Monday 7th
The original plan was to go to Phitsanulok, about an hour from Sukhothai and on the main train line. When we arrived at Chiang Mai station we had missed the 9:30am train and the next one was at 3pm, arriving at 11pm, if it wasn't delayed. So we decided to change plans, go to the bus station (more money on tuk tuks) and stay in Sukhothai instead of Phitsanulok as we would be travelling to Sukhothai as a day trip.
We choose to go to Sukhothai for a few reasons. Firstly, it is halfway between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, saving us from a 12 hour bus ride or longer train ride. Secondly, we had two days to spare in a sense and lastly it is an old capital of Thailand and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We arrived around 4pm and were approached by a hotel employee about his place. It ticked all the boxes so we decided to stay there. We put our stuff in our room and immediately went out for dinner as we were starving. It was quite hard to find a restaurant but we did. Dinner was disappointing and small so we both got more food from street stalls along the way back to the hotel. We planned on using the internet but the only net cafe we could find was full of school children.
The hotel room had a t.v with 136 channels but alas only two English channels, both of which were Christian channels. The entrance to the bathroom was ridiculously short, level with my nose. Eventhough i bowed my head each time i still managed to hit the top of my head twice.
Tuesday 8th
Since Sukhothai is a small town we decided that to rent a motorbike was the best option to see Old Sukhothai. Old Sukhothai is around 12km from New Sukhothai where we were staying. It was a kick start bike which i had never used so it wasn't always the easiest thing to start but i managed. On the way to the old city we stopped off at the bus station to see when the bus comes and to buy our tickets.
The old city was said to be similar to those of Angkor although i didn't notice too much similarity. The easy way to describe most of the ruins is that they were simply ruins. Some of the sites we didn't even bother to get off the bike and see in person. It was quite hot out in the sun but we managed to find one spot next to a pool of water which was so nice to sit next to.
At dusk we went to the small night food stalls and market, although we ate at a restaurant call 'Poo Restaurant'. However it had a picture of Winnie the Pooh but the signs had the unfortunate typo.
All in all Sukhothai isn't really worth visiting unless you have the time and want to have a break between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Chiang Mai
Thursday 3rd
Before we left Chiang Rai we wanted to go to this Chinese-Thai place for cheap dumplings but as it was Chinese New Year they were closed. We settled for this other place near our hotel where i had lots of Chinese bread and a noodle dish which was alright but not what i wanted.
We then went to the bus station on foot only to find out that Chiang Mai buses leave from a different station. Luckily there was a shared tuk tuk for 10B each that we just filled up. We had to wait 30mins before we could leave but that was alright.
On the bus they played an Australian movie we had never heard of but it was dubbed in Thai so it was no good to us. After that they played Thai comedy, similar to the Cambodian style. The bus ride took four hours and was pretty smooth.
We had tried to book places but they were all full so we had to tuk tuk driver in Chiang Mai take us to places he knew, it was about four places before we found one which wasn't full and didn't involve me lugging our bags up four flights of stairs.
Friday 4th
We got up late and went out to eat. Today was all about booking a trek and going to the night bazaar. After eating it was way too hot to be out and about when we could do it later so we went back to our room and watched tv. Most places were offering the same two day one night trek for the same price (1200B), but we found one for 1000B, the travel agent asked us to tell the other trekkers that we paid 1300B as they were not the company running the trek and it could cause issues blah blah blah. Fine by us.
As it was the time of the 'flower festival' in Chiang Mai we got to see some floats and listen to some Thai singing. This part was outside the old main gate to the old city. We didn't have time to walk in the opposite direction from the night bazaar to see the actual parade.
The night bazaar was outside the old city and about 30mins walk for us. It was a whole lot of street stalls and a bunch of food inside a building. I got myself a wallet along the way. There were alot of things to see and buy but it was hard because it was on the footpath and there were people everywhere.
Saturday 5th
We were picked up at 9:30am and got all the others (10 others) along the way. On the way to the elephant camp to ride an elephant, we went to a butterfly and orchid farm which was really nice. We also stopped off at a market so our guide could buy food for our dinner. It was midday by the time we actually got to the elephant camp, we had a crappy tofu and fried rice lunch when we got there. After we ate we went down to see two elephants, one was in labour (elephant labour lasts 5 days) and the other had a two day old calf. It was so nice to see a baby elephant so young and up close, although not too close. The mahout (trainer/carer) was from Burma, although not Burmese (Kachin ethnic group) and was able to speak to Kay though.
We bought some sugarcane for our elephant who was ever so glad to have it, even when it was gone it would put it's trunk back for more. Our mahout was another Burmese ethinic group - Kayah or Red Karen. We basically just did a circle round the camp on the elephant but it was alright because riding an elephant isn't the most comfortable thing to do.
From the camp we started our 3 hour, 7km trek to the Lahu village we would be spending the night at. Unfortunately we didn't have a big enough backpack so we had to use Kay's sports bag, which you can only really have slung over one shoulder and is not the most comfortable bag to carry. The trek was easier than Sapa but as the route wasn't as difficult it was at a very fast pace with minimal breaks. I had fried rice for breakfast and only ate one small plate of it for lunch as i didn't really want it. As such by the 2 hour mark and most difficult part i was exhausted. I felt like throwing up, i felt faint and was trailing the group.
It was one of the worst feelings in the world, compounded more so by the fact you know there is no other option but to soldier on. It wasn't as though i was sore, i felt completely drained and it was like my legs weighed a tonne each. I reached the village without anything going wrong thankfully.
Our village had electricity but not in our house. We were all dying for a shower, no hot water. So everyone had to have a cold shower at sunset. Once the sun was down we had only candles and a large fire as light. The bedroom was for everyone, no privacy, eight double beds, rather thin mattresses on the floor with mossie nets next to each other.
We had yellow curry and a chicken stir fry for dinner, i made sure i ate properly so there would be no repeat tomorrow. At dinner time we got to know our fellow trekkers better.
Sunday 6th
We officially woke up at 8am but the roosters made sure we were awake much earlier. Breakfast consisted of toast with butter (the butter is terrible), scrambled eggs (i don't eat) and fruit. So i had dry toast and fruit for breakfast. Today was all downhill and about two hours of trekking before white water rafting and bamboo rafting. I felt much better and the walk was absolutely fine, hard but fine. The first hour downhill to a waterfall was quite hard. We were able to swim at the waterfall but the water was freezing cold eventhough it was a hot day.
We continued walking, went past some villages, stopped at one and fired some slingshots. Our guide was very good at it. We got to our base for white water rafting, i actually thought it would be quite gentle. Well i suppose it was but it wasn't at the same time. It was such a good experience, i can't wait to do it again. Straight after we got onto some bamboo rafts, the raft was just afloat with Kay and two other girls on it, once i got on it went under the water so we were slightly submerged.
After the bamboo rafting we had lunch, a noodle dish with bloody tofu. Straight after we got in our big tuk tuk, which barely got all 12 of us inside it. As it was the weekend in Chiang Mai there are a number of streets blocked off for what is called the 'walking market', this made it hard for some people to be dropped off and for us to pick up our bags from the travel agent.
We decided to have McDonalds for dinner. Surprising the servings were bigger than in Australia and of course cheaper. It was pretty much exactly the same as home. On the way back we went through the walking market which was absolutely packed. It was like every tourist in town and half of the locals were on these streets.
I would've liked to spent one more day in Chiang Mai eventhough we had done most things but we didn't have the time. We definitely come back though. Unfortunately Northern Thai food was very hard to find so we didn't get to try any here or in Chiang Rai.
Before we left Chiang Rai we wanted to go to this Chinese-Thai place for cheap dumplings but as it was Chinese New Year they were closed. We settled for this other place near our hotel where i had lots of Chinese bread and a noodle dish which was alright but not what i wanted.
We then went to the bus station on foot only to find out that Chiang Mai buses leave from a different station. Luckily there was a shared tuk tuk for 10B each that we just filled up. We had to wait 30mins before we could leave but that was alright.
On the bus they played an Australian movie we had never heard of but it was dubbed in Thai so it was no good to us. After that they played Thai comedy, similar to the Cambodian style. The bus ride took four hours and was pretty smooth.
We had tried to book places but they were all full so we had to tuk tuk driver in Chiang Mai take us to places he knew, it was about four places before we found one which wasn't full and didn't involve me lugging our bags up four flights of stairs.
Friday 4th
We got up late and went out to eat. Today was all about booking a trek and going to the night bazaar. After eating it was way too hot to be out and about when we could do it later so we went back to our room and watched tv. Most places were offering the same two day one night trek for the same price (1200B), but we found one for 1000B, the travel agent asked us to tell the other trekkers that we paid 1300B as they were not the company running the trek and it could cause issues blah blah blah. Fine by us.
As it was the time of the 'flower festival' in Chiang Mai we got to see some floats and listen to some Thai singing. This part was outside the old main gate to the old city. We didn't have time to walk in the opposite direction from the night bazaar to see the actual parade.
The night bazaar was outside the old city and about 30mins walk for us. It was a whole lot of street stalls and a bunch of food inside a building. I got myself a wallet along the way. There were alot of things to see and buy but it was hard because it was on the footpath and there were people everywhere.
Saturday 5th
We were picked up at 9:30am and got all the others (10 others) along the way. On the way to the elephant camp to ride an elephant, we went to a butterfly and orchid farm which was really nice. We also stopped off at a market so our guide could buy food for our dinner. It was midday by the time we actually got to the elephant camp, we had a crappy tofu and fried rice lunch when we got there. After we ate we went down to see two elephants, one was in labour (elephant labour lasts 5 days) and the other had a two day old calf. It was so nice to see a baby elephant so young and up close, although not too close. The mahout (trainer/carer) was from Burma, although not Burmese (Kachin ethnic group) and was able to speak to Kay though.
We bought some sugarcane for our elephant who was ever so glad to have it, even when it was gone it would put it's trunk back for more. Our mahout was another Burmese ethinic group - Kayah or Red Karen. We basically just did a circle round the camp on the elephant but it was alright because riding an elephant isn't the most comfortable thing to do.
From the camp we started our 3 hour, 7km trek to the Lahu village we would be spending the night at. Unfortunately we didn't have a big enough backpack so we had to use Kay's sports bag, which you can only really have slung over one shoulder and is not the most comfortable bag to carry. The trek was easier than Sapa but as the route wasn't as difficult it was at a very fast pace with minimal breaks. I had fried rice for breakfast and only ate one small plate of it for lunch as i didn't really want it. As such by the 2 hour mark and most difficult part i was exhausted. I felt like throwing up, i felt faint and was trailing the group.
It was one of the worst feelings in the world, compounded more so by the fact you know there is no other option but to soldier on. It wasn't as though i was sore, i felt completely drained and it was like my legs weighed a tonne each. I reached the village without anything going wrong thankfully.
Our village had electricity but not in our house. We were all dying for a shower, no hot water. So everyone had to have a cold shower at sunset. Once the sun was down we had only candles and a large fire as light. The bedroom was for everyone, no privacy, eight double beds, rather thin mattresses on the floor with mossie nets next to each other.
We had yellow curry and a chicken stir fry for dinner, i made sure i ate properly so there would be no repeat tomorrow. At dinner time we got to know our fellow trekkers better.
Sunday 6th
We officially woke up at 8am but the roosters made sure we were awake much earlier. Breakfast consisted of toast with butter (the butter is terrible), scrambled eggs (i don't eat) and fruit. So i had dry toast and fruit for breakfast. Today was all downhill and about two hours of trekking before white water rafting and bamboo rafting. I felt much better and the walk was absolutely fine, hard but fine. The first hour downhill to a waterfall was quite hard. We were able to swim at the waterfall but the water was freezing cold eventhough it was a hot day.
We continued walking, went past some villages, stopped at one and fired some slingshots. Our guide was very good at it. We got to our base for white water rafting, i actually thought it would be quite gentle. Well i suppose it was but it wasn't at the same time. It was such a good experience, i can't wait to do it again. Straight after we got onto some bamboo rafts, the raft was just afloat with Kay and two other girls on it, once i got on it went under the water so we were slightly submerged.
After the bamboo rafting we had lunch, a noodle dish with bloody tofu. Straight after we got in our big tuk tuk, which barely got all 12 of us inside it. As it was the weekend in Chiang Mai there are a number of streets blocked off for what is called the 'walking market', this made it hard for some people to be dropped off and for us to pick up our bags from the travel agent.
