Backtrack (Siem Reap, Cambodia)

365th Day

Today, October 14th, 2004 means that I've been gone from home a whole year. I can't believe that its been that long. Congratulations to me on my 1 year anniversary!!!

On a seperate note, congratulations to my dear friends Lillian and Aldo on the 2 year wedding annniversary on October 19th!! Love ya guys!

So after New Zealand, we went into Singapore for 3 days and then to Bangkok for 3 days. Its weird to go back to places you've been already because you don't have that disorientation nor that awe of being somewhere new. We stayed at hostels/guesthouses that I'd already been to and I took Jenny and Jeremy to places I've already seen for their benefit. All I could keep thinking was, 'wow, it was about a year ago that I did this, it still looks that same, hey that's increased in price a little, I remember this'.



Familiar Faces

Its even weirder when you walk into a place and the person working there says, "I remember you!"

I went into an internet cafe and the guy said that he remembered me and that my skin looked darker than last time. He remembered my friend Janeth from the Philippines (Hi Janeth!! Hope to see you in December!) because they used to talk a lot I think.

Last night when I got into Siem Reap after that dredgeful 18hr bus ride from Bangkok (supposedly the bumpiest in the world), the guesthouse owner said I looked familiar, but it was a different guesthouse. He looked familiar too, but how could this be I asked myself because I didn't stay here last time?

He said, "yes, you were here with someone last time, an English guy"

I said, "yes, I was with someone but he was Swedish" (Hi Nicklas! This is you I'm talking about!)

"Oh, right, Swedish... then you went to Phnom Penh, right?"

"Yes, I did go to Phnom Penh!" The thing is, almost everyone travels with a friend and 50% of the people go to Phnom Penh after Siem Reap. I was tired and feeling ill, I agreed and went to bed.

This morning as I was checking out of that guesthouse because it was too expensive and far away from the town, the man cleared things up, he used to own the Merry G.H. but has since re-located and changed business names. Now I remember!

Rumor is, the bus ride isn't really supposed to be that long, but they drive you around on that damn roller coaster ride til 1am in the morning so that you're so tired when you arrive in Siem Reap that you don't want to go find any other Guesthouses, besides the one they drove you to. How convient!



Largest, The Most, The First...

Every place has its own claim to fame. In Singapore, they've got the "Largest Fountain in the World" and "The Most Southern Point of the Asia Continent". I was at "The Most Eastern Point of mainland Australia" while in Byron Bay and at "The Most Southern Point of mainland Australia" while at the Promonotory N'tl Park. New Zealand I saw the "AJ Hackett" bungy jump, yep, the first ever! N.Z. had something everywhere, too many to remember actually, I think that the bus tour company does a lot of research to find out these little pieces of trivia to enhance the tourists' experience.



I ain't scared of Bats

In Singapore, they've got this Night Safari thing, you walk around in the dark and look at nocturnal animals. Its pretty cool, you're basically at a zoo, but during the night. Anyway, there's all these animals making their primitive noises and you can't see them, it can get quite scary at times cause you don't know how far away they are. You're not allowed flash photography or the use of flashlights to see them. Sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't!

Jenny and I went into the "Bat Cave" as I'd like to call it. Needless to say there's lot of bats there, you walk through and there's bats crawling on the cage above you. Every now and then, they'll swoop down and almost graze your arm or leg. Cripes, that's some scary shit, Jenny screamed a couple of times and I ended up running out of there once I saw the exit!!! Hahahaha!!! Funny now I suppose.



Keeping a Promise

In a couple of days, I'll be back in Phnom Penh to visit the children that I fell in love with last January. In an update a while back I said that the kids were re-united with their families and the orphanage was closed down due to corruption. Well, things have changed, the orphanage was actually re-opened a while ago and some of the kids are still there. I'm nervous and quite excited to see them. Nervous because I don't know what to expect. And nervous because I am not sure that I'll be able to help them out the same way we did in January. I guess I'll take it one step at a time. I'll keep you informed...