Just as quickly as we arrived

we were back on the plane again this morning.

A few weeks ago Mike mentioned a PIA (Princeton in Asia) Singapore office opening party which I also wrote briefly about in an earlier post. Now, if I’m being honest, and I’d say its safe to assume this goes for both Mike and Auggie as well, we all were just looking for an excuse to fly to Singapore. One of the nice things about being in Asia are the extremely cheap flights and this trip was no exception to that. We found round trip tickets for $130 USD, to fly out Thursday morning and return again on Saturday morning. So, as you can imagine, it was a whirlwind of a trip and we packed SO much stuff into basically a day and a half that it’s hard to remember it all but luckily I took nearly 500 pictures haha.

I’ll preface the post by saying that I knew that Singapore is extremely modern and developed, but maybe I just wasn’t expecting the shock of the feeling of walking into the airport to see Christmas lights and Burger King. So, while refreshing to be in a developed city again, I got a little taste of the reverse culture shock that is coming one month from today when I touch down in Columbus at the end of my adventure. Aside from the shock though, I really do love Singapore. From first impression, it has so much that I look for in a city: It’s clean, good public transportation, and its very diverse. It’s expensive, just like any NYC or Philly of the states, but that is to be expected from any major developed city.

So, we flew in at noon on Thursday, only to arrive in a downpour of a city that was Singapore with only shoddy directions to get to the hostel we were staying at. Now, mind you, it is downpourning. Any of you who have been downtown in a major city during a downpour, an unhired taxi is about impossible. So, we run over to this little indian place (go figure, our hostel was in little india mmmmmm) to get directions from a man standing outside under the awning, only to find out that our hostel was about 3 blocks away. After changing out of our dripping wet clothes, we anxiously went to check out the mall that was closeby to get some last minute items before the party.

I like malls, and I like shopping. With that said, I felt like the flintstones went to a modern mall or something. It all hit me at once when we walked into the mall… Christmas trees, McDonalds, and 4 floors of overwhelming consumerism. We all agreed that it would have been completely overwhelming and uncomfortable had the mall been crowded, just because of the level of consumerism. That’s not to say that Cambodia and Phnom Penh is devoid of consumerism, but it is so much different than what we experience in the States and other major cities. Instead of getting verbally smacked in the face for tuk-tuk rides, you get smacked in the face with pre-light, fiber optic Christmas trees and thousand dollar purses.

So after our hour of awe struck shopping, we headed back to the hostel to change and get ready for the party which proved to be equally shocking haha. Wine & o’rdurves were nothing like what I’ve experienced in the past two months. Wine & o’rdurves with Princeton students, alums, and board members was icing on the cake so to speak haha. All shocked effects aside, I’m really glad that we went to the party and had the chance to mingle with some of the PIA fellows and leaders to get a feel for what the program is all about, so that was fun. Afterward, we stopped into McDonalds to crush on some french fries and get a little taste of home before heading to bed early to get enough energy to walk around the city all day Friday.

Friday, we literally walked around ALL DAY trying to see as much of the city as possible and while we didn’t see everything (obviously), I saw enough to get the feeling that I’d love to stick around and live there for a while. For the most part, I’ll let the pictures do the talking once I get them uploaded and posted, but the city is beautiful. While we were walking past the croquet club, we noticed signs up for a concert from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and decided to go check out the dates just for fun, and it just so happened that there was a show that night. After a very short deliberation (see: You guys want to go? YES!) we went in and got our $22 dollar cheap seats and were on our way.

The show was wonderful for two reasons: it was not depressing/dismal cambodian khmer music, and it was performed live (obviously) in an awesome concert hall. I’d at times just close my eyes and imagine that I was sitting on the lawn at Blossom listening to the Cleveland Orchestra with Mom and Grandma, so that was a nice boost of excitement to come home in a month.

