Journal 16 June - 24 June 2008

24 June 2008

23 June 2008 - Day 123, Home

Freezing airport wind wrapped us tightly in 8ºC as we stepped into the carpark with mum. Seeing my parents, cuddling Karl Marx and Elle - our two cocker spaniels, and cooking up some eggs with coffee is what "home again" is all about. Our backpacks hit the floor with the loudest thud yet, sighing with relief that pretty soon they'll be empty again. Adriane and I both felt disorientated after the 24 hour trip. We left Siem Reap at 6.30am on the 21st, spent nine hours waiting in Kuala Lumpur international before another eight hours to Sydney. I caught four hours shut-eye on the plane but Adriane was passing out in a hot bath having only napped one hour of the previous 24. She was tired and emotional. Coming home also confronted us with all the questions we left behind.

I don't mind the discomfort of flying, I actually enjoy the novelty of it. I've developed an appreciation of tiredness, provided I don't have any pressing obligations, giving in to mindnumbing helplessness. To need sleep can be a pleasant task to deal with. On the other hand I often find myself aggravated by processes of flying. Endlessly demonstrating that your the same person as the one pictured in the little book and increasingly being interrogated by suspicious Australian feds. Paying exorbitant prices for the worst food and service commercially possible. Lining up behind a hundred people for a uniform to stamp your little book before struggling to find your bag through the distraught faces swamping the baggage carousel like it was the last Rolling Stones concert only to butt the end of another hundred travellers revealing their dirty undies to unappreciated scientists relegated to Customs for employment. Anyway our trip home was painless and we even spoilt ourselves to duty free perfume.

One of the first things I noticed when strolling through KL airport was how plump everyone was. Round kids happily bounced by sucking Coke cans (reserved for special treats and romantic dates in Cambodia). I joined in the celebrations of abundant capital by ordering a Mega Mac at one of the four nearby golden arches. The Mega Mac has four meat paddies between three pieces of bread layered with cheese and sauce unique to the icon. An uncomfortable wave of guilt frequently washed over me in Cambodia when I tried explain to tuk-tuk drivers I would walk instead because I needed the exercise. News in Australia now tells me we are one of the fatest populations in the world. If Cambodians were to get hold of more cash would they also expand on the beef paddies and Coca Cola?

The last few days in Siem Reap were very rewarding and busy. I took hundreds of photos of dirt walls and later stitched them together in room 202. Up at six and home by three. The team digging at the site was always amusing and plenty of fun. The heavy labour was contracted to a dozen or so local farmers who were forever flattered by a photo, giggled and joked to one another, smoked copious amounts of tobacco, and worked very hard for their $3 a day. In addition to the labourers was a passionate and friendly Italian archeologist doing another Phd at Sydney uni, a warm and open translator named Borey, the leader Roland, and ofcourse Adriane and I. We learnt a great deal about archeology in the "real world", about Angkorian society in contrast to contemporary Siem Reap, and what it feels like to dig holes under the Cambodian sun. I think like photography, archeology exudes an often misleading romanticism emblematised by Indian Jones or Lara Croft. They didn't mention the self defeating task of cleaning dirt for hours. By the end of the week we had worked ourselves giddy, grown paranoid of Dengue fever, picked the wads of clay off our Birki's numerous times, but were enriched by our daily adventures and precious company. A party was held at the research centre on Saturday night. Although we only knew a handful of faces and had to leave early to pack our bags, the event was a scripted finale to our journey. It was easy to imagine the hundred or so red faces raising their cans of Angkor beer in our direction and singing to the humid stars "goodluck to you sir and madame" as we stumbled into our drunken tuk-tuk for the last time.

For me the greatest revelation of our trip was how much I dislike travelling or at least backpacking. But this needs clarification. The most cherished moments were always the result of undertaking some sort of "work" in the countries we visited and not an entry in the Lonely Planet. Jamming 70s rock tunes with fellow photographer Ton in old Phuket town or laughing away graphic designs at Freedom bar with Nat will be the Thailand I treasure. Similarly, bouncing across the dirt roads of Cambodia in the back of a pick-up with Adriane, Arianna, the tool box, and occasionally a few workers, will always be special. But more generally it must be about getting over the ticked boxes of experience every exotic location dutifully sells to keen sight-seers. The silly nights Adriane and I spent teasing one another over the ambience of B-grade cable movies will be held more dear to me than touring even the grandest of temples.

A further distinction needs to be made. The ceremonious treat of a holiday is also something different. A short fly in to soak up a distant culture and relax before heading home again seems more rewarding than making your task to "travel". After a few weeks on the move I noticed we no longer glued our faces to windows or spun our heads 360º walking down an unfamiliar road. Travelling for a long time seems to make everywhere unfairly mundane. To go on a holiday seems to pay greater respect to the host location than to mark it off as "i've been there" amid the rest of the world "on a shoe-string". Perhaps its because as a backpacker you constantly try to eat like the locals do, travel with them, pay the same amounts, yet they are destined never to fly, never to hold a little book illustrating their face and collect stamps from grumpy uniforms, unless ofcourse they become the luckiest victims of war - again. Maybe I haven't thought this through enough but it just feels like when we've worked alongside our host, or marvelled at a local waterfall as a happy snapping tourist appreciating every moment in a foreign land, we then gave back appropriate thanks for a unique experience corresponding to their unique identity. Places and populations don't deserve a criteria placed next to their faces. They should not be ordered as part of five courses. Perhaps there was a time when backpacking wasn't a theme park ride but I'm now disillusioned by the prospect of "seeing" the world.

