The Floating Villages of Tonle Sap

Chong Khneas

While they’re a far cry from Angkor Wat, the floating villages of Tonle Sap are certainly a nice change of scenery for anyone visiting Siem Reap. When the temple overload sets in, they are good for breaking the monotony (of one of the awesomest sights this world has to see). The villages can be enjoyable, but you really do have to be extra attentive for the many scams abounding here. We went twice: once to Chong Khneas, and then once to Mechrey to wash that bad taste out of our mouths. My hope is that through our experiences, you’ll get it right the first time and enjoy yourselves.

Taken for a ride in Chong Khneas

Here’s the narrative. While getting our toes chomped on by fish at one of the many $1 massage joints in town, we met another couple in town also looking to head down to the lake. We decided to team up in efforts to cut down on costs by sharing a tuk-tuk and boat. Asking at our guest house, we were told that a boat should cost $14 no matter how many people ride with a $3 per person tax. It all sounded so simple, but things didn’t go quite as planned.

We met up with the other couple in the morning and were taken for a ride by their driver, both literally and figuratively. He told us the rate was $10, which sounded cheap compared to the $15 that a ride to the temples normally costs. What I should have realized is that while bargaining a price down is good, if the price sounds too cheap to begin with, it probably won’t wind up being cheap for you at all. This is true anywhere, not just in Cambodia.

So we set out for the 30-minute ride down to the lake, and the driver pulls into Chong Khneas. I had already heard the rumors about this place being a tourist trap chock full of scams. I wearily went to the ticket counter to confirm my suspicions. Sure enough, they were asking $15 per person, not by the boat. I tried telling the tuk-tuk driver we wanted to go to the next town down, Kompong Phluk, but he just snickered, saying it was 30 km away. Being a willing participant in this little game, he wasn’t very helpful; this is where he makes up for his cheap fare, after all. We were already there and wanted to make the most of things, so we got them down to $12 and pressed on.

The town itself felt a little off as well—later, I was told by several locals that Chong Khneas has been overrun by Vietnamese immigrants. Cambodians don’t seem to have a very high image of Vietnamese, and I guess historically that’s understandable enough. I should have guessed by the Viet script on the side of the school. For now though, all you need to know is that the people in the town are pushy and cold.

On the way out, our driver asked if we wanted to stop by the aforementioned school. I had already heard this one too, so we decided against it. Apparently, the deal is that they take you to the school and have the teachers beg you for donations to pay for “school supplies” at way inflated prices. (Read an example experience here.) Who knows how much of that finds its way to the kids, but I’m guessing not much, if any. No thanks.

So back to port we go, feeling a bit underwhelmed. Back on land, I stumbled upon a few houses across the street that made for some of the best pictures I got that day. We took our photos and got back in the tuk-tuk to ride back into town. Being around lunchtime, the couple offered to show us a cafe they had found on Trip Advisor, so we tagged along to see how it was. We weren’t hungry yet, but made a mental note of the place as it did look good. And thus begins the second part of the story.

Chong Kneas pic o' the day (taken from dry land)

A more pleasant Tonle Sap experience

The La Bourlangarie Cafe owner, Davann

The La Bourlangarie Cafe is run by one Davann, a former French language tour guide of some 6 years. Davann serves up some tasty bread—tasty enough, in fact, to supply a goodly number of other shops in town with their baguettes. They have a great panini and also offer order-made sandwiches with your choice of bread, dressing and toppings.

When we came back to the cafe the next day, we had a little talk with Davann after our meal. He seemed like one of the nicest Cambodians we had come in contact with to this point and genuinely interested in us having a good time in his town. My kind of guy! I decided to ask him where he would suggest going on our last day in town—we were planning on just renting some bicycles and riding around. He suggested the lake, and we told him our experiences.

