Save Will

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Rode a tuk tuk from my hostel to the airport. Flew to Taipei with a layover in Kuala Lumpur. Rode a bus to Taipei Main Station. Rode the MRT to Guting station. Walked to my hostel and arrived around 9:30 p.m. Ate dinner at a nearby McDonald’s (sorry, Tess). Met the others in my dorm room, English teachers from south of Taipei visiting for a long weekend. Played on my computer, then went to bed.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Called Tess to plan my flight to Seattle. Ate lunch at my hostel. Walked to a nearby ATM. Rode a motorbike taxi to the S-21 museum where thousands were detained and tortured for confessions by the Khmer Rouge. Afterward, rode a motorbike taxi to the killing fields just outside of town where thousands were murdered. It was so very sad. Rode a motorbike taxi back to my hostel. Bought a flight ticket to Taipei for the next day and booked a hostel I’d stayed at before, Chocolate Box. Ate dinner at my hostel and played on my computer.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Checked out of my hostel. Wanted to call Tess, but my ride to the bus terminal was early. Rode a bus to Phnom Penh for six hours. Rode a tuk tuk to my hostel and checked in. Walked around the neighborhood a little, but there was little to see. Ate dinner at my hostel.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Jake drove me to some of the smaller temples. I can’t recall which ones, but aside from small features, they were very similar. After seeing temples for two days under a blistering sun, they all started to look alike and I grew weary of it. Returned to the hostel and arranged for a six-hour bus ride to Phnom Penh the next morning.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Ate breakfast at the hostel. Jake drove me in a tuk tuk to Angkor Wat, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, The Bayon in Angkor Thom, and Phnom Bakheng, to the top of which I hiked for a sunset view. Needless to say, the temples there are exquisite and exciting to explore. My favorite was Angkor Wat, but The Bayon was a close second. I ate dinner at the same street place as the day before. I arranged to have Jake drive me around the next day as well.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Woke up at 4:30 a.m. Flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Jake, from my hostel, picked me up at the airport. Checked in, showered, and ate lunch. Arranged a private tuk tuk for seeing the ruins the next day with Jake as my driver. Spent the rest of the day napping and relaxing. Ate dinner with another guy from my dorm named Robin (from Germany). Went to bed early to get up early the next day.

Saturday & Sunday, February 18–19, 2012

Didn’t do much. Again, I felt tired, and mostly remained inside and ate at nearby restaurants. One evening I walked to the Mekong River’s edge to see the night market there and watch the local people. Ran into a few more people from the group I was with at the river near Vang Vieng. Met a girl in my hostel that I’d met before at my hostel in Luang Prabang. Feeling the bandaid on my face was a constant reminder of the river, and I think it put me in a bad mood.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Rode a bus to Vientiane at 10 a.m. Walked around with a couple looking for a guesthouse or hostel. Checked into a hostel called Asian World. Ate a croissant for a late lunch and drank a couple Cokes to cool down. Read my guidebook about the city. Ate dinner at a pizza place and ran into a couple from the group I had hung out with at the river at Vang Vieng. Felt sick after eating dinner and went to bed early.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Ate lunch at a Friends restaurant. Went to the inner tube shop, then rode a tuk tuk with a group of others, including two girls I’d met at my hostel in Chiang Mai, to the river. Hung out with that group there for an hour or so, drinking a beer.

I’d heard stories about how dangerous it was inner tubing there, how people had died falling on rocks while riding zip lines over the river, or how inner tube riders had been hit by bottles attached to ropes that locals working at riverside bars throw at them to reel them in. I’d decided to stick to beer only to stay safe, since I was on my own.

We got our inner tubes and floated into the current, which took us around a bend where a platform had been erected on which a couple guys were trying to reel in inner tube riders. I kept a wary eye on them to make sure they didn’t hit me, but also glanced back at the rest of the group to see whether they were going to stop at the next riverside bar, which was just downstream of the first and rapidly approaching.

I was paddling to be closer to the others when I was struck in the face with a bottle thrown by a guy from the second bar. I hadn’t seen him winding up. I remember there being an abrupt change of consciousness; I had been paddling, and then my eyes were closed and I was leaning back and the side of my face felt hot. I can’t remember if the impact had torn my sunglasses off, or if I took them off when feeling my face, but in either case, they were lost to the bottom of the river, never to be seen again. Slowly I realized what had happened. My hand fell on the rope and closed on it. The adrenaline started pumping, and I was really pissed off.

I started to pull and yank on the rope, and I rolled off my inner tube into the water. I think I was trying to get the rope out of the guy’s hands out of some sort of vengeance, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I ended up pulling myself to the river’s edge near the guy and started screaming at him somewhat incoherently. I’m not even sure he spoke English or understood a word I said. At some point some white guy stood next to the guy who’d thrown the bottle and was yelling at me. I didn’t know who he was, so I just screamed at him too. Sometimes tourists find jobs at these kinds of touristy places so they can afford to stay there longer, so maybe he worked there?

I probably would have gotten out of the water then and escalated things, but I grew aware of my things starting to float away from me. I gathered my inner tube and a flip flop floating nearby, and looked around for my other flip flop. One of the bar employees pointed me to it across the river, and I swam with the inner tube to get it. I kept feeling my face and saw blood on my fingers, so I knew I had to get out. I paddled to a nearby ladder and pulled my inner tube out of the water. I didn’t see anyone from my group, so I walked out of the bar to the road and flagged down a tuk tuk and rode it into town.

I returned the inner tube, then went to my room to see the damage and clean the injuries. There were several small cuts on my right temple, and a small but deep cut on my right cheekbone. I looked up online when to get stitches, then walked to the hospital. There was a guy there who’d also been injured at the river that day. He’d been riding a zip line drunk and somehow hit his head when entering the water. He’d gotten sixteen stitches in his forehead without anesthesia. A doctor saw me right away and a nurse gave me two stitches without anesthesia. I’d never had stitches for an injury before. I was told to get them removed in a week.

I went to a Friends restaurant and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening there watching TV and trying not to think about anything. I wanted to move on, so I bought a bus ticket to Vientiane for the next morning.

I ran into several people from that group later in Vientiane who were sympathetic. One guy said he was reluctant to go on the river afterward.

Thinking back on it, it was a good thing that I didn’t get out of the river when I was mad. I was alone and unsteady and didn’t speak the language. Getting into a fight with a local, and possibly some douche bag tourist, would have been a disaster. If I had been thinking straight, I would have had the guy who threw the bottle take me to the hospital and pay for everything. If only I hadn’t been hit in the head with a bottle. One of the tradeoffs of traveling alone is that no one has your back.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Still felt tired, so I stayed inside mostly and kept to myself. Ate lunch and dinner at restaurants that played Friends. I’d forgotten how funny Friends is.