So, what happens next for us? I'm not sure. Perhaps Adriane and I will scrounge together a worthy story to tell. Perhaps an exhibition - it could be titled 123 Days Away or Backpacking the Backyard. Either way I don't think I'll any longer be keeping up this journal on a daily basis. That said if I manage to discover the exoticism of Thirroul Bi-Lo then I will surely post more pictures.

Thanks to everyone that gleamed a word from the journal and I hope it offered inexpensive value. I especially want to thank my mother Sharon and father Geoff for without whom no experience of mine would ever have been possible or enjoyed.

22 June 2008 - Day 122, Siem Reap - Kuala Lumpur - Sydney

Notes: baggage carousel stupidity, cheap flights with no seating, Kuala Lumpur consumerism, plump happy kids, Macca's, overweight people, waiting for check-in counter

Today cost = breakfast (7) + bus transfer (0.50) + Mega Mac Meal (6) + tea (3) + noodles (7) + perfume (60) + snacks and water (5)

$88.50 - expensive

21 June 2008 - Day 121 (1 day), Siem Reap

Our tuk-tuk driver Rasmey asleep again

Signs of change - uniformed pizza delivery, Siem Reap

Range of emotions in room 202

Sunset from room 202 on our last day in Cambodia

Notes: cold not too bad, last minute morning shopping, work through photos, pack bag, party at RCRC, check out Angkoriana

Today cost = hotel (12.50) + Rasmey (3) + Chaopraya (5) + laundry (1) + Khmer kitchen pumpkin bake & pork morning glory with lemon juice (4) + tuk-tuk (4)

$29.50 - moderate

20 June 2008 - Day 120 (2 days), Siem Reap

Last day with the team

Note: fieldwork, big hot day, strata photos, chat with Borai on the way home - marriage, new year, tour guide, languages, sort images, catch a cold

Today cost = hotel (12.5) + lunch (3) + dinner at Blue Pumpkin & coffee (8) + tuk-tuk (1)

$24.50 - moderate

19 June 2008 - Day 119 (3 days), Siem Reap

Today cost = hotel (12.50) + tuk-tuk (1) + Mexican dinner (5) + water (1.50) + Advil (2.50)

$22.50 - moderate

18 June 2008 - Day 118 (4 days), Siem Reap

Notes: Try to find a printer in Siem Reap, sort photos of Angkor

Today cost = hotel (12.50) + Chao Praya breakfast (3) + lunch at White House (5) + tuk-tuks (1) + Tigre de Papier dinner (5)

$26.50 - moderate

17 June 2008 - Day 117 (5 days), Siem Reap

Roland revealing an Angkorian spillway

Three dollar a day labour

Hometime

Notes: Day in the field with Roland, one hour in the back of a bumpy 4x4, work with Italian archeologist living in Sydney - Arianna, Adriane accidentally cut Arianna's finger with machete, moto'd to hospital for cleaning and antibiotics, strata photographs, back to Siem Reap

Today cost = hotel (12.50) + lunch (2) + Kamasutra Indian (10) + espresso at Blue Pumpkin (1.50)

$26 - moderate

16 June 2008 - Day 116 (6 days), Siem Reap

Notes: Angkor Wat in the morning, bubs check-up at hospital - all clear, afternoon in Angkor Thom - pooring rain, Rasmey soaked, beautiful evening, onion soup for dinner, go to bed feelinfg strange, woke up at 11:30pm with stiff neck, anxious

Today cost = hotel (12.50) + mango shake & chocolate brioche (3.50) + chao praya lunch (3) + Rasmey (6) + laundry (1.5) + Soup Dragon (4) + tuk-tuks (1) + water, sunscreen & coke (4)

$35.50 - moderate

14 February - 6 March 2008 (Phuket)

7 March - 16 March 2008 (Phuket/Phi Phi Island)

17 March - 28 March 2008 (Phuket)

29 March - 7 April 2008 (Phuket/Bangkok/Chiang Mai/Pai)

8 April - 18 April 2008 (Chiang Mai/Bangkok)

19 April - 28 April 2008 (Siem Reap/Phnom Penh)

29 April - 5 May 2008 (Phnom Penh/Saigon)

6 May - 15 May 2008 (Hanoi/Ninh Binh/Sapa)

16 May - 27 May 2008 (Sapa/Hanoi/Ha Long Bay/Hué/Hoi An/Doc Let/Mui Ne)

28 May - 7 June 2008 (Saigon/Phnom Penh/Siem Reap)

8 June - 15 June 2008 (Siem Reap)

16 June - 24 June (Siem Reap/KL/Austinmer)