Snowy Re-entry

I am home again. I know. Sad, isn't it?

I couldn't imagine a scenario that would've seen me happy to leave my little adventure behind, so I suppose having reentered life with a minimum of tears and hair-tearing is a good thing.

We also have about a million inches of snow here, so that, too, is a hilarious way for reality to say to me "welcome back...(sucker?)"

I will continue to post about my trip even though it's physically ended. I expect that over the next days and weeks, thoughts, emotions and memories will surface that got steamrolled by the crystal clear water and hilarious company of the last part of the trip, and wirting about them, even states-side, is important in helping me share the big picture AND in my own record keeping.

Will it be less exciting to read knowing I'm writing from an english speaking louse-free environment? Well, I suppose that's the beauty of a blog. You can just stop reading it if you feel gyped by the home-posts.

Anyways: today I will share the story of how I came home (or almost didn't come home.)

After I left Steph & Jordan on Kao San Road, I asked at the airport what it would cost to change my return ticket. The nice lady at the Emirates desk gave me a very satisfactory answer (cheap!) and told me I could change it to any open date for the same price and gave me a number to call where she assured me that an enlish speaker would assist me. Hooray!

So I flew from Bangkok to Koh Samui where I got stuck staying at the Mermaid Bungalows or Inn or whatever it was. I twiddled my thumbs pool-side waiting for 8:30 pm to roll around when I could call my toll free number and speak with someone in the US Emirates office about changing my ticket. Tick-tock, tick-tock. Life is hard here by the pool. Read, read, suntan lotion, move to shade, check the time. Food? Oh yes, I should eat. Check the time? Not yet? Ok, I'll take a nap. Etc...

After several failed attempts involving payphones and the Mermaid lobby phone, I managed to get through to Emirates...where their machine told me politely and in perfect english that their hours were from 8:30 am-5:30 pm, Monday-Friday. "Yes," I said to the machine. "That is why I'm calling NOW, at 8:30 am, EST."

Only then did it dawn on me that the lady had given me a number for the Bangkok office and the extension for the english speaker's phone. Idiot.

So I moved on with life. It was the weekend, so I couldn't call again the next day and I simply preceeded with the plan: go to Koh Tao, learn to dive, love life.

Which brings me to Monday. We had a classroom session in the morning for my dive course and between that and our 1 pm rendezvous for our first real dive, I got myself to the phone to nail down the slippery details of my return.

Again, several pay phones and internet cafe phones later, I was speaking with the ever-polite Emirates People.

"Hello," I said. "I'd like to change my ticket, please." My heart was thudding because technically, I was already going to miss my scheduled return date (that night.) (Have I mentioned I'm sometimes really stupid?)

"Sure, no problem," the man on the other end told me. (PHEW.) "When would you like to fly?"

"I'd like a ticket for this Saturday, the 27th or Sunday the 28th, please."

(Sound of typing from Emirates end of the phone line.) "I'm sorry ma'am, we have nothing available on those dates."

No problem, it's a weekend, of course. "How about the friday before?"

Typing, typing, typing. "No, I'm sorry, also full."

"Ok. The Monday after, then?"

Click click click click click. "Also full, ma'am."

Heart rate increasing at an alarming speed. "Ok. How about Thursday or even Wednesay?" (There is no way I can make it to the Bangkok airport before a Wednesday flight, by the way.)

"Yes, we have a seat on Wednesday."

"Ok, can you sort of put your finger in the page there and then go look at what your next available flight out of Bangkok is after that?"

Everlasting typing over the phone lines. Heart in throat. Frantic prayers.

"After Wednesday, the next available flight is April 25, ma'am."

Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.

"Yes, please book me on the Wednesday flight."

Leaving Wednesday (at 1:05 am, mind you,) means many things:

First, I won't get to finish my dive course. I am crushed and bitterly disappointed by this fact.

I must arrange a boat ride to the island with the airport and also procure a last-minute seat on an airplane going to Bangkok. I begin the search and come up with...nothing.

My hands begin to shake.

I'm going to be stranded here. (Actually, that wasn't a bad thought, but the following ones were.) I'm going to have to purchase a brand new ticket for my return flight. How much would those be? I'll check. Oh. $1000.00 That's an expensive mistake Sarah, you big dumb 29-year-old infant.

I'm going to have to call Stevo and tell him I'm stuck here and can he please just keep holding down the fort while I play in the sun and behave like a child?

Do I even have $1000 for a new ticket home?

