the jolie connection :: from pax:vietnam to maddox:cambodia

for those who understand my title, that's right, im all caught up on my celeb gossip blogs as of last nite! so i've arrived in phnom penh, cambodia tonite but for the last few days we were in the mekong delta. basically ive been in dingy boats floating around in some seriously brown, polluted and murky water but it was pretty fabulous. though the water would give us westerners some serious third world runs, the locals here bathe in it, wash their clothes and dishes in it, and cook and drink the water too.

we did tons of shit im just having a hard time remembering...ok i just asked ed and mini cause apparently ive lost my short term memory. we went to a coconut candy 'factory', a crocodile farm (which i dont particularly agree with. also they had two black bears in a tiny cage which i thought PETA should get their ass all over it), a rice noodle factory, a floating market and we visited a cham minority village. im not going into details right now mostly cause im lazy, dirty and uncomfortable after my travelling time today, i'll go into it more later! but what was really cool is that on one of the nites me, mini and ed did a homestay and we lived in a hut in the JUNGLE. it was actually kinda crazy cause first they put the 3 of us and all our bags on a single cycle (which is like a tiny cart being pulled by a motorbike). it couldnt actually make it up a small slope on a bridge so we had to get out and push the cart. and when i say we i mean i sat in the cart, mini pushed, and ed took a photo. then we got on motorbikes and went through the jungle on a small dirt path next to the river. it was actually seriously sketch and mini's motorbike actually crashed once into a ditch (if that was me, id have probably cried.) it still wasnt over and then we had a short walk through the jungle complete with walking across logs over rivers (which they call monkey bridges) while one of the guys we were living with would taunt us with threats of landmines and then grab at my legs in the pitch dark. he also called me 'princess' and told me to 'shut the fuck up and stop complaining' when i asked which hut i was living in. the vietnamese have a wierd sense of humour in the south.

but i loved our homestay and my heart exploded with joy when i saw that there was a western toilet and a shower. that may be an exaggeration, and it may not. when you're as dirty as i am nowadays, you get really pumped to find that you can shower; how sad. oh on our last day in saigon, we actually had no electricity or water in our hotel for practically the whole day! stupid saigon. but we did go to the war museum there which was definitely worth going to, lots of fascinating pictures. (i am fully aware that like many of my other posts, i have zero continuity but whatever, im sweaty and tired.) so where was i....right, our homestay. anyway it was great, we had a really good homecooked meal for dinner and it was amazing cause id never seen the sky so clearly and i could see every star in the sky. if only that could happen in vancouver. i also enjoyed the pure novelty of living in the jungle.

i woke up around 5:30 to see one of my first sunrises ever and to the sound of roosters crowing. it was also then during the first signs of daylight that i actually noticed our hut was next to a grave; awesome! no but i loved the homestay so that was fun times. and then today we had our slow boat trip into cambodia and no doubt its a fucking slow boat! we actually had to take a couple of boats but the main boat from the border took i think over three hours and the boat was pretty ghetto; with folding chairs set up for us to sit on. now my back is pretty fucked but it's all good cause were' finally in phnom penh! im also pumped cause im opting to live the lavish life and im staying in a $15 room for 2 and ive got an actual bath tub and a tv that was playing american idol when i left for dinner. im living in backpackers central so its got tons of guesthouses, internet and restaruants and bars so that should be some good times.

anyway i'll definitely miss vietnam since i was there for almost 5 weeks. oh and id forgotten but i wanted to write about how me and ed volunteered to teach english to street kids in nah trang for a couple of hours one day. but more like we realized how incompetent we really were cause we had no idea what the difference is between 'who' and 'whom' and no clue what a subject or objective pronoun is. im still not sure. so basically i felt stupid but the kids were fantastic and it was a good experience. i better brush up on my english skills before i decide to do anymore volunteering though.

oh and as for some random tidbits about vietnam just floating around my head... we wont be hearing the infamous saying "same same...but different" anymore. everything is always "same same" in vietnam. oh and in the mekong, they refer to the toilet as the "happy room". i think we should all start saying happy room. there are zero western chain restaurants in vietnam; no mcdonalds, no starbucks. and while everyone back home might think i would've died from such deprivation, i didnt and didnt even miss these things cause vietnam's got great food all on its own. only when we arrived in saigon and i saw a KFC was i reminded how there are no western chains anywhere else in vietnam. shocking for me of all people to say, but i wasnt even tempted by some good ol' fried chicken.

well i think ive rambled on long enough and i dont even remember what i wrote but i'll try and post some photos soon!