Hmmmmm.

Just so you know, all is well. busy busy busy.

Not in any order:

temples, ruins, sugar palm candies, sweet bamboo rice, rice and banana cooked in banana leaves, eel soup, misc beef parts soup, other Cambodian food, dancing Cambodian style, beer, zipping around everywhere on the back of a motorcycle, monkey bites, fish bites, swimming fully clothed, waterfalls, throwing bones and garbage on the floor, more temples, free food and alcohol, non-stop comments about my skin (including gasps, shouts, hoots, etc), spiders, Cambodian karaoke, more beer, making Cambodian friends, making other friends, ANNOYING children, ANNOYING people, beggars, old Buddhist fortune tellers, etc.

busy busy

Well, you'll have to wait for any bit updates. I'm a bit busy doing sightseeing and such.

My driver has been showing me a little bit more of the Cambodian side of some things. :)

Tomorrow's destination - a mountain with a waterfall.

Cambodia Day 3 2007-11-08

The VISA issues had me so stressed out but I didn't want to just sit there waiting doing nothing. So I decided to start seeing what I came to see.

I kept waking up and going back to sleep from quite early. With no window in the room, I had no way to judge, so I kept having to turn the tv on for some light with which to see my watch. I eventually just got up once it got closer to 8. I wanted to leave Phnom Penh that day but thought it would be best to stick around until I had things figured out. I made a few phone calls from one of the little Internet Cafe's along the street. That eased my worries a bit. It was still a bit up in the air though. Had to wait.

I decided I would check out the museum. On the way, I felt the need for some breakfast so I stopped at Bojangles Bar & Restaurant. It is a fairly small establishment, but quite nice. It seemed to be busy almost every time I had walked past it. They serve breakfast dishes all day, among other things. I had a Vietnamese Coffee (basically just drip coffee; the other option was Traditional Coffee - Nescafe instant coffee) the veggie breakfast - scrambled eggs, vegetables, a hashbrown (sort of a patty/pancake type thingy) and beans. It cost me $4. At some places you can get fairly cheap meals, but some charge a bit more. I find it a bit odd that a meal can cost the same as a night in a decent but cheap guesthouse or hotel.

Walking anywhere gets very annoying very quickly. I love walking, but I hate being hassled ever two steps. "Hey Lady, you need tuktuk?" "Hey Lady, you need moto?" "Hey lady, wanna buy a book?" "Hey lady, wanna buy a post card?"

If they only asked once, it wouldn't be such a big deal. The fact that they keep asking makes it unbearable. The same person asks the same thing about 5 times (or more). Sometimes they will follow you, asking you. ARGH!!!

The National Museum of Cambodia is made of terracotta and looks so cool. It was interesting but definitely not the best or most interesting museum I've been to. Mostly it contains statue heads, headless statues, and well preserved pieces from Ankor Wat and other temples. There are also a few other things such a some jewelery, bowls and textiles. You are not allowed to take photos in the museum, but if you pay $1 at the gift shop, you get a receipt that allows you to take photos in the little central garden that the museum is built around. The garden is beautiful. I think I might have enjoyed the building and the garden more than the things in the museum. But it is still worth going (it costs around $3? - I forget).

When I had had enough of wandering about the garden taking pictures, I headed for the Royal Palace. I was a bit early, though. And I didn't know where the entrance was. As I was walking along, a young girl ran up to me and said, ''Over there! Open two o'clock." Then she tried to sell me water. I didn't want water as I had a drink in my bag from the museum garden. As I had about 15 minutes before it opened, I just walked along the walls. She followed me and was just talking. She asked about my family, my home, my life. She told me about herself, too. She is 12 years old and has 7 brothers and sisters. The eldest, her 20 year old sister, is the only one that is married. She goes to school in the afternoons. She wishes she was prettier. She has been learning English since she was 5 years old (and was also selling things at that age, too).

Every once in a while, she would run off as foreigners started arriving, hoping that they might buy some cold water from her. Nope. So she'd be back again talking to me. Cute.

