Looking for office space

Luang Prabang is so nice, that I've decided that this is were I'm going to base my consulting out of. OK, maybe that isn't realistic. (or is it?...I just spent an hour being interviewed via Skype by a company that paid me an ungodly sum as an expert (suckers!) to help when with a marketing study....) But I really do like it here. Am pretty sure that I'm gonna more or less spend the next 10 days here with maybe some 1-2 day side trips in the neighborhood. Leaves alot (almost all actually...) of Laos unexplored, but I'm happy here and it seems like a good point in my trip to start winding down. Planning on flying directly from Luang Prabang to Bangkok where I'll probably spend a few days (and hopefully get a dental check-up from my favorite dentist!) before flying home. So looks like no more 10 hour bus rights for me.

As you can see from the photo, as well as enjoying a croissant, cappuccino, and beautiful Wat view, I'm also still working my way through Walden. I'll dedicate a blog to Walden at some point as it is awesome and a perfect travel read, especially for me at this "transitional" period of my life. He certainly knows how to "enjoy the now" although he also can seem to a bit of a jerk sometimes too. But I'll save the book review for later. I think I'm on pace to finish it, especially if i can make myself lay-low here. That said, I think I might go whitewater rafting tomorrow. sigh...Off to night market and cheap eats now....

-erik

Goodbye Cambodia, Hello Laos

All I can really say upon arriving in Luang Prabang (Laos) is "wow." The change between frantic & chaotic Cambodia and sleepy & beautiful Laos could not be more striking. As opposed to falling asleep to discos and waking up to honking, last night I fell asleep to...silence...and woke up (at 4:15am?!) to mellow Buddhist drumming and chimes (which soon stopped and I went back to sleep, but it was actually a pretty awesome way to wake up). The French influence here is strong with beautiful buildings, great food (great bread!), and superior coffee. I might not venture far from here for the rest of my holiday, and although there isn't much to do here beside eat and sleep, I think that will be just fine. This really is the perfect antidote for Cambodia, as well as to 2.5 months on the road. (I say that even though I really enjoyed Cambodia and being on the road in general.)



I have a very nice room with a balcony overlooking the Mekong River ($30/nt, includes breakfast...oops, sorry...) where I might just settle in for a long relaxation. Speaking of relaxation, did have a "lao massage" last night (of course) and it was pretty good; very similar to Thai as you might expect, but a little different. And only $4/hr (ok,ok, I'll stop!!). There are suppose to be alot of outdoor activities and trekking options from LP, and I'll probably do something in a few days. Might be nice to do an overnight or 2 somewhere (hill tribe village, etc), then come back to my cushy hotel. I'd like to do a mt. bike trip, but so far the ones i've seen all look like they are "fun for the whole family" and we all know that's not what I'm looking for (I want a trip where most of the family break collarbones...).


Finally, a few final thoughts on Cambodia (see Angkor Wat below...), before I forget about them:

Cambodia really does seem like a place you could just disappear in. I mean that in pretty much every possible way: you could just be abducted and no one would bother to look for you; you could hide from your creditors/government/family/etc and the lawlessness would help keep you hidden; you could lose yourself to your own demons with all the vice that is offered by the kilos on the streets daily. I happy to report that I made it out though!

• Drunk driving is not a problem in Cambodia. I don't mean that they don't drink and drive, I mean that when they do, it's not a problem. This is mainly because everyone there already drives like they are drunk, so any actual difference is just lost in the noise. I discovered this on first hand on one night of vice I had (mainly just Angkor beer...lots of Angkor beer...) in which my tuk-tuk driver was drinking with me eventually could not walk straight, but fit in with Cambodian traffic just fine. Note: do not try this at home...
• I really don't think I stress enough the overall impressiveness of the temples, so let me say this again: They were very impressive.

Ok, maybe that's enough for now. I'm currently doing a walking tour of LP and taking a brief timeout here as the mid day heat is killer (I thought is was suppose to be cooler here?). But I should be back to it. At least until I walk past a french cafe with some good looking chocolate pastries...

-erik

Angkor-whelming

I've spent the last two days ruin-hopping around Angkor Wat with one more day to go tomorrow. I have a little of the inevitable "it all looks the same, I just want to go back to my room and sleep" feeling, but to a much larger extent, I'm in a perpetual state of awe. Angkor Wat was of course ridiculous. Not the highest temple ever, but the footprint is gigantic, and the entire perimeter of one of the interior walls is covered in non-stop, detail carving: I think about 1 kilometer! But more than that is just that fact that Angkor Wat is really just one of many. Many many many. Ever new temple just adds to the overall effect. Why can't we have infrastructure projects like that? I think the new Bay Bridge would be sweet if it had seven-headed sea-serpents along the whole length of the bridge. It is pretty strange though seeing all this stuff in a country that is so underdeveloped and poor. While Cambodia is clearly developing fast (almost certainly too fast), one has the sense that visitors and locals both see this as a land whose greatest days occurred 1000 years ago. And in a much more dramatic way that Greece or Rome, just because of the current state of things here.

