinda makes me sad. I wish I had more time and money, but that's how it goes as a traveler, whether you're traveling for a week, a month or a year. Next time, if I have no time constraints, I'm going to pick up jobs along the way, the way that AJ got a job at Hanoi Backpackers and Julia got a job at the Red Apple Bar. It'll make it easier for me to travel longer and really see places more in depth. But that's it for now. Dunno if the next post is going to be from there or if it'll be from Hong Kong. Either way, in a little more than two weeks, I'll be in my own bed... if only for one night.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Day 63: Walt And Mickey Ain't Got Shit
Listening: Old man, don't lay so still. You're not yet young. There's time to teach. Point to point. Point observation. Children carry reservations. Standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold.
What's my problem? Everything becomes a double edged sword.
Seim Reap is a million times better than Phnom Penh. Really I'm only saying that because the traffic is better, the sights to see are cooler, and I've actually met some people here.
The day after I saw the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum, I took the six hour bus ride to Seim Reap. The Royal Palace was cool and all, but all of the parts that I really wanted to see were closed off from the public.
But I rolled into Seim Reap at around three in the afternoon. I just wanted a tuk-tuk into the city center. It was offered to me for a dollar, but the dude wanted take me to HIS friend's guest house and wanted me to commit to having HIM drive me to the temples the next day. I wasn't having any of that, so when I said, "NO. No tomorrow. No guesthouse. Just to the market and that's it." the price went from a dollar to three. I told them all to piss off and I ended up finding a moto driver that would take me for a buck. It was a rough ride with both my pack, my day pack and being on the back of a motorbike, but I survived.
when I got to the city center, the finding of a guest house wasn't nearly as easy as I thought. There were a lot of places in the fifteen dollar range. Of course, they were nice rooms with aircon and cable TV, maybe even a balcony, but I was shooting a little lower. I'm going to be in Hong Kong next week, and I feel the need to brace myself financially.
I ended up having a tuk-tuk driver take me to a guesthouse. He said free of charge. If I like it, I stay. If not, we go to the next one. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Again, the first place I looked got as low as twelve dollars. I wanted lower. So I finally got an eight dollar room at the Green Town Guesthouse. It has a fan and a TV. Actually it's a triple room, but they're letting me have it to myself for the eight bucks. I could have had a single room for five, but it looked like a cell, had no TV and the bathroom was muggy and smelled of mold. My room is worth the extra three dollars. You think it's just three dollars, but three dollars goes a long way here in Asia if you're smart about it.
Since my tuk-tuk driver was so good, I decided to book him for my temple trips. He took me that evening to get my three day pass to the temples of Ankor Wat, which includes the sunset the evening before the pass starts if you go after five in the afternoon.
I passed by Ankor Wat, just because I wanted to save it for the last day, but I could see its greatness. Instead I went to another temple called Phnom Bakheng. It's a temple on a hill. There's not much to explore, but the view of the sunset is amazing.
****Continued on Day 64****
There were an immense number of people on this temple. People would jockey for the best possible position to take pictures of the sunset.
It just so happened that on that particular afternoon, there was a band of clouds that hovered right at the horizon. So, when the sun came down, it hid behind the clouds for the most part. You could, though, see the light of the sun burn through the clouds making a perfect ruby red circle in the middle of the clouds.
I actually went to bed early that night. It had been an early morning getting the bus at tweny past seven in the morning and spending the day on a bus with seats that were just the right size to make them uncomfortable to sleep in.
The next day, I woke up early to meet my driver (whose name is ACTUALLY Boratt) so that we could get a move on seeing the temples. Again, we bypassed Ankor Wat and headed straight for Ankor Thom.
The temple that I saw for sunset the prior night and the view of Ankor Wat from the street as we drove by gave me no real indication of what I was in for. I knew that it was supposed to be impressive, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer awesomeness that was the temples of Ankor. The first of the temples that I saw in Ankor Thom was Bayon. The sheer magnitude of this place was indescribable. There were huge towers that represented mountains, and at least a hundred faces carved into the building as tall as I am and as wide as my wingspan.
