Today was an exhausting day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I woke at 7:52 AM to shower, pack my bags, and check out the Oral d’Angkor which came as a recommendation from, Jennie, a friend I met during my last night in Chiang Mai.

My shower kicked off on the wrong foot when the bathroom inexplicably lost water for both the sink faucet and shower head. I had already soaped up my upper body and didn’t want to walk down to the front desk with dried Zest on my neck. I waited for a bit with the sink faucet open and eventually we were back in business.

After my shower, I hustled to the Downtown Siem Reap hostel by tuk-tuk to drop my bags off and meet Mike for a day trip to Angkor Wat. I got to the hostel around 10 AM, but had missed Mike who went with two other Americans at 9AM to the temples.

You may be asking yourself, “it took you more than two hours to get to your second hostel? Why so long?” Let me answer that now. Before I took my shower I was working on the two WordPress entries. I have my priorities and as you know, “blogs before shower fogs.”

Now that I’ve missed my Angkor tour group and tuk tuk, I have to prep a plan of contingency. Next door to the hostel was Adenture Loop, a business that provided tours and activities for tourists. They also rented bicycles. I got a city bike for $3, a map, rode in the direction the woman renting the bike told me. I really don’t know where I’m going.

The main instructions are follow the Siem Reap River, go to the Angkor Wat check point, and ride another 17 minutes to get to the ruins site. These are not the best directions.

In fact, I got lost for about a half hour going in the completely wrong direction. First I rode along a rural road then turned right onto a major city street. It was going on a major highway with a bicycle. During my misguided pedaling, I kept my composure though my mind was in sheer panic. I had no idea where I was.

The street lead back to the Siem Reap River and I was right again. I took a second go of it and this time asked for directions. I first asked a female food vendor who I asked didn’t speak English and had a very palpable “atti-rude” towards me. A male food vendor was kind enough to point me in the right direction and I pushed the way he gestured.

I found the Angkor Wat check point where I bought a $20 day pass and had a tangerine with a few gulps of water before making the remaining leg of 17 minutes to the ruins.

This part of the ride was less traffic heavy but still daunting. I thought I’d never get there when finally I started to see gray-stoned structures in the distance. The Angkor Wat ruins were finally visible.

I arrived at the entrance of Angkor Wat temple first. I pedaled stunned at the grandeur and eerie statues that framed the bridge leading to the temple. The street around the temple swarmed with street vendor and tuk tuk drivers looking for business. I wanted to stop go, but figured I go around to see some other temples on the site. I also could find a spot to chain up my bike. I looked for a spot to lock up my bike.

In my search to find a hitching post, rode across the coolest bridge I’ve seen in the history of cool ancient bridges. The sides of the bridge were lined with four- foot statues that looked like idols from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s a side that could be done justice if seen in person.

After crossing the idol bridge, I rode along a section of jungle that served as a home for a family of monkeys. They seemed docile as people took pictures of them eating and living normally.

I finally got out and walked at Bayon Temple. By this point I was dripping with sweating and beginning to feel my head ache from both dehydration and pedal fatigued. I walked through all the shady spots in the temple to keep my temperature low.

While in Bayon, a boy intercepted me and rattled off a bunch of Amercian facts. My tourist alarm went off. The boy then started to give me a tour and I knew something was up. I went along for a few moments before asking if this tour costs any money and he brushed off the question. My tourist alarm was in the red.

When we reached a prayer room, the boy took out a piece of paper and asked me to read and then donate to help him with school. I didn’t mind helping. Based on the amount I donated, which seemingly would have made Jack Benny approve, my tour was over. The boy told me to have a nice day. We parted ways and he said I was generous.

Outsude the temple I took some photos then bought a pineapple from a street vendor to keep my energy up. I sat near a group of tourist from Japan who were also taking a break. These temples really attract a huge number of people.

I biked to a few more temples in the way to the main attraction, Prohm, made even more famous when featured in the movie Tomb Raider. Having the bike made it great to ride through the tuck away spots around the temples. I climbed into a couple of small temples that other visitors weren’t flocking to and took my time walking in their shade.

After a feeling of eerie loneliness, I got back on the main roads pedaling closer and closer to my last temple. Pedal fatigue began setting in again. I drank as much water as I could tolerance and grabbed some more pineapple. I could feel pedal fatigue starting to give way to temple fatigue as well. I had one more temple in me.

At about 4PM, I skipped a couple of temples on the path. I wanted to see Prohm around sunset, but knew if I were out around sunset the ride back on my bike would be in pitch black. I hustled to Prohm and got there in good time. People were exiting the temple in droves which was good so less people were inside.

