February 20, 2011
Yesterday we had a 6 hour bus ride from Siem Reap to Phonom Phen. The upside of the trip was that we had the back row, 3 seats, all to ourselves. The down side was that the back seat is right on top of the engine ...HOT!
Arriving at the bus station is always the same routine. Tuk tuk drivers are practically blocking the exit of the bus just waiting to ambush the tourists. It's almost claustrophobic so we usually just walk a block or two before flagging down a ride.
The rules of the road here never cease to amaze me. In a city of million people there are only a handful of traffic lights. Instead it's free flowing traffic, merging into the smallest of openings and if you are too close there is a friendly honk from the oncoming vehicle, but road rage seems nonexistent. There may only be two lanes painted on the road, but there are always an invisible third and sometimes even fourth lane. The rules to obey are as follows: buses and police yield to no one, cars/trucks yield to buses, tuk tuks yield to cars, scooters yield to tuk tuks, essentially little yields to big. The crappy thing about the system is no one yields to pedestrians. Crossing the street has been a learning experience for us and part of the normal process is just stepping out and weaving your way across the moving lanes of traffic.
Today was a heavy day as we toured the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, a prison where people were starved, tortured and later taken to be executed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.
Before researching this trip I was oblivious to the genocide that took place in Cambodia such a short time ago (1975-79). Even after becoming aware of this tragedy, the magnitude of the situation is still hard to fathom. Of a population of 7 million at that time, over 2 million people died.
A brief summary of events at that time is a communist regime, the Khmer Rouge, overthrew the government in 1975. Their goal was to create pure and equal agrarian society in which money, social class, religion and education would all be abolished. People were forced from cities into villages and made to work. Many families were separated, many people died of starvation and inhumane treatment and anyone who was foreign, religious, worked for a previous government, was educated or wore glasses, thus appearing educated, were executed along with their kin to prevent any future revenge. Guns and ammunition are quite expensive so most people were not killed with a bullet, but were bludgeoned or stabbed etc, I will spare the gory details. In a couple of days we are heading to an offshore island that is well off the main trail off the south coast of Cambodia for a few days of relaxing on the beach....a welcome change in scenery and atmosphere.
February 22, 2011
We just can't win with bus rides. Yesterday we had a 4 hour bus ride to Sihanoukville and no word of a lie, the driver honked the horn at least once a minute. I think it's the courteous thing to do when passing another vehicle, usually scooters, to prevent any sudden lane changes, but it made for a long and deafening journey.
Q has read some bad reviews about this town so we are strictly here to pick up our Vietnamese visas and are hopefully heading to Koh Rong, an island off the coast of Sihanoukville. I say hopefully because this morning our ride didn't pick us up and we missed our boat. They said there was no more boats today we would have to wait until tomorrow, but when we said we would probably cancel there was all of a sudden another boat going at 1pm. Funny how that works.
The boat over to Koh Rong was nothing more than an oversized, two story longtail boat but they did have lifejackets which was a huge surprise. It really is another world over here and we got a lesson in how different it is the second we stepped on the boat. Lying on the middle on the deck of the boat in the middle of people loading rice and ice and bags was a lady wrapped up in blankets hooked up to an IV. Beside her was a newborn baby, and when I say newborn I mean newborn. We started chatting with another couple from London who informed us that we had just missed the miracle of life. 10 seconds before we had sat down they had witness the ladies friend cutting the umbilical cord!!!!!what? This baby was just born on the deck of a longtail boat....no doctors, no drugs, crazy!
The boat took about 2 hrs and when we got to the island we were greeted with pristine white sandy beaches (the kind of sand that squeaks under foot). We didn't have a reservation at any of the 3 bungalow places because there weren't any phone numbers and were a little worried when the first two places were full. The third place had two story treehouses that were right on the beach and only 20 feet from the water. We were lucky enough to get one of these for the first night and spent a fantastic night listening to the water crash upon the beach. The only down fall of the night was when we woke up in the morning to find that a rat had chewed through a side pocket of my pack to get at a granola bar.
We moved to another bungalow place the next night as the treehouse was unfortunately all booked up. We spent the next three days laying on the beach, reading to eachother, and all around relaxing......it was perfect. We couldn't decide whether to stay an extra night or move on to our next destination and just hope we find another place that made us feel the way this place did.
The boat to the mainland was a little rougher this time around and I apparently didn't take my gravol early enough before boarding. 45 mins into a 2 hr boat ride guess who got sick?.....this guy....10 times, haha. As you have read there have been several times that I have been nauseous but haven't thrown-up so I figured I was due. Lucky enough the boat was open on all sides and I just went to the back and paid my respects to the south china sea.
