tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72626751119212520512024-03-05T03:15:03.865-07:00Colors of the Worldreflections on travel, life abroad, and international aid and developmentJennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-79078949201196424972012-08-21T08:32:00.001-06:002012-08-21T08:41:11.095-06:00Last Night in Bangkok<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">After <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/08/wwoofing-in-chonburi-thailand.html">our week at the farm</a>, Ryan and I headed
back to Bangkok to fly home. For our
final night in Southeast Asia, we stayed at the most expensive hotel of the
trip – the <a href="http://www.lamphutreehotel.com/">Lamphu Tree House</a>, in
Bangkok’s <a href="http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/districts/banglamphu.php">Banglamphu</a>
neighborhood. $52 there earned us a
lovely air-conditioned room with a fridge and balcony, and a very extensive
breakfast buffet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Wanting to live
up our last hours in Asia, we headed out for dinner in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathum_Wan_District">Panthum Wan</a> district of Bangkok, a ways away from our hotel. We’d gone there in search of an amazing
sounding Mediterranean restaurant called the <a href="http://www.bestrestaurantsbangkok.com/OLIVE_KEBAB_CAFE.html">Olive Kebab</a>, which Ryan had found online. Unfortunately, it had either closed or moved,
or maybe never really existed, because we could never find it, and nobody in
the area had even heard of it. We
stumbled upon another promising-looking restaurant nearby, soon realizing it
was part of the <a href="http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1846">Meridian Plaza Athénée Hotel</a>. Surprisingly, and although all the drinks
were outrageously expensive, the food was quite cheap. So we stayed, pleased not only with the food,
with also with a big basket of various delicious types of bread and unlimited
free refills on water (something not to be taken for granted outside the US!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To wrap up our
last night, we stopped at the <a href="http://nickupton.hubpages.com/hub/Bangkok-Tallest-Building">BaiyokeTower</a>, Thailand’s tallest building.
Primarily a hotel, the tower has an observation area and bar on the 83<sup>rd</sup>
floor and a revolving deck on the 84<sup>th</sup>. The view of Bangkok from the top of the tower
was great. The city is so big and bright
– lights forever in every direction. I
don’t think anybody standing at the top of the tower could look at Bangkok and
think they were in a developing world city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Since our
flights didn’t leave until 11pm the following day, we were able to spend most
of the day in Bangkok. After breakfast
at the hotel, we headed out to done some last-minute gift and souvenir shopping. With time to spare, we decided to go to a
movie. That might seem like an odd way
to spend our last afternoon in Thailand, but <a href="http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/play/bangkok-city-essentials/best-bangkok-vip-movie-theaters-270103">Bangkok’s movie theaters</a> are unlike any I’ve seen in the States. They’re absolutely enormous and super fancy,
with big reclining chairs and assigned seating (better seats are more
expensive, just like at a show), and most tickets are about $6. More interestingly, prior to every movie
showing in Thailand, a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MyfKNoMq6s">tribute to the king</a> is played, during which everyone must stand up and watch quietly. The film, which last about two minutes, is
set to the <a href="http://www.nationalanthems.info/th.htm">Thai national anthem</a> and
shows clips from throughout <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej">KingBhumibol</a>’s life. I should point out
that Thai people really, REALLY <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7128935.stm">lovetheir king</a>. The film we saw was <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1991245">Chernobyl Diaries</a>, which I was
interested in seeing primarily because Ryan told me he’d seen it advertised in
the U.S. and that Leonardo DiCaprio was in it.
It turned out the actor in it was just someone who <a href="http://celebrity-look-alikes.blogspot.com/2011/04/leonardo-dicaprio-jesse-mccartney.html">looked kind of like Leo</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">After the movie
was over, we picked up our bags and headed for the airport. The trip that I’d spent many months in Rwanda
daydreaming about was coming to a close, and it was time to start the
transition back to American society and get ready for the next chapter of my
life.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-53306482243469244882012-08-17T12:51:00.000-06:002012-08-17T12:56:11.879-06:00WWOOFing in Chonburi, Thailand<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’d been wanting to try “WWOOFing” – volunteering on an
organic farm in exchange for room and board, through the organization <a href="http://www.wwoof.org/">Willing Workers on Organic Farms</a> –
basically since I’d first heard about it.
Luckily for me, Ryan was game to try it out during our trip. After looking at farms all over Thailand and
Malaysia, we settled on <a href="http://www.ecovillage.asia/">Daruma Eco-Farm</a>,
outside a small town called Bang Phra, in Thailand’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chonburi_Province">Chonburi province</a>. The farm was our last stop on our trip before
returning to Bangkok to fly back home, and we worked there for a week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">WWOOFing appealed to me for a lot of reasons. Of course the fact that it’s (mostly) limited
to small, often family-run, farms that are all organic was a big reason – I’m
sure working on a standard American farm would have been a very different
experience. Since I really like the idea
(if not always the price…) of eating organically-grown food, I was eager to
learn more about the principles and practices behind it. Plus, WWOOFing is a really great way to get
far off the beaten path, probably in any country, and get more immersed in the
local culture. On top of that, since the
farm typically covers its volunteers’ room and board, it’s basically a free
week of travel!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To get to the farm – after a ferry from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_Tao">Koh Tao</a> to the mainland and an overnight train ride back to Bangkok
– we took the <a href="http://www.noplacelikehere.com/2010/06/south-thailand-train">third-class train</a> from
Bangkok to Bang Phra, a distance of about 75 miles. The third-class train, though, doesn’t ever
go very fast, and it stops a <i>lot</i>, so
I think the trip took around three hours.
We’d kind of been dreading taking the third-class train, having heard
tons of horror stories from other travelers and even Thais, about how
miserable, uncomfortable, and overcrowded they are. Our train, though, wasn’t even full, and it was
relatively comfortable with the windows rolled down. Other than the fact that the seats were just
wooden planks, it really wasn’t any more uncomfortable than the buses in
Rwanda. And our tickets cost less than
$1 each!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before arriving at the farm, I was really curious about what
the other volunteers would be like, or if there’d even be any others. When we got there, the farm had four other
volunteers – a British guy who’d spent several months volunteering on farms all
over Southeast Asia, an Indian guy who was hoping to start his own organic farm, and a Brazilian couple who’d been
travel full-time for about two years – as well as an American research
assistant who’d been there for six months.
As you can imagine, they all had lots of really interesting stories. The farm’s owners, an American man, Neal, and
a Thai woman, were also really interesting.
Neal has been living in Thailand for years, but just started the farm a
few years ago, and they’re still working on really getting it going. They’re hoping to eventually create a
full-fledged <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecovillage">eco-village</a>, which
would ideally be totally sustainable and self-sufficient.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The farm itself wasn’t huge, but it had a lot going on –
tons of different crops, chickens, pigs, composting – and there was always work
to be done. Ryan and I worked on a lot
of different things, some of which were pretty physically demanding, which may
not have been nearly so difficult, except that it was really hot and really
humid. Lemongrass, which is commonly
used to make tea and to flavor a huge variety of dishes all over Southeast
Asia, pretty much grows like a weed on farms.
So we spent a lot of time clearing lemongrass, as well as debris, from
the fields and from the structures designated for certain crops. We also laid mulch around the trees, which is supposed to enrich the soil and
prevent erosion. On the day they were
laying a new pathway on the farm, we carried loads and loads of bricks. We also moved a lot of dirt around – shoveling
and carrying dirt was one of our main activities, and it was pretty
tiring. One of the most interesting
things Ryan and I worked on there was building a <i><a href="http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur">Hugelkultur</a></i><i> </i>(literally “mound culture”) bed,
basically just a raised garden bed with wood on the bottom, which is supposed
to more or less compost naturally and eventually become a garden bed that
doesn’t need irrigation (at least from the explanation we got). So, to create our <i>Hugelkultur</i> bed, we first reinforced an existing bamboo frame using
metal sheets and logs, and then cleaned up a bunch of old wood, and demolished
a few small wooden platforms and benches, to put in the bottom of it. I have no idea if the process will go as
smoothly as described – it seemed a little too good to be true – but <i>Hugelkultur </i>is apparently extremely
popular among organic farmers and permaculture enthusiasts, so there must be
something to it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A special treat of our WWOOFing experience was our day off
from farm work, which allowed us to explore some more. Since the farm was a bit isolated from the
actual town, we were excited to “go to town.”
We left the farm early, and, as we were walking along the empty road
leading from the farm to town, a Thai guy stopped his car and offered us a
ride. We had no idea where we wanted to
go, or where he was going, but we hopped in.
We just kind of looked out the windows as we rode along, waiting for something
that looked like a good place to stop. Once
we got to a bigger road, which turned out to be the main road from Bangkok that
passes straight through Bang Phra and continues to eastern Thailand, we thanked
this kind stranger and got out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we walked along, the first place of interest we came to
was a very cute and eclectic coffee shop/toy store. Walking down the main road, and even down
some quieter side streets, we passed numerous 7-11s (remember, Thailand has
6,000 7-11s) and <a href="http://biz.prlog.org/smartshop108">108 Shops</a>, 7-11’s local
competitor. We eventually came to a
really nice park, right on the water, complete with a short walking path, a few
gazebos, and several food stands. We’d
been walking for hours by that point, and it was – of course – very hot, so the
chance to sit down and rest under a gazebo for a while was much
appreciated. It was also a great
people-watching opportunity, as the food stands were full of Thai people out
for lunch in the park.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We eventually
headed back to the main road, and, up until that point, things had been pretty
much as I’d expected in this small town – not much obvious Western influence, nothing
in English (outside the 7-11s, of course), no identifiable street food. But then we found a coffee shop that could
probably rival Starbucks, a really nice bakery, and a Vietnamese restaurant
with an English menu. In the interest of
knowing what we were eating, we had lunch there, and it was tasty. Despite being likely the fanciest restaurant
in town, we still ate for about $5. On
our way back to the farm came the real surprise – a <a href="http://www.tescolotus.com/en">Tesco Lotus</a>. While it wasn’t much compared to some of the
supermarkets in Bangkok, it was much, much more than I’d have expected in Bang
Phra. There were selections of fresh bread,
cheese, yogurt, wine, produce, and more.
Still, though, it seemed there were no other foreigners in town.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another neat experience we had while at the farm was
visiting the night market for dinner with Neal and his wife. The market was comprised of a couple dozen
small open-air food stalls serving various types of seafood. Since it was raining, we headed for the one
tented stall, and sat on the ground around a low table. The market was absolutely packed with people
having dinner, but we volunteers were the only foreigners there. While I wasn’t a huge fan of all the seafood,
of course, it was a really cool experience, and one that we probably wouldn’t
have had in a more touristy area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some of the work at the farm was hard, but I thought
WWOOFing was a great experience overall, and I’d love to do it again somewhere
else. On more than one occasion, though,
I did have to question if we with such limited knowledge, were <i>actually</i> contributing anything to the
farm, or if a real farm worker would have to later fix or re-do a lot of what
we had done. That’s a huge problem in
many types of volunteer organizations – short-term volunteers who don’t have
the necessary skills or cultural understanding come for a week or month or
three, do some things they feel good about, and then someone else eventually has
to come and re-do the work. Then there’s
also the issue that volunteers are taking a job that a Thai person could do –
instead of providing room and board for volunteers in exchange for work, farm
owners could pay a salary to a Thai person to do the same farm work. I think in the case of Daruma Eco-Farm,
though, it was at least as much about spreading the ideas and principles of
eco-farming, and offering experience for people looking to start their own
farm, as it was about the free labor.
But, it’s still a dilemma I haven’t really reconciled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From just a traveler’s perspective, though, WWOOFing was a wonderful
way to get off the beaten path, cut costs, learn about sustainability, and have
some really unique experiences.</span></div>
Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-74911762628147954092012-08-05T22:08:00.001-06:002012-08-17T12:52:44.821-06:00Tanote Bay, Koh Tao<span style="font-family: inherit;">After finishing
our <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/07/learning-to-scuba-dive-koh-tao-thailand.html">scuba diving course</a>, we headed
to the other side of Koh Tao to spend our last two days on the island relaxing
at <a href="http://www.beachthailand.com/thailand-beaches/koh-tao-island/tanote-bay.htm">Tanote Bay</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The entire
island of Koh Tao is known having absolutely horrible roads, and, since there’s
almost nothing in the interior, the few people who leave the Sairee Beach area
get around the island by taking boats from beach to beach. Since the water had been extremely rough that
week and I’d gotten seasick on our other boat rides, I wasn’t willing to get
back on another boat. And our diving
instructor talked us out of the idea of driving our rented motorcycle over the
highest point of the island’s interior to get to Tanote Bay, convincing us that
the road was essentially impassable.
