the hotel arranged my transport to bangkok. they said 10 hours by bus. i needed to buy 3 tickets to take the bike with me. they discovered this by calling the bus company and specifically asking them.
next morning i was taken by tuk-tuk to the bus pick up location. the bus arrived and was already full of folks, then they loaded the other 12 people waiting with me along with their bags. clearly, me and the machine weren`t about to fit.
i hung back and waited for some sort of problem solver to show up. he said he`d find a pickup truck to take me to the border. tuk-tuked to another spot, where a cab showed up. there were 3 peeps in the back seat already. there was no way of fitting the machine in the trunk of the camry, so i put it up for sale. the problem solver gave me $30 for it. i let loose a quick tear and climbed in to the ride.
at the border, some dude put a sticker on my shirt, walked me to immigration, and said there would be someone waiting for me on the other side. either they weren`t there or we just never found each other. i waited around sweating for a couple hours, then booked another cab for bangkok. i stayed with dave and krista.
the next morning i got to the airport at 4:30 to see three days worth of passengers trying to get on my plane. apparently the fedex crash at narita had held things up. i didn`t get on that one, and was instead rerouted through hong kong. made it to tokyo at 8:30 pm, too late for the bullet train. i stayed with makiko (anne`s old conversation partner) and her boyfriend.
thursday morning makiko took me to tokyo station and got me on the shinkansen. super fast! arrived at shin kobe about 3 hours later.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
glass ankles
almost exactly a year since spraining the right, this time it's the left. not nearly as bad though. i can put weight on it and get around pretty good on the bike. happened as i was leaving angkor wat, stepped on some uneven ground. bummer! i still have 5 days left on my park pass, and loads more to see. instead, i think i'll call it a trip.
i was able to change to an earlier flight. now i just need to get my ass to the bangkok airport within 34 hours. japan baby! i'm pumped.
i was able to change to an earlier flight. now i just need to get my ass to the bangkok airport within 34 hours. japan baby! i'm pumped.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
sweatin to the oldies
today marked the beginning of my exploration around siem reap. there are a shit load of temples and what not. it had been a while since bike riding, so i figured i'd head about 15 km out of town to "the roluos group". i estimated that it would take most of the day to check them out, so i rose early, went to purchase my week-long ticket, then backtracked and got b-fast. made it to the temples sometime between 8 and 9. i was back in town for lunch. while much shorter than i predicted, really quite remarkable. i took plenty of pictures (see below)!
being in the presence of such ancient primitive architecture truly stirred the white man in my soul. my first reaction to the sheer simplistic beauty was conquest. i started slow at first, bartering with the natives, trading paper for water and so forth. after earning their trust i decided to cut the shit, and immediately claimed the temples and all surrounding lands as my own. i left booze, some bibles, and a magistrate. i plan to return later with week with guns and disease.
being in the presence of such ancient primitive architecture truly stirred the white man in my soul. my first reaction to the sheer simplistic beauty was conquest. i started slow at first, bartering with the natives, trading paper for water and so forth. after earning their trust i decided to cut the shit, and immediately claimed the temples and all surrounding lands as my own. i left booze, some bibles, and a magistrate. i plan to return later with week with guns and disease.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tequila!
wow. i'm just going to assume that everyone's familiar with pee wee herman's big adventure. you know that scene where he knocks over all the bikes at the biker bar?
about 15 minutes ago i was just cruising siem reap, familiarizing. there was a solid line of parked motorbikes, making it nearly impossible to use the "sidewalk". i tried to sneak through a pair, but my loose fitting shirt caught one of the bikes' handles and toppled it. right into the next bike, which toppled into the next one, which toppled. amid onlooking gasps, the fourth stood it's ground, and to my suprise, no one started throwing 'bows. i quickly righted the bikes and kept walking. good times!
brief rant:
pedestrians have zero fucking rights in thailand, vietnam, or cambodia. it blows my mind. the rule is simply bigger = better. busses run cars onto shoulders, and cars run motor bikes and cyclists into ditches. when it comes to travelling, i've never seen lazier people in my life. sidewalks are seen as parking for motorized transport. i don't understand how people are so fit.
some asshole ran over my foot yesterday in his benzo just to beat me to an intersection at which he waited for more than a minute. i saw it coming and it was partially my fault, but i was engaged in vigilante pedestrianism. i had no choice. when i banged on the back of his car and shot him the sarcastic thumbs up, he looked more confused than a bush supporter in a library (drums please).
i guess i'm happy that it's 150cc motorbikes all over the place instead of SUVs. it's just mighty frustrating trying to walk here. maybe i got spoiled in portland.
about 15 minutes ago i was just cruising siem reap, familiarizing. there was a solid line of parked motorbikes, making it nearly impossible to use the "sidewalk". i tried to sneak through a pair, but my loose fitting shirt caught one of the bikes' handles and toppled it. right into the next bike, which toppled into the next one, which toppled. amid onlooking gasps, the fourth stood it's ground, and to my suprise, no one started throwing 'bows. i quickly righted the bikes and kept walking. good times!
brief rant:
pedestrians have zero fucking rights in thailand, vietnam, or cambodia. it blows my mind. the rule is simply bigger = better. busses run cars onto shoulders, and cars run motor bikes and cyclists into ditches. when it comes to travelling, i've never seen lazier people in my life. sidewalks are seen as parking for motorized transport. i don't understand how people are so fit.
some asshole ran over my foot yesterday in his benzo just to beat me to an intersection at which he waited for more than a minute. i saw it coming and it was partially my fault, but i was engaged in vigilante pedestrianism. i had no choice. when i banged on the back of his car and shot him the sarcastic thumbs up, he looked more confused than a bush supporter in a library (drums please).
i guess i'm happy that it's 150cc motorbikes all over the place instead of SUVs. it's just mighty frustrating trying to walk here. maybe i got spoiled in portland.
