Incredible and Tragic Cambodia

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I have spent the last 8 or so days in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a really amazing country. Despite its horrific past with the Khmer Rouge, responsible for a genocide that killed over 2 million people and ravaged the country in the 70's, cambodians remain positive, friendly and with a sense of humour that surpasses the people from the other countries I have visited on my trip.

My first city to visit was Siem Riep.

Siem Riep is home to hundreds of ancient temples, including the most famous Angkor Wat. Upon exiting the bus after a 15 hour voyage from the 4000 islands in Laos, I was greeted by a young man holding a sign saying "Welcome Mr. Pat". It appears that the various tourism agencies share passenger info with guesthouses in your arriving city so they arrange to have you picked up in the hope you will stay at their guesthouse. My driver was named Mr. Toi and was a friendly guy. I confirmed a room in his guesthouse and hired him to be my driver for the following morning to visit the main temples around the city. It was already 12:30am by the time I settled into my room and wanted to be up for sunrise over Agnkor Wat the following morning.

I had instructed Toi (my driver) to knock at my door at 5:00am since I didnt have an alarm clock. Toi, wearing the same clothes as the night before, was late and knocked at 5:30am. I scrambled to throw something on as he waited for me downstairs. As I stepped outside toward his motorbike, I am greeted with a surprise. A disheveled local woman, clearly wearing the same clothes she had on from the night before was on the back of the motorbike with Toi. I hopped on the back and the 3 of us took off. A few minutes later we dropped her off at her house and my suspicions were confirmed when he handed her a few cambodian currency notes. A great way to make a first impression with your client, pick him up with a prostitute on the back of your scooter... !

I still made sunrise at Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is very impressive, just by its massive size with a huge moat all the way around it... it makes castles in Europe look like toys. Aside from the shear size of it, I was not blown away by it. I think this might have been due to all the hype people along my travels had made. After the sun rose, I had breakfast and waited for Toi who was nowhere to be found. This driver was shapping up to be a real loser, or so I thought. Toi finally picked me up 10 minutes later and off we went to the other various temples. I will spare you the details of all the really cool temples, after a while they all begin to look alike... However, one really stood out and was by far my favourite.

Its called Ta Prohn and its where they filmed part of the movie Tomb Raider. This temple has crumbling walls and massive trees and vines growing all over the stones. It really feels like you just walked into an Indiana Jones movie. By far, my favourite temple.

As the day progressed, I got to know Toi. I bought him lunch and he told me about himself and Cambodians as a whole. We compared salaries and culture and shared a few laughs despite a strong language barrier. Then as the tour completed around 2pm, Toi says to me "Now that you are finished with your tour, it is time for mine to begin". I didn't quite know what that meant but as we drove off into the countryside and stopped off at a small store to pick up beer, I became increasingly curious. It was hot and I had only had 4 hours sleep. He wanted to buy 24 beers and I wasn't in the mood for more than 1 or 2. When it came time to pay for the 24, he asked that I pay half. I became defensive and thought he was trying to take advantage and score some more money from me. He told me we were headed to a small party and everyone was bringing something including food. I reluctuntly handed him $5. We took off and pulled up to the country house. The following events were the most authentic of my trip.

There were about 8 cambodian men sitting around a table, all drivers and tour guides that Toi knew. They had this little party about once a week or two. They started to drink beer, at a very quick pace. "Cheers" they exclaimed in cambodian and off we drank. "Cheers" again, and another gulp. A minute later "cheers", and 30 seconds later another "cheers". This was starting to get annoying. Whats with all these cheers?, I thought. Thats when one of Toi's friends explained to me that in cambodian culture, you say "cheers" every time (or so) that you take a drink, this way everyone is drinking at the same pace. This man also told me that cambodians like to drink heavily when they do. Drinking is a time for them to forget he says. Forget what? I ask. Forget all the bad things going on in our lives. Forget that work is bad and we didnt have a client today. Forget that our sister is sick. Just forget and laugh and have a good time, talk about simple things and make jokes. Makes sense. I quickly embraced this mentality.

The other thing Cambodians always have with their beer is plenty of food, non-stop. Throughout the entire night, we had roast duck on the ghetto bbq, roast beef, roast pork, fish, and of course, plenty of rice. It was a feist.

After several trips back to the store for more beer, we moved the party next to the house into an open field, where someone brought a tarp for us to sit on, but we did not sit, instead we danced. One of the guys had a car and drove it to the field where he proceeded to pump Akon at full volume. Akon is adored in SE Asia, dont ask me why. There, in an open field, as the sun began to set, a dozen or so drunken cambodian men and I, danced around like idiots and laughed the night away. It was such a random and fun event, I will never forget. (watch for a short video to come on facebook)

The following day was spent touring Siem Riep. Siem Riep is a cool town, with great restaurants and nightlife due to the very heavy tourist influence. People from around the world come to see the temples. I tried a "fish massage". Basically you put your feet in this little pool full of fish and these fish nibble at your feet and eat all the dead skin. It really tickles at first and then feels kind of like a massage. This would be a great concept to bring back to Canada. Toi also showed me around the local spots in Siem Riep. He took me to a locals breakfast spot for soup and noodles, and then to a snooker hall where I attempted to play snooker for the very first time. Toi kicked my butt. Then he took me to where he gets custon shirts and pants. A custom fitted button down shirt cost him $9. Diiiirt cheap!

I sadly said goodbye to Toi that evening and left for Phnom Penh the following morning. I left Toi my watch as a goodbye present. He had been the best driver anyone could ask for and as I left he called me his best friend.

Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

I was expecting Phnom Penh to feel like the relaxed and small atmosphere of Ventiane (capital of Laos). I was mistaken. Phnom Penh has a much more cosmopolitan and exciting energy. It feels much larger and wealthier than Ventiane. My first reaction was that I liked it. Phnom Penh also has a tragic side to it. While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they laid land mines all over the place and didn't keep track of where they were placed. As a result, 35 years later, people are still stepping on them and losing limbs in the countryside. As you tour the city, all the main attractions have beggers without limbs asking for money, and it breaks your heart.