Most of the palace compound is closed to the public. Too bad. What I was allowed to see was very nice. The thrown room is so beautiful. You have to remove your shoes before you enter, and you are only allowed in a small area in the back and along the sides up to a certain point. The ceiling is all painted in beautiful pictures. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed in that building.

Next to the palace compound, but connected, is the Silver Pagoda/Wat Preah Koh/Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha. It is called the Silver Pagoda because the floor is made of silver. It is covered in over 6000 silver tiles, weighing about 1kg each. Most of the floor is covered with carpets so that the visitors don't ruin it, but some is left uncovered to see. Even walking on the carpets on top of the silver tiles was interesting. It was easy to tell that metal tiles were underneath the carpet, as they weren't completely stuck to the floor, and shifted slightly with each step. Inside, there is an emerald buddha, said to be Baccarat crystal, and a life-sized pure gold Buddha covered in diamonds (9584 diamonds, up to 25 carats!) There are all sorts of other interesting, and probably very valuable things within the building. Around the building are numerous plants and trees and some more beautiful structures and buildings.

Walking around the palace and pagoda, I met Nadia. I recognized her. She and her boyfriend were sitting a couple of tables over the previous night at the restaurant I went to. She was also at the museum when I was wandering around there. As we were both walking alone, we ended up talking a bit. She is from Belgium. Her tour group (including her boyfriend) went to the killing fields and other places that day. As she didn't want to see the killing fields, she stayed behind to do some sightseeing on her own (the were also going to see the museum and palace that day). After we finished with the palace etc, I walked with her back to her hotel. She had a little book/magazine for Siem Reap in English, that had a lot of good things in it. Wim, her boyfriend, was back from the trip and was taking a bit of a nap. We sat around for a while talking, and found that we had the same plan for the evening - checking out the sunset from Boeng-kak, the lake. We took a tuktuk and ended up at the restaurant (and hotel) called No Problem. Not bad. The hotels and restaurants along the lake side of the street, are mostly built over the water (you could see the water through the spaces between the boards). The menu looked fairly good. Some interesting things, that seem to be fairly common here were present on the menu. The "Happy Pizza"for one. Well, close to that. They have a fair number of pizzas to choose from. If you want to make it a "Happy Happy Pizza"you have to add $1. For those of you that don't know what I am talking about, it is marijuana. From what I have heard, they actually use it in some traditional Khmer foods.

The sunset wasn't as great as we had all heard it was supposed to be. Well, blame it on the clouds, I suppose. There were some low clouds along the horizon, so the sun sort of disappeared before it set. So not much color, and nothing spectacular to report.

