Back in the ROK

Well, after a long and hard search for a new position in Seoul, we finally found one. Alphabet Street School in Bangbae, Seoul. We arrived November 4th, and were placed in a temporary apartment for about 10 days. Although it was November, we quickly realized that mosquitoes stuck around in Korea much longer than any other place on earth. Countless nights, I was woke to the bone chilling buzzing of the little bastards hovering in my ear. I think I killed hundreds of them, but I couldn't exterminate them. Thankfully, we moved to our new apartment, and although we still hear the occasional mosquito buzzing around, it isn't nearly as bad as the temp place.

During the first month or so that we were here, nothing overly eventful happened. Our school has been great, and it would be difficult for me to find something to complain about at it. Hopefully this continues to be the case for the remainder of our stay.

December has been much more interesting. Korea has a very low crime rate, and I don't think I've ever felt threatened here. That being said, one Friday, after playing cards with our friends, Keith and Genny, a Korean was threatened by me. Not because of my gigantic 5'9 frame, or my scale tilting weight, but because I was carrying a weapon when I got into a taxi. It's true, I've been running with some Korean gangs since I got here, so I always carry a weapon. Keith had been holding onto some of our things we left behind before we went back to Canada, and before we left, I packed a few things into my backpack. One of them happened to be a frying pan. An item rarely used as a weapon, except by housewives on rare occasions in movies. They usually either hit a burglar or accidentally hit their husbands, thinking he is a burglar. Never once, in the history of movies has a taxi driver been attacked by a frying pan. Unless, it's typical scenario in Korean cinema.

Once we got into the taxi, the driver's eyes immediately focused on the frying pan.

"Why?" he asks

"Why what?" I reply.

"Why pan?" At this point, I realize that he thinks there's a good possibility that I'm planning to smash him with the frying pan. Possibly in the hopes of saving myself about $5. Being as smooth as I am, I'm forced to tell a small story with my limited Korean to calm his worries.

"Chinggu (friend) present," by no means was this a nice frying pan, nor was it was new, but that simple story calmed his fears and we made it home safely.

The following night, Kristin and I attended a GOAL Christmas benefit. It's an organization for Korean adoptees. We were invited by Richard and his girlfriend Stephanie. For $40, you get all you can eat and drink (beer and wine) for two hours, plus you support a good organization. However, to attend the benefit, you had to bring a $5 secret Santa gift. I never realized how hard it is to find something decent for $5, and decided I would just get a gift certificate from Starbucks. I waited until the last minute, and just before we got into a taxi to go to the benefit I got my gift. Problem was, Starbucks doesn't sell $5 gift cards. Only $10. With no other option, and fear that I might miss the start of food and drinks, I bought it. Spending double my limit! This night was beginning to get a bit expensive.

Once we arrived at the beautiful Novotel, I notice a lovely new Mercedes parked at the front doors. Its looking like a pretty decent spot. Kristin and I bought six raffle tickets each and headed into the restaurant where everything was being held. Following some food, drinks, and a limbo contest (which I feel I did considerably well in for an awkward guy), it was time for the prize drawing to begin. There were tons of different prizes to win, including a few Ipods, and tons of gift certificates. Kristin, not wanting to be in the spotlight, asked me to go on stage and accept a gift if she were to win. Using her psychic powers, she decides to tell me that she'll win with ticket 647. Sure enough, about 5 prizes in, 647 is called and I rush up to the stage yelling "WINNER" to accept the prize. No idea why I shouted "WINNER". This wasn't Bingo, and letting everyone know you were the winner wasn't required, but boy oh boy did it ever feel good. What was I the "WINNER" of..... a $50 gift certificate from Outback Steakhouse. Pimp.

A short while later, one of my numbers was called. Again, in the same manner as before, I yell winner, rush up to the stage and accept another gift certificate to a Korean seafood buffet restaurant.

Oddly enough, the restaurant is called "Viking Maison". I have no clue why a restaurant self proclaimed to be a Korean seafood buffet, would use the term Viking, and then Maison in its name. I don't believe the Vikings were Korean, and I'm pretty certain that they didn't call their homes "maison," like the French. Back to my story though....