Toi had arranged to have their sister guesthouse pick me up from the bus station. Thats where I met a new driver named Kai, a friend of Toi's, but nothing like Toi and I didn't end up spending much time with him.

Phnom Penh has this really great backpacker ghetto on a lake near the downtown area. The backpacker ghetto is like its own little relaxed place with tons of backpackers and backpacker services. All the guesthouses have terraces built over the lake which offer a really nice view of sunset.

The next day I hired a young driver to take me around. I had been reading a really powerful book about the Khmer Rouge genocide called "First they killed my father" and so, the first places I felt compelled to see firsthand were the "S21 Prison, Genocide Museum" and the Killing Fields just outside of town. It was awful. S21 had been a torture area for the Khmer Rouge. Thousands of people were tortured here before being sent out to the killing fields to be executed, including women and children. Horrific pictures lined the walls of the complex and left me with a sick feeling to my stomach. The museum also provided some very good historical information and helped me understand what the Khmer Rouge was and how they came to power.

From there I headed out of town to the killing fields. Over 20,000 people were killed at this particular killing field, with over 389 other killing fields across the country. Horrific things took place at these killing fields. Upon excavation, it was discovered that the Khmer Rouge would kill by delivering hammer and axe blows to the head in order to save precious ammunition. Many vicitms were burried alive. In the middle of the killing field lies a memorial buddhist structure filled thousands of fractured skulls from the head blow, excavated from the mass graves. To one side there is a big tree with a sign reading "The Killing Tree". Here Khmer Rouge soldiers killed babies by grabbing them by their feet, and smashing them against the tree. The atrocities commited were almost too much to stomach. Nearby, you can hear sounds of kids playing at a cambodian school. Amazing that such attrocities took place only 35 years ago and the amount of progress the cambodian people have made since.

After the history lesson I tried to focus on the more positive things the city had to offer like the great markets, food, riverfront, Royal Palace buildings and great energy. I stayed a few days in Phnom Penh, before making a crucial decision.

I would forgo Vietnam. I had only about 12 days of travel to get to Hong Kong for my flight home and I thought, rather than rushing through what was suppose to be a wonderful country, I would rather spend my last days laying on a beach in cambodia than bus hoping from city to city and cramming as much as I could in.

I left for Sihanoukville, a beach town in the south of Cambodia where I would soak up the sun before returning to the cold winter that awaited me in Canada.

Sihanouville to come...

Ventiane & 4000 Islands - Laos

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I arrived in Vientiane after a very slow bumpy bus ride from Vang Vien. I arrived sad, since I had to leave the kids and the cool people I had met at SAELAO from volunteering. My sadness didn't last long, after I checked into a 6 bed dorm at a place called RD Guesthouse, I met a cool Italian named Jonathan and a dude named Luke from Indiana. Jonathan is from Pistoya in Tuscany but now lives on Koh Pag'nan in the south of Thailand (Full moon Party). Jonathan is somewhat older than me and has been traveling for most of his life, he has a really great story to tell. Luke teaches english in Bangkok and plans to stay there for another 2 years or so. Its great to meet people who live for world exploring, and the 3 of us immediately had a connection.

I didn't initially want to spend much time in Ventiane but given that I had an important phone interview scheduled 3 days later, I thought the capital would be the place with the cheapest and most reliable overseas phone options. Sticking around turned out to be a relaxful time.


Ventiane is the capital of Laos. It doesn't feel like a capital city though. It's small, low key, and pretty quiet. It has a left over french feel to it, from the French Indo-China days and you can still see lots of french pastry shops and stuff. One of the main tourist attractions is a cheap replica of the Arc de Triomphe.

The first evening the people from our dorm went out for a nice lao meal, I've grown a liking to Laap, which is ground meat (beef,chicken, pork) with a bunch of good spices with a side of sticky rice. Other favorites are Tom Yam soup and Pad Lao.

After dinner we went for a few beers at a bar that had mainly tourists in it, but since all bars close at 12, we weren't sure where to go next. Then when we saw the crowd heading out in the same direction, we learnt that everyone was headed to the to a club located in a luxury hotel down the road.... the ONLY club in Vientiane according to the crowd!

The next day we rented bicycles and toured the golden temple and the arc de triomphe.

That evening I made it a point to go to bed early, in order to be rested for my call the following evening. This is where sharing a room with 6 people can be horrible. Most of the others were partying on the ruff and going in and out of the dorm to get stuff. Then, a guy and a girl from our room came in and locked themselves in the bathroom from where I began to hear lighter noises and other weird stuff. I didn't smell any smoke so I was wondering what it was they were enjoying in there...trying to fall asleep became impossible. Later on, Luke came in and told me they were smoking Meth. Finally as they left, I thought to myself I would be able to fall asleep, but then Luke came in to sleep and began snoring like an animal. Add to that some mosquitos buzzing around, and you have one sleepless night. The next day I checked out and moved into a shared room with a French guy named Patrick I had met while volunteering in Vang Vien. Another older gentlemen who has been traveling for more than a decade!

The following day was spent at the Vientiane Water Park... a bit ghetto but a good way to stay cool in the heat. That evening I had my phone interview and once that was over, enjoyed my last evening with Jonathan and Luke since we would all be leaving the next day. The weather was gorgeous my entire time in Ventiane (most of my trip now that I think of it)

Ventiane was a really good and relaxful time with some cool people.


4000 Islands (Si Phan Don)

The weirdest overnight bus took me from Vientiane to the 4000 islands in the south of Laos. It was my first experience aboard a "sleeper bus", a bus with actual beds. Sounds comfy right? Thats what I thought, till I realized you are meant to share your small bed with a total stranger, in my case, a dude from Oregon. By the end of it, lets just say that we knew each other well. The bed was tiny!!! You couldn't roll over without rubbing up against your neighbor.. definitely my last sleeper experience!

