Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Professional!
Yes, I've been incredibly slack with this blog, but in my defence im incredibly slack in general, so it all evens out in a way. Just thought i should mention that im still alive, still in Cambodia watching gibbons, seeing the country (and small parts of others) and getting bitten by strange insects (the most recent being a centipede bite on my chest and a wasp sting just inside my nose, both long stories for another time). Big news is that i am now officially a consultant for Conservation International, and am getting a small stipend! I'm gonna go get a suit made up to celebrate and i'll chuck up pics when i get a chance.
Friday, April 24, 2009
the facebook status updates.
Thought i should let everyone else in on whats been happening but dont really have the patience to sit through writing another blog. And then i had the brilliant idea to just cut and paste my facebook status updates. they explain most of whats been happening the last week or so. Its been crazy, but i'll let to posts explain:
April 18
"has been attacked by an angry male turkey while on the back of a moto, seen a giant dog magically appear from a garbage bin smaller than the dog AND been told off for not eating the spinal cord floating in his soup. And that was just this morning"
April 24
"has had the most adventurous two days ever. He's raced the monsoon to the vietnamese border twice (won once, lost the other), walked up a river made of road (the moto couldnt ride with me dragging it down), nearly been arrested by Cambodian border guards for being an illegal alien, hitched a ride sitting next to the engine of a homemade truck transporting illegally logged lumber, Been given food and drink and a smack around the back of the head by a toothless Vietnamese lady (got me in trouble for having my wallet where it could be pickpocketed), had a stranger stop me on the street and give me Laotian money for apparently no reason, had to rescue one of my thongs from the quicksand at the bottom of a puddle infested by leeches (scariest shit ever), been the only westerner in a city of 150,000 people and walked around with a million dong in my pocket. Might take a while to top these last 2 days"
"i did forget the part about trying to bribe people with a busted camera, among other things. more because its written into certain contracts for certain NGOs that we work for that we wont bribe people."
April 25
"[My] last 24 hours may have topped the 48 before that. Had lunch paid for by a Cambodian drug runner and his Vietnamese brothel owner friend, nearly been kicked off a bus because i couldnt understand what the driver was asking me, fallen asleep outside a travel agent at 3 am, been taken in by two Viet Kong veterans (who now sells rice wine with giant cobras pickling in it, as well as illegal dead wildlife), and finally booked a flight to Hanoi. should be there in 6 hours! I also remembered that on my last day in camp i was given a package of 'medicine' with a red and white umbrella and 'the umbrella corporation' written on the front. inside were little yellow tablets with 'modern' stamped on them. needless to say i didnt take too long to ditch them. life imitating videogames anyone?"
Forgot about the 6 or 7 Vietnamese army supervisors that glared at me when i couldn't stop staring enviously at their pith helmets
And thats the week so far. I'm pretty sure more crazy things are going to happen in Hanoi when I get there this afternoon.
Edit: Oh! i forgot to mention the moto driver i had back in cambodia that had a full black acid wash denim outfit. except for this neon pink trucker cab with a gold glitter rim. he was awesome
April 18
"has been attacked by an angry male turkey while on the back of a moto, seen a giant dog magically appear from a garbage bin smaller than the dog AND been told off for not eating the spinal cord floating in his soup. And that was just this morning"
April 24
"has had the most adventurous two days ever. He's raced the monsoon to the vietnamese border twice (won once, lost the other), walked up a river made of road (the moto couldnt ride with me dragging it down), nearly been arrested by Cambodian border guards for being an illegal alien, hitched a ride sitting next to the engine of a homemade truck transporting illegally logged lumber, Been given food and drink and a smack around the back of the head by a toothless Vietnamese lady (got me in trouble for having my wallet where it could be pickpocketed), had a stranger stop me on the street and give me Laotian money for apparently no reason, had to rescue one of my thongs from the quicksand at the bottom of a puddle infested by leeches (scariest shit ever), been the only westerner in a city of 150,000 people and walked around with a million dong in my pocket. Might take a while to top these last 2 days"
"i did forget the part about trying to bribe people with a busted camera, among other things. more because its written into certain contracts for certain NGOs that we work for that we wont bribe people."