We decided to have McDonalds for dinner. Surprising the servings were bigger than in Australia and of course cheaper. It was pretty much exactly the same as home. On the way back we went through the walking market which was absolutely packed. It was like every tourist in town and half of the locals were on these streets.
I would've liked to spent one more day in Chiang Mai eventhough we had done most things but we didn't have the time. We definitely come back though. Unfortunately Northern Thai food was very hard to find so we didn't get to try any here or in Chiang Rai.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Huay Xai and Chiang Rai
Saturday night into Sunday 30th
When you cross into Thailand overland you are only allowed a 15 day visa, hence we had to stay in Huay Xai for one night, although it still means we will be overstaying our visas by one day. Lonely Planet seems to think that we won't get fined as they allow for an extra day, but worst case scenario we have to pay a ~$15 fine each.
As per normal we were left waiting at the bus station for some unknown reason, after thirty minutes we were off for our '12' hour overnight trip to the Thai-Lao border town of Huay Xai. Eventhough i had previously said that we would not do another overnight bus, we decided it was the better option over the two day one night slow boat ride up the Mekong. Big mistake.
The ride was so much worse than the one we had from Hoi An to Nha Trang. For one we didn't have a sleeper option so it was just the slight recline of your chair. The driver seemed to be driving slower than he should've at some parts of the trip. After our first stop at 10:30pm, it seemed like we were stopping every 15 minutes for some reason or another, be it dropping people off, province border crossing or smokos.
The entire night i felt i only got two hours sleep. I literally watched the sun rise. With all of the stopping and the like, we arrived two hours late in Huay Xai at 9:30am. We got in a larger tuk tuk to get into town with some of the other passengers. On arrival most of them headed for the border but we went to our guesthouse. We put our stuff in our room and went for breakfast. Then we had a little walk (not much to do in Huay Xai) and went back to the hotel room, watched 'red dragon' on tv and slept until dinner time.
Monday 31st
We got up, had breakfast and headed for the border crossing. Very easy to do, we filled out our departure forms, they stamped our passports and we were off on a boat to Chiang Khong in Thailand. Another easy process on the Thai side, as Australians are exempt from needing a visa per say, we didn't have to pay anything.
We then got a tuk tuk to the bus station for our trip to Chiang Rai. It was a local bus with all local people and no air con, although it wasn't really necessary since all the windows were open. It took about two hours, thankfully Thai roads are so much better than our previous countries.
Arrived in Chiang Rai at the bus station, thankfully it's in the middle of town. We didn't know how far to our guesthouse so we got a tuk tuk, we bargained it down to 30baht, as it turned out, we were 5 minutes walk away, so we got ripped hard. As it was afternoon we didn't do much but walk up the main streets and have dinner - our first Thai food. Thai food was readily available in Laos and Cambodia but we shunned it knowing we would be having it everyday in Thailand. It was very good, we would return to this restaurant the following night.
Tuesday 1st
We decided to leave our guesthouse for a number of reasons: one the bed was so incredibly hard we both woke up sore, two, there was broken glass in the shower, lucky we wear thongs and three the bathroom roof was leaking water.
Kay was very low on money so we had to find a bank. According to the map there was four banks on this one street, we figured we would kill two birds with one stone and get something to eat there. We found no food on the entire walk to the last bank on this street. There were some places but they had no English menus and no English speaking staff. We ended up walking back to our area to eat. We also had trouble at the banks before we left, very hard to get our query across.
After lunch the first bank we went to had an acceptable exchange rate and charged no commission on the cash advance. Unfortunately the Australian dollar has since shot up a few more cents.
The bank was near the market so we had a little look there, didn't get anything but some fruit and sticky rice. There were plenty of Wats in Chiang Rai so we only went to the main one - Wat Phra Kaew. It had very nice paintings on the inside and a large number of turtles in the pools before you got to it's stairs.
Our day was also made up of going to travel agents to get quotes for a golden triangle tour. For the most part they offered the same things at the same price - 1400b ($47) each. Very expensive, but we figured we didn't do any tours in Laos because they were too pricy for what they offered and we did want to do this.
At night we had a look at the Chiang Rai night market but didn't buy anything, we would return tomorrow night.
Wednesday 2nd
As it turned out no one else booked the tour so it was effectively a private tour for us, if two others had of then it would've been 1200b (~$40each). Our first stop was a hill tribe village with two different tribes living together, the main reason we were going was to see the Padong tribe (part of the Karen). This is the tribe with the long necks (brass rings around the girl's necks). They originally come from Burma but left because of the hardships at home.
Second stop was the monkey and fish caves. Basically it's on the edge of a mountain where there's alot of monkeys to feed and fish in a mini lake. We walked up to the buddha inside the mountain. I had to take a stick to fend of the monkeys, we were fine on the way up but i had to use it to scare an aggressive monkey on the way down. I gave my stick to some Thais who were being harassed and grabbed by the same monkey after we passed.
We next arrived at the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot, Thailand's most Northern point. First we went to a Jade factory, didn't get anything of course. The best Jade comes from Burma. They was a Burmese girl working there that Kay had a chat to, turns out a Burmese bloke owns the factory.
After the factory we went up to Scorpion Hill where we were able to look in Burma. There are no casinos in Thailand so there are alot in the Burmese side of the border to service Thailand's gambling needs. We also got to have a look through the market on the way down. There was an array of b.b guns for sale (pellet guns), very tempting. Throughout Kay picked up on many Burmese voices.
We had lunch at a mediocre buffet in town and then headed for the golden triangle - the point where Thailand, Burma and Laos all meet. The Lao side also has casinos, bankrolled by the Chinese we were told. After we saw the viewing point we went to the Opium museum, which gave some history on the drug and it's cultivation in the golden triangle region.
Our final stop was the old capital of Chiang Saen, from over 1000 years ago. As such it is not in the best of condition and was not cared for soon enough like Sukothai and Ayuthaya (old capitals). Then we journeyed home. A positive of having an effective private tour was that i was able to ask our guide many questions about Thailand and the Thai people.
When you cross into Thailand overland you are only allowed a 15 day visa, hence we had to stay in Huay Xai for one night, although it still means we will be overstaying our visas by one day. Lonely Planet seems to think that we won't get fined as they allow for an extra day, but worst case scenario we have to pay a ~$15 fine each.
As per normal we were left waiting at the bus station for some unknown reason, after thirty minutes we were off for our '12' hour overnight trip to the Thai-Lao border town of Huay Xai. Eventhough i had previously said that we would not do another overnight bus, we decided it was the better option over the two day one night slow boat ride up the Mekong. Big mistake.
The ride was so much worse than the one we had from Hoi An to Nha Trang. For one we didn't have a sleeper option so it was just the slight recline of your chair. The driver seemed to be driving slower than he should've at some parts of the trip. After our first stop at 10:30pm, it seemed like we were stopping every 15 minutes for some reason or another, be it dropping people off, province border crossing or smokos.
The entire night i felt i only got two hours sleep. I literally watched the sun rise. With all of the stopping and the like, we arrived two hours late in Huay Xai at 9:30am. We got in a larger tuk tuk to get into town with some of the other passengers. On arrival most of them headed for the border but we went to our guesthouse. We put our stuff in our room and went for breakfast. Then we had a little walk (not much to do in Huay Xai) and went back to the hotel room, watched 'red dragon' on tv and slept until dinner time.
Monday 31st
We got up, had breakfast and headed for the border crossing. Very easy to do, we filled out our departure forms, they stamped our passports and we were off on a boat to Chiang Khong in Thailand. Another easy process on the Thai side, as Australians are exempt from needing a visa per say, we didn't have to pay anything.
We then got a tuk tuk to the bus station for our trip to Chiang Rai. It was a local bus with all local people and no air con, although it wasn't really necessary since all the windows were open. It took about two hours, thankfully Thai roads are so much better than our previous countries.
Arrived in Chiang Rai at the bus station, thankfully it's in the middle of town. We didn't know how far to our guesthouse so we got a tuk tuk, we bargained it down to 30baht, as it turned out, we were 5 minutes walk away, so we got ripped hard. As it was afternoon we didn't do much but walk up the main streets and have dinner - our first Thai food. Thai food was readily available in Laos and Cambodia but we shunned it knowing we would be having it everyday in Thailand. It was very good, we would return to this restaurant the following night.
Tuesday 1st
We decided to leave our guesthouse for a number of reasons: one the bed was so incredibly hard we both woke up sore, two, there was broken glass in the shower, lucky we wear thongs and three the bathroom roof was leaking water.
Kay was very low on money so we had to find a bank. According to the map there was four banks on this one street, we figured we would kill two birds with one stone and get something to eat there. We found no food on the entire walk to the last bank on this street. There were some places but they had no English menus and no English speaking staff. We ended up walking back to our area to eat. We also had trouble at the banks before we left, very hard to get our query across.
After lunch the first bank we went to had an acceptable exchange rate and charged no commission on the cash advance. Unfortunately the Australian dollar has since shot up a few more cents.
The bank was near the market so we had a little look there, didn't get anything but some fruit and sticky rice. There were plenty of Wats in Chiang Rai so we only went to the main one - Wat Phra Kaew. It had very nice paintings on the inside and a large number of turtles in the pools before you got to it's stairs.
Our day was also made up of going to travel agents to get quotes for a golden triangle tour. For the most part they offered the same things at the same price - 1400b ($47) each. Very expensive, but we figured we didn't do any tours in Laos because they were too pricy for what they offered and we did want to do this.
At night we had a look at the Chiang Rai night market but didn't buy anything, we would return tomorrow night.
Wednesday 2nd
As it turned out no one else booked the tour so it was effectively a private tour for us, if two others had of then it would've been 1200b (~$40each). Our first stop was a hill tribe village with two different tribes living together, the main reason we were going was to see the Padong tribe (part of the Karen). This is the tribe with the long necks (brass rings around the girl's necks). They originally come from Burma but left because of the hardships at home.
Second stop was the monkey and fish caves. Basically it's on the edge of a mountain where there's alot of monkeys to feed and fish in a mini lake. We walked up to the buddha inside the mountain. I had to take a stick to fend of the monkeys, we were fine on the way up but i had to use it to scare an aggressive monkey on the way down. I gave my stick to some Thais who were being harassed and grabbed by the same monkey after we passed.
We next arrived at the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot, Thailand's most Northern point. First we went to a Jade factory, didn't get anything of course. The best Jade comes from Burma. They was a Burmese girl working there that Kay had a chat to, turns out a Burmese bloke owns the factory.
After the factory we went up to Scorpion Hill where we were able to look in Burma. There are no casinos in Thailand so there are alot in the Burmese side of the border to service Thailand's gambling needs. We also got to have a look through the market on the way down. There was an array of b.b guns for sale (pellet guns), very tempting. Throughout Kay picked up on many Burmese voices.
We had lunch at a mediocre buffet in town and then headed for the golden triangle - the point where Thailand, Burma and Laos all meet. The Lao side also has casinos, bankrolled by the Chinese we were told. After we saw the viewing point we went to the Opium museum, which gave some history on the drug and it's cultivation in the golden triangle region.
Our final stop was the old capital of Chiang Saen, from over 1000 years ago. As such it is not in the best of condition and was not cared for soon enough like Sukothai and Ayuthaya (old capitals). Then we journeyed home. A positive of having an effective private tour was that i was able to ask our guide many questions about Thailand and the Thai people.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang seems to do things differently to the rest of Laos. You have to purchase maps instead of them being made available for free and hotel check out is 11am not 12 noon.
I forgot to mention earlier that in Laos, rice is sticky rice unless you ask for it steamed, or you get given the option. I had never had sticky rice with a meal before and i love it. Even with a stir fry it is very nice, the thing it does make you do is to eat slower. Because it is sticky you need to chew it more, slowing down the process of eating.
Monday 24th
We chose to get the mini-bus instead of the normal size bus as it took two hours less and only cost 10 000kip more. We left at 9:30am, there were six other travellers with us on the bus, although it wasn't full. Along the way two Laotians were picked up. The whole trip was up and down through windy mountains. We only stopped for a break once, which was fine by everyone it would seem. I wasn't feeling very good when we stopped and made myself throw up for good measure.
We arrived in Luang Prabang at 1:30pm at the bus station to awaiting tuk tuk drivers. They all seemed to work together as all of the passengers bar us were piled into one tuk tuk at 15 000kip each. We refused and walked off to the main road, along the way another driver asked us and accepted 10 000kip each. So we paid less than everyone else, got dropped off where we wanted to and weren't crammed in with five other people.
Arrived at our hotel of choice to find it was booked out. We went up the main street but found nothing adequate, we then went towards the Mekong side where we found our first hotel (more on this later) for 100 000kip. We had a rest and went out for an early dinner as I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and I felt much better.