The bus experience was totally worth it after setting eyes on the 4000 islands. Beautiful green tiny islands everywhere and totally pristine and undeveloped ( I was told they had just gotten electricity the week previous). People go to the 4000 islands for one thing - to RELAX. I stayed on the backpacker island of Don Det. There are 2 roads on Don Det, Sunrise Road and Sunset Road, the names reflect the direction the road faces. Since I prefer sunsets, I found myself a bungalow with a Canadian from Manitoba(complete with hammocks of course) on sunset road, and boy what a sunset it was! That day I also rented a bike and visited the gorgeous Li Phi Falls. On the way back, the chain broke off my bike though and I had to walk it back to town... unlucky. That evening I ran into a belgian and south african I had met in Vang Vien. Its amazing how you run into the same people along the "backpackers circuit".

It was a hard decision since I was really enjoying the vibe of the 4000 islands, but I chose to leave the very next morning for Siem Riep, Cambodia since I knew my time was starting to dwindle and I wanted to spend a few of my last days on a beach somewhere....


Siem Riep is home to over one hundred ancient temples, including the infamous Angkor Wat. It is one of the most anticipated stops along my trip... details to come!

Volunteering in Natong, Laos - Unforgettable

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Yesterday was a very sad morning for me. It was the morning I had to say goodbye to some really amazing people I had the pleasure of meeting and working with over the course of the last 7 days.


As I wrote in my last post, I got in touch with a local community centre in a small town called Natong, just outside of Vang Vien to see if I could help them. The organization is called SAELAO and is an officially registered non-profit in France. It is run by two incredible people: Sengkeo and Anais. Sengkeo is originally from Laos but lived 12 years in Canada. Anais is from Toulouse France and met Sengkeo a year or so ago and this is when they decided to found SAELAO. The mission is a combination of education and employment opportunities for the locals. It focuses on three major areas of formation: english classes for local children and adults, sustainable construction and eco-friendly farming. The english courses started almost 1 year ago and have become extremely popular with the local children, with over 45 children attending daily english courses in the evening. They also employ 3-4 locals for construction needs and 1 local to cook in the restaurant. The restaurant and "shake shack" on the premises is a way to raise additional funds for the association and also to draw foreigners onto the property so they can learn about the association.

As they picked me up outside my hostel the first day, I announced to them that I would be open to doing any work that would be needed of me, but that my principal interest was in teaching english. And so, my first morning was spent lugging huge rocks in a wheel barrow over to the construction site for the foundation of what is soon to be the "volunteer bungalow".

Over lunch, sitting in the restaurant, I noticed that foreigners would come by, read the volunteers wanted sign, linger a bit, then walk off. I also noticed that the cook knew very little english and was overwhelmed with the cooking to try and push the association. I spoke to Sengkeo and told him I think I could be of better use, helping in the restaurant and marketing the association to foreigners who come and read the signs. He accepted, and my days of carrying rocks were over...I had been promoted!

That afternoon I spoke with a few guests who came to have shakes and handed out pamphlets about the association. Patronage increased and feedback was very positive. Having a "falang" (foreigner) around, really helped to increase business for the restaurant. On my 2nd day of work in the restaurant, revenue doubled. On day 3, the restaurant shattered all revenue records and recorded more than triple its avg revenue. Sengkeo was thrilled and wanted me in the restaurant all the time. Furthermore, I was able to push the cause and promote volunteering. During one conversation, I met a journalist writing about sustainability projects in developing countries and a meeting was setup with Anais so this journalist could do a piece on us!

In the evenings I would also teach english to 15 students (ages 12-18). These students easily understood words they read, but put into a spoken sentence, they rarely understood. I was nervous for my first lesson but it went well. I learnt that their main area of weakness was verbs and I decided to focus my remaining lessons on these. Over the course of the week, I saw improvements with key verbs To be and To have. Seeing the progress in my students was a really amazing experience. It made me not want to leave. I also got attached to several of the students. One particular girl named Sivan, was helping in the restaurant during the day and attending the lessons during the evening. She came from Ventiane, but when her mom became ill, her dad had to stay home and care for her and there wasnt enough funds to feed her and her sister. And so, they came to Ventiane to live with extended family, which happened to be Sengkeo. This girl was very bright, worked really hard, and always had a smile on her face. All the students were extremely polite, asking for permission to enter and exit the classroom and all bowing at the end of the lesson to thank me and say goodnight.

I would have loved to stay longer but given the time constraints of my trip and the fact that I'm departing from Hong Kong, I was unable to. In staying 10 days in Vang Vien, I made a crucial decision to cut Indonesia from this trip, a hard decision to make. In hindsight, I'm glad I did because this was truly the most genuine, incredible experience of my trip, one that I will never forget. I do plan to return to Natong and volunteer again, and also to help out financially once I am back in Canada.

Stay tuned for pics!

Mekong River Cruise & Luang Prabang & Vang Vien - Laos

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From Pai, Greg, Tara (Kiwis) and I took off for the Laos Border, where we would do a 2 day slow boat ride along the Mekong River from Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang with a stopover in this tiny town called Pak Beng.

The scenery along the Mekong River was unreal, trees and greenery I had never seen before, vines and jungle and gorgeous mountains. Small villages along the way where you can see the locals fishing and young children playing.

A small hiccup right before the boat took off though. The boats try to pack as many tourists in them as they can to the point where people need to sit on the floor because there aren't enough seats. Well, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, if enough people make enough of a fuss, they will call in a second boat and split the group in 2. So an angry mob of people starting protesting and yelling at people to get off the boat, it sort of turned into a riot and finally they got what they wanted and a 2nd boat pulled up. Either way, I had bought a little butt cushion and found the floor to be more comfortable.

