Hello Everyone!

1. I should never have to fill in the state, country and city in a
form. seriously. All that information is stored in the zip code. it's
superfluous to make us fill in the rest. a few websites auto-fill the
city/state when you enter in a zip code, but it's a precious few. can
someone tell me why?

2. websites that make you select if it's a visa card/mastercard/amex
whatnot. you actually have to click a box that says i'm using a
mastercard. really? last time i checked, that too was easily
decipherable based on the card number.

that's all for now. just wanted to put that out there. if you are a
website that makes me enter in the city and state when i could just
type in the zip code...know that i hate you.

Whoo!

for my last adventure, I decided to spend a night in Tokyo. I'm not
sure I could have gone to a place that was as opposite as Phnom Penh.
Tokyo is spotlessly clean, giant skyscrapers, outrageously expensive.
Almost no-one speaks english (as opposed to PP where english is
relatively common), it was mid-winter (read: cold) where in PP it was
90 degrees. In phnom penh, everyone wears sweaters and long pants in
stifling heat. In Tokyo, the girls wear short skirts and revealing
tops in sub freezing temps. Tokyo was guaranteed to be an adventure. I
chose to stay at a "capsule hotel" mostly because it was my cheapest
option, but also because, it would be something different. it,
definitely, was...different.

1. Finding the hotel is very very difficult. After leaving the train
station, it's nearly impossible to get your bearings. there are no
street signs, no signs in english, and the streets come and go at
various angles. I ended up using the sun (yes! the sun!) to get my
bearings and head east. I found a couple landmarks and convinced
myself that I was on the correct street and the correct block. After
walking up and down the block about 5 times, I still hadn't found the
hotel. Then, I realized, I had to look UP. wayyy up. and then I found
it. A small sign that said "hotel". Walking to a nearby elevator, none
of the buttons had any english, but I really felt good about #3, so I
went with that one. I guessed right. (see the photos to understand a
bit better what I was up against.

2. Upon exiting the elevator, I see the reception, but it's blocked
off by a velvet rope. In order to access the check in desk, you first
must take off your shoes and place them in a locker. After having done
this, you give your shoe locker key to the guy at the front desk and
you are permitted to check in. I'm given a small wrist band that has a
key attached. On the wrist band is a number. I am also given a set of
pajamas and a towel. They then direct me to the locker room where I am
instructed to change into my pajamas, place my luggage in the locker
and lock up.

3. Once in my pajamas, I make my way to the 4th floor to find my
capsule. It's a small brown opening just tall enough for you to sit
up. There is a small tv, a radio and a light. The capsule room is hot.
very hot, stiflling hot, I think, there is no way I could ever sleep
in that heat, let's pray they turn the heat down at night. The capsule
is closed by a curtain. It's definitely not a door, but regardless,
there honestly isn't that much sound that penetrates. I still used ear
plugs however and would recommend them to anyone considering the
capsule experience.

4. After a night of walking around and eating ramen, I decided I'd had
enough of tokyo night life and went home to my capsule. I also decided
I should try the "bath". Well, before the bath, I used the toilet,
which was made by TOTO and had a heated toilet seat. It also had more
buttons than your average computer. Upon doing my duty (heh heh, duty)
I proceeded to try all of the buttons. They did all sorts of, well,
interesting things..... Ah, now the bath. The bathroom was surely a
change. Along the wall was a row of stools (around 10), next to these
stools, were shower heads and buckets. each stool area also had a
selection of soap, shampoo and shave cream. They provide razors,
toothbrushes, combs...pretty much anything you need. you strip down,
grab a seat next to your fellow naked businessman and shower while
seated, using a washtowel to clean off. Afterward, you can choose
between the dry sauna, the cool tub, the warm tub (with bubbles!), and
the hot tub (it was too hot for me). The bath experience was pretty
awesome (although the throngs of naked businessmen definitely tempered
my enthusiasm for it).

5. no, they did not turn the heat down. it was unbelievably hot in my
cubicle. I thought I would die of heat exhaustion. They also never
turned off the light. I went to bed rather early, and assumed they
would turn off the light in the main capsule room. My capsule was
relatively dark regardless, but I was surprised that they never turned
out the light in the main room. Eye coverers and ear plugs are a
must. Somehow, I did manage to sleep, and I slept pretty well too. In
the morning, I did the whole bath thing again, and went out to
continue my adventure.

6. Upon checkout, they returned to me the key to my shoe locker so I
could re-claim my shoes and leave the hotel. I felt like they were
holding my shoes hostage. It was a bit strange.

