It’s raining. I have an unfortunate and fettering cold. I
haven’t bicycled in 4 days. Blug.
So, to divert myself I went back and read the battered
yellow journal I carried with me on my bicycle adventure around Thailand,
Cambodia, and Vietnam last year. Sometimes, installed in this world of
stationary apartment, with cat and academia job and a wardrobe, with the
ability to drink the tap water and read the road signs, my time in Southeast
Asia feels very far away indeed. But it
IS my handwriting.
I feel like sharing with you some bits from in there. Just
to relive them. This was my personal journal, not the glossy carefully-preened
blog I kept, and so I wrote with no objective. I often just made lists of what
I was eating. Or risible quotes of hilarity between traveling partner Lady
Elise and myself. Or just stream of conscious end of day downloading. (in no particular order)
On Breakfasts,
uninspiring
Feb 2. Thailand.
Started with too sweet yogurt and “Muesli” which was all
dumb corn flakes and 3 oats. But riding quieter roads, dipping around potholes.
Lunch was unidentifiable fish and rice. The morning had some cloudy-ish patches
and that was nice.
On snacks
Feb 1. Thailand.
I have so many snacks! They make me eager, pleased, and resourceful.
[then there was an exhaustive list of everything I had gleefully purchased in
the Thai market]
On environmental
awareness
Feb 1. Thailand.
New things! I pooped into a squat toilet this morning. Which
went straight into the sea. I remember reading about raw sewage into the water,
but half dismissed it somehow, too far away, too horrid to be possible, too
astonishing? But when I hear it splash down there, it’s true.
On wardrobes
Jan 31. Thailand.
I’m wearing color blotch shirt with floral pants: appalling
combination. But I really do not care. The young people don’t, but older ladies
wear all sorts of arguing prints.
About clearing our
guest house rooms of mosquitoes
Jan 30. Thailand.
After mosquitoes. Could be a game on the Wei. Jumping,
reaching into air, then diving to all-fours, slapping across the tile floor.
You hear a solid slam! on the wall and then a victorious HA!... “what are those
people doing?” [someone might think upon hearing us]
On rainy days for the
poorly equipped
Mar. 21. Vietnam.
We have camped here in the clean-floored lobby of the
“Something Long” Hotel. The weather is so miserable that you can only revel in
the misery and irritation it brings you (the cold froth in the sandals, the
damp hair, arms clutched ineffectively about your person) especially when we
are lacking boots and proper coats. This town has little more than lots of
Everything Else Shops (“everything else you don’t want”) and the beguiling
lights flashing on the bridge and that eerie skeletal cathedral.
On luxury earned for
the weary
Mar. 15. Vietnam.
Ok so maybe it’s not named the Imperial Hotel, but
this hotel sure feels luxurious and I am thoroughly enjoying it. This day: had
no idea how it would work itself because in the beginning there was diarrhea
and rain. But Bahn Mi [sandwich] was so delicious for my wearied self. I love
the process of eating them. Mine was so good because it was so hot and there
was so much egg. … Falling asleep with pen in hand here, because of the wine
and HOT BATH and smoothy yummy scent oil. Mmm.
On ingredient lists,
inclusive
Mar. 12. Vietnam.
Ingredients on the Vietnamese packaged fruit chips I got
(delicious!): “Some kinds of fruits and vegetable oil.”
On hotel beds, the
unexpected
Mar. 8. Vietnam.
Just pulled a hopefully clean pair of panties from the
fitted sheet in this bed! Ha!
On food choices
Mar 4. Vietnam.
Been pregnant with farts all windy evening since I ate that
puffy white Chinese style bun with pork and two whole boiled quails eggs in it.
Was eyeing up Elise’s Pho with all the greens jabbed into it…ends up being
quite healthy.
This is funny because
bathroom = shower stall
Feb 26. Cambodia.
Sandra, after a Cambodian shower: “Sorry Elise, I made such
a mess! I got water all over the bathroom floor.”
A probably typical
Cambodia day
Feb 15. Cambodia.
Road was very jostly and jangly. Dusty, honky, pummeled with
traffic. Was afraid of full boredom in this place once we got here but painted
nails, did yoga, went for a janky massage. That was hilarious though. Only
10,000 riel, not at all like the Bangkok massage. Mostly a bunch of kneading.
Like they were little girls playing Town and they decided to be Massage. But
nice. …
Had a green mochi-like thing that had an odd, slight, flavorless-ness so
was probably “melon.” And then some
Chocolate Orange Filled cookies simply because they were marked with a price
and that pleased me.
On hotel room habits
Feb 6. Cambodia.
[Note on our post-ride routine: Elise would wash out her
riding outfit every day and hang it out to dry; Sandra would empty her panniers
and set out her belongings]
Sandra: “Where would we be without your clothing to decorate
the rooms?”
Elise: “Yeah, well, YOU make the place look like a market.
Sometime I’ll just put price tags on all your stuff.”
Laughing at our expat
selves
Feb. 13. Cambodia.
After our rope-heaving hike we stopped at lovely little
restaurant with strings of lights and colored stars. We had $3 cocktails and my
first fresh spring rolls (the sweet sour garlic-chunk sauce so good I drank it)
and some chicken. A little loopy, quite content, decidedly beat. I sat there,
holding my fistful of foreign money, picking my teeth. And Elise nearly forgot
her bra she’d hung on a chair. [ok, so it was very very hot there and
any item to be removed from the body was a relief] Imagine the servers running
after her, “Madame! Madame! You forgot something!” I laughed so hard I was
nearly in tears. ….I was basting in this on the beach, looking at the islands:
that I like being in Cambodia and I love traveling.