The stopover was in this tiny village called Pak Beng in the middle of the jungle where the entire village runs on generators and there is a 10:30pm curfiew. I had my first experience at lao food here, trying water buffalo out, really good.

Arrived in Luang Prabang, 6 of us had become good friends from 2 days on the slowboat and we lucked out finding a large room in the attic of a guesthouse with 6 beds. It was Greg and Tara (kiwis), Evelyn (NYC), Sarah (Victoria) and David (Madrid) and we spent our 3 days in Luang Prabang together.

Luang Prabang was much more luxurious than I expected. It also had hints of french culture and architecture, left behind from the old French Indo-China period. For example, the schools, banks and other public locations all have their signs written in french. At breakfast, I was served a baguette rather than toast. This town is also very relaxed, with an 11pm curfiew and the only place that stays open late is the local bowling alley, which picks up after everything is closed. I indulged in a foot massage one evening ($4/hour) and also hot steam sauna, which was quite neat. The other night we hit the bowling alley. I guess for the locals its a big deal to go out to the bowling alley since they were all dressed up like they were going to a club, it was funny to watch.

Aside from the language, Lao and Thai culture is rather different. Lao people are much less pushy and salesy and much more laid back. They also tend to smile alot more. I have yet to see any prostitution. Its almost as though they haven't "sold out" their culture in the face of the big rise in tourism, which is nice to see.

The last thing we saw in Luang Prabang was this really beautiful waterfall, where you can swim at the base and further down there are several other pools to swim, do tarzan rope, and even swim under and behing smaller falls.

From Laung Pabang, Evelyn, Greg and I left for Vang Vien.

Vang Vien is known for pretty much 1 thing: tubing. The town is flooded with mainly British and North American tourists all there to do a 3.5 km tubing experience down a river lined with bars. Its absolute insanity. Every bar gives out free lao whiskey and they all have competitions for you to win even more free drinks. Everyone is covered in body paint and later on actual spray paint and all along there are slides, trapeze and zip lines to hop into the river along the way. Most people don't make it passed the third bar and never actually end up using their tube. That's what happened to our group. I did it 2 days ago now and I don't think I will be doing it again (no details needed). I met this Canadian guy named Trent who has been doing it everyday for 331 days straight... trying to hit 365.

Aside from the tubing, there are also cool caves a few km's away from Vang Vien. We rented scooters and took off for Pukham caves. It was a stint of bad luck that day . Two nails ended up giving me two flat tires in the span of 10 minutes and my friend Tara bailed and crashed her scooter. The day had a happy ending though as on the way back from the caves I came across this small village where there was a community center looking for volunteers to teach the local children english. I met the owners and they were very eager for any help I could offer.

My group of friends all left today for Vientiane but I decided to stay behind and see if I can firm up some volunteer work with this tiny center. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Chiang Mai & Pai / Northern Thailand

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From Kanchanaburi, I had to return through Bangkok to take an overnight bus into the north of Thailand. The main hub for northern Thailand is a city called Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand but it doesnt feel that big in comparison to Bangkok. The beauty of Chiang Mai isnt the city itself, but all the amazing nature and landscape it has to offer in the surrounding country side.

My bus arrived first thing in the morning and I headed straight for Julie's guesthouse, which was suppose to be the most popular and chill place for backpackers.. i lucked in since i was the first one to arrive i had priority. Upon check-in, I met a cool kiwi and german and we agreed to share a triple... I would end up spending the next several days with these guys, good people.

First day in Chiang Mai we toured the old city and chilled out by the river. We visited a few Wats (buddhist temples). It was pretty low key from the bus-lag most people had from the long overnight bus.

Day two, we rented scooters and headed up the big mountain nearby for a gorgeous view of the city and country side. We stopped off at a nice waterfall on the way and a monk temple as well. We also stopped for lunch at a beautiful lake where they built small huts right over the water for groups to eat. This is where I had my first experience with Jumping Shrimp... they serve it in this little bowl with alot of thai spices and herbs. When you open the bowl all the little baby shrimp are still alive and start jumping out. That's when you're suppose to get your spoon in there and shove them in your mouth alive as they are still jumping around. gross. I had to try it though since everyone in our small group had and didn't want to be the wimpy guy. It was soooo weird to eat something still alive, but kind of tasty.

Day three was early wake up for Greg (the kiwi), Manu (german) and I to leave for Pai, 4 hours north east of Chiang Mai.

I fell in love with Pai. Its worth repeating, I fell absolutely in love with Pai.

Pai is this small little town built along a river with gorgeous unbelievable landscape. During the day, you tour the countryside, visiting waterfalls, tiger temples, elephant camps and hill tribes. In the evening the town transforms into one big lively market, thats all lit up and full of life. There are also relly great chilled out bars and amazing street food. I had my own hut right near the river for 100 bacht ($3) and my own scooter for $1.5/day...

Day 1 I toured around on the scooter. We headed for hot baths to start... as we approached the entrance to the baths we spotted a girl riding a young elephant. Turns out she was also a kiwi and she told us how amazing this little elephant was and how much she recommended the tour.. I told myself I would do it the following day. She ended up on the back of one of our scooters and off we went for a waterfall. This waterfall wasn't particularly big, but deep and you could swim underneath it, which was cool. In the evening, I ran into Gus (swede) and Melvyn (dutch) from previous city. By early evening, we had a possy of about 10 people hitting the town. It was really cool to have a big possy of friends all travelling solo, you sort of build this instant connection you wouldn't normally have being at home with your normal friends.

