Somewhere 30,000 ft over Burma.

Stepping onto this plane felt like stepping into oblivion with a smile on my face, fully looking forward to plummeting to who knows where and God knows what.

The first time I went abroad on my own to an unknown country was Peru where I was too naïve to hold any expectations of the country or worry too much about being alone, a white, perceivably relatively wealthy, female in a developing country with no idea of the cultural norms or way of getting things done. In fact, I’m ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t even know until a month before I went that Spanish, a language I now love and frequently find myself expressing myself in, was the main tongue there. Naivety is maybe a little too kind; ignorance would be more accurate.

So, following that, my expectations of Ecuador were based on my previous Andean adventures and I was much more aware of the quandaries facing volunteers in Latin America. Later, my Nicaraguan expectations were based on tropical Amazonian experiences (although Ecuador proved a better cultural comparison) but at least I had a vague idea of what to expect and I had a good grasp of the language by then.

Now, on my way to Cambodia, I have nothing. I don’t know where I’ll be living - Kompong Speu may as well be none existent for all the information about it available on the internet and in guide books. My work is uncertain besides the title of ‘Ecotourism and Income Generation Advisor’. Neither do I have any idea about the culture – all my good intentions of learning about Buddhism went down the glass washer when I started doing 49 hour weeks at the Angel. Most worrying for me, I’m completely lost with the language. It might not be as bad if I at least had a dictionary or some way of translating but there’s nothing reliable available for those who don’t read Khmer script.

So, off I step into the utter unknown. ‘Oblivion’ is hyperbolic but where this journey will end or for how long I’ll fall before it starts to make sense is anyone’s guess. Maybe like Alice down the rabbit hole would be a better analogy.

Updated: On a more practical note, we just flew over a huge delta while I was writing this and I’m wondering if it was the mythical Ganges Delta of all those Year 9 geography lessons.