Hello and welcome to our blog again.
For this edition I will tell you about our hectic week in Cambodia - the country of manipulating kids and wondrous sites. We left the thousand islands in Laos to cross the border into Cambodia, also leaving behind the Laos Kip and moving onto the expensive American Dollar. Its strange to think my first time using dollars isn’t America but in Asia…..well I think it’s peculiar anyway. Crossing the border is an expensive business as you need to pay $1 to have your Laos visa terminated, then $25 to have the Cambodia Visa stamped in the passport then another $1 to have it restamped when crossing the invisible border line, at which point you are then allowed to enter the country.
Our first bus ride towards the city of Siem Reap set the tone for Cambodia perfectly as the bus supposedly broke down and we were transferred, along with our luggage, to a more cramped and even more broken bus (we then found out that the only reason they made us change buses was because they ‘needed’ our bigger and better bus to carry some wood somewhere else!). So between the border and our destination we broke down twice more, but that small problem was overshadowed by the fact that at this point it was midday and the buses air conditioning was just an open window. Not exactly what you would call a VIP bus as described by the travel agency it was booked through.
We eventually arrive in the humid and busy outskirts of Siem Reap where there are 50+ tuktuk drivers waiting to ferry us to our hostels. We decide to choose a small talkative guy who had the ‘ideal’ guest house that has fans and cold showers (you avoid hot water rooms everywhere in Asia). After the overwhelming heat of the bus this sounded perfect so we jumped into the tuktuk and were whisked off to ‘Green’ hostel, which turned out to be my very favorite of the whole trip so far. It’s all built around self service, each room is given a book which you record all the food and drink you consume at the hostel meaning you can keep a close eye on your budget and not get fleeced of an extra couple of dollars.
Siem Reap is beautiful, if anyone comes to Cambodia you should make the city your first destination, it’s not as crowded as the capital, Phon Pheng, but has plenty to offer including the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, another world heritage site. The entry fee is $20 per day so can be very expensive, but once you see the sunrise at the main temple it all becomes worth it. The only drawback of Angkor is the children and food sellers. As you walk around each temple there isn’t a single second where you aren’t being harassed to buy worthless postcards and bracelets. You simply want to enjoy the temples but are constantly hounded for your dollars, they don’t seem to realize we are tourists not walking cash machines…… heartless aren’t we. I can’t say we did very well on our first day with the children, as they managed to sell us two random bracelets plus a postcard… I also made this one child cry and she was actually really mad at me because apparently she spoke to me first and we ended up buying from a different little girl. On top of this, this one other girl pretended to only have one eye by covering her left one with a patch in order to get more sympathy from the tourists! They are evil!! Apart from this incident we managed to only give our money to musicians who are victims of landmines.
After Siem Reap we moved onto the capital where we could see some scars left by Pol Pot’s regime in the 1970’s. However, the bus journey there was an experience in itself. Before setting off we decided to have an omelet baguette (yes omelet baguette) for breakfast, BIG mistake. Sara spent the next 6 hours hugging the coach toilet, vomiting every 10 minutes. For days afterwards I would have to spell ‘egg’ or ‘omelet’ as she would gag if anyone would mention it- eggs are no longer part of her diet. We eventually arrived in Phon Pheng and were greeted by the strongest smell of sewage I have ever encountered, this forced and few dry gags from Sara, so we swiftly left for the nearest hostel on another tuktuk.
The city has many memorials to the people killed by the evil dictator Pol Pot, but the worst scene we saw was the orphanage. It was our last day and Sara had a strong urge to go see all the children, to give them gifts of rice and pens. We were driven to one of Cambodia roughest and poorest districts where the people are so poor they can’t afford to keep their own children, so off load them at this orphanage. Before we arrived we imagined a playground made of concrete, maybe a few buildings with boundaries. What you greeted by are some huts made from corrugated iron which has the same welcoming feel as an Austrian cellar. However this does not affect the children, they are some of the happiest most playful people I have ever encountered. They climb all over you as though you’re their favorite uncle and go wild for ice…. just plain ice. We left after spending an entire afternoon with the kids, learning some phrases and generally fooling around but its one of the bitterest, but sweetest memories we have.
Thank you for all the comments left last time, its lovely to hear from you all.
Arkon
Tom & Sara
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Third/Fourth week travelling! We can still say we are well and loving it!
I say this on each blog but it seems we have packed a lifetime of sights and sounds into a short period of time, I can’t specify the number of days as I am not even aware of the day, date or even time right now. No no, we haven’t been having happy pizzas in Laos, its just days and dates are only good for flights. Long may this continue….
This post is going to be a tad long, but we thought it would be best to tell you everything we have been doing, instead of running behind on the places and events!
I left you teetering on the verge of our tubing experience down the Mekong with our group of slightly disorganised friends. I suggest anyone coming to Laos to make their way to Vang Vieng for the tubing experience as we had the most possible amount of fun one can have on an inflatable in dirty water.