Tuesday 25th
We didn't notice it earlier because we had the t.v on but when we were in bed and the room was silent, it was not silent. Firstly, there was a dripping noise coming from our drain in the bathroom, eventhough our tap and toilet weren't leaking and as we found out later, a water pump connected to a water tank was right outside our window, thus making noises constantly. We were too lazy to get up early and find another hotel so we slept in, found another one in the afternoon for our next three nights. It was two minutes up the room, a nicer room and the same price. As a bonus it has computers which are not meant to be free but we've never been asked to pay for any usage. Although it didn't have a t.v, however it didn't really matter.
We had dinner at sunset at one of the many restaurants lining the Mekong River.
Wednesday 26th
We left our first hotel this morning, went to our new hotel, put our stuff in and went out for lunch. After lunch we went up to Phu Si, which is a 100m high hill in the middle of Luang Prabang with many Wats on it. Up and down involved 800 steps, although the first set of steps were the hardest. The peak gave an impressive view of the town.
On our way down on the other side i saw two novice monks and decided to ask one of them some questions. He said he spoke a little bit of English but it turned out to be alot and pretty good. He told me that there's an Australian woman who teaches English to the monks at his monastery. He told me what a monk's day involved, what food is donated and that he wanted to be a monk for life as opposed to someone who takes it up for a period of time.
After dinner we had a look though the Hmong night market, which opens up in front of the old palace on the main street. We didn't purchase anything other than a fruit shake.
Thursday 27th
We decided to get the overnight bus to Huay Xai instead of the slow boat (2 days, 1 night) so we booked that. It cost us 180 000kip ($22.50) each. We noticed that in terms of both time and distance, Laos is much much more expensive than Vietnam and Cambodia. After doing this we went to the old palace, which is now a museum. When the Communists took over Laos the Royal family were removed from power and escaped to some caves in the North.
The palace wasn't as grand as the Cambodian equivalent but in the main rooms it had stories on the walls with the main aspects have coloured glass on them, it looked very nice and certainly unique. Part of the museam was the King's old cars, basically four old cars in a garage. There was also a photo exhibition of monks in various states of meditation.
The cost of entry into the sights of Luang Prabang was also excessive, with the palace costing 30 000kip and Phu Si costing 20 000kip.
Friday 28th
The other downside about our second hotel was that the walls were fairly thin and we could here snoring on both sides. It wasn't over the top and at times quite funny, particularly to Kay.
Today we went down to the Nam Khan side of the town and walked all the way to the tip of the peninsula and returned back down the Mekong side. Whilst near the tip we had a look at the most famous Wat - Wat Xieng Thong. There was an admission fee of 20 000kip so we didn't go in. It's not right that you should have to pay to see what is an active religious site, oh that's right, only foreigners have to pay. We wanted to be extra tight as not to have to buy more Kip, although this didn't quite work out.
We ate at the Hmong night market for dinner, having various noodles and char grilled chicken, Kay had a papaya salad aswell (not my thing). Kay purchased a cotton and silk table runner for her mum and i got what i dubbed 'my nut bowl' - a wooden bowl.
Saturday 29th
We had to be up before 11am so that we could check out today, we heard our neighbours leave earlier so we suspected that our power had been turned off instead of theirs. We didn't mind as we had plenty of natural light in the room bar the bathroom. As it turned out there was a black out in the whole town.
We went to the Scandinavian bakery for lunch, i had what was similar to a subway chicken sub. Unfortunately for alot of people they couldn't enjoy a coffee. We then went to go to the internet cafe to use Skype but of course we couldn't do this without electricity. We then went down to the Nam Khan and sat there opposite a makeshift beach for almost an hour. When we went back into town we saw the power was back so we called home and booked our hotel in Huay Xai (not wanting any difficulties on arrival).
After that we went for a walk to the opposite part of town that we hadn't been to. I saw a soup place so we sat down and i had a beef noodle soup. The fruit man came past and Kay got some watermelon for us. The watermelon in Luang Prabang (we had some before) was so good, best fruit of the trip. On the other occasion Kay bought some fruit that i don't know the name of and she only knows the Burmese name (which is Burmese for balls, as in a man's balls), that was very sour to me.
Pick up is at 6pm so it's purely killing time up until then, hence i'm writing this now.
I forgot to mention earlier that in Laos, rice is sticky rice unless you ask for it steamed, or you get given the option. I had never had sticky rice with a meal before and i love it. Even with a stir fry it is very nice, the thing it does make you do is to eat slower. Because it is sticky you need to chew it more, slowing down the process of eating.
Monday 24th
We chose to get the mini-bus instead of the normal size bus as it took two hours less and only cost 10 000kip more. We left at 9:30am, there were six other travellers with us on the bus, although it wasn't full. Along the way two Laotians were picked up. The whole trip was up and down through windy mountains. We only stopped for a break once, which was fine by everyone it would seem. I wasn't feeling very good when we stopped and made myself throw up for good measure.
We arrived in Luang Prabang at 1:30pm at the bus station to awaiting tuk tuk drivers. They all seemed to work together as all of the passengers bar us were piled into one tuk tuk at 15 000kip each. We refused and walked off to the main road, along the way another driver asked us and accepted 10 000kip each. So we paid less than everyone else, got dropped off where we wanted to and weren't crammed in with five other people.
Arrived at our hotel of choice to find it was booked out. We went up the main street but found nothing adequate, we then went towards the Mekong side where we found our first hotel (more on this later) for 100 000kip. We had a rest and went out for an early dinner as I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and I felt much better.
Tuesday 25th
We didn't notice it earlier because we had the t.v on but when we were in bed and the room was silent, it was not silent. Firstly, there was a dripping noise coming from our drain in the bathroom, eventhough our tap and toilet weren't leaking and as we found out later, a water pump connected to a water tank was right outside our window, thus making noises constantly. We were too lazy to get up early and find another hotel so we slept in, found another one in the afternoon for our next three nights. It was two minutes up the room, a nicer room and the same price. As a bonus it has computers which are not meant to be free but we've never been asked to pay for any usage. Although it didn't have a t.v, however it didn't really matter.
We had dinner at sunset at one of the many restaurants lining the Mekong River.
Wednesday 26th
We left our first hotel this morning, went to our new hotel, put our stuff in and went out for lunch. After lunch we went up to Phu Si, which is a 100m high hill in the middle of Luang Prabang with many Wats on it. Up and down involved 800 steps, although the first set of steps were the hardest. The peak gave an impressive view of the town.
On our way down on the other side i saw two novice monks and decided to ask one of them some questions. He said he spoke a little bit of English but it turned out to be alot and pretty good. He told me that there's an Australian woman who teaches English to the monks at his monastery. He told me what a monk's day involved, what food is donated and that he wanted to be a monk for life as opposed to someone who takes it up for a period of time.
After dinner we had a look though the Hmong night market, which opens up in front of the old palace on the main street. We didn't purchase anything other than a fruit shake.
Thursday 27th
We decided to get the overnight bus to Huay Xai instead of the slow boat (2 days, 1 night) so we booked that. It cost us 180 000kip ($22.50) each. We noticed that in terms of both time and distance, Laos is much much more expensive than Vietnam and Cambodia. After doing this we went to the old palace, which is now a museum. When the Communists took over Laos the Royal family were removed from power and escaped to some caves in the North.
The palace wasn't as grand as the Cambodian equivalent but in the main rooms it had stories on the walls with the main aspects have coloured glass on them, it looked very nice and certainly unique. Part of the museam was the King's old cars, basically four old cars in a garage. There was also a photo exhibition of monks in various states of meditation.
The cost of entry into the sights of Luang Prabang was also excessive, with the palace costing 30 000kip and Phu Si costing 20 000kip.
Friday 28th
The other downside about our second hotel was that the walls were fairly thin and we could here snoring on both sides. It wasn't over the top and at times quite funny, particularly to Kay.
Today we went down to the Nam Khan side of the town and walked all the way to the tip of the peninsula and returned back down the Mekong side. Whilst near the tip we had a look at the most famous Wat - Wat Xieng Thong. There was an admission fee of 20 000kip so we didn't go in. It's not right that you should have to pay to see what is an active religious site, oh that's right, only foreigners have to pay. We wanted to be extra tight as not to have to buy more Kip, although this didn't quite work out.
We ate at the Hmong night market for dinner, having various noodles and char grilled chicken, Kay had a papaya salad aswell (not my thing). Kay purchased a cotton and silk table runner for her mum and i got what i dubbed 'my nut bowl' - a wooden bowl.
Saturday 29th
We had to be up before 11am so that we could check out today, we heard our neighbours leave earlier so we suspected that our power had been turned off instead of theirs. We didn't mind as we had plenty of natural light in the room bar the bathroom. As it turned out there was a black out in the whole town.
We went to the Scandinavian bakery for lunch, i had what was similar to a subway chicken sub. Unfortunately for alot of people they couldn't enjoy a coffee. We then went to go to the internet cafe to use Skype but of course we couldn't do this without electricity. We then went down to the Nam Khan and sat there opposite a makeshift beach for almost an hour. When we went back into town we saw the power was back so we called home and booked our hotel in Huay Xai (not wanting any difficulties on arrival).
After that we went for a walk to the opposite part of town that we hadn't been to. I saw a soup place so we sat down and i had a beef noodle soup. The fruit man came past and Kay got some watermelon for us. The watermelon in Luang Prabang (we had some before) was so good, best fruit of the trip. On the other occasion Kay bought some fruit that i don't know the name of and she only knows the Burmese name (which is Burmese for balls, as in a man's balls), that was very sour to me.
Pick up is at 6pm so it's purely killing time up until then, hence i'm writing this now.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Vang Vieng
Thursday 20th
We were due to depart for Vang Vieng at 9:30am but it was an hour of delays before we finally took off. The trip to Vang Vieng involved alot of mountain driving, meaning ascends and descends combined with lots of twists and turns. The roads were somewhat bumpy aswell.
We arrived around 2pm at a guesthouse car park. We were approached by someone with a guesthouse up the road for 60 000kip so we checked it out and that's where we stayed. We were starving as we only had a bread roll (plain) for breakfast so we had lunch and went for a walk around the main streets. We looked in alot of shops as Kay wanted a sarong, but we didn't find the right one.
Friday 21st
The objective of today was to find out the specifics about tubing, to book our next leg, call home and to write up my blog. We had decided against going to Phonsavan for a couple of reasons. Firstly it would be an eight hour bus ride from Vang Vieng, then we would need another eight hour trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang. So effectively we would spend two days on a bus to only spend one proper day in Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars.
Saturday 22nd
Today was our first day of tubing. Tubing involves floating down the Nam Song river in a tyre like blow up tube, making stops at bars along the way. We got up, had lunch and went to the tubing shop. It's 55 000kip ($6-7) plus a 60 000kip deposit. They then take you along with others up to the tubing launch point around 4km upriver in a tuk tuk. Funnily enough the bulk of the bars were at the launch point or there about. This explains why we see so many people coming back when we're having dinner, yet they don't have tubes with them, meaning they just go up there to drink all day.
First thought was the river is so dirty, it's a reddish brown colour. Not very appealing that's for sure. The riverbed was all stones so trying to get in the tube was hard at first, i fell and cut/bruised my elbow a little bit in the process. Along with the water colour was the fact that the mud was that colour. At the end of the day, Kay had to scrub my boardshorts for me (i asked).
We weren't going to stop off for a drink so soon but when there was a sign saying 'only three bars left', we decided to stop. The section before this bar was very shallow so we had to walk along the rocks to get there. Alot of the locals were looking at me, i think because of my white skin. I almost lost my thongs in this part, not the first time. I was lucky that one of them got stuck on a pole and didn't go down the river. We didn't really want to drink so we just shared a vodka bucket and had a shot of liquor with bees inside it.
We had to walk down the river til we got to deep enough water then we took off properly. As we were passing our unopened bottle of water, 'we' dropped it in the river. We floated for who knows how long until there were some large rocks protruding out of the water. As we split up i ended up hitting the first big one and effectively crawling my way through the others. I came out of it unscathed luckily. In the town we had seen many people with battle scars from the river, be it scabs and bruises or one particular girl having a limp, tape and cotton on her chin and wound dressing on her shoulder.
We came along more rocky parts but they weren't as bad as the first. Another nuisance on the river was boat after boat with tourist going up and down the river, creating waves along the way. They liked to come fairly close to your tube aswell.
