Playing in the Mud - Cambodia

Today was definitely a highlight for my short stay in Cambodia.  I took a day trip to the province known for pottery, just two hours via bus from Phnom Penh.  I would have just continued on to Siem Reap afterward, but there are two main arteries out of Phnom Penh - Hwy 5 going to Battambang and hwy 6 going to Siem Reap.  Kampong Chhnang (the province I was visiting) was on Hwy 5.  So, early in the morning, I said goodbye to the other couchsurfer staying at the movie house and snagged a tuk tuk to the Sorya bus station near the Central Market in Phnom Penh.  I bought a ticket for $4.00 and again, assuming the worst, boarded the bus going toward Battambang.  My fears were put to rest with decent seating – no, I didn’t want to touch anything, but this would definitely do.  There was a young western fellow sitting across the aisle from me and whaddya know, he was also going to Kampong Chhnang and hailed from Palatine, IL - so close to my home town!  Sometimes I wonder how these things happen. 

One thing that I really loved about getting out into the countryside were all the palms that filled the vast, flat stretches of land.  Through these, the baby blue sky reflecting in the rice paddy fields.  A Cambodian pastor sitting near us informed that this province was also an area known for sugar, which is extracted and boiled from the palms.  After a slightly longer than quoted bus ride, the other American and I got out in the middle of a very small town, with one central monument.  I swear every single child –and some adults – said “hello!” as we passed, looking for a tuk tuk to our respective destinations.

On the road in Phnom Penh

I told myself I wasn't going to compare Vietnam with the other countries that I visit in SE Asia, and I'm conscientiously not stooping to some backpackers' generalizations to culture or a people as a whole!...God forbid, BUT, I must quickly note, that I am loving the transportation in Phnom Penh, in contrast to Vietnam.  Not only is it cheaper, but much more comfortable and appears slightly more sane on the daredevil motorbike aspect.

Pimp my Phnom Penh Ride

My Ho Chi Minh couchsurf host

Today has been an exhausting but fun day of transport.  At 6:10 (ten minutes before my alarm was scheduled to rattle me awake) I rose from my host's couch and prepared for the bus ride into Cambodia.  She generously drove me to the ticketing office where the most recommended bus company was to pick me up at 8:00am.  We said our goodbyes, I helped her kick-start her bike (it had been having problems), and then she was off to work!  Walking into the ticketing office, I froze with panic.  I had left my purse inside her bike seat because she had warned me about moto-theft.  The bus was leaving in twenty minutes and it would take her at least ten minutes to get to work and open her seat, realizing my purse was in there.  Of course my phone was in my purse so I couldn't call her.  All I could do was wait on the curb and be calm, because there was absolutely nothing else I could do to get my purse faster.  Playing through all the possible scenarios of what I would do if I missed the bus, I turned my head to the right and there she was, thirty meters away, walking her bike toward me.  With my two backpacks, I awkwardly started waddle-running toward her in an epic romance fashion, yelling, "I knew you'd come back!" 

Kelsey.  Seriously.  No more of that.

A Fastpack through the Big One

DAY ONE!!!
I'm going to TRY to blog SOMETHING every day while traveling.  Sometimes it might be small, sometimes it might be a ramble, and on some nights, I may have more time to put some decent effort into a post.

This morning started early with my darling roommate zipping me off on my last DaNang motorbike ride to the airport.  I tried to soak in the trip as much as horn-honkingly possible, but I knew I would be in HCMC soon anyway and get a good dose of motorbike terror on the backs of random nice-smelling xe-oms (moto taxis).  Sitting on the hard steel chair in our dinky airport, I tried not to be too sentimental.  I gave my roomie a giant hug, and some of the people from the restaurant I volunteered at showed up at 6am (bless them!) at the airport to give gifts and see me off.  They and the rest of my DaNang family were on my mind when our boarding call sounded throughout the terminal.  I slowly stood up and stood in the chaos of an attempt at a queue for plane ticket ripping.  Being a temp resident in Vietnam, I knew better than to expect a line - this is the closest I get to unintentional moshing these days.

The flight was fast!

Ho Chi Minh has some beautiful parks, right in the middle of urban life

Today I wanted to take it easy because a) no offense HCMCers, but I'm not huge into big cities and after living in VN for nearly a year, I'm excited to see other countries!  So I'm visiting a select few museums and calling it a day!

I might have started my day in a more cheery place, but my couchsurfing host was working in District1 and she said she'd look after my rucksack while I meandered around.  Her work was walking distance to the War Remnants Museum so that's where I started.

Finding Zen in Đà Lạt

During travel, what you see and do can leave a lasting impression of your trip, but often not as permanent as who you meet.  During my recent trip to Đà Lạt, I was able to spend some time with some folks you often don't see due to their lifestyle - monks and nuns.  

Đà Lạt is rich in abundance of pagodas and the landscape provides a sort of fairytale land backdrop for their archways, buildings, and statues to be nestled into.  The first one I stumbled upon, I was with Dyanne.  It was high up on a hill off of a main road outside of town.  After a few exchanged "hello"s and "we're from America"s, we started looking around at their own small plot of coffee plants, a building for community activity and one for worship, I heard someone say "Canada! Canada!" and we looked over as a beautiful girl with freckles all over her face and a shaved head approached.  With almost no Vietnamese accent, she greeted us in English and continued to explain that she had studied in Canada for a few years and that this pagoda was strictly for nuns.  We were visiting during a time of confinement - they would not leave the pagoda for three months.  Whew! That's a lot of time together.  

Getting Lost in Đà Lạt

My last trip in Vietnam was to the southern part of the central highlands in a popular destination for lovers called Đà Lạt.  My friend Dyanne (TravelnLass) helped me obtain a motorbike within an hour of arriving and I knew that I was destined for fabulous rambles over my four-day-stay.  This bike was more powerful than my DaNang steed -a whole 125CCs!

With Dyanne working at her language school in town, I hunted down a map of Đà Lạt, stuffed it into my bag and proceeded to drive down a street I didn't know.  (There were many of them at this point).