laurie was here

Cambodia has the most worthless paper bills I’ve ever heard of.  

There are notes - actually used in circulation - that are worth 2.5 cents!  I remember reading about how, in the US, there’s a big push to replace dollar bills with coins to save money, so I was shocked to see paper money out here worth so little.  Cambodia is cheap, to be sure, but it’s not that cheap where you don’t feel dumb about carrying a wallet of these worthless bills.  A cheap street snack will still probably set you back about 25 cents, or ten of these things, which you only seem to collect one or three at a time at supermarkets.

Cambodia doesn’t use coins, and any transaction worth more than a few bucks is priced in US dollars, which the ATMs dispense (no idea where the Cambodian riel originates).  This dual currency is endlessly confusing, things are priced in either US dollars or riel, but either or a combination of both can be used anytime.  

The riel is worth about 4000 to one dollar, but the note denominations are 100, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, and 20000, so it’s rarely a clear conversion.  This is something that has baffled me since I’ve been here, although I’ve gotten better at not getting shortchanged or losing money when I try to give exact change.  However Cambodian riel is totally worthless outside of Cambodia - places won’t change it so you need to spend it in the country.  I leave Cambodia tomorrow morning and I still have 7100 riel left, so somehow before I leave I need to find something worth $1.775.  Cambodia has been a fantastic country in so many respects, but I will be really happy so be rid of this weird currency system.

On the other hand, it’s never been easier to make it rain.

Above: 5 bills of different denominations worth 32.5 cents.

Ever want to know what it feels like to have a beach all to yourself, but you only want to pay $3/night for it? Go to Cambodia.

My first morning in Kampot, Cambodia.

Today I finally bit the bullet and bought a ticket outta here.

I hadn’t got stuck in a place like this in a while, but I didn’t exactly fight it.  Otres beach is just such a beautiful, charming little spot on the globe - it’s hard to leave because you know it doesn’t get much better than this.

Instead of days the travelers here measure their time spent on Otres in weeks and months, and no one I met had originally planned on spending more than a few days here but then (and their stories all ended the same way): “Well, look around you…”

They had a point.  An excellent, indisputable point.  I could feel myself happily assimilating to the lifestyle.  Drinking ice cold beers at restaurants run by your mates during the day, frolicking in the waves just out front in between drinks, playing in the bars at night, finding ever-cheaper accommodation and jobs to fund this way of living. 

“How much would it cost to extend my visa?” I finally asked, even though I still had two weeks left on mine, and it was then I knew I needed to leave before I fully succumbed to the beach.

I imagine that this is what a village in Hawaii might have looked like at the dawn of popular tourism - enough amenities to make travelers comfortable but still emphatically local.  You can buy a hamburger (or poutine) in many of the restaurants, while dozens of cows and chickens wander freely on the single dirt road behind you and naked kids play all day in the surf.  The knowledge that it is only going to get more developed as time passes makes tearing yourself away that much harder.

But I didn’t begin this trip to find an amazing beach to live on, or to work on my tan (although both happened and I’m not protesting), and I want to keep moving.  So this morning I went to a travel agent and bought a bus ticket for tomorrow before my usual midday thought of “You know, one more day here would be pretty cool…” set in (it did anyways but this time it was too late).

I just looked it up and I’ll have been here for 11 days, which I definitely did not realize before this moment, having lost track of time measurements soon after I arrived.  11 days is kind of crazy.  I didn’t really do anything in that time.  Didn’t really write, didn’t really research, read a few books, applied for a job, but damn.  That is a lot of time spent in purely hedonistic pursuits.  I’m definitely not complaining.  But I don’t want to do that forever, so it’s time to move on.

That said…. OTRES BEACH, SIHANOUKVILLE, CAMBODIA, I LOVE YOU!!!!

I’ve been living on Otres beach, Cambodia for over a week now.  Each day the weather is supposed to be rainy and stormy, and each day it’s sunny, warm, and breezy.

The last 5 days I’ve woken up thinking, with at least some degree of certainty, that I was going to leave that day.  It’s been a week, and I’m still here.

This place is playing tricks with me.  I think I know what I’m going to do and then end up spending yet another day soaking up the sun with a coconut shake, swimming in the ocean, reading random books, eating delicious beach food, and listening to TED Talk podcasts.  Oh well… I suppose if you’re going to lose your conviction, there are worse ways to do so.