Cambodia Day 1 and 2

I arrived here on the 6th very late, so all I did then was find a hotel. I just picked somewhat randomly out of my guide book. Well, not that randomly. I chose one that was near others that were listed, just incase it was full.
I've been staying at the Indochine Hotel. It is okay. The first night, my room was quite small, up a back staircase to the first floor rooms (room 103). It had air-conditioning, a fan, hot water, etc. Okay for $10. But NO window. I ended up sleeping until 9 (which was fine as I didn't get to sleep until around12). I probably would have woken up much earlier if I had a window!
Then next day I changed rooms, to one of the bigger ones upstairs on the 2nd floor. As there was someone still in the room with the window, I still have a no window room. Still $10, but bigger than the last one (there is more furniture and the ceiling is about twice as high). A room with a window costs twice as much, and there are only 2 in the hotel, I think. I will stay there tonight again. I had planned on changing hotels today, but last minute decided to stay where I was. I will go up to Siem Reap (or, at least, that is the plan) tomorrow. When I do return to Phnom Penh, I'll find another hotel.
The VISA problem is getting sorted out, sort of. My school will send the document to me. They already talked to FedEx and figured out how long it would take to get here - about 3 working days. Fine. They also talked to the embassy in Cambodia and were told that it takes only 2 days for the VISA processing here. Good. So I can get it all done in my last week here (they will have to send it next week).
Almost my entire day yesterday was spent trying to figure out the VISA situation. Ugh. What a waste of a day. I did manage to check out Wat Phnom around sunset. It was okay, but not as good as I had expected. The most interesting parts were the cats that were everywhere and the monkeys down the back side of the hill. As it was getting later in the day, there weren't as many people there, and the children that I have heard are usually there following people were not there. Only a few legless/handless/what ever mine victims sitting along the stairs up, asking for handouts.
Every where I go there are guys calling out asking if I need a moto or a tuktuk. A moto is just a motorbike with an extended seat meant for passengers. Generally, men sit normally, women sit sideways. No one wears helmets. They don't go all that fast, as it isn't really possible, with the number of vehicles on the streets and the fact that every intersection is unmarked, cars, tuktuks, motos, bicycles and pedestrians all going at will. Kinda fun, actually. A tuktuk is a little motorized carriage (like a motorbike with a trailer almost). There are also cyclos, which are bicycles with big seats on the front where the passenger(s) sits.
Yesterday I saw a little moto with a family of 5, all of the children looking under 5 years old. Kinda scary.
I had dinner at a fairly large restaurant along the river, about a block down from my hotel. I think it is called the Riverside Bistro. They have seating both inside and out. I sat outside near a little stage where a woman was playing a xylophone type instrument. My mango juice was quite nice, although not as nice as in Eygpt. The Khmer fried rice with chicken was very good. I sat there for a while. I was startled a couple of times, both by a rat. I jumped when it first ran under my table to the next table, and then back again (no one else seemed to notice, especially the girl whose feet it stopped at). Then a while later, I really jumped as it ran in again OVER MY FEET. And then back out again under my chair. I suppose it was nothing unusual there.
There was also a fairly large frog/toad that crawled out from under the wicker chair at the next table. Kinda cute, actually. It crawled out and then back under again. A while later, it crawled out again, across the ground, under my chair and then into the plants that were next to me (between me and the street).
When I got tired of sitting in the restaurant looking at my guide book, after stopping in at a net cafe to check my email and make a couple of phone calls, I decided to check out a little cafe/bar that was on the corner of my block. The Metro looks fairly posh. My Raspberry Mojito was nice, but a bit chunky. It had crushed raspberries, chopped lime, shredded mint leaves, some sort of raspberry liquor (I think), and white rum.
I had never sat in a bar alone before. Can't say I like it.

Backpack

This was my big pre-trip buy.I needed a new bag and decided to get a good one, one that would last. The last one I had was just a cheap on I got in China. It did last a couple of trips but Egypt wore it out. It is a Vaude Cimone 55+8. It is made for women in that the hip straps are angled to fit a woman's hips. The whole bag is adjustable for different body sizes, as well.

Features:
Opening for drinking system
Floor compartment
Chest belt with whistle
Equipment fixation
Mesh side pockets
Organizer in the front outer pocket
Removable lid can be used as a washbag
Side compression belts
Separate waterproof document comparment
Anatomically designed, soft padded shoulder straps
Soft padded removable hipbelt
Raincover included
Volume: 3350 + 488 cu. in.
Measurements: 22" x 13" x 8"
Weight: 4lbs. 15oz.
Fabric: 210 D Dobby Polyamid PU coated, 600 D Polyester PU coated, 500 D Cordura Polyamid PU coated

VISA problems

Vacation should NOT be this stressful!!!!! I am in Cambodia now. I had decided to take a vacation from Korea while waiting for my new job to start. I decided to get my new work VISA here rather than doing a VISA run to Japan. I know people who have done VISA runs in Thailand and other such countries. The process seems to be the same everywhere. BUT, in Cambodia, unlike almost every other Korean Embassy, they require the actual VISA issuance document and not just the number. I found this out TODAY when I went to the embassy to apply for my passport, all set with my application form, photo, money, and VISA issuance NUMBER written on a little piece of paper that my school gave to me on Monday. So now what???

