Random Thoughts After 13 Days of Travel
1. Many people on this trip have made me smile.
2. Going to the bathroom 14 times in one day should not become a regular occasion unless you are only going to fix your hair — even then, 12 times is enough.
3. I have determined that the participants in BikeMovement Asia are really cool, and if you don’t know them all yet, you should probably try to meet them sometime!
4. If you ever find yourself in Southeast Asia with a mountain bike and all of your gear for a month, don’t think it will be easy to go 75 miles per day, because chances are, that won’t be the case.
5. The Chicago airport is a hard place to stay optimistic.
6. Sugarcane juice is like Gatorade — only it tastes better and you can get 6 glasses of it (in Cambodia) for about $1.00 US.
7. The currency in Vietnam is pronounced “dong.”
8. The War Remnants Museum for the Vietnam War in Ho Chi Minh City, is undoubtedly the most unique place to learn about the war
9. Little kids saying “hello, hello, hello” and running out to the street when we ride by is very encouraging.
10. Tuk-tuks carry a lot more than I ever expected. If you have five people, three boxed-up bicycles, and five other pieces of luggage; or six people, one boxed up bike and a backpack — you should only need one tuk-tuk.
11. If you ever find yourself on a motorized bicycle on a crowded street in Cambodia, be on the look-out for elephants, because they can come out from behind big trucks at any time.
12. When people really want to do amazing things, such as build gigantic stone temples or dig moats bigger than airplanes by hand, look out, because it just might happen.
13. I enjoy sitting and letting others practice their English with me. Sometimes children let me try to practice my Khmer with them, but I think they are really just getting me to say things that I probably shouldn’t be saying, especially the little kids. They laugh at me a lot.
14. If a little child who has no apparent, visible supervision from anyone in sight, joins your table while you are waiting for your food and gives you the “thumbs up,” I think it should be expected that you share your food — especially if they pull up a chair.
15. If given the choice between eating salty crabs and river snails or not eating them, my suggestion is to eat them, because they are really good and fun to eat.
16. I don’t think I will ever have personal space issues again. I think I’m okay with that.
Neil Richer
8 May 2007