April 25
"[My] last 24 hours may have topped the 48 before that. Had lunch paid for by a Cambodian drug runner and his Vietnamese brothel owner friend, nearly been kicked off a bus because i couldnt understand what the driver was asking me, fallen asleep outside a travel agent at 3 am, been taken in by two Viet Kong veterans (who now sells rice wine with giant cobras pickling in it, as well as illegal dead wildlife), and finally booked a flight to Hanoi. should be there in 6 hours! I also remembered that on my last day in camp i was given a package of 'medicine' with a red and white umbrella and 'the umbrella corporation' written on the front. inside were little yellow tablets with 'modern' stamped on them. needless to say i didnt take too long to ditch them. life imitating videogames anyone?"
Forgot about the 6 or 7 Vietnamese army supervisors that glared at me when i couldn't stop staring enviously at their pith helmets
And thats the week so far. I'm pretty sure more crazy things are going to happen in Hanoi when I get there this afternoon.
Edit: Oh! i forgot to mention the moto driver i had back in cambodia that had a full black acid wash denim outfit. except for this neon pink trucker cab with a gold glitter rim. he was awesome
Thursday, April 9, 2009
the first expedition and Angkor
so as im sure everyone knows ive been pretty slack with this thing. I could argue that i have been insanely busy, or that i was sick with some weird disease, but to be honest, i just didnt feel like writing the blog that much.
But I should probably get everything down before i forget it, so here is the abridged version. if you want to hear more about anything in particular post a comment and i'll elaborate.
The first expedition:
Loved seeing the gibbons, hated everything else. Nights are freezing out there, food was awful (pigs guts and foetii, fertilised chicken eggs and fermented fish paste, yum) and washing your own clothes by hand is the most annoying thing ever. i dont think i'll ever look at a washing machine the same way again. Being on an antimalarial called Lariam didnt help, with its wonderful side effects of depression and paranoia. For a while I was convinced that the two guys I work with were plotting against me to get me out of there as quickly as possible. Not everything was bad though, I got to see a gaur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaur) while sitting in camp one morning (these things are super rare and shy, so far as I know I'm the only expat working for CI in the region to have seen one) and we spent a couple of days looking for signs of tiger. We found a couple of tracks that where big enough to be tiger, but it had rained between when they were laid and when we found them, so we couldn't really get any decent shots of them. Still, nice to know there is a tiger living within a kilometre of where we sleep.
That was about it for the first trip. Had some hassles with money on the way back and by the time I got back to Phnom Penh I was done. I was really contemplating heading home either straight away or sticking out one more trip and heading home in a month. But I spoke to my boss and he told me to take a break, head up to Siem Reap and Angkor and think about it a bit before I made any decisions.
Good thing I listened to him. Headed up to Siem Reap (the tourist town close to Angkor) and spent 5 days there. The place is amazing, Angkor was fantastic. I had this idea that it would be all touristy and you'd have to stick to the path and be surrounded by tour groups talking loudly and taking a million photos. Thankfully for the vast majority of the temples that wasnt the case at all. Granted at the temple of Angkor Wat it is like that and I found it really over-rated compared to the other lesser known temples. But some of these places are amazing. Being the only person in Bayon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon) for sunrise was awesome, as was climbing the more remote temples and suddenly finding yourself in some secret little room feeling like you just discovered the place.
The nightlife and backpackers of Siem Reap helped loads as well, met a whole bunch of rad english and finnish people, with a few americans thrown in for good measure. Had such an awesome time drinking in Angkor What? (rad uni style bar thats been there forever, and has obscure transformers graffiti) and sneaking around the backpackers hostel trying to discreetly steal palm leaves to make hats out of (we had a hat making competition one night, far more awesome than it sounds). Only problem was that I was slightly poorer than expected and ended up with literally $2 to my name once the trip up to SR was over.
But I should probably get everything down before i forget it, so here is the abridged version. if you want to hear more about anything in particular post a comment and i'll elaborate.