The embassy says I should get the school to send the document to me at my hotel. WHAT hotel? When? I'm here on vacation. I don't want to sit around waiting for a stupid piece of paper. I checked the various couriers on the net. I think the EARLIEST it would come, IF the school sends it tomorrow, is next week Monday. Not that bad, I suppose. I think the easiest/best way is for the school to send it as a pick-up rather than having it delivered to a hotel. That way I can pick it up and take it to the embassy in the same day (when I am in the city). I think that is the only way that I can actually still do some traveling while waiting. Also, I am still waiting to hear back from my school. I sent them an email this afternoon after I found out, and then again after I checked out the couriers on the net and such. Waiting sucks.

No matter what, I have to re-think my planning on when I am doing things here. I want to spend more than a week in the Siem Reap area, but now I'm not sure how, unless I do it in two halves. That kind a sucks. I can't put it off to the end, as I'm not sure how long I'll be waiting here. And I can't just go up there now and stay and then leave the VISA stuff to the end, as I'm not sure how long it will take for them to actually PROCESS the VISA. As they the website for the Korean Embassy here isn't very informative, I have NO information.

What to do.

to improve your memory....

This is very interesting. I think I can handle all that. ;)

You Must Remember This: Tips for Improving Memory
Why do we tend to forget things so easily as we get old? The answer lies with the hippocampus on either side of our brains. Everything we see, hear, and feel is stored in these two cucumber-shaped areas that measure just one cm in diameter and 10 cm in length.
The moment we are born the neuro-cells in the hippocampus start to die off, and around the age of 20 the rate of destruction starts to pick up speed. Some say about 3,600 memory cells disappear in about an hour. But there's no need to worry. While one memory cell generates a few axons, people can create enough axons, through deliberate efforts, to replace dying memory cells. Let's examine a few proven methods to keep our brains young.
1. Walking
By making 210 people with average-sized brains walk briskly three times a week for one hour each session, a research team at Illinois University found that after just three months of walking, the walkers' memory cell activities were on par with those who were three years younger. The team also found that walking stimulates the cervical vertebra which in turn doubles the amount of blood circulated to the brain. Active blood circulation facilitates the release of neurotransmitters, enabling much faster and simultaneous information exchange, said Prof. Lee Dong-yeong of Seoul National Hospital’s neuro department. "This helps to improve long term memory.”
2. Wine
A research team in Auckland, New Zealand, reported that one to two glasses of wine a day can significantly improve people's memory. They say a neuroreceptor called NMDA reacts to the alcohol. "A small amount of alcohol not only stimulates NMDA but also expands blood vessels, thereby facilitating blood circulation," said Prof. Han Seol-heui of Konkuk University Hospital’s neurology department. The antioxidants in red wine also prevent the destruction of brain cells, improving our memories. Still, too much alcohol -- more than five to six glasses a day -- may well destroy the brain cells, deteriorating our ability to remember things.
3. Coffee
Dr. Karen Ritchie of the National Health and Medical Research Center of France conducted research on 7,000 adults over the age of 65 for four years. She found that those who drank more than three cups of coffee a day had a memory deterioration rate 45 percent slower than those who drank one cup or less per day. A research team from Ottawa University in Canada studied 6,000 people living in four different cities from 1991 to 1995, and found out that those who had a consistent intake of caffeine performed better in tests -- by about 31 percent on average -- compared to those without the intake. "Caffeine in coffee and tea stimulates the central nervous system and enhances memory capacity by facilitating the brain's reticular system,” said Prof. Koh Jae-young of Seoul Asan Medical Center’s neurology department.
4. Sleeping
Robert Stickgold, an American psychologist, argued in a paper published in a cognitive neuroscience magazine in 2000 that a minimum of six hours of sleep is needed to fully retain knowledge learned the previous day. "Knowledge acquired during the day gets stored in the temporal lobe while one sleeps," said Dr. Park Dong-seon of Yesong Sleep Center. "It is strongly recommended to sleep after midnight in particular, as the stress hormone that destroys neuro-cells is secreted significantly more after midnight.”
5. Writing notes
