Untitled... in memory

The day after Angkor, we got up early and boarded a 5hr bus to the nations capital city; Phnom Penh.

It's quite a lot more developed than I'd imagined anywhere in Cambodia might be, though there are plenty of reminders of the horiffic Pol Pot regime that ended in the late 90's.

During our first afternoon, we went to go have some fun at the shooting range. Here, we had the choice of shooting a whole arsenal of firearms.

As it was quite pricy, we shared rounds so we could each fire two guns. We chose the AK47 Kalashnikov and a CZ75 hand gun - purely based on it's compact, but chunky Bond characteristics. The range also allows you to shoot Tommy guns, shot guns, a rocket launcher, anti-aircraft rounds and grenades. But at $35 for a grenade, and $200 for a single shot of the rocket launcher, we figured the money would be better saved for other activities. The AK47 gave a mild recoil and out of our 25rounds, we think about 15 of them hit the target. The CZ75 was much more fun in my opinion though - it really gave a kick when you fired it, and we managed to get around 5 of our 7 rounds into the paper target.

***

We were glad we'd fired the guns first, as the next tourist attraction left us in no mood to do the same again. Pol Pots killing fields.

Upon walking in the site, you can see nothing but a tall Stupa and some nice looking meadows off to it's side. In actual fact, the site had been used for mass graves. A large amount of these had been exhumed and the remains taken... except for their skulls. The meadow was full of large craters where the graves had been left unfilled.

I couldn't quite grasp the concept of their memorial, but the temple you see in the picture has many different layers of which each skull that was uncovered is now housed. The guide asked if we wanted to take pictures close up of the remains but I couldn't see why anyone would want to see a picture like that. 8985 bodies were buried in the graves occupying a space probably 100metres x 120metres. Every one of the skulls found now occupy the Stupa. There is also another area across a river next to the site which has around 50% more mass graves, however those remain un-excavated. The guide went into detail of how the prisoners were treated at the camps, but I won't relay those facts.

The prisoners were part of the Khmer people, and nearly all of them were academics, doctors and such - no mercy was shown for any members of these families. Nick, nor I could grasp why and how the Pol Pot soldiers could carry out these acts and it left us feeling pretty sombre on the bumpy tuk-tuk ride home.

Though the thing that cheered me up most, was seeing all the Cambodians carrying on with life, kids playing in the street and the country now enjoying a boom in tourism now it's communist regime had fallen.

***

The following day we set out to explore the city. We headed to the riverside to get views of the Royal Palace, then checked out the old markets before arriving at Wat Phnom, a temple sat in the middle of a large roundabout. After this we had a wander through Phnom Penhs centre-piece - the Central Market. A huge domed building with 4 halls housing anything from fresh meat to jeans, jewellery to pharmacies or fruit to Christmas decorations!

After 2 o clock, we were free ($3 lighter in pocket) to explore the Royal Palace. It was quite similar to the Grand Palace in Bangkok - very extraveagent and is home to the Silver Pagoda - a temple with it's inner floors made out of solid Silver tiling, reflecting the image of a small Jade Buddha.

***

After another nights sleep, it was time to board another flight back to Bangkok and endeth our giant lap around North Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia. It's been around 5 weeks, I've seen more than I'll ever remember and I thoroughly hope to return to all these destinations again one day. We've been on quite a hectic programme to get ourselves back here in Bangkok before Christmas, so now I'm just looking forward to spending a month on South Thailands beachs doing a lot less!

I hope all is well with all of you in the run up to Christmas, have a good one!

Whatever

Siem Reap International Airport, Cambodia. Probably one of the most obscure airports I'll fly into I think. We'd been delayed by an hour due to technical problems already, and after the hefty 40 minute flight we were quite exhausted! We met a couple from America and shared a cab ride into town so we could find some accommodation for the evening. The cab driver had slightly different plans. We had a list of guest houses to check out, but he wouldn't take us to any of them, only places that were obviously paying him commission. We finally found one that was next to one of our preferred choices and promptly bolted from the taxi (we'd already paid!) as fast as we could with 18kg backpacks on.