Day 2 - Was a late start and off I went with Melvyn and Manu for the elephant ride. I shotgunned the little elephant. To get on him, I had to step on his trunk and he would lift me up onto his back, it was really scary and cool. He was the cutest elephant ever! Manu and Melvyn shared an older big guy. Off we went on our hike. My little elephant spent the whole time veering off course to eat and doing as he pleased. Then we got to a small river and thats where the fun started... they told us we could go in the water with our elephants so I expected us to walk through water. Boy was I mistaken... Upon seeing the water, my little elephant got excited and marched full speed ahead into the water while I held on for dear life. Once he got deepp enough, he plunged himself underwater with me on his back. It was incredible! My little elephant was like a little kid in a pool splashing around and rolling over, grabbing me with his trunk and trying to twirl me in the water too. I could even stand and surf on his belly...that little elephant was definately a highlight of my trip so far. In some weird way, he reminded me of TT (tina's dog) in the way he was so playful. It took forever to get him out of the water, he just kept playing!

Day 3 in Pai was spent touring again and just relaxing, enjoying the town and touring to see more waterfalls and countryside.

That evening I left on an evening bus with Greg (kiwi) and Tara (elephant kiwi) for the Laos border, where we would begin a two day slow boat journey on the Maekong River to Luang Prabang. I will give you more of this later!

Hope all is well at home.

Volunteer work with local Thai business in Kanchanaburi

After I wrote my blog post last night, I went back to the guesthouse. Inside the guesthouse there is a small tourist desk where you can book excursions in and around Kanchanaburi. The young woman at the desk had been very helpful with me the day before and so I went to chat with her a bit to thank her. The previous day, I had noticed several spelling mistakes and overall poor writing in their excursion brochure; their only real sales and marketing documentation. I explained how I wanted to help them by re-working their excursion brochure. Due to the language barrier, she didn't understand what I was trying to offer but I did manage to understand that their main office was down the road and the woman in charge was named Charlie.

And so, this morning I woke up a bit early and headed over to the main office to introduce myself to Charlie. She was extremely receptive to my help and began to give me blank paper, a copy of her brochure, a desk and a bottle of water so I could begin work. It took me about 1.5 hours to go through the brochure and clean it up. Then I spent about 20 minutes with her going through my suggestions and she liked them. We exchanged contact information and I told her I was open to helping her at any point down the road.

Unfortunately my timing was a bit off. She had just printed off 20,000 copies of this brochure for the upcoming busy season and would not be able to make the changes until next season. Nonetheless, she was very thankful for my help and said she would use mu suggestions down the road.

Thai people being rather proud and headstrong, I wasn't convinced that offering my help would yield a positive response. Now that it has, I will continue to offer up help as I continue my trip.

Bangkok and Kanchanaburi (Bridge over the River Kwae)

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Bangkok

I spent 3 nights in Bangkok in the famous backpacker district of Banglamphu near Kao San Road. Its basically a backpacker ghetto with lots of bars and restaurants and really cool shopping where you can find dirt cheap clothes and designer replicas...
I was told that the nightlife was crazy here but was surprised to notice on my first night that bars closed at 2am just like back home and then smaller quieter restaurants stayed open later if you wanted to stay up. The best thing to do is wonder the streets, look around at the action, shop and taste all the amazing street food.. BBQ'd corn on the cob, padthai, fresh fruit, fruit shakes...

Aside from that, after 3 full days in Bangkok, I can truly walk away stating one fact assertively: Bangkok is the most amazing shopping city I have ever been to. Huge shopping center's with amazing designer replicas of everything under the sun, and DIRT cheap. You can go to a suit store and pick up 2 custom fitted suits + 2 shirts + 2 ties for.... drum roll.... $180 USD. 1 suit will cost as low as $60 USD. Incredible. I plan to return to Bangkok to do my xmas shopping prior to going home. The wheels were also turning in my head for all the amazing import opportunities there could be here. other amazing examples of cheap stuff:
-packs of 100 earings: $5 CDN
-packs of 10 bracelets the kind you find in the market in ottawa for $10 each: $4
-designer wallets (good replicas): $9
-designer jeans (diesel): $22 CDN
and the list goes on and on....

Aside from shopping, I can't say that anything really stood out for me. I saw the main tourist attractions: Great Palace, the huge laying buddha, Jim Thompson's house (1st american to import thai silk), Siam Square and Night Bazaar. All these were pretty cool. After 3 days though, I felt like it was time to leave, especially since I knew I would come back afterwards for shopping and likely to fly out to Indonesia later on in the month.

My travel buddy Arnold wanted to hit Chianot where he had met a guy who was starting a bird watching Guesthouse and offered him a place to stay. I was fascinated with the history of Kachanaburi famous for the Bridge over the River Kwae. And so, after several weeks of travelling together, we split ways. It was a bit sad as we had gotten to know one another quite well and had become good friends. I am sure we will reconvene in northern thailand or perhaps in Laos.

Kanchanaburi - historical and weird random local encounter.

The bus ride took over 3.5 hours. I thought the bus ride out would give me an understanding of just how big Bangkok is...but the suburbs NEVER ENDED. So the entire bus ride was actually felt like it was driving threw Bangkok suburbs... Bangkok really is amazingly big and sprawling.

Kanchanaburi itself is a small peaceful town right on the River Kwae. I'm staying at a chilled out guesthouse with hammocks right on the water. There are cool floating restaurants along the river. Today I rented a motorbike and decided to do the historical sites on my own rather than pay alot to do a guided tour.

I began at the Railway museum to learn about why the bridge over the river kwae was so famous (all I knew was that there was a movie made about it). Turns out this railway bridge was commissioned by the Japanaese during the second world war as a strategic way of getting supplies from Thailand into Burma while Japan occupied SE Asia. Due to the rough terrain, this railway would prove extremely difficult and labour intensive. To this effect, the Japanese would force thousands of British, Australian and American POW's as well as locals to build it. They would labour in awful conditions with little food, medical attention, and rest. Thousands of POW's died in the construction of the railway (which is now dubbed The Death Railroad) and the worst of this was in the construction of the Railway Bridge crossing the River Kwae. With normal labour circumstances, estimations were that it would take 5 years to complete the railway but with these POW's, the japanese were able to complete it in 16 months, the bridge taking only 6. The bridge was bombed several times by the allies but rebuilt.