The long term memory capacity of our brains has no limit. But there is limited space for short term memories -- such as recently memorized phone numbers, lists of daily tasks, and names of stores passing by the car window. Thus, elderly people with fewer memory cells are better off writing down miscellaneous information like phone numbers and daily tasks the moment they pop up. When useless short-term memories clog our brains, our forgetfulness only worsens.
6. Reading
Reading is a much better way of improving memory than conventionally known methods such as playing cards or chess. After studying the relationship between dementia and recreational activities such as playing chess, cards, watching TV, and reading, a research team at Kyung Hee University Medical Center found that people who read often have a lesser chance of developing dementia. "Reading helps to stimulate the transition between short term memory to long term memory by exercising the ability to understand events that happened earlier and later in a book,” said Dr. Won Jang-won of Kyung Hee University Hospital.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Mental Aerobics for a Sharp Old Age
People who do a lot of work with their brains, and indeed those who don’t, may benefit from mental aerobics. The exercises, quiz games and the like, aim to improve memory for anyone from elderly people at risk of Alzheimer’s to students. They have been shown to boost the dendrites in brain cells that help the brain process information more effectively and prevent it from getting slow. Dr. Michael Valenzuela, a clinical neuroscience research fellow at the University of New South Wales’ School of Psychiatry who won the Australian Computer Society's Eureka Award this year, says games like wordplay are effective in preventing Alzheimer's disease. His three-year research of 29,000 people over 60 found that those who do plenty of brain work saw the risk of Alzheimer's disease halved while their hippocampus, the area in the brain related to memory, shrank less than normal.
Mental aerobics has been known to the public in advanced countries like the U.S. for 10 years. The UCLA Brain Research Institute and division of Neurophysiology of Duke University took the lead in conducting research on the exercise and produced plenty of programs and books on mental aerobics. Here, the exercise is being introduced in the neurological clinics of university hospitals and private clinics that help students perform better, including Inje University’s Paik Hospital and the Dementia Prevention Center at Hallym University Medical Center in Kangdong, Seoul.
The most effective way to do mental aerobics is to participate in programs offered by brain clinics and receive training in a systematic way, but there are simpler methods. For example, keeping a diary is one good method. To improve memory and practice abstract thinking, bring back what you did in the past and reflect on what you did. In addition, you can become more positive-thinking by planning for a better future. Another good method to practice at home is to write down what you remember after watching news or TV dramas: you may recall what articles you read or what clothes or what hairstyle a character wore in the drama you saw. You can also write down what you ate and how it tasted after each meal.
Korean checkers, chess, card games or computer games that are not too stimulating are also not bad, provided you do it no more than 30 minutes at a time. Staying sedentary for too long can cause abdominal obesity, and that is a cause of other metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia that are also bad for the brain. Yeon Byeong-kil, a professor with Hallym University’s College of Medicine, says six out of every 10 patients who come to him because of memory loss or dementia are also suffering chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases related to lifestyle and obesity. "I often see that their MRI pictures show fats accumulated in their brain blood vessels, which kills their brain cells,” he adds.
To maximize the effect of mental aerobics, you may need to change your diet and do light exercise. Getting together with people you know often and complimenting others is also good for your brain. When you skip breakfast, it slows down your brain activity in the morning. You need to have fresh fish more than twice a week and fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Tuna, mackerel, white fish, nuts and brightly colored vegetables are also good for your brain. Processed instant food like fried potatoes, donuts and bacon are not. You should have at least 10 glasses of water a day and choose tea over sodas or coffee. In addition, do stretches to straighten your muscles for more than 5 seconds frequently and walk for between 30 minutes and an hour.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Train the Brain to Fight Disorders

