Blog Post #10: Introducing Cambodia

It is December 29^th, 2010 and as some of you know, my adventures in Europe ended October 30, 2010 and my new unprecedented excursion began in Cambodia (an impoverished country in Southeast Asia). 

The last city I blogged about in Europe was Prague, Czech Republic.  I have found myself strapped on time as of late so what I will do is simply post links to my photo albums from the next cities I visited after Prague.  I provide comments to most of the pictures so essentially it works out to be similar to my blog posts--just not as in depth obviously (simply click on the city to see the public Facebook albums of each destination): Berlin, Germany; Munich, Germany (there are actually 4 albums of Munich); Salzburg, Austria; Venice, Italy; Florence, Italy; San Gimignano, Siena-Tuscany, Italy

 

Cambodia is a country where over 30% of the population lives on $1.25/day—or less.  The country experienced mass genocide during the late 70’s and the effects of this inhumane act are still evident today (as I will explain in another post).  I stayed in Cambodia from October 30, 2010 till December 15, 2010, not leaving the country during that time.   I lived in Phnom Penh and volunteered with an organization known as Banteay Srei.  This is a NGO (non-government organization) that specializes in human rights, community development and community empowerment.  I didn’t keep up with my blog during my stay in Cambodia due to being bombarded by enough activities and events to keep me busy most of the day.  I did however keep notes about what I considered to be important, interesting, intriguing, inspiring and sad; these notes will ultimately help me articulate the experience I received and hopefully give you an idea as to how other cultures live in a world so different from our own. I mentioned that I left Cambodia December 15, 2010 and headed to Malaysia for 5 days before departing to Ushuaia, Argentina—my home now until April 1, 2011.  Before getting into this though, I will explain through a series of posts what can only be described as a life changing experience. 

Blog Post #9: Prague, Czech Republic

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” – Paul Theroux

Well, I haven't done an actual blog post in awhile due to being extremely busy and overwhelmed by my stint in Southeast Asia.  I arrived here October 30,2010 and right now as I write this Prague post it is December 12, 2010.  As you can see, I am quite behind on blogging about my travels.  I have found it extremely difficult to find time to sit down and submit a post due to being busy working, traveling for work (volunteering in Cambodia right now), engaging in activities in Cambodia and just enjoying my time here.  I was in Prague October 6th, 2010 so I am almost 2months behind.  To catch up, what I plan to do is merely summarize the main points of each location I visited in Europe from October 6th, 2010 up until October 30th,2010.  At which point, I will blog in detail about my time spent in Cambodia;  this is warranted because my experience here has been unprecedented and totally unique due to the fact that I have been working in Cambodia for the last 6 weeks.  This experience has given me insight and revelation that I never would have gained by merely passing through numerous places as fast as I could--just to say I had been there.  But like I said, more on this later.

I have uploaded my Prague pictures to Facebook and I have provided a link to the album below with a short description of each picture.  The albums are public so you should have no problem viewing them.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=572252&id=516655073

I can describe my time in Prague as the following: energetic, laid back, great people, clean, historic, diverse and down right awesome.  I stayed at a hostel called "Mosaic House" and it was the most luxurious hostel I had stayed in up until that point in my trip. Interesting enough, it only cost 10euros--woo woo. 

I was still with Brady at this point and this would be his last stop before he headed back to Saskatoon--wow time flies.  We elected to do a city tour and a castle tour--both on the same day.  Along with these tours, we visited a few museums and ended up partying a lot--we were in Prague after all (lol).  The city is full of history in the sense that it was one of the focal points for the beginning of World War II and it is a country that has constantly battled with it's own identity. Along with this, there is a lot of Jewish history here and the city displays the struggle that the people have continuously faced throughout their lives.

At the top of the picture you can see a graveyard.  This is the Jewish graveyard and was the only place within the city limits where they were allowed to bury their people.  So, they had to bury generations upon generations on top of one another because they had no other options.  This was way before World War II and just symbolizes the struggles that the Jewish people have faced throughout their life time.

