Where is Derek?

I arrived just before the Typhoon hit and I have so much laundry to do. Getting back into the grind is tough after having such an amazing adventure. I needed time to reorganize my life and now I have much better focus. I realized that I need more balance in my life and I am going to work hard on achieving it. The hard part will be how long this new drive will last. I need to keep motivated, in order to move on.

On a sidenote: Its freaking expensive here in Tokyo compared to Thailand, I wish I ate more good Thai food when I had the chance. Oh well, next time and believe me there will definitely be a next time.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I am spending my last days in Bangkok at the Sukhumvit On Nut Guest house in On Nut. This place is run by a Japanese family and is a definite recommend. A/C and a friendly atmosphere. Going to see Glorious Basterds tonight with people from the guest house. I will stuff my face full of cheap Thai food tomorrow because it is so expensive in Japan. I cant wait to go back home…

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I am back in Bangkok, Thailand for the remainder of my vacation. What a trip this has been, filled up with a lot of adventure and excitement. Leaving Cambodia for Thailand, there is a noticeable difference in quality of living between both countries. Thailand feels like very modern as Cambodia still searches for itself. Laos is proud of their history and cling on to it dearly.

The one thing that I wish more Cambodians did as to be proud in their Khmer roots. Their country is home to the mighty Angkor Wat! But alas, they are still struggling due to the Khmer Rouge who set the country back for generations. The Cambodian people are hard working though and it shows. While the Lao people are really relaxed, the Cambodians are always up to make some money but sometimes at the expense of their countries resources, for example the trees in Cambodia are being cut down at an alarming rate.

I have learned a lot about myself and about life in general by traveling through southeast Asia. I need time to reflect because as of right now I am tired and hungry. I will write more soon. Pictures and video coming soon. I promise.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I am finishing up my short tour or Cambodia. I decided to hold off on Vietnam because of visa costs and time constraints. I am currently in Phenom Penh and I saw S-21 prision, the Killing Fields, the Central and Russian markets. Phenom Penh is a bustling city filled with people looking for work. The harassment is ever present but luckily for me, I dont have blond hair and blue eyes. Yesterday, I got rid of touts by saying that I am Chinese and saying, “Give up, you know you cant get the Chinese to give up any money”. They knew I was right and immediately went after the Dutch couple that I was traveling with.

Let me backtrack for a bit… My first day was in Siam Reap, the gateway to the famed Angkor Wat. Siam Reap is very toursity and the border cross from Aranya Pratet, Thailand to Poipet, Cambodia was easier than people wrote about. I met Jeffery and Johnny, a Dutch couple heading to Siam Reap also so we teamed up to find a place to stay and explore Angkor Wat.

The next day we went to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat which was nice but there were clouds blocking the sun. Angkor Wat was a sight to behold and my other favorites were, The Bayon which had several stupas with faces carved in them and Ta Phrom aka the Tombraider Temple. All awesome!

The next day I went to Phenom Penh and met three British girls who were volunteering at an orphanage near town. They invited me to teach a class at their orphanage. I taught a two hour class to kids about animals. Awesome, working on vacation.

The next morning I went to S-21 prison, Polpot’s largest detention center and prision, the Killing Fields aka Chheuk Ek, where there is a stupa dedicated to the victims of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide, the Central Market aka everything you want in a maze of stalls and the Russian Market aka the black market.

Besides the tourist sites, Cambodia seems like it is at the bottom of the totem pole of southeast Asia. The Cambodian people are very friendly and Khmer curry is awesome.

Today it rained like crazy and the streets were flooded, I had to ride my bicycle through several flooded streets, I hope I don’t get cholera!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I really liked the vibe in Luang Prabang but I had to go because I already booked my overnight train back to Bangkok. I am now in the capital of Laos, aka Vientiane and I must say, as capital citys go, Vientiane is one helluva affordable place. The food, transport, prices in general are much lower than in tourist trap of Vang Vieng. I had an 8000 kip dinner tonight, which consisted of noodles with fish cakes and chicken and rice, if you dont know thats less than 40 baht or 1.15 usd. Unbelieveable. I am going to checkout the main attractions here in Vientiane and probably get a Laos massage.

I did meet a cool French guy by the name of Vincent who is traveling around the world. After hanging out with Vincent, I think I want to do a motorcycle trek around India for my next adventure. I am addicted to motorcycles, shotguns and 9mms now. I will see if I can get my hands on a rpg and ak47 when I get to Cambodia.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

Okay so the last two days, I was in Vang Vien, the legendary home of tubing… The tubing was awesome, filled with rope swings, free shots, mud wrestling and of course tubing. Unfortunately, my travel buddies and I were too drunk to fully experience the tubing. Fail! How could anyone fail at tubing? Sure enough we did. We were floating happily along the river and stopped once along the way. We didnt heed the warning that the tubing at its end and we floated at least 400m away from the final bar. We were floating towards Cambodia. ahahahah, We were like… Help us! When does this end?!! It was getting dark and we were far from the whirr of any mechanized transportation. Luckily we flagged down a local fisherman to ferry us up stream. The only thing is the fucker didnt go to the agreed destination, the start of the rafting point, instead he dropped us off 100m upstream to a boat junction. We luckily ran across a nice lady who was waiting for her husband and she flagged down a tuk tuk for us to get home. God is great! We could have been in trouble because we heard some rough water ahead.

Also, in hindsight, the tubing route wasnt clearly marked and the last sign that marked the end of the tubing was written all shitty and no one was there to throw a line in the water to rescue us. The funny thing was, when we passed the endpoint, someone on a bridge above us who obviously went tubing before, because he had the tubing t shirt, he didnt warn us and just took a picture and a thumbs up. What a douche bag, he could have at least warned us. Oh well, it was an adventure.

As I write this journal entry down, I am sitting at an internet cafe in Luang Prabang, a world heritage site, I am eating dinner at the night market and there are all sorts of crazy things to eat, in for of bugs. I think I will stay another night and head back to the capital, Vientiane, then back to Nong Khai, Thailand for my overnight train back to Bangkok. From there I will start the last leg of my trip into Cambodia, Siam REap and Phenom Phen, if I have time I will go to Saigon, Vietnam for a day. We will see. I am doing well, even though I split my toe on jagged rocks while spelunking caves in Vang Vien. Oh well…

[ Life.Iz.Good ]