Fortunately, the hotel we were staying at there, the <a href="http://www.montalaybeachresort.com/">Montalay Beach Resort</a>, picked us up in
a truck in <a href="http://www.travelfish.org/location/thailand/southern_thailand/surat_thani/haad_sairee">Sairee Beach</a> to take us
over to Tanote Bay. While in the truck,
we looked at the supposedly horrible road and realized that Ryan is more than
experienced enough to have driven a motorcycle there. Like in most of Southeast Asia, though, lots
of visitors to Koh Tao rent motorcycles even if they don’t really know how to
ride them, and those people get in into a lot of trouble in the interior of Koh
Tao. In the end, though, the ride was
free, so that was a plus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Montalay
ended up being my favorite hotel of the entire trip, with gorgeous “jungle
bungalows” set in a really lush garden for $20/night. The landscape around the hotel was beautiful
and so peaceful, and the rooms themselves were super cozy. It was an amazing value, even for Thailand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We did very
little in Tanote Bay other than lounge in the bungalow, hang out on the patio of
one of the two restaurants in town, walk along the beach, lay on the sand,
swim, and relax in a hammock. It was a wonderful
place to chill after the relative strenuousness of diving – and the rowdiness
of Sairee Beach. So many divers stay at
hotels in Sairee beach, do some dives, and then leave Koh Tao without ever
seeing what else is there, but I would definitely recommend saving a couple
days for seeing more rural parts of the island, especially if you’re looking
for something a little more tranquil, or more private.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-15103384555298746352012-07-30T17:30:00.000-06:002012-07-30T17:31:15.990-06:00Learning to Scuba Dive - Koh Tao, Thailand<span style="font-family: inherit;">The 617-mile trip
from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanah_Rata">Tanah Rata, Malaysia</a> to <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Ko_Tao">Koh Tao, Thailand</a> turned out to be much
trickier than I’d anticipated, but it ended up going fairly smoothly. The trip required a minibus from Tanah Rata,
a brief stop in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Town,_Penang">Georgetown</a>, another minibus
across the border, an overnight train, a ride to the coast in the back of a
pick-up, and a ferry into the Gulf of Thailand, totaling about 28 hours of
travel time. Yes, we traveled at an
overall average speed of about 22mph.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Southern
Thailand is a beach-lover’s paradise, and we knew we wanted to visit one of the
many beautiful islands off the coast, but had a hard time choosing. <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/phuket-province">Phuket</a>,
<a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/andaman-coast/ko-phi-phi-don">Koh Phi Phi</a>, <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/lower-southern-gulf/ko-pha-ngan">Koh Pha-Ghan</a> – all are gorgeous, with cheap hotels and lots to do. But, by deciding that we wanted to use our
time at the beach to complete a <a href="http://www.padi.com/scuba">PADI</a>
<a href="http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-courses/diver-level-courses/view-all-padi-courses/open-water-diver/default.aspx">Open Water scuba diving course</a>, our
choice was made easy. The tiny island (just
eight square miles) of Koh Tao –
literally “Turtle Island” – is the cheapest place in the world to dive, and
more people earn scuba diving certifications there than anywhere else. I’d been wanting to try scuba diving for a
long time, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Koh Tao itself
was a nice place to be, but it wouldn’t be a great destination for
non-divers. The island’s beaches really
don’t compare to many of Thailand’s other offerings. Further, there’s almost no local culture on
Koh Tao. At any given time, Koh Tao has <i>far </i>more visitors than residents, and
most of the people who live there are ex-pats, not Thais. I don’t think I’ve ever been some place that
had so few local people. But, for people
focused on diving, it’s a good choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Located in Koh
Tao’s heart of <a href="http://www.beachthailand.com/thailand-beaches/koh-tao-island/sairee-beach.htm">Sairee Beach</a>, our
hotel, the <a href="http://www.prick-tai.com/">Prick Thai</a>, was about
$20/night and was definitely not the best place we stayed, mainly because there
was a pretty serious ant problem. But it
was right across the street from our diving school, which was where we spent
most of our time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was difficult
to choose a school from the 100+ options on Koh Tao, but we eventually ended up
at <a href="http://www.scuba-junction.com/">Scuba Junction</a>, mainly because
their Trip Advisor reviews were great.
Plus, the people there seemed infinitely more competent than at the
other place we looked at, <a href="http://www.simplelifedivers.com/">Simple Life Divers</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before we
arrived, I wasn’t too sure what to expect from the course. It turned out to be pretty intensive and kept
us really busy for the 3.5 days that it lasted.
The first three days included classroom time, which meant watching
videos and having discussions with our instructor, as well as taking review
quizzes on each section. We also had
homework every night – reading a couple chapters from the handbook and
answering some questions to discuss the following day. On our second day, we learned all about the
equipment and then went out for our <a href="http://scuba.about.com/od/OpenWaterCertification/p/What-Is-Confined-Water.htm">confined water dives</a><b> </b>(essentially practicing with diving gear in shallow water). That was definitely the worst time we had in
the water, especially for me since I got really seasick on the ride from the
coast out to the dive site. We started
with a test of swimming around the boat three times, which would have been
nothing except it was pretty stormy that day and the water was super
choppy. Then we put on our equipment for
the first time and took our first <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yNkfEOjZnA">“giant stride”</a> into the water. Unfortunately,
we then had to swim pretty far, fighting the rough water and feeling awkward in
our equipment for the first time, to get to shallower water. We were pretty wiped by that point, and we
hadn’t even started yet! The rest of our
time in the water that day was spent doing “skills,” basically things you need
to know in order to dive safely, but that are never used unless there’s an
emergency. We were so anxious to dive
down, swim around, and start seeing fish and coral, but we had to spend the day
practicing what to do if you lose your mouthpiece or goggles, or you run out of
air, or you get too tired to swim back to the boat. Fortunately, our next two days in the water
were much more fun and much easier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The following
day, after doing classroom work in the morning, we left for our first real
dives. It was awesome. We had to practice some of the same skills in
deeper water, but we also got to swim around – and finally feel like we were
actually scuba diving! We did two dives
that afternoon and two more the next morning, each lasting about thirty
minutes. We got down as deep as about 17
meters, just shy of the 18-meter maximum allowed for Open Water divers. Though diving can be a bit nerve-wracking –
especially if you really stop to think about how far under the water you are
and how terrifying (and potentially dangerous) it would be if your equipment
malfunctioned – it can also be relaxing, if you focus on your breath and how
your body is moving underwater. We got
to see more fish and plants that I could begin to name, but the things I found
the coolest were the <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/media/supp_coral03b.html">various types of coral</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphiprioninae">clownfish</a> (aka, <a href="http://disney.go.com/finding-nemo/home">Nemo</a>) swimming in their brightly-colored
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anemone">sea anemone</a> habitat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Following our
final dive, we took a written test, which covered what we’d learned in the
water, as well as our three days of classroom discussions, videos, readings,
and homework. We both passed and
received our certification cards – and began planning our next diving
trip! Spring break 2013, maybe?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-75332153523121794262012-07-20T08:42:00.001-06:002012-07-20T08:43:11.826-06:00More Malaysia - The Cameron HighlandsAfter leaving <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Kuala_Lumpur">Kuala Lumpur</a>, we headed to our only other stop in Malaysia, a refreshingly cool
and incredibly lush area known as the <a href="http://www.cameronhighlands.com/Destination-Guide/About">Cameron Highlands</a>, about four hours north of the capital. The area is becoming increasingly popular as
an eco-focused travel destination, and it’s known for producing much of
Malaysia’s best <a href="http://www.cameronhighland.net/strawberry-farms.htm">strawberries</a> and <a href="http://www.cameronhighland.net/tea-plantations.htm">tea</a> – and strawberry tea!<br />
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The bus we took from Kuala Lumpur was incredibly nice, but
the ride was pretty nerve-racking – on extremely narrow and incredibly curvy
roads, right on the edge of the mountain.
Fortunately, our bus driver – as well as the drivers of the numerous
other buses, trucks, cars, and motorcycles on the road – drove very slow and
courteously, and we made it with no problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our base in the Cameron Highlands was <a href="http://www.cameron-highland-destination.com/cameron-highland-tanah-rata.html">Tanah Rata</a>, one of the main towns in the area. It was small, but much busier and more
bustling than I would have expected.
There were a lot of tourists walking around, though the vast majority of
them were Asian, many from Thailand, I imagine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our hotel, <a href="http://www.booking.com/hotel/my/krs-pines-cameron-highlands.en.html">KRS Pines</a>,
was decent but nothing special – and, at $27/night for a double, another
reminder that your money just doesn’t go as far in Malaysia as in other nearby
countries. Thailand had spoiled me!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nearly all of Tanah Rata’s restaurants (other than a very
out-of-place Starbucks, the town’s only remotely Western place) served Indian
cuisine – good thing Ryan and I really like our <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal">dahl</a></i> and <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naan">naan</a></i>! The highlight food-wise was definitely a
vegetarian <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Food-on-Banana-Leaf">banana-leaf meal</a>,
consisting of rice, chickpeas, and several vegetable dishes, all served on a
large banana leaf. And the whole thing
cost only $3!<o:p></o:p></div>
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We knew there were a lot of things we wanted to visit in the
Highlands, and we didn’t have much time, so we opted to spend one day on a
tour, which took us to several eco-tourism sites in the area. Along with a group otherwise comprised of
French and Dutch people, we started the day with a hike into a beautiful, lush
jungle to get a glimpse of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia">rafflesia</a>,
the world’s largest flower. The hike
only took about an hour each way, but it was harder than I had anticipated,
with several steep and slippery areas, as well as a couple very narrow rickety
bridges. The flower itself was unlike
anything I’ve seen. Rafflesia, which are
red, are so big that it’s hard to even recognize them as flowers. The one we saw had grown flat on the ground
and was about 29 inches across, though they sometimes hang and can get up to
four feet across. In the pictures we saw
afterward, the rafflesia look almost pre-historic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We made a quick stop outside a nearby village, where our
guide talked about a new government program in the area. Traditionally, people in this part of
Malaysia have lived in houses constructed from bamboo. Recently, however, the government has started
paying to build concrete houses in rural areas, so people will live in these
more modern houses instead of their traditional ones. Our guide, a native of the Highlands, was
pretty upset about this initiative, both because he believes it is unnecessarily
changing people’s way of living, and also because he thinks the government
should be putting money toward education, healthcare, or food instead. I know hardly anything about the government’s
program or how it’s affecting people there, but it was really interesting to
hear a local person’s take on it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After an Indian lunch, we visited a tea plantation and
factory and got to see how the tea grows and how it’s processed. I don’t remember a lot of the details of
processing tealeaves, but I do remember how green and hilly the plantation was,
with the tea organized in chunks and growing about waist-high.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We also visited one of several strawberry farms in the
Highlands. To our surprise, the
strawberries were growing not in an open field, but rather in long containers
under a large tent. We had strawberry
milkshakes and strawberry muffins, and bought some strawberry tea, strawberry
jam, and chocolate-strawberry candy to take with us. All of it was delicious.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Having seen most of the “sights,” we used our second full
day in Tanah Rata to do some independent exploring. The town is essentially surrounded by jungle,
which has a few not-very-well-maintained trails running through it. We started down the trail nearest town and
ended up hiking about four hours. Because
the trails loop back and forth, you can hike for quite a long time, despite the
fact that none of the trails actually go that far from town. It was a gorgeous hike, and it was nice to be
out in nature on our own and completely alone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The following morning, we were up early to begin what turned
out to be a long and pretty arduous journey through northern Malaysia, across the Thai
border, up the Gulf coast, and out to the island of <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/lower-southern-gulf/ko-tao">Koh Tao</a>, our next destination.<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-60832197375392408982012-07-07T15:58:00.000-06:002012-07-07T15:58:39.656-06:00Intro to Malaysia - Kuala LumpurInterested in seeing how <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/my.html">Malaysia</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a more developed Southeast Asian country, would
compare to the other places I’d visited, and since </span><a href="http://www.airasia.com/ot/en/home.page">AirAsia</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> has convenient direct flights from </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Chiang_Mai">Chiang Mai</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> to </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Kuala_Lumpur">Kuala Lumpur</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, Ryan and I decided to spend a few days exploring </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_Malaysia">peninsular Malaysia</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span><br />
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Landing at the Kuala Lumpur airport, we easily found the bus
we needed, which we were happy to discover was air-conditioned. It turned out to be about an hour from
the airport to the city, and the ride took us through endless lush green
fields.</div>
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Our first impression of Kuala Lumpur was a good one, thanks
to a very nice cab driver. Though
we had the address of our hotel (and street addresses mean a lot more in
Malaysia than in, say, Rwanda), our driver couldn’t find it. He drove in circles for quite awhile
and called the hotel on his cell phone twice to ask for directions. By the time we finally found the hotel,
we’d been in the cab for so long the meter had gone up to 15 ringgit (about $5). The driver felt so bad that he’d taken
so long to find our hotel, he apologized profusely and only charged us 10
ringiit (about $3.30)! I’d fully
expected to pay the full amount, and I was shocked and pleasantly surprised at
how kind he was.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.pujangga-homestay.com/home.html">Pujangga Homestay</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">was
about we had expected. We opted to
stay there solely because it was the cheapest place we could find online. Our rather cramped double room with a
shared bathroom down the hall was $20/night. $20 definitely doesn’t go as far in Malaysia as in some
countries, but considering that Kuala Lumpur is a pretty first-world city and
we had a great location in the </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Kuala_Lumpur/Golden_Triangle">Golden Triangle</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> area, I can’t complain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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As far as we could tell, there’s not a lot of truly
