steveszat

I don’t recommend Cambodia for the novice traveler to South East Asia unless it is as part of an organized tour. I prefer to avoid tours because I feel they do not offer an opportunity to truly experience the local culture.

I visited my cousin, who has lived there for a few years. I was rather dissapointed when he took me mostly to what were called the ex-pat clubs and restaurants, where Westerners hang out. Even though he lives with a beautiful Cambodian girl (see photo) he speaks very little Khmer. Though I was relieved to taste some almost authentic Western food after staying in Thailand, I had hoped to get a taste, literally, of Cambodian culture and food. Cambodia is a rather backward country. Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, had only two stoplights, which had recently been installed for the sake of an Asian summit meeting held there.

The people are relatively primitive as evidenced by a phenomenon, when a popular female TV star in Thailand was rumored to have made some disparaging remarks about Cambodian people. The rumors turned out to be unfounded, but the Cambodians stormed the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh wreaking havoc.

Corruption among police and public officials is is apparently rampant in Cambodia, so much so that my cousin’s girlfriend cautioned me against stopping for a policeman if he tried to wave me down. In her limited English, she warned me that they would only try to shake me down.

Suffice it to say that Cambodia is not the safest place on the planet.

i did not make it to Angkor Wat, because I was only there for a few days, and my cousin told me it would take three solid days to fully appreciate it.

Cambodia, has its own particular charm. A good portion of my time there was spent sucking back with my cousin on his front porch watching the geckos crawling across the ceiling, so I can’t say I have experienced Cambodia to its fullest, but I enjoyed my time there. To fully appreciate it, you must be willing to live on the edge.

I lived in Wyoming for a couple years. Aside from Yellowstone National Park, I do not recommend a visit here. It’s neighbor, Montana, is called big sky country, because, much like Wyoming, there is nothing at all of any interest to obscure your view of the sky, nothing but miles and miles of endless sand and sage brush. The people are uncouth and vulgar, the men mostly wannabe cowboys driving gigantic pickup trucks raised to the hilt to accomodate the massive, oversized, knotted tires. They wear cowboy hats even though most of them wouldn’t know which end of a horse to feed.

I must say, though, that I had the absolute best prime rib I have ever had at a simple diner in Sheridan for an extremely reasonable price. Being cattle country, there is, of course, an ample supply of fresh, grade A+ beef. Being cattle country, at least when I was there, the penalty for running over a cow was worse than the penalty for running down a human pedestrian.

I was born and raised in Wisconsin. I was eager to get out of there that I moved to Chicago shortly after my 18th birthday, but I still long to return there now and then.

Wisconsin is full of small town, rustic charm. I lived for a long time in Green Lake, population around 1000. I now live in California. One of my co-workers once happened to visit that small town and was infinitely amused when upon ordering wine at what is considered to be one of the finest restaurants in town, she was asked, “White or red?” I was just as amused when hanging out with some Wisconsin friends of my mom in Las Vegas and they remarked on the ingenuity of the restaurant to leave the top half of the straw wrapper on when they served the drinks – a practice I had seen for many years.

The further North you go, the more rustic it gets. Freeways are rare up there. Mostly only two lane roads traverse the farmland and forests for miles and miles. You may find the speed limit suddenly slowing from 55 mph to 25 for a town so small, that me and my family used to joke, “If you blink you’ll miss it.”

If you are seeking fine dining and culture, this is not the place to find it, but don’t pass by the local restaurants with quaint names like Ma’s Diner for a national chain like Denny’s. Some of these restaurants and even some bars have some great home style cooking. A tradition in Wisconsin, among many other Midwestern states is the Friday fish fry. I still salivate when I recall the family tradition of going to Walker’s Bar on Friday night for all the beer battered fish and fries you can eat.

Being largely “flatland” as my well-traveled uncle calls it, Wisconsin lacks the majestic mountains and scenic canyons of many other states, but it is not all farmland as many people seem to think. In fact, Wisconsin is mostly forested, and in the autumn the foliage of the trees is extraordinary.

There are any number of small lakes scattered across the state and Wisconsin is bordered by two of the great lakes, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

Wisconsin is a great place to go if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily living.