We ended up going to a football (soccer) game that featured Scotland vrs. Czech Republic.  We actually bought scalper tickets because we missed buying them legitimately by literally 2 minutes--it was extremely frustrating seeing as that both of us wanted to go really bad.  We overpaid for the tickets but neither of us cared because the game was worth it.  The ambiance in a soccer stadium is absolutely electrifying.  The screaming fans, the missed goals, the echo, the passion and the non-alcoholic beer.  Yes, thats right, the beer was non-alcoholic. We stood there sipping on our beer and we both said to one another "this beer tastes oddly peculiar".  Then we overheard someone say it was non-alcoholic--hmmmm.  I wonder how many people actually know this.  We started asking around and apparently it was not common knowledge.  Once we informed people of this new acquired fact, the look of people's faces filled with dismay followed by a dubious smile--they didn't believe us. Our claim was quickly verified after we directed them to the concession stand for a second opinion (lol). As we walked around waiting for the game to start we noticed that word of this quickly spread and we saw half full beers all over the place abandoned by the ones who were originally seeking a drunken state.  The funny thing is that half the people in attendance were of Scottish origin and the Czechs hadn't posted any signs in English that the beer was non-alcoholic;  only in Czech did this claim appear so blatantly over the concession stand.  But of course, from a business perspective, they were doing the right thing ;) .

Scotland ended up losing 4-2.  I was quickly developing a liking for football and in the future would find myself seeking out games to watch on TV (in Southeast Asia).

We ended our Prague stint by Brady going out and me crashing in bed--my body was becoming worn down.  I woke up to Brady packing up his stuff at 5am as he had an early flight. We said our farewells and  Brady headed to the airport and me back to sleep. The next day I would be taking the train to Berlin and would soon be overwhelmed with the impression left behind by World War II. 

Trip around the world:Europe, Asia, South America - Jauntlet Share Travel

Trip around the world:Europe, Asia, South America - Jauntlet Share Travel

Post #8: Rome, Italy

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”

Here are my Rome, Italy pictures on facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=565507&id=516655073&saved#!/album.php?aid=569162&id=516655073

I actually ended up going to Barcelona, Spain after Paris to meet Brady but I still need to get pictures so I am prolonging that post until another day. 

I haven't posted a blog in awhile because I have been very busy and have fallen behind in my posts in relation to where I am in my travels.  Just a heads up, I am currently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and hopefully I can finish my Europe posts in the next couple days so I can start blogging about what I am experiencing at the current moment.  I am not going to go into as much depth into my posts and basically will just post pictures that I thought were most significant to that part in my adventures.  This way, I can catch up on my last three blogs :)

We didn't have much time in Rome, only three days, so we decided to do the hop-on-hop-off bus tour.  This is basically a tour that allows you to hop on and off whenever you want and it goes to the best places in the city--from a tourist perspective (lol).  It allowed us to see the Colosseum and Pantheon the first day;  then the second day we were able to explore the Vatican.  The third day, we ended up going to a town out of the city called Marino.  We met some people who were attending college in Rome (lucky) and they suggested that we check out this annual festival in a town outside the city.  It was a wine event with a parade. Not exactly sure what they were celebrating but the wine was cheap and flowing while the pizza was fantastic and cheap.  My camera coincidently died at this point and I don't have any pictures of the events that took place in Marino. 

Going to the Colosseum--built 70AD

Waiting line line--standard procedure in Europe (lol)

Finally inside. My first thought was "where is the floor?"

Then, being the investigators that we are, we came to the conclusion that the floor and grand stands had deteriorated over time

Looking out into the streets from the Colosseum

Couple of stellar dudes

The Pantheon built 120AD

The Pantheon was hard to find.  You are walking down a narrow ally nearly deserted and then BAM, you are hit with a huge building, dome and a bunch of tourists--it pretty much happens instantaneously. The Pantheon was originally built as a temple to all the Gods of ancient Rome. 

The dome has squares hollowed out in it;  not for cosmetic affect, but for structural importance. Apparently, it helps lighten the load around the base of the dome and stops it from collapsing on itself.  It is still the largest unenforced concrete dome in the world.   I didn't know this at the time but approximately 1 month after visiting Rome, I was watching the discovery channel and it coincidently provided these facts about The Pantheon.  So I was able to rip this new found knowledge off the program (lol). 

The next day we headed out to the famous Vatican City--population, just over 800. The Vatican serves as a home for the Pope of the Catholic church.  Not a terrible place to live if I must say so myself. 

St. Peters Basilica, the largest church in the world. This building is considered to be the center of Christianity. Michelangelo designed the dome and many of his famous works are within the church.

The walls to Vatican city.  Would be pretty cool to see one of those street jumpers just scale it no problem. 

This is inside the Vatican on the way to see the Sistine Chapel. 