Malaysian cuisine available in Kuala Lumpur. Apart from the some Western restaurants – including a whole
lot of American chains – most “local” restaurants serve Indian or Chinese fare.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The city itself is very modern and clean. Various commuter trains, monorails, and
buses run through town, and the ones we rode on were all quite nice. Many of the trains, buses, and taxis
have illustrations indicating that food, animals, hazardous materials, and
kissing (labeled “indecent behavior”) are prohibited.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our short time in Kuala Lumpur was filled mostly with seeing
the major sights. The city is known
for two skyscrapers – the <a href="http://www.kltower.com.my/">Kuala Lumpur Tower</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">and the </span><a href="http://www.petronastwintowers.com.my/">Petronas Twin Towers</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. We didn’t go up either
one, but we did look up at them from the ground, and both were quite
impressive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The KL Tower, as it’s known, looks a lot like Seattle’s
Space Needle and is used for telecommunications and as an Islamic lunar
observatory. Its observation deck
is 905 feet high, and races are held in which participants climb the 2,058
steps to the top. Ryan tried to
challenge me to such a race, but I declined – ultimately, I think he was glad I
did.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Petronas Towers, connected by a skybridge between the 41<sup>st</sup>
and 42<sup>nd</sup> floors, serve primarily as the office for Malaysia’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas">state-owned oil and gas company</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. They were the tallest buildings in the
world until 2004 and are still the tallest twin towers ever built. The bottom six floors of the towers
comprise a 1.5 million square-foot </span><a href="http://www.suriaklcc.com.my/index.htm">shopping center</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, filled mostly with luxury shops I can’t even
imagine ever buying anything from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We also made a short trip to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves">Batu Caves</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> just outside the city. The caves are sacred in the Hindu faith and is one of the
world’s most popular Hindu shrines outside India. Standing in front of the caves is the world’s largest statue
of the Hindu deity </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murugan">Murugan</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> –
it’s 140 feet tall! Entering the caves
requires climbing 272 steps (it was about halfway up the stairs that Ryan
realized he was glad I hadn’t agreed to the race up the KL Tower!). Several smaller statues and shrines sit
inside the caves, and we saw many people praying and leaving offerings. Prior to visiting, I hadn’t realized
the caves were still used by Hindus today, and I couldn’t help but wonder how
they felt about so many tourists trampling through their sacred place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-61097537462992575852012-06-28T18:08:00.000-06:002012-06-28T18:09:00.028-06:00A Unique Hilltribe TrekOne of the things we really wanted to do in northern
Thailand was a <a href="http://www.travelfish.org/feature/18">hilltribe trek</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – a
multi-day hike through the countryside staying overnight in minority villages –
and one of the reasons we opted not to go to </span><a href="http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/02/touristy-chiang-mai.html">Chiang Mai</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> was because the treks leaving from there don’t have
a very good reputation. Though
treks from Chiang Mai are extremely popular, many people seem to come back from
them disappointed – saying they only got to see villages set up for tourists to
visit (which are apparently quite common in the area) and not places where
people actually live, that they were never able to talk to any villagers
because the villagers were only interested in selling souvenirs, and that the
guides hustled them quickly from one activity to another (hiking, visiting
“villages”, souvenir shopping, elephant riding, rafting, swimming – all in one
day) without allowing time to really enjoy any of them. We knew we wanted to do some hiking and
see Thai village life, but trekking from Chiang Mai (and, to a lesser extent, I
think, the other touristy towns of </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Chiang_Rai">Chiang Rai</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and </span><a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Pai">Pai</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">)
didn’t seem like it would offer we were hoping for. So we were really happy to hear about the possibility of
trekking from Mae Sariang – and we were fortunate that one of the town’s two
trekking organizers was available while we were there.</span><br />
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After a 30-minute or so drive out of town, we headed into
the jungle with our guide, who didn’t speak much English but was friendly
enough. The hike on the first day
was great, and not too difficult, other than one incredibly steep area in which
the ground was completely covered by slippery leaves. After hiking about thirty minutes, we came to the first
village, a cluster of stilted houses made of bamboo in the middle of the
jungle. We stopped there and ate
some tiny bananas and mandarin oranges while our guide greeted somebody he
knew. One of the most surprising
things to me was the how open most of the houses were – in fact, my mom asked,
“Where are the door and the walls?” when I showed her a picture of one! Many of the houses we saw were
effectively lacking a wall around the front “room,” which was usually covered
by a tin or thatched roof held up by a few poles but otherwise mostly open to
the outside. None of the houses
had any furniture either, save for a couple mats on the floor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After hiking through the jungle for a few more hours, we
stopped in another village. All
the villages we visited during the trek were populated by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_people">Karen</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, an ethnic minority group living in Thailand and
Burma. Northern Thailand has several
ethnic minorities, referred to collectively as </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_tribe_(Thailand)">hilltribes</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, with other well-known groups including, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akha_people">Akha</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisu_people">Lisu</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people">Hmong</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. The
people of these tribes are quite separated from mainstream Thai culture; each
group has its own language, and they all live primarily in remote areas. There is a much higher level of
poverty, as well as lower living standards, among hilltribes than other Thais.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In the second village we stopped in, our guide took us to
visit a family living in the village, and we spent a couple hours in their
home. We ate a lunch there of rice
and vegetables – Ryan and I opted against having chicken – with fruit for
dessert. Around the time we
finished lunch, it started to rain, so we hung out at the family’s house until
it let up enough for us to continue.
Fortunately, they didn’t seem to mind having strange white people
sitting on their floor all afternoon – in fact, they hardly noticed us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As we made our way out of the village, we came to a group of
people standing around outside.
Curious as to what was going on, we stopped. Lying on the ground was a live but sedate pig, clearly about
to become someone’s (or maybe the whole village’s) next meal. We expected the pig’s throat to be
slit. I didn’t watch what happened
instead, but they apparently <i>set the pig on fire</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. The pig was burned
alive. I don’t know much about
hunting or butchering, but I can’t imagine that’s the standard means used to
kill a pig.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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A few more hours of hiking past rice paddies and we arrived
in the village where we’d spend the night. Our guide took us to a family’s house – whether he knew the
family or just decided we’d stay with them because they happened to be at home
was never really clear. In the
family was a 36-year-old man who’d just married a 15-year-old girl, apparently
a common practice among the Karen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After another meal of rice and vegetables, we hit the hay,
tired from the day of hiking. This
house was, like many others, stilted and comprised of a partially enclosed
front room and a back room that was actually indoors and served as both the
kitchen and bedroom. The back room
in most houses in that area has a fire pit in the middle of the room where all
the cooking is done. I didn’t
really understand how that wasn’t a fire hazard – or maybe it is – and I’m sure
exposure to the smoke is damaging to everyone’s lungs. Imagine building a campfire <i>inside</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
Anyhow, Ryan and I spent the night on a mat on the bamboo floor on one
side of the fire, and our hosts, the newly married couple, slept on a mat on
the other side of it. It wasn’t
horribly uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t want to have to sleep like that every
night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We woke up early the next morning, to the sound of people
cooking breakfast over the fire in our room. Thailand doesn’t seem to have any typical breakfast foods –
most Thai people eat the same things for breakfast as for other meals. Our hosts and some neighbors, as well
as our guide, had rice for breakfast, but our guide grilled bread over the fire
to make toast for us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After breakfast, we headed out for our second day of
trekking. The second day was quite
a bit hotter, and the hike ended up being much harder than day one. Part of the difficulty came from hiking
straight through the middle of several rice paddies, which were wet and
extremely slippery and had no real path to walk on. Plus I felt like we may be trampling someone’s crops. The views looking out over the bright
green paddies and to the hills beyond them was great, though. Eventually, we made it to the beginning
of the end of our trek – a series of six waterfalls, each providing a much
appreciated mist, perfect for cooling us off a bit. The end of the trek took us back to the main road where we
ate a lunch of noodle soup in a small restaurant that seemed like it probably
didn’t get many foreign patrons.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next day, we left Mae Sariang for Chiang Mai to catch
our flight the following morning.
We really only spent a few hours in Chiang Mai, and I’m sure we could
have easily filled a couple days there.
But, while the city seems to offer a lot to do, I’m really glad we opted
to spend our time in the north in Mae Sariang instead. Though nice, Chiang Mai was a typical
tourist town – everything in English, every other business a tour agency, more
foreigners than locals on the street.
Coming from Mae Sariang, it practically felt like another country. We were also skeptical of many of the
tour agency’s promises of visits to “undiscovered” hill tribes and “unknown”
villages. Given that agencies in
Chiang Mai take tourists on those trips everyday, and that there were hardly
any foreigners at all in Mae Sariang, much less trekking out there – our guide
and the people in the village we visited said there hadn’t been any trekkers in
two months – I felt like we got the real deal.<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-31490830162802604312012-06-24T23:00:00.001-06:002012-06-24T23:00:32.494-06:00Off the Beaten Path in Northern Thailand<a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/06/on-coast-in-koh-kong.html">Koh Kong</a> was the last destination for Anna and me, and when
she and I split up, I met Ryan in <a href="http://www.bangkoktourist.com/theme_5/index.asp?lang=en">Bangkok</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">
for another month of travel! After
a day of exploring the extremely modern Thai capital, we boarded an overnight
train headed </span><a href="http://www.fodors.com/world/asia/thailand/northern-thailand">north</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span><br />
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Hoping to get off northern Thailand’s very beaten tourist
track, we opted to skip <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Chiang_Mai">Chiang Mai</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, the
hub of tourist activity in the north, and headed to the much smaller and
less-known town of </span><a href="http://www.travelfish.org/location/thailand/northern_thailand/mae_hong_son/mae_sariang">Mae Sariang</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. While I’m sure Chiang Mai has a lot to
offer, we loved our time in the Mae Sarieng, and it felt like we got to see a
bit of the ‘real’ Thailand. Plus,
the lack of crowds, English speakers, tourist kitsch, and drunken chaos was
very refreshing.</span></div>
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About a 4.5-hour bus ride from Chiang Mai, Mae Sariang,
located on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuam_River">Yuam River</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, is closer to
Thailand’s border with </span><a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bm.html">Burma</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. The Mae Sariang sub-district includes
10,000 people spread over nine villages, and the town itself basically consists
of just two main streets connected by a handful of alleyways. Far removed from the Westernization
taking place across much of northern Thailand, the only real inkling of Western
influence in Mae Sariang is the lone 7-11 (Thailand has around 6,000 7-11s, I’m
not kidding). Not surprisingly,
it’s a pretty quiet place and attracts very few tourists, though we saw a
handful of other Westerners (all European, as far as I could tell) during our
time there.</span></div>
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We ended up staying at two different hotels in Mae Sariang,
both small places with no websites and no English-speaking staff. All the food in town is Thai, so we had
lots of noodles and lots of curries during our time there.</div>
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We lucked out, and, on our first night in Mae Sariang, the
twice-weekly night market was taking place. A small side street closes to traffic and vendors line both
sides with stalls of clothes and food, including unidentifiable meat, noodle
dishes, and ice cream. At the end
of the street, one stall had something rolled up in little pieces of paper,
which the vendor told us cost 5 baht (about $0.17) each. Thinking they might be spring rolls, we
bought a couple. When we opened
them up, we found that they weren’t spring rolls, but rather pieces of fry
bread drizzled with honey. They
were amazing!</div>
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On our first full day in Mae Sariang, we rented a motorcycle
so we could explore the surrounding countryside on our own. After doing a bit of research about the
area, we decided to head towards the border, specifically to a tiny village
called Mae Sam Laep, about 60 miles from town. The ride took us through mountains and past several villages,
and offered some beautiful scenery.
The road was pretty bad in some places – muddy, steep, and full of
potholes – so I’m lucky Ryan’s an experienced rider! After an hour and a half or so, having not seen any signs
(at least none we could read) indicating we were anywhere near Mae Sam Laep, we
started to wonder if we were going the right way. At that point, we had passed the most recent village a ways
back, and there really weren’t any people around. Finally, after about another half hour, we came up a path
that split off the main road, and a guy we happened to pass just then pointed
us down it. The path was in even
worse condition and seemed more like it might be leading to nowhere – until a
cluster of stilted houses appeared.
We had arrived! Mae Sam
Laep is tiny, and we didn’t see any other foreigners in the time we were
there. There’s not much in the
town, and it’s really only accessible by motorcycle, so I can’t imagine too
many travelers make the journey.
But, again, it felt like we were getting a peak of ‘real’ Thailand, and
we loved it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We parked the bike and strolled through town, taking
pictures of the houses, the scenery, and the view of Burma across the river. Towards the edge of the village, we
passed a small shop selling what appeared to be samosas. As the woman selling them didn’t speak
any English, we smiled and handed her 10 baht (about $0.33), thinking that
might buy us two samosas. We
watched, shocked, as she filled a little plastic bag with three, four, then
five of them. Apparently they were
only 2 baht (about $0.07) apiece.
