Greetings Earthlings!
It's been a solid 10 days since the last post, I think there may be alot to report but I will let my fingers dance across the keyboard and see what happens.
For a real kick, I should look if this keyboard can right in the Khmer language, which is what they speak in Cambodia. I was tres happy about the progress of my broken, half english vietnamese but once again I have switched countries and had to say bye bye to the 6 or 7 stock phrases I depended on daily. With vietnamese I thought it would be a real hole in one seeing as how they use our letters, but I was very mistaken. Try pronouncing the word 'Nguyen' and see if anyone knows what your talking about. Now that I'm back to a 'swirly letter country' you can look at a shop sign and have zero idea what it actually sells, which is no bother because travelling is basically about not knowing where you are or what you're doing. Not Americans though, they need a GPS, pop up map, 5 lonely planets and extra rations and water purification tablets in case they head down the wrong street for 3 minutes.
Back to the task at hand, I will look back at Vietnam with a bucket full of mixed emotions. I believe the last post commented on the bane of my existence named 'Laura', the motorcycle I purchased back in Hanoi. If you're wondering where the name came from, it's was christianed by the guy I bought it off. Basically the chap was macking this girl named Laura in Saigon for a good chunk of the night, until it came to make out hour and she told him to piss off. The next morning he painted her name on the motorbike figuring some Laura owed him a good ride.
He was a fellow Canadian and in all my naivety, I gladly handed over 300$ thinking 'shucks!..that's great for this cool bike!' Through the high definition window that is hindsight, it was retarded to a)buy that brand of motorcycle b)not buy it from a proper shop c)believe I could make it down and entire country 'sur la moto' only spending 300 buck-a-roos. The dirty ol girl guzzled the gas, broke down every day, stank of petrol to the high heavens and basically told me to get bent every morning I tried to start her up. There were multiple times when my kick-start would just hang there like a flaccid....something...so I had to get my mates to push me to about 5 kms/h so I could pump it into second gear and rip off that way, looking like a gigantic wank while little vietnamese people blew by me on their scooters. All in all it was a little over a 500$ investment in my patience and sanity...but although I bitch about it now I will look back on our top gear tour with the fondest of memories, and have some excellent stories/advice to share with the people of the world. (seriously, if you want to motorbike vietnam drop me a line and I will give you the expansive list of do's and don'ts,as well as try an relate what this amazing country looks like while you drive through it)
There were points when you just sucked in your breath and said 'oh my god, everything was worth it for this one moment of beauty'. When we were coming down from Hue, a city in central vietnam, we went around a corner that to my right had gigantic mountains covered in jungle, then to my left the Pacific ocean stretching farther than I can even think about. Moments like those, my blood and petrol soaked socks, gas stained clothes and sweaty helmet bore no issue.
I stretched my vietnam visa to the very last day, as Nick and myself went a spree trying to sell of these albatross bikes in Saigon. Luckily, Nick pawned his off for a cool 200$, therefore being able to eat and have a beer, although I was only able to sell mine for scraps for 75$. Turns out the serial numbers didn't match the registration which depreciates it by about one million percent.
So on the bus yesterday, we excitedly roll into Cambodia, meet some friends we were chasing down vietnam for 3 WEEKS! (okay meet you in 2 days...bike broken...k meet you in 4 days...k you're in a different country...bike broken) and have a wee night out. Today we went to the S-21 war museum, which after months of partying and reveling is quite a sobering experience. I wish I could explain more about the Khmer Rouge situation but I'm not that well versed in it and wouldn't like to make any errors. Just know that there was some hideous shit that went on in this country, as you will see when I put up some pictures. 'Killing fields' tomorrow, couple palace visits and we're off to Angkor Wat tomorrow night! Luckily I picked up a new camera, found one with hot, dusty old temples setting...so perfect.
A friend I met in thailand is actually teaching english at an orphanage here, and he says it's really great. I am interested but time is money, which I'm running out of the latter. Unfortunately the money hungry motorbike threw the budget for a little loop, so I may have to scratch some things of the itinerary and head straight to Bali. Tough life right? The people, the weather, the food and yes even the motorcycle have been something out of a dream and I wouldn't trade it for anything...well maybe 300$ and a McDonalds big xtra with cheese, but that's it.
Thanks for reading.
Josh
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