I’m ready to go…
It’s been a really tough few weeks and I am ready for the break. Just one more day of work and then straight to the airport. I didn’t pay much attention to what I was putting in the bag. Hope I have what I need.
Just over 24 hours until Obama’s Inauguration.
AND……
Four days from now I’ll be flying up to Kuala Lumpur. I’m flying up Friday night after work so that I can sleep in a bit on Saturday morning before flying to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Sunday morning I’ll be picked up and transported to Halong Bay. I am on a three day, two night junk boat cruise. The excitement is overwhelming. When I first googled Halong Bay, all I had to do was look at a few pictures and I was sold.
After the cruise I am back in Hanoi for two more days. I will be there during Tet, the lunar new year celebration. It is supposed to be an interesting time to visit because everything slows down. Oh so very excited.
This trip will cap off my tour of the Indochina countries (depending on whether you count Myanmar, which I can’t go to anyway). Did I mention I am excited? Ok, sorry.
A few weeks ago I read and was intrigued by an article about micro-giving. Much like micro-lending, the point is small sums of money adding up to do big things. With micro-giving, you ask people to give small donations, $1, $5, $10, etc. The key is getting a lot of people to give a little.
After a bit of research and in honour of my forthcoming birthday, I ask for your help in raising money to repair a water well. I’ve corresponded with a woman at Charity:Water and they will try to have my money go towards a well in Malawi. The picture on my giving page is a photo that I took in Mindanti, Malawi. A village that was having a water well built while I was visiting.
I was not sure that the page with Charity:Water would be ready in time so I started a giving page on my Facebook page. For those that gave money through Facebook, I’ve matched that donation in this project - doubling your effort.
http://www.charitywater.org/pages/lindaspage/ Small donations is all I ask
I wasn’t sure if my used $50 note would be acceptable to pay for the taxi fare, so I chose to use a $10 and $2 instead. Luckily I gave clear destination and made it safely to work.
A good friend of mine from Australia is on his way to Europe for a year. He has stopped in Singapore for 7 days to spend some time with me. I took this week off work to spend time with him. We’ve had a blast playing around Singapore.
Tuesday morning was a later start. Well, it would have been if Debra wasn’t awake crazy early and ready to get up and go. I made myself awake and we went out to try to source some food. Instead of heading towards the cafe mentioned in the guide book we took off towards a busier street hoping we would have more options. Turns out Phnom Penh is not much of a morning town. We stopped at one place that had tables set up under a canopy and signed for a menu. There were some things listed in English, but were a bit nervous what “eggs” might be and no one seemed to speak much English. We decided that since we had several bus hours ahead of us, we wouldn’t risk it and moseyed on. We were then tempted by what looked like dough being fried in a vat of oil, but as it was also street side dining, we didn’t want to risk our digestive systems and continued to look, but were quickly running out of time. Not even finding a convenience store, we decided that the crisps and biscuits sold at the guest house would have to serve as breakfast.
At 8:30 we were aboard the bus and headed towards Siem Reap. There was no leg room, and not much butt room for two, normal sized, western girls. There was a TV playing a DVD of some of the worst music videos ever. There were subtitles so that we could see just how atrociously bad the lyrics were. We were doubled over laughing, or would have been if there was room. When the guy across the aisle started singing along, I thought we would not survive the hilarity.
The rest of the ride was pretty dull. There was a rich American kid sitting behind us that was having a sometimes interesting conversation with his German seat mate. The German girl was in Cambodia working, the guy was taking several months to backpack through Southeast Asia. Just as I thought I was going to lose my mind from the boredom and the discomfort of the seats, we stopped for lunch in Kampong Thom; just over half way. We were given 30-minutes to get food at one of the many restaurants near the stop. The staff was anxious to serve us in the alloted time, and even turned the menu pages for us if we appeared to be taking too much time trying to order. The staff also stood next to all our tables watching us eat; just in case we needed something. It was a bit too much attention, so we ate quickly and got out.
We arrived in Siem Reap early afternoon and negotiated with a tuk tuk driver to take us to our guest house. He stopped midway and tried to get us to book him for the rest of the day or the following day. We eventually got him to take no for an answer and continue the journey.
We were booked in at the Ivy, a restaurant/bar/guest house. The rooms were HUGE. We even had a balcony that we could step out on; as long as we were careful not to touch the power lines that ran in front of it.
Our first stop was the coffee shop next door for some much needed caffeine. After the pick me up, we chose the friendliest looking tuk tuk driver stationed outside and made arrangements for the following day to see the temples. He also suggested taking us that evening to see the sunset at Tonle Sap or at one of the temples. We opted for the temple and used a bit of free time to wander through the old market, Psar Chaa.
There were a lost of clouds so there wasn’t much of a sunset, but it is still a lot of fun to climb around the temple and explore. On the way home, he suggested dinner at an Apsara show and for $5 extra he agreed to pick us up as soon as the show was over.
A long, but another nice day.
It is 2 am, met Debra at the airport an hour ago. We came back to my apartment so she could shower and we could relax for a few hours before going back to the airport. We fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 6:45 am. It will be a crazy, crazy two weeks.
Monday - Phnom Penh - Going to Killing Fields museum and Toul Sleng (a former Khmer Rouge prison).
Tuesday - Bus between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, then wander around Siem Reap for half the day.
Wednesday - Siem Reap and Angkor Wat
Thursday - Fly to Koh Samui, Thailand for half a day on the beach
Friday - Fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand after most of the day at Koh Samui beaches
Saturday - White Water rafting or going to see Hill Tribes or???
Sunday - Going to elephant rescue near Chiang Mai. Spend the day learning to care for elephants.
Monday - Whatever we didn’t do Saturday
Tuesday - Fly to Bangkok at ass crack of dawn, go to Grand Palace and whatever else
Wednesday - Go to floating markets and river Kwai to see where WWII prisoners were forced to build railroad and bridges.
Thursday - Back to Singapore for Debra to see more of Singapore than the road to and from the airport
Friday - Debra goes back to US, I sleep.
21. Twenty one (of which 5 were children; 9 Singaporeans, 1 Japanese, 1 Danish, 1 English, 2 Irish, 1 American, 1 Pakistani, 5 Australian) people came to Thanksmas dinner. With me that was 22 people at dinner. I had a 7.1 kg (15.6 lb) turkey. No turkey is left. Luckily for me there is a small amount of stuffing left. And CRANBERRY SAUCE SHAPED LIKE A CAN. Everything else gone. The pumpkin pie made last night, gone. The pecan pie brought by K, gone. Mashed sweet potatoes, gone. Pea and asparagus casserole, gone. More bottles of wine and bottles of beer than anyone can imagine, gone. Pitcher of margaritas, gone. Two bottles of champagne, gone. Bread, gone. Twenty one people came to Thanksmas. It was loud, it was rowdy, it was FABULOUS. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Well, next year I would do it again. Thankful that I made enough stuffing that I have a bit of leftovers for tomorrow’s dinner. And yes, I did this entire dinner just for the stuffing. The stuffing is THAT GOOD. 21 people can say how good it is. I do love Thanksmas.
Test your vocabulary and help end world hunger all at the same time. Saw this on BBC News. It’s an online game testing your vocabulary knowledge. For each word you get right, ten grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The advertisers on the site are the companies that pay for the donations. It’s highly addictive, and slightly educational. Just today I learned that mahout is a person that drives an elephant. When I go to Cambodia tomorrow, I want to meet a mahout that will take me around Angkor Wat (see how I can even use it in a sentence).