Oh What a Beautiful Morning

Despite all the Tihar activities going on last night, I stayed in and turned off my lights at about 9:30 and didn’t wake until 6:15 this morning. I can only assume that people don’t need water at 4:00 AM when it’s Tihar, and that’s just fine by me. I woke up rested for the first time in a long time and my tummy was feeling better after yesterday’s problems. I went for a run and the streets were virtually empty due to the holiday, so I was able to navigate at a relatively consistent pace without getting run down. Strangely, the street sweepers and garbage collectors were working, so the streets were even relatively clean. It was awesome! If only all my mornings could be like this I’d be a happy camper. My day has already been more productive by 11:00 AM than it is most days by dinner time. There hasn’t even been any load shedding activities (power cuts) of late. I guess that the new Maoist government, as non-religious as they are, realize that they better keep the power on after the citizens have spent days stringing lights up all over town.

Lest you all think that Tihar is paradise, I will share a few drawbacks. The children wander house-to-house singing, much like Christmas carollers, and collect rupees as they go. (Traditionally they collected food, but now only money will do.) You’d think this would be lovely, but it’s really not. It appears that they sing the same one line over and over, and it’s not exactly Silent Night. It sounds more like someone’s killing a cat repeatedly in your yard. In addition, fireworks are all the rage during Tihar. I think there are some real ones every now and then that actually light up the sky and look pretty. But for the most part, they’re just the ones that go bang. In a country that isn’t totally politically stable, these blasts tend to send me through the roof, especially if they go off right beside me in the street. I’m happy to report that the bulk of this riotous noise happens at reasonable hours and doesn’t disturb sleep, although I was almost certain there was someone shooting a gun in my bedroom this morning when I was brushing my teeth.

I put some candles out last night, to add to the decorations that my landlords had provided to attract Laxmi to our home. They invited me over to celebrate with them as well, but as with Bhola’s family I felt I should decline with my bad tummy. I couldn’t really face any food yesterday so didn’t want to get too adventuresome with Nepali festival fare. Hopefully I’ll get to do my festivaling today.

P.S. I met a cow in my laneway this morning (yes, that is odd) and she was sporting a bright red tikka just like the dogs do.

Tihar

All of Nepal is currently in festival mode. For the last few days people have been preparing and today is the first official day of the festival called Tihar. During this festival, Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, visits the homes of the Nepalis and blesses them with prosperity. The houses are decorated with marigold garlands and lights to help Laxmi find her way. It looks somewhat like Christmas at home: the houses are strung with coloured lights and the businesses are virtually draped with them. In addition, the walkways and paths to people's homes are lined with small clay oil lamps. It's really quite beautiful. My landlord strung up some marigolds over my doorway, and I'm going to pick up some clay lamps to light tonight. (Hey, we can all use some prosperity, can't we?)

I'm not sure why, but animals are celebrated at this time too. Dogs, crows and cows have particular significance for their duties as guardians, messengers, and just being holy respectively. I haven't checked out the cows next door, but all the dogs in the neighbourhood have tikkas on the their foreheads and are wearing marigold garlands as collars. I've been taking photos and will post them when I have better internet access.

I was invited to go celebrate the puja tonight with the family of my friend and former trekking guide, Bhola. I felt I had to decline as I ate or drank something bad yesterday and spent the night with my head in the toilet. Not knowing what the plumbing arrangements are at their house and knowing that I would be expected to join them in their meal I thought it best to take a raincheck until I'm feeling a bit more robust. I'm going tomorrow night instead and hope that I'm feeling well enough to enjoy it (and also that I didn't mess up their plans too much - I think today is the big day). (Nepalis aren't big planners; when they decide to do something, you get about 30 seconds warning and you better be ready to go. I got a call this afternoon from Bhola's son who didn't introduce himself but just told me he'd pick me up at 7:00.) This family is being so kind and welcoming to me, but I find it a bit awkward with Bhola away trekking. His wife speaks no English and his sons are pretty fluent but I find myself running out of things to talk to them about (they are 15 and 18). Having said that, I'm honoured by their invitation and I think it will be interesting to join the puja (I guess this translate as mass, service or ritual). I'm sure I'll come home decorated with a bright tikka on my forehead.

