Mysterious Knocker Part 2: For Real This Time

The knock on the door occurred again this morning, but this time we could not send him away to get more sleep. We had a flight from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur at 9:15 and the airport is over an hour away.

The taxi was on time and started the meter as we arranged ourselves in the cab, but I told him the hotel had paid for the trip. He asked for a receipt, but Ron had seen the clerk hand him a paper already. I told him to turn around and get it from the hotel if he did not have it, because we were not paying the bill. Miraculously, he continued to drive on.

We had paid for Express boarding, but had no clue what it meant. Checking in was a breeze and Air Asia was again great. We boarded first with express boarding directly into the plane getting to choose our seats first and first shot at the overhead storage. Our luggage weight was not an issue, which was a relief. The flight took off on time and we arrived ten minutes early. The landing was the smoothest we have had in years.

From the airport, we took the bus shuttle directly to our hotel for 15 Ringgits each, a real bargain. The hotel clerk remembered us and welcomed us back apologizing for not having the same room available. We immediately took our dirty clothes to the laundry service next door to pick up tomorrow, so when we get home, we will only have one shirt each that needs to go into the wash.

Not having a really good coffee since we left Siem Reap, we had to go to Starbucks for a caffeine fix. We did head back to the mall that had the large white Christmas tree to see if it still graced the lobby, but it was gone. The Chinese Lunar New Year starts on January 18^th and the whole mall is decorated in red and gold in anticipation. If you look at my photos, the changes are dramatic. If you want to see my albums, send me an e-mail to drryanjames@gmail.com.

Our enthusiasm is not what it was a month ago and although there are a couple of things we would like to see here, we only have tomorrow. If we see them, fine, but if we don’t, oh well. After being gone a month, our thoughts about tourism transpire from we have to see it all to whatever we see and do is fine. Touring around is work. Being a tourist is mind bending. Not only to you have to transform your thinking to the language differences, but the culture, the food, and a real obstacle is transportation once you hit the ground. It has not been easy getting from one place to another, but it has been an experience that I probably would not have given up when all is said and done. It helped me grow as a person to see what others have to survive with in a microscopic piece of their daily lives making me feel fortunate for living in Budapest.

The WiFi is not working at our hotel, so we have not been able to download mail or post my writing, so we will have to make a trip to Starbucks tomorrow where they have free WiFi at everyone of the 150 stores in the country.

The major difference being back here as opposed to Cambodia or Vietnam, is prosperity. More people are better off here than in the other countries. Malaysia had embraced technology and it has worked for the masses. No one here is hounding us to buy books, cigarette lighters, fruit, combs, bracelets, jewelry of any kind, or offering us rides in their cyclo (there are no tuk-tuks or cyclos here). No one is asking us where we are from, how old we are, or if we have children. The culture shock continues with the majority of women wearing head coverings. Then there is the weather. It is so much hotter and humid here. Just as we were entering the city, the clouds opened up and it poured a torrential rain. Thinking this would relieve the humidity, when it stopped, it was only successful in creating a city steam bath. You can almost see the steam rising from wet pedestrians as the sun is now drying their clothing.

Similarities do exist, each restaurant you pass has someone trying to get you into their door and massage parlors are everywhere outnumbering the number of tourists in any of the countries. Full body massages run on the average of $6.00 for an hour, the same for a foot/leg massage also. From what we can see, they are all legitimate massages, but it goes without saying there are probably other types available also, but not for this writer for sure.

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Our Picks - Cambodia

Siem Reap, Cambodia

This rates tops for hotels and at $30.00 a night for two people, the service was excellent:

Angkor Town Hotel 324 Sivatha Street, Mondol 1, Siem Reap 855-63-76-1137 angkortownhotel@gmail.com

Private driver: Chon Sithon Taxi Driver in Siem Reap Angkor $25.00 a day chon.sithon@yahoo.com (855) 12-85-11-94

Phnom Phenh, Cambodia Restaurants: Friends the restaurant that trains former street children 215 Street 13 Telephone 012-802-072 www.streetfriends.org Bali Cafe 379 Street Preah Sisowath Telephone 023-982-211 email royalalita@camintel.com Excellent food, huge portions and really cheap The Royal Hotel has huge rooms and they are really clean. Doubles are $45.00 a night for two including breakfast.