I spent a good three or four hours walking around the greater Ankor Thom area, which included other temples, the Terrace of Elephants, which was a sort of raised grassy area where royalty and special guests would watch parades and special events from, as well as the Terrace of the Leper King, which was kind of the same, but had a trench around the terrace that had walls that were covered in intricate carvings.
I spent a solid ten hours exploring different temples and royal palaces that date back to the 11th century. By the time it hit half four, it was time to go see sunset. Since I had seen it at Phnom Bakheng the night before, I wanted to see it somewhere different.
That's when my driver told me that the only two places to see sunset were Phnom Bakheng and Ankor Wat. So, I sucked it up and went to Ankor Wat. I didn't explore much at all when I was there. I was still saving it. Well, sort of. I'll get to that later.
When I got as far back in Ankor Wat as I could, there still wasn't a great place to see the sunset. And then, to top it all off, the workers at the temple started kicking people out. I asked the guard why we were being kicked out, and he said that the only place to catch sunset was at Phnom Bakheng. Oh well. So, before the sun really set, I caught my tuk-tuk driver and headed back to the hotel.
That night I ended up having dinner with some of the people that I met at my guest house the evening before. We had a good time kicking back with some good food and then a few beers afterwards. I think that the gem of the night for me was that I had the most amazing yellow lemon and kaifir lime leaf sorbet. It was the best sorbet that I have ever had in my entire life. My. entire. life.
Today, I woke up early to catch sunrise at Ankor Wat. See, I heard that you have to go every day until you get a good one. This one was lackluster, but it was so early that I've decided that it was good enough. I ran into some guys that I had met in Halong Bay in today's temples. I also saw the Landmine Museum which was pretty cool.
Since I was up so early, I packed it in at two and have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the guesthouse. Tomorrow, I'm starting at half nine and I'll be going straight on through sunset.
Being on these temples make me think a lot about what it means to see the world. I have been to Disney's Animal Kingdom and I've seen how they try to emulate things, carvings and so on and so forth. But once you see the real thing in person, you realize how hollow it can be. It's a distilled, sterilized version of the real thing in 1/100th scale. I wish everyone could be atop some of these temples. I wish that everyone could walk through the maze of rooms and hallways to see the bas-relief carvings. And, I wish that these ruins could last forever, but I know that they're rapidly crumbling despite UNESCO's best efforts. I can't wait to get back to the States so I can upload my pictures. There will be some big picture payoffs once that happens.
What's my problem? Everything becomes a double edged sword.
Seim Reap is a million times better than Phnom Penh. Really I'm only saying that because the traffic is better, the sights to see are cooler, and I've actually met some people here.
The day after I saw the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum, I took the six hour bus ride to Seim Reap. The Royal Palace was cool and all, but all of the parts that I really wanted to see were closed off from the public.
But I rolled into Seim Reap at around three in the afternoon. I just wanted a tuk-tuk into the city center. It was offered to me for a dollar, but the dude wanted take me to HIS friend's guest house and wanted me to commit to having HIM drive me to the temples the next day. I wasn't having any of that, so when I said, "NO. No tomorrow. No guesthouse. Just to the market and that's it." the price went from a dollar to three. I told them all to piss off and I ended up finding a moto driver that would take me for a buck. It was a rough ride with both my pack, my day pack and being on the back of a motorbike, but I survived.
when I got to the city center, the finding of a guest house wasn't nearly as easy as I thought. There were a lot of places in the fifteen dollar range. Of course, they were nice rooms with aircon and cable TV, maybe even a balcony, but I was shooting a little lower. I'm going to be in Hong Kong next week, and I feel the need to brace myself financially.
I ended up having a tuk-tuk driver take me to a guesthouse. He said free of charge. If I like it, I stay. If not, we go to the next one. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Again, the first place I looked got as low as twelve dollars. I wanted lower. So I finally got an eight dollar room at the Green Town Guesthouse. It has a fan and a TV. Actually it's a triple room, but they're letting me have it to myself for the eight bucks. I could have had a single room for five, but it looked like a cell, had no TV and the bathroom was muggy and smelled of mold. My room is worth the extra three dollars. You think it's just three dollars, but three dollars goes a long way here in Asia if you're smart about it.
