I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal right now. I've been trying to write this blog about Mu Ko Ang Thong all morning (and should've written it weeks ago) but the power keeps cutting out and my post is lost... 4 times now. I guess the universe doesn't want me to write my blog post about Ang Thong today. Ang Thong is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been and it deserves a solid post. Tomorrow morning I fly from Kathmandu to a small mountain airport in Lukla where I start my trek up to Everest base camp. That said, I'll update this post as soon as I find a Sherpa with internet. Holla.
Next week, I fly from Bangkok to India and then to Nepal, where I’ll spend the month of April. Not too much has happened since my last post (over two months ago!). In February I was occupied with work, finishing up testing with my students, and finalizing grades before they (and I) took off for the 3-½ month summer break.
Having so much time off is great. However, these 3-½ months of freedom and fun are also 3-½ months of zero income. Keeping that in mind, I did a good job of budgeting and saving from November to February and put away a decent chunk of change. I was able to bank enough baht to live comfortably for two months without other income, plus pay for my month-long adventure in Nepal.
That being said, I knew that I had to stick to somewhat of a budget in March so that I could have plenty of funds to enjoy my time in Nepal to the max. I don’t want to be the guy taking pictures of my friends bungee jumping from the highest bridge in Asia while I wait with empty pockets, safe and penniless on the ground below. Traveling is all about having incredible experiences and the remarkable memories that stem from them. Unfortunately, those experiences cost money.
Consequently, March has been pretty uneventful. In an effort to save money I decided not to travel, but to stay in my fairly monotonous Thai town, where I don’t have to pay for accommodation and the cost of living is generally cheap. To keep myself busy, I’ve spent most of the month working on a sort of self-improvement experiment.
My ultimate aim was to save money and to get in great shape for Nepal (I’ll be trekking up to 9 hours a day for 2-3 weeks to base camp of Mt. Everest at an altitude of 17,598 ft.). I challenged myself to take just one month… just four weeks…. just 30 days, to make a real attempt to improve physically, mentally, and… become Jason Bourne… ok, not really. (I recently saw the preview for the new Bourne Legacy movie coming out this summer and re-watched the entire trilogy, driving myself into a minor obsession with becoming a genius, multi-lingual, judo-chopping, badass specimen of a human being.) Check out the trailer...
So, I made a list of goals to accomplish by the end of the month. I kept the objectives challenging but not demanding. For example, instead of trying to finish five books by the end of the month, I merely aimed to sit down and read for a minimum of 30 minutes a day; instead of attempting to race in a marathon by the end of the month, my goal was simply to improve my best 5k run time; instead of trying to become fluent in a new language, I tried to study and improve what little grasp of the Thai language I already had.
………………………………………………..
So did I do it? Did I transform into Jason Bourne in just four weeks? Well… No. But I did obtain measurable improvements in almost all areas for which I set goals for myself. I know this isn’t the most gripping blog post ever so I’ll spare you the details, but here’s what I did or did not achieve by the end of the month…
PHYSICAL GOALS:
-Increase strength and muscle mass: CHECK
-Decrease body fat percentage: CHECK
-Improve 5k (3.1 mi.) run time: CHECK
-Train Muay Thai: FAIL
-Train for the EBC trek: CHECK
-Improve flexibility: FAIL
I collected data everyday throughout the experiment so that any increases or decreases were measurable and so I could be sure of any physical improvements. I recorded my weight every morning and every night, took measurements, documented every workout. I also kept a food/supplement journal in my workout book, noting everything that I ate or drank. I even took notes on how I slept each night.
In the end, after 30 days, I increased my one-rep max in every lift that I tested. I also improved my 5k time by over 2 minutes. I added 1/3 inch to each bicep, ¼ inch to each thigh, lost an inch around my waist, and lost 2 inches in my hips (I got that bodonkadonk). Using pictures as a reference, I probably went from around 12% body fat to around 10%. My starting weight was 67.9 kg (149.7 lbs) and I finished at 64.7 kg (142.6 lbs).
I was in decent shape before starting this, so for exercise, I kept with my normal workouts, spending 1½-2 hours in the gym, 4 or 5 days a week (including both weight training and cardio). Cardio was usually running or swimming. On some days, I went on a hike to train a little more specifically for the upcoming Nepal trek.
The real change was in what I ate (or didn’t eat). I followed a slow-carb diet and some tips and tricks from entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss' new book, a scientific, “minimalist approach to becoming super human”. This is a high protein “diet” that basically eliminates carbs and fructose, concentrating on foods with low-glycemic index and that don’t raise blood glucose.