Siem Reap is famed for basically one thing only; it's ancient temples. One of them is the biggest religious building on planet Earth, another used in the Tomb Raider movie and a whole bunch of others just waiting to be discovered.

We had given ourselves only one day to explore Angkor, so to maximise on what we could see, and minimise on what we spent; we rented bicycles for the day. We covered around 20-25km during the day and saw many temples (or 'Wats' as they're known).

The first was the Bayon Temple (Picture no.1). Extremely impressive three-tiered temple. Lots of intricately detailed bas-reliefs and I think thousands of sculpted Buddhist statues. Parts of this and all the other temples are still off limits to the public since the walls and floors are not strong enough to be safe. Some stone banisters looked very much like you could knock them over with very little effort.

The Bayon temple had around 30-40 visitors whilst we were there, but we were the only ones looking at our next one. (XXX XXX - Picture no.2) was built overlooking the jungles and Angkor Wat itself. Nick and I took turns to scale the steep, narrow steps to the summit and take in the awesome views looking over Angkor. A cool moment here to be away from all other tourists.

After sitting with some locals eating bananas and explaining the intricacies of England - driving on the left, getting 2 days off work per week and the cold and often miserable weather, we peddled on to Ta Phrom - an 800 year old temple.

We found a sneaky, sandy road that shortcut away from the main route. Along the way, we discovered a few huge Khmer arch ways and saw some amazingly coloured butterflies.

I'd been looking forward to getting to Ta Phrom the most of all the temples. You may have seen parts of Ta Phrom (Picture no.4) with Angelina Jolie bounding across them in Tomb Raider. It was really cool to see this temple since it has been left in a similar way that it was last discovered - with the jungle literally growing in and around it. The carvings and elaborate stupas sharing the limelight with towering tree's and creeping foliage. After the gleaming bright temples of Bangkok, and similar throughout the rest of South East Asia, here more so than anywhere gave the feeling that you were touching some real history.

After some lunch, we jumped on our hogs again. The Cambodian rough roads were starting to take their toll on my Western rear-end so the pace started to drop a little.
We pulled in at another small monument overlooking a large (possibly man-made) lake. More surprisingly, bumping into the two women we'd met whilst elephant riding in Thailand!

The afternoons sun was starting to drop so we made our way hastily to the daddy of all the worlds temples - Angkor Wat.

A huge rectangular moat stretching out around 100metres from the initial walls of Angkor Wat was first to be crossed. A long stone causeway presents you with the main gates. Once inside, we had to walk a couple more hundred metres to get to the main centre piece. By this point their were hundreds of tourists navigating their way around the Wat, most funny was the Japanese/Chinese tourists that had climbed the awkward, steep, stupa steps, then queuing in droves to get back down the only banistered stair case (terrified chaos); not to mention the women trying their hardest to keep the modesty in tact making the descent!

After climbing the main Stupas ourselves, we ventured the grounds some more until sunset before heading back into town. Of all the temples I've seen in the past 2 months, these are the ones I would recommend you visit. Truly amazing.

Going Underground

Viet Nam had so far been quite quaint - Ha Noi was busy but still had a lot of history nestled in the streets. Other towns along the way were developed at similar levels to other places around South East Asia.

At first glance, Saigon was similar to Bangkok - a lot of Western influence - neons, fast food, big electrical showrooms etc. But a little way out of the main districts and things became far traditonally VietNamese. Nam is a huge collision of cultures with it being used on the South China Seas by many nations including the Chinese, French & English. The French are to blame for Nam being the only SE Asian country that uses a Latin alphabet for its language (handy for finding your street however).

Our first night was spent sampling the nightlife with our new German friends. This did go on a little far into the morning and made things pretty difficult for our pre-booked city tour the next morning! Nontheless, I was able to see the Presidential Palace, Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral replica during the morning. After lunch, we made it to the "Temple of the Lady" - dedicated to all things female. We then made a visit into Chinatown and saw the busy wholesale market place.

Our second evening saw us re-united with an old friend; Wes, from Thailand and a few of his friends. They took us along to a much more VietNamese drinking/eating establishment than we'd so far seen. By the time the bill came in, we'd sampled both Kangeroo and Snake meats... and eaten a LOT of their fresh peanuts not to mention hid our pitchers of beer so they had no idea how many to charge us for... at least we thought our plan was a great idea - but can you believe they saw where they were hidden?!!