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Happy Phnom Penh New Year

We were leaving today for Phnom Penh, really sad to leave Siem Reap. We had to make one last trip to the Blue Pumpkin; I had yet to try their mango Danish. We did not bring the computer this time; we had everything packed and ready to go. That Danish was worth returning for!!

We took our things across the street where we were to get the bus to PP, a five hour trip. Normally, I would have to be drugged for such a trip, but I acquiesced since there were few alternatives. There was only a van waiting for us, but we were told it was taking us to the bus. They loaded our things and we drove to a bus station, showed our tickets, received our bus number, and then were loaded on another small bus. We were promised a luxury bus with a bathroom. This was a van on steroids, not luxurious in the least. We drove literally for one block and were told to get off and onto our REAL bus. This one was more like it. It was impeccably clean, it did have a bathroom, and the seats were comfortable with an extensive amount of leg room. The bus had a host too. After we took off, he came around to give each of us a bottle of water, the next trip was a snack box with a meat dumpling and a dessert turnover. The third trip was wet napkins.

Most of the ride was on two lane roads with horns tooting most of the time. People do not drive on one side or the other, but wherever there is space. Blowing the horn lets others know you are passing. As we passed through each province, the host would tell us something about it. I bought a t-shirt in Siem Reap that has Same, Same on the front and But, Different on the back. This is the way I would describe the scenery. Just when you think they all look alike, there is a miniscule difference to set it apart. Many houses were on high stilts for the rainy season. Cows and water buffalo were grazing along the side of the road and in some cases across the road. Some areas had elaborate entry ways into temple grounds. They looked Buddhist.

When we bought our tickets, we also booked a hotel through the same agency from their sister hotel. We were told there would be a tuk-tuk waiting with our names when we arrived and this would transport us to the hotel. Sure enough, a young man was standing by with our names on a sign. He took us to the hotel and when we pulled up the porters came running up to say there were no vacancies. We said we had a reservation. They told us to come in. They did not have our reservation. They wanted to know who we spoke with when we called. We went through the whole thing about the manager of their sister hotel calling to make the reservation, but there was nothing and they had no rooms. The offered their third sister hotel down the street. This would be a 4 star hotel and the room would be $45.00 a night versus the $30 we intended to pay. We agreed, though with some disgust.

The tuk-tuk took us to the other hotel and we checked in. There are Visa and MasterCard signs all over the windows and on the reception desk. The clerk asked how I wanted to pay and I said by credit card. He says, we don’t have a credit card machine here. I point out the fifteen credit card signs all over the place while repeating what he just said. I thought I misunderstood him. No misunderstanding, if we wanted to pay by credit card, we would have to return to the hotel we just left, let them swipe my card in their reader and then return with the receipt to this hotel. They would provide the tuk-tuk for this transaction. Just out of aggravation and stubbornness, I still insisted on paying by credit card.

Before we went back to swipe the card, Ron asked for a second pillow and was told “Yes, yes, yes!” Went we went down for dinner, Ron asked for the second pillow a second time. “Yes, yes, yes!” When we came back from dinner, Ron called down for a second pillow. Same story, no pillow. I also asked if they knew of anywhere there was WiFi in the city. They had no idea, but they had computers in the lobby I could use for $2.00 an hour.

We found this restaurant that is a training center for reforming homeless children. They have a training center; they are student cooks, wait people, hosts, and so on. We went there for dinner. Very impressive. Friends the restaurant that trains former street children located at 215 Street 13 Telephone 012-802-072; www.streetfriends.org. The trainees have t-shirts with their logo and Student on the back, while the others have Teacher on the back. The place was packed. The food was good, but the service was exceptional.

On the walk back, I noticed a café that has free WiFi between 5-7pm with every coffee purchase. I went in to ask about other times and it is $2.00 an hour. Great, we were planning for tomorrow to check on our reservation for Vietnam. We returned to the hotel, I turned on the computer to write and VIOLA, the hotel has WiFi and it is free. The desk people have no idea.