As we did not have a watch on our person, we did not know what time it was, but we did know the sun was going down and we weren't anywhere near the end. So we followed numerous others as they disembarked at a specific point where tuk tuks were waiting to take people back to town.
We were originally planning to tube on Sunday aswell but we felt it wasn't worth doing again. It wasn't a let down either that we didn't finish because you get a bit sore from the way you have to lie in the tube.
Sunday 23rd
The only real thing we did today other than go out and eat was to get a massage. We found a place, they took us upstairs where there were three rooms. We were led into one where there were four mattresses on the floor, two occupied by half naked Japanese men getting massages. We were led into another room where there was one European bloke getting a massage...with just a towel on. We had originally wanted oil massages but not like this. So we ended up getting Lao massages, which meant our cloathes stayed on. I'd say it was better than the shiatsu one we had better, not so many elbows in the back.
We were due to depart for Vang Vieng at 9:30am but it was an hour of delays before we finally took off. The trip to Vang Vieng involved alot of mountain driving, meaning ascends and descends combined with lots of twists and turns. The roads were somewhat bumpy aswell.
We arrived around 2pm at a guesthouse car park. We were approached by someone with a guesthouse up the road for 60 000kip so we checked it out and that's where we stayed. We were starving as we only had a bread roll (plain) for breakfast so we had lunch and went for a walk around the main streets. We looked in alot of shops as Kay wanted a sarong, but we didn't find the right one.
Friday 21st
The objective of today was to find out the specifics about tubing, to book our next leg, call home and to write up my blog. We had decided against going to Phonsavan for a couple of reasons. Firstly it would be an eight hour bus ride from Vang Vieng, then we would need another eight hour trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang. So effectively we would spend two days on a bus to only spend one proper day in Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars.
Saturday 22nd
Today was our first day of tubing. Tubing involves floating down the Nam Song river in a tyre like blow up tube, making stops at bars along the way. We got up, had lunch and went to the tubing shop. It's 55 000kip ($6-7) plus a 60 000kip deposit. They then take you along with others up to the tubing launch point around 4km upriver in a tuk tuk. Funnily enough the bulk of the bars were at the launch point or there about. This explains why we see so many people coming back when we're having dinner, yet they don't have tubes with them, meaning they just go up there to drink all day.
First thought was the river is so dirty, it's a reddish brown colour. Not very appealing that's for sure. The riverbed was all stones so trying to get in the tube was hard at first, i fell and cut/bruised my elbow a little bit in the process. Along with the water colour was the fact that the mud was that colour. At the end of the day, Kay had to scrub my boardshorts for me (i asked).
We weren't going to stop off for a drink so soon but when there was a sign saying 'only three bars left', we decided to stop. The section before this bar was very shallow so we had to walk along the rocks to get there. Alot of the locals were looking at me, i think because of my white skin. I almost lost my thongs in this part, not the first time. I was lucky that one of them got stuck on a pole and didn't go down the river. We didn't really want to drink so we just shared a vodka bucket and had a shot of liquor with bees inside it.
We had to walk down the river til we got to deep enough water then we took off properly. As we were passing our unopened bottle of water, 'we' dropped it in the river. We floated for who knows how long until there were some large rocks protruding out of the water. As we split up i ended up hitting the first big one and effectively crawling my way through the others. I came out of it unscathed luckily. In the town we had seen many people with battle scars from the river, be it scabs and bruises or one particular girl having a limp, tape and cotton on her chin and wound dressing on her shoulder.
We came along more rocky parts but they weren't as bad as the first. Another nuisance on the river was boat after boat with tourist going up and down the river, creating waves along the way. They liked to come fairly close to your tube aswell.
As we did not have a watch on our person, we did not know what time it was, but we did know the sun was going down and we weren't anywhere near the end. So we followed numerous others as they disembarked at a specific point where tuk tuks were waiting to take people back to town.
We were originally planning to tube on Sunday aswell but we felt it wasn't worth doing again. It wasn't a let down either that we didn't finish because you get a bit sore from the way you have to lie in the tube.
Sunday 23rd
The only real thing we did today other than go out and eat was to get a massage. We found a place, they took us upstairs where there were three rooms. We were led into one where there were four mattresses on the floor, two occupied by half naked Japanese men getting massages. We were led into another room where there was one European bloke getting a massage...with just a towel on. We had originally wanted oil massages but not like this. So we ended up getting Lao massages, which meant our cloathes stayed on. I'd say it was better than the shiatsu one we had better, not so many elbows in the back.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Vientiane
Saturday 15th
We were picked up at 7:30am for our 10:00am flight to Vientiane (Laos), as it is an international flight we did the norm and got there two hours early. We took note of the 100ml of liquids not being on board but we neglected our brand new 160g toothpaste, customs pulled us up and we had to throw it away.
The plane was very small and took us first to Pakse in Southern Laos where no one got off but some people did get on. We had to get off the plane to go inside and get our visas. I was confused reading the guide as it stated that Lao visas are between $30 and $42. We found out that different nationalities had to pay different prices. Australia was $30, China was $20 and Canada was $42, don't know what they did wrong. The majority of the plane had to get visas so it took about 30 minutes. It's very easy and cheaper to get visas on arrival we have found so i would recommend doing this to everyone.
We arrived in Vientiane around 1pm and straight off the plane we were hit with a cool breeze, which was a pleasant change from the heat of Cambodia. Whereas Phnom Penh will be 33 degrees max and Vientiane 29 degrees max, the difference is in the minimums - Phnom Penh will be 23 degrees and Vientiane 13 degrees. Much better sleeping weather.
We got in a taxi and went into the centre of town. We tried a few places but the only rooms they had available were with shared bathrooms and certainly overpriced for that. We let the driver take us to one and that was the winner. 100 000 kip per night ($12.50) with air con (which we didn't need) and our own bathroom. It was much easier going in Vietnam and Cambodia when it came to figuring out how much things truly cost. For Vietnam you divided by 20 (20 000), Cambodia mostly used the US dollar, which is basically the same as ours at the moment, but in Laos you have to divide by 8 (8 000), which is as friendly a number for quick calculations.
Maria and Bronwyn were in Vientiane for our first three days so we met up with them for dinner. We decided to go to Nazim Indian restaurant, to pay homage to our friend. Not as good as Indian should be but it was decent. I also had my first Beer Lao, which comes in a long neck bottle (unless you want a can).
Sunday 16th
We met up with Maria and Bronwyn to go to the national symbol of Laos - Pha That Luang. It's a big golden Wat a few kms from the centre of town. As far as national symbols go, it wasn't that grand. We paid to get in and literally could only walk around it. We went to the Wat next door and had a look around. The National Assembly is just up the road so we went and got a photo of that. We went back to town together and had a break before meeting up for dinner.
We went to the Lebanese place next door to the girl's hotel for dinner, it was very disappointing for all of us.
Monday 17th
Kay and I went to the Scandinavian Bakery for lunch/brunch. I had tzatiki with bread, which was very nice. We went to an internet cafe as i had to write my Siem Reap post (which took two days and three hours to do). After that we went to That Luang market (which was really a shopping centre) where i bought a new luggage bag - in Siem Reap i locked the keys inside my bag so we tried to get the padlock off but broke one of the zips in the process. I was still able to lock my bad but it was on a different zip and not completely safe.
We went round to the girl's hotel before dinner but Maria wasn't feeling well so we Kay and I went out for dinner ourselves. Whilst near the river we had a look at the stalls step up and one of the stores on the main road. This was a legitimate store selling all illegitimate items. Nothing tickled our fancy, well nothing that we could take home. They had nun chucks, retractable batons and switchblades for sale.
Tuesday 18th
We had lunch at this place which was always packed and they offered a lunch buffet, which gave us a good chance to try many Lao dishes. I had a kebab stick which had what looked like a small capsicum on it, it turned out to be the hottest chilli i've ever had. My mouth was on fire for 20 minutes and i had to have water constantly in my mouth as it feel slightly better.
We went to the internet cafe, where for another two hours i got my blog done and we uploaded our photos to facebook. After finishing there we went to the Wat Si Saket, Vientiane's oldest Wat. It wasn't that good to be honest.
Wednesday 19th
We had seen a Chinese restaurant with a Peking Duck set for 98 000kip ($12) so we decided to go there for lunch. The whole trip i had wanted to have Peking Duck since it's cheaper than home and i like duck. It involved some duck with the wrappers, stir fried duck (though mostly bones) and a duck soup. It was very nice but certainly not worth the amount it costs in Australia.
We walked along the river front and took photos of some monuments and the presidential palace. Alot of the streets in Vientiane are one way - but not all. As such, i didn't look both ways crossing the road and i was almost hit by a tuk tuk, literally centremetres away from hitting me. So i was very lucky. No more being complacent, that's for sure.
One of the unfortunate things about t.v in Laos is that unlike Cambodia and Vietnam, they dub English channels instead of subtitles. This effectively meant we only have four channels to watch, two of which are BBC world news and CNN.
We were picked up at 7:30am for our 10:00am flight to Vientiane (Laos), as it is an international flight we did the norm and got there two hours early. We took note of the 100ml of liquids not being on board but we neglected our brand new 160g toothpaste, customs pulled us up and we had to throw it away.
The plane was very small and took us first to Pakse in Southern Laos where no one got off but some people did get on. We had to get off the plane to go inside and get our visas. I was confused reading the guide as it stated that Lao visas are between $30 and $42. We found out that different nationalities had to pay different prices. Australia was $30, China was $20 and Canada was $42, don't know what they did wrong. The majority of the plane had to get visas so it took about 30 minutes. It's very easy and cheaper to get visas on arrival we have found so i would recommend doing this to everyone.
We arrived in Vientiane around 1pm and straight off the plane we were hit with a cool breeze, which was a pleasant change from the heat of Cambodia. Whereas Phnom Penh will be 33 degrees max and Vientiane 29 degrees max, the difference is in the minimums - Phnom Penh will be 23 degrees and Vientiane 13 degrees. Much better sleeping weather.
We got in a taxi and went into the centre of town. We tried a few places but the only rooms they had available were with shared bathrooms and certainly overpriced for that. We let the driver take us to one and that was the winner. 100 000 kip per night ($12.50) with air con (which we didn't need) and our own bathroom. It was much easier going in Vietnam and Cambodia when it came to figuring out how much things truly cost. For Vietnam you divided by 20 (20 000), Cambodia mostly used the US dollar, which is basically the same as ours at the moment, but in Laos you have to divide by 8 (8 000), which is as friendly a number for quick calculations.
Maria and Bronwyn were in Vientiane for our first three days so we met up with them for dinner. We decided to go to Nazim Indian restaurant, to pay homage to our friend. Not as good as Indian should be but it was decent. I also had my first Beer Lao, which comes in a long neck bottle (unless you want a can).
Sunday 16th
We met up with Maria and Bronwyn to go to the national symbol of Laos - Pha That Luang. It's a big golden Wat a few kms from the centre of town. As far as national symbols go, it wasn't that grand. We paid to get in and literally could only walk around it. We went to the Wat next door and had a look around. The National Assembly is just up the road so we went and got a photo of that. We went back to town together and had a break before meeting up for dinner.
We went to the Lebanese place next door to the girl's hotel for dinner, it was very disappointing for all of us.
Monday 17th
Kay and I went to the Scandinavian Bakery for lunch/brunch. I had tzatiki with bread, which was very nice. We went to an internet cafe as i had to write my Siem Reap post (which took two days and three hours to do). After that we went to That Luang market (which was really a shopping centre) where i bought a new luggage bag - in Siem Reap i locked the keys inside my bag so we tried to get the padlock off but broke one of the zips in the process. I was still able to lock my bad but it was on a different zip and not completely safe.
We went round to the girl's hotel before dinner but Maria wasn't feeling well so we Kay and I went out for dinner ourselves. Whilst near the river we had a look at the stalls step up and one of the stores on the main road. This was a legitimate store selling all illegitimate items. Nothing tickled our fancy, well nothing that we could take home. They had nun chucks, retractable batons and switchblades for sale.
Tuesday 18th
We had lunch at this place which was always packed and they offered a lunch buffet, which gave us a good chance to try many Lao dishes. I had a kebab stick which had what looked like a small capsicum on it, it turned out to be the hottest chilli i've ever had. My mouth was on fire for 20 minutes and i had to have water constantly in my mouth as it feel slightly better.
We went to the internet cafe, where for another two hours i got my blog done and we uploaded our photos to facebook. After finishing there we went to the Wat Si Saket, Vientiane's oldest Wat. It wasn't that good to be honest.
