Cambodia and Vietnam!

What springs to mind when you think of Cambodia-Maybe Ankor Wat or Angelina Jolie's kid comes from there? It's the poor cousin of Thailand? It's not really featured in any TOP 10 lists to see in lonely planet and I may now confidently say "superbly underrated!" Cambodia may even sneak in above Vietnam for me! It was truly remarkable! Although, I still love Vietnam, Cambodia has an untouched beauty about it, whereas the likes of Ho CHi Minh feels like touristville (on par with Bangok ) where every jolly taxi driver or cyclo driver is trying to milk you for all the possible Dong they can get! We (Kirst and the two JOs) did so very much indeed in 2 weeks that to transcribe my untidy, scribbled diaries onto the more modern convenience of a desktop would just take hours and hours and would be BORING! So instead-a "photos HIGHs" section will follow the itinerary with all things worthy of mentioning!

9 Jan: Arrive Siem Reap (ancient temple exploring, bicyclin, fish eating feet, massages)

10Jan: Siem Reap ( fish amok, beautiful apsara scultures, Tomb Raider temple, tuk-tuk rides)

11 Jan: Siem Reap and overnight bus to Sinokville (sleezy, old, fat, desparate man hang out)

12 Jan: Nomad Island (mango shakes, fresh grilled fish, crimson sunsets, hammocks reading "First they killed my Father", snorkelling, phosphorescence in the sea at night )

13 Jan: Nomad Island (aka paradise)

14 Jan: Nomad Island (aka more paradise)

15 Jan: Phnom Penh ( Killing fields, Security Prison 21, Palace, best con-artist book seller aged 10 that got us to buy 5 books)

16 Jan: Phomn Penh ( beautiful orchids, a chat with a monk, a fried frog!)

17 Jan: Chau Doc (cyclos, a motorbike ride, a tour of the floating villages and feeding fish)

18 Jan: Can Tho ( a bustling river-front with everythign on sale from Bonsai to new clothes all for Lunar New Year)

19 Jan: Can Tho ( Floating market cut short, a medicine women and a visit to the local public hospital- oh adn Sauteed snake!)

20 Jan: HO Chi Minh ( Getting screwed by a cyclo driver, Reunification palace, Ben Thahn Market)

21 Jan: HO Chi Minh ( the most delicious meal at teh same restaurant twice in one day, war remnanats museum with a great exhibition of war photographers, Ho Chi Minh City Museum)

22 Jan: Ho Chi Minh and fly back to Incheon Korea. ( A Vietnamese cooking course with a famous American chef and one long flight home)

HIGHS in pictures!

All the different types of Transport- ferry, boat, speed boat, bus, over-night bus that screeched like a beginner violinist for all 10 hours, a tuk-tuk, a cyclo ( human pushed wheelbarrow), a mini-bus, a motorbike, a bicycle, taxi-legal and illegal!

The unbelievable detail of the centuries old temples! My favourite being Banteay Srei! I could have spent another few days here! I loved the beautiful little side streets, the markets, tuk-tuks and the looming ancient era every now and then as temples seemed to shoot out from the beautiful rice paddies! I loved the apsaras-the beautiful breasted women and the majestic lions!

The flowers! Oh the orchids! Uncle John would have loved them! Somethign I have missed so much from home! Nothing like warmer climates for sunshine and flowers!

The paradise of Nomads island was incomparable to anything I have experienced before. Complete tranquility and isolation from the rest of the world: hammocks, books, snorkelling, fresh fish, a mice invasion and magnificent sunsets!

Of course beautiful people are never hard to find in South East Asia-especially little kids! My goodness! I just want one! This little kid-Fong ended up massaging my legs! The girls at the bottom sold us beautiful bamboo made dragonflies and birds! " only 1$ lady"! There Englsih was far better than my kids at school -sad how "struggle for survival" is a wonderful catalyst for learning!

Of course another moment worth mentioning is the horrific tragedies of war both in Vietnam and Cambodia that has left horrific evidence of its destruction. I questioned the ethics of having a memorial containing everyone's skulls at the killing fields and the horrific pre-execution photos of prisoners at S-21 in Phnom Penh. It just doesn't make sense to me! Any of it.

And of course, what would a great trip be without food-glorious food! Oh and markets-how can I possibly forget those! I have never tasted such delightful things. Kirst and I spoilt ourselves to a cooking Kirst on the last day with a trip to the local market and a course which happened to be with the famous American chef-John Ash. Very cool indeed!

Thank you Cambodia and Vietnam for a wonderful stay! Many happy memories, laughs and photos!

Love

JO-explorer!

xxx

It's all about the people and sharing a common humanity in everyday life!

Is life not all about the people? When one gets down to the nitty gritty of life-its the people that make it or break it? For me- it is -anyway. Funny enough-I feel like that even more so now that I am away from home-not because I am awfully homesick or I am longing to see family and friends back in SA. But rather, because I have come to realise that despite cultural,ethnic,racial,gendered differences (feel free to add more to this list that makes us so very different -because there are many!), we are so very similar-this species we call humans!