This room is oversized with two beds, totally comfortable, but the pillows are so stuffed, they feel like they stuffed each of them with feathers from 10 geese, but forgot to remove the feathers first. I could swear I heard honking coming from them. Not getting the second pillow Ron wanted has given this hotel demerits. He uses it for his legs, not his head, so bounce to the ounce doesn’t matter to him.

Overall, with the exception of a walking promenade along the river with flags from every nation, this is not much different from Siem Reap. The tuk-tuk drivers are just as aggressive and desperate for work as they were in Siem Reap. Sadly for them, everywhere we want to go is so close by, we really don’t need them. When we did, it was the hotel that supplied a driver.

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Happy New Year

Only hours are left to this year, but we slept in as long as possible, which turned out to be 9:00 am. Big whoop!! We needed to make reservations for a place in Vietnam, so Blue Pumpkin to the rescue. Just as we walked up, someone took the patio table by the electric outlet, but there was one on the first floor, so I grabbed it. The store next door has a great selection of unique gifts, so I made my fifth trip in there and made one last purchase.

Dropping off the computer, we took off walking in the opposite direction of the market area. We have passed this area a number of times going and coming from Angkor, but have not stopped here. We walked quite a distance looking for a store that Ron had read about in the travel guide, but we could not find it. Street signs or any identification is nil. We never did find the store, but we did find a café that serves good coffee.

On the way back, we stopped at some food vendors and looked at strange fruits. We had tasted dragon fruit in Kuala Lumpur, but we never tasted this fruit that looks like a red tennis ball with porcupine syndrome. The woman peeled one for us and we tasted its juicy sweet yet tangy flesh. Then she peeled these little brown marbles and popped out a slimy ball with a dark pit in the center, making it look like an eyeball staring at me, with the pit as a pupil. It felt like what I imagine an eyeball would feel like or at least what my eyeball feels like when I put in contact lens. We bought some of each just as thanks for introducing us to these new tastes. We will give them to the hotel staff as we leave on a bus tomorrow.

The rest of the afternoon was spent writing, working with photos, and just kicking back. Ron wanted to go to the Blue Pumpkin sale. After 7:00 pm, all of their left over baked goods is 50% off and we would have them for snacks on the bus. We started speaking to a tuk-tuk driver who was telling us that although tourism has been up this year, it still has been a bad year for the tuk-tuk drivers. The increase in tourism is due to the Koreans; however, there are Korean businesses here that cater to them. The Korean travel agencies here draw them, then Korean bus services drive them around and they eat at Korean restaurants. Then the profits are sent back to Korea, not contributing to the local economy. Sounds like Wal-Mart. He also said that many of the tuk-tuk drivers are from the provinces where their family has sold a cow or ox in order to buy a tuk-tuk for their son to come to Siem Reap to make money and send it back home. Unfortunately, these drivers have to rent a room and survive here in the city when they are not driving or trying to convince someone to ride with them. Add to this the increasing price of gasoline and he has us in tears for these poor guys.

As we were talking, he asked where we were going for dinner. We had not decided yet, so he suggested a hotel that has a buffet dinner and a dance show. Wary of such suggestions, he offered to drive us to the hotel to make a decision when we arrived. It was indeed one of the larger hotels and it is packed with who else, but Koreans. We were able to get a table right near the stage, very lucky since it was so full of bus tour groups and we did not have a reservation. The show was excellent dances of Cambodian culture. The buffet was extensive with Cambodian dishes and it was all you can eat sans drinks. Dinner was $12.00 each, a bargain by far.

Our tuk-tuk friend returned to get us and return us to the hotel where I will work on pictures and Ron will nap for the fourth time today. When we arrived, we asked our driver how much we owed, bearing in mind the sob story he gave us. He said whatever we wanted to give him, making it difficult since the ride was only 10 minutes and easily walkable. However, being a special day, the end of the year, we should prosper others and I gave him $7.00. He about did somersaults and it was not an act. I believe he thought we were more generous than he anticipated.