So I walked the historical Bridge, visited the museum and also the beautiful Allied Cemetery nearby. I really enjoyed learning about this historical town and also enjoyed the low key vibe.

Then later this afternoon, I encountered the most random thai local woman. I met her while in a shopping center looking for shampoo and soap. She just walking right up to me and asked me where I was from smiling and, I think, trying to flirt with me. I knew this woman must of have been at least 40 but despite this she kept on. I remained polite and answered her questions, thinking, this is kind of cool to be interacting with a local. Then she asked me if I was single. I proceeded to give her my age and tell her I was too young for her. She laughed saying she was 40 but then asked me if I would have a coffee with her. My first reaction was to decline but then I thought, what the heck, I'll put a smile on this woman's face by accepting. Right after I acccepted she bluntly says "Can you pay for me"... oh boy. I say yes sure. We get to the coffee shop, I order a coffee, she tells me she doesnt want coffee and orders herself an expensive ice cream sundae...lovely. I dont protest but thought all this was either a setup or this woman had a few screws loose.

In the end we had a good conversation and I learnt alot about her and she asked alot of questions about me, despite the strong language barrier. She asked for my email and then when she gave me hers, I noticed it ended with her name 1963@hotmail.com. 40 eh??...roight...Then I confronted her about her age and she told me the truth. She was 46. After coffee, I told her I needed to go to the bus station to buy my next ticket, she followed....I started to feel uncomfortable...but turned out she actually helped me at the bus station. Finally I managed to loose her by noticing a backpacker at the bus station and starting a convo with him...that was my first authentic long conversation with a local...random.

Well looks like I'm headed north tomorrow. Sorry if this was a bit of a windbag post.

Pat

Pics Available!

For those who are reading this message and do not use facebook, you can find pics of my trip so far by clicking on this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2268446

Pat

The Boat Ride of Doom.

I finally arrived in Bangkok after a long bus ride and before that, the absolutely wildest bumpiest boat ride of my life from Koh Tao to the mainland...huge waves everywhere crashing and rocking the boat from all sides... I think about 50% of the boat was sea sick with their little gross puke bag full...awful. Naturally, I was within that lucky 50% of sick people, probably the first to kick things off... it was absolutely a nightmare. My travel buddy Arnold is a sailor so he spent the whole time eating munchies and loving life while I had my head in the toilet bowl in the washroom... more news from Bangkok once I settle in.

Half-Moon and Koh Tao

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Half Moon party was everything I imagined and more. Picture 1000 half naked neon-painted backpackers in the middle of the jungle with rave music blarring until the early hours of the morning. The vibe was incredible.

It also included one very sobering event that was quite tragic. We arrived and began dancing on these large stone steps. We noticed this really drunk dude passed out on a small bench at the top of the steps and was sort of just sitting there past out. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, passed out, he topples over, tumbling head first down two levels of stone steps hitting his head and landing on his back. When we went down to see, he was completely unconscious and bleeding from the eye and ear. He snapped out of it and regained consciousness. He had nobody with him. The police came, flashed a light in his eyes, gave him some water and left. We had met a Kiwi at the party who was a doctor and was convinced this guy needed to be in a hospital, so we carried him out and found him an ambulance, which they were initially reluctant to take him. Anyway, this event made me realize these parties are good fun but dangerous and the concept of liability and accountability in Thailand is non-existant.

In line with that, last night my travel buddy Arnold was struck nearly in the face with a flamming numchuck (they were putting on a fire show on the beach). The fire struck him in the chest and blackened his shirt, scaring the crap out of him in the process. The bar's response: "you shouldnt have been sitting so close"...guess what?the bar sets up the cushions for people to sit on and we werent close. They even refused to clean his shirt.

Moving on to greener pastures...

We left Koh Pagnan (half-moon party island) for a much smaller island 40 km north called Koh Tao. The vibe here is much more low key. It is known as divers paradise. it actually has the world's busiest dive school and people from all over the world come to get their certification for cheap. The people seem to be much more active and the focus is less on nightlife and more on what the islands underwater world has to offer. We have been here for a 4 nights and I'm really enjoying the tranquility. I decided not to dive since I had already tried it in Panama, instead I stuck to the more cost efficient alternative of snorkelling which was still really amazing and saw lots of really cool fish. I even did a 1.5 hour swim to this tiny island at the north of Koh Tao. The beach there was the most beautiful I had ever seen and the color of the water was unbelievable (I'll post some pics to try and do it some justice).

I also celebrated Halloween here. It was sad, for the first time in several years I would not have the props to be my usual character of Harry Potter.... instead, getting our hands on some blue paint and a chef hat, I became Papa Smurf and my friend Helen Smurfette. My dutch friend Arnold needed barely a costume to pull off Schwartzanegger. All we needed was to paint an ammunition belt over his chest and give him a bandana and some wounds... it was spot on. The lady boy cabaret bar even put on a special halloween cabaret show which was a bit disturbing but fun to watch. Then we headed out to a few halloween parties around the small town. Arnold loved his first Halloween (they dont have it in Holland) and vows he wants to make it to Canada for the next one.

Anyway, my days of beach bumming are coming to a close, tomorrow I leave for Bangkok. I think after three weeks on small islands, living the beach bummer dream, its time to move on to a bit more adventure and nature. The plan is to get a feel for Bangkok for a few days and then head into northern thailand.

Hope life is good back home.

Phuket = Disgusting. Koh Pan'gnan = Awesome

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From Koh Phi Phi, I hoped on a boat for a 2 hour amazing boat ride from Koh Phi Phi to Phuket Town. Watching the cliffs of Koh Phi Phi fade away in the distance, the wind at my back and the sun in my face, it was the most beautiful boat ride of my trip.