When we got the mainland we shared a taxi with a German couple to a town called Kampot were we spent a day hiking up to the Bokor Palace. Bokor Palace is a hotel that was built in the early 1900's by the French and is situated on a plateau high above the jungle. The hotel has been abandon for the last 40yrs and has been left to mother nature.... it is pretty eerie walking through it and especially eerie when the fog rolled in. After the hike we took a boat down the river to watch the sunset from a sandbar on the edge of the south china sea....another great send off!
Tomorrow we head east in to Vietnam where we plan to spend the next three weeks making our way from Saigon in the south right up to Hanoi in the north.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Spelling disclaimer
You may come across the odd spelling mistake which is due to the auto correction on the iPod, haha, sorry.
Q
Q
Ancient ruins, alcohor and night buses
February 16, 2011
As I type this we are in Cambodia on route to Siem Reip.
Our bus rides were uneventful, but I have decided that the actual traveling part of traveling is my least favorite part of traveling... If that makes sense. The long bus rides, the initial unfamiliarity of a new place and the vulnerability that comes along with that.
As foreigners we have a difficult (read impossible) time getting a taxi to use their meter. Instead they charge us an inflated flat rate more than twice the proper price. We've taken to getting locals to negotiate with the taxis for us and sometimes that works.
We arrived at the border where you have to purchase your visa for Cambodia. We had read that there are lots of scams charging you more than the actual price so when our taxi dropped us of at a nice building we were immediately suspicious. We asked if this was the proper visa location, of course it was and the price seemed accurate from what the guide book said. A little further down the line we spoke with some other travelers and they paid about $10 less each. In the grand scheme of things its not much money, but I think it's just the fact that you feel almost taken advantage of and unfortunately its hard not to be on guard with all the locals thinking they have some trick up their sleeve to get more money.
From Thailand to Cambodia you can certainly tell when you've crossed the border. You leave a country of concrete and highways full of vehicles and enter a land of wooden shacks, people pushing wooden carts piled 15 feet high with boxes and oxen pulling carts down the main highway. This also helps put things in perspective. Why feel bad about a few bucks, when these people can use the money so much more than we can.
February 17, 2011
Today we had the pleasure of exploring the ancient civilization of Angkor. Built at the end of the 12th century over a period of two ruling Khmer kings to serve as both temples and palaces. There are over 300 temples spread over an area roughly 1000 square kms. This which makes it not only the worlds largest ancient civilization but the eighth wonder of the world. At its peak between 1100-1200 a.d. there were over a million people living within the Angkor area. Angkor had been sacked a few times by neighboring countries and has many of the statues within destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime but still remains as one of the most amazing feats of architecture in the world.
As we mentioned, there is a lot of poverty here and lots of people trying to sell things in markets and outside the temples. There are quite a few children selling things as well and they can be relentless. Rather than let them get on our nerves we've taken to talking to them about their life, school, how old they are etc. You can't help but fall in love with them. They are so cute and so intelligent. Most of them speak amazingly good English and when we asked how they learn it they say from the tourists and they go to school for half a day and work half a day. One little boy said he was in grade five and when Q said "you look too young to be in grade 5" the boy wittingly responded "we're small here you know."
We did have an experience yesterday that now weighs heavy in our hearts. After a long day of walking we decided to go for a massage. We had read about these 'Massage by the Blind' studios that help people who are blind be self sufficient since they get no government funding/support. We went, and for $5 you get an hour long massage. After talking with the manager he explained that the masseuse' work for two years getting room and board, but no wage. After two years they get funding from the company to start their own massage parlor and then they earn a wage from there. Having already paid for a massage we took out another $10 and gave each masseuse $5 for themselves. I couldn't believe the expression on their faces. It was as though they had just won the lottery. They smiled from ear to ear and one lady even held the bill up to her face as though she was smelling the money. After my initial feeling of happiness, I was quickly overwhelmed with so many emotions and as we walked away I couldn't help but cry. It was a flood of emotions i find impossible to describe. A feeling of hopelessness that there may be no betterment for their lives and so many other lives. A feeling of regret for not having done more to help. A feeling of selfishness for the life we lead at home that seems so overindulgent and greedy when compared to most of the world. It was in those moments that all we could say to comfort ourselves was we need to do more good in the world. Its so easy to be overwhelmed by all the suffering here and in so many other countries we've never visited. We don't know what we will do at this stage to make a positive impact, but we need to take a step in that direction.