The first expedition:
Loved seeing the gibbons, hated everything else. Nights are freezing out there, food was awful (pigs guts and foetii, fertilised chicken eggs and fermented fish paste, yum) and washing your own clothes by hand is the most annoying thing ever. i dont think i'll ever look at a washing machine the same way again. Being on an antimalarial called Lariam didnt help, with its wonderful side effects of depression and paranoia. For a while I was convinced that the two guys I work with were plotting against me to get me out of there as quickly as possible. Not everything was bad though, I got to see a gaur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaur) while sitting in camp one morning (these things are super rare and shy, so far as I know I'm the only expat working for CI in the region to have seen one) and we spent a couple of days looking for signs of tiger. We found a couple of tracks that where big enough to be tiger, but it had rained between when they were laid and when we found them, so we couldn't really get any decent shots of them. Still, nice to know there is a tiger living within a kilometre of where we sleep.
That was about it for the first trip. Had some hassles with money on the way back and by the time I got back to Phnom Penh I was done. I was really contemplating heading home either straight away or sticking out one more trip and heading home in a month. But I spoke to my boss and he told me to take a break, head up to Siem Reap and Angkor and think about it a bit before I made any decisions.
Good thing I listened to him. Headed up to Siem Reap (the tourist town close to Angkor) and spent 5 days there. The place is amazing, Angkor was fantastic. I had this idea that it would be all touristy and you'd have to stick to the path and be surrounded by tour groups talking loudly and taking a million photos. Thankfully for the vast majority of the temples that wasnt the case at all. Granted at the temple of Angkor Wat it is like that and I found it really over-rated compared to the other lesser known temples. But some of these places are amazing. Being the only person in Bayon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon) for sunrise was awesome, as was climbing the more remote temples and suddenly finding yourself in some secret little room feeling like you just discovered the place.
The nightlife and backpackers of Siem Reap helped loads as well, met a whole bunch of rad english and finnish people, with a few americans thrown in for good measure. Had such an awesome time drinking in Angkor What? (rad uni style bar thats been there forever, and has obscure transformers graffiti) and sneaking around the backpackers hostel trying to discreetly steal palm leaves to make hats out of (we had a hat making competition one night, far more awesome than it sounds). Only problem was that I was slightly poorer than expected and ended up with literally $2 to my name once the trip up to SR was over.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Angkor
So I really wasnt that excited about Angkor Wat before I got here. Dunno why, but I really wasn't that keen. I don't know what I was thinking, the place is amazing. But the free internet here is painful and theres a line of people waiting to use the computer. Again the post is being delayed until I get back to Phnom Penh.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
back
So im back from the jungle. things were ...interesting. to be honest i cant really be bothered writing about them now, so i'll do a mega post either in siem reap or when i get back to phnom penh in a few days.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Off to the forest
So, internet in Banlung is a little slow. Its taken me about 15 minutes just to load up this page, and its fairly pricy so I'll have to make this one short. Caught a crammed minibus to Banlung yesterday. Strange ride. And the last 3 hours were on some fairly poor quality dirt roads, but not too bad all things considered. I think the worst part was the bad Khmer karaoke and stand up comedy that was blaring at us the entire time. Apparently quite entertaining if you understand it though.
Went up to the volcanic crater lake last night. Can't remember the name but it was incredible. Look up photos of Ratanakiri lake and it should come up. Off to the forest today. I'll be gone about 3 weeks and I'll be giving a much more detailed description when I get back to Phnom Penh.
Have a good one.
Went up to the volcanic crater lake last night. Can't remember the name but it was incredible. Look up photos of Ratanakiri lake and it should come up. Off to the forest today. I'll be gone about 3 weeks and I'll be giving a much more detailed description when I get back to Phnom Penh.
Have a good one.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The most high tech stop lights ever.