Here is a picture of the Sistine Chapel--the official residence of the Pope. Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. Some of the most famous paintings of his ever. The creation of Adam is on the ceiling here as well as The Last Judgment. Just for the record, I didn't take this picture.  Pictures weren't allowed inside but this will give you a general idea. 

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo.  This was on the roof in the Sistine chapel.  Along with The Last Judgment--another famous work of art. 

Inside the walls of Vatican city. 

Here is a layout of what it is like in Vatican City.  Helps you understand the layout more and what the pictures are referring to. 

Rome was really grand and easily succeeded my expectations.  To see what the Romans could do with concrete was absolutely awe inspiring.  The ability of their culture to take on almost impossible feats did not go unrecognized--as can be proven by the thousands of visitors that frequent these monuments each year.

It was now time to leave Rome and head to Prague, Czech Republic. Where the history would be a lot more relevant to the 20th century and something we would ultimately relate to on a more personal level.

Post #7: Paris, France

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." -- Miriam Beard

I arrived in Paris by train and headed directly to my hostel--or so I tried.  It was difficult to find despite the fact that I now had some experience navigating maps of new and unfamiliar cities.  It ended up taking me about two hours to find my hostel which in the end wasn't that bad, considering Paris was among the first large cities that I had visited up until that point in my trip.  

I checked in and headed out for my first day to explore the city.  I elected to rent a bicycle to tour the city which would prove to be a nice way to explore the streets while making the most of the time that was available. 

That day I visited Luxembourg park and the Eiffel Tower.  I make it sound as though it was fairly stress free but this proved not to be the case.  I found it difficult to navigate the city and even harder to ask for directions.  The stereotype that French people don't like speaking English was evident from the very beginning of my stint in France.  It is unfair to generalize as there are some people who enjoy conversing in English--or so I wanted to believe at the time (lol).  Thinking back, I am not sure how much merit this assumption actual upholds.  

I failed to get pictures of the park but noticed something quite peculiar while I was within it's quarters. Everyone was watching me as I cycled through the park on my bicycle--why were they watching me with such vigilance?  I quickly realized that I was the only soul biking through the park so ignorantly.  As it would turn out, bicycles were forbidden in the park and I was quickly informed of this in a not so polite manner (lol).   
 

After humiliating myself at the park, I headed to the oh so famous "Eiffel Tower".  I quickly realized why the tower is so famous and was instantly instilled with a sense of astonishment.  I decided that an elevator ride to the top to look out over the city was a top priority at that point.  However, as I got closer I saw a large conglomerate of people had formed and I thought to myself "that can't be the line....can it?".  Well, as it turned out it surely was.  It was demoralizing to see such a large line and I knew right away that I would not be venturing to the top of the Eiffel Tower that evening. 

Nevertheless, I found my destinations and was able to kick back and enjoy them while detaching myself from reality while savouring the moment.  

 The next day I headed to Versailles.  It is home to one of the most famous palaces in the world called the Palace of Versailles.  To give you an idea of the mass size of the palace I have provided some figures copied from Wikipedia:

Floor space	67,000 m2
Number of windows	2,153
Number of rooms	700
Staircases	67
Paintings in the museum’s collection	6,123
Drawings in museum’s collection	1,500
Engravings in museum’s collection	15,034
Sculptures in museum’s collection	2,102
Pieces of furniture and objets d’art	5,210

The garden

The ceilings were all painted--imagine the time

Looking out into the yard--it basically extends into the horizon...it is massive

Long road in the yard....there were numerous of these roads throughout the yard

This part of the yard was amazing--people weren't allowed to enter as you can see

I was desperately running short on shirts, so I made use of a Pubcrawl shirt that I got in Amsterdam--hahah how classy

The next day I made way for the famous "Louvre" museum--home to the Mona Lisa.  I found myself standing in a lineup that would have extended two city blocks;  I was told that we were lucky the lineup wasn't long (lol).  While in line, I turned around to see a pretty girl whom was also patiently waiting to breach the doors to the museum.   I was a little hesitant to start talking to her as I was tired and was soon becoming bored with the same mundane conversation that one finds themselves engaged in at the start of an encounter with a fellow traveller: where are you from? where have you been? where are you going? what do you do? how long are you travelling for? etc.  A lot of the time you find that you don't have anything in common with the other person and this is as far as the conversation goes.  But sometimes, once you get passed these tedious details, you find someone whom you can engage in an actual conversation with.  Assessing the situation, I came to realize that the lineup wasn't moving and reminded myself that it is a numbers game (lol); so I sparked up the energy to engage.  I turned around, introduced myself, as did she.  Her name was Fernanda and was an art history major from Argentina.  We talked as the line proceeded to move and as we entered the doors she informed me that she was already in possession of a ticket and was merely coming back from lunch.  I was a little upset as our conversation was just starting to get interesting so I took down her email and suggested lunch in the near future.  I said good bye and as it would turn out, we would meet up the next day for lunch--or so we tried.  More on this a little later though.  I got my ticket, entered the museum and enjoyed a great day viewing masterpieces from some of the greatest artists of all time. 