After accepting my award, I notice a few boos from the crowd. The first time I was booed for really doing nothing wrong. After sitting back down with Kristin, she decides if we were to win again, it would be a better idea for her to accept any prize. I agreed. I hear the number 657 called out. I just won with 658, could I actually have won with back to back numbers. Ohhhh yeah!!! I had no idea what prize they called, and thinking it could possibly be something really exciting I hop up and once again yell "WINNER". I go to the stage, forgetting all about my deal with Kristin and I accept a Mercedes Benz box. Confused over what the hell could be in the box, and also distracted by the 300 or so people that are booing me, I smile and bow to the crowd. I've never been booed this much before, and it honestly felt pretty good. I couldn't help my smile and enjoy it. Could I have won that sweet car by the front door? Nope, after opening the box I realize I have only won 2 Mercedes Benz coffee mugs.

Since I've had a few glasses of wine by this point, I decide that this is an awesome gift for my parents for Christmas. Obviously, they would be thrilled to have matching coffee mugs. When I woke the next morning, I quickly realized that giving my folks these mugs as a Christmas gift would be utterly retarded. First, my parents don't drive a Mercedes, and they've never owned one. Second, I'm certain that in their cupboard, there dozens of mugs, and that many of them match. Last, if I gave them the mugs, I wouldn't be able to drink coffee out of them every morning.

One week in the Perhentian Islands

Our next stop, recommended to us by a friend, was the Perhentian Islands. There are two islands, about 30 minutes by speed boat from the mainland. There were many beaches to stay at on both islands, but we chose to stay on the small island (Kecil), on long beach. It was the largest beach and offered the most accommodations at backpacker prices.

Upon arrival, we decided to check out a couple of accommodations that we had researched beforehand, but didn't book in advance because I had thought there wasn't any need. After checking three different places, we realized that it would have been a good idea to book ahead since nothing was available. Considering we were carrying our huge backpacks up and down the beach now for about an hour or so, Kristin wasn't in the best of moods anymore (mainly because I'm an idiot) and we decided to settle on a place called the Symphony Village. Bad idea. We put our bags in our room and left for supper. After a nice supper on the beach, we were both in a better mood, until we got back to the room. Upon closer inspection, we noticed rat shit everywhere. Overall, the room was pretty gross and creepy. I decided I could handle staying there for one night. Despite my assurances that we'd be alright for the night, Kristin had a bit of a meltdown involving tears and we decided to search elsewhere for a room. After a few tries at different places, we got a room at the Mohsin Chalets. It wasn't anything special, but it was far better than the room we were in at the Symphony Village. We checked out, hoping to get some of our money back since we'd only been in it for a couple hours, but it was of no use. No big deal though, it was only about $20.

That night, we went down to the beach where a small bar was set up renting Hookah's and selling beer. It was really chilled out, and we came here almost every night during the week. The had a ton of different flavors of Hookah, and unlike the bars in Seoul, the wouldn't take it away from you after about an hour or so. Instead, they'd give you a refill. Once again, beer wasn't as cheap as I had hoped, but since it was a remote island, I wasn't complaining.

The bar setup

Beers and a Hookah

The following morning we were on the lookout for a new room closer to the beach and we lucked in. We found an amazing room at the Panorama Chalets. We got a spotless A-frame room, which we stayed in for the remainder of the week. Despite it being far better than any of the room we had stayed in up to this point, it was only about $25 a night. On top of that, the small resort had by far the best restaurant on the beach, and great prices as well. It which showed movies on a big screen every night during supper. Nothing fancy, but considering the island didn't have any power and required the resorts to use generators (usually only from 7pm to 7am), this was a pimp spot to be.

Our home for a week

The remainder of our stay was perfect. The beach, was possibly the best I've been on. The sand was white and the water was crystal clear. On top of that, there was hardly anyone on the beach despite that it was suppose to be the busiest beach among the two islands. During the day we mainly just laid on the beach and read.

A couple days into our stay, we decided we'd like to try scuba diving. Our resort had a dive shop ran by a great British couple. Before we did any reading or studying, our instructor had us out in the water practicing some skills and going on our first dive. It was a pretty unique experience, and one that I don't think you can be entirely prepared for. The whole act of breathing underwater is pretty odd, but awesome as well. The second half of the course wasn't quite as exciting though, because we had to do a bunch of reading and watch a couple hours worth of videos. This wasn't exactly what you'd want to do on a beautiful day on a tropical island, but what can ya do. We went out for a second dive the following day, and it was incredible how many fish we seen. I've been snorkeling countless times, and it doesn't compare to scuba diving. We were able to see a sea turtle, some spotted stingrays, puffer fish and a ton of other fish that I can't name. Kristin and I were both blown away by the how great the experience was. We had to write a small test and we're now PADI Scuba Divers. We were hoping to complete the next step in the PADI certification process and become open water divers, but we never did, so hopefully we can do that on our next vacation, wherever that may be.