The next day, we got up early to head to the Cu Chi tunnels. These are just some of the Viet Cong tunnels used in both the invasions last century by the French and US armys. These particular tunnels totalled over 250kms of hand-dug underground passageways. One of the tunnels stretches around 50kms and ends right underneath the old American warbase. A clever place to hide since they were guaranteed no bombings. We were given an insite into the people that lived in these multi-tiered tunnels. The site also showed some of the nasty maiming traps the Viet Cong used to use against their enemy. Lookubg up into the treeline was exactly like every Nam war film I've ever seen - to see some real B-52 induced craters made the situation all the more haunting (Note also, blue sky - it finally arrived!).

The moment we'd been waiting for arrived and we got to jump inside the tunnels and explore ourselves. We got to walk for over 100metres underground. Usually you could walk whilst being stooped over, but sometimes you'd have to go head or feet first through certain sections which were used to stop the Yanks with all their gear on from proceding any further. The majority of the tunnels were pitch black and so I had to feel my way round. I came out filthy but had a great time.

Alas, now it was time to depart Viet Nam for Cambodia. Although we'd made a quick trip from North to South, and despite the weather being about as good as a blunt razorblade - I have grown very fond of Viet Nam very quickly and will definitely return one day to explore some more - and hopefully appreciate it during their sunny season - if one exists. (...And after our only sunny morning of the entire stay, it rained on the way to the airport)

I'm Only Sleeping

Well into the South of Viet Nam, odds were… the weather was going to improve. Alas, no. We get to a great aquatic type town, and it also rains a whole load… though not quite as much as we’d seen – and the air temperature was up too, so walking at night with just a shirt (and umbrella) was back on.

Our first evening time, we met a guy playing pool who was from the UK but now lived in Nam. He showed us the best (the only) of the seafront clubs – the Sailing Club. I recommend anyone check it out. Good drinks, good tunes and a great crowd, with the sea crashing in against a Golden (in the day at least) beach.

***

Our first morning looked almost promising in that there was no rain and we’d booked up to go on a boat trip around the islands, also getting the chance to snorkel around some beautiful coral reefs. The sea was quite choppy, and our boat that was full mainly with Asian tourists. So it was left to Nick and I to jump first into the depths. I’ve never been a very strong swimmer and this was my first attempt at snorkeling. I think I managed to spend a total of about 20 seconds with my face submersed – several times the rough sea washing over my snorkel resulting in that extremely annoying mouthful of water followed quickly by choking on salt water! Horrible as you like for you - funny as anything for anyone watching. After seeing some reefs and then cutting my toes on them, I retired to the boat and took to jumping off the roof.

The boat got motoring again and we were on “Happy Hour”! The guides dished out the worst wine I’ve ever tasted while we got to eat, adversely, some of the best buffet sea food I’ve ever eaten. The chaps then promised a “boy band” would come play a concert for us. They certainly did – it was the crew belting out renditions of “Hotel Carifornria” and “Ob la di, Ob la da (Li goes on)” – awesome. As the afternoon progressed, and us few Westerners carried on drinking the awful wine (it got slightly better for some reason!?). Christine, our new Australian friend and mother to 2 on board, got a little too drunk (considering she had only had about half a bottle of Red) and entertained us as only a drunken Australian can do; as the rain began to fall once again.

After returning to the same restaurant as the night previous (for fresh Red Snapper and Tiger Prawns – excellent), we also had another seriously cool night at the Sailing club before jumping aboard our open ticket bus ride once more to the peaceful beach town of Mui Ne. Surely some good weather ahead…

2am, we de-board the bus, look toward the skies and see the moon and stars for the first time in Nam! Full of hope for a gloriously sunny day sand-boarding the dunes I went to sleep.

10am, I rushed to the window like a kid at Christmas waiting for Santa and Snow… RAIN!

The place we were staying was way better than our general accommodation. It’s own beach and bungalows… all for about 7quid between us. We sat deflated with nothing to do in a town with nothing but sand dunes.