Entrance into the Louvre

Guys walking around with machine guns... in case someone tries to pull some Nicholas Cage type shit (lol)

Inside looking out

Like I said, very busy.... but apparently it wasn't that bad

The detail that goes into the ceiling is amazing

The Venus de Milo from 100BC which depicts the Greek goddess of love and beauty 

This was one of my favorite paintings....the story behind it really added to the affect

Courtyard full of sculptures

This is the Code of Hammurabi.  It is from 1760BC and one of the earliest documents that explicitly defined a code of Law.   

The Mona Lisa was quite lack luster.  It was hard to get close enough because of the large crowd, velvet rope and glass enclosure that contained the painting.  

After the Louvre I headed back to the hostel. That evening I decided to email Fernanda and suggested lunch the following day.  She promptly responded and we agreed to meet in front of a museum called the Pompidu--a contemporary art museum.  We decided to meet at 12:30 and I found myself arriving at the museum twenty minutes too late.  I didn't allocate enough time to navigate the metro and found myself trying to freeze time along the way as I eagerly looked at my watch--no luck.  I arrived and she was gone.  Nevertheless, I decided to head into the museum.  I was twenty minutes into my museum excursion when I came across a girl whom had a camera similar to Fernanda's hanging around her neck.  I diligently looked at her and was unsure as whether or not it was her.  I had met a lot of people up until this point and I only met her briefly for a couple minutes and found myself having a hard time recognizing her face.  I decided to approach her to inquire as to what her name was.  It was her and I was pleasantly surprised that I ran into her seeing as the museum was massive with seven huge floors to explore.  From this point forward, I found myself more and more intrigued by her as she was able to describe the art within the Pompidu and the meanings behind several pieces.  I would enquire about a piece and she would promptly break it down with little hesitation in thought--she really knew her stuff.  From this point on we enjoyed the museum together conversing back and forth about the art and in between talking about unrelated topics.  I soon began to realize that we shared similar personalities and a connection was forming.  After the museum we went for a walk down by the river and would spend the next three days together roaming around Paris--interesting enough seeing as that I was originally planning on leaving the next day.  That is the beauty about having a flexible schedule though.  It allows one to change plans on the fly as unexpected scenarios present themselves--such as this one :) 

The next day we went back to the Louvre because neither of us were able to see the entire museum the first day.  Once again, she was able to explain symbolism behind a lot of the art and help me appreciate a piece for what it was--an implicit story.  
 

The day after that we headed to the Monet museum.  We waited in line for FOUR hours in the pouring rain.  Luckily we had an umbrella and used this time to become more familiar with one another while I introduced her to the game of "I spy with my little eye".  Once inside the museum we were ecstatic not only because we were out of the cold but also because Monet's art was absolutely captivating.  If I tried to explain the art and the feeling that it produced within myself, I would fail on epic proportions.

After the three days were up I was a little reluctant to leave seeing as that I had made such a good friend--and potentially more.  However, I was meeting my friend Brady in Barcelona and didn't have many other options--I had to move on in my adventures.  Fernanda came with me to the train station to see me off and as we parted ways we both acknowledged that our time was special and we both found ourselves hoping that we would reunite some time in the near future--when exactly that would be,we were unsure.  I jumped on the train and found myself eye locked as I glared through the train window out on to the platform where she stood in her yellow tank top, frayed shoulders, among a sea of black suits and dark colours--it was ironically art in itself.  She had taught me that artists will direct light upon the image of importance in a painting and I found myself engaged in an image that was portraying exactly that.  Her yellow dress made her glow and as the train started to move so did the image;  it started to distort and I found my mind racing and trying to freeze the image indefinitely as though it were a fixed concrete painting. My efforts to do so proved to be futile and I realized that the image was rather ephemeral as I saw the wall beginning to appear out the corner of my right eye;  the last image I saw was her blow me a kiss and me blow it back--then she was gone.  Would I see her again? Only time would tell.