I thought this would be tough… I can’t eat rice or noodles… in Thailand? WTF?!... but it was actually easy. I was never hungry and never once restricted or counted calories. In fact, I consumed more calories than I was used to, but from better foods. I also made every Saturday a cheat day and ate and drank whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted. The hardest part of the whole thing was not drinking beer during the week (but if I had to drink, I had whiskey and soda water. Cheating? Whatever.). In the end, it worked. I thought I would gain weight as I put on muscle but after 30 days, I’m 7 lbs. lighter.
I also took 100-150 grams of whey protein (powder) and some supplements daily. Feel free to look ‘em up if you don’t know what they are or for; I don’t feel like explaining… I took (fish oil, vitamin C, a multi-vitamin, L-lysine, L-glutamine, bio-magnesium, and calcium).
Why did I “fail” in two areas: Muay Thai and improving flexibility? Well… A motorcycle injury prevented me from being able to do what Muay Thai training demands (and by “motorcycle injury” I don’t mean I drove off a cliff while in a high-speed chase or anything crazy like that. I lost my balance and dropped the bike on my foot… while parked… stupid, stupid, stupid). And flexibility… I tried yoga once and… well, that’s just not my thing. I’m perfectly fine with not being able to touch my toes, thank you very much.
*I would post the before and after pictures, but my female fan club is almost full and I don’t want the Patterson brothers poppin’ broners back in Maryland. Save it for each other, fellas.
MENTAL GOALS:
-Read a minimum of 30 minutes a day: CHECK
-Improve Thai language skills: CHECK
-Study a subject that I normally wouldn’t: CHECK
-Travel somewhere new on a strict budget: CHECK
All goals here achieved! I finished three books this month (that’s three more than I finish in a usual month). I drastically improved my Thai with only 3 lessons (from a great teacher) and just 20 minutes of studying a day. Thanks to an awesome website, Memrise, I actually learned a lot about art history, a random subject that normally I wouldn’t give two thoughts about (I can now tell you the difference between Monet and Manet… yay.). Last but certainly not least, I had an awesome 4-day excursion to one of the most incredible places I’ve ever been, Ang Thong National Marine Park (separate blog post on this coming soon) for under 5,000 baht ($160 USD)! Only in Thailand.
Even if I didn’t reach Bourne status, March turned out to be a really productive month and I was able to not only save money and prep for Nepal, but also have fun and improve other areas of my life with this little experiment. Next, maybe I’ll track how my health responds to a month of eating yak stew, drinking yeti blood, and mountain trekking in the Himalayas… Operation: Abominable Snowman. But for now… I’ma go eat big bowl of rice and wash it down with a tall, cold beer.
For the first time in a long,
last weekend I had no plans to leave town. No plans to travel.
No plans to work. No plans. But in Thailand, if you look, there’s
always something to see or do waiting just around the corner. So, what began as an uneventful
Saturday afternoon turned out to be a pretty cool experience that I’m sure I
won’t forget. Just 10 km outside
of town is the Surat Thani "Monkey College". For 100 baht (about $3 US),
you can take a tour and see how they train the monkeys (Pigtail Macaques) to
become professional coconut collectors on farms. I got to watch these little guys climb
up 50 ft palm trees, pick, retrieve, sort, collect, and peel coconuts at their trainer’s command. The trainer, Somjai, was great. She was friendly and she assured us that all of the monkeys are taken care of professionally and ethically. Over the
course of an hour the monkeys did several demonstrations and there were plenty of
hands-on opportunities to get up close and take pictures with them. Maybe I should've gone to monkey college. It would've only taken me four months instead of six years to graduate and I'd get to work outside all day.
Anyone visiting Thailand has to
experience the hot spots. You
can’t come to Thailand and not experience the madness of Kao San Road or a Full
Moon Party. There are good reasons
why places like Koh Phangan and Phuket are always flooded with tourists;
they’re beautiful, they offer tours, activities and a booming nightlife, and
they cater specifically to travelers.
But after living in Thailand for over a year now, I’ve grown to
appreciate the lesser-trafficked locales.
Once in awhile, it’s nice to take a detour from the beaten path and
visit a place that’s not yet littered with backpackers and covered by seedy bars
and hotels. It’s refreshing.