I am still waiting for internet at home. I have my router all hooked up but don't know how to set all the internet settings. I need a guy from the phone company to come, and of course they're off for the next few days for Tihar. I am also going to change my cable supplier as I'm not happy with my current one. This will also have to wait a few days.

No news on the job front, mostly because I haven't been doing anything. I've been spending my time trying to get myself set up at the apartment. I was going to spend today working on my resume but my digestive system had other plans for me. I met a woman the other day who is doing exactly the kind of work that I want to do here. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by some other people and left the restaurant without exchanging contact info. We have some mutual friends so hopefully I'll be able to track her down as I think she'll be a good resource for me.

That's it for now. Hopefully the next post will be from home. Happy Tihar!

Miscellany

Just some stuff that may interest you.

The Water Situation: While I have running water all the time, the majority my neighbours don’t. (When I describe my apartment to Nepalis as a “Nepali flat” their first question is always whether or not I have running water. From what I understand, running water is the sign of a high-end apartment.) One of my bedroom windows looks out on the communal fountain, so there is pretty much always someone there doing laundry or washing their dishes. It’s quite charming most of the time but...

The Sleeping Situation: The nights are quiet, which is great, but I have at least one neighbour who apparently needs water at 4:30 every morning. I’m just not sure how I’m going to handle this in the long run. At the moment I can nap later in the day if I have to, but that won’t be possible if I’m working. I can’t bring myself to go to sleep at 8:00 every night, nor do I think I’m ever going to be able to sleep through the bucket banging in the morning. It usually signals the beginning of the community wake-up, so once it starts, I also get dogs barking, cows mooing and kids yelling. There’s no going back at that point.

The Social Situation: I continue to meet new people. I know it will take a while to form any friendships but that is something I look forward to with great anticipation. In the meantime it’s nice to have some company. Last night I went to “Jazzmandu”, an annual Jazz festival in celebration of peace and unity. It changes venue every night and last night it was held at a former hunting lodge outside of town which is now a Marriott hotel and golf course. It was absolutely stunning (and home to the only indoor pool in Nepal - not that I got to see it). The stage was set up in a courtyard decorated with white Christmas lights. There were little fires burning in metal pots around the yard to provide warmth. I’m not a big jazz fan, but there were a few acts that were absolutely fabulous. The bands come from all over the world, and I could tell that even the ones that I didn’t like were of high calibre. It was a great evening. Tomorrow I’m having breakfast with a woman named Deborah that I was introduced to by someone at home. She doesn’t work within the aid/development community and has a different perspective on things here. I’m really looking forward to meeting her.

The Work Situation: I haven’t really done too much on this front as I’ve been busy getting settled in. The network here has been working under its own steam and I have received several spontaneous introductions via e-mail. As much as I appreciate all of the effort that these people are expending on my behalf, nothing of any interest has really developed. There are, naturally, a ton of opportunities for volunteer work here. I’m not opposed to starting out that way in the hopes that it will lead to a paid placement. However, virtually all of these offers are for work in orphanages and primary schools. It’s so hard to tell people that I am really uncomfortable around young children – it makes me feel like such a monster, not to mention ungrateful for the offer. There is so much need here on so many levels that it’s becoming a bit frustrating to me that I never seem to get offers to go help someone plant a rice paddy or build a school. I am hoping to spend some time next week revising my resume to make it look a little more relevant to what I’m looking for and then getting it out to some NGOs.

The School Situation: I only have two more modules to complete for my on-line TEFL course. I am sort of stalled at the moment as the next assignment is quite labour intensive. I’ll really try to get it finished in the next few days.

Photos: I just tried to post some photos of my apartment but was unsuccessful. I'll try again when I have internet at home - hopefully that will work.

Night Time

I have come to the realisation that I am afraid of the dark. Not in the sense that there’s a bogeyman under my bed, or that someone is going to jump out from a dark alley and stab me. In fact there are times when I love the dark, like when I’m staring up at the Milky Way in a place far away from city lights. But the night brings with it a very deep and subtle anxiety for me; something I’ve tried to ignore for years but seems to be getting stronger. When I travel I always try to arrive in a new place during the daylight hours, and when that isn’t possible I struggle with a fear that threatens to overtake me until I’ve found a well-lit place where I can sleep behind a locked door.