His words of advice on the villages were as follows:

1. Don’t go to Chong Khneas. Just don’t. Komplong Phluk or Mechrey are more genuine and avoid all the scams. 
2. The tuk-tuk should cost around $15 to any of the villages. If a driver tells you $10, he’s getting commission from the boat people to make up the difference (and then some).
3. Do your negotiations in town. The driver should be the one negotiating the boat ticket price for you, so don't let him just drop you off and leave you to the wolves. Once you get in the tuk-tuk, there’s no turning back and you’re stuck with what you get!

The next day, we decided to take Davann’s route—it took us for quite the ride. He promised us that we’d see few if any foreigners all day, and he was right. It was a little longer that we expected, but certainly enjoyable.

Lounging at the West Baray

First, we rode about 20 km west of town to the West Baray. Here, there’s a little resort thing going on in a village, set up with a bunch of hammocks in an extended hut alongside a lake. You just sit there on the ground or in your hammock as kids bring around dishes for you to pick stuff from. Like the rest of the day, it was one of those situations where no one spoke much English, but you got the impression that they were good hosts that genuinely wanted to help. We got some fruit and a drink, and I had a cricket just for shits and giggles. This place was designed for relaxing; it looks like the kind of place local Cambodians come on a day off just to laze about.

After our lunch, we decided we still had enough in the tanks to set out south for Mechrey. Mechrey is a little village on Tonle Sap that can only be accessed by dirt roads. This place is out there—the road doesn’t even show up on Google Maps, so GPS wasn’t much help. It’s basically a straight shot south from the Baray though, and Davann wrote directions and even a simple “Which way to Mechrey” in Khmer for us to show people if we got lost.

The road to Mechrey itself was a beautiful jaunt through the Cambodian countryside. Gone were the pushy salesmen of the city and temples—all that remained was lush green all around and a bunch of smiles at the two foreigners who were obviously lost to be trodding so far from Siem Reap on bicycle. This was definitely one of those days where the journey there was half the adventure.

A good hour or so down the dirt road, we finally arrived. We hadn’t actually planned on riding the boat again after Chong Khneas, but this was actually what we had expected the first time around so we acquiesced. Sure enough, $3 per person, plus $14 for the boat. I just so happened to only have $16 in my pocket—they let it slide, and we were off.

I don’t know how much of it was because of the lack of Vietnamese influence, but this place definitely felt much different than Chong Khneas. The people were friendlier, and some actually seemed genuinely excited to see us there. We didn’t feel like we were being targeted or even pressured at all. There were no scams in sight, just village people going about their daily lives. On water.

This was certainly a much more enjoyable experience, both on the lake and getting there, but it certainly wasn't easy. Round trip, I calculated that we rode for about 50 km! It took us about an hour to get to the Baray and another hour from there to Mechrey. The return trip was another 2 hours. You might enjoy the trip more on a tuk-tuk, but then you wouldn't get to take it slow on the ride through the village.

So the moral of the story is, if you’re in Siem Reap and want to see a floating village, do so at Mechrey, or even better, Kompong Phluk. If your driver won’t take you to either one, he’s either scamming you or just lazy. Don’t get taken for a ride, and be sure to decide everything before you step foot onto a tuk-tuk.

Oh, and do make La Bourlangerie Cafe one of your first stops in town! I sincerely wish we would have met Davann much earlier in our trip as he seems to be full of good will and good ideas.

For more pictures of the floating villages, check out my Flickr page in a couple days (UPDATE: Mechrey pictures and Chong Khneas pictures up!). While you’re there, also have a look at some pictures of Angkor Wat and Cambodian food.