Wow. This place is insane. So incredibly contradictory. So amazingly friendly. Got here last Thursday and was picked up by my boss and what I thought was the most dangerous taxi driver of all time. within a minute of leaving the airport we were driving on the wrong side of the road, pretty much playing chicken with a massive truck. Now that I've been here a few more days I realise that if anything, he was one of the more timid taxi drivers. Thankfully cars arent the main form of transport in this place. All the locals ride around on scooters, and a couple have tuk tuks (a scooter with a trailer on the back which sits 4 people). so much easier, faster and safer (not to mention a million times more fun) to just hop on the back of a moto (the local name for scooters) and get a lift across town. you can get pretty much anywhere for under a dollar. fantastic. and the traffic lights. i've never seen lights that high tech anywhere. they all have timers telling you how long until they change and the little man that tells pedestrians to cross is this complete animation. he starts off just slowly walking, taking his time, but as time runs out he keeps speeding up until at about 5 seconds he is sprinting. so strange to see that in a country that doesnt have a working postal service. and everyone has mobile phones. but you pretty much throw your garbage in the street and some guy will come and collect it. oh, and all cafes and bars in PP have free wi-fi. but no one has a home phone. i think thats part of the charm of this place.
Been spending most of my time just getting supplies for the trip and meeting the local CI (conservation international, the NGO i'm volunteering for) crew. Everyone was incredibly nice. The local Cambodians I'll be working with seem awesome as well. Language seems like it might be a little barrier to start with, but they have at least a basic understanding of English and Khmer is a very easy language to pick up by all accounts (I've already got 2 of the most important sentences down, Beer moi (One beer) and moi tiat (One more)). Theres also heaps of Expats and tourists here, so thats helping with the homesickness.
Went for a drive out to the national zoo on Saturday. The drive was crazy, this place is so much flatter than anywhere i've ever been before. And all so uniform. Just pretty dead rice patty fields with occasional solitary coconut palms. it was a little depressing actually. the guys i was with were saying that because the country has been farmed so poorly for the last 1000 years theres just no nutrients left in the ground. its crazy, theres no dirt here. everything is sand. if its like this in the forest i might get a little thrown off walking on dirt when i get back.
Damn, nearly forgot to mention the interesting dining experience we had on Saturday night. ordered beef lok lak (cubed beef with some sort of sweet sauce) and I saw on the menu that there was 'friend red ant'. I figured I couldnt come to a place like this and not order, so we got some brought out. It was, interesting. Very spicy (i think from the formic acid they sting you with) and a strange texture. Not bad on its own but I dont think i'd get it again. Strangely it worked fantastically as a dipping sauce with the beef. I would order beef lok lak with ant sauce again in a second.
So I've got a bus trip up to Bam Long tomorrow. Should be interesting, apparently buses are another of those fairly high tech things in this country. but prone to breakdowns. The hotels in BL are meant to all have internets, so I'll try posting again when i get in. then its off to the forest on Wednesday. turns out that place may be even more dangerous than i thought. King Cobras and Pit Vipers are in the region as well. And theres a possibility that Siamese crocodiles (very rare) are in a river about 2 days walk from base camp, so we might have an expedition up there to see if they are around. should be awesome.
Been spending most of my time just getting supplies for the trip and meeting the local CI (conservation international, the NGO i'm volunteering for) crew. Everyone was incredibly nice. The local Cambodians I'll be working with seem awesome as well. Language seems like it might be a little barrier to start with, but they have at least a basic understanding of English and Khmer is a very easy language to pick up by all accounts (I've already got 2 of the most important sentences down, Beer moi (One beer) and moi tiat (One more)). Theres also heaps of Expats and tourists here, so thats helping with the homesickness.
Went for a drive out to the national zoo on Saturday. The drive was crazy, this place is so much flatter than anywhere i've ever been before. And all so uniform. Just pretty dead rice patty fields with occasional solitary coconut palms. it was a little depressing actually. the guys i was with were saying that because the country has been farmed so poorly for the last 1000 years theres just no nutrients left in the ground. its crazy, theres no dirt here. everything is sand. if its like this in the forest i might get a little thrown off walking on dirt when i get back.