All in all, it was an amazing 48 hours. Had I known that it was that affordable to fly around Asia, I think I would have taken advantage of a few more weekends to check out some of the other destinations like Kuala Lampur. Oh well, next time I’m back I hope. I’m going to hopefully get some pictures uploaded this afternoon to post, which I’ll add more narration along with them.

Until then,

Kyle

1 1/2.

So things are going to pick up quick in the next few weeks and for the remainder of my time over here. Just to give a brief overview of my upcoming schedule:

Nov. 17: Day trip to the former capital
Nov. 19-21st Singapore for the PIA office opening
Nov. 23rd Nick gets here
Nov. 26-27th Hang out in Siem Reap/Angkor Wat
Dec. 2nd Travel to Ho Chi Minh to catch a plane to Nha Trang (and maybe meet Erin)

So yeah… busy few days. It’s a really weird feeling having just 2 days left at work, I feel like it was only yesterday that I walked into the office with my suitcase to blindly meet Bandol and Thida for the first time, only to find out that the president of the university didn’t relay the message to them of my arrival. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting outside the office of the director of operations, only to happen to bump into Mike and Auggie who quickly became my two best friends here.

It is unbelievable how quickly time has gone by. I have to say, I’m really not ready to come home yet. I’m SO excited to come back just in time for Christmas and see family and friends and celebrate with them, but in the same breath, I feel that I’ve not yet explored and had the full Cambodian experience yet. I feel like there is so much more to see, do and experience. There are providences that I’ve not yet (and now, will likely not have the time to) visited. It is hard to leave this life that I have jumped into and really embraced in the past two months. Certainly there are times when I’d love to just hop on a plane and head back to the states and never look back, but that happens everywhere you go.

The more I think about it, the more I’d really like to get involved in a program similar to what Mike and Auggie are doing now. They have a one-year contract with the WFDD (World Faith Development Dialogue, an NGO which seeks to document and promote dialogues and acceptance of all world religions) to interview various religious leaders around the region. So during their time here, they have a living stipend and really get to immerse themselves in the lifestyle and culture. They also have plenty of time throughout their stay to see the country and take in as much as possible. I think this is something that I’d really love to do, maybe not in Cambodia, but somewhere in the world. It’s not that I dislike Cambodia, I LOVE it here, but I’m so anxious to see more of the world that I’d like to have a similar opportunity to learn somewhere else.

So I guess I’ll just see what I can find or where I could use the skills I have to help out. While I don’t want to spend my whole life and career working 1-year contracts in foreign nations, I think that while I’m young and single that I might as well take an opportunity like that if it should present itself.

What do you do? I feel like there is so much pressure put on twenty-somethings and college grads to follow that cookie cutter mold that everyone kinda follows after college: Find a job, buy your first car, get married, etc, etc.. Its not that I have a problem with that, someday I’m sure I’ll do all of those things, but I feel like anymore that its become less of the common trend and more of an expectation. I’m excited to start a career doing something I really love, but I also don’t want a career to dictate what direction my life takes outside of work. It just seems like there are so many opportunities to get out and experience more things and become a more rounded person, and I’d hate to miss out on those things just to get a few more years into a career.

That’s just me I guess. Everyone always says you should do what you love, and I love traveling and learning about people and their cultures, so why not do that for a while before doing something else that you love?

Kyle

generally unrelated

but awesome nonetheless.

Que Houxo is a Japanese artist who does live paintings. His style is quite colorful, he uses fluorescent paints with black lights. These photos are from The Paint Players event, taken by Evan Roth.

here is a video from a separate show, but it gives you an idea of how he creates his work.

WaterFestival.

Every year right around the first weekend of November, millions of people swarm the already overcrowded city to come take part in the Water Festival, which is a celebration of the changing current. During a portion of the year, the Mekong actually flows north, and right around this time it switches direction and begins flowing south again. I suppose you could say that I underestimated the fact that MILLIONS of people were actually coming to the city.

