Kyoto is Japan’s cultural center and land of many temples. Kyoto has a long history and was once Japan’s capital. It feels relaxed compared to Tokyo but, like Tokyo, it is warm and polite, clean and safe, and attentive to some of the finer details. Everything here is so visual! Traditional Japanese style says a lot with a little. Drama is presented with simple beauty and attention to detail. The message is there if you are paying attention.
I had only been in Tokyo a few hours before I understood why people love it.
Cambodia’s “cool” season is still too hot for someone with Scottish genes and too polluted for lungs acclimated to the Bay Area’s clean air. But in other ways I feel comfortable here. Tonight in my Phnom Penh hotel, I watched a nature program about the Borneo I didn’t see. It wasn’t Malaysia’s fault that I wasn’t happy there. Just bad timing.
Flying within Southeast Asia is easy and cheap. On Sunday, I flew from Kuching to Penang for $20, which is kind of like flying from Fresno to Mendocino. Penang is a Malaysian province northwest of Kuala Lumpur that has been called the “Pearl of the Orient.”
My cab driver laughed when he told me Kuala Lumpur means “muddy estuary,” probably because Malaysia’s capital is nothing like its name. Bright and clean and rich, central Kuala Lumpur is full of flashy skyscrapers, 21st century transportation systems and giant up-market malls. First World roads, sidewalks and landscaping. No tuk-tuks or motor-scooters. After a couple of weeks in Cambodia, KL is quite a shock!
Almost everything about downtown KL looks and feels like Los Angeles.
Cambodians love their lake. Fed by the giant Mekong River, Tonle Sap is five times the size of Lake Tahoe and supports fishing and farming by 3 million Cambodians. In my five weeks in Cambodia, I hadn’t seen it and I needed a little adventure. So on Saturday, I signed up for a tour led by a local NGO called “New Hope” (which, you guessed it, provides health and educational services to Cambodian children and has two restaurants to prove it).
I have a friend a couple of doors down who usually wakes me up at dawn.
He is a little camera shy.
My last post was about Cambodian food because, in the past five days, eating is about the only interesting thing I have done. I have mostly been in bed with a cold (it’s over now!). During my time in the hotel room, I also wrote a little about Cambodia. I have gone back and forth about whether to post a story that is so tragic. But I am not describing the real Cambodia if the only things I share are my isolated experiences as a privileged tourist.
The Cambodia banner at honeymoons.com