This condition has become a regular visitor of late. On the first day in my new apartment the power was off from 4-6 PM – a blessedly early time so that darkness only crept in during the last half hour or so. I had candles lit and was working on my laptop, hoping the batteries would hold out until the power came back on. I was nervous, afraid in this new place with no light. When the power came on I felt I had been rescued from the jaws of some gentle yet horrible beast. Once I turned on some lights I immediately felt at home, comfortable, happy to be here.

As I walk the streets of Kathmandu at night, I am frequently enveloped by darkness due to a power outage or just simple neglect of streetlights. At these times, knowing full well that there is no danger, my pace quickens and my heart thumps. When I reach my destination and step into the light, I feel relieved and stupid for my previous state of anxiety.

Lately I’ve been waking every morning in fairly high spirits looking forward to the day. I have been busy settling in and picking up things that I need. This has been fun and has filled me with a sense of purpose. I repeatedly run into people I know in the streets and am being invited to events within the expat community. I am meeting new people all the time, and life is generally good. And then the night falls and that fear grows in my belly like a tumour. The apartment symbolises a sense of permanence here; as if there’s no going home. What if I don’t find work? What if I do? What if I’m lonely? What if I run out of money? What if I can’t find a job that makes me happy? Am I going to be floating directionless for the rest of my life? The night is cruel.

I’m not sure where this fear comes from. I don’t remember any particularly bad experiences that may have instilled it in me. Perhaps it is the collective unconscious; a remainder from our distant past when the night represented considerable danger. When I lived in Val-des-Monts, people frequently asked me if I was afraid there. I could not think of a single threat in and around my home, other than perhaps had I tormented a mother bear, and I felt safer there than practically anywhere else in the world. I am now starting to understand it; these people had a fear of isolation that is likely similar to this fear I have of the dark. It is not rational, but its grip cannot be loosened.

New Home

I spent my first night at my new place. I am starting to get settled and spent much of yesterday shopping. All of the dishes here are metal, which is fine if you’re camping, but not exactly appealing on a daily basis. I picked up some dishes and sheets and a pretty bedspread. Bedding is funny here – they don’t sleep between two sheets and fitted sheets are unheard of. They put a flat sheet on the bottom and a blanket (or comforter if you’re rich) on top. As a result all sheet sets consist of a flat sheet and two pillow cases.

The most excitement involved my fridge and TV. I bought them in the morning and had them delivered in the afternoon. As I was showing the delivery men in, my landlord, Kiran, spotted us and came to supervise. By the time everything made its way into the apartment I had a crew of seven working on the job. Kiran’s mother was practically swooning over the fridge – I didn’t think I was going to get her out of my kitchen. I have all manner of tables, bookshelves and assorted furniture in the apartment, but Kiran had to send his brother, Romus, to find a more suitable table for the TV. I am still not 100% sure that this wasn’t pilfered from their own living room, but they refused to hear of any alternative or allow me to replace it. As I type this, another crew of three are drilling a hole through a window frame to accommodate the cable, which is supposed to arrive later today. I was just about to jump in the shower so am looking a bit shoddy, but figure I’ll wait for them to leave to perform my ablutions.

I’m looking forward to my first shower here with some trepidation. The water heater has to be turned on prior to my shower in order to have hot water. I have heard differing reports of how long it takes the water to heat, but the consensus seems to be between 15 and 30 minutes. The water heater has a caution scrawled across it big black letters that say that it will explode if left on for more than one hour. I’m actually considering getting an alarm clock to set every time I turn it on in case I get wrapped up in something else and forget. Apparently the water stays hot for 12 hours after heating, so I’m assuming it will be fine once the guys leave and I’m free to use it. I mean, how long can it take three Nepalis to drill a hole?

