Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22 | Week 23

Week 23 (read down)

Day 158-163; 12-13 through 12-18-05:

During these days in Bangkok I had a high fever and much of what I did is little interest to you. We did however, receive a very kind care package from JoAnn: Thank you very much for that, JoAnn! My favorite was the milk chocolate icing because we were able to get yellow cake mix at a local store and make a cake!

Cambodia Cultural Reflection:

Cambodia turned out to be the poorest country we have been to. There was a lot of poverty and all the kids were out on the streets begging instead of going to school. It was hard to deal with because we knew the country's terrible past, one that there parents had to deal with, if they even had any. In 1975, the communist group the Khmer Rouge, led by leader Pol Pot, overthrew Phnom Pehn and gained control of the country. At first the populice was nieve and did not quite comprehend what Pol Pot had in store for them. They found out soon, genocide. In a three year, eight month rule, the Khmer Rouge regime killed nealy two millon people, either through murder or starvation. The educated were emediately massacred, Pol Pot build up the country in his eyes, that meant that they had to tear it down first. All business, school, work, anything was destroyed, the Khmer Rouge wanted a totally communal society. Finally in 1978, Vietnam forced Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to flee, ending the regime, but they were still active. Soon though over the years they died out. While in Siem Reap and Angkor Wat we noticed that a lot of people were affected by land mines. During the Khmer Rouge and the effects of World War II from USA/UK lots of land mines were planted and not accounted for which led to a lot of loss of limb by the people of Cambodia.

Day 157; 12-12-05:

Today we had decided that we would go to Bayon again so my dad could get pictures of the stone faces in shadows. We spent a long time there walking around the temple grounds. When we first arrived there, my brother had a postcard that pictured one of the giant stone faces of Bayon. We had to circle the temple about five times before we found it. We realized that the photographer had actually flipped the image so it was harder to find than it had to be. While we were there, we had a lot more experiences like that because there were so many places to search in the temple, it felt like you were always in the same place because it was so symmetrical. We then headed to Preah Khan which ended up being one of my favorite temples. There was so much to explore because it was so big. A lot of it was collapsed and so much of it was just walls and doorways. Some of Preah Khan extended in the jungle where the walls were covered in vines and growth. Our next temple, Neak Pean was a small one with five pools and a statue in the middle of the grand pool. We did not spend much time here. After Neak Pean we returned to Angkor Wat so my dad could get some pre-sunset pictures, then we went to a hill that had a temple on it close to Angkor Wat for sunset. It was crowded with tourists but we were able to get there early and stake out a place to sit. We got to see the whole sun setting and it turned out to be the best sunset of our trip so far.

Day 156; 12-11-05:

At 6 a.m. we woke up to get a tuk-tuk to go to the temples of Angkor. The first temple is the famed Angkor Wat, the largest religious site in the world. When you walked in, ahead of you were two reflective pools on your right and left and as you walked straight up the walkway, you could see the major tower and two minions of either side. As we walked inside we could soon tell that the whole building was symmetrical which made it really cool looking because you knew that you would have the same view of where you were standing if you flipped the whole complex 180 degrees. When you go to the center, you could climb up stairs at 81 degrees. At the top you could look out and see a lot of the surrounding towers of the temples of Angkor. Next we went to Bayon which had 216 stone faces in the temple. It was quite fascinating to explore because like Angkor Wat it was symmetrical but it had many more lines of symmetry. Almost every two steps you took, you could see the lines of reflection. Next when we went to the tuk-tuk, we got aboard and went to the Terrace of the Elephants. Then we went to a Korean festival where we saw lots of Korean song, dance and food and we got to keep our coconut bowls and forks. Then we went to Ta Prohm where Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider was filmed.   There you could see a lot of Banyan trees weaving in between the walls and sometimes knocking over whole sections of walls. It was fascinating because there were so many corners to explore inside this place because of all the rubble. We got in the tuk-tuk and headed back to Siem Reap where we had a good dinner at Two Dragons Restaurant and Guest House.

Day 155; 12-10-05:

We awoke at our guesthouse and headed to the Thai-Cambodian border. We were shepherded past out of Thailand and into Cambodia into the casino-packed border town of Poi Pet. We immediately got into a taxi to go to Siem Reap, a town 6 km outside Angkor Wat. It was a bumpy ride so in the end it took a little over 3 hours to arrive at our guest house, Home Sweet Home. It was already dusk when we arrived so we went to the old market and got some food and then went to bed.

Week 22 (read down)

Day 151 through 154; 12-6 through 12-9-05:

In Ko Samet, we watched movies nearly every night at Naga Guest House, which also had a delicious bakery that made cinnamon rolls fresh every morning. The beach in some places was only a meter long because the lawn chairs were so jammed up against the water. One evening just before dark, we played soccer with other travelers into mini goals that were a meter by two feet. It is much harder to play on sand than in grass I found out.  On Friday, we spent the day on several buses to the Thai-Cambodian border.