Damn, nearly forgot to mention the interesting dining experience we had on Saturday night. ordered beef lok lak (cubed beef with some sort of sweet sauce) and I saw on the menu that there was 'friend red ant'. I figured I couldnt come to a place like this and not order, so we got some brought out. It was, interesting. Very spicy (i think from the formic acid they sting you with) and a strange texture. Not bad on its own but I dont think i'd get it again. Strangely it worked fantastically as a dipping sauce with the beef. I would order beef lok lak with ant sauce again in a second.
So I've got a bus trip up to Bam Long tomorrow. Should be interesting, apparently buses are another of those fairly high tech things in this country. but prone to breakdowns. The hotels in BL are meant to all have internets, so I'll try posting again when i get in. then its off to the forest on Wednesday. turns out that place may be even more dangerous than i thought. King Cobras and Pit Vipers are in the region as well. And theres a possibility that Siamese crocodiles (very rare) are in a river about 2 days walk from base camp, so we might have an expedition up there to see if they are around. should be awesome.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
possible new title
so i thought of a possibly more awesome name for the blog at the zoo yesterday. the thin white douc. thoughts? comments? and if anyone figures out the 3 references in the name they get bonus points.
singapore and being attacked by monsters.
so i've got an hour of internets before i need to leave the hostel. time to get out as many stories as i remember.
got into Singapore on Tuesday night after an awesome flight. finally saw some episodes of Chuck (the sandworm episode if anyone has seen it), i think its coming to Aus tv soon. watch it. best US show in years. caught the metro into the city and after getting lost, wait no, 'exploring' little india for a couple of hours, finally found the hostel. carrying around that massive backpack by the carry strap got old after about 5 minutes, but i figure if i do that once a month, i'll be the freaking hulk by the time i get back. beds were covered in plastic, but it was a decent place apart from that. called footprints. you should go there.
spend all day (and a fair chunk of the night) at the zoo. so many awesome stories about that place. such an awesome place. there are a whole bunch of animals that just jump around in the trees next to the pathways. i think i saw at least 4 or 5 different primates free roaming. plus orangutans in the trees above the walkways. its so crazy the first time you look up and theres a big male sitting 5 metres above you just watching people go by. and the baboon enclosure is nuts. chances are that no one is interested in hearing this, but its my blog and i want to write about it. 70 baboons in one enclosure. its insane. i think in the end i sat there watching them for at least 3 hours. so much better than any zoo in Aus.
and they have these awesome walk-in enclosures. if you ever go there make sure you go into the reptile walk-in. as soon as i was in there i noticed this green iguana in a tree, so i walk around to get a better look. im there maybe 2 or 3 minutes when i feel something brush against my foot. i look down and i see this: http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/Singapore/Zoo/Iguana_Orange.JPG (not my photo, but its the same iguana) except his throat sack is all puffed out and hes glaring and hissing a little bit. and hes about a metre and a half long. fun times. im actually a little surprised that i didnt scream like a little girl. i was feeling like a bit of a clown after that, until i was walking along a little later and some woman has a pissy little skink fall on her hat. she just brushed it off, looked down and flipped out. i dont think i've ever heard anyone scream that much in my life. i think she thought that since she touched it she was going to get ebola or something. it was a rad looking lizard as well.
Got my first taste of walking through monsoonal rain as well. in a weird way it was kinda refreshing. until the rain stopped and your clothes won't dry out because of the humidity.
night safari is awesome as well. its a completely different zoo right next to the normal one. only open between 6 and 11 pm, but full of nocturnal animals and really well laid out. plus they have this crazy 'fish spa'. you pretty much sit with your feet in an aquarium full of cleaner fish and they nibble away at your dead skin. the little ones just feel like bubbles. the bigger ones, yeah. they feel like a fish biting you. but in a good way. the water was also cool and moist (sorry. inside joke) a lot of people flipped out about it all, but after a day trekking around in mid 30s with insane humidity and monsoonal showers it felt pretty good. and then i went back to the hostel to sleep (i know i've already made one joke about USA stories, but they're just too easy to pass up)
and now im off to phnom penh. im pretty sure that im gonna have internets when im there, but if not i'll post again when i get the chance. hope the rest of the civilised world is going radly for everyone.
