The eventual acquisition of a Tiger Beer t-shirt in Singapore's Chinatown finally completes the quintuplet of Asian beer shirts. Rule was, the beer had to be tried, then a shirt could be purchased. Tiger (Singapore), Chang (Thailand), Singha (Thailand), Angkor (Cambodia), Bintang (Indonesia).
There are lots of tailor shops in Thailand. Guys constantly offering to make us new clothes. "What's wrong with the ones we're wearing" we asked more than once, and they only laughed. Apparently that should have been obvious.
There is no good Mexican food in SE Asia. There is, however, a surprising amount of watermelon. Also, I believe I was served pineapple at every meal. French fries are apparently Asia's idea of what Westerners eat. We were offered French fries for breakfast, French fries for lunch, French fries for dinner. French fry salad was one of the weirdest things we were served. Eggs were on every plate, at every meal, on every sandwich, on every hamburger, in the rice, in the soup, in the salad, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, omelets...if I never eat another egg for the rest of my life, I think I'd be OK with that. On the other hand, pineapple fried rice is my new favorite food. Even when it has raisins in it. Six weeks in SE Asia has taught us how dependent we are on bread. Durian? No thanks.
People seem to eat dinner fairly late at night over there. We were often the only people in any given restaurant when we arrived. We felt pretty uncomfortable about it, like maybe they weren't really open yet. But they always greeted us enthusiastically, inviting us to come in, and usually offering us a cold lemon-scented washcloth. Which, by the way is another favorite new thing, and a tradition I plan to start here at home.
Asian music - Celine Dion playing on endless loop at the Tropis Club in Lovina. An Indonesion version of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" played at a restaurant where we had dinner. Indonesion heavy metal in a jewelry store - the teenage girl working at the shop said she picked it herself. The Scorpions and the Eagles are extremely popular with taxi drivers in Thailand. Lady Gaga was playing on the tv in Borneo - the waitress assured us that Katie Perry is also very popular there. Taxi driver from Siem Reap playing a CD of Cambodian music for four straight hours that sounded like either one extremely long song or the same song over and over. A New Age-y instrumental version of "Beauty and the Beast" at a massage spa in Phuket. A creepy old couple playing everything from Simon & Garfunkel to Peter, Paul & Mary at the hotel restaurant for three nights in Kamala Beach. ABBA was everywhere.
In Cambodia, the boats have eyes... Speaking of boats, I'm not much of a fan. Every story or song I know about boats ends in a shipwreck. Or begins with one, or has one somewhere in the middle. Regardless of this completely rational fear, I did manage to travel on a variety of watercraft during the big adventure, some of which may actually qualify as boats. Although we did lose an engine in the Sunda Straight in the middle of a raging downpour (we got it back again), none of these boats were shipwrecked; or sank, or were cracked up on the rocks, or left us stranded on a desert island, or were capsized by giant whales, or were attacked by pirates, or accidentally found a haunted treasure and turned into zombie ships,or any of the other things that usually happen to boats. And I did not get seasick; not even a little bit; not even once.
What's up with all the crooked or stub-tailed cats? Island in-breeding?
Cambodia: The Land of Scary Stairs and Headless Statues.
Got bitten by a sand fly in Koh Kong. Made a blister on my wrist bigger than the fly. I think it's gonna leave a scar.
"Yes" doesn't always mean "yes". Sometimes it means, "I don't understand you , so I'm just agreeing with whatever you said".
Favorite spelling error: "Chicken Gordon Blue". Saw it on a menu in Bali, in Cambodia and in Thailand.
"Air" is the Malaysian word for water. I think it must have something to do with all the excessive humidity.
Delicate Oregonian skin is successfully preserved via hat, sunglasses, and the copious use of SPF 50 sunscreen. Reapply or fry. Barely a hint of a flip-flop tan line.
Who is Kavik? Do we know you?
We flew all the way to the other side of the planet and met a couple in Borneo from our own hometown!
Plastic water bottles are the scourge of the planet. That being said, we brushed our teeth with bottled water every day for 6 weeks. Clean tap water should not be taken for granted.
Air Asia must have gotten a heckuva deal on Airbus A320's - we rode them all over and they were very nice planes - we enjoyed the safety messages from "Trevor", our recorded Englishman (can you say "bat-trees"?)Coffee that is "processed" by live civets is surprisingly good.
Scooters are a much more versatile mode of transportation than we imagined. Not particularly safe mind you, but versatile.
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