Am I going to have to call my parents (on their vacation in Israel, no less,) and explain this to them and ASK THEM FOR MONEY???

Who can I call for advice? Its after midnight at home, on a school night. What do I do? What do I do? Oh my gosh. I'm such a moron. I hate myself for doing this kind of stuff. Will I ever learn?

Then I turn to the lady who helped me with the phone, who runs the internet cafe. I recall that there are boat tickets for sale in this office and that I read something called "EK Travel" over the door when I came in. Perhaps she can help me?

And help me she did. After a few communitcation errors she procured for me a taxi ride to the pier, a boat ticket, a mini-bus ride from the pier to the airport and one (business class) ticket to Bangkok a whopping 5 hours before my 1 am departure on Wednesday morning.

I could've cried.

It all cost me less than $200, by the way. And yes, I really sat in business class for a 1 hour flight. And they used real linnen on my tray table when they fed me. It was rad.

Walking back to meet my dive buddy for our first real dives and my last real dives of the trip, I couldn't figure out if I was more sad about leaving early or relieved that the shame of a massive travel debacle had been narrowly averted.

This remained a toss-up until this morning, when I was clearing off my car to come into town and was soaked to the waist and freezing after 10 minutes with only the first half of the car clean.

Clearly, I should've embraced the debacle.

Clearly.

Please don't make me leave.

Hey all!

I've been putting off this post because, well, how does one write about white sand beaches, crystal clear water and days filled with beautiful nothingness and new friends while the people at home are trudging through snow, bundled against the cold, waiting for more daylight?

I am hoping that sentence alone was like the band-aid being ripped off and now that your hideous, cold, pale skinned-wounds are exposed, I can just go on about the currently perfect conditions of my life and trust that the worst is behind you? (If I'm wrong, you should probably just stop reading now...)

I'm staying at the Sairee Cottages, (on Haad Sai Ree) which are most satisfactory. Its on a quiet stretch with other cottage resorts but there is plenty of fun at the end of a very short walk in either direction. I am, in fact, staying for free in my happy little cottage because I'm also learning to dive here and for 9000 baht, they not only teach and equip you, but also put a roof over your head. Stellar.

My first day on the beach, as I tried in vain not to scorch some of my still-pale spots, I met a handful of very funny Irish "lads" who have gravitated to this spot because several of the dive instructors here are also Irish.

Irish people and scuba did not used to go together in my mind, but, as with many things on this adventure, I've been proven wrong.

So between the friendly people on the beach and in the cottages around me and everyone's link to the dive instructors here, I sometimes feel like the belle of the ball, waving hello to all sorts of folk as I pass the time in this most gorgeous of spots. Funny to think I thought traveling alone would be lonely. Turns out, it just makes it easier for everyone else to talk to you. Ha. Something new every day...

Yesterday, I also felt like I finally acclimatized to the pace of beach life. My first two island days as I lazed about like a beached whale, I kept thinking "I should get up! The day's passing me by! What am I missing?" but now, well now I've got it down pat:

• Get up before the room becomes an inferno (no later than 10 am)
  
• Head down to the beachfront cafe and get coffee and fruit (avg. 1 mango/day for 2 wks.)
  
• Enjoy breeze, shade and company of strangers until I feel the urge to take a dip
• Float aimlessly, chat with others in water, contemplate navel, etc...until very, very pruney
• Get out
• Lay in sun
• Move to shade to read/reapply sunblock
• Go back to beach
• Repeat as necessary (or as time allows)

Yesterday I actually started my Scuba class...talk about an imposition on my routine! This has been very exciting and also bit nerve-wracking because they tell you upfront about all the things that can happen to you when you try to live in an environment that man was not made to live in. Mom, don't worry. Its nothing. I love you and I'll be fine.

My class is composed of our instructor (Lorenzo, from Italy but living here for 6 years now,) our assistant instructor (Mira, from Finland, still in training, arrived in December and hasn't peeled herself away yet) Anders from Sweden (student) and me (student.) That makes a grand total of 4 - 2 teachers and 2 students. Pretty good ratio, right?

Everyone seems great and Anders will make a fine first dive-buddy for me. After our class last night, we bonded over food, our new workbooks and a couple of beers. We are now fast friends. He even told me that if I gave him the "out of air" sign, he wouldn't wait for me to sign to him that I wanted to share, he'd just offer me his regulator. God bless Anders.