My first night wasn’t bad, but not the best sleep I’ve ever had. The bed is hard, but not as uncomfortable as I was expecting, so my hips didn’t give me too much grief. I heard a few sounds in the night, like dogs barking in the distance and some parents comforting a child a few houses away. I don’t think any of these actually woke me, as my sleep was disturbed by my own brain. First night jitters, I guess. Strangely, I was able to catch up in the early hours of the morning when the city was coming to life and it was much noisier than it was all night. Kiran has just informed me that there is an alternate-day policy for water here, so there were lots of buckets being banged around this morning as people filled reservoirs. Tomorrow morning should be quieter. My only real concern at the moment is that I like to run in the morning before the streets get too busy. I didn’t want to get up and run at 4:30 when I was wide awake, and then I finally fell asleep through prime running hours this morning. I’m hoping I’ll get into a more useful routine in a while.

As for the water situation, I have it all the time. I’ll have to determine if Kiran and his family have to fill a reservoir every second day. He certainly made it clear that there was a water shortage so I am making every effort not to use too much. It amazes me that Nepal has more water than every other country in the world except one, and still can’t seem to keep its capital city in water or electricity.

I just went to check on the hole. It’s ready, but the cable guy basically just delivered the cable and took off, so Kiran and Romus are trying to put the connector on the coax. Needless to say, I can’t offer my services, although I could probably do it in two minutes with my eyes closed. It’s rather painful to watch.

Several hours later…

Cable is up and running and I have sorted out the internet connection. It will probably take a week or so to get installed so I’m back at the internet café. Will post this now and write more later – lots of email to deal with while I’m here.

Making Progress

Yesterday I went on a hike to Shivapuri. I’m not sure if that’s the name of the hill or a nearby village – I think it’s the former. We were a group of 14 but spread out a lot on the trail so I didn’t spend too much time with any one of the others, but little bits of time with several of them. lt was nice to meet such an interesting bunch of people. They pretty much all work in aid or development and they are all so committed to their work. Still, it sounds like it can be a frustrating industry and I heard some of their insights and gripes. Knowing what I do about working for the government, I can certainly see how they have to navigate themselves through miles of red tape and other minefields, a process which can be compounded by the different (and often backwards) governments and organisations they have to deal with. Fortunately, this hasn’t deterred me from wanting in - the joy of being naive and keen I guess.

The trek itself was quite difficult. It was about 4 ½ hours practically straight up and another 3 or so back down. I much prefer going up when the only problems are sweat and shortness of breath - nothing that a quick rest can’t solve. Coming down, on the other hand, is really tough on the joints and my knees complained in an increasingly loud voice all the way down. I was so happy to be down that I didn’t remember to stretch so I’m a bit stiff today. I guess it was good training for my upcoming trek with Judy and her family. We gained about 1100 metres which certainly will help with the acclimatisation process.

Today I rented myself a little apartment. As previously mentioned, apartments aren’t easy to find here. I got a little freaked out yesterday when I found out that all of my fellow trekkers were paying well in excess of $1000 US in rent per month. I can only assume that apartments that most Westerners find acceptable are of such a relatively high standard here it would be equivalent to us renting the penthouse at the Hilton at home. I was thinking I might as well just stay at the guest house for half the price but that means tons of noise early in the mornings and no kitchen facilities. Eating out is really inexpensive and way better than suffering through my own cooking but it would be nice to at least have a fridge. I answered an ad this morning and didn’t even bother to shop around.

The apartment is much more Nepali than Western. This means cement floors with a few carpets, a Nepali bathroom (no tub or shower stall - just one big open space) and a pretty rudimentary kitchen. The ad said that it was furnished, which it is, but with no appliances other than a gas cooker. I’ll have to buy myself a small fridge and TV as well as some dishes and other household stuff. It’s on the ground floor and my bedroom window looks out on a pretty garden. It’s fairly centrally located and far enough off a main road to be really quiet. I have been assured that there are no chickens nearby so hopefully I won’t get a rooster wake-up call every morning. Kathmandu’s biggest department store is about two blocks away, so I can get everything I need there. I have five rooms: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and two offices. I’m guessing it was set up this way because that’s what furniture was available. If I decide to stay there for a while and can figure out where to get furniture, I’ll turn the second office into a living area, bedroom or something else more useful to me. My biggest concern is the mattress which is, I think, a futon. I’m guessing that this will be really hard on my hip. A new mattress might be on my list as well, if such a thing exists here.