We will now explain how does tubing work: It all begins with hiring a large inflatable ring- the tube- which looks as though it may have been the inner tubing of a penny farthing (noutras palavras.. uma boia gigante tipo donut!), jumping on a tuk tuk with inflated (no pun intended) price and head all the way to the first bar.
Once your standing with your tube in one hand you need to balance the body by placing a ‘bucket’ in the other. A bucket consists of a lethal concoction of Red Bull, Coke, Ice and large amounts of whisky. Add to this the free shots being handed out like sweets and you have a group of well-lubricated travellers willing to try their hand at anything. When I mean anything we had people who are afraid of sitting on top of an elephant swinging 50ft on a trapeze into a slither of water in between rapids and rocks.
The idea is to float from the first bar down the Mekong river making stops at every bar to top up the rocket-fuelled buckets. Each bar has its own circus/ action man entertainment ranging from swings, diving boards, trapezes, zip wires and a backbreaking slide. There are seven bars along the way and safe to say we managed to see the rustic culture and fabulous architecture of each one. One bar even had its very own mud pit (uma piscina da lama) and being one of the latter bars on our tour we decided to have a mass wrestling match along with about twenty other travellers, the sights of people trying to escape from the pit of despair (aptly named by Team Rubbish) was hilarious and humiliating at the same time.
Well two days if that was enough for us so we packed our bags and caught the bus out of ''Tenerife'' to the capital of Laos- Vientiene.
Vientine, sad to say, it was our lowest point of the trip simply because it delivered nothing apart from high hostel prices, harassed people, awful sites and the time old South East Asian experience of food poisoning. Luckily or unluckily we did not catch this terrible stomach upset but instead the smallest member of our team deed. Well in war there is a saying ‘never leave a man down’, in Vientiene the saying is ‘every man for him/herself’ and we scurried out of there.
Our bus from the middle of Laos to the very bottom was amazing and unsafe in equal measures. We boarded in late evening arriving the next day at the break of dawn, but wait, how did you sleep I hear you ask? Well this King of buses was equipped with bunk beds instead of seats. If you ever get a sleeping bus in Laos and you’re given beds A18/17 then immedialty change as this was our fate. The cursed beds are placed opposite the only working toilet on the bus containing 50 volatile stomachs. Lets thank Valium, the wonder drug that makes you sleep the entire journey and is only available on prescription in the UK but is sold as freely as sweets in South East Asia. How was this unsafe? Well, as your sleeping you aren’t strapped to your seat and add Evil Canevil (aka the crazy driver!) to the equation and you have a very bumpy and ever so slightly dangerous ride.
Our final destination was the southern islands of Laos named Four Thousand Island (and no they haven’t any sauce in sight) that sits in the middle of our old friend the Mekong River. The Islands all begin with ‘Don’ and so it was a matter of choosing which Don to go for. Enter the aged old choosing ceremony of just pointing at the map and bingo you have youself an Island for the next 3 days, as it happens Sara chose an absolute beauty named Don Det.
The initial impression isn’t good as you are met by a beach of pylons (they still don’t have consistent electricity) and a severe lack of breeze. However as you move towards the ‘sunset’ side you can find hidden gems like the ‘Eden Gardens’ resort or ‘Mr B’s’ bungalow garden. Our bungalow over looking the Mekong with its own pontoon for quick refreshment cost us no more than $6 a night. Despite the fact it lacked a fan and toilet of your own but when your lying in the bunglow hammock watching the golden sunset you feel as though you may have swindled Mr B out his beloved Dollar.
So started our three days in relative paradise only moving from our slumber to dive from the pontoon into the Mekong for a refreshing swim as the temperature soared to about 38/39 degrees. Sara being Portuguese flourished in the heat however being a pasty Englishman I floundered like a fish out of water pondering how it was possible for my body to be wetter going into the water than coming out.
Apart from the excruciating heat, the island was a little paradise hidden in the South of Laos. Fair to say I don't think neither I or Sara suffered so much from the heat, particulrly at night as our room was soooo hot. It took us a lot of valium and trips to the hammoks to fall asleep. The other little detail to highlight in this island was the biggest concentration of mosquitos one has ever seen. When you think you have seen a lot of morquitos, think again. We are talking bundles of mosquitos by the rare lights the size of people.. it wasn't pretty but we managed to survive (despite all the bites!)
Leaving you with that mind boggling thought I will say adious and will be up dating the next blog in a couple of days (I promise!).
If you could, it would be nice to see who is actually reading this thing (as we are away and have absolutely no clue!) so please leave some comments so we know there is a world out there reading about our adventures!
Love
Tom & Sara
P.S. Ines your English is much improved!!!!!
Kap-Chai-La-lai (Thanks very much)
This post is going to be a tad long, but we thought it would be best to tell you everything we have been doing, instead of running behind on the places and events!