Wednesday 19th
We had seen a Chinese restaurant with a Peking Duck set for 98 000kip ($12) so we decided to go there for lunch. The whole trip i had wanted to have Peking Duck since it's cheaper than home and i like duck. It involved some duck with the wrappers, stir fried duck (though mostly bones) and a duck soup. It was very nice but certainly not worth the amount it costs in Australia.
We walked along the river front and took photos of some monuments and the presidential palace. Alot of the streets in Vientiane are one way - but not all. As such, i didn't look both ways crossing the road and i was almost hit by a tuk tuk, literally centremetres away from hitting me. So i was very lucky. No more being complacent, that's for sure.
One of the unfortunate things about t.v in Laos is that unlike Cambodia and Vietnam, they dub English channels instead of subtitles. This effectively meant we only have four channels to watch, two of which are BBC world news and CNN.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor
Saturday 8th
It was a six hour ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, eventhough we were picked up at 8:10am for an 8:45am bus, our mini bus got to the station last and the cargo hold was full. My bag at to sit at the front of the bus along with two others. At least this meant we wouldn't be picking up people along the way, surely? Well we did get a few but they only had hand luggage.
We had organised a guesthouse through our one in Phnom Penh because it was the same sort of room for the same price and included free pick up from the bus station. Although the driver didn't take us to the one we thought we were going to, it turned out to be better because this place was close to the centre of town and was still the same price. The tuk tuk driver asked us about going to the temples, we hadn't decided where we were going or how much so we said he can come back tomorrow if he wants and we can discuss a price.
Sunday 9th
Looking at both the 'LP South East Asia on a shoestring' and the 'LP Cambodia' guide we decided to go with the latter's three day itinerary. We met the driver downstairs and presented him with this itinerary, he gave us a price of $65, which we got down to $62 as a final price. However as we had told him, we were not 100% about doing it with him because we had not got any other quotes from tuk tuk drivers or any other source for that matter. So we said we would take his offer into consideration and call him later in the afternoon if we were to go with him. At this stage we didn't know you couldn't rent motorbikes in Siem Reap so we were keeping in mind we could do that for ~$8 a day.
He was not happy, he even said himself "that is not good for me"and that we WILL find a cheaper price from someone else. Poor justification for us to go with him that's for sure. We still would not accept and he absolutely cracked the shits, throwing a pool cue across the pool table and swearing in a mix of English (fuck) and Khmer. We simply walked away from him at this point, why should we put up with this nonsense. As we were walking away he called out to give a better price but Kay simply said "why would we go with you when we can see you're not a very nice person".
We explored the centre of town including the Psar Cha (Central Market), had lunch at the Mandalay Inn as they served Burmese food and i was craving a particular dish (pepeo). However they didn't have it, we ate there anyway. Whilst in the area we got airfare quotes for our flight to Laos, the Mandalay turned out to be the cheapest ($127 each) so we booked there. We originally wanted to go on Friday but it was booked out so we booked for Saturday, which turned out to be better anyway as we had more rest time from doing the temples.
As we headed back from dinner we asked a tuk tuk driver and got a price for our temple tours. We had found out it was prohibited to rent motorbikes in Siem Reap so we had no other option, unless we wanted to do countless kilometres on a push bike ($1/day). We got it down to $42, which was pretty good and much better than the arsehole. The guidebook said it should be $12-15 per day excluding temples out of town. We got it for $14/day and that included going out of town twice for temples, one in particular as it's 30km from town. Our first day would be Monday and we would do the temples in chronological order by their period of construction.
Monday 10th
Today was our first day of doing temples, we headed out at 7:30am but stopped for breakfast along the way. It was a bit chilly, particularly when you were driving along in the tuk tuk, but it was not enough to have to take more clothing, particularly since by 9am you would not need it. We had to head towards Angkor to get our tickets ($40 for three days) eventhough we were to head in the opposite direction.
First was the Roulos group - Lolei, Bakong and Preah Ko. The Roulos group are 13km eat of Siem Reap and are not in the main Angkor area, they are the oldest temples, dating from the ninth century A.D. As such, Lolei in particular, they are not in the best of condition. Bakong was surrounded by a large moat and had an active monastery next to it on the 'island'.
After the Roulos group we headed back to Angkor to complete what is called the 'grand circuit' - Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som and Eastern Mebon. Preah Khan (sacred sword) is one of the largest temples in Angkor as well as being in pretty good condition. As is the norm, our driver was supposed to drop us at the West gate so that we would walk to the East and meet him at the North gate. However we were dropped off at the North unknowingly, we realised this when we walked all the way to the South gate to find it wasn't worth looking at and no one else had been that way.
When we got back inside i asked a Cambodian security guard which way was North, he did not understand but a little boy did. He told us to go to the East as it is the most beautiful way. I had asked him why some door ways were very short but some so large, he said it was so you were forced to bow, we found this very interesting. Although the average Cambodian wouldn't have had to bow as it fitted them, but certainly not Westerners.
Although we did not ask, the little boy took us all through the East side and back through the North explaining everything about the temple. His English was some of the best we had heard and he was only 10! By the end i went to give him some money as we thought he did deserve it. He asked for more though, but i met him halfway. I believe that you can't give something to someone that didn't ask for it and then expect money, but i suppose there's no such thing as a free lunch. We've basically learnt that if we're ever offered something to just not accept, incense for a Buddha is an example.
We went for lunch to the restaurant our driver asked us to go to. We realised that it is because he got a free feed out of it but it was fine by us. Lunch was pretty basic and quite pricey at $5 for a noodle dish, it would be $3 back in town. The roads were very dusty so i bought a krama (traditional Cambodian scarf) to keep the dust off my face and out of my nose, mouth and throat.
Preah Neak Pean was our next temple, it was very different to Preah Khan. It was a large pool of water surrounded by four smaller pools. More of a swimming complex you would think, however, the pools were used for ritual purification rites not recreation. At the spout from the central pool to each smaller pool were different heads - elephant, lion, man and a horse.
Ta Som is East of Preah Neak Pean, it is not in that good condition and not that big, it is most known for the huge tree completely overwhelming the eastern gopura and is a very popular photo spot.
Eventhough it wasn't planned it was along the way and we had time to kill, so we went to Eastern Mebon. It would've once been on an islet in the centre of what was called the Eastern Baray (kind of like a lake/dam) it was now on dry land. This temple is a smaller version of Pre Rup and was built 15 to 20 years after it. It is quite high and has five towers, the corners had guard elephants, which were in pretty good shape.
We were supposed to do sunset at Pre Rup but it was 3pm (sunset at 6pm) and we were ready to head there, which was pointless as we weren't going to hang around for three hours so we decided to add it to our second day (Wednesday).
Tuesday 11th
We went back into the centre of town today and went around the central market again, we didn't buy anything though. We went back to the Mandalay Inn to collect our ticket and went to several banks to inquire about how much they charge for a cash advance on Kay's credit card, we tried so many but either their ATMs and/or their in bank EFTPOS machine would not read the card. Very very weird considering it's a Visa card and it is accepted at all of banks. We had success at the very last bank we went to (ANZ Royal Bank) but it still took 20 odd minutes to get the cash, alot of red tape involved.
Previously we had seen a restaurant that offered an Apsara performance (traditional Cambodian dance) for $6 but we had seen on the main street (Pub St) that a place called Temple restaurant and nightclub had it for free so we headed here for dinner. I had Khmer roast duck for dinner, it was very very nice. The dance itself was very slow moving with an emphasise on the wrist and ankle movement.
After dinner we went to the night market which covers a few streets and an open area. There were lots of tanks full of fish that eat your dead skin cells along the way but we had found one for $2 and an unlimited amount of time. We both tried it but i couldn't stand them biting my feet, it was way to ticklish. Kay did it for about 20 minutes, she said she noticed a difference in the way her feet felt. The night market was nothing special and we didn't get anything.
Wednesday 12th
We had breakfast at the hotel and were picked up at 9am. Our first temple would be Banteay Srei, which is around 30 km from Siem Reap. Banteay Srei is considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art as it has the finest stone carving out of all the Angkor temples. It is believed that women did the stone carving as it is too fine for the hand of a man. Banteay Srei was also not commissioned by the King at the time but one of his advisers. It was quite packed at the temple and as it was not very big, it made it a bit hard to move around freely. The stone carvings were very nice.
Our second temple was back in the Angkor area - Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is known for the fact that the jungle has had much more influence on it. It is covered in huge trees growing on it's ruins. It's big but alot is in ruin. Ta Prohm is a temple of towers. close courtyards and narrow corridors, many of which you can not enter.
Next was the 'small circuit' consisting of Banteay Samre, Ta Keo, Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon, Banteay Kdei and Sras Srang. Banteay Samre is in good condition due to some extensive restoration, however it has been ravaged by looters over the years. It is another temple that was once surrounded by water but no more.
Ta Keo is an undecorated temple as it was unfinished, possibly because the King died during it's construction. Ta Keo consists of five towers, a high central one surrounded by four smaller towers. It's summit is 50m high and didn't we know it. You could walk right up to the main tower in the middle. The stairs were very steep and not always even. We then went to Chau Say Tevoda and Thommanon, these two temples are twins and are across the road from each other. Chau Say Tevoda is not in as good condition as it's twin, although there is restoration ongoing to bring it up to scratch.
Banteay Kdei is a huge temple complex surrounded by four concentric walls. It is in a ruinous state due to it's hasty construction. There are garudas (bird/human creatures) at the entrances. Across the road is Sras Srang, it is more of a what used to be. It's simply a large lake which once had a temple on an island in the middle. All that's left is the island, bare of any temple.
We had used our day well and were at Pre Rup for the beginning of the sunset. The only problem was that it was an extremely overcast day and you could not see what you wanted to see. However it didn't stop scores of people crowding around the tallest tower to see (nothing). Pre Rup is very much like Ta Keo although not as big although the towers are not in as good shape.
Thursday 13th
Big big day today, we were up at 4:30am to be picked up at 5am to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. It was quite chilly as expected and very dark. We got something to eat before we crossed the moat, although all i had was a bread roll and a red bull. We could not see a thing all the way to Angkor Wat, i say this now because on the way out in the day light we could see how the causeway was all over the place in terms of places to trip up or roll your ankle.
Unfortunately it was another overcast day so we did not see the beautiful sunrise we were supposed to see, luck of the draw. On the plus side the temple was not busy, there were alot of people but the tour groups were starting to roll in when we left at 9:30am. The other bummer was that the front of the temple has scaffolding over it in the middle section, necessary i suppose but frustrating.
Angkor Wat on it's first level surrounding the temple has huge and detailed 3D carvings depicting historical Cambodian events and Hindu stories, they're called bas-reliefs. The Cambodia guidebook was enough for us to get the jist of what was depicted on the bas-reliefs.
We were able to go all the way to the top of the highest Angkor Wat tower but it had proper wooden stairs built over it's old stone stairs. You can see the old stairs they used to use, i can remember when i went to Angkor Wat with my family that Heather and I went up and came down on a different side and it was very hard to do. All of these staircases have been blocked off.
We then met up with our driver and had breakfast, it was good value this time. Next stop was Angkor Thom, the largest complex at Angkor, it's more like a citadel, with many things inside it's walls. We started at the Bayon, the second most famous temple after Angkor Wat. It's where all of the towers have faces on them, 216 faces to be exact.
Second was the Baphoun, which you can only view as it is not safe to go up and is closed off. The Baphoun is a pyramidal representation of Mt. Meru (think Mt. Olympus in Greek Mythology), the rear of the temple has an unfinished reclining Buddha carved into the wall, this was done hundreds of years later.
We walked from the Baphoun to the Phimeanakas, another pyramid looking temple representing Mt. Meru. It was around midday at this time and the heat did not help the way we felt. We had a look at the temple but did not climb the steep stairs. We soldiered on and walked to Preah Palilay and what's left of Tep Pranam, which isn't much more than some stone slabs. We went across to road to our tuk tuk and i ran over to get a picture of the Preah Pithu group. On the way out we saw the terrace of the lepers, the terrace of the elephants and the Kleangs on the other side, which are big towers.
Unfortunately since we had to get up so early to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise it made us so tired and we really didn't want to do anything. Eventhough we started small and built up, i feel it's probably best to do Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom on your first day if you're going to do three days. It would also seem possible to do alot around the Angkor temples if you only had one day and you started at Angkor Wat for sunrise and finished off at sunset. It was still 1pm by the time we left Angkor Thom so we had still had near to a full day (5am-1pm) eventhough we didn't look at all of Angkor Thom's temples properly.
