Random Observations

• They are very few American tourists here. The large majority are European or other Asians.
• Every time I go into an internet cafe, ALL the tourists are on facebook. It's amazing.
  
• In Cambodia, they use dollars and you can only get dollars out of the ATM machines. However, they don't have small change, so they give you small change in their currency, riel.
• The elections in Cambodia are next week and there are large campaign trucks that blast down the streets, but apparently it's already clear what party is going to win and the other parties are taking bets on how badly they're going to lose.
  
• Here, but especially in Vietnam, there is construction going on EVERYWHERE. Like in Brazil, they use wooden sticks for scaffolding.
  
• Men relax in the streets by squatting on the sidewalks. Their knees are bent, their butts barely off the ground, and their arms hang at their sides.
  
• I bought this really cool original piece of art in Vietnam by a modern artist, and I left it in a bus. I'm very sad about it.
  
• Children flock everywhere around tourists thrusting their goods upon you and chanting, "You buy from me. Where you from. One. Two. Three. Maybe means no. You buy for your friend. Remember me." It would be annoying if they weren't so desperately needy.
  
• While I really like it here, I don't feel the same connection I do with South America.
• Partly that has do with the fact that the language IS SO HARD! The sound combinations and tones are really hard for me to get out.
  
• It's HOT!!