The island, despite being isolated, had some really good food. Whether it's a traditional Malay breakfast, I'm not certain, but nearly everyday I had banana porridge. It doesn't sound that exciting, but it was amazing. I still think about it and wish I could have it in the mornings. The few mornings that I didn't have it, I had banana pancakes which were equally as great. Perhaps I have a crush on banana's. We didn't really eat lunch all that often because it was so hot we didn't have much of an appetite. You would think that in the heat we'd drink beer or something along those lines, but instead we heffed it up and had milkshakes. Mars bar milkshakes and they were as good as they sound. The remainder of our meals were either barbecued on the beach or a curry or a mixture of the two.

Spot where we had lunch/milkshakes

Of all the places I've been, I've never been more satisfied or had such a willingness to go back as I do with the Perhentian's. The atmosphere was extremely laid back and exactly what we were looking for. We spent nearly a quarter of our vacation here, and we now wish we would have stayed longer.

Journey to Malaysia Part 2 (Taman Negara)

Our next stop was in Taman Negara. The oldest rain forest in the world. In order to get there, we had to take a bus for about 3 hours and then a small wooden boat for another 2 hours. The boat ride was great. I kept my eyes open hoping to see some animals, but I never saw a thing.

When we finally arrived, it had to be about 35 degrees and 100% humidity. I don't typically sweat too much, but in this jungle the sweat was pouring off of me. We booked a room in advance at a small guesthouse, but upon seeing it, we decided to keep looking around at other guesthouses. After about 20 minutes of looking we said the hell with it and stayed at the next one we looked at because the heat was too much to handle while carrying our big backpacks. The area was incredible to see, as many guesthouses were set up in the jungle, and all along the river there were small floating restaurants.

Floating restaurants

The rooms at our guesthouse were decent, but we ran into a few problems. The first room's screen doors would not lock so we moved to another room. The new room appeared to be perfect at first, but once it got dark out, we realized that the light in our room didn't work for more than 5 minutes at a time.

The first night, we decided we should go on a night safari. After getting all dressed up and coated in bug spray, we were ready to go. However, we forgot our park passes, which were required for any trips. I went back to the room to get them, searched for 5 minutes in light, then the light went out. I tried again for another bit in the dark, no surprise, I couldn't find the passes. Kristin came strolling in and found them in an instant. After all of 10 minutes looking for these passes, I was soaked in sweat. On top of that, we ended up being late and never got to go on the night safari. At this point, I told the front desk about our crappy light and they managed to fix it.

The following day, we went on a jungle trek and canopy walk. The canopy walk was pretty fun, as you were up over a 100 feet from the forest floor. We ended up in a group with about 15 other people so it felt rather touristy; something we were hoping to escape by visiting the jungle. The jungle trek, although very informative about the plant and animals of the rain forest, was slow because we were part of the large group. One highlight of the trek though, was our guides story about how he had seen two tigers a couple years back. He had taken two men on a 5 night trek through the jungle. During this, you hike all day, make camp in the evening and sleep in the jungle every night. Probably pretty cool, but also probably pretty scary at night. Anyways, he encountered two tigers ahead of him, and said he nearly shit his pants but had to remain calm to keep the two men he had with him calm. The tigers continue to follow the three men everywhere. An overweight woman in our group asked if anyone had ever been eaten by a tiger in the area, and apparently it had happened a few times. If you think the tour guide was going to continue with his story at this point, your wrong. Instead, he pointed out that if the tiger were to attack our group, he would eat this woman because she was the biggest meal. Everyone in the group was caught off guard by this comment and just stood in awe. The guide wasn't finished with his insults yet. To top it off, he pointed out that if the tiger ate her, it would be such a big meal that he wouldn't have to eat again for a week! I didn't know how to react, because you don't generally see people insult others so bluntly. I'm not even sure how the tiger story ended, but I'm certain that our guide never got eaten.

