This is going
to be a non-track blog about my travels in Southeast Asia for the past two
weeks. If you want some track stuff I’ll
probably get back on it in mid-August once the kiddos get back
on campus.
Observations while in Asia
--The Chinese
put the top 1% of their attractive population on Air China as flight attendants.
--You tend to
bond with other Americans when you miss a connecting flight in a foreign land.
--Chinese
people (and most Asians) smile when they’re nervous.
--The loudest
eater on the face of the Earth sat next to me on a 12 hour flight (fortunately
he slept most of the way).
--At some
point in the first 3 days I had no idea what time or what day it was.
--Some
countries in Asia don’t understand the concept of standing in line or personal
space.
--Other
Asians think the Chinese talk way too loud.
--Singapore
is super clean. There were touch screens
in the bathroom at the airport to rate your experience while peeing.
--The meals
on the overnight flights were surprisingly good.
--Chinese
people take an insane amount of selfies as well as posed glamour shots.
--Before you
die you need to go see the temples in Cambodia (especially Angkor Wat). Pictures don’t do it justice.
--Get a tour
guide. Mine was one of the nicest people
I ever met.
--People get
massages all the time and it’s incredibly cheap for a legitimate good massage ($8/hour). There’s a 50/50 chance they’ll ask you for a
happy ending.
--Driving
laws in Cambodia are a suggestion and rarely followed.
--I was
surprised there weren’t more non-Asians tourists.
--Americans
are actually friendlier than most non-Asian tourists.
--Taking a
ride on a tuk-tuk is awesome in a “riding a rollercoaster” kind of way.
--Make sure
your non-English speaking tuk-tuk driver knows exactly where you need to go
before you get started.
--You’ve
never really been in a traffic jam until you’ve been in a traffic jam in
Bangkok.
--Everyone
drives insanely but no one has road rage.
--If you’re
not good at math then you’ll probably spend more money than you should. $1 US
is equal to 34 in Thailand and 1000 in Cambodia.
--Pack light
and do laundry every few days.
--Crossing
the street in downtown Bangkok is a risky proposition. Pedestrians do not have the right of way.
--If someone
offers you a really cheap ride on a tuk-tuk, you will most definitely end up at
a tailor where they will try to make you buy new and expensive clothing.
--The
Buddhist temples in Thailand are spectacular and make anything we have in the
United States seem small and cheap.
--Most people
in Bangkok are nice but if you are white they will try to rip you off at every
moment.
--Everyone
seems to work. It’s hard to get welfare
and minimum wage is $9/day.
--If you know
where to go you can eat amazing food for less than $5 a meal.
--Most taxi
drivers in Bangkok have never left the city and dream to come to the USA but
would never be able to afford it.
--I played a
game of pool against a guy with no shirt, nipple piercings and tattoos all over
his body. Super nice guy. He beat me handily thank goodness.
--The city
planner (if there is one) needs to be fired immediately. The streets in Bangkok are totally random.
--If you say
anything negative about the king and queen you will be put in jail.
--More people
have smart phones than running water.
--I saw an
Asian man sing Oops I Did It Again by Brittany Spears. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
--French
toast and pancakes are desserts.
--Multiple
mornings I woke up and had no idea where I was (this has continued back in the
states).
--I got a
5-minute massage and chiropractic adjustment by a bathroom attendant. It was absolutely incredible.
--If you’re
6-0 tall you’re a giant.
--The red
light district in Bangkok is much smaller than you would think. If you’re curious to check it out it’s good
to go with a group of people that have your back.
--Prostitution
is illegal but there is no enforcement of the law. If you are white you will get approached by
prostitutes non-stop.
--If you
happen to go inside of a club on Soi Cowboy you may see things you’ve never
seen before and will never see again.
--The most
fun thing about going to a Mai Thai fight is the crowd.
--Every
street corner has a different smell – good and bad.
--Poor men in
Bangkok drive taxi’s, the women work as street vendors.
--“Saving
face” is something that is very important to the people of Thailand. Causing embarrassment has the potential to
result in a variety of bad things for you or them.
--I never
felt unsafe at any time.
--I never saw
or felt any form of racism.
--Religion is
so much more important there than in the United States.
--You’re
always respectfully greeted with two palms together in front of their face and
a bow. By the middle of the trip I
started doing the same.
--Going to a
movie cost $4 and you will need to rise to listen to the Anthem of the King.
--There is
virtually no PDA (public displays of affection) thank goodness!
Why Southeast Asia?