Friday 14th
We didn't particularly sleep in as we went to bed early but we didn't get out of bed til 11am. We went back to the other market where Kay got quoted the best price for the bracelet she wanted. The bracelet in question she did not get, but bought two others instead. I had a look at the t-shirts but they were not as good quality as the Vietnamese ones and i bought some reed/silk placemats and coasters for home. Basically every place in the market sold the same things. DVDs are $2 each, whereas we paid between $0.50 and 0.75 in Vietnam so we didn't get any.
It was a six hour ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, eventhough we were picked up at 8:10am for an 8:45am bus, our mini bus got to the station last and the cargo hold was full. My bag at to sit at the front of the bus along with two others. At least this meant we wouldn't be picking up people along the way, surely? Well we did get a few but they only had hand luggage.
We had organised a guesthouse through our one in Phnom Penh because it was the same sort of room for the same price and included free pick up from the bus station. Although the driver didn't take us to the one we thought we were going to, it turned out to be better because this place was close to the centre of town and was still the same price. The tuk tuk driver asked us about going to the temples, we hadn't decided where we were going or how much so we said he can come back tomorrow if he wants and we can discuss a price.
Sunday 9th
Looking at both the 'LP South East Asia on a shoestring' and the 'LP Cambodia' guide we decided to go with the latter's three day itinerary. We met the driver downstairs and presented him with this itinerary, he gave us a price of $65, which we got down to $62 as a final price. However as we had told him, we were not 100% about doing it with him because we had not got any other quotes from tuk tuk drivers or any other source for that matter. So we said we would take his offer into consideration and call him later in the afternoon if we were to go with him. At this stage we didn't know you couldn't rent motorbikes in Siem Reap so we were keeping in mind we could do that for ~$8 a day.
He was not happy, he even said himself "that is not good for me"and that we WILL find a cheaper price from someone else. Poor justification for us to go with him that's for sure. We still would not accept and he absolutely cracked the shits, throwing a pool cue across the pool table and swearing in a mix of English (fuck) and Khmer. We simply walked away from him at this point, why should we put up with this nonsense. As we were walking away he called out to give a better price but Kay simply said "why would we go with you when we can see you're not a very nice person".
We explored the centre of town including the Psar Cha (Central Market), had lunch at the Mandalay Inn as they served Burmese food and i was craving a particular dish (pepeo). However they didn't have it, we ate there anyway. Whilst in the area we got airfare quotes for our flight to Laos, the Mandalay turned out to be the cheapest ($127 each) so we booked there. We originally wanted to go on Friday but it was booked out so we booked for Saturday, which turned out to be better anyway as we had more rest time from doing the temples.
As we headed back from dinner we asked a tuk tuk driver and got a price for our temple tours. We had found out it was prohibited to rent motorbikes in Siem Reap so we had no other option, unless we wanted to do countless kilometres on a push bike ($1/day). We got it down to $42, which was pretty good and much better than the arsehole. The guidebook said it should be $12-15 per day excluding temples out of town. We got it for $14/day and that included going out of town twice for temples, one in particular as it's 30km from town. Our first day would be Monday and we would do the temples in chronological order by their period of construction.
Monday 10th
Today was our first day of doing temples, we headed out at 7:30am but stopped for breakfast along the way. It was a bit chilly, particularly when you were driving along in the tuk tuk, but it was not enough to have to take more clothing, particularly since by 9am you would not need it. We had to head towards Angkor to get our tickets ($40 for three days) eventhough we were to head in the opposite direction.
First was the Roulos group - Lolei, Bakong and Preah Ko. The Roulos group are 13km eat of Siem Reap and are not in the main Angkor area, they are the oldest temples, dating from the ninth century A.D. As such, Lolei in particular, they are not in the best of condition. Bakong was surrounded by a large moat and had an active monastery next to it on the 'island'.
After the Roulos group we headed back to Angkor to complete what is called the 'grand circuit' - Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som and Eastern Mebon. Preah Khan (sacred sword) is one of the largest temples in Angkor as well as being in pretty good condition. As is the norm, our driver was supposed to drop us at the West gate so that we would walk to the East and meet him at the North gate. However we were dropped off at the North unknowingly, we realised this when we walked all the way to the South gate to find it wasn't worth looking at and no one else had been that way.
When we got back inside i asked a Cambodian security guard which way was North, he did not understand but a little boy did. He told us to go to the East as it is the most beautiful way. I had asked him why some door ways were very short but some so large, he said it was so you were forced to bow, we found this very interesting. Although the average Cambodian wouldn't have had to bow as it fitted them, but certainly not Westerners.
Although we did not ask, the little boy took us all through the East side and back through the North explaining everything about the temple. His English was some of the best we had heard and he was only 10! By the end i went to give him some money as we thought he did deserve it. He asked for more though, but i met him halfway. I believe that you can't give something to someone that didn't ask for it and then expect money, but i suppose there's no such thing as a free lunch. We've basically learnt that if we're ever offered something to just not accept, incense for a Buddha is an example.
We went for lunch to the restaurant our driver asked us to go to. We realised that it is because he got a free feed out of it but it was fine by us. Lunch was pretty basic and quite pricey at $5 for a noodle dish, it would be $3 back in town. The roads were very dusty so i bought a krama (traditional Cambodian scarf) to keep the dust off my face and out of my nose, mouth and throat.
Preah Neak Pean was our next temple, it was very different to Preah Khan. It was a large pool of water surrounded by four smaller pools. More of a swimming complex you would think, however, the pools were used for ritual purification rites not recreation. At the spout from the central pool to each smaller pool were different heads - elephant, lion, man and a horse.
Ta Som is East of Preah Neak Pean, it is not in that good condition and not that big, it is most known for the huge tree completely overwhelming the eastern gopura and is a very popular photo spot.
Eventhough it wasn't planned it was along the way and we had time to kill, so we went to Eastern Mebon. It would've once been on an islet in the centre of what was called the Eastern Baray (kind of like a lake/dam) it was now on dry land. This temple is a smaller version of Pre Rup and was built 15 to 20 years after it. It is quite high and has five towers, the corners had guard elephants, which were in pretty good shape.
We were supposed to do sunset at Pre Rup but it was 3pm (sunset at 6pm) and we were ready to head there, which was pointless as we weren't going to hang around for three hours so we decided to add it to our second day (Wednesday).
Tuesday 11th
We went back into the centre of town today and went around the central market again, we didn't buy anything though. We went back to the Mandalay Inn to collect our ticket and went to several banks to inquire about how much they charge for a cash advance on Kay's credit card, we tried so many but either their ATMs and/or their in bank EFTPOS machine would not read the card. Very very weird considering it's a Visa card and it is accepted at all of banks. We had success at the very last bank we went to (ANZ Royal Bank) but it still took 20 odd minutes to get the cash, alot of red tape involved.
Previously we had seen a restaurant that offered an Apsara performance (traditional Cambodian dance) for $6 but we had seen on the main street (Pub St) that a place called Temple restaurant and nightclub had it for free so we headed here for dinner. I had Khmer roast duck for dinner, it was very very nice. The dance itself was very slow moving with an emphasise on the wrist and ankle movement.
After dinner we went to the night market which covers a few streets and an open area. There were lots of tanks full of fish that eat your dead skin cells along the way but we had found one for $2 and an unlimited amount of time. We both tried it but i couldn't stand them biting my feet, it was way to ticklish. Kay did it for about 20 minutes, she said she noticed a difference in the way her feet felt. The night market was nothing special and we didn't get anything.
Wednesday 12th
We had breakfast at the hotel and were picked up at 9am. Our first temple would be Banteay Srei, which is around 30 km from Siem Reap. Banteay Srei is considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art as it has the finest stone carving out of all the Angkor temples. It is believed that women did the stone carving as it is too fine for the hand of a man. Banteay Srei was also not commissioned by the King at the time but one of his advisers. It was quite packed at the temple and as it was not very big, it made it a bit hard to move around freely. The stone carvings were very nice.
Our second temple was back in the Angkor area - Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is known for the fact that the jungle has had much more influence on it. It is covered in huge trees growing on it's ruins. It's big but alot is in ruin. Ta Prohm is a temple of towers. close courtyards and narrow corridors, many of which you can not enter.
Next was the 'small circuit' consisting of Banteay Samre, Ta Keo, Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon, Banteay Kdei and Sras Srang. Banteay Samre is in good condition due to some extensive restoration, however it has been ravaged by looters over the years. It is another temple that was once surrounded by water but no more.
Ta Keo is an undecorated temple as it was unfinished, possibly because the King died during it's construction. Ta Keo consists of five towers, a high central one surrounded by four smaller towers. It's summit is 50m high and didn't we know it. You could walk right up to the main tower in the middle. The stairs were very steep and not always even. We then went to Chau Say Tevoda and Thommanon, these two temples are twins and are across the road from each other. Chau Say Tevoda is not in as good condition as it's twin, although there is restoration ongoing to bring it up to scratch.
Banteay Kdei is a huge temple complex surrounded by four concentric walls. It is in a ruinous state due to it's hasty construction. There are garudas (bird/human creatures) at the entrances. Across the road is Sras Srang, it is more of a what used to be. It's simply a large lake which once had a temple on an island in the middle. All that's left is the island, bare of any temple.
We had used our day well and were at Pre Rup for the beginning of the sunset. The only problem was that it was an extremely overcast day and you could not see what you wanted to see. However it didn't stop scores of people crowding around the tallest tower to see (nothing). Pre Rup is very much like Ta Keo although not as big although the towers are not in as good shape.
Thursday 13th
Big big day today, we were up at 4:30am to be picked up at 5am to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. It was quite chilly as expected and very dark. We got something to eat before we crossed the moat, although all i had was a bread roll and a red bull. We could not see a thing all the way to Angkor Wat, i say this now because on the way out in the day light we could see how the causeway was all over the place in terms of places to trip up or roll your ankle.
Unfortunately it was another overcast day so we did not see the beautiful sunrise we were supposed to see, luck of the draw. On the plus side the temple was not busy, there were alot of people but the tour groups were starting to roll in when we left at 9:30am. The other bummer was that the front of the temple has scaffolding over it in the middle section, necessary i suppose but frustrating.
Angkor Wat on it's first level surrounding the temple has huge and detailed 3D carvings depicting historical Cambodian events and Hindu stories, they're called bas-reliefs. The Cambodia guidebook was enough for us to get the jist of what was depicted on the bas-reliefs.
We were able to go all the way to the top of the highest Angkor Wat tower but it had proper wooden stairs built over it's old stone stairs. You can see the old stairs they used to use, i can remember when i went to Angkor Wat with my family that Heather and I went up and came down on a different side and it was very hard to do. All of these staircases have been blocked off.
We then met up with our driver and had breakfast, it was good value this time. Next stop was Angkor Thom, the largest complex at Angkor, it's more like a citadel, with many things inside it's walls. We started at the Bayon, the second most famous temple after Angkor Wat. It's where all of the towers have faces on them, 216 faces to be exact.
Second was the Baphoun, which you can only view as it is not safe to go up and is closed off. The Baphoun is a pyramidal representation of Mt. Meru (think Mt. Olympus in Greek Mythology), the rear of the temple has an unfinished reclining Buddha carved into the wall, this was done hundreds of years later.
We walked from the Baphoun to the Phimeanakas, another pyramid looking temple representing Mt. Meru. It was around midday at this time and the heat did not help the way we felt. We had a look at the temple but did not climb the steep stairs. We soldiered on and walked to Preah Palilay and what's left of Tep Pranam, which isn't much more than some stone slabs. We went across to road to our tuk tuk and i ran over to get a picture of the Preah Pithu group. On the way out we saw the terrace of the lepers, the terrace of the elephants and the Kleangs on the other side, which are big towers.
Unfortunately since we had to get up so early to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise it made us so tired and we really didn't want to do anything. Eventhough we started small and built up, i feel it's probably best to do Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom on your first day if you're going to do three days. It would also seem possible to do alot around the Angkor temples if you only had one day and you started at Angkor Wat for sunrise and finished off at sunset. It was still 1pm by the time we left Angkor Thom so we had still had near to a full day (5am-1pm) eventhough we didn't look at all of Angkor Thom's temples properly.