Kristin on the canopy walk

The jungle trek

Looking fly

That evening, we went on the night safari. I didn't have high hopes, because the 4x4 that we took went off the park and into a palm plantation. Our guide told Kristin and I that we wouldn't be seeing any elephants or tigers, so I figured this safari was going to be pretty lame. I was wrong though. We ended up seeing a leopard cat, a crazy tree frog, wild boars and even a flying squirrel. We thought at first the flying squirrel was a monkey, because you could only see its eyes. Then, all of sudden the animal jumped from a tree about 200 feet high and flew through the air about 300ft into another tree. Pretty impressive, especially since I thought it was a monkey at first, and he was offing himself.

Feeling that we had seen enough of the jungle, we decided to head out the following day to Pulau Perhentian. Getting there proved to be possibly the worst drive I've been on in my life. Nearly the entire drive was up and down small hills, with a road that was more windy that any back road I've been on in Canada. The drive wasn't really that scenic either, as most of the country's rainforest's have been converted into palm plantations. Kristin and I were both nearly sick, but took some Gravol and made it.

Journey to Malaysia

Well, its nearly August, and I'm about to write about what happened back in April. I have no excuses for not writing sooner. I haven't been working, or really doing anything. However, I started working yesterday, and sure enough, I have decided to write about our month long trip to Malaysia.

Things didn't start out so well for us. Before we could leave, we had to hand in our apartment keys to the on-duty security officer. Due to the ever present language barrier, this didn't happen quickly. As a result, we missed the first bus to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, we didn't have much time to spare. We got to the counter, only to find out that we needed to hand in our expired Alien Registration Cards, and get a stamp in our passports for it. Kristin and I run to immigration, get hassled about how we should have done this two days before (when the cards expired). Luckily, they just give us a warning and we're able to check in and get on the flight. We are going back to Korea in September, and I'm wondering if we were to do the same thing again, what would happen. Not that I plan on it, but she said it was a warning, so what's the next thing?

While on the flight, we notice a bit of a commotion happening about ten rows ahead of us. I couldn't see exactly what was happening, but some of the flight attendants were continually going to the bathroom holding bloody towels. After a little while, they request the assistance of any medical professionals on the PA. Kristin and I are both pretty curious about what the hell is going on, and she decides to investigate. Turns out, a young Korean boy had a bloody nose. Not a typical medical emergency, but this turned out to be quite the bleeder. After a short while, they get things under control and the crisis is averted. The boy nearly had a second episode when his mother caught him picking his nose. Lucky, there was no blood this time.

Our flight took us from Seoul to Kuala Lumpur. The city is known to have a wonderful variety of food and we certainly got our fill of it while we were there. Our first night, we had Chinese food, and sweat our balls off because of the incredible heat and humidity in the city. Although the food was cheap, the beer was not. It was comparable to Western countries, which seems atrocious compared to most others in Southeast Asia. The high price is due to the country being mainly Muslim. However, it was like heaven whenever you had a cold one, since it so delightful to drink in the incredible heat. Plus, it was Tiger beer, which is now a personal favorite.

The following day, we were keen on having some of the Indian cuisine in "Little India". We found a curry house just down the road from our guesthouse. It was a simple establishment, you got your plate of rice, and then chose the curry that you wanted to top it with. It seemed you could pile as much of it on as you wanted. This presented us with our first big cultural difference. Kristin and I ate our curry with a spoon and fork, while the Indian's ate theirs with their hand, but only their right hand. The left is reserved for other matter's which don't go well with eating. All in all, it was a great meal, and I think it only cost us a couple dollars.

We didn't really have much of a plan of things to do in Kuala Lumpur (KL as the locals call it), so we just got a tourist map and decided to walk around the city. Our first stop was a huge mosque, and we were lucky enough to see it during prayer time. Since it was prayer time, thousands of worshipers piled into the mosque, and around it to do what they had to do. The architecture of many of the mosques is quite remarkable.

We continued our trek around the city and ended up at the National Mosque. Oddly enough, we arrived there at prayer time. Quite a coincidence really. We got stuck in a downpour and had to seek shelter in some sort of religious building for about an hour or so. Following this, we visited a Bird Park and a Butterfly Park. Not really sure why we visited the bird park, Kristin doesn't really like birds, and I'm sure I could have lived the remainder of my life quite well without going, but we did. We just bought a new camera before the trip, so this proved to be a good opportunity to test it out. After all the walking, we decided it was time to head back to our hotel in Chinatown and get some supper.