India: the great equalizer

Last evening on the way back to the hotel, we decided to stop in a rooftop restaurant to gaze on the market here in Pahar Ganj and just take it all in. I noticed for the first time that there were people up on the rooftops of all the buildings we passed by on a daily basis; one of them looked as if he was pulling on a rope that wasn’t there. My eyes shifted downward as a stray cow meandered out from a side street. It stopped right in the middle of Main Bazar St. and took a ginormous dump as tuk-tuks and rickshaws deftly maneuvered around their new obstacle. Smirking, I glanced back to the skies to see that our rooftop friend was actually pulling on the strings of a kite, along with half a dozen other Delhi denizens. Perhaps it’s the one joy he has in his busy day trying to do as little work as possible. My eyes shoot back down to the fresh pile of cow dung left by the cow, now halfway through the market across the street, watching dozens of pedestrians sidestep and hop around. Eventually, a store owner walks up and drops an egg carton on top of it—out of sight, out of mind, I guess. We talk about the differences between Cambodia and India, then wax philosophical on how the caste system is to blame for the perpetual state of abject poverty that so many Indians are subjected to with no prospect for upward mobility. We sip on shakes and juice from our lofty thrones, untouched by the world below. After four days here, I think we’re finally starting to settle in.

I’ve been plenty of places, but India has a certain reputation for being the great equalizer of travel. It’s like this place is a test of traveling acumen—if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. I suddenly feel like all the tools we brought and preparations we made were all for this very moment and place. We were introduced to all this early on, only a few short hours in town.

Streets of New Delhi

A rude introduction

We rode the bus from the airport into town around noon with no hiccups, all ready to carpe the diem and find us a hotel in Pahar Ganj. We missed our stop at New Delhi station by a few blocks, but found our way back. The bus drops you on the metro side of New Delhi station, which as anyone who’s been there would know is the opposite side from Pahar Ganj, and crossing to the other side of the massive station isn’t exactly intuitive to new arrivals.

Just when I thought we were getting close, I stop to look at the map on my iPhone; this is where it all started unraveling. For whatever reason, the GPS locator wouldn’t tell us where we were on the map, and I wasn’t exactly sure where we were. Poor preparation. A local comes up and offers directions—Pahar Ganj is just south of here, but maybe we should stop in a tourist shop to pick up a free map. He’ll talk to a tuk-tuk driver to get us there cheap, he says. Red flags and whistles should’ve all been going off in my head, but we were tired, and a map sounded like a good idea at the time.

We arrive at the tourist office for our map, and the guy there offers to check on some hotels for us. Not knowing how to get to where we were originally headed, we figure what the hell. The review for the place he was selling was in Hostel Hero, and the review wasn't half bad. We decide that in our situation, staying anywhere the first night was fine, as long as they had wi-fi and we could head off looking for better accommodations the following night.

He then gave us his spiel on a 2-week tour that’d show us “the real India,” but we declined and he gave us a free taxi ride to the hotel. His tour actually wasn’t all that bad in terms of locations, but there’s no way we could afford a private taxi around Rajasthan—the consensus cultural center of (northern) India—for two weeks on a backpacker’s budget. I’m sure it was overpriced, just like his hotel. The hotel was clean, but a little more than we wanted to pay and far from the center of town.

After dropping off our packs, we go downstairs to check in and talk to the owner. He offered to drop us around Connaught Place in the center of town so we could find some food as there wasn’t anything around the hotel, and he says everywhere is closed for the holiday. While we did know it was a holiday, this should’ve been another red flag.

Lo and behold, he takes us to ANOTHER tourist shop! We told the guy there that we just wanted to go find some food, and 5 minutes later we were out on the street. The hotel owner offers to get a taxi for us to Khan Market for 300 rupees—a laughably high price, especially considering there was a metro station in sight and the taxi didn't appear to be laced in gold or serving Cristal. He then proceeds to insult our intelligence by saying we wouldn’t want to ride the trains because they’re too crowded and transferring is too complicated. Anyone who’s ever been on the last train out of Shibuya on a Friday night or even seen a map of the Tokyo train system(s) will know how flippant his assertion was. At this point, that really rubbed me the wrong way.

We shirk him off once and for all and take the train to Khan Market in search of food and wi-fi so we can get back on track. This was not as simple as it sounds as wi-fi is certainly not as ubiquitous here as one would expect from the country that provides online support for seemingly every company in the US. After an overpriced meal that wasn’t that good and a couple hours lost, we regroup and find a suitable place in Pahar Ganj for the next night, then head back to the hotel feeling good about finally starting to reign things in and get our bearings.