Koh Mook
The
second week of December was [another] 3-day weekend for me. A few friends and I headed out to a small
island on the Andaman coast of Thailand called Koh Mook (or Ko Muk). Koh Mook is in the Trang province of
Thailand, south of Phuket. For me, coming from Surat, it was a few hours in a mini-bus to Trang town, another hour-long ride in a hired
pickup truck to the pier, and then a short ferry cruise over to the
island. A bit of a trip, but so
worth it.
Look! Another white person!
When we arrived it was raining, but
it didn’t take away from the island’s natural splendor and magnetic charm. It is largely undeveloped accept for two
villages, one on the east side of the island and one on the west. There are no more than a handful of guesthouses,
restaurants, and bars. You can
find few dive shops along the beach, and maybe two or three private
resorts. There are only 2,000
inhabitants on the whole island, mostly fisherman and their families. Koh Mook is also home to the “Emarald
Cave” and prides its waters as being one of the last sanctuaries for the Dugong
(a relative to the manatee). Other
than the income Koh Mook draws from tourism and fishing, the locals also profit
from harvesting the thousands of rubber trees that cover the entire island.
Being on a budget, my friends and I
opted to stay at Mookies Guesthouse. They’re known for
having cheap accommodation and a friendly staff. Just off of an unpaved road in the middle of the jungle, it seemed
like a nice, quiet place to make our headquarters for the weekend.
We checked in with the owner, a friendly European man whose name I can't remember. His Thai wife
put their newborn baby down to nap in a hammock while she got our lodging
ready. While waiting, we sat at
the small restaurant and bar, watched the rain, and tested Mookie’s claim of
having the coldest beer on the island.
There were vacant bungalows
available but for a few baht less we decided to go with the “tents”. It being the rainy season, I originally
wasn’t to keen on this. To my
surprise, it ended up being much nicer than your typical campsite. Each tent was already set up for us and
covered by a thatched roof. Inside
there was a full bed, an electric fan, and a lamp. Not bad for $5 a night.
The rain finally subsided and John,
Janet, Brittany, and I walked a couple hundred yards down to the beach. The waters are some of the clearest
I’ve ever seen and the sea is rich with fish, coral, and other marine life just
off shore, making snorkeling easy.
We swam in the ocean. We
sat in the sand.
"Scorpion's Anus"
"Wounded Swan"
Brittany and I had in intense
yoga-off on the beach. Brittany
tried showing off with, what I believe, is known in the yoga world as the Scorpion’s Anus. I answered by executing
a much more graceful and complicated exhibit of strength, balance, and swagger; a
secret move called the Handicapped Swan.
It took me years to perfect.
I easily won the competition just as the sun started to go down. Poetic.
We watched the sunset. The red sky and purple ocean stretched
on forever like they were racing to a finish line at the horizon. A seafood dinner on an ocean-side cliff
and a few tall beers sent us to bed.
Nights like that remind me to be thankful.
The next morning we packed a day
bag and hired a boat to take us to various snorkeling spots and then to the island’s
star attraction, Morakot Cave (Tam Nam, in Thai). The
cave, also known as the Emerald Cave, is located just off the western shore. Its mouth is on the face of a seaside
cliff and only accessible by water.
Deep inside, the cave opens up into a secret white-sand lagoon enclosed
on all sides by towering walls of limestone. It’s like being inside of a volcano. The only way in or out is by swimming in
from the ocean and through the cave’s passageway. As the sun above shines down on the lagoon, the water becomes
a radiant emerald-green giving the cave its nickname. What gives the cave even more
charisma is that it was used as a hideout for pirates and as a place for them
to stash their treasure.
So in the spirit of true Goonies,
we packed a day bag and set out on the seas. Our backpack carried only the bare necessities: two bags of
potato chips, one bottle of water, a Santa hat, one pocketknife, one machete,
and two bottles of rum. Because
you can’t go on a pirate quest without rum. Or a machete.
We
snorkeled for a few hours at various spots around Koh Mook. It rained the whole time but that didn’t matter
underwater. Our boat guide made a
brief stop for us at a deserted island where we each took pictures with the
Santa hat for Christmas. Then, we
swigged our rum and headed over to the pirate cave.
The
boatman stopped just outside of the cave’s entrance and we hopped in the deep
green water. We swam inside and
were enveloped by the pitch black.
After swimming for about 30 meters in the darkness we saw a small
light. We followed the light and
it grew until we were inside the secret lagoon of the Emerald Cave... sounds like the title of a Harry Potter book.