Later on that evening, we visited the Chinese Market. It was filled with knockoff everything. There was watches, purses, luggage, movies, clothes and even shoes. I ended up getting a Rolex. The guy tried to make me pay nearly $200 for it, but I managed to get it down to about $15 and felt somewhat proud. I've never been good at bargaining because I'm just to lazy to be bothered with it. It's sad though, that some people are actually willing to pay such high prices for fake merchandise. Afterwards, we walked downtown to check out the Petronas Towers and test out our new Tripod. It was given to us when we bought the camera, and actually proved to be pretty useful for the trip. The towers were a marvel to see, and were actually one of the highlights of our trip.

C'est finis

I have just finished my final class.  Off on vacation for a month and back to Nova Scotia on May 12th.

See ya suckers later.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

After getting off the bus, we grabbed a tuk tuk to the hotel we had booked.  It was night time, and at first, we were disappointed by the location of the hotel.  We had no clue where the beach was in relation to our hotel, and as a result we were not thrilled.  However, after dropping off our bags and doing some wandering, we were able to find the beach, which was only about 200m from our place.  We were pleased with the hotel overall.  We had a large villa, a pool and breakfast for only about $20/night.  It's amazing how much you can get for so little. 

I couldn't believe it when we seen the beach.  Nearly the entire beach had tables and chairs set up for supper.  We hadn't eaten in about 5 hours so we found a nice place to eat.  All the chairs at the restaurant were those big cushion lounge chairs.  I've never been anywhere before that had so many of them.  The beach must have had a few hundred.  I honestly can't remember exactly what we had that night, but I'm sure that it probably cost no more than $5 including a drink each.  Sweet deal, but not the best around.

We decided to have a few more drinks, so we stopped at small shack/bar.  Two of the bartenders were Canadians, and they were only 19 and 20 years old.  They were backpacking across Southeast Asia and stopped in Sihanoukville and were offered a room, food, drinks and some money in exchange for working at the bar.  Pretty sweet deal.  An even better deal though was the 25 cent draft beer they had.  Kristin and I talked to the workers for a couple hours and our bill ended up being about $3.  Some of the restaurants had fire shows at night which was pretty cool, but also scary because many of the performers looked about 12 years old and were in need of practice.

We didn't do a whole lot in Sihanoukville besides laze around on the beach, eat and drink.  During the day time, all the restaurants set up padded beach chairs all along the beach.  Provided you bought something from their restaurant, you could use their chairs all day long.   At night time, the beach chairs were changed for the dinner service.  The best deal on the beach was the BBQ.  For $3, you got fries, salad, garlic bread and a choice of chicken, beef, shrimp, squid, prawns or swordfish.  Couldn't go wrong with that price.

Cambodia is extremely poor and as a result you see a lot of children selling things on the beach, as well as beggars.  We were able to get along with most of the children selling things, because they were easy going and always made a few jokes (despite English not being their first language) but some of the beggars were annoying.  It's one thing to sell something in exchange for money, but to just wander the beach and bother people by asking for money is something else.  The kids sold things like books, bracelet's, fresh fruit and scarves.  All for dirt cheap too.  We bought some bracelet's, not because I wanted them (I never seem to wear them except on vacation) but more just to give the kids some money. We also bought fresh fruit, which a 12 year old girl chopped up in her hands for us.  We got hooked on mango's, and searched for them every day after this.

  

After buying three bracelet's from the two in the video, I was approached the next day by another kid.  I told him I didn't want anymore bracelet's, because I had already bought a bunch.  Showing some wonderful business skills, the boy made me an offer I could hardly refuse.  We play tic-tac-toe.  If I win, I get the bracelet for free, if he wins, then I have to buy one bracelet.  In our best of three series, he won the first game with ease, and then we tied the second.  In the next one, I got first go, and on my second go the boy told me that if I didn't put my X in a specific spot, I would lose.  Feeling that he's messing with me, I ignore his advice and quickly lose.  Now I've got three bracelet's that I'll probably never wear again.  

The weather was perfect the entire time.  It was probably about 35 every day and sunny, and believe it or not, I never got sunburned.  This was my first vacation that I never got sunburned.  It may have something to do with wearing SPF 45 the whole time, but my skin didn't turn red.  It also didn't turn brown or any other shade than white.  I have accepted the fact that my skin isn't meant to tan, only burn or stay white.  It's a sad reality but one I have come to accept.