New Delhi streets after heavy rain

The next morning, we awake to torrential downpour. Normally this would be a nuisance, but in Delhi it’s a game changer. En route to the metro station, the road had turned into a raging moat of turbid, trashy filth. No cars were getting past, and we certainly weren’t wading through it. We hop up on the curb and wind up paying a rickshaw 20 rupees to ford about 100 meters across the makeshift river to the station.

We got to the our destination safely, but were not yet enjoying ourselves. Our meals the day before were unsatisfying, and this town was the dirtiest place I had ever laid eyes on. We couldn’t trust anyone, because anyone that approached us had some ulterior motive.

Fast forward to 4 days later. We’ve now learned the basic scams and even just picked up our train tickets for the month from the station with no issues. (Surprisingly simple, by the way.) We’ve had a few mediocre meals but also a few spectacular ones, and we just spent an enjoyable afternoon roaming around Jama Masjid and the Chandni Chowk area. We even managed to find nice people that weren’t selling anything, and the streets are much better now that things have dried out and people have had time to sweep up. More importantly though, kites are flying, cows are shitting in the streets and all is right with the world. Another beautiful day on the road.

Tonight, we head off on our first overnight train to the deserts of Jaisalmur and a chance to see how well we’ve learned our lessons. Stay tuned.

Angkor Wat pictures uploaded

Pre Rup at sunset

Hello all, we've just touched down in New Delhi and had quite the adventurous little day, which I'll be sure to fill you in on a little later. Before making any other posts though, I wanted to catch up on uploading all our pictures. I've started with those from Angkor Wat, but as the files are pretty big, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow when I get over to an internet cafe for some real throughput. (hostel connections don't cut it for the heavy lifting!)

I've also uploaded a bunch of food pictures from our meals in Cambodia—I have a feeling this will become an ongoing theme.

To see what's up already, just click on the Flickr button on the right side of the blog to go to my Flickr photostream. Keep an eye here over the next few days, there's sure to be more coming!

The Cambodia Express: Bangkok to Siem Reap

Yesterday, we endured the first harrowing ordeal of our young journey. Having completed our business in Bangkok, we set off for our first new (to us) destination: Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat. Many online sources make this trip seem all kinds of scary, but for us it was relatively straightforward and cheap, albeit crowded. That last part was partially our fault though as we did the trip on a Saturday morning on a Thai holiday.

The abbreviated sequence of events went like this:

• Train from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet
• Tuk-tuk from Aranyaprathet to Poipet (Cambodia border)
• Get visa and walk across border
• Bus from Poipet to Siem Reap

The whole trip cost us about $35/person, most of which was spent on the Cambodian side for the visa and bus. Here's a little more info on each step.

1. Bangkok to Aranyaprathet. First off, the Thai side of things is cheap and simple with two options: bus or train. The train is a shocking 48 Baht per person (roughly $1.50/120 yen), leaving Hua Lamphong Station at 5:55 am and arriving just before noon or leaving 1:05 pm and arriving around 5:30 pm. The morning train is the only way to do the trip in one day, however.

On the train to Cambodia

It's a scenic ride and the seats are comfortable enough... as long as you don't decide to go on the Queen's Birthday or some other Thai holiday. Not only did we not check the calendar, we also got to the station with only 5 minutes to spare, inevitably standing for half the trip in a train—easily as crowded as Tokyo trains, by the way—until a kind soul was nice enough to give up his seat to Akemi. We stood for the first half of the ride in crowded quarters and sat for the last half.

The other option is a bus, which will reportedly set you back about 150-200 Baht. I'm sure the seats are more comfortable than the train, and a friend tells us the view was good as well. Personally, however, I'd try the train at least once for the experience.

2. Aranyaprathet to Thai-Cambodia border. You're pretty much stuck taking a tuk-tuk the 6 km it takes to get from the train station to the border. Online I read to expect 60-100 Baht for the ride, but we had no problems grabbing a third person and getting the driver to do 50 Baht, split three ways.