Since we had no idea what might inside the samosas – liver? brain? some
type of critter from the not-very-clean river? – we got a little worried we
were going to be stuck with a whole bunch of something we didn’t want at
all. Turned out, they were
vegetable samosas – just potato, carrots, and peas – and they were delicious.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After venturing back into the village center of, we stopped at
another little shop for a soda, which, though the shop had electricity, were
kept in a cooler out front. As we
sat, enjoying our cold drinks, the shop’s owner sat in front of a small laptop,
playing Thai karaoke and singing very loudly into a microphone, which
broadcasted his singing out into the street. We couldn’t really tell if other people in town appreciated
the singing or were ignoring it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As Mae Sam Laep wasn’t right on the border as we had
expected, we left to go further down the main road, to see what we could see. Unfortunately, as it was the rainy
season, an impassable puddle prevented us from getting much further down the
road. So, we headed back into Mae
Sariang – we need to rest for our trek the next day anyway, but more on that
next time.<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-10237711209167491152012-06-18T14:30:00.003-06:002012-06-18T14:30:40.715-06:00On the Coast in Koh KongOur final stop in Cambodia was the small coastal town of <a href="http://www.travelfish.org/location/cambodia/southern_cambodia/koh_kong/koh_kong">Koh Kong</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, located on the edge of the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamom_Mountains">Cardamom Mountains</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. It was peaceful and quiet, felt pretty rural, and made a
good last stop.</span><br />
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The <a href="http://oasisresort.netkhmer.com/">Oasis Resort</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
run by a British guy who’s been in Cambodia for seven years, is probably my
favorite hotel we’ve stayed at thus far.
It was $30/night for a triple room, which had really cool poster beds
with curtains, air-conditioning, a patio, a TV that got BBC, a refrigerator,
and a hot shower – and the shower was even in a sectioned-off area of the
bathroom, meaning taking a shower didn’t inevitably soak everything in the
entire bathroom, as is the norm in this part of the world, where shower
curtains are pretty rare. On top
of that, the hotel had swings, hammocks, and a beautiful pool that looked out
onto continuous fields and hills in the distance, with not another building in
sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The food in Koh Kong, both at our hotel and in town, was
wonderful, and included a lot of curry – chicken eggplant curry, vegetarian
green curry, red chicken curry – and vegetable cashew stir-fry, as well as
toast, yogurt, and chocolate mousse!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The hotel’s owner invites children from a nearby orphanage
to use the pool, and there were about twenty kids swimming there the day we
arrived. We swam while the
children were there, and, unbelievably (unlike Rwandan children), they didn’t
stare at us, laugh at us, point at us, or poke us. And, when we passed one of the hotel’s inner tubes to a kid
when he got back in the pool after a snack break, he even said, “Thank
you.” Amazing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the main attractions in that part of the country is <a href="http://www.contemporarynomad.com/2010/01/koh-kong-island">Koh Kong Island</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, Cambodia’s largest, which is
considered to have one of Southeast Asia’s most beautiful beaches. But, as it’s about a two-hour boat ride
from the coast, getting there is only possible when the weather is clear, and
the water was unfortunately too rough to make the trip during the time we were
there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We had a successful outing to <a href="http://www.aboutasiatravel.com/cambodia/guide/cambodia-tourist-attractions/koh-kong/tatai-waterfall.htm">Tatai waterfall</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, though, about thirty minutes from town, which was
lovely. It was gorgeous, and the
water was clear and great for swimming.
The waterfall was also surprising secluded, and we saw only one other
small group of people the whole time we were there. It was really wonderful to be out in the middle of nowhere
and able to enjoy nature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Throughout the entire trip, Anna and I had been planning
what we dubbed “our scooter adventure,” and had been waiting to visit a place
with little enough traffic that riding a scooter would actually be feasible for
us. Fortunately, since it was our
last stop together, Koh Kong fit the bill – with little traffic in town and
several empty country roads near our hotel, it was the best we could hope
for. I should preface this by saying
that, with some regularity, Westerners who don’t have the first clue how to
ride a motorcycle rent and try to drive them in southeast Asia, and end up in
accidents, sometimes serious ones.
Since I have a lot of experience riding as a passenger on motorcycles
and a tiny bit of experience learning to drive one, and since we rented a small
scooter that was an automatic, I figured it would be pretty easy. Well, it was definitely more difficult
– and less like riding a bike – than I was expecting, and I did sort of crash
once, but overall it was great. It
gave us a chance to get out in the countryside on our own, which was
beautiful. Plus, riding was just a
lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to the chance to do it again – maybe
in Thailand next week!<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-73123123768659476982012-06-16T17:48:00.001-06:002012-06-16T17:48:31.876-06:00In & Around Phnom PenhAfter Battambang, we headed for the Cambodian capital of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Penh">Phnom Penh</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a city of over two million people
situated on the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong">Mekong River</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. Our first impression of the city was
one of surprise – at how big it was, how fancy, how developed. Given what we’d heard about how much
poorer Cambodia is than neighboring countries, we were expecting Phnom Penh to
be something along the lines of Kigali or maybe Kampala; we were definitely
wrong. While the city certainly
has poor areas, it also has tall buildings, bright lights, nice restaurants,
car dealerships, movie theaters, and shopping malls, as well as many beautiful
temples.</span><br />
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The <a href="http://www.thefancyguesthouse.com/">Fancy Guesthouse</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(yes,
that’s its actual name), located near the city’s popular </span><a href="http://cambodia1.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/phnom-penh-riverside">Riverside</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">neighborhood, was everything we were hoping it would
be after our shoestring-cheap hostel in Battambang – spotless, air-conditioned,
and with comfortable beds, hot water, and a refrigerator, at $25/night for a
triple room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Phnom Penh’s culinary scene was also excellent – I realize
I’ve said that about every place we’ve been, but this whole region seems to
have amazing food everywhere (or maybe I’m just easily impressed)! It was also cheap – we ate at one
street café where every rice- or noodle-based dish on the menu was $1.50. I also tried the Cambodian <a href="http://asialifeguide.com/Cover-Story/brewery-cambodia-kingdom.html">Kingdom Pilsner</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which, like the other beers I’ve
had here, was good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We also ate at Phnom Penh’s <a href="http://www.phnompenh.gov.kh/phnom-penh-city-night-market-143.html">night market</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">one night, where the dining area is comprised of a
ring of food stalls with mats on the ground in the middle, allowing customers
to eat sitting on the ground, as many Cambodians typically do. While my friends sampled all sorts of
deep-fried unidentifiable meats, I stuck with a vegetarian noodle dish and some
vegetable wantons. Even that was
pretty greasy, but dining at the night market was a great experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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While in Phnom Penh, we visited two of Cambodia’s best-known
<a href="http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/khmer-rouge-history">Khmer Rouge</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> sites, which have been
turned into museums detailing the history of the </span><a href="http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/past-genocides/cambodian-genocide">genocide</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> that occurred in Cambodia during the 1970s. We first went to </span><a href="http://memoryandjustice.org/site/tuol-sleng-museum-of-genocidal-crimes">Tuol Sleng</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, the site of the infamous S-21 prison, where the
Khmer Rouge imprisoned an estimated 20,000 people between 1975 and 1979. All but seven of the prisoners held in
Tuol Sleng died there or were taken to the nearby killing fields and
executed. The survivors, six men and
one woman, were spared because they had skills, such as making art and
repairing machines, that the prison commander considered useful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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After visiting Tuol Sleng, we went to<span style="color: red;"><b> </b></span><a href="http://memoryandjustice.org/site/choeung-ek-center-of-genocide-crimes">Cheong Ek</a>,<span style="color: red; font-weight: normal;"> </span>one of the Khmer Rouge’s 343 killing fields and the spot where most of
the S-21 prisoners were executed.
Around 20,000 people are believed to have been killed at Cheong Ek, most
of them bludgeoned to death, and thousands of people are buried in mass graves
there. At the center of the
memorial is a large Buddhist shrine filled with human skulls and bones, very
reminiscent of the genocide memorials in Rwanda. Today, Cheong Ek feels almost like a big peaceful park
outside the city, and it’s nearly impossible to imagine the things that
happened there twenty-five years ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We couldn’t help but notice that these museums have clearly
not had nearly the money poured into them that <a href="http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index.html">Kigali’s genocide memorial museum</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">has had, likely because the West doesn’t feel nearly
as ashamed of or guilty about what happened there as about the Rwandan
genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We also saw some of Phnom Penh’s other major sites, though
they weren’t nearly as significant.
The <a href="http://cambodiamuseum.info/en_information_visitors.html">National Museum</a>, <a href="http://www.phnompenh.gov.kh/phnom-penh-city-royal-palace-125.html">Royal Palace</a>, and <a href="http://www.phnompenh.gov.kh/phnom-penh-city-silver-pagoda-127.html">Silver Pagoda</a> <span style="font-weight: normal;">were interesting, but not that amazing. Mostly, lots and lots of Buddha
statues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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One morning, we went on <a href="http://grasshopperadventures.com/tour-APKP07.php">a bike tour</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> through </span><a href="http://grasshopperadventures.com/">Grasshopper Adventures</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a company the conducts bicycle tours all over
Southeast Asia. Like the other
bike rides I’ve done during the trip, it was great. We started in Phnom Penh and took ferries around several islands
in the Mekong River. Though the
islands face the city, they were quiet and peaceful, had beautiful scenery, and
they felt like they were worlds away from Phnom Penh. It was about 100 degrees that day, but surprisingly the heat
didn’t bother us too much. During
the ride, we stopped at a small silk factory and saw Cambodian women weaving
silk on traditional looms. It
takes quite a long time to weave a single scarf or piece of cloth, and requires
a lot of coordination (as I realized when I tried it!). Later, we happened to stop for a short
water break near a house where a Cambodian woman was drying mango. In typical Cambodian fashion, she
generously offered some of what she had to the group of strangers. It was delicious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Something else I have to mention is the workout fervor among
Cambodians in Phnom Penh. All
along the riverfront is public exercise equipment – elliptical machines,
stationary bikes, benches, and more.
Not only do people use the equipment, from about 5:00-7:00 in the
morning, the entire area is full of people running, walking, playing badminton
and hackeysack, and, in groups of probably up to a hundred people, taking tai
chi and aerobics classes. They set
up huge loudspeakers for the aerobics classes and blare music through them all
morning, and I’m told the classes are taught by the stars of Cambodia’s popular
music videos. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Overall, Phnom Penh seems like it would be a great city to
live in – it has many modern amenities but still feels a bit like a developing
country, and is definitely more manageable than Bangkok.<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-7684758947495201032012-06-01T09:29:00.002-06:002012-06-01T09:30:21.257-06:00Another Cambodian Town - BattambangSince I liked Siem Reap so much, it set the standard pretty
high for Cambodia. Though maybe <a href="http://www.travelfish.org/location/cambodia/western_cambodia/battambang/battambang">Battambang</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, our subsequent destination, wasn’t as cute, it
also wasn’t nearly as touristy, and I really enjoyed the chance to see a more
typical Cambodian town.</span><br />
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Though Battambang is accessible by public bus, we chose to
get there by boat: 9.5 hours across the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonle_Sap">Tonlé Sap Lake</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and down the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangkae_River">Sangkae River</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. Expecting the boat to be a tourist trap, we were surprised
to find that it was basically a motorized canoe with a roof, and to realize it
was actually a form of local transportation for Cambodians. In fact, we dubbed it a “floating </span><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matatu">matutu</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">,” as it stopped quite frequently
to let people on and off. On the
boat, we passed through a number of “floating” villages, where many people live
on small houseboats or in shacks right on the river’s edge. About halfway through the trip, we made
a pit stop in one of the villages.
The small shop/restaurant we stopped at had one of the most rustic, and
least hygienic, toilets I’ve ever used – a building on stilts with a hole in
the floor opening straight over the river. A few hours after the stop, we finally pulled up to the pier
in Battambang.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Our hotel there, <a href="http://www.chhayahotel.com/">Hotel Chhaya</a>, <span style="font-weight: normal;">was remarkable in that it was $1.50/bed. That’s right, </span><b>$1.50</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">. The three of us shared a
four-person dorm with a British guy, and the shared bathroom was just across
the hall. The bathroom was not the
cleanest, and the room was pretty hot, despite having a fan. We also had a couple issues with the
staff there giving us bad information about activities and things going on
around town. For $1.50, though, I
really can’t complain.</span></div>
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While in Battambang, we had more delicious Cambodian meals,
along with a couple of excellent Western things. We discovered the adorable <a href="http://www.geckocafecambodia.com/">Gecko Café</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> on our first night in town, and ended up eating
there a couple times.
