Why are there so many irritating old men in Asia?
09.02.2017
The moto driver picked me up right on time, and I got in the van destined for Sra'Em, finally. They dropped me off in another dusty town where I was shoved into a car and my bag was strapped to the roof without my permission. I yelled and got it back down, then we sat four in the back seat, three in the trunk, and four more in the front. The driver actually shared his seat with a tiny elderly man in a floppy camo hat. Crazy.
We must've arrived at lunch time because there were a bunch of young missionaries milling about, on their break from teaching the alphabet to orphans. I talked to a few of them in the cafe to see if they were going to the temple tomorrow. They actually were, but of course I couldn't just hop in their van with them, although that would've been awesome. They also didn't know what time they were leaving in the morning. I went and found a cheap guest house and arranged a moto driver at the more expensive hotel next door. What a relief. I hate negotiating with those jerks.
As I was doing that, I saw the two Italian women who I met in Battambang. They had bought a motorcycle and were headed to Laos. I invited them to dinner at 7 and took a little nap in my crappy room.
What they didn't tell me was they were also eating with an extremely irritating older Dutch man (imagine that... an old man traveling around Asia is irritating!) with an extremely terrible perm (????!!!). He constantly complained about everything, including the bamboo train (!!!), which I went on with the Italians. They also enjoyed it but wouldn't say anything to him, I don't know why. There was also a bizarre argument about Lonely Planet, which he says is always wrong, and I agreed with him, and he pitied me for using it for basic information. There were some more strange discussions about the farmers markets in Canada. He said they are a racket and they are stealing money from people who are trying to support farmers! Um! I lived in many rural areas and can tell you honestly that all that money goes to supporting small farms and the families that work on them! It's just that the grocery store tomatoes are grown on insanely huge farms so no one can beat their economies of scale.
But no, this is all lies, according to my new friend. He spent a few weeks in Canada once and he knows. I was irritated, to say the least, and said goodbye to this terrible human being, sad that he ruined what could've been a nice dinner with my Italian friends.
Sra Em roundabout