Cambodian border

3. Border crossing process. Here's where you have to be careful—DO NOT listen to anyone trying to sell you a visa before leaving Thailand. If you didn't get an e-visa online beforehand, they do visas on the Cambodia side after Thai immigration stamps your passport. The tuk-tuk took us to a certain point, but we had to walk another 500 meters or so to the border ourselves. It was pretty crowded for us (again, it was a holiday), so took over an hour total.

For the visa, they charge $20 plus 100 Baht (not sure why they do it that way), and you'll need a passport photo. While this was time consuming due to the crowds, no one used to touts in Thailand should find it that treacherous to avoid the border scammers.

Newly sealed Cambodian highway

4. Bus to Siem Reap. This is one area that has vastly improved in recent years from what I've read. What used to be quite a bumpy ride is now a fully paved road that will take an uneventful three hours by bus. There's a free shuttle bus from the border to the terminal where you can choose a bus for $9 (or 350 Baht I think), minibus for $10 or taxi for $12 (with four passengers). We took the bus, but it waited a good hour until there were enough passengers to fill it. If I had to do it again, I think I might splurge and pay an extra $1 for the minibus.

That's it! Siem Reap is more than just Angkor Wat; it's a great little town with excellent food and bustling night life, and things are dirt cheap. A backpacker's paradise! We've only been here one full day, but are loving it thus far. Did I mention that the food is amazing?? I'll leave you with a picture of our $5 lunch for two today. The sauces here are fantastic.

Trip preparations: Immunizations

Thailand and India are two of the world's biggest destinations in terms of medical tourism. Both countries are rather well developed in terms of medical facilities (often comparable to Western countries) and have doctors fairly competent in English without being too expensive. Especially if you're coming from an expensive area like the US or sometimes even Europe or Japan, these countries offer a viable alternative for routine procedures and even some more complicated procedures.

As I alluded to in our last episode, our destination for the last couple days has been the snake farm at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute in central Bangkok just north of Lumphini Park. As you may have guessed though, the snake farm wasn't what we were after—it was more about the immunizations.

Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute

Immunizations are an important step in preparation for any long trip, but the shots can get pricey, especially in Japan. Japan only seems to offer vaccinations for diseases which occur locally, meaning most vaccines for things like typhoid and yellow fever have to be imported. After checking others' experiences, it appears that the shots we wanted to take would be about 70,000 yen in Japan; we got the same done in Thailand for just 5,205 Baht (roughly 13,000 yen), less than 20% of the Japanese cost. Here's the price comparison breakdown:

Exchange rate: 1 JPY = 2.484 THB

	Japan (JPY)	Thailand (THB)	Thailand (JPY)
Hepatitis A	8,400	1,400	3,478
Yellow fever	7,700	900	2,236
Typhoid	11,550	305	758
Pertussis/tetanus/ polio/ diphtheria	6,400	700	1,739
meningitis/ Meningococcal	14,000	1,200	2,981
Measles, mumps, rhubella	13,650	250	621
Japanese encephalitis	7350	450	1,118
Totals	69,050	5,205	12,930

First three of our shots

Now some vaccines are supposed to be administered in 2-3 shots spaced a few weeks or months apart for full effect, which is why most doctors will recommend you start getting shots a month or two before leaving. Given the price differences, however, we tried researching how long the first shot would carry us. The hepatitis A vaccine recommends a booster 6-12 months after the first shot, so it should last about the length of our trip. The only other shot we got that requires a second jab is Japanese encephalitis, and honestly you can probably skip that one. After the fact, we looked this up online and found that it is really only a high risk disease if you plan to be in rural areas of SE Asia, which we do not.

That leads to the question: how do you decide which immunizations to get? In addition to the above, doctors will often mention hepatitis B and rabies shots. As a married couple, we're not to concerned about hepatitis B. As for rabies, and getting the vaccination doesn't prevent you from going to the hospital if you get bit; it only gives you more time to get there before things get ugly. In general, CDC and WHO are great resources for researching immunizations and other health issues.