Notes:

• I'm sick again with a cold. Sucks, but if I end this trip with nothing worse than 2 colds, I will certainly count myself lucky.
• Being sick, I had Khmer chicken soup today for lunch and it was great! There was a bug in the soup though and realizing that it would be somewhat awkward complaining about a bug in my soup in a place that bugs are commonly eaten on purpose, I just fished it out and kept eating...
• The temples here are completely overrun, not only by encroaching forests, but by encroaching touts. Most are very cute little girls (between 7-12 years old?) selling t-shirts, bracelets, scarfs, water bottles, pineapple, etc. They are relentless. I'm actually the worst type of tourist for this, because I am teaching them that some people will say "no" 5000 times and then still buy something from them. (Don't get too excited Katie: I mainly just bought water...)
• These kids all ask were I'm from and when I say America, they say "which state" and when I say California, they say, "the capital is Sacramento! Now will you buy something from me!?" Then i say no again. Some times they tell me that Arnold is my governor. Sometimes they tell me the population of the US. Sometimes they name other capitals. Sometimes they count to 10 in several different languages.
  
• Tomorrow I will have counter-measures for the kids: Candy! "I will give you this is you leave me alone..."
  
• Finally getting my first real bout of home-sickness and road-weariness. The cold probably helps. Back in just 2 weeks from tomorrow. It really does go fast. Before I know it I will be at home weed-whacking the yard, just like I was never gone.
  
• Speaking of weed whacking, they literally weed-whack here. Lawns are moved by men on the knees swinging machetes. I will try to stop complaining when I do our lawn (but I'm sure I'll complain anyway...)
• Massage update: Something that I've always dreamed about finally happened yesterday during a massage. No, not that. Yesterday I had a "4-hands massage". 2 masseuses at once for an hour. At times it was confusing and at times it seemed like one of the ladies was just killing time on the legs because she couldn't get anywhere else, but there were moments of true inspiration. They were like synchronized swimmers: when they were in sync, they were more beautiful than they possibly could be alone, but when they were out of sync it was obvious and awkward. Anyway, for $10/hr (only $2.50/hr per hand!) it is definitely something I'm going back for...
  

OK, much more, but I'm tired. Hmm, 4 hands...

-erik

Swimming in Cambodia

Phnom Penh (which I now believe I've learned how to spell...) has lived up to all its contradictory hype and warnings. On my first day it blew my mind (which it's general craziness) and broke my heart (at the Killing Fields and genocide museum). As much as I think I will be eager to leave here in a day or 2, I can honestly say this is one of the most interesting places I've ever been. I seems like so many cities are the same, even here in Asia. Well, Phnom Penh is like nothing I've ever seem before. Probably the closest thing is Bangkok, but in comparison Bangkok seems orderly and comprehendable, which is funny to say because it really is neither.

Flying in to Phnom Penh, I was struck from the air how similar it looked to Sacramento: long, wide valley, big winding rivers surrounded by houses and flood planes. But as I got closer to the ground and realized all the roads I could see were dirt, I got my first indication it would be pretty different. Maybe more like West Sac! (Haha. Sorry, inside joke for us "valley people.") I believe that PP is over 1.5 million, but it feels smaller as there no buildings over 4 stories or so. I never thought I would say this, but the craziness on the roads exceeds anything I saw when I visited China. Almost no lights or stop signs at any intersections with only marginal slowing down through intersections for anyone. They drive on the right side of the road here (yipee!!) except for sometimes when everyone seems to switch sides for no apparent reason (oh no!!). All sorts of vehicles on the roads together (from pedistrian and bikes through Semi-trucks) with all sort of passengers and cargo (I saw a guy on a scooter yesterday with no less than 50 dead (i hope?) chickens.)

For the most part things are cheap here and you know exactly what you spending. The currency of choice: US Dollars! Pretty surreal getting greenbacks out of an ATM in the PP airport...Even though it is pretty cheap, everyone really is out to make a buck (literally this time...) off you. I have found that it is somewhat less frustrating it consider this a "service fee"rather than being ripped off. (Example: my tuk-tuk driver helped me get a new SIM card. he acted like he was just being helpful. The reality is i paid more than normal at the phone shop and he got a kickback. this rip-off pissed me off, but this "service fee" was more understandable...)

