First timer

Hi Everyone,

This is my first attempt at blogging. I decided to start a blog to track and share with everyone the details of my trip/adventure to Cambodia. I was born in Cambodia, but left the country when I was a small child so I don't remember anything of my birth country. This will be my first trip overseas. It will be an interesting trip. I will be in a foreign country for 3 weeks (alone) with my parents. And if you know my relationship with my parents, you'll understand how this trip could go wrong real fast. Of course the adventure will start with the trip to the airport. I'll need to take a pictures of all the luggages that my parents are preparing for the trip. Nope, my parents are not hi-maintenance type people. I wish all the luggage was filled with THEIR clothes or toileties. Instead the luggages are filled with stuff that they will be donating to people. One huge luggage is filled with pots and pans that they're giving to someone (or anyone). Yes, it's insane. One year, my mom had boxes of microwave popcorn in one of her luggage. Which is all fine and dandy, but unless you live in an urban area - and there's little of this - people do not have microwaves. So it will be interesting to see what else they are packing for this trip.

I'll keep you posted...

Stuff

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I exceeded the weight limit on my suitcase. The limit is 23 kg and my suitcase was 26.1 kg. I didn't buy much, I think all my purchases totaled less than a pound. Half of the items in my suitcase are for Sam, Alex's wife. Her mother sent her at least a dozen bras. Who needs that many push-up bras I ask you??? There were several tightly wrapped packages that I have no idea what they are. Hopefully Customs won't mind what the contents are either...

Taipei

I'm sitting in the Taipei airport waiting for the connection to SF, almost a 3 hour layover. I'm excited to finally be heading home. Of course, I miss my parents already and worry about them even though they drove me crazy the whole time I was with them. 

The plane to Taipei was a small one, with my side of the plane having only two seats per row. Some lady got on and asked if we could switch seats. Fuck off! If I wanted a window seat I would have reserved one. She eventually moved to another row. I'm one of those travelers who upon sitting immediately shut out the people around me. I didn't bring headphones just for decoration. Leave me the fuck alone, I just want to get home. I don't give a shit about you or your family or whatever other bullshit you want to talk about.

Sorry about the rant. 

So when I started Google here in Taipei, the page showed up in Chinese or is it Taiwanese...

American politics

American foreign relations comes to Cambodia this week and I'm going to miss it. On Friday,  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be here in Phnom Penh and President Obama will be here on the 20th. I saw people lined up with signs near the government buildings. It was kind of neat to see how people received American politics here.

Last day

Well today is my last full day in Cambodia. We went and visited Alex's sister-in-law's bakery and ran some errands. For lunch we had KFC. Yup, fried chicken. I wanted to see how it compared to the stuff back home. The stuff here is basically the same price, so it's quite pricey compared to other food. It tasted alright, a little greasier than the chicken back home.

My flight takes off at 12:30 pm Tuesday and I land at 2:30 pm on Tuesday. Woohoo, 2 hour flight. I wish! I sent a few postcards out when I was in Siem Reap, I wonder if I'll get home before your postcard arrives.

Well, see everyone soon! 

Dinner

We went to Psar Reathrey or night market to pick up some dinner. The traffic there and back was INSANE! Imagine LA traffic only worst. People, meaning cars, moped, tuk tuks, all just jam themselves forward not giving a hoot about anyone else. The mopeds will go on the shoulders and squeezed through any way they can.

On the way back, I saw one moped with a family of SEVEN on it. I couldn't believe it and was unfortunately too slow to capture the image on my iPhone. I was however am to snap a photo of a tuk tuk with 14 teenage girls on it. This is by the most passenger I've seen yet on a tuk tuk.

So what was for dinner? We picked up several things. I got one panko crusted shrimp, one egg roll, one spring roll, and a banh hoi which is a cold noodle dish. I spent about $2.60 on dinner. My parents got a bunch of other stuff. 

Back to Phnom Penh

We left Kep this morning to drive back to Phnom Penh. On the way here we stopped at a zoo/wildlife park. The road to the park was full of people begging for money. It reminded me of a scene from a zombie movie. The park was boring, at least we could drive around and not have to get out of the car. On the way out we came upon some wild monkeys and of course we fed them. All we has was palm fruit, no bananas. It seems all we do is feed monkeys. We also found some on Kep yesterday too and gave them the fruit we had in the car.

After the zoo we stopped at another temple and when we pulled in it was another zombie movie. These children descended upon us trying to sell incense, flower and such and asking for money.

It's Saturday, late afternoon now, and I leave for the US on Tuesday. I'm excited to go back home soon. I miss everyone.