Akemi wearing her mini badges
of honor like a boss

If you decide to do like we did and get your shots on the road, I'd recommend taking it easy for a day or two. Both of our arms are as sore as a virgin on prom night, and we sacked out for a few hours after getting back from the clinic today. I'm thinking tomorrow will be a good day to take it easy and catch up on a bit of work that's trickled in.

Also note that the clinic will only let you get four shots in one visit. We wound up breaking our shots up over two days. Honestly, given how I feel right now, I don't know if I'd want to take seven jabs at once. Ouch!

Lastly, either show up early or just wait until 1 pm. We got to have lunch there just to wait for them to open back up.

Snake farm behind the vaccination center

So where does the snake farm part come in? There's a snake farm out back that you can check out for 200 Baht a head. We didn't bother, but a bunch of people seem to find it pretty interesting. I guess we're just cheap. ;)



Now malaria is a totally different subject, but I'll leave that one for another time.

One night in Bangkok

Well things got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but we are now settled into our hostel in Bangkok and ready for action.

In the morning, we got to the airport with no problems, but then got stuck waiting in line to check in for our flight; of course we weren't checking any baggage, but the kiosks were down and we missed the 2-hour cutoff for online check-in. I'll take that as a useful learning experience.

Then once we got checked in, the rains came. The deluge gave us a good hour in the plane on the runway to watch a movie and also wound up extending the flight itself a bit as the pilot dodged a typhoon.

Now in Bangkok, it was dark by the time we finally took the 30-minute train into town. I think back now to the first time I visited Thailand and split a taxi with a few guys and cannot begin to express what an improvement the train is; I can't imagine why anyone would put themselves through the taxi rigmarole now. Seriously, as long as it's not past midnight, just go down to the basement and take the train—it's faster and cheaper.

For our destination within Bangkok, we went with a friend's recommendation and settled on the centrally-located Silom district. It's right in the middle of things, has good access to public transportation (5 mins. walk from the station to our hostel), and is walkable to the river, Lumphini park and even Patpong if you're feeling frisky.

I looked up a few hostel options before we left with a handy iPhone app I found, and we set out for one upon arrival. It paid off for us not to make reservations; any place that has an opening for that night would rather give the room to you at a discount rate than let it go unused, which was good for a no-haggle discount. Our private hostel room is clean, spacious and comes with WiFi and AC. Sounds like a perfect place for me to get some work done tomorrow!

Now that we've finally flown over and gotten settled, this is finally starting to feel like a trip—the adventure starts here! Tomorrow, we get to visit a snake farm.

Enjoying cold libations at the hostel after a long day

Takeoff!

I write this from a business hotel in Narita, awaiting our flight to Thailand in the morning. After doing one last run through all our stuff to complete a proper packing list, the fam ran us over to the shinkansen station to see us off.

I'm sure they have the same concerns any parent would have for their kids in such a situation, but I know they're excited for us as well--a trip around the world is a dream of her dad's that we get to live out for him.

Our bags are packed and we've said our goodbyes. Next stop: Bangkok!

Trip preparations: travel insurance

Insurance may not exactly be the most exciting subject in the world, but with a big trip like this it becomes a major consideration. We thought long and hard about things, and after going through all our options decided to go with World Nomads for our travel insurance. This seemed to give better bang for the buck than Japanese alternatives with higher payouts, and we even found a promo code for 7% off—just enter VOYGNR at the checkout. Total cost to us: $2,604.14, or $1,302.07 per person.

Our policy covers things like the standard medical costs for emergency treatment on the road and repatriation if it looks like you need more serious care as well as travel-related risks, like trip cancellations, missed flights or lost/stolen passports. It also covers stolen goods in general, but from what I've heard I won't expect too much in that regard. For a full list of what's covered and what's not, check out their site.

I actually read through the entire 50-something page insurance policy on the World Nomads website, and even called to confirm some things. The majority of those complaining about insurance issues didn't seem to know much about what was going on with their policy in general. Don't expect to get much if you haven't even read what they require to process a claim.

