Hanoi

We're in Hanoi now which is the final city/area of our trip. But we still have about a week left--3 days at Ha Long Bay, 3 days trekking in Sapa, and 1 final day in Hanoi before we fly back. 

Cambodia was beautiful and the people are so kind. Our Couchsurfing host MJ definitely made the experience for us. She took us to a children's home that she volunteers at in the countryside and we played with the kids. There were lots of animals there too. It was easy to see how the countryside is poorer than the city (although the city is poor too.) Everything is dirty. Kids don't have shoes. Lots of corrugated metal roofs, lots of litter. This experience in Cambodia slightly makes me question whether or not I can handle the Peace Corps. MJ was absolutely the best but staying at her apartment was not. No hot water, no flush for the toilet (you just pour water down the bowl), lots of bugs, and in general less seperation between inside and out. I know I WANT to do Peace Corps so that I can learn to love this kind of lifestyle but I really am not used to it. But riding motorbikes with MJ and her friend around the city was super fun :) 

Mai in Ho Chi Minh city also took us out on motorbikes with her and her friends. There really is a rush to it. The wind whipping by feels great. It feels alive. And I never felt unsafe. I just wouldn't want to actually drive one. :x 

I want to say more but my hands hurt and I can't type on this iPhone for very long. 

Ha Long Bay cruise tomorrow! No wifi for 3 days :( update after! 

Ho Chi Minh City

I'm at Mai's house in Ho Chi Minh City and it doesn't feel gross!!!! Yay. Her family is slightly better-off since her parents are/were in the military. 

HCMC is the city I feel the least safe in. There are not a lot of tourist things but it's a vibrant, pulsating city, more metropolitan than Hanoi. We went to the War Remnants museum which was sobering, and walked around in all sorts of parks. I'd love to have a couple more days here. 

I'm feeling very grateful for a lot of things. Grateful for my GREAT couchsurfing hosts. Grateful that I'm decent at keeping my wits about me, not getting my stuff stolen, not succumbing to scams. I've made it this far in my trip with nothing stolen, lost or missing, no flights missed, no injury or tragedy. And for that I feel very, very grateful. 

Cambodia

It's hot. 

Reaaallllllly hot.

My hair becomes wet with sweat after 10 minutes in the sun, making it curl and get frizzy and big. My face, my backpack, my armpits, my whole shirt becomes a sweat pool.  But the humidity is good for my voice and (maybe?) my skin. 

The temples at Ankgor were as special as you'd think. So much history and pure craftsmanship poured into 35 years of back-breaking work. 

Now we're in Phnom Penh, the capital. We see relative poverty but according to a woman we met on the bus, it's nowhere near the level of poverty in te rural countryside areas. They just have nowhere to go and nothing to do, no way to make money, nothing to eat. So hordes of people are moving from the country to the cities, which ultimately is unsustainable as well. 

There's a lot of dirtiness and shittiness but there's also a degree of newness as well. We went grocery shopping at AEON mall in Phnom Penh, which might as well be transplanted directly from japan, it has so many of the same products--and prices. 

Later today we're going volunteering with our couch-surfing host, MJ. We're excited to have a unique experience courtesy of her. 

Then tomorrow is our last day in Cambodia! 

Halfway Point

Now I'm in Malaysia waiting to get on my plane to Siem Reap. This airport is nice and has decent wifi (way better than Haneda.) I exchanged $10 into Ringgits (Malaysian money) which ended up being a little bit too much. My breakfast cost 26.40 ringgits out of the 36 I got, so now I have 9 left. What to do with them? Save them til I go back to Malaysia again someday? Haha.

I started feeling nostalgic and sad to be leaving Japan as I was leaving for the airport yesterday, but now I'm too exhausted to really feel or process anything. I'm anxious to get to Siem Reap, anxious about everything, just want to fall into a bed. Hope everything goes well. 

This trip felt weird because I had never taken a "trip" to Japan before--I'd only ever lived there. So being back, there was nothing I could do to convince my body that I wasn't staying there for an extended time, that this was, in fact, temporary. And temporary it was. It felt suuuper short. But it was fun. :) I reunited with some great friends and got to see my students, which is all I could've asked for. 

Now onto SEA. 

Shinkansen

I'm on my final shinkansen (bullet train) ride of the trip. I love how easy shinkansens are to ride. Their signage is easy and clear, in Japanese and English. Many of them have outlets at the seats. They are clean, quiet, air-conditioned, and almost always on time. And they are so, so fast. For me, they're a model of how a train system should be run. They're just really expensive :P even an hourlong ride can run you $50, and it's definitely cheaper to fly if you are going a long distance. But since I've had my rail pass, it's been super convenient and fun to ride them whenever possible :) 

A Creeper

The word that I feel in Japan is safe. It sounds like a magical far-off concept I guess, but Japanese seriously believe in 和 (wa), which sort of means peace/harmony. Don't do anything which disturbs the peace. Obviously this has large repercussions both positive and negative, but one the biggest positives is everyone's sense of civic responsibility. People don't steal. People return things that they find. People wait their turn. People are polite, patient and unintrusive. I generally feel safer in Japan than I do in the states. 

 Today was a reminder that it's not always a utopia. Today I visited Himeji castle alone to do some sight-seeing and a creepy man followed me around, asking me questions, asking to hold my bag for me, trying to talk in barely intelligible English (even though I said 10 times that Japanese is fine.) I was nice at first and then ignored him as much as possible and tried to lose him as I slowed down or sped up my sightseeing pace. But he kept finding me. Finally he asked me something I couldn't understand (due to his English), but it had the word "escort." I said I'm going home after this. He said are you alone? (In Japanese) I said yes. He said do you have a boyfriend? I lied and said yes. As soon as I said yes he quickly booked it out of the area and I didn't see him again. Overall this is one of the weirdest interactions I've had in Japan, and certainly brings up all kinds of frustrating feelings. The fetishization of foreigners. The idea that you're only off-limits once you're "somebody else's" and not because you're not interested. The realization that interactions like this happen every day in every country in the world. Japan is such a safe and easily liveable country, and in general men are polite and unthreatening (which I really appreciate), but misogyny exists here like anywhere else. 

Heat wave in Nara

Today was fun but super super suuuuuuuuper hot. I think I bought 3 vending machine drinks which is a record. And biking around was fun but I almost got heat stroke and was reminded of how shitty I felt in the heat when I was biking around at Sukhothai last year. Woo! I'm so glad I could meet up with Yuka and Manami. 

Then at night Yuki and I met up and Chika, Yudai and Daisuke were there too! Super glad I got to see them and talk to them. Daisuke and I had a really good talk on the train back. 

I haven't interacted with a native speaker of English in about two days and I won't tomorrow either.