Day 150; 12-5-05:

Arriving in Bangkok early in the morning we got some Dunkin Donuts and got a taxi to take us to the Eko-Mai bus terminal. There we got a bus to the Ban Phe pier where we could take a ferry to the sunny island of Ko Samet. When we got there we found a good place right on the beach and before going to bed watched Herbie: Fully Loaded. In 18 hours we had covered 1000 kilometers, give or take a km.

Day 149; 12-4-05:

Unfortunately today was the day we had to leave Khao Lak. We all wished we could stay longer but I also wanted to move on to Ko Pha-Ngan. We took the bus from Phuket to Surathani and had already purchased the tickets to Ko Pha-Ngan when we found out the news. We heard from a couple travelers just arriving from Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Samui that the weather was horrible and that they were both flooded. Not wanting to go anymore, we got on the night train to bring us back up to Bangkok.

Week 21 (read down)

11-29 through 12-3-05; Days 144-148:

Tsunami Volunteer Center:

Cape Pakarang Boat Yard project

KHAO LAK

            The Cape Pakarang boat yard project, in conjunction with the Tsunami Volunteer Center (TVC), is located about two hours outside Phuket, Thailand near a large resort town called Khao Lak. Most volunteers choose to stay two weeks to a month or even longer, unfortunately we could only stay one week. On the last day it felt like the week had gone too fast. Scott, the project manager, has been volunteering with the tsunami relief effort since the beginning of 2005. The Boat Yard project builds long-tailed boats for fishermen who lost their boats in the tsunami and need new ones. Unfortunately they were only able to promise boats to a select number of fishermen. Scott has been lobbying to get more funds to provide boats to more fishermen.

            For a lot of people, the tsunami was an important wake up notice to the living conditions of the South Asian people. Most people chose to go help out all of the people who had lost homes or other possessions because of the wave. Scott hopes that even after the tsunami work has been completed that there will still be efforts to help the people of impoverished countries to improve their lifestyle. I chose to volunteer hoping that my effort will not only help victims of the tsunami but encourage other people to come to Southeast Asia and participate in the relief effort.

            On the first day we were going to volunteer we went to the TVC but we were turned done because my brother and I are kids and we were only staying one week. When we asked someone at the market, they sent us to the old TVC and there we able to contact one of the project managers, Scott, and became “unofficial” volunteers.

            When we got there, the Thai helpers, who were the main reason all the boats got built, would incorporate you in the building if you asked or showed interest. It was a ton of fun building boats and a learning process too. Mainly the volunteers do the painting and such on the boats. We also helped with unloading and moving wood and moving boats. One time my brother and I had to cut 180 pieces of re-bar to make concrete bases for the wood shed that they are building nearby the boat yard. When we cut through the re-bar, sparks would fly everywhere so we got a screwdriver and adapted it so that the sparks flew away from us. Scott also let us drive the back hoe once. That was a lot of fun learning how to operate it. Scott gave us our jobs to do each day and we would do them and then try to help out with the clean up before leaving. Each day before noon we would all get in the truck and go to lunch. That was probably one of the best times of day because we all got to sit down and relax and refuel for the work of the afternoon.

            I really have never participated in this type of volunteering where you spend the whole week working on a project. I would like to help out again though. It was a blast! Hopefully I can go back there to volunteer again. In doing volunteering, it’s different than work. You feel more open about helping because it’s something you choose to do. It was also great to be participating in the big effort to help the people and land that got hit by the tsunami.

            I think I learned a lot about helping people and communities doing this project. It was a great feeling when we launched a new boat in a village and the fishermen who got the boat looked so happy. I felt really great that I had participated in that event. I think it also helped us to learn how to work together more and be a team, everyone trying to help everyone else. It also felt great to know that if you had troubles with your work, that other people would help you out with your task. It was also amazing to see how many people came from around the world to help the people of this region recover from the tsunami.

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Day 143; 11-28-05:

Today we woke up early to head over to the tsunami relief center where we hoped to get a volunteer task. Unfortunately, they couldn't accept us because we were only going to be here for a week. Learning from another source, we went to the old tsunami relief center and made a connection with one of the project managers who bypassed the first center. After having lunch, we headed over to where they started a boat project. You can look it up on the web at: www.tsunamiboatproject.com. There I worked on wood carvings of a long-boat to sell as a fundraiser and painting tables in preparation for the one-year anniversary commemoration ceremony of the tsunami. We rode on the back of the trailer and got dropped off in town near our hotel. We showered and went to dinner because we were all so hungry from our day of work. That night I stayed up late on the Internet and learning how to play the guitar.

