Part VI: Taraboat, Return of Bangkok, Nara

1/13/10

Well it’s been five days since my last entry but I suppose better late than never. I am currently back in little Ikata-cho. I sit here in my office on this snowy and windy day to recount events in tropical paradise. I left off after an evening with bourgeois Cambodian society. Here we go, reaching deep into my memory bank.

From what I remember, Jenn and I got an early start on the Tara Boat tour. We got up especially early so we could finish packing. The unexciting eater that I am, I ordered the standard mushroom omelet and toast while my more exciting foodie companion ordered some sort of noodle dish. Food choice is supposed to reflect your personality and your level of spontaniety and excitement. I tend to get the same thing all the time…I blame my weak stomach, which I inheritted from my father, but at times I wish I was more adventurous in my foot selection. Perhaps there’s some empty sense of fidelity for these foods that have served me well over the years. With that said, I have my moments when I throw caution into the wind and get whatever the hell I want. I guess that’s my personality, I tend to like stability but on occasion, I get ridiculously spontaneous. Gotta spice it up every so often. Unless you’re like me and you hate spices.

By 8am we were off to the Ton Le Lake with our overly energetic and talkative guide. He spoke fine English but he had a regular motor of a mouth…quite too energetic for my tastes at this hour of day. He was very friendly, though, so I was grateful to have him as our guide.

The cab our guide drove us in was in poor condition. How bad? 3/4 of the door handles were either missing or not functionable. Death trip. When we got to the lake, we were met by the skipper of our boat and a boy about age five. They both did not know a lick of English. And so we embarked on our journey into the unknown on a 8 hour tour. On a 8 hour tour.

As we motored along the bank, we saw many shanty houses. With the constantly fluctuating water level from the wet to dry season, many of the houses had some form of floating capabilities. People lived on water houses, with hammocks as beds and everything. There were little boys and girls, often naked, in small tin bowls floating in the water...a gentle wake would surely sink their delicate vessel. Our guide took us to a gecko museum where we saw some information on the wetlands and the species living in it. I was disappointed I couldn’t sit and read it as his brief explanation seemed quite abridged. Afterwards, the skipper and Gilligan, aka half pint, took us to the floating market where there were motion-less crocodiles, many Korean college students, and a sneaky salesgirl with a snake. Jenn and I jumped at the opportunity to put the huge snake around our necks and pose for the camera. The girl was equally eager to collect cash for her slithery friend.

We then went towards the flooded forest. Our skipper went to take a nap on the hammock while Jenn and I took turns steering the boat. I felt like Dwight of The Office in the “Booze Cruise” episode. In the episode, he was given the “responsibility” to man a dummy steering wheel on a ship. While we actually did control the direction of the vessel, the assignment seemed quite insignificant. But it was fun and somewhat therapeutic…kind of like joy-riding…an opportunity to just let the mind wander.

Eventually we arrived at the flooded forest where the guide, Jenn and I hopped on a smaller paddle boat as we got taken around the forest.It was rocky but fun. In no time we reached a lake town. It was really ghetto and were badgered by several young women trying to get us to buy overpriced supplies for the children at the local school. They tried buttering us up but we were on to their game and decided to just donate to the class directly. We ate some sugared bread and shrimp…at the risk of explosive diahrea (in memory of the Shanghai crew and Jason Tong’s fragile bowels). Then we headed back to the large Tara Boat anchored in the middle of the lake for some lunch and a nap on the glorious hammocks.

Then we went back to the Kazna to play a couple round of pool, sip on some fruit drinks and chilled before our trip to the airport. To our pleasant surprise, our wonderful guide from Angkor Wat picked us up. He’s a bright young man that will go far if provided enough opportunities. When we got to the airport, I decided to exchange my currency. Had a small feud with the “raging bitch” at the country. We seemed to rub each other the wrong way. Arrived in Bangkok, took a cab to the “Vibrant” which was quite difficult to find. Hella awkward set up but the bed was comfy as hell.

The next day we went all over Bangkok doing the things were wanted to do our first day in the city. With Jenn’s flight postponed due to strong winds in Nagoya, we had lost one day together in Bangkok. And so we went to the Grand Palace, MBK shopping mall and Chatichat street market before our respective flights to Kansai airport. Busy busy. Our first stop was at the Grand Palace where we had an eccentric but entertaining guide. The man was in his 70s and I couldn’t understand him for the life of me but he was amusing. From marriage jokes to his infatuation with the Buddhist religion, he was hilarious. He was quick to point out the hall spire structures were giant phallus representations. And that in Hinduism there is no discrimination towards the union of different species (humans and animals). Also if one killed a certain type of animal in his past life, he’d undoubtedly have features of that creature in his next life. At the end of the tour, he was quite eager to show us a picture of his wife but unfortunately had misplaced it.

Next we were off to MBK. This huge mall had a disgusting amount of merchandise. While Jenn checked out shoes, which is only 2nd to her obsession with street food, I strolled around pretending to be interested in some clothes. Once she wa done, I catered to the one thing on my mind: the wellbeing of my stomach. We went to this awesome crepe restaurant called the Busy Bee (something like that). Jenn loved the ambiance of the establishment as it was everything she wants in her future restaurant…except for the bees and honey comb like pipes across the ceiling. She had the spinach lasagne while I had the salmon crepe with gnochi & spinach- heaven. After the mall, we checked out Chatichat as I was in search of all my omiyage. I was successful but had seemed to hit a wall as we headed to Osaka.

The red eye in kansai airport wasn’t as brutal as it was anticipated. I knocked out the whole way through and woke up relatively refreshed. After a quick shower at the airport lounge, we were back on our feet on a train to Nara. Once we were there, we met my cousin, her kid and my aunt. We checked out the deers and Todaiji temple. Jenn seemed to really enjoy herself so it was worth it. After, we went to a Japanese restaurant called さとwhere Jenn had the best tuskiyaki of her life. I had a mean assortment of foods too that made my stomach smile. When all that was done, we took Jenn to the airport and we waited til her flight. My cousin seemed to really like her so she kept trying to buy her things. After she left, I went back to my cousin’s to sleep…for a whole 14 hours. The next day I got on the flight back to Matsuyama and thus my epic trip was over.

At Kansai airport, Jenn commented on how the last week felt like a month as we did so much. She said it was as if we fell into a time warp where time slowed down as we experienced a ton of stuff. It sure felt like that as it was an exhausting but worthwhile trip. My body is worn out but my mind is reinvigorated. I was really falling into a rut…a lonely Thanksgiving, a lonely Christmas…I have a new pep to my step. Just in time for the brutal month of January. I hope I can embark on a journey some time in the near future. Until then, good night from Ikata-cho.