I talked to Jack, my trusted tuk-tuk driver, and was asking him if he would give us (auggie and I) a ride over to her apartment to which he laughed at me. He said that it took him nearly an HOUR to travel from Monivong street to my street, which is only about 4 blocks. So, we began the walk (which isn’t really all that bad in reality, but I just convince myself its really far and is worth the 50 cent ride haha) and once we get to the police barrier at the end of my street we are given the first taste of the Water Festival… thousands of people, shoulder to shoulder, not moving even an inch. So after having my toes run over by one moto, and having my leg burnt by a hot exhaust pipe of another, we finally were able to squeeze our way to the other side of the crowd about 20 minutes later. That was on Saturday, keep in mind the festival is Sunday-Tuesday. So as you can imagine, as the festival moved on, it got more and more crowded, so we all were hesitant to step up to the plate and go down to the riverfront and take on the crowds for ourselves.

Finally on Tuesday we decided we would go for the best part, which were the finals. To our surprise, we found a tent that was designated for ‘tourists’ which we figured we could pass for. After being patted down and passing under the metal detectors, we were able to get an amazing view after climbing down the embankment right down to the water. I think in total I took just shy of 270 picutres, which I obviously can’t post all of because of the slow internet speeds, but I have been able to get a few up on my flickr.

Some of you reading this have either been to a regatta of mine, rowed on crew, or know how long those boats are. They are huge… but in comparison to these, they are tiny. Some of the biggest boats here were large enough to seat 60 people, and in twos all the way back, they are really substantial. I had a hard time capturing an entire boat because even zooming my camera all the way back, they were often still too long to fit into the frame. I can just imagine what the coxwains of OU would say if they saw some of the people on the boats, which I tried to capture as best I could. Some were smoking cigarettes, some were standing up dancing, some were just not rowing it all haha, it was pretty entertaining to watch them all. Because of the size of the boat, many of them could not keep in sync with the stroke, causing the bow to have their oars in the water while the stern was getting ready to take the next stroke.

Anyway, so we are standing looking over the water and I feel an uncharacteristically cool breeze blow over the water, which I’ve felt many times while on crew. So I quickly packed my camera and grabbed Mike and his friend Emily and went to this little tapas restaurant, and got in just as the rain came pouring down. After grabbing some delcious snacks, it seemed like the rain let up, so we decided to make a quick run for it with hopes of catching a tuk-tuk before the rain started. So, about 2 minutes after leaving that rain started DUMPING on us, muuuuuch harder than it was raining before. And of course, we didn’t think that all the streets wore blocked off so there were literally NO tuk-tuks or motos, and by the time we go tto the unblocked section, we were so soaked that it really didn’t matter anymore. I took off my shoes and just kicked around water for a while until I started feeling bad because mike actually had a poncho and was wearing socks and shoes, so we grabbed a tuk tuk and went back to my place to pick up our stuff and dry off.

We grabbed another tuk-tuk back to Mike&Auggies to order some takeout since it was so flooded, and upon getting back to their street we saw about 8-9 INCHES of standing water in the street because of the flooding, which was covering the entire sidewalk. As I jump out of the tuk-tuk I feel something tickling my foot, only to see a huge roach crawling on my foot. So gross. After all the events of the day, we decided it was best to relax and watch some movies, which was nice.

I’ve really been slacking on my updates lately. It is not that I’m not having a good time, because I am, and it is not because I’m bored, because I’m not. I think that my initial giddiness and excitement about being in a new place that came with many things to write about has begun to slow down a little after seven weeks here. I have a normal routine; I’ve got my usual breakfast and lunch spots, I can go swim on my lunch hours, I can go hang out with Auggie and Mike at night. So while I’m still having just as much fun and learning just as much as I did the day I got here, I think that life has slowed down a bit now that I’ve settled into my routine. I don’t necessarily like this, and I think that I’m taking it sort of as a challenge to get out and go see more things and experience as many places as I can before I leave here. Because of this, I’ve started to plan a few trips with Auggie and Mike in the next few weeks, the highlight of which is our flight to Singapore to go to a party for all of the Princeton fellows that are around the region (no, I’m not a Princeton fellow scholar, but I’m still allowed to go if I act as Auggie’s date I guess haha). So that will be a really exciting end the Cambodia portion of my trip.

