Easy Rider

20 October 2013

Year two at school has already been in session for over ten weeks, as we recently had our first term break of this year. Here are some of the highlights from my trip (of course I traveled somewhere, because why not?!). My friend, Kristina, and I flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia (pronounced as Nom Pen, I’m 90% sure), stayed there two days, and then took a 10-hourish bus ride north to cross the border into southern Laos, where we spent five days, and then back into Cambodia to fly back to Jakarta. I’ve listed some highlights from the trip below.  

 1. Kristina and I both managed to run out of passport pages while on this trip. You may wonder how we didn’t notice that we were running low on pages, but we actually thought the last two pages, labeled “endorsements only,” could be used for our visas. We needed one coming into the Cambodia airport, one to cross into Laos, and then one again to go back into Cambodia to fly out, so that’s three entire pages used just for visas, not to mention the fact that they also still stamped in the passport.  To attempt to prepare for the impending hassle, we tried to get a multiple entry visa for Cambodia, but they wouldn’t give us one in the Phnom Penh airport. In the end, we had no problem crossing the border into Laos, but they would not put the Cambodian visa (the second one) in our passports on the last pages. I reassured Kristina that they actually didn’t care if we crossed the border, but they’ll probably just ask us for some extra money, above and beyond the visa fee. Lone and behold, in addition to the $30 visa fee ($10 of which went straight to the man from our bus company who was “helping” us with the visas processing—Kristina and I had crossed the border into Laos just fine on our own for only $20 when we arrived) we each paid $20 extra and wrote a note on the back of our visa giving them permission to put the visa over something on another page of our passports. We made it across the border, after a bit of nail-biting waiting alongside the road, hoping that we wouldn’t have to make a trip to the nearest U.S. Embassy.

Notice the $40 bribe at the top of the picture?

Kristina took this picture while driving the bike!

2. Riding bicycles around Don Det to Don Khong islands in Laos. It was a nice ride until my tire went flat. Luckily, Kristina’s back tire had pegs…and she so graciously offered to haul me around while I stood on previously mentioned pegs. It was pretty difficult, and I can’t even imagine how much work it was for Kristina, but we managed quite nicely. Our new friend from Germany was also kind enough to drive my bike alongside for most of the way.  That was also the most physical activity we did for the entire week, besides a peaceful, leisurely walk on the dirt path around the island on a different day.

3. The Crazy Gecko, where we stayed on Don Det for the entire time. Not only was there a mosquito net (with no holes) surrounding the bed, but there were two hammocks strung up outside of our room, facing the Mekong River. We spent the vast majority of our time lying in the hammocks simply reading, napping and talking. There was even delicious food at their restaurant. Bonus!

The Crazy Gecko. Our hammocks in the background.

4. Phnom Pehn, Cambodia

a. Indian restaurant in the riverside area. There was absolutely amazing food there, but I have no idea the name of the restaurant…oops.

b. The Killing Fields. Yes, I realize that doesn’t sound like a highlight, and it was very depressing, in fact. Kristina and I rode bicycles out of the city, which was the bright side of the visit there. I did appreciate learning about the Khmer Rouge and horrific genocide that took place in Cambodia from 1975-1979. There were around 3 million Cambodians killed during that time, of the 8 million in the entire country. There was an audio tour that took us around a trail to see the remains of the mass graves while we heard the history and listened to some survivors’ stories. There is also a memorial that was built, and it is filled with skulls of bodies that were found in the mass graves. It was as creepy and sadly moving as it sounds.

"Please don't walk through the mass grave."

c. The U.S. dollar is used in Phnom Penh along with their currency, called Riel; both are actually used interchangeably and together. When we paid for dinner with USD, we got change back mostly in USD, but then the smaller dollars and cents change came back in Riel. I found that interesting.

5. What with all of the time to relax and contemplate the world’s problems, I came to a conclusion of my own. I’ll preface this with the fact that at my school, on the last day of school before our term break, we were given a letter of intent to complete by the end of October (so the school has a rough idea of how many new teachers they’ll have to hire for the next school year). Anyways, I had been debating whether or not to stay for a third year, and AS OF TODAY (that has been changing from week to week lately), I’ve decided not to renew my contract. However, I would like to spend an extended period of time traveling around Indonesia, mainland Asia, Australia and New Zealand after my contract ends in June. It’s just too great of an opportunity to be here and explore that I can’t pass it up.

As John Muir so eloquently put it, “I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.”

That quote comes from a news story from the Upworthy news website, which a friend shared with me. Check it out if you’re interested. I really enjoyed it, because, of course it's about traveling. You can find it here at: http://m.good.is/posts/why-biking-7-000-miles-to-patagonia-is-essential-for-creative-living