Motorbike Sir?

BANGKOK – Just as it began, I am sitting here at the Shanti Lodge enjoying the tastes and sounds of Bangkok. Thai food is something special, but then all good food is. The whine of a tuk tuk provides the soundtrack to my late night bowl of noodle soup. I rolled out of Phnom Penh yesterday morning by bus. It was an bumpy and hot eight hour ride up to the border crossing at Poipet, and then a smooth four hour ride into Bangkok.

I noticed this when I flew to Bangkok last time, but the landscape changes so quickly as you move from Cambodia to Thailand. The Cambodian countryside is dry and dusty, the roads narrow, bumpy and littered with plastic bags. Almost immediately upon entering Thailand, the roads are smooth, the landscape is green, and the bus drivers obey traffic laws. How can two countries be so different? I guess 30 odd years of civil war followed by corruption and greed have done little for the poor folks in the countryside.

I sit here in Bangkok and see the ‘progress’ that this country has made compared to Cambodia. Corruption and graft have prevented much needed irrigation, education, and health projects from moving forward in the countryside. Instead those in power buy new land cruisers, build ugly houses full of shiny marble, drink Johnny Walker Blue Label with ice and soda water, and insist on using Evian water for everything. But Bangkok is crowded, polluted, and vain consumerism has taken over all aspects of life. Alright I’m starting to rant … I will try to elaborate on this later.

The main purpose of this entry is to say that I’ve left Cambodia. I have no plans to return there anytime soon. I will be in Seattle on May 1st and will be in the region for my sister’s graduation and a friends’ wedding. I am not sure about my plans thereafter.

Leaving Cambodia was hard, much harder than I thought it would be. I have some great friends that I will miss greatly, not to mention the country and its people. I want to return someday, but I’m not sure when that will be.

Anyways, the future is uncertain. I am expecting a bit of a culture shock returning to the States after being in Asia for almost two years, and will let you know how that turns out.

In the interim, check out this article. It is about forests in Indonesia, but China is doing the same thing to Cambodia. They are financing and building roads and bridges all over the country that will improve access to Cambodia’s natural resources and increase the market penetration of their goods. China no longer cuts down their own trees, so they rely on other nations for their appetite for wood. Bastards.

Also check out Neil Young’s new album, which you can hear for free in its entirety here. Solid rock coupled with dead on political commentary. I am not too excited to be exposed to America’s bullshit political environment, but oh well.

Neil

Happy New Year – Bonne Anne – Sous Sadai Ch’nam Tamai

I hope everyone had a great new year’s – mine was wild. I’ll get to that later. Let’s recap a bit first though.

After 13 months of Cambodian living, I finally made it out of the country by flying to Bangkok to meet my sister, Natalie.

My first impressions of Bangkok (after not seeing the place for a while) were mixed. What are these superhighways? Why are we sitting in traffic? Is that a McDonalds? Is that a Taxi? I guess the place wasn’t that shocking, I mean its not like I’ve been living out in the jungle or something, but it was weird to see a place that had its shit together. I could notice when we had left Cambodia and were over Thailand from the plane. The countryside in Thailand had irrigation canals, paved roads, and massive fruit plantations. A sharp contrast to the varying shades of brown that have taken over the rice paddies in Cambodia now that it’s the dry season. It is very easy to see how in 5 or 10 years, Cambodia will be much more like Thailand, the same patterns of development are happening right now.

Is that a good thing? Depends on who you ask. Natalie and I were about to walk into Pantip Plaza – a massive 5 story electronics emporium in downtown Bangkok – when we ran into my friends Andrea and Minh from the Flying Elephant back in Phnom Penh on the front steps. Andrea was in the process of taking Minh, her Cambodian business partner (who has never been out of Cambodia) to visit her home in Australia. Minh had been on his first flight that morning and was killing 12 hours before continuing his journey to Oz. His eyes were wide open and he had a constant stare of amazement. I asked him how he liked Bangkok. He said, “It’s incredible.”

I suppose I find Bangkok pretty incredible, but the hyper-consumerism, pollution, and traffic are a bit too much for me. Cambodians are experiencing the beginnings of capitalism Asian style. It won’t be long before Phnom Penh feels a lot less like Cambodia and a lot more like any other global metropolis. That will be good for a lot of Cambodians, they will have access to better education, better jobs, and experience higher living standards…ah the fruits of capitalism. But I fear many tourists who will come experience a sleepy Southeast Asian capital will find a pulsating concrete and neon urban center. You hear stories about what some of the big cities in Asia used to be like – Bangkok, Singapore, Saigon . . . today they bear only a faint resemblance to what they once looked like.

I flew into Bangkok a day early. In Bangkok you meet people who are either fresh off the plane or are ending their trip. That night I hung out with some “fresh meat” so to speak. A group of about 6 people wanted to go check out Chinatown at night. I said why not, and hopped in the cab with them. After about 5 minutes of driving, an American was convinced that we weren’t going the right way. I told him to calm down, that the driver knew where we wanted to go. He continued to freak out, not believing that we could possibly be going in the right direction. As if he knew the streets of Bangkok – that place is like a maze… we made it to Chinatown no problems, then he said that it wasn’t the right place, so instead of walking around looking for the place, we hopped in the cab again and headed off to the Patpong night bazaar. Patpong was lame as usual, and I wasn’t in the mood for amateur traveler night in Bangkok, so I ditched that crew and headed back to my guesthouse. Have I turned into a travel snob?

Enough ranting… So I met Natalie at the airport. She looked a bit frazzled from the flight. She also was taller than I remembered. It’s weird seeing someone after a year and a half. You stare at each other in amazement for about 10 seconds, then everything is back to normal.

The next few days were great. Nat seemed to really be enjoying Bangkok, we checked out some of sights including the Royal Palace, Reclining Buddha, Chinatown, and Khao Sahn Road. She was eager to eat street food, one of Bangkok’s best features. I made sure to get a serious fix of Thai food, something that I miss while living in Phnom Penh. We went to the VIP movie theater in the MBK shopping mall. We watched King Kong in giant lazy boys in a real movie theater (something I also haven’t done in 13 months). Unfortunately the movie was mediocre (it’s King Kong, not a three hour epic) and the Thais love their A/C a bit too much; by the end of the movie I was freezing. I guess I don’t really miss the movie theater that much.

We did some shopping, sent some packages and just explored the city. One thing about Bangkok is the pollution. After three days in town my throat was sore from breathing in all that smog. From being there over a year ago, I thought I really liked the city. But other than the food, all I can handle is a couple of days.

We hopped a flight back to Phnom Penh on the 23rd. Natalie was eager to hit the beach but I wanted to be back in town for Christmas. I told her not to worry, we would be on the beach and she could add some color to that Tacoma winter paleness she had going on soon enough…

To be continued, with pictures.

Neil

PS I didn’t make it to McDonalds, 14 months without a shitty burger and still going strong! Super-Size this corporate assholes!

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