Well it is our first few days in Malaysia and so far it’s a nice change of pace after island hopping for over a month, which was so beautiful and relaxing. We visited a total of 6 islands in Thailand and they all had a special charm and beauty of their own, but my favorite will always be Koh Kood since we had the best birthday celebration there. It has been so fun to get more into scuba diving on this trip, and how quickly it changed the direction of our travels. We are now deciding where to go paced off dive sites, and of course, surf sites.
Our time in Cambodia was short, hot, and very inspiring. When we first arrived I read some history for our guide book and was surprised by how little I actually knew. I had heard of the Khmer rouge but did not know anything about it. After coming from Vietnam, it was hard to stomach more terrible history filled with bloodshed with the military government forcing its citizens to labor camps and killing one to two million of its own people. According to a statistic we read around a third of the population is affected by post traumatic stress disorder. It was interesting to see how the capital is rebuilding itself even after 40 years (since most of it was destroyed), and how the Angkor temples were left intact by the Khmer regime. The temples were truly remarkable to see up close since it was one of my top destinations for our whole trip, and I was blown away by their beauty.
On our second time back to Thailand, I was so happy. The language, money, and food all felt familiar and it was a great feeling. It was also extremely convenient to be back in a country that has many, many 7/11s. Another comparison that I was able to make was the lack of begging children in Thailand, which made me really happy. In Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia it felt like you could not get away from children begging, “buy something, buy something”, which is not sustainable for the long term. One of the questions that always interested me was why are they not in school or studying? It seems like a viscous cycle of working to get out of poverty, but not studying keeps people just below the poverty line. It seems that the biggest help for these children and the next generation will be to learn English and be fluent enough to work in a higher paying industry or for a higher education.
One of my favorite dives in Thailand was at Sail Rock, a lonely unassuming rock between bigger islands that took about an hour to reach. We saw so many schools of fish, the most beautiful colors of coral, and tons of really cool looking slugs. One of my favorite parts was diving through a chimney shaped underwater cave. The other part that I will always remember is how on the second dive we (me, Jason, and divemaster (Alex) were alone and completely surrounded by a huge school of fish, everywhere you looked it was like they swarmed us and then swam away in beautiful synchronization.
My first thought on Malaysia is how incredibly diverse the culture and people are, which makes for some amazing food. Another really interesting turn of events was on Friday night when we were walking back from watching a movie, Iron Man 3 in 3D (pretty good), and there were so many people out and obviously heading to some destination that we were walking away from. We quickly realized that it was a political rally for the upcoming election, and after a few minutes on google we learned how interesting their political history is and how they are fighting for “ubah” (change). We both felt really excited to be here during a really important period in their history and to witness so many citizens standing up for change (around 100,000 people came to our part of town). Another part of Malaysia is that tap water is generally safe to drink and you can throw your used toilet paper down the toilet! It is the little things sometimes that make us happy on our travels.
Our time in Cambodia was short, hot, and very inspiring. When we first arrived I read some history for our guide book and was surprised by how little I actually knew. I had heard of the Khmer rouge but did not know anything about it. After coming from Vietnam, it was hard to stomach more terrible history filled with bloodshed with the military government forcing its citizens to labor camps and killing one to two million of its own people. According to a statistic we read around a third of the population is affected by post traumatic stress disorder. It was interesting to see how the capital is rebuilding itself even after 40 years (since most of it was destroyed), and how the Angkor temples were left intact by the Khmer regime. The temples were truly remarkable to see up close since it was one of my top destinations for our whole trip, and I was blown away by their beauty.
On our second time back to Thailand, I was so happy. The language, money, and food all felt familiar and it was a great feeling. It was also extremely convenient to be back in a country that has many, many 7/11s. Another comparison that I was able to make was the lack of begging children in Thailand, which made me really happy. In Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia it felt like you could not get away from children begging, “buy something, buy something”, which is not sustainable for the long term. One of the questions that always interested me was why are they not in school or studying? It seems like a viscous cycle of working to get out of poverty, but not studying keeps people just below the poverty line. It seems that the biggest help for these children and the next generation will be to learn English and be fluent enough to work in a higher paying industry or for a higher education.
One of my favorite dives in Thailand was at Sail Rock, a lonely unassuming rock between bigger islands that took about an hour to reach. We saw so many schools of fish, the most beautiful colors of coral, and tons of really cool looking slugs. One of my favorite parts was diving through a chimney shaped underwater cave. The other part that I will always remember is how on the second dive we (me, Jason, and divemaster (Alex) were alone and completely surrounded by a huge school of fish, everywhere you looked it was like they swarmed us and then swam away in beautiful synchronization.
My first thought on Malaysia is how incredibly diverse the culture and people are, which makes for some amazing food. Another really interesting turn of events was on Friday night when we were walking back from watching a movie, Iron Man 3 in 3D (pretty good), and there were so many people out and obviously heading to some destination that we were walking away from. We quickly realized that it was a political rally for the upcoming election, and after a few minutes on google we learned how interesting their political history is and how they are fighting for “ubah” (change). We both felt really excited to be here during a really important period in their history and to witness so many citizens standing up for change (around 100,000 people came to our part of town). Another part of Malaysia is that tap water is generally safe to drink and you can throw your used toilet paper down the toilet! It is the little things sometimes that make us happy on our travels.