Since my tuk-tuk driver was so good, I decided to book him for my temple trips. He took me that evening to get my three day pass to the temples of Ankor Wat, which includes the sunset the evening before the pass starts if you go after five in the afternoon.
I passed by Ankor Wat, just because I wanted to save it for the last day, but I could see its greatness. Instead I went to another temple called Phnom Bakheng. It's a temple on a hill. There's not much to explore, but the view of the sunset is amazing.
****Continued on Day 64****
There were an immense number of people on this temple. People would jockey for the best possible position to take pictures of the sunset.
It just so happened that on that particular afternoon, there was a band of clouds that hovered right at the horizon. So, when the sun came down, it hid behind the clouds for the most part. You could, though, see the light of the sun burn through the clouds making a perfect ruby red circle in the middle of the clouds.
I actually went to bed early that night. It had been an early morning getting the bus at tweny past seven in the morning and spending the day on a bus with seats that were just the right size to make them uncomfortable to sleep in.
The next day, I woke up early to meet my driver (whose name is ACTUALLY Boratt) so that we could get a move on seeing the temples. Again, we bypassed Ankor Wat and headed straight for Ankor Thom.
The temple that I saw for sunset the prior night and the view of Ankor Wat from the street as we drove by gave me no real indication of what I was in for. I knew that it was supposed to be impressive, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer awesomeness that was the temples of Ankor. The first of the temples that I saw in Ankor Thom was Bayon. The sheer magnitude of this place was indescribable. There were huge towers that represented mountains, and at least a hundred faces carved into the building as tall as I am and as wide as my wingspan.
I spent a good three or four hours walking around the greater Ankor Thom area, which included other temples, the Terrace of Elephants, which was a sort of raised grassy area where royalty and special guests would watch parades and special events from, as well as the Terrace of the Leper King, which was kind of the same, but had a trench around the terrace that had walls that were covered in intricate carvings.
I spent a solid ten hours exploring different temples and royal palaces that date back to the 11th century. By the time it hit half four, it was time to go see sunset. Since I had seen it at Phnom Bakheng the night before, I wanted to see it somewhere different.
That's when my driver told me that the only two places to see sunset were Phnom Bakheng and Ankor Wat. So, I sucked it up and went to Ankor Wat. I didn't explore much at all when I was there. I was still saving it. Well, sort of. I'll get to that later.
When I got as far back in Ankor Wat as I could, there still wasn't a great place to see the sunset. And then, to top it all off, the workers at the temple started kicking people out. I asked the guard why we were being kicked out, and he said that the only place to catch sunset was at Phnom Bakheng. Oh well. So, before the sun really set, I caught my tuk-tuk driver and headed back to the hotel.
That night I ended up having dinner with some of the people that I met at my guest house the evening before. We had a good time kicking back with some good food and then a few beers afterwards. I think that the gem of the night for me was that I had the most amazing yellow lemon and kaifir lime leaf sorbet. It was the best sorbet that I have ever had in my entire life. My. entire. life.
Today, I woke up early to catch sunrise at Ankor Wat. See, I heard that you have to go every day until you get a good one. This one was lackluster, but it was so early that I've decided that it was good enough. I ran into some guys that I had met in Halong Bay in today's temples. I also saw the Landmine Museum which was pretty cool.
Since I was up so early, I packed it in at two and have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the guesthouse. Tomorrow, I'm starting at half nine and I'll be going straight on through sunset.
Being on these temples make me think a lot about what it means to see the world. I have been to Disney's Animal Kingdom and I've seen how they try to emulate things, carvings and so on and so forth. But once you see the real thing in person, you realize how hollow it can be. It's a distilled, sterilized version of the real thing in 1/100th scale. I wish everyone could be atop some of these temples. I wish that everyone could walk through the maze of rooms and hallways to see the bas-relief carvings. And, I wish that these ruins could last forever, but I know that they're rapidly crumbling despite UNESCO's best efforts. I can't wait to get back to the States so I can upload my pictures. There will be some big picture payoffs once that happens.
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