We arrived in Phuket Town and headed for Patong Beach which was suppose to be where all the action was.

It was awful.

We arrived in the evening and began to explore the nightlife. Let me paint you a picture of the nightlife in Patong in 1 sentence:

Fat, dirty old white men chasing after 20 year old Thai prostitutes. There are more prostitutes than there are tourists in the this area. Aside from prostitutes, there are go go girls dancing all over the place as well as women soliciting ping-pong shows, fire shows, banana, tennis ball, and all kinds of rediculous shows you could possibly think of... to give you an idea of what these "shows" are, let's just say that they all involve one particular part of the female anatomy... enough said. And they, tried selling to our female friends as hard as they tried to sell us...creepy.

There was no backpacker scene and no decent bar to have a beer and chill out. It was like a dirty version of a Thai Vegas. We stayed 2 evenings, 1 full day and got the heck out of there.

We took a bus from Phuket to Surat Thani on the opposite coast and then a really cool overnight boat to Koh Pan'gnan, one of 3 islands off the south East coast of Thailand. The larger one was suppose to echo Phuket so we skipped it altogether and headed straight for the one that is famous for its "Full Moon and Half-Moon" Parties. Full Moon happens once a month on Full moon (duh) and same goes for half-moon. Unfortunately our timing was a bit off and we arrived in the middle of both and it was pretty low key. Still, the main tourists are backpackers so we met some cool people and have been really enjoying ourselves. We rented mopeds the last two days and toured the island. When I say "we", I mean Arnold and I the dutch dude. Our Aussie friend Toni decided to stay behind in Phuket (I know what you're thinking, but it wasnt because of that...). We plan to stick around until half-moon party on the 26th (which is in the jungle!!! woohoo!!) and then either head to the smaller of the 3 islands called Koh Tao (divers paradise) or head back to the mainland.

The beaches on this island are the nicest I have seen but the scenery isnt as nice as Koh Phi Phi. I will be posting pics soon of my trip thus far.

Pat

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Beach Paradise

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So after two big cities, I took off for an island called Langkawi located off the North West Coast of Malaysia.

the taxi ride from the ferry to my hostel was mental. My 60+ year old taxi driver pulled up to a sports car and proceeded to engage him in a race which found us zooming at 140km/h on small local roads while I was clutched my seat for dear life and tried to avoid soiling myself.

I checked into a hostel called Gecko and was lucky enough to meet some really cool people... Gus from Sweden and Arnold from Holland.... Arnold actually looks like the real governator.

For the next two days, we rented motorcycles for $8 a day and the three of us took off exploring the island. it was my first true motorcycle experience and i found it to be incredibly liberating. we found waterfalls, monkeys, gorgeous beaches, sunsets... and ripped those roads apart.

At night we partied at bars along the beach and met lots of backpackers... our group of friends grew. the parties were not crazy, it was a pretty low key island which was nice, not overly touristy.

I met my first ever Maldivians (people from The Maldives, islands off the south coast of India that are expected to disappear over the next decades due to climate change). They were 3 sisters who were on a vacation and they were awesome fun! i must visit those islands some day.

After several days on the island of Langkawi, Arnold along with an Aussie named Toni and myself took off for Thailand, more specifically Koh Phi Phi, the island where they shot The Beach.

The 3 of us are currently splitting a hotel room so its dirrrt cheap the way i like it. This island is much more touristy and party crazy than Langkawi. It is also much more naturally beautiful... the beach scene is gorgeous, with amazing rock formations jutting out of the sea and gorgeous white sand... it truly feels like paradise.. when i thought of SE Asia, this is what i pictured.

The first few nights here was party central... one popular tradition they seem to have here is to play with fire at the bars... alcohol and fire, genius... right. The first event was a huge jump rope that was lit on fire and anyone can go and skip rope. I had to try it.... no major damage. Then later on in the night, several drinks later they bring out a big ring of fire that you can jump through. i had met a fellow Canadian from Ottawa and had the brilliant idea to jump through it with her...bad idea. the hole wasn't quite meant for 2 people so i ended up kicking over the ring and it fell on my fellow Canadian and burnt her leg....i felt terrible but thank god only minor burn. I bought my Canadian friend a drink and put myself in a time-out. That's the last of my fire experiences for now.

Arnold, Toni and I will leave for Phucket tomorrow. I heard snow has already arrived in Canada.... suckers.

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Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

First impressions of Kuala Lumpur were positive.

I took my time and spent 3 nights to take in Kuala Lumpur. Since it was already dark by the time my bus entered the city, I was blown away by the towering glow of the Petronas Twin Towers (the ones from the movie Entrapment). Once again, I was surprised at how modern this city was and also by the amount of western influence. I also learnt that they drive on the left here.

Within a few days, it was also evident that this was the most diverse city I had ever been to. Chinese, Malay, Indian seem to share this city quite seemlessly and although I heard stories of discrimination, I didn't see any.

Most of the backpackers stay in lively Chinatown, which is where I stayed my first two nights at a new hostel called Bird's Nest. Super friendly owners and I met some cool backpackers. I met this german guy named Dominic with a crazyyyy story: he had just come back from the jungle of Malaysia in the Cameron Highlands. Him and a british guy were too cheap to get a tour guide, instead chosing to go into the jungle on their own. They ended up getting lost for 2 days with no food! They built a raft out of bamboo but because it was built so poorly it could only support the weight of their bags, so they were stuck swimming alongside it and drinking the water from the river to stay hydrated. Finally two days later, a tour happened to be in the area and spotted them. By the time he came out of the water, he had dozens of leeches stuck to his legs and in his shoes! That story blew my mind. I skipped the jungle.