I left you teetering on the verge of our tubing experience down the Mekong with our group of slightly disorganised friends. I suggest anyone coming to Laos to make their way to Vang Vieng for the tubing experience as we had the most possible amount of fun one can have on an inflatable in dirty water.
We will now explain how does tubing work: It all begins with hiring a large inflatable ring- the tube- which looks as though it may have been the inner tubing of a penny farthing (noutras palavras.. uma boia gigante tipo donut!), jumping on a tuk tuk with inflated (no pun intended) price and head all the way to the first bar.
Once your standing with your tube in one hand you need to balance the body by placing a ‘bucket’ in the other. A bucket consists of a lethal concoction of Red Bull, Coke, Ice and large amounts of whisky. Add to this the free shots being handed out like sweets and you have a group of well-lubricated travellers willing to try their hand at anything. When I mean anything we had people who are afraid of sitting on top of an elephant swinging 50ft on a trapeze into a slither of water in between rapids and rocks.
The idea is to float from the first bar down the Mekong river making stops at every bar to top up the rocket-fuelled buckets. Each bar has its own circus/ action man entertainment ranging from swings, diving boards, trapezes, zip wires and a backbreaking slide. There are seven bars along the way and safe to say we managed to see the rustic culture and fabulous architecture of each one. One bar even had its very own mud pit (uma piscina da lama) and being one of the latter bars on our tour we decided to have a mass wrestling match along with about twenty other travellers, the sights of people trying to escape from the pit of despair (aptly named by Team Rubbish) was hilarious and humiliating at the same time.
Well two days if that was enough for us so we packed our bags and caught the bus out of ''Tenerife'' to the capital of Laos- Vientiene.
Vientine, sad to say, it was our lowest point of the trip simply because it delivered nothing apart from high hostel prices, harassed people, awful sites and the time old South East Asian experience of food poisoning. Luckily or unluckily we did not catch this terrible stomach upset but instead the smallest member of our team deed. Well in war there is a saying ‘never leave a man down’, in Vientiene the saying is ‘every man for him/herself’ and we scurried out of there.
Our bus from the middle of Laos to the very bottom was amazing and unsafe in equal measures. We boarded in late evening arriving the next day at the break of dawn, but wait, how did you sleep I hear you ask? Well this King of buses was equipped with bunk beds instead of seats. If you ever get a sleeping bus in Laos and you’re given beds A18/17 then immedialty change as this was our fate. The cursed beds are placed opposite the only working toilet on the bus containing 50 volatile stomachs. Lets thank Valium, the wonder drug that makes you sleep the entire journey and is only available on prescription in the UK but is sold as freely as sweets in South East Asia. How was this unsafe? Well, as your sleeping you aren’t strapped to your seat and add Evil Canevil (aka the crazy driver!) to the equation and you have a very bumpy and ever so slightly dangerous ride.
Our final destination was the southern islands of Laos named Four Thousand Island (and no they haven’t any sauce in sight) that sits in the middle of our old friend the Mekong River. The Islands all begin with ‘Don’ and so it was a matter of choosing which Don to go for. Enter the aged old choosing ceremony of just pointing at the map and bingo you have youself an Island for the next 3 days, as it happens Sara chose an absolute beauty named Don Det.
The initial impression isn’t good as you are met by a beach of pylons (they still don’t have consistent electricity) and a severe lack of breeze. However as you move towards the ‘sunset’ side you can find hidden gems like the ‘Eden Gardens’ resort or ‘Mr B’s’ bungalow garden. Our bungalow over looking the Mekong with its own pontoon for quick refreshment cost us no more than $6 a night. Despite the fact it lacked a fan and toilet of your own but when your lying in the bunglow hammock watching the golden sunset you feel as though you may have swindled Mr B out his beloved Dollar.
So started our three days in relative paradise only moving from our slumber to dive from the pontoon into the Mekong for a refreshing swim as the temperature soared to about 38/39 degrees. Sara being Portuguese flourished in the heat however being a pasty Englishman I floundered like a fish out of water pondering how it was possible for my body to be wetter going into the water than coming out.
Apart from the excruciating heat, the island was a little paradise hidden in the South of Laos. Fair to say I don't think neither I or Sara suffered so much from the heat, particulrly at night as our room was soooo hot. It took us a lot of valium and trips to the hammoks to fall asleep. The other little detail to highlight in this island was the biggest concentration of mosquitos one has ever seen. When you think you have seen a lot of morquitos, think again. We are talking bundles of mosquitos by the rare lights the size of people.. it wasn't pretty but we managed to survive (despite all the bites!)
Leaving you with that mind boggling thought I will say adious and will be up dating the next blog in a couple of days (I promise!).
If you could, it would be nice to see who is actually reading this thing (as we are away and have absolutely no clue!) so please leave some comments so we know there is a world out there reading about our adventures!
Love
Tom & Sara
P.S. Ines your English is much improved!!!!!
Kap-Chai-La-lai (Thanks very much)
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