Traffic and travelling

The other day I sat on the back of a motorcycle for the first time. I knew I had to do it at some point, but I wasn`t prepared for it. Ingrid and I were with two nice Cambodians, and they asked if we wanted to join them at a café. Sure I said, but then they rolled out their bikes. I was unable to hide my nervousness, and they asked if I was sure I wanted to come. They all looked at me, and I felt like I was almost going to cry. That would probably have been a huge loss of face in Cambodian culture! Luckily, white people have no pride. (Except for the White Pride people, and we certainly don’t like them.)

I held on very tight to Alex, the guy who was driving. I tried not to cut of his oxygen supply completely though, that can’t be safe. When I sat there, I wondered if there really is a Buddha. Would my karma be good enough to survive Cambodian traffic? A monk passed us on the street, and it struck me that I really should get a monk driver. His karma must be super! But they’re not supposed to earn money, and my karma would probably get really bad if I corrupt monks with US dollars for my own safety concerns. So how could I get a monk to drive me around without paying him? Maybe pay him in English lessons? Give him a Norwegian cooking course? (I’d have to take one first, then.) Or I could make a monk my best friend! How do you befriend a monk? Possible ways must be:


Be a nice person. Check! I’m nice, at least when I’m not hot and dehydrated and sunburnt.


Shave my head. I can’t do that, I’ll look stupid or diseased or both.

Wear a lot of orange. No. I wore a lot of yellow when I was about twelve. I’ve seen photos, and I should stay away from this end of the colour scale.

Know a lot about Buddhism. I have read and loved “Siddartha” by Herman Hesse and “The Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac. This should count for something?

Jumribsu to you too, buddy! Let's hang out!

Well, this random girl on google images have made it. What does she have that I don't?

Freaky painting, "Cursed mountain monk". I'll stay away from the cursed ones.

Photos from site 1, 2 and 3.

I was nervous on the bike, but it went fine. Afterwards I wanted Ingrid to agree with me in the fact that Phnom Penh traffic is scary and unpredictable. She just sipped her Mai Tai and was annoyingly calm, but then what happened? On the street right in front of us, an elephant comes walking around the corner, between all the cars and motorcycles! A real, live one! I don’t know if my insurance covers sudden meetings with elephants in traffic. It was wearing a beer commercial, which is just wrong on several levels, but that didn’t make it any less absurd.

I got another e-mail from my mother, telling me that they have taken the vaccines they need to come and visit me in april. She also informed me that my stepfather and little sister are ”very worried about THE MOSQUITO ISSUE”  with capital letters. I guess these nerves run in the family? We’re not hypochondriacs, the world is just a scary place filled with germs! The crisis of the week is that I seemed to have developed an allergy against my mosquito repellant, I turn pink when I put it on. As if I wasn’t pink enough already. I will try to put on less, I might have overdone it.

I was at the bookstore the other day, and I picked up “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” by Robert Pirsig. Someone had mentioned it to me, and I thought it was an interesting title. Already on page 2, I started liking it very much. He talks about his son:

At age eleven you don’t get very impressed with red-winged blackbirds. You have to get older for that. For me this is all mixed with memories that he doesn’t have. Cold mornings long ago when the marsh grass had turned brown and cattails were waving in the northwest wind. … Or winters when the sloughs were frozen over and dead and I could walk across the ice and snow between the dead cattails and see nothing but grey skies and dead things and cold.

I went to Koh Rong this weekend, a beautiful Island by Sihanoukville. Here are some photos:

The view from my bungalow 

Treehouse bungalows on the beach 

Nice looking beach

The goose and the rooster kept hogging the hammocks, pretty rude. I find that you should always have low expectations to poultry, that way you wont be disappointed. 

Locals on Koh Rong

Pot smoking slobs on Koh Rong 

The view from Paradise Café