Friday, March 20, 2009
laxin
to ensure preparedness for the upcoming week of biking around ol' angkie, i drank a whole bunch of beers and then got another rub-down. frivolous? maybe, but easily justified as part of my plan to redistribute Dubya's stimulus check to foreign economies.
P.P.
phnom penh's pretty sweet, a lot of it smells like urine though. it's much smaller and less congested than saigon. walked around and sweated yesterday, checked out a bunch of the city. today i got a massage, then sweated a whole lot walking around. i got some silk scarves/wall hangings/throws or whatever for the new apartment, which i haven't seen. i think i found some pretty gender neutral colors.
i realized today while sweating and dodging touts that i'm pretty much done with southeast asia. it's not all the same, it's just that none of it is very different. on to the wats tomorrow!
sunrise over tonle sap this morning from the hotel
royal palace/silver pagoda compound. almost toured it, but they wanted $6.25, and i was very hot. ol' pallie they call it.
Le' phant!
indepence monument. i think they call this one ol' indie.
i realized today while sweating and dodging touts that i'm pretty much done with southeast asia. it's not all the same, it's just that none of it is very different. on to the wats tomorrow!
sunrise over tonle sap this morning from the hotel
they produce a couple of stouts locally, which is an inviting (maybe too?) change from the standard lagers dominant in the rest of the region.
royal palace/silver pagoda compound. almost toured it, but they wanted $6.25, and i was very hot. ol' pallie they call it.
Le' phant!
indepence monument. i think they call this one ol' indie.Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Plan A
I've been a quitter my whole life.
It occurred to me the past few days that I could not physically replace the water leaving my body. The belly remained full, while signs of dehydration persisted. Anything over 12 km per hour ensured immediate exhaustion, and I nearly passed the F out a few times. I devised several moves to combat the ass pain, but all were temporary. My favorite was the ol' cheek swap, with a high gear-stand combo every now and then. Unfortunately, I never mastered "ridesies no handsies".
The novelty of being novel wore off quickly in the heat. The locals were great, but it all ran together after a while. I'm fairly certain that the road from here to Thailand will be just as straight, flat, and littered.
To keep in the spirit of phenomenal experiences, I've decided to return to the original plan, or at least a hybrid of the two. After a few days of massage and air-con* here, I think I'll load The Machine** on a bus bound for Siem Reap. I'll spend a week or so biking around Angkor and the rest of the Wats. Afterwards, I figure I'll head to the nearest Thai beach in search of fecally contaminated game fish.
Maybe I'll drink some snake blood or something, to not fully disappoint my adventurous supporters.
*'Tis a strange land where abbreviations, like everything else, are slightly less developed. "Air-con" is the currently accepted abbrev for air conditioning. I imagine they'll evolve to "A/C" in about 5-10 years.
**So dubbed after my good friend Doug Sheldon (A.K.A. "The Doug Machine"). While maybe not the biggest and meanest looking of it's kind, I'm fairly confident that it can succeed in all situations.
It occurred to me the past few days that I could not physically replace the water leaving my body. The belly remained full, while signs of dehydration persisted. Anything over 12 km per hour ensured immediate exhaustion, and I nearly passed the F out a few times. I devised several moves to combat the ass pain, but all were temporary. My favorite was the ol' cheek swap, with a high gear-stand combo every now and then. Unfortunately, I never mastered "ridesies no handsies".
The novelty of being novel wore off quickly in the heat. The locals were great, but it all ran together after a while. I'm fairly certain that the road from here to Thailand will be just as straight, flat, and littered.
To keep in the spirit of phenomenal experiences, I've decided to return to the original plan, or at least a hybrid of the two. After a few days of massage and air-con* here, I think I'll load The Machine** on a bus bound for Siem Reap. I'll spend a week or so biking around Angkor and the rest of the Wats. Afterwards, I figure I'll head to the nearest Thai beach in search of fecally contaminated game fish.
Maybe I'll drink some snake blood or something, to not fully disappoint my adventurous supporters.
*'Tis a strange land where abbreviations, like everything else, are slightly less developed. "Air-con" is the currently accepted abbrev for air conditioning. I imagine they'll evolve to "A/C" in about 5-10 years.
**So dubbed after my good friend Doug Sheldon (A.K.A. "The Doug Machine"). While maybe not the biggest and meanest looking of it's kind, I'm fairly confident that it can succeed in all situations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)