The second-best part is that the rent is 15,000 rupees ($240 Cdn) per month. This means that even if I’m not earning I can easily afford to live here. Ultimately, if I can’t find a paid position, I could volunteer or take a Nepali salary and still be fine.

The best part is that my landlord is a lovely young man who lives with his family upstairs. I met his mother this morning, and I’m not sure who else is up there. He speaks great English, loves Canadians (his last tenant was Canadian as well) and is infinitely helpful. I’m sure he’ll be a great help getting me set up with all the comforts I want – probably even more so if I want to buy furniture that I’ll ultimately leave behind.

I’ll have a landline there and will be getting internet. It will likely be cheaper and easier to make and receive calls from the landline than my cell phone, so I’ll pass that number along when I get it. I’ll be moving in on Wednesday...wish me luck.

Optimism

Last night I met with Michelle, a Dutch woman who I met through a series of connections. We had a lovely time and she is so far proving to be a great help. She has provided me with lots of tips for job hunting as well as apartment hunting. Today she followed up on all her promises and introduced me, via email, to two other resources to help me out. One is here in Nepal and also looking for accommodation and the other has recently left here and is now in New York. The latter had some useful advice regarding jobs here. She did a lot of business writing for NGOs here, which is work that I would be really well suited for and would love to do.

Tomorrow I will be joining Michelle and a handful of her friends to do a day hike. I am looking forward to getting out the city for a day, breaking in my new hiking boots and meeting some other expats. If I have it right, we’ll be on the edge of the Kathmandu valley, so should get some good views of the mountains. One of the other trekkers is Leila, the woman who is apartment hunting. She promised to talk to me tomorrow and fill me in on the housing scene. Unfortunately people don’t place classifieds for this kind of thing here – you have to go with notice boards, signs on buildings and word-of-mouth. It makes it somewhat difficult.

I am feeling very optimistic at the moment. I expect that neither a job or apartment is going to fall into my lap, but I am encouraged that both are within reach if I apply myself. The good news is that I’m feeling more motivated than I was when I first arrived. I am really ready to start doing something, even if it means an alarm clock 5 days a week. It’s time to be productive.

Wish me luck.

P.S. I have bought myself a phone. If anyone wants the number, just let me know via email and I’ll send it to you. The telephone network here is about as reliable as everything else in Nepal – meaning not at all. You may have to retry several times to get through, but don’t give up.

Happy Thanksgiving

I haven’t been doing too much except wandering around town, which has been really lovely with the festival on and the streets rather quiet. My room overlooks the beautiful back garden at the guesthouse and I gaze down longingly each morning as groups of trekkers gather for their final briefings before they set off for the mountains. I would love to be joining them.

The weather is as close to perfect as I can imagine. It is sunny and clear, with daytime highs in the mid to high twenties. The evenings are cool enough for a jacket and perfect for sleeping. The air is surprisingly clear and much less polluted than I remember. I wonder if this is because the city is quiet at the moment or if the cooler temperatures give the illusion of crisper air. There is a wonderful, familiar smell to this city; not the stench you’d expect given the dirt and lacklustre garbage management efforts, but a mingling of the incense and flowers being offered in temples with the fresh food on offer in the markets. It’s such a delightful contrast to the often gut-turning stink of Bangkok.

I have been pleasantly surprised by my reception at the guest house. The staff all remember me and have been greeting me like a long-lost family member. It has really been quite flattering.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers.

Nepal (sigh)

Well I’m here. I have to say that my arrival was a bit different than I expected. I thought I’d be exhilarated, excited and childlike. Instead, I just felt normal. Everything is the same and it honestly feels like I haven’t left. It also feels like the best day that I could ever imagine in Kathmandu. The skies are clear and the temperature was about 26 at midday. I just wandered around for a few hours this afternoon, checking things out and taking things in. I smiled non-stop all afternoon – everything just felt so good, and nothing annoyed me. I can’t really explain all this: normally you can’t just amble around Kathmandu, nor can you retain your composure doing so for an entire afternoon. There are lots of tourists in town at the moment as it is peak trekking season, and there are relatively few Nepalis in town as they are visiting their home villages for a festival. I’m guessing that there are so many tourists to go around that it takes the pressure off each individual. (Last time I was here it was the off-season and I was one of very few targets for the very hungry vendors.) I also have to wonder if my obvious joy was rubbing off on the locals, who all greeted me with big smiles and what appeared to be genuine affection rather than the standard sales tactics. Whatever the reason, it felt great and I’m thrilled to be back. If only this feeling could be bottled.