The entrance to cave where we swam in (on the right).
We hung out inside for a bit, taking it all in. The only other
people there were two guys we’d met earlier that had kayaked in just before us.
It was like a movie set. There was a real feel of secrecy and
seclusion. We walked around and took some
pictures. There was a poorly written sign in English explaining the history of the cave. John and I had a pirate
fight. How could you not? His machete beat my stick. Then... It was time to swim
back out into the world.
PIRATE BATTLE
A look at the cave from the inside
We
capped off the trip with a good night out at Chill Out Bar on Farang Beach. We were able to see a lunar eclipse in
sky from where we laughed and drank on the beach just outside of the bar. Not a bad way to end another weekend.
Koh Phangan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. It’s known for two things: beauty
and parties. Year-round,
people from all over flock to Haad Rin Beach on Koh Phangan. This is where they hold the
infamous Full Moon Party once a month.
THEN… once a year... on December
31st, they combine the lunacy of the Full Moon Party with a New
Year’s Eve extravaganza. Words
can’t really explain what Haad Rin is like for New Year’s Eve. Many argue it’s the best NYE party in
the world. It’s an 800-meter long
shoreline filled with more than 30,000 people. There’s music blaring from gigantic sound systems. There’s dancing in the ocean. There's face painting. There are buckets and buckets of booze. And
there’s fire. Ohhh ho ho, there is
fire. Fire dancers. Fire works. Jump ropes of fire.
Slides of fire. Lots and
lots of fire. It’s like Funland in
the Pinocchio story, where all the bad boys go to have a good time. Except there's girls there too. I was lucky enough to be there for the
second year in a row. I dare not
bring a camera, so all I have are a few photos that friends took from this year
and last. It was a great year to finish up a great year. I hope that everyone had
as good of a year in 2011 as I did.
I know that 2012 will be even better!
It’s been a few weeks since I
posted; December has been a busy month. I had two 3-day weekends in the beginning of the month, one
for Father’s Day (which is also the King’s birthday) and one for Constitution
Day. I also had this entire week off for Christmas.
Next week, I have a 4-day weekend for New Year’s. That’s a total of 17 days off this
month (including weekends)… all paid.
Gotta love being a teacher. Gotta
love Thailand. Gotta love being a
teacher in Thailand.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I’ve
got big plans for the long summer break, March to May. My cousin, Codykins, is planning an
epic quest to the Land of Oz, maybe even shark diving off the Great Barrier
Reef. If my funds permit, I will
be there. But my big trip planned
for the break is in April. I’ll
spend the entire month in Nepal, half of which will be trekking to the base
camp of Mt. Everest at 17,598 ft. With all these adventures coming up in just a few
months, I’ve decided to stay in town and save money even though I have the week
off.
I was, however, able to do some light
traveling during the two long weekends at the beginning of December. There are only a few places left in
Thailand on my “To Conquer List” and I was able to cross two of them off this
month: Khao Sok National Park and the beautiful island of Koh Muk on the
Andaman coast. These places are
now two of my favorites (I think I say that about every new place I visit in
Thailand) and I can’t wait to go back.
Part
I: Khao Sok
About an hour and a half bus ride
west of Surat Thani (the town I live in) is Khao Sok National Park, a
not-so-hidden gem of the south.
The National Park is 740 square meters of emerald forests, limestone
mountains, rugged islands, crystal waterfalls, and home to over 400 species of wildlife. In fact, Khao Sok is covered by the
oldest evergreen rainforest in the world.
In 1982, the Ratchaprapa Dam was built to provide hydro-electricity to
surrounding towns, subsequently flooding much of Khao Sok and creating the
enormous, man-made Cheow Larn Lake that is there today. The peaks of the mountains now poke
through the surface of the lake creating hundreds of islands covered with both
plant and animal life.
A few weeks ago, about 15 friends
and I all got together to spend an incredible three-day weekend on the lake. There are a few different types of
accommodation available in the National Park. Camping is one option.
There are also standard bungalows as well as tree houses (yes, tree houses) available on the main
land. We opted for the floating
bungalows (yes, floating bungalows)
on the lake. Also called “raft
houses”, these bungalows are built on rafts and are accessible only by boat.
We arrived at the main pier on the
lake early on Saturday morning.
From the pier to Smiley’s bungalows where we stayed, it was a beautiful
45-minute boat ride over deep green waters. There was a good view of the dam shortly after
departing the pier, but what was really impressive to me was the giant
limestone karsts jetting out of the water, some of them hundreds of feet
high. The boat ride was one of my
favorite parts of the weekend and we hadn’t even arrived at the bungalows yet.