Here are a few tips from my reading:

• Read your policy. Did I mention that already? Because seriously, you should go do that now. Know what your policy does and doesn't cover, as well as what it's limitations are. Many policies will exclude coverage in expensive countries like the US, so be sure it covers everywhere you want to go.
• Don't leave yourself open. In big bold letters near the very beginning, the policy I read stated that they won't insure you against theft that you could've prevented by not being stupid. Don't leave your bag unattended or with someone you don't know, keep it within reach, always lock it up, and when you do set it down, either keep the bag wrapped around your leg or even lock it to yourself with a small chain or zip tie. Don't be like Billy Bonehead and walk around with a backpack pocket wide open (like I always do) or stick anything you don't want stolen in your back pockets. Common sense: use it.
• Pack light. Not only will this make your life easier in general, but it also makes things safer. With a smaller bag, you don't have to check bags on a flight or put it above the bus, so it's always right with you. Also, when you take a taxi, it can ride with you instead of being stuck in the trunk where it can be either forgotten or held ransom as the driver's last ditch effort to squeeze a few more pesos or rupees out of you.
• Follow the rules. Unless you abide by the law, insurance won't pay. If, for instance, you rent a scooter somewhere without the legal right to ride said scooter, don't expect them to pay for anything that happens to you, even if it is the other guy's fault. 
• If something happens, call first. If anything happens that you think will require a claim and you aren't passed out or something, just about every clause mentions to call them and notify them of a possible claim. If they don't approve of something, it gives them another chance to refuse your claim.
• Keep papers in order. If you do wind up making a claim, make sure to keep all your receipts from purchases and get all your paperwork in order. It's pretty simple to get a signed receipt from a doctor, but can be harder in some places to get say a lazy police officer in a third-world country to write you a police report for something stolen out of your bag that he knows you'll never see again. In some cases, I've heard it might even require a bribe to loosen his pen for you. Also, if something happens in a hostel or hotel, you need to report it to staff there.
• Don't expect full value. The impression I get from looking around is that while policies will normally protect you in the most dire of cases, most any insurance company will also do whatever they can to limit how much they pay out in the end. This goes doubly true for stolen goods; see the second note above.

Got any tips of your own about insurance, or any horror stories to show us what not to do? Lay 'em on us.

Last weekend in Tokyo

Going away party at Rojo in Koenji

There really is no excuse for leaving a city like Tokyo without a bang, and I’ve never been one for making excuses. We had a great weekend with many friends—we saw Batman followed by a well overdue karaoke session on Friday, had our official farewell party at our favorite local Mexican restaurant with a great turnout complete with obnoxious belligerence (and it wasn’t even me this time!), and had drinks with a couple friends at an awesome yakitori place just outside my old apartment on Sunday.

All I can say after six years in Japan is that I really do have some interesting friends, and I hope the feeling is mutual. I got a ton of great advice as well from some of my more well-traveled friends. For instance, two people told us to watch ourselves in Salvador if we decide to go there for Carnival (a distinct possibility), and another mentioned that Phnom Penh is not a place to be out and about after dark. We have also added the wrestling cholitas of Bolivia to our "must see" list.

My last kampai in Tokyo for a while

This just highlights to me that more than guidebooks, you really do need to just ask people that have been there before, or even better some locals once you get there. Research beforehand is definitely an important step not to be skipped, but there really is no replacement for personal experience. That, and I look forward to wandering off and finding my own little gems along the way, even if it means getting lost. Seeing the big sites is great, but sometimes the biggest highlights of the trip are those places or things that you find yourself—it really makes it feel like your own personal trip and not some preconceived, cookie-cutter tour. I guess you could call it making a trip into an adventure.

Well, here is where the adventure really starts to pick up: we’ve sold or tossed probably around three-fourths of our worldly possessions, left our apartment behind and are heading up to Miyagi for a week. Miyagi is Akemi’s home and my unofficial home away from home, so we both have a bunch of people we want to meet before setting off.

Urge to travel: rising!