For anyone considering the cubicle hotel, here are some important
notes. It's men only. sorry girls. While it's men only, women work
there...which weirded me out a bit...given how much naked walking
around goes on in the bath. There is a lounge, where all the japanese
businessmen drink beer and smoke and read comics. (seriously, that's
what they do). There are zero tourists there. It was me and a lot of
japanese men in their 40s and 50s. Being a westerner, if you told me
that I was going to be staying in a hotel with only guys where they
all hang out in a lounge, I would assume that people would chat and be
friendly and maybe go out for beers or dinner. But not so. Nobody
speaks. Everyone just sits and reads their comics and smokes their
cigarette in peace. good thing i had my book! you are not allowed to
stay in the hotel all day. they kick you out mid day. i'm not sure
why, i presume for cleaning? You pay extra for an internet connected
cubicle. I would recommend it, as the other entertainment option is
the TV and the channels are, well, not my preferred genre. as this is
a family blog and rated PG, I will leave it at that.

I fly out tonight after 2+ months of awesomeness. Sad to go, but
looking forward to new adventures as well. In case anyone were to come
across this blog, I figure I should put together a list of favorites,
or memorable experiences.

Favorite restaurant? It has to be Boat Noodle. They make the most
amazing banana shakes there, and most entrees are under $2 so you can
have a feast there for less than $10 for two. the grilled chicken
wings are awesome, as are the pork ribs. try the eggplant stir fry...

the one day dirt bike trip (thanks to the guys at Dancing Roads
Cambodia) was pretty awesome too. it's hard to imagine that in this
relatively tourist friendly country, you can still go 30 minutes
outside of the capital and have people wave at you because you're a
foreigner. i'd cruise by this line of kids, rev my engine and they'd
all jump around and go crazy. it might have helped that we were on
(seemingly) giant dirt bikes and covered in dust and wearing the most
ridiculously large mx boots i've ever seen...but either way. super
good experience. paeng took me through some deep sand which was a
really good workout and a fun challenge...beyond that, i was just
trying not to crash on the day before i flew out. they do trips all
around the country and all on back roads (no highways) what a way to
see the country! next time...next time.

kamworks. super cool guys, great place to spend a few months. they're
doing some fascinating work, and i really think it helped to spend
some time working at a place outside the big city, a place that's
actually trying to help the poor rather than just line the pockets of
the rich folks in phnom penh. after my first commute, i told myself I
could never do that drive again, i told it to michelle too. I was
literally shaking i was so scared. but i did the drive again, and
again, and slowly but surely i started to enjoy it, and i realized
that the commute was one of my favorite parts. i got to see so much of
the life around that i felt that I was absorbing it through my skin.
if you are looking to spend some time abroad, i highly recommend doing
some work, or doing volunteering. it will give your days structure,
and it will teach you so much more about the country than you ever
could just wandering around like a tourist. i learned about the
government, the corruption, the workplace, the hours, how things get
done, how things get made...normal, every day things that gave me a
much richer understanding of the culture and the place. and you know,
I'm a better engineer because of it too.

favorite market? orussey. no doubt. it's big, it has lots of food
(both cooked and raw) and it's mostly local. this market isn't even ON
some of the tourist maps, but i think it's one of the biggest in the
city. that's because there's nothing touristy to buy there. just
normal, every day stuff. it's like the super target of cambodia. no
tourist would go there, but pretty much everyone else does. either
way, i love that place. you walk in, make 2 turns and you are
hopelessly lost. combine that with the fact that there are 3 floors
and it's great fun.

my last suggestion to anyone pondering an extended visit to phnom
penh? get a scooter. sure, there drivers sitting on every corner ready
to give you a moto ride, and tuk tuk drivers yell at you from a block
away, but without a scooter you will always be a tourist. how about a
bike you say? sure, a bike would work. but only tourists and mormon
missionaries have those. you will get no respect with a bike. and
walking just takes too long. there are people who live in the city
for years and always take a moto or tuktuk, but the problem with that
is you always have to go somewhere. you tell the driver where you want
to go, and he takes you. you can't just set off and wander around and
explore, you can't change your mind, or choose a new location when
your first choice doesn't turn out as expected. at $3 a day for a
scooter, I think you can afford it. the traffic is downright
frightening at first, but take a deep breath, go slow and dive in.
simple things, like buying gas, or finding parking at a market turns
the ordinary excursion into a learning experience. and that's why
we're here isnt it? to learn and experience? I think so.

i'll miss the television channel that plays current hollywood
blockbusters. it's not piracy when i can watch it on TV right? I'll
miss eating dinner for less than $2. I'll miss the bookstore that
sells bootleg copies of lonely planet. I'll miss breaking all traffic
laws on my scooter. it's so much faster that way! I'll miss all the
fruit. oh yeah. the fruit. i THINK i've eaten every fruit at the
stands now, but i'm sure in a few months that will change as new
fruits will come into season. either way, there are so many fruits
out there, lots of different flavors, just great fun to try.

well, i'm off to tokyo for a night. should be an interesting
experience, and a pretty big culture shock from here! after that, it's
back to California where I hear it's spring in February. whoo! it will
be nice to drink tap water and not worry about getting food poisoning.
it will be great to see old friends again too. perhaps they will come
with me on our next adventure....

mmmmmmm......