Smiley's Floating Bungalows
When we did finally arrive, I was
impressed. The bungalows were
simple, yet adequate. Each
bungalow had two double beds and a bathroom in it. There were about ten rooms total, five on each side, joined
by a restaurant/ bar/ entertainment area in the center. We checked in and the staff had already
started making us dinner for the night.
While we waited on our grub, we took out some kayaks and inner tubes,
went swimming, and had Kayak Battles (it is what it sounds like) while drinking
lots and lots of cheap Thai whiskey.
The rain started as dinner was
served. We spent the rest of the
night eating and drinking in the center area and made friends with some
traveling Ukrainians that were also staying at Smiley’s.
In the morning we woke up to a
delicious breakfast off eggs, toast, and fruit. Morning is my favorite time of day in Khao Sok. The heavy mist slowly creeps across the
tops of the mountains, sinking in to each valley like an avalanche of fog. We watched the
scenery, drank some coffee, and went for a quick swim to get the blood flowing. We had a big day ahead of us. Also included with the price of the bungalows
is a guided, 3-hour trek through the jungle and a gi-normous cave system. Indiana Jones style.
Fog rolling over the mountains in the morning
All
fifteen of us jumped in a long tail boat with our two trekking guides. It was about a 30-minute ride to where
we would begin the hike and the entire time I felt like I was at Disney Land on
the Jungle Cruise. We finally
pulled up on a small piece of shoreline and embarked on our adventure of the
day.
The two guides were great. One spoke decent English, the other…
not so much. We hiked along as
they led the way and pointed out the different flora and fauna of the
rainforest. Along the trek they
made hats out of vines and giant leaves, showed us how to make native-style war
paint by grinding rocks together, and they even carved us whistles out of
bamboo.
We climbed rocks, trudged muddy
passes, and battled leaches to make are way to the mouth of the cave. I was expecting a small subterranean passageway that I’d
have to crouch to get inside of, but this cave was massive. The tunnel system ran for
several kilometers underground.
Our guide was weary of letting us
cross through it because of the water levels. A few years ago, an entire group of tourists got trapped and
drowned in the cave. It had rained
the night before we got there and the water was higher than normal, but the guide said we
were okay to go through. It took close to an hour of navigating this bottomless, dark, damp tube of rock before we reached the exit point.
Along the way, it was pitch black
except for our headlamps. There
were parts where we had to swim and parts where we had to climb. The cave is named... wait for it… the Bat
Cave. No, it isn’t a superhero
headquarters. It is, however,
inhabited by thousands of little bats that we could see hanging in slumber from the cave ceiling. The only sounds to be heard were the echoes of our voices, the swish
of rushing water, and the shrieks of those little, flying rodents whose sleep we’d
interrupted.
Into the heart of darkness
After leaving the cave, we started
off on the final leg of our hike back to the boat. Earlier in the day we ran into another small group of hikers
that said they’d seen a dead deer on the trail. Apparently, a tiger had slaughtered it earlier that
day. One of the guides told us
that if we see the tiger, we should all run away together in a line, so that the tiger can only eat one of us. Such a wise man. Safety in
numbers I guess. We continued on
the trail, all of our eyes scouring the jungle for the giant cat-beast. We didn’t end up seeing the tiger, but
we did find the leftovers from his breakfast.
The least graphic shot... TIGER FOOD
All
the manly men crowded around the for pictures and the girls nervously waited for us
to finish. Standing next to a
tiger’s recent kill in the middle of a jungle is not the best place to be. Nevertheless, it felt pretty awesome being so close to nature. After seizing the photo op, we trekked out of the rainforest
and to our boat. It was time to head back to the bungalows.
We rounded out the day with a
delicious Thai dinner, swimming outside of our raft houses, a few more kayak
battles, and a party under the stars. The
next day, after our swim and breakfast, the Smiley’s staff took us in
the longtail back to the pier where we were to catch the bus home to
Surat.
This turned out to be one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. What made it even better is that everything, and I mean everything (roundtrip transportation to and from the park; the boat rides; the guided jungle journey/ cave trek; accommodation; breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three days; and enough booze to drown a small Russian infantry unit) only cost 2,000 baht per person (about $60 USD). Only in Thailand.
