Who am I? (Cambodia)

Who am I?

After reflection upon my price-obsessed state of mind, I felt I needed to do a little clarification.

After 5 months out of the US and 3 months in SE Asia, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I hope to gain from traveling and what motivates me to keep traveling. It is easy to sort of coast through Thailand, Cambodia, etc. and just stay in the tourist bubble. I have only met a few people who want to ask questions and dig deeper.

I think my main motivator is curiosity. I want to know how things work in other countries. What kind of transportation they have, what kind of food they eat, what kind of beliefs the people have, what kind of customs still exist, etc. As my partner puts it, I am after the fly on the wall experience. I want to be able to experience life as the locals do. I don't feel like I deserve special treatment because of my skin color or nationality. I love pristine desolate beaches as much as the next beach girl but I don't think that the Thais or the Vietnamese should cater that to me because I am a westerner. By the same token, I don't feel like I should be taken advantage of because of my skin tone or nationality. If I want to sign up for a $500 per night resort, then I will do that and pay $500. But if I sign up for a meal on the street, I want to pay approximately what locals pay. Not 2 or 3 times the price that the people beside me pay for the same meal.

I enjoy checking out some tourist attractions ( Angkor Wat, etc.) but the more I travel, the more rewarding I find local markets and the less rewarding I find the tourist attractions. Markets tend to be the places where I seek refuge after being ripped off or being part of the tourism zoo. Jumping on a bike and getting out of the town or city a little ways also helps too. If I had to sum it up, my mission statement would be: to learn, to understand, and to grow. All of this of course being done with as little impact as possible on the Earth and on the cultures I visit. I don't tip or hand out candy to kids. I don't buy bottled water. I don't hand out money to beggars but will share my fruit with them if they will accept it (many won't.) Ok, soapbox mode is off.


What is my blog about?

Originally it was more geared towards sharing personal growth while chronicling my travels. At this point, I feel like it should include some trip report content in addition to isolated stories and feelings. After looking at other peoples blogs, I have realized that things are really different in this part of the world and I have normalized a lot of it which makes it hard to explain myself to those people who have not traveled here. So I am switching over to documenting some of those differences to provide more context.