Yesterday was pretty active with the genocide museum (which is at a site where over 20,000 people where tortured to death) , the Killing Fields, and the Royal Palace. Like I said, the genocide museum/Killing Fields were stunning. I did everything I could before to prepare myself, but you just can't be prepared. You walk through there and all you can do is say "Why? Why?"to yourself over and over. It was truly haunting and heartbreaking. The evil of man and the fear it can create is still tangible here some 30 years later. I'm not the most intuitive person, but I could even feel it just stepping off the plane. That said, the people here are remarkably friendly and upbeat. Not surprisingly (since 3 million people died between 1974-79) most of the people you meet are younger- most under 30 and thus born after "the events."

Today, I'm going a little slower - catching up on a few things and then maybe going to a massage place where all the masseurs are blind. Suppose to be really good and supports blind people. Also hopefully going to a market and the city's main temple. Tomorrow or the next day (haven't decided yet...) heading off on a long bus ride to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.

More later. Sorry not too many jokes this time. Hard to do when talking about genocide I guess...

-erik

Worst Blog Post from Best Airport

I'm at an internet kiosk in the Bangkok airport during my 5 hr layover before my flight to Cambodia. This keyboard is terrible, so excuse my typing please. (it sometimes just starts typing in Thai...see:ำพรา ยฟเำ รห แนนส)

Anyway, aside from this keyboard, this is perhaps the best airport ever to have a 5 hr layover. Some reasons:

• massage at airport at minimal mark-up from going rate. do i actually need to list any other reasons or are you already as sold as me...(keyboard has no question mark....grrrr)
• airport is about 1 year old, so clean, big, neato,fancy etc.
• endless opportunities to check out old-white-man with young-thai-woman couples and contemplate the social, moral and creepizodial aspects of these relationships.
• food is pretty good; has a starbucks.

OK, so Singapore actual is a better airport (better food, more english, and free internet with real keyboards) but that first bullet trumps all, and this is the better place to be. I got a foot massage here earlier (by accident really: i ordered a shoulder massage which apparently is 30 minutes on feet, 30 on shoulders...) and it was awesome. Maybe I can catch a later flight and have another!

Fly into Phenom Phen tonight and need to find hotel and then find a phone set up (Skype or new SIM card) as it sounds like I might have a phone interview tonight for a long term consulting gig that would start as soon as i get back. PP sounds pretty wild west and is probably the most dangerous place i'm going through on my trip (but still probably safer than most US cities...). Should be a bit of a culture shock after friendly, mellow, easy Thailand...

I'll try to post again once I settle in and get to a real computer with a real keyboard...

until then, ะฟาำ แฟพำ นด ันีพหำสอำห.

-erik

Katie's Gone...

(Author's Note: it is with great restraint that I decided to use this photo instead of the "toilet seat up" photo I took this morning. You're welcome...)

Well, the 2 week intermission from SoliDuding is over now and Katie should be on a flight somewhere over the Pacific now. We did have a nice time together, though Katie was a little travel-frazzled by the end. Her visit I think confirmed what we thought when we planned: (1) it was a very good idea for her to come it the middle of the trip and (2) it was a very good idea that she didn't travel for more than a few weeks. But we had alot of fun - ate good food (alot!), saw beautiful places, swam, slept, etc...

And it really wasn't in the middle of my trip. It was near the end. I only have just over 3 weeks left!! How the hell did that happen? I know it would, but jeez...So here is "the Plan" from here for me:

• 2 more days chillin' in Thailand


• fly to Cambodia. A few days in the capital Phenom Phen, then several days in Siem Riep, which is the town new Ankor Wat (the largest religious monument in the world that is suppose to be crazy cool...)
  
• fly from Siem Riep to Luang Prabong in Laos on Sept 27. LP is suppose to be an amazing place to be (beautiful, laid back, cheap, great French/Laotian food, etc), which great adventuring around if needed.
  
• Fly home on Oct 10th from Bangkok, so some time to figure when and how to get from LP to Bangkok...

OK, maybe that's it for now. Its about 1000 F in this internet cafe and I'm starting to feel faint...