Vietnam Finale

Our last stop in Vietnam was a small town called Chau Doc.  Our main purpose was to catch a boat that would bring us up the Mekong River, through customs and into Cambodia.  It was suppose to be a pretty straight forward method of crossing the border.  Since I'm easily conned into things, this was a good choice.  We had heard that customs officials at some of the border crossings will make you pay a "fee", which shouldn't be needed, to cross the border.

There's really nothing in the town.  Most of the locals make their living from fishing in the Mekong River which runs through the middle of it.  After some research, we found a small hotel that conveniently was where the boat departed from.  We booked the hotel for one night.  After our bumpy ride in the minivan to get there, we arrived at the bus station.  A scrawny man strolled up and offered to take us to our hotel.  I only mention he's scrawny because as he brings us over to his "ride" we realize its a bicycle rickshaw.  The poor guy had to bike about a kilometer or more carrying Kristin and I, plus all our baggage.  After he drops us off, I think he says the price is 50 dong.  After I give him the money, he nearly craps his pants.  His eyes light up in excitement.  After a little thinking, I realize that the price was probably only about 15 dong, but I couldn't understand him because of his accent.  Oh well, he earned the money.  Following my sweet tip, I'm met by a bunch of local entrepreneurs standing in front of my hotel trying to sell trips for the border crossing.  I tell them no.  I previously mentioned that I had done my research and found out that it was possible to book the boat at the hotel desk. In my opinion, it seemed a lot more legit  to book through them than some random guy standing in front of the hotel.

This hotel was certainly nothing to write home about (I realize I am writing about it now, whatever), but you couldn't beat the $9/night rooms.  They certainly weren't much, as we could hear the people in the next room speaking clearly, which also meant that we could hear every time they got up to use the bathroom.  I can't complain though, because that's obviously what you get for that price.  Besides the rooms though, I loved the place.  They had a little restaurant that was set up on a floating wharf in front of hotel.  From there, you could watch all the locals going about their daily lives on the river.   I feel this was probably the most authentic experience of the trip, because this was definitely not a tourist area and I could learn so much about them just by people watching.

Following a 530 wake up call, I was up and about.  I didn't request a wake up call, but received one from all the local fisherman who get their boats ready to go at that time.  At first I was pissed, because I'm not so great at getting up that early, but I was able to go watch them and their families as they prepared for their daily work and I felt much better.  

The boat left at 8am, and before we got it, we had to pay for our stay at the hotel.  Since the hotel booked the boat, I had to pay for that as well at this time.  Hovering over me like a hawk was a local man, who said I could pay him for the Cambodian Visa process.  Initially I thought I would need this, and considered it, but then realized he was definitely trying to scam me.  I just paid $30 for the boat trip, which included this Visa process, and now a man wants to charge me an extra $30 for the same thing.  I read through his bullshit and proceeded to the boat.  It's clear that my bullshit goggles are on now.

The boat ride was amazing.  We were able to see villages along the river, as well as fisherman and their families out working.  It was apparent that everyone in this area relied heavily on this river for their livelihood.  We sat beside a young cambodia woman who had the cutest kid I've ever seen.  During the entire 4 hour trip I don't think the kid cried once. The Visa process was hassle free, and no one even attempted to scam me. Perhaps the word SUCKER was no longer written across my forehead.  

After about 4 hours on the boat we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia.  Our goal 

was to get to a coastal town known as Sihanoukville by the end of the day.  We just got to a bus station in time to catch the last bus of the day.  Unfortunately, the seats we were given were located beside the toilet, which happened to stink, and behind quite possibly the stinkiest person on our planet.  I don't believe he had washed in weeks, and not because he was poor either.  He was playing a PSP the entire 4 hour bus ride.  He had enough money to buy that, but not enough to get a shower or consider throwing on some deodorant.  Some of the other people on the bus actually thought his smell was coming from the bathroom at first. After awhile they realized that although both smells were awful, they were completely different.  Once we arrived in Sihanoukville, I was so relieved to get off the bus and away from that guy.  His stench was so awful that I was frightened at the thought of ever running into him again during this trip.  I never took a picture of him because you can't see stink in a picture.