A TIME OUT IN CAMBODIA TO MAKE A BIG DECISION

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Saturday, March 14, 2015 (DAYS 1,104 - 1,114)
Waking up with a lot on my mind and feeling restless from two choices to decide upon that unfortunately has a time limit. First, I can continue to stay in Korea with stints of travel and keep my business operating, or secondly, I could put my business on hold and head to Alaska for the summer to try my hand as a commercial salmon fisherman. My decision needs to be made by the end of March, and I feel that my clients in Seoul are keeping me extremely busy, which is wonderful, however it makes it hard for me to take time to just think about this big decision in a sense. I know many of you may be shaking your heads saying, "really, that's your tough decision?" Well, yes, I suppose it's meager, but I wanted to feel good about the decision and my main concerns were being a complete novice or greenhorn and since our crew will be a total of four guys, including myself, I didn't want to let the other guys down. Knowing that this is something I needed to give some serious thought about and another break, even though I had just been to Japan less than a month before, I woke up a bit late at 11:30am on Saturday morning and made the decision to purchase a flight to Cambodia that would depart today! Let me first say, that after living in Asia for more than a year with extensive travel, I've never had a more difficult time in purchasing flights online. First, many companies ONLY use Internet Explorer AND you are unable to use an Apple or Mac to complete the purchase. What an absolutely HORRIBLE business model. I can only imagine how many customers are lost because of this MASSIVE FLAW! This situation has occurred with Asiana, Air China, China Eastern, and a few others. So if you are traveling Asia, first of all, American Express is not accepted for online, you need a Visa or MasterCard and you will need to dedicate maybe an entire day to get a simple ticket booked! It took me nearly two hours to get the ticket to FINALLY process through the stupid Internet Explorer (IE) and the ridiculous 'Open Easy Pay' that I was required to download in order to complete the purchase. I was milliseconds away from purchasing with ANY other airline, until it finally went through! Fiasco and a half! 

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Since this is my third trip to Cambodia, people ask why Cambodia? Well it's a simple formula for me: 
1) Visa on Arrival (unlike Vietnam) makes this a growing international tourist destination. 
2) It's the closest capital to a beach in South East Asia, that I would want to visit in my opinion.
3) While the official currency is the Cambodian Riel, the U.S. Dollar is accepted everywhere including prices are listed in USD therefore I don't need to change currencies multiple times and thereby losing more in fees. 
4) The ADC (average daily costs) are very inexpensive.
5) I can walk around Sihanoukville instead of relying on paid transportation.
6) English is spoken more here than in Korea and I have several good Cambodian friends that I keep in touch with. 
7) The warm weather! 
Therefore, while Bangkok and maybe a few other areas may be slightly cheaper for flights, I look at the overall costs when making a decision to relax, and in this case do some thinking about my future, especially the sadness in both the great friends in Korea and the wonderful clients I work with daily! 

While there is the array of colorful umbrellas and a strip of restaurants lining the boardwalk of the beach, it's still wonderful to just wander around the beach aimlessly—taking in the sights and sounds—without the need nor desire to talk and socialize with other travelers on this trip. 

I wanted to give a shout out to two very nice, honest, and trustworthy taxi drivers that service pretty much anywhere you would want to go in Cambodia. The first is Mr. Bun Sat, who has become a really nice friend. He told me about his son, his wife, the church he attends that ironically has a Korean preacher, and his English is pretty good. The second taxi driver (card on the right) I only used once, but he was also very kind and what I like about both is that they have email addresses, since phone numbers are hard to deal with upon arrival unless you pay for a phone. I know this tends to go away from my budget travel sense in some ways by not using local buses, but when flights from Korea don't arrive in Phnom Penh until after 11pm regardless of the airline, I can either try and sleep at the airport, pay for a tuk tuk to a guest house or hostel in PP, then would still need to take a tuk tuk or taxi to the bus terminal in the morning because the first bus to Sihanoukville departs at 7am and can take anywhere between 4-6 hours or more, while the advantage of the taxi is at a higher cost, when I stop and calculate the differences, I feel that because the country is cheaper and I'm running my own business—even remotely in Cambodia—I felt that the cost was really a difference of about $10-$15 and by departing from the airport in PP after midnight there is fewer traffic for the 221km (137 mile) journey, and I've actually made the drive from the airport to Sihanoukville in as short as just over 2-hours, which normally takes about 3.5-hours.

I think staring out at the open sea, helped make the decision for me to try out a new experience, and place my business in Korea on hold. This was such a tough decision, because of several factors, but mainly I would be leaving behind some wonderful clients that have invited me into their homes and lives and I will be sad to be absent from them, however, I knew that this journey was not meant for me to stay stagnant, but to explore and take in new experiences. It's funny how my life in Colorado seems so different from how I've become over the past three years. The things that concerned me, aren't issues. I've learned to care less about what people think of me, and have gained confidence in ways that I'm curious to see how friends from the States will recognize this light—this fire—that continues to grow within me. Yes, there are times that is dwindles just like everyone, so don't think that just because I'm living a very free-flowing vagabond lifestyle that I don't go through the same feelings of doubt, fear, anxiety, questioning whether or not I should go back to the States and end this adventure...to me, it's life. Life is full of choices and often those choices come with great sacrifices. PERIOD. 

As usual, I was able to negotiate a 10-day stay at a guest house for $10 a night, which at this time was high season and the rooms were $15. Normally I might opt for a dorm for $1-$3, but in this case I felt that I needed isolation to think things over, plus I still continued to keep my business operating a bit and the Wi-Fi Diagnostic screen shot is from my Mac to demonstrate the large spikes that often occur in developing countries, and when these occur I'm often knocked offline, and the same can go for power surge spikes, therefore ALWAYS use a power converter with a surge protector otherwise you may say goodbye to your new iPhone or Laptop when trying to charge it! Be smart yo!

Returning to Seoul on a red-eye flight, we departed Phnom Penh at 11:50pm and arrived in Seoul at 6:46am (that's exactly when wheels touched down) because I wanted to time myself to get off the flight, through the airport and immigration/customs, and take the 50-minute train ride to Hongdae. I made amazing time and arrived back at the guest house at exactly 8:10am with the final decision that, yes, I am going to begin preparations for spending the summer in Alaska and try my hand as a commercial salmon fisherman!