I'm knew I was tired when I sarcastically asked the security guard in Dubai if he wanted me to take off my pants off after he made me go through the metal detector for the 4th time. Fortunately he merely turned fifty shades of red and pointed out that I hadn't emptied all of the many pockets on the leg of my pants. I left Siem Reap with a head cold on the 1st and decided to crash at the transit hotel at the Bangkok airport instead of going into town for my 15 hour layover. It was 7 hours to Dubai, a 4 hour stop over and now I'm a few hours into a 14 hour flight. This is one of the longest non-stop flights that you can take to/from Canada. Toronto to Hong Kong is the longest at 15 hours 25 minutes. Also didn't pack enough decongestant on my carry-on bag so I can't sleep. This a round about way of saying that I won't be in the office till Wednesday.
This is how you make a left hand turn in Siem Reap: just turn left into the oncoming lane. Bikes will tend to move to the curb and vehicles to the middle of the road. Merge on the left side of the lane going in your direction when the oncoming traffic clears. The speed limit is 30km/hr in town. People do adhere to it so this method of turning left seems to work. BTW when no one was around one day except for a cop, I pedalled like mad and broke the speed limit to see if I would get a ticket. The cop just smiled and waved.
I realized that I didn't explain what thanaka was - the women in Burma apply a pattern of paste made from ground tree bark to their cheeks to act as a sunscreen. It's sometimes a fashion statement and formed in leaf patterns or finished a with stylish flourish. For others it's purely utilitarian and they look they have just been dunked in a bucket of the stuff. Children and some country menfolk also use it. Urban guys, not so much.
Early in my stay in Cambodia I realised that I got way better service when I used both hands to give money etc. to others and to perform sampeah (press your hands together and bow your head) in thanks or in greeting.
In both Cambodia and to some extent now Burma, they are many people who don't have running water or flush toilets but do have cell phones. My Prek Toal guide was astounded that I didn't own one. What an oddity I was, flying halfway around the world to ride a lowly bicycle while phone less.
At lunch today there was a new graphic on the in-flight information screen. It was a plan view of the plane framed inside a round compass with an arrow pointing to a graphic of the Kaaba in Mecca. I guess this is so Muslims know which direction to focus the mind relative to the direction of the plane when they pray. I don't think there is a prayer room on board but goodness knows that there is room for one. I'm on the super jumbo jet again. They had three gangways set up to load the thing today.
I was keeping an eye on our route to see how wide a berth we were giving Israel - turns out the short line between DXB-YYZ is across Iran and then eastern Turkey. Nowhere near the mess. Oh. and I did get my box of chocolate covered dates in the Dome of the Rock box. Meral, guess what you are getting!
I found Burma fascinating and was very glad I went but, would I recommend it to others? I definitely wouldn't recommend doing a package tour like mine - they pack way to much into too little time. Buddhists may enjoy visiting but those higher up on the spiritual scale might find the glitziness very un-Buddhist-like. Architects, archaeologists, artists for sure but give it plenty of time. Adventurers may find it more tedious than adventurous and those who demand creature comforts, give it another 10 years.
Cambodia has something for everyone. I highly recommend going. It's not a particularly accessible country - surprising given the number of landmine survivors - but there are a lot of helping hands.
A few people have asked where my next big trip will be. I know where Sherree I will be heading. Apart from that I've been thinking I would like to go scuba diving in a kelp forest. It would be as close as you can get to the sensation of flying and I do think that flying is amazing.
This is how you make a left hand turn in Siem Reap: just turn left into the oncoming lane. Bikes will tend to move to the curb and vehicles to the middle of the road. Merge on the left side of the lane going in your direction when the oncoming traffic clears. The speed limit is 30km/hr in town. People do adhere to it so this method of turning left seems to work. BTW when no one was around one day except for a cop, I pedalled like mad and broke the speed limit to see if I would get a ticket. The cop just smiled and waved.
I realized that I didn't explain what thanaka was - the women in Burma apply a pattern of paste made from ground tree bark to their cheeks to act as a sunscreen. It's sometimes a fashion statement and formed in leaf patterns or finished a with stylish flourish. For others it's purely utilitarian and they look they have just been dunked in a bucket of the stuff. Children and some country menfolk also use it. Urban guys, not so much.
Early in my stay in Cambodia I realised that I got way better service when I used both hands to give money etc. to others and to perform sampeah (press your hands together and bow your head) in thanks or in greeting.
In both Cambodia and to some extent now Burma, they are many people who don't have running water or flush toilets but do have cell phones. My Prek Toal guide was astounded that I didn't own one. What an oddity I was, flying halfway around the world to ride a lowly bicycle while phone less.
At lunch today there was a new graphic on the in-flight information screen. It was a plan view of the plane framed inside a round compass with an arrow pointing to a graphic of the Kaaba in Mecca. I guess this is so Muslims know which direction to focus the mind relative to the direction of the plane when they pray. I don't think there is a prayer room on board but goodness knows that there is room for one. I'm on the super jumbo jet again. They had three gangways set up to load the thing today.
I was keeping an eye on our route to see how wide a berth we were giving Israel - turns out the short line between DXB-YYZ is across Iran and then eastern Turkey. Nowhere near the mess. Oh. and I did get my box of chocolate covered dates in the Dome of the Rock box. Meral, guess what you are getting!
I found Burma fascinating and was very glad I went but, would I recommend it to others? I definitely wouldn't recommend doing a package tour like mine - they pack way to much into too little time. Buddhists may enjoy visiting but those higher up on the spiritual scale might find the glitziness very un-Buddhist-like. Architects, archaeologists, artists for sure but give it plenty of time. Adventurers may find it more tedious than adventurous and those who demand creature comforts, give it another 10 years.
Cambodia has something for everyone. I highly recommend going. It's not a particularly accessible country - surprising given the number of landmine survivors - but there are a lot of helping hands.
A few people have asked where my next big trip will be. I know where Sherree I will be heading. Apart from that I've been thinking I would like to go scuba diving in a kelp forest. It would be as close as you can get to the sensation of flying and I do think that flying is amazing.
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