Friday 14th
We didn't particularly sleep in as we went to bed early but we didn't get out of bed til 11am. We went back to the other market where Kay got quoted the best price for the bracelet she wanted. The bracelet in question she did not get, but bought two others instead. I had a look at the t-shirts but they were not as good quality as the Vietnamese ones and i bought some reed/silk placemats and coasters for home. Basically every place in the market sold the same things. DVDs are $2 each, whereas we paid between $0.50 and 0.75 in Vietnam so we didn't get any.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Phnom Penh
Tuesday 4th
We were told to be ready by 8:30am, we were eating our breakfast at the place next door to our hotel when the bus turned up at 8:15am to collect us, so we didn't get to finish our food. Worst of all i was having a soup so i couldn't take it with me and i hadn't had much as it was still hot. Waste of money that was.We left Sianoukville at 9:30am, eventhough we were on the bus waiting, there were people who came late and we had to pick up more people from another bus office.
We arrived four hours later in Phnom Penh to a horde of tuk tuk drivers wanting us business. We went to our hotel of choice (Spring Guesthouse), which the tuk tuk driver insisted was no good (opposite to Lonely Planet's view) and that we should go to his suggestion, love the feeling of proving them wrong, $9 a night, beautiful. The plan was to have yum cha for dinner, well at least some dumplings, as we had two Chinese restaurants close by, neither had any. We went to a Khmer restaurant instead.
Wednesday 5th
Kay was still wanting prawn dumplings, luckily Monivong Blvd. which leads to the central market had many Chinese restaurants, including one that sold dumplings.
We got to the market and had a look around, pretty much the same stuff you see everywhere, although there were a heap of watch stores in the centre and jewellery stores down another side. We had decided to get a watch since Kay's phone is our only source of the time and we have had it die on us previously. I'm not a watch person (although i might get one in Bangkok) so it was a watch for Kay. We looked at so many from the one store, after half an hour of deciding and bargaining we got a very nice '(and i mean very nice) 'Rado' watch for $20, down from $35.
I wasn't particularly after anything as i got what i immediately needed in Vietnam but i did finally find a belt that i wanted. After very hard bargaining, more so because i wasn't fussed if i got it or not, meaning i was a real hard arse, i got my 'Louis Vuitton' belt for $10, down from $25. They played the "i make no profit"card yet still gave it to me for that price as i walked away, fancy selling something for no profit.
Once again most of the day was consumed by shopping, i can't imagine what it's going to be like in Bangkok when we really plan to shop.
Thursday 6th
Today was dedicated to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda (next door to one another). We didn't realise that the Palace had a siesta so we had to wait 45 minutes to get in, which wasn't too bad as it allowed us to rest after our long walk in the middle of the day heat. It was quite hot today, however when you found some shade, combined with a nice breeze, it was not too bad. The main thing when it comes to the heat in Cambodia is the sun, when you're directly in it, you really feel it.
There was a whole bunch of people waiting to get it, some women were rejected for being under-dressed (idiots), it's common knowledge that you (boys included) must cover the shoulders and knees (shorts ok, not short shorts) in Buddhist countries before entering a pagoda or respectful sight like a Palace. The guidebook which was printed in March '09 stated $3 for entry and $2 for a camera, entry was $6.25 regardless of camera or not, talk about a price hike.
I suppose the Palace is one of those things you do in Phnom Penh, but you can't really see much and the entry fee in no way reflects what you do see. On the way back we stopped off at a Belgian chocolate shop for a rest and nibble. It was very nice. We also found a proper dim sum place on our way back and had a few things to eat (not a full meal) as the other Chinese place didn't suffice.
Friday 7th
We went to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek and S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison today. We started at the killing fields, which are located 13km out of Phnom Penh. We considered renting a bike but the traffic within Phnom Penh is pretty bad, although not as many people as Saigon, there are many more cars. Although it worked out fine because we got a tuk tuk driver to take us to the killing fields and drop us at Tuol Sleng for $8 (he opened at $13).
If you know about this period in Cambodian history then you can skip this paragraph and the next. In 1975 a group called the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia. Soon after taking Phnom Penh from the Lon Nol regime they moved everyone out of the city. This was Year Zero, a fresh start for Pol Pot's utopia. Over the next three and a bit year's millions of Cambodians were used as slave labour on projects and rice fields. About two million people were either killed or starved to death during this period. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 and liberated it's people.
The irony is that the West (mainly the US) helped the Khmer Rouge take power and did nothing to help the people of Cambodia. In fact they condemned Vietnam for invading Cambodia. It must be said that Vietnam's main reason for invading was that the Khmer Rouge were causing problems on the border and the war hardened Vietnamese had had enough. Pol Pot was never brought to justice for his crimes, he died of old age in 1998. Many of his comrades have been charged, thirty year's too late though.
Tuol Sleng was a once a school before it became S-21. The killing field of Choeng Ek was the principal killing field for prisoners from S-21, there are many more like it all over the country. Over 20 000 people went through S-21 during it's operation, all but seven ended up in the killing field. When it was abandoned due to the coming Vietnamese forces, there were fourteen dead people and the aforementioned seven survivors left in Tuol Sleng. The Khmer Rouge, like the Nazi's were meticulous record keepers, every person that went through S-21 had their photo taken and a file kept on them. Some of the photos are displayed on giant boards at the prison now.
The killing field contains over 100 mass graves, although not all have been exhumed, the largest had over 300 bodies inside it. At the site is a memorial stupa, which contains the skulls of thousands of the people that died there. If you look carefully you can see how some of them died, be it a hole from a bullet or a 'cut' from a knife (well machete). In an effort to save bullets not all were shot. Many were killed with primitive instruments such as hoes, axe handles and even palm leaves (the sharp ones).
There were constant hassles in Phnom Penh, we were been asked if we wanted a tuk tuk or moto a hundred times a day, it became really annoying. The other thing bout Phnom Penh is the volume of cars and the fact that there is no on-street parking, rather they park on the FOOTpath, facing the shops of course. Phnom Penh is definitely not pedestrian friendly. Walks become so much longer because you're constantly side stepping cars, bikes and the wares of shops. It's actually easier to walk on the side of the road, albeit more dangerous.
We were told to be ready by 8:30am, we were eating our breakfast at the place next door to our hotel when the bus turned up at 8:15am to collect us, so we didn't get to finish our food. Worst of all i was having a soup so i couldn't take it with me and i hadn't had much as it was still hot. Waste of money that was.We left Sianoukville at 9:30am, eventhough we were on the bus waiting, there were people who came late and we had to pick up more people from another bus office.
We arrived four hours later in Phnom Penh to a horde of tuk tuk drivers wanting us business. We went to our hotel of choice (Spring Guesthouse), which the tuk tuk driver insisted was no good (opposite to Lonely Planet's view) and that we should go to his suggestion, love the feeling of proving them wrong, $9 a night, beautiful. The plan was to have yum cha for dinner, well at least some dumplings, as we had two Chinese restaurants close by, neither had any. We went to a Khmer restaurant instead.
Wednesday 5th
Kay was still wanting prawn dumplings, luckily Monivong Blvd. which leads to the central market had many Chinese restaurants, including one that sold dumplings.
We got to the market and had a look around, pretty much the same stuff you see everywhere, although there were a heap of watch stores in the centre and jewellery stores down another side. We had decided to get a watch since Kay's phone is our only source of the time and we have had it die on us previously. I'm not a watch person (although i might get one in Bangkok) so it was a watch for Kay. We looked at so many from the one store, after half an hour of deciding and bargaining we got a very nice '(and i mean very nice) 'Rado' watch for $20, down from $35.
I wasn't particularly after anything as i got what i immediately needed in Vietnam but i did finally find a belt that i wanted. After very hard bargaining, more so because i wasn't fussed if i got it or not, meaning i was a real hard arse, i got my 'Louis Vuitton' belt for $10, down from $25. They played the "i make no profit"card yet still gave it to me for that price as i walked away, fancy selling something for no profit.
Once again most of the day was consumed by shopping, i can't imagine what it's going to be like in Bangkok when we really plan to shop.
Thursday 6th
Today was dedicated to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda (next door to one another). We didn't realise that the Palace had a siesta so we had to wait 45 minutes to get in, which wasn't too bad as it allowed us to rest after our long walk in the middle of the day heat. It was quite hot today, however when you found some shade, combined with a nice breeze, it was not too bad. The main thing when it comes to the heat in Cambodia is the sun, when you're directly in it, you really feel it.
There was a whole bunch of people waiting to get it, some women were rejected for being under-dressed (idiots), it's common knowledge that you (boys included) must cover the shoulders and knees (shorts ok, not short shorts) in Buddhist countries before entering a pagoda or respectful sight like a Palace. The guidebook which was printed in March '09 stated $3 for entry and $2 for a camera, entry was $6.25 regardless of camera or not, talk about a price hike.
I suppose the Palace is one of those things you do in Phnom Penh, but you can't really see much and the entry fee in no way reflects what you do see. On the way back we stopped off at a Belgian chocolate shop for a rest and nibble. It was very nice. We also found a proper dim sum place on our way back and had a few things to eat (not a full meal) as the other Chinese place didn't suffice.
Friday 7th
We went to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek and S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison today. We started at the killing fields, which are located 13km out of Phnom Penh. We considered renting a bike but the traffic within Phnom Penh is pretty bad, although not as many people as Saigon, there are many more cars. Although it worked out fine because we got a tuk tuk driver to take us to the killing fields and drop us at Tuol Sleng for $8 (he opened at $13).
If you know about this period in Cambodian history then you can skip this paragraph and the next. In 1975 a group called the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot took over Cambodia. Soon after taking Phnom Penh from the Lon Nol regime they moved everyone out of the city. This was Year Zero, a fresh start for Pol Pot's utopia. Over the next three and a bit year's millions of Cambodians were used as slave labour on projects and rice fields. About two million people were either killed or starved to death during this period. The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 and liberated it's people.
The irony is that the West (mainly the US) helped the Khmer Rouge take power and did nothing to help the people of Cambodia. In fact they condemned Vietnam for invading Cambodia. It must be said that Vietnam's main reason for invading was that the Khmer Rouge were causing problems on the border and the war hardened Vietnamese had had enough. Pol Pot was never brought to justice for his crimes, he died of old age in 1998. Many of his comrades have been charged, thirty year's too late though.
Tuol Sleng was a once a school before it became S-21. The killing field of Choeng Ek was the principal killing field for prisoners from S-21, there are many more like it all over the country. Over 20 000 people went through S-21 during it's operation, all but seven ended up in the killing field. When it was abandoned due to the coming Vietnamese forces, there were fourteen dead people and the aforementioned seven survivors left in Tuol Sleng. The Khmer Rouge, like the Nazi's were meticulous record keepers, every person that went through S-21 had their photo taken and a file kept on them. Some of the photos are displayed on giant boards at the prison now.
The killing field contains over 100 mass graves, although not all have been exhumed, the largest had over 300 bodies inside it. At the site is a memorial stupa, which contains the skulls of thousands of the people that died there. If you look carefully you can see how some of them died, be it a hole from a bullet or a 'cut' from a knife (well machete). In an effort to save bullets not all were shot. Many were killed with primitive instruments such as hoes, axe handles and even palm leaves (the sharp ones).
There were constant hassles in Phnom Penh, we were been asked if we wanted a tuk tuk or moto a hundred times a day, it became really annoying. The other thing bout Phnom Penh is the volume of cars and the fact that there is no on-street parking, rather they park on the FOOTpath, facing the shops of course. Phnom Penh is definitely not pedestrian friendly. Walks become so much longer because you're constantly side stepping cars, bikes and the wares of shops. It's actually easier to walk on the side of the road, albeit more dangerous.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Sianoukville
Friday 31st
We thought we better book ahead since we had trouble in Kampot with finding accommodation and the fact that we would be getting in on NYE, we called about 20 places on the 29th and the only one that actually had a room was charging $40 and it was only a fan room. We took this as we had no other option.
We got into Sianoukville around 2pm, put our stuff in our rooms and immediately went out to look for our next hotel. Straight away we were hassled by tuk tuk drivers, one said that everyone was booked and that he could take us to the other side of town to a place that might not be full, oh yeah...for $5. No thanks. The entire beach area was covered in hotels so we figured we'd try there first. We asked at a few and they had rooms but wanted way too much, the third try had a room and we got it down to $20 (on arrival she gave us air con as well). So we booked there for the next three nights, so much for everything being full. I should note that they wanted $40 for NYE as well, so it would appear everyone hiked they're prices up. It was basically across the road which was very convenient.The area we stayed in was called Occhuteal Beach. The hotels were less than 100m away.