Chris' Halloween Story

Halloween Fun

Saturday night I went to a friend's for a Halloween party - Chris' Second Annual Halloween Party. Last year's party was great. This one was even better.
I missed the first bit. Chris' one room apartment was full when I got there. So many people. I only actually knew a handful of them. All kinds of costumes were present. The standard vampires, witches, pirates, etc. as well as many very creative and unique ones.Can you guess what they are?Signing the box.
The ENTIRE apartment was decorated. The walls were all covered in black and decorated with a variety of things. A lot of things were made with his friend's pictures or are referring to his friends in one way or another.One wall was a graveyard, with epitaphs of all of Chris' friends. Mine said "Laura/ It's the only home she could keep..."The ceiling had a giant spider, and a whole bunch of bats.The bathroom had decorations (including a skeleton in the shower)and even the washing machine was involved! On the lid it said, "The Washer of DOOM/ caution: NOT for the faint of heart.... or kidneys...."And it wouldn't be complete without a fridge full of Vodka Jello shots!
At midnight we all headed outsideto avoid causing problems with the building super due to noise levels. At one point along the way, we encountered a little grandmother. She laughed so much. (Koreans don't do Halloween). She loved the guy with the box of candy attached to his belt and even went back to him a second time for some more candy. SO funny. I don't think she got the point of that costume. When she saw the flasher with the banana in his underwear, well, she laughed even harder.One of the soldier trio telling us where to go.
Toy guns here look pretty much like real guns. At home that is illegal. If you walked around with one, or pulled one out of your pocket you'd likely get shot, even if you were a kid and just playing. Most of the toy guns here shoot the little plastic ball pellets.It is a bit of a walk to the park but no one was complaining. Once in the park, Chris made a speech and then told a Halloween story using all of his friends' names. He is always very creative. Then there were the awards for the costumes for which we had all voted for earlier on (Chris had made ballots for it)- best, worst, sexiest, least sexy, most thrown together in 10 minutes, most likely to turn the host on, most likely to get one arrested, most likely to scare the pants off a Korean. After that was finished, there were some hand held fireworks (some aimed in the wrong direction but no one was hurt).Once the party in the park started winding down (well, once everyone started to get TOO cold), we started heading back up to the apartment for some more partying. A bunch of people left at that point (too tired, too cold, had to go, etc), so the noise levels weren't as much of an issue.

Korea... a "Danger Country" ?????

I read this a couple of days ago. I'm not surprised for the most part, but a bit, yes. I've always felt very safe here, at any hour day or night. I've been told by Korean friends to be careful, to not walk alone after dark, etc. All because they heard of a few instances where things did happen. I think that in relation to the population, it isn't so bad. The OECD Classificion DOES surprise me, a lot.

Rash of Violent Crimes Leaves Korean Women Frightened
Many Korea women are anxious these days after a series of murders, rapes and other crimes targeting women made headlines recently.
Last August, two female office workers were abducted and murdered by illegal taxi drivers near Hongik University in Seoul, and in September a police officer raped two women in a subway parking lot late at night, stealing some W19 million (US$1=W917) in cash and valuables.
Earlier this month, a man in his 30s was arrested for raping nine women who were returning home at night in Seongbuk district in northern Seoul. Women now are increasingly afraid to catch a cab at night or even to go out.
With the surging growth of women in the Korean work force, economic participation by females has reached 54.8 percent. However public security measures to protect women at night remain neglected. According to the National Police Agency, more than a third of all violent crimes including murder, robbery, and rape occur between midnight and four a.m.
Korea is classified a "danger country" in terms of women's public safety by the 30-member OECD. According to the OECD's Social and Welfare Statistics for 2007, the homicide rate for Korean women is 1.7 per every 100,000 people, the third highest after the U.S. (2.7) and Iceland (2.2).
Experts say it's urgent that safety be ensured in cabs, the most frequently used means of transportation for working women at night. Most cabs including private and company-run ones are considered safe but measures must be taken against illegal contract cabs that are often used in crimes.
Contract cabs refer to licensed cabs that can be rented from an owner or a company for around W100,000 a day. They allow criminals to act as cab divers as long as they can pay. An estimated 5,000 contract cabs cruise the streets of Seoul.
"While more than 80 percent of people in Korea catch cabs on the street, most people in other countries have to call," said Park Yong-hun from the Coalition for Transportation Culture of Korea. "We should pursue a system for women-only call cabs."
Many also point out the need to step up public safety measures in secluded places like parking lots and alleys by setting up watch posts and CCTV cameras. "Women returning home late at night are the easiest targets for criminals, since they look for vulnerable victims in places where they can most easily commit crimes," said researcher Hwang Gi-tae of the Korea Institute of Criminal Justice Policy.
(englishnews@chosun.com )