Mediterranean salad, “Cambodian” wantons filled with cream cheese, Oreo
milkshakes – it was wonderful! I
also tried </span><a href="http://www.changbeer.com/">Chang</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> beer, a Thai
import, which, though some people find it a bit bland, I liked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Battambang’s claim to fame is its bamboo train, which was
originally, like the boat, a form of local transportation that became popular
with travelers. Unlike the boat,
though, it’s no longer used by Cambodians and is now just a tourist
attraction. The train’s cars are
comprised of two sets of wheels covered by a flat platform made from
bamboo. There’s only one train
track, so when two trains going opposite directions meet each other, one
train’s passengers get off while the conductors disassemble the train and then
reassemble it on the track behind the other car. Since the train cars are so simple, it only takes a couple
minutes. The train went much
faster than expected and felt a little more like a roller coaster than an
actual train. It was fun, though,
and the countryside we got to see from it was really pretty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While in Battambang, we also took a Cambodian cooking
class. Like in the Balinese
cooking class <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/04/ubud-balis-cultural-capital.html">we took in Ubud</a>,<span style="font-weight: normal;"> the food
was delicious and, for the most part, not too terribly difficult to make. We made chicken <i><a href="http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking%20by%20Country/Cambodia%20Speciality%20Dish%20Amok.htm">amok</a></i></span>
(coconut curry), beef <i><a href="http://ozladym.com/recipes/BeefLokLak.htm">lok lak</a></i><span style="font-style: normal;">, and pork
spring rolls. We got a cookbook with
these and other recipes, so it looks like I’ll be making vegetarian versions of
these dishes for a Balinese-Cambodian feast when I get home!<o:p></o:p></span></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-89529134989417344082012-05-25T21:00:00.000-06:002012-05-25T21:00:30.721-06:00Cambodian CountrysideLike I <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/05/siem-reap-angkor-wat.html">mentioned last time</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, we went to Siem Reap primarily to see Angkor Wat, but getting into
the countryside outside of town ended up being my favorite part of our time in
the area. A small tour company
called </span><a href="http://www.beyonduniqueescapes.com/">Beyond Unique Escapes</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">
offers tours in rural areas near Siem Reap (and in other parts of the country),
and we ended up doing two of their tours.
They pride themselves on showing the “real” Cambodia, and, to their
credit, we were the only people on both tours and never saw another foreigner
during either one. We definitely
got to see places we never would have seen on our own, and got a small taste of
what a Cambodian village is like.</span><br />
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Our first outing into the countryside was on a day-long
village tour, called <a href="http://www.beyonduniqueescapes.com/cambodia/small-group-tours/village-tours/day-in-a-life-tour.html">A Day in the Life</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. Though we only drove about twenty
minutes out of Siem Reap, the area felt very rural and like it was worlds away
from town. Suddenly, the roads
were dirt, the houses were bamboo, and electric wires were non-existent. And the scenery was gorgeous, wide-open
spaces and very green, with palm trees everywhere. After stopping to greet the village chief, we set off on an
ox-cart ride, which was really fun and allowed us to see houses and fields way
off the main path through the village.
We spent the rest of the morning at a family’s house in the village,
learning about their daily activities.
First, they taught us how to thatch, and we wove together dried leaves
to be used for roofs or walls of the houses. Thatching was actually easier than I thought it would be,
and it was a lot of fun. Then, we
prepared lunch, which took quite awhile.
We started by mixing together some spices and vegetables, but, instead
of stirring them together in a bowl, we chopped everything on a cutting board
until it was all ground together.
Then we added </span><i><a href="http://www.asianonlinerecipe.com/food-glossary/prahoc.php">prahoc</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">, a salty paste made of fermented whole fish (bones, fins,
and everything) – </span><i>prahoc</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is
unique to Cambodia, and probably not something that needs to be exported! Lastly, we added red ants – yes, <b>ants</b></span>,
a whole pile of them with their legs all tangled together – to the paste. The ants were alive when we added them,
but most got chopped up while mixing them into the paste. Cambodians eat this fish/ant paste
either raw or cooked, and we cooked a portion of it in a banana leaf over
charcoal. Once the cooking was
done, we had lunch with the family, eating the paste (full disclosure: I didn’t
actually have any, more out of repulsion by the fish paste than the ants) along
with rice, chicken, and mango.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After leaving the family’s house, we visited a local
monastery, which had beautiful buildings and dozens of small shrines <span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">holding the ashes of
deceased Buddhists. We learned a
lot about Cambodian Buddhism during the visit. One of the things I found particularly interesting – while a
small number of people become monks for their entire lives, much like Catholic
priests in the U.S., most Cambodians stay at a monastery for a week or so as
young adults to experience living as a monk. We ended our time in the village by visiting a primary
school nearby. Most students in
rural Cambodia go to school six days a week, for either the morning session
(7-11am) or the afternoon session (1-4pm). Students try to get into the morning session if possible,
because everyone knows the afternoon sessions are not as good, since most
teachers don’t return from their lunch break on time. We arrived at the school around 2:00pm, at which point there
were no teachers around, and all the children were playing outside. Seeing this obviously raised the
question of how the government or school administration could better motivate
teachers to show up on time – but that’s a big question for another time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The following morning, we set out early on a <a href="http://www.beyonduniqueescapes.com/cambodia/private-day-tours/cycling-tours/sunrise-cycling-tour-village.html">sunrise bike tour</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which offered not only beautiful
views but also another chance to see village life. We left town on our bikes at about 5:00am, and it felt very
rural again within about half an hour of riding. Just outside of town, we stopped to watch the sun come up
over a rice field, which was beautiful.
We then climbed to the top of a small hill, considered by Cambodian
Buddhists to be sacred, which offered great views of the village below and the
lush countryside. This stop also
gave us an opportunity to talk more to our guide, and he told us more about
Cambodia’s history and societal norms.
He talked a lot about </span><a href="http://ethnomed.org/culture/cambodian/cambodian-marriage">marriage in Cambodia</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, and said that arranged marriage exists but is
becoming less prevalent, and that dowries are always paid to the woman’s
family. I also found it
interesting that, after the wedding, the new groom typically leaves his family
and moves in with the bride and her family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Next, we biked over to a monastery, similar to the one we
had visited the previous day, where we met some monks and nuns, who gave us
delicious dried mango and told us about life in the monastery. One of the nuns said she moved to the
monastery when she started getting older, as there are no nursing homes in
Cambodia, to become a nun and focus on finding enlightenment. Our last stop on the ride was at a
local market, where our guide treated us to a typical Cambodian breakfast of
rice pudding, which was pretty good.
It was like a clear porridge with rice and pieces of chicken, as well as
chunks of what I thought was tofu covered in something but turned out to be
congealed cow blood mixed with an unknown solid. It was fine as long as you didn’t think too much about what
it was. Regardless, we were
pleasantly shocked that, as the only foreigners around, we were able to look
around in the market and sit down to eat at a table full of Cambodians without
anyone hassling us at all.<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-2012886228259716062012-05-15T00:46:00.000-06:002012-05-15T00:50:37.387-06:00Siem Reap & Angkor WatAfter a flight from Jakarta, a day of walking and shopping
in Bangkok, and a five-hour bus ride to the border, we arrived in
Cambodia! Our first Cambodian
destination was <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Siem_Reap">Siem Reap</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, gateway to
the world’s largest religious structure, </span><a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668">Angkor Wat</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. Going
there mainly to see Angkor Wat, I didn’t have any expectations for Siem Reap
itself, but it turned out to be a great town. Getting out of the town and seeing some of the villages in
the surrounding countryside, though, turned out to be the highlight of our time
in the area, at least for me.</span><br />
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Siem Reap is perhaps Cambodia’s best-known town, home to
about 172,000 people. Parts of the
town felt a lot like Europe, particularly in the architecture – leftover French
influence, I guess. (Cambodia was
a French protectorate from 1863 to 1953.)
The area of town we stayed in was pretty happening, the streets lined
with bars, restaurants, shops, and guesthouses, and filled with both Asians and
Westerners.</div>
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Our hotel the <a href="http://www.mandalayinn.com/">Mandalay Inn</a>,<span style="font-weight: normal;"> was great, and the staff were very friendly and helpful. It was $18/night for a triple room,
though it didn’t include breakfast.
We had an attached bathroom with hot water, a fan, AC, and TV (with CNN!),
and the hotel even had a little gym on the roof.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Cambodian food is a bit different from Indonesian, but just
as good, and everything we had in Siem Reap was delicious. My favorite Cambodian dish so far is <i><a href="http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking%20by%20Country/Cambodia%20Speciality%20Dish%20Amok.htm">amok</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">, which is a coconut curry-based
sauce with vegetables and chicken, beef, or fish, served with rice. Apparently Cambodians eat </span><i>amok</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> only with fish, and chicken and beef </span><i>amok</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> are served only because Cambodians realized
foreigners like variety. I also
tried Cambodia’s <a href="http://www.angkorbeer.com.kh/">Angkor beer</a></span>, which was very good and cost only
$0.50 during happy hour.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another highlight was the night we ate at one of Siem Reap’s
several <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0voiAv-udKw">BBQ</a> restaurants<span style="font-weight: normal;">. For
$5/person, we cooked noodles and pieces of raw meat and vegetables in extremely
hot oil over a little grill at our table.
It was a fun experience, and the food was really good – though we
skipped the crocodile and squid options, having just chicken, beef, and pork.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I can’t talk about Siem Reap’s dining scene, though, without
talking about the street food: street food in Siem Reap is abundant, diverse,
cheap, and delicious. One of the
main street dishes is fried noodles, which we ate one night while sitting on
little stools on the curb. Another
staple of Siem Reap’s street food were the banana pancake carts, which were all
over. For $1, the vendor would
pull out a lump of pre-made dough, fry it into a thin pancake, cook in some
slices of banana, drizzle it with chocolate sauce, and wrap the whole thing in
a piece of paper for easy eating on the go. They were delicious.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Siem Reap also has quite a few very interesting markets,
catering to both locals and visitors.
The best-known is the <a href="http://www.angkornightmarket.com/">Angkor Night Market</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which gets going around 4pm everyday. It has tons of stalls with vendors selling all sorts of
clothes, accessories, and souvenirs, as well as street food carts offering
fried noodles, sliced fruit, and banana pancakes. There were also multiple stalls set up as makeshift spas
offering massages and other services.
We went to the same spa-stall for foot massages a couple different times
– only $3 for 30 minutes! There
are spas all over Siem Reap, in and out of the market, and they were almost all
extremely cheap and pretty nice-looking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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As I said, we went to Siem Reap mainly for the purpose of
seeing Angkor Wat. Originally
intending to go back a couple times, we ended up spending only one day at the
temples, but it was very interesting.
Part of the<b> </b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor">world’s largest pre-industrial city</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, Angkor Wat (literally “City Temple”) is a huge
complex of Hindu temples built in the twelfth century, during the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Empire">Khmer Empire</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. Though the name Angkor Wat is now used to refer to the
complex as a whole, it is actually just the name of the largest and best-known
individual temple, which is an iconic image here. The Cambodian flag features an image of Angkor Wat, and
pictures of it are found in many hotels, restaurants, and shops, as well as on
most souvenirs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The complex also includes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Thom">Angkor Thom</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (literally “Great City”), the Khmer Empire’s last
capital, which is believed to have had a population of as many as 180,000
people. Within Angkor Thom are two
of the complex’s major temples: </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon">Bayon</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, known for the 200+ faces carved into its stone towers, and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphuon">Bapuon</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a “temple mountain,” designed to represent Mt.
Meru (considered by Hindus and Buddhists to be the center of all
universes). Located outside Angkor
Thom, another of the best-known temples in the complex is </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_Prohm">Ta Prohm</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which has been largely untouched and now has trees
growing out of its ruins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Though the oldest structures in the complex were originally
built as Hindu temples, it shifted to Buddhist use during the late-thirteenth
century, and is still used by Buddhists today. In fact, most visitors to Angkor Wat will see monks and
nuns, in orange robes and white gowns respectively, all with their heads
shaved, while at the temples.