Of course it wouldn’t be life if it was perfect and there is flip side to the coin. I am painfully aware of the fact that I came here for a reason, and now that I’m here I have to put my nose to the grindstone. Of course this is something I want, but after two years of drifting rather aimlessly (and loving it) I’m somewhat nervous about being a responsible adult again. I’m anxious about both looking for work which I know will be a challenge, and even more so, finding it.

I will start the process first thing next week; I have a dinner tentatively scheduled with a woman that I met through a series of other people (both known and unknown to me) and we have been corresponding over the last few weeks. I am hoping that she may help me get my foot in the door of the expat community here, which I figure is where I need to be both professionally and socially. I also have a list of other expats to get in touch with. In the meantime, I’m going to spend the weekend reacquainting myself with the city and my Nepali friends.

Leaving Southeast Asia

I can’t say that I was very productive during my last days in Cambodia and Thailand. After I voted I sat and had lunch on a floating deck/restaurant by the lake in Phnom Penh. It’s not much of a lake but seems important to a large population of people who live on its banks and fish its waters. Islands of vegetation float around, propelled by the wind and boats. The government plans to fill it in next year and build high rises on it, regardless of the impact on the people who will be displaced. As I had my lunch the skies opened up with a rain the likes of which I hadn’t seen since Thailand 2006. I had a fabulous vantage point to watch the water boil under the deluge and the lightening rip the sky.

The following day I flew back to Bangkok where I didn’t do much of anything. I was feeling a bit off and suspect that my lunch by the lake may have been a bit dodgy. It wasn’t too bad, it just affected my appetite and made me somewhat uncomfortable. The following day I managed to get over to a Mexican restaurant on the other side of town that Warren had recommended. Nepal doesn’t offer a lot in the way of nachos and salsa, so I thought I’d get my fill while I could. The nachos were fabulous, the environment not so much. I was in Patpong, the infamous sex-trade part of town which can be both fascinating and gut-wrenching. The more I see of it, the more it leans towards the latter. The restaurant itself was upscale and very Western, with the waitresses decked out in denim and cowboy hats. The prices were similar to those at home (i.e. astronomical by Thai standards) so the clientele was made up of expats and Western vacationers. I didn’t stay long – the Aussie expat chatting me up was particularly irritating and I didn’t relish an entire evening of listening to him singing his own praises.

I had an uneventful trip to Kathamandu. (I’m hoping this is a new trend – if you need reminding, check my blogs describing me getting to and from Kathmandu in 2007 – it wasn’t pretty.) I ended up having to pay a fee for my overweight luggage, but a quick calculation revealed that the fee was less than the cost of one of the dozen or so books I was carrying from home, so I figured it was a worthwhile expense. I also had some extra baht I had to get rid of so it actually worked out pretty well.

I had lots of time to spare at the airport and after browsing the duty free shops came to the realisation that a pair of sunglasses had been stolen from me along with my credit card, cash and battery charger during my first transit through Bangkok. There’s no problem getting a battery charger in Nepal, but decent sunglasses just aren’t to be had. Virtually everything for sale in that country that isn’t manufactured there is fake. That’s okay when it comes to CDs, fleece jackets and designer t-shirts, but not so good when it comes to decent eyewear. I decided to bite the bullet and get some good polarised sunglasses at the airport while I could. It was a nice little treat.

Voting in Cambodia

Yesterday I voted. At least I think I did.

I have missed other elections when travelling and never thought too much of it. There were even times when I was living in Val-des-Monts when I seriously considered giving the whole thing a miss, when the 60 km round-trip to the poll just didn’t seem worth the effort. But this time I did make the effort.

I’m not sure what it was that lit the fire in my belly for this election. Maybe it was e-mails from friends in my riding lamenting the need to “vote strategically” in order to block the Bloc. How they wish they could just vote for the party that they believed should win. Maybe this reignited my anger that a party who is motivated to secede is even allowed a place in the House of Commons. More likely it is because I am haunted by a beautiful e-mail that I received from a Nepali friend who is 26 years old and was participating in a democratic process for the first time this spring. Included in his e-mail were the words “That was my first vote in my life. So nice.”