As I type this we are in Cambodia on route to Siem Reip.
Our bus rides were uneventful, but I have decided that the actual traveling part of traveling is my least favorite part of traveling... If that makes sense. The long bus rides, the initial unfamiliarity of a new place and the vulnerability that comes along with that.
As foreigners we have a difficult (read impossible) time getting a taxi to use their meter. Instead they charge us an inflated flat rate more than twice the proper price. We've taken to getting locals to negotiate with the taxis for us and sometimes that works.
We arrived at the border where you have to purchase your visa for Cambodia. We had read that there are lots of scams charging you more than the actual price so when our taxi dropped us of at a nice building we were immediately suspicious. We asked if this was the proper visa location, of course it was and the price seemed accurate from what the guide book said. A little further down the line we spoke with some other travelers and they paid about $10 less each. In the grand scheme of things its not much money, but I think it's just the fact that you feel almost taken advantage of and unfortunately its hard not to be on guard with all the locals thinking they have some trick up their sleeve to get more money.
From Thailand to Cambodia you can certainly tell when you've crossed the border. You leave a country of concrete and highways full of vehicles and enter a land of wooden shacks, people pushing wooden carts piled 15 feet high with boxes and oxen pulling carts down the main highway. This also helps put things in perspective. Why feel bad about a few bucks, when these people can use the money so much more than we can.
February 17, 2011
Today we had the pleasure of exploring the ancient civilization of Angkor. Built at the end of the 12th century over a period of two ruling Khmer kings to serve as both temples and palaces. There are over 300 temples spread over an area roughly 1000 square kms. This which makes it not only the worlds largest ancient civilization but the eighth wonder of the world. At its peak between 1100-1200 a.d. there were over a million people living within the Angkor area. Angkor had been sacked a few times by neighboring countries and has many of the statues within destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime but still remains as one of the most amazing feats of architecture in the world.
As we mentioned, there is a lot of poverty here and lots of people trying to sell things in markets and outside the temples. There are quite a few children selling things as well and they can be relentless. Rather than let them get on our nerves we've taken to talking to them about their life, school, how old they are etc. You can't help but fall in love with them. They are so cute and so intelligent. Most of them speak amazingly good English and when we asked how they learn it they say from the tourists and they go to school for half a day and work half a day. One little boy said he was in grade five and when Q said "you look too young to be in grade 5" the boy wittingly responded "we're small here you know."
We did have an experience yesterday that now weighs heavy in our hearts. After a long day of walking we decided to go for a massage. We had read about these 'Massage by the Blind' studios that help people who are blind be self sufficient since they get no government funding/support. We went, and for $5 you get an hour long massage. After talking with the manager he explained that the masseuse' work for two years getting room and board, but no wage. After two years they get funding from the company to start their own massage parlor and then they earn a wage from there. Having already paid for a massage we took out another $10 and gave each masseuse $5 for themselves. I couldn't believe the expression on their faces. It was as though they had just won the lottery. They smiled from ear to ear and one lady even held the bill up to her face as though she was smelling the money. After my initial feeling of happiness, I was quickly overwhelmed with so many emotions and as we walked away I couldn't help but cry. It was a flood of emotions i find impossible to describe. A feeling of hopelessness that there may be no betterment for their lives and so many other lives. A feeling of regret for not having done more to help. A feeling of selfishness for the life we lead at home that seems so overindulgent and greedy when compared to most of the world. It was in those moments that all we could say to comfort ourselves was we need to do more good in the world. Its so easy to be overwhelmed by all the suffering here and in so many other countries we've never visited. We don't know what we will do at this stage to make a positive impact, but we need to take a step in that direction.
Cambodia cont.
More Thailand photos
Long-tail boats at Railei Beach
Floating restaraunt
Possibly the most tanned man on Earth
"Betcha can't eat just one!"
View of Railei and Tonsai Beach
My jovial cooking teacher explaining Thai cooking 101
The camera always adds 10 pounds
Time for a cool down for all parties.
Angkor WHAT!!!?
Mr. Sin, our driver and Riley in a Remorque...a Cambodian taxi.
Bayon
Phrom...where scenes from Tomb Raider were filmed.
Exploring another temple in Angkor.
It's too hot outside to actually hug and touch bodies so we've taken to doing air hugs.
As you can see, this game required intense focus. It was flicking a marble and hitting the target, a pop can. This little girl, Nit, hit it 100 times and counted in English the entire time.
A little taste of Thailand!
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