Lucky for us, midday saw the skies ease and we were able to rent motorbikes to go check out the dunes. I think my bike had been crashed since all of the fairings were out of shape, the speedo, indicators, headlights and horn were all out of action too. But on the scale of things, it was still better than the majority of vehicles in a country that needs no license to drive. 25mins into the journey, I also discovered the fuel gauge had a fault… the hard way.

After finding some more fuel, we decided to burn around the coast and see the dunes. The “Sandboards” which I had imagined to be snowboards-but on sand, were just bits of plastic that you use like a toboggan.

After playing on the dunes for a while, we had a race against time to get home before dark… me having no lights of course.

At the end of the day, we pretty much conceded we weren't going to get any decent weather in 'Nam. Gump had it right on the mark. Our last hope was in the nations Capital - Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh city as it's now more popularly known.

See the Sky About to Rain

Just as I get to thinking I have this travelling thing sussed, a week like this comes up and takes me by surprise. You'll have seen the slightly eery picture of Nick making his way from Laos to the Vietnam border, well we've still not seen sunshine since they day previous to that.

After getting arriving into Hanoi (the Northern capital of Nam - unofficial) we were thrust into carnival celebrations as the national football side had beaten Malaysia in the SEA (South East Asia) Games, we ate atop a balcony watching as hundreds of motorbikes buzzed about with bright Red flags emblazoned with the communist yellow star. After dinner, the group we’d met along the way showed us one of the Hoi beer drinking locales. Here you can get draught beer for very little money… (about 15p a glass) the only drawback is that you’d need to drink about 10 pints to get the same effect as 2 or 3 regular beers! After a few of those, we navigated the confusing road system of Hanoi’s ‘Old Quarter’ until we stumbled upon Minhs Jazz club – nice.

We awoke the next day and planned to blitz the cities sites. After stocking our daypacks with the largest Croissants I ever ate, we trotted around the shops nearby our hotel. It was the first visual reminder for me that we’re fast approcahing the festive season – with some shops selling all sorts of seasonal tack. We made it to the cities main lake and visited the temple on an island there – I caught a legless guy with his hand in my pocket trying to steal my cash, I was gonna have to keep a watchful eye from now on! We walked on to the temple of literature, here there were a series of courtyards each with it’s own characteristics. After this we wasted money on getting a cab to the ‘Nam airforce museum – it had been closed for the past 8 months – nice of the cab driver to let us know! So, back across town and we checked in at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ – the name given by Americans to the prison used since French colonial days and during the more recent war. All of the articles there bragged about how well the Americans POWs were treated during there stays… I’m not too sure how much of that to believe!

The next day we awoke to more grey skies, though the temperature was still fine. We jumped on a tour bus destined for Ha Long bay, a huge area off of the North East coast of Vietnam preserved by internation heritage. Upon arrival, we were sat at lunch with a group of Koreans. Chop sticks were the weapons of choice as they served up Octopus, Rice and other unknown delicacies. You could see the Koreans chuckling to themselves as we fumbled to get used to the sticks. They took pity and gave us a crash course lesson though. We took a cruise across the bay checking out the breath taking rock features before arriving at some of the huge caves. Some great lighting inside the caves made them seem really mystical – the caves in general would really be a great venue for a party!

As the days temperature cooled off we jumped back on board our cruiser and headed for a floating fishery. A family lived on board a floating raft that hauls in crabs, fish and all sorts of crustaceans. We had the option to pick ourselves a snack and have it cooked fresh on our boat. Having never eaten crab, we figured to give it a shot. It was a pretty surreal experience there at the fish place, as we arrived, it encouraged several row boats full of fruits, veg and Oreo’s! Some of the rowers were kids about 5yrs old.

I spent the evenings dinner session still getting my butt kicked by the Koreans using chopsticks, though I reckon I was getting better. To re-gain some pride, we gave them a lesson at pool in the hotels roof top bar.