So this time I downloaded the form from the Elections Canada website, filled it in and had my driver’s license photocopied. I found a shop on a small Thai island that would send an international fax and sent it off. My friend Warren in Cambodia was kind enough to let me use his work address to receive my ballot as private homes don’t have addresses or receive post here. It was a write-in ballot so I logged back onto the Elections Canada website to find the appropriate candidate, sealed my ballot in three separate envelopes and found my way to the DHL depot. By yesterday there wasn’t enough time left to get my ballot to Ottawa by mail, so I couriered it for an astronomical fee. As I’m typing this it has made its way to Hong Kong via Bangkok. It has five business days to make it to Ottawa in time to be counted – fingers crossed.

Yes, it was a lot of time, bother and money but I don’t regret it for a moment. And I didn’t vote strategically.

Phnom Penh

I had an uneventful trip from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and am safely ensconced in my friend Warren’s beautiful apartment. On Friday night he took me to a birthday party for a colleague of his and I had a great time at a very “Western” party. There were lots of Canadians as well as teachers from Britain, Australia and New Zealand. On Saturday we had a bit of a slow start but then hit some of the local markets and shops. I was able to buy a pair of leather sandals to replace the pair that got eaten by a dog on Koh Phangan (leaving me with nothing but flip-flops, hiking boots and running shoes). We then had fabulous massages and came home to regroup before heading out for dinner and a movie night at a friend’s place. We all sang along to the Abba classics as Mamma Mia was screened.

Today we both did some work on our respective courses (Warren is working on a Masters) and then hired a couple of motorcycles (with drivers) to tour us around on the other side of the river. We saw some really interesting neighbourhoods and lifestyles over there. It’s strange to see how the poor and rich people intermingle here – the rich don’t have any issue erecting a mansion in the middle of a slum. It’s very strange and somewhat disturbing, considering their wealth was likely gathered through corruption at the expense of the poor people around them.

Phnom Penh is much the way I remember it. It certainly is easier to get around with an escort, especially one who has lived here for so many years. It is still an incredibly poor, filthy and largely ugly city. And it still has the ambiance of devastation, pain and suffering pulsing through the air. Still, like all places in Asia, I can’t help but love the sensory assault. It just makes you so aware on so many levels.

Warren works tomorrow, so I’ll try to get out and explore a bit on foot. I’m guessing that after a day of touring on my own I’ll be ready to hunker down inside and not go out again. I will certainly be more of a target without Warren to hide behind.

The Big Stink

I said all my goodbyes on Koh Phangan, had a last lunch on the beach and then hopped a ferry for the mainland. After four hours at sea and nine on a bus I arrived in Bangkok at 4:00 this morning. The streets in my neighbourhood were pretty quiet at that time, but I couldn’t believe the number of bars still open catering to the last drunken backpackers being hit on by Thai hookers. There was garbage in the streets and it smelled like India (meaning urine). Welcome back to Bangkok. With every visit I am becoming more and more disenchanted by this place. If it wasn’t such a great hub for the rest of Asia I don’t think I’d ever be tempted to come back. The only good thing about it is the prevalence of used bookstores which are popping up like weeds on the streets in my neighbourhood. I think books will ultimately lead to my financial downfall – I don’t know how many I went through on Koh Phangan where there wasn’t much else in the way of entertainment. I try to put blinders on when walking around Khaosan Road, but I can resist just about everything for sale here except the books. And if there’s a Booker or Giller prize winner in the stack, I snap it up with barely a glace at the back cover; at least I know that the writing will be decent. With a suitcase-load of books back in my room, I am typing this fresh from a lost battle against a Booker nominee, which virtually assaulted me from a wire rack by the side of the road. I guess there are worse addictions.

Fortunately, it’s a bit cooler here than it was on the island, and we even had a short thunderstorm this afternoon. I ran a few errands today, but mostly I’m just waiting to leave. I’ll catch my flight to Phnom Penh tomorrow afternoon. I’ll write again from Cambodia.