We hung around the hotel room until 11:00 and then went to the block party. There were about six blocks cut off from traffic, but only one block was a party area. Beers were $1.00 and the street was mobbed. No fabulous fireworks or other fun things, but hundreds of people having a good time dancing in the street to loud music making merry. The Cambodians do not celebrate New Years at this time, so they all wished us a happy one. I think theirs falls in April.

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Chon, Chon

Thinking it better to get breakfast before Chon picks us up, we went to the Dead Fish Guesthouse and Restaurant. There is such an obvious glaring reality between those businesses that have embraced commercialism and those who have not had the funding to do it yet, but they are side by side. Dead Fish is tremendously large with different levels seemingly floating in the air making it look like a 3 dimensional chessboard. One level juts out to the right, but there are stairs to the left going to the next level where everyone on any level is visible to the whole establishment. It is definitely designed for the younger crowd, which grabs your attention when you see all of the very youthful employees organized like bees in a hive completing their morning tasks without any authority figure giving them directions. One twenty-something was carrying loads of 10 large bricks up three levels to construct something, while another young man carried an armload of pipes.

We met Chon in front of our hotel; he was not as chipper today as yesterday. His mood further deteriorated when he told us his idea for the day, but Ron interceded and told him which temples we wanted to see (rather Ron wanted to see, I was just along for the ride). The places on Ron’s agenda were farther out than what Chon had anticipated, so they renegotiated for $40.00 for today. There was a definite lack of conversation and explanation while riding around in the car.

Without a tour guide license, Chon could not go into the temples with us. He said that guides within the temples cost an additional $25.00 a day. Quite a number of people had them making it interesting to hear these different guides speaking English, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, and Spanish. Personally, I think a guide would have been sensory overload.

At the end of the day that ended at 2:00, Chon tried yet again to get us to go to the dinner show, but we refused once again. He asked about us using him again tomorrow, but we said we had made other plans and he did not push it. He seemed to know he milked the cow try.

With the holiday fast approaching, we decided it wisest to stay here two additional nights, so cleared it with the desk. We will leave here on January 1^st and go to Phnom Penh then. There is a double-decker bus with snacks and a bathroom for $10.00 for the five hour journey. The idea does not send me doing cartwheels, but is should be fine. We have to come back to book it.

At last we had to try the ATM machine again with Ron’s card. The moment I had been dreading fearing they cut off his card also. It worked and it spit out American dollars, not Cambodian Rieals. We went to get a snack, but it turned out to be so hearty, we just skipped dinner altogether.

We found the Blue Pumpkin a café with fantastic looking desserts has free WiFi, so we will check it out tomorrow.

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Boxing Day

It was 2:30 am when the alarm went off. The taxi was going to be here for us at 3:30 am. We were up like a shot, least we fall back to sleep once again and miss our flight. When the phone rang at 3:00 am, we were duly impressed that it was a wake-up call since we never arranged for one, but they knew we were leaving at an unholy hour. We were downstairs by 3:15 and our driver pulled up at 3:20 as he said he would. The drive would take close to two hours, and I am not a chatty person before coffee, so I was hoping for silence. I feigned sleep so if there was a conversation to maintain, Ron would be responsible.

We were at the airport in due time and was able to check-in immediately. All of my nightmares about the luggage weight were unfounded. They took our bags without a second glance. It could have been the six books we left behind, the three pairs of pants we gave away, the umbrellas we trashed, the shoes donated to charity, or the fact that I finally came to terms with facial products not being the holy grail of youthful appearances. Hence our gross weight of the luggage was less than a new born infant born premature.

Air Asia used boarding tickets that look like receipts for the grocery store; cheap paper with print on them, no frills, no souvenir quality. When we were to board they had Express boarding for those who paid for the option and anyone over 65 years old, so I pushed Ron to the forefront and told him to save me a good seat. I may have a birthday coming up, but it is still not nearly close to 65 to try to worm my way in that line. Once they let you through, they don’t waste money or fuel bussing you six feet to the airplane, but make you hoof it. We found the plane on the Malaysia coastline, which really shortened the flight time. Good thing too, since there were mechanical problems with the plane, which delayed our departure. The pilots door was open and we saw him kicking the instrument panel, but minutes later announced there was nothing to worry about, so we all relaxed.