got into Singapore on Tuesday night after an awesome flight. finally saw some episodes of Chuck (the sandworm episode if anyone has seen it), i think its coming to Aus tv soon. watch it. best US show in years. caught the metro into the city and after getting lost, wait no, 'exploring' little india for a couple of hours, finally found the hostel. carrying around that massive backpack by the carry strap got old after about 5 minutes, but i figure if i do that once a month, i'll be the freaking hulk by the time i get back. beds were covered in plastic, but it was a decent place apart from that. called footprints. you should go there.
spend all day (and a fair chunk of the night) at the zoo. so many awesome stories about that place. such an awesome place. there are a whole bunch of animals that just jump around in the trees next to the pathways. i think i saw at least 4 or 5 different primates free roaming. plus orangutans in the trees above the walkways. its so crazy the first time you look up and theres a big male sitting 5 metres above you just watching people go by. and the baboon enclosure is nuts. chances are that no one is interested in hearing this, but its my blog and i want to write about it. 70 baboons in one enclosure. its insane. i think in the end i sat there watching them for at least 3 hours. so much better than any zoo in Aus.
and they have these awesome walk-in enclosures. if you ever go there make sure you go into the reptile walk-in. as soon as i was in there i noticed this green iguana in a tree, so i walk around to get a better look. im there maybe 2 or 3 minutes when i feel something brush against my foot. i look down and i see this: http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/Singapore/Zoo/Iguana_Orange.JPG (not my photo, but its the same iguana) except his throat sack is all puffed out and hes glaring and hissing a little bit. and hes about a metre and a half long. fun times. im actually a little surprised that i didnt scream like a little girl. i was feeling like a bit of a clown after that, until i was walking along a little later and some woman has a pissy little skink fall on her hat. she just brushed it off, looked down and flipped out. i dont think i've ever heard anyone scream that much in my life. i think she thought that since she touched it she was going to get ebola or something. it was a rad looking lizard as well.
Got my first taste of walking through monsoonal rain as well. in a weird way it was kinda refreshing. until the rain stopped and your clothes won't dry out because of the humidity.
night safari is awesome as well. its a completely different zoo right next to the normal one. only open between 6 and 11 pm, but full of nocturnal animals and really well laid out. plus they have this crazy 'fish spa'. you pretty much sit with your feet in an aquarium full of cleaner fish and they nibble away at your dead skin. the little ones just feel like bubbles. the bigger ones, yeah. they feel like a fish biting you. but in a good way. the water was also cool and moist (sorry. inside joke) a lot of people flipped out about it all, but after a day trekking around in mid 30s with insane humidity and monsoonal showers it felt pretty good. and then i went back to the hostel to sleep (i know i've already made one joke about USA stories, but they're just too easy to pass up)
and now im off to phnom penh. im pretty sure that im gonna have internets when im there, but if not i'll post again when i get the chance. hope the rest of the civilised world is going radly for everyone.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Packing time
So I've finally started packing for the big Cambodian adventure. For those people that I haven't been constantly bugging with details I'm off to live in the Cambodian jungle to study gibbons for 6-9 months. Just me with a couple of locals living in a hut in the middle of the jungle. No electricity, no internet, no contact with the outside world (which may make it a little hard for me to update this blog with any consistency, but I'll try). And the wildlife. Gibbons, doucs, lorises, macaques, tigers, leopards, bears. Maybe even some forest elephants, although I'm not too sure about them.
Anyway, time to go pack the last of my gear and laugh at Cass' terrible rock band 'skills' before I go. I'll be trying to steal some internets when I'm in Singapore, but I might be too busy, what with them having such a massive zoo and all.
And before I forget massive thanks to Baoser for coming up with the rad blog name. I still can't believe I didn't think of that myself
Anyway, time to go pack the last of my gear and laugh at Cass' terrible rock band 'skills' before I go. I'll be trying to steal some internets when I'm in Singapore, but I might be too busy, what with them having such a massive zoo and all.
And before I forget massive thanks to Baoser for coming up with the rad blog name. I still can't believe I didn't think of that myself
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