Day 142; 11-27-05:

Today I finally started to feel better so we left in the pick-up truck to where the mini bus was waiting. After a couple of hours the mini bus finally came and we were off to Khao Lak. After long waits for short car ferries across sea passageways, we arrived in Krabi Town. There we boarded a bus to another town where we waited for the final bus to get us to the town where the tsunami relief work was going on. When we arrived there after a long day of traveling it was already dark so we got our hotel and went to bed

Week 20 (read down)

Day 138-141; 11-23/24/25/26-05:

During these days, I’ve been sick in Ko Lanta. It’s been unfortunate for me because I’ve been waiting for Thai food for so long but haven’t been able to eat all the great rice dishes. To pass the time, I made a list of my food cravings at the 4 1/2-month mark in our trip. Check it out:

Peter’s cravings 4 months into the RAW (Round-A-World) trip (not necessarily in order of preference):

1. Maple bar
2. Maple cinnamon roll
3. Cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting
4. Loft House sugar cookies with icing
5. Oatmeal raisin cookies
6. Wheat Thins from Nabisco
7. Cheese Nips
8. Ritz crackers with crab dip
9. Original Bugles
10. Chimichangas from Mission Rest.
11. Tacquitos from Mission Rest.
12. Burrito from Corvallis or Mission
13. Burritos from home with sour cream, guacamole and beans
14. Nachos from Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
15. Cookies and cream ice cream from Safeway
16. Safeway Select deli sandwiches, particularly the Ceasar sandwich
17. Safeway deals on donuts
18. Dunkin Donuts (had them in Antigua but they were stale! Bummer!)
19. Donuts in general
20. Ding-Dongs
21. Swiss cake rolls
22. Root beer floats
23. Pizza Pete’s garlic bread
24. Baskin Robbins ice cream
25. Anything from Pizza Pete’s
26. Papa John’s pizza, 2 medium for $14.99
27. Some of Dad’s homecooking
28. Roti Bom from Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
29. Reese’s peanut butter cups
30. Butterfingers
31. Skittles
32. Red vines
33. Hershey’s milk chocolate bar
34. Milk
35. Cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios
36. Dos Pinos chocolate bar (from Costa Rica)
37. Roti canai from Malaysia
38. Krispy Kreme red light (really fresh) donuts
39. Thai dishes, particularly chicken basil with rice and chicken ginger with rice***
40. Euphoria milk chocolate-covered marshmallows
41. Gold fish
42. S’mores with cinnamon graham crackers
43. Turkey dogs
44. super moist vanilla cake with milk chocolate icing
45. biscuits with honey
46. Pillsbury butter croissants
47. Jo-jo potatoes with ranch dressing
48. Real Oregon berries
49. Water
50. Ritz mini peanut butter sandwiches
51. popcorn chicken
52. Portuguese sweet bread
53. Portuguese fritas (made from sweet bread)
54. Ferrofias (Portuguese egg dessert)
55. muffins, berry, zucchini, bran and raisin
56. strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream
57. apple crisp
58. jimathas (Portuguese port wine egg shake)
59. mulberry pancakes and shakes from organic farm, Vang Vieng, Laos
60. Dad’s pancakes, especially strawberry-apple-cinnamon
61. Mom’s French toast
62. calde verde (Portuguese soup)
63. cupcakes
64. Mom’s whipped cream frosting
65. Santina’s yellow corn tortilla chips
66. chips from the Mission
67. cheese dip from the Mission
68. bean dip by Fritos
69. homemade guacamole
70. occasionally Nacho cheese chips
71. Tom’s original potato chips
72. wavy Lay’s potato chips with French onion dip
73. Pringles
74. Guacamole Lay’s
75. Kettle chips
76. Nutri-grain fruit bars
77. Nature Valley granola bars
78. oyster crackers
79. New England-style clam chowder, very chunky
80. Zesta or Saltine crackers
81. Club crackers by Keebler
82. basa fish with garlic, wine and parmesan cheese
83. pastas and lasagnas
84. Dad’s manicotti
85. Bill Savage’s vegetarian cuisine
86. anything from the Black Olive (Italian rest. in L.A.)
87. burritos from Kyle’s friends in Portland
88. shakes and smoothies in general
89. pretzels, soft and hard
90. mashed potatoes with butter and gravy

***Look up this comprehensive guide to Thai cooking, “Thai Food,” by David Thompson and Earl Carter. It features more than 50 menus of mouth-watering Thai dishes. Also, I learned that the chilis used in many Thai dishes come from the Portuguese!

While I’ve been sick, I have also been reading Lonely Planet’s Thailand’s Islands and Beaches in preparation for going to Ko Phi Phi when I get better.