(Mom: running out of air doesn't happen if you pay attention, please don't worry! I'll stay SHARP!)

Hmm, I just tried to post some pictures and this computer is not working with me. I'll try again...yep, nothing. The more photos I get, the more neurotic I am about something happening to my camera or memory card. In Bangkok I thought I had lost my camera...that was an ugly moment. Of course it was just buried under the debris of ticket stubs and foreign currency that have created a bog-like mat at the bottom of my bag. Phew.

Anyways, this just means no pictures for today. But tomorrow, when I'm on another computer, I'll try again and so far, that method has worked for me.

Well all, I'm off to take a dip, eat a little snack and meet my dive "class" (just Anders) for a little review before our 1 pm session. We'll be putting on all the gear and getting in the water. Just knee deep water, but man am I excited!

Love you guys. Miss you. too. Can't wait to sit and tell you about it all, face to face. Of course, you might have to book tickets to come here to hear about it, because I can't even begin to contemplate leaving!

Hello southern Thailand, gee you're nice!

Sawadee from Koh Samui!

I'm writing from the icy cold office of the place I'm staying in tonight. I didn't plan to stay on this island, but when I arrived, they told me the ferries were oversold for the day and I'd have to stay. And no, I didn't get fooled...I actually went to the pier to make sure this was fact and not fiction and viola, here I am.

I'm staying in a place that costs three times what I was paying in Cambodia, but at $15, it's still not so bad for one night. Its a total resort town and I'm not even sure I can eat authentic thai food here, but my little bungalow is magically clean and adorable and the beach is across the street and the pool stays open till midnight, so I'm thinking I've landed on my feet. Ha ha, travel snafus cannot hold me down!

Tomorrow morning I will take a catamaran to the smaller island of Koh Tao where I'll (hopefully) get to scuba dive for the first time ever (!!!) and also rock climb. Since I just used three exclamation points in the previous sentence, I'll restrain myself on this one, but I am unbearably excited.

Bangkok was fun, too. I forgot I haven't written about that. I met up with the ever-hilarious Stephanie Finn and a friend of hers (Jordan) and we actually stayed right in the heart of party-central, at Kao San Road. I wrote to my dad that it was like all the spring break trips I'd never gone on as a college girl happening at full strength, right outside our door.

It was great to travel with someone I knew from before and hearing Steph's stories about India made me want to drop everything to go. She was in the Himilayas for pete's sake!

I think I'll have to come back and give Bangkok it's own post, but for now, I'll slap some photos up from Cambodia and cross my fingers that my time on the internet won't expire before they can load!

These were our boychild boat captains on the river tour we did in Siem Reap. When we got on the boat and they started it up and drove us off, Laura and I looked around like they were playing a trick on the adult who was supposed to be in charge. Nope! Anyways, our captain goes to school in the mornings (6 days a week,) drives the tour boat at night and then sleeps on the boat overnight, too. He sees his family ever couple of weeks, they live in the floating village down river a bit. Wait, did I already tell you that?

These are supposed to be the beautiful muses who inspired great kings (the dancing Apsaras) but they just looked hot and bored to me.

If you look closely, you can actually see Laura Croft raiding this tomb. No, no you can't. But did you look?

More temple-mania! We thought this one looked a bit cathedral-ish. Everything was so ornately carved - we just kept asking each other, "what would this have looked like back in the day," and shaking our heads over what the ancient Khmers were able to do. Its crazy to think how they've been reduced to such a poor, broken country. A very stark contrast when you get into the history and see the remnants of their once-great empire.

The little rooftop cafe/bar at the Popular Guesthouse. See, I told you it was sweet!

Houses on stilts above tributaries of the Tonle Sap - the water feeds the rice paddies (patties?) that you can't quite see in the background. The Cambodian countryside was such a trip after the chaos and dirt of Phnom Penh. I couldn't believe how much better off the people in Siem Reap seemed to be doing - it's quite, there's no trash and the absence of car and moto horns sort of freaked me out at first.

The start of the spread the daycare staff made for me on our "thank you dinner" night. I still can't get them doing it. So humbling.

Just another day in Phnom Penh. Really.

This is lunchtime at the day care. The kids eat the same amount of food as a grown man would and they eat family style, mostly managing to serve themselves and each other and their shirts and the table and the floor, but still mostly their mouths. Some of them are as young as 3. I think this qualifies them as geniuses, really.