All of the seats are black leather with red seat belts, looking like and S&M parlor, but comfortable with lots of legroom. All of the leather gave it a new car smell until the flight attendants started selling their snacks. It is amazing to see how my white people will eat Top Ramen soup that they are paying a premium for just because they are on a plane. There was a perfectly good McDonalds in the airport, not to mention the Asian Kitchen restaurant. The smell took me back to my poverty days in Philadelphia where I lived on Top Ramen for weeks on end.

Landing in Siem Reap, (which means something like the Thais did not defeat us), was extraordinary. The airport is small, but quite lovely. We had to first line up and apply for our Visas after filling out the third form; the first two were given to us on the plane. If you had a photo, which we did, it was $20.00; otherwise, it was $22.00. They kept the passports and processed them down an assembly line, where at the end, one officer tried calling out the names and showed everyone waiting the picture. His pronunciation of names was not stellar. From here we went to Passport Control, a lengthy time consuming process where they took our picture yet again with computer cameras. Finally, it was through the line for Customs and we were free to be bombarded by taxi drivers trying to sell their services.

We went to the taxi desk to make the choice between a motor bike rickshaw for $1.00 or a taxi for $5.00. Notice the dollar sign? Everything is listed in US dollars. We converted 100 Euros into Cambodian Riels and were asked if we would like a porter to help us cart it off. Our taxi driver was a young man named Chon (pronounced Than). He was chirpy, but I was not. He tried selling us services and Ron caved in since he can be chirpy at times in strange countries with strangers. We did not have a hotel booked since Ron read in the Lonely Planet, you did not need to, but they did not mention Christmas or New Years. The hotel we picked out was fully booked and everywhere they usually refer to has been calling them to see if they had vacancies. Not a good sign. Chon had a recommendation, but Ron was hesitant since the guidebook said to steer clear of taxi drivers’ recommendations. We could have traveled from hotel to hotel, but decided to see what Chon came up with. His first attempt was a great hotel, three minutes from the market area, where there are restaurants and shops galore. The room is huge, very clean and $30.00 a night. We booked for four nights.

After we took a nap, Chon returned for us to take us to the temple on the mountain to see it by sunset. We first had to get our passes for Angkor Wat. We chose a three day pass for $40.00 each, but this gave us free admission this evening. Our first day does not start until tomorrow. Chon took us as far as the parking lot, and then directed us on where to climb the mountain, not one of my better honed skilled even if I was born under the sign of the mountain goat. The climb was not as some we have done, being a gradual incline upward. The temple was over 1,000 years old and still in great shape. People were all over it to watch the sun set from near the top, but I was grateful for making it to the temple. I hate heights and climbing up is easy; getting back down is vertigo valley. There were elephants up there where you could ride them down for $10.00, but I figured we had already done the difficult part of climbing up. I am not giving an elephant my money to do the easy part. They did allow me to play with them though. One put his trunk near my ear and the suction inward would have made the Hoover Company jealous. He could have pulled my hair out of my head just by sucking in.

As it was getting dark, there was a shrill sound in the air. At first, we thought it was a siren of some type notifying people of pending darkness and the dangers of climbing down the mountain, but then we heard a guide say it was cicadas. They could use this for an air raid siren, they are so loud. We meandered down the mountain to find Chon, who drove us back to the hotel. We arranged for him to pick us up at 9:00 am for a day’s tour of the temples for $25.00. He wanted us to do sunrise at another temple, but 5:00 am did turn us on to the idea.

Just a few doors down from us is a European style restaurant that has free WiFi. We mixed dinner with computer business, so I had German pork roast with brown gravy and potatoes. It was great, but Ron had a seafood curry and was disappointed. One of the menu items was Hungarian goulash!! Just cannot get away from it.

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