Before dinner we went to the mini mart where we got a bottle of vodka and coke for $7.50. The mart also had fireworks so i indulged myself. We had dinner at the place next door to our next hotel as well as NYE drinks. $2 buckets, $2 cocktails and $1 mixers. We went to the beach after dinner, it's not a very big beach in terms of depth, it is however 4km long. The sand was full of revellers letting off fireworks, although they all seemed to have the same shitty ones. We went back to the restaurant to sit and drink some more as they were cheaper than the beach side establishments. In hindsight this was not a god move, considering we had a bottle of vodka to drink.
Before heading to the beach i got some more fireworks. There was no countdown (even in Khmer) and no official fireworks. Since people were constantly letting them of it was hard to tell when new year's was without looking at the time. By 1:30am we weren't in the best of shape, Kay felt sick so we headed back, along the way i was talking shit to anyone who would listen, or not listen. Like clockwork after going inside our room, Kay was throwing up in the toilet and i followed in the sink. Overall a good night, bar that.
Saturday 1st
We had to get up to move hotels, which wasn't very pleasant to do. We went straight to bed, i wasn't feeling good and threw up again after midday. We didn't go out for lunch, i tend not to be hungry when hungover. We did a combination of sleeping and watching t.v all afternoon. Went out for dinner, did nothing more.
Sunday 2nd
We got up very late, went out for lunch and went along the beach. Surprisingly the beach was full of locals, not tourists. The street we were on was full of restaurants and at night they all had a bbq out the front. We went to a place that was full of people for dinner, it was pretty good as well.
Monday 3rd
We went to the same restaurant that we had dinner at for lunch. Today was the day that we would finally go to the beach!! The nicest beach (Otres Beach) was 7km away so we decided to go there instead of the packed Occhuteal or Serendipity beaches. We rented bicycles for the trip, the bikes were pretty crap, hard seats, bad brakes and both were to tall for Kay. Weird considering she's the same height as the average Cambodian girl.
The ride was fine (other than the seat) until we got to a dirt road, which is very hard on a non-mountain bike. We eventually got to Otres Beach, the water was crystal clear and the sand was an off-white colour. The water was very shallow, we had to go in so far just to get shoulder deep. It was the typical Cambodian day - 30+ degrees and the water was warm but very very nice. We spent a few hours here. Unfortunately, eventhough we charged Kay's camera the night before, the battery was dead so we could not take any photos.
We went to the beach for dinner, although they were doing the same things as everywhere else. It was annoying on the beach as we had beggers and people selling shit constantly asking us. Some kids actually took some bread of the guy on the table next to us.
Sianoukville was a place where we were meant to do things, particularly since we didn't do much in Kep and Kampot. We decided against renting a motorbike since the police like to 'fine' tourists, we saw many being pulled over. Prices for tours in Cambodia are so much more expensive than in Vietnam, just to go to Ream National Park was $22 and snorkeling trips were $15+. Nha Trang was better than Sianoukville, although Otres Beach was very very nice and the perfect place for a relaxing dip. I would say Sianoukville is worth visiting, we just didn't ultilise our time here effectively, although NYE was to blame.
Sianoukville was annoying in terms of touts. We were constantly bombarded with offers of moto and tuk-tuk rides. You couldn't walk out of your hotel without someone asking you.They don't seem to realise that if we want to go somewhere, we will ask. You shouldn't bother asking when you can see we've walked past five who asked us already. Even if we wanted to go on a tuk-tuk, they simply asked way to much for the distance and time of your trip.
We thought we better book ahead since we had trouble in Kampot with finding accommodation and the fact that we would be getting in on NYE, we called about 20 places on the 29th and the only one that actually had a room was charging $40 and it was only a fan room. We took this as we had no other option.
We got into Sianoukville around 2pm, put our stuff in our rooms and immediately went out to look for our next hotel. Straight away we were hassled by tuk tuk drivers, one said that everyone was booked and that he could take us to the other side of town to a place that might not be full, oh yeah...for $5. No thanks. The entire beach area was covered in hotels so we figured we'd try there first. We asked at a few and they had rooms but wanted way too much, the third try had a room and we got it down to $20 (on arrival she gave us air con as well). So we booked there for the next three nights, so much for everything being full. I should note that they wanted $40 for NYE as well, so it would appear everyone hiked they're prices up. It was basically across the road which was very convenient.The area we stayed in was called Occhuteal Beach. The hotels were less than 100m away.
Before dinner we went to the mini mart where we got a bottle of vodka and coke for $7.50. The mart also had fireworks so i indulged myself. We had dinner at the place next door to our next hotel as well as NYE drinks. $2 buckets, $2 cocktails and $1 mixers. We went to the beach after dinner, it's not a very big beach in terms of depth, it is however 4km long. The sand was full of revellers letting off fireworks, although they all seemed to have the same shitty ones. We went back to the restaurant to sit and drink some more as they were cheaper than the beach side establishments. In hindsight this was not a god move, considering we had a bottle of vodka to drink.
Before heading to the beach i got some more fireworks. There was no countdown (even in Khmer) and no official fireworks. Since people were constantly letting them of it was hard to tell when new year's was without looking at the time. By 1:30am we weren't in the best of shape, Kay felt sick so we headed back, along the way i was talking shit to anyone who would listen, or not listen. Like clockwork after going inside our room, Kay was throwing up in the toilet and i followed in the sink. Overall a good night, bar that.
Saturday 1st
We had to get up to move hotels, which wasn't very pleasant to do. We went straight to bed, i wasn't feeling good and threw up again after midday. We didn't go out for lunch, i tend not to be hungry when hungover. We did a combination of sleeping and watching t.v all afternoon. Went out for dinner, did nothing more.
Sunday 2nd
We got up very late, went out for lunch and went along the beach. Surprisingly the beach was full of locals, not tourists. The street we were on was full of restaurants and at night they all had a bbq out the front. We went to a place that was full of people for dinner, it was pretty good as well.
Monday 3rd
We went to the same restaurant that we had dinner at for lunch. Today was the day that we would finally go to the beach!! The nicest beach (Otres Beach) was 7km away so we decided to go there instead of the packed Occhuteal or Serendipity beaches. We rented bicycles for the trip, the bikes were pretty crap, hard seats, bad brakes and both were to tall for Kay. Weird considering she's the same height as the average Cambodian girl.
The ride was fine (other than the seat) until we got to a dirt road, which is very hard on a non-mountain bike. We eventually got to Otres Beach, the water was crystal clear and the sand was an off-white colour. The water was very shallow, we had to go in so far just to get shoulder deep. It was the typical Cambodian day - 30+ degrees and the water was warm but very very nice. We spent a few hours here. Unfortunately, eventhough we charged Kay's camera the night before, the battery was dead so we could not take any photos.
We went to the beach for dinner, although they were doing the same things as everywhere else. It was annoying on the beach as we had beggers and people selling shit constantly asking us. Some kids actually took some bread of the guy on the table next to us.
Sianoukville was a place where we were meant to do things, particularly since we didn't do much in Kep and Kampot. We decided against renting a motorbike since the police like to 'fine' tourists, we saw many being pulled over. Prices for tours in Cambodia are so much more expensive than in Vietnam, just to go to Ream National Park was $22 and snorkeling trips were $15+. Nha Trang was better than Sianoukville, although Otres Beach was very very nice and the perfect place for a relaxing dip. I would say Sianoukville is worth visiting, we just didn't ultilise our time here effectively, although NYE was to blame.
Sianoukville was annoying in terms of touts. We were constantly bombarded with offers of moto and tuk-tuk rides. You couldn't walk out of your hotel without someone asking you.They don't seem to realise that if we want to go somewhere, we will ask. You shouldn't bother asking when you can see we've walked past five who asked us already. Even if we wanted to go on a tuk-tuk, they simply asked way to much for the distance and time of your trip.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Kampot
Tuesday 28th
We were due to leave Kep for Kampot at 11:30am, we waited on the side of the road for two hours!!! And still no bus came, well not our bus. We went up to the hotel to enquire, he made some phone calls and refunded our money. Great. We got a tuk-tuk to the main part of town where a travel agent was, we booked another company and were off to Kampot finally at 2:30pm. The Kep tuk-tuk drivers were very greedy, wanting $2 to literally go 1km down the road and would not go below $1. Put it this way, it's $4 for a four hour bus ride. The wait was further compounded by the fact that neither of us had eaten anything all day.
We arrived in Kampot within an hour and went to The Magic Sponge for our first night as they only had one night available. We put our stuff in our room and went searching for our next hotel. Our street was full of them but the first four we went to were fully booked!!!! Luckily we found one which wasn't, same price as the Sponge so it was fine. The Sponge had a mini golf course so we played two games as Kay beat me the first time and i could not let that stand lol. I won the second game, with a much better score than her winning score. By this stage we discovered my arms and neck were sunburnt. This was considering we were in partial shade waiting for the bus. I didn't wear sunsceen as i thought i would just be on the bus and wouldn't be waiting too long.
We went for a walk along the riverside for dinner and ate there.
Wednesday 29th
Very lazy day, we got up, went to our new guesthouse and watched t.v. We then had lunch, went to a massage by the blind place and got shiatshu massages ($4/hr), which was painful in some parts of my back but i didn't wake up sore the next day so it was ultimately fine.
Eventhough we didn't do much the time seems to fly when you've got cable t.v with lots of things on, we particularly watch national geographic and discovery channel. The movie channels are constantly repeating the same movies.
Thursday 30th
Today we went for a big walk around town, we decided not to get a motorbike or bikes, which in hindsight was silly. The map we had and the few streets surrounding our street made the whole place seem quite small, but it wasn't.
The plan was to cross the river and go to the zoo, we crossed the river and when we saw the next major point of the railway was ages away we decided to turn back. On the way back we went through the market, which was quite crappy. It was very cramped, the roof was so low in some parts that i had to duck my head and...it smelt. By this time we had been out and about for hours so we headed back.
All in all Kampot isn't worth visiting unless like us, you have the time. The guide describes it as a place "you come and feel, not do", but we already did that in Kep. The other main attraction is the nearby Bokor Hill station, but that was $22 for a tour there, which is very pricey considering what it involves - not that much. It turned out to be a good decision because on our way to Sianoukville the travelers sitting behind us were talking about it and they weren't saying anything good at all.
We were due to leave Kep for Kampot at 11:30am, we waited on the side of the road for two hours!!! And still no bus came, well not our bus. We went up to the hotel to enquire, he made some phone calls and refunded our money. Great. We got a tuk-tuk to the main part of town where a travel agent was, we booked another company and were off to Kampot finally at 2:30pm. The Kep tuk-tuk drivers were very greedy, wanting $2 to literally go 1km down the road and would not go below $1. Put it this way, it's $4 for a four hour bus ride. The wait was further compounded by the fact that neither of us had eaten anything all day.
We arrived in Kampot within an hour and went to The Magic Sponge for our first night as they only had one night available. We put our stuff in our room and went searching for our next hotel. Our street was full of them but the first four we went to were fully booked!!!! Luckily we found one which wasn't, same price as the Sponge so it was fine. The Sponge had a mini golf course so we played two games as Kay beat me the first time and i could not let that stand lol. I won the second game, with a much better score than her winning score. By this stage we discovered my arms and neck were sunburnt. This was considering we were in partial shade waiting for the bus. I didn't wear sunsceen as i thought i would just be on the bus and wouldn't be waiting too long.
We went for a walk along the riverside for dinner and ate there.
Wednesday 29th
Very lazy day, we got up, went to our new guesthouse and watched t.v. We then had lunch, went to a massage by the blind place and got shiatshu massages ($4/hr), which was painful in some parts of my back but i didn't wake up sore the next day so it was ultimately fine.
Eventhough we didn't do much the time seems to fly when you've got cable t.v with lots of things on, we particularly watch national geographic and discovery channel. The movie channels are constantly repeating the same movies.
Thursday 30th
Today we went for a big walk around town, we decided not to get a motorbike or bikes, which in hindsight was silly. The map we had and the few streets surrounding our street made the whole place seem quite small, but it wasn't.
The plan was to cross the river and go to the zoo, we crossed the river and when we saw the next major point of the railway was ages away we decided to turn back. On the way back we went through the market, which was quite crappy. It was very cramped, the roof was so low in some parts that i had to duck my head and...it smelt. By this time we had been out and about for hours so we headed back.
All in all Kampot isn't worth visiting unless like us, you have the time. The guide describes it as a place "you come and feel, not do", but we already did that in Kep. The other main attraction is the nearby Bokor Hill station, but that was $22 for a tour there, which is very pricey considering what it involves - not that much. It turned out to be a good decision because on our way to Sianoukville the travelers sitting behind us were talking about it and they weren't saying anything good at all.
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