And speaking of geniuses, the three older girls in the picture are some of the brightest! When we played hang-man to help them learn to spell (words like car, apple and Jesus,) they were always bouncing up and down. "Yam, yam, yam, issa letta A?" I think "yam" is like saying "miss" but it could've been that they were calling me Big Bozo Face or Hey Whitey. I'm ok not knowing for now. They also talked to me incessantly but, of course, I never knew what they were saying. I always answered and they had no idea what I was saying, but hugs and hair-braiding (lice! lice! lice!) sessions are a universal language, so we got by.

Quickie!

Hey Team,

Just a quick note as I wait for my boarding pass to print out...I'm leaving Cambodia (sad!) and am flying to Bangkok this afternoon. There, I'll meet a girl I know (sort of) and we will splurge on a hotel that costs us 300 baht each. Yes, that's a whopping $30. But it's in the right spot and they do laundry right there, same day (oh how badly I need to do laundry!!!) and they have a rooftop pool. Heaven.

Some of you knew about my transportation check list and I thought I would give you an update. So far I have traveled by:

• air plane (dull, I know)
• car (even more dull, although not in Phnom Penh traffic)
• speed boat
• palm tree canoe
• bicycle
• moto
• tuk-tuk
• elephant
• yes, elephant!

Still to go are train (night train if I can swing it) and bus. The bus is kind of dull too, I know, but I'm trying to be thorough. I'll also get a ferry somewhere in there and who knows what else. Maybe someone will give me a piggy-back ride somewhere and I'll be able to write "human"on my list. Yes, having written that, I think that should definitely be on the list. How far would someone have to carry me for it to be considered transportation?

Huh. Even though Chinese New Year was a couple of days ago, they're still banging their drums and dancing around under giant dragon puppets here. From my computer I can see (and hear, man that's a loud drum) someone starting up again now. I wonder how long they celebrate around here?

Ok, time to wrap up and check out of my dear Popular Guesthouse. I will miss this country and the people here and although I'm sure Thailand will also be fantastic, I can't imagine loving it like I do Cambodia.

Sadly, I also just wrapped my head around converting riel to dollars, and now I've got to master some new math. Ugh. Math. I guess I should be grateful, though. I met a guy last night who was telling me about converting Lao currency to dollars and I would've needed a calculator or abbicus for that one!

Time to go. Love you guys!

Next post will be from a new country. This rocks.

Slowest intenet connection in the East

I was very excited to post some pictures for you guys, but it turns out the internet in my guesthouse is dial-up's slower cousin or something. So now I will have to choose just one or two to share and trust that you'll forgive me.

Today has been a huge day, woah. I woke up earlyish and went up to the rooftop cafe/bar and had a delicious bowl of cereal with fresh mango on it and slurped down a coffee before my tuk-tuk driver (Ton?) arrived at 8 to whisk me away to the temples of Angkor.

Angkor, let me tell you, is massive, ancient, beautiful, dusty, crowded, hot and fabulous. Its also super spread out, so you have to either be a marathon runner or rent a bike or hire a tuk-tuk for the day. Yesterday's post will explain which option I went with and hey, before you look down on me too much, please recall that I'm meant to be on a vacation of sorts. Exercise is for real life. This is not that.

Ooh, wait. I already forgot an important detail. Over breakfast, I met a girl named Laura. She and I have been alone at the cafe twice now, so I took a stab and asked her if she was traveling alone. She answered, in an Australian accent (which I did not hold against her,) that she was indeed traveling alone. We struck up a lively conversation and decided to meet up again later in the afternoon, after our various sight-seeing duties were done.

Now fast-forward again to Angkor: Laura and I bumped into each other and I had a friend for the day! Actually, I present-tense have a friend, still. She and I are going to eat dinner together soon, and have also collected a few other lone travelers to make up our merry little band for the evening. Aaah, the company of strangers. What fun! '

So Laura and I reached our maximum capacity for temple viewing around 2 pm and headed back to our guesthouse, where we enjoyed the most delicious smoothies ever blended, no word of a lie. Mine was banana-coffee because I seriously needed the boost and hers was something totally healthy and sensible. Have I mentioned that Laura is in fitness as a career and also teaches yoga? So yeah, there's that.

Anyways, we came back, slurped our slushies, hosed the dust off our feet and then headed out for Massages...by blind people! Oh yes. For a mere $3 we got beautiful 30 minute massages and the money supported the vision impaired in Siem Reap, so I felt twice as good!

