I should be writing a case report, but the reading was long and difficult, so I'm putting it off a bit longer. I always seem to make an entry when I should be doing more important things.
This last trip was the most complicated of them all. Minibus > MTR > ferry to Macau > taxi to airport > plane to Bangkok. Trinh and I spent the night in the Bangkok airport.
The metal chairs weren't very comfortable, and it was too cold to sleep, so we paid for internet at those stand things with the crappy keyboards and the ball mouse. A couple hours before our flight to Cambodia, we found a more comfortable sleeping spot in a restaurant. :)
In Phnom Penh, we were greeted at the airport by a family-friend monk, a relative woman, and some guy I don't know. They rented a van and drove us to Siem Reap, a good 4-6 hours away...I don't recall the exact amount of time because we made so many random stops. It was interesting to see the way people live in a third world country. Their houses are still made of straw?? On the way, I saw horse-drawn carts, kids playing in muddy water, a lot of people walking around bare-footed... It was kind of sad. The roads are in horrible condition too.
The next day, we woke up early to visit Angkor Wat. It was only 8am, but the sun was so bright! I think I got a few shades darker once again. :( The admission fee was $20, but I got away without paying it because I can sort of speak. However, I encountered a problem at one of the ruins when they asked me to show my passport. My visa was a tourist visa (I didn't know I could get a permanent one until it was too late), my country of birth is USA, my last name is Chinese, and my first name is American. They were so confused by all of this. They asked me all sorts of questions like "What's your mom's name? What's your dad's name?" It was a huge hassle, but after about 15 minutes of me speaking to them in very bad Cambodian, they let me go. I later found out that they made someone write her name in Cambodian...I would have been screwed. Anyway, Angkor Wat is huge, but I wouldn't spend more than a day there.
We went back to Phnom Penh the same day and got there too late to do anything. We were driven to Takeo (in the country) the next day so I could meet my great-grandmother, who is almost 100. She's cute. She cried when she found out I was coming to visit. The entire village came out to see me. I was like a tourist attraction or something. We didn't stay long because we had the rest of Phnom Penh to see.
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was really sad. It's a high school that the Khmer Rouge used as a security prison from 1975-1979. The classrooms were converted into tiny cells and torture chambers.
The Royal Palace was nice. It looked a lot like the one in Bangkok.
Wat Phnom looked dirty and dingy, and there were monkeys crawling around everywhere... I got a pretty picture though.
The most eventful part of this trip was the flight from Bangkok to Macau. Some Indian man made the mistake of stating that he hates Chinese people on a predominantly Chinese flight. People were yelling things in Mandarin and demanding that he get off the plane. One man said, "I am Chinese! You don't go to Macau! You go to hell!" After about 45 minutes, the flight attendants came up with a plan to isolate him in the back of the plane. They made him move!! Rosa Parks?? Geez, this is not 1955!