Because Angkor Wat is still in use, visitors must cover their shoulders
and knees in order to enter the temple.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the day we went to the temples, we left town at about 5am
and got to see the sun coming up over the temple of Angkor Wat, which was
beautiful. We visited the other
main temples, which were interesting but less awe-inspiring, and then went back
to more thoroughly explore Angkor Wat in the afternoon. The sheer size of it, and the intricacy of
the detail, is pretty astonishing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Getting out into the countryside, away from the town and the
tourist attractions, was actually my favorite part of our time in the Siem Reap
area, but I’ll get to that later!<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-26236031917373377882012-05-07T02:04:00.000-06:002012-05-07T02:04:07.503-06:00Another Side of Indonesia: The Island of Java<!--StartFragment-->
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After the <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/05/from-bali-to-java.html">overnight bus journey</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> from Bali, we arrived in the town of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogyakarta">Yogyakarta</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> on the island of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java">Java</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
hotel in “Yogya,” </span><a href="http://www.venezia-homestay.com/">Venezia Homestay</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
was about $17/night for a double including breakfast, making it our cheapest
place yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t as nice as our
prior hotels, but was a really good value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We used a shared bathroom with a cold-water shower, and the
room, though it had a floor fan, was ungodly hot – especially on the top bunk,
where I slept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family running
the hotel, though, was very nice, and they even let us check in at 6:30am – and
gave us a welcome drink!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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To be honest, coming from Bali, Yogya itself was a bit
underwhelming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a pretty big
town, seemed to be largely industrial, and lacked Bali’s interesting
architecture and general beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like parts of Bali, it had Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald’s, and Dunkin’
Donuts – I’m not sure when seeing places like that is going to stop being
really strange to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As usual, we
skipped the American chains, but we did indulge in frozen yogurt at <a href="http://www.jcodonuts.com/">J. CO</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, the Indonesian equivalent of </span><a href="http://bourboncoffee.biz/">Bourbon</a><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(though J CO. wins, hands down).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was about $2.20 for a cup of yogurt
with strawberries and chocolate chips, and was definitely as good as </span><a href="http://www.pinkberry.com/">PinkBerry</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
our first night in Yogya, we had dinner at one of the cheapest restaurants I’ve
ever eaten at – I paid about $1.10 for a dish of vegetables and rice with
peanut sauce, and it was delicious!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Yogya’s main attractions are the temples of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur">Borobudur</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan">Prambanan</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, both UNESCO World Heritage sites, which we visited, along with the
smaller temple of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendut">Mendut</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We left town at about 5:00am, to get to
the temples before it got too hot (most days this time of year are in the
high-90s) and crowded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Borobudur,
Indonesia’s single most-visited tourist attraction, dates from the ninth
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world’s largest
Buddhist structure, it is huge – essentially a nine-story building – with the
six square stories topped by three round ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indonesian Buddhists still use Borobudur for pilgrimages and
for celebrating the holiday of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak">Vesak</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prambanan, which also dates from the
ninth century, is one of the largest Hindu temples in Southeast Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is actually a compound of numerous
smaller temples, originally a total 240.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today, the sixteen main structures have been reconstructed, but only two
of the original 224 smaller temples are still standing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mendut is another Buddhist temple, also
built around the ninth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is known primarily for its three large stone statues of Buddha – one each to
liberate devotees from bodily karma, from karma of speech, and from karma of
thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Borobudur, Buddhists
in Indonesia visit Mendut during celebrations of Vesak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We also attended a dance performance in Yogya – a ballet,
technically, though not a ballet in the Western sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accompanied by traditional <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan">gamelan</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> music, the </span><a href="http://www.yogyes.com/en/yogyakarta-tourism-object/performance/ramayana-ballet">Ramayana Ballet</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> is a dance-drama based on the
Sanskrit epic </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana">Ramayana</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, believed
to have been written around the fourth century B.C.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The performance was similar to the one we saw in Bali,
focusing on slow, deliberate movements and featuring incredibly elaborate
costumes and make-up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The following day, we boarded a second-class train to the
Indonesian capital of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta">Jakarta</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train ride took about eight hours
and cost $20.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trains on Java have
three classes, known as economy, business, and executive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ruled out economy class, having
heard horror stories about the number of people that get crammed on each seat,
and settled on business, since executive was nearly twice the price.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess most foreigners spring for
executive, though, as everyone else on the train except one Dutch couple seemed
to be Indonesian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ride was
pretty enjoyable, and the train was much cleaner, less crowded (actually,
probably about half the seats were empty), and more comfortable than
expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business class doesn’t
have air-conditioning, but there was a fan and, with the windows open, it was
very comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People came by
every few minutes selling food, drinks, and other random goods including paper
fans, flip-flops, and moist towelettes, and also renting pillows to
passengers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vendors would flood
into the aisles at certain stops, stay on the train selling things for a bit, then
get off a few stops later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes, they would set things down on the tray next to a passenger’s
seat, leave it there while they continued to the next car – I guess hoping the
passenger would eventually be tempted to buy it – and come back for it a few
minutes later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unlike the seemingly never-ending sprawl of city we passed
on the bus in East Java, the train took us through beautiful rural areas of
Central Java.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We passed small
towns and villages and rice fields, and saw banana and palm trees right by the
tracks and mountains in the distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps another difference between business and executive, our train
stopped a <i>lot</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, often staying stopped for
quite awhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some stops,
children stood on the platforms of the station begging, and I saw one
Indonesian throw a coin through the window onto the ground as his train was
pulling away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The children noticed
us, of course, but most of them left more or less immediately after I shook my
head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Jakarta, a mega-city of
about ten million people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
urban poverty was visible from our seat on the train, as we saw small shacks,
with children playing and women cooking and doing laundry, mere feet from the
tracks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was also fairly dirty,
which I suppose it to be expected in a place housing that many people, with
lots of trash on the ground and floating in the waterways.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our hostel in Jakarta, <a href="http://jakarta-backpackers-hostel.com/">Six Degrees</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, was the first place we stayed in
a dorm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Jakarta is apparently
relatively expensive, even compared to Bali, it was $13/night per bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other than not having a hot water
shower (which, again, was not needed), Six Degrees felt very much like a
European hostel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
air-conditioned, immaculately clean, and included sheets, a blanket, and a
towel; and, each bed had its own lamp and outlet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shared our room with two German guys, a Swiss guy, and an
American girl – not only the first American we’d met, but also a Returned Peace
Corps Volunteer from Paraguay!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The food in Jakarta was as
excellent as it had been everywhere else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For dinner, I had a particularly delicious <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gado-gado">gado-gado</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">, a dish of raw vegetables covered
in peanut sauce that had become my favorite Indonesian meal, for about $3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The breakfast at our hostel was equally
great, and not only included very legitimate toast, but also had peanut butter!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We only had a few hours in Jakarta
before our flight to Bangkok, and we spent it wandering around, trying to see
what there was to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The traffic
was as crazy as any huge developing city, with lots and lots of motorcycles and
<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw">tuk-tuks</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">, and
there were carts and stalls of street food everywhere we looked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also have to note that Jakarta has
McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Domino’s, as well as, believe it or
not, The Cheesecake Factory (</span><i>five</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
of them, actually).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After an
hour-long bus ride from the city to Jakarta’s main airport, it was time to
leave Indonesia for a brief stop in Thailand en-route to Cambodia!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-47131060722837011302012-05-01T08:19:00.002-06:002012-05-01T08:20:19.233-06:00From Bali to JavaWe had initially thought of flying from Bali to our next
destination of <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Yogyakarta">Yogyakarta</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a town in
Central </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java">Java</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. Ultimately, though, we decided to
embark on the adventure of the 18-hour overnight bus/ferry trip, which cost
about $24 and turned out to be just fine (other than the fact that our driver
drove like a crazy person).</span><br />
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We left Kuta for Bali’s central bus station in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denpasar">Denpasar</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, and were surprised to see how orderly it was. There was basically a platform for each
bus, with posted schedules of bus times, companies, and destinations at each
platform. Crazy! The bus itself was even more impressive
– air-conditioning turned up so high it was actually cold, seats that were
practically recliners, a blanket and pillow on each one, wastebaskets in the
aisle. There was even a sign that
said the bus had WiFi, though it didn’t seem to work. I might have thought that was just a marketing lie, but we
could see the router at the front of the bus. Given how fancy the bus was, it was actually a surprise that
there weren’t TVs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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After about thirty minutes of driving (and we left exactly
on time!), we stopped and the conductor hopped off. A minute later, he returned with stacks of small cardboard
boxes and distributed them to the passengers – it was snack time! Each box contained a little pastry, a
package of something that tasted like saltine cracker sandwiches with chocolate
cream, and a box of jasmine tea (like a juice box, only a tea box). The tea tasted like perfume, and we’d
later learn that this perfume-y jasmine tea is something of a staple on Java,
but the food was decent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The drive from Denpasar to the dock was about three hours,
and took us through the most rural parts of Bali I’d seen. The scenery was beautiful, with banana
and palm trees everywhere, bright green rice paddies on the right and hills in
the distance, nearly deserted beach and crashing waves on the left. I briefly considered (actually, I
considered it pretty seriously) jumping off the bus to just stay in Bali.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I stayed on the bus, though, and then got on the ferry,
which held cars and buses on the bottom deck and had a passenger lounge and
deck (as well as concessions!) upstairs.
The ride from the western tip of Bali to the eastern tip of Java took
about one hour, and the views of the hilly islands were gorgeous.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the sun had set during the ferry ride, we didn’t get a
very good first look at Java. We
stopped at around 9:00pm, though, for dinner. The conductor passed out coupons to everyone on the bus,
which were good for a buffet of rice, sauce, chicken, <i>tempe</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, rice cakes, watermelon, and tea. I was surprised, although maybe I
shouldn’t have been, that we were the only foreigners on the bus or at the rest
stop, and we’d only seen one white guy on the ferry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I slept on and off for most of the rest of the ride to
Yogyakarta, but every time I opened my eyes, we seemed to be in a town. Basically, there was no rural part of
the bus ride; it was urban areas, with a few rice fields scattered between, the
entire nine hours from the dock to Yogyakarta. Shockingly, we arrived at our destination around 6:00am, 2.5
hours early – the expected 18-hour journey took only 15.5!<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-79722417839389060072012-04-30T08:44:00.000-06:002012-06-18T14:47:30.456-06:00Surf's Up!As I mentioned <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/04/some-ramblings-about-kuta.html">last time</a>, <span style="font-weight: normal;">the main reason Anna and I went to </span><a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/04/some-ramblings-about-kuta.html%20%20http://wikitravel.org/en/Kuta">Kuta</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> was so I could take surfing lessons. I’ve always wanted to try surfing but
never really had the chance, so I had to take this opportunity to do it – and
what better place than in Bali?
After checking out a few of the surf schools in Kuta, I decided on </span><a href="http://www.odysseysurfschool.com/">Odysseys Surf School</a>,<span style="font-weight: normal;"> which was by far the cheapest
and had great reviews. I initially
thought I’d just do one lesson, maybe one more if the first one went well – I
ended up surfing three days in a row and wishing I could stay in Kuta longer to
do more.</span><br />
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I signed up for a group class, but it ended up being more
like private lessons, which was great.
On the first day, my group had six students – two couples, a Dutch guy,
and me – and three Balinese instructors.
We began the lesson on the beach, learning the “theory” – mainly proper
stance and how to go from lying on the board to standing up. Then we headed for the waves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I remember the beginning of my first day of snowboarding was
pretty rough, as most people’s are, and I was expecting surfing to be about the
same. It was. The first thirty minutes or so
consisted almost exclusively of me getting slammed by waves, inhaling tons of
saltwater, generally having no idea what was going on, and frankly kind of
wanting to get out. Fortunately,
one of the instructors took me under his wing, and things started to get
better. That instructor was also
working with the only other person doing the class alone – who then got hit in
the face by his surfboard and had to get out. So I ended up getting individual help, which I definitely
needed. I slowly started to get
the idea of how things were supposed to work, and it got a lot more fun. Then, very unexpectedly, I finally
stood up on the board, at which point I decided surfing was completely
awesome. The feeling of actually
standing up – and of not immediately falling off – absolutely shocked me. By the end of class, I was having a
blast and didn’t want to get out.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My arms and shoulders were pretty sore the next day, but I
knew I wanted to try surfing again, and the second day ended up being even
better. I got to where I could
stand up pretty consistently and generally had a really great time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Not only was surfing itself great, though, but so were the
people at the surf school. They
could actually tell the white people apart, and remembered me as “Jennifer,”
not just as some <i>muzungu</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. On the second day, I couldn’t believe
how many of the staff, even those I had barely talked to, greeted me by name when
I walked in. As I’ve complained
about many times before, Rwandans called me “</span><i>muzungu</i><span style="font-style: normal;">” every single day, even those who knew me and knew
my name. Having people, even
people I barely knew, call me by name and treat me like an individual person
was extraordinarily refreshing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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At the end of the second day, when I still wanted to keep
going and Anna didn’t want to leave the beach anyway, we decided to stay an
extra night in Kuta. I surfed
again the following day and, while the learning curve started to flatten out a
bit of course, I made some more progress and had a great time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the end, I was sad to not know when I’ll be able to surf
again, and also to leave the people at the surf school – people who treated me
like an old friend and not like a zoo animal. They reminded me that not every place is like Rwanda, which
re-confirmed that I <i>do </i>still really love traveling, meeting new people, and learning about other cultures - something I had begun to doubt somewhat while living in Rwanda.<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-46668686934935983142012-04-26T03:18:00.002-06:002012-06-18T14:47:51.848-06:00Some Ramblings about KutaAfter leaving Ubud, we headed to <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Kuta">Kuta</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, a large beach town on the island’s southern
edge. Having heard mostly terrible
things about Kuta – a town known for its surfing and nightlife, but also for
its overdevelopment, excessive commercialization, and general obnoxiousness –
we decided to go there solely because I wanted to take surfing lessons (more on
that later), and Kuta is basically the only place they’re offered. So, with low expectations –
particularly on Anna’s part, since she wasn’t going to surf – we left the
lovely town of Ubud.</span><br />
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Before arriving in Kuta, I’d heard other travelers who’d
been there describe it as “crowded,” “intense, and “only good for a party,” and
generally talk about how much they disliked it. Maybe our expectations were so low that the reality was
bound to be a pleasant surprise (or maybe it’s our standards that are too low),
but it really was not bad. Sure,
it’s a tourist trap with tons of foreigners, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted
it to be my only destination in Bali, but being there for a few days wasn’t <i>bad</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Had we gone straight to Kuta from Rwanda, I think we would
have been extremely overwhelmed – by the number of Westerners, the revealing
clothes, the level of development, the huge and fancy mall, and the generally availability
of basically everything. We were
shocked by the presence of American restaurants, things that are certainly not
in Rwanda and that we had sort of forgotten exist in other parts of the
developing world – McDonald’s, Burger King, A&W, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza Hut,
Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone, Haagen Dazs, Starbucks, The Coffee Bean – and
multiples of most of them. (As a
side note, many of them, including McDonald’s, have a delivery service –
usually done by motorcycle.) We
also saw Roxy, Billabong, and Quiksilver stores, which were not too surprising,
given the town’s emphasis on surfing.