From there, we took a ride back down to the Tonle Sap (river and lake) and caught a boat to see the floating villages, market and other things that also floated. Like plastic bags, bottles and a boy in a metal wash tub.

The person driving our boat was 17, but I'm telling you, he was 17 like I'm 35. And the person assisting him was 13. This could've been true. So here we were, Laura and Sarah, afloat with our teenage captain and his skipper on the largest body of fresh water in all of southeast asia. And it was great. The captain spoke beautiful english and was very proud to show us the lake that he lives on with his family and friends. He took us to a floating school for lake orphans and to a restaurant where he draped a boa constrictor around my neck. Whee! He told us he lives in the boat we were riding in and that he wants to go to University to study engineering. I hope he puts our collective $5 tip toward tuition, because he was clearly very smart and personable and I'd like to see him succeed.

So now, after a breezy tuk tuk ride through the rice fields and past stilted villages, I'm here, writing to you. And after this I will run to my room, hose off my feet again, try to tame my wild hair and meet my new friends upstairs for dinner and other merriment.

Siem Reap

Hello from a new city!

After a very hectic morning ride to a difficult-to-find boarding area, I got on the Blue Cruiser and "cruised" north to Siem Reap, the city that supports Angkor Wat. (Go ahead and google Angkor Wat if you don't know what it is, its pretty cool.)

I was totally elated to be on a boat as the sun rose, watching the city fade and the countryside appear. I had good tunes and the breeze was heavenly. I had my guidebooks out, sunscreen on and a little baggie of pineapple for a snack. But for all these good things, and all that i know lies ahead, I was also incredibly sad to go.

I'm glad to be traveling alone because I have so much to process now. The long boat ride was just what I needed for remembering, praying, writing and rejoicing over the experiences I've just had- the kind I've been hoping to have for so long.

More than once I thought "I can't believe this is my life!" And that's a pretty big change from my outlook when I said goodbye to snowy Mass.

The last night in PNH was lovely. The staff at the day care cooked a special goodbye feast for me and we sat on mats in a circle over steaming plates of lemony beef and chicken and piles of sticky rice. People who had only waved at me all week summoned the courage to speak to me in broken english and two women gave small speeches, which translated, amounted to a lot of thanks for coming to their poor country and working in their small, poor day care center. These people do every day (for very little pay,) what I did for a week and they were bending over backwards to thank me? I think the word the australians use is gobsmacked. That's what I was.

But now, the present. I've checked into a sweet guesthouse called Popular Guesthouse. It was a Lonely Planet recommendation and as usual, they were right on the money. It's great. My room is small but clean, I have a private bathroom and a fan that cranks up to about 1000 RPM and there's a roof top deck where they serve food and delicious cold Angkor beer, where other whiteys from around the world mill about between seeing temples and markets and rice fields and villages. Aaah.

Tomorrow I have an 8 am tuk-tuk date with the guy who drove me from the boat to the guesthouse today and I bargained him down from FIFTY DOLLARS (!!!!) to 25 for the day tomorrow. Now, maybe some of you are thinking that $50 for a days work sounds fair, but remember where I am, please. That glorious guesthouse I just described for you is running me a whopping $5 per night. I fear that even at $25, my little driver is laughing at me, but oh well. I like to think maybe he has a family and can use the money.

Ok, the heat has won. This internet cafe has no a/c and the fan is not oscilating in my direction and I can't wipe any more sweat out of my eyes when the Popular Guesthouse is calling my name like this!

Tomorrow I will try to post again, and will get some more pictures up, too. Until then: cham reap lia! (Good bye!)

Since I'm at least a thousand words behind...

Today was my last day at the day care and also my last full day in Phnom Penh. I'm so sad, it's hard to make plans to leave, which is saying a lot since there are several things on the horizon that I'm really excited about. What a surprising feeling, really.

I found a computer that has a working USB port so I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures of my days here. Hang on to your hats...

At the market at noon on a Thursday. Roughly a million people. Roughly a million degrees out.

Yes, I'll be applying A-Lices tonight since my days at the day care are behind me.

I wish I could rotate pictures. This is by the river front. The Mekong River river front. So cool.

At the Royal Palace

Across from the Cambodian Genocide Museum

Uh oh...my moto ride is here. More to come...this weekend I'm off to Siem Reap vai speed boat (six hours on a speed boat? go figure.) where I hope to ride an elephant and spend a little more time on the internet, among other things!

Man, these posts are so inadequate. Hope everyone's doing great!