This weekend is a long weekend, as I’ve told some of you already, because of the Water Festival. Basically, every year there is a 3 day festival to celebrate the change in current direction of the Mekong River when is switching from southern flowing to northern flowing. I’m extra excited because they have a formal regatta on the river as a main part of the celebration. Now, all of the rowing people reading this (Meredith & Joc), don’t get tooooo excited, they aren’t what we used to row in. They look like this:

So basically I have Thursday off, work Friday, then have Saturday-Wednesday off. So I’m going to go somewhere this weekend. I’m not sure where yet, but somewhere. I have to get my visa that’s 20 days expired renewed so I can leave the country if I decide I want to do that haha oops. So who knows where I’ll end up this weekend, chances are I’ll be flying somewhere, but I’m just not sure yet where. Its all a part of the adventure right?

In the spirit of trying new things

While it’s not a buzz (yet), I got my hair cut yesterday to about the shortest length it has been in about 8 or 9 years haha. And, in the spirit of cambodia and the adventure that I’m on, I decided to skip going to some salon or something, and paid the equivilent of 1 dollar and got my hair cut by a guy on the street. All around the city, there are little haircut setups where they drape a tarp over the chair and hang two mirrors up, one in front of you and one so you can see how the back looks. I was about THIS close to just saying whatever and cutting it myself like I have been doing for about a year now, but figured what the heck. It’s ridiculously hot here and my hair grows decently quickly so I might as well haha.

I had Bandol recommend me a place, so he took me to his usual spot that is about 2 blocks from UC, and about 30 minutes and 4000 riel later, I was 20 degrees cooler feeling like I was missing something haha. I’ll see if I can post a picture later, I haven’t taken any yet.

Kyle

Things I love about Asia, vol. 1

There are a ton of things that I love about Asia that I’d like to share. A lot of these Asian quirks are pretty hilarious actually, once you get over the initial frustration of the experience you had in finding out about that new quirk.

From the first day I came to work, I was warned not to plug my computer or anything of value into the outlets here as there are frequent blackouts that just kinda happen whenever throughout the day. They aren’t quite as common as they are in a country like Bangladesh, where you can expect a blackout 3-4 times a day, where in Cambodia it is every day or two. Since Bandol told me about the blackouts, I’ve had more than a few incidents that left me in odd situations haha.

So today on my lunch break I decided to go to the gym/pool and do a light lift and run before catching up on my sweet tan (haha, no, I will never have a sweet tan but I’ll continue to try). Despite the extreme humidity today, I was still looking forward to the workout the entire morning just as a change of pace. Now, I’m not sure, but I’m pretty positive that the tread mills here are in KMH and not MPH. IF they are in MPH I was REALLY feeling good, because I ran two miles/kilometers in 10:50. Pretty quick. I was running pretty quickly, not really paying too much attention as I stare out the window at the ant sized people on the ground. All of the sudden I hear a loud pop, and slam into the front of the treadmill. Blackout, awesome. A blackout on a treadmill is about the worst thing I can really imagine could happen on a treadmill, short of just falling off (but who really does that??). After getting laughed at by all the workers and various people around the gym lifting, I finished out my last half mile and retired to poolside to mourn the bruises on my hip bones for the last hour before returning to work.

So at the time, a little frustrating because who really expects to have a blackout at 1pm on a Wednesday, but now, its funny. I’d laugh if that happened to someone else I think, and I’d certainly laugh if I could have seen how cool I looked after getting jacked by the treadmill console haha. I have a few more quirks I love about Asia, but those I’ll have to save for later.

Talk to you all soon.

Kyle