The next day should have been us jumping into the beautiful blue waters of Halong Bay, sadly the weather was still grey, and the temperature had dropped considerably. So we headed back for Hanoi instead. We got in some traditional Vietnamese quisine – ‘Cha Ca’; a fishy dish served in a bowl atop hot coals to keep it sizzling the entire meal, very tasty. Later that evening, it started to rain. Forest Gump had it right on the mark; it just didn’t stop – at all…

We took the bus South next day to Hue, in the pouring rain. The only reason for our visit here was to look at the old DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone), the dividing line between old North and South Vietnam. We arrived in Hue too late that day to take a tour bus there so our only option was to rent motorcycles and make the 105km trip ourselves… in the rain.

We gave it our best shot, for 50km’s we battled against the monsoon, rain coming from above, below and even sideways! Eventually though, my visor-less helmet just wasn’t enough and we headed back without seeing the Zone… maybe next time. We tracked down a backpackers bar, and to console ourselves after the days failure, we played pool, ate food and drank lots of beer. With the heavens still pouring, we had to figure out a way of getting back to our accomodation. As is the custom in Hue, a cheeky chappy on every street corner was waiting with his bike with a kind of cradle on the front. It had a plastic bubble on it, and even though we’re sure they’re only meant to take 1 person, we squeezed our drunken-selves in and pointed our way home.

Next morning, we unsurprisingly overslept – our 7.45am bus was outside as we awoke at 7.53! After throwing all our gear in to our bags, we managed to catch our day bus destined for Hoi An.

Again, we travelled through the pouring rain, arriving in what at first looked like another Vietnamese town. We knew it was famed for it’s cheap tailoring, but hadn’t expected quite so many tailors to be lining the streets. Apparantly there are over 200 in this town – every one offering a fully tailored suit from as little as $35 US. We bought umbrellas and then set upon finding someone to make us our new threads.

After ordering these, we sat a little down-trodden with the relentless rain still pouring down.

We awoke to a surprise… the rain was gone! The roads were dry(ing)! And our new suits and shirts were ready to have their first fittings. After we’d ordered our adjustments, we took a stroll around the town and found it to be really quite nice, a river running through was home to all sorts of traditonal Vietnamese custom. The market definitely one of the quirky highlights.

It was finally time to go pick up our new suits. I wasn’t really too sure what I was going to do with mine – I still have at least 4months until I work again, but I was pleased to slip into something other than shorts and T-shirt for once.

With fairer weather now in sight, we jumped on a night bus destined for Nha Trang – the Vietnamese, snorkelling and diving capital…

Out of Routine

The four of us took a night bus that would get us from Luang Prabang down to Vang Vien without the fuss of using up a day travelling. Bleary eyed, we arrived at around 4am and jumped in the first guest house we could find - something we'd tried our best to avoid. The rooms were a bit skanky, the beds stained with goodness knows what... but we were tired and didn't want the hassles of finding somewhere else in pitch darkness.

So after a long sleep, quick shower, trip across time to a new guest house, another shower just to make sure... we were ready to go tubin'!

A tuk-tuk drives you about 3 miles up stream and drops you off. The river doesn't flow particularly fast but it is littered with bars all along. We made a point of stopping at each one for the first section of our adventure, but would soon find we wouldn't have enough time before sundown to complete the route back to town.

As we stopped at our second watering hole, we couldn't help but notice a huge swing and zip line suspended above the river. We took turns in sliding the zip line and gave ourselves points for artistic impression for the landing. If you held on long enough, the jolt from stopping would whip you in any random direction. Andy Ludlow delighted the crowd With a beautiful face-slap to surface landing. The results of which stayed with him for the afternoon.

After negotiating rapids, logs, kayakers and floaters - the sun was on its way down behind the impressive hills. On one of the banks, we spied some crafty hopeful tuk-tuk drivers who were the proud owners of a whole US dollar for driving 4 shivering, slightly drunk Englishmen back in to town.

***

After what seems like way too many rough bus journeys across Nepal, Thailand and now Laos, it was great to discover a new mode of transport to get us to the Laos capital - Vientiane. Again we jumped on the back of a tuk-tuk for an hours drive, this time however, we were dropped by the river again, but with Kayaks.

The scenery we took in was quite breathtaking, huge jagged rocks and dense jungle foliage dominated the landscapes. Soon we were more concerned with staying upright on our kayaks, since it was the first time most of us had tried our hand with a dual paddled... err paddle. Dave and Ludlow managed to test the water several times before we broke off for lunch.