OH HUMANITY with it's trials and tribulations, ups and downs,smiles and frowns, love and happiness! :)

Today, my world seemed filled, as it is everyday with interesting people whom I somehow despite the differences can relate to! Let me illustrate how:

I woke up this morning feeling exhausted-late night skype calls and emo, but not too far away-in the next room in fact- the lovely Canadian Ashley whom I am currently squatting with- was also exhausted after late night chats!

Exhaustion and unenthusiastic for work: humanitarian similarity no 1!

I caught a taxi to Myeong dong then waited for a bus-which took so long coming that I decided to get out of the nasty weather and caught another taxi. The driver couldnt understand my pronunciation of "Anime go-deung hak-kyo" (Animation high school) very well and so was confused about which way to go and so frantically on his GPS we both maneuvered the screen until i could show him where my school was! When we arrived at my school (11000 won) later- we both felt satisfied knowing that despite a language barrier-basic communication with the help of a GPS-anything is possible!

Confused, lost and non-verbal communication: humanitarian similarity no 2!

Arrived at school, and my lovely co-teacher, JOY, I could see immediately was not herself-she had finally caught the jolly flu! and a bad doze of it. Somehow a week later after having the Korean flu,I could still feel the ache and pains in my body just looking at her. There is nothing worse than feeling under the weather especially with a sore throat!

Sick and down: humanitarian similarity no 3!

Mr Choi (who is my uncle John in Korea) offered me a rice bread treat with red beans (not my favourite to be honest), but the gesture was very kind. He heated it up in the microwave and didn't wait until it had cooled, so in the transferring of it to me, we both managed to burn our hands! OUCH!

Sharing and feel the sensitive burning feeling for a few days afterwards: humanitarian similarity no 4!

Jung-in the other English teacher who is just great ended up discussing LOVE and how do you really know when you have met the one! Oh the dilemma of love and heartbreak and marriage! She is 28 so I guess I have a few more years than her to figure that out!

Love. (fullstop) Humanitarian similarity no 5!

I dressed up today for the tv game show we played in class, with wonderful red tinsel, used the thick koki pen as my microphone and adopted a rather cheesy, overly enthusiastic game show host accent! The laughter and absolute hysterics my kids displayed reminded me of previous teachers who had jumped on desks or gone dancing around the classroom in my school years. The complete idiotic nature of it all-all in the name of "learning"!

Laughter at a ridiculous teacher: Humanitarian similarity no 6!

I decided to catch a hot chocolate down in Kangdae Humoon after Joy dropped me off in town! I popped into a place called "11:19"- opens at 11:19am and closes at 11:19pm- loved the quirkiness of it all! Exactly what i felt like-warm creamy delicious goodness of hot chocolate in my belly! It definitely beat being in the chilly wind outside! On my way out, I managed to signal to the owner that his coffee shop and hot chocolate was fabulous. He got a great big grin on his face that made me smile!

Pride and joy of one's achievements: Humanitarian similarity no 7!

Then, after walking around town with Chen (my Chinese-American friend) in the ice-cold looking for travel agents to book flights for shanghai/dalian for the weekend of Buddha's birthday, we finally decided to call it quits and headed to the lovely restaurant place we first met- soot-bul dakgalbi! Super yum! We had a great discussion about taking responsibility of your life, Americans, the changing world of China, our adventure to China, South Africa, the Argentinean footballer who kicks about with Jesus (considered amazingly good) and FOMO! And then we also had silences- the silences that are not awkward but just a quiet time to absorb and digest thoughts. Only a few people I have found do not feel awkward by such moments-but it was super!

Raging discussions and contemplative silences: Humanitarian similarity no 8!

As supper came t an end- we both noticed a Korean woman and a wae-gook that entered- I overheard french being spoken! Ah, I just love it- decided to test my luck and see if I could still wing it- and bien sur, I could start a conversation. Turns out they met at an international French conference in Seoul. The Frenchman comes from Nice and travels back and forth while doing work at Seoul University. How crazy-out of all the places in France, I have only spent 2 weeks in Nice while I was in grade 11. I love coincidences!

It's a small world after all: Humanitarian similarity no 9!

On the way home, I got picked up by a very young taxi driver, who flirted with me all the way back to Ashley's place. The pinnacle of the exchange was when he handed me his business card and said: call me! This guy could barely string any sentences in english together-how on earth was he expecting to speak to me on the phone-but it was really endearing! Kind of how I imagine being if I met a drop dead gorgeous french man-haha!

Gutsy and brave, yet so sweet: Humanitarian similarity no 10!

When I got back to Ashley's apartment, I got on skype to Jen in Cape Town and Bash in Bangladesh! The connection line was so awful-it was literally like playing broken telephone-all of us were in fits of giggles that all we could hear between the GGGGGG and BLLLLL was laughter. Not much discussion was had but there is nothing better than hearing a familiar laugh!

Laughing so hard you tummy aches: Humanitarian similarity no 11!

Today was good; this wonderful world never ceases to amaze me! Among the cruelty of discrimination, racism, war, hurt and violence, we all share so many similarities that bind us! JUST GOT TO OPEN YOUR EYES and see that:

HUMANITY IS EXTRAORDINARY!