Temple fatigue made Prohm less interested than I’d hoped. This temple was known for having huge trees growing through the stones and that was incredible to look at. The one thing I would have liked was a tour guide. Where was the child guide here? Giving the structure some context makes the visit less mindless wandering. Prohm is definitely a temple to see. It worth the visit along. Having a historically frame about the structure will make it a full experience.

Throughout the day, I have very little conversation with other people. Even other English speaking travelers weren’t friendly in Angkor Wat. My last conversation with one of the park guards was fun. He asked where I was from and said it was a good place. We got to talking about family and he said he’d been married for 8 years with two children. He said he was an old man at 28 and I frowned. Damn, is 28 old in Cambodia? I should have taken an Hoveround to Angkor Wat not a bicycle.

I said it was nice to meet him and got back on my bike. Sunset was coming quickly and I still needed to back on the main road to the city.

Motorscooters and cars zoomed passed me as pedaled hard. The dust from road clouding up to my eyes. I wanted to put my sunglasses back on but it was too dark for this dusk ride. As the evening set on the road, I realized I had no idea how long it would take to get back to the main road.

When I asked the park guard during our conversation which way to the exit he pointed straight ahead. It seemed like most of my directions that day were simple go straight. Nothing about turns. If you came to a turn you had to ask another person which way to go from there. They would point you in a straight direction until the next turn.

I was going in the direction the guard pointed and I couldn’t read any road signs so I kept straight. And sure enough came a left turn I didn’t know if it was the right way and there was no around to ask. I deliberated for a few moments then opted to stay my course.

In what felt like ten minutes, I finally saw the most that surrounded Angkor Wat. I also saw monkeys and felt like things were coming together. I made a slight left towards what I assume would be the main road and biked along the moat.

The way back in the main road was a left turn through basically two lanes of traffic, the faster moving vehicles in my lane and the oncoming from the left lane. I had ridden a bike in years and I certainly haven’t ridden in major traffic. So I slowed down, assessed my situation, calculated my entry into the flow and made my move.

I was back on the main road on unscathed. The traffic is very fluid here. It’s important to keep cool and pick a direction so everyone can move around you. Don’t stop if you don’t have to. At the temple, every time I stopped to let people pass in the opposite direction people behind walked around me like “forget them, just go.” Teaching moment.

Damn that main road is a long ride. On a bike and in the dark, it’s tiresome and equally exciting. I was a part of the traffic pattern that night moving and making my way around… until I got lost.

The way I took from the rental office was on a one way street. I turned on that street on the way back and had to avoid on coming traffic. After biking a few meters against the flow of traffic I turned out to a road totally unfamiliar, but I knew if I could get on a street that led to the river I’d be fine. It took a few minutes of riding on a bunch of different streets before I found the traffic round about that put me back on track.

I dropped the bike off at 7pm, took a sign relief and walked next door to the hostel to sit in the lobby. I ran into Mike who had just gotten back and was about to go for a swim. I didn’t need a swim. I was wet enough from sweating all day.

It’s all about learning from your experiences and becoming a better person.

-Me

I hope one day philosophy students will quote me, but until then my two weeks of traveling have been educational on a number of things. I’ll give you five.

1. Pack light. I’m learning this as I move from location to location. Being agile is good on trips like this. I thought I did a good job packing essentials into my 80 liter backpack, but I’ve seen people with smaller bags traveling for a lot longer. I can’t imagine what I would eliminate.  I really need my 8 pair of underwear in cause of emergency.
2. Make friends. I’ve been amazed how open and willing to talk most people have been during this trip. It’s even more cool when I’ve see them again later during my travels. That was certainly the case in Thailand most people were on the same northern route from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Pai. Talking to people helped fine tone my travel plans and made me realize the next item.
3. Learn languages. Damn, I wish I spoke Thai, French, Cambodian, German… the list could go for days. Only speaking English in foreign countries is like trying to put a square peg into a round peg. I’ve gotten by so far, but it feels like a struggle to close the language gap and limits the experiences and sharing. I had an experience with a food vendor basically refused to talk to me because I start off saying “hello” in English. Maybe they were just weird, but I’ll take some of the blame. That’s a volley for point four.
4. Don’t eat French Fries in Southeast Asia. This isn’t a warning about not eating fried potatoes, though I will warn you to ONLY DRINK BOTTLED WATER, it’s more of a roundabout way of saying eat some of the foods that are local dishes of the country you visit. I’ll warn you to make sure it’s cooked properly, but I’ve loved so many dishes here that can only be imitated back home. On my last night in Cambodia, I had two bowls of fish Amok, in the same sitting, at an incredible Siem Reap restaurant across from our hostel. I may have eaten like an American (huge food portions), but I really enjoyed trying some genuine Khmer cuisine. You ready for point five?
5. Use a “bum gun”. To reduce toilet paper usage and plumbing clogs, many bathrooms in Southeast Asia have spray hoses (same in appearance to the ones used in kitchen) to rinse your booty crack after going number two. I can never get fully on board with intentionally spraying water on my butt, especially cold water. I have to give credit to those who can do that on a daily, maybe even tri-daily basis, and not be in a grumpy  mood. The possibility of walking around all day with soggy underwear makes me depressed. SE Asia I tip my hat to you.

In my final week, I plan to gain a few more useful sayings for my future philosophy quotables. I hope these points help you when you make the trip to a foreign land or maybe just in your daily life. You could make friends or learn a new language during your lunch break, try a restaurant that serves different foreign foods every now and then, or at the very least have management install “bum guns” in the office bathrooms. Either way, it’s all about trying something new and becoming better for it.

The old folks say don’t rush into love and I know it’s only been a few hours but I this could be the one. Pai, Thailand is the girlfriend I’ve always wanted- well known but not ridiculously popular, artistic but not snobby, busy but not overwhelming. Technically we’re still on a first date and we haven’t even slept together so I don’t want to ruin a good thing so early by putting too much pressure on Pai. We’ll just take it a day at a time.

When we arrived earlier I felt like I just entered the last surviving town of a dystopian wasteland. The narrow streets were packed with pedestrians speaking the gamut of known languages and motor scooters weaving through the people on foot. Everyone seemed have all of their worldly possessions in their backpacks. In a city of outsiders, I was the one who felt like an outlander. To set the dystopian tribe atmosphere more, we drove to our hostel called the Circus Hostel where cross from the entrance there was a restaurant that hung skin from a pig’s head on its awning. Uww. The main attraction of the Circus because the bamboo and straw bungalows is the from lawn which offer slack rope and juggling training and features shows in the evening. The people staying here are a tight knit community that act like family even though they may have only been staying here for a few days. All the location needs is Tina Turner in her hoop earrings and a metal dome of the fire jugglers to spin their flaming batons hence Circus Dome.

One my first night with my new love, I walked the market of the city streets beyond the Circus Dome, played a vicious game of doubles pool with a dude named Ach who works at the Pig’s face skin restaurant, and reconnected with some of the familiar faces from my time in Chiang Mai. The Outlander continues to survive among the adventurous nomads and motor scooter drivers in the otherworldly land. They don’t need another hero. They don’t want to find the way home.

Jungle date: 20151206. A group of trekkers and I embarked on our first day into wilderness for a remote village near Wang Mae. Before our journey began, the group got to know  each other over a banana leaf filled with rice, egg, and vegetables. The group was a UN of travelers with people from all the countries you’d want to visit: France, Netherlands, and Brazil to name a few. Our language barriers didn’t make it difficult to break the ice. As a group of mostly guys (one lady among us) we bonded over the disappointment that more women weren’t in our group. These are pictures I took before the trek in the village farm.

Today I’m about to embark on a trip to a new land… Thailand. I’m still packing my backpack at 1300 (yes, that’s military time). I’m excited I have a chance to  see another country. My only concern, the 22-hour flight. Sure we as an intelligent species have accomplished many great achievements, but I’m shocked that no one has developed a way to get around the world in less than thirty minutes. We should stop focusing on hybrid vehicles and pour all of our R&D money in thirty minute world travel. Leading that charge, I’d nominate Dominos with there proven technology and guarantee to get a pizza to mostly anywhere in thirty minutes. With a business model and set of ethics like that they are our greatest hope. And who wouldn’t have to travel in a plane sponsored by a pizza franchise: A flight attendant over the intercom, “For our flight this afternoon we’ll offering full cheesy bread service and if you would like to order the special for this flight please hit the pizza button about your head next to the fasten seat belt light. Sure it would have some kinks, but what major revolutions technology don’t.

That imagination cloud aside, this will be an incredible trip- getting to see a part of the world that is only available to me through action movies and very tiny restaurants. It’ll be fun when the restaurant is the like the whole place and the I’ll be a character in the movie (another dream cloud).

I’ll left it that so I can get back to packing: now it’s 1415 (still military time).

Last weekend of January.