Phnom
Penh is a big city but it lacks the glamour of a metropolis. There aren’t many skyscrapers, it’s
built on a nonsensical grid system, and honestly it just didn’t seem that
impressive. The
traffic and pollution are horrible. To anyone planning a visit, I highly recommend wearing sunglasses and having a bandana or something
to cover your face with while riding in a tuk-tuk. The dust and filth in the air, stirred up from the dirty
streets, is like nothing I have experienced (not even in Vietnam or Thailand).
With
that said, Phnom Penh is an amazing place and I did enjoy the time that I spent
there. It’s located where the
Tongle Sap meets the Mekong River and every morning from sunrise til 8 am, you
can see hundreds of people on the riverfront beginning their days with aerobics
and yoga. There are hotels,
guesthouses, and hostels all over the city for an array of prices. While I was there, the people seemed to
be a little standoffish at first (city-like, I guess), but were really just as
nice and friendly as everyone in Siem Reap if you talked to them for a bit.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to
spend much time in Phnom Penh. The
plan was to stay in Siem Reap for a few more days. Of course, I did what I always do and waited until the
last minute to try and change my flight.
What I didn't know is that it's Air Asia policy that, even with the
travel insurance I had, there's a minimum of 48 hours notice needed to change flights (mine was scheduled to leave the next day). SOOO, without having much choice, Ry-dude and I got on a bus a few hours
later and headed 5 ½ hours away, back to Phnom Penh. This gave me from 6 am to 4 pm (on the day of my
departure) to see and do everything in the city that I wanted to.
Skulls uncovered after excavations at the Killing Fields
Ryan
and I hired a tuk-tuk for the day ($12 USD) and the driver took us to the
Killing Fields, S-21 (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum), and lastly the shooting range. “The
Killing Fields” are about 35 minutes outside of town. For a $2 entrance fee you’re allowed in and can see where
the Khmer Rouge mercilessly massacred so many Cambodian people. If you're not familiar with the history of the Khmer Rouge and what happened in Cambodia in the 1970's, you can school yourself here. Once inside, there was a free audio tour that allowed us to move at our own pace between marked sites (including mass graves, execution
areas, and a huge collection of human skulls), all of which were shocking. I even found a human tooth in the dirt,
recently washed up to the surface by rain. After the hour-long tour we bought some incense for the
shrine and monument, and then checked out the museum near the exit. As hard as it is to stomach, I am
really glad I got to see this. I
learned a lot and have so much respect for what the Cambodian people have had
to overcome.
Mass graves, like this one where 450 victims were buried, are all over the Killing Fields
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, better known as S-21, was not much easier to see. It’s a
high school-turned-torture prison camp.
This is where the Khmer Rouge would torture people. It causes the same distress as the
Killing Fields, and after 20 minutes, we decided to leave.
*In this picture (to the left of the Ginger) is a man missing one leg. Unfortunately, this is an all to common site. Still to this day, Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined areas on the planet. The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) estimates that there are between 4 to 6 million mines in the ground. Note that the entire population of Cambodia is only 11. 5 million.*
"Say Hello to my little friends!"
Our
final stop of the day was of a brighter hue. On the opposite side of town our tuk-tuk driver
dropped us off at the shooting range.
Talk about kids in a candy store; they had everything! I had only shot a gun once in my life
before, but I have to admit, the mere site of machine guns and RPG’s got me
more than a little excited.
Although we opted not to, the option was available to shoot a rocket launcher
at a live cow ($350 US). Our
budgets and morals didn’t allow for that so we opted to pay $65 each to
shoot 20 rounds out of an AK-47 and 50 rounds from a Russian machine gun with a
tripod. Rambo would’ve been
jealous. Firing these bad boys and
blowing coconuts to smithereens was a badass experience and the grand finale to
the whole Phnom Penh escapade.
"Yippee ki-yay motherf*er!"
After
that, the tuk-tuk driver raced me to the airport and I hopped on my flight back
to my first love, Thailand. I had
a great time in both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Cambodia is now one of my favorite countries. My only regret is not being able to spend
more time there. The food, the
historical sites, the prices, and the people are all fantastic and I hope I get
to go back again. Maybe next time
I’ll shoot rocket the launcher.
Please... No smoking, no photography, and NO HAND GRENADES!
Thousands of skulls, teeth, and bones are kept in a shrine at the Killing Fields to pay respect to the dead and remind people of what the Cambodians went through
A tooth washed up from the rain that I found on the ground at the Killing Fields
