Volume 3
Issue # 2

February 1, 2003

"Adventures in Southeast Asia"

A few days ago, I received a couple of emails from Lidi Giroux, Tupper Secondary alumnus, reporting on how her multi-month trip to Southeast Asia is going. Between visiting Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, she's uh.... having a ball of a time. Below you will find two accounts of what it's like to travel around in these places. Enjoy!

*NOTE: These stories have not been edited in any way for grammar, spelling, appropriateness, language, etc. Here is verbatim, uncensored, uncut what Lidi had to tell me. Also, all pictures depicted here are not from Lidi's trip specifically, rather they were found on Google.*

it was supposed to be a routine train ride, from surat thani, a coastal town in southern thailand, to bangkok. 11 hours, 2nd class sleeper car, overnight. are things ever that easy for me?

What then proceeded to show me to the same entrance at which i boarded the train, a fully exposed, wet, cold, and very noisy doorway, connecting two cars. nevermind the fact i could see the wheels turning below my ass thought the thin metal caging that made up the floor. all i cared about was the fact i could put my bag down. i got as comfortable as humanly possible, cuddling with my camera case and a damp sarong, and set out to get the first sleep i would have had in 2 days (another long and most likely inappropriate story). that is, i may have slept if it wasnt for loud drunk thai men tripping over me several times an hour in chang induced stupor. (*chang: very strong and very cheap local beer. rumored to contain arsenic). this rediculousness went on until sunrise, when hat came to me with the realization that a mother-daughter duo had fallen asleep on one bed, while reserving two. the bed was mine! i slept like the dead for 3 hours on this precious berth, waking up to the pleasant sound of two thai women fighting. (as in, the least pleasant sound ever). partially refreshed (as in, not at all), i sat out the remaining 2 hours of my trip, which turned into 4.5 hours (bless that thai punctuality), before the train spit me out into the shithole of the earth (as in, bangkok).

i hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into my life. my honest hope is that it brightened, if only for a moment.

Bangkok

ok, now this was the worst 15 hours of my life
by lidi

i must share the story of the most horrifying journey ever to take place.

it began in siem riep, cambodia. we had already had a long and tiring few days here, exploring angkor wat and eating horrible expensive food. needless to say, we were sick of cambodia, but were embarking on a 12 hour bus ride to the nations capital, phnom penh, from where we were going to leave cambodia.

we all pile into a hot, dirty, and crowded minibus (an hour late, of course), and set off on what is supposed to be a 12 hour ride. about 5 minutes out of the city we pull over in a cloud of smoke, and all frantically jump out of the bus. the engine is on fire. the 12 of us huddle under a straw shelter and discuss our misfortune. its only 8 am! too early for disaster. about an hour went by, and we had figured that they were sending a new bus. nope. it was then when they decided to fix the bus instead (using a screwdriver and some branches form a nearby tree). another long and hot 3 hours later, and we were off, a little fearful for our lives.

it was then that we noticed a foul smelling brown liquid leaking form the roof at the rear of the bus. all of our bags were beginning to get wet, so we moved them into the aisle. for the next 11 hours, the brown goo started leaking from all of the aircon vents, dripping onto the seats, and leaving our bags in puddles of mud on the floor. surely nothing else could possibly go wrong?