Saturday, September 6, 2014

Through the Looking Glass/International Dateline

Today is my first full day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Already, I feel like a different person. Is that possible even? In one day's time to feel radically different? It's a completely different world. The moment I stepped off the plane, and felt that crazy hot humidity hit me, I knew I was in for the ride of a lifetime. Actually, scratch that. This may sound dumb, but the moment that hit me the most was on a plane from Guangzhou to Siem Reap. Maybe it's only crazy to me, but they served green oranges. GREEN ORANGES! It's dumb and I should know better the reason why it had an outer green layer, but for some reason, I was dumbfounded by it. I was going into a world that was so different that even their oranges weren't orange!

At the airport, I hired a tuk-tuk driver named Mr. Small, who, besides from having a really badass name, has been one of the kindest people I've ever met. He's been my personal driver for the last two days and he'll remain so until I leave. He and I have had some pretty fascinating conversations about life and poverty and the world at large.


(Oh, and the poverty. I'll leave that for another blog down the line because it's much too large a topic to cover right now. And, blood running thick and pumped by a social worker's heart, I'm going to have a lot of future blogs cover the topics of poverty and privilege)
I met a fellow from Thailand, a 44-year old musician named Justin, who has taken me around town to some of his favorite spots. Really cool dude and is the exact kind of adventurer you imagine encountering on an adventure like this. I love it.

I've been staying at a homestay, Channa's Angkor Homestay, which essentially means I'm staying with a family (a couple and their three kids), who have a spare room to rent. It's been the best way to start this whole adventure. Last night, we all had dinner, during a lightning storm, while Justin played guitar and the eldest daughter grilled me about American life. She's a year older than Noel, and it's funny to see that even halfway across the world, 10-year-olds are naturally curious little creatures.

But, this is all general talk. You want to hear the meat of the travels! You want to see the pictures and hear the crazy stories. For example, something like this has not happened!). You want more! Well, that will have to wait until I get to proper internet, so for right now I'll leave everything sorta vague. My plan and goal is to update this twice a week with pictures, in-depth stories, rantings, videos, and so forth.

Also. Dear. God. The. Humidity. Is. Punishing.

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