Stranger, though, were the Ralph Lauren Polo stores (no other Ralph
Lauren lines, only stores selling specifically Polo) on basically every
block. There are at least as many
stores in Ubud, and, having been in both towns for several days, I’ve yet to
see a Balinese person wearing a Ralph Lauren polo – and what foreigner comes
all the way to Bali and decides that’s what they want to buy? I really can’t imagine why they’re here
to begin with, how so many of them can possibly stay open, or why there aren’t
any other similar stores. But I
digress.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our hotel in Kuta, <a href="http://www.hotellusakuta.com/">Hotel Lusa</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, wasn’t as completely awesome as the places we had previously stayed,
but it was fine. It was a bit
cheaper than the one in Ubud, about $22/night for a double including breakfast,
and that was with no discount. We
had a fan, an en-suite bathroom with a cold-water shower, and a patio; plus
there was a pool, its the redeeming quality. The breakfast didn’t include as much as at some places –
there was fruit, toast with eggs or pancakes, and coffee, tea, or orange juice
– but it was excellent (other than the fact that instead of butter, they use
Indonesian Blue Band, which is somehow worse than Rwandan/Kenyan Blue
Band). As in other places we’ve
been on Bali, both the Western and Balinese food was great everywhere in Kuta.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Visiting places outside of Bali’s touristy and commercial
south coast is an absolutely <i>must</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> for
any visit to the island. But I’d
say ignore the people who love to hate Kuta – it’s no different from touristy
towns anywhere else, the beach is nice, there’s always a lot going on, and the
surfing conditions are great for beginners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-41428434267883442212012-04-24T06:34:00.001-06:002012-06-18T09:17:36.469-06:00Hiking and BikingWhile staying in Ubud, I took a couple day trips to the
volcanoes in Bali’s interior – the first to climb <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Batur">Mt. Batur</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and the second to do </span><a href="http://baliecocycling.com/cycling-tour">a bicycling tour</a>.<br />
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People climbing Mt. Batur typically do it as a sunrise
hike. So, after going to bed the
previous night at about 9:00, I woke up at 1:30am to wait for a driver to pick
me up at the hotel. We picked up
three guys (one Slovakian, two British but living in Australia) staying at
other hotels in Ubud, and were on our way to the volcano by around 2:30. We drove for about an hour through the
countryside before stopping for a breakfast of coffee (which, fortunately, was
very strong) and banana pancakes.
A few minutes’ drive from there and we reached the bottom of the trail,
starting the hike around 4:00. It
was really amazing to be hiking in the dark under the moon and stars, though of
course it’s somewhat difficult to hike when you can’t really see where you’re
going. We used flashlights, but
they didn’t always provide enough light to really tell where the trail was –
all part of the adventure! The
hike was a bit more difficult than I was expecting, mainly because our guide
was going faster than I would have preferred, which I’ve heard a lot of people
who’ve done the hike complain about.
With the rate we were going, it only took about two hours to reach the
top, and we got there just before 6:00, at which point it was still dark. The view from the top was beautiful,
though unfortunately I don’t think my pictures really did it justice. The viewpoint on the top looked out
over a lake<span style="color: red;"> </span>and across to another volcano, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Agung">Mt. Agung</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – it was a great backdrop to watch
the sunrise and the gradual transition from darkness to daylight. Seeing the beginning of a new day from
the top of a volcano was very invigorating, and the gorgeous scenery of Bali’s
interior made it even better. Some
time after the sunrise, and a breakfast (lunch?) of banana sandwiches and
hard-boiled eggs, we headed down the mountain and drove back to Ubud – in time
to continue the day with everyone else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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A few days later, I had the opportunity to go back to the
volcanoes for a bike tour, which offered a different perspective on the same
beautiful area. After driving out
of Ubud, we started the day with a breakfast of fruit, tea, coffee, and banana
and chocolate pancakes – and a great view overlooking the volcanoes and the
lake. Our group – made up of
travelers from all over, including a British girl living in New Zealand, three
Germans teaching English in Thailand, and a Chilean couple on their honeymoon –
had a fantastic and hilarious guide who explained more about Bali and Balinese
culture in that day that I had learned in the previous week here. During the bike ride, we stopped at a
coffee farm, a family compound, a village “square,” and a rice paddy. For me, seeing the compound and
learning more about Balinese family structures and daily life was the highlight
of the trip. The ride had a few
challenging moments, but was mostly downhill and very easy, as we had driven up
into the mountains and then biked back down towards town. Biking on small backroads in the
interior of the island offered a chance to see much more rural and less
touristy parts of Bali than I would have been able to see otherwise. It really enhanced my experience here
and gave me much more perspective on local realities. After ending the tour at an amazing buffet, which included
delicious <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh">tempeh</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_488092748">chicken </a></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipes/r/thaichickensate.html">satay</a></span> </i></b><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">(skewers of chicken served with peanut sauce), we headed
back into Ubud, slightly sore but with a much better understanding of Bali.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-72325206262138520922012-04-20T07:00:00.000-06:002012-06-18T14:46:20.733-06:00Ubud - Bali's Cultural CapitalThough it’s neither the capital nor the biggest city, <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Ubud">Ubud</a><b>
</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">is the cultural center of Bali, and most
visitors spend some time here. The
town, comprised of narrow streets lined with shops and restaurants, is bigger
than I was expecting and has a lot going on. Ubud has a lot of travelers, as well as ex-pats, from all
over the world – I’ve heard most visitors to Bali are Australian, which means
sense given its proximity, but the vast majority of people I’ve met so far have
been European. It seems there are
hardly any Americans – actually, I think I’ve only heard American accents once.</span><br />
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Our hotel in Ubud, <a href="http://nickshotels-ubud.com/bali-hotels/nicks-homestay.html">Nick’s Homestay</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, is very different from the one in Pemuteran, but
just as great. It’s basically an
expanded version of a traditional Balinese compound – the family who owns the
hotel lives in the compound’s front buildings, and the buildings in the back
hold guest rooms. Our double room
is about $23/night – again with a discount – and has a patio, a fan, and an en-suite
bathroom that sometimes has hot water.
Breakfast is included, and the hotel staff brings it to our patio each
morning whenever we ask. It’s
usually tea, fruit, and a banana </span><a href="http://alexparsons.com/2011/01/03/jaffle">jaffle</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, which is basically two pieces of toast formed into a pocket and
stuffed with a filling, like fruit, vegetables, eggs, cheese, or meat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Since Ubud is the center of Bali’s tourism industry (and of
its ex-pat scene, as far as we can tell), the town has a huge variety of
amazing restaurants serving all kinds of Western food. We decided this would be our time to
indulge in all the things we missed in Rwanda and splurge on lots of nice meals
out. I’ve had humus, nachos,
salads, a chicken quesadilla, Greek pizza, chicken and vegetable pizza,
fettuccine with feta and veggies, spinach- and ricotta-stuffed tortellini with veggies,
and gnocchi with pesto and chicken.
I’ve also tried Bali’s most common beers, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bintang_Beer">Bintang</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and </span><a href="http://www.balihaibeer.com/intro.html">Bali Hai</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (I definitely preferred Bintang, but thought both were pretty good),
as well as the local </span><a href="http://www.hattenwines.com/winery.htm">Hatten</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">
wine, which was really good, though a little odd in that the red was served
chilled. The restaurants in Ubud
have been amazing, and exactly what we were hoping for coming from Rwanda, but
I’m looking forward to eating lots more Indonesian food during the next portion
of the trip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In addition to great restaurants, Ubud is practically
overflowing with cute shops selling all manner of clothes, accessories, décor,
and other souvenirs. I managed to
limit my impulses somewhat, but did end up with a few things for myself and
some gifts for people at home. We also
discovered an outlet store selling name brand stuff for really cheap –
Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Express, Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale,
American Eagle, and more. I got a
cute White House Black Market top for $10!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ubud is not only about consumption, though, it’s also about
art. There’s so much happening
here and so many things available to visitors – multiple performances every
single night and various types of classes, not to mention museums and
temples. We went to a <a href="http://www.edwebproject.org/bali/gallery/puppet.html">shadow puppet</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – yes, shadow puppet – show one
evening. Shadow puppetry, known as
</span><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayang">wayang kulit</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">, is a prominent feature of Balinese culture and tradition and has been
recognized by UNESCO as a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterpieces_of_the_Oral_and_Intangible_Heritage_of_Humanity">Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">. During the show, a puppeteer sits next
to a lamp or flame behind a screen, and holds the puppets between the screen
and flame to create a shadow. I
should note that these are typical puppets that you put your hand inside (nor
is the show a person making shadow puppets with their hand, which was all I
could think of before seeing it); they’re more like stiff paper dolls, with
individual sticks controlling each limb.
The show told the story of man who offered to sacrifice himself for his
people, but used his supernatural powers to overcome the demons fighting
against him. The experience of the
show was pretty strange – and particularly incomprehensible to us since almost
all the dialogue was in one of several Indonesian and Indian languages – but it was really interesting, and, considering
how important shadow puppetry is here, I’m really glad I got to see a show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Another night, we attended a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese_dance">Balinese dance</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> performance, which was also different than I had
expected, but really cool. Bali
has three major types of dances, and the one was saw, </span><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecak">Kecak</a></i><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">, is known for its use of fire – a
fire is lit the center of the stage at the beginning and burns throughout the
show. More than just dance, </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1617256142">a
</a><i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1617256142">kecak </a></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.connectedtraveler.com/video/64-video/279-dancing-with-the-apes-kecak-dance-bali-video">show</a></span> is a
combination of dance, dialogue, and music. Actually, no instruments are used; rather, the men perform
elaborate organized chanting, which sounds almost like instruments. They sit in a circle around the fire
throughout much of the show, while the other characters dance around them. The show depicted a prince who must
fight against a demon king to rescue his wife. Dance is a huge part of Balinese culture, and it seems that <i>kecak</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is the most popular form, so it was great to be able
to see a performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Balinese cooking classes are also quite popular in Ubud, and
we took a vegetarian course at a local restaurant. We learned to make several dishes: a soup, a salad,
vegetables with peanut sauce, tempeh with sweet soy sauce, tofu steamed in
banana leaves, fried noodles, and Indonesian crepes. I learned a lot about different spices, herbs, vegetables,
and cooking techniques, and everything we made was absolutely delicious. Most of the ingredients we used are at
least somewhat available in the U.S., or have easy substitutions, and we got a
recipe book at the end of the class, so I hope to make some Balinese food when
I get home! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Another big activity in Ubud is going to the spa, which is
great both for relaxing and for scrubbing off the African dirt! In what was probably one of the most
luxurious and indulgent days of my life, we purchased a package at the <a href="http://www.jelatikesthetic.com/">Jelatik Spa</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and spent about five hours having
various treatments there. And it
all cost about $55 – the price of a single treatment at home! In addition to a facial and pedicure, I
had a hair cream bath, which seem to be popular here and is basically a deep
cleaning shampoo and deep condition with steam, and the traditional <i>lular </i></span>treatment,
which consists of a massage, body scrub, yogurt rub, soaking in a floral bath,
and body lotion. It was SO
relaxing, and I feel cleaner than I’ve felt in two years – it was more than
worth the $11 an hour!<o:p></o:p></div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-46863937563560708432012-04-16T02:29:00.001-06:002012-04-16T02:32:09.678-06:00First Stop - Pemuteran, Bali<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m officially no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I left Rwanda for good a little over a week ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Maybe I should write more about how I’m feeling about all that, and maybe I will later, but for now, I want to talk about the trip!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Anna, my good friend and fellow volunteer, and I decided to celebrate finishing Peace Corps with a backpacking trip in Southeast Asia, starting in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali">Bali</a>!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We left Kigali on Qatar Airways last Friday afternoon, spent Friday night in the lounge at the Doha airport, left for Bangkok on Saturday morning, spent Saturday night at a small hotel near the Bangkok airport, flew out of Bangkok early Sunday morning, arrived in Bali’s capital of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denpasar">Denpasar</a><span style="font-weight:normal"> around noon, drove four hours across the island, and finally made it to our first destination – </span><a href="http://www.pemuteranbali.com">Pemuteran</a>!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We went to Pemuteran, a small beach town on Bali’s north coast, on the advice of a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, who’d visited Bali before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A ways off the island’s main tourist track, the town of Pemuteran is essentially just some buildings along a small section of the main (but extremely narrow) road that runs along the north coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The town pretty much consists of just that one road, lined with hotels and guesthouses, tiny <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warung">warung</a></i><span style="font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"> restaurants, small shops, spas and salons, and a few street vendors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hearing that Pemuteran was a quiet, laid-back place with nothing much to do besides lay at the beach or by a pool, we thought it would be the perfect first stop, a place for us to relax and finally decompress from the constant tension of living as Peace Corps Volunteers in Rwanda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The narrow, black-sand beach is perhaps not the most spectacular in the world, but it was gorgeous and great for sunbathing and swimming, and a few days of relaxing there was just what we needed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Of course, one of the biggest things we noticed in Pemuteran was the lack of staring and pointing – we could walk down the road without causing a scene!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>People would typically look up to say hello, and children would sometimes wave, and then go about their business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was a refreshing change, to say the least.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We stayed at the <a href="http://kubukuhotel.com">Kubuku Hotel</a>,<span style="font-weight:normal"> which was wonderful, especially considering – we got a discount since it’s the low season and we stayed five nights – it was only about $22/night for a double room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To us, the room was pretty fancy, with an en-suite bathroom with a cold water shower (it was hot enough that hot water really wouldn’t have been a benefit), really soft towels, a fan AND air-conditioner, and a patio with a view of the mountains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Breakfast was included, and each morning was a feast and with TONS of choices.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Coffee or tea?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Which of five different fruit juices?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Eggs scrambled, fried, or in an omelet?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Toast or pancake?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Banana pancake, lemon pancake, pineapple pancake, or honey pancake?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>After trying the banana pancake, and discovering it was amazing, I had that with scrambled eggs, tea, and orange or watermelon juice the rest of the mornings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In addition to the included breakfast, and getting juice and fruit at check-in, we also got an afternoon snack each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The hotel staff brought tea and fried bananas, egg rolls, or </span><i><a href="http://www.tasty-indonesian-food.com/dadar-gulung.html">dadar galung</a></i><span style="font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"> on a tray to our patio each afternoon, so we could have it overlooking the courtyard at our convenience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The people at the hotel were so kind and friendly – clearly customer service is valued here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One night, while there was a ceremony going on down the street, one of the employees came to our room, extremely concerned that the noise was bothering us, and offered to let us leave our stuff but<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>sleep in a different room that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It really wasn’t that loud, and we opted to stay where we were, but the concern was very sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We ate in a different <i>warung</i><span style="font-style:normal"> every night, and the food was wonderful and cheap across the board, and often beautifully presented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All the dishes had lots of flavor and spices – which was a welcome change – and most came served with rice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Plates of chicken or vegetable curry or chicken skewers with peanut sauce ran about $3, and every meal was absolutely delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All in all, visiting Pemuteran made a wonderful beginning for our trip.