I had been
wanting to go on another international vacation for a while and was struggling
with where to pick. I’ve been to parts
of Western Europe and the Caribbean so I was looking to go somewhere different
– real different.
I’ve had
several friends that said how much they’ve enjoyed visiting SE Asia so I gave
it a good look. I was in the office with
Coach Yost and our Director of Ops Ryan Patton one day and asked them what they
thought. Before they could answer I went
ahead and bought a ticket.
I decided to
mainly hit Bangkok, Thailand and Siem Reap, Cambodia for a combination of
history and excitement that would totally get me out of my element. As I get older I want to go to as many places
as I can so that I can experience as much of this crazy world has to offer.
It was funny
to see the reactions that people had when I told them where I was going. Most people, like me, don’t know that much
about the region so their general reaction was, “That sounds ….. nice.”
The Travel
There’s
really no away around the travel. It’s a
bear. It’s basically halfway around the
world. On top of that my flights out
there got all messed up and I was sent on a 38-hour excursion through five
countries and seven airports. Here’s
what that looked like …
Depart
Wichita on Wednesday afternoon on a direct flight to Los Angeles where I stayed
the night (not counting this as part of the 38-hour trip). Thursday my flight from LA to Beijing, China,
was supposed to leave at 2:20pm (Pacific Time) but didn’t leave until around
4:00pm. I had a two hour layover scheduled
in Beijing so it was gonna be close. It
was a 12-hour flight and unfortunately I needed it to be 11:45 and I missed the
connection to Bangkok by less than 10 minutes.
It was 8:00pm Beijing time and now I had two options. The first was to wait for the next direct
flight to Bangkok the next day at 2pm.
The problem with that is I had to depart Bangkok for Cambodia on a
flight at 1:30pm the next day. Obviously
when you’re in China there is going to be some language barriers so for about
30 minutes I tried to convince this poor woman to just fly me straight to
Cambodia and skip Bangkok but unfortunately they didn’t have a flight
available. What they did have was a
6-hour flight leaving at midnight to Singapore that would arrive at 6am, then I
could catch at 7:40am flight from there to Bangkok to arrive at 9:30am.
At the point
I realized it was 9am back home and I slept maybe 30 minutes on the flight to
China. Traveling through the night
around Asia wasn’t going to help that either (I have trouble sleeping upright
in a plane seat). But I sucked it up and
took the challenge and thought, “well I’ve never been to Singapore.” Fortunately the flight to Singapore and the
next one to Bangkok were on time. There
was only one problem in now flying to Cambodia from Bangkok and that was that I
had to leave from a different airport on the other side of the city. I got an Uber and for the super cheap price
of $14 I got a 45 minute ride to the other side of town. The flight to Cambodia was only an hour and
by 3:30pm (in who knows what time zone) I checked into a hotel and slept for 14
straight hours.
Now after reading
all that you probably thought it was a nightmare. Well I think the little issues, problems,
hassles that come up on a trip are just part of the deal and if you look at it
as an adventure then it wasn’t as bad as it appeared. Yeah I was super tired when I finally got to
Cambodia and still haven’t adjusted back to Central Time in Kansas, but I also
met a lot of cool people along the way.
While stuck in the Beijing airport for 4 hours, I befriended a guy from
Los Angeles who ran track and cross country in college and was now doing
triathlons. On the flight from China I
was sitting near a married couple from Columbus, Ohio, (they went to Ohio
State) who was going to Asia as part of a Peace Corps type situation. I struck up a conversation on the way to
Singapore with a lady from Malaysia who was flying on a plane for the first
time to go see her family. My Uber
driver in Los Angeles ran track for the LA Jets and knew Obea Moore, one of the
best high school sprinters of all-time from back in my day.
If you aren’t
busy chasing Pokemon or shutting off the world with your headphones you’d be
surprised as how fast a trip like that can go.
Oh yeah, I also watched twelve movies and ate six meals on the flights.
Total flying
distance on this trip – 26,743 miles.
How far is it around the world? 24,901 miles.
Final thoughts
Overall,
traveling to Asia was a terrific experience. If you want to see pictures, I put a few on my Facebook page.
I had a lot of help along the way that was desperately needed and
appreciated. I was really out of my
element for much of the trip – which I think is a good thing for us spoiled Americans
from time to time. We don’t realize how
good we have it.
I would
definitely go back again someday.
Next time
It’s almost
time for the Shockers to be back on campus!
We have an exciting year ahead and now that my travels are over I’m
ready to get started!
Until then,
thanks for reading and Go Shocks!