I took it easy while in KL chillin out in the hostel and going to bed reasonably early. This was due to necessary recovery time from the late nights with Doug and also the cost of beer! Malaysia is an Islamic country but rather than outlaw alcohol, instead they chose to make it available but tax it at a crazy high rate. Proportionately to everything else in KL, beer was really expensive ($2 at store/$4 in bar).

Eating in Chinatown and Little India, I learnt that a lot of people dont bother with utensils here and just scoop their food with their hands... even messy rice...I thought that was kind of gross.

My third night I had the luxury of staying at my friend's ridiculously nice apartment. This friend named Jerome I had met while studying in France. He was unfortunately out of town while I was there, but was gracious enough to offer me his room. I met his two roommates, these really cool girls from Iran. I got a crash course in Iran politics and lifestyle... and even the pleasure of tasting some Persian food. Through the girls, I also met a German guy named Johanes with an incredible story. Johanes has been traveling by bicycle for 2 years. He started in Germany near the Swiss border and headed through Eastern Europe, down into Turkey, into India, Nepal, Tibet and now into SE Asia....all by bicycle. To save money, he uses couch surfing or will even pitch a tent like he did in Tibet (and went 3 weeks without a shower). His goal is to go around the world on his bicycle and he has given himself about 5 more years to do so.

Impressive sights of KL:
- KL Tower (5th tallest in the world) had an amazing view of the city and of the twin towers.
-Petronas Twin Towers bridge observatory (free)
- Buta Caves: religious caves 45 minutes outside the city with the tallest statue of some religious symbol in the world

Other impressive KL Stuff:
-Malaysian people are really tourist friendly and helpful.
-Almost everyone speaks a decent amount of english here and eager to speak too...
-Malaysians are obsessed with world records (hence how i knew KL Tower was 5th tallest and statue was 1st)
- Malaysian food is really good. had this fluffy doughy ball with chicken in the middle...mmm

After a good time in Kuala Lumpur having met some really unique and fun people, I jumped on an overnight bus for Kuala Perlis, where I would take a boat out to Pulau Langkawi, a gorgeous island off the North Western coast of Malaysia. oh, and the island is a duty free haven so there is no tax on beer :)

After 2 very big capital cities, I was craving the coast and a small town vibe.

Un gros merci to Jerome for being so kind to offer me his room.

PS> Langkawi is incredible. I'm actually leaving tomorrow for Northern Thailand after 3 amazing days on this island. Stay tuned for details of my Langkawi experience...

Beijing with Douggy Boi

My trip has begun with an awesome first five days in Beijing...to top it off, complete with a kick ass tour guide named Douggy B. to show me the "real" Beijing. actually, doug is one of my best friends and he is living in beijing for the next year to study mandarin, getting pretty good at it too.

Things started off with Doug showing up at the airport with a sign reading "D. Radcliffe" in english on one side and Mandarin on the other. He was going to shout it out when I walked into the arrivals hall and then snap a pic to make people believe I was the real Harry Potter and get them in a frenzy.... clever Doug. Unfortunately doug got off at the wrong terminal and missed me by 5 minutes so he wasnt able to pull it off. Plus when i did see some dude holding up a sign, I had to double take to realize it was Doug since hes been training pretty hard and slimmed down... u sexy beast.

Doug took me to this kick ass pekin duck restaurant the first night and i got to meet two of his close buddies gil and andrew. from there we hit up a house party that consisted of 20 guys and 2 girls so we didnt stay there too too long. from there we hit up this model party in a lounge in the Westin hotel called Touch. i felt really short here. it was a bunch of tall skinny russian chicks. from there we went bar hopin in sanlitun a strip of bars and restaurants. the expat community is really tight here, doug and his friends ran into quite a few peeps they knew. All in all it was a solid first night.

During the subsequent days, i visited all the classic tourist spots: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall of China, Beijing 2008 Stadiums Water Cube and Birds Nest, Tiannamen square. I was lucky enough to be in Beijing during the 60th Anniversary of Republic so it was 9 days of holidays and people from around the country were coming to beijing on holidays and also to witness the huge parade that was going on in tiannamen. From the rooftop of doug's apt, we were able to see three different fireworks displays going on simultaneously...how fitting for a country that invented fireworks.

Some low lights of Beijing included a tipsy doug wanting to try on my only pair of jeans (since now we are almost the same size) and realizing they were too tight after breaking off the zipper.
Also, some horse play in the street after a night of many drinks, ending with a head butt from doug snapping my glasses (my only pair). Thank God everything in beijing is dirt cheap and quick, and the jeans were fixed in 20 minutes for $2 and new baller glasses were made in 10 minutes with $30. oh, and while they were hard at work on these items, we couldnt help ourselves to a custom made shirt ($20) and custom suit ($140)... u gotta love china.

Let me say this about Beijing. It was nothing like what I expected. I pictured Beijing as one huge Manhattan Chinatown; dirty, smelly, over crowded, fish heads in the streets... it was nothing like that. Beijing is super modern, huge wide streets, big cars, brand new infrastructure (subway, airport, ect), clean, efficient, sprawling, awe-inspiring buildings... i kept thinking to myself that it kind of reminded me of a huge Las Vegas. Picture the width of the Strip and the huge casinos that line it on each side... alot of modern beijing is like that. Massive, stunning buildings line wide streets and at night everything lights up. Then there is also more traditional areas of Beijing but even these are kept clean and have been modernized with cafe's and stylish retail shops.

Beijing blew me away. It is obvious to me, that China is well on its way to becoming the next world superpower.

I flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday morning from Tianjin, an industrial city 30 minutes via high-speed train from Beijing. The flight cost $79 CDN and I thought I had gotten a pretty good deal. Then I realized the flight was over 6 hours long! I got a crazy deal! I never thought how big Asia is, picture Beijing - Kuala Lumpur is further than crossing the Atlantic...

Stay posted for my Kuala Lumpur experience...

A big shout out to Doug for his generosity and hospitality... as always. I had a ball.

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