The heat we'd gained from the exercise made Nick and I quite envious of the other guys earlier dip. So along with Flo, a German guy also on our trip, we took turns in jumping into the river from the rocks we'd landed on. The tour leader noticed what we were doing and ran off in typical fashion laughing and shouting "big jumps, hehehehe"... so of course we followed.

The first drop he led us to was probably around 3metres in height, but everyone jumped right off straight away... The 2nd took some bare-foot climbing skills to get to the ledge for jumping. As we looked down the 8metre dropped, it took a few second thoughts to make the jump. But eventually, we all made the plunge with finesse.

We jumped back in the kayaks and paddled the remainder of the journey. Another tuk-tuk would drive us the remaining hour into the capital.

***

Our day spent in Vientiane was pretty good, since we'd headed South for the past few days, the temperature was nice and hot again. The city (reflective of the country) is not very well developed just yet, although it does have it's share of glamorous hotels etc. We dropped into the Laos National History Museum before heading to the bowling complex. Maybe I play better nearer the equator, but I couldn't quite believe the score I racked up in my first game... 120-130 would be a pretty regular score for me; but today, the bowling Buddha must've been shining on me setting a PB of 198.

Our time with Dave and Andy was now over and we headed off to different bus terminals for our night time transfers. We were headed for Vietnam. We'd been warned about the trip we were about to take:

"One of the worst 2 trips in SE Asia"

So, armed with a plethora of baked goods, we took our seats on the 24hr trip across the Laos/Vietnam border. We'd heard the route was used by 'Nam citizens to traffic their contraband - it was 5minutes before we noticed the sacks in the overhead stores moving. 3 sacks loaded with snakes. We quizzed the driver about them - he did his best to deny the contents but our questioning succeeded in seeing them moved to the luggage hold for the trip. Good thing too!

We managed to sleep a small amount before the bus proceeded to border control... we felt a little like POWs as we were herded between no-mans land but eventually, we got our passports stamped and Hanoi was awaiting us.

Speed of Sound

After a day trip on a couple of bus rides from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, and then from Chaing Rai to Chaing Khong on the Thai border, we were ready to pass over into Laos. The morning came and we made our way across the river over the international border. From there we were to wait for a speed boat that would whip us down to Luang Prabang in double quick time (6hours).

When booking it seemed like a no-brainer as to which trip to choose - a 2 day slow boat or a 1 day speed boat for not much extra cash. As we got closer to boarding, locals were starting to notice we were waiting for the speed boat and, slightly discouragingly, were saying:

"Oooh Speed boat -Very Safe, Very Safe"

This didn't fill us with the most confidence, but we boarded the 25ft wonder nonetheless. We were told to wear ear plugs to drown out the engine sound. That was good advice. The boat put out some real grunt and before we knew it were skimming the surface of the river at speeds of around 55-60mph.

Just when we thought our rears couldn't handle anymore of the cramped conditions our journey ended in Luang Prabang; a city based amongst the typical Laos - jungle backdrop.

***

During the boat ride we'd met a couple of guys; Dave & Andy who had invited us along for a fishing trip. The four of us set off via minibus and then long-motorboat to Muang Ngoi Neua - a quaint and picturesque mountain town based by a riverside. In typical style of arriving in a new town, we set to work on drinking some of Laos finest - BeerLao. The rest of the evening was spent slung up in hammocks listening to the crickets battle the iPod speakers for audible acclaim.

***

Fishing Day - and I once again was stricken down with the "Delhi-Belly" probably caused by some bad "Laos-Chow" (that does rhyme by the way; Laos with a silent 's'). I battled my way through the day though only made it as a spectator as the others fished with old style weighted nets and more modern rods. We saw some great views as we paddled up and down stream - including a few Kingfishers flashing by in the bright sunlight. The following day we travelled back to Luang Prabang whilst I finalised my recovery.

***


Out last excursion for this part of the country was a visit to a waterfall, we had heard you could swim there but upon arrival, there wasn't a huge expanse of water to play in - so we checked out the sights before playing Frisbee in the sunshine. This evening we travel on to Vang Vieng - mid-way between our current location and the Laos capital city Vientiane.