</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-13976679000074551102012-04-06T17:02:00.003-06:002012-04-06T17:12:26.571-06:00Thinking about Returning to the U.S.<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal">On a similar note to <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/04/good-bad-and-ugly.html">my last post</a>, as I think about returning to the U.S., I’ve been preparing myself for things I’m excited about and things I’m really not looking forward to (yes, there are some!). </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Things I’m Excited For:</b><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Hot showers – with <i>water pressure<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Electricity that never goes out<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Hi-speed Internet that always works<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- No delays on the phone<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Washing machines and dryers<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Stoves, ovens, and refrigerators<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Carpet<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Trashcans, recycling, and garbage pick-up<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Driving my own car<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- A high-quality mattress and pillow<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Food!<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Grocery stores<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Restaurants<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Not having bugs, rodents, reptiles, or amphibians in my house<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- The gym<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Things I’m </b><i><b>Really </b></i><span style="font-style:normal"><b>Excited For:</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Never being called “<i>muzungu</i><span style="font-style:normal">”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Not being constantly made fun of and insulted<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Not being watched<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Not having my every action judged<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Not having people constantly poke me, rub me, or pull my hair<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Being able to silence or turn off my phone without risking infuriating somebody</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Things I’m Dreading:</b><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Consumerism<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Waste<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Excess privilege<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:165.0pt">- Ignorance<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">- Lack of concern about other parts of the world<o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-20300129485071812852012-04-04T10:41:00.003-06:002012-04-04T10:51:17.312-06:00The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></b></p><b><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">As my Peace Corps service draws to a close and I prepare to leave Rwanda, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the things I’ll miss about living here, the things I </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">won’t</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> miss, and the things I’m just dying to get away from.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Good: Things I’ll miss</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b></b></span></p><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- My close friends in Nyagatare</span></p></b><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- My fellow volunteers</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Teaching</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- The abundance and variety of plants, shrubs, trees, and flowers</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- The view of the hills as I walk from my house towards town</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Speaking multiple languages everyday</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Riding motorcycles<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Dancing in church<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Getting really excited about the relative luxury of the city</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Open-air markets, where you never know what you'll find</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- The sense of being/living in Africa</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Villages<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Fanta<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- African tea<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- The peanut sauce my best friend in Nyagatare makes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Homemade French fries<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Passionfruit<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Tree tomatoes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Avocados that cost less than $0.10 a piece<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Zaaffran (former volunteers who are now back home say Indian food in the States doesn't compare!)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Bad: Things that really aren’t terrible, but that I can’t say I’ll <i>miss</i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Cooking over my little kerosene stove on the floor in the doorway</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Washing dishes in a bucket<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Hand washing my clothes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Bucket showers</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Having lizards, roaches, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and spiders in my house</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Power outages everyday</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Constant water shortages</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Slow and unreliable Internet</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Unreliable cell phone service</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Crowded </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">matatus</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> that stop every five minutes</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Stumbling down rocky dirt roads in the pitch dark</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Church services that last 3+ hours</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Pre-paid cell phone and Internet credit – and inevitably running out of credit at inopportune times</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Wondering if what's served to you will be anything like the description on the menu</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- People screaming “SORRY SORRY SORRY” every time you trip or drop something</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Ugly: Things I cannot wait to get away from<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Being called “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">muzungu</span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">” every time I leave my house, even by people who know me and know my name</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Being insulted and made fun of every single day</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Being laughed at for making an effort to learn the local language</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Being stared at</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Having every single I do be judged by the people around me</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Being poked, prodded, rubbed, and grabbed</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Having children screaming right outside my house at all hours</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Seeing my fence become more destroyed each time I'm gone overnight</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- The way Rwandans make fun of other Rwandans for being friends with a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">muzungu<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">- Having people get irritated and angry every time my phone is off or miss a call</span><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </b><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-71904912656086192542012-03-12T10:19:00.000-06:002012-03-12T10:20:55.246-06:00Teaching in Rwanda<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">As my last term of school in Rwanda nears its end, I’ve been reflecting a lot on my teaching experiences here and on the things I’ve learned about education in developing countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Though I officially came as a health volunteer, teaching has been the most rewarding work I’ve done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It has been the most enjoyable and, I think, has had the most impact.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Teaching in any developing or non-Western country is fundamentally very different from teaching in the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One of the most noticeable differences is the relative lack of resources, which is something I faced, even at schools that are fairly high quality by Rwandan standards.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Public and private schools across Rwanda lack the necessary number and variety of textbooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some classes don’t have books at all, leaving the teacher to create a curriculum entirely from scratch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Even when there are books, there often aren’t enough, and three or four students have to huddle around one book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Another major problem is that many of the textbooks produced in Rwanda and Uganda just aren’t very good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They’re filled with mistakes, teach obscure and unnecessary topics, and are often impractical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On the other hand, some schools have Western textbooks, which are equally problematic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The topics of stories and articles in textbooks from the West often presume knowledge about certain places, people, or events, making them both confusing and irrelevant to Rwandan students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Further, Western books containing depictions of Africa are too often stereotypical and sometimes even insulting, such as stories focusing exclusively on jungle animals, treating the entire continent as one entity, or portraying Africans as savages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In addition, when using Western books, it’s difficult to find appropriate books for a given grade level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For example, most Senior Two (the equivalent of 8<sup>th</sup> grade) students in Rwanda don’t have the English ability to use an 8<sup>th</sup>-grade textbook.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But, the content of, say, a 4<sup>th</sup>- or 5<sup>th</sup>- grade textbook might be too immature, especially as many Rwandan students are behind, resulting in 20-year-olds who are still in secondary school. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The lack of books, however, is only the tip of the iceberg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The majority of the technology that American teachers use to save time and make classes more interesting doesn’t exist here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Instead of printing and photocopying handouts and worksheets, Rwandan teachers have to use class time to write notes and exercises on the bored, which students then have to copy into their notebooks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Similarly, classrooms have no projectors, no computers, no means of showing films or pictures or using the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I didn’t realize until I started teaching in Rwanda how much technology allows American teachers to maximize class time and, ultimately, cover more material more extensively than is possible here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When you realize that Rwandans spend half their class time writing and copying notes that, in the U.S., would be on a handout and distributed in thirty seconds – or would be included in the students’ textbooks – it’s clear that they won’t be able to cover nearly enough material.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Scheduling here also tends to be much…looser.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Despite many schools having a timekeeper or some sort of “bell” (at one of my schools, a selected student keeps the time and bangs a stick on a rusty old piece of metal) at the end of each period, classes start late and end late almost as a rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Further, it is extremely common for teachers to be absent, often with no notification.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There are no substitutes here, so when one teacher is absent, a teacher of another subject who happens to be free that period is called in to teach, with no notes from the actual teacher or time to plan a lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On a somewhat related note, school administration frequently holds meetings (that could be conducted after school hours) during classes, causing students to miss out on even more class time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The last major thing I have noticed about education here has to do with exams and grades, which I will illustrate with two stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First story – At the end of the school year last year, three of my students had failed their English class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A few days after the regular finals, the students who had failed came back for supplementary exams, which are basically a second chance for students to pass an exam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And, the supplementary exam is different from the original one – and intentionally designed to be easier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In my case, two of the students also failed the supplementary exam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I was then told, with about two minutes notice, to give those students an oral exam to make up for their having failed the supplementary exam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Had the “oral exam” been legitimately graded, they would have failed that, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, by that point, it was clear that the easier supplementary exam and the makeshift oral exam are just excuses to add points to the students’ grades until they pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A passing grade here is 50%, and, when I mentioned that two of my students had failed, the other teachers literally said, “Well, you must make them have at least fifty.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As in, “Well, you must write that their grade is fifty, regardless of what it actually is.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I know this doesn’t always happen at all schools, as I know students sometimes receive failing grades, but I’m sure this school is not the only one.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Second story – This I have not witnessed directly, but is based on what I’ve heard from multiple other volunteers.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>At the end of Primary Six (6<sup>th</sup> grade), Senior 3 (9<sup>th</sup> grade), and Senior 6 (12<sup>th</sup> grade), all students in Rwanda take national exams, which determine if, where, and in what field they’ll continue their studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>National exam scores are the sole determinant of a student’s educational future – a lot is riding on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unfortunately, the grading process is evidently riddled with problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The exams are graded by hand, not machine, meaning there will inevitably be human error, both in and against students’ favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Further, it is quite common for the answer key to have the wrong answer on it, and nothing to be done about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A student might have the correct answer, but will be marked wrong because of mistakes in the answer key.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Things that these are just so frustrating and disheartening, and they really won’t improve without systematic change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It also makes any unfairness I felt in high school, a few points here or they that I thought I deserved, seem pretty trivial.</p> <!--EndFragment-->Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-27342005876135139772012-02-17T08:45:00.003-07:002012-02-17T08:54:31.172-07:00Unacceptable Behavior<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in">To follow up on <a href="http://jeneambrose.blogspot.com/2012/02/acceptable-behavior.html">my last post</a>,<span style="font-weight:normal"> here’s a list of things that <i>aren't </i></span>acceptable in Rwanda.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">-Not answering your phone, no matter the time or reason</p> <p class="MsoNormal">-Turning down an offer of food or drink</p> <p class="MsoNormal">-Turning down an offer of seconds or thirds</p> <p class="MsoNormal">-Not finishing the amount given to you, regardless of how much it is</p> <p class="MsoNormal">-Turning down an invitation for any reason (even if it's because of work)</p><p class="MsoNormal">-Having long fingernails</p> <!--EndFragment-->Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262675111921252051.post-86659979904419782732012-02-07T11:08:00.002-07:002012-02-09T12:25:19.589-07:00Acceptable BehaviorFirst-time visitors to foreign countries sometimes inadvertently insult locals with behavior that is acceptable at home; at the same time, they might be shocked by seemingly rude behavior that is considered okay in the country they’re visiting. In many cases, what’s rude in the U.S. is acceptable in Rwanda. Here are some examples:<br /><br />-Talking on the phone in the middle of the night, while sharing a room (or even bed) with other people<br /><br />-Picking your nose<br /><br />-Pushing and shoving<br /><br />-Refusing to wait in line<br /><br />-Insulting people to their face (such as telling them they are fat or ugly, that you don’t like their clothes, that they don’t know anything, that they don’t work hard, or that you like their friend more than them)<br /><br />-Putting your elbows on the table<br /><br />-Asking people how much they weigh<br /><br />-Asking people how much money they have<br /><br />-Repeatedly calling someone every few minutes if they don’t answer<br /><br />-Using phones at any time, including in church, at meetings, and during classes<br /><br />-Not saying “please” or “thank you”<br /><br />-Randomly asking people for things (ie, coming up to a random person on the street and asking them for money)<br /><br />-Asking other people to a store buy you something, like crackers or gum<br /><br />-Inviting someone to your house and then ignoring them, or even leaving to go somewhere else while they’re there<div><br /></div><div>-Spitting</div><div><br /></div><div>-Staring<br /><br />Check back soon to find out what <i>isn’t</i> acceptable here!</div>Jennifer E. Ambrosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04357493882677314891noreply@blogger.com0