-erik

Fun in the (sometimes) Sun

Greetings from Erik and Katie both! (SoliDuding is suspended for another 4-5 days...). Here's a picture of us from tonight eating (waaay too much...) at our new favorite restaurant Papaya on Koh Phi Phi. Today was the first truly sunny day we've had and Katie capitalized on it by getting totally sun burnt. That's making efficient use of her short visit! (We also look so shiny because, as is the custom here, we are sweating, and because we just both got oil massages. mmm, daily massages....). Yesterday was a good one too. We took an all-day boat cruise with snorkeling, swimming and kayaking. We thought the weather was great because it only looked like it was going to rain the whole day, but never really did. While snorkeling we saw a cute sea turtle, a (big!) jelly fish with long (scary!) tentacles and some (cute!) Nemo fish and many other colorful fish and corrals. And Katie even hand fed some monkeys pineapple on Monkey Beach....until they tried to steal our kayak, at which point we fled...Tomorrow we are splitting up. Oh, we mean we are doing different things. Erik is going scuba diving (hopes to see a whale shark!) and Katie is taking a Thai cooking class (hopes to make a mean green curry!). That's about it from us for now. Hope y'all are well and we'll talk to you later....

Erik & Katie

Katie's Here!!!

She made it!!! Katie found her way to meet me in Singapore and after a fun 1.5 days there, we are now we are now in Phuket Thailand (and didn't even have to fight our way through any picket lines at the airport!). The weather has been a little crappy (so that's why they call it the "wet season"...), but that doesn't really affect the massages or the eating and drinking, so we are doing fine and having fun. (speaking of which, please excuse the many typos that are certainly in this entry, as we just had a massage and then split a "Phuket Paradise" and then a "Tequila Sunrise" - it's happy hour here now...). Off to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow and hopefully we'll find some sun there. I guess a better near term goal should be that the weather is good enough so that we don't both get sea sick on the ferry to Phi Phi...In Phi Phi, Katie might even try her hand a scuba with me. That'll be fun! Anyway, definitely nice to have Katie here, though I think she is quickly remembering why it hasn't been too hard for her to live without me these past weeks. We're getting along well though and, so far, I've been pretty good about putting the seat down. OK, I think its just about time to go eat again...Later....

-erik (and katie!)

Wild Times

Ok, I'm sure putting this picture in the public domain will come back to haunt me, but there it is. This is me and one of my new friends from Borneo out during the jungle trek. I told you things were pretty basic there, but did you believe me?

Anyway, in Singapore now and it seems pretty nice. Glad I accidentally got an extra day here. Singapore is soo organized and clean that it is like a vacation from SE Asia, right in the middle of SE Asia. And I'm actually enjoying that quite a bit right about now. An example: as far as I can tell most Asian cultures do not que up in lines: they just go. To the Westerner, this means that they are always cutting in front of you. This pisses me off, even though I know that it is a cultural thing and they mean nothing by it. Anyway, when I got off the bus from Malaysia in Singapore, the first thing I saw was a line of about 50 people waiting for a bus. But the really remarkable thing was this line was super ordered. I mean it looked military-perfectly straight, perfectly spaced. I swear. I should have taken a picture but I was too shocked to think to reach for the camera.

Ok, now the random mumblings:

• I've seemed to establish a "brief narrative followed by bulleted items" format. Bite sized nuggets for the MTV generation. Is it working for y'all?
• Speaking of y'all: I was talking to a Danish woman the other day (sooo many Danes here!!!) and she told me that she had just met some loud Texas in Amsterdam. The thought of Texasan in Amsterdam representing America really freaked me out. Why didn't we let them do that lone-star state thing? I think they still want to do it, and the rest of us probably want it too. Is it too late? We can let them out and DC in and we wouldn't even need to change the flag.
  
• Katie arrives in about 6 hours! Can't wait to see her!! I just looked up her flight and I looking like it flies from SFO to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Singapore. I know about the Hong Kong stop, but not the Bangkok stop. Luckily she will probably be to tired to be mad at me for finding that "great" flight.
• Speaking of Katie being mad at me, it seems that 37 years of "put the toilet seat down" training are no match for 7 weeks of SoliDude traveling. Actually it was probably in week 2 that the automated reflex was last seen. I hope she doesn't fall in...
  
• Now that I have fast internet, I've put a zillion new pictures on my Picasa site. Once again for those of you who have made my picture page your homepage (oh right, because my blog is your home page...) it's at: http://picasaweb.google.com/erki666. I think every folder there that was added/updated in August/September is new or has new stuff in it...Yes, there are more embarrassing pictures of me buried in there...
  