There are a lot of things that I attribute to my parents. Maybe they
never said these things, but to this day, I have assumed that they
did. Hopefully they don't mind.

1. Part of travelling is getting ripped off. I swear my dad says this.
Either way, I always take it to heart. Of course, as you negotiate for
a tuk-tuk ride, or try to find the entrance to the next Wat, you try
your best not to get conned or ripped off, when you inevitably DO, you
just have to smile and say "well, part of travelling is getting ripped
off!". You're a tourist, in a strange place, only there for a few days
and you don't speak the language. You want to do everything, you want
to see everything, you're just going to have to accept that you're
going to pay a little bit extra for that honor.  Bangkok was classic.
Every single driver we asked, told us that the grand palace was closed
on Saturday, but that they had this really REALLY nice other Wat that
we should go see. I almost decided to go to the "other" wat, just to
check out the other gullible tourists who thought that Bangkok would
close their biggest tourist attraction for 1 day out of the week. Hah!

2. Proper wound care and sickness. My mum always cleaned my cuts,
scrubbed the hell out of them with soap and water, and now I do the
same. Don't worry, I didn't get hurt, but one of the guys at Kamworks
cut open his foot pretty bad. I am the master of steri-strips, so i
scrubbed it out, bathed it in iodine and sealed it up. Seriously, you
do NOT want to take chances with an infected foot here. As for
sickness, one thing I learned from my dad was that it's important to
TREAT your illnesses. Pretty much everyone gets food poisoning here,
the people who fare the worst are the ones who figure they should just
let their body purge out the toxins. Me? I'd rather read the studies
that say take a big dose of Immodium and you'll be better in about a
day...as opposed to those other folks who spend 2 days on the toilet
and a 3rd day completely dehydrated.

3. It's only money. Did one of my parents say this? Again, I can't
remember, but it's something I live by. Sometimes, we can get really
overly riled up over money. But seriously? it's only money. it's not
like it's Love, Health, Happiness, Joy or any of those other things
that are infinitely more important. Don't get me wrong, I love money,
and I would rather be rich than poor. Money is important, but it needs
to be put in its place from time to time. It reminds me of a quote.
Anyone who can name the author and book wins a prize. (and no fair
googling either)

"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of
the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many
solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were
largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper,
which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of
paper that were unhappy."

and if you still don't know the answer, here's another favorite, from
the same book, same author.

"It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what
they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed
that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so
much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins
had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But
conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more
intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons."

4. Wear proper footwear. This I can guarantee I learned from my mom.
She was very clear on the importance of good sturdy leather footwear
when travelling. So, I wear my leather travelling shoes everywhere,
and you know what? They've been pretty good to me. They are waterproof
when it rains. They brought me up the face of a volcano in Bali, they
keep the animal/seafood bodily fluids out when traversing markets,
they even look reasonably respectable with a pair of jeans or khakis.
The guy who cut up his foot, did so because he was wearing flip flops
and because he tried to dodge a chicken on the scooter. Those of you
who are avid readers of this blog (I believe there are, um, none of
you ha ha) would know that you never dodge a chicken. They either get
out of the way, or are culled from the herd. This is a form of
natural selection, as it only promotes the survival of chickens who
are smart enough to move when a motorcycle comes. So, as nice as it is
to feel the wind rushing through my toes on my scooter, I choose
sturdy footwear. Tak mami!

The honey badger has the title for the Guiness Book of World Records most fearless creature.

as amazing as asian food is, and especially as varied as khmer food is, it's hard to imagine that you'd get sick of it...but sometimes, you just need something a little closer to home, around here, "western food" is the closest you can get usually, which consists of pork chops and maybe a burger

today i bought a loaf of bread for 500 Riels. that, in itself, is not that impressive, other than the fact that it was warm and yummy and around 12 cents. but the cool thing about it was that I did the entire transaction in khmer. I've spent the last couple days rehearsing how to say "how much?" and getting to know my numbers. so today, as i blew by the bread guy on my commute, i pulled over and told him I wanted a loaf of bread. well, first off he had these sandwiches that looked pretty tasty, so i asked him to open one up, but the inside looked really gross, so i stuck with just a simple loaf of bread.