• Looks like I'm starting to finally set some solid job stuff lined up! So I might actually be able to come back and pay off the credit cards that I charged up for the this trip afterall (rather than just staying here and hiding from my creditors...). One of the job leads is from somewhat that might actually be reading this blog and wants to hire me to write something. How crazy are they?
• Actually, I've gotten many nice compliments about my blog from people, and I appreciate that. On a related note, when I took a big step back and thought "what do I really want to do" not "what should I do" with regard to my career, the idea of being a travel writer was something that came up pretty strong. (Probably happens to everyone who travels, but...) So if any of you really do like my blog and have super connections into the world of travel writing, hook me up! (Travel writers have editors, right?(
• Speaking of travel writing, I think I have a super-sweat travel related scam I want to try out. Background: The Lonley Planet guidebooks are KING here. I know they are everywhere, but I literally don't think I've seen another guide book on my trip. I was thinking that if I had a notebook that said something like "2009 Lonley Planet Update notes" casually displayed at hotels and restaurants as I traveled, good thinks might follow. (Until i leave it unattended and they see that it just has blank pages and misc doodles in it...). I might try it anyway just for kicks...

OK, gotta run. Been in here too long....Seeya later...The next SoliDude entry might be a TogetherCouple entry instead.

-erik

Almost a big screw-up

Another quick pictureless blog from an airport...(I have sooo many great pictures too! grrr...). Flew from Mulu to Miri today. Suppose to fly from Miri to Singapore tomorrow and arrive a few hours before Katie. Or so I though. I stopped by the AirAsia ticket office after landing in Miri to see what they had to say about the Phuket (Thailand) situation. They didn't know. But they did take the opportunity to tell me that they don't fly from Miri to Singapore tomorrow! Upon closer review, I must have booked the wrong date, and was scheduled to go the following day - a day after Katie gets in! Oh, she wouldn't have liked that! Anyway, $40 later, I got a seat on the flight that goes out today (in about 45 minutes...) so I'll be there a day before Katie now. That was a close one. Probably my biggest travel goof so far, and only a $40 penalty (and I actually get there earlier...) so I guess that's not too bad after almost 2 months of travel...

Mulu was amazing, as I said before. It is mainly all about the caves in Mulu, but the rainforest there is pretty awesome too. I believe Mulu has the worlds largest cave passage, the worlds largest cave chamber and one of the worlds longest underground rivers. And it was a cave (the cave passage one actually) that has approx 2-3 million bats in it that come out at night to hunt. They stream out like smoke - it is pretty unreal. I got alot of nice pictures (and videos) or that. Aside from that, caves are great, but don't make for great pictures, though I tried. In any case kopefully I'll have a change to upload some shots tomorrow in Singapore.

Final note: I didn't get any leeches at all today!!! (that I'm currently aware of...)

Gotta run. Really don't want to miss this flight...

-erik

Last Days in Borneo

It's not to often that you sit down to check your email and you get shat on by a (very large) gecko. But that just happened. Ah, Borneo. I have been here for about 4 weeks now and I'm pretty ready to leave. That said, when I think about all the things I've down, I really wouldn't have skipped a thing. The natural beauty and outdoor activities here are never ending. Culturally and culinary, it is not super exciting, but the nature...wow. Anyway, just another quick, pictureless blog from an expensive, slow computer. I'm in Mulu National Park today (day 3 of 4 here) and its amazing like everything else here.

Some quick notes:

• What the hell is going on in Thailand?! Katie and I are suppose to fly into Phuket (which was shut down for several days because of protests) in about a week! I wish those Buddhists would more passively resist...
• I am sooo ready to be done with leeches. Had some extreme leech adventures on my visit to Long Pasia and then again some here in Mulu yesterday (including one that settled in for dinner way to close to the area that no man wants a leech...)
• After a week in Long Pasia, where the toilets ranged from delux (shared, squating pot-a-potie) to basic ("walk that way, make sure you are downsteam of where we do the dishes") I've very excited to have my own sitting, flush toilet again. I sometime just going in there to hang out just for fun.
• Speaking of toilets (sorry...) the "jungle toilet" is actually a little tough here because you are hard pressed to find a sq. foot of earth without a least a dozen insects (many that look strange and possibly nasty...). Certainly doesn't make you want to stay and read the paper...
• Speaking of insects, there are alot here. There is pretty much always an insect on your arm and it is pretty much always one you've never seen before.
• I've barily had any alcohol for the last month because Malaysia is muslim and they aren't into that. In fact I gather that muslims don't drink or eat pork and can't touch dogs. Those are 3 of the most important things in my life! Guess I can rule out converting to Islam...

OK, gotta run. really want to wash this gecko guano off me. Hopefully I can post again and